Simone Quentin de Manson

Nina Valley in Winter

Simone — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:43:29 +0000

I went on a wee tramp/hike this weekend. Here are some of the pics.

As you can see the first day was DIVINELY sunny and crispy. Lots of frost and leftover snow in little shady parts.

My companions were very patient as I took numerous photos and took a few little detours to get nice shots.

A night in a cabin full of boy scouts who behaved until they became comfortable with us, which was sooner than is customary since Rachel happened to be a teacher at some of the boys school (bugger!). Once that happened they decided throwing snow balls at us as we went looking for water in a stream in the dark down a bank, their aim was to scare us. I however tried to get them to carry the water buckets. They were not interested, which thought decidedly ungentlemanly. I then threatened to throw water at them, they saw this for the empty threat that it was..( one does not intentionally wet another persons tramping gear in winter.) I was reminded of my first tramping trips at that age with my friends and became quite nostalgic.

Teenagers are very weird creatures. One moment they make sense and act normally then the other they behave like small kids. One boy was nicknamed “camp mother” because of his taking charge of the cooking. Directing his “minions” in the chopping, cooking and cleaning. This was not at all resented and just taken as normal. Moments before this he would of been struggling with cards giving himself a hard time for not getting something exactly right, appearing less confident. The next he is up, with authority directing everyone on their tasks…

There was a light snow overnight.

The Nina Valley flickr Set

Perhaps to add a damper on this lovely weekend I just wanted to not forget the family that recently lost some of their own in the NZ backcountry.

Crochet on the brain

Simone — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:05:02 +0000

What can I say, crochet is on the brain. The colours and pictures inspire…

Emma Lamb

Sara Aires

Brigitte Read She has a cool flower tutorial here

Wow, just found a list of posts and tutorials on all things crafty, a rather chunky portion of its crochet. “Craft Stylish” Linda Permann..
Some picks:
How to crochet a flower part 1
How to crochet and flower part 2 (embellishing)

Finally the last one i found thanks to Linda Permann some whimsical toys crocheted and sewn by Sweet Nellie, check out her etsy shop

Crochet Christchurch

Simone — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:07:02 +0000

For this years Arts Festival a local cool Christchurch crafty chick Lucy Arnold is organizing a bunch of us crochet peoples to make some flowers to “grow” up some trees around the square (website/blog). Crochet flowers are quick and satisfying to do, so I’m obviously in! I am not sure what I like more, the growing amount of colours in a yarny flowery pile or the churning through a bunch of flowers at once. Feeling quite satisfied that I can achieve something yarny and colourful in such a short amount of time. Happy *sigh*.

I have been looking around for patterns, because I tend do have fun going on my tangents wondering what would happen if i chained a few more and attached it here and there, crochet is so easy to make the odd thing up, the quickly pull apart and try again. At this rate I will not win the most crochet flowers rumoured competition, but I will do my share anyhow.

Some cute-si crochet patterns out there..

Mid-Winter Christmas

Simone — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:29:44 +0000

I am curious, is the “mid-winter(/season-opposite-to-christmas) Christmas” celebration a southern hemisphere celebration? Perhaps invented by homesick settlers when they realised snow and cold were non-existent occurrence at Christmas in places like New Zealand and Australia. Any which way, the Christmas decorations came out this weekend. We baked up a storm of ginger-bread men, spicy cookies, christmas fruit mince pies and mulled wine, invited some friends over and had a fabulous time catching up while eating and competing for cat attention. I had such a good time, the cats, were the “belles of the ball” and Esther and I fluttered around quite happily, not sure what the guys did.. grunted most likely. I thought my wee darling Malieka might get quite uncomfortable by the unusual amount of people around. But no, she was quite sociable and floozied around everyone until she was quite worn out and made a bee line for her mums lap. Mischief was the same, but instead of lap she opted for peace and quiet on Esther’s Bed. Poor wee lambs.

This is the batch of baking. I managed to take the photo with the dud ginger bread men in the foreground…mmm thats makes me look competent!

