New Year just around the corner ... thank goodness

 Christmas went with not to much of a hitch !!! but then that depends on how you view it...

Kathryn purchased for me for Alex an " Electric Key Board" way back in August or there abouts .. she hid it nicely in their garage ... so far so good ... bet you can have a good guess at  the rest .

Well!! Christmas was to be at my house  an hour and a bit from hers  .. Christmas morning came and there was no parcel from Grandma for Alex 7  .. yeap, it was safely in the garage in Hamilton behind the alarm system of course... we decided to say nothing to him as he knew nothing about it.

We finally got the present to him yesterday .... the family are at their caravan for 3 weeks so a friend managed to pick it up from Hamilton and bring it to the campsite ... where they left it in the office ...I called Alex and told him there had been a mix up and if he goes to the office there should be a parcel there for him, we were going to say Santa made a mistake but decided he did not need to know that..
He called me about 10 minutes later and was over the moon with the key board and he played me "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"  well done Alex .... may be we have a "Pop Star" in the family or a Beethoven.

Second disaster ... I bought a digital camera for Ben,  I asked in the shop was it ready to go and they told me "Yes!!!" every thing that was needed was in the sealed box  .. of course it was not ... horror of horrors ....  there was no memory card in the camera.  So my poor grandson held  his camera night and day for 24 hours until we could get him one. I can imagine the memory card will be almost full by now.

I am so pleased this Christmas season is almost over ... So Happy New Year everyone.

Thank you for the information....

I have received some great advice re the Picasa Saga and blog pictures ...
I am now going through my blog and deleting posts that are now not  needed to be kept  for any useful purpose even for a diary ... I have checked about 40 so far and have deleted 8 not a bad  hours work ... mainly silly joke posts with pictures and some answers to other peoples  inquiries also with pictures that are now quite  irrelevant.  So just about 950 + posts to go.

Yeap.. have decided to have my blog printed  a year at a time .. tried a couple of companies and it looks like it will be not to bad a price for a nice hard cover  book as long as I cut the posts down to a certain number  in each copy. You can also edit posts to condense the content so you are not printing blank spaces ... that sounds daft but sure you get the gist.

photo storage by google for blogs

In a previous post I mentioned the problem with Google Storage of photo's from your blog...
I have found out why my storage has filled up and I now have to pay for it ...

Every time you add a picture or graphic like the one above it adds it to your file in Picasa ...now you have a file in Picasa whether you want one or not ...that is how Google store pictures from your blog.

I actually found my files on Picasa web file, and they have doubles of many of the photos I have used ever on my blog and also photo's I have never ever put on to my blog... so some where along the line they have had access to my photo storage from  my computer  also pictures that are not on my computer but on memory sticks  ... so when you upload from your camera I guess they go straight to Picasa files ... or even when you look at pictures on your sticks ...... but why doubles ?? confused .. yeah me too.

I like to use graphics ... but each time you use one ... even if it is a previously used one it gets stored again and again .. thus the graphic above had 8 copies of it in one file for 2008 and 6 for 2009 etc etc.

Pictures and photo's that are also stored  and why my file was full ... my mistake with  them was  they were to large and I had not compressed them ... so from now on I have to compress them before adding them to my blog post. ( told off by  my daughter for not doing this before ...whooops)
Conclusion ... the next time you want to post all those lovely quilts and stuff you see at exhibitions and shows be careful about compressing the size of them before you hit the add button for your blog post ..

I had a few email  replies to my "Shout for help " about this subject and it seems there are quite a few bloggers who have fallen into this trap and now it is costing them and me approx. $2.50 a month to keep their blog photo's etc in Google Blogger .

After reading this you most likely are still as confused as I am ... but I went into the file and have deleted many of the doubles on the photo's .....  it has made no difference to  my blog posts although it does say as you press delete "it will remove it from your blog" what it did do was delete some graphics from blogs though.
I do not want to remove my blog archives completely  but I am considering taking off some of the very early ones and storing them on discs etc. Which is not the idea of a blog ... !!!

I may go down the line of getting them printed into book form which there are a few companies on line who do this ... I know a few bloggers who have done this very sucessfully. But you need to go through your blog and delete posts that you do not want to print as every thing you have posted will not be something you would like to see in print !!!!

Confused and still in the dark ... join the club

HELP HELP HELP HELP !!!!!

Wishing you all .....

