My desktop free view

Posted on October 1, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Alice at Hello, My Name Is Alice tagged me for a meme in which we show what’s on our desktop on our computer. I usually have a flower, often a photo from my pink rose bush. But one day looking at Snapshots of Joy (whose graphics I love — beautiful paintings or photos with quotes or Scripture) I saw she had some desktop wallpaper, and I loved this one:

If you can’t read the quote, it says:

“If I did not see the Lord kept watch over the ship, I should long since abandoned the helm. But I see Him! Through the storm, strengthening the tackling, handling the yards, spreading the sails — aye, more, commanding the very winds! Should I not be a coward if I abandoned my post? Let Him carry us forward, let Him hasten or delay, we will fear nothing.

— Martin Luther”

Here’s how you play:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key). Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

I’m tagging the following bloggie friends:

I think I am going to refrain from tagging anyone specifically, but if you’d like to do this or already have, I’d love to see it. Let me know in the comments.

List of Free Viewers:

iRonnie – I Set No Corner

Thess – Thesserie

Rebecca – Skippy Heart

Knoizki – A Dialogue With K

Beng – Kauderwelch

Tina – My Good Finds

Rachel – Heart of Rachel

Alice – Hello, My Name Is Alice

Barbara H. – Stray Thoughts

Smiling

Posted on September 29, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Janeen at Our Story passed on to me the “You make me smile” award.

Update: Heidi at God’s Grace In Practice also passed this on to me.

Thanks so much! I’m glad to know I make people smile.

The person who originated the award said:

The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell,and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with.

I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.Although there are MANY people I want to give this award to at this very moment, I am going to choose ten bloggers:

Please grab your badge and wear it(with a smile) proudly, and pass it on because you inspire and encourage me, thank you.”

Here a some bloggers who make me smile:

Linda at 2nd cup of coffee
Diane at A Watered Garden
Susan at By Grace
Katrina at Callapidder Days
Susanne at Living to tell the story
Laura at My Quotidian Mysteries
Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life
Jewel at Down in my little valley
Laurel at Laurel Wreath
Cindy at Yapping Cat Studio

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Making small fonts readable

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Barbara Harper

There are some blogs which have a font that is small in size, or the coloring of the text against the background makes it hard to read. I just recently read that you can make the print size bigger on a web site you’re reading by pressing Control and the key with the + and = on it. It’s helped me immensely!

That may be old news to more technologically savvy people out there, but it was new to me. 🙂

WFMW can be found most Wednesdays at Rocks In My Dryer.

The first WFMW of the month is usually a themed one, and Shannon has put a twist on the theme for next week: it will be Backwards Day. We’re to ask for specific tips in whatever area we have a question about or need help with instead of giving one. Should be interesting!

Good reads and fun contests

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Anyone who has been a Christian for any thing length of time has struggled with some hard questions. Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer beautifully deals with some of these in Why I Believe.

Jeana at Days To Come has an excellent post on not making children share. I never thought of it in the way she presents it, but she’s right. Teaching children to respect other people’s property is as important as teaching sharing.

Karla at Karla’s Cottage is hosting a “What do you love about your home?” party on Tuesday, September 25.

Turkeyfeathers, one of my favorite craft sites, is sponsoring a Finish What You Have challenge.

Make Mine Pink has a short article conveying that the revived Victoria magazine will stay true to its roots. I am so glad!

There are several great give-aways going on. Deena at A Peek at My Bookshelf usually has a few book give-aways going on: here’s a round up of what she currently has going on. You can win a pink or blue ladies’ tool set at Multi-Tasking Moms. The 5 Minutes For Mom site has a whole round-up of give-aways and contests and bloggy happenings. And Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer and Works For Me Wednesday fame has started a new blog just for Bloggy Giveaways.

I may have messed up feed readers today…

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Barbara Harper

If you view my blog through a feed reader, it may look like I have made a ton of posts today when I have only been editing.

WordPress has a limit to how many photos we can upload before we have to pay a fee, and I was at my limit. So I have been going back through several old posts to find uploaded pictures, found those on Picasa and uploaded them to Flickr, posted the html from Flickr back into my posts, and deleted the upload file from WP.

I’m not completely finished, but I have done about all I can stand to for today. I have created some more space here, though, and that was the goal. From now on I want to save the space here for clip art and such and keep photos at Flickr.

Blog goodies

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I just wanted to share a couple of neat things I saw today.

