CollieSmile 5 years ago

:) :) :)
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CollieSmile 5 years ago

[B]Yoo hoo... Vicki...
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I am SO SO GLAD that this year is ending, and that it's time to wish you a

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I hope it will be a good year for you-- and much better than last year!

May you find all things fresh and new, and have much to look forward to! :D

Happy Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 5 years ago

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Hello everybody... It's me, coming up for some air! :P :D In all honesty, my life has been nuts lately!

I had been spending a lot of time in the woods, getting all sorts of nature photos-- it is so peaceful, and I need peace these days! (Don't we all? lol) That came to an abrupt halt on October 6th. I've been dealing with a toe, a tooth, and a squirrel ever since. Well actually, the squirrel problem is resolved now, but it was CRAZY while it lasted. I hope you'll read about it all in my journal-- you'll probably get some smiles out of it. :)

https://my.desktopnexus.com/CollieSmile/journal/a-toe-a-tooth-a-squirrel-in-the-chimney-part-1-29345/

I am still trying to get my life back to a semblance of normal. Nursing my toe along has really slowed me down.

I hope that you are doing well and that your life is more serene than mine has been lately. Take care, find something to smile about ever day, and stay safe!

Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 5 years ago

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Hello everyone!

If you think that it's been a long time since I visited your profile, you are absolutely right. I haven't been doing much visiting here since the end of March. One thing that I have been doing, however, is logging into DN a couple of times a day so that people here wouldn't worry about me. 

My state of Michigan went into lockdown on March 15th. Because I am in a high risk category, (heart attack last December among other things) I take lockdown very seriously. My husband started doing all of the grocery shopping. I stopped going to any stores. I either worked (part time because business is down) or stayed at home. It didn't take long for me to start feeling stir crazy. 

Then I rediscovered an old love of mine. Nature. I started going to a nature center near my house with my camera in tow. The center itself was closed, but the trails were not. I walked those trails, sat on benches, listened, observed, and started taking photos. I've taken several thousand photos since March, and have no plans of slowing down anytime soon. I've photographed trees, trails, birds, deer, wildflowers, squirrels, insects, and more.

I've been to at least 6 Nature Centers now. The wallpapers I uploaded today (even the blue Chevy wallpaper!) are from 3 different ones that I've been to recently. 

I feel so much calmer and happier than I used to. Trail walking or even just sitting outdoors and listening is wonderful medicine. Give it a try and you won't be sorry!

I hope to start getting more active here again. I have ideas for 2 nature groups that I haven't yet seen on DN. I actually meant to start those 2 groups a month ago though, and it didn't happen.:P  If and when I finally do, I will let you know. :)

Thank you for not giving up on me. There've been many days when I've desperately needed to walk the trails and let the computer go. With the way that things are happening in our troubled world, I'll likely continue to need the trails very much. I'll try not to be as much of a stranger though. You might be surprised at how much I think of many of you as I walk!

May God bless you all and keep you safe.

Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

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Hi Vicki,

Springtime greetings from the lower Peninsula of Michigan! :P :D

Believe it or not, I took the photograph above 2 days ago, on April 17th. I guess it goes along with the rest of our upside down world that we would get a couple inches of snow on an April Spring day. Actually, some parts of Michigan got 6 inches of it!

Below are three more pictures that I took that day. Thank goodness the snow has melted-- at least where I live! :P

I know that the snow blew through more states than just Michigan, and it probably went through parts of Canada also. If you experienced any of this unseasonable weather, I'd love to hear about it! :D

Hugs,

Elaine :)

PS. I hope to start getting more active on DN soon. I was in shock for quite awhile about the pandemic that we are all experiencing, but I think I'm finally adjusting to everything.

Thank you to all of you who have left comments on my wallpapers... that is SO appreciated! I hope to start leaving comments on yours again soon too. We need to uplift and support each other during these disturbing and difficult times. In my opinion, there is no better way to do that than to leave a comment on a wallpaper! :) :) :)

PPS. Here is a caution/warning to everyone who uploads wallpapers to DN... If you are in the habit of putting descriptions on your wallpapers, BE CAREFUL! Save your descriptions in a document so that you don't lose them.

When I uploaded my 4 wallpapers today, I edited them to add a group or two that I had forgotten. I added my groups, but when I hit "Save" [i]my entire wallpaper description vanished![/i] Thank goodness, I had written my descriptions in memos separate from DN. I was able to paste them back in... whew! I have now begun a document of every one of my descriptions. I also plan to paste and copy my descriptions on to a memo pad before I do any Group adding or editing on any wallpaper from now on.

This may be a new bug or it may only happen from time to time. All I know is, I'm not going to take any chances with this, and I'm sure that none of you will want to either. Please pass this info along to any uploader you know whom it could help. :) :) :)
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

[B]Have a special, blessed Easter! I hope you are doing okay. Send me a PM if you need to talk to somebody... our entire world has been crazy lately! :P :D

Giant Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

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Greetings to everybody! :)

Although I've been logging in to DN everyday, I haven't been very active. Case in point... I haven't uploaded any wallpapers this month... until today, and it's the very last day of the month!

