Susie’s Thoughts

In this exercise we will create a 15 cm * 15 cm sized image and we will use a part of the image as an effect in some text.

In this tutorial you will learn how to:

1. Change the image size with the Crop tool
2. Change the Document size in the Canvas size window
3. Unlock the background layer
4. Open the Styles palette
5. Open the Photographic Effects style gallery
6. Use the style Sepia Tone
7. Use the Eyedropper tool
8. Use the Gradient tool
9. Horizontal Type Mask
10. Character palette
11. Create text with an image inside
12. Outer Glow layer style

Instructions (Opens up in new window)

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In this tutorial you will learn how to:

1. Resize with the Crop Tool
2. Copy the image to a new layer with keys CTRL + J
3. Desaturate an image
4. Zoom in with keys CTRL and + (plus)
5. Zoom out with keys CTRL and - (minus)
6. Add a Layer Mask
7. Paint a Layer Mask

Instructions (opens up in a new window)

AntiBarbie’s Stumble Fairy post made me try StumbleUpon this morning and I happened to stumble upon a great article about Thinking like a Genius.

Prepare yourself for chance.

Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question “Why have I failed?”, but rather “What have I done?”

I like the above qoute. Failure - in life, in work, in relationships - should not be seen as failures, but as an opportunity to do something or find something else.

I was tagged with this meme already a while ago, but I’ve been working on my site and didn’t have time to do it until now. I’m still working on my site, but this is a short meme so I’ll do it now and worry about who to tag a little later. I still have the awards to pass on so there will be a lot of fun to come.

Here’s what my birth month tells about me:

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.

Might be that there are more in the list that suits me, but I have to admit I don’t understand all of it. What does “Wait for friends” mean? Does it mean I’m sitting at home waiting for my friends to visit me or that my friends are a little slow and I have to wait for them to catch up?

Stuperhero Extraordinaire tagged me and here are the rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged you and create a link back to them.
2. Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (see below).
3. Pick your month of birth.
4. Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.

FEBRUARY: Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizes dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

MARCH: Attractive personality. Sexy. Affectionate. Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented. Loves special things. Moody.

APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people’s problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving. Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest. Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

MAY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

JUNE: Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Able to show character. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.

AUGUST: Loves to joke. Attractive. Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadership qualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic. Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit. Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Careful and cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead and to be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense. Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns to relax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to make friends.

SEPTEMBER: Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to point out people’s mistakes. Likes to criticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal but not always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn’t pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

NOVEMBER: Has a lot of ideas. Difficult to fathom. Thinks forward. Unique and brilliant. Extraordinary ideas. Sharp thinking. Fine and strong clairvoyance. Can become good doctors. Dynamic in personality. Secretive. Inquisitive. Knows how to dig secrets. Always thinking. Less talkative but amiable. Brave and generous. Patient. Stubborn and hard-hearted. If there is a will, there is a way. Determined. Never give up. Hardly becomes angry unless provoked. Loves to be alone. Thinks differently from others. Sharp-minded. Motivates oneself. Does not appreciate praises. High-spirited. Well-built and tough. Deep love and emotions. Romantic. Uncertain in relationships. Homely. Hardworking. High abilities. Trustworthy. Honest and keeps secrets. Not able to control emotions. Unpredictable.

DECEMBER: Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egotistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

Now, I’m supposed to tag 12 people….I don’t know if I know 12 people, and for the moment I don’t even have time to try to figure out whom to tag, so I’ll leave it to later.

I have imported my tutorials and posts from my design blog and I’m currently setting up them as articles on a separate page. My blog is probably going to look a little messy for a while until I get it all sorted out. Sorry for that!

Recently many of my posts have been about relationships, even though that hasn’t been my intention. I’m not looking for a relationship right now and I’m not even sure I would notice one if I stumbled upon one by mistake. My everyday life is full of things I have to do, people I have to take care of and dreams I want to fulfill. There is no room for anything more and relationships take time and effort.

