Mariannes Motifs

Dad of the Week – Neatorama

YouTube user NunzioRaso was having trouble getting his toddler daughter to sleep for more than two hours – a common dilemma in any such household. He decided to help her out by getting into the crib with her. His intention was a success, but it wasn’t the most comfortable night of his life.

via www.neatorama.com

This is such a sweet story.

30 Must See Web Generator for Lazy Webmasters

...save some working time In this article, I’m going to share my must-have list of 30 web design tools, I hope you’ll find them useful. On the other hand, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the developers who had done some much and made our world better.

via www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com

There's some cool stuff here. The list is geared to web designers but there are some tools that would be good for people doing digital photography and digital scrapbooking as well.

Happy Hanukkah

Happy first night of Hanukkah.  We had some traditional Hanukkah spaghetti and meatballs, then lit the candles and gave the kids some presents.  Mega Bakugan, Kerplunk and Tipit games, a Transformer, and a Bionicle.  Fun! 

I hid the Leapfrog Tag readers I got on sale and with coupon that I am so proud of and now I can't find them!!!  I have to do some looking tomorrow morning and see where they got to.  That will give me my exercise for the day.  I won't be looking for any adipex reviews.

Here's our little family pic.  That's y mother in law, Lee on the right.   :-)  Yes - the kids are complete hams and would not take a serious picture so this is what you get.   The thing in Adam's face is a Mega Bakugan.

Say It Aint So, Joe

I am so disappointed in Joe Lieberman.  For a long time I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  I have a soft spot in my heart for politicians who are not afraid to speak out against what the rest of their party is doing if they do not agree.  I have a soft spot for Joe L. because he is was brave enough to support the Iraq was (even though I didn't) when he was one of the few Democrats did.  I have a soft spot for Joe because he reached out across the aisle to support John McCain.  I have a soft spot in my heart for John McCain too, sometimes.  (And some similar disappointment)

Joe left the Democrats high and dry, and I didn't care too much.  But now, he's just gone too far.  This is Joe's quote about the Public Option for health insurance.

“It doesn’t help one poor person get insurance who doesn’t have it now. ………”

It’s like he’s speaking another language because what he says makes no sense in English. How can making insurance available to everyone not give insurance to 1 poor person. It makes no sense what-so-ever. It’s like he is saying if we paint white lines on the roads not one driver will know which side of the road they are supposed to be driving on.

Culture of Old Europe Is Uncloaked in an Exhibit at N.Y.U. - NYTimes.com

Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade.

via www.nytimes.com

This is a great article from the New York Times about new research and museum exibits about ancient European culture and art.

Those in the NYC area will want to check out “The Lost World of Old Europe: the Danube Valley, 5000-3500 B.C.,” exhibit which opened last month at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University.

Better Drop Shadows in Photoshop | Design Reviver

via designreviver.com

Check out this great tutorial from Design Reviver on drop shadows. Digiscrappers have been trying to make digital art items look realistically like paper for some years now, so I know a bit about drop shadows. In fact, you can buy srop shadow actions from digital scrapbook designers to make it easier to make scrapbook pages.

This is a nice tutorial that goes over a few different techniques that may be new to us. It's well worth checking out.

And remember - stay away from huge drop shadows that make it look like your stuff is floating way over the page. Subtle and realistic is the key.

Hanukkah List for Boys 4-6 Years Old

Hanukkah time is here faster than probably most of us exptected - December 11th is the first in 2009.  My mom wanted me to make a list of things the boys might like.

This year Ben is really into Owls, and Adam is really into Monkeys.  Therefore both boys requested a stuffed animal and book about those animals.  Also I am adding Tag books and cards on the list.  The Tag is a little pen shaped gaget I picked up for them that reads out loud from the Tag books and helps the kids learn to read.  I had a nice coupon plus sale price deal on Tag readers so I already picked up two of them for the holidays.  So now with the addidtion of a few of the special proprietary books, the kids will be all set to enjoy their Tag readers.

Tag Animal Cards that work with the tag reader.  (These come together on a ring and the kid can point the tag reader at one of the animal cards and it will read the information about that animal that is written on the card)

Books for Adam:

Books for Ben:

Cool They Might Be Giants DVD for both kids:  (Entertaining AND Educational!)

Super Congratulations to My Big Brother

My brother the super genius got a new job with a very exciting company doing geo-referenced imaging. Very cool stuff.  So according to my mom, since both of her children are gainfully employed, the recession is over.  Call Bernanke... it's all over but the recovery.

The hubster is about 1 and a half semesters away from his Bachelor's degree as well.  (Yes, he's racking up the student loans just like anyone else.  (Check out premierstudentloans.com and you can too.) 

I think higher education and ramen noodles may be the only sectors of the economy that haven't been hit in the last few years.  Heh heh.  Ramen sales are still strong.  Low profit margin, however.

Free Photoshop Brushes for the Holidays

via naldzgraphics.net

Naldzgraphics.net has a great list of a bunch of free Photoshop brushes for the holidays. All you digiscrappers and people wanting to make holiday cards - perk up your ears.