Bok, bok, bok.

In case you can't tell, that's a chicken noise. I could have said "Cluck, cluck, cluck" & you would have known what I was talking about without the need for clarification, but clucking implies something a bit nicer to me, than chickening out, as I have done....

The yellow hair is gone. It's amazing how quickly one can go from "Cool!" to "Eeeeeeeeew.... I want it out & I want it out NOW!". It's also amazing just how stubborn goddamn yellow vegetable 'semi permanent' dye is.... (unless you DON'T want it to come out, then I hear it is an entirely different story...)

Pink is on hold, for now. Apologies.

PS, If you have a Punk sized, pink flavoured kidlet, go here & enter to win an adorable little skirt!

PPS Posting will prolly be a bit light-on this week, because as you may have gathered, we're having visitors. They (The Boy's Daddy'o & Little Bro..) fly in tonight from up there from whence we came and will need to be entertained & whatnot....

Help Melbournians!

If you were me (I know, I know, it's just for theoretical purposes, and only for a moment, I promise...) and you wanted to stay in Melbourne on Thursday night (this week...) and were entertaining your younger might-as-well-be-brother in law, who had, once upon a time, spent many an evening helping you drink your weight in gin in some Sydney dive or other, where would you go...? What would you do...?

Google is no help. It seems there's not much of anything on in Melbourne at the moment, according to it - surely that can't be right....?

All I can find that might be of any interest is A Midsummer Nights Dream at the botanical gardens... and really, that's probably of more interest to he than I, and he didn't seem that interested...

Comedy bars...? A relaxed place for a bevvy or seven...? A little show to see....? Something....?!

Help me! Please! I've not seen this clumsy bookish boy for almost two years, it's my VERY FIRST NIGHT SANS PUNK EVER & I want it to be grand (...well, as grand as a night sans Punk can be... *sniffles*)!

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

Yup! I remembered! Not early enough to buy or send a present mind you (...or your Chrissie present for that matter...), but earlier than usual... and I made you a picture... like a preschool child would.... are you impressed...?! You're SO impressed. I can tell.

Have a great day Flukey!

xoxox

Inkscape.

Playing. With Inkscape. For hours. More later. Very tired. Must sleep....

Will I Never Learn....?

To stop putting my hand up for things I probably won't finish, precisely because I put my hand up for them in the first place....?!

First, there was the Drawing A Day challenge with the lovely Pepper - usually, I would draw at least every 2 days I'd say, so even if I cheated & drew 2 pictures every second day, surely a month of that would be achievable, no? No. I produced a week's worth of drawings & then.... didn't.

Then there was the Toy Society Christmas Drop. I had a lot of notice. I spent a lot of time procrastinating. The End.

My 2 month foray into Wardrobe Refashion just ended - but you wouldn't know it to read my blog, would you? One table cloth skirt & a hastily placed button do not a refashioned wardrobe make. I didn't buy any new clothes for myself for those 2 months mind you - so that's something - but I didn't refashion a whole lot either. I was on a clothing diet - sort of like the cabbage soup diet. You can eat as much cabbage soup as you want - but you just don't want to.

And now? Well now I've only gone and said "Me! Me!" to a challenge of making 12 things in 12 months. And it's a challenge because it's not just anything you can make... you can't take a picture of your cheese & tomato sandwich on the last day of January, which is the month of "...make something for me" & say "Here's my lunch! I made it! It's for me!" (....or CAN you?!). A lovely Crafty Mama is running the show, and there are giveaways & free pattern help & fun to be had, and, my saving grace; you don't have to join in every month.

I will be doing January's mind you. I found something yesterday that I desperately want to make for myself, so much so that I almost, you know, went & made it... but then I signed up for the challenge and suddenly the fun project seems like too much hassle.

I have issues.

I do.

A little from column a, a little from column b…

I thought I might combine two topics into one post today, the lovely Lola Nova you see, put me in mind of people who can “pull off” yellow hair, and Kate & Claire would like to learn how to do photo mosaics… so…

I present a photo mosaic of yellow haired beauties!

I used picnik, because I luffs picnik, and although I have a premium account, you can make a mosaic like the one below without paying a cent. You can also use the mosaic maker over here for free.

Go to picnik, click ‘collage’.

Under the ‘Basic’ tab, click on the last option, the four large squares together like a window, you can select how many columns & how many rows you would like at the bottom of the menu on the left, obviously here I’ve gone with 3 columns & 2 rows. You can mess about with the spacing too there, background colour, proportions or “Kookiness” which means throwing the pics out of line & rotating them randomly.

I had already uploaded the pictures I wanted to use, if you haven’t yet just click “Upload Photos” down the bottom there & choose your pictures from your computer. Hold down the crtl key to select multiple pictures at once.

Drag & drop your pictures from the bottom row into your collage. Depending on the proportions of your pictures & the proportions of the boxes in your collage, a vital piece of the picture may be cut off in this step – to move your picture all you have to do is right click on it & hold the button down & move it until it’s in the right position.

In my Punky collage I edited each pic separately & added the text for the months & just uploaded them like this, for this one though, I added the text to the finished collage.

When you’ve got your collage looking how you want it, click done on the right at the top. You’ll be in the ‘Create’ tab, click ‘Text’, then click in the text box to write. After you’ve added the text you can keep it selected & use the Text Properties box to change the colour, size or font.

To rotate the text, click on the circle at the centre top of the white box surrounding it. When you’ve added all your text, click the Save & Share tab up the top and… Save & Share!

Nothing too earth shattering there I know, but it’s fun!

All Gone.

image

It is. 2009. All gone now. All I have to remember it by is a Punk who is a whole lot taller, thousands of photos (I am not even exaggerating, and I don't know if that's good or bad...), yellow hair and... oh, a new house!

And there I was yesterday thinking it had been a rather uneventful year! When I look back over my blog, which I might add, hasn't even been going strong for a year yet, I see some things I am proud of, things I was excited about, lots and lots of happy things & time spent with my little family.

Again I have to say how happy I am that I came back to blogging with a new enthusiasm, I have loved it ever since & I thank all of you for being there for me to talk to, for commenting, for sharing, for inspiring. I appreciate it, and you, very much. I look forward to another year of blogging, laughing, creating & sharing with you!

I was super lucky this year - I won a bunch of fabulous blog giveaways, and a couple of crafty competitions, one of the most exciting being the Living Creatively Opshop Ship Shape challenge in which my buffet took home the blue ribbon.

Speaking of opshops, I squirreled away many a great find & glorious bargain in 2009, one of the best being my $5 chair... I do go on about my love for this chair... but it is so comfortable, and cool looking, and $5!

We went camping for the first time, went to the beach lots, baked a little & generally had a quite lovely time. Not a bad year then, was 2009.

2010 has lots of excitement in store though, I think it may very well be a lot less sedate than the year that was - I WILL get my licence (..in 12 days perhaps...? It pays to be positive. If not then, then sometime after, but definitely this year! If I can't pass my test in a whole year, well, I doubt I should be on the road anyway...!), we WILL be moving into 'The Cottage'. We WILL be painting & demolishing & sanding & sawing & polishing & hammering & ripping & shining... I WILL create more. I WILL be more.

These aren't resolutions. Oh no. I suck at resolutions & resolved years ago to have no more resolutions... (Hey... that means I DID actually stick to one!) but plain & simple facts.

A new chapter. A new year. A new decade.

Bring. It. On!