Another Post…

Just a quick second post for the day. A few people commented on my WOYWW about my making cards for the museum. Here’s the link to the website, if anyone is interested.

http://www.truesyard.co.uk/

It plays a recording when you open it so beware.

It’s very close to my heart because most of my Dad’s ancestors were fishermen in the local area and this tells the story of them.

Also found a little bargain today.

This little tripod is a free gift with Practical Photography magazine. It’s exclusive to Tesco’s but it’s very handy and compact for a handbag. You never know when you might need it. I don’t normally buy the magazine but saw it and thought what the hell. Supposedly it’s worth £4.99 and the mag is £3.99 so I thought why not. It fits my compact camera very nicely.

Photography Thursday – Week 3

I was, in honour of it being speedway world cup week (my other passion) going to post some of my speedway photos but to be honest once you’ve seen one photo of a speedway track you’ve seen them all!

So instead, as I’ve been renaming all of my photos and organizing them properly I have decided to post a few of my favourites!

Dooley decided that she could play trivial pursuit as well as anyone else in the family one Christmas (to be honest she’s probably right!)

My baby’s first picture!

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is a fantastic place to go. I’ve only been for speedway but I would love to be there for a Welsh rugby match and hear Land of My Fathers sung by 70,000 welsh voices.

This statue is in Lowestoft. I was in my phase of ‘must photograph everything, it may go on a scrapbook page’ and I just snapped it. It came out really well considering the rubbishy zoom on my old camera!

This was taken this past weekend at our local park. We visited because of a local fun day for Help the Heroes and ended up exploring the park a bit more.

Finally, even though I said I wouldn’t post one…here’s a speedway photo ;)

More interesting than a boring old track, yes?

WOYWW – Week 6

I completely missed last week! However there’s been a distinct lack of activity on my workspace over the last week so nobody missed anything lol.

This week I’ve done a little crafting, a few cards for a local museum who sell them for their funds. All going well except my stazon has become really sticky and won’t stamp images properly so I had to stop until I could buy a new one. Still here’s a pic!

No cards on it...no sooner had I finished them them then Mum had taken them to put into bags! You can see my Photoshop Elements book lurking too, a left over from a PC desk clean up!

That’s all from me…hopefully some photos tomorrow!

Photography Dilemma

I’m currently wading through our photograph collection on my hard drive and attempting to rename them all. We used to do this as they were uploaded but go out of the habit and it made me wonder, how many people do it for every photograph? Do they, like I have in the past, simply rename them when making a copy for adjustments or resizing?

I mean it’s taking me ages and I’ve used Photoshop’s multiple process function for the collections which are general such as the 500+ of the cat where a simple name will do but even so it’s a mammoth task!

Yum!

This is what we had for tea tonight…made with my own fair hands. Creamy Prawn Pasta Bake.

It’s one of Sainsbury’s feed your family for a fiver recipes that we’ve had for ages and I wanted to cook something new. Before today the only meals in my repetoire were chicken risotto, beans on toast, or anything bunged in a microwave!

I duly went shopping this morning (and I like how the self service checkouts give me nectar card coupons at every visit!) and collected all my ingredients and this is the finished result. It’s photographed before it was put into the oven as nothing lasts long enough once it’s cooked to photograph it!

It’s pretty simple to make and not pricey. My kind of dish. It also tastes delicious!

Here’s the link to the recipe if anyone else wants to try it.

Photography Thursday

My picture this week is from Monday when I went out to practise playing with the aperture setting on my camera! I knew the theory but getting it to work was another matter! I chose a fountain in a local park as my subject as it was finally working (every time I had passed before it had been switched off!) and here are the results.

Another New Thing I’ve Learnt!

While out at a speedway meeting this evening we got caught in an almighty downpour which produced a stunning rainbow. I didn't have my camera with me (not many photo opportunities usually) but I managed to get a few passable photos with my camera phone. After the skies cleared I also snapped some blue sky.

These photos fit in perfectly with Shimelle’s prompt for Tuesday!

These have had a bit of tuning with picasa because my camera phone is not the best but I'm very pleased with how they came out! The bottom left hand photo was taken using the polarized setting on my phone which I didn’t even know existed until tonight!

WOYWW – Week 5

Just a short post from me today as not much crafting is being done right now. Apart from the prompts from Shimelle’s class which I’ve posted so far nothing crafty has passed my desk!

This morning Mum informed me that she needed more cards for work…so I set about pricing those we have sitting in boxes waiting to be used.

As you can see mainly cats…there are other subjects but I haven’t got around to sorting them yet.

You can also see the obligatory morning cup of coffee!! Given to me by my dear friends who know my love of The West Wing and Sam Seaborn ;)

I hope to visit more of you this week than I managed last week, we shall see how it goes!

