I would like to alert all you fractalists out there that there is an awesome Halloween and Samhain Contest being held again this year by
  

Here is the link to the journal article and the rules for the contest.  [link]

There are several categories, one of which is for Fractals and the prizes are pretty good, including subs and points.  I plan to do a feature on the winners as well.

There is still time to enter.  The deadline for entries in Nov 3, 2011.  So, hop to it and go create a boo-tiful Halloween fractal and enter it into the contest!  You can enter up to 2 in each category.  

Here are the links to the entries so far.  As you can see, there's plenty of room for more!

Digital: [link]
Traditional: [link]
Photography: [link]
Fractal: [link]
Literature [link]
Artisan Crafts [link]

For those of you who aren't familiar with Samhain (and I wasn't), here is what Wikipedia says about it:

Samhain was a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularized as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following John Rhys and James Frazer. The date of Samhain was associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day (and later All Souls' Day) from at least the 8th century, and both the secular Gaelic and the Catholic liturgical festival have influenced the secular customs now connected with Halloween.

The medieval Goidelic festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was celebrated over the course of several days and had some elements of a Festival of the Dead. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.

Here's the link to the full article:  [link]

It's nice to learn something new, isn't it?  Now that you've learned something new, go create and enter a Halloween fractal to celebrate!

Today's Inspiration Station features a wonderful fractal artist. , who excels in Apo and UF and creates amazingly gorgeous pieces, most of which are life-like and all of which are eye-catching!  She has a gallery full of wonder!  Please go by and check it out.  It's a treat to behold and I'm sure you'll enjoy it!!

Here are just some examples of her outstanding work!

Today's Inspiration Station honors another wonderful friend of the fractal community: ~dark-beam.  He's a whiz at Mandelbulb!  Check out his gallery and see for yourself.  He also shares his params, which is a wonderful thing!  Thank you so much, Luca, for all you do for the fractal artists here on dA.  We really appreciate you and your art!






And a Mandelbulb 3D Barnsley tutorial!:

Today's Inspiration Station artist is *Aexion! :   

He is the developer of Incendia, a marvelous 3D fractal art program  The images it creates are stunning and a wonder to gaze on.  Those of you who use Incendia owe a large dept of thanks to for developing the program and making it available free to users who want to explore the worlds of 3D fractals.  His gallery is full of wondrous Incendia images and it would be well worth your time to go by and take a look.  Perhaps, you will be inspired to try your hand at Incendia.  If so, here's the link to the download: [link] it a whirl!  I plan on trying out some of tutorials for it.  You can find them here: [link] and there's a real good LTS chat log put up by . [link]


Anyway, here are some examples of *Aexion's work.  I'm sure will be as impressed with it as I was.

We have a new Inspiration Station happening today.  Today's honoree is ~s31415, aka Samuel Monnier.   Even if you don't think you know him, if you use UltraFractal, I'll bet you know who he is and just don't realize it.  He is the "sam" that you see in the formulas, mapping transforms, and coloring files, ie sam.ufm, sam,uxf, sam,ucl.  Sam has contributed a great deal to the furtherance of fractal art and I find his formulas some of the neatest ones for UF.  I use them a lot.  Please go check out his awesome gallery and send him a little note to thank him for all he has given to the fractal community.  

Here are just a few examples of his UF work, going from back to front in his gallery

I'd like to do a feature on someone who has contributed so much to the fractal community, not only with her art, but through her help in and now as her recent role as Community Volunteer and starting the Fractal Flash Mob.  Light, this feature's for you!  You may know her better as `SuicideBySafetyPin, but her name is Light and it certainly suits her, since she not only brightens up the dA Fractal Gallery with her fabulous art, but she also helps shine light on the creation of fractals, through her tips, params, and comments on others' work.

I would like to show you a sample of her incredible work.  Please go look through her awesome gallery for even more beautiful art!








