A deluge of Photos is upon us!!

That would be because I have been MIA in posting my random pics over the weekend. C’est la vie! Here’s a catch up.

Friday afternoon I popped across to my neighbour’s house. We have had regular catch ups for quite some time up until Christmas. And usually over a quick, cold drink. A wee beer, or a couple of vinos. It was a great way to unwind. Then something happened in my life – and in hers too. Her news was way more exciting: she’s expecting #4… albeit unexpectedly. So the wee unwinding sessions had fallen by the wayside a little. Catching up at swimming lessons on Thursday, we were bemoaning this fact and decided we should catch up the following day. So we did. I brought a bottle of grapejuice. And it really was as pleasant a way to relax and chat as usual. We both wondered at the therapeutic and pyschological effects of holding a wine glass itself… at least with grapejuice it sorta felt like wine. Not so sure it would work with just water somehow! So, in honour of great friendship and our little ritual, I took a picture below. I swear to you all, the bluriness is not at all related to the content of said bottles!

Day 22:

Great Rituals

Saturday dawned as hot and muggy as it has been for a while. Relentless almost. I don’t know about anyone else, but it sure zaps the energy out of you. Great excuse to have a truly relaxed-don’t-get-much-done kinda day. And because you all know how I am the Queen of Procrastination, I waited until after the Mr’s were in bed before I decided to actually start the project I needed to have done. That would be one costume for the party the next day. Luckily it was decided a Wizard’s cape was the way to go.

It was loved! Mr 3 is no ordinary Sparkly Wizard. Noooo. He is a Bat Wizard! Notice the batlike way he wraps the cloak around him. Now, to find somewhere to hang him upside down…..

Day 23:

The BatWizard at home

And finally today. Well, having had a “day off” so to speak yesterday, I decided it wasn’t a good look to waste away yet another day. So housework was done attempted, party was attended and some scrapbooking was completed. I also cooked what is becoming a traditional Sunday lunch for us at present. Pancakes! Yummmm!! The recipe in the Edmonds book does not lend itself to fluffy and light pancakes sadly. My ones are enjoyed and I am told that they all like them. Still, feel free to link me to fool-proof light and fluffy recipes if you know of them! Luckily noone noticed that I have no idea of how to wield a melon baller either.

Day 24:

Welcome to Mama’s Cafe Special

I also got a bit of blog hopping and notice there are a lot of Saturday Smiley posts out there. It got me thinking – and also because Hannah tagged me waaaaay back when to name those things I am grateful for. So I’ve made a mental note to myself to ensure I get that done sometime this week.

I’ve also noticed that I have captured Mr 3 alot in these random pics. That is because he is the one at home in the afternoons when I typically have been snapping away. I’ve mentally resolved to randonly capture a couple more of Mr 6… if I can!

Oh, and by the way… I did go on my own little cicada hunt – and here is one of my little noisemakers. I won’t mention the creepy way they like to hang out one our back wall in the late evening sun – and make a din!

Trust these faces?

Of course you would! But then you haven’t heard the scrapping that’s been going on lately. And I don’t mean my kind of scrapping: that involving scissors and glue and paper and photos and nice sentiments and……

No. I mean the variety that has one or other of these sweet little faces yelling and screaming and kicking and crying and running to mama and and and … you get the picture!

I have just been looking through the photos that I took over the holiday period. Do you know, I’m not sure I was there! I mean, there is not ONE single photo of me! Not by design either: I’ve become resigned to the fact that I need to be in photos. So it came as a shock to me to discover in amongst all that christmas joy, I’m not there. Seems I was the only one that picked up the camera on holiday.

Oh: and “Happy Birthday!” to a certain Miss M that turned 5 today…. my “angels” will be around soon to deliver something to you. I promise your mum it won’t be their “lovely” selves!

Thanks to a high flying kiwi

…Dollar that is!

I ordered these little puppies last week while they were discounted at 2Peas – and our little ole kiwi$ was still good and high. I just love how they showed up today: superfast delivery!!

I’m so very pleased with this little *Booty*… can anyone guess what my take on this week’s Eve challenge is going to be?!

Crafting in the dark.

Nighttime in Wellington, black & white.

Originally uploaded by gak.
Firstly – let me acknowledge that this pic is not mine. I wish it was – but no. I have popped it on my blog for illustrative purposes.

It’s cool because it is a shot of Wellington at night. I saw a similar view if I looked outside our windows last night. Now in your head, turn all of those lights out. You getting black on black?

That’s how it went in my house last night. Half way into “House” and while I was winning on a resist technique I’ve been practising, everything went black. And very, very quiet.

Turns out a lightening bolt struck a substation or some such and took out the entire neighbourhood. Wow! It wasn’t even raining at the time but there you go. Lightening bolt hits, you lose your lights.

It’s quite hard to craft in the dark. I found our torch and managed to finish the piece I was working on by torchlight before it dried and I lost the effect completely. Looking at it this morning, I can see I got the technique right. Will probably have to give it another go – in some light – before I use it on a card.

Still don’t know how it turned out on House either.

Exploding Box and other creations

It is my mum’s birthday next week so I thought I’d better get a move on and come up with something. After a bit of thinking, I decided on an Exploding Box. Now that sounds like fun does it not? A friend had made one for her mother for christmas. She left that one blank to allow her mum to put in pics of all of her grandkids. I was tempted to do that as well, but as my mum doesn’t see the boys so much, I thoght I’d leave just a few places to add the rest of the clan.

