Monday 19 January 2009

What a response!

I'm having a little chuckle now 'cos obviously I struck a chord with a lot of you "out there!"... I have so many comments on my last coupla posts that I'm acknowledging them here - thanks! I'm very touched that so many of you took time to "give me some love"...

I really enjoy putting out posts that I hope will elicit a strong reaction (every now & again) just for a bit of action. It's good to "shake things up a bit" & give you all food for thought if I can.

Another thing I've been asked about with regard to my recent photo printing is what printer I have. It is an HP Photosmart D5163 & I'm sure is bottom of the range (my husband bought it, lol!) He always gets the most basic 'cos he's a very responsible spender...It's a couple of years old now I'm sure & I was just commenting to him the other day that it's done us really well. Things usually pack up when I say that kinda thing so let's hope it keeps going strong! I have been experimenting with my own printing for about 18 months now, with varying degrees of success.

I think I've got it sorted now, with the photo paper I mentioned being good quality & extremely well priced. It's also good to buy for printing titles on & even typing journalling on so I like to keep a pack even if I don't always print my photos at home. As I said, it's R110 per pack of 5o & details are on my last post. It has a look similar to Bazzill, tho' obviously not quite as textured. I'm very happy with it as it is a really sturdy weight & my local photo printer has started using ridiculously flimsy paper to print on, while the price remains the same. Needless to say, this is hacking me off & I intend taking him an A4 print from November & an A4 print from December (about half the weight) & asking him if he intends graduating to tissue-paper for my January prints...

For some strange reason, Durban seems to be more expensive than Jo'burg & Cape Town. I've definitely found that to be true when we are in either one of the two on a visit. Cathy & Stefanie commented that they print 100+ photos for R1.49 & R1.35 respectively. Here I pay R2.00 per print for 100 or more photos. I go to Photo Africa in Gateway (down by the Climbing Wall - the rock) as they used to do great quality. I was not impressed with my last bunch of photos, due to the lightweight card they used, which is why I decided to try again at home. I'm also keen on using smaller prints some of the time & "postcard" is the smallest I can print at Kodak. I also prefer my photos matt. I seem to be in the minority as a lot of the printing outlets here only offer glossy prints which are "not for me."

Today I was home for most of the day, scrapbooking (don't faint - I actually scrapped for HOURS!!!) I packed up some stuff to take with me just after Christmas, when we went away. Of course, I never did any scrapping on holiday, despite the best intentions. So, for the last 2 weeks (since I've been back) I've been meaning to unpack my bags & familiarise myself with my workspace again. I just hadn't "got back into it" until today. I spent 3 hours sorting everything out (& unpacking my new stash from Joeys) then scrapped 2 single pages that took me 3 hours each! I can speed scrap when I want/need to but these layouts are for a Design Team Call so I took my time.

Truth is, I'm virtually paralysed when it comes to doing anything "seriously", ie for a competition, etc. I suddenly clam up & am terrified to stick anything down, it's pathetic! Anyway, I did it & I'm proud of myself for getting it done. I reckon the results are pretty pleasing but I realise that there will be submissions from all over the world so I may not stand a chance. Whatever the outcome, I put it all down to experience & I want to keep trying out for challenges to try to learn to relax about it, 'cos when I relax scrapbooking is fun! I need to photograph my LO's tomorrow & send them off, then I'll upload them sometime this week to show you all.

It's very late now & I'm up early tomorrow with Jack, who has a busy day of cricket coaching followed by school cricket team trials. School starts on Wednesday & I still have various loose ends to tie up before then for all the kiddies so I may not be lurking around blogland too much in the near future...


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hope your printer doesn't 'crap out' now you have cursed it!!LOL I have a super-duper photo quality printer yet never print my photos at home ... I suffer from an illness that makes this difficult for me - um, I think it's called 'LAZ-I-NESS'LOL!!

Vicki said...

Its taking me a while to get back into scrapping a real layout but sometimes you just have to "do it". Stick it down and forget it. LOL

CathQuillScrap said...

Keep up the scrapping.... good for you and good luck for the competitions too.

Anonymous said...

nice blog, hope your son did well with the cricket coaching....