So what have I been doing? Not a lot. Cleaning; reading; sorting through old family photographs; winning virtual garden competitions; finding ways to incorporate the semi-colon into my life, that sort of thing. And I have realised that I spend too much of my life planning and not doing, and I actually function better when I simply fling myself into something with no pre-planned direction. So here I am with a directionless post, but in the spirit of the 4fotos meme, invented by Mr Devine, I will share some of the most recent photos in my library, just to give you something to look at.
Firstly, a collage....
A garden pic....
Another collage...
And finally, my Auntie J. I don't think I asked enough questions about my Auntie J when I was child, and her image has left me pondering. She was a relative by marriage, and a much loved family member...I was sorting through the old photographs to see if I could use them for collage, so perhaps I was looking at these familiar pictures through a different lens. She was definitely a character!
Now, when I hit publish will my pictures go all blurry? Hope not.
Hoorah! Back on Blogger! Jx
ReplyDeleteIndeed I am! I will try to stick with it this time.
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Oh, very tasteful, Ms Scarlet. I feel like I should be popping more expensive chocolates than Ferrero Rocher into my mouth while gliding around making appreciative noises.
ReplyDeleteAuntie J looks like great fun! And I use that Dorothy Parker quote rather often at work.
As for "winning virtual garden competitions, you must be taking part in another event other than The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, surely? But where do you find the time? Especially with "finding ways to incorporate the semi-colon into my life" (ha haa!!).
P.S. Your pictures don't look blurry to me (although my eyes aren't the best). Do the pictures at mine and other Blogger blogs look okay to you? (I remember you mentioning this before and Jon suggesting some way of making them crisper. In fact, I was trying to find Jon's comment just prior to putting up the GPE posts.)
Gosh, that was ages ago, Mr DeVice! I basically advised that on Blogger, it is better to use the HTML editor rather than the "WYSIWYG" one, and to always upload photos in maximum size, because you can then tweak the HTML code to adjust the size they appear on the page without affecting their resolution. I also gave Ms Scarlet a load of gobbledygook to explain how that HTML tweak works (because you can't post the actual code in a comment box). I'll have a browse back in time to see if I can find it... Jx
DeleteMr Devine and Jon - It is tasteful, isn't it?! And calming. I'm pleased with the overall effect. Any chocolate would be welcome, given the price of it.
DeleteAdmittedly the semi-colon does take up most of my time - it's certainly not as free and easy as the exclamation mark!
Ah - please don't hunt for the post with the code because I have unpublished it and therefore it is no longer visible to you, but I can go up my back passage and retrieve it for you, which I will do after typing this. The pictures are not as sharp as they are on Wordpress unless you click on them, and if I want super sharp photos here I will do the WordPress link thing as that is much easier for me than the code. The code seemed to defeat me! I'm a bit more chilled about Blogger pics now, thank goodness.
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Jon and Mr Devine - Here is the code comment:-
Deletethe HTML appears something like this (without the square brackets around the "<" and ">"):
[<]div class="separator" style="clear: both;"[>][<]a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHn_IJjlOgAw-zrCmsIx-EeuGMOBuv3950wk_rREpBoG7Ih2o8WHwBdvxOGvkaE6f5D05HiyoIU2OMp6KZr8DT7OxOnTr_Nz6Y4jzwYOjI6QuovdskhLSEJND07YkWklhUC1lBuV4yq5KhA69JYZr8jQi5KKf8jjmIqJfRRPGqRbLWdahqzIt1nwPs0SO/s1600/Casual%20Friday.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "[>][<]img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHn_IJjlOgAw-zrCmsIx-EeuGMOBuv3950wk_rREpBoG7Ih2o8WHwBdvxOGvkaE6f5D05HiyoIU2OMp6KZr8DT7OxOnTr_Nz6Y4jzwYOjI6QuovdskhLSEJND07YkWklhUC1lBuV4yq5KhA69JYZr8jQi5KKf8jjmIqJfRRPGqRbLWdahqzIt1nwPs0SO/s1600/Casual%20Friday.jpg"/[>][<]/a[>][<]/div[>]
I always delete the div class="separator" style="clear: both; and /div bits as that buggers up the layout. Then I replace style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center;" with target="_blank" to make it open in a new tab or Lightbox. Finally I add the size (for example: width="640") in place of the final "/" (after .jpg). Hope that makes sense..? Jx
Also important: Page break is
And my HEX Codes for my blogger colours are: Background #fdfaf0 Blue #073763
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Horrah! I said it looked like gobbledygook, but it works! As for the pics not looking clear in the smaller size, you have to make absolutely sure you have "s1600/" in both photo links, as that means the image will be high resolution. I have tried increasing this number, but 1600 is the maximum, it seems. Jx
DeleteAh, thank you Ms Scarlet and Jon! I was looking for that post & comment for quite a while before deciding that you'd probably unpublished it, Ms Scarlet, so I'm pleased that you found it out for us.
