Winter's Here, Much to My Chagrin

Despite my hope that the El Nino out west would give us a mild winter, sadly, it has finally arrived.  I love it when the sun sets through the trees like this.  It only happens for a few days in early January.

And this is with the new filter.

My stepdaughter was married on January 16th.  I had been hoping and praying that there would be no snowstorm.  We awoke that morning to torrential downpours that cleared up by early evening. However, exactly 24 hours later, this was happening.  The snow literally waited till the day after the wedding to start falling.  

Woke up to this on Monday morning.  It wasn't too bad...just enough to coat the ground and make things pretty for a few hours.  We went into Sandwich where they had far less, but on the way home, we went through Mashpee/Falmouth and they got way more than we did too.

Poor flamingos.  They look so cold.

Here's hoping the next storm won't be too bad.

More Craftie Things

Sorry I disappeared for a few days.  Winter's finally kicking in around here which sucks of course.  I was hoping for a relatively snow-free winter but we can all agree that's not gonna happen.  First big storm of the season is due this coming weekend.  I'm not a fan of snowstorms, but I'm even less of a fan of blizzards, so I'm hoping it's not going to be a blizzard.  Those are the worst.  

Continuing to get stuff off the craft table, I unearthed a plain white barrette and covered it with Guatemalan fabric, then glued on the charms.

This is the float I got up in PTown last fall, to which I added a beaded strand with little square mirrors.  It was hard to photograph.

I got this cool pendant and beaded a necklace for it.  However, it was just a bit too big for me.  I can't wear pendants this big, even though it's really pretty.  I gave it to my friend Clair.

Well the Seahawks went down in Carolina on Sunday, which sucked.  They left their A game back in Seattle.  But I made a batch of cookies anyway, last week.  

As usual, Sasquatch represents.

I also had a little resin starter kit that I got last year and didn't use.  Since I had this empty Altoids tin, the little duck and crab, I envisioned a little beach/pond type scene.  I know rubber duckies aren't found on the beach...but in the 1990s a ship dumped a container full of them into the ocean and they floated around the world, landing on beaches all over the place.  I had a hell of a time trying to get that 'grass' near the rock on the left to stand up, even though I put it in after the resin was set for a few hours.  Still need to cover the outside with paper but this is the gist.  I'd used resin for a couple of pendant molds and didn't quite have as much as I wanted for this project.

These are the pendants I made, although I need to add metal bails so that they can be strung. The paper (peace sign & pink) worked so-so.  The key & gears came out the best.  And I couldn't get the Evergreen State to stay in the middle.

At this point I have so many more craft ideas that I'm already overwhelmed and don't know where to start!  I need to seriously try to organize things so I can move ahead with my projects.

Starting the New Year Off with Cookies & Crafts

Now that I bake, I just can't buy commercial cookies anymore.  They taste so chemically.  The last Seahawks game of the season was going to be on TV for a change, so I decided to use my new cookie cutters to make some Hawks sugar cookies.  Also picked up a Jones Green Apple Soda for the game...based in Seattle and bottled in British Columbia.

Even Sasquatch is a 12th Man!

This is the rest of the batch.

My craft table is, as usual, a white hot mess.  I decided that I have to make the projects on it before I move onto other things.  This pink glass drop needed to get a beaded hanger so whipped that off in a few minutes.

Russell bought me that crystal after LAST Christmas...of 2014....and it, too, was waiting for a hanger. I found these beautiful beads this fall and whipped that one up as well.  Yes that's snow in the background...first of the season.  

I found this little jar in Target...I bought 2 of them.  Stuck glitter tiles on this one.  It's so pretty!

Last year I purchased that gorgeous rutilated quartz wire wrapped pendant from my friend Robin. Also last year, my friend Lynda gifted me with those beads, which used to belong to her sister Cyndy, who passed away a few years ago.  Cyndy was part of my 'group' back in high school and it was so heartbreaking to lose her so young.  I wanted to do something special with them.  It was by happenstance that I pulled out the bag of beads and the pendant at the same time and realized how great they'd look together!