Light has such a wonderful sense of color and design.  I could spend all day in her gallery.  I also have a very soft spot for Light as she shared the params that were the first I tweaked several times and made a collage of the different results.  You can see them here if you're interested, and Light's original is the first one on the top row:


Here is Light's original.  She has also given me permission to post her params (which I found in the flame of all the tweaks I did) in the description under the collage (thumb above).


Maybe some of you would like to tweak a Light original.

***********************************************

Favorites contributed by others:

From ~Lillyanna


From ~Gerda1946


From *HalTenny


From =coby01


From *Ace60


From =Lupsiberg





From ~pinkal09


From =GypsyH


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Add yours here by commenting with a link to one of your favorites by `SuicideBySafetyPin  I'm sure we can fill this up with awesomeness!

Thank you, Light, for all you do for the fractalists here on dA.  You're the best!

I know a lot of you have your favorites by Light and please, post a link to one of your favorites in a comment to this journal and I will add it.  Let's make this page Light up!

I have to say a huge thanks to whoever bought a 20"x30" canvas print of Feathery Spiral today!  I am blown away and I can't tell you how thrilled I am that someone liked my work enough to buy a large print!



I wish dA would give the name of the person who buys a print, unless the person specifically requests to remain anonymous.  I would like to thank anyone who purchases a print of my work personally.  It means a lot to me and it would make me so happy to be able to say "Thank You" to each person individually.

But, regardless, I would like to thank whoever bought this from the bottom of my heart

Today is another Inspiration Station which features some of the premier fractal artists here on dA.  The subject of this week's Inspiration Station is the multi-talented !  Peter has done some amazing fractal art and he has contributed to the resources of the fractal community with plug-ins he's written for one of my favorite fractal programs, Apophysis.  Peter, thank you for all you do for the community and for your beautiful and inspiring art!  Here's just a small sample of some of Peter's work.






And some Apophysis plug-ins:




Go by and check out the rest of his gallery.  [link] won't be disappointed.

Today is a special day for one of the best friends in the fractaling community: !  Georg, aka Xyrus02, has provided the fractaling community with an incredible program, Apophysis 7X* with new great features, like thumbnail previews, and has written a boat-load of plug-ins for it as well.  He's a regular on the wonderful ~Aposhack and his art is superlative and an inspiration to anyone who loves fractals and creating them.  So, Georg, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the many, many, many, many hours of enjoyment and wonder you have provided to me, not to mention the rest of the fractal artists here on dA and around the world!  It's become a catch phrase, but I'll say it here: Xyrus ROCKS!!

Here's just a small sampling of his art:









Although I think of Apo when I think of Xyrus, he also uses other fractal programs, like Mandelbulb 3D to create his magic:




For those of you looking for some new plugins for Apophysis (7X ver 14 or higher), here are some to try out:



* For those of you not familiar with the history of the Apophysis flame generating program, here is a little history on it's development and updated versions.

Scott Draves invented Fractal Flames and published an open source implementation written in C in the early 90s. In 2001, Ronald Hordijk translated his code into Delphi and created a non-animated screensaver. And in 2003 or 2004, Mark Townsend took Ronald's code and added a graphical user interface to create Apophysis[1]. It has since been improved and updated by Peter Sdobnov, Piotr Borys, and Ronald Hordijk.  And most recently, by Xyrus02 (Georg), who really kicked it up a notch!  It's a great program and huge thanks go out to all these people who have kept Apophysis in the forefront of fractal software that the community just adores!

Has anyone else noticed that the thumb code box is missing on deviations?  For the last couple of days, I seemed to have lost the thumbnail code box so I'm not able to put thumbs in my descriptions or journals or anywhere else a thumb can be pasted.  I've tried it in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and they both do the same thing.

Is anyone else having this problem?  If so, have you asked the dA Help Desk about it?  I have a request in to them, so I'll see what they say.  If you had the problem, but solved it, what did you do to fix it?

