Impromptu Christmas Portraits

I am the first to admit that I am clueless when it comes to my camera settings - NO idea about any of them- all Greek to me I tell ya - but I can follow pictures & apart from AUTO {pretty handy ;-D} I like the "flower" one too...{makro}, oh, and "the running guy"...{sports/action}. Don't get me wrong, I am desperate to learn, but have no-one to teach me & no time to teach myself right now. I do play around with what I AM in control of, such as lighting {no choice here below as all at night...}, unusual composition, etc. So, amidst a lot of hustle & bustle this weekend, I managed to get these shots, better than nothing right?!

Chelsea with that veritable mane of hers now {all her real hair - no extensions} just before she went emo & dyed it very dark brown, now that she is "allowed" {final year of school}. BTW good photo-editing goes a long way to covering up a multitude of sins & soft-focus is one of my faves right now. I am also getting braver & manually adjusting the shadows & highlights for more drama LOL!

My 2 little girls - Chelsea sans make-up TG - while busy trimming the tree...

Jack, who needs serious bribery to crack a smile right now...if you work carefully with the soft-focus you can get it appearing at the back only to intensify the makro setting look {as I find that setting struggles to focus at night for some reason...}

I know the above shot is blurry & I have sharpened it up as much as possible, but my shutter speed is OH SO SLOW in poor lighting & tricky, tricky to get the kids to hold that pose for 5 secs after they hear the click!

Aaaaah...a little grin...kinda suits him doesn't it???!!!

He still has that youthful chubbiness in his cheeks {at 14} that Chelsea has lost now {at 16}...

This little one needs no coaxing to smile!

Here I stood a few rungs up on our little freestanding ladder {sure works those calf muscles...} in my attempt to get a "Karen Russell" type shot {mine is definitely minus the definiton LOL}

And here is the end result - our 2009 "E card" collage - no time for the real thing this year!

It's Up!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was very well-balanced with a bit of everything going on. We got the tree up on Friday night amidst great excitement as the boys were totally enthralled with watching the FIFA World Cup Draw & planning which matches we will be watching in Durban next June {as South Africa is the host nation}.

We have 2 trees up each year - both artificial unfortunately - I would LOVE a real fir but they aren't easily acquired here... I sure do miss the smell. We have a mini tree {pictured above} that we put in a pot on a little table in the dining room & a maxi one that we clear a corner in the lounge for.

I store all our Christmas decorations in ziplock bags, separated according to type & colour, in a plastic wheelie bin container that lives on the top of our bedroom cupboards. This makes decorating simple as nothing gets entertwined & tangled together & we can easily choose what to use. We never end up using it all - less is more after all...

We have a very long strand of white intermittently flashing lights that we wrap around the tree before adding any decorations & a shorter strand of coloured ones that we run from the plug across the back of the couch to the tree. We've already really enjoyed sitting in the lounge with the lights off just enjoying the twinkling ;-D

These two {above} were totally entranced with the goings on & very interested to see that we were actually putting two trees in the house, LOL ...It wasn't long before they thought it would be interesting to climb up the little one, that then toppled right off it's little table & onto the floor, giving them both the fright of their lives! Fortunately most of the decorations remained on the tree so it wasn't a huge job to re-erect it. I definitely don't think they'll try that again...

Cami was beside herself with excitement whilst Chelsea was a less than willing assistant as she is loathe to help me because {she says} I always "re-do" what she does {it's more a case of getting it right LOL!} but this time she was chuffed because she did a great job & I have left it exactly as is. While the girls worked on the tree I did up the dining room & our "mantle" {counter} - photos to follow in another post ;-D

One of the branches had disattached itself & rather than putting it back on we let Cami keep it because she found it very amusing to pose as the Statue of Liberty with it all night...hehehe...

While Chelsea was still hard at work Cami found another good use for the wreath she made at school last year...

We have red as the accent colour in our lounge all year round so it automatically looks festive when combined with all our Christmas paraphernalia.

I have bought 4 big rolls of gift wrap - all in the simple gold print {with white Christmas tree design} so that all our gifts will be uniform & make for a good photo op LOL!

There you have it! We stuck with only one colour tinsel this year {green} & 3 types of ornaments:- 1) The green/gold & green/red hand-made baubles 2} the red/green/gold handmade {by moi} bows & 3} The gold & white Santas {fun for the kids} so it's just the right balance of design statement v/s homely me thinks...

How's your home looking? Transformed yet?

Iris Babao Uy Class for a Cause {My Layout at last!}

I got this layout done today as the deadline is midnight tomorrow to be in with a chance to win a lovely Prima canvas album & flowers by random drawing. There are 2 prize packages - one for local addresses & one for international ones. Here's hoping...

