Odds and Ends

Well That Week Slipped Right On By Me

I’ve been busy doing various things this week and before I knew it bingo – it was Saturday. 

I registered for Candice Stringham’s “Oh Shoot Digital Photography” at Jessicasprague.com and we’ve just finished up the second week of it.  Between the classes, the daily e-mails, the assignments, the gallery and her twice weekly chat sessions it’s been busy.   So far we’ve discussed shutter speed and apertures in the class sessions.  Our first assignment was to take pictures that showed speed in one and then the same subject were the action was frozen.   Practically everybody seems to have small children but the option of using children in the pictures wasn’t open to me so…. I came up with this idea, well actually J is the one who suggested it.  Here’s what I submitted for my first assignment.

 
  

The neighbours must have thought we were nuts with J driving up and down the street as I snapped away when he went past. 

This past week’s assignment was to take 2 pictures where in one the background was blurred and the other where it wasn’t – again of the same thing.  I decided to take pictures of one of our peonies in bud.

 
  

Next week we go on to manual – that should be interesting.

In the midst of all that, Stacy Julian’s (Big Picture Classes) redo of Library of Memories now called Photo Freedom started up and as someone who had taken LOM I was entitled to take it for free I jumped right in on that.  It started Thursday so now I’m busy with that too – why do I seem to take more than one course at a time?  ARGH! 

So what else has kept me busy – decluttering and organizing.  Following Mel’s idea on decluttering – do something every day – I’ve been busy getting rid of old clothes.

 
 
Two bags went out to the Canadian Diabetes clothesline drive on Tuesday.  I hope someone can use the 7 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of slacks, 3 blouses, 1 suit, 1 blazer and would you believe – my going away outfit.   Boy was I ever shocked when I saw the size of the waist on that.  It was tiny compared to what it’s like now.  I’ve also got rid of numerous magazines and crossword/sudoku books that were finished (don’t know why they were still hanging around), boxes and manuals, etc. for things we don’t even have anymore.    We’ve got the old computer equipment that we’re getting rid of nicely put aside waiting for the town’s electronics drop-off day and I’m working away at an ad to place in the local paper for some items that I want to sell – like my Grandmother’s wardrobe I shared about the other day.

As for the organizing – I’ve been trying to organize my digital scrapbooking supplies in Picasa and that is a chore all on it’s own.  It seems like whenever I sit down at the computer I’m busy putting tags on everything so if I want say a patterned mainly red paper I’ll quickly be able to call up all the ones I have and so on.  So far I am only up to the C’s in that.   I’m making sure I also tag everything with where I got it from and who the designer is so that I can give credit when I share anything I make with them.   I should have been doing this all along but…..  I think this Picasa file is going to rapidly take up space on my new 1.5TB external hard drive. 

 
 And now what am I on to today – thinking about what story I’m going to share tomorrow for Sian’s Storytelling Sunday. Please come on over and check us out tomorrow sometime.

Planning - I Guess I Didn't

I was going to write my blog today from new little Sony netbook that I got yesterday.  So I put it in my bag and headed out for the day – hmmm I didn’t have any pictures loaded into it and hadn’t brought along any of my storage devices so slight change of plans in what I was going to do with my Five on Thursday post.  So instead it’s going to be five things I’m planning to do between now and Sunday for National Scrapbooking Day (I know I'm not in the US but we have it in Canada too).

First and foremost – work away at my Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers classes.   I am slowly going through them and I’m all the way up to day 7.  That only leaves 7 more days to get through just to get to today.  :)

Second is work away at my redo of Jessica Sprague’s Up and Running class but this time version 2 so that I can refresh my memory.

Third is make the layout I’ve got in my head in honour of my Mum who passed in 1976.  I haven’t done any of her yet but I think right now is the perfect time – late March was the anniversary of her death, last week would have been her birthday and Sunday is Mother’s Day.

Fourth is to actually do some paper scrapbooking – the one of Mum is going to be digital. 

Fifth is to start getting ready for Stacy Julian’s new Photo Freedom course which replaces her Library of Memories at Big Picture Classes.   I was lucky enough to take the LOM class last year and so get to sit in on the new course.  I’m looking forward to seeing what’s different this year.

What are you doing for National Scrapbooking Day?  Is anyone doing something totally different for it?

Junque (Explanation to Follow)

It's been a good few days cleaning up in our house.   While John spent most of Sunday stripping & redoing the kitchen floor I spent the day working away at cleaning up the computer/scrapbooking room and shredded ending up with 3 bags of it to put out & I haven't even got to cleaning out the file drawers.  Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning up & reorganizing my desk.   Until we get the new work table for me for the room I'm going to use for scrapping it would be nice to actually have some room in here to do some.  Of course I got side-tracked with the piles of photos on it that I had pulled for LOM (Library of Memories) and hadn't got back to but still managed to get a lot done.

It seems cleaning/decluttering is contagious the past few days.   In an e-mail chat with one of my best friends she told me that she'd been working away in their guest bedroom and to quote her "Boy, do I have lots of "junque" [that's junk classed up a bit]".

