Apologies for my complete lack of inactivity..again! *looks up at her 1,379 deviations, 1,112 messages and shudders*
I have a good reason this time! My watchers will have noticed the theme of my most recent polls..stitching. I've been working on little embroidery projects now and again since small. A few years ago I bought a Dimensions Gold kit.. the best quality cross stitch kit I've ever seen. Dimensions Gold range are well worth the money. I will eventually finish it one day.. check out my progress here. It's a huge project and a little daunting at times; you can see the size on the frame..and that's only a fraction of the canvas, the rest is rolled around the frame. The chart is printed on A3 paper..it's a whopper. That was my only project until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine became pregnant. She had a little girl in January, and by then I'd managed to put together a little card for her. She adored it and it spurred me on to sew some more. Since then I've been gathering more craftie books about me, I've nearly finished some daffodils for a card, I've got a teatowel with an aida band lined up, followed by a baby's bib, a coaster and some more cards.

There is a point to this journal, I'm not just rambling.

Another friend of mine is expecting (something in the water, huh?), unclear on gender so far, and I'm looking to embroider her a wee bib for the baby. My problem is finding charts. I have the bib, I can get the threads, I've got a picture I want to embroider on, but I cannot for the life of me make a pattern. My mother bought me some pattern making software which is -great- for large projects, but when it comes to teeny ones it throws a wobbler. It's only a short aida band on this bib, about 7.5 inches by 3 in total, so less for stitching area. I think it's 14 count, although I'm not sure.

a) does anyone have any advice on making my own pattern?
b) does anyone know of any decent free software for making a pattern?
c) does anyone have a pattern with a teeny piggie, chicken, sheep, turtle or bunny? Can't be more than 3 inches high.
d) does anyone have some valium?

Patterns don't have to be cross stitch, I've been looking up other stitches recently. On my holiday last august I found a little treasure, dating back to the 1930s, Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches by Mary Thomas. And a store with books for £1-£3 instead of their RRP of £14. I LOVE Poole. So far I've mastered lazy daisy stitch and chain, double running stitch, back stitch, algerian eye stitch, french knots (damn, they're buggers to do), blanket stitch, herringbone stitch (another which took me a while..but now I can even turn corners!), fan stitch (beautiful), upright cross stitch, star stitch and how to whip some. Really having fun, when my list of projects comes to an end I'll be trying a sampler. Hoping to attempt hardanger and embroidery onto clothing etc.. once I figure out what I need to do with regards to stabilisers, backing, etc.

Off on another tangent now, I've been wanting to design a decent CSS layout for my journal, mine is the most boring owned by a subscriber..ever. I'd appreciate ideas and any guides for dummies that people can find. I have a -basic- understanding of CSS, it's more the graphics that are my current nightmare. And inspiration. It's -horrible- trying to be an artist when you have no real taste and a constant block.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help with the stitching problem. I need to get this finished by september and I'm a slow sewer thanks to arthritis.




Yes.. I'm watching you.

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Thumbnail Tag
Picked up from ^KevLewis

RULES:
1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into dA search box
3) Take a deviation from the first page of results (may use ' popular' or 'newest' ) and post thumb (for subscribers) or link (non-subscribers)
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you

Here I took the very first result on the page <nod>


1. The age you will be on your next birthday: 23



2. A place you'd like to travel: New Forest



3. Your favorite place: Home


4. Your favorite object: Necklace



5. Favorite food: Chocolate!



6. Your favorite animal: Any kind of bird



7. Your favorite color: Blue



8. The town/state/etc in which you live: Carmarthenshire



9. Name of past pet: Maki



10. A dream come true: My loved ones happy and well


11. Your nickname/screenname: makibird


12. Middle name: Louise



13. Favorite Smell: Baby

(O.o)

14. Bad habit of yours: Sitting on my legs >.<



15. Your first job: IT Technician



16. Favourite Movie: Beauty & The Beast/Phantom



17. What are you doing right now? Looking up pictures for this.



18. Whats The Weather Like? Cold and calm



19. Favourite Sport: Sport? What's that?



20. Favourite Music/Style/Band: Too many choices. Whatever I can understand.





Well.

