www.craftsnlace.net  CURRENT PROJECTS
FRIDAY 19TH JULY 2002Please click here to see previous pages in this site, or click on the Archives button at the
left hand side. Again, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last update. My computer crashed
again and required another reformat and reinstallation ten days after the last
update, and then I was away on holiday for two weeks. I had a lovely break but
I waited a couple of weeks to make sure it was OK before I reinstalled my FTP
program and Paint Shop Pro and as soon as I reinstalled Paint Shop Pro my hard
drive died!! Dell refused to believe at first that there was a major problem
but when they did they were great, I had the extended guarantee (thank
goodness) and the new hard drive was installed the next day. That was Tuesday
of this week, and since then I haven't had a single error message and Paint
Shop Pro (minus Xtras and filters) and WS-FTP were reinstalled on Wednesday. I
will reinstall the filters and Xtras when I'm certain it's OK. I asked the
engineer who reinstalled the machine on Tuesday not to install the graphics
program that came with my scanner (it doesn't need it) nor the Microsoft Home
Publishing Suite - just in case it was those which were conflicting with PSP.
As a result I have very few fonts on the system (that can soon be rectified -
more hours online, fun - and only Microsoft Word. I suspect that was part of
the problem all along. I'm also no longer using the File-Import feature in
Paint Shop Pro to access the scanner interface as I understand Windows ME which
is my operating system, doesn't like users to do that. Back in October you will recall I started to learn what I now know is called
Off Loom Beadwork and I have continued to develop my skills in this area.
Earlier this week a small web site was added to my craftsnlace site, which you
can view here if you want - there's a pattern and a gallery in there at the moment. I'll
add the credits to the gallery and write proper pages for the image links at
the weekend. I'm also making the Barbara Elbe Angel amulet bag from www.beadedimages.com - it's absolutely gorgeous, I must send a scan to Barbara Elbe when it's done
so she can add it to the artist's gallery at Beaded Images. I have to say I
ordered 4 packets of the dark blue beads, I'm making a long beaded twist fringe
and 4 packets is definitely not enough for a double fringe - you'd need at
least 6 packets of beads to have enough to make a double fringe and neckstrap.
I'm going to settle for making a decorative netted lattice on top of my fringe
and probably a peyote stitch strap. I must learn to do that properly!I haven't done much tatting recently, but I'm nearing the completion of my
articles on beadwork at Bella Online and am participating in a Christmas exchange in the S_N Tatters newsgroup at
Yahoo! groups - I think I've been conned into making Jane Eborall's Santa!!!!
You'll find the link to the pattern in the Christmas section at Bella if you
want to get the pattern for yourself. In addition I've linked further new developments to the Crafts and Lace Site - the origami section has now been linked and I have added the beginnings of
an HTML site which was started in response to requests for articles on subjects
beginning web designers needed additional help and tuition. The HTML beginners
class at www.vu.org has had quite a lot of difficulty in understanding some of the issues
discussed in the tutorials and the articles cover answers to questions that
come up every term but which are not generally covered in books or web sites
about HTML. The Paint Shop Pro section includes the Extra Credit Projects done
for the final exam at the Virtual University Online Paint Shop Pro classes - you can see the sort of thing we do in the Homework
section of this site. Slowly getting back to normal with the PC - see you next week with an update. | 