I am going to take a Christmas  Break from the computer and have a bit of a holiday ....

So I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Prosperous New Year

Although I will try and do a very short post and picture of my Santa Sack when I have opened them

See you all again in the New Year .

Santa Sack ... goodies

Today I opened my parcel from my Santa Sack partner Jeantte....

Oh!! what a lot of lovely parcels ... now I am going to be very good and keep them for Christmas Day
But I will hang up my stocking ... do you know this is the first stocking that I have ever had made for me ... I normally make them  plus my own  so thank you so much Jeanette.

Have a great Christmas everyone....

Lets fight cancer ...

I am a Breast Cancer survivor ...

In the new year New Zealand Cancer Society will be holding their  RELAY for LIFE  walk a 24 hour walk, where we raise funds for research ... this is also held all over the world.

Our family is entering a team  called     "Family Affair" as there have been a few others effected by cancer besides myself .. so we will be walking for those who have gone and those who are survivors.

We would appreciate your donation how ever large or small... we hope to raise $2,000 ...

Now just because you live in another part of the world does not stop you helping us ... you can donate by Credit Card in any denomination just go to this link  .....

Please remember every Dollar and Cent, GB Pound and Pence .... Dinar and  Fil ... Kroner or Franc  helps fight this disease.

Here is the link to our fundraising page

http://www.everydayhero.co.nz/familyaffair

 

 

So in advance I thank you .... and hope that your donation may help someone you love in the future

A few favourites decorations ...

A few of my favourite decorations ...
Two of my grandsons helped me to put up the Christmas decorations Sunday afternoon... here are some of them.

My all time favourite ... bought in Dubai a few years ago now and I remember it was the most I ever paid for a decoration and will probably be the most ever... each of those balls is a faceted crystal .. but I loved it on sight and I was told go ahead and have it..... I still think,  lucky me each year as I get it out of its box.

The other end of the scale... this advent calendar was bought in a  cheap Chinese shop I don't know how long ago  but he is just so cute ...

Many moons ago I was into Villa Bosch china from Germany ... I had a few bits and these candle sticks are up there with the special decorations.

Come back to see some more  ...

Shoe shopping ...

Yesterday  I went shoe shopping ... with all the pre Christmas sales I thought I may get a bargain.

Now one would be inclined to say 2 or 3 pairs of shoes at once is  a little over the top.

But 6 ... yes ... 6 would be beyond all reason.

They were buy one get one half price and I just could not choose so pushed out the boat said "Oh what the heck "  and said  "okay all of them"

I must add that at the end of last summer I was really strong  and got rid of quite a few pairs of old summer shoes ... most should have been dumped a couple of years before I did. I was only left with 2 pairs of summer shoes 1 of which was very very expensive so not a every day pair .....  So really I have just replaced the ones that went out ...

Well that is my justification for my shoppppppping !!!

Storage for your blog

Has anyone else had the problem of not having enough space on their blog to keep pictures via Piccasa seems I have used my 1GB ...  ????
Is this the only way or is there some other storage I can use....????

Also is there away to print off your blog  not by getting some one else to print it ??? 
 or has anyone put it on a disc ????

I have only been blogging for 5 yrs and do not know about these things as have never tried before.

Update on the Santa ...

The Santa is called Woodland Santa

My detective Daughter managed to find someone in the States who is selling these Santa's in fact it is her picture ..... @  aidenloveszoe.com  and she says she made them from a pattern by Sue Deven.

If there is anyone who has any idea on who Sue is or where she sells her patterns I would appreciate that information so I can buy a pattern ... there is nothing under her name  when I google her.

Looking for a pattern....

Has anyone seen a pattern for this "Santa" ??

obviously he is felt and I am sure very simple to make but I would love a pattern.

I have tried the internet but come up with nothing .

I don't even know where I got the picture from in the first place. 

I think ..very quietly now !!!

 

it may have worked not one spam message today ... lets see what happens tomorrow ... fingers crossed.

I am so sorry commenters !!!

I am so sorry but I have just had to re instate the word verification again..
I had 24 spam comments today along with the average of 5 to 15 daily
It is driving me bonkers ... not sure how to make things easy for my friends with out opening myself up to spammers ... all suggestions gratefully received.

Santa I am on time ...wheeeee!!!

I am on time ... although may be not in the same way as everyone else ... my partner and I  decided to  send all our gifts and a Santa Sack in one parcel.....


