April 07, 2014.

Weather was beautiful, sunny & over 60F.  It`s been near or over 80F in our apartment this past week, so we will be installing the air conditioning tonight.

We went for a nice walk in Willbank Creek Park, which is not far from where we live. I have been recovering from a couple of weeks with a nasty cold-flu, so I wasn`t working out much.  But I did 7 miles on the exercise bike last night & 5 miles this morning. 

Welcome Spring 2014!

The weather has been fairly hit & miss; sunny one day, snowing the next. It can't seem to make up it's mind what it wants to be or do. 

On February 23rd, we had a wonderful snowy day. On the 25th, sunshine & snow melting away.

I usually create a new pictures folder for March in a new folder called `Spring`, but I am really not sure if it belongs there, or if I should just leave it in Winter 2013 for the time being. For now I'll just wait & see.

05 February, 2014

Happy February, everyone! Hope you New Year is starting out well.

As you can see, I've been having a lot of fun making frames for my photos. I really enjoy it & the coolest thing, they are all free! I'll compile a list, with any additional information you may need.

http://www.loonapix.com/framer/
This one has over 1,000 different frames, in a wide variety of categories. And they also have other effects, as well as the frames.

http://en.pixiz.com/
This site has a large number of frames, as well as effects, collages & e-cards.

http://pho.to/
They have tons of gorgeous frames. However, I did find that this particular site doesn't work very well with Internet Explorer, so I just used Google chrome, which I also have installed as a back-up.

And this one is probably my favourite (at least for now):  http://viptalisman.com/
They do have a disconcerting number with foreign text, but some are so incredibly beautiful that I use them, anyway. However, if this is going to drive you nuts, there is a filter to eliminate those ones, if you wish.

In other New Year's news, I cancelled the bunion surgery at the last minute. I am not sure why exactly, just a bad feeling. I've been researching more natural health ideas & working on nutrition & losing weight. I discovered a really cool idea on Facebook, for reducing swelling. It recommends it specifically for swollen feel, but I have also found it works well on my hands & my sternum. And the only side effect I have found, is that it makes me crave salad, so that can't be a bad thing!

I've been pretty consistent with the exercise bike this winter, which I think (& am hoping) that it will help me stay/keep in better shape overall & improve my health. Who knows, it might even help with the weight loss. Bad news, however. When we had some beautiful sunny weather last week, I decided to see how well I could ride my bike (I had a lot of difficulty last year, which was one reason for the purchase of the exercise bike last August. I went down to the storage locker & discovered that someone stole my bike!! I am feeling a little conflicted:

So now I have to figure out if I am in good enough shape to continue riding, because otherwise there is no point in buying another bike. I tried borrowing a friend's, but he's much taller than I am, so his bike was too big for me to try out. So I am still working on this issue. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I noticed something weird & kind-of scary when I was doing my Christmas cards & envelopes I discovered that I spend so much time typing & printing things using my "sticky notes" program on my computer & printing rather than writing on regular notepads for increased legibility, that I am actually FORGETTING how to write in cursive! Ack!! Something I do not particularly care for, & I think I will need to do something about it, in the New Year.

Today was our 2nd wedding anniversary, so we went out & took some pictures, & went out for lunch.

It's Christmas day & another year is almost finished. I am looking back over the past year, & looking ahead, to what is coming. Anyway, I can't seem to remember all the stuff I wanted to say, so I will have to come back & finish this later. Time to go watch "A Muppet Family Christmas."

Today's the 14th, getting things happening for the holidays. I crossed the border yesterday, got the last of the presents mailed off. We have the tree up & decorated.

I have been designing some of our own Christmas cards again this year. I wasn't sure I was going to continue doing it, given that Picnik closed & I loved some of the special effects they had, like this:

But some new sites that I've recently found, have some really beautiful & amazing Christmas frames & I am quite happy with them.

In other news, I rode 7 miles on my exercise bike this morning, a new personal best for me! We bought it in late August, to help us both stay in better shape, during the nasty weather.

It does seem to have been helpful. I am pushing myself a bit, as I am having a lot of trouble losing weight & getting in better shape. 

It's early December, getting ready for the holidays. Shopping, baking, all that fun stuff. Made a batch of peppermint patties, chocolate coconut balls & Frosty's hats, last week. I forgot to take a photo, but here's one of last Christmas's Frosty hats.

I've been trying out several new free sites with Christmas (& other) frames, to make my own Christmas cards. Here's some examples:

 

 

 

I've been having a lot of fun, trying different styles. I was so sad when picnic closed, they had a wonderful frame of lights, like this:

I haven't been able to find another program that does this, if you find one, please let me know. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, hopefully I'll get back on here before my birthday & Christmas come around, but just in case I don't