Lake Edna

We had gone trailing at Lake Edna last weekend.
Here are a couple of pictures I took

White Balance experiment

I loved taking Karen Russell's photography class and one of the assignments was playing with white balance. So here are some shots. Taken raw and unedited except for adding copyright and
Camera - Nikon d7000
Lens - 50 mm f1.4

So here are the pictures. My puppy was under the table. Love some of the effects got by just changing the white balance. Auto does a pretty good job but I love the flash best!

Klic n cut - Day 1

So I finally had a little bit of help and took the knk maxx (or I should say eagle) upstairs and attached the bolt table and connected the eagle to power. It turned on and I was releived. Then I started following instructions - from knk manual and both are almost the same except for pressure. And I ran into a glith. the arrow buttons and origin would not work. I panicked and sent desperate email to Sandy on friday evening. I should know better than to start on friday right. I was so upset and came down. Hubby said do not worry it will work out and will be a simple problem. I knew it was a simple problem but after Imagine - oh the hassle of shipping. I wanted to open the control panel but hubby said - No. He said go down and read a book and try to take your mind off and so I did and came down and guess what an email from Sandy at about 10.00 pm. Yes folks - friday evening 10:00 pm. That's customer service. It was a simple problem. I had to open control panel up and just sand very very lightly (gently like an eraser with a fine fine sanding block)  the gold spots .  Hubby saw the email - replied as my laptop was upstairs . So morning comes and first thing - yep sanded the gold spots and yeah my knk is working. Tested with pen and can't wait to play after I read up the manual. What an adventure it is going to be. I will add pictures later to this post. Oh I love how the control panel in acs is detached from the machine. there is a cable and I can set it down near the laptop and handle both.
Did I mention the customer service? :) I can be worry free in the weekend. for those used to my Gypsy videos - yep sure there will be some in knk as I play and yep those same long posts  as I maintain my log here in this blog just like in G at thebugbytes.

Oh My! Oh My! Oh My!

You know from the time of 3rd party issues in cutterworld I have been saying I want another cutter. I am NOT boycotting. But as I said to scrap my wedding and important events I need to make my own images. That's why I learnt designing at Jessica Sprague's
Well  I though it was a long way in the future and hubby too said in 6 months we will consider . He had earlier asked me to narrow down to 2 machines and this time after adequate research as he was not happy with the Imagine. So I did. Since I knew it was 6 months away I thought why not go in for 24 inches and  so narrowed down to Black cat cougar and knk maxx (klic - n cut) . Boy! These are the Ferrari's and Lamborghini in my book
I talked to Sandy - knk and Dawn and Sherri - cougar and what great helpful and knowledgeable and PATIENT women they all are. They answered all my questions so honestly. I made a comparison - pros and cons list and submitted to hubby.
You cannot loose in both the machines. They match. Only difference I found was knk has bolt table and also it is US based while cougar  has one distributor in US and is UK based. That's about  the main apart from some extra speed  stops in cougar I think.OK now comes the Oh My !Oh My !Oh My part :)
Hubby has gone and ordered this for my wedding anniversary which was last week. I got a hint when my son was talking when he saw me watching E2. He said something like you are not going to watch that Mommy etc and when I asked why he said that - by his answers I knew something fishy was going on and when I confronted hubby later on he said yes. And then Sandy emailed me with congrats and I knew for sure. But that's still not the Oh My part!. The Oh My part is because guess what turned up? EAGLE ULTRAFORCE and not knk maxx.
Yep eagle is twice the force of knk. Check this site out http://scrapbookdiecutter.com/
Since they ran out of knk maxx till they get the shipment instead of dropping a customer they just upgraded free of cost! Yahoo!!! So not only did I get the extras when ordering knk maxx according to the site I got an eagle. I am thinking about the chipboards I can cut. I can put a roll of vinyl as it is.  Well I should thank the boycotters lol even though I am not boycotting. I guess because of them lots of cutters have been sold out and I get an Eagle!!!
It is like while air travelling. When one is upgraded to first class. I always wanted to be upgraded and used to look green eyed at those who got upgraded. But this is so so much better!
OH WOW! I cannot wait to talk further with Sandy! She is known for awesome support! Her blog - http://www.iloveknk.com/

Ok here are the pictures.

Now have to wait for hubby and son to move this baby upstairs! It is almost 3 feet long! Now off to check out all the goodies!

Discovery Green - March 26th 2011

Last Saturday we went to Discovery Green in Houston. It has some lovely programs for kids

http://www.discoverygreen.com/families/

I decided to take my small point and shoot - Lumix z7 instead of my Nikon SLR as I was too tired after coming back from Dallas Stampede - a scrapbook event and did not want to lug my Nikon and keep changing lenses. So here are some pictures from there. After looking at my copyright I need to change the font and work on this a bit. I love the font but well it needs to be a bit bold. Well that's work for another day. Meanwhile..

They has some cool art bikes on display made by a society. They were really cool.

Then there was this cart which was made by a High School in Houston for a parade as a float and donated to the park. It was so lovely. It is a working cart

Close up. Look at all the details

Now here I want to give a shout out. We had gone to check out the writer's workshop. Here's a portion of the brochure. You can find further info in the link which I have given above.

My son enjoyed the class and while he was inside and we were waiting outside we found a cool program going on outside - The Teatro Alley. It is a program where people learn English by playing games. Since I was just sitting and was invited by them to join in I joined in. We played tossing the bean bag while saying a word from the category chosen. For eg first category was color and we had to throw it at anyone in the group calling out a color name.
If you are here around Houston and have kids check it out
So here are pictures of the rest of the group

And here are a couple of shots of my son from his creative writer's workshop

And after the class some fun time

And some rest before we go and grab lunch

Well that's some of my pictures on our visit to Discovery Green.