Another one of J taken outside while sitting in the highchair. He sure is growing up so fast and, boy, he's on the move all the time (hence the highchair). It's the only way we can safely take him outside and enjoy the evening while Craig fires up the BBQ.

So, I've had this stamp set forever, it was one of the first ones I bought. And it had been sitting in a drawer until recently. I had wondered why I bought it and I didn't really like any of the cards I made with it and so never used it.

Well my SU 2005-6 IB&C gave me some new ideas (such as this one posted previously) and these ones below. I am really starting to like the flower from this set, although I still haven't come up with anything for the butterfly!

Cards were made with: Love Without End stamp set, Everyday Flexible Phrases Stamp set; Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Old Olive and Basful Blue CS; Certainl Celery grosgrain ribbon, silver brads, Mellos Moss button, Linen Thread, Stampin Dimensionals.

After yesterdays working one season ahead, I went full whack today with working two seasons ahead on Christmas cards. Yikes, Christmas is a long way off but the reason for this is that a call went out on Splitcoaststampers for volunteers to make Christmas cards for Canadian soliders to send to their loved ones. It's not like they can just head out to the nearest Walmart or Hallmark store :)

I'm trying to keep the designs simple so that they can be mass produced. These are my first two designs. I've decided that organdy ribbon is not really appropriate for these matcho guys so I'm gonna have to get my hands on some white grosgrain instead (I feel another SU order coming on...)

I'm not normally prepared for seasons in advance, but today I thought I'd create some fall cards. I don't usually send fall cards (I have enough of a problem just keeping up with Birthdays) but I thought I might start a new tradition (or at least use these for seasonal thank-yous or birthdays).

Design and color scheme CASEd from SU 2005-6 IB&C p.63. SU Creamy Caramel, Really Rust, Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla CS. Linen Thread, Black Eyelet. Close to Cocoa Ink. Sarah Beise Leaf Stamp and SU Everyday Flexible Phrases.

Hope you like them! Now I can really appreciate the Summer :)

I took a stroll around the golf course (well part of it) last night and saw this guy/gal foraging in some pine needles just off the cart path. I had my 55-200 lens on, so I was able to get pretty close in without disturbing him/her. I'm not sure what type of bird this is though. I'll edit the post if I figure it out.

Well I knew it. As soon as I bought a camera the Panasonic DMC-L1 DSLR would be released, well kind of, it's actually pre-release. Any while it is a great camera, a price tag of $1999 US is a bit rich for my pocket (and that just includes a basic kit lens 14-50 range - albeit Leica). No, I'll pass this time. Read about it here.

I emailed Geoff Rasmussen yesterday in response to an email he sent me a while ago thanking me for referring to Legacy on this web site. I had to explain to him that I had actually moved to TMG6 in January because of the long wait on the real endnotes/footnotes (oops!).

Anyhow, Geoff mentioned that real endnotes/footnotes were to be included as part of Legacy 7. Well I couldn't let that drop could I? So I asked him whether Legacy 7 will be released later this year. The answer is "We hope to, but we never know...".

I hope so too, Geoff.

I've been having a couple of issues with TMG6. As you might remember, I upgraded to TMG in January as I really wanted to start my family history book and needed real footnotes/endnotes (which Legacy 6 doesn't have).

Well after a long import process (there are some bugs with the way TMG imports Legacy files re sources and citations) I finally got my report. I hadn't had much opportunity to use TMG since and finally felt prompted to use it the last couple of days as I had discovered a link to a well documented line of McMurachys. I wanted to merge a McMurachy gedcom with my own file. I came across the following issues/annoyances:

1. The merge function is terrible. By default the automatic merge looks for soundex similarities which causes way to many matches. I changed this to surname exact spelling and first name soundex.
Funnily enough though, even with the default setting, it didn't pick up the most obvious matches (those with the exact same name but with a space Mc Murachy vs. McMurachy, or those names in capitals?).

