If she had the proper words to say,

While out window-shopping, I spied a humorous photo-op. We were strolling by shops, and Philip is very tolerant of my shutterbug tendencies, so he did immediately as I requested when I shouted, "Ooh, ooh, ooh! Stop right there! Now, look at me! Smile pretty!"

So I took this shot:


Mother of the Year, right?

Heeheehee. I couldn't suppress the giggles as I was clicking. Not only that, but as soon as I took the first picture, something else began to happen.

( A perfect photo example of our family right now. )

Several of you have asked if you could make icons from my pictures of the candy conversation hearts (original post here), and I'm thrilled that you like them enough to do so. Tonight, I received notice from aiseiri_47 that she had finished her icons.

O.M.G.

They are all SO gorgeous! Really, there just aren't enough words to express what a FANTASTIC job she did on these icons! Go HERE to see her post in her icon community - quick!

Be sure to tell Jenna how glorious her work is, and if you take any icons, be sure to give her some major credit. :-D

Though I didn't discuss it publicly, I've been struggling with a glitch in my new layout. I didn't want to mention it until I could figure out how to fix it. I didn't really "fix" it, per se, because I just discovered that it's not a true glitch.

You may have noticed I've been commenting rather frequently. At least, more than I usually do. The reason for this is because I was forced by my layout into a situation where I couldn't be lazy. Before, I'd always intended to go back to folks' entries and comment, but because I knew I could easily get back to the entry, I wouldn't do it right then. Later on, I'd end up not actually going back to comment.

In my new layout, for some unexplainable reason, the link to go back to earlier entries (in my case, 50 entries back) had vanished somewhere in my designing. I was completely stymied while working with the layout, and I couldn't figure it out anywhere. I asked for help, but no one knew the answer.

But I just stumbled upon the answer myself. I was explaining to Philip why I really have to keep on top of my flist right now, why I have to read several times a day - because I can't go back earlier to catch up at the end of the day. I was showing him the missing link at the bottom of the screen, hovering around where it *should* be.

AND IT SHOWED UP!

Smack me on the head, folks. I figured it out. Since I designed my links to be in this light cream color, they are a perfect match to my background (see links at the top of the layout). In their hover state, however, I designed them to be red text with a cream box surrounding them. The cream box doesn't show up, of course, but the FREAKING RED TEXT does!

Yay! My journal isn't broken! It isn't glitched! I'm just stupid!

I'll probably do something about the color of the footer links later on, but for now I'm just happy to have that function back. Oh, and I will try hard to continue commenting as much as I have been - I hope you all are enjoying it. :-)

I have told LJ to change my sidebar to the left about fifty times tonight. Each time it tells me that the changes are saved, but they're not. I look at the options, and nothing has saved.

I quit.

(For tonight, anyway. I quit until LJ stops defeating me when I'm doing simple tasks.)

Edited to add: No, you won't see the changes go live here - real, actual LIVE - until everything is all done. Don't worry about checking for stoooopidness on my current layout - it's still the same.

I need to do something to my layout. I don't know when I'll actually do it, but something needs to be done.

*feels drastic*

I totally just sat for an hour and made 35 really good screencaps from the "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It) music video. Yep, I did.

But I'm too tired to share them tonight. I'll upload them tomorrow. And loquacis, there's one that's just for you. ;-)

Edited to add: Oh, but here's a ( teaser... )

My wrists are killing me. I think it's time to see if I can find some of those wrist supports for putting next to my keyboard and mouse. I wonder if they carry those at Wal*Mart?

We went to the lake at my friend Ann's house yesterday morning. I was surprised that the water was already warm enough to get into at 9:30am, and we had a good time. There were lots of folks around (it was a group playdate), but Philip and I were the only parents to get fully into the water and swim with our kids. Yeah, I hate the way I look in a swimsuit, but it's worth it to be playing with my kiddos, you know?

I took a big fruit salad for everyone, and Ann threw hotdogs on the grill. The kids all decided to dress up in Rudi's many, many outfits and have a fancy tea party. A.J. and Jack were two of the three boys there, and though they didn't dress up, they did partake of their first "tea party" tea - peach tea with a spoonful of sugar. The little plastic playsets were cute, and so were the kids' behavior and manners during the party. I guess this is one of the things I miss out on by having two boys, eh?

We all showered and cleaned up when we got home, and I decided that we'd stay inside for the afternoon rather than playing outdoors per usual. After playing hard in the morning, it was nice to spend those really hot hours indoors and relax instead. I did three loads of laundry and tidied up around the house. Philip left for work last night, and the boys and I didn't go outside until almost 8:30pm, after we'd eaten a late dinner. We went out to have our ice cream cones, and we played about 50 games of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" together on the picnic table. I also taught A.J. how to clap his hands in the twisting rhythm (you know, like you used to do in elementary and middle school with your friends). We came inside shortly after the lightning bugs came out.

I'm still plugging away at making icons for everyone, though owensboro_hope has unexpectedly clogged up the queue (through no part of her own, I should add). When your icon is done, I'll comment with it to you in the original post, so keep an eye out!

I'm feeling like a little bragging, a little self-promoting... so I'm going to do it. :-)

I've not been pressuring myself to do anything lately, but whenever an idea pops into my head or someone requests something, I've been trying to oblige fairly quickly. As a result, I've got a handful of new graphics to share. They're nothing too terribly difficult, and there are no blinkies or anything like that (it's just not my style), but I'm still very pleased with them.

( Graphics! )

Whew! So yeah, I'm all proud of myself and whatnot. Now, it's back to your regularly scheduled Friday night reading. ;-D

Remember when I was so crazy-fan-girly over hermioneluna's story The Affairs of a Wilting Flower that I made fifteen icons to worship it properly? Yeah, remember that?

Well, I come bearing another set of fifteen! Let the excitement begin!

Teasers:

18. 24.

( 15 more icons behind here! )

Also, I made this icon last night, and I'm sharing it as well. There are two versions, so pick your fancy. :-)

// color version

Please credit me if you take any icons. :-)

Thoughts? I'd love feedback on these!

I was working on a graphic for a new column for MuggleNet.com last night, and I got carried away instead. I started with this image of Snape, and I ended up with this:


Snape's Worst Memory.

I love it, and it's my new desktop background at the moment (finally knocking out a picture of Philip that had been up since Nov. 3rd). I'll probably re-design my journal around it for a little while as well. Gotta keep up that Slytherin image. ;-D