365 -update

Well I've very behind though I have been taking photos pretty much everyday. I have decided not to deluge the blog with all the ones I've missed out so instead I will post the weekly layouts when I've done them. I thought I'd start from now, or rather yesterday however and maybe post a couple of times a week from now on with a few pictures a time.

So yesterday's picture is below.. It is what the allotment looks like now after a fair amount of work building a shed. for more details see our allotment blog.

Feb 15th

Today's picture is of washing on the line, this is for two reasons. One to celebrate that it is warm enough to dry washing outside and the second somewhat less pleasant to record the fact we have had to do loads of washing as Treestump has been throwing up and indeed exploding out the other end for several days now so all his and many of our clothes have needed washing ! Please keep your fingers crossed he gets well soon I'm hoping he will as most of these bugs don't last more than about 3 days and he's been ill longer than that now.

Feb 16th

The washing line is under the edge of the car port which is very useful if the weather is marginal as even if it rains a bit the washing general is OK unless the wind blows it out into the rain. The less said about the stuff piled under the car port the better !!

My first attempts at design

Digital scrapbooking design that is.

Far too long ago I signed up to a VW camper vanswap and my first idea went wrong then we had lots of illnesses and so forth and I failed badly to forfil my commitments.. sorry Katy. Katy sent me a wonderful package ages ago ! However I was determined to do something however late and finally hit on an idea which I also thought would work as a christmas present for my brother who is also a VW fan.. so started my first attempt at design.

Now my brother is a graphic designer so doing any form of graphical work as a present for him is a little nerve racking but he seemed to like his version and I hope when Katy gets back from her holiday she will like her's too which has finally been sent.

I drew several different outline views of Camper vans then scanned them and played about with them in Gimp. I used a couple of papers from the weeds kit by June from Cen's loft and a frame or two from other places but otherwise everything was made from scratch. So what did i make?

Bragbooks, that's what which for those not in the know are 4 by 6 inch photo albums... suitable for people to carry about to show pics of grand kids etc and brag about them :)

This is the finished book for Katy, I made her a box for as well. My brother book is more substantial red leather look one from boots. This book was from Dunelm Mill who had several different colours and I though this ones was perfect to go with the pages..

Closed Box
Open box with book
a couple of pages, these ones use June's flower paper. The frame and vans I made.and some more just by me, the windows are cut out to allow photos to be inserted..

And here is the title page..
So what do you think?

A purple swap, crochet and a layout

Ok the swap is actually for purple, green and white because it is for International Women's day and those are the colours used by the suffragettes.

I found the Purple Paisley Patch blog recently which is run by a lass called Kelly and I already know it will be a blog I keep reading and not just because we both love purple ! Kelly is running the International Women's Day swap and the plan is to swap four Fat quarters of fabric in the aforementioned colours and then it has been suggested make a bag from it thought you can obviously do what you like with it. So if it sounds fun pop over there before the 20th and sign up.. Parcels will need to be posted on the 23rd/24th so them have time to get to their recipients.So on to crochet.. This is the finished mystery square from the Mystery Crochet a long group on Ravelry . I really like it. You make the flower first then crochet into the back of it to make the square so the flower stands out form the square. Made it in te same colours as the previous ones. If I keep this up I by the end of the year I will have 36 sqs which will probably make more than one blanket but i also know me and so hopefully even if I get bored in a couple of months I will still have enough to make one blanket !!
The layout is of Treestump and his friend.. They both think grabbing heads and vigorous patting of them is a sign of affection, that or eating you.. though Treestump does give real hugs too ! Poor old Treestump has some sort of sickness bug today and his little friend had it yesterday.. the kit is another great Miracle gro kit from Ladybug at Digital Scrap Garden.

Giveaway for you to check out.

Kylie over at Kylie's stitch and sew is having not one giveaway but a whole week of them to celebrate her 100th post.

So you might want to pop over there and check them out.

Each day she asks you comment and tell her something specific but don't worry it isn't anything hard. Judging by the first two days I think there will be something you like one day this week if not more than one.

The changing face of the park

Well we scaled the bank we sledged down last week on the way to school and this was the sight that presented itself to us ! The park has turned into an icy lake.
We are half convinced that seagulls are the winter coat for our crows as in the summer the place is full of crows !

