Isn't it romantic?

At first it was romantic - the way the leaves would quietly drift down from the pecan tree. I had images of my family, wrapped in scarves and wooly mittens raking leaves into piles in the back garden, and then trotting inside for hot chocolate. You get the picture?

Well, do not be fooled. The romance has gone. There is no hot chocolate to be found - only me, out there again, raking, raking, raking. 

I wish I could tell you that this shot was taken a week ago, when there were still plenty of leaves on the tree. No, I took this picture today, after raking up another lawn-full of leaves, the leaves that fell on my nice, tidy lawn during a three hour period when I was out yesterday. I came home to find the entire lawn covered. Looking up at the tree, I half expected it to be completely bare, having lost its leaves Whomping-Willow style (that's a Harry Potter reference for those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about). But, no, plenty of yellow leaves still hanging on, and a frightening number of green ones that seem to think it's still Spring. Oh dear.

Today's effort...

...even Tess looks confused and perturbed.

I've left them in a pile on the lawn, unsure of what to do with them. I had been raking them into the garden beds, but am alarmed to find that the garden beds are now about a foot higher than they were a week ago.

Hmmmm. This tree had better give me a lot of pecans come nut-season.

x

Happy landings...

We have landed, and how nice it is to be tucked away in our very own close-to-school-and-work-and-the-odd-smattering-of-cafes home. Moving was akin to an episode of Man vs Wild, requiring strength and endurance (but thankfully, no killing of wild animals). 

We began last Thursday night, full of eager anticipation. We hauled boxes and ate takeaway on the floor (thanks to a lifesaver-of-a-friend). We continued shifting well into Friday and Saturday, when the reinforcements arrived with allen keys, cold meat and good cheese. 

And it was fun - nourishing to be around friends and family who happily helped with anything from stacking bookshelves to hanging pictures. A good omen for the start of a new chapter in our family's history.

I managed to snap a few pictures between heavy lifting....

...this, from Thursday night, when the only item in my fridge was a bottle of Moet given to us by the lovely people who sold us the house...

...and this, the new home for my favourite comfy chair (a sunny spot to sit and read).

So now this new (old) house and I are busy getting to know each other. So far I have discovered that the floor in my study slopes in a charming-and-not-at-all-alarming way (and yes, I will continue to tell myself that), and that the enormous and beautiful tree in my back garden is a pecan tree. 

I have also discovered that it's very easy to set off a house alarm (not once, but three times), and that pecan trees lose an awful lot of leaves at this time of year.

x

Packing Up

I only truly realise how strongly I put down roots in my home when I am moving away from it. We have decided to move for completely practical reasons. We drive an exceptionally long way to and from school and work every day, sometimes twice a day, and earlier this year it became clear to us that it had become unmanageable. So, we tossed our renovation plans, bit the bullet, and bought a home much closer to the places we spend most of our time.

Tomorrow we start to move. Our life is now contained in what seems like hundreds of cardboard boxes with labels scribbled across them in black marker. Packing up makes me feel sad and excited all-at-once. There are lots of things I will miss about my home, like my fireplace that came with two hooks attached ready for Christmas stockings. They had been put there by the previous owners who also had two little girls. 

I'll miss all the 'old house' features like the ceiling roses (ok, I won't miss those lights)...

...and the decorative arches.

I'll miss the way my girls' rooms evolved as they grew, and came to reflect their own beautiful personalities. This....

...and this.

The home we are moving to is also old, but 1930's old instead of 1900's old. It is in a lovely tree-lined street, rather than an often-noisy cafe strip. It is going to be a wonderful place to make new memories, and to see our girls grow into young women. But for now, it's goodbye to this little terrace of mine. I hope the next occupants can make good use of those hooks on the fireplace too.

x

Autumn in the 'Burbs - South Perth

Someone really needs to tell Autumn that it's Winter's turn now. South Perth looks beautiful, particularly on a sunny morning after  heavy rain. It feels a little bit like Mother Nature has decided to adjust the seasons but hasn't bothered to let us know. I'm thinking Winter should be here in about a month, fashionably late of course.

x

Framed

Don't you love it when you come across a helpful person? Well, the lovely chap at The Minute Man Press in Fremantle is one such person. Just to be clear, he is not a short statured man, but a very quick man, in case you are confused by the name of his business.