I don't think that I am allowed to post Iris's original layout as this was a paid online class & therefore the layout example & class notes are password protected. I loved creating this using plain & printed fabric, lace, ribbon & lots of different textures.

I matted my photos onto coral cardstock & inked with Chestnut Roan & framed the main photo using a Creative Imaginations {by Karen Russell} envelope that I altered to convert it into a frame then matted it on green cardstock then onto coral. The "Follow Your Dreams" & "Flower Child" rub-ons are Daisy D's.

I used a random selection of supplies from my stash - the embossed frame & flower embellishments being made of soft rubber that I inked with Chestnut Roan to bring out the Design {bought at The Crazy Store - Dollar Store equivalent here}. The butterflies & bling are from my Everlasting {big wholesale Chinese importer in town}.

All the lace, Broderie Anglaise & braid I bought at a local fabric store & the metal leaf from a bead shop. The metal "flower" above the title is from my local craft store - it was shiny so I soaked it in pool acid to distress it then rinsed thoroughly before adhering! The self-adhesive pearl on top is Prima E Line.

The big cream flower is Prima Alabaster from a recent Cocoa Daisy kit as are the pearly Prima flower centre jewels.

The velvet flower is Maya Road & the white ribbon flower with pearl centre is from a local fabric store. The mesh you see peeking out from behind the photo below - I bought a quarter of a metre at a local fabric store but they only had it in black so I painted it with white acrylic paint.

I didn't have the required white overlay so I used a rub-on instead - but it didn't stand out enough so I had a brainwave & rubbed a white rub-on onto a transparency then cut it out & adhered it over the white rub-on so lots of depth there now! Definitely going to repeat that trick in future to make my own overlays!!

I really enjoyed the class & the process of creating this layout. Hope to get some more crafting in tomorrow too!

It's a Good Life {just not at the moment!}

The title I chose for my layout take on this sketch challenge was "Scrap Addict - It's a Good Life" . This is the last of my Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop Layouts. As you can see the sketch is oh so simple, but brilliant in that it can be translated in so many ways.

As it was my last layout for the weekend I decided just to relax & have fun & do a layout celebrating having my blog for just over a year now. I had a couple of photos so used them both. I took the photo of my Followers gadget several months ago when I deleted it. I decided it wasn't representative of my blog as I had several commenters who weren't on it & several on it who hardly commented.

I just let go & used all the papers that appealled to me at the moment - Lily Bee{French Couture} - Graphic 45, Pink Paislee, K & Co & Basic Grey {Lemonade}.

I can't remember the chipboard alpha manufacturer but the tiny alphas are Making Memories {"EST SEPT 2009"}.

The die-cut banner "It's a Good Life",flower & heart are October Afternoon, all raised on foam squares.

Flowers from Prima & Making Memories, brads from Basic Grey {Lemonade}, S.E.I and K & Co.

I inked a bit with lime green, orange & pink.

I enjoyed expanding on the sketch down the right-hand side - layering the papers, punching & tearing.

Now for some real life news. I have tonsillitis. The last couple of days have been pretty bad but now that I have got some antibiotics & they have kicked in I am feeling a whole heap better. I have been thinking back on this year & my choice of word for it "Yes!" & how it really hasn't turned out how I had hoped. I am going to choose my word more carefully for 2010 & go for something more attainable! "Yes!" was a silly choice because there have been lots of "no's" this year that have been out of my control. Despite it all I am still here & have 4 healthy kids & a faithful husband. As basic as that sounds I'm content with that, especially after the recent scandal regarding our fallen rugby hero, Joost Van der Westhuisen & now Tiger Woods, both married to beautiful women {makes you wonder what the point of striving for that ideal is} & living double lives.

Last week Mercy, my household helper, announced that she was HIV positive. She has been unwell for the last couple of months but I never considered that this could be the reason, because her husband died in 1993 & she has been single ever since. She decided to ask the clinic to test her. This has put a real dampener on my hopes for a better 2010. Mercy is an integral part of our lives & makes up for the disadvantages of living in Africa. I do not relish the thought of trying out new household help & all the time & headaches that I know from past experience are associated with it.

I have made a lot of enquiries & sent her off to the Aids Centre here for a quicker turnaround on her CD4 count. The clinic told her to come back in 2 weeks but for R80 {USD$10} she can get her results back in 3 days. They are due on Friday & I don't know what to wish for. If she is over 200 she is HIV+ but doesn't have full-blown AIDS, yet is therefore not eligible for free ARVs. If her count is below 200 she gets free anti-retrovirals, but this also means that her immune system is already at a very low ebb.