DRUM ROLL......... Da da d a d a da

It was posted to my partner on Friday

Weekend of pain...

I just love this sign... Oh yeah that's just what I am.....

Just calling to let you know ......

More pain ... it really does not seem like my year yet alone my few months ... what with the leg and ankle and all the other ailments of this winter ... please add raging tooth ache.

Being an ex Dental Nurse I never ever suffered with more than a niggle in the tooth line before I was in the chair being sorted ... but luckily since those days I have always picked up on toothy things fast and called the Dentist ... always  had regular checks and have manged a fairly dental  pain  free existence.

Till this weekend ...WOW EEEhhh! it started Friday evening   ( of course a weekend ) I was almost to the point of banging the head on the wall ... painkillers every 4 hours doing almost nothing to help, so after 2 fairly sleepless nights .... I was at the dentists this morning ( Monday ) at 8.15 am as an emergency.

So here I am with a big whole in the bank balance and the proud owner of a Root Canal treatment  ( almost the price of a small car as one friend commented)... I feel as though I have been through the mill and back  ... so have to go back in 3 weeks after it has settled... bet that is not free either ..... mind you he did give me free painkillers ... big deal.

Looks like the spammers are back .....

I see the spammers are back 30 of them today........
If they don't stop it I will set my tiger of a cat on to them......

Deck revamp ....

The deck at my house which is large to say the least ... was covered in Alge thick black stuff it has gotten worse over the last 4 yrs ... finally after copious amounts of remedies from neat bleach .. washing powder, liquid soap and  commercial bottles of this and that it seemed  impossible to move it or even clean it off to look any better ...
So I finally decided it was drastic action.. so I purchased a "Water Blaster" or a power hose as it is better known as ... it worked it took every thing off the deck until it was naked.

So then I had to restain it ... the deck is approx 25 yrs old so not in the best of state but still sound.

So off to Bunnings for stain ... why doese there have to be so many different brands, different types oil based, water based.  Every colour from no colour through to dark green ... after great deliberation I chose one ... just one step up from natural for a unstained pine deck. Which they assured me  from the sample on the wall would look just like that !! OH YEAH!!!!

So tell me why is the deck now an Orange colour ... I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it fades "toot sweet" and even quicker.

Mind it does not look to bad and my be I will get used to it given time, I think the problem is it was silver grey before. But the good thing  is it has not got the black alge which has to be a bonus.

Yesterday was the perfect day for staining no wind and not to hot and I had had enough when I finally packed it in ... may be because I was not feeling 100%  in fact thinking on it I should not have started it yesterday ... so I had a bath and some paracetamol and retired very early.. with the idea of finishing it off today just some small areas with a brush and guess what ?????

IT IS RAINING

 

The pictures were taken this morning and it looks even darker as it is wet.

Off to the Big City.....

This weekend I am off to the Big City ... well Auckland

With my Daughter and Grandsons Ben and Alex we are going to see Marry Poppins on the stage I am getting quite excited.

It is also Kathryn's birthday I wonder if this is the way she wanted to spend her 40 something  day ... with Oh! so many kids at a matinee ... but I am sure she will enjoy the day I am looking forward to it the reports from people who have been are amazing... young and old.

Some flowers of Taranaki ....

Just a few more flowers ... for your enjoyment.

We had an amazing time and I would love to go again in the future

This is may be my favourite Rose it was a stunning  purple colour

Some more flowers and gardens

A bit of a mixture today  .... I am not sure in which gardens all the flowers were taken

 

What a glorious colour

 

This garden was  perfection but mostly all fairly newly planted

 

 

Just a lovely view of the mountain

 

 

Lights in the park they were actually very disappointing this picture was not mine I borrowed it as I wanted to show you  ... all you see is just about all there was.

 

 

This garden was so peaceful

 

 

The picture does not do this justice at all it was beautiful

 

 



Just one of the many Orchids we saw

 

 

This was another black and white house  with a white and green garden ... but had a splash of deep red in one or two of the boarders  along with a red table and chairs ... it was in fact stunning.

It is one of the Hen and Chicken,  house and cottages  actually in New Plymouth

in 1800 and what ever  some one built a house on a hill and down below  they built 4 cottages for their 4 sons ready for when they married.... they are now privately owned individually but they come under a trust and they can not be altered on  the outside in anyway.