Dropbox Maintenance Alert

Hi everyone.  Just wanted to give you all a heads-up about Dropbox undergoing maintenance today (Saturday).  I received a message stating the following:

"We wanted to let you know that Dropbox is undergoing planned maintenance this Saturday, December 5th from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm PT.  During the maintenance, access to Dropbox will be limited."

If you try to download and can't, this is why!  LOL

Hope you are all doing well and having a safe holiday season.

Blessings to you and yours, as always,
Sally
WingedHeartOhio

Thanks, a request, and I'm going to a concert...OH, MY!!

Hey there, everyone.  Just wanted to catch up and make a request of all you wonderful people.  First, thanks to everyone for the thanks on my latest kit!  Maggie, I'm really happy to know it brought back pleasant memories for you!  Holly , thanks for taking time to stop by and leave a comment.  Regarding those "actual instruments" you mentioned, I had almost an impossible task trying to find images of real instruments (not clip art) to use for "The Music of My Life" kit that were okay to use.  If any of you have an instrument around your household, I'd really appreciate it if you would consider taking a photograph of it against a solid background (like a wall or rug), sending it to me, and allowing me to use it for subsequent update kits.  I would be so very grateful and you'd then be able to scrap an actual page with your's or your kid's actual instrument!

I've decided to start, once again, selling a kit here or there to help with the financial end of acquiring images, programs, etc.  As most of you know, I'm on disability and Social Security only goes so far.  I've also decided the first kit I sell will be heritage and genealogy themed, as this has been requested a number of times.  Hopefully, this will happen in January or February.  Also, I had a request in the comments for the music kit to do a friendship theme and I think that would be a fantastic idea.  Not sure if it will be a freebie or a paid kit.  Thanks, JASPER1, not just for your suggestion, but for always leaving me a sweet comment.  Don't worry everyone, even if I do PTU kits, I'll never stop making FTU kits for all of you!  It gives me great pleasure.

Speaking of finances, I giving myself a Christmas gift this year!  On the 7th of December I'm going to a Cleveland radio station's holiday concert with my fave, the uber-talented Adam Lambert (and also Echosmith of "Cool Kids" fame).  My stented and bypassed, little heart is bursting with joy and anticipation.  I saw him back in 2011 right before I ended up in the nursing home.  It is a highlight of my concert-going past, and I've been to everything from high opera to heavy metal!  So few artists are as good in person as they are recorded...and Adam is even BETTER!  I've been a Glambert since the American Idol days back in 2009...in fact I'm officially Glambert #3945 so you know I was an early fan! LOL  It's a perfect logistical situation for me.  In December, as in 2009, he's performing at Playhouse Square.  The Greyhound bus station is only two blocks away and the hotel is right on the Square.  Makes wheelchair travel as easy as it could ever be!  Yippee! Well, I've gushed enough but I could go on and on!

Hope all of you are having a wonderful week.  I'm off now to try and put together something small for Pixel Scrapper's November blog train.  Yikes...I only have three or four days!

Blessings,
Sally

Catching up and an apology...

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to apologize to my faithful blog readers for not having a new personal kit for August.  I have not been feeling well and that old, mean son-of-a-gun...depression...has been hitting me hard in the last few weeks.  It's terribly difficult to be really creative when you are not at your best.  However, I am gradually working on the first installment of "Music of My Life," which is classically-themed, and hope to have it for you by the middle of September.

It's beginning to feel like fall here in NE Ohio, with cooler nights and no more temperatures in the 90's (thank goodness!).  So, I'm going to re-release a second older (and smaller) kit at the end of this week.  It's called Fall-O the Dots and, like Floral Beauty, is a former PTU kit that features my own photography.  Stop back and snag it!

I'm really looking forward to re-sharing my holiday-themed Victorian kits with all of my new blog readers in the coming months.  We're getting to that time of the year too fast, aren't we?  I have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas ones to share.  I'm always itchy to do another Christmas one as there are so many fantastic Victorian images to work with.  I already have two yearly ones, a Christmas Angel one, and my contribution from an old Christmas Around the World blog train, but I just may make another new kit this year!  I haven't made a New Year's kit either and I think I will tackle that also.

