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Monday, February 29, 2016

Memorandum Monday making an old lady smile

A big wave to Sian fellow Monday wavers on this extra day of the year.

Plenty of time on my crochet projects again this weekend - having ordered some yarn for a new project I decided that I should finish some of my current projects before starting a new one. Or at least get them to a sensible pause point.  I sewed in lots of ends on my big project and it is now in a box waiting for my sister to finish her half.  More sewing in ends and sewing parts together to create clusters of forget-me-nots for Miriam's Dementia Awareness project she posted about here.

This was the project that I featured for my 6 words story 10 days ago.

What about the smiling lady I mentioned in the title?  Crochet again - at my new knitting and crochet group.  We meet in a lovely cafe which is popular with students (LoveCrumbs for those who know Edinburgh).  10 of us sit around a large round table with piles of yarn in between our cups and empty plates (I must take a photo!). 

We were chatting and making when a lady came up to us and said 'you have made my mother very happy'.  This lady and her mother were in town to visit their daughter / grand daughter who is a student in Edinburgh.  The grandmother lives in Canada but grew up in Iran.  She was delighted to see people knitting and crocheting and loved that there was a mix of ages making things together.  She said that when she was young, in Iran, she saw the ladies sitting together making things but never sees it now.  Her daughter said that she had been smiling since she sat down and noticed our group and that this was her favourite sight in Edinburgh and she posed for a photo with us.  Our 2nd tourist photo in 3 weeks !

Hoping you all have a great week and welcome to March and spring.



Friday, February 26, 2016

6 words BREAK

joining Miriam in her Friday photo and 6 words story

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

snap finds the lost

Since missing a set of 4 lost gloves a few weeks ago I've been diligently snapping any lost clothes items that I come across and remembered that I had a good one in my archive too (the high heel spotted on a Saturday morning walk a few years ago)


I like that they all seem to have been put into a place of greater safety than the ground and hope that each owner came back and found their items.

Loving what you are all sharing as visually themed sets each week - thank you

Monday, February 22, 2016

Memorandum Monday searching lessons

Good morning blogland and a big wave to everyone on a sunny Monday

This week I saw my nephew's cat for the first time - she is visiting with my parents as he is working away from home.  But until this week she thought that under the bed was the place to be when there were visitors

Now she stays to play and I learnt that a ball of compressed catnip will keep her amused for ages

This weekend I also learnt that a google search can initially be misleading in the variety it suggests.  I was looking for a crochet pattern for a particular item (I hope it will be my new thing I did next weekend) and the image search had pages of pictures.  But, although I had crochet in the search terms about half of the images were knitted.  Of the crochet ones that linked to a pattern they actually all traced back to only 4 patterns.  But I did find one that will work.

I also learnt that there really is another way to do pretty much everything on the computer.  Windows 10 is playing up on my computer so the start menu and task bar are not working - but I have worked out a way to do everything I want to do for instance using the volume control inside iTunes rather than on the task bar volume control . 

I also learnt that lots of people are having the same problem - always reassuring when I google a problem and it already exists as a common query. (How did I fix a computer problem before I had access to a second computer to google the problem?)  But there is no solution - several work arounds suggested and lots of grumbles at Microsoft to fix it. So I'm coping with work arounds for now.

Wishing you all a good week.


Friday, February 19, 2016

6 words work

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joining Miriam for her Friday 6 word story – this week the theme is work – I will share the results

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Snap finds


My snap is a follow up from my 6 word story last Friday when I spotted a sign suggesting craft bombing was imminent - and on Sunday I found their handiwork on the same bridge.  I'll keep an eye out for their activities over coming months.

Lovely to see so many snap collections and some new participants - all welcome - the idea is to share 2 to 4 images that form a visual set in some way

Monday, February 15, 2016

Memorandum Monday goes crochet

I’m enjoying some sunshine coming in my window where I sit at my computer – the weather man said it is still cold out but I am appreciating the sun.  I’ve really been noticing the longer hours of daylight too and what with all the green shoots in the garden I’ve even been daring to think spring (but only in a whispher as snow is forecast later in the week).

