Rain, rain, go away...

Well, what a La Niña we are having!! Here is what has happened at our house:

 

the overnight rain (and there has been more...)

my youngest daughter's bedroom floor (she had to sleep in her sister's room last night)

the garage ceiling (I had to drill a hole in it to let the water out)

In the 20 years we have lived in our house we have not had such a problem. It seems that the company that installed our solar electricity panels drilled through the roof in inappropriate places and this is the consequence!

Meanwhile the rain continues... The forecast is not good for our nation's capital. Canberra is predicted to get half its yearly rainfall in the next few days. 

Let's hope it does not eventuate!

blog stats and jargon

I love looking at the blog stats. The data collection and analysis fascinate me!

I noticed that a few of my photos have made it to pinterest and I said to my husband that "I'm getting a lot of traffic from pinterest to my blog".

There was no response.

So I asked whether he understood what I just said.
He replied "Not a word! I'm going to bed!"

I had to laugh! That says it all, I think! How the times are changing!! :)

Guess who I saw...

What an amazing man Rod Stewart is! We had a blast at Hanging Rock yesterday. It is a stunning venue, don't you agree?!

I took my daughter's point-and-shoot camera as a backup to my old Lumix, and I found hers took great shots in the dark!  Here's a little collage of photos of rockin' Rod:

 

Oh, to have such energy at 67! I hope you had a terrific weekend, too.

Christmas photos

So now that I can emerge from my report writing I finally get to start feeling more festive. Last night a friend and I went into the city to photograph the tree and was inspired to scrap it using a similar style to the fabulous Jana is using for her Daily December album.

Credits here

Sometimes it seems a shame to make photos small on a page. Lucky we still have the originals full size on the computer! Here's the reflection I took of myself in the bauble (just so no-one can ever say I don't take photos of myself!!).

Here's another reflection of me in a bauble - much bigger bauble, much smaller reflection :)

And a panorama (three photos) of the decorations in the front yard of a house on a nearby corner.

Christmas dinner out with friends tonight. The craziness has begun...!

Christmas is on its way!

Suddenly the store is filling with decorations and the talk in all the scrapbooking forums is of Christmas kits and gift ideas and, of course, Days of December. So I thought I'd mention a few bargain digital scrapbooking goodies that you can pick up. Suzanne of Roadside Designs is giving away a free "25 days of Christmas" set of templates on her blog.

 

Like all of Suzanne's templates they are so well designed and beautifully shadowed. I am such a fan of her templates - pages come together so easily. It seems so funny when I look back at my early days of scrapping and thought that using templates was cheating! Now I use them all the time - scrapping is all about the memory keeping, after all!!

Here are a couple of pages I threw together.

Credits: Wondrous Full Kit by Creashens at Catscrap, green paper from Flashback by One Little Bird at Oscraps.

At Designer Digitals there are some absolutely beautiful Christmas kits being released and there are more bargain digital scrapbooking goodies start today with the Days of December promotion which includes a new 99c product each day.

Here's today's beautiful 99c product...

and this most exquisite Christmas kit (one of many!)

So this all leaves one in a quandary. Should a girl get the Christmas shopping done, tidy the house ready for guests in a few weeks' time, go hunting for all these beautiful bargains or scrap the days of December?!! It is such a busy, exciting time of the year!

We have turned 50

My husband and I are only a month apart in age (yes we were high school sweet-hearts!!).
We have celebrated our significant birthdays with a joint party. Our 30th, 40th and 50th celebrations have all been at our current house.
So our 50th was last weekend. It is so special to have all your friends gathered together to celebrate. I only wish the evening could last longer. I gave my camera to one of my daughters during the speeches. She captured this shot. I think it speaks volumes...

(frame and wordart from Album of Memories LTs No1 by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals)

I love this man and the life we've had together. I am a very lucky person!

A Photo A Day project - and the weird responses!

I am continuing with my Photo-A-Day project again this year. Actually it is a "Photo-A-Day (more or less)" project. It is often referred to as a "365 Project" but there is a little conundrum next year as it is a leap year it will become be a "366 Project"!
My daughters have become used to my camera appearing at awkward moments. They explain to their friends that I take a photo every day; making it sound like I have some some incurable disease!
Of course there are also very amusing comments from helpful members of the public...
Yesterday a family of ducks wandered into the school yard. We had to call wildlife rescue. I tried to get in close to capture their cute faces.

A helpful colleague kept suggesting I move away and photograph them from above. Can you imagine this shot taken from above? It would just not be the same!

Today I was in the supermarket whilst there was a torrential downpour outside (1" in a matter of minutes). I emerged to see the most amazing double rainbow. Luckily I always carry my point and shoot camera in my bag. There was a young trolley attendant nearby. He asked whether I could get the whole rainbow with just 10 megapixels. My mind went into spasms wondering how to respond:
a) ask what made him think my camera was 10 megapixels
b) explain that my camera was old and only 5 megapixels
c) explain that I was taking a panorama and would merge it in photoshop, or
d) mention that the field of view was nothing to do with megapixels and all to do with the lens...

I just said "oh yes".

He replied helpfully that there was a 15 megapixel camera on sale for $300 the other day.
That raised another whole series of questions in my mind.

I just said "oh really?"

But it got the better of me and I said
"I have a 19 megapixel camera at home but it's too big to fit in my bag."

He said no more!