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Friday 12 October 2012

A day off

Today I haven't had time to think about what I want to post, so I am taking a day off. The rules of Blogtoberfest say I have to post every day - but not that I have say anything interesting - so that's me done for today folks!

See you tomorrow.


Thursday 11 October 2012

Back to school

Today I am going to start a course 'Support work in Schools'. Like a lot of Mums I would love to get a job in a school, I am hoping this course may help with that. Apparently I get homework to do - I haven't done any homework since I left school at 18!

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Editing Photos

When selling online the only thing the customer has to go on is the photos so it is very important that I show my items in the best way possible. Sellers can spend hours achieving a good photo, I want to find a compromise where my photos are acceptable but don't take too long to process. Time taken on processing photos all eats into the profit margin and as my margin is already low I needed to find a simple solution to good photos and an attractive shop front.

I choose two free online photo applications to help me Picmonkey and Fotofuze

When taking photos of the items, I use a white background, take a few and decide which ones to use.

I alter them in Picmonkey . It is quick and easy, just a couple of steps

First (unless you have got the camera angle perfect) straighten your picture by clicking on rotate and moving the circle on the bar until you are happy. I also crop (if necessary) at this stage.



Next I adjust the exposure by clicking Auto adjust. I then play about a bit moving the Brightness and Highlights bars slightly until I get the look I want


I do the above steps on all my photos. The main one I then go on to edit in Fotofuze. I use the magic highlighter and the smallest circle and start to highlight around the edge of the object, once you start to do this it will automatically fill in the item for you. Click finish when this has been done and download the completed photo to your pc.


These are the photos of the stages (sorry but I forgot to keep a copy before I straighten it - but you get the idea)

original

pic monkey

Fotofuze

I hope this is helpful to you, it also happens to be my first tutorial (-:

Enjoy and have fun playing with your photos.











Tuesday 9 October 2012

Sock Monkeys

Tomorrow is my craft club day at the library and I plan to attempt to make a pirate sock money to go in the story sack. In a spooky coincidence I was browsing the folksy forums and found a competition to win a sock monkey hosted by Jemigo if you would like to enter please visit her blog.

This is my second post today, does that mean I can miss a day in the blogtoberfest?

more doodling

My doodle pen arrived and it made the world of difference. I have been enjoying doodling, I do it when I have a spare 10 mins to fill. It really is a very relaxing way to take a bit of time out and if like me you are not fussed how they turn out it can be done very quickly. The professional artists that do this will take time to make sure that their lines are straight and uniform, me I have no patience for drawing and if I spent ages on it, it would take the enjoyment away, so I just slap a bit of ink onto the paper and see how it goes.

Sunday 7 October 2012

Stupidity and Cuteness

Yesterday I was so embarrassed, Little Mr and I popped into town and parked on the multi-storey as we always do. Little Mr likes to park on the top level so we can look out of the high windows and he gets to press the buttons in the lift. On exiting the car park the ticket machine told me 'time has expired' (you get 15 minutes to leave the park after you have paid), I knew we had not been longer than that so kept putting the ticket in, believing the machine had made a mistake. Then it suddenly dawned on me - I had not paid!! Cue one very embarrassed women driver having to reverse out of the exit lane, park up again, pay and sheepishly leave hoping no one recognised me.




Later in the day as it was lovely weather we went over to the Sea Life Centre. They had some rescued baby seals in that were waiting to be released back to the sea, they were so cute.




Little Mr also got a medal as he touched a star fish and crab in the dipping pool

   (which is currently lost but when it turns up I will put the picture up)




Friday 5 October 2012

Doodle do

I have been practising my doodling, it is not going well, the ink bleeds on the paper. I am hoping the new pen I have ordered will resolve this if not it must be the paper I am using. I can't afford the proper paper right now so fingers crossed the pen will help.  Little Mr has been doodling as well so I will show his instead of my awful efforts.

House and Apple Tree - Age 5
Pirate Ship - Age 5


Thursday 4 October 2012

My new book



This arrived in the post yesterday Totally Tangled. I love to doodle shapes (not that I am any good) I just find it relaxing, at first I was disappointed when I opened the parcel, the book cost me nearly £10 which is quite a lot of money for someone on a tight budget. For this money I would expected a bigger book (it is quite small and thin). However I am pleased with the contents, it shows instructions with clear diagrams on how to do lots of zentangles. I have now ordered a pen and hope to get started soon.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

The white stuff

Normally when I get the weekly shop I buy our milk in a large carton , but this week I needed it in 1 pint cartons. Why?......all will be revealed  in a later post.


Tuesday 2 October 2012

Making a Story Sack

I have joined a craft group at my local library which has been set up for parents to make their own Storysack.  A storysack is a bag (I have used a pillowcase) which contains a book and items which relate to that book, you can put in anything in you like but the official sacks contain

A large sack/bag
Story Book
Non- fiction book relating to the theme
CD of the story
Soft toy(s) relating to the story
Game / Activities based on the book
Scenery or back drop for the story
An “idea card” with ideas for parents to develop their
children’s listening, reading and writing skills
An artifact (something that is related to the story but not a character)

The book I have chosen is The Night Pirates as little Mr loves pirates, I cheated slightly as I brought the version which has a CD with it, the others in the group will be lent a voice recorder to record their own CD. You do not have to join a group to make one, it can be done at home but the advantage of the group is I get to use the facilities ( I borrowed some fabric pens to decorate the sack). The group lasts 10 weeks so I will keep you updated on my progress as we go along.

So far I have made the sack

I traced the pictures, coloured with fabric pens and paints then appliqued the wording on. I decided not to put the name of the book on the outside so the book can be changed at a later date if little Mr gets fed up with it.

Bye for now see you tomorrow.









Monday 1 October 2012

Blogtoberfest - Day 1


I have just found that that this month there is something called Blogtoberfest where you pledge to blog everyday in October. This will be an achievement for me as it means 31 posts whereas my blog to date only has 27! However I like a challenge and it means I can get a nice shiny button to put on my blog. As I have only just discovered this I am afraid I don't have much to say but will be back tomorrow, I probably won't have much to say then either but I have committed now, so I will give it a go.

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