Fixing My Blog Backgrounds

Good morning, peeps!

It's time for me to do my online spring cleaning (we'll get to the house later, oh, and the deck-- ugh!).  I am fixing my backgrounds to make them more readable.  My husband, Bob, has been complaining about the distractions for a long time.  Actually, since I first put them up!  At first, I was oblivious to it, but it's actually starting to bother me now too.  So, here goes.

Mainly, I'm trying to make just the scrolling part plainer, and get the annoying graphics from flopping all over the words-- like this overgrown rose!  Over it goes!!  It's some work, but not that bad, so I've just been lazy.  It's time to do it.

If you have any suggestions, complaints, or reasonable advice, please post it in the comments, or mail me on Facebook or at painting4jesus@yahoo.com
Speak now or forever hold your peace!  (Just kidding! You can tell me later, but I may not respond-- or you'll have to wait til next spring!)

Lots of love!
Karen

Update:
OK, this is a newer version, cleaned up.  There is still a little bit of design behind the words.  Am I paranoid of a blank space?  Oh, maybe a little.  Is it distracting to you when you try to read?  I can't fix the header image to make it fit the border, even though it's supposed to auto fit.  Any help?  And the image I use for the background is the right size when I upload it to Flickr, but it seems to shrink when I put it here, and the edges are tiled a bit (you can only see this with a very large screen like mine 1900 X 1200 px.  Don't know how to fix that either.

OOps!  Silly me!  My screen resolution is 1929 X 1200.  That could be the problem!  I told you I wasn't good at numbers ;)

Right Brain/ Left Brain

Hello there! It's been a while since I posted anything here. Doing so many things. And isn't the time going fast, fast, fast!!!

I just got a "news flash" from the Spirit. The Lord wants both our brain halves to work together! I realize I bounce back and forth from right (more global, creative, associative) to left (more linear, logical and verbal) parts of my brain. Some activities like music and driving are inherently right and left brain activities, but when I get into art or photography, I tend to be so much less verbal. This translates into "no blogging". But check out this Scripture:

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. " James 1:5-8

Maybe this seems irrelevant to you, or not related. But to me it says: "Your brain halves are competing with each other, not cooperating. If you want to get the things accomplished you know have been given to you to do, ask the Lord for wisdom. Don't let your right brain tell you that your left brain isn't worth using! Or vice versa! This is simply unbelief, that's all."

This is a little bit different take on these verses, but I think it's applicable:

"Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Corinthians 13:11

So, I intend to take authority over these contending brain functions of mine, and now I have some scriptural ammunition! Hope this helps you.

New Start for "Fireberries"

I've been rethinking some things on here, partly to make it doable for me, and partly to make things better for readers. "Fireberries" is revamped now. I have deleted the previous blog entries, which were mostly long Bible studies (which may or may not be posted in another blog), and I have begun posting short, Scripture based confessions which will appear daily. I am convinced that this is more in keeping with the original vision for "Fireberries", and I am looking forward to the encouragement it will give me as well as though who read it. If you like it, please pass it on!

Reconstruction

For a while some of my blogs may be offline (marked "private" for a little while) as I create and tweak the backgrounds. Hope that's not too inconvenient for you. Sometimes it's a bit tricky and it takes a while for me to get it right. I'm working on it. I have a widescreen monitor, so the backgrounds are optimized for that, but I'm trying to make them good for smaller monitors too. Hope they're enjoyable for you! Let me know if you're having a problem with anything. Thanks.

Art for Art's Sake

Recently, I had a discussion with a friend about letting art speak for itself. As "they" say, "a picture's worth a thousand words". Being a writer, I suppose I took that as a challenge to write at least a thousand words about my artwork, but I suppose that could also be taken to mean, "shut up and let the art talk".

By now I guess you know that I seem to always start new blogs. In reality, I have only divided up what I have been doing over the past two years on Flickr, and in my original 360 blog. The work was so varied that I began to think it would be better to separate it all, and to give people the choice as to what they would look at or read. So here is ArteZoe, with another blog.

I've created a new blog page "Spirit Eyes", as what I have called my "Daily Gallery". I am putting up a new artwork every day (hopefully). There will always be only one entry: it is gone the next day, no archiving, for a fresh experience.