Mastering Photoshop Elements

I have  always hated Photoshop Elements. I’ve never been able to master it but as part of today’s prompt from Shimelle, I’ve had another go, because it was just too hot to do anything more energetic!

Here’s my first attempt at using one of the titles provided onto a photo. I managed to add text too which I’ve never been able to do before now!

Unfortunately when I printed the orange and pink clashed. I’d tried to co-ordinate with the colours from my phone and headphones but it didn’t work. So tonight I had another play and changed the text colour as well.

Much happier with the second version and plan to scrap it tomorrow providing it’s a bit cooler!!

Shimelle’s Class Day 4 & Photography Thursday!

Today was the first day of scrapbooking prompts for Shimelle’s latest class. I actually managed to get a layout completed too. I didn’t use any photos from the rest of this week but chose those from last year’s trip to Pensthorpe Nature Reserve and Gardens. My Dad had ligament issues with his knee last year so once he started the recovery we took trips which involved reasonable amounts of walking to get him back into the swing of things, and this was one of those days.

I also tried hand-stitching for the first time. Not completely happy with it but it’s something I’ve not done before so that’s something to have achieved this week!

I’ve also been thinking of ways to keep posting regularly on the blog when I’m not taking part in classes, so I thought I’d begin with a photography day. Basically I’ll pick a photo that I’ve taken either in the preceding week or another which means a lot to me and post it with a little story.

This weeks photos is from my recent graduation. It’s one taken by my Mum but it’s not a posed shot…it’s at the end of the photo taking and I’ve had enough but still in a good enough mood to be silly lol.

Gardening Fun...and Collages

Having learnt how to make collages in Picasa I've been playing.

Also got out into the garden today (following yesterday's prompt for Shimelle's class) and here's a mixture of new photos and some earlier ones from our garden this year. We've taken to it in a big way once more after buying a new greenhouse last year and the results are fab. We plant in pots mostly and in a small walled garden area (for ease on aging backs Mum says) and it's great because you can move them around depending on what's in flower etc.



For today's prompt in the class, we had to photograph a group of three items in different ways...I struggled with it, mainly deciding on what to use. I started off with a hot chocolate collection before finding a cute little notebook and pencil set that I got for Christmas (which was what was posted on the class forum). So here are the rest of the photos!

WOYWW – Week 4

So last week a few people commented on my crammed full tote, so this weekend (stretching the wednesday a bit I know) I emptied it out and took some photos just so you could all see what I have inside!

The photography side of things is still taking up my interest more than the actual crafting this week so no ongoing projects to share but here’s the contents of the tote…

And here’s the empty tote to prove it!

And just for good measure, here’s my nestability storage.

Luckily my desk has inbuilt CD racks so I could take this one over with crafty bits!! There’s still one more empty space. I feel a shopping trip coming on!

Look What I Learnt Today…!

As part of Shimelle’s latest class I have discovered how to make photo collages…yes it’s taken me this long! I’ve had Picasa for well over a year now and only just figured it out! So after posting today’s assignments as single photos on the class forum while on the laptop (which apparently won’t open Picasa because it just feels like it) I have since made the collages of all the photos I took today for the class.

Assignment 1: Different lighting effects

The three things I usually have to hand in different locations and light around the house! As you can see not all of them worked that well.

Assignment 2: Floral photos

A bunch of home grown freesias was the subject. I moved it around the living room trying to get lots of different angles. My favourite shots so far are the pink bloom and the single stem on the windowsill.

I also discovered this evening that by downloading the bundled software with my Dad’s camera it has a remote shooting panel included so I can set up the camera and take pictures via my PC. Have no idea what practical use that may have (if anyone knows do share!) but it was fun to play!

Sunday Ramblings

First of all when is this weather going to end? I’m fed up with it now. Yes it’s nice to be able to enjoy the sun and not wrap up like an eskimo to go 50 yards down the road but after two weeks of it I’ve had enough.  The garden is practically inaccessible from the hours of 10am until 6pm despite having the gazebo stretched across the middle!

Despite that, I’ve been practising with the new camera, trying out the modules from Cheryl Johnson’s latest class (Not going Green).  Not brilliantly but a whole lot better than I could do last week!

And just because she’s my little cutie…

I’ve also rediscovered my flickr account…can’t remember setting it up but it’s there!

Flickr Photostream

Starting Monday…

I’ve signed up to Shimelle’s new class once more

Hopefully this time I can actually get finished. So far I’ve had two attempts at Journal Your Christmas and tried both Blogging For Scrapbookers (which I got furthest with) and Something from almost Nothing. Fingers crossed anyway!

One day I’ll go back and complete the other classes but it would be nice to do them while the class is going lol.