First AV project -- One Perfect Day...

(This video was inspired by Simoné's "August".)

I used iPhoto to cobble together some photos, video footage and music. Dirty camera lens, lots of shaky footage, noisy backgrounds etc, but it's a nice reminder of a lovely day.  Daniel _loves_ watching it over and over.

I've uploaded the mobile version because the HD version is more than 500Mb and will take forever to load.

The music is Come Back When You Can by Barcelona.

You know the rules!

Shannon and Simoné's first video is up, and has even been featured on their hero's website (http://pinchmysalt.tv/?cat=4). One of his funny videos was the inspiration for "You know the rules". How cool is that?


You Know The Rules from Penguin&Panda.Productions on Vimeo.

If it won't load -- watch it HERE.

Guerrilla Artists on Scooters

Decided that today was a good day to not sit around the house, so we decided to get out and do some guerrilla art. And get some scootering done too. The storm water dam near our house has finally got some water in after the rain, so that's where we headed.

The dogs were obviously very happy with the water and started sloshing around as soon as we got there. You could just imagine them standing there waiting for a (shot) duck to fall out of the sky. They looked very much like RETRIEVERS, and very at home in the water.

Shadow was trying his best to retrieve something from the bottom.

And Harley was smiling from ear to ear.

Then on to some Guerrilla Art...

I know that it's probably technically vandalism, but no-one ever goes to the "dam" except us, and we thought it could do with some decorating.

The three artists got to work right away. Daniel drew on "his" side with chalk:

And was very proud of his artwork:

The girls had some paint to use on their sides. Here are the artists hard at work and lost in their own worlds:

Then on to a hill for some downhill scootering. Shannon was trying all kinds of weird things:

Sarah wasn't trying anything funny, but still managed to come away with skinned knees and bleeding toes. Might have something to do with the inappropriate outfit she was wearing.

Daniel only hurt his thumb this time, so he must be getting better.

Then it was time to go home to rinse the dogs in the sea. They did swim properly but they still smell vaguely of stale pond-water. Was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

Recipe for Chocolate & Vanilla Retrievers

Had such a good laugh today. The kids wanted to scooter on the roads here behind us, so we took the dogs and the scooters and off we went. I asked them to scooter up and down the same road away from the busier roads so I wouldn't have to worry about the dogs' lack of car sense. I was taking some photos of the kids coming around the corner, and checked on the pups from time to time. They were just running around the bushes, sniffing and having a great time. When Shannon came around the corner again, I asked her to check on the dog farther on next to the road because his nose was all brown. It just looked like sand from far away, but when I took a photo and zoomed in, this is what I saw:

They had found a bit of muddy water (leaking pipe) in all that dryness, and were digging it up into a muddy puddle. Shadow quickly got into the action as well:

They were dipping their faces right under the water:

They were having so much fun, I just ignored the fact that the mud had to be removed again at a later stage:

This is what a thoroughly-dipped chocolate and vanilla Retriever looks like:

It was just so funny! I was sitting on the road laughing until the tears rolled down my face. The kids thought I was having a fit. I could hardly hold the camera still, I was laughing so hard. And the dirtier they got, the more I laughed.

At least their "self-cleaning mechanisms" have kicked in and they are basically clean again. And it was mostly sand and clean water, not real mud.