In an attempt to show my art without distraction (Flickr has comments and groups, "The Path of Love" is definitely wordy), there will be no words, except the title and copyright notices.

So now you have a choice to see my featured piece in relative "peace and quiet". At the bottom of the page is the art in large form. Enjoy!

A Special Publication

I've just uploaded a collection of 50 haiku, which I have titled "A Floridian Sketchbook." I've been working on this since 2004, and have finally finished it, at least for now. If you like haiku, which I think is one of the most accessible forms of poetry, you might enjoy reading these on my poetry blog, "Words Like Grapes." (links on this page). It is just as the title suggests, all inspired by the theme of life in Florida, with all its beauty, water and wonderful wildlife. I'd love to hear your impression of these. I hope you enjoy them!

Karen

This Is Where You Can Find All My Stuff (an Update)

I created this page to provide people with one location to find everything I do online, with links to everything. So it may look like there's nothing really happening here, but hopefully, it's where you can easily connect to all my places. I'm still working on making everything link together. As I don't have my own website at present, it's the best I can do. I hope I've made this useful and functional. Please let me know if there's a problem, or you have a suggestion as to how I can make it better.

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Occasionally, I expand my blog(s), or add a site to my ongoing activities. I think I will start giving little updates here, just to help you know what I have available. For instance, I recently started networking on Facebook. That's been a fun experience, as I have reconnected with old friends, even people that live in my own geographical area. I've also started a new YouTube channel, which will progress very slowly, I assure you, but where you will be able to check out my new music videos as they as created. So far, I only have one up. It's one of my favourite songs I've written, "See Into Me", that we recorded in our studio, with a slideshow of some of my older artwork. Not bad for a scratch recording and a first attempt at video!

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I have also divided my blogs on Blogger once again, creating a new poetry blog: "Words Like Grapes". The funny poems will still show up on "The Elephant Dropped In For Tea", but as unfortunately I don't write many funny ones, most of my poetry will be on "Grapes".

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"Fireberries" here on Blogger is my Biblical studies blog. I don't post a lot, because I want to make it count, and honestly, each one takes 2 to four hours (or more) to write. These are usually quite meaty, and you have to be willing to read and study along with me. I will try to add some shorter devotionals there, like what I've been trying to post on Multiply.

"Fireberries" on Yahoo! 360 still seems to be getting the most views, unless the counter lies, but I have difficulty uploading there, so I'm trying to steer away from posting there. I don't want to shut any doors that are still open, though.

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"The Path of Love" here on Blogger, is the place I have set up to discuss my symbolic and prophetic art pieces. I was posting poetry there too, but I decided to add the blog I discussed above. This blog was inspired (and was the original blog I started here) by Jesus explaining His parables to His disciples. I don't consider anyone my disciples, however, as I sometimes speak in parables, I think it only right to follow His example and explain to those who want to hear: basically those who are His disciples, or who would like to be.

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"The Zoe Zine" and "artezoekins" have been slow to get going, but it's mostly because I started them right before the holidays. I hope to get them more active and lots of wonderful things for you to check out. This is where I can get others involved, and not just myself. I hope you will read Elizabeth Taylor's short story that I recently posted. It's really awesome!

Flickr is still the place I've had the most action and where I've made the most contacts. I've been spending time away from there temporarily to try and get the other places more connected and functioning better, not to mention do some stuff in the 3D world.

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Although to some it may seem like I'm just being egotistical, my motivation for doing all this is to allow my light to shine, as the Lord commanded us. The only reason I can be creative at all is because He is creative, and He lives in me. When I allow Him to fill me, then there's lots of overflow. This is what I like to share with whoever wants to receive, because then they can receive some living water. I have tried to channel it into places where the most people can easily find it. It's not really me you're connecting to, it's the Spirit of God flowing through a willing vessel. Even though some of my work is "secular" on the surface, you will always find His life and light in it if you will look, and if you will place it in the context of the total body of my creative output.

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Thanks for dropping by and for taking the time to read this. All the links are right there, on the right side of the page. Please let me know if you find mistakes or bad links. I really appreciate it!

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Karen