I did soemthing new this weekend – well I did a new version of something I’ve done 6 times before. 

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I had a lovely chat and coffee with a lovely group of ladies in a new knitting (but most of us crochet) group.  We even had our photo taken by some Italian tourists who were fascinated by our colourful group (they did ask first).  Over the past 5 years I’ve been to 6 other knitting / croceht groups but only go to one of them still.  I’ve learnt that being willing to knit in a cafe (autospell wanted me to say cage!) is not sufficient simillarity to create a cohesive group.  This new one feels like it has real potential in terms of simillarity in creativity and wanting to try new things and share ideas.  Enough to be meeting again next weekend.

And as my nephew’s birthday was during the week  I can now share a new item I mentioned a few weeks ago – I made him this fun hat – seemed appropriate as his birthday coincided with the start of the Chinese year of the monkey

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Hoping you all have a good week with some sunshine

Friday, February 12, 2016

6 word story–brave

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Joining Miriam in sharing a photo and 6 word story each Friday – today the word is Brave.

I feel I have to add some more context – I spotted this attached to the bridge struts on my morning walk – searched the # and discovered it is part of a local celebration – this part aims to prettify the area with craft bombing – I would go but they meet at the same time as my linedancing class which I love.  Why do all good classes happen on a Tuesday evening ??

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

SNAP IN GRANITE

I have another set of animal sculptures today - although not the set I had in mind when I set off from home, camera in hand.

I started with the lion which is in a park in the centre of town.  Then I walked along to the other end of the main street to capture a colourful bull outside a bar.  On the way I spotted the baby elephant which I'm sure was not there a few months ago.


Then I remembered that I had another photo of an animal carved from a large granite boulder so I went into my archive to complete this set - the fish is out on the other side of town.

The bull I will keep for yet another set of animal sculptures in Edinburgh.

Looking forward to see what visual sets have been catching your eye this week

Monday, February 8, 2016

Memorandum Monday enters the year of the monkey

A big wave to you all on the start of the Chinese year of the monkey – disappointingly there are no public celebrations of this in Edinburgh – when I lived in Auckland there was a fabulous lantern festival in a park near where I worked.

As I settled down to watch the rugby on Saturday I had a small hope that my new thing for the weekend would be watching Scotland beat England for the first time – but it was not to be.  I did enjoy the rugby though, in particular the hard fought draw between Ireland and Wales on Sunday.

So my new thing to share is actually from just after I posted last week – my new glasses

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the frames are a purple / green ‘watercolour’ effect.  They are very light and fit well and there was no adjustment in the seeing – in the past I have sometimes had a bit of adjustment to distance and angle for reading and the computer screen.

Hope you all have a great week

Friday, February 5, 2016

6 words story–wish

2 variants on the same WISH – joining Miriam’s 6 word image and words story meme

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wish

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Snap in a spin

So many lovely snap sets from everyone - I'm really enjoying seeing all the different ideas and finding sets to use.  I missed a good set over the weekend - I realised that on my walk I had passed 4 different lost gloves placed onto railings - but I had not photographed any and did not have the energy to retrace my walk to get them all.  Since then I haven't seen a single abandoned glove but when I do I will take a photo!

This week I went for a set of spirals made with different materials - can yo tell what they are?


a danish pastry; felted rose; snail shell; wire decoration on a cheese knife



Monday, February 1, 2016

Monday memorandum on a wet and wild morning

Do you remember seeing the recurring prank in comic books when someone rang a doorbell and then ran away?  It was usually naughty boys that did it to torment their neighbours.

Well, I did that twice last week – pause for shocked gasp.

But there was a good reason.

My parents have the flu and put themselves in quarantine.  I delivered some supplies and treats to their door.  I put the bag on their doorstep, rang the bell and ran away. 

Pause for smile and reminder that context is everything.

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And the first snowdrops in my garden – with plenty of other green shoots behind promising more colour soon.

Waving to everyone and hoping the first week of February is good to you.  I’m off to collect my new glasses now.