Initially I just felt disbelief & couldn't understand how this could be happening to her & us. Within 24 hours I had accepted the inevitable & felt a sense of urgency to solve the problem. I made a few phonecalls & gave myself a basic crash course on the subject. Now, some days on, I am just annoyed, as strange as that sounds, that yet again I have another problem to deal with brought on by someone else's stupidity - perhaps not Mercy's, but her husband's. This is the story of our lives here in Africa - my generation is left to clean up the mess created by our ancestor's short-sightedness & the indiginous people's lack of regard for their lives & those of their loved ones.

Apparently with ARV's there is no reason why, with correct diet & lifestyle changes, HIV+ people can't live normal lives with a normal life expectancy. Call me a cynic but it just sounds too good to be true...

I Did a Grid - Oh Yes I Did!!!

During the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop a couple of weekends ago Ronda challenged us to create a layout inspired by any one of these CD covers. I thought it was a great idea & liked a number of them but went through my photos "to scrap" & came across 10 small photos that needed scrapping in one layout, so I decided on the "Beastie Boy" cover as the colours were right too...{2nd down on the left}.

I certainly didn't enjoy the exactness of it all but did learn {quickly} what to do next time I create a grid layout. It's very important that everything lines up exactly & it wasn't easy for me - being an "I hate measuring" type. No shortcuts are tolerated in this design but the advantage is that you can fit many photos onto one layout.

I took the above photo because I couldn't resist how much more lively it looked when twisted to an angle - norty I know! The photo below is the actual layout with the correct orientation ;-D They are all perfectly straight & parallel but don't look 100% in the photos because of the camera angle. {**Promise!}

I was very happy with how it turned out eventually but the photos kept getting smaller & smaller as I struggled to line them all up perfectly LOL! Altogether I used TEN photos, which I think is pretty impressive on a single layout, but 8 of them are joined together, which I didn't think looked too bad with these photos as they were all dominantly green.

The title letters are DCWV rub-on stitching.

The simple cardstock "embellishment" above was added on after all the photos were adhered as I had no more photo & thought the gap needed to be filled. It's just a couple of cardstock offcuts with a strip of American Crafts ribbon adhered over the join. The white alphas are Doodlebug & the red alphas are Pink Paislee.

Hand-journaling with a white milky pen {I have about a dozen because I find them so temperamental}.

The die-cut arrow is from October Afternoon.

I like to incorporate visual triangles into my layouts if possible & if you scroll up you will be able to spot 2 I was able to create by the placement of my title & embellishments. I'm glad I have a layout now about the "atmosphere" at the rugby in Durban. It is renowned throughout the country as being the best & most social, with lots of food & drink stalls & a whole social scene that takes place on the grounds long before, and long after, the actual match.

Ooops! I almost forgot to tell you...this is the layout that won me a surprise prize over at Cocoa Daisy.

The bad news is that I am full of flu. I woke up this morning feeling like my tonsils had been amputated minus the anaesthetic & now every tap on this keyboard is registering aches up my fingers so I am off to shower now & dive under the covers! I am still having a major tidy-up of my scrap supplies but am just having to settle for sorting out an area per day - slowly slowly wins the race? Baby steps?? Whatever...

Too Busy to Blog...

Yup I agree...that is a very sad state of affairs ;-( When I do have a moment {like now} I'm feeling tired & wanting to climb into bed instead! I have lots of news for you but not the energy to spit it all out so for now I'm leaving you with a You Tube tutorial I discovered. How to make your own Glimmer Mist. As I've yet to find a bottle of Glimmer Mist in this country I have had it on my mind for some time now to try to formulate a recipe. Well, as I suspected, a bit of this & that & a suitable alternative is possible. Haven't yet tried it but have the spray bottles lined up & the paint & glittery stuff ready...that's a start right?

I must mention, just out of sheer random interest, that this girl sounds a bit like me to me! Perhaps I'm not quite as eloquent but I definitely do not say Falatas {aka "Firelighters"} which is what I hear a lot of people requesting at the Garage Shop I frequent LOL...I had to stop & think HARD & had NO IDEA what they were asking for initially, until I saw the goods ;-D No offence meant to anyone here who does say "Falatas" by the way, it's just not the way I say it 'tis all I'm sayin'...



I am finding Blogland rather uninspiring at the moment, what with all the stuff about Thanksgiving going on, following on fairly shortly after Halloween that's not an occassion here either. Not sure what Thanksgiving is all about really but think it's a nice idea to kickstart the holiday season almost exactly a month prior to Christmas. Here we have no public holiday to go along with it {apparently it is only celebrated in America so must have something to do with their history} so without one it is not really possible to celebrate it as such but I have been contemplating all I have to be thankful for, which is never a bad thing {won't bore you with my list as it is pretty much standard}.

