week four: lomography

more pictures here

Our department recently got a few Diana Mini Lomo cameras which was quite exciting, so I took one out last week and got the film developed this week. It was relatively easy to use, although one draw back was it came with no instructions so I had to use the site to work out what all the buttons did, but perhaps this is because I am very amateur when it comes to photography. Once I got going (oh I forgot to wind on the film for the first... ten shots, oops!) I got the hang of it. I think the double exposures come out really well so I want to have a go at doing some more of those + the flash comes with colour flash gels (little coloured acetate strips!) to tint the pictures with different colours which will be fun to experiment with. 

It has the option to shoot square frames and half frames too which is quite interesting, although I couldn't get mine to switch over to half frame it was incredible stiff to slide over! So although some of my pictures look like half frames they aren't, I'm not sure what happened when they got developed but a lot of the pictures came out with part of the picture missing (despite the full picture being on the negative!) but perhaps that's more a printer issue than a square format one. Oh, I just looked at this page and noticed the recommendation of developing the negative at home, which would be fine if I was super into it but perhaps a little over the top for just experimenting.  However the example for a panoramic shot mixing half and square formats does look amazing!

So my first adventure with lomography was not perhaps as exciting as I'd thought it might be but there's definitely something intriguing about it. I'm in two minds about recommending the camera at the moment,  I think I need to shoot some more film to really play about so watch this space! On a slight side note though I don't think I've ever had so many people look at my camera before, you will most definitely get a few stares if you take one out! 

week three: gifs and wrist warmers

I finished my wrist warmers! I haven't quite mastered taking a photograph of both hands at the same time though I'm not sure that it's an achievable goal. I've been reading a bit more over the last few weeks which is good. It's strange thinking two years ago one of my new years resolutions was to read a book a week (I think I actually only managed about 32 over the year) and that now I barely managed to read any! I think last year I only read 8 and 3 of them were on a holiday in the summer! Terrible. I'm reading Waterlog and 1Q84 at the moment. I think if I could read a book a month I'd be pretty satisfied. I'm always on the look out for reading recommendations if anyone has any suggestions!

I've been having a lot of fun at work this last week as I'm doing an animation project with a couple of groups. This week we're doing animated gifs. I followed this wonderful tutorial on say yes to hoboken, and had some fun making my own examples! One group are making subject related self portraits (hence the maths) and the other group have been making packaging, I've used a lamb perfume box I had to demo it. I also had a go at making one of one of my blythe dolls. It's really quite addictive, I think my next step will be to try and make a cinemagraph, there's some amazing ones out there like these by Jamie Beck and a good tutorial here. I think I've a long way to go till I create anything remotely sophisticated but I'm definitely having fun trying a new technique... 

week two: knit, knit, knit

Well the first weeks flown by but I think I'm off to a good start. I finished that jumper I started back in November. It was actually a fairly quick and easy knit once I had enough time to just get on with it. I think it will be well worn this winter.  I've also started my next knit project, yes following a pattern, I think I'm addicted, I already had the yarn so I wanted to just get this one done (oh and there's that other jumper I already got the yarn for... hmm) before I start making my own pieces. 

I've been pinning beautiful knits on pinterest. I love the idea of collecting up inspiration in that way its so instant and means I can look at all the things I'm finding in one go, although I do miss my sketchbooks. I think I might have to  begin a new little scrapbook/sketchbook to get some new ideas going. 

In other news I've set myself a few extra challenges for the year. I'm doing the swimathon and the great swim, both one mile distances (one indoor and one outdoor) and I'm doing a Triathlon. It's a bit scary to think all 3 will be over in 18 weeks, good thing I've been getting into 6am swims and gym sessions! Anyway I'll leave you with my favourite thing from about last week... keeping warm wearing my chunky knit socks!

week one: happy new year!

