Hookie Heaven

Just thought I’d slip by here to show I’m still alive.  I’ve been well and truly (and extremely happily) sucked into the Pinterest Vortex.  Surrounding myself with beauty, ideas and like-minded people has fed my soul and my mind is occupied with all kinds of creative possibilities.  From tentatively trying out crochet again on a simple blanket at the end of 2010, I’ve found that my love for it has grown and grown and my ‘pinning’ has given me the confidence to move ‘off piste’ and try a few ideas of my own.

Like most crafters, I’ve been left with a stash of extra wool after crocheting oodles of baby clothes in the past year – if I can get my act together I should photograph them and share them here.  The obvious way to use extra bits of excess wool is amigurumi (toys) so with some leafy green wool staring me in the face every day from its place on the shelf, I thought I’d start with a dinosaur.  My favourite dino has always been the Triceratops so I gave it a go making one out of wool (as you do).

No pattern here – I call my technique ‘sculpting with wool’ (I made it up as I went along).  :)  I also didn’t bother to write down what I was doing.  I’m pretty sure I could give any crochet fans enough pointers to set them on the path of making their own Triceratops (or whatever animal) and if I received a boat-load of requests (hah!) I might just attempt to write a formal pattern for Tracy Triceratops.  So here she is … she’s just a baby, hence the baby nubs of horns (which I thought looked cuter than the clunking great things of an adult).

Source: Uploaded by user via Jayne on Pinterest

You may or may not know that we’re officially in a drought here in the UK but of course saying that only tempted fate – the skies opened and it has now bucketed down with a vengeance for days on end. With gales to keep it all company we didn’t much feel like going out this weekend so what did I do? I turned to Amigurumi and came up with the fiendishly clever plan to immortalise our cats in crochet. I had spare cream and brown wool so I started with the most obvious target cat: Mollie.

Mollie is a veritable haze of fluff and fur so to convey that feeling I ran over the crocheted work with the cat curry comb in order to raise the fibres and make my Ami Cat look fluffier.  Again, no pattern … just let me know if you want/need advice on this stuff.  So here’s Mollie:

P.S.  Only two thirds of my photos were showing up under my old blog lay-out.  Don’t know what’s going on there but life’s too short for fiddling with blog foibles so I quickly plumped with this new theme …which may or may not look the same the next time you visit.  Keeps life interesting anyway, doesn’t it?My next muse is Bo.

 

Eeeep!

Our local paper tonight says: 6 INCHES OF SNOW!!!  Eeeeep!  I’m kind of wondering whether I should have gone out grocery shopping today.  There’s nothing like a weather panic to focus the mind (what with all this global warming ‘n all).

Still, if we are snowed in we will get creative with the cuisine.  And there’s some joy in that…. heh…

2012, Feb 3: Extreme cold weather hits Europe. A woman looks out a bus in Bucharest on February 2, 2012. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

 

It’s the age I’m at

I was just trying to find a photo of the most exquisitely tailored jacket by, I think, Halston which I had failed to bookmark / ‘Pin’ the other day.  My ‘images’ search brought the usual smattering of salacious images in amongst the haute couture results.  It should be water off a duck’s back to me but I’m actually tired of being confronted with mega-t?*ties, bulging backsides and more whenever I do the most innocuous of word searches.  Anyone else growing weary of our complete fixation with pron?

I was trying to describe the situation to my husband (a car nut) and said:

‘Well imagine if you keyed in Ferrari….’

And then I remembered that, for sure, would pull up a few saucy images.

‘OK well, try “strawberry shortcake” then’ I said ….but as the words tripped off my tongue I realised that too would no doubt pull up yet more interesting results.

It’s the age I’m at – I just want ‘cucumber sandwich’ to mean two pieces of bread with boring sliced veg in the middle.

