snap frost

we've had some hard frosts over the last week and areas not in direct sunlight stayed frosted all day to then receive a second layer of frost the next night - cold but also resulting in some beautiful detail with frost edged petals and leaves and visible ice crystals - I had to go out with my camera to collect some for a snap set

Only 4 more Wednesdays this year - so only 4 more snap sets.  Hard to believe we have completed almost a year and I'm so pleased that many of you have joined me each week. And many of you also joined me for pairs the year before and even zoom in, zoom out the year before that.

I wont be hosting another theme next year - because I'm taking a trip to NZ early in the year and know that I will not be able to maintain the weekly posting and visiting that I feel is part of hosting a meme.  I'm hoping one of you has an idea for a weekly meme and will launch it upon us -  I do like to have a photographic project to think about each week. 

Looking forward to seeing what you have captured this week

Memorandum Monday blinds

Big Monday morning wave to you all and a cold but sunny day - we've had several like this recently giving lovely light on the water and nice reflections (when the birds stay still!)

I learnt a lot about venetian blind workings this weekend - for instance
- when the cord used to raise and lower them frays it no longer fits through the hole and so wont work
- the cord can be removed and replaced
- the easiest way to measure the width of cord is to wrap it around something 10 times, measure the width of that and then divide by 10
- not many places stock 3mm nylon cord and the places online that stock it charge almost twice as much for postage as the cost of the cord
- using thinner cord means that the mechanism to counter gravity and lock the cord in place when open does not work (but a knot around a handy hook on the wall does the job)

I still don't know why they are called 'venetian'

Off to start some tidying and putting away of ornaments (and general clutter) ready to start getting out festive decorations on the 1st.

Wishing you all a great week

6 word narrow

Joining Miriam in her lovely meme

Snap silhouette

the up side of the low light and frequent cloud cover is the chance to capture some good skyline silhouettes

I've been collecting these over the past 10 days as we have had a lot of cloud cover to defuse the light

Looking forward to what has inspired you this week

Memorandum Monday winter begins

A big wave to you all - you should be able to see me waving now that the fog has receded.

New in town this week is the opening of the first part of the winter fair and market

It was very busy and I just skirted the edges for a photo and quick look to ascertain the layout is the same as last year.  I'm waiting until December and 'winter' before I have a proper look. 

Another good weekend of crochet and rugby - plenty more crochet to keep me busy this week - so many cute ideas popping up on blogs and Instagram my list of things I want to make is getting very long.  Wishing you all a good week.

6 word - read

Joining Miriam for her lovely meme

several of you commented on the font that I used last week for winter - it was Beyond Wonderland - I've shown it and another wintery feel font I like below - both can be downloaded free at dafont

St Nicholas   beyond wonderland

Snap retro

As I said on Monday, I had fun at an event at the museum celebrating their new fashion and design galleries - and my favourite stall was a '60s / 70s retro photo booth' - clothes and props and a clever camera / printer set up so you got a strip of 4 photos - and just 5 seconds to make any changes between takes.  The camera is cleverly housed in that wooden box on right of top photo. 

There was a queue so I was able to watch several groups before me and get an idea of which props I wanted to use - that camera was a must and all the different glasses were fun.  I rather like having ginger hair!  But that background hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long.

Looking forward to seeing what inspired you this week

Memorandum Monday after the shocks

A big wave to you all and lots of good thought waves to all my New Zealand friends - I was relieved to learn that the levels of destruction and causalities was much less with this earthquake even though both were bigger than the one that devastated Christchurch in 2011.  When I lived in Wellington - the city most expected to have a big shake - I had water and food supplies in case of a quake and we had supplies at work and I knew about all the emergency help stations near work and home.  But in the 5 years I lived there I never experienced a shake that went on for over a minute and made the cupboard doors open and moved the pictures on the wall - but yesterday all those things happened in Wellington several times.  While horrible for everyone,especially all the aftershocks which will be so unsettling, NZ is prepared and has the infrastructure to cope with natural disaster - when your country is on the Pacific Rim of fire you have to be. 

Back to Scotland and my weekend - lots of 'same old' for this time of year with rugby on the TV, plenty of crochet and then more TV with the big reality shows.

But I did also do something new - a fun set of events at the museum to celebrate the recently opened fashion and design galleries (featured in a snap in July).  There was a fascinating table full of corsetry and undergarments showing the things people have done to change their body shape - including items bought this year.  Lovely to be able to pick them up and feel them - they all felt very uncomfortable. I was fascinated by a woman doing small loom weaving and another making origami jewellery and I enjoyed all of the slogans that people had written on t-shirts but didn't join the queue to get to that table - because I was intent on queuing for another fun stall - all will be revealed on Wednesday!

And, of course I'm not going to leave you without a photo - too cloudy to try for the super moon last night but on the way to the museum I did spot a fabulous new mural on an end wall

Hope you all have a good week - with far fewer big shocks than last week!

6 word - winter

joining Miriam for her lovely meme

snap progress

More festive crochet for you today and a sequence

starting with the picture graph - then work half done and the finished piece - it is about 35 cm square.  This crochet method is called corner to corner (or c2c) and has been popping up on various crochet blogs I follow all year - the appeal is the ease of creating a picture from a square based graph such as you would use for cross stich or beading pictures (the inspiration for this picture was a Perler beading piece) .  It does take concentration to follow the graph because each line of work is a diagonal.  Hard to tell from the pictures but the background is dark blue while the eyes and buttons on the snowman are black.  Various design and technique lessons learnt to apply to future projects  - this is my first complex picture - it is fun (but don't even ask about all the ends to sew in or look at the back!)

looking forward to seeing what has caught your eye this week

Memorandum Monday crochet

Big wave to everyone and hope you are all keeping warm - there was snow in Scotland over the weekend - not near me but up on high ground and forecast this week for the hills I can see on the horizon.

all the cold wind made it perfect for staying inside to craft and watch international rugby matches on TV (well done Ireland).  I started on festive crochet this weekend

as well as being cute, there is a jar inside waiting to be filled with goodies as a hidden surprise.  And I have a growing list of festive patterns that I want to try.

Hoping you all have a good week with some hidden nice surprises.

6 word Play

joining Miriam for her lovely challenge to tell a story with a photo and 6 words

Snap in flight

I've been collecting these for several months - I regularly try to capture birds in flight but only occasionally manage a photo that has the birds in the frame and is in focus. 

The birds are - from top down - seagulls, swans, geese, oyster catchers

I'm interested in their different flying formations (or total lack of  in the case of the gulls)

Looking forward to seeing what collections you have to share this week