Trees and Dog Dolls

I must admit while I have been pretty busy with my projects but I've also been playing bejewelled a lot ! It's pretty addictive. Progress wise there are a lot of new projects that are in the pipeline and while I occasionally feel guilty taking time off to play mindless games I also realize that at times my mind needs a break. Standing in the shower today I had some great ideas, so even before the working day has technically begun constructive things happened.

Here are some tree ornaments I've been working on which combine two of my favourite fabrics and my new embroidery obsession. I really will be sad when all the green wool has been used up. I also made big tree pillows which you can see poking out there and some bags but alas no decent pictures yet.

 Here's the new Sanford doll which he models so professionally. It's essentially a drawing on cotton.

Here's the Farley doll. He wasn't responsive to my cues so I just had to lie his namesake by him. As you can see he wasn't impressed ! I'm still working on the Boss doll but it's so nice to be able to draw and I love the way it looks. (Also washable in cold water !)

Thrift Store Find - Doris Day Mug and Mini Red Racer

There hasn't been a thrift store find in a while although I continue to find gems.This is a mini hand cart which I thought would be a great addition to my display items. Sanford was intrigued by it but as soon as I moved it he ran for cover.

This is the most brilliant book and if you are at all interested in learning any of the above snap it up if you see it. There's so many stitches with good clear instructions. At $3 it was the bargain of bargains.

This is a famous movie star but I honestly had no idea because frankly the likeness isn't all that accurate. What I liked about it was the drawing itself and all the marks on it.

It took me a while to decipher this I thought it said Waverley but on closer inspection, drumroll please Doris Day, I can't say I saw that one coming. Still I do like a good mug. I wonder what makes you think I don't need that Doris Day mug anymore when it's simply BRILLIANT.

August Projects

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the last post but rest assured it has been frantic on the making front. I discovered a new passion, embroidery. I began by making it up and then watched a useful video on Etsy labs that showed four stitches and I was up and running.

Here are a few samples, I'm so excited to incorporate the technique into new plushies.

This was my first attempt sans instructions.

 

little trees

Owl Tea Towel

Sun and Cloud

Rain cloud with rainbow on back

In addition I've been making a selection of cloud pillows as well as a sun but it looks more like an egg when not placed near a cloud. I embroidered a rainbow on the back of the rain cloud but forgot to take a picture. That's it for now, short and sweet.

How to Photograph Greeting Cards Easily

There comes a time when you have to put down the pen or sewing needle and get down to the business of photographing your output. So armed with my new fancy Canon I set about getting it done as quickly as possible. I was going to do it outside but I decided any breeze would probably cause mayhem so into my very messy studio I went. One sweep of the arm to clear the table, one large sheet of white drawing paper and a bit of masking tape and my backdrop was set. Now the new camera is a lot heavier than my old (but very handy powershot D10) so I dusted off my tripod from college and set it up level with the display.

Using only natural light, I hate flash it just blasts details into oblivion I focused using the large screen viewfinder and shot a couple of images.

To save time I placed the circle ruler below so that my card would be placed in exactly the same spot. As I mentioned speed was key. I should add I removed the ruler after I placed the card in position.

And last but not least the finished shot. In order to get a perfect white background I had to take out the shadows and brighten the exposure a bit. The beauty is that because you take all the shots at the same time you can just batch change the whole lot in Photoshop relatively painlessly but even if you don't have it they can still look pretty good. All the images will eventually find their way online.

Sewing Projects

After what seemed like a crazy couple of weeks I'm feeling fresh and the batteries are somewhat recharged so here's a few new things to share.

Felt Ball

"Make me a ball" came the request from a dear friend. So, ever up for a challenge I agreed this was my fourth attempt. They say a poor handyman blames his tools but I blame the poor instructions that I got from my book. I had to get out a protractor to measure 72 degree angles for my hexagon, which I'll admit I cannot remember the last time I needed to measure an angle with a protractor since Maths GCSE. Failed attempt No1 looked like a star shaped ball, so not a ball. Maybe I hadn't cut them out accurately enough, so I cut a second set of 12 hexagons, remeasured all the angles on my template just in case and guess what ? Star shaped ball no 2. So I went on the internet googling " hexagon ball gone wrong" and while I didn't find any images that matched mine I did find some more detailed instructions. I undid both star shaped balls and cut out 12 paper hexagons and pinned them to the two halves of my ball and then stitched them together et voila almost perfect ball. It seems bizarre that not having the paper made that much of a difference. (Note, nowhere in the book did it mention using paper.) In one set of instructions I read online the writer had somewhat defensively written, if it doesn't turn out right you haven't followed the instructions.Anyway, here's Sanford eyeing the ball, he didn't quite know what to make of it if I'm honest.

 Project No. 2 - Use embroidery hoop

I've been meaning to try my hand at embroidery for a while now and finally made an attempt while watching Season 2 of 24. I sketched an owl using my invisible ink pen and kind of made it up as I went along. I pulled out what I think is a machine embroidered table cloth and tried to copy a few of the stitches. It's a start.....

Sleepy Owl

Also my new dslr camera finally arrived which I didn't use to take these pictures with but I did take the ones below with it. Learning all the menus is a feat in itself. Farley looks like a poster boy for animal rescue but he loves to sit on the balcony, snooze and watch the world go by.

Three Faces of Farley

Photography - Surf Groms

We were asked to photograph a friend's children at Surf Camp. It was a strange morning light wise but it's amazing what you can post edit. Here are some of my favourites. Mackenzie and Griffin were both very photogenic and it was a fun morning.

Surf Ramblings

Summer's here, yeay. The water is finally warm enough for the Spring suit which  I wore today. Trouble was my skin sort of stuck to the wax a little bit which was slightly uncomfortable. The solution is apparently vaseline, who knew ? It's these pearls of wisdom that I get when chatting to fellow surfers. I managed to elicit a "That was really cool" from an audience of four when I caught one of my few waves from that session which was very gratifying. It's not something that has happened before so I'll take whatever I can get.
The other day I met a photographer who was working on a new magazine called Boardtalk who also gave me a good tip about riding steep waves which was to be at an angle. It's nice to practice a sport that has time for leisurely chats every now and again. The dolphins have also been out a lot lately I'll admit when I see the fin pop up I freak out a little bit but as long as there is more than one I know everything is good.

Birdwatch

The other night I had the idea for a surfing bird series if you thought there's only a finite amount of bird
puns you would be wrong. I am steadily working up a few of the sketches and having a lot of fun doing it. Some of the surfing greats have names appropriate for bird puns which for me is a good sign.