Crochet meme

Nabbed from Needles of steel cos I though ti was fun and a good way of thinking about things I haven't tried.


Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing. This could end up with everything in italic of course !

Afghan/Blanket
Crochet with metal wire
Shawl
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up (well slippers but it's the same sort of thing just thicker.)
Crochet with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Crochet with silk
Irish crochet
Moebius band crochet
Participating in a CAL
Sweater
Spike stitch patterns
Crochet with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch crochet
Crochet with banana fiber yarn
Domino crochet (modular crochet)
Twisted stitch patterns
Crochet with bamboo yarn
Charity crochet
Crochet with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Crochet with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti crochet (crochet items on, or to be left on the street)
Tunisian crochet
Designing crocheted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a crochet book
Scarf
Teaching a child to crochet
Crochet to make money
Button holes
Crochet with alpaca
Fair Isle crochet (stranding)
Dying with plant colors
Crochet items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Olympic crochet
Crochet with someone else's handspun yarn
Holiday related crochet
Teaching a male how to crochet
Bobbles
Crochet for a living
Crochet with cotton
Dying yarn
Steeks (cut and sew)
Bosnian crochet
Crochet art
Fulling/felting
Crochet with wool
Textured crochet
Purses/bags
Crochet with beads
Front post/back post crochet
Swatching
Slingshot crochet cast on
Entrelac
Crocheting backwards
Crochet with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Foundation crochet (no starting chain)
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Crochet with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Crochet with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Two-colour crochet
Intarsia crochet
Crochet with linen
Crochet for preemies
Tubular crochet
Freeform crochet
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Crochet a pattern from an online crochet magazine
Rug
Crochet a gift
Crochet for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Crochet with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Crochet in public
Filet crochet
Motif crochet
Thread crochet
Spiral crochet
Tunisian entrelac
Tunisian entrelac in the round
Crochenit or cro-hooking

snow pics.

A bunch of photos.. There is a landscaped bank in one of the nearby parks, mostly there to stop travellers and so on camping on it I suspect but it is high enough to sled down and as a big flat open area behind it so no danger of running into anything.

The sky was very grey and it was only a hour or so after sun rise as you can see but I think the camera's snow setting worked well. The new waterproof clothes turned up just in time from muddle puddles too!

walking over.Our lollypop man on duty even though there is no school.
First run down the hill
heading back up again.
Friends come to join in.
snowballsEveryone who built the snowman (no I'm not in there someone had to take the picture)even Treestump gets a ride.

Snow !

Finally we've got the snow everyone else has been getting as earlier in the week we only got an inch at most. Today the school is closed but we were out at the time we would normally go to school anyway but this time with the sleds.. photos to come later but a great time was had. We don't get sledding weather often so we made the most of it and invited two other families to join us plus a third we didn't know joined in to.. the more the merrier.

The funny thing was watching the number of people who obviously hadn't bothered listening to the local radio before setting out to school even though the teachers have been stressing that is what you need to do to check if they are opening. Still all this closing cos it snowed does seem a little overkill my old school was proud of it's record of never closing even though on occations about the only kids that got there were the deputy headmasters bunch (he had about 10). I remember walking three or four miles in deep drifts to primary school once cos the buses couldn't get though with my mum because as she was a teacher she had to go to the closest school if she couldn't get to hers to help and that was ours so we went too.

Mandala

How did I not notice that the Ravelry square of the month was called Mandala.. the umbrella name that Mark and co use for props, set building, costume and anything else that might get made which I am hoping to join them in at some point small people willing.
Feels like the squares were being picked to sucker me in :)

Anyway here is how mine turned out though the colours are a bit off due to bad lighting.

Today's photo is the snow at 7 am this morning unlike London it didn't get much worse than this though walking home from school was unpleasant as it was blowing in our faces.. We have to listen to the radio on the morning to see if the school is open but I think it's past us now so Noodles isn't going to get his wish to go sledding this time.

Esther's Square

That is what the square picked for the Craftster CAL square for January is called. Well I had to do it didn't I!