Well, as I said, I'm sorry there wasn't a new personal kit for August but I hope you'll forgive me and I promise to make it up to you in the months to come.  I appreciate all of you more than you could probably ever know.

Blessings and much love,
Sally
WingedHeartOhio

"What do you want from me?"

(Yep, that's a quote from my favorite singer, one Mr. Adam Lambert!  I listen to his entire playlist (over 7 hours) almost every day.  Such a talent this man is with a multi-octave range and crystal clear vocals, and he is even better in person than on tape.  I am one very proud Glambert!)

Okay, down to business.  Starting with the kit I am currently designing, I am doing a series of music kits (thus the quote above, tee hee!), beginning with classical music. However, I am planning on doing all genres and time periods.  The next one will be a lullabies/children's music kit, as it was requested.  I also can't wait to do a 50's kit, poodle skirt and all!  LOL  What I'm asking of you is to leave me, in the comments, what genres and/or time periods you would like to see first.  I will entertain and/all suggestions.

Do, please, let me know your wishes.

Also, I'm still looking for a couple gals to join Patti and Chitra on my creative team, The Flight Crew.  If you are interested, send me an email to wingedheartohio@gmail.com and put Flight Crew in the heading.  You don't need to be a long-time scrapper to join, newbies are always welcome.

Blessings,
Sally
WingedHeartOhio

New Addition to the Flight Crew!

I would like to introduce you to Chitra David, who has graciously offered her services as the newest member of my creative team, "The Flight Crew."  Chitra is a member at Pixel Scrapper where I saw her beautiful layouts in the gallery.  Here is her introduction:

"I am a teacher, married, with two lovely daughters whom I greatly respect and love unconditionally. My hubby is a great guy as he is very generous, kind and considerate of all my needs...There is no end he will go to for our girls & myself.  I love all things beautiful...and scrapping is a recent adventure of mine...I do not claim to be an expert but I do love decorating photos and jazzing them up!!!  I work 99% with MSPowerPoint & use photoshop occasionally only. I hope my work is satisfactory to anyone who views it...I would love to learn how to create digital scrapbooking stuff...maybe when I retire and can devote 100% of my time to learning how to!!"

I look forward to the layouts she will be creating using my creations!  Welcome to the Flight Crew, Chitra!

I'd also like to re-introduce Patti, who is my only remaining crew member at this time from when I was designing in 2006 to 2008.  She has been with me from the beginning.  Her and her husband, David, are the best friends a person could ask for.  We met through family, their son is married to my niece.  Here is her introduction:

 "Hello, my name is Patti and I live in N.E. Ohio. I am a stay at home wife, between us we have five children that are now adults and six grandchildren, five girls and one boy. I am a sinner saved by grace and am living by His grace every moment of my life. My purpose in life is to glorify God in all that I do. Half of my working years, I worked as a professional Floral Designer and when I retired, I asked God to give me another creative passion where I could express my love of designing.  Two years later I was passionately designing paper and digital scrapbook layouts. After I met Sally, I got her hooked on paper scrapping and she later discovered the digital scrapbook community and got me hooked on digital scrapping. My life revolves around God, family and then Scrapbooking! Well thats my life and I am sticking to it!  Hugs"

There you have the flight crew!  If you would like to join Patti and Chitra, email me at wingedheartohio@gmail.com and be sure to put "The Flight Crew" in the subject line.  Scroll down to a previous post to see the requirements and benefits.

Blessings,

Sally

HUGE whoops...

Oh my, I am so red-faced and horrified!  

Elements 1 thru 14 were missing from the elements01 zip file of "To Be or Not to Be!"  It has now been corrected but if you downloaded my kit before June 6th, you will have to re-download Elements01. 

Huge thanks to Jan at Pixel Scrapper for letting me know.

Blessings,
Sally

Three things...and please pray for me!

Hi everyone.  Three things:

Firstly, I have been receiving some very sweet comments here and on Dropbox about "To Be or Not to Be," and I really appreciate them.  I'm always so happy to hear from all of you.

Secondly, to GERDINA and LYNN, I would appreciate it if you would please email me at wingedheartohio@gmail.com.  Blogger doesn't give me your email addresses so I can't personally respond to you.

