Free at Last

Not really, but I have managed to set up a card table next to my bed so that I can scrap. I kick-started my scrapping with the Scrapapple Weekend Workout - Use black and white photo/s.

After I overcame the issue of printing my photo and getting my sewing machine working (the needle was bent - glad I had a replacement) I got stuck into putting this one together.

It's Spring!

So! It's still spring for another 6 weeks yet! Here is some evidence of Spring in my garden. Let's take a stroll.

Lavender is a hit in my garden - somehow or another it manages to stay alive and flower every year. Yay!



We have had hundreds of butterflies this year. I keep thinking "Butterflies come from caterpillars," but I haven't seen any caterpillars (or other evidence of them). Not that I have looked very hard.




The pear tree blossoms get better every year. We have had pears before but they are full of grubs - great food for the chooks. I wonder how they will go this year.



We have a border of the lovely yellow daffodils and then I have a pot with 'special' daffodils. I planted them along with hyacinths (which seem to have disappeared) and star flowers. This year only two have bloomed but they are SO gorgeous.




I thought I was going to miss my sweet peas because they were in bud just before we left for Tasmania. This is only the second time in my whole life that I have successfully grown sweet peas. And I grew them more successfully this year than last and maybe I will grow them more successfullyer (How do you spell that?) next year.





And my tulips too! They were in bloom when I got back from Tas but have lasted for ages. There's one in bud too.





Where did that come from? :)



We have these self-seeded poppies which add a cute bit of colour to the garden. The chives are ready to burst forth, and there's a little pansy hanging in there from last year. Hopefully the rose will bloom soon. And the bird bath... we have so many more birds in the garden now that the cats from next door are gone.




I absolutely adore the palest pink blossoms on my crabapple trees.



And now to the front yard. This viburnum, otherwise know as snowball bush, has been growing and blooming heartily every year. (At the moment, and for reasons unknown to me, this photo won't upload - will try again later.) It supplies the children with masses of 'snowballs' to pick, stash, throw, make a mess with.



Last but not least - the rambling rose which has so beautifully made its way to our front door. Opinions are divided. It seems that females like it - they think it is pretty, artistic, cute. Men seem to think I haven't noticed and tell me, when they come to the door, that the rose has grown up there!!! Douglas thinks it makes the place look neglected - I think it makes the place pretty. What do you think?

Late News

Here are a couple of layouts I did, a month ago now, at the Scrapapple Retreat.
I don't use Urban Lily papers much these days but they are definitely set up for a quick and easy page - which is what I did for this layout of me and my sister (when we were kids, of course!).




Months and months ago our friends held a tea party". Our girls dressed up in their fancy dressing-up clothes and they had fun dancing, playing the piano, and eating! I was trying out my 'new' hand-me-down SLR camera and didn't get many shots that were worth keeping. I love this one of Minty, our friends' dog, so I popped it on a simple page.



That's it for now. My scraproom no longer exists and all my stuff is spread around various cupboards and boxes. And even when the renovations are finished, I am not sure that I will be able to unpack and set it all back up then - we'll have to wait and see. So sparse scrapping moments.

Copyright

Some of you who know me would know that I am a bit of a pedantess (okay, so I have just brought the word out of obsoletion!!!) in relation to the legal issues of copying. "It's not pedantry, but merely a desire for accuracy." as Roy Cropper says in an episode of Coronation Street. Accuracy and legality.

Anyway. There was a time when one (that's me) could find very little if one (me again!) did a Google search to do with the legality of taping a television show or downloading an mp3. But things have changed.

Prompted by an article on Behind The News called Copyright Case I decided to try to find out where I stood regarding my cd collection and my newly acquired iPod. I was pleased to find some very helpful information.
If you want to know (you should, believe me) about space shifting, time shifting or format shifting click here.

There's a whole pile of information regarding Australian Copyright laws. The article I found most helpful to my quest was Music:Copying MP3s CDs and audio-cassettes on the Australian Copyright Council page about music and performing arts. In fact, all the articles there are very informative, although you may wish to remain blissfully ignorant.

So I'm telling you all this because...?

Well, I just wanted you to know where I stand. If you notice a hesitance when you suggest that I tape a tv program it is because I only just found out that it has only just become legal to do so for a one-off viewing session at a more convenient time. If you get a CD for Christmas it might be because I would rather not steal from a musician in my what's-mine-is-yours generosity! You get the picture.

An analogy from the world of scrapbooking to finish my little sermon.

Just say I created a lovely scrapbook page and shared it on my blog. Then you were totally inspired and copied it (or totally not inspired, so that is why you copied it). And then... you submitted this lovely copied layout to a magazine without any reference to the original creator (me) and it was accepted and published and you were paid a huge sum of money ($25 maybe) for it. And then, let's say, that you just kept doing that (and I am oblivious to it) and people really like what 'you' do and they copy 'your' work. And you make prints and sell pretty cards, and on and on it goes.

Do you see what I am getting at?!?!?!

Second Instalment

These are all the photos of our trip that don't have us in them. If you click on the photo you should be able to see a bigger rendition thereof :)

So we went to Tasmania!

First instalment... a mosaic (Jen Hall style) of a few of the photos taken while we were away.