Thanks in advance for any feedback or suggestions.

Thanks to for providing the answer!  They are hidden now and to find them, click the little arrow next to those Share Buttons on the right side of the page.  The thumb code box will drop down.

Thank you, Roz!

Be one of the first 18 people commenting on this journal entry, and I will add you to the Featured List!

For each of the first 18 people commenting on this journal I will feature his/her avatar and the three deviations I like most from his/her gallery in my Journal. PLEASE TELL ME WHICH DEVIATIONS YOU WANT TO INCLUDE maybe I don't have the time to dig in your gallery

IMPORTANT: If you answer, you have to do the same in your journal, putting me on the first place, completing the list with 18 people in total.

The idea of this is not to get a free feature, it is to spread art around for everyone. I will check whether or not you have done this.

WARNING: You must have a premium membership in order to post thumbs of pictures in your journal!

This is an idea going around right now that sounds like a good idea.  It's always nice to share art and give more exposure to artists' work.  I am happy to be a part of that.

I got this journal info from =jim373 and since I commented on his journal, he's the first feature.  I love Jim's work so much!  We have been part of the same UF Circle over in and it's always a treat to see what he's come up with!

1.    

2.  

3.  

4.  
  Even though the artist above doesn't have a Premium membership and can't post thumbs on her journal, her work is worth featuring so I have included it.

5.  

6.  

7.  

8.  

9.   :thumb206706109: :thumb187615966: :thumb172127100:

10.    

11.

12.

13.   

14.

15.

16.  

17.

18.



So, everyone, come join in.  Just leave a comment to this journal and leave the links of those images you'd like to feature.  If you want me to pick myself, let me know.
**********************************************************

Also, I want to thank for the 3 month premium subscription.  And though I did not update my last journal article, Mary is a mystery person no longer.  Thank you so much, Mary!  I really appreciate your kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity.  You are too sweet!  And for that, you get a feature, too.  I'll be more than happy to spread your art around.

  

*******************************************

There's also the High Hopes for Japan UF Challenge being held by *heavenriver  There is another couple of days before the entries close.  Here's what it says in the News article about it.

As everyone knows, sadly, an almost catastrophic earthquake took place in Japan. Not only the number of casualties is very high; the nuclear problem added to it all. The land of the rising sun is going through awful times.
What can we do about it? Well, first off, dedicate a challenge to this wonderful country! This month you'll have to create a Japan-themed fractal. How you interpret the task is entirely up to you, but make sure that you do make it possible for everyone to understand at first sight how your fractal relates to Japan. This is very important. Conceptual ties are okay, but you must also include a visual resemblance with the Japanese land, culture, history or whatever in your fractal.

...Up to now, nothing really special, right? Here's where the real fun comes: for each fractal entered in the challenge, =snow-valkyrie and her family have offered to donate $5 to the American Red Cross. Which means: whether you win the challenge or not, Japan wins money thanks to YOU!
One additional rule has been requested for insertion in this challenge - that you add the link to the American Red Cross website to your deviation's description, for the deviation you want to enter the challenge with. So, we'll all help spread the word and raise funds for Japan. Let's keep our hopes high for it, shall we?

Here are some of the entries for it.  The first one is mine.

:thumb204829989:


If you use UF, please consider making something for this High Hopes for Japan Challenge.  It is certainly a worthy cause and every entry helps send more money for Japan relief and recovery.  Thank you!

***************************************

More journals to come.  Now that our Multicultural Festival is over, I hope to have more time to spend here on dA and catch up on my comments and my journal.

I just had to post a quick journal to thank whomever gave me a 3 month Premium subscription to dA!!!  I am so thrilled and I can't even say it directly to that wonderful person because I don't know who it is.  So, to the kind, generous and sweet soul who gave me a 3 month premium sub, I give you a huge THANK YOU!!!!  I really appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness for this gift and if I could give you a hug, I would!

