~ Isn't this just the CUTEST thing ~

H E L P !!!

I am still baffled by Blogger/ Google/ Picasa and if any readers can offer this old technically challenged person, who really tries to keep up with all this but is about to give up, any help, please please do so!!

In my Picasa web album all of a sudden I have an album that has appeared in my Public gallery called "Just Me and My Shadow" in which it has all 400 odd photos I have on myBlog. It was never there before, just showed up.  There are three visibility settings in Picasa...'Public','Limited to anyone with link', and 'Limited'. If I change it to Anyone withLink which is supposedly the default setting, my photos disappear off my Blog!! If I change it back to 'Public' they re-appear.  Obviously, I want to have them visible on my Blog or what is the use of a Blog but WHY do they have to be Public in my Picasa album and WHY are they there in the  first place when they never were before??????

GGGGGRRRRR!! Can you feel my frustration?????

I need help as I just can't figure it out!!

Chrissie

PS You can see my Picasa album via the link in my sidebar on here.

Blog disasters!!

Blogger and Picasa are causing me all kinds of headaches at present and I am not technically minded enough to be able to sort it out.  I have even contemplated just calling it a day as far as Blogging goes although over the years I have spent many hours working on my Blog and would be a bit sad pulling the plug completely.  So for the meantime.....sorry if you are seeing lots of missing photos and what looks like 'no entry ' signs. Being the technophobe I am I just can't seem to get my head around how to fix it.

Chrissie

~This & That ~

It's been quite a while since I have shared any stitched projects here.  I seem to have lost a bit of my stitching mojo over recent months but the stitching still gets an airing every now and then and I did actually finish this little project for my friend Sandra who recently had a birthday.

It is a Shepherd's Bush kit called 'Friends' and I made it into a pinkeep.  I backed it with the fabric it is sitting on.

I also made Sandra a little mini album which I filled with pictures, photos and other little bits and pieces that were relevant to the friendship we have shared since meeting several years ago through our mutual love of stitching on the Legacy Bulletin Board. Here is a picture of the front cover and if you care to see the inside, there are some more photos here in my Picasa album.

This book is made from envelopes and I really enjoyed creating it.  I actually did attempt to make a You Tube video of the book but when I knocked over the camera half way through...that is when I decided I really needed more practise before I published a video to my blog LOL!!Hopefully, my skills in that area will improve and I will learn to edit.

We are in winter here in beautiful sub-tropical Queensland.  I love the chance albeit for a short time to rug up in jackets, jumpers and scarves.  We  have cold mornings and nights and still have beautiful sunny days. Here is a cute photo of my two darling little grand daughters when their  Mum and Dad took them to Canberra recently to see snow for the first time.

It will be only a short time and we will be wondering how we are going to keep cool again....

Hope you are managing to keep warm or cool wherever in the world you are.

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things,
but just look what they can do when they stick together."

Vesta M. Kelly

~ Doctor Ben ~

Dogs are so intuitive......

Last weekend, my daughter visited with her little dog Indy. Ben hadn't seen Indy in a while but he would not leave her alone.  He followed her everywhere sniffing at a particular part of her anatomy.  Nothing too unusual probably but he was very insistent.  He just wouldn't leave her following her everywhere sniffing, sniffing, sniffing.. Finally,  I suggested to my daughter to just check there and see what might be going on.  She did.....and found a TICK!  Yikes...we removed that thing quick.  I was very proud of my Dr Ben!!

Here is the very nose that detected that nasty Tick!!!

And here is that same handsome fella resting ofter a hard days 'doctoring'

I love that guy!!

"Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out."  

~Michael Burke

Advice From A Tree - Ilan Shamir, music by Bernward Koch

~ Dog Show ~

Dog Show

This is so clever.  If you are a dog lover and have 5 minutes to spare, have a look.  Such clever dogs and trainer!!

PS.  Thanks Mary for sending me this and hope this link actually works.   Oh and Ben says thanks to all for his birthday wishes too.

"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side".  ~Margaret Carty

~ Birthday Boy ~

I can't believe my boy is six today....

From this gorgeous cute puppy 2005....

To this  noble, faithful, ....

(sometimes naughty)....

handsome gentleman. 2011

Happy Birthday Ben!  My beautiful shadow....my faithful friend!!

"No one can fully understand the meaning of love unless he's owned a dog. A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes."

~ Real or Not? ~

Are my Shadow and I having a portrait painted??

No, not real!! Just fooling with this fun program.

"The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we  allow into our solitude."         

~Robert Brault 

PS....It was only after I had completed this post that I realised it was April Fool's day !!

~ If the Shoe Fits ~

Here is a little gift I made for a relative who had a special birthday.

I tucked in a lovely lace handkerchief, some handmade soap and made a matching little card.

I hope she likes it.

"May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
  May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.

