Its Raining Its Pouring

The old man is snoring (that would be my husband on the couch, "watching" a movie!).  It pretty much hasn't stopped raining here since around 10am this morning, getting heavier and gustier as the progresses.  We've had about 3" (75mm) of rain for today, a good portion of it since late this afternoon.  (the further west, the heavier it gets).  This is why:

We are somewhere under that mass of cloud, probably towards the eastern side of it...whatever the case, my washing isn't going to dry on the line anytime soon! 

The First Day

The first day of the next stage in our lives - TWO kids at school; Georgie starts prep and Kate in Year Two. Two very excited-to-be-going-to-school (more to see the other 7 kids at school, than for the academic side of things!) girls got ready in record time this morning  and one very sad little boy couldn't understand why he couldn't stay at school as well. Fair bit of wrassling mum on the couch and playing trucks with dad (who just happened to spend the day at home for a change!) to distract him from his loneliness!

(look at that sad little face - mostly becuase he wasn't wearing new shoes -

he hadn't realised at this stage that he was coming home sister-less!)

And boy, didn't he and Georgie play together well when they got home! For all of their constant bickering and power struggles, they are good mates, and missed each other - they've had the past two years together at home while Kate has been at school.

And look at those new shiny white joggers on the girls. Not looking so shiny after the first day I have to report!

I planned to have a series of photos to share with you of our activites over the past few days, but Elements threw a little tanty after I did this set, so you;ll have to wait til tommorrow.  I'll probably add them to this post to keep the photos in their order!  And then I have to pick my top 9?  (will have to check how many again) for my recap of January  - I'll post them on my other blog. 'Til then!

Introducing

puddin and pie my new place for my favourite photos each month for 2010, a place for all of the brilliant photography blogs that I have bookmarked, and a place for any other photography related ideas that I come accross that I just have to share.

I'll transfer accross my photography related links from here (tidy the place up a little!) - I can't say that I will post often over there (one blog is bad enough to post at on a regular basis!) but it will be a great place to gather my thoughts and the brilliance of other people!

And the name?  I was sitting here, thinking "just what can I call it that has meaning to me, but isn't daggy and doesn't include my name (which I am not fond of, but it does its' job!) when daughter number two wandered past.  She has had a bit of a bad day, with a little friend of both girls over for a sleep over last night - so tired and cranky, and three girls isn't much fun sometimes, with a bossy older sister pushing her out of the fun (sometimes unintentionally, sometimes NOT!).  One of her nicknames popped into my head "Georgie Porgie", and the rest of the line followed "puddin and pie"....and hence the name. Silly hey!

Gathering My Thoughts and So On

So, this morning so far I have: had breakfast, done the dishes, fed the chooks and cats, put a load of washing out and another one on, put some sprinklers on the garden, watched the news, made the kids (+ 1 - an extra having a sleepover) eat breakfast, get dressed, make their beds; refereed countless numbers of arguements and tiffs, and ignored just as many, rounded the kids up and took the ride on mower down to the park where I mowed, and quickly cleaned the public toilets (a P & C obligation), chatted to a neighbour and passed on to her some outgrown kids clothes, ran another neighbours' dogs and watered some of her garden (they are away), and then we had smoko.

The time here is 11:40am.  Now I am going to do some bookwork and prepare a huge pile of invoices (I've been neglecting the bookwork a little) to go in the mail tomorrow. 

But first, I want to share with you the topic that I harrassed my online/email friends  with yesterday (bored them silly I am sure!) but if this is a problem for me, surely it is the same for many others out there.... namely wedding photos.

I had a vague idea of what I thought I should do -firstly get them out of the awful stick down album they are in.  I ummed and arhed, and finally after flipping through the photos themselves again, have come to a plan.  And I have written it down, with notes on supplies and so on! So I don't forget....

Ok, so I won't be using every photo as part of a "showcase".  I've been through and picked out the best and my favourites (and earmarked some for enlargement to use in the album).  The bulk of the photos are 4x6.

The album will be based around these albums and pages by Ingunn (? forgotten her surname!) and Laura Kurz, which are 8x8.

I was orginally going to use some divded WRMK 8.5 x 11 page protectos, but then realised that landscape style photos do not translate well to enlargements in this size. So went back to 8x8, and will use a mixture of divided pages and full pages as shown in the examples above - PLUS the cute white butterfly idea. Love it. My colour scheme will be navy and white.