2. When you check a pair as non-duplicates, the check mark does not show (to confirm you checked it) even though a confirmation message appears. In fact, there is no way to tell that you have even selected the pair as non-duplicated unless you exit the Merge function and run it again. Even then, when you select "don't show non-duplicates" the pair is still included in the count of duplicate pairs.

When I checked with the technical support for TMG I was told that there was nothing wrong with this functionality (it was intentional). Gotta be the most stupid thing I've even seen and I work in the software industry! I'd never let my software developers get away with something so dumb :)

I have been looking for a great spot in the house for taking natural light photo portraits of the kids and I think I have found it. The problem in a modern home is that there are electrical outlets everywhere, as well as other paraphanalia (sp?) on the walls.

Anyway, I found a spot in my dining room, right next to the big picture window where the background is plain and not distracting. There isn't even any baseboard moulding here as it is on the fireplace peninsula. See what you think!

As you know, I took up pastel painting a couple of months ago and have completed 5 paintings so far. Well last weekend I exhibited the first 4 in the Gallaghers Canyon Art Exhibition. The exhibition featured about 25 artists all residing at Gallaghers Canyon. There were over 100 visitors on the opening night alone with more over the following two days. It was a great experience to be part of an art show and it gave me more confidence in my painting ability. I plan to exhibit again next year.

My latest paper obsession is with craft cardstock. I have always loved browns and am really enjoying the look of craft cardstock. I think it is the naturalness of it. Anyway here are two cards using craft CS background, White CS, Mellow Moss Cs, SU Pocket Full of Posies & Everyday Flexible Phrases stamps, Barely Banana/Perfect Plum/Mellow Moss/Basic Black/Chocolate SU Inks, SU Linen Thread.

Here are some photos of J from today:

Here are some photos of K from a couple of days ago:

You may have read my previous blog about my next camera. Well it turns out I didn't buy either of the two cameras I raved about. Not because I changed my mind, the two cameras I recommended are still probably two of the best cameras on the market, but because neither of them are shipping yet. My tax refund arrived and I didn't want to wait because I knew I would spend the money, so I decided to make a decision immediately.

The Nikon D50 had been shortlisted a while ago, together with the Canon Rebel XT and the Nikon D70s. I have read countless reviews, tons of postings on dpreview and browsed endless pictures on pbase. All three are great cameras but here are my reasons for choosing the D50.

The D50 has less features than both the Rebel XT and the D70s but it is also cheaper than the two of them. I had always preferred its pictures, being more vivid and requiring less post-processing out of the camera than the other two, a major advantage to someone with little time for post-processing.

Its kit lens was also rated better than the Canon, in fact Canon lenses in general were a big drawback to choosing a Canon. They have some fantastic premium lenses but at premium prices. Their regular everyday lenses don't rate very well when compared to Nikon at similar prices. The reason that I hesitated to buy the Rebel XT was because I couldn't make up my mind about lenses.

The D70 was bigger and heavier than the competitors and the kit lens was more expensive and therefore a bigger investment which wasn't necessarily a good thing seeing as I knew I'd need other lenses (telephoto zoom and low-light prime). I had a hard time giving up the D70s features, especially the remote flash commander, but I know that I can always add the remote flash commander unit to the D50, albeit for the difference in price between cameras ($310 CDN).

At the end of the day it's the pictures that count and not the features. That clinched the deal because I just like the D50 pictures better.

K is fascinated by the quail that run around at the back of our yard and usually frightens them off (she can be so noisy). Today though, she was at daycare and so I got the chance to stalk some quail. Here's a shot with the D50 & 55-200 lens.

Here are the first pictures taken with my Nikon D50 SLR camera. I am really happy with the pictures it takes "out of the camera" no post-processing. This was the reason I chose this camera over the Canon Digital Rebel XT.



These two were taken of J indoors using ISO 1600. I am not sure that such a high ISO was really necessary but I am trying to decide whether I need a prime lens such as the 50mm F1.8 for low light or whether the kit lens will be enough. I thought they came out pretty good although just a bit grainy which is what you'd expect.