Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt - January

I was so enthusiastic about taking part in the Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt again, yet still managed to be really late getting my photos sorted and posted here. I found it quite difficult to choose photos for some reason. I've been taking more photos on my phone in recent months and I'm quite enjoying taking quick snaps that represent a more simple capture than a carefully considered photograph taken with my big DSLR camera. I want to do more with my photography this year after a couple of years of less time and energy for anything creative, so I will hopefully be taking more photos with the DSLR in the coming months.

Something I Made

Not the best photo, but one of the few things I've made this month that wasn't a (beautifully presented, obviously) plate of food was a birthday card for my niece, who has just turned 6.

Inspiration

I can't really explain what it is, but every time I travel through Waterloo station on a sunny day I have to stop and look at the roof. I love the angles and shapes and how the blue sky looks through it.

Resolutions

I don't really do resolutions at New Year, but I do want to put more time into photography. It's a good hobby for me to concentrate on and I want to get better at it. I had some dried roses hoarded away to "do something with" later - only a year or so later, I took some photos of them with my macro lens! I haven't used this lens much so it was a good one to spend some time with.

Retro

My travels are brightened by my retro style Penguin book cover Oyster card holder! It makes me happy every time I see it.

Sequins

This one really had me stumped. I don't own anything with sequins on. I couldn't find anything in a shop with sequins on. Then I had a look through a box of crafty things and found these, not the most imaginative I'm afraid, but it was this or a drawing of some sequins.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt

Why haven't I done one of these before? I often wonder what to take photos of, without going somewhere I usually struggle to find inspiration for interesting subjects - so a range of interesting ideas suggested by someone else is ideal. Photo scavenger hunts are the way forward!

Here's a link to more info from the blogger who started this particular scavenger hunt: Kirst's Blog

For this month, the hunt was hosted by The Gift Shed which I thoroughly recommend for lots of interesting, mostly paper-based crafty stuff.  

Here are my photos for December.

Inspiration:

My current inspiration is my new macro lens, I always find it difficult to push myself to get to know a new lens but love the results a new perspective gives. Lots of photos of tiny things to be taken now.

 Something I Made:

I went on a cooking binge yesterday, it was lovely to have a cooking day. I made lots of things but was particularly pleased with my loaf of bread!

Motif - Geometric:

I was very unsure how to tackle this and tried to keep in mind that I was looking for something "Characterized by or decorated with regular lines and shapes". I was devising some sort of origami paper/teabag pattern of squares/triangles but decided that a cheery pinwheel would be easier!

Colour:

Although my pinwheel was pretty colourful, I think one of the most colourful things about me is usually my socks!

Festive:

We don't have masses of Christmas decorations, but this is my favourite from our tree:

Album 998 - Tong Sungs

I've never knowingly listen to anything described (on Wikipedia, admittedly) as "Freak Folk". It sounds like a bunch of folk musicians should come to a village fete wearing Scream masks. I'm not sure it's as dramatic as that though.

The Animal Collective are an experimental rock group and this album (Tong Sungs) from 2004 certainly does sound experimental.
We both thought the techniques they've used are interesting, with layers of vocals and different sounds, it's initially difficult to listen to but once I got over the unfamiliar sounds and textures it settled into a sort of soothing strangeness.
Until the end, when it got a bit too weird again and made my brain tired.

Rating: 4/10

Standout song: College

Will we buy it: No

Album 999 - this Cake isn't a lie

I always meant to listen to Cake, they were one of those bands hovering on the edge of the music I knew and listened to. Never did. But their 1996 album Fashion Nugget was number 999 so I finally got around to it.

I think the album has that slight deliberate weird maybe not quite in tune thing that Pavement do so well. Also they sound like Beck, with a nice alternative 90s style.

What really made us take notice were their two unexpected cover songs - I Will Survive and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. I love good, slightly sarcastic sounding covers by artists you'd never expect to do a good job on the song.

Rating: 6/10

Standout song: The covers I mentioned

Will we buy it: Yep

Starting at the end: Album number 1000

And so we begin, with the best of intentions to avoid skipping any songs or albums (This lasts ages. Honest.) with the exception of Greatest Hits compilations or live albums which Spencer and I have decided don't count. We subscribe to Napster and Spotify so finding and streaming even the more obscure artists should be simple.

