Friday 29 October 2010

Musings on Photographs

I have always loved action photos. Seeing my girl run and jump about - her joy of that moment captured in a photo.



Recently we met a cousin not seen for 40 years. At my parent's house we looked through old photographs some I had never seen before. Photos of my gran as an young lady when all I could remember is an old lady who died when I was seventeen. Photos of my uncle who died young and photos never seen by his son now in her 50s, and last saw his dad when he was a child. Photos of my dad as a young man laughing with his parents and brothers and sister.

When I am old I will love those pictures of my Mary dancing down the street. I will feel her happiness and that moment of joy encapsulated in that moment the shutter clicked.

I will also pour over photos of people that show them facing the camera and looking out at me.  And I will look at their dearly beloved faces, their smiles, their laughter, the lines on their faces. The faces of the people I love, now gone but always in my heart. And photos of people I didn't know except as stories told by the family.



And when I am gone, long gone, and my great great grandchildren look at photos of me, I would like them to look into my face and maybe they will wonder about the person looking at them but now long dead.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Button Wednesday - new buttons from me! (and some from others).

I know you are amazed - I have finally listed some new buttons on etsy. I would like to say that I have just made them but to be honest I made them ages ago and have just taken the photos of them.

 You can find them in my etsy shop here.

Here are some more handmade buttons from other etsy shops:-


From Deep Indigo.



From Star of Supplies.



From  Tina Bozjak.


Just a few. There are lots more to feast your eyes on so do pop over to etsy and have a look.

For more Button Wednesday pop over to P8 Buttons and Fabrics Blog.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Cat on Fire!

'Oh goodness. Is she going to disturb me with that clicky flashy thing?'



'Here she comes closer. Cannot a cat be left in peace?'


SWIPES!!

'Bother! Just missed her!'

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Button Wednesday - A Box of Buttons

On Saturday we went to an Indoor Car Boot sale. How I love to walk about and browse through the stalls, hoping to find something to treasure.
Luckily enough I found a lady selling buttons. £1 for 5 packs. So I chose 8 and gave her £2.

That evening I enjoyed myself looking through the buttons. My lovely Dad had given me a box he recently bought in an Austrian flea market.   So into the box the buttons went.




The red ones are glass, the blue ones in the bottom left are wood. The ones in the top left and top right are some sort of metal.  Sorry about the photos but it was evening when I took them.

For more button love visit P8 Buttons & Fabrics blog.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Teeny Tiny Mouse


tiny mouse 004
Originally uploaded by bigbluebed

In my hunt to find small things that crochet in one piece..I do believe that I have struck gold.

Isn't this a cute mouse. Crocheted all in one piece from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail.

I found the pattern here.  It has been designed by Lucy Ravenscar and she has a great blog here.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

A Little Amigurumi

You have probably seen amigurumi everywhere. The word means knitted stuff toy and it comes from Japan. Now of course there are little crochet toys as well as knitted and they are always cute.

I took up crochet this year and decided to try an make amigurumi toys.  Not only do I have a cute and cute-loving daughter but I work at a children's after school club and I wanted to make some little toys for the prize box.

If you look towards the top of this page you will see some tabs.  One new one is  Useful Links.  I am going to be adding links to sites and sellers where you can get patterns.  So if you know of any then please let me know.  I am particularly after very small toys.

Here are a few amigurumi that I have made recently.

This is the latest one. It is a tiny whale and the pattern is by June Gilbank of PlanetJune. I love this one as not only is it tiny but it is also made in one piece. (I hate sewing up!).



The next one is from  a pullout called 'Christmas Toys' in 'Let's Knit' magazine October 2010 edition.
Lots of parts to sew up (sniff!)


 And here is the finished penguin.  It is not perfect and the eyes are a bit too big and too high but he has been well-loved byt the child who received him.

And I think that is something lovely at making toys for children - how much they love them.

Saturday 2 October 2010

RIP Ultrasauros Luna Park

Loved by the people all Summer.
Destroyed by fire in a few short hours early Friday morning.

Friday 1 October 2010

Treasure

As promised, ages ago, this post is to show some of the beautiful jewellery that is in the British Museum.

I do have to admit that I may not be able to remember what period it came from so I suggest the best thing is if you pop along to the museum yourself or if unable due to distance, then check out the website here.This is the collection database here.

So all I am going to show is the photos I took. Bear in mind that this is just a tiny tiny proportion of what there is in the museum.








My photographs are pretty bad but I did try to capture some of the amazing detail.  Alot of these photos are of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon jewellery and it amazes me that goldsmiths some 1500 years ago could create such beautiful pieces.  Truly inspiring.  Oh yes I think there is some photos of Roman and possible Egyptian pieces too (bad Alix! Take notes next time).