One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well .
The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.
At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well.
He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
- Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
- Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
- Live simply and appreciate what you have.
- Give more.
- Expect less
During the lifespan of a city, certain events take place that cause buildings and areas to become abandoned. With nobody around to provide upkeep or maintenance on the structures of these areas, things begin to fall into disrepair. This is known as urban decay. At first glance, these decrepit environments may seem hopeless. However, through the lens of a camera, a talented photographer can reveal beauty in the most unlikely of places. Here are 30 incredible examples of urban decay photography. These photos are a great source of inspiration and possess many impressive qualities, including an abundance of interesting textures.
Great site with a lot of inspiration… Everything about design, architecture, fashion, lifestyle, travel, music, art and much more…
Look in, it’s worth it!…
Let’s take a look back at the best tutorials for creating website layouts in Photoshop in 2009. There were a number of great tutorials of this kind throughout the year, many more than in years past, making it a great year for anyone who wants to improve their design skills. Here is a look at 25 of the best.
Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
- Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
- When in doubt, just take the next small step.
- Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
- Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch!
- Pay off your credit cards every month.
- You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
- Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
- It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
- Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
- When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
- Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
- It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
- Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
- If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
- Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
- Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
- Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
- Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
- It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
- When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
- Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special..
- Over prepare, then go with the flow.
- Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
- The most important sex organ is the brain.
- No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
- Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
- Always choose life.
- Forgive everyone everything.
- What other people think of you is none of your business.
- Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
- However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
- Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
- Believe in miracles.
- God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
- Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
- Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
- Your children get only one childhood.
- All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
- Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
- If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s,we’d grab ours back.
- Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
- The best is yet to come.
- No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
- Yield.
- Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift
And it really does! Great website, great stuff… A little bit addictive…
Derek Powazek’s guide to compiling a printed magazine in a little over a day contains plenty of sage advice. For Strange Light he curated 54 photographs of last month’s dust storm in Sydney, and offers insight into the process of approaching photographers to seek permission to use their work. The resulting publication is for sale on MagCloud for just enough to cover printing costs.
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I’m sitting and looking and I cannot get enough of it…
More of this please…….. !
LETS GET STARTED :
I use PhotoShop CS3, but this’ll work with any version.
If you’re not using PS, I’m confident you’ll be able to find your way through it in whatever program you’re using.
I’d suggest printing this so you can follow it step by step.
- Start by opening the image that you want to add a texture to.
- In the layers palette on the right, (R) click on the background layer & select “Duplicate layer”. This layer will be called “Background copy”, & will sit immediately above the “background” layer. (This is to preserve your original copy)
- Do whatever adjustments you would usually do until you’re happy with the image as it is. ( ie – levels, curves, hue/sat, curves etc.)
- Flatten the image - To do this, go to the Layers palette® click on a layer, & select “Flatten image”.
- Now it’s time to apply the texture image. First, you need to make sure that your texture image is the same size as your background image. To do this: Go to your top toolbar & look for the “Image” tab, & click on it. Then click on “Image Size”. You’ll need to write down the following details: Pixel dimensions – Width & Height, & Resolution. Click OK or Cancel to close that window.
- Now go to your top tool bar, click on “File” & “Open” your texture image.
- Now that you’re in your texture image, go to “Image”, “Image Size” again, & make sure “Resample Image” is checked, & “Constrain Proportions” is unchecked… In that same window, change the resolution & Pixel dimensions – Width & Height to the same details that you wrote down earlier. Click “OK”. Now your texture image is the same as your background image.
- Minimize the texture image. Do not close it, just minimize it. Now you should see your background image workspace again.
- In your background again, go to your layers palette & create a “Background copy” like we did in step (2).
- Go to the little toolbar on the bottom of the “Layers Palette” & look for the little icon that looks like a square with the bottom left corner turning up. This is the “Create new layer” button. Click on this & create a new layer, which you can rename to “texture”. Make sure this layer is active (it’ll be highlighted in grey).
- Go to “Image”, then “Apply Image”. Now you’ll see a window with a dropdown box named “Source” at the top. Look for your texture image in the dropdown box, select it, & click “OK”. You’ll see the texture appear in the “texture” layer that you created in step (10). Now it’s time to get creative…..
- In the layers palette double click on the little thumbnail image of your texture. You’ll get a window called “Layer Style”. Under “Blending Options”, “General blending” you’ll see that the current blend mode is “normal”. Click on this dropbox & start experimenting with the different blend modes. I usually use “overlay”, “soft light”, or “hard light”. This whole “Layer style” window is one you can experiment with as much as you like until you come up with the look you want. Click “OK” when you’re done.
- You can change the blend mode of your background copy also. At this stage you just need to be doing whatever you want to achieve the look you like.
- For a bit more depth to your texturing, you can try duplicating each layer, & then alternate their order on the palette by dragging them up & down. Eg: texture copy, background copy 2, texture, background copy, background (this one is locked, so will always remain on the bottom).
- In the Layers palette you can adjust the “opacity” of each layer for more or less of the effect.
- Don’t forget to save as you go. I like to save all my layers as a psd (Photoshop document) so that I can make changes to it at any time in the future. When you have a final image that you like, flatten the image ( as in step 4), & “save as” a jpeg (or your preferred format).
- Upload to redbubble so that we can all see how well you’ve done!!!! And that’s it!
Just remember that there’s no “rules” for this….. a lot of it is just experimenting as you go. What works for one image might look horrid on another, so trust your instincts!
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Sometimes it seems that you just can’t find the time to do all the promotion that your artwork deserves. Sometimes you’re too busy working on the artwork itself, often it’s the demands of your day job, family or friends.
Sometimes the promotion seems to use up all the time I need to actually make artwork!
So one of the best promotion tools I have—one which doesn’t take much time and doesn’t even feel like work— is adding meaningful and constructive comments to other art blogs (and non-art blogs too).
Not “Nice post. By the way, check out my art!”, but a well-thought-out response to the blog post you’re commenting on. Don’t even think of it as promotion - it’s just social interaction.
Every blogger (myself included) will always check out the link of every person who comments intelligently on their blog posts. You don’t need to draw attention to it, or even mention that you’re an artist - just respond to blog posts that you find interesting.
Many blog readers will also check out the links of commenters on blogs if the comment is well written and relevant.
What you can’t do is speed-up the process: no pre-written comments that you can cut and paste into multiple blogs (that’s just spam), no hastily typed-out thoughtless comments in order to reach your self-allotted target of comments.
Social interaction—conversation—is the best form of marketing. And the less you think of it as marketing, the better.
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