I had these metal and glass pendants sitting around so I added the decorative papers to them finally to get them off my table too....and into one of my many beading boxes for future use.

Still chipping away at the projects on the table but it already looks way better than when I started.  I should've taken a before picture but I was so mad at myself for letting it get that bad!  Next up is one more necklace and add embellishments to the glass float I got up in PTown last fall.  

The Forgotten Roll of Film

Long before digital photography and editing took over, I used to shoot black & white film quite a bit. I always liked to have one camera loaded with it when I was on vacations in case I saw some interesting masonry or ironwork that'd look good in B&W.  Unfortunately as I began to shoot more and more in digital, my film endeavors fell by the wayside.  I had a roll in one of my cameras for a couple of years and I forgot what was even on it.  In the spring of 2012, I decided to shoot what was left on the roll, although I neglected to notice that it was black & white film.  I truly thought it was a roll of colour.  So almost all the pictures I shot were of flowers.  Imagine my surprise when I popped the cartridge out and discovered it was black & white!

So I took the roll to CVS and sent it away.  A few days later they called me to say that the roll was rejected because their processor couldn't do that particular kind of film.  The roll languished in my purse for a few more years, until early in 2015 when my friend Alicia, a film student in Spokane, said that she could process it for me at the school.

She was busy with classes of course, first, so she was finally able to get the negatives and pics sent to me in mid December.  It was pretty cool to see what was on it!  Most of the pics are flowers so I didn't bother taking pics of the pics.  But here are some of the others.

Pepper, spring 2012

Sagan, spring 2012.  This was a few months after I flew him east.

Trounce Alley in Victoria, BC, October 2010

Beach logs at Kalaloch, Washington, March 2010

Kalaloch, March 2010

The Pergola in Seattle, July 2010

Seattle, 2010

And my sweetheart, Spring 2012.  I love, love, love this picture (and this man!).

A huge thank you, again, to Alicia Dunavan for processing these for me after all these years!!!

Dinosaurs with Jobs

I got this colouring book last summer and the designs were basic enough that I was able to do up to four pages in a very short amount of time.  The colouring books are starting to pile up in the back room and I need to make a serious dent in them.  

It's a cute book.  Good for kids or adults.  The design is on one side with blank behind it so it was perfect for markers.  I always slip a piece of paper under the page to protect the next one just to be on the safe side.

My grey markers pretty much ran out after this book; I was using Crayola.  Good thing I got more!

Of course my choice of colours for each beast was purely conjecture on my part.

I would recommend this book for it's whimsy and ease of colouring.  While I do enjoy the very detailed books, every now and then it's nice to have large swaths in which to fill in.

Special Effects

At some point over the last couple of months, someone mentioned the Holga Filter Wheel for Canon camera special effects.  I ordered one and am currently experimenting with the two wheels.  Oh, just a note about the company.  I got the lens off Amazon because I didn't know I could purchase it directly from Holga.  I am having trouble figuring out how to focus, since the filter wheel attaches directly to the camera, not to the lens like most filters.  So I sent them an email to inquire how to focus.  They asked for my order number.  I told them I got it from Amazon.  They actually wrote back that they refuse to answer my question because I wasn't a customer.  Needless to say I wrote them back that I would be sure to trash their company and advise everyone to never buy from them. Talk about lack of customer service. 

I like some of the effects, but others are a little weird and I have to figure out how best to use them.  I shot some of the Christmas lights but as I said, I don't know how to focus or how close/far I should stand.

This was using the flash and it gave it a kind of dreamy look.

I picked up some funky, psychedelic glasses at my fave store in Plymouth.  When you put them on, rainbows shoot out from every light source.  Decided to try it in front of my camera lens.

WOW!  This totally exceeded my expectations!

I actually think I like the glasses better than the filter wheel!