Photobooks

So, you may have noticed, I take a lot of photos. A lot. Especially in this digital age, and especially since an iphone arrived in my hot little hands (it takes great photos!)

But. But. I'm not so good at getting those photos off my computer and out there for my family and friends to enjoy. Pretty woeful at it actually. I've recently printed off my blog in yearly chunks using blog2print. Love love love the result (despite its layout issues, which I can forgive).The family love them too. But this hardly touches the side of the wealth of great family photos that a year of snapping can bring.

I have, in the past, printed off a great wedge of photos, and slipped them into the generic slip in albums, or more recently, scrapbook type albums with divided page protectors (same thing as the former, just fits more and sturdier). But that all takes up SO MUCH SPACE on my limited shelf space.

After seeing how lovely and compact the blog books are, I've made a resolution. Photo books are my answer.

I might be around 3 odd years behind in my printing. But I've made a start. And its been a great trip down memory lane as I do so, keeping it simple. Not thinking too hard, making my selections quickly from my folders, by month. (and realise this: not every photo, especially of the same event/thing/time, needs to be shared).

Using a template (kindy shared by a friend) and loosely following the Project Life template (why mess with something that works) I am dropping photos into a 12x12 template using Photoshop Elements. I am sure the same thing can be achieved in Picasa and the like as well.

And a sample of one a bit closer up...

I roughly envision four pages per month, but if there's more, so be it. Or less, the same. I probably should have added dates on the second lot of pages, but will leave it be and remember for the next month. Doing these couple of pages probably took me an hour, less if I didn't stop to read emails and faff about!

I'll save the pages, and then wait for a nice sale to come along at Snapfish or Blurb or the like and print. And these will sit on the shelf in order beside my blog books (which I will share soon!).

I'm feeling organised (if not thinking I need to be dedicated in doing at least a month a day!) What about you?

Olden Days

This semester at school, the kids have been looking at history. Over the past few weeks they've investigated some local history of our quite old little town and school.

Luckily one of the kids at school has grandparents that have lived here for quite a long time, and are bits of local historians. She was able to provide some old photos and maps, which were fascinating.  And some googling also produced some very interesting results.

In 1947 someone obviously decided that there needed to be a pictorial record taken of the township, I found quite a few images of buildings. This one is of our house in its previous existence of post office and telephone exchange. Very little has changed, except in the 1960's two rooms were added on the left hand side as living quarters for the postmaster of that era. I believe the fence on the right (not the white one, the posts in the background) is the one still half standing that I am wanting to pull down. And the gates on the far right are STILL the same front gates!!

A few years earlier, in the 1930's, and obviously prior to a coat of white paint. Local kids all getting a ride on a travelling cameleer. 

Note the windows: white in this photo and green in the previous. (I know its green as I've met the layers in a window sanding exercise).

A 3D style map of the houses that are/used to be around our township, fascinating, especially when compared to some of the photos I have discovered!

For example, this was the church that was right next door to our house, as indicated on the map. Sadly white ants did their best and the building was pulled down in the early 80's. The school kids scrounged around on the site one afternoon, but all they could find of its existence was some green fragments of glass from the windows, a roofing nail and a scrap of lead roof capping, and one building stump (at ground level). Georgie spent several afternoons excavating that stump from the ground, hoping to find some other "treasure" under it. All that came out of that exercise was a leg breaking hole left in the ground that needs to be backfilled before horses enter the paddock again, and a kid that was kept muddy and occupied for a week of after school afternoons! (and a whole pile of implements that needed to be returned to the shed!)

This is our school in 1947. Same building still stands....

and as it is today.

I don't know about you, but I love history and comparing then and now! Watch this space. I feel a project coming on. Must make time to visit the local historical society to see if I can find more photos!

faffing about

SIL ordered "art work" (with a theme) for her daughters bedroom for christmas...I didn't get time to look at doing it, so neices got a little something else to unwrap, and I got a chance to have a go at these today.

Glued some paper on 12x12 canvases, did some modge podge sealing (don't look TOO closely)...I do hope its what she wanted.

  Well, I think they do fill the brief of Bright, Colourful, Girly and Elephants!

Onto neice #2 now, which is owl themed...I do hope she likes yellow! ;-)

just what I need to do

home from a weekend looking at cows bums and getting dusty, dirty, then more than a little damp and muddy down at the prickle farm, all of which I will share more of soon.

But first I just want to share THIS, which is just the idea I need.