There are a lot of single people in the world and many say their goal is to find someone to share their life with. I think that’s a good goal, I believe we are meant to be together as couples, I believe we all need someone to share our lives with. I have trouble though, to believe that our only goal in life should be to find someone to share it with. What about all those who for some reason don’t find someone to share their lives with? Are their lives wasted? Is life without a partner like eating bread without butter? Or is it possible to replace that butter with something else?

Even though I’ve been single more often than in a relationship, I don’t have the answer to this question. There are days in my life when I’m happy I’m single. As an adult I have obligations and can’t really do whatever I want, but it’s a lot easier to manage time when I only have to consider myself and my children. I can take a day off and do what I like to do without having to negotiate with an other adult first. When I was married and wanted to do something for me, I had to ask for permission first… if my husband said no, I was supposed to obey… if I didn’t obey I got to know how selfish I was and how I didn’t consider his feelings and wishes… he could go on for weeks over one incident.

There are those days too when life feels lonely. I have friends, but they are almost all married or in relationships and they spend most of their time with their families. I have my children and I love spending time with them, but when your kids grow older, they shouldn’t be your main focus in life anymore. There comes a day when you have to let your kids live their own lives, and if they aren’t doing that on their own, you have to gently push them out of the nest. I’m going to be a mother all my life, but I’m not supposed to mother my kids when they are adults.

I’m eating my bread without butter right now and most of the days the bread tastes good as it is. I don’t have a perfect life and I’m not a perfect woman. Looking around me I see a mess, I see things I have neglected, things I need to take care of. I see the piles of work on my desk and think that if I had a man in my life he wouldn’t get a lot of attention… I wouldn’t have a lot to give. I believe that to be able to get butter on my bread I have to work for it. Butter isn’t free, butter comes with strings attached, at least all the butter I had before had a lot of strings. I don’t know if I have time and energy left to work for some butter when I already have worked so hard to get the bread.

I’m happy for all of you who are in good relationships, and hopefully I will have that one day too. But if I can’t find someone who can stand me as the woman I am, then I’m going to stay single and be happy anyway…

When asked what I’m looking for in a relationship, I almost always answer I want love and friendship. I’ve noticed that I’m not alone wanting love and friendship and I’ve been pretty pleased with my answer. When I wrote today’s meme, I suddenly felt something was wrong with that answer. I’ve got a lot of male friends and even though I value our friendship a lot, I couldn’t think of being in a relationship with any of them. When I think about it, what I really want from a relationship is passion and excitement. Friendship is still important, but I’m easy to make friends with and there are very few people I couldn’t form a friendship with. There are though, very few men that make me excited.

How come it’s so difficult to admit to wanting passion and excitement in life? Are we afraid of passion? Or maybe we’ve misunderstood what passion is? I don’t think passion is the same as sex. That would be too easy… for me passion is something more. I have had passion in my life before and it didn’t end that well. Might be that I think you can only feel passion once in your life and when it’s gone you have to settle with friendship. Might be that once burned I’m a little afraid of the fire and want to protect myself. Might also be that I just haven’t happened on someone who could light that fire in my life once again.

What do you think passion is? And do you think it’s possible to have both passion and friendship in a relationship?

Morgan at The Process of a Miracle tagged me with the Two Things meme. She, on the other hand, had been tagged by Mauriuca. Even though I’m still quite busy, I don’t mind being tagged, because that saves me the time to have to figure out what to write about. This kind of meme also makes me think about things that I take as granted and maybe not even notice about me. Always good to reflect over what you do and why.

