tumby bay pano

I managed a quick shoot over at Tumby yesterday with stitching together a pano as my goal.

I failed miserably. I wanted the jetty as the leading line in the shot, and I found that made it very tricky.

Learning all the time.

my two from a couple of years ago

I'm processing a heap of my own shots for me this week to have them ready for scrapping at some point.

Just had to show these two. Taken Dec 2009.

they really haven't changed a lot since then!!

wiggle it just a little bit

The kids and I had a quick and unexpected trip to Pt Augusta this weekend. My Dad and Jane rang us Friday night to say they were about to fly out of Darwin to Adelaide via Melbourne and could we meet them on Saturday afternoon at my brother's home in Pt Augusta.

Dad and Jane were delayed for 3 days in Darwin as the airport was shut down due to the cyclone, and flew out as soon as it opened. Hence the 'such short notice'

So I chucked together a bag of stuff, and Saturday morning saw us heading North. Kym stayed on a job site here, as it had been delayed several times, and he felt uncomfortable about delaying it again. I do wished he had come up with us, as in my mind, family comes first.  :(

When we arrived I was told that my Grandmother in Crystal Brook had a heart turn Saturday morning. So while I was so close to where she lives, my brother and I went to see her today (Sunday). She was much brighter than I expected and we all crossing fingers that her assessment in a few days will be a positive step forward for her.

By the time we got back to Pt Augusta, said our goodbyes and whizzed through Big W for school clothes, it was much later than I had planned to get the kids and me home. Somewhere around 6.45pm.

Long day on the road for me.



A LO from the other day. I'm having a bit of a love affair with mint green atm. I call it Elizabeth Kartchner 
green as it's her signature colour.

sleeping spoggie

I found this little fellow on my veranda this afternoon. He must have been deeply asleep as I walked past him first and only saw him from the corner of my eye. I grabbed my camera, switched lenses and tip toed out there hoping he was still there.

Its been raining very steadily here today. Over 2.5 inches in the old scale, so I reckon the spoggie was taking a nana nap under the veranda out of the rain.


Good day for it.

the best and most beautiful things....

I had a me day at home today. And I got a couple of LO's done, but it was so quiet. Too quiet. I love school holidays so I can have my kids at home. I love the non routine and being spontaneous with them. I do enjoy the noise of the kids (most of the time), but I don't really like the extra laundry holidays create.

I woke up with a plan today of going out to the coast to capture an idea that I've got, but I needed clouds for it. And today..... no clouds to speak of, at least during school hours. Oh well, I'll try again next Kindy day.

This is all KaiserCraft. They really have upped the quality of their products and expanded on their embellishment lines. I'm in LURV with their English Rose Collection.

watch: don't miss a thing

Stampin Up ribbon sourced from Amy

Aestivation of the Spanish Snail

Little varmits. The Spanish Snails cost us money each year with paddock baiting and grain cleaning.

During summer to survive the heat they enter a period of inactivity called aestivation.

This what our fence posts on our stone track look like this time of year.

I'm not sure if I like the BW better than the colour version. What do you think???

happiness....

journaling says: Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you - Nathaniel Hawthorne



We're going solar!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had the electrician here this morning to put in the sub board in preparation for the solar panels.With the current rebates available including a local council rebate, going solar is cheap.

Most of our power usage is in winter time when we run an air con in Annie's room for heat and a oil heater in Sean's room to keep him warm. Most of our solar credits will happen during summer when our consumption is low (we rarely use the air cons in summer) so our account will draw on those credits during our higher usage. The system should pay for its self in about 6 years at the current elec prices, and they will always be going up, so it should be sooner than later the system is debit free.

On a small downer, when the power came back on from the Sparky being here this morning, the TV shat itself. It's been on the way out for while now, but now its RIP. We've a mate who got an large LED online recently, so we checking them out atm. The only thing will be to work out all the cables. It's a mass of spaghetti behind the TV corner atm (TV, Austar, DVD, Video, Surround Sound System with Amp and Sub Woofer, Wii). It's going to be a nightmare to work it all out and wire it all up correctly. So not looking forward to that.

13.2.11 it's all about Sean

It was Sean's 5th birthday yesterday. oh my goodness, where did that time fly. We went to the pub the night before.

the DAD squeeze

The sponge cake I decorated. (I cant cook a sponge for the life of me. I've had so many attempts and different ovens and I'm a big enough girl to admit I'm a failure at sponges. But that's cool. I can find them unfilled at our local supermarket.

Sunday morning. This day was all about Sean.

The sibling hug (yes, we are a family of huggers. We hug a lot every day)

Getting acquainted with his monster truck (remote control). Definitely an outside toy this one!

Sean had a pool party with alot of his friends (cant show those pics here as I didnt ask permission from the parents.) We started at 11 and didn't finish to 4pm. It was excellent. We are so very lucky that our community has a first rate pool and surrounds.

stop it!!

One from last night.

I'll be posting a few pics of Sean's pool party later on tonight.

Need to get the bookwork and committee minutes done first.

Journaling says: for goodness sake Annie. Stop climbing up the door jamb. It's driving me NUTS.

5 years ago today...

...at 6.30pm this little man came into my life.

Happy Birthday Sean.

I couldn't have wished for anyone else but you!!