The only twist to this will be:  these will be housed in a 12x12  navy printblocks patches d-ring album (I'll have to re punch the 8x8 page protectors I guess) and the left over photos will be slipped into 12x12 6 photos per page divided page protectors, at the back of the album.  I can easily slip a little cardstock title or journalling into one of those pockets if I need to, but this album will be fairly light on journalling, its more about getting the photos away and kept for posterity!

I even have worked out my titles and "division" pages - front title page (obviously!) followed by the before-the-wedding shots; The Ceremony (ceremony shots obviously!);  Mr & Mrs (like above) followed by the after wedding pics; Reception (obvious!); The Details (including the guest list, invitation, music etc and then The Outakes the rest of the photos, including snapshots of the breakfast that we and all of the guests had at our motel the next morning.

So that's it, finally these will have a decent home! Hopefully this project will be simple and quick to complete.

My invoicing awaits! Hope this might help someone else as well!

Just Quickly

A quick post tonight, the insects are really bad (I hope that means its going to rain again soon) and I need to turn off the lights...

This is from Melissa Deakin's blog, and I just had to borrow it and share.  This saying is something I should print out and have on the fridge, on the bathroom cabinet, in front of the kitchen sink, and on my desk.

So, so true, and so appropriate - I am the queen of procrastination, and waiting "til I feel like it" or until "such and such has happened".

With that - goodnight!  Away for the day tomorrow, so don't think I'm rude if I don't reply to you!

And repeat!

So here's some more DYL layouts, including this week's topic of repetition ("And repeat"....get it?! Oh, I am SO clever its not funny! hee hee ho ho!)

I can't say I overly thrilled with this one, but not so unthrilled that I plan to do it again!  The nitty gritty - its a double 8x8, so I can have it printed and then just put it away, or I can stick it on 12x12 and add some pretty paper... Not sure which...

Again a double page, 8.5 x 11 this time, which I will reduce to 8x10 and print.  A page using some of the useless photos that I took on our holiday trip to Cairns in 2008.

I have to say I think I will be doing a lot more of this hybrid style of scrapbooking in the future... it FEELS quick, though it probably isn't all that much faster!  It is however, MUCH tidier!

Some more DYL

I've slowed down on the DYL assisgments - turns out that I don't like assymetrical - but then why am I surprised?!  Although I don't claim to be a clean freak, or be the tidiest person in the world, when I DO clean and tidy and do things, they have to be straight.  No crooked lines or much assymetry in my world...unless of course it is BALANCED...  oh, Cathy, you would be so proud of me!

So I've abandoned the truly out there assymetrical layout that she set us to do (which was way to hard for me to convert into something easy to have printed as well) and gone to the balanced assymetrical layout.  Hitting those photos from back in 2008 that were crying out for some attention....!

The nitty gritty details for those that are interested:  I will crop the photo parts of this 12x12 double layout (the photos spread across the centre line) into a 8x6 for the left hand side and an 8x10 for the right hand side.  The two 8" edges will meet in the centre, placed onto some white 12x12 card. No extra needed as the patterned paper is built into the photo spread..I did consider leaving the title blank and adding thickers, but that would make my head hurt if they didn't end up fitting....

The layout is about the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve, which is really more Kuranda than Cairns..but well worth a visit (albeit an expensive one!) The closest zoo like this for us to visit would be Australia Zoo perhaps, which is way down south, and even then, do they have lions and tigers? I would have thought the kids would have been way more excited about seeing the big cats, and rhino etc (and the bears? so watchable!) but apart from the very kid like monkeys, they seem to get the most kick out of feeding the chooks and the guinea fowls.  Things they can DO AT HOME. (well not the guinea fowls).

Anyhow, I'd go back again, we adults thought it was great , and apart from the animals I especially loved the balinese-like sandstone carving /ornaments they had around the place - I want some for myeslf, and the photos need a layout of their own! ;-) and we may visit there again in a few years if we get up north again, and the kids are older and more albe to appreciate the animals.

More DYL later on hopefully, once I put a stop to the thundering around the house, squealing, yelling and door slamming I can hear happening as I type! 

Making An Exception

I don't have a lot of photos of myself in recent years - normally I am behind the camera, and especially as I have issues with my weight (and therefore appearance!) I don't like many of the few photos that happen to have me included in them.

However, today I am making an exception.  Remember back before Christmas, my friend Mel came and took some family photographs...well, she's slowly catching up on her editing, and shared this with me...