I know I am waaaaay behind on my journal.  I need to do features on the FE Weekly Challenge winners from the last like 8 weeks!  And other things, too.  I am finally learning Mandelbulb 3D, slowly and with a lot of "What the hell is that?" type moments, but practice makes perfect.  I'd like to thank and for doing tuts on Mandelbulb 3D that are helping tremendously.  Just finding your way around in the program can be rather overwhelming, so their information and tips were invaluable to me.

I promise to do a big journal soon with Features and other stuff, but right now I must get home.  It's Friday!!!  YAY!!!

Happy New Year everyone!  Here's wishing everyone on dA a very safe, peaceful, happy and prosperous 2011!  It has to be better than 2010.  At least I hope it is.

I have fallen a little behind on my features for the winners of the FE Weekly Challenges being held in the group.  I featured the winner of the FE Weekly Challenge 1, but there are now winners of FE Weekly Challenge 2 and 3.  Voting for FE Weekly Challenge 4 is going on now, so if you want to vote, here's the link to the images: [link]

I'm featuring FE Weekly Challenge 2 and 3 winners today.  I apologize for the delay in these, but the holidays were hectic and I didn't get online as much as I had hoped.  Anyway, on to the winners!

Winner of FE Weekly Challenge 2 was:
by

Some other fractals from his gallery:




The Winner of FE Weekly Challenge 3 was:
by

A few selections from her fabulous gallery:




Please stop by and check out the entries for FE Weekly Challenge 4 using the link above.  If you are a member or a watcher of , then you can vote by noting the thumb of your pick to .

These challenges are a lot of fun and they can teach you a lot about Fractal Explorer.  So, if you have ever had a hankering to try it, but haven't gotten around to it, now might be the time to give FE a try!

Hello again, all.  This time I managed to update my journal before it was too out of date.

As promised, I am featuring the winners of Winter Contest.

The 1st place winner was with this wonderful entry:


More art from his gallery:
:thumb97460412:


The 2nd place winner was with this beauty:


Some more wonderful images from her gallery:



The 3rd place winner was with this wintry wonder:


Some selections from her gallery:



And honorable mention was won by with this marvelous photo:


More gorgeous work from Anita's gallery:




Congratulations to all the winners! Really beautiful winter work!

******************************************************
FE Weekly #1 - Spiral Winner

The first Fractal Explorer Weekly Challenge ended up in a tie between:
with this stunning spiral:


Other gorgeous art from her Gallery:



And with this lovely entry:


More examples from his gallery:




Congratulations to you both for your win!


Please go check out the entries for FE Weekly Challenge #2 - Talis in this News article by and go see the theme and rules for FE Weekly Challenge #3 at .  Join in on the fun and learn more about this wonderful under-appreciated little program.  You might really enjoy it!

Also, for those of you who know , you might want to check on her latest journal. [link] and her sister have lost the last round in court to keep the kids with Jess and away from their sex offender Dad.  I don't know what the courts are thinking, but Light and her sister could really use your help.  There's a donation pool set up to help them afford to pay their attorney so that they may file an appeal to this latest court ruling.  The link is in her journal article.  Please help in any way, if you can.

Well, I must post this so I can stay current.  Take care and talk to you soon.

And, leaving this in from my last journal entry, here's wishing you all a prosperous and Happy New Year!






And a Happy New Year, too!

Hello everyone!  I hope this finds you all doing well and looking forward to the holiday season.  I apologize to taking so long to update my journal.  I apologize to for leaving the "Blue" Contest up so long.  That was quite rude of me.  It's been over for quite sometime, and congratulations go out to the winner, with this beauty:


Second place winner was with this wonderful entry:


And third place was won by with this lovely piece:


Congratulations to all the winners and thanks so much to everyone who entered.  The more, the merrier!

I hope to make up for my tardiness by reminding everyone of 's latest Contest, The Winter Contest.  Entries close on Dec 15, 2010 so don't wait.  Get your entry in now!!

