Ann Seeber

STORY TIME-LESSON 4 - SPORT. The background is a photo of the Hackensack Meadowlands where Jack and I hunted. The Alpha is from Sheila Reid. The text is Bell MT. Checking to see if it will be readable in this size.

So glad you got to enjoy one of these safaris. We did one last year and didn't roll up our windows! The rhinos were not allowed out to roam free. I also had a lorakeet experience at a different park. Very colorful little birds!

Got it! Thanks. See the results in the Lesson 3-Mischief I just posted! 😁

Corrie- that reminded me of a situation I had here at my condo. Some little girls from next door came over and rang my doorbell and ran away. I looked at my porch security camera and saw them run so I walked out on my patio and there they were. The littlest one bragged that she had rung my bell and I said, I know, I took your picture when you did it with my porch camera. They shrieked and ran home! 😆

I did Lesson 3 - Mischief, using the QP this time as I thought it was very pretty. I used cass-Gradient dimension-Alphas for the title with a pattern I made from the sunflowers to colorize the letters. My text wrapping worked perfectly, no problems, knock wood! The font is Bell MT.

@Cassel I just re-downloaded the zip but the QP is still 600x600... 😁

Anne, why do the alphas on the left spell out PAMP?

Story Time #2 - The Bird, a Thanksgiving tale. I will post the text here as I doubt it will be large enough in a 600 format. The title is an alpha from Sheila Reid, the fonts are Bremen Bold for the pheasant and Bell MT for the text. I used the template but added my own extras to it. I had a lot in a Thanksgiving kit that I had stashed. I used wood pattern for the background and the round frame. The photo corners were in the kit. Here's the text: Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was always wild pheasant. My husband, Jack, brought home the bird and Debbie and Laurey were tasked with plucking it and I would stuff it with sausage dressing and roast it with bacon layered on top because wild game is not as juicy as a commercial bird. The only drawback to having a wild shot bird was dealing with the tiny bits of lead birdshot that was embedded in the meat. We eventually solved that problem by going to a local game farm and purchasing a wild pheasant, freshly killed. I always preferred the taste of pheasant compared to a traditional turkey.

My parents drove us from New Jersey up the East Coast to many of the New England states when we vacationed. I remember Bar Harbor as we took a "cruise" out into the ocean there and the water got a bit rough. I was standing, holding on to a pole and laughing all the way... my parents, not so much. They got seasick!

@Cassel I think you missed my first layout here when you made your comments.

Born in an ice storm, I couldn't resist the vibe. The background photo is from Pixabay. The font is Droid Serif, the alphas are from Sheila Reid, the snow glitters are from my mega Iceland kits and the baby is from the kit Baby Dear.

I created this layout the first time I participated in Story Time. I will now go and try the bonus layout and see how that goes.

Don't feel bad, Bonnie, I did the exact same thing! I did try with the Warp Brush and you'd shudder like I did, to see the results! 😁

Oh, my goodness, he is GORGEOUS! (But not my type, actually, as I go for a darker mien... 😉 )

Yeah, I know! He pulls all my "bad boy" hormones out for a refresher! It's one of the reasons I love the book series.

I was in one of my book/author groups on Facebook and one member had asked AI to create a portrait for the main character using descriptions from the books. Their attempt was fair so I decided to try. It was rather interesting as I had all the books in my Kindle collection so I could copy/paste descriptions directly from the author. The portrait AI created for me was quite popular in the group so I might even try it again some time. If anyone is familiar with the character Lucas Davenport from John Sandford's "Prey" series, here's the Bing Copilot DalE-3 version. (the scar is too prominent but otherwise the wolverine smile and sparkling eyes are right on)

Hi Dan! Good to see you; it's been awhile! 😊

Here's my "School Daze" featuring the Washington Elementary School that was located directly across the street from my childhood home, which is also pictured on the lower right. Here is a photo of the school in the cass-schoolframe2. I used an old kit called SNU-BuckleMyShoe for most of the embellishments. The photo of downtown Rutherford, top left, has some cass-freebie photo corners. The fonts used are Copperplate Gothic Light and Bell MT. I used the curved photo script on the Classmates photo. Can you ID me in it?

Still in a "finding your roots" state of mind, I love this Currier & Ives print of bygone sidewheeler steamboats on the Hudson River.

Hi Sue, I couldn't find any of your Mourning Dove photos on Facebook. Can you direct me?

Second row, second from the left in red. 🤞 (is there a prize?? 😉)

@Donna Sillia In the same vein, you might try Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, which is also about Appalachia. It is quite inspiring and won the Pulitzer last year.

My local library is a member of the Ramapo/Catskill Library System which has 50 participating libraries in the Hudson Valley. I've done Libby but get annoyed with the wait for an e-book! I can't understand why a download would be limited. I usually use Book Bub which markets low-priced e-books. The most expensive is around $5.00 or less. I saw Carole's softcover priced at $40 whereas the Kindle I bought was $9.99. There's usually a dramatic difference between paper and digital. My Kindle collection is running to nearly 1000 books and I'm so glad I don't have to shelve them at home! Most cost less than $5.00 each. I shop the bargain bins! '

I have several novels going at the same time: the main one on my Kindle and then I also buy Chirp audiobooks for when I'm in the car and use the Kindle app on my iPhone when I need to wait for something away from home. The only thing I could never do was read while a passenger in the car - it makes me carsick!

Rene, that sounds like the one Debbie has which is called the Kindle Paperwhite. I looked into it and it seemed quite expensive considering there were no "bells & whistles" such as color or an internet browser. She loves hers, also, mainly because it is small enough to tuck away. Personally, I'll stick with my Fire.