New Technology QR Code

 

Have you seen these new marks on products?
They are called QR code.
Hidden in this code is a lot of information. it looks as though someone has been scribbling with a texta pen while on the phone, doesn't it?

Well, this code is especially for my website, www.allergiesandcfs.com

Here's how to use it. If you have a QR code reader installed on your iphone or android then you are off and running and know just what to do. Otherwise,

• go to the App store and search for Free QR code reader. There are a few available. I selected the first one that came up.

• Install the App. Tap Install.

• Tap open

• point your camera at any QR code and in a flash it has read the code.

• Your phone will take you to my website.

I have seen these codes on the Post Office bags and in store catalogs. Scanning the codes will give you more information about the article or whatever the owner of the code wants you to see.

Scan this code and you will be able to find me wherever you are.
Have fun!

Changes and Holidays

Well, they do say a change is as good as a holiday, don't they?

I haven't been on a holiday, so I'll just have to have a change.
I was hanging out in some other blog and found this great info by another blogger. It was all about different templates and new headers. I thought I'd give it a go.

Megan and Keren from shabbyblogs.com/ have some lovely ways for you to have that change. I hope my change has worked.



shabbyblogs.com

I've installed a different template - thanks girls, Then they showed me where to go for another freebie to make a great header from some of my favourite photos. Try it out here FotoFlexer.com. You can really do some stunning things with your photos.

Next, I went into the back blocks of the Layout pages of Blogger and added a few things and da-da!!!
Here's the result.

I'll probably change it again sometime because I like playing around with the design of web pages and blogs.

Check out my other web pages - www.allergiesandcfs.com. There is also a blog on there all about health called Let's Talk Health. It's about using natural therapies and remedies and plain old common sense to stay healthy or get healthy, whichever you need. Don't we all need good health?

Another of my web pages is www.mygardentreasures.com.au. Here I chat on about my garden and my chickens that live in the garden. There are two blogs on this site. One is a Garden Blog
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/garden-blog.html and the other is about my chickens.
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/the-bantam-blog.html

I hope you have time to drop by and say Hello there too.

The photos in my header are some flowers from my garden. Isn't it great what you can do with them?

Free Wallpaper for your Laptop

I have just added two more photos you may like to download to use as wallpaper on your laptop. These are free.

Red Geranium

Red zonal geranium. Wallpaper for a laptop. 1920 x 1080 pixels


It is difficult to get a camera to take true red photos. Red is a very dominant colour and is the first colour the eye can see. It has the lowest frequency. Violet, on the other hand is the highest frequency.

My Dad liked these red flowers. So try it on your laptop. Here's the link. so you can download it.

 

Australian Country Road at Dusk

Here is another piece of wallpaper that you may like.

Australian country road at dusk. Wallpaper for a laptop. 1920 x 1080 pixels

Here is the link for this sunset. We were driving along the Australian country road at dusk with a car coming towards us. Follow the link to Flickr to download it.

I like taking photos from the car window. Speed does different things to the photos. This one came out looking like a pastel painting, all fuzzy. I quite liked it.

Flowers on Pinterest

New-fangled Technology

Last night it was difficult to sleep so I had fun pinning photos of the flowers in my garden on Pinterest.

I'm still working out how to use all these new-fangled internet programs - there's Facebook, Twitter, Pintereset and Blogger. There are business pages on Facebook and different pages of Pinterest.

Then there is the trouble of trying to get your photos to do just what you want them to do and be the size you want them to be,

How would you find my page if you weren't me? Really, I don't know, but I suppose you could put in my name somewhere and I would pop up. Is that how it goes?

Anyway, I put lots of photos of the beautiful flowers in my back garden and a few from my front garden. The front garden still needs a lot of work and is about to get a revamp.

Lily

Here are a couple of flowers from my front garden. Can any one tell me anything about this unusual lily? I have not seen it anywhere else but in my flower garden.



An unusual lily

 

 

Rosebud

Rose buds are always a delight. This one has such a red shade yet when it opens it is a yellow rose. Ahh, the glories of nature.

 

 

Artwork

I also pinned some of my artwork to my board so you might like to see it.

 

Cheers till next time.

