Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Never Say Never... or, The Return of the Freebies!

Four long years ago, I decided to delete all of the files I had posted here. You can read for yourself the why's and wherefore's of that decision in my previous post, right down... there...

Well, fast forward to September, 2016... and I am going to once again start giving away Disney-esque digital scrapbooking freebies, but this time, with a new twist. All of the freebies will be in the "pocket style"... in other words, usable in Project Life® (and other "pocket" scrapping formats.) I really enjoy the look, and especially the ease of use, of the pocket style of scrapbooking, and I have just recently started designing again, primarily using my iPad/iPod instead of my laptop. (I have had far too many hours away from home - until recently - chauffeuring our daughters to and from dance classes, theatre rehearsals, etc., where lugging a laptop around has just been nigh onto impossible!) You should be able to print them out or use them directly as digital files, in whatever program or app you desire.

Another reason for the change from my previous designs to the pocket style is that I have developed some medical issues that are affecting my eyesight and have required me to make some changes to how I do things. Whether it was caused by an extreme case of high blood pressure (we're talking I should have been dead, or at the very least I should have been in the midst of a massive stroke - all the medical staff kept asking me "Are you feeling okay???" with really, really, REALLY concerned expressions... I felt absolutely fine...) but this past June I suffered a vitreous hemorrhage in my left eye, which also resulted in a retinal tear. Scary for anyone, but especially scary for an artist.

I had corrective surgery for the tear and hemorrhage, as well as a repair to some "latticing" on my retina, which resulted in a small "blind spot" in my eye. This is normal after this type of surgery; I'm not complaining about that in the least; in fact, currently the blind spot is not really all that noticeable... and my retinal surgeon is a wonderful doctor - if you're in the northern Indiana area and require this or any eye surgery, by all means, contact me and I will get you his office's contact information; they do only take referrals from eye doctors, however, just fyi.

About a month post surgery, I started to notice a distortion to the vision in my left eye... it was like looking in a midway Fun House mirror... you know, the ones that make you either really tall and skinny or short and squatty? Yeah... a complication that was not caused by anything I did or didn't do post surgery, I was just one of the "lucky ones" (or rather, unlucky) to have a membrane start growing on my retina, and it has been stretching/pulling/twisting the retina out of shape. So, I have another surgery scheduled in early October. Without surgery, my doctor said that eventually I would probably lose my sight in that eye. Not an option, as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully this time there will be no further complications, but at this point in time, I felt I needed to start doing something creative that would not only take my mind off of my current medical situation, but that would allow me to make a lot of folks happy while also (hopefully) making a little bit extra cash from the advertising on this blog.

So... long story not-so-short, but shorter than it could be, I have started to design again, and within the next few days, I plan to start posting freebies once again! I am going to experiment at first by just posting the freebies directly here on the blog, where you should be able to simply right-click (on a computer) and save the image. (Not exactly sure how it will work with mobile devices, but it should be able to be accomplished.) And no more using 4Shared or the like... I just don't trust them anymore!

Thank you (in advance) for your patience and thanks, as well, to everyone who left me so many kind words over the years for my work!