I had spoken to him on the phone earlier in the week to find out some details. I had noticed that my Photoshop files were about the size of a small country, and when I enquired about this he suggested I start by making them the size that I wanted them to be printed. "Good tip", I thought, but didn't want to ask how to do that for fear of seeming, well, you know...stupid. 

He mentioned that the resolution should be no higher than 300. "So 72 won't do?", I asked. His response was somewhere between pity and horror, so I took note to change the resolution. 

My last question was about colour. "It needs to be (insert something along the lines of DKNY here)". Thinking it couldn't be anything to do with an American fashion designer, I took note to find out what this abbreviation was and use it.

Oh dear. It looked like I needed to start again. So, back to Photoshop, and after a bit of looking around at the settings available to set up my 'canvas' for a new file I saw I could choose the size in cm, set the resolution to 300 and choose CMYK colour. Easy.

A little while later I had this print saved in JPG and PDF, and had added the word "Flying" to the picture. It just seemed to need it.

The Minute Man had told me to bring the pictures in on a disk, so that is what I did. He was very helpful in assisting with paper weight and other details such as gloss vs no gloss. (Who knew these were questions?) He even commented on how well they had turned out, and told me that I "obviously knew what I was doing". Ha! If only he knew.

I had another couple of designs printed up too, which I will share with you another time. In the meantime, Mr Minute and I are very happy with how this one turned out.

x

More Photoshop madness

I can't seem to walk past my computer at the moment without sitting down to do battle with Photoshop. It's me against the software!

Photoshop may be winning the war, but I think I have won the latest battle....teaching myself how to create silhouettes.

The image above started out like this... (one of my favourite photos by the way, taken a few years ago)

Using the "quick selection tool" (which, confusingly, looks like a paint brush) I selected the part of the photo with the figure jumping.

Next, I clicked "edit", and then "fill", and filled the selected part of the photo with white. 

I then clicked "select" and "inverse" which then highlighted the remainder of the photo, and again, filled it, this time with yellow.

Next I used the quick selection tool to highlight the white image and copy and paste it. To move them around I had to click on each "layer" (this is the part that I really don't understand about Photoshop - what are these layers you speak of?) and click the moving tool to move the images around.

And, sadly, these few simple steps took hours! Oh dear. But I'm happy with the result, and may play around with it to make it suitable for uploading to Spoonflower (to make some fabric). It may also make a cool artwork to put in a frame.

Once I'd got the hang of it I played around with some more images. 

This photo of the very clever Minky G and the Effects....

became this....

...kinda like it!

At some point it occurred to me that there must be a "Photoshop for Dummies" book out there somewhere. If I'm ever going to win this war, I'd better get my hands on a copy.

x

Some fabric lovin'

I have stumbled upon a great website which allows you to print up your own fabric designs. Hallelujah. For some inexplicable reason this is providing me with unending joy!

Whenever I find a new site, I naturally assume I am the last person to find it. I am picturing you now saying "What, Spoonflower? Everyone is using Spoonflower!"

Well, just in case you don't know about Spoonflower, this is how it works:

1. Design your fabric using whatever means you choose.

2. Upload it as a JPG or TIF (there are other formats but I have no idea what they are...)

3.Choose how you want your pattern to repeat on the fabric, and your type and size of fabric.

4. Pay 

That is as far as I have progressed. I have paid, and being the el-cheapo that I am, have opted for the snail's pace delivery. I'm expecting to see it sometime next year (not really, but it won't even be shipped for 12 days so I'm guessing it will be a while). No problemo...gives me lots of time to plan what I am going to make from my own personalised fabric.

Now I'm a bit of a sucker for words printed on fabric, so I have uploaded two designs. The design above   will repeat in a "half-brick". It covers an area 8 inches square (well, hopefully if I've done it right!). I have ordered a "yard", which sounds more like somewhere the kids play than a measurement but who am I to argue. I am planning on using some of this for an apron (I'm thinking a small amount of it with some black canvas-type fabric should be suitably kitchen-y).

I have also ordered the design below...

...for a cushion or two. 

Stay tuned and I'll let you know when it arrives.

x

PS I designed these using photoshop. Something tells me this is going to become a slightly addictive hobby!