To celebrate I thought I would post next about the Christmas fruit mince pies I baked. Followed a recipe the first time, threw it all together making up my own (well kinda) the second… added more booze, marmalade and less sultanas…

(on side note, added more people to my “link love” section and I wanted a place to show you the odd pretty thing i come across. So check out just below “about this site” part. Todays link was sent to me by Matt, a post full of different people afghans. Since I am making one at present, I was quite inspired. )

The Cactus Re-design

Simone — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:04:28 +0000

www.cactusclimbing.co.nz

Phew! I was pretty stoked when I go this job, thanks to an old flatmate I got a meeting and then the redesign job for one of the coolest New Zealand outdoor equipment manufacturer labels. I’m not just saying that either. (I have a cactus backpack, 5 years on, it still looks like a good solid backpack and its been everywhere…used while studying, biking to work… everything, the reason i like, the zip is still working and the fabric isn’t fraying. Usually this happens to my bags within the year)

So I was designer and project manager for this baby. A few hair tearing moments, mostly when it came to things completely out of my control, programming, hosting and what not. But its done and I am really happy with it. Its a Joomla and Virtuemart website for those who would like to know.

Let me introduce you to design number…. 4 (I think)

Simone — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:42:41 +0000

We have been about a month in the thinking, planning, designing and making. This has been my occupation in my evenings and weekends. Inspired by Tim Burtons film “The Corpse Bride”. Mostly this design was an act of self indulgence…

What to expect from her in the next month or so:

An “about me and contact” link at the top
A shop! It will start on etsy then i will have my own. Mostly my photography, but i would like to sell website “stuff” eventually.
A resources area for links to other sites divided up by categories ect.
Wallpapers and free photo downloads
A few more tweaks on the design.
many more links, in “Link Love” she needs beefing up!

In the mean time let me know your thoughts. Not sure if I like the blue anymore. But I NEVER like my designs after i have finished them. So I tend to ignore myself.

Time for a update

Simone — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:17:24 +0000

Dearest bloggity readers,

OK no posts and an excuse. The business is flourishing I have lots of work lined up, I am even having to turn people away, exclaiming “I can start your project maybe in two months, but right now the days are full” I think this is a good place to be in.

Because of this I will soon have a bunch of sites that were designed by me, while running my own business, which makes me feel pretty darn proud. Also pretty darn panicy about my current websites slap job (done in a day I think). SO along with my days being filled with work for clients, my nights and weekend have been busy on my own site. A site i can promote to some galleries ect. I have also decided since i make no bones about being freelance and when people sign up for work they sign up to work with me, that I will combine the sites I originally had separate. quentindemanson.com and simoneqdm.com will both go to the new website.

I hope to have the new website live in the next few weeks. Then i will get my life back, well the life thats not behind a cute little laptop playing with wordpress….

Toodles!

Web Design – Layout Panic Software

Simone — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:34:26 +0000

Panic software have a sale on right now, I grabbed “Transmit” because quite simply its the best ftp app I have used thus far and software that saves you time and is easy to use is worth the money. I just thought I should say (and take screen shots), that I really like this layout. Easy, pretty and the language is chatty and nice… why not give them money?

1970’s Book Design – Sewing books

Simone — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:33:42 +0000

Lets put the fact i like sewing and photography in a little box and forget about it, as I show you some books I picked up at the Library book sale, for $3 each. THREE DOLLARS.

The use of Helvetica, the prints, the colours, the illustrations, the photography, the LAYOUTS… Sigh, such a happy consumer right now.

A-Visiting Te Puke and Up North

Simone — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:00:05 +0000

Kylie and I headed up to Te Puke a couple of weekends back to visit the family (Kylies) and have a look around for a couple of days. Here are some of the photos. Once I get Kylie back on his next visit I will ask him all the place names and insert them into the content.

“The Mount”

Waterfalls we walked down too, the UP from…. beautiful area. (will get name)

There were also kittens! Kylies LOVELY mum looks after them when they are to small too adopt out by the SPCA. She get litters with mums and litters without mums, this litter needed feeding four times a day at one point, since Muma had been shot by accident (I think), very sad. They came out to play once a day in the office with Big Dog (Mr Stretchy) looking in the window as I took photos and played with them, but they NEVER stayed still, so hugs were completely out of the question. A hug had to be timed with a recent sleep, or moment of docility. Happily all kittens get adopted quite quickly.

Once misty morning we went to Rotorua to wait for our plane and I got to see Bubbling mud in a local park and I also took lots of photos of a misty lake.

And the little inevitable details I always get drawn to..