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?