It's a nice square too. Most 12" squares seem to be done for Worsted weight yarn which I assume must be the standard weight in the states where as double knitting is more common here. As a result my squares will not be 12" probably more like 9". This one has turned out nearer to 8 currently but many people seem to be coming out with them smaller than 12" and it has been suggested the pattern writer crochets quite loosely. I will even up the size of the blocks once I have several I think. Quite tempted to do a second perhaps in a single colour but for now I will try the other January ones I think or start on feb.

I would love to use some fantastic wool or similar but I'm trying to stick strictly to a budget and have small kids in the house so i picked 4 balls of acrylic wool blend from my local shop which hopefully means I can get more later if I need to.. They are much more muted than my normal colours but I mostly have rainbow acrylics currently and I wanted more grown up than that. It's probably a good thing I didn't find Attic24 till this morning or I would have been so tempted to try and find colours like she uses and my budget would be totally blown!

The plan is to do one or more of the squares of the month off Ravelry and/or Craftster and end up with a blanket.. what for I'm not sure yet.. might keep it might gift it we will see. The astute of you will notice the mystery sq from yesterday is in the same yarns! I can do small repetitive things like this at moments when i can't sew or similar which is good.

Crochet and one photo

A very quick post.. I'm way behind on the photo a day posts though I have been taking them.

I have also been doing some crochet. I have decided I like things that make me do a bit a day or something in parts like the miracle gro and like CALs (crochet a longs) so among other things I am doing a mystery sq CAL on Ravelry and this is how far I have got, now need to wait for the next bit to be posted .. I do know it's a sq but that's all. It should be 12" but with the yarn I'm using it will probably come out about 9"

Plus this is the photo for day 27.. Treestump and his new 'hat' do you think he will kill me when he gets older?

More crochet dolls

I finished and gave away three more dolls to our youngest three nephews. The original one is firmly Treestumps and Noodles is very determined he should have one too. Plus Tom's cousin has asked for one each for her two (one's even a girl what a novelty !) so I still have several more to make.!

I think I put the eyes on the twins a bit high and want to get some better eyes than these generic black ones too, though the felt outer eye is quite cute too. I didn't make a mistake on the orange and green one and forget to change colours then decide I was not frogging it when I was running out of time.. no, no not at all it's meant to be that way.. and actually I quite like it more baby like some how, particularly combined with minimal hair !.

I will do another photo catch up post later or possibly tomorrow.

Just realised I didn't post the scarf I made either, so here it is, made from a nice soft snuggly chunky acrylic called marble. It's a keyhole scarf so has a hole through one side which the other side threads through.

365 - Catching up

Day 14 - One reason I am very glad our tea making station is higher than a normal work-surface, which would be about the height of the dresser on the right !Day 15 - a 'tent' with compter access of course....and then a moment later attack of the baby !
This last weekend I went away for the first time since Treestump was born without him. I think I found it harder than he did as he was very ably looked after by Jon and my mum. It was a good weekend even if I did go down with a cold halfway through.

Day 16 - A puppet show at the Havockstan player event - The Compt and Dubious.
Day 17 - Two Millen Ladies, dressed for dinner. Peacock feather eyelashes and all.
Day 18 - The aftermath of the event.. Sunday morning clear up. The lass on the left hand side is the one in the wig in the previous picture.

RIP Tony Hart

Tony Hart has died he was an inspiration to all children of my generation and made art seem vibrent and interesting. He was also largely influential in shaping the way childrens programs are today, the best ones anyway and I think the first to have British sign language in a program with Vision On which was so good most of us didn't take in it was a sign language program as the way the signs were used was so natural and well incorporated something newer programs have struggled to do till Something Special came along..


Probably the best known prop he worked with was Morph a little animated figure made of plasticine who kept us all entertained with his antics.

Here is another link with more details about his life and work.

Tony has been retired a few years now and lived to a good age but his passing is the end of an era. Goodbye Tony.

365 - days 11 to 13

Day 11 - Bath-time fun.Day 12 - What do you mean my cup of tea shouldn't be half the size of my computer !.. Now if I could only get the eeepc support people to give me a full answer on how to load gimp onto the eeepc it would be much better.
Day 13 - My monthly treat !

365 - day 10

Today's picture is a puzzle or is that doing a puzzle?Done a quick layout with the picture too.

