Two and Three

No, that's not the temperature here at the moment, but could very well be by morning.  I think it might be in the very early tweens at the moment, which means my time here at the keyboard will not be long and lingering this evening! So much for tropical north queensland....

What I refer to in the title is the questionaire layouts for children two and three. Same basic design, but with their answers. Keeping it simple, so I don't have to think so much, and I can worry about other matters like when will Greys Anatomy be on next and how far behind the U.S are we with the series....

ANYhow:

Daughter #2, a funny little thing who drives me nuts, and who we've always said marches to the beat of her own drum.  She adores animals (this is the child that catches the green frogs) and I suspect, once she gets over wanting to be a mum when she grows up :-) she'll be a vet or somehow be involved with animals. She can also do the splits (or close to) with sickening ease.

The cheeky face pretty much tells the story. His faces becomes grubby the moment he gets out of bed, and pretty much stays that way all day, even though someone at some stage will occassionally give it a swipe with a washer or wipe.  And I just HAD to type in the answers the way he says them.

So, there you have it, I have finally managed to get three pages done in just a short time (not including interuptions!).  I've saved my basic template, so I think I will revist this, with similar questions, in twelve months time. Someone remind me, OK?!

First of Three

I've taken a short break from the photo book layouts from previous posts (realising that I am not going to meet the deadline for the two for one deal, but also safe in the knowledge I have a voucher there already to get one half price book!).  Nicole had a post HERE about a q & a for your kids - something she had done before, but I haven't ever.

So, today, one by one I did this with my kids, pairing their answers with the most recent photo of them - which happened to be a whole TWO WEEKS ago!  (yegads).

Here is the first installment.  I'll share the rest later when I;ve got them finished, more for the benefit of reading the answers, as they will all be made from the same template.  I had to bribe the boy to get him to sit with me for the 50 seconds required to undertake this little project, so some of his answers are hilarious (for me anyhow!)

I was too lazy to matt this digitally (it IS Sunday!) but ultimatly when printed it will be mounted on 8.5 x 11 cardstock (or 12x12 if I feel the need for a strip of pretty paper at the time). Probably cheaper to get the photo printed and print the text on cardstock and then stick it all together, but then I'd have to wait and then it would never be done at all.

And its missing a date stamp on it somewhere, I'll fix that up when I do the others.  This quiz was done this morning.

hooroo!

photobooks and other things

Firstly, before I get into some more photobook layouts, let me share a snippet of conversation overheard in our house this evening, between father and daughter # 1.

"So, what was your face doing under her bum?!"

Please tell me its not just in my household that these sort of discussions take place (why it took place here was that apparently daughter #2 farted in the face of daugher #1 - which quite frankly cracks me up ;-) and daughter #1 objected strongly.  However, it was never established as to why #1 was silly enough to put her face near the bottom of #2, given her ability to produce rather smelly AND noisy bottomly explosions without warning!)

Anyhow, enough bum humour. Photo books. Still working away on my 2009 project, in between daily life and helping my husband with some cattle work and carting horses around the district.  I won't share all of the pages, as you will have most likely seen all of these images before here at some stage!  I share though to give you some idea of how I am adapting this template to suit myself retrospectively.

And as a note, I am kicking myself that I didn't look at snapfish's photo books a little sooner:  they are now doing 8x8 and 12x12 books - making the same 12x12 template from CZ VERY attractive (no flipping of templates needed!)....should I or shouldn't I?!  ;-)

I couldn't get the journalling block bits of the CZ template I have (8.5 x 11) to work tipped on their side, so instead I have dropped in little captions where needed. Just a few words here and there.

I have also drawn out on a bit of paper my page planning - knowing in advance how many pages I have available in my snapfish album (hoping to fit it all in without having to add in any extra over the standard). I have room for some full sized photo pages, which is good because not all of my selection for each month fit on the one collage page.  And variety is good, yes?

So, there you have it.  The rest of the book will be somewhat similar, dropping in the photos and adding the little captions; working out what will fit in, without having to think too hard about things. And I;ve just noticed a tiny mistake on the page above....which means I really should call it quits for tonight.  My brain and body are both tired tonight, and not communicating well with each other, so to bed (in my flannellete jarmies!) it is for me.

Hope this inspires you as well - I am really enjoying putting these pages together! Thanks for dropping by.

2009 I haven't forsaken you...

Yes, it is nearly half way through 2010, and I am still back last year. 

Anyhow, I drafted out a random selection of photos at the end of the year, that I felt told the story of our year (and also some just because they were favourites!)  I then uploaded them into Snapfishs' album builder...and I wasn't happy. Not happy at all.  I couldn't work out how to make it better, so left it. 

I was going to make a template and drop all my photos in, after being inspired by Nicole.  Don't know why I didn't think of it before.  But I just didn't get around to it.  Then the great CZ brough out her "One Month" template over at Designer Digitals....SOLD.  Done deal.  Now obviously she focused on doing it all on a month by month basis.  I am adapting it to suit my year.  Might not be heavy on the journalling, but it will bring all of the photos together in a way that WILL make me happy!