There are quite a few instructions out and about, but I used the ones on Anso’s blog. They are very clear and easy to follow and I can highly recommend this as a project as a gift to anyone.

I went along to a 12 hour crop yesterday. Not for the whole 12 hours – I thought I’d better be kind to hubby and the Mr’s and hang around for a bit! I did however get there for a good 4-5 hours at the end. A nice bunch of ladies – and some amazing work there. My box was the main project I had in mind to do there – and I’m glad I had a lot of time. It got started from scratch and completed pretty quickly.

I also had time to complete the SE April BOM challenge. There were several prompts, but I decided to scrap my quirks. I had it all done before I packed up – with the exception of the last quirk – I couldn’t remember what I’d said! Well, that’s been sorted out and added to the page now, but the pic is before that.

I’ve used Romani pp and Bazzil CS, Pebbles Inc stamps and MM paint plus Doodlebug paper frills. I quite like how it came out – although it isn’t quite the way my head pictured it would look. It’s quite bright isn’t it?!

Another thing I’ve taken to doing lately is trying to expand on the story of the page. Sometimes when I’ve finished a page, I’m looking at it and thinking, OK so why did that story seem important, or what extra detail happened that I think I want to tell. This page is an example. I’m pleased with it, it tells a little bit about me – but if someone is looking at it in a few years from now, I’m sure they’ll be thinking – “What the….”

So, I’ve started writing on the back of the page as well. Sometimes it’s a case of what happened next, or just an extra detail or two that I didn’t have room for on the front. But for this page, I felt I needed to explain how this page came to life. So, I noted that the quirks came from a blog tag, and that in turn was formed into a challenge for the BOM prompts. Extra details. Extra names.

I wonder if a generation or two from now, they’ll even have any idea of the time we spent on blogs and forums. Will they be terms that are still used?

PS – someone at the crop said to me last night, “I really like your style”. That stopped my brain in its tracks for a bit. I didn’t even know I had a style!

I’ll take the compliment anyways!!

ColourTech: Tetrad

Well, here is my effort for the last in my colour class series.

 Last Saturday we were doing a Tetrad scheme – a scheme comprising four colours which are two sets of complimenteries that form a rectangle on the colour wheel.

I struggled with this quite a bit. i don’t think necessarily in terms of the fact I was using four colours – I think I’m quite happy to do that as long as it is sub-consious. Make me concious of what I am doing and I was quite surprised with how challenged I was.

The whole scan has washed the colours out a bit (grrr at technology!) but the pic is quite vibrant. I thought I would be starting with the yellow-orange of the grass but that threw up a choice of 2 combinations that I just couldn’t get my head around.

So, in the end, I started the scheme by looking at the orange-red as the first colour. That allowed me to have the yellow-orange in teh mix, throwing in the blue-green and the blue-violet. Still I wasn’t convinced and Shona then threw another thought my way. She has learned over the last 6 weeks that I am drawn to quite rich mixes and versions of colour. She suggested that to do that would just combat the colours in teh pic too much and perhaps if I looked at the softer tints of the tetrad….. Hmmm I thought.

So that was my 2-fold challenge – to actually look for papers in a scheme i wasn’t sure could work, and then to actually choose more subdued versions of those colours. I found the first three colour quite quickly – but do you think I could get the violet-blue? This was the colour in the mix that for me really didn’t fit.

In the end, I dumped the class layout using a white background, went with the colours I finally chose, but bumped it up with a richer version of the orange-red, planning to use it in the title. A quick flick through the mags in store and I lifted this layout.

As we did the “Show” bit at the end, I was asked if I was happy with it. The answer is yes – but to me one colour still is a question mark….. when I asked why, all I could say was that it was *different*

Sing with me now…“One of these things is not like the other…..”

PS – no, DH and I do not have medical conditions, it is a last minute rememberance to not put his and my faces on the blog – a bit of a security thing as our faces do not change as fast the younger Mr’s.  Well, unless you count the wrinkles…………….

364

364. Three Hundred and Sixty Four. Sounds pretty close to a year doesn’t it?

It’s not. That is the number of photos I’ve just gone through and put on a disc to get printed. wow! OK so I won’t be scrapping EVERY SINGLE photo – but wow! I thought I had a few to catch up on. Have I said it enough yet??!! Wow!

We only have dial up. I’m NOT going to be putting them through to DigitalMax in time to take up their special offer of 15c a pic. Bummer – ‘cos that would have saved a wee bit!

These photos are all the ones from last year that have been put neatly into folders on the computer, waiting for me to come back and sort out which ones are the ones I really, really want to scrap. I still ended up with that HUGE number! A lot are still duplicates – I find it too hard from looking at one photo and then another and deciding which of the two I actually want. So, I’m taking heart that the majority of these will be sent to other homes of friends and family that are always demanding to see actual pics.

I thought I was going to get a couple of layouts done tonight – instead it has taken me best part of 2 hours to get this lot sorted. Clearly though, it’s been a good 2 hours. In theory, I think it means that I will not have to go back to 2006 for scrapping sources. That is a good thing: I have a LOT to do from well before then! And I’m thinking that it might mean I can keep up to date with 2007. That’s a good thing!

Mind you – I now have the photos – I’ll need to get creating won’t I?!