Rob at ivman’s blague has some neat pictures of what life would be like if women ruled the world. Here are a couple of samples:

I’d like those road signs!! The “iv” in ivman stands for “instant vacation.” He posts some neat and funny things each week — you should go check it out. 🙂

Then at disdressed‘s site I saw a couple of pictures and a link to VeganYumYum for these. They are cupcakes, decorations made out of marzipan. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Contest for wireless keyboard and mouse

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are at it again with a giveaway for a The Rocketfish Wireless Multimedia Bluetooth Keyboard and Laser Mouse. All you have to do is comment there and link back to a post about the contest on your site to enter. Go here to read all about it.

Bloggy love

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Janeen at Our Story gave me the “I Love Your Blog” award:

How totally sweet! It is a joy to know that someone enjoys my blog!

It’s really hard to know who to pass this on to, though, because I enjoy all the blogs I read. But to try to narrow it down, I want to pass this on to:

Barb at A Chelsea Morning. Who doesn’t love Barb’s blog? She’ll probably get a ton of these, but she deserves them 🙂 I love the food and craft tutorials and the chats about everyday life, but mostly I love Barb’s sweet spirit.

Dawn at 4:53am. I first found Dawn as a link from someone’s else’s blog related to crafting. Though I originally subscribed to her blog for the crafts, I enjoy the whole thing. I enjoy her creativity and photography and the fact that she is a Christian and often makes reference to Scripture.

“Lizzie” at A Dusty Frame. Lizzie’s husband is in prison and this blog is primarily about lessons the Lord is teaching her and her husband through this experience. Though this is hard on them both, and their son, I have been blessed by reading about them and inspired by the times “Lizzie” has been cast on the Lord alone for help and seen Him answer. There’s great depth and reality to her posts.

Jenny at Everyday is a Holiday. I’ve linked to the craft and decorating eye candy there many times. When I need to feast on something beautiful or want to be inspired creatively, I know I can find what I need here.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home. I love visiting Kelli’s warm and homey nook.

Rita at The Jungle Hut. Rita and her family were missionaries to Venezuela but had to leave. They are getting ready for a new field in Paraguay after a year’s furlough. I’ve enjoyed Rita’s humor, glimpses of her family, and insight into what has been going on in Venezuela that doesn’t make the news.

I think I will stop there, though, as I mentioned, I could probably list all the 100 or so blogs I’m subscribed to on Bloglines. There is something I love about each one.

Interesting things seen around the blogosphere

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Charity at Vintage Threads made a wonderful collage of fall decorations and links.

Rabbit at The Hutch has a wonderful post about the Name of God regarding whether God cares what He is called.

Katrina at Callapidder Days has a two-part post about how injustices are perceived and handled and right and wrong ways to react.

Grafted Branch at Restoring the Years has a great post on children’s interruptions.

Dr. Jim Hamilton, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Havard School for Theological Studies – Southwestern’s Houston campus, had a very thought-provoking interview on the topic of writing books reviews. (HT to Jason Button).

Chris Anderson references an excellent, thought-provoking article titled What You Can Learn from Calvin and Hobbes about the Message and the Medium, asking “If chintzy merchandise cheapens a comic strip, what in the world does it do to the gospel of Jesus Christ??!”

Niceness and thoughtfulness

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Several days ago Alice at Hello, My Name Is Alice gave me the “Nice Matters” award. I couldn’t find the originator of this award, but I saw these lines posted with it on several blogs:

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

Thank you, Alice! That’s very sweet of you. I do agree that niceness matters very much.

It’s hard to know who to pass this on to, because there are multitudes of nice bloggers! But I will try to narrow it down to a few and try to name people who haven’t already received it, but if I do name someone who has been named before, that’s all right:

One is Bet at Dappled Things. After having somewhat known of each other during college and after she taught my oldest son when he was in college, we somehow discovered each other’s blogs. She has been very patient with me as I have tagged her for just about every meme going around since I felt I knew her a little better and felt a little freer to tag her. 🙂 She’s one of my first and frequent commenters and she’s a general all around nice person.

Diane at A Watered Garden, Susan at By Grace, and Jewel at Down In My Little Valley have impressed me with their sweet spirits and kind, gracious comments.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home is the epitome of niceness. Her blog exudes a warm, homey, welcome feeling.

Alice also passed on to me that Thoughtful Blogger Award. The originator for this award says it is “For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.”

Thank you again, Alice! That was very thoughtful of you. 🙂

Again, this could go to so many people. including those already named above. But to name just a few thoughtful people:

Laurel Wreath has been one of my earliest commenters, and she always expresses herself thoughtfully in her comments here and elsewhere.

Janeen of Our Story and Susanne at Living to Tell the Story are also a sweet and thoughtful both in their blogs and comments on other blogs.

Elle’s blog title at A Complete Thought well suits her, for her blog posts and comments are always well thought out.