New Blogwear

Done by me using a kit by Ladybug which she made for this month's miracle gro challenge on DSG. The cream paper is from the dec petals kit by Karen Wallace also on DSG.

a few layouts

Just done this one of the moon. Very simple as it is basically just the photograph a couple of times but I think it works.
Then there is this one from our holiday to the grandparents this summer. I made the background papers myself from bits of the photograph and various effects in GIMP which i could do more of. It was partly inspired by the technique challenge on DSG called Follow Us Down the Garden Path w/Liz & Elaine. They explained how to make papers from photos and suggest using ones that are good but a little out of focus and similar. The elements are from the seaside splendour kit put together last summer by Tempus Fugit and nbk.
Finally the first of this month's Miracle gro challenges again at DSG. I think this months kit is one of my favorite yet.

Day 9 - project 365

Day 9 saw me trying out my new camera and taking it on the school run. I was hoping to take a picture of our lollypop man and he suggested I took one of him and Noodles as soon as he saw the camera. Taken on the central island of the main road between our house and school.

365 - Day 8

Technically I didn't take this one, Tom did but I thought it was wonderful. I was planning to do something else other than Treestump today but hey.

I did adjust it in GIMP to take the background out of focus.

Shows his two teeth wonderfully, I hope they will soon be joined by the top ones because they are defiantly trying to come through currently.

New Camera

Happy Dance !!!

I had resigned myself to not having a new camera for a while as it looked like to get the specs I wanted was going to cost too much money and I didn't want to spend less on something that didn't do what I wanted. We weren't camera less as I had Tom's camera to use though it has a irritating happen of sitting there saying processing while you miss the shot you wanted and burnt out anything close with the flash so I turn it off and end up with lots of blurred shots.

However a few days ago I saw QVC had a photo hour on and decided to watch i to see if they had any good tips. Well the tips were things I know though Tom learnt the rule of thirds however they had a camera that seemed to do most of what I wanted and at a lower price than I expected. After some internet searching the reviews looked good. So we decided as QVC has a thirty day trial period on all their goods it was worth a try as unlike most places if it didn't do what i wanted I can send it back!.

So yesterday a Fujifilm FinePix S5800 turned up with a nice case and extra rechargeable batteries and charger.
So far I am very happy with it. It's basically a bridge camera which is what I wanted, in that it has a proper optical lens like a DSLR but it doesn't detach. It has various modes up to and including fully manual as I grew up using a traditional SLR one of the things that has been gripping me is times when I know I could get a better picture if I had more control over focus, aperture etc.

The camera light but sturdy feeling. The screen is big and clear and the controls are fairly easy to learn. You have auto, anti shake mode, natural light, natural/flash (where it takes two photos back to back one with and one without flash), and two settings where you can define them out of a set of pre-programmed modes ie portrait, landscape, snow.. that sort of thing. On top of that it has four modes for if you want to adjust aperture, shutter speed etc P,A, S and M.

It also does video.

It is what they call a super zoom as it has a 10x optical zoom and it also as a super macro setting so will do macro as close as 1cm and it is much better than our current camera on such things and that one wasn't bad. Great for photographing minis, food etc.
Macro shot of boar badge which is a bit over an inch long and shiny.
It has what they call an intelligent flash which they hype quite a lot and claim doesn't wash out close subjects.. so i did a test.

Photo of small ones trying to climb on my lap with old camera

Photo of small ones trying to climb on my lap with new camera..
Pretty good .. having taken a bunch more pictures the flash is much better and the flash/natural double shot option means you can do both very easily and decide which you prefer.

Probably the only thing I'm wary about is the cover over the usb port as it is quite hard to open and feels like it will die of wear, considering I want to down-load daily it may not last but that isn't critical.

Obviously compared to some other cameras it has downsides as things like having such a wide range on a single len can give problems but for the cost the quality is fantastic and unless you are used to much more expensive equipment you will not notice. If you want to try out more DSLR style photography without breaking the bank I think it's a pretty good choice. I used to use a film SLR and I think I will be able to get back to more technical photography not just snaps with this.

365 - day 7

Treestump is very mobile now. Yesterday he was apparently standing well unaided at nursery though he refuses to do so for me. He did however spend ages walking back and forth pushing the brick trolley.