DeleteAnd I'm also pleased to say that most of that gobbledygook looks familiar. I often amend the HTML code after uploading pictures into a blog post, but not exactly like Jon's example. However, I think the code for Jon's GPE post - which will be published at midnight tonight, fyi - may be exactly the same as I copied it from one of his posts. All is explained at the end of the forthcoming post. I just hope it looks okay - if it doesn't, I've mucked something up (it looks okay in 'preview', and I did test part of it in a published post).
Mr Devine - The code is hard work! Sometimes it works for me, and sometimes it drives me crazy. If I want a clear photo I will cheat with a link to my WordPress blog!
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I'm like you areMs. Scarlett. I usually pre-plan very little. I'm definitely more impromptu myself. The only thing I ever briefly and really are big trips abroad and that's about it. Back in the day I used to just up and decide to go to Baltimore or New York City for dinner. Mind you both cities were about an hour and a half away from where I lived. And I absolutely love those collages. I still have the ones you gave me. I'm still meanwhile looking for the perfect frame to put them in.
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm pleased you like the collages, Mistress M! I mean to make more, but I've been overthinking what I'm going to make - and yes, spontaneity works better for these collages, and for me. Planning seems to negate the fun.
DeleteI watched Ab Fab last night where Edina and Patsy jumped on Concorde to New York to look for a door handle for Edina's burnt out kitchen!
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I always thought this "fresh 'ell" locution came from Laurel & Hardy, used by Hardy when Laurel dropped something or else.
ReplyDeleteAuntie seems to stand on a kind of balcony. Is this a cigarette in her right hand ? She seems to enjoy herself.
Mr Mags - The quote is definitely Dorothy Parker!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, Auntie J does look to be on a balcony and is holding a woodbine between thumb and forefinger. She is not the most feminine family member! She was married to my Uncle J, who was in the navy and lived near Plymouth Docks. I have many pictures of her as she liked to have her photos turned into postcards to send to my Great Grandmother. Odd.
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I keep trying to incorporate the semi-colon into my blog posts but it keeps running away screaming. What am I doing wrong?
ReplyDeleteI phoned Mrs Kelly (who loves with him) to ask about the sewing machine and she said it was sold yesterday to a Lithuanian gentleman with bad breath.
Nick - I'm considering writing an entire post about the semi-colon, so watch this space!
DeleteI'm pleased the sewing machine finally found a good home. Thank you for the update.
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I'm on my first heart-starter of the day and saw you'd got a post in my email. Bloody hell! I can't be doing with code at this hour. Or any hour! (I remember making a skirt like Auntie J. is wearing in that photo.)
ReplyDeleteDinah - Auntie J probably made her skirt, too.
DeleteThe code defeated me as well; turn your head away and pretend it's not there.
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I never thought I'd say "thank goodness for Blogger" (given how much trouble it's given me over the years) but "thank goodness for blogger." Everything's looking good here!
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you here, Ms Mistress!! And thank you, I'm pleased with my decorative tinkering.
ReplyDeleteSx
Auntie J smokes and looks like a northern lass. I've been doing similar things too, except for the cleaning bit, I have a maid for that and winning gardening competitions virtualor otherwise. I've thrown out a load of old crap, including photos of dead relatives that I've never met, a yellowed and very fragile newspaper clipping featuring my Gran's cousin Bella who won a few quid at the bingo in 1968, death certificates, even my GCSE certificate all binned. I could do with a fire pit.
ReplyDeleteMitzi - Noooooo!!! I collect fragile newspaper clippings. I'm quite good at throwing out big things, such as wardrobes, chairs, and tumble dryers, but hopeless at parting with paper memorabilia. I still have my exercise books from primary school.
DeleteI did meet my Auntie J, and I also met my Great Grandmother - I just wish I'd taken more notice of them. It's quite possible that Auntie J was northern as I have a fine northern heritage - places were named after my family.
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