Two Things meme

1. Two names I go by:
   Susie and Susanne - Susie being my nickname and Susanne my real first name.
2. Two things I am wearing right now:
   A warm sweater, because it’s cold outside, and my contact lenses, because I just got home from work.
3. Two things I want or have in a relationship:
   Love and passion - this was a tricky one. First I was about to go for love and friendship as Morgan, but then I figured that I already have male friends and the difference between a relationship and a friendship is passion.
4. Two things I like to do:
   Only two things? How am I supposed to choose only two out of all the things I like to do? I like to laugh and to do something creative, like painting or photographing.
5. Two things I want very badly in this moment:
   I need someone to clean my house, do my laundry, go grocery shopping and make dinner… I need a housekeeper. And I need someone to do all my paperwork and translate my tutorials… I need an assistant.
6. Two things I did last night:
   I wish I would have done something interesting, but my life is quite boring at the moment. I worked and I helped my daughter with her homework.
7. Two things I ate yesterday:
   Fish soup and Karelian pies. The fish soup was a traditional Scandinavian fish soup made with fish and potatoes and the Karelian pies are pastries made of rye crust, filled with rice pudding. We eat them freshly baked when they are still warm with egg-butter on the top.
8. Two persons I last spoke to:
   My daughter and my dog. The dog is a person too, because he always talks back. He’s the best to talk to, because he always agrees, no matter what I say.
9. Two things I am doing tomorrow:
   Work and study Economics,
10. Two favorite days of the week:
    Friday and Saturday
11. Two favorite Holidays:
    Midsummer and New Year
12. Two favorite Beverages:
    Coffee and Cider
13. Two things about me that you may not have known:
    I’m a good baker, I can make delicious cinnamon rolls, and I tend to forget where I put my glasses. I never remeber to check where my glasses are before I remove my contact lenses, and once they are removed I’m almost blind. More than once have my kids had to look for my glasses for me.
14. Two jobs that I have had in my life:
    Taxi driver & Receptionist
15. Two movies I can watch over and over:
    This is a hard one, because I hardly ever watch a movie twice, but I would say A Beautiful Mind because I just love the way they used the game theory and made it something interesting and also easy to understand. The Notebook, because I used to work on a home for old people and the couple in the movie reminds me of the lovely people I got to know at my work.
16. Two places I have lived:
    Porvoo, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden
17. Two of my favorite foods:
    Carrot Casserole & Rutabaga Casserole. Carrot and Rutabaga Casseroles are traditional Finnish Christmas foods and I’m going to have some for Christmas dinner before we leave for the airport. Good thing we eat Christmas dinner at Christmas eve in Finland.
18. Two places I would rather be right now:
    It’s cold and I would rather be in a warm sauna right now, or somewhere else warm and peaceful.

I’ve gotten a couple of awards lately and I’ve also been tagged with a couple of memes, and since I’m still quite busy I will do them one at a time. I’ll leave the awards for later and pass them on when I have a good bottle of champagne at home. I decided to start with the meme Lee at Tar Heel Ramblings tagged me with. Dawn at Twisted Sister had tagged him with this Blue Tea Meme. The rules of the meme is like this:

“Devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five other bloggers.”

