ThreeSixFive Challenge May Pt1

Some photos I took this month for the 365 challenge. Some of the photos were taken with my old SLR too, which I'm glad to report still works fine.

My new Babe

OK, I admit it. I bought ANOTHER spinning wheel, this time a windwheel so how could I refuse. BTW, thanks to my friend Karen at http://woolznyarnz.blogspot.com/ who fixed the "teething problems" and got it going - Karen is excellent at servicing wheels (do have a look at her blog because she also sells the most amazing fleece/rovings).

Time to show her off (along with my others).
Ta da..... here is Venus

















...and Freya (Wee Peggy)










...and Eos (Traveller)

...and Minerva (Castella)

..and my trusty and rickety antique, Athena

Braided Necklace

I finished my first kumihimo braid and made it into a necklace with a flower and two butterflies (bought as a kit). I think I will try a more challenging braid next time;, in fact I have just the right pendants (two) waiting for a braid.

What a glorious sunny day today. I saw my first butterfly and naturally had to snap it. Amazingly the butterfly stayed put whilst I rushed inside to grab my camera. Just meant to be....

Braiding

Thanks to Britt's information at http://stitchety-grub.blogspot.com/ I purchased my marudai kit from http://www.dyeingforfabricandthreads.com/mini--marudai.html and was quite amazed how easy I found the first braid (perhaps because the kids and I made lots of scoobies when they were in vogue a couple of years ago). My tension isn't even yet, but there is plenty of time to work on it. This braid will become a necklace.

Art Yarn

Someone recently asked me about art yarn. Here is one I recently finished. I like doing art yarn, because there are no real rules as such. Basically I used merino roving and layered it with silk rods (broken up), noils, glitter/bling and anything else I could find. Then I just spun it and plied it with Madeira satin thread (which gave the yarn a sheen). Easy peasy.

Life Drawing

Last night a friend and I went to a Life Drawing session at Yarraville. Although very cold, it was a lot of creative fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The last time we both went to a life drawing was almost four years ago; hopefully it won't be this long next time! The lady who ran the session was very friendly and wanted everything just right for the artists and models. Details can be found at http://www.inkandlead.com.au/. The models were lovely and oh so patient, maintaining their poses for anywhere up to 15 minutes. No, they were not nudies but almost burlesque in costume. I experimented with graphite, pencil and colour. The person next to me was using ink and a brush and got some amazing results - I think I may try this next time.

Craft Show

I just picked up my items which were entered into the District CWA show. I didn't really know what to expect however I did quite well.

Firstly, our Branch won a number of Awards including a trophy for "Best Handcraft Entry", trophy for "Best Presentation", trophy for "Best Branch Craft Exhibition" and a first prize in "Branch Entry, Rural Australia". In this display is my lace tree (with a lovely reflection), a rural watercolour, and needle felted rabbit.

My individual Awards were :-

First for felted handbag-

Second for Any other Medium (crepe paper Dolphins) -

Second for ribbon Embroidery (roses) -
Second prize for Embroidery (lace fan) - No there was no lace section and apparently this was the closest category to lace - OH NO IT'S NOT!!!!

First for Watercolour (seagulls) -

DAY 5 (07/05/2010) - STOCKINGS

Polaroid Week

It's officially Polaroid week (or 'Roid week to those of us addicts) and it's actually day four and I'm behind in posting.


I used my gorgeous, lovely, reliable (I can think of a lot more adjectives but I think I will stop here) SX-70 to take my snaps.

Day 1 (03/05/2010) - PRICKLY PEAR













Day 2 (04/05/2010) - BARN













Day 3 (05/05/2010) - BASKETBALL













Day 4 (06/05/2010) - DOG

English Country Garden CAL - April

Here is May's CAL Flower - the Hawthorn.

ThreeSixFiveChallenge April

Finally got a minute to upload some of my photos from April fopr the 356 challenge. I'm getting a little stale in the inspiration area at the moment; it's cold, it's heading towards winter and there's not a great deal around here to photograph.