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Oh gods, I'm so behind >.<

"622 deviations, 838 messages"

My apologies to you all for the delay in replying to messages. I've had a lot going on IRL recently including PC issues, a death, a birth, a lovely guy'n'family stuff as well as various illnesses. Oh, and overtime in work, yipee.

I promise you I'll eventually get around to clearing my message center, but until then, let me thank everyone who's given me a fave or comment in here.

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I wrote this a while back. With the increase in Malware since the new year, and the majority of work I've been doing lately related to users downloading bogus (that's a good word) AntiVirus/Spyware programs, I thought I'd post this here.


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As some of you know, I'm one of the not so common, lesser-boobied technicians. And due to utter boredom, the boss throwing a sickie and work being incredibly quiet, I'm scribbling a quick PC Health..anti virus.. antispyware..what not to do..sort of guide.

The most common, and sometimes expensive problem we seem to get in the shop is virus infected PCs. Often, the viruses themselves have been downloaded accidently by an overly eager user, who, having heard about the latest virus/spyware on the news, has decided to take things into his own hands. The problem is, for virus/spyware creators, these people are easy targets. They create software that sneaks into the system, installs itself, throws up a notice claiming that the system is infected (which, of course it is, but not in the way you'd guess) with a nasty virus, and if you send them money, they'll remove it. The most common, and hated of these is Winfixer. This program will throw up notice after notice, interrupting your browsing, slowing your PC to a crawl, until you a) Pay to remove it, b) Fix it yourself or c) Reinstall Windows. Another common program that works like this is Virus Burster, which not only tells you that you have a virus, but springs up porn popups for authenticity.
Virus removal currently starts at £35 in the shop that I work at, and goes from there. A format and reinstall is £45, and sometimes it's not worth fixing. It's an expensive lesson to learn, that some programs are bad, and do not do what they say on the tin, but the complete opposite. I generally suggest that customers research software on google or the like, before installing anything.

This is what I use to keep machines healthy, it's all free, and I advise you do the same.

Step 1
Download CleanUp. This program is a nifty little utility which deletes temporary files, including things like cookies created during surfing. In deleting these files, it also removes 'tracking cookies', which are generally used to spy on you. It also saves a massive amount of diskspace, keeping your system running relatively smoothly.

Step 2
Download and install a free, legit. antivirus program. We like to use:

a) AVG, available at AVG, by Grisoft.
b) Avast, available at Avast, by Alwil software. Do not be put off by their mention of purchasing software. They DO provide a free version for home users, and this does require you to sign up and register.
c) AntiVir, available at Antivir, by Avira.

Download only one of these programs. Having more than one AntiVirus software installed can cause nasty conflicts and scary errors

Step 3

Download and install AdAware. I'll be honest, I don't trust other seemingly legit programs, e.g. Spybot. I haven't needed to use them, AdAware has always dealt with my spyware issues with no problems. It's easy to set up, configure and use, and most importantly, free.
Download Adaware here. Run this every two or three weeks to keep your system clean.

Step 4

Every system gets a little untidy as files are constantly written to the hard drive. Defragging your drive can speed it up a lot. Windows has a built in defragger, which you can access by:

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools.

Some people suggest using Diskeeper, available at Diskeeper.com, but I haven't any personal experience with it, so I can't tell you if it works as well as the Windows Defragmenter, or if it's free. The Windows defragger has always been enough for me.

It's also advisable to run a checkdisk every few months, to fix any gremlins that have got into your drive. This is easy enough to do, although can take a while for larger drives.
Open My Computer. Right click on your hard drive, and click Properties. Click the Tools tab, and under Error Checking, select Check Now. I suggest ticking both boxes, and waiting through the possible reboot. Like defragmenting, this may take a while.

It's as easy as that really. Clean up, run antivirus, antispyware and defrag and checkdisk regularly. And it's great because it's all free.

Just be wary of what antivirus and antispyware programs you install, research everything thoroughly before installing it. Better to spend a little extra time reading up on it, than forty odd quid having it all fixed because you didn't.

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Yes indeedy, yes I am. Apologies to all who've commented on my images, or comments lately. I accidently cleared my comments. If there's anything important please poke me with a pokey thing.

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