DLS Designs

Hog Island Sunsets Scrapbook Page

This layout was done by me in Scrapbook Flair and Gimp to display all of my Hog Island Sunset photos. I am not sure how I feel about this background paper. I'm toying with the idea of all white or all black. Maybe all brown? I edited the color of the background paper. The original background paper is by Jackie Eckles of Little Dreamer Designs.

Red Sox v. Tigers

Wally TTV Originally uploaded by DLSDesigns

Tonight, I was lucky enough to be at Fenway when a brawl broke out between Youkilis and Porcello after Porcello hit Youkilis with a wild pitch. It was so exciting being in the crowds as everyone stood and egged Youkilis on! Being a Red Sox fan is the best part about being from Boston.

Later, at the bottom of the 6th we had a rain delay. After waiting it out for about 20 minutes, we decided to call it quits and headed for the car. Thank goodness we parked close. It was still raining. I just got home and am settling in at my Mom's house for a good night's sleep and heading back to Hog Island tomorrow.

Hog Island Lessons 1 and 2

Deodorant Originally uploaded by Ron (Crawfishpie) Dauphin

So far this summer has been a very interesting and disappointing one. The tractor broke and there has been so much rain that I have had very little work. However, I have learned some important lessons after a few trials and tribulations on Hog Island.

• HOG ISLAND LESSON #1: In a pinch go without deodorant before using Old Spice after shaving! One day after showering, I found myself without deodorant, so I scoured the cabinets and all I could find was an old stick of Old Spice one of my ex-boyfriends left kicking around. I applied it to my armpit only to find myself looking like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone only instead of holding my cheeks I was holding the one armpit to which I had applied the deodorant. I learned a lesson that day… don't EVER apply Old Spice to a freshly shaven armpit.
  
• HOG ISLAND LESSON #2: Never hop off the boat to tie up the lines when you are alone and the boat is still in gear! About a week or so ago it was a very windy day and I was in the boat. I was trying to park the boat at the dock, but was going against the wind. I was struggling a bit to get the boat close enough, because my usual technique of putting the boat in neutral and slowly coming in wasn't working. So I was giving it a little bit of gas at a time. As I go close to the dock, I thought I had popped it back into neutral, but oops… I didn't. So the stern of the boat kept going away from the dock while the bow was tied up. Lesson learned.

Two Vintage Brown Swivel Armchairs with Matching Ottomans for Sale

 I just posted these two vintage Selig Imperial brown swivel armchairs with matching ottomans for Sale for sale on craigslist. If you are interested more info is available here or on Craigslist.

My Flickr Badge

My Flickr Badge
Originally uploaded by DLSDesigns

A Quick Trip Home

Massachusetts State Police Cruiser
Originally uploaded by Mark Sardella

This morning, I left Dallas for Boston's Logan Airport to bring my 90 year old Grandfather back to Westwood. He had come to Dallas to visit with my dad and me for Easter. Overall the trip went smoothly and we didn't have any trouble with the wheelchair or with the bags, so we went upstairs to the departures level and met our taxi driver from London Taxi of Norwood.

After we passed through the tolls at the Ted Williams Tunnel, a Massachusetts State Trooper pulled us over. Apparently there is a new law that says all taxis must have a Fast Lane. Unfortunately for the taxi driver someone had taken the Fast Lane out of the taxi he was driving and he got a $50 ticket. I felt so bad for him, especially since the ticket comes out of his pocket. Plus, the meter ran the entire time the officer was writing the ticket, so we had to pay the wait time.

Road Trip from Clearwater, FL to Norwood, MA Part 1

5823 Big Ass Farm, originally uploaded by ElloreeCreations.

Today after I left Steph's place in Savannah, I headed north on I-95 on my journey back to Norwood. The weather was horrendous with torrential downpours and strong winds, but I had to make it to Norwood by Friday. Around exit 53 on I-95 in Virginia, I hit yet another traffic jamprobably caused by an accident due to the weather condition2. Since I was extremely tired of sitting in traffic, I hit the "Detour" button on the GPS and it told me to exit at exit 53. Along my detour, I ran across Olde South Cider & Country Store. They have the most delicious homemade ciders. The peach cider is to die for and I just HAD to take some home to Mom and Rob. Then as I followed Sniders Highway, I came across "Big Ass Farm". I think it was the funniest sign I had seen in a long time.

RickRack Embellishment Tutorial for Gimp

Creating Rickrack Embellishments From Pre-made Ribbons in Gimp

1. Start by opening your selected ribbon in Gimp.
2. Next go to Image->Canvas Size... Set your height to about 1000. This may be a big large, but I prefer to work on a larger canvas. If you use a large canvas, you can always crop it later and you have more room. Click Resize.
3. Next go to Filters->Distorts->Ripple. Set the options to:

   The Larger the amplitude the higher the peaks. The smaller the period the closer together the peaks.

4. Lastly save the file.

Free Purple Plaid Alphabet

For my first free alphabet set, I used Binner as my font and my own plaid paper. Each letter is in its own png file, but the numbers are all together in 1 png. I've also included some punctuation which are in their own png. Drop shadows are not included and are only used for preview purposes. Since this is my first alphabet set, I would love any and all feedback, so I can improve. Thanks to Ditter Doodles for inspiring me to create this first alphabet set.

Download Purple Plaid Alphabet Set

Free Digital Scrapbooking Flower Embellishments

I have recently started digital scrapbooking. I started with photos of Lil' Grey and Cho. Now, I am also working on a Flower Alphabet Book. Since I enjoy photo editing, especially in Gimp, I instantly started to make my own papers and embellishments. After all the work that goes into making the embellishments, I figured I should share the wealth. Here are my first embellishments. I hope to have more papers and embellishments to list later. They are all in .png format and don't have any shadows. The shadows were added for the preview only.

Download Free Flower Embellishments by DLS Designs