sign of the time

 

Inspired to create a layout when I saw the simple yet fabulous  free digi template on Cathy Zielske’s blog

The embellishments are from the Designer Digitals Collaborative For Humanity Kit : Japan where ‘100% of proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross to aid in the help of Japan’.

The journaling reads

Love it when the clocks spring forward. The lighter evenings mean that I have my daily walk by the river and firth after dinner rather than earlier in the day.

I prefer a walk then because it serves as a good way to relax into the evening. Also there seem to be more birds on the water - mostly swans and ducks. And I love the light in the evening for photographs - so gentle and soft with interesting shadows.

Twice this week there have been spectacular sunsets behind the city which adds to the pleasure. The sky was an amazing colour and the skyline really stands out in silhouette.

I am half way to the firth by the time I see the western sky so the colour is always a surprise. As summer progresses I’ll be interested to see how the light changes on my after dinner stroll.

Has changing the clocks made any difference to your daily routine?

My 70s

Do you remember the music of the 1970s?  or have you only heard it as re-makes and retro?

I was at school during the 70s and my musical tastes changed a lot over the decade – but then so did the music making it into the charts.  On sunday afternoon BBC Radio 2 has programme dedicated to music from the 1970s and a feature where a listener talks about their memories of the decade and picks some music to play. 

Yesterday I was the listener talking about My 70s.  You can listen on BBC iplayer until next Sunday – my bit starts at 27 minutes and lasts about 5 mins, so you don’t have to listen to the whole programme.  And for those of you who cannot access BBC IPlayer this is the track I chose as my favourite.

And this is me during the 1970s – with my sister, my dog and a friend’s toddler

March self-portrait

I decided that I should include all of me in this month’s self-portrait because February is just my face and January my head and arms.  I have taken several successful self-portraits with my tripod and timer walking towards the camera so I did this on my walk beside the beach this morning. I walk most days so I like to have some photos where I am walking, and it makes it less posed. 

I have in the past taken some good self-portraits walking away from the camera – this one was in 2009 on a beach in New Zealand – I may well do this for one of the self-portraits later in the year

Have you taken any self portraits walking towards or away from the camera?

buried treasures

My front garden is bursting with colour.  Most of the flowers are bulbs so have been buried treasure since I moved into the house in July. Each morning is a treasure hunt as I survey the garden for new flowers.  The recent rain and now sun has really brought the blooms out.

portraits of the beach

I walk by the beach at least once a week, and always take my camera with me. 

 

The two above have Pioneer Women actions applied and on the two below I used the most recent free textures from Kim Klausen.

 

Recently I’ve been turning my camera to take more portrait oriented shots.  In part this has been prompted by using The Monthly templates which have several portrait oriented photo spaces each month. 

How often do you turn your camera to photo orientation?  or do you crop a landscape oriented photo when you want to fill such a photo spot?

signs of spring

Free overlay from Ali Edwards, promised as the start of an occasional series. I like that she has used 3 digits – suggesting the series could reach 100 or more.

I found it interesting how the overlay works really well on some images and has no impact on others.  I tried it with the spring flowers but there was too much happening in the picture behind the words.

Having to restrain myself from adding words of explanation to the photo. 

Detail page in February

Each month I’m using one page for details on one thing.  This month I decided to highlight my kitchen, seeing as it is finally all installed, functioning and unpacked.

The walls are 2 shades of orange and the floor is called cinnamon.  The flooring is the dimpled rubber flooring that is used a lot in shops and office because it is hard wearing.  I also liked the range of colours available and that the material is sustainable.

I have evolved storage system based upon having everything in boxes so that things don’t get lost at the back of the shelf (they get lost at the bottom of the box instead!). 

The two bottom left shots remind me of a fun layout I did when I was still in Wellington – ‘what’s behind the door? – i photographed several fo the doors in my house and then opened the door and took a photo.  I will find it and do a new one for this house.

The Monthly pages–February

Still loving these Cathy Z templates.  I am taking many more tall (portrait orientation) photos because the templates have shapes that size.  interesting to see how different the framing is that way.

Some real contrast in weather in February with snow on the hills at the start and spring flowers by the end.  Some fantastic low light for photos over the firth. 

Around the house dealing with lots of boxes of stuff to unpack, rubber floor down in bathroom and bookshelves up and populated. 

The ribbon of butterflies are hanging on my door – I put a hook in for the Christmas decorations so decided to use it other times of the year.

The patterns strips at the bottom are from the Brighter Days collaborative kit.

back in the Sunday Creative groove

I haven’t done any digiart in response to a prompt for The Sunday Creative for a while – kind of got out of the headspace.  But I’m back in it – the prompt word is ‘ritual’. 

I was thinking about rituals which may seem like normal activity to others but have special significance for those involved and also about some activities having special significance because of the date.

I went through several permutations before hitting on this one and even then changed the story a few times while creating.  It is digiart, not memory keeping – I took the photo earlier this month (of people who happened to be walking in the view I wanted to capture) and used ageing textures by Kim Klaussen and ShadowHouse Creations. 

Glad to be back in the groove of reacting to the weekly creativity prompt – it really took me on a creative journey.