We are nearly at the end of our Spring school holidays and boy have we had some fun and relaxing times!!

The week before school holidays began, some friends of ours who we lost contact with nearly 20 years ago, found us via facebook! Can you believe that? We were so over the moon to hear from them and we decided to meet up again to chat and find out what we had done with our lives. It was amazing to catch up and have our daughters meet for the first time.

 The next weekend Lisa was back for an overnight stay with her sweet daughter Jess. The girls were over the moon happy and so was Lisa and I.

During the first week of the holidays we managed to go up the coast to Kiama and visit the blow hole to have a look and to grab a yummy ice-cream.


 We took a few photos around the place before going further up the coast to do some shopping. We stopped at one of the girls' favorite parks on the way home to have a climb and a play.  usual the girls meet some kids to play with and proceeded to chase each other all over the park. Loads of fun!!

 ♥  via Handmade Charlotte: I am totally diggin' these utensils for the little ones

 ♥  via Bella Dia: I must make one of these little pocket stitch books, very handy to have

 ♥  via Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone: love this tutorial making a sunburst mirror project

 ♥  via Giveaway @ Heidi Swapp: how cool are these camera bags

 ♥  via Pugly Pixel: check out the new freebie Katrina has on her blog {photo overlay used above}

 ♥  via One Lucky Day: Paula and Deb are two awesome ladies who create the most amazing creations using 7 Gypsies products and this years {2010} junk drawer advent calendar kit looks AMAZING!

 ♥  via Designboom: what an amazing creation these leaf shaped post-it notes are

 ♥  via Smashing Magazine: this is my chosen desktop background for this month

 ♥  via The Gilded Bee: love this handmade paper/foil flower

 ♥  via Oh, Hello Friend: thinking about making these for Christmas this year

 ♥  via Decor 8: I find these little hearts so inspirational



 That's it for today! Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday ;)

I finally upgraded my Canon 400d for a 50d a few weeks ago so I managed to find some time to grab a few shots of a bunch of ranunculus I purchased for myself to cheer my mood, it worked too! I sold my old camera and its kit lenses so I could purchase a few lenses I actually wanted like this one and this one which is due on my doorstep next week. Still waiting on that camera strap to arrive as well!
Ok, on with some goodies I am loving right now:

♥  via The Curious Pug: Alycia interviews Anna and Naomi from The House of Mouse; these little mice are so cute and full of attitude!

♥  via Whatever Dee Dee Wants: these oh-so cute mini houses on wheels!

♥  via Our.City.Lights: anything vintage camera related is a must have for me, these are fun and funky!

♥  speaking of vintage: how trendy are these flapper girls Eloise and Ramona. I especially love this and these two for sure!

♥  via Kasia Designs: I am loving the style of the digi kits that Kasia designs especially this new one for bookworms!

♥  via Paislee Press: as always Liz has released a gorgeous kit at the Digi Chick this month where she is a guest designer.

♥  via Frankie Magazine: each year I always buy or create a calendar/journal and this one will be mine for 2011.

♥  via Eat Drink Chic: pretty, pretty 'hanky' love letter freebie.

♥  via Heart Handmade: Claire is one crafty girl and her latest memo board is a must-make!

♥  via Pugly Pixel: Katrina has a new freebie, vintage fabric deco tape, can't get enough of this stuff!

♥  via Vinnie Pearce Design: Vinnie has some gorgeous wood grain labels {see photo in last post} for download on her blog.

♥  via Eclectic Me: I am loving this cute crochet pattern that Gillian followed from here, I must give this a try!

That's it for today! Have fun link clickin'!!

You may have noticed on my layouts I created for Tarisota this month {scroll down to an earlier post if you didn't}, I used a few ttv frames as well as some overlays/textures on my photos. Everything I used on my photos I found mainly in various flickr groups. I love experimenting with textures, overlays and ttv frames in photoshop, the results can turn out amazing and give any every day photo just what it needs to SHINE ♡.  