UPDATE:  The Winter Contest at is now CLOSED.  Please do not submit any more entries.  The contest is being judged now.  I will announce the results and feature the winners when it is completed.



Other news, I'd like to thank all my dA friends who so kindly wished me a Happy Birthday and a special thank you to those who made beautiful gifts for me.  Two people, and   I was so touched and thrilled to receive such lovely gifts.  I will add them to my profile page as a permanent feature of your work and as a testament of my appreciation for the wonderful gift.

Wouldn't you be thrilled to get such gifts?

From


And from


Thank you both so much for these wonderful birthday presents!   




OK, also...I got another DD!!!!

Thanks so much to for choosing "UF and Apo Christmas" for a DD on December 1, 2010!!  I was so thrilled and honored!  I am so lucky to get a 2nd one!  Thank you so much, Natalie, for choosing this for a DD. You gave me a wonderful early birthday gift!




Also, I've been standing in a bit in the group while took a small break.  I didn't do a lot, but now I would like to feature a few of the fabulous images that are in this group.  Some of them will absolutely stun you!!





Now, an animated one by that will definitely enchant and amaze you:


And for those of you who wish to learn how to make this type of beautiful fractal, here is a wonderful tutorial done by .  Thanks so much for sharing this with us!


These are just a very small sample of the beauty that awaits in the Gallery.  Do yourself a favor and take a travel through this magical, mystical and magnificent world of 3D Mandelbulbs.  Will the wonders of fractals never cease.  Once again, I have to tip my hat to Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, may he rest in peace, for giving us the tools to create this amazing art.




Well, I could go on, but I really need to get this new journal entry up.  So I may update later, if I get some time.  I have a lot of other things to say, regarding the sudden untimely passing of (Gosh, Helena, it's hard to believe you're gone, Godspeed and may you rest in peace), some of the Challenges and Contests for fractal artists going on right now and other bits and pieces. But, anyway, please have yourselves a wonderful, peaceful, festive, safe Holiday Season, regardless of how you celebrate it!  Here's wishing you all a prosperous and Happy New Year!

I should really do a feature of some of the marvelous Christmas and Holiday fractals being posted.  Great stuff!  In the meantime, here's some of my Christmas and New Years fractals as a Christmas Card to everyone.  I hope you enjoy!!





And a Happy New Year, too!


Well, that's it for now.  I'm posting it right now!

Hi to all my deviant friends!  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer in the Northern Hemisphere and their winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

I would like to call your attention to the upcoming contest being held by



"Blue" Contest Rules:


Entrants may enter 2 deviations in the contest

Participation is open to both members of the #Desktop-Artwork Group and our affiliates

The Primary color of the entry must be a shade of Blue

Entries must be in a recognized screen-size and so noted in the "comments" section of the art-work.

New artworks are encouraged, but older artworks may also be entered

Submissions must abide by dA rules

Entrants may use stock as a part of their entry, but MUST credit it properly

All entries MUST include the following statement in the comments section

Entry in the "BLUE" Contest



Entries must be submitted to the "Blue Contest" gallery folder

Collaborations are welcome

Contest begins at 12:00AM EST and will end 08.31.10 at 11:59PM EST


So, go get your 2 best deviations together, make sure they're an accepted desktop size (check #Desktop-Artwork's home page for accepted image sizes), and be sure to submit some blueness for the Contest.

All right, all you people who struggle to do Features, particularly those with lots of images.  There's a wonderful little Firefox add-on on dA, called Thumb Tools.


_{Generated with the ThumbshareTool}

It was written by and it works really great!  It took me a second to get the hang of it, but I really like it a lot. This is a script that runs in Firefox, if you have Greasemonkey installed first.  It allows you to quickly and easily add a group of thumbnails to your journal for features or just putting pretty stuff in your journal or homepage.  It also lets you send notes, view profiles, view galleries and view prints of those people who images you add to the ThumbTools list.

