Introduction & Objectives

Hello & Welcome!

First off,  the purpose of this blog is a place for me to share the technical tips and advice, that I normally share with friends, family and coworkers. If you just wanted to know what this blog is about, that it. You can stop reading. Continue reading if you want to know the journey that has led to creating this blog.

I would like to start this blog by telling you a little about myself.  From what I hear, I am a rare combination in that I am very technical, yet very creative.

So lets, start with my creative background...I am a great artist in my head. I can see beautiful pictures and colors, but I can't get them into the world for others to see. So scrapbooking was a good way to channel that creativity.I have been scrapbooking for over 10 years.  Then in 2007, I met my friend Melissa who introduced me to stamping and card making which led to making gifts with decorative paper. I can't tell you  great it feels to make something beautiful for others to enjoy. 

Now, lets jump to my professional background...I have always been good with computers. I don't know where that comes from, maybe it's a talent.  Because I found that I was so good with computers while working in the U.S. Army, I decided to pursue a Computer Science degree. After graduating I worked as a web developer, then I was a web master for a car dealership. Then I went to work for a very big company, where I transitioned to a VB.NET software engineer for web applications to a business analyst and now a member of the QA testing team. So, I am very technical and a little nerdy sometimes.

So here's where the idea for this blog came from...In 2007, I joined Melissa's Heartfelt Sentiments team by becoming a Close to My Heart consultant as a hobbyist.We have a yahoo group which allows us to stay in touch, share artwork, and ask questions. So, whenever someone asks a technical question, I am usually the one to answer. I can also provided additional explanation to help them understand why it works the way it does.

I am also an organizer for a meetup group. I started the group with my friend Amanda, who I met through Melissa. I should also mention Amanda has the best questions because she just isn't technically inclined. So, I usually try to write my instruction with her in mind. That is my test if the instruction are good. So, now I get questions from members of that group as well. It gets a little tedious to keep rewriting  emails or finding the instructions I created before. And I am finding I don't have as much time to do this, so I need something that works fast. So I hope by having a blog, I have a good central place to save this information easily.

I hope you will like this blog and find it's contents helpful.