Mel very cleverly left out the fat belly bits...(and lets not talk about the bottom, OK!) and I have to say, its not too bad!  And even though I desperatley needed a haircut...I actually don't mind this photo!  (now that I think about it, its probably more realistic that I have lots of messy hair, as that is pretty much how I spend every day - a haircut lasts me around a week before it looks "normal" again!!

So there you have it - me. Wrinkles and all, albeit wearing some makeup and lippy (can't be TOO real now, can we?!!)

Thanks Mel. xox


Justifying Text in PSE

I just learnt a new trick that I had to share with you:  how to justify text in PSE (justify - even spread the text over the text box area, rather than left or right or centre alignment!)

This will seriously make my little anal world SO HAPPY, you cannot believe it, as this one thing has annoyed me so much when using PSE - I didnt' know how to have the text justified.

1. Draw you text box - click on the T, then click and drag the text box to fill the area you wish the text to appear.
2. Type in the text you want.  Fill 'er up.
3. When finished, Control+Shift+ J.  Done.

Its as easy as that - why didn't anyone tell me that before!! I love having justified text.....

All things Green

Firstly, taken up my paintbrush again today....I don't think it was going to be quite this green in my mind (and doesn't look that bright in the tin!) (after the first coat)

I am hoping that the colour may deepen with the next coat, as the white undercoat could be brightening it; in any case if I use this to do a wall in the girls room I think a fair amount of white may be added to tone it down a tad!  And now I am pleased that I bought black shelving brackets for the new shelves, and black folders (I was despairing as I couldn't get the green ones I wanted!) but now....I think the black will be just what is needed!

Self explantitory - THE new bag, which is exceeding hard to photography with one self holding it.  Oodles of room, lots of padded inserts.  Will look very handsome leaning on my desk in the office, comparing green notes with the wall!

My garden/back yard - (click on to enlarge)  this is taken from the gate to the back paddock, looking towards the house and the street and front gate.

And this one is taken from beside the bbq (see in the first photo) looking at the rest of the garden (its sort of a crank handle shape if you drew it on paper).  Please note that I should have taken these photos AFTER the lawn had been mowed and trees pruned and stuff put away.  But I didn't...just keepin it real folks - now, do you want to see my bathroom?! ;-)  its looking very real at the moment!

Garden even greener now, photos were taken over a week ago, before we went to the coast.

Sitting here at my desk, looking at that wall....MAN oh MAN, is it ever GREEN!! I feel like I have used a green highlighter to paint the wall with!!

PS. Just made myself a new header...sigh...anyone notice the mistakes?!  its going to drive me nuts....

Internet Goodness Again

 A very light and fluffy post today - returned from the coast on Saturday afternoon, and am suffering from return-to-reality-itis...and a sore neck, which has been building for awhile, so a visit to someone to be vigourously massaged might be in order...

So, of course, with all that there hasn't been much happening, apart from unpacking and washing and dreading the arrival of the credit card bill! ;-)

But I do have some internet goodness fluff to share, so lets 'at it!

I know its not Christmas again for another 11.5 months, but if you happen to come across some pine cones on your travels this year, collect them to make this cute garland thingy.  Bit of hot glue and some imagination, and done.  Pine cones aren't all that common up here though sadly!

Found this cute and oh so simple handmade wallet tutorial HERE - so simple that even I could tackle it!  Added to my ever growing list of things-to-make...

Ok. so this idea might be old as, but seeing as we are venturing into the era of lego creating in my house, I think this is a great idea.  Now I may not go as far as making a coffee table, but I do have a little table that I could bluetac or velcro a big base sheet of lego to!  One way of keeping the creations safe and off the floor and out from under my feet!

Just some cute decorating, for my super decor inspired friend Kat (look at all of the little details) ...I will share some pics of her gorgeous home one day - that looks a million bucks on a tiny budget - and if you think I live waaay away from anywhere, she is even further....

A bit of an odd one here, but love the letter/graphic treatment on this sign.

These pinwheels are the topper of some lolly bags...great idea if you are so inclined!  My girl wants a little party for her 7th birthday, but I don't think I will be going to quite these lengths (even though I know pin wheels are super easy to make, and gee, I wonder if I would have any spare paper?!! hee hee)

I just "may" have mentioned that I am in the middle of re-organising/sprucing up my office, and have been thinking of some simple, cheap and easy ways to add the finishing touches... some hessien twine/string glued around a bottle or tin, or some paper glued around a tin (I think I would mod podge to seal)...I can see three tins with co-ordinating paper lined up on my new (or soon to be erected, I should say!) shelf...