The full details can be found HERE on Pinterest. Considering my current filing system of artwork and school work consist of one semester of Kate's prep year (she is now about to start year four) going into a binder and the rest tossed in a box, along with all and anything of Georgie's from the past two years, this could well be the perfectly simple solution.

One large plastic file box per child. School photos, reports (photocopied) artwork - that fits in the box and is flat, otherwise is photographed, etc. Easy to set up, easy to store, easy to put away.

And luckily, I just happen to be heading past an officeworks/big w later this week so I can procure at least ONE plastic file box to get me started, while the idea is in my head and enthusiasm reasonably high. You know me, I am normally an ideas woman and not so much on the follow-through-actually-DO-IT sort! ;-)

And slightly digressing, but still on a sort of similar topic, I don't know about you (it may be a conditioned thing for someone raised/living in the bush where rain or lack thereof can make or break?) but whenever we get some decent rain, and a break from the heat, I find myself refreshed and inspired again.

As now I am obviously rambling and tired from the weekends adventures, including The Branding of The Calves, I will leave you and return again, soonish, at which time I hopefully do not ramble, use poor punctuation and grammar, and make some sense! ;-)

being creative AND domestic

Tomorrow we are Goin' Fishin' at a Super Special Secret Fishing Hole, and ordinarily I would be in bed already, as I have to get up early to prepare for this day out, and put a hearty casserole on in the slow cooker to be waiting for us - and a few of our friends - when we get home. But my plans have been foiled - the water is out and I can't bear to go to bed stinky, so instead I am here with you, waiting for the blessed moment for the pump to have enough water in the tank and I can have a shower.

Living in small towns have their downsides. but don't get me started on that.

ANYHOW: I have been both a little crafty and domestic this week. Not domestic in the cleaning sense, lest you think I've undertaken a personality change! ;-) Our school teacher celebrated a birthday early in the week, and I drew the short straw (or rather she did) and I had to bake her cake.

We all know my successes at cake decorating. This one was not much better.

Let me just say I had no imagination or brilliant ideas, so just made a plain old butter cake (which wasn't as brown on the outside as the photo suggests) dumped on some butter icing (that I tried flavouring with jelly crystals for fun. Fail, no change in taste what so ever). And the butterflies are hovering over a field of flowers, should you be wondering. I knew you would be.

So, cake done, I had to find/make a gift. I decided to not go into that cupboard in the spare room, and instead to get crafty. Made this:

(its a key ring/fob/thingy)

And this:

(its a glass tile pendant).

I had bought the bits and bobs to make both of these things some time ago, and am quite pleased with how they turned out. A couple of little things that could be improved on, but that is just me being picky at my own work, and I don't think they look too dodgy, unlike the cake. I think, anyhow. I am thinking of doing one of each for myself actually. (I was annoyed with myself that I cut the pattern off centre, but now I think I like it this way better.)

Be back in a day or so with our fishing adventures.  I am packing a full esky, as I have no intention of relying on the fishermen for lunch. (not that I like fresh water fish in any case!)   

Yes, I am that easily distracted

Well, I did get some work done today, but am now thoroughly sick of looking at numbers and reconciliations.  I'll finish it off in the morning when my head is not feeling so empty of brain power!

I just wanted to share this gorgeous little project that I came across when trying to find a crochet pattern that I could actually follow (yet to succeed, I do believe it is something to do with a lack of brain power!)

Lucy at  Attic 24, over on the green side of the world :-) has a charming blog full of photos of the English country side around her home, her wonderful crochet projects, and amusing musings about her world. 

I found this proejct that she did with her kids.  Well, her kids must have the same crafty gene as their mother, as I am fairly certain that if my kids were to undertake this, the finished result would not be QUITE so charming. Still, a great little craft project for a rainy morning or school holidays.  Start collecting the toilet paper rolls now (if your place is anything like ours, it will not take long at all!) and each kid could make their own version of the family.

A few scraps of fabric (of course, the marvellous Lucy whipped up a little crocheted cardigan for her version of herself, as she is clever like that!) and some felt, buttons and felt pens, and voila.

She had her kids practise doing their faces on a bit of paper first, so they could work out how they wanted to look. (and distance ed. mums: you know who you are - wouldn't this be a great tie in to ABOUT ME units?)

Of course, girls will probably find this more fun than boys, but boys tend to be more about bashing things with a stick than sitting down and being creative.

But then again, that could be just MY boy.

