Playing With Stuff!

Since it seems that I've finally mastered the fine art of sticking myself for self-testing for blood sugar, I thought I'd play with the trial Photoshop Elements 9 program I downloaded before my 30 day free trial is up.

For the most part, I am really happy with using my Scrapbook Factory Deluxe except that I've found a source of digital files that I really, really like - Digital Scrapbook Experts Collect-a-Kit!

I started late in May collecting the daily downloads and soon discovered if you emailed their tech support, they would send you the links for the previous daily downloads for that month! And did I say these daily kits are *FREE*? May's kit was "Star of the Show" and there were some really cute papers and embellishments, but the June kit - Bikes, Trikes and Unicycles, just caught my fancy.

The first thing was to see if I could work up a digital page from these different digital elements. To me it can be highly frustrating learning a new program especially since most programs suck with their documentation. Even the tutorials promise one thing and then stop short of actually showing you how to do what they said they would!

Over the past ten days I have been periodically opening up PSE 9.0 and trying to build a scrapbook page. Finally, I did it. I used the CAK Bikes, Trikes & Unicycle paper number 8, the fabric strip, the rivets (which I masked and split into two different sets) and the journaling block. For the title, I used PSE's text tool. Click on the image to make sure you see the background paper! I love it.


Copyright 2011, ACK, for Generational

Finger Stickin' Good!

New diabetic here, and I admit that I was diagnosed less than a week ago. So maybe my finger-prickin' skills are not up to par yet. Or maybe LifeScan's Delica lancing system was made for children. Because I sure had problems getting a useable blood sample on the first try even on the highest setting. And, while I may be fairly ambidextrous, there was no way I could get any blood sticking anything on my left hand. Fortunately, I think for me, my approved supplier was not stocking and would not be stocking the lancets for the Delica and so they provided me with a different lancing system. Wow, that works! Today was the first day for the new lancets and they actually poke me and draw blood on the first try on the left hand. Makes me feel like a pro!

Copyright 2011, ACK, for Generational

The First Cooking Lesson

I have to say it went very well. DH did a great job on our breakfast without making a huge mess. While omelets are fairly simple to make (spinach and a spot of reduced fat cheese), you have to move quickly. He'll get used to it. And more importantly, it was delicious.

Copyright 2011, ACK, for Generational

The Lifestyle Change

Ok, I think, thanks to friends, I have mastered the art of sticking myself to test my blood sugar. The other change is diet.

My doctor recommended the South Beach diet due to its high protein and fiber content. This requires me to cook. Breakfast. Since I am not usually "myself" until after two cups of coffee, this is going to be a real challenge. In fact, I can see that DH is going to have to learn to cook.

Copyright 2011, ACK, for Generational