1. Advanced Dog Training. This will be the course I’ll take with Lee. We have two dogs at home, and even though I love them dearly I have to admit that they lack a lot of good manners. The dogs are mixed breed and siblings and they are not easy to train. Even though the dogs behave a lot better now at the age of three, there is a lot of training still to do. I would love to be able to walk them both at the same time, but since stupidity seem to grow in company, their bad behavior usually gets worse when they are out together. The male dog is insecure and doesn’t know what to do when he meets other dogs, usually he barks and looks like he would want to eat dogs we meet. He loves other dogs and get along well with them once he gets a chance to say hello, but no one wants to get near him because of his bad behavior.
2. Speed reading course. I’m studying Economics right now and I’m also trying to refresh my CSS skills and at the same time trying to study some PHP. I could really need some speed reading skills, because there is not enough hours in the day for me to read what I need and want to read and at the same time take care of my work.
3. Vector Graphics. I would like to learn to use a vector graphics software like Illustrator or Inkscape. I already know how to use Photoshop and InDesign (DTP software), and knowing how to draw vector graphics would be a good additional skill.
4. Stretching time. I need more time, or I need to learn how to use my time wisely. So I guess I would need a time stretching course or maybe a time management course.
5. Italian. My cousins are Italian and I haven’t seen them since they were little kids. They are grown ups now and I always wanted to be able to speak Italian to be able to talk with them in their own language.
6. German. I’ve studied German for five years many years ago, but because I never really used the language since, I’ve forgotten almost everything I’ve learned. I would want to study the language again so that I would be able to use it too, not only understand it.
7. Russian. Russia is important for our country not only because of our history, but even more as a business partner. I’ve got a lot of students from Russia and we’ve got a lot of Russian tourists in our town each year. I would love to be able to speak Russian, even though my students speak English very well. I’m studying Business Administration and knowing Russian would be good for my future career.
8. Romance. I know how to flirt, but I have no idea of how to be romantic. I would just love to take a course and get step-by-step instructions on how to be romantic without starting to laugh.
9. Creative writing in English. I would love to be able to write better English. I know my English is good enough to blog with, but I would just love be able to write poetry or short stories in English. There is so much I still don’t know about the language.
10. Last but not least, Finnish. I live in Finland, my Finnish is awful. I need to write Finnish every day. I can manage the spoken language well, but I struggle with the written language. I study in Finnish and every assignment takes me twice the time it should because I have to check and recheck my language. I never seem to be able to understand the rules of this language and I would just love to take a Finnish course for dummies to finally be able to write Finnish as fluently as I write Swedish.

I’m not going to tag anyone directly. Instead, if you find a course in this list of courses, you would want to take with me, please feel free to do the meme, and also send me a message and I will check your courses out.

I come from family where men through generations haven’t been highly regarded. The man was a king in the family, but he was more like a modern royal than a traditional one, in the sense that he was a decoration to the family, but didn’t have much real power. A man might have had the power over the money, being the one who brought home the main income, but the woman had to always be prepared to get her own money if the man failed for some reason. Two of my grandparents had single, unmarried mothers and even though one might think being a single mother was both uncommon and shameful a hundred years ago, it wasn’t. It was hard growing up as a child to a single mother, because there were not the benefits we have today, but the women were usually able to work while taking care of a child.

What I most often heard from both my mother and my grandmother was that you shouldn’t count on support or help from the man in your life and that men usually were just one more burden for you to handle. My grandmothers philosophy in life was that a woman should never trust a man for anything, a woman should always have a backup plan because the man might not show up when he was needed.

My grandmother was an independent, hard-working woman who got married late in her life. She was 13 when she left her home and started to earn her own money. She didn’t have an education, because her father didn’t believe in educating women. Women should become wives, give birth to children and take care of a home, he said. We already had free basic education a hundred years ago, but no one could force the parents to let their children attend. My grandmother wanted at least to know how to read and write so she went to school anyway, without her fathers approval.

Finland was the second country in the world to grant women the right to vote in year 1906. Finland was the first country in the world with female members of the parliament. A hundred years ago, in 1907, 19 women took up their places in the Parliament of Finland. My grandmother was born 1911, during a time when women started to understand that they had a saying, not only when it came to their own lives, but also when it came to how the Finnish autonomy was run.

Our lives does not evolve in a vacuum. What happens in the world around will always affect us and what we believe in. The people we interact with will be one building-block of what type of life we will have. My grandmothers view on men was formed based on the men she had interacted with through her life, and her views on women was based on what happened to women in her country at that time. She passed her views on to my mother, who passed them on to me.

A year ago today, my oldest daughter decided to share her life with a man in marriage. When I look back at the wedding, and all the hopes and dreams my daughter have for her life, I truly hope I haven’t passed on too much of my grandmother’s views on men to my daughter. I hope she will be able to trust her husband to be there when she needs him. My daughter hasn’t been living in a vacuum. I know that even though I’ve tried not to, some of my heritage from my grandmother have been passed on to my children. My daughter’s own father has not been a good example of what a man can be, and she’s got some bad experiences with previous boy-friends too. My son-in-law’s got a lot working against him. Hopefully he will be strong enough to show my girl that men are decent people.