Talking TV

So a couple of weeks ago Emma Collins and I had a mini road trip up to the studios of Creativity TV to film our premiere episodes presenting Creativity TV. The first episode goes live on Monday (exclusively for members of the Creativity Club) but in the meantime I'm allowed to share our teaser trailer of the new season of episodes!

Hope you like!

The Birthday Girl

It was a tough choice as to which of the Honeybrook Farm photo-shoot pics to scrapbook first (it's lovely to have some new models to pose for me!) but little cutie Myla won the day, and not just because she's just had a very special birthday! It doesn't hurt that she's such a photogenic little person!

I created this page for the docrafts scrapbooking project of the week, and like all the best pages it's fun to create (with a nice bit of paint slappage) as well as pretty speedy to create!

There will almost certainly be more layouts to come featuring Mrs Collins' lovely girls - who could resist?

Down on the Farm!

I'm on holiday this week (I think quite well deserved even if I do say so myself!) and among the blissfully relaxing walks with the furry girls and some quality time with the feathery girls and boys, I've ticked off a few holiday must haves. paddling on the beach, being a tourist on my own doorstep in the New Forest and the inevitable catching up on a few little jobs (the fish tank has never looked so sparkly!).

I'm lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world and that means half the world seems to come on holiday here, so the only chance to visit the touristy places (you know... the ones just round the corner that you never get round to visiting!) is a cheeky mid-week off season day! Last time I went to Marwell but this time around the animals were a little less exotic!

So yesterday I joined Erica Martyn and Emma Collins and their respective kiddies for a fun afternoon at Honeybrook Farm near Wimborne.

Of course there were the usual suspects....

Ducks...





Chickens...



Pigs...





etc...



But among the not so wild animals were some other cute little people, namely Harry, Nevie and Myla!



























It was wonderful to be able to take a few photographs of such wonderful models! - Hope you like!

Zoo Time

Life is busy. Like super-super busy. And it didn’t even really help having a week off work last week! Although I did manage a little trip to the zoo. I’ve not been to Marwell in an age and it’s still as great as I remember. Of course I took some camera gear and took 1 or 2 pics.

Design 101 for Newfie Owners.

I’ve just been reminded (yet again) that Newfie’s aren’t normal dogs. Now, you might think that’s an obvious statement but it’s only when people indicate something is dog friendly that it becomes glaringly obvious that these big hairy beasts are nothing but ‘regular’.

I’m always on the look out for ‘dog friendly’ (see, there’s that phrase again) ideas for the home so when my FAVOURITE blog of all – Design Sponge tweeted a link to a ‘dog friendly’ home I couldn’t resist nipping over for a peek. The article is here in all its glory BTW.
So herein lies a couple of differences…

1. Easy clean tile/wood floors. Sounds like a great idea in principle, but this is a recipe for disaster for giant dogs with hairy paws. I’ve experienced a dog with Cruciate tears and don’t care to experience another thankyou!

2. Teeny weeny, wobbly glass bottles with leaves painstakingly arranged on a chest of drawers. Looks great but Newfies are TALL and their flappy tails reach even higher… I’m pretty sure these would last 30 seconds in my house.

3. White fabric sofas/fabric covers on dining chairs/white bed linen might look gorgeous but with dogs that resemble woolly mammoths plus gallons of dribble these would be grimy and grey in about 5 seconds flat.

4. Vintage skittles artfully arranged next to a fireplace - I predict these would be standing up for 30 seconds and outside as a new exciting chew toy in 30 mins.

5. Floor length white curtains - See point 3!

6. The Coffee Table. I don’t know anyone with a Newfie that owns a coffee table. First off it’s the perfect height for dribbling, ANYTHING on it would be flung aside with a huge head or flapping tail in seconds plus putting a cup/glass anywhere near a Newf is asking for trouble. A big hairy snout and giant tongue would be inside faster than you could ever imagine a Newf could move. Plus Newfs like to play rough. Leaping about and wrestling is an activity best saved for the middle of the living room (and ideally just when your family is sitting down to watch Glee. (I’m not bitter.) So the space is left empty.

7. Candles. No. Big hairy, wafting tail + naked flames = the towering inferno.

8. Sheepskin throws/cow hide rugs. I can’t be sure, never having owned one of these, but I’m pretty sure slobber and sheepskin isn’t a nice mix. I think the cow hide might just get eaten.

But apart from that.... it looks perfectly ‘dog’ if not Newf ‘friendly’. :)

Mud has a lot to answer for.

So yesterday I was roaming through the woods at my favourite spot in the New Forest and like the clumsy dolt I am, managed to get myself stuck up to my knees in mud. In retrospect maybe I should have stayed in the mud and called for a flock of burly firemen to rescue me…. But as I had no idea where I was, having roamed randomly through the woods for a good half hour I decided to utilise my very own rescue squad (my lovely Newfies – Lola and Martha). So with the assistance of a pair of ‘trained’ rescue dogs and some handy nearly trees I managed to lever myself free.

