Chasing Bumble Bees

Yes, that is what I spent most of yesterday afternoon doing! Just as you get set up for the perfect shot, they fly away!!!!! But, here are some of the results.

I have also been working on some Baby scrapping stuff. What do you think? And for all you "pinkaholics", the Girl set is in progress!

Its My Birthday..........

Well, it was on Monday. I wasn't expecting much as after that VERY expensive lens I has for Christmas, Mark had told me I wasn't getting anything. But........... I had this lovely bunch of flowers from him and he always chooses lovely cards. And "The Aristocats" dvd from Benjamin (which I know Mark sorted out!)

I also had some lovely handmade cards from a few people.

Then, in the afternoon, I had more flowers!!!! These were delivered by a local florist and were from a friend!

Tuesday brought another surprise! The postman had tried to deliver a parcel on Monday, which said "Do Not Bend" and wouldn't fit through the door. Of course, our sorting office is only open until 11.30am which meant that I wasn't home in time to pick it up.

Mark had taken the day off to take me out as he couldn't get Monday off. We called to pick up the parcel on the way out.

It was loads of lovely stash from my UKS teamie, Liz! It took me ages getting all the selotape off in the car and Mark just couldn't understand what I was so excited about!

We went to the Iron Age Fort at Stonea for me to take photos for my A-Z Photo Journal. It was blowing a gale there but I got some nice ones. Then we went to the "Golden Lion" in Stones for more photos. This has something to do with one of my ancestors who was born in Chatteris!

Then we went to a small cycle shop in March. I had some money from Marks Mum so I wanted a rack and panniers for my bike, partly for picnics and partly for shopping. Mark ended up buying them for me so he gave me a birthday pressie after all!

He then told me to get some new boots with the money, as I have worn the others out with all the walking from the past two weeks!

Look what is growing in my garden!

I love winter bulbs! They really brighten up the place. I planted them for last year but they didn't do so well. I think some of them were a bit deep and the snowdrops were really late. I was a bit disappointed. But Mark said that by this year they would be established and come up better. And they have! I have crocuses, irises and snowdrops in all my pots. I don't think Mark realised I had planted so many! But I did plant them all at different times as I got them, even during the summer. Some came up straight away and died quickly as they are not meant for warmer weather.

Hopefully, I am going to have bulbs all spring. And what's more, with my new macro lens I can take great pictures of them. Apart from cropping and resizing, these haven't been edited. The detail is fascinating, I can't wait to get out and use it more. Also, as a 60mm lens (efl=96mm) I can use it as a portrait lens. Need to practise a bit more on that.

The other thing that is growing in my garden is mushrooms! Mark smuggled home a large log last time he went shooting and made me this new one. It measures 22inches across and is big enough to sit on. So, with all these bulbs and mushrooms, guess what the calender is? You can download it as usual from the link on the left.

Working Hard!

Honest! I have been!

I have been crocheting and beading like woman posessed! Mind you, most people would say I am like woman possessed anyway. They are far too polite to say what I am possessed with though!

I have almost finished the Lacy lingerie I have been working on.

The Nightie is written (although there is a little more crocheting to be done on that bit) and yesterday evening I finished crocheting the G-string to go with it. I just need to write that bit.

I have also converted the Nightie to the larger size (very brain addling) and found a willing victim to test it. And I have finally found a willing victim for the smaller size so am working on converting that one.

The next job is the French Knickers. And then to get some nice pics!

The pictures you can see are digi layouts of the finished silk paintings. I plan on using them for birthday cards to sell at the opening reception of my exhibition - which seems to be drawing ever closer at an alarmimg speed.

Still, things are going at a steady pace for it.

But it isn't all work! I have joined in with a project on the UKS site to build an A-Z Photographic Journal of where I live. As Chatteris isn't exactly a huge place, I am expanding it to the Fens as well, although I will be keeping as close to Chatteris as possible. For the moment, I am just keeping a notebook full of possibilities for photo shoots!

What this space for the results!

Amost there!

After the panic of last week, things seem to be coming together at last! The OU course is finished and if anybody wants to see the photos I submitted for the ECA they are here.

And, what is more, I have used one of the for Januarys calendar. This is one of my favourites and I thought the frost theme fitted January - even though it was taken in November.

I managed to fit into my dress for Saturday night and my dearest looked gorgeous in his tux! I was careful about what I drank as I really didn't fancy being ill but the very late night left me feeling a bit like a zombie on Sunday. I even fell asleep in Top Gear so am going to have to watch the re-run! I was still tired yesterday and didn't go to C&C as I couldn't find the energy to rush about. We were in bed just after nine last night and I am feeling loads better for it!

Today I am at Chatteris Museum again. This is the second week of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition. If anybody is in the area it is open from 10 to 4.30 Tuesday and Thursday this week.

And on the crochet front, I am working on more Chritmas themed frames. I am going to release a pattern for just the Christmas ones as soon as I am able and then work on some more general themed ones after Christmas.

Playing Catch-up!

I feel like I am sometimes chasing my tail.  I didn't have a good week from a health point of view.  I didn't get any scrapping done.  I left my OU studies till the last minute and haven't done the photo assignments.  I have a few photos of Chatteris for me week 6 assignment, I need one more for the set.  I suppose I could upload the 5 but wanted to do all 6 together.  And it is raining so I can't go out and get the 6th one!  I have only uploaded 3 from week 7 and the weather was far too dark to do the others yesterday.

However, the week wasn't a total wash out.  I felt a bit better by Thursday and went out and had a lovely day with Valerie, the lady I met on the OU course.  I got a couple of photos I wanted for other things but none for the course.  And there was a terrific frost on Friday so I went out early and got some nice pics then.  Not the ones I was aiming for but I was still pleased with them.  I also got muddy knees, a couple of funny looks and rude comments because of kneeling on the floor.

And I finished a Flower frame, a Christmas Tree frame and a 6x4 rectangle frame.  I suppose, all in all, not a bad weeks work.

My new camera!

Oooh! I love it. I don't know what the 350D was capable of but the 400D has built in filters.

I vaugely remember playing with these when I did photograpy classes a long time ago at night school.

Basically, when using b/w film, filters make certain items stand out more by taking the colour out of them and turning them whiter.

For example, if you want to take pictures of daffodils, use a yellow filter.

I have taken 3 pictures of the same scene to show the effects. The first is colour.

The second is with the red filter. Look how the poppies stand out.

And the third is with the yellow filter.

The poppies are hardly noticable with all those little yellow flowers.

What a week!

It didn't start off too well. I had bad pmt which made me just want to cry all the time. I really hate it when that happens. Then my camera broke!

My Camera. A Canon EOS 300D. I use it all the time. I love taking pictures and I love scrapping them. I use it for when I am writing patterns both to show the various stages when there is something a little complicated and, of course for the finished item.

It would have been a big problem without the pmt as I use it all the time. With the pmt it was a major disaster only to be surpassed by by an E.L.E. (if you don't know what that is, watch "Deep Impact").

After some online research, it appears that the shutter is broken. It means sending it off to a Canon approved repairer to be fixed at a cost of £122.55 + vat + postage. My dearest said he would pay as I really don't have that kind of spare cash lying about.

So, on Wednesday, off I duly toddled to the PO. Followed by a trip to Tesco. While I was out, I got a text saying he had a surprise for me. As he was off all week, I assumed that he had been down the shed making me a new crochet hook to cheer me up. When I got home, I discovered a brand new EOS 400D!!!!!! His is also still paying to have the other one fixed.

So now I am a very Happy Bunny!