For sure, I have started collecting toilet paper rolls - AND kitchen rolls - my husband IS 6 foot plus tall, so if we are to get the perspectives right, will need a roll that is longer than normal!

One project earmarked for the Christmas holidays! Go to Lucy's blog (link above) if you need more information on how she and her kids carried this out.

Parcels and fun stuff

So my boy has gone off to "help" dad and play with his little girl cousin for the day, so with this child free time you would think I would be elbow deep in complex paper work at my desk, furiously pounding on my calculator and keyboard.

Am I doing that? Nope.

Doing some of this instead:

So now I have completely justified the purchase of that $17 cute-as elephant punch with the production of this one little card! ;-) To go with a little baby gift of muslin wraps (hard to find, but perfect for our hot climate).  And I know his mum is a lover of handmade and crafty things (sent out handmade Christmas cards one year!)  I wrapped it with a painting that I had saved for this purpose.

And just to complete, a bit of cute red spotty ribbon that I am positive that I recycled from some packaging quite some time ago. Love me a bit of recycling that is purty!

Continuing the gift theme, and in an effort to sail, or at least swim a little less frantically, through the madness that is the end of the year, I have got the kids teacher gifts underway.

I found these CUTE AS little earrings at madeit.com.au - these ones are apples, matched with a little zipper purse (apple fabric of course) and then I will make a bookmark and post it note holder (from yesterdays post) from the apple paper. Yet to come in the mail is a cute scrabble tile pendant with a whimsical little apple tree image.  I like that I picked apples as the theme for the teacher! (and she loves green).

I know, don't I have more important things to think about?

Well, yes I do. But this is more fun!

And then we have the watermelons: for teacher aide #1. Same thing, earrings, zipper pouch, bookmark, post it note cover (but not the pendant, thought I had better give the teacher a little extra something)

I couldn't find a watermelon pouch, so went with cherries, and lacking any watermelon or cherry paper, went with strawberries. Got a theme happening still, it works doesnt' it?!

And for the physco fitness crazy dieting teacher aide #2: cupcakes. Snicker snort.

I envision wrapping the earrings in tissue paper and tucking them inside the pouch as little extra surprise for them to find.  And wrapping the whole lot in brown paper and pretty ribbon...I will have the girls do some little Christmas tree drawings to make gift tags with, and the girls can write on them to give. 

I'll share the finished bundle with you when it all comes together. 

One more piece of news. Our kids are doing a play based around this song/poem (this taken from you tube, looking for some inspiration on how to do a version with only nine kids! And isn't the kid doing the main part on this just BRILLIANT? ) We love this song in our house, and you may remember me blogging about the kids book we have with the poem in it. Love love love. I defy you to watch this and not have a smile on your face at the end!

Hooroo! :-)

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!

Continuing the Theme

I got all excited when doing Mel's overlays (see last post) that I also quickly made her a little matching business card.

She phoned me this morning to tell me that she'd just made a letterhead and thank you notes to match (though not in colour) to put in with her packaging when she hands over the finished product to her clients.

I made the comment that we must get out more, considering that we are both getting so excited about dandelions and logos and the like!

And that's all I have to share - I haven't been doing much at all, apart from pretending I don't see the mess that is my office, and the unpainted wall - that and whingeing about the snot that is in my head and how my ears feel funny when I blow my nose.

Sorry, that would probably fall under the header of Too Much Information, wouldn't it?!  I'm all about keepin' it real here folks, just in case you were under the impression that it was all sequins and unchipped nail polish here in my part of the world!

That's where I will leave you, as I wander off to complain to my unhearing children about having a "notty nothe".  Let me whinge some more for a second - its stinkin' hot 40 degrees. And I have a cold. There is something Not Right about that!

Sniff.

Playing

My friend Mel and I weren't happy with the first very rough logo that I whipped up for her, so yesterday I sat down and made a new logo/copyright/overlay for her to use on her blog photos.  I just have to change the blog banner to suit this new look.

I am really pleased with how they turned out, and so is Mel (well, I hope she is!)

Because I have green on the brain at the moment (new in-the-mail camera bag AND soon to be painted office wall!)  I made the background greeen - but that's only so I could see what I was doing and so you can see the overlay.  When used its transparent obviously!

I've also been trying to do a little Christmas photo card to send out from our family this year, instead of using ordinary christmas cards.  Do you think I have been so inspired when doing that? Nope.  Back to the drawing board....