So there I was… so giddy that I’d managed to avoid almost certain death due to quick-sand (quick mud?) drowning that I skipped gleefully on and pranced majestically over a ditchy stream thing.

Of course ‘prancing majestically’ is code for losing my footing on the opposite bank and face planting onto the muddy bank the other side.

As if that wasn’t enough I managed to land with my arm (and somehow my shoulder) right under me. I heard a crunchy sound that suggested I’d snapped my arm, but thankfully it seems to be a bad bone bruise and lots of lovely strained muscles/ligaments etc. Never have I been so glad for stupid amounts of mud and a flabby gut to cushion my fall and allow me to avert potential arm snappage.

How to Construct a 'Push 'N' Pull' Card

I've got a little video to share this arvo. It's my first of this type so be gentle with me! Can't take any credit for the editing etc - just the crafting!

Crimes against Memories

It occurred to me today that we are in danger of having a whole generation of children that their only photos of their childhood are taken with phones and only uploaded to facebook (where they get compressed to death BTW!). A whole generation whose key life moments are only immortalized in grainy and blurry images. Birthday parties, first steps and other milestone moments might be immediately broadcast around the globe for mass consumption on facebook , but these same publically heralded moments are seemingly treated with as little importance as a quick orange tinted and blurry snap taken of your new shoes to show off on twitter.

I’m grateful so often that I have family albums full of childhood photos. Photos of birthday parties, days out and holidays. Photos that are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and not taken with expensive kit, but they are real and they are ‘safely’ stored in albums for me to look at whenever I choose. (I say ‘safely’ because I’m guilty of not having liberated them all from the sticky photo albums.)

Of course if you’re a scrapbooker I’m already preaching to the converted. We embrace recording our family’s history (and those everyday little moments) with an almost obsessive vigor but I’m sure we all know someone who is guilty of crimes against memories.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying a camera phone doesn’t have a place. They are perfect for grabbing a once in a lifetime moment pic but for key moments take a second to get your camera (whether it’s a compact, or a slr) out and use it. Facebook won’t be here forever (I hope!) and with it will disappear the photos you’ve trusted them to keep safe.

Piled high

7/365 2011 Damask
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

I'm notoriously bad at filing layouts away - i must have a pile about 12inches high of pages waiting to find a home, so I'm quite excited that I've just had a gorgeous pair of albums arrive! They are both this amazing damask print and are of course the essential D-ring. I just can't be bothered messing with post bound ones. Life is far too short!

If the rain carries on at least I have something to keep me busy indoors!

My own bear cub.

6/365 2011 Sleepy Bear
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

The last few nights I've really enjoyed watching Gordan Buchanan's latest films about families of Black Bears in the woods of Minnesota (if you missed it it's on iplayer still). Perhaps unsurprisingly there were so many ways that they reminded me of the big black and brown furry creatures that share my home. The way the bears sit right back on their bums with their legs sticking out in front, their huge and mobile noses and the way they amble about in the woods but with the potential for super bursts of speed! I'm just glad Newfies can't climb trees!

So of course yesterdays picture had to be of one of the Newfs. Neither of the girls though wanted to be terribly obliging; Martha drew the short straw and refused to even open one eye! I'm sure she was channeling the bears with a spot of hibernation (she'd definitely be capable of digging the winter den!).

It's all over.

5/365 2011 Festive Monkey
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

So tonight I took all the decorations down for another year. It always seems really sad and I wasn't even close to being sick of them. I guess that's one of the benefits of not putting them up too early!

Macbook Glow

4/365 2011 Macbook Glow
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

This little fella arrived a few days ago to replace my ageing laptop and desktop. I love the glow from under the keys so it was the only choice for my first inside 365 shot.

Watch the Birdie!

It's back to work tomorrow and for the last day of my hols I took a jaunt down to the coast with the girlies. After a quick dip in the sea (the dogs, not me I hasten to add I took the opportunity to spot a few birds and take a few pics! Being the winter there were plenty of seasonal visitors and everything I shot was a new species for me so quite exciting!

These are Brent Geese... they are small for a goose and very cute. They were merrily swimming and feeding in the water at Keyhaven...



And browsing the grass just down the road.



This little coot was in a hurry to come over and be photographed.



And these little people are Turnstones.





It's funny how wielding a nice big lens makes people desperate to get out of your way when you are taking pics, my 'little' Sigma 150-500 is definitely a significant beast and a couple of people nearly hurled themselves in the water to avoid crossing my sights or disturbing the wildlife! You don't get that with a camera phone!

Let there be light!