Lastly, please send me some positive vibes and prayers, if you are so inclined.  I spent all day (and I do mean ALL day) in the emergency room Thursday.  I have been feeling poorly, running fevers, feeling weak, etc.  I stumbled and fell into the wall early in the morning on Wednesday but just thought it was my usual back issues at fault. However, as the day progressed, I was in so much pain on my right side and around my back that I couldn't even sit up straight.  It was so bad I couldn't sleep at all Wednesday night and, by Thursday morning, the pain became so severe that I pushed my alert button and called for help.  When the ambulance arrived, I was in tears and my blood pressure was sky high.  The guys were so great...and really concerned.  They started an IV and gave me morphine before we even left for the hospital.

Once there, they did every test known to man!  Urinalysis showed I had a bladder infection, which wasn't surprising as I've had one for the better part of three-and-a-half years.  My blood work was off showing the infection and lab work showed my kidney function was lower than it usually is (which is always lower than normal), but still good enough to have contrast for CT scans.  They did CT scans of my chest and abdomen and ultrasound of my left leg (it was swollen, as is usual), to rule out blood clots, kidney stones, etc.

The good news is that there is no recurrence of the kidney cancer I had previously on the right and had part of that kidney removed.  Bad news is that I have pyelonephritis, which is severe bacterial infection in the kidneys, probably migrating up from the bladder.  It causes swelling of the kidney and, if not caught and treated in a timely way, can cause abscesses and worse issues.  As would be expected, the remaining right kidney is affected more than the left.  They gave me a massive dose of antibiotics through the IV, and more to take for a week at home.  Now, this is risky for me as I've had c.Difficile infections in my colon three times; the first time it was very severe and I literally almost died.  Taking strong antibiotics can trigger this infection again as it kills off the good bacteria which keeps the c.Difficile that is always present in check.  This is why I need your prayers and good thoughts...it would be extremely threatening if I were to get this colon infection again and, I have to admit, I am frightened.  When I hesitated about taking the antibiotics, the doctor explained it was absolutely necessary to treat the pyelonephritis, that there was no choice.  He said I would be risking my life if I didn't and, at the least, it could damage my kidneys permanently leaving me dependent on dialysis.  So I am taking them.  I have been ordered to rest, monitor my temperature and, no surprise, drink lots of water.

Sorry this post has been so long, but I really need to know that you are all thinking of me and holding me up.  I am so very tired of being in poor health in general, and of not having a normal functioning immune system.  It really sucks.  I am grateful for every day I have and I know I will continue to fight to stay here with all of you, and especially to see my great-nephews and great-nieces grow up.

Thank you for being part of my life.

Blessings to you and for YOUR health,
Sally
WingedHeartOhio

Want to join The Flight Crew?

Since I'm actively designing again, I was wondering if any of you would be interested in joining Patricia on my creative team, The Flight Crew.  I had a great bunch of gals before I took so many years off from designing, and I know Patricia would appreciate having someone else to help her make layouts for me. She's a wonderful person and fun to work with.

The requirements are simple...just make me a couple layouts with each of my new kits and re-shares of old kits.  Also, quick pages to share would be great. Since many of my kits will be vintage/Victorian, an appreciation of this style is preferable.  In the future, I plan on once again starting to sell a few of my new creations, as well as add-on's to older kits and freebies, in order to support my purchasing new CU products to design with.  I have quite a bit, but most of what I have is six to eight years old and styles have changed since then.  If you are on the Flight Crew, anything I would offer to sell would be yours free to work with. In addition, when I am prepared ahead of time, you would receive my creations before they are shared, with the exception of Pixel Scrapper Blog Train offerings.

Scrappers of any experience level are welcome, including newbies.  I had a great experience working with those just learning to digitally scrap in the past, and it would be fun to do it again.  That said, more experienced scrappers are certainly welcome!  You may leave a comment on this post, or contact me at this email address if you are interested: wingedheartohio@gmail.com.  Please put "The Flight Crew" as your message heading.  If you have an online gallery, please include a link for me to see your work.

Hope to hear from YOU!

Continued blessings,
Sally
WingedHeartOhio