Each album will get marks out of 10 and this is not at all objective. It's decided based on what we both like, our mood that day and our varying ability to tolerate whining/screaming/whinging/rapping/jazz/country singers/angst and yodelling. (Note to self: Should you ever release an album, call it Angst & Yodelling)
If there's a song that stands out to us, I'll mention it. We're also deciding if we like the albums enough to buy them.

 Album 1000 on the list is Big Star - Radio City.

A quick internet search tells me that Big Star influenced many as a band with cult status. I haven't heard of them before but considering this album was released in 1974 it sounds remarkably fresh.
I think it sounds like modern retro indie band stuff rather than genuine old stuff.



Nothing that epic in itself but a timeless quality.

Notable lyric: "we're going to get on up/and drink till we drop." Cool.

Rating: 5/10

Standout song: I'm In Love With A Girl

Will we buy it: Maybe

Chemo Motivated Musical Extravaganza

Ok. Here's a project that might mean my blog gets used more than once a year.
Long story short:

1. Spencer and I were engaged
2. This was awesome
3. Spencer had back pain
4. This sucked a bit
   
5. Spencer went for MRI scan and found out he had cancer
6. This sucked like nothing else
   
7. We got married
8. This was awesome like nothing else
   
9. Spencer started chemotherapy and I'm taking care of him (and working as much as I can around this).

Due to the chemo side effects, Spencer has struggled to find things he can manage to do, as he notes here:

I have 64.92 days remaining until my last dose of Chemotherapy, and officially I'm just about to finish week 5/15. What I've discovered during the last few weeks is that fatigue, for me at least, is by far the worse thing about chemo and has generally meant most days are spent on the sofa listening to music and not being able to handle much else (including moving for anything which at it's worse requires 15mins of psyching up beforehand). The constant fuzzy headed feeling makes concentrating on books or any work, or laptop in general also quite a task and there is only so much TV one can watch.

Spencer decided an entertaining way to help pass the time could be to listen to as much different music as possible, given it's the one thing he can generally manage even on fairly bad days. Plus it's a minimal effort thing we can do together, and togetherness is what marriage is all about. (right? I'm new at this - no one shatter my illusions!)

Being the King of Internet Research About Gadgets and Things, Spencer determined the best place to start was besteveralbums.com with only a small amount of help from me. The site lists the top 1000 albums of all time determined by their aggregate positions in over 2,500 different greatest album charts. Neither of us necessarily agree on the chart, but who ever agrees with these things?

It's a musical journey which should broaden our horizons, or possibly make us realise we are terribly narrow minded when it comes to music.

Vague Creative Post

So, I have failed once again in my blanket making plan - however it will be autumn soon so I'm sure I will get the urge to knit again shortly. And I know where I left the bits from my last knitting binge which is a step forward.

I made this silk painting, which I was very pleased with as I haven't done any silk painting for at least 5 years. It's only about the size of a coaster but I have lots of silk left so I must attempt something else.




I bought these beautiful shoes on sale. I don't know where I will wear them but they are surprisingly comfortable, even if they make me unnervingly tall.




I took some photos in London and enjoyed a walk around the city, plus a wander in the Museum of London.

I also baked things, failed to take photos of them, then ate them.

Maybe next time.

Binge Knitting Anonymous

So I'm attempting to make a blanket...


This tends to happen every winter. Once it starts getting cold and dark I get the urge to knit. I think it's partly because when I was young my mum would spend the summer doing outdoor things, such as digging, planting things and chasing whichever of her four children was currently a toddler through the mud. When the nights started drawing in she'd seize the brief minutes of free time when we weren't demanding something and read, knit or bake.

Actually, maybe the baking was us demanding cake?

Anyway, one of my strongest childhood memories of my mum is about her knitting, often with purple wool. I think my brain sees knitting as an appropriate winter activity but unfortunately it has no staying power and I binge-knit for about a month and then put it all away until next winter.
Logic says this should mean I have a stockpile of blanket squares by now, as this is what I always decide to knit. But no, somewhere along the line I have repeatedly lost all the progress I made and this is why I am showing you a photo of only 7 squares of potential blanket.

But look how fluffy and colourful they are!
I bought a mixture of wool balls from Ebay, random colours but all fluffy types. I found doubling up the threads with those made knitting a square nice and quick and a blanket of those type of squares would have a lovely, thick, draping feel.
The non-fluffy deep pink squares were a lovely, thick wool from John Lewis. It was so nice to knit with but too expensive to do many squares in that. Perhaps now I've shown this to the Internet I might be motivated to finish it!