I have to admit that part of it is I've been watching all of the Coronavirus/Covid 19 TV news. (That's about all the news there is, these days!) I've watched in horrified fascination as the numbers of sick people go higher and higher. At least the TV news does one good thing, it leads me to pray, again & again & again for nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel. Also for all of the people who have fallen ill from this hateful virus...

In Michigan we are under "Stay at Home" orders. I think every state in the USA should be doing that-- I feel sorry for people in places that do not have these orders. One of my sisters who lives in another state told me she wishes so much that their governor would give Stay at Home orders too, so everyone will be safer.

At this point, I want to apologize to everyone who belongs to my [U]Cows, Sheep, and Balloon Groups.[/U] Normally, I favorite and comment on all of the wallpapers in those 3 groups. I just haven't had it in me to do that lately. :( I may not be getting back to that very much until the pandemic is more under control and less worrisome.

If you have uploaded wallpapers to any of those 3 groups that you would really like me to see and comment on, post them directly on my profile, and I'll try to do better. For that matter, if any of you have ANY walls you think I would appreciate, post those on my profile page too. Frankly, I could use some beautiful walls right now, to keep my mind off of the latest Covid-19 woes.

The 3 wallpapers that I've just uploaded are below. The first wall especially, was inspired by the Covid-19 situation. I hope it will make you smile. We can all use something to laugh at these days...

Whatever you do, take care of yourselves and your loved ones! I hope we DNers can all get through this pandemic safely!

Giant Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

[B]Hi Vicki,

I'm driving by...
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to wish you a
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If you are like me, you have some great memories of 2019 but also things you would just as soon put far behind you. For now, let's leave the old behind and celebrate the new!:D

Hugs,

Elaine :)
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

[B]Hello everyone,

It is so good to be able to write a greeting to all of you! :)

I had a major life changing event this month. Many of you know that on December 9th I had a massive heart attack. I am so glad to be alive and able to tell you that. :D

I will never be the same again. I am not talking about what I went through or the 2 stents in my heart. I am talking about mentally. You can't go through something like this without rethinking your priorities and what is most important to you in life...

I won't tell you about every priority that I've set for myself, but there are a couple that you will want to know. One is that I am more committed to Desktop Nexus than ever. I still love and care about this website, in spite of the spam and neglect. You, my friends, make this website a joy to be on. I will do what I can to battle spam and stay in touch with all of you. :)

I can probably explain the most important priority in my life by talking about my December wallpapers. They are in this post in the exact order that I uploaded them. imo these wallpapers are an accurate description of my life so far this month.

"Christmas Ribbon Dance" is a simple light hearted Abstract I completed about 3 days before I went through the heart attack. (I also had a funny one to go along with it, of a somewhat psychedelic poinsettia. I never finished that one. I'll probably upload it next Christmas.)
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I created "A Stained Glass Christmas" in the spirit of, "Oh gosh! I'm barely going to have any Christmas wallpapers to upload this month! I've got to get busy creating something!" :P Well, I starting having so much fun manipulating my stained glass window photo that I forgot to worry about the number of wallpapers that I might or might not upload. It felt so good to take my time and simply create something intricrate and pretty! :)
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"A Wonderful Gift" has two hearts in it's design. (At first glance they may not be easy to see.) In the description of this wallpaper I've written about some of the things I went through during my heart attack. I did not go through it alone! God was with me all the way through... :)
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The last wallpaper in my post, "O Holy Night" is the reason that I didn't get to upload these wallpapers until Christmas Day. (As I write these words, it is 3am where I live, and yes, it is indeed Christmas!:D) The other 3 wallpapers were ready to go up a couple of days ago. But I felt like something was missing... and after some soul searching I realized that I wanted to create a wall that told a story... the Christmas story. I hope you like it! Of all of these wallpapers, this is the one that I'd love for you to take a close look at, in part because I put so much work into it. I think I spent at least 16 hours on it!:) (I had that kind of time on my hands because my cardiologist didn't want me to go back to work or drive for a couple of weeks.)
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Thank you so much for being my friends. Thank you for the care and the concern and the get well wishes that you all PMed me with and/or posted on my profile page. That meant so much to me...

Have a beautiful, wonderful, and blessed Christmas, everyone. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, have a beautiful, wonderful week ahead!

God bless us, everyone!

Hugs,

Elaine :)

PS. There is one Desktop Nexus member who is no longer with us. Blueangels1015/Judy went home to be with Jesus on Thursday, December 19th. Grandma Gingerbread/Joyce let me know this just today through a PM. (For anyone who doesn't know, Grandma Gingerbread/Joyce is Judy's sister.)

Joyce is extremely busy right now with funeral arrangements and many other things that must be taken care of when someone passes away. She told me that she would be on DN sporadically for awhile because of that. Here is a link to her profile page in case you would like to send her a sympathy card. (I can only imagine how rough it must be to lose a loved one at this time of year.) :(

https://my.desktopnexus.com/grandma_gingerbread/
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CollieSmile 6 years ago

[B]Hi Vicki,

Happy (slightly belated) Thanksgiving! I hope you had a good one! :D

Elaine :)
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