Festive Swap

When I first read Miriam’s post suggesting a festive decoration swap my initial thoughts were about what I would make.  Having signed up I had some fun looking through crochet patterns and finally made up a trio of stockings to send to Jill.  I really enjoyed the process and was happy to be able to send a small festive cheer to a blogger whose photography I’ve admired for ages. I was delighted when I heard from her that she had received the parcel and to see her post, which you can see here. 

Then I received an envelope though my letter box and remembered, this is a swap so I get a lovely decoration from a fellow blogger too. Fiona had made me a beautiful, elegant 3D snowflake decoration with matching card

 

I’ll be hanging them in a prominent place as I decorate next week. 

big thank you to Miriam for arranging the swap.  I’m enjoying seeing each decoration as it appears on blog posts.

Look up Look down back home

An overnight flight home combined with losing 5 hours due to time zones leads to a fuzzy day.  I did have a short nap but then kept busy with tasks that do not involve a lot of acute brainpower – including a walk by the river and my weekly looking up and down

I was drawn to the happy yellow shades in both. 

celebrating selfies

Did you know that Oxford Dictionaries choose a word to represent each year and they have just announced that the word for this year is ‘selfie’.

So I had to take and post one.  Why not join me – pick up your camera / phone; find a window with daylight (no passing the hairbrush or lippie on the way); rest your hand with the camera on the window at arms length; look at the lens, say ‘hello blogfriends’ and press the button; then post.

A final look at Ottawa

On my way home again after a successful workshop so time for the final items from my list that I captured.

It snowed on Saturday – not a lot but still around on Sunday and so cold my skin tingled and I could feel the cold as I breathed in.  Much colder than I’m used to and not for wandering around in for long.

But it did look lovely on the benches

and compacted footprints remained where the snow was melting – like when archaeologists find footprints preserved in sandstone

Earlier in the week I captured several of the local churches in all their architectural splendour

and the only mounties I saw – the only ‘national dress’ I could think of – were in a shop display

And doors are actually something I will associate with this trip because of using so many revolving doors or double doors – to stop the transfer of cold outdoor air inside. I never did work out the optimum speed to walk through the automatic ones as they usually stuttered  half way around.

So I found 14 of the 21 items on my list in Ottawa and again enjoyed having the list as a focus for my wandering and snapping around a new city.