Today it's garbage/recycle day and I'm hoping to get some of our "junque" out there so I'm heading down the basement  to see what can go out from down there.  We've got stuff down there that's waiting to be fixed and there is just no way that is going to happen.  I don't know whose idea it was to have garbage pickup every other week (recycle is every week).  It works great most of the time but when I'm in a cleaning out mode it doesn't work so great.  :)  Ok off to see what I can get rid of today before they come & pick it up.

It's Been a Busy Week

Loading up pictures, updating blog and scanning negatives.   Our friends John & Vicky had asked if I could scan in their negatives of Alison's wedding from the throw-away cameras they'd placed on every table.  Easier said than done - there were 13 envelopes of them and some needed redoing a few times because of dust etc.   I got into a routine - every time I put new ones in the scanner I'd first wipe down the screen & glass over the light with my microfibre cloth specifically designed for that & then I'd use the little air puffer/blower that we have for the camera lenses on the negatives.   Even then some would not come off & I'd have to re-do them  It took 4 solid days of basically doing nothing but that before I got them all done.  John took them to work with him yesterday (they carpool together) and handed them over to John.  I did manage to get the blog updated at the same time because everytime I had the scanner working it would 10 minutes to do a negative strip, even played some Facebook games but it wasn't enough time to go downstairs & do stuff like housework so guess what I'm doing this week.   :)  

I had picked a word for this year - Accomplish and I must say I'm glad that that is accomplished & given back to them.  Also glad that the blog date is done and now I can go on doing a daily/semi-daily update but have it more up to date than it has been.

So what else is new - oh yeah - we got egged!   We think we know who (not the name though as this person  was delivering phonebooks and trying to demolish our Japanese Maple out front while doing it) but no way to prove it.  BTW, what is up with people delivering stuff we don't need or want deciding that it's ok to damage plants - especially the Japanese Maple?  Back to the egg, it's up high on the front of the garage and baked on from all this heat.  John will have to get the extension ladder, a pail & steel brush out to get rid of it, but hey it could have been worse right?

I signed up for a new course at http://www.shimelle.com "Love your Pictures, Love your Pages" that started a couple of weeks ago and because of getting ready for the trip, being away & then the favour for John & Vicky I haven't been able to participate in it but that's changed as of today. 

We have some beautiful red Day Lillys in bloom right now & I need to get out there and get a picture of them while they still look good.  

Last Week

Ok, trying to keep on top of my word for this year - Accomplish and even though I was sick last week I did accomplish a few things.  Sad to say that no scrapbooking has been done though.

- All of the 2008 & 2009 digital pictures have been gone through as per my LOM homework and all of 2007 except for the trip we took that year.  2008 was a big undertaking as it had 3 trips in it including the Baltic cruise.

- I have the test swatch done for my newest knitting project (a stole) and can now get going on it.

- have Quicken all up to date

- managed to get all the income tax papers together and am now just waiting on the T4s

- got our hotel reservations done for the wedding

It definitely feels good getting those crossed off.  Next week I'm hoping to say that I got a scrapbook page done too but the preparations for the cruise might cut into accomplishing things.  :)

What An Eventful Week

and it's only Wednesday morning.  :)  The absolute highlight of it was a phone call we got on Sunday morning from my nephew Jeff.  He wanted to tell us in person that he'd proposed to Julie the night before and she said yes.  We are so happy and delighted for him.   Can't wait to meet her in person come July (if not sooner).  Got a call last night from Jone - the date is set and we've already made our reservations for the resort it's being held at.  Now to just figure out how much time to spend down there - I'd like more but JD wants to take the least amount of vacation and save the rest for next Christmas.

As for the rest of the week, aside from vacations I got all of 2007 & 2008 done for LOM and am more than half way through the 2008 Baltic Cruise and we finally decided on what excursions we're taking on the next cruise and have them all booked.  It's funny usually I'm really looking forward to a cruise but this time I just don't feel "into it".  Maybe it's the new security issues flying across the border, up until today carry-ons were banned.

We've had a bit of a January thaw but today it feels like it's back to winter before the next January thaw next week so I'll have to remember to bundle up before heading out for my weekly visit with Janie for chai/latte and talking.  Last year when I filled out my passport renewal application I suddenly realized that we'd been friends for over 45 years.

 

My 2010 Word

Back last month I posted my word for this year but I never went into any detail on it.  I chose accomplish.

Accomplish - to bring about (a result) by effort;  to bring to completion; to succeed in reaching (a stage in a progression)

So here I am on the 14th of January and what have I accomplished thus far this year?

1)  I've been working away at my pre workshop assignment for Stacy Julian's LOM (Library of Memories) workshop and have accomplished getting our 2009 pictures done.

2)  I have managed to transfer over all the files I needed to my new laptop.

It may not look like much but both those things took quite awhile.  The next major accomplishment I'm working on is the 2008 pictures.  I know I may not get through all the digital pictures by the time the workshop starts but whatever I get done will be a lot more accomplished than last year.