CAble car

 

Vistaprint - small Mansfield with Monsters banner

So apparently I can 'share' a design from vistaprint. Not sure what that means exactly, but I really like my $9 Mansfield with Monsters poster (printed on lightweight vinyl), so here goes:

I don't know if this will let other people order one, just show off the design or what, but I'm happy to have one of these hanging on the wall in the office at home.

Te Papa

 

Coat hangers

 

Kickstarting a Novel: Ghost Hand by Ripley Patton

I've heard of Kickstarter before. I know a few people who have crowdfunded projects. Today I decided to back a project set up by Ripley Patton to self-publish a YA novel called Ghost Hand:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/553002528/ghost-hand-a-young-adult-novel

Why this project? Because Ripley is an awesome, talented, community-minded writer who has given a whole heck of a lot to the NZ spec fic community. Because her series of blog posts about her self-publishing process has been really interesting to read:

http://www.ripleypatton.com/

http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/my-kickstarter-is-go-and-you-could-win-something/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/crowdfunding-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/hands-on-kickstarter-12-things-i-learned-by-building-a-project/
http://www.ripleypatton.com/2012/07/mansfield-with-monsters/

And because a good friend of mine, Morgue, once agreed to buy something Debbie and I had made without a thought, without hesitation, without wanting to see it first, because he trusted us and because he wanted to support creative people doing good stuff.

I'm backing it because Ripley is good people.

I was pleased by the ease of use - as long as I didn't mind linking together a couple of accounts I didn't have to type in anything but existing passwords. Just sign into Kickstarter using my facebook account, pay with my amazon account. Boom.

 Go check out the project. It looks good. And back it if you can :-)

Mansfield with Monsters Launched

Our book, Mansfield with Monsters, which features 17 Katherine Mansfield short stories adapted to include a variety of monsters and alien creatures, was launched yesterday. It's available from www.steampress.co.nz and also from amazon.com if you live anywhere except the EU :-)

We made a V48 film - Office Fantasy Challenge V48Hours 2012

We entered the 48 Hour film contest with a teacher team, and were assigned the fantasy adventure genre. We decided to make something very, very silly: 

One afternoon in March

Horse

 

Dom enjoys the piano

Staying at Granny's

We had a little birthday/late Christmas celebration over the weekend and stayed at Granny's house. It was lots of fun and we got to visit Tango in the morning! Dom stayed up very, very late, having had a sleep-in in the morning and a short nap in the car on the way down.

 



 
 

Painting

Mum had a cool painting of a giraffe at her house - the canvas had been painted stripey green, then the outline of a big smiley cartoon giraffe had been painted or drawn on with vivid. Debbie asked if I could do something similar for Dom's room but with a dinosaur. This is what I ended up doing:

 

Not very much like the painting at Mum's place, but I like it.

Kelly Tarlton's - best bit

This is the bit of Kelly Tarlton's which I remember from my childhood visit, and it didn't disappoint on a retun trip. The sharks looked a little smaller but the experience of being under water but dry was very, very cool. There was a ride past the penguins (which we didn't go on because of the queue), an open tank which Dom loved, a couple of side rooms with seahorses and eels and stuff, and the arctic exhibit from Chch, but the underwater tunnel was bestest.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

*Photos taken with a Panasonic TZ8 on scn mode -> high speed burst (3M) -> speed priority.

2011 was ace

2011 was a big year for the family. Debbie returned to work, Dom started preschool, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and started therapy. Debbie and I wrote an anthology of stories and had it accepted for publication. We took two trips up north to see family, had a few stories published (including the awesome podcast of Debbie's Upon a Star) and generally led busy lives.

Fingers crossed 2012 will have as many highs as 2011, possibly with fewer broken bones and tooth repairs :-)

 
 
 
 

More Dom + Self Portrait

 
 
 
 

Bonus post!

Dom in December

 
 
 
 

It's the holidays! Dom's having his last week at pre-school before a couple of weeks off, Debbie and I are getting some time to relax and unwind, and Dom is continuing to be awesome.

Dance intro

Dom spent a few minutes dancing to the Kung Fu Fighting music video, and with the ability to restart the song at will on his ipad he got good at timing the start of his dance to the music:

Borrowed a camera

I borrowed a Canon EOS 450D twin lens kit this weekend, and have been taking lots of photos. It's a fun camera and I'd love to win one in a competition some time! This is not to say that I don't love the TZ8 I just got - that's an awesome little camera. But I do like toys and could see myself owning many, many cameras one day.

I think I'm going to have to sell my old Sony H2 shortly. It's got a lot of life left in it but it can't compete with the convenience of the TZ8!