Thanks so much to everyone who’s stopped by & taken the time to comment. Even tho i haven’t had a chance to email – your comments mean alot to me. This week has been crazy busy because we’ve had a tonne of things to do … before we head to the beach for a much needed break. Yipppeee!

I don’t expect to be able to update my blog while we’re away, but you can bet I’ll be taking lots of photos!!

The temperature has hit the 40′s alot lately & that lush green grass has hayed off. So we were grateful to get another 2 inches of rain early this week & already new green shoots are bursting thru.

That’s it for now – I hope you’ll stop by on March 1^st for an update.

See you then!

My camera is dying

I’ve been having battery/power issues since xmas. At first, if I popped the batteries out & cleaned them, it would keep working, but now I’m lucky to get 2 frames before it shuts down. It’s SO frustrating!! Fortunately, we’ll be in the big smoke soon & can find out if it’s repairable & if isn’t … I’m hoping my sweet DH will let me splurge on the new 40D J

So, while everything is out of the office, we’ve been painting. Three of the walls are a lovely neutral shade (antique white) & the 4^th is a feature wall we’re painting a delicious blue called Blue Bay. The house used to have all beige walls, so its been such fun to introduce colour like this.

… to finishing the renovations. The flooring was laid today & I’m so happy with how it looks!

A few days ago, Monique & Suzannah asked about my new photo system. With over 3 years of digi photos, it was getting difficult to find things & I needed something more than a hodge podge “edit” folder. So I used the family fun library categories from Stacy Julian’s Big Picture Scrapbooking to set up a photo library. It’s a work in progress, so I’m keen to see the ideas in her new book photo freedom (& think about the next BPS class).

This is how it works atm.

1. original files (aka. digital negs) are stored chronologically
2. anything that’s been edited, is “saved as” a tiff file in the photo library (nb. I keep the original number from the camera ie. _mg_1234.tiff so it’s easier to track back to the original file)

My photo library categories are:

• all about us (contains individual folders + relationship folders)
• people we love (ext. family + friends)
• celebrations (easter & xmas + xtras)
• places we go (near & far)
• things we do
• school of life
• photos i love

This year, most of the photos I’ve edited have been for project 365+1, so they’re stored in a special project folder atm. I also have a “blog” folder for web images. The great thing with a digital system is that photos can easily be placed in multiple folders. So the project 365 photos will eventually be sorted into library categories too. The thing I love about this new system, is how much easier it is to find things. Like finding 10 favourite photos of Miss M – so much easier when all her photos are in one file. The other interesting thing is making connections – like seeing how her smile has changed over the years.

That’s about it – it’s far from perfect, but it’s a start.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

… a quiet house & time to enjoy freshly brewed coffee in my favourite cup

M & B spent most of this afternoon playing in the pool. They both adore water – everything from the bath, creek, dam & puddles to the pool & beach.

So I wanted to capture a water baby image – this is my favourite!

just a short post today – i’ll answer the Q about the photo library next time!

thanks for stopping by!

… is the 1^st blue bazaar DT theme for 2008 so i created this collection of 10 favourite Miss M photos

it’s a digi layout using gorgeous paper created by Nancy Comelab for BB

The collection was easy to put together because I’ve been going thru my many photos & re-organising them. When I went digital, I setup chronological folders, now I’ve added a photo library (loosely based on Stacey Julian’s system). It’s a work in progress, but already it’s made it SO much easier to locate photos & see connections.

Another trip to town – Narni flew home today & everyone was sad to see her go. We enjoyed every minute with you Narni & hope you come back to visit soon!

We stopped for lunch at “the pod” where I had my usual latte & the kids were treated to delicious milkshakes in the coolest cups.

Our resident geckos’ latest victim was the toaster, so I ordered one of these babies & collected it today! It’s the rolls royce of toasters, made from cool touch stainless steel with replaceable elements. I hope the geckos don’t fry this one!

Little kids & big kids adore the stuff!

Narni was so proud of her horse Ted

Madi made a fabulous tank pool

Bear was explaining how his snake disguises himself as a snail

M & B found this cute little frog. We had a quick look online to try & find his technical name & couldn’t find any like him. Perhaps its a new species?

a few people have posted Q, so i thought i’d answer them here:

Donna: do you photoshop your pics? You bet! most photos need a little tweaking.

What programme do you use? Until recently, I used PSE3 which is fabulous & very easy to use! Now I’m using CS3.

I’d also like to know what lenses are in your repertoire

Canon 50mm 1.8

Canon 28-135 IS

Sigma 50-500mm (AKA the bigma!)

Monique: (about the big sky pic) did you lie down or take it low?

Thankfully, I didn’t need to lie down for this one I used the 28mm wide angle & framed to include a good portion of that fabulous sky

Feel free to post more Q anytime. Thanks for stopping by!