Scatterday N - 26 Jan 2008

This week the letter N wasn't quite so hard - I had the perfect photo for the South American part that I had taken a few weeks ago at a fair - The Amazonas singing South American songs & using interesting looking instruments - none of them starting with N I might add! I had a hard job coming up with something starting with N in this photo but I persevered & in the end won through - Noise and Noses - and they could be from Niteroi in Brazil couldn't they? Highly unlikely I suspect.
The orange Nasturtiums are from my garden, we were in the middle of taking up the plastic weedmat and replacing the bark when winter hit us so this is what it looked like before xmas when we restarted it! Totally overgrown and running amuck but it did look so pretty.
Finally, I've never actually tasted NZ Spinach but I know I won't like it!

Designer credits:-
Christmas Remembered QC by Tina Chambers, http://tinyurl.com/2gwhuz
DSP Sunny font by Suzanne Walker http://tinyurl.com/36wvcf
Lanee by Marcee Duggar, http://tinyurl.com/2uvuf7
Must be Magic Alpha by Lauren Bavin, http://tinyurl.com/2sbops
Scribbly Doo Alpha by Irene Alexeeva, http://tinyurl.com/25a6dh
The Doodle Garden by Rene Bross, no link

Blog365 - Day 21

The weather has been just too hot to go walking for awhile now and by the time it gets cooler all my energy has been zapped it was up to 31oC/92oF today - if you're feeling a blast of cold air that's my fan going! We have a long weekend coming up so I fully intend to go somewhere I haven't been before. This is the month of May for the 2007 album.

Blog365 - Day 20

And finally I'm caught up to today - April's page for the album.

Blog365 - Day 19

March - Year in Review 2007 album.

Blog365 - Day 18

Oops my brain shut down for a couple of days! It just woke up and prodded me again, just in time to nearly miss today's post too! This is the next month in my Year in Review 2007 album.

Blog365 - Day 17

The dry sunny weather has broken and it's been raining all day today, still hot & humid though! I didn't take any photos yesterday, we went out for dinner to my cousin's place and I took the camera intending to get a photo of us three cousins but we talked so much I forgot until the other cousin had left! However, I did get a loan of a few wonderful old photographs of my mother's family to copy so I'm over the moon.

I'm currently doing a Year in Review album for 2007 so thought I'd start posting one of those a day when I haven't got anything else. Surprise surprise this is January 2007!

Blog365 - Day 16

Gee it's hot, don't know where to put myself so I think it'll be in my bed soon! It's midnight and it's still 21oC! We went off to explore another Farmers' Market yesterday morning, this time the one in Oratia next door to Just Plane Interesting at 99 Parrs Cross Rd. A fairly small one but beautifully fresh and well presented food, luckily for me the Maori potatoes (photo below) were there again so I bought two bags today, making the most of them before they disappear. I walked through a plum orchard to get there (to get away from the dust the cars were covering me in) and saw these huge yummy looking plums so couldn't resist a photo or two, but didn't hang around in case the owner thought I was eating them as well!

Scatterday U - 19 Jan 2008

My word, this week wasn't so easy but I think I've come through Undefeated!
Where on earth do you find a cartoon character in downtown New Lynn starting with ANY letter - I ask you! So I cheated with this one and found one on the Internet and took a photo of it on my monitor.
And I hope a road instead of a street is okay, this is the ONLY one in Auckland that was anywhere close to me.
The Maori potatoes are cultivars that have just about been lost in the mists of time but are now being recultivated and having a popular come back - they are so delicious that you won't ever want to go back to the normal potatoes that have had the taste bred out of them - unfortunately they are also expensive at $8 a kilo hence 'things people would pay a lot of money for' me included!
I was having trouble coming up with something for this one until I went to the Alexander Park Farmers' Market last Sunday (see previous post on blog). I stopped to look at the Maori potatoes that someone was selling and instantly fell in love with the many varied cultivars, all different colours and shapes & sizes. I just about fell over when I went to pay for a bag of them though, $8 and it didn't even weigh a kilo! But after trying them I have to say I don't ever want to eat any other sort of commercial potato ever again. I also noticed from a photograph that there were two cultivars that started with U - Uwhi & Urenika - but the man told me they wouldn't be available for another couple of weeks so I just had to go with a photo of the photo and another one I found on the Internet.
Please could we have something a teensy weensy little bit easier this week?
Designs by Meryl Bartho of digitalscrapbookplace.com and alpha by April Staker of DigiApe Designs. (Click on photo to get a closer look)

Blog365 - Day 14

Another day another hot hot day! Too hot to do anything strenuous so I didn't! Here's a couple of layouts I came up with. This one is DH trying to catch dinner - it turned out to be fish & chips from the local take-away LOL.

These photos were taken 16 mths ago when one of my grandsons was visiting from Australia, the only time I've had a chance to get them both together and what happened - one of them had a little tantrum! That's kids for you, so unpredictable and so darn huggable.

Blog365 - Day 13

Cheating a little here. I waited until after midnight to do tomorrow's entry, which is really today! I didn't want to forget again, I think the heat has fried my brain, it's not working very well.