And lastly, I came across another very inspiring photography blog here, the images make me swoon...and don't people have some lovely ideas for their weddings!  I particulary like the folded paper idea here on the left - so simple!  (simpler than the tissue paper pom poms?) and perhaps this idea would look cute hanging from the ceiling....instead of the ill fated paper cranes I tried last week!! :-)

More DYL

I struggled with these ones - perhaps because of the bigger journalling area (funny, I seem to have lots to say on other occassions?) or just the one photo?  I might try again and put four in the journalling area...and this one came with a colour scheme which I also couldn't get the feel of either. OR perhaps its becuase it was after 10pm....!

Anyhoo, here they are:

First one is about my dreams of a shiny, tiled laundry IN my house (currently, as this is an old house, the laundry is detached and in a little shed near the house. Very rustic, but a bit of a pain, especially as its more of the blah type of shed at the moment and not just quaint!  We do have rebuilding plans, as it is getting quite holey around the bottom, so then I might be able to make things a little nicer) Picture, a bit arty farty, is of husband's work clothes on the line. maybe I should substitute with a picture if a lovely laundry from somewhere on the net (I am not using one of my laundry!)

A title will go on the patterned paper once printed, some nice thickers I think!

And this one, obviously, my favourite 2009 Christmas photo.  Its meant to have a circle element at the top between the photo and the patterned strip, but I again will add that (scallop I think) after printing and put the title on that ala Nicole.

Off to the city on Wednesday, but hopefully I will post some photos from the past few days (mud & doll houses & more of the girls room) before then.

DYL

So I got the poops after cleaning up the girls room AGAIN (everything has a home, but you wouldn't think it) and then installing their new doll house from Santa, and then vacuuming all sorts of crap off of the loungeroom floor.

I am raising piglets, I am sure of it.

Anyhow.  So I did some playing with the templates from the CZ class I finally decided to take.  Mind you, I might not have read all of the stuff (need to print out and put in a pretty binder to read and digest) but I sure am having fun.

I decided to do it all digitally/hybrid (more or less) and will print out and stick onto paper like I;ve been doing with my collages to date.

This was a 12x12 originally but I have dropped it back to 8x8 so I can easily print it (8x10 and crop).  I have done this one three times, just changing out the picture of the child, so each one has a layout for their album.  The steam train ride is something they all still talk about.

This one was 8.5 x 11 with a heap of white space around, so I cropped down to the nitty gritty so the white space will be "real" card when glued down.  Because I am a twit and didn't put a border around the white background on this, you can't see it, but it will end up a 8x10 double page with lovely white space. The title didn't have that strip of card behind it on her template, but I couldn't read it on the photo so had to improvise.  And because this is all about "balance' and "symmetry" of course the same strip had to continue to the other page, in this case the green paper.

So there you have it.  Now I better go and hunt something down for tea!

Internet Goodness

So, I have vacuuming to do and washing to fold (blah!) but thought I would get rid of this stash of internet goodness ideas that I have been gathering for awhile. Need to get rid of the ideas out of my head sparked by these and move on! (warning: long post, lots of pics and very light n fluffy!)

Love this photo with the girls and their tutus, but ESPECIALLY love the pink cowboy boots.  I think I need to get some for at least one of my girls (well, only one needs new winter boots this year!).  So, if you see any, let me know!  (and isn't their headwear so cute as well!)

Continuing the canvas art there, here's a cute idea that you could easily adapt  - little coloured doilies for the flowers, or cut out/punched shapes, and some simple and fun painting.  Even I could do this, but I am not. Becuase I haven't finished their name canvas things yet.

I am waiting for some less humid weather to finish painting my office wall green - more apple than this, but loved coming across this photo (from Moon Ko) of a green wall.  I have collected some black boxes similar to these from the discount store (and might go back and get some white ones as well) for storing my serpate committee paperwork in...And I will have either green or black lever arch or box files as well...I was going to have white shelving units...what do you think? 

Just a bit of whimsy - what cute sock protectors!! Think I need to buy some of these for my friends (female ones of course!) AND for myself! (from madeit )  (fyi  - stops grass seed and dirt and the likes from getting in ones socks and down into ones work books.  A bit of spear grass seed in one's sock has been known to halt all proceedings until located and removed.  And you DON"T want to feel one in your underwear - if you see someone suddenly jump off their motorbike and drop their daks, you know that speargrass has invaded!!)

