Month: January 2011

Saturday Feature: Blue Blanket

Published by Sula H.

Some of you might remember when – a couple of months ago – I told you about the heating system here in China and how it works. Well, I mentioned that there is no individual heating and that the radiators generally are turned on by around Nov. 15 – no matter how warm or cold it is at the time. What I didn’t say back then is that we have no influence in determining how warm or cool the radiators run, which many times causes quite a dilemma: when it’s too warm, a lot of my colleagues turn on their air conditioners to cool down the room (opening the windows unfortunately would result in a dust invasion!). So then they have heaters and the A/C running at the same time, which honestly I find quite wasteful. The other problem (the one I’ve had to face all winter so far) is that when it’s really cold outside, the warmth of the radiators might not be warm enough to keep you comfortable. So, in recent weeks I’ve …

Freebie Friday: My Strong Hold

Published by Sula H.

I know, I know – I did a bad job last week skipping the Freebie Friday. Feeling sick at the time and having problems with the internet, I just didn’t feel up to blogging much. Today, however, I’m making up for that neglect. I got a brand new template for you, based on my page “My Strong Hold”. And here’s the template: Click on the image to download. And for those of you who looked for the freebie last Friday and didn’t find anything, I made up for it! Please scroll down my posts to last Friday (01/14/11) to pick up another template that I created just for you! Enjoy! Note: Please don’t re-distribute this template in any way (you may share the link to this post) and when you use this template, please make sure to credit it to Misty Hilltops Designs.

Improved Header

Published by Sula H.

I’m excited to present you the new, improved header on my homepage. Thanks to my sister, I finally got the images in the header to rotate, so that whenever you click through this website, the image will change. Thank you, little sister, for helping me!

News: MSA Is Closing

Published by Sula H.

I got sad news today, that I thought some of you might be interested in knowing. Myscrapbookart.com – one of the biggest digiscrap galleries is closing come February 1st. I heard it said that the gallery has been going downhill for a while and unless they can find someone who buys it, MSA will be shut down with the beginning of next month. You can check out their official announcement here: http://www.myscrapbookart.com/forums/announcement.php?f=5

Around Town: Campus

Published by Sula H.

This is what our campus looks like during the winter holiday, when students are gone: Empty! During the semester you’ll never find the campus anywhere near as deserted as this, as there are crowds of students everywhere (pretty much at any given time). And I must confess, though I miss the interaction with the students, I really do enjoy our campus being this quiet and solitary. It’s a rare occasion and therefore must be savored, especially since the number of students grows every year!

Enable Me: Shadows

Published by Sula H.

I love me a good tutorial, and since we can always improve on how we do our shadows, I thought I’d share with you another great tutorial on how to create a “Mindblowing Shadow”. You can find this tutorial over at One Little Bird Designs’ website Frickonastick.com, and it doesn’t only take you through the basics on how to create a great shadow, it also provides some approximate values on how to shadow your elements. If you feel like there’s room for improvement on your shadows, and you haven’t checked Peppermint’s website yet, than you shouldn’t miss out on your chance! Simply click on the image (above) or HERE to go to her post about: Shadow Files – The Basics.

Food Corner: Hot Pot

Published by Sula H.

The power’s out in the teacher’s flat today, and since there’s no meals provided for us, we decided to go into town to have Hot Pot. It’s winter, after all, and there’s no better time to have Hot Pot than a cold winter day. “What is Hot Pot?” you’re asking. Let me enlighten you. It’s a pot, sometimes divided into two compartments – one spicy, one regular, filled with broth. And in that broth, while sitting at the table, everyone is cooking their dishes, as the pot sits on a stove and the broth inside is boiling. There are tons of different kinds of Hot Pot (some fancy restaurants even offer small pots for every individual), and some places fry fish or chicken in the pot before the soup gets added; others pay more attention to the broth that can be enjoyed before the dishes get added to the pot. Hot Pot is a very traditional meal around here, (and definitely a winter favorite among most Chinese I know), and there are tons of ingredients …

Behind the Scenes: Keeping Things In Folders

Published by Sula H.

Hey there! First off, I need to apologize for doing such a bad job posting this last week. On top of trying to get my act together as a scrapbooker, I’ve also been confronted with some internet problems over the last few days, followed by a power outage, so there you know why things on my blog have gone a little slow, lately! Anyways, I’m back again, and today I’m going to allow you to take a look behind the scenes as far as storing your files is concerned. If you remember well, a couple of weeks ago I share with you how I organize files. Now, that was related to digital scrapbook products such as full kits. But there is a lot more available in the digiscrap markets than just full fledged kits. There are various kinds of element packs, paper packs, alphas, brushes, fonts and a whole lot more. So, today I’ll let you see how I organize these things. I like things simple. So, there are two kinds of folders that I …