The photo above was taken by accident when my family and I were on holidays in Coffs Harbour at a carnival just as the sun was about to set. I loved the silhouettes at the bottom of the photo and the look of the sky scattered with clouds as the sun was going down. I love photos that have large quantities of sky in them....with balloons.....and with water....and with birds......and carnivals...lol!! What was an average photo, is now dreamy! I went through loads of my photos looking for average looking ones that I thought could do with a little LOVE ♡, here are some of the results....
In all of these photos, I used the same ttv frame and the same overlays/textures so that the photos all had a similar look and hue. There are loads of photos circulating at the moment with soft hues which use gorgeous textures and photoshop actions. HERE is an example. {I recently purchased the Luxe, Vintage, B&W and Color & Haze.....AMAZING!} However......we can make soft ttv photos using what is available {without spending any money} from around the net. Have a look at how I constructed my little ttv photos...

Here is the list of what I used, in reverse order from photo {bottom} to ttv frame {top} and what settings I used in photoshop:

•  natural stock bokeh by stock-feele HERE  > Layer Style: overlay Opacity: 100%
•  heart bokeh by mifti-stock found HERE > Layer Style: screen Opacity: 78%
•  autumn gold bokeh by virtually supine HERE > Layer Style: overlay Opacity 51%
•  ttv frame by DLSDesigns found HERE > Layer Style: multiply Opacity 100%

Depending on the photo you use, you shouldn't need to edit it at all before you place the overlays/textures over the top of it. The overlays/textures should lighten any poorly lit or under-exposed photos. Have a play with the layer styles and the opacities to suit your own needs and likes! Even add some more layers such as a layer of texture to turn the above PRETTY ♡ flower photo to a slightly grungy one like this:

 Here is a link to the texture I used in the above photo. I placed the texture in between the ttv frame and the autumn gold bokeh:

• autumn gold bokeh by virtually supine HERE > Layer Style: overlay Opacity 51%
• INSERT TEXTURE HERE WITH THESE SETTINGS:  > Layer Style: multiply Opacity 48%   <<<<<<<<<<<<
•  ttv frame by DLSDesigns found HERE > Layer Style: multiply Opacity 100%

 I have put together a little list of some of my favorite flickr groups that have wonderful textures and overlays that you can use to experiment with. The possibilities are truly endless and so much fun to play around with. There are no wrong or rights with the amount of layers you use or how little, just as long as YOU like the end result! ENJOY ♡!!

• SophieG: HERE & HERE
• Nasos3: HERE
• Valerie Everrett: HERE
• Quality Textures & TTV's: HERE
• Textures by Cosima: HERE
• Bumblebee: HERE
• Birgit Engelhardt: HERE
• Brenda Star: HERE

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment or send me an email! I'd be happy to help ;) Happy hump day ♡!!

Look at this gorgeousness I purchased yesterday!!

After being offline for nearly 2 months, the amount of feeds I have had to go through has been staggering!! So far I have managed to get them down to 810. Still a little way to go but I wanted to share some linkage with you all that I thought was worth mentioning AND that caught my eye AND so I don't forget about them just yet.....

They are in no particular order either:

 ♥  via The Creative Mama: they are on blogcation {cute word} at the moment but they are posting some oldies but goodies from the last year and I found this one on A Daily Routine printout to come in handy.

 ♥  via Life Through the Lens: Kristi posted this one in her annual blog hunt post of photographer Mandy Lynne. I just fell in love with one of her prints in her etsy store called Shades of Yellow.....so dreamy!

 ♥  via 74 Lime Lane: Kellie posted some how to links and I found this one really interesting!!

 ♥  via Frankie Magazine: loving these wallpapers right now, makes me feel like the weather is about to warm up here......bbbrrrrrrr

 ♥  via vol.25: how sweet are these little cupcakes! And you can download them and make your own little sweetnesses, just don't eat them!

 ♥  via Kenner Road: the last sale for kenner road {sniff} 28th July 2010 @ 10am pacific on etsy. So sad :(

 ♥  via My Four Hens Photography: M4H's is about to have it's first birthday party and there's always something awesome going on over at Sarah's.

 ♥  via Art as Life: I am so excited about getting my kit and taking this class hosted by the amazingly talented Debee! If there's no kits left at least you can still take her class.

 ♥  via the Art House Co-op: I am seriously thinking about this.....

 ♥  via A Thing For: I have a thing for this blog.

Enjoy the weekend!!