Christmas Lights

This white display was created by one woman on her own. She even clambered onto the roof by using her wheelie bin as a ladder to put the lights up there! She was telling us that no one in the hardware store was able to advise her on how to anchor the lights to the tiles so she worked out a method herself.

Although very simple and not a winner in the Christmas lights competition, I liked the way this house was picked out with lights - it created a sort of light painting!

These two pictures are of the overall winner of the lights competition. It really was amazing how much had been created, snowmen, reindeer, ten drummers drumming on the garage roof and lots of little animated Christmas toys in the garage display too. It certainly deserved to win.

These are just a few pictures of the lights that decorated some of the homes on the Gold Coast for Christmas. I took lots of pictures but will only share a few!

AJ

Christmas and birthday

The decorating just never ends!
I have just put the finishing touches to yet another Christmas cake. This time I have been rather radical - I cut the cake in two and as my husband has his birthday on December 24th I made one half a birthday cake and the other the Christmas cake! That way we have a new cake for each occasion and if we decide not to cut the chrissy cake it will stay moist in its icing wrapper! When racing the shopping crowd this morning to get a few fresh vegies I called in to the bakery to get my favourite "Tiger bread" and spotted some fabulous gingerbread houses on display. I asked if I might take a photo of them and was given permission so I am sharing them with you. They are lovely - it would be a shame to cut into them. I think gingerbread houses might be more of a German tradition because I have not come across them for Christmas before. I believe the baker is either Austrian or German.
On Monday I took a few photos of some of the Christmas decorated houses and will show a couple of shots in another blog.
AJ

Stitching a panorama

Having decided to show the members of Visions how to use Photoshop to stitch a series of photographs together to make one panorama, I decided to take a cruise through the free programs offered on Google. The first one I downloaded is actually a program developed by Microsoft and after using it I have given up looking at any of the other programs or stitching photos in Photoshop. Take a look at this panorama.

It was created from four photos while I was on a holiday in September to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
When I looked at the photos I could not work out how to stitch them together, the overlaps were not clear and the colour of the foreground and of the sky differed in every shot. I had put that collection of shots on the back burner - you can tell that because I told you they were taken in September!
I converted each of the four photos from RAW to jpg and saved them in a separate folder before opening all of them together in Microsoft ICE. less than 30 seconds later the shot I have shown here was the result. There is no obvious join anywhere. I magnified the image and really looked for joins but found none.
If you would like to get hold of this program Google search for Microsoft ICE and download and save the program, then install it. AJ

More handmade decorations

Many years ago I used to play with clay. I was a reasonably successful potter but I would amuse myself - and everyone else - by modelling with clay.
In a moment of madness I decided to make a Nativity scene. Every "famous" artist has painted the Nativity and since I was hoping that one day I too would be famous (!!!) I too created my version. I think I went a bit overboard with the sheep though! I enjoyed pushing the clay through a garlic press to make the shaggy wool so the shepherds ended up with a very large flock! I did enjoy creating the camel for one of the wise men. In fact it is the best piece in the collection! The little figures were all covered with white glaze and fired to 1200 degrees.
For many years the Nativity scene has been stowed away in a suitcase but this year has been unwrapped and is on display in my lounge.
We have the reason for our celebrations on display alongside the pagan Christmas Tree with all its lights and decorations.
I have a crazy mixed up home!
Thats the way I like it!
AJ

Decorating for Christmas

My house guests were out for the day so I hastily stole a few moments to finish decorating my reindeer. I have a bit of a collection of Christmas confetti - the stuff you sprinkle over tables to make them look pretty - as well as pieces of felt and a few beads so with a glue gun and a bit of peace and quiet I applied the glue and glittery bits. (I managed to singe the tips of my fingers twice before I learned not to do it again!) After lunch I decorated the Christmas tree and set out the reindeer on a set of cupboards in the dining room.
A few weeks ago I had sent away for some fibre optic lights (Ebay) and after searching for AA batteries I set them amongst the reindeer for a rather fun look. I know this is a bit "over the top" but I am not going to string streamers around the house nor make a big fuss with other decorations so in the dining room "This is it"!
The little Santa with the sack is made of pottery and was made by me twenty years ago now! Boy it doesn't feel as if it was that long ago!
The sleigh I found in a store on sale one year after Christmas when all left over decorations are sold for half price. I like a bargain!
The funny stuffed reindeer were once used as gifts beside each plate one Christmas - some of the adults didn't take them home so I have four to play with! Some of them you can squeeze and they sing!
I have taken a photo of the decorations in the lounge and will share those with you another time.
AJ

Christmas is coming

While everyone else is out shopping or doing sensible things what does AJ do with her time? Paint reindeer of course!
For my family the decorating for the festive time is done two weeks before Christmas so the week leading up to that time of decorating HAS to be the preparation of those decorations! I had bought some papier mache small reindeer and they are a most uninteresting brown cardboard colour so I had to set too and change them. I used Ceiling white paint because it is water washable and I am not the cleanest of painters! I also wanted something that would dry reasonably quickly. I don't want the reindeer to be tacky at Christmas!!!! (sorry! wierd sense of humour!) Besides which, I need to stick all sorts of ribbons and sparkles on them so they look smart and special. So they need to be dry by tomorrow.
I did surprise my daughter in law when she rang me in the middle of the painting job and she wanted to talk to someone sensible - and proceeded to ask me what I was doing. Gulp! At least I made her laugh! I guess there are not too many people who admit to painting reindeer on a hot summer's day!

AJ

Pink in the garden

It isn't deliberate and it is not my favourite colour but somehow my garden has more pink flowers than any other colour! I think that there should be a garden competition for December - that is when my sub tropical garden is at its best. The amazingly intensely coloured flowers of the Poinciana are setting the tree tops ablaze at the moment. There seem to be two varieties, orange and red. My one is orange and I haven't seen it quite as showy as it is this year. Maybe the long dry leading up to the flowering time has made a difference. Very often trees produce more flowers when they are under stress.
A flowering gum I bought a few years ago and planted in the main, centre garden in front of the house has grown to about two metres tall and it is in full flower at the moment - pink!
Almost adjacent to it is a young crepe myrtle planted as a cutting - it too is flowering - pink again! Surrounding these two trees are many varieties of the bromiliad family and one very tall and lethal variety is in flower at the moment too. The flower head reaches up over a metre above the thorn edged leaves and guess what . . . they are pink too!
Oh yes, one more flowering plant shared the same garden. Several pink flowering geraniums are dotted around the garden! I think I need to shop for some white flowering plants!
AJ