A red light never indicates something positive. Combine one with a second red light and make them start flashing and you might as well declare Armageddon. My printer raised the proverbial white flag on day 102. It has shown signs of impending doom for quite a while now actually. For almost a year now, every color print that's spawned from this guy has looked like a study in what the world would look like without the color yellow. (In case you're wondering, everything looks very blue and cool-toned without the Y in CMYK). For the life of me, I have not been able to get the yellow print line unclogged, and I've blown through an ocean of the other ink colors trying. Every time I ran a print head cleaning cycle and test print, I'd wave goodbye to what seemed like at least a third of a cartridge of every ink color installed. Well, we all know the saying, When life gives you lemons, make [blue-looking] lemonade [because your printer won't print yellow]. I made the best of it, and just used the printer for b&w utility printing, and everything was fine... until day 102. Now she (yes, all my gear has female personas) refuses to feed in any paper to print on. So. it's time to say so long, Epson Stylus Photo R800. I'd thank you for your service, but let's face it, it was short-lived and lacking. You made a great first impression, but had no follow-up. BTW, can anyone out there recommend a good mid-high end printer that does CD/DVD printing and good quality 8.5x11 printing? It can print larger, but that's not a requirement for me. Gracias.

I'm back-logging trying to catch up on Project 365, so my day #s in the next few posts are going to be a little outta whack as I get things back in order On to today's news... Yay, mom! She is about to graduate with her bachelors in Healthcare Administration in a couple weeks, so we commemorated with a few photos while she was in town for Easter. I'm very proud of you, mom... I admire your desire and your perseverance to continue to chase after your passions. May you never lose that!

I'm ridiculously excited to announce the new Firenze Italian Texture Collection is available for purchase. Of the hundreds of textures I photographed in breath-taking Italy, I included in this set the 38 that I use most frequently in creating my fine art images. Now they are available for you to use as your own. Each texture is a 300dpi jpg that can be customized in terms of size, color, contrast, etc and can be layered with other textures to create endless variations of looks that will give any image a rich, intricate fine art feel. I’ve tested the templates with Photoshop CS, CS2 and CS3, and everything works fine. It may work for earlier versions before CS, I just haven’t tested for those. I believe the textures will work flawlessly in Photoshop Elements as well. In addition, when you purchase the textures, you will receive a link to a video tutorial I created to show you how I use the textures and how - in only a couple minutes - you can layer these textures to create stunning works of art. If you are interested, please send payment ($75) via PayPal to mail@mattnicolosi.com, and I will email you a download link for the textures as quickly as possible, and certainly within 24 hours of receiving your payment. Please be sure to include your correct email address with your PayPal payment. Cost: $75 (includes 37 of my most popular Italian textures and a video tutorial showing you how to use them) Sorry, no individual texture purchases at this time, only the set. Due to the nature of the product, exchanges and refunds are not possible. However, if you change your mind before I send out the links - I am happy to offer you credit. Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Here's a couple samples showing only a handful of the endless possibilities you can create by combining & blending these textures.

Okay, I was wrong. For all those times I vehemently argued jump roping should not be an Olympic sport (and who hasn't argued this?)... I was wrong. This is one of the most impressive things I've seen in a while. Yes, jump roping. This isn't your daddy's jump roping, though. The video gets more fantastic the longer it goes on. And see those Army Cadets clapping and cheering along in the background? That was me watching this video. Thanks to my father-in-law Garry for sending this my way.

My friends Jerry and Tina's little girl, Trinity, turns 4 today. Some of you may remember the ridiculously fun 3rd birthday party mom and dad threw for her last year from the old blog. This year's gig is a big ol' puppet show at the galleria this weekend. I'm a designated face painter of which I have no previous experience. Tina mentioned just painting butterflies, pigs noses and such. Pffft.... I was thinkin' more like the band Kiss. I think the parents will be pleasantly surprised. Happy Birthday, Trinity! Thanks again for being our flower - I mean snowflake - girl at the wedding!

The above photos were taken by Elizabeth and Vincent from from Elizabeth Vincent Photography at our wedding in Indiana.