Just click on the thumb of Thumb Tools above and there are instructions on the page on how to get greasemonkey and then install Thumb Tools.  I really like it.  It makes Features a snap and totally pain-free!

Below is an image made for me by for winning 's Halloween Contest in the Fractal Category.  I added it to this journal using Thumb Tools.  I would like to use it as the background for an animated "Thank You" image for posting in RedBubble comments.  I wish we could paste things like this in dA.


_{Generated with the ThumbshareTool}

Go check it out.  I think you'll like it a lot.

Health Update:  For those of you who have been following the ongoing saga of my health, I have good news.  I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and my blood numbers are all back to normal (hemoglobin was 12.7 and hematocrit was about 35).  I have been feeling pretty good and the doctor told me I can start adding back some of the "forbidden" foods, like onions, tomato sauce, chocolate and anything else that didn't bother me before all this hoop-de-do started.  So, now I can cook again.  Being from New Orleans, if you can't use onions when you cook, you might as well not cook at all.

I would like to thank all of you who fave and comment on my art.  I seem to get way behind in thanking each of you individually and replying to your wonderful comments.  It makes me feel really good that so many of you take the time to view and comment on my work and that most of you seem to enjoy my rather bright and colorful art.  I'm happy that I can bring you some visual enjoyment and I hope you will continue to find pleasure in my work.

Hope all of you are doing well.  Please keep the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers and hope that the oil spill will not totally destroy some of the most important wetlands in the US.  Here's an image by the wonderful that maybe can help you to remember.  Well done, Gypsy!


_{Generated with the ThumbshareTool}

Hi all!!

It has been an interesting last month or three, some good interesting, some bad interesting.  I would first like to thank you all for your wonderful support and good wishes for my health thing.  You have helped make this still ongoing journey less tedious.

glitter-graphics.com

The latest is that my blood levels have started dropping again, just short of needing another blood transfusion and Upper GI scope.  I've had to cut out coffee, alcohol (no big deal cause I hardly drink at all anymore), stress () and cigarettes (I know, I should have done it a long time ago).  Also, I can't eat anything that's spicy, anything with tomatoes in it (tomatoes, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, etc), onions (!!), non-clear carbonated drinks (I have been drinking more vitamin water and ginger ale, but still - no Dr. Pepper).  I'm thinking - now what do I eat?  Looks like a fairly bland time for me until this gastritis thing clears up and my blood levels return to normal.  It's going to be interesting to see what happens when I go back for another blood test in a month.  Keep your collective fingers and toes crossed that it's starting to go up.  I really don't want another transfusion.  I'm still paying the hospital bills from the last one!

Other than that, things are OK.  New kitty:  We have a new kitten.  Her name is Cammie because she looks like she's wearing camouflage.  She's a tortoise shell and as cute as she can be, though she can be very feisty.  We also call her "Dibble" because she's so tiny.


The only bad part is that our 12 yr old cat, Mr. Pooh, appears to have disappeared.  My husband is quite distraught and wonders if bringing a new kitty into the family upset him so much he either ran off or had a heart attack (he's had a heart murmur since he was a kitten).  The vet told us years ago that he would probably only live til he was 6, so he lived twice as long as he was supposed to, but it's still sad because we don't know what happened to him.

Work is going good.  We had our Multicultural Festival in late March and I was one of the people on the organizing committee.  I also designed a logo for it and the committee liked it so much they had T-shirts made with it and they were handed out to participants and attendees of the Festival.  I was so tickled to have one of my designs on everybody's chest!  It was quite a thrill.


Another good thing happened.  I got a IFDD for It's 2010, Finally!!!  
I was so excited!!  I'd never gotten one before.  It really perked up my day.  Thank you so much to whoever chose it.  I sincerely appreciate it.



And, last but not least, here's the waaaaay overdue Features of some of my watchers.  Such good artists, they deserve so much recognition.