Now most blogs seem to be inundated with Festive projects & as there's not much festiveness going on in real life here it's difficult to "feel it" LOL! The malls have the standard decorations up - nothing spectacular - and as far as I know that's it! I read about "Santa Parades" & the like but here it seems to be 100% commercial & nothing else. Kids are still at school for 2 more entire weeks but thankfully exams are over. They are all still finishing at different times though, as the 2 older ones are having earlier closing times & not their normal long school days, nice for them but frankly a pain for me as it means I am darting in & out, back & forth, four times a day at least. Thank goodness DH does the early morning run usually...

The problem is that my mornings are now constantly interrupted. I hate stopping & starting & am not one of those people that works on many different things simultaneously or on a project over a period of time. I start a page & finish it some hours later {anything form 1.5 hours onwards} then I start the next one. Very few unfinished projects around here...I came across this on Becky's blog tonight - basic but just what I need right now so I've added spray paint to the grocery list! Maybe it will be a good project for you too, if you are also feeling like you don't have time to make some of the more elaborate Christmassy projects out there at the moment...

Well, for someone who had nothing to say I don't think I've done too badly LOL! And to anyone who actually makes it to the end of this boring post I WON SOMETHING!!! Yup - over at one of my favourite possies, last weekend during their crop. {You can see my layouts in their gallery otherwise I'll be posting them here this week anyway} Not sure what I have won yet LOL but am told it is "exciting" so that bodes well...will let you know! I will post my winning layout soon. I have discovered that it's pretty easy to win stuff if you actually enter...now why didn't I think of that before???!!! I have numerous finished layouts to show you this week ;-D Hope you all had a good weekend - we have had rain & more rain!

Happy Colourful Life!

Here is a layout I did this weekend in response to Aida's Flower Power challenge over at the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop. I also sent it in the next night to The Scrappiest, as I based it on their sketch 39, due in a couple of days ago. As you can see I rotated it to the right so that the horizontal strip became vertical.

I used an old sheet of KI Memories paper {the reverse of a VERY bright print} as the backing paper as it matched perfectly with Jody's minty shirt. Have you noticed how much printed paper is being used lately as "backing" paper? Definitely the trend is shifting back from plain bazzill to prints...very interesting...

I mixed up my prints/manufacturers as it's one of my favourite things to do. Used stripey Websters (Your Life - Beautiful) & 2 Basic Grey Lemonade papers. The scallop strip is a Sassafras sticker. Instead of the large ring I decided to use 2 smaller circles using acrylic CD's {they come on either side of a stack of CDs when you buy them blank for burning}. I inked these with a multicolour stamp I have had in my stash for years. I was trying to replicate the "alcohol inks" look I have been seeing a lot of lately, as I haven't been able to find any locally & probably wouldn't want to invest in them anyway as they would no doubt be expensive & my use of them would be fairly limited.

They gave me the inspiration for my title "Happy Colourful Life" {aswell as the October Afternoon die-cut "Happy"}. I love the fresh crisp lemon yellow colour. I cut the flowers & fronds out of another sheet of Websters. The little flowers are Prima & the bling brads came with them. The flatter flowers underneath are Making Memories - the sparkly ones that come in that little tin box with the open section on the lid.

See the close-up of the multi-coloured ink on the acrylic circle...pretty funky touch me thinks...

I inked the papers using lime green (on the stripe) & dark brown on the dot (& pink on the floral). To me inks are essential for adding dimension - I could never live without them. I use the 1" square inkpads or the cat's eye shaped ones as most of my inking is just edging. Often they come away from the base before the ink is spent so I have a largish pair of plastic tweezers {from an old kids' toy doctor's set!} that I use to grab them Calzone style (folded in half) & this way I can still use them until they are completely dry. I have heard that a blob of dimensional glaze actually sticks them back to the base but I keep forgetting to try!

I painted my mesh for Iris' class just before doing this layout & painted the mesh over a split open plastic bag as obviously the paint was going to go throught the holes of the mesh. As I was about to scrunch up the bag & throw it into the bin I decided to press it onto the right hand side of this layout - you will notice some random white markings - plastic bag transfer technique shall we call it LOL???!!! ;-D

Some of these little flowers were gauzy...too pretty...pity there was only one pack left at the sale on Saturday!

The corner sticker is Sassafras & the bee is October Afternoon, raised on foamcore {a better alternative to pop-dots that never keep stable}. Foam core is a plastic-based 3D board that comes in 12" sheets & you can cut down to whatever size & shape you need. I bought it wholesale so have dozens of sheets of the stuff but it cost next to nothing compared to the ridiculous retail price at "Expensive That!"

I'm trying my hand at some dimensional close-ups & starting to feel more passionate about photography than scrapbooking at times...

Still following this blog for the best photography I've yet to find on the web.

Red alphas are Pink Paislee {are they coming up with some rockin' stuff or what?!} & lime green Doodlebug. These li'l numeral stickers are good old Making Memories - always the leaders in everything cool...