Mikelinz Blog

After my dissatisfied rant the other day Schellie left me this comment "It's good to try to learn new things,but at the same time be satisfied with the great things you do right now. You can never fail, it's your creativity!" And i thought how true. You can't fail because it is your own creativity. And endlessly comparing yourself with others only makes yourself unhappy. In fact I have noticed that sometimes the people you admire, when you get to talk to them have the same concerns and hang ups that you do yourself.. or I do myself i guess. So I really do have to work on being satisfied with my own work and my own creativity. They did warn us when we went to the photography course that many people are less satisfied with their photography afterwards. I think for two reasons. Firstly you are so much more conscious of what you are trying to achieve, and thus unhappy when you don't achieve it. And secondly because you are branching out and trying to utilise the camera's settings, it becomes more likely that you will have dud photos when you haven't picked the right settings. I have to admit that I am now much more conscious of my photography (see more self criticism) but when you look at scrapbook galleries the first thing I am drawn to is the amazing photographs. So many beautiful pictures, so many 'perfect moments'. That is not to say that I don't have my own share of 'perfect moments', but I am greedy... and I want more. But having said that, one of the things that amazes me the most is the people who create beautiful layouts with photos that are much less than perfect. perhaps once again it is about being happy with what you have!
Ok.. enough philosophising. This week at pixelcanvas we had a great challenge to create a page using papers that look like fabrics, use stitches and buttons, sewn-on bits and baubles, felt letters and shapes...to create your page.

Journaling: Record on your page something that is really important to you. Could be a world issue, a personality trait, or a belief...
This challenge really appealed to me, perhaps it is the 'sewer' in me that liked the idea of making a stitched up page. Here's mine. I was really happy with this.


I used HeatherT's new stitching set which I might add is on sale at pixelcanvas at the moment. They have a sale on at the moment with lots of stuff for 40% off. The ecofabulous kit is over 60% off! I have used that kit so much! And I love all the 'green' stuff in it. Heather's new stitches are very cool and look very real. Worth checking them out as I think the sale finishes tomorrow.
Then using some more HeatherT product I made this layout using her template


This template is available at Gottapixel.com for only $1.00! So cheap, and while you are there have a look at the Luxuriant kit i used to make this layout.

So it is the middle of Winter here in Australia, and way down south here in Victoria it has been pretty cold and miserable. But we have had some sunshine this week which was really cheering. Lucus stayed with us on Tuesday night, so on Wednesday i asked him what he wanted to do today and he said 'go beach'. So we did. The sun was just right for a trip to the beach and Ellie (our cocker spaniel) and Lucus chased each other along the sand. Mike and I just followed along snapping lots of photos. I have been experimenting with shooting in raw and jpeg so I can adjust the white balance and settings when i import the photos. So far i have only got to the import stage and haven't experimented with using Lightroom to 'process' the photos (as described by our guru Scott Kelby). However I must see how it works, because I took some phenomenally bad photos at the snow when I had the white balance set to flourescent when we were outside in the snow. The photos are a kind of glowing blue. Oh darn.
Our two big bits of news for the week are this.. 1. Greg the 17 yr old has got a part time job (hopefully leading to full time when he finishes school this year). And 2. We went to see Harry Potter - The half blood prince. I loved it. but i am a huge HP fan.
It's Friday now and another week has slipped by, Ben's birthday looms ever closer. His requests are simple... he would like a bass guitar and amp. I did find them on ebay for under $200 but I do wonder if we should bite the bullet and pay $400 at the local shop so we can have some after sales service since Mike and I know Nothing about guitars. I couldnt even replace a string. However Ben is now keen to play in a band (once he learns to play i guess). He has a friend who has a drum kit so I guess that is half a band... Apparently there is another boy who will be singing. So nothing will do, but he needs a bass guitar so he can follow his dream! I do miss the small children stage when they were really thrilled with whatever you bought them, and sometimes they would be just as happy playing with the box the toy came in!
Well, I guess that is another enthralling installment from the Kennedys. Stay tuned..