First, here's .  She's talented, helpful, sweet and a great asset to the fractal community.  Check out her club .  Great stuff.  She does great fractals, including wonderful hearts, photomanips, photography and other stuff, too. Here's just a small taste of her incredible work.  Check out her gallery and give Brigitte some dA love.






Second, is . He has been a dedicated watcher and his fractals are getting really good.  I always know it's his comment, because they always contain !  Check out his wonderfully colorful gallery. We share that aspect of our art.  Lots and lots of colors!






Thirdly, I would like to feature someone we all know and love, .  What a guy!  He is an amazing fractalist and has been an excellent help to me and the fractal community, in general.  He always has thoughtful comments and is willing to share.  You rock, TJ!!






Next, is a very nice lady, , who is not a fractalist, but does some really lovely traditional art.  She loves fractals and is trying to understand them (lots of luck, Martina!).  I think she is contemplating giving fractals a try, so go over and give her some encouragement.  With her sense of color and design, I think she would be a natural.






This next person is an incredible fractalist and a wonderful friend, giving comments freely and encouragement often: .  What about Bob?  Great images, deep rich colors and a keen sense of form and design.  I'm proud to call him my friend.






And, last but far from least, is the incomparable !  Always there to give feedback, words of support and encouragement and some really delicious fractals!  You are really something, Gypsy.  I can't thank you enough for your kind and thoughtful comments.  You're a pussycat!  Go check out the charming and say Hi from me.






Well, that's all for now.  I'm so happy I finally got the time to do the features I have been promising forever.  Now, I need to start getting the thumbs together for the next one.  And, yes, I will do more in the future.

Everyone, take care, and thank you so much for everything!!

Is it just me or is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures?

I am trying to upload a 5Mb photomanipulation and it's taking forever.  Is dA doing some kind of upgrade or maintenance to the website?  I have a ton of pictures to upload and I don't want to spend all day doing it.

Any feedback or information anyone can provide would be much appreciated.

I hope all of you are doing well or as well as can be expected.  I have been so busy I couldn't even submit to the current Apo Challenge.  But I guess that's all right.  I haven't won any anyway.

I promise, when I finally get some breathing space, I'll be back to update the journal and upload more fractals.  I miss doing them.  I think I need a "fractal fix".

UPDATE 04-14-10:  Finally, it started working again, around 4:30 my time (CDT).  You were all correct about just waiting awhile and try uploading again.  Thank you, my friends, for helping me out once again.


Take care! s and es to all!!!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to say I discovered how to put non-dA graphics in my journal.  It took me awhile, but I finally figured it out.  

Update March 31, 2010:  I had to remove the Blooming Rose graphic because it exceeded the Photobucket bandwidth.

I would also like to apologize to all those who favorited or commented on my work and I have not replied to your personally.  I really want to thank you for your continued support and all your great comments.  I appreciate you guys so much and I think my art has gotten better because of the help some of you have given me.


glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com

Also, check out the latest 3D Gallery of fractals by .  She has done a terrific job and this is a very unique and amazing way to see your art.  It's like walking around a real art gallery.  If you haven't seen it, check out Roz's journal and click on the link.  It's an executable file, but it's perfectly clean and it will be worth it! [link]

In addition, the Apo Challenge is alive and well on 's site.  In the mood for some tough competition.  These have been very interesting and some of the entries are amazing. [link]

One of these days, I will get around to doing features again.  So much wonderful art from the Old Masters of Fractals and some new blood as well.  Maybe when things settle down at work or my husband goes out for the evening and leaves me to my own devices.

Update on my health thing.  Official diagnosis of what the scope showed was Hemorrhagic Gastritis.  Basically, the lining of my stomach was very inflamed and bleeding in several places.  Stress is a terrible thing.  But I'm feeling pretty good and taking my meds like a good little girl!

Again, thanks to everyone who has commented, favorited, or sent well wishes about the health thing.