This is a layout with the photos I took on xmas day of the grand children playing the boardgame I made them - click on it to read the journalling. They did have fun but it wasn't moving fast enough for them!

Blog365 - Day 12

But I didn't forget today! I haven't taken any photos for a few days, trying to get caught up answering my genealogy email from my online family databases!

This is a layout I did of grandson Harry at our place on Sunday.

This one is of our day at the beach with the grand-daughters last Friday.

Blog365 - Day 11

Darn it I forgot yesterday - really annoyed with myself!

Blog365 - Day 10

As promised - a few photos from our morning at the Farmers' Market. I just love it, all the produce is so fresh and colourful and really worth the extra money. This one is held in the horse stables of a racing club so I was a bit hesitant but the whole place is so clean you could have eaten off the floor. I didn't do that but I did eat lots including this delicious french crepe with lemon & sugar.

This last photo is of the different cultivars of Maori potatoes, apparently a very delicious sweet tasting potato. I haven't had them before but we're having them for tea so I'll let you know what they're like. I bought the Raupi ones, second down on far right.

Blog365 - Day 9 - oops six minutes late!

We've been out most of the day and then couldn't get onto the Internet when we were home! Now I've remembered too late, oh well I tried.
We went to the Farmers' Markets held in the stables at Alexandra Park in Epsom this morning and spent a lovely time having French Crepes & Mochaccinos for breakfast and then tasting all the wonderful home made goodies like avocado & olive oil, chicken dumplings, chardonnay wine, cheeses, honey and some stuff I wasn't too sure what it might have been! Came home with Pendolino flavoured Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Mangawhai, 5 punnets of strawberries, a bottle of chardonnay made from grapes grown in Awhitu, two organic avocados, two bags of frozen dumplings and a bag of Maori potatoes! Looks like strawberries for the rest of the week, gee it's a hard life! Photos coming tomorrow, they're still in my camera.

Scatterday E - 12 Jan 2008

This week I found one of the categories quite hard - Terrifying Things - there isn't much I'm terrified of and what there is I couldn't photograph anyway! I wasn't sure if it's supposed to be things that I'm terrified of or what anyone would consider to be terrifying. I did think of Enema but I didn't think you'd appreciate getting a photo of that! As it turns out I went to a funeral and there are people who are terrified of dying (not me, I'm going to enjoy coming back to haunt you all) - as there is no Epitaph as yet I've gone with Eulogy given by the celebrant (she is there).
Then one morning I was lucky to get breakfast in bed, soft boiled googy, but it was really was googy - not quite cooked - so as I was sitting there comtemplating it I thought, yes, the white of the Egg for the White category - I had thought of egg previously but they were all brown!
Then I couldn't think of anything in The Plant World that started with E (that I had easy access to) so I looked in my gardening book thinking I'd find a latin name of something I had in my garden, that was when Eggplant hit me, I had one in the fridge. In the end this week was relatively Easy.

OMG - 1957 Bathing Beauties

Well well, I found the photos of me taken at Cornwallis Beach 51 years ago! Was I ever really that skinny! They were probably taken with a Box Brownie just like this one, I did own one once but I can't remember when it was - well you wouldn't either if you were as old as me!
And no you won't see a photo of me in my togs today - I'm the photographer and the camera can't get wet - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Fun in the Sun

I woke up! Today was the perfect summer day & as we were granddaughter sitting we thought a day at the beach would be fun - and it certainly was. So we packed a picnic & drove up the road through the Waitakere Ranges to Cornwallis beach, it's a lovely long beach with lots of grass and trees but you can only swim when the tide is in otherwise you have to walk miles when it's out! I used to go there when I was young to stay in one of the baches (holiday home) right on the beach but many years ago they were all pulled down and it is now a council reserve. Mmmm I wonder if I can find any photos of those days - in the meantime here's a few I took today.

Blog365 - Day 7

We've been to the beach with our granddaughters today so now it's time for a lie down - will post photos when I wake up, if I do!

Blog365 - Day 6

Yesterday I went to my cousin's husband's funeral at one of the loveliest cemeteries I've been to, the gardens were just stunning. I took a few photos for my cousin and am going to send her this little memorial of the funeral. I've had to blur the family photos to preserve their privacy. Another cousin was the celebrant which was lovely. He was in the Army in WWII so they played the Last Post, that was when I broke down, it gets me every time, I was doing very well up until then. RIP .....

Blog365 - Day 5

Just a quick entry today, we're off to a funeral so I probably won't feel much like posting later. This is my latest LO from xmas day, we had such a fun day at DS's place and even though it was a hot summer day Becky still wanted to cuddle up with her new gifts.

Heritage Photos

Another layout I did today of my two sons, they probably won't be pleased to know they are now considered to be heritage! The journalling reads:-
Letter to Scott & Glenn
I have very few photos of you as you were growing up. We didn’t have a camera and with little money to throw around it wasn’t a priority. I had no idea that I would be so frustrated in the future at not having any otherwise I would have made it my TOP priority. That is the reason I’m bugging you constantly for photos of your own children, I don’t want them to miss out like you have. In this one you are sitting on your favourite rocking horse holding Mintie the cat, c1973.