Great book mark idea!  I'm going to collect some colour cards from bunnings and make some of these for myself!! And perhaps back them with some matching patterned paper...Too easy. Love this idea.

Now, if you need some name labels and bag tags for school, you must check out this lovely site:  Fairy Dust Design.  I've ordered some tags and labels for my girls (and a tage for my boy's backpack), as well as some for one of my neices' birthday, to add to the tutu gift.  Fairyt Dust has a lovely range of party invitations and cake toppers as well, if you don't want to make your own. Worth checking just for ideas!

Now onto yesterday afternoons time wasting and ultimatley dissapointing craft endeavours.  I saw this wonderful video over at jinkyart (gorgeous photography site that I've just been introduced to by Mel) which had in it some lovely folded paper cranes as a mobile in a  girls room. (cuter than the photo below)

See, look how cute they are, even good old Pottery Barn were selling them as Christmas ornaments. So off I go to the internet to find some instructions to do this.  I have half a brain, I'm a scrapbooker, so surely I can handle some paper folding.

Well, let me tell you something, dear reader.  Either I am a complete idiot and cannot follow instructions (which could be possible!) or its waaay harder than it looks.  It could be the instructions are not well written as well.... but lets just say my attempts at a "simple" butterfly and a "simple crane" did not yeild a result like any that you see above...

Anyone with experience in this department, I'd love to hear from you.  Otherwise I am going to call this failed and think of something else!  Like this:

My dear and wonderfully creative friend Kat sent me this idea, which would look lovely on my branches, dont you think? Now THIS looks simple enough for me to handle (after my shamful failed origami attempts!)

And one last bit of internet goodness, Coffee Shop has released a new action, very dreamy looking and would be lovely used on shots of little girls in long dresses running around a garden... (I like the third one best). So go forth and download, if you are into actions (pse friendly too)

So that's it, my vacuuming and folding await.  Apparently the housework fairies haven't been whilst I have been composing this post....

The Birthday Present Hunt

So, as you may remember, my oldest daughter has a birthday at the end of January, so I've been on the search for suitable gifts for a 7 year old girl...which is harder than you might think!

The wonderful Shannon got me a great deal on a lovely tin tea set in its own  little suitcase (after I found some for more than twice the price on ebay!) so there's one gift down. (got another one as well, so Georgie can get one for her birthday as well.  The joys of having two girls so close together in age!)  I've also got a cute little ruffley apron to go with it.

Kate's crazy about High School Musical (I would have thought she was too young? but anytime its been on TV, she's been glued to it!) so before Christmas I found 1 & 2 dvd's on sale (for $8 each! ) and tucked them away.

One of the joys of having a birthday not long after Christmas is that you tend to get lesser in the gift department...and normally the above plus some clothes probably would have been it.  I was thinking of perhaps a small "girl" lego set to complete, but seeing as the girls got a large doll house for Christmas, it seemed silly.  However, at a friends place on New Years Eve,  Kate fell in love with their Powerwing Scooter.  I had been told that they were frightfully expensive, but I headed to ebay just to see HOW expensive....and found one that looks identical, for well under $100. Done.

And THEN, while I was there, I thought I would look for pettiskirts for Di , seeing as she was hunting some for an upcoming professional photo shoot...and came across a great deal on tutu's!

I have  bought 8 of these in mixed colours, far cheaper than I could buy the netting and then find time to make them, so SOLD!  I just have to buy some white singlets when I get into the city next week (hello Best and Less, here I come!) and maybe add some button or ribbon embelllishment (or something) to the singlet - and there's a gift for Kate and birthday gifts for Georgie and my two neices DONE! 

(question:  I was thinking plain white bonds style singlets - with the narrow straps - or do you think a matching coloured one for each skirt would be better?)

I will have  four skirts spare, so I thought I could sell them with a little singlet - I'll do a post when I've got everything together with a price etc, if anyone is interested...

So there you have it, Kate's birthday present shopping all done and dusted.  Now I just have to worry about a CAKE...and the little party she wants.  Think we'll restrict it to just a couple of little girl friends, and maybe have a normal cake at school for all of the kids.

Stay tuned for some internet goodness later today or tomorrow.  I'm off to put away the Christmas decorations!  (but the twig branch tree is staying up!)