Words and pictures - Joy

I'm playing with Meet me at Mikes's words and pictures today. I often just enjoy the posts but when I read this week's, the image below popped into my head immediately and I just had to play along.
This is Zach at his third birthday party. The sheer joy on his face says it all. He did melt into a mess at the end of the party because of the lack of solid food and the sugar gushing through his veins. I didn't really mind really. He had a wonderful time!

Digitizing embroidery designs using PE Design 7

So, I had a play with PE Design 7 on the weekend. I was trying to digitize Zachary's and Amelia's monograms. Let's just say that using the Auto Punch function that automatically converts the image to stitches isn't going to cut it for the perfectionist in me. I didn't even want to do a trial run on the machine which explains why there is no image to accompany today's post.

I'm going to have to do some manual manipulation. I'll save that for the next weekend to come as this coming one I'm keen to finish my painting which I posted about a few weeks ago now.

Happy mid-week, everybody!

Extraordinary mondays - white peacock

Albino Peacock, originally uploaded by darrenstone.

Still on the peacock theme, look what I found? Isn't this extraordinary? I never knew white peacocks existed. Doesn't it look just so elegant?

Extraordinary mondays - the laundry piles

I'm sorry this week's Extraordinary Mondays is on Tuesday. I've been battling a pile of laundry that is waiting to be folded and put away. So I decided that this week's Extraordinary Mondays post will be dedicated to the growing piles of clean laundry in our households.

I'm sure I am not the only one out there with this ever-present laundry pile that has the growth pattern that is as fast as mold. You know how it starts, you put the dirty laundry to wash and no matter what method of drying you use, line or machine, the clean laundry finally finds its place in the laundry basket waiting to be folded. And there it waits and waits and waits and grows and grows and grows as each new load is added to the pile.

I am envious of the homes of Crafties that have immaculate interiors. I'd love to have interiors like that but this ever-growing pile of laundry...*sigh*

Made on the Left market

Hot on the heels of Perth Upmarket is the Made on the Left market and this market runs over two days at the Hyde Park Hotel. Now the difficulty is: which day shall I go?

What is Made On The Left? I'll let them tell you. (Text below taken from their website)

Made on the Left is a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 2008 by independent designers with the intention of supporting Western Australian creative talent. Our aim is to support all creative designers and events showcasing independent labels. Being on the left hand side of Australia no longer means you'll be at a disadvantage. We'll bring you all the information you need to know to make things happen!

Starting out young and quick review on the Toshiba Protege R400

Zach drawing on the Toshiba Protege R400

Our young Zach is proving to be a young technogeek. He is not three and half yet and has already mastered the basics of the iPhone (a testament to its ease of use). He knows how to change the brightness of the screen, turning it off and on as well as volume control. Then, the other day, Khoa allowed him to draw on his laptop and we were amazed that he instinctively knew how to change the pen size and colour. The image above captures him as he is about to tap one of the icons on the toolbar to change the pen properties. Never underestimate your children!

In case you are wondering, the laptop is a Toshiba Protege R400. It is a computer tablet which allows you to flip the screen to enable you to use the pen stylus on the screen. Overall, the performance of the laptop is pretty good. We've had it for more than 2 years and its biggest downfall is Windows Vista, which came as its operating system.

These trees are in full bloom...

...but I have no idea what they are called. There is a whole row of them lining Riverside Drive in Perth and I simply love it when they are in bloom. I find these trees absolutely elegant. The trunk leans ever so slightly and the branches all grow out in a certain way. The red blooms just top it all off.

If you know what they are called, could you please tell me?