  May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
  And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through."
~Irish Blessing

~ Just This and That ~

While I still consider myself  very much a beginner card maker I am really enjoying the learning experience and discovering the talents of others.  Just as with stitching,  there are so many very talented people doing wonderful things with cards and albums. I am still amazed by the Internet and how it can connect us with people who share our interests whatever they may be. I have become quite hooked on You Tube where I have discovered I can find so many helpful tutorials which are just great for beginners like me.  Thank you to all the talented ladies out there who are only too happy to share their experience and take the time to make these videos.

I pondered  the idea of starting a second blog for my developing interest in card making and paper crafts.  My friend Mary who is both a wonderful stitcher and card maker  has two blogs - one for her stitching Meakly Mine and another for her card making Meakly Made.  I  decided against it  though and instead will just  post the occasional picture of things I make here on Just Me and My Shadow.

So, here is a card I recently made for a friend who had a special birthday.  My friend is a particularly stylish lady so I wanted to try and achieve something that reflected  her elegance. 

.

I wanted to show you this little fellow who was on our screen door the other day.  I think he is rather cute.  I had to try and keep Ben from seeing him though as I didn't want him to be minus a tail!! He is still hanging about and we saw him again earlier on today.  He is around 25cm from head to tail. Not sure what kind he is. 

Someone asked me in my last post if that gorgeous little cottage was my home. No, that cottage  is in Arrowtown, New Zealand and I now live in Australia but it is so darling isn't it. Those gorgeous autumn colours will be starting to happen over there now.

I often refer to the Internet as being' my own private library' so when I found this particular quote today  it seemed to somehow reflect my thoughts even although I don't need to pay for a bus fare or an overdue book.  

"The best of my education has come from the public library... my tuition fee is a bus fare and once in a while, five cents a day for an overdue book.  You don't need to know very much to start with, if you know the way to the public library."

  ~Lesley Conger

Thanks for visiting us.

~ Beautiful Autumn ~

Autumn has arrived here in Australia and although the weather continues to be very hot, I notice today the leaves on the Frangipani are already dropping all over the ground. Poor tree had a hammering this year  by a very severe hail storm we had a few month back and never looked its best after the huge hailstones shredded the leaves.  I love Autumn although sadly we don't get the really beautiful autumnal colours that we used to love so much in New Zealand. I remember going back for a visit a few years ago and being reduced to tears by the very beauty of the gorgeous autumn colours in Central Otago.

Isn't this just the most beautiful sight!!

The start of this year has not been good with the disasters that have struck both Australia and New Zealand and thank you for the comments you left on my blog when I wrote about this. 

 I have not had a lot of stitching to show you over recent months but do check out my good friend Sandra's album to see some wonderful stitching.  She has actually completed the project we did as a SAL last year  and you can see it here in her album!!  Talk about eye candy!!  But then again, everything this girl finishes is a sight to behold!!  While mine lies patiently  in a bottom drawer waiting to be assembled, Sandra was busy working away on her finishing and believe me, there is a lot of work in finishing Abigail Colby's Workbasket and accessories.  Congratulations Sandra on your beautiful finish and I will be happy if 'one day' when I get around to it mine will look half as good !!

I don't know why but  I guess with the bad start to this year I just never got around to posting pictures  to show you what beautiful Christmas gifts I received from my three wonderful stitching friends...so here you go!!

 Diane's gift was beautifully colour co-ordinated. The bag is made from re-cycled water bottles

The chart and matching reindeer buttons Mary sent me are from a local designer, Lynette Anderson Designs and I actually have matching fabric.







Look at this tiny Nantucket basket that Sandra sent, isn't it just the cutest thing.

Pretty lucky aren't I!!!!

My Shadow  is losing his hair like crazy at present....Ben, please do try and 'keep your hair in'  as I have just vacuumed the floors!! Looks as though he thinks it is funny !!

Thanks again for visiting us.

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolour,
summer an oil painting 
and autumn a mosaic of them all"

~ Stanley Horowitz

~ My heart breaks ~

Dear friends, please keep the people of Christchurch and everyone in New Zealand, in your thoughts and prayers after the total devastation,  loss of life and ruin that has beset their beautiful city after yesterdays tragic earthquake.  Beautiful Christchurch.....the city of my birth.

:) Happy Australia Day :)

~ Our Hearts Go Out ~

I have actually had a few attempts at writing this blog post but each time the words I write just don't seem adequate enough to paint a picture of the horror that has beset our State over the past weeks. Queensland has been hit by massive floods with 18 people dead and 14 still missing. Brisbane the States, capital which is 100 kms from where we live has been devastated! We are very fortunate that our family has all been safe with no damage to property but thousands of people have not been so lucky. The resilience of the people of Queensland has been inspiring and although the damage will take years to rebuild the Lord Mayor said today that Brisbane's 'heart is beating again'. Our hearts go out to all those thousands of people affected by this tragedy.

~ And a Happy New Year ~

Image courtesy of French kissed Postcards

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~Edgar Guest