Managing Your Photos for Free

 

My Favourite Photo Editor

At the moment my favourite photo editor is PicMonkey. Look at the lovely way you can manage your photos.

I had fun sitting in my backyard the other day. It is filled with spring flowers. My two Silkie bantams were wandering around and came to peck some organic feed mix out of the earthenware mosaic bowl. This bowl took all my attention a while ago as I sat for hours placing the tiny pieces of brightly coloured tiles around the inside of the bowl.

This bowl sat for some time under the tap in the front garden providing a watering place for the local birds. Now it has a new use, that of a place to provide treats for my hens.

Chickens

Our young mother hen and her six chicks are in the photo on the right. Her chickens have grown considerably and have now sprouted wings. The wing feathers are the first real feather a chicken grows. They are now getting feathers on their shoulders.

The chickens have outgrown their first cage and are in a new cage bought especially for them. They live out in the garden with flowers surrounding them. They will be there for a few more weeks until they progress to their next cage.

My Garden Treasures

The central photo is from my web site. There I have more news about the poultry in my garden and all the flowers in it. My Garden Treasures

Experiment in Photoshop Elements

Use Photoshop Elements to Change the Atmosphere of your Photos

I love experimenting and Photoshop Elements is a good place to do it.

Look at the bar on the right hand side. You will see Edit, Create and Share.

Underneath that you will see Full, Quick and Guided.

Underneath that you will see Effects and Content.

Underneath that you will see Artistic with a little down arrow. This is where all the exciting things are. This gives you the power to change your photos.  

For my photos today, I used Edit, Full, Effects and changed through a couple of Artistic and Sketch items.

Original photo

Change your Photos by Experimenting

 

Select the little white hand from the left hand side of the Photoshop screen.

Use it to grab the element you wish to experiment with. Grab the Chalk and Charcoal or the Halftone and pull it above your photo.

 

The photo will change after a couple of seconds. If you like the result save your photo in File, Save as. Save it as a .jpg and place it in the folder you wish to save it to.

 

If you don't like what you see and wish to try another element, just press Control/Z and you will be back to your original photo.

 

Have fun.

Free Photo Editor

Pelargoniums and mosaics in my garden

We are so lucky today that we can use so many tools that are freely available on the web.

Here I have made a collage of some beautiful pelargoniums and a geranium along with a daisy and my birdbath that I decorated with mosaics.

The program I used is called PicMonkey. Try it out for yourself and see what you can do with your photos.

Making a Sepia Photograph with Photoshop Elements

Original Photograph of a Beautiful Orchid

 

Changing your Photograph to Sepia using Photoshop Elements

Open Photoshop Elements

Open your saved photograph

Make a duplicate of it. File  > Duplicate

You are now working on the duplicate photo

 

On the right hand of the screen you will see Edit

 

 

Under this choose Guided

Choose Old Fashioned Photo

 

Follow the Guide

Choose Vivid Landscape

Click Adjust Tonality

Click Add Texture

 

Click Adjust Saturation - adjust the sliders

Click Done

 

Save your photograph

File > Save as

Choose the file you are going to save your photo in

Save your photo as a .jpg. This is often easier to use than a .psd

Click Save

 

Click Done

Click OK

 



 

 

To change your background to a clearer shade, after you make your duplicate photo,

Choose Water Paper on right hand side

Click Apply

Follow the rest of the directions from 'Guided' above

 

 

 

This gives a different, more delicate and more modern look. Enjoy.



Free Wallpaper for your Laptop

Recently I made some wallpaper for my laptop, you know, the pretty pictures you see when you turn on your screen. I thought someone might like to share it too.

Its a photo of the beautiful beach at Airey's Inlet a small community along the Great Ocean Road along the southern Victorian coast. We are talking Australia here.

The size is 1920 x 1080, 884Kb, just right for a laptop.

Here's the link in Flickr. Hope you like it.

While you are there you might check out some of my other photos.

Cheers

A Free, Easy Photo Editor

Here is a great photo editing program to manipulate your photos. It's called PicMonkey.

Gather together a few photos you like, whether they are to go in your family photo album, scrapbook, or to put on Facebook or your website.

Go to http://www.picmonkey.com/ and follow the prompts. It won't take you long to work it out.

Here are a few sets of photos I did with snaps from my garden.