Today I started on the first page (after the page that the window looks at.  Why do they do that?!) I've tipped the template on its side, and made it 8x 10.335something so it will print correctly at snapfish.

My journalling will most likely be one little spot in each page or so summarising events. Deep I know.

And I have to get cracking on this project - the two for one sale deal at snapfish ends at the end of the month! (the second album will be a simple album of full single page photos from the recent wedding we attended, a belated and surprise gift for the happy couple).

PS. Can you guess what the theme colours will be for this album? ;-)

Gardening in the Country

Sunday was spent at a local property near us, where I helped organise and cater for an Open Garden Day, with a guest speaker (somewhat a of celebrity for those of us that garden in western Queensland, he does a garden talk back show on the ABC radio up here). Over 100 people came along, which is a huge crowd for an event quite aways from town.  Everyone had a great day, and listened raptly to the guest speaker (he spoke for ages, and was very funny, and very knowledgeable.  And thinks urine is the gardeners best friend. Yes, you did read correctly! PEE)

It was a great day out, and of course I had my camera on hand to capture the gardens and lovely old homestead.  Our little P & C Association were also given the opportunity to run a little stall on the day, selling cold drinks - many community members donated plants for us to sell, and we were also given a HUGE pile of pumpkins to sell, as well as a stubby carton full of bush lemons (which are the best sort of lemons of course, although I do remember something about that their juice may not be the sort that helps set cheesecakes....anyhow I digress). So our little stall made a healthy profit for the day, which is great for our small school.

For once I didn't take a single picture of my kids for the WHOLE day, concentrating more on the garden and the activities (one of my tasks for the day).  The kids pretty much ran free range all day, playing in a huge cubby house with other kids and hiding in the large gardens.  They had a ball - and were absoltuley smashed by the time we left.  {we are still recovering today}.

If you are interested, we have made a blog with more information and images of the day, but I won't share the link here as it contains the contact details of organising committee members.  But if you would like the link, please leave a comment or email me on the address over there > and I will be happy to share it with you!

An exciting discovery

well, for me at least. 

Today I had reason to wonder if it were possible to get 12"x12" prints in Australia. Not something that I had put much thought or research into, as until now I had reason to believe NOT.

After a very quick internet search, I have found a place in Australia that will print 12 x 12 scrapbook pages.  Not printed on photo paper (I am planning a post on my favourite online printing places, to share my research with my other living-in-the-sticks friends who sadly can't pop into Harvey or Kmart to get a few prints done!) but on heavy matt card stuff.

Paper Divas will print a 12 x 12 page (oh rejoice, you digital and hybrid scrappers!) with a narrow white border, which you may trim or leave as is, on 300gsm matt artboard.  

Pricing, quite reasonable I think too: 

$6.50 each for 1-3 prints

$5.50 each for 4-30 prints

$4.50 each for 31-50 prints

$3.50 each for 51 + prints

(plus postage of course)

This might solve some of my problems I am having in trying to rearrange some of the lovely 12x12 templates I have from my DYL class (to make bits fit on 8x10 for printing and then sticking down on card, which will work in some cases)

Check it out - and if you get some printed, I would love to hear what you think of the quality etc.  While I have no plans to go fully digital (but love the flexibility of hybrid), this surely is another tool in getting pages done and stories told. Pictures + stories - what I love about this addictive hobby.

Edited to add:  also discovered My Reflections will do a 30x30 poster print for $4.50 per page, plus postage. However this is printed on 170gsm paper, which is the same weight paper and has the same finish as the photo books that this company also makes.  For reference, normal A4 photocopy/document paper is 80gsm. 

Price is quite cheaper. Hmm. Comments and experiences welcomed!

So, if you want your own

you can get em HERE, or HERE.  The etsy ones are more modern. Like this one...how cute is that owl fabric!

This is for my funny, funny friends (you both know who you are!) who suggested that I make them myself, and then take orders for their requirements.

And that's all I have to say. Except my PC doesn't want to work today (yegads....my photos!) and of course I haven't backed up since....February...and I am trotting off to hopefully get it fixed tomorrow.  A nice four hour round trip! living in the sticks sucks sometimes.

Warning - light and fluffy, and confirming I am indeed a dag.

and I know it.

I love kitchen towels. You know the ones that grandma crochets, with the crocheted bit at the top, like a handle (that loops around a cupboard handle, or the fridge door, etc ). Those ones. Love 'em. They are just so handy. Not very fashionable, but one has to sacrifice sometimes for practicality.

Until now. Look what I found. Don't know why someone didn't do this before. (well, maybe they did, but I didn't know about it!)

Someone decided to use plain towels, with some yummy printed fabric on top. These would look GREAT in my kitchen - and that dark towel colour: brilliant for hiding  grotty hand marks! (but possibly meaning that the towel might not get washed as often as it should!)

Sadly, I didn't snatch these up when I saw them. Silly me.

Off to do some dishes and dry my hands on my old fashioned crocheted top hand towels.

Happy Mothers Day.