1. gingerbread house, 2. jumper in progress..., 3. sleeves up , 4. baby knits!, 5. carrots!, 6. drawings/sketchbook, 7. Stitched Science at The Science Museum, 8. drawings/skechbook, 9. Grannies Inc. Pop-up Catwalk, 10. Fabric Manipulation, 11. marmalade, 12. keeping my neck warm, 13. Munich! 14. Featured in the book Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery, 15. drawings/sketchbook, 16. great nan and mum

2011 has been a pretty good year I think. I've been involved in some cool exhibitions/projects, been to some wonderful places, grown (vegetables) and generally had some fun times. I'm not normally one for resolutions (last year it was simply, more knitting) but I feel like making some this year...

To knit more -  I've enjoyed knitting garments etc a lot more this year and I think perhaps I should take this forward to try and knit my own little collection. I am sure inevitably I will do little more with it than wear it but whatever happens it would be a nice challenge and I think it will fit in well around work. 

30 things - this year I managed to hit the half way point with my 30 things before I'm 30, the ones I did were a combination of exciting, frikkin' hard work and accidental (having my work published in a book + flying trapeze,  completing a triathlon + a charity run and going to see a ballet) so it would be good to carry on a pick out a few more for the coming year. I quite like the idea of flying a plane, moving out of my parents and road tripping in a foreign country but I shall have to see what 2012 brings! 

cook more - I cook quite a lot now but I want to be more organised with it. Me and my mum have decided we're going to have a chalk board up in the kitchen so that we can plan and pick recipes for each day of the week and get organised both with our cooking and our shopping. I want to try and cook more seasonally and become more aware of what is in season and when! Gardening has helped me with this, this year but I think it'll be a fun challenging. The first step to get started with this is getting on with making the chalk board! 

blog more - I enjoyed my 12 days till Christmas posting so I think it would be better for me if I got into a more regular pattern with blogging. Mostly I think it will help me to keep on track with different projects but it will also be quite the challenge for me. This is my first post 'week one' I'm not being too ambitious I'm going to aim for a post a week. I want to post more about work in progress, teaching, baking and gardening. 

to take the handmade pledge - my aim for 2012 is to only buy (or make) handmade items. I know that there will be some things that fall outside of this but for the most part I hope to keep it this way! 

Well that's probably more than enough resolutions to get me started! Happy new year everyone! 

1 day till Christmas: gingerbread house

I think this may be the hardest thing I've ever tried to bake, getting that roof to stay on was a task and a half so I'm relieved that when I removed the supports this morning in stayed intact! This is matt's christmas present from me - we decided to make each other something so I hope he approves. I followed this recipe it was really easy to follow (apart from the bit about the roof but I think I made my gingerbread a touch to thick) and the gingerbread tastes really good so even if you don't want to make a house the gingerbread alone is ace! 

Phew! Well I'm impressed with myself for posting 12 days consecutively it's been quite challenging but fun nonetheless, perhaps this is the start of some kind of new years resolution! Anyway...

M e r r y  C h r i s t m a s! 

2 Days till Christmas: knitted bows

Matt has two adorable little nieces so I've knitted them some little bows for their hair. I followed a pattern from the Debbie Bliss A/W 2011 magazine (which is full of many wonderful things) and just used spare bits of yarn leftover from other projects. I think it makes a cute little gift in itself and if I thought further ahead I could have made them to decorate the presents I'd wrapped for a little two in one present attack! Next year perhaps! Can't believe it's Christmas eve, eve! Almost there! 

3 Days till Christmas: wrapping presents

There seems to be a lot of beautifully wrapped stuff around this year and I love brown paper so I decided to jump on it and give it a go myself. I think I'm well known in my family for being both anti-wrapping (such as waste of paper!) and also at being pretty terrible at it if I do ever attempt it. I don't think I've quite achieved the same look as the beautiful things I've been looking at (I think perhaps too random a combo of colour and probably should have stuck to one thing!) but it's a marked improvement on my normal attempts and I'm excited to collect back the brown paper to make sketchbooks with and some of the ribbon/string should be able to be reused by me or the recipient! 

get inspired like I did looking at these examples of beautiful wrapping...
here, here, here, here, here and here. ah! beautiful