Scrapbooking Memories 2011 People's Choice

Scrapbooking Memories have announced their People's Choice Awards for 2011. I'm so very lucky to have a number of LO's that are up for public voting.

For you, the voter, to be in the running for one of 5, $100 Kaiser Craft Packs chock full of product, you need to write in 25 words or less why you nominate a particular piece of work. You can only vote once so make it count       ;O)

The artist that has the most nominations then wins a $500 Kaiser Craft Pack of product as well as the title of 'People Choice'.

 You need to be a registered member of Craftlovers.com.au to vote. So if you are not already a member, you'll need to registrar to cast your vote here.  (in the competitions tab)

Good luck and thank you. :O)

s&b?

Kylie snapped this cute as pic with her phone some time ago. Because I scrap in chronological order, I've only just come up to this one. (Actually I misplaced this one for a bit and have moved onto 2009 since, and I'm so glad to have found it as its just soooo cute.)

With thanks Kylie for allowing me to post this LO of our kids. Based on a sketch from PageMaps

hope?

what a hilarious night at Shabby Chick Shack. I haven't had so many belly laughs for ages. Late night home. About 2am for me. And sooooo many mice on the road. The number of them sure are on the rise!

Sue came up with me and it was wonderful to catch up with her again. Since I stepped back from the Escape2Create team I haven't seen a lot of Sue in the scrappy sense. She was my next door neighbour when I was growing up on the family farm so we do go waaay back.

I learnt a few new definitions of words and phrases last night (a bit too ruggered to say what they are on here lol) and I'm working my way to a Lock passport apparently (location joke).

I did manage 2 and half LO's done, 2 of which are the same (his and hers) with some slight differences. And just need to get the journaling done on the third.

This is one of the his and hers. Journaling says:

I really hope that one set of those little hands will one day choose to carry on the business of the family farm. At this stage I don't think either of them may do that. Annie is not overly interested and Sean doesn't seem to be all that enthused about going out with Dad on the header, truck or tractor.   4.11.2008

sweet Miss M

Now this sweet lady is such a little doll and she was wonderful. She had a number of wardrobe changes and she didn't even bat an eyelash about it.

We were at Nan and Pa's home for this shoot and that was fantastic. Nan is a keeper of family treasures. The suitcase belongs to Pa from when he went to collage. The blue rug was Miss M's Mums from when she was a baby. The paper in the suitcase is from 1983 which had this family's clearing sale listed in it. There was a little wooden chair, and a little square toy with a bell that's a family heirloom. Not to mention a very old teddybear that came out  for his photo as well. And Pa loved the photo of Miss M sitting on a ride on John Deere tractor toy.

Thank you so very much for having me.

More over at Tiff Firth Photography on Facebook.

braces

Annie had braces put on her top row of teeth yesterday. We've been waiting for the two teeth either side of her front ones come down far enough so there was enough tooth for the brackets to be adhered to.

I've been asked several times already "Isn't she a bit young for them?". And if I didn't know Annie's situation with her teeth, I'd be asking the same thing. So I'm not offended at all. It's just the top row that's been straightened out and making sure there is enough room for her 12 year old molars to come thru later on. At this stage there's not, and even tho Annie's jaw will be bigger by then, they probably still wouldn't fit without pushing a lot of other teeth out of place. To make the room the front four need to be straightened up. And the added bonus is a beautiful smile with straight teeth.

We've stocked up on lots of soft foods for Annie. Her teeth will be sore for about a week before they settle down a bit. I'm so proud of her. She's so tough. No panadol last night and she reckons yep, they do hurt a bit but she can handle it. She even ate snitzel for tea. I wasn't sure if she would want to go to school today, but she was so keen to show her friends that a little bit of soreness wasn't going to hold her back. I went in to drop off her swim bag that she had forgotten and checked on her. She's just fine. There's been no teasing and her friends have asked lots of questions about them. I've asked her to let me know and her teacher know if she gets any hassles from anyone.

The brace will be on for about 6 months at this stage, so I'm hoping that the school photos will be later this year. After August would be fantastic, but if it's not, then that's fine. But here's hoping  *crosses fingers*

tip:  Annie first picked out the clear rubbers that hold the wire onto the brackets. These stain very quickly so we were advised to go for the lavender colour as they fade to a soft pink and will be hardly noticeable. And use bee's wax on the brackets that cause any irritations. It sticks better and doesn't fall out so easily.

my day with Pete Dobre...

...and Laura Smith.

Pete is a renowned Australian Landscape Photographer who has had many hard cover books published. His signature in his images are the clouds he captures within his landscapes.

He was in my local area for a couple of weeks a couple of weeks ago. Through Laura, I was invited to have a day out with him and Laura shooting different locations on Lower EP.

First stop was at a windmill and an old stone tank on the Nowhere Else Rd. We were so blessed with awesome skies.

Next was the Sheringa Church. Again, amazing skies.

After a longer stint there we headed down the coast and ended up at Coles Point for some big wave action. That sand was soooo blistering hot to run over and it was so very refreshing to get wet in the water

Evening found us having a quick meal at the Coffin Bay Pub before we went to a spot to capture the sun setting.

I learnt so much along the way, and learnt a lot more since processing the images and how a wide angle lens can be tricky to stitch panos with.

Pete's a crack up. Spontaneous and energetic and so very generous with sharing his knowledge. Cant wait to hook up with him again come this winter. Yes, we have a date lol.