 

Eeeeejuts

Just had an exchange of emails about a holiday we’re planning (booked non-refundable flights) and feel uber-miffed by ‘apparent’ eeejuts who didn’t/don’t understand the meaning of the word – ‘inclusive’.  Really????  Arggggghhhhhhh……

Hoping I can find alternative accommodation so I can tell them to sling their merry ferkin hook.

Listening to, amongst others, this.

Written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgely and according to Wikipedia slightly tongue in cheek.  I don’t care.  It makes me feel happy every time I hear it.  We’ve all gotta have dreams…’specially dreams of summer getaways.

(And I was worried George was going to ‘check out’ this Christmas, so I’m delighted he’s still fighting the good fight)

Summer’s coming peeps …

 

What the hell?

What the hell is going on with WordPress? The changes and tweaks happening in my absence make me wonder even more whether blogging is dying the death. I’m trying to post here … so frustrated at the cobbled results …

 

What d’ya think?

Look at this:

These outside rooms /furnished loggias are all the rage now right but with the best will in the world, I just don’t see how these can work too well, especially in a temperate climate.  Anyone who hangs their washing outside to dry,  weather permitting, (and I’m one of them), will know that come late afternoon the air starts to become damp again as night draws in and you need to have pulled your fabrics inside while the sun is still warm.  Pretty much regardless of location, I see dampness as a permanent problem therefore and where there is ongoing dampness there is mildew.

This is nice – not my favourite outside room – but I pinned it for a specific reason.  The very plush soft furnishings. The chairs pushed together to form a seating arrangement, the seat cushions and cushioned backs to the chairs, and the added cushions to enhance that welcoming vibe.  Well it wouldn’t work for me.  You know why?  Go on…have a guess at my first thought…beyond the mildew question …

Spiders (common in outside areas) are going to hide in every cosy nook and cranny … like behind and under cushions and between pushed-together furniture.  In warmer climates – more suited to these outside rooms – you may also find a lizard or two (or something else that I’ve yet to think of but I’m sure exists).  I’d have to dismantle every aspect of this before plonking my bum on it.

Yes, these are a design idea that clearly has ‘legs’ if you look at the house and design mags but I will be sticking to my open-mesh patio furniture and guests who come here will have to slum it on Germanic style simplicity with an occasional extra of a cushion from inside.

What ‘d’ya think?  Sold on this idea?  Or seeing trouble ahead?

 

Anticipation of Good Things Ahead

It’s the shortest day of the year for those of us up here in the frozen north and so I thought it a good time to finally show my face around here again, in anticipation of new beginnings and the lengthening days ahead on our journey into spring.

~ Anticipation ~

To my friends, both north and south of the border, I wish you all a very happy, safe and relaxed Christmas weekend ahead and above all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012. May next year be a great one for us all.

Jayne xo

 

City of Gold

A straight out of camera shot of the Miami skyline in the early morning sun. I love the light in this city. This shot was taken last December when they were experiencing very chilly weather, with low temps that had not been matched for 50 years. Maybe because of that, the light around sunrise and sunset was very unusual and quite spectacular.

 

My heart was in my mouth

I came across this video the other day.  Wonderful yes …but my heart was in my mouth the whole of the way through.

Seal meets girl. Seal falls in love with girl. The end. from Bob Dobalina on Vimeo.

I had visions of this going through my mind (photo of a leopard seal in Antarctica)

Source: guardian.co.uk via Nick on Pinterest

I think the girl in the video was very lucky, for more than one reason.

……………

Have you visited my Pinterest boards yet? I won’t keep banging on about this, I promise, but I’m learning so much about so much and I’m particularly chuffed with my ‘Photography’ board where I’ve collected together oodles of creative photographic ideas and inspirational images. …Just thought it worth mentioning for my photographer friends out there …

 

Reflections

Reflections of The Everglades

My last post was on July 26. Doesn’t a month in blogworld seem like an eternity? It’s only a month and a bit since I updated and yet it seems as though I’ve vapourised and entirely blown away into the ethers! Everything seems so transient now, don’t you think?