Circle work

It's January- must be time for another post. One per month. That's enough, isn't it? It's not like anyone comes here to read anything, or even comes here at all! This is more for my own records. And YUK! I look back at old posts and cringe. Even some of my 'creative' work repels me. Yet, it will stay.

I used to write a lot of music. I started when I was about 10 years old. Before that, I'd make up songs and tunes all the time but never wrote anything down. I wrote songs for people's birthdays, songs to whilst away the time, songs to express my distress or sadness, songs of joy and calmness. Unfortunately, I think I still only have one or two written... somewhere. You see, after a short while, I became repelled by my own work. Now I regret that. Therefore, I pledge to keep my rubbish on this blog!! Even if I hate, hate, hate it. Because, 30+ years on, it still would be nice to see my old compositions, even if it was just to laugh at myself.

Something that doesn't repel me right now:
The lovely blog of the lovely Amy Moss: http://www.eatdrinkchic.com
I think I've come across this site before but that was many blogs ago. I've just rediscovered her work today and am loving all the free goodies she's created to share. I found her (this time) via http://indiefixx.com after looking at their free art giveaways. I did a search on the artists to find out if any of them were Australian. To my amazement, there were several.

Creatively, I've not been doing much for myself at the moment. I got my Christmas cards done, though used one of last year's designs (since I made so many and only used one then). Unfortunately, I'm a big slack-arse and the end of year rush got the better of me.. and I didn't post them out! I managed to hand-out the ones to those I saw but that was it. (I actually did go to the post office but they had sold out of the Christmas stamps- which are cheaper in Australia for sending cards.)

I did a bit of work on my blog header (after, yet another, name change- but we'll ignore that habit for now). Very easy-peasy. I did it just using MS Publisher but you just as easily use MS Word or similar word processing programs.

Just in case anyone wants to know how, if anyone ever comes by here, I'll provide a brief tutorial.

Step 1: collect some lovely background images (eg from digital scrapbooking sites; from free blog tools sites such as the Graphics Fairy's how to blogspot site; or create some yourself).
Step 2: open word or publisher
Step 3: Go to 'insert' on the menu bar across the top. Choose 'shape.' I chose the circle shape. Click on the page somewhere and drag the mouse to create the size of your chose shape.
Step 4: Save your work so far. (Yes, I'm obsessive about hitting that save button.)
Step 5: Click on the shape once. Once you have clicked on the shape, a tab will appear on the menu bar that is called 'drawing tools.' Click on that tab.
Step 6: In 'shape styles' there are a number of pre-set styles you can apply to your shape. Choose one that please you. I chose a white border with a slight shadow to one side.
Step 7: Go to 'shape fill.' Scroll down to 'picture.' Choose one of the pictures you've previously saved or created (or you can just use a solid colour, or experiment with the textures already provided, if you prefer).
Step 8: Save your work.

That it's! From there I just copied and pasted my circles so they would all have the same style applied and then I changed the picture insert to get the different colours/patterns. All I had to do then was to arrange all my circles and add some word art over the top. Easy-peasy!

If anyone ever asks, I'll come back to this post and put up diagrams of each of the steps. For now, I'm sure I'd just be repeating other useful information readily available on the web, but if anyone ever wants to know, give me a holler.

cheerio, Lou

I choose

I choose to live by choice, not by chance.
I choose to make changes, not excuses.
I choose to be motivated, not manipulated.
I choose to be useful, not used.
I choose to excel, not compete.
I choose self-value, not self-pity.
I choose to listen to wise counsel, not the random opinion of others.

These are my choices. This is my commitment to myself.
I know I won't be able to stick by all of these, all of the time, but I choose to be mindful and to make conscious decisions about my life and myself.



As usual, click to enlarge.
 

For this poster I used images from DHD and The Graphics Fairy (see links to the right of the page). Aren't those birds just the cutest, ever-er?

Ukulele (teaching) resources using Livebinders

There are things I really like about using livebinders.com. Unfortunately, it can also be quite difficult to use. 

I have recently tried to reorganise the front page of each of my livebinder tabs. Due to the restrictions of page layouts, I decided to create graphic pages (in MSpublisher) which contained the information I wanted as well as a few inspirational pictures. As livebinder uses information from around the web, I didn't collect only 'free to use' images. Unfortunately when I linked directly to the images (so the authors of the pics could be acknowledged), the page layout was gluggy and very hard to control, so this was my solution around the problem.

Here are my tab header pages so far.

Unfortunately, I have tried to upload these pages several times to the binder. The program does allow me to upload the file, but it won't seem to let me insert it on the header page. It might be the browser I'm currently using so I guess I'll have to experiment a little more.

If you haven't guessed by now, my livebinder is all about playing the ukulele. I currently have around 200 students learning the ukulele at school and it has become a bit of a cult around the school. I put this livebinder together for those who wanted to know more. It saves me giving out long lists of website addresses to students who probably won't type in the addresses properly anyway. This way, they only need one address and they'll find all the sites linked within the binder.

We use some software in class- using the students' phones and mobile devices, so I added a page on technology. At the very least, those who bring the technology to school can have a tuner app to use in class.

Of course, I added more advanced software for those who might want to take things further at home.

Here's the link to my livebinder in case you want to learn a bit more about the ukulele or music apps too- Livebinder: Ukulele Lovin'

cheerio, Lou