Blog365 - Day 4

I've finally started sorting through my holiday photos and realised I haven't posted any from xmas eve so here's just a few, won't bore you with too many seeing it's long gone. Xmas eve was a lovely warm night so we walked to a housing estate 5 mins away where every year all the houses put on a lovely xmas lights display. This is the first time I've taken photos of lights at night so I didn't have a clue as to what camera settings I should have - I just took one and turned the dial, took another one and turned the dial and so on all night, some were horrible some good and a couple not too bad at all! Oh yes, the Santa in the window is my bedroom window, would you believe the colour of the curtains is actually lilac.

Blog365 - Day 3

Another hot day so we didn't go anywhere exciting. Some of the Scatterdaisies wanted me to do a tutorial on how I did my 'mosaic' of the weekly photos - well, I'm not too hot on tutorials so here's a brief idea of how it's done and then I'll look for a link to a tutorial on Digital Scrapbooking because that's what it's called.

It's all done in PhotoShop or a similar graphics programme. Basically it's done with layers of jpg or psd (PhotoShop) files - loaded in one by one and placed wherever you like until it's how you want it to look, then you merge all the layers together and save it as another jpg file and then you print it out and/or upload it to the Internet somewhere. Of course it's not that easy and does take a lot of learning, for me anyway, maybe you're a quick learner LOL - but it's a lot of fun and you get to make some lovely albums to pass onto your grandchildren/whoever you want.

My gallery is at http://dawn-in-nz.digitalscrapbookplace.com/ - do have a look around at the DigitalScrapBookPlace where you'll find hundreds of other digital scrapbookers and their digital layouts.

These are a few links to more information:-

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/Scrapping101/benefits.shtml

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/Scrapping101/basics.shtml

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/tutorials.shtml

Don't feel as overwhelmed by all the tutorials on this last page as I was - after the initial shock I just chose 'Creating Your First Layout' and the graphics programme I use (PhotoShop Elements 4) and slowly followed the instructions with a few swear words thrown in and I was away, the addiction was upon me!

Here's the layout I did today, click on it to see a larger version. Now you can see why I'm not so good on tutorials, absolutely hopeless explanation!

Blog365 - Day 2

Well, I nearly didn't make it past the first day! I remembered just in time as I was going to bed - so just a short one today. The heat is starting to get to me but it's the humidity that is the worst, 83% at the moment, I have the fan going flat out but it seems like it's just moving hot air around!

DH is off for another week so we've decided to try and tame our garden, a very miniscule one thank goodness! When we moved nearly 9 years ago we were disappointed to find the builders had already covered the ground with black polythene and bark without first replacing the soil that had been removed, hence it's just compacted clay underneath! All the local cats think it's their own personal toilet so we've decided to remove everything and cover it again with something they won't like, probably a small stone chip of some sort. That is going to take us at least all week and probably more so not much time out for doing any photowalking of note but I promise I will post some photos soon, as soon as I get time to sort them out.

In the meantime here's a digital layout I did of DGS Harry on xmas day.

What have I done.....

....I must be mad! I've just joined Blog365 which is self explanatory I guess - anyone would think I had nothing better to do with my time - http://blog365.ning.com/ - let's see how long it lasts.

Scatterday V

Okay, I hope I have this right! Not the best photos but I only arrived home from holiday yesterday and today was just a blur of unpacking, washing, shopping, grandchildren sitting and downloading over 1300 photos from my camera! I rushed these photos through but I promise to do better next week! The Office Items stumped me a bit, I could only think of Velcro and do you think I could find mine - so in the end I went with my 'volumes' for Dummies! The rest is self-explanatory - I thought my V in the Visor of the car was a brainwave :).

Happy New Year

Hello, I'm home again! Had a fabulous nine days in a little place called Tararu which is just out of Thames on the Coromandel Peninsular - 1.5 hrs drive from home. We stayed in a friend's caravan and apart from the first night when we froze (and of course I didn't take any winter woollies did I!) the weather was absolutely perfect, long hot sunny days (a little too hot but I'm not complaining) and lovely evenings with a cool breeze to go walking in. After wanting to get away to fill up my new 4 gig camera card I didn't actually manage to fill it but I still have plenty of photos to post over the new few days/weeks.

That's all for now except to say I've just joined the Scatterday ladies so hope to post my first Scatterday photos this Saturday. Don't know what Scatterdays is? Check out Michelle's blog where you can read all about it and have a look at the other blogs in the Scatterday blog ring -
http://michellewatters.blogspot.com/

Christmas Eve

Well, I'm finally finished wrapping the presents, making the calendars and a few tags to hang on the tree. Tomorrow we'll be visiting DH's 87 year old mother before we head off to DS's place for a Christmas feast with the rest of the family who are in Auckland. This year there's only two of our children here, with wives & 3 children between them, the other four children (and 3 grandchildren) are in Macau, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane respectively. Weatherwise it's looking not too bad, at least it's not raining and hot if somewhat overcast - let's see what it's like when daylight breaks! Have a wonderful day everyone - Merry Christmas to all.