2/365 2011 Martha
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

Now I don't want to shock you but two days into 2011 and I'm back for second time! Today was the first time in a very long time that we saw the smallest glimpse of sun from out of the thick dark cloud and it was the perfect chance for a lovely long walk with the girlies at out favourite spot in the New Forest.

Lola and Martha had a fabulous time snuffing about in the furrows created by the Forest Pigs while rooting out acorns and I took the opportunity to grab a quick pic of Martha Moo in some nearly reasonable light!

In other news I received a WII among my pressies this year and can confirm that I rule at both Boxing and Tennis... The golf is a whole other story!!! Any suggestions for more games gratefully received!

Happy New Year

1/365 2011 Strolling
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

It's been a while. So as part of my attempt to blog a bit more often I've decided to start a 365 photo project. With my new Mac finally arrived (a very long story!) I'm inspired to get a shot taken and edited everyday and the cunning 'blog it' link on flickr might just make this all a but easier.

I only managed 98 days of photos last year, so hope to emulate my success of 2009 where I completed the whole project!

So here's number one. A lovely big pig strolling through the wintery New Forest. Here's to the next 364.

Not so Happy Eggs.

When a company bases all their advertising and marketing around a moral principle, it’s all the more sickening when it’s revealed that they are guilty of abusing this principle. That’s the feeling I have today after viewing the Sky News story about the conditions that the laying hens from the Happy Egg company are kept in.

The picture of hens happily grazing green field and riding an a quad bike (which I’m sure my chickens would love!) couldn’t be further from the truth. From the footage it’s appears little better than the battery cages that are so well publicized as being cruel.

I’m so glad I can be totally sure where the eggs I eat come from. Please support your local garden hen keeper… it’s the only way you can know the truth.

Big Bang Theory - Love this!

Size isn't everything!

A couple of weeks ago I put a little order in with everyone’s favourite online retailer and order one of these babies!

It’s a Pogo Printer by Polaroid and with just a teeny tiny unit that’s barely bigger than my memory card holder (and waaaaay smaller that my camera!). It has a rechargeable battery and simply connects up to a pict-bridge enabled camera or blue tooth phone to print the pics. It doesn’t even take ink, instead it uses clever Polaroid paper with crystals inside! (if that doesn’t sound like alien technology, then I don’t know what does!)

At less than 20quid I couldn’t resist the opportunity to print cute little pics especially if they were going to have ‘that’ Polaroid feel to them. I wasn’t disappointed! The pics are only a coule of inches across, but are perfect for multi photo layouts and they do have that Polaroid retro quality.

I've done a couple of pages using them and they won't be the last!

It's been a while...

I've had a bit of a busy few weeks.... some good, some not so good, but it all added up to no time to do much at all and certainly no time to scrapbook 'just for fun' or to blog.

I sadly lost a couple of my chicks in the last couple of weeks, but after a dose of medicine fingers crossed the rest are hopefully going to be fine... I hatched some Poland chicks a couple of weeks ago too and these are the latest pics of a couple of them -  check out the link to my flickr over on the right for the baby pics!

I also had a stressful and worrying time with Martha too. She suddenly became quite ill and was diagnosed as having a closed Pyometra - this is a womb infection and is a potentially very dangerous condition. The only effective treatment is an emergency spay operation before it ruptures (like a hysterectomy) and within about 10 mins of a diagnosis my fabulous vets had her on the table and operated to save her. Thankfully all went smoothly and later that night she was home safe and sound all be it dosed up on prescription pain killers! Of course after an op one of the biggest dangers is pulling their own stitches out so I spent the next ten days sleeping on the sofa to baby-sit her, as well as getting up two or three times a night to take her for a pee!

Here is her ladyship relaxing in the garden a week or so after the op...

As well as a big bald tummy with a very neat wound!

Coming back up to date, I've just put the new challenge live over at A True Friend - we really would love it if you joined in with the challenges - while the blog is all about pets, we won't hold it against you if you use the themes for pages about any topic!! Here's my page - it's all about a day when Lola pulled out a dubious object from a local river... I was convinced I was going to be on the local news for finding some body bits! Thankfully it was only an old delfated dinghy! The journalling is under a great big flap on the left of the layout.

I think that's enough for now... promise I'll be back soon!

Raffia Obsessive

I have to admit that at the moment I’m a little bit obsessed with Raffia. I hold my hands up and admit that when I got my first pack I poo-pooed it slightly, but after giving it a try, I’m totally converted. It can do everything ribbon and thread can do, but it’s more tactile, more versatile and generally more gorgeous! I’m also yet to find a project that doesn’t suit it and to that end you might be seeing quite a lot of it from me at the moment!

Notable examples are this page which was project of the week at docrafts last week  (a nice simple knotted piece in lieu of ribbon)

And this one which is for the new challenge at A True Friend.

If you are a member of the Creativity Club at docrafts you'll have seen lots more, but I'm forbidden from sharing those here!

What's your must have item at the moment?