Elemental My Dear Watson

Arti - I do think your boys would like the book - all the guys in our family seem very keen. I just hope that Clive isn't going to rush off and make go-carts, though. We don't have the time. There is a version for girls but it's not nearly so good.


I'm glad you like Lynn Prossers work. I think that both Lynne and Carla will be wonderful additions to Wessex Textiles. I'll try and get some more photos on Friday or Saturday as I am stewarding then. I shall take a sewing machine and hope to get lots of work done while I am there. It's upstairs and I will regret lugging a machine all the way up there. I'm thinking of getting a little lightweight machine - getting too old for weight lifting. My doctor would be pleased, though - she asked about exercise and I said I walked a lot. She replied that it should be weight-bearing exercise so I said I'd take my handbag.


After a massive onslaught on the book front the text is now all printed out and ready to go. Usually I just type it all as one large file, marking where the pics go, noting my word count and not worrying too much about how the designer allocates the space for each pic. I have tried a new tactic with this book, which was successful with Embellish and Stitch. It's pretty obvious really, but I've worked much more with page spreads, numbering the pages and working out where the big full page pics go. It involved more blood, sweat and tears as there were lots of adjustments and you can't be so last minute about it. Now they will probably find that I've miscounted and that will be a disaster. We shall see.


I'm having fun today, re-learning Photoshop Elements. I needed to take some screen shots for the book and thought I'd better not use PSP exclusively so I ordered the latest version of Elements from Amazon. This was expensive, as they kept suggesting CDs I would love to have. Must have caught me at a weak moment as I bought three. They keep telling me that I might like books by this Maggie Grey person.

I've got quite caught up with Elements - one great effect is the Gradient Map - we haven't got that in Paint Shop Pro. Here's a Gaudi pic from the Barcelona book I'm working on.




Looks good with the gradient treatment. It was one of Val's favourites and I always think of her when I use it.
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Must go now and save all the piccy files that I have taken for the book. I don't like to waste my allowance of Michael Wicks pics on boring things like materials so I usually take those myself. And this book has some digital stuff in it. I can see that this will take up the rest of the day. Finding where I've saved them will be the worst bit!