So, that's what I might do later on today, when the kids are watching a movie and the airconditioning is on (its actually a tad cooler today - just!)

Another Project

Oh, I am the greatest project collector - but not the greatest of finishers, nor starters, truth be told!!  But one does need to keep ones mind occupied...and fuelling one's slight OCD tendancies for thinking up new things to do that one hasn't got time for!

(enough of this "one" business)

New obession :  the pillowcase type dress: may I present exhibit A - a collection of cute tops made by other crafty people on the www.

Oh, the internet is full of goodness - tutorials and patterns, all with a slightly different method {there's more than one way to skin a cat! ;-)}

Apparently this is the easiest little top ever to make - based on using old vintage pillowcases, but there's nothing to stop one (oops!) using what ever pretty fabric one (!) might like!

And even better? :-) I've found a tutorial for making the same style top, but how to make it for a person of more (ahem) geneous proportions!! (and perhaps longer line, but slimmer cut to avoid the tent effect!)

I can see co-ordinating (but not too matchy-matchy!) tops for Christmas - worn with capri pants (for me) and shorts for the girls!

Onto the business end of the post.  If you are similary inspired, here is a collection of tutorials I have bookmarked to go back to, so go check them out.

Sundress

pillowcase dress instructions

pillow case dresses for small girls

pillowcase dress tutorial

pillowcase_dress_how_to

make-girls-dresses

I don't have the link for the grown up version (silly me!) but I did cut and paste it and saved it, so if you are interested, just leave a comment and I can email it to you!

I am keen to actually DO this sewing project, so hopefully they will work out (given how long it is since my machine has been used!)

Fast, Simple and Effective

I told you I had lots of ideas swimming around in my head!

Recently, Di and I were conversing by email, about scrapping (or not scrapping) those old family photos, as she has just signed up to Ali E's new Yesterday and Tomorrow class.

I have a shoe box full on loan from my mother in law, of my husband's childhood - which is full of stories and adventures of three brothers getting up to all sorts of mischief, plus a few lovely old photographs of his parents (Trevor's father tells a tale about Trevor's mother and a green bikini, back in their courting days!) and of his maternal and paternal grandparents.

The same for me - photos of my childhood, and some rather lovely ones from my grandmother's childhood.

So there are lots, with stories and memories attached.

What to do?  Obviously the task of sorting out them out (taking a cut - I can't use them all!) and scanning is fairly straightforward, if not tedious, but then what?

I've come to a solution - keeping the photos and the stories, simply, fast and effectivley.

I already had a 4x6 two-per-page slip in photo album in which I had slipped some old photos I had printed, for safekeeping. I got to thinking, rather than scrap this in the traditional way, why not utilise this album and get through those old photos quickly?

As you can see above, I quickly scribbled out some notes and ideas, which just tucked inside the album to remind me what my plans are, as and when I get to these photos.  I forsee that it will be done in batches.

My basic plan is to use one pocket on each page for a photo (printed at 4x6) and the pocket below will have a 4x6 journalling card, with the story and or information about the photo. I've made myself a little template, the text will be typed up in Word and printed.  The style of font will remain consitent throughout.  I might use some patterned paper, I might not.  Probably NOT, the focus here is on getting done.

 (as a note, I am not sure if I like this journalling block thingy that I made - font etc, but I can change that later if I get more inspired!)

What about the CONTENT of the journalling, you ask?  Here is the fun part!  My mum is off to visit her sister soon, so the batch of photos that is printed already, and stored in this album, will go with her, with some scraps of writing paper in the pocket below each photo.  Mum and her sister can go through these over smoko, sorry morning tea (for Nicole, who with a slightly horrified tone, asked me recently if I really did stop for "smoko" with my 5 year old! I think she had a different interpreation of the word) write a few notes and memories down, and presto!

The same for Trevor and I, with our childhood photos, and the same for his parents.  The notes will be stored with the photos, and I can simply transpose them and print them out (as much as the handwritten notes would be nice - sometimes its a little hard to read mum's and my aunts handwriting, and that's after 30 odd years of learning to decipher it!  How would the next generation fare?!)

I am thinking that this may become a little bland, but at this stage am not sure what I could do to add that little something extra without straying too far away from my very basic formula. I may turn to the great CZ for some inspiration!

I will probably get an album each for Trevor's & my childhood , and one each for each side of the family (seperating the maternal/paternal etc with title blocks).

So, what do you think?