Things I love Thursday

I missed last weeks version, mostly due to working late and as much as I love my iPad I dislike writing my posts on it, especially if trying to sort out photographs. So things that I've enjoyed this week include

♥ Spending my midweek weekend seeing my family, visiting my brother's new house and seeing how the allotment progresses

♥ My new fabrics for my summer project, I bought them here, they have a beautiful range

♥ I saw this book today, it looks delicious, I love trifle!

♥ Having a play with my 35mm f1.8G lens, especially nice to have some great light to shoot in too

♥ I bought exactly the one you can see here, a Hello Kitty cake tin but I only paid £2.99 in TK Maxx, I hope it turns out well

♥ I really love this beautiful blue Phase Eight dress, perfect for the summer

♥ I found another magazine to love, Crafty Magazine they have an article on vintage cameras and if you subscribe you can have a Diana F+ for free!

♥ Only two weeks and a few days until we are on holiday, cannot wait

Spring Weekend

These days I rarely get two days off together, something I have written about in the past is how sometimes this gets to me as my husband and I can't really go and do anything or go anywhere in just a day without rushing and having to be back before too late. This week though I was lucky enough to swap with someone, it was mutually beneficial, so we got two days off and headed home for a little visit and for David to have a driving assessment as he starts lessons again in a few weeks when we return during our holiday.

We didn't arrive until quite late on Monday evening and had a very nice beef casserole cooked by my dad for tea. The journey down wasn't very good, visibility was poor at the best of times, all that concentration followed by a little glass of cider was enough for me to get to sleep fairly early.

Tuesday morning we woke to beautiful sunshine outside. David had his assessment in the afternoon so in the morning we headed to the allotments to see how progress is coming along. The last time I went it was a freezing cold February afternoon not long after they had taken over so it was nice to see how it's all starting to grow, especially now they have the greenhouse up. Recently I've only been using my kit lens with my Nikon so decided for this weekend to just use my 35mm f1.8G lens to be a little bit different and also to justify buying it last year as I've hardly used it and the results are always pretty good. I'm not really into the practical hands on dirty side of gardening and growing but I like to take photos so I have given myself the title of official allotment photographer. Luckily there were lots of interesting things to take pictures of and the weather being good was an added bonus. 

The afternoon was spent taking my picture of Henry to be framed, more on this when it comes back in May and visit my brother's new house up in Cwmbran. Mum and I popped in to see Becks with cake and flowers, I really like their new residence, tucked up off the main road surrounded by trees with lovely mountain views. I'm also a little envious of the Jacuzzi bath, would love one of those. After we got home I pottered about in the garden for a couple of hours, taking photos of the dogs and anything else that caught my eye. 

David did well in his assessment, roll on May! In the evening we headed back up to Cwmbran to see James bearing gifts of the new Hummingbird Baking book and a few baking basics to get started as well as a few tins of his favourite beer. We chatted for a couple of hours before we went home to a delicious roast pork dinner, I also tried a new cider, Kopparberg Naked Apple. I'm not a fan of their pear cider but I really enjoyed this one, lovely refreshing flavour, the perfect end to the day.

Today the weather closed in again and we didn't end up going anywhere but it's not long until we will be back, hopefully with some better weather so I can get shooting some film too. We stopped off in Waitrose in Abergavenny on the way back for some lunch, I love their selection of products, especially the cupcakes and some of the home decorations. If only all weekends were as nice...

52 Weeks of Film ~ Week 4 ~ Powis Castle

Week 4 22.4.13

Camera - Pentax K1000

Film - Fujifilm 400

Powis Castle near Welshpool is one of my favourite and nearest National Trust properties. We tend to visit at least once a year and have seen spring and summers since my first visit back in 2006. The roll I'm sharing this week dates back to early July 2010 during my Pentax honeymoon, the weather was glorious too which is always a bonus when shooting film. My favourite shot would have to be this one 

I also quite like these ones too

Crafty Creatives Box 10

In my post yesterday I mentioned Crafty Creatives Box 10 had arrived with me at the end of last week. The theme this month is Blue, I love the simplicity behind it and the contents are beautiful. They include -

• Pretty art card by artist Catherine Moody
• Felt balls from Nepal, love these
• Glitter and seed beads, again gorgeous
• CC kit to make a bluebird mobile
• Mini blank canvas
• Three different blue Americana acrylic paints
• Jumping clay, this looks fascinating
• Little blue glass beads, love the heart one
• Sheets of blue card and paper
• A fat quarter of blue fabric, I got paisley which makes me very happy
• And finally, my favourite, the two bluebird pendants which seems so apt after Cardiff City, the Bluebirds, gained promotion to the Premiership last week

Another brilliant theme, can't wait to see what comes next month!

This week

Bit of a catch up today, a week of late shifts coupled with a terrible cough has taken it out of me and I find myself here on Sunday looking at the rain outside wishing it was as sunny as yesterday. I had planned to go out and shoot another couple of films to get processed next week but the weather has other ideas. 

Tuesday was glorious and we made the most of it having lunch with some friends at a new pub, The Starling Cloud before heading off into town for a little seafront walk to enjoy the sun. I even had to buy some new sunglasses! Still, it was good to just sit outside and have a little bask. We were amused by the dog in the second picture, watching him chasing his ball and he was not impressed if it touched the water.

Wednesday marked six months since we got married, can't really believe it's been that long as the time as gone so quickly but at the same time it only feels like it happened yesterday, a bit of a contradiction I know. I had to work and David went to see his parents who were up in Tywyn, they were coming down but a blocked drain problem stopped that so he went up instead. I bought him a little present, something I found on eBay

He loves Zingy from the EDF energy adverts, I wish they made an official one which could bop to music as that would be amazing. I love buying him little random things, if you ask what his favourite present of this type I have ever bought him, he would reply with potato shaped scrubby brush which I found in a shop called Buyology at home in Newport about three years ago.

What else have I been up to? I've started to plan my project for next month in a bit more detail as I've bought some fabric for it. Here is what I'm going to attempt with the help of my mum and her sewing machine and the fabrics I've picked so far. I'm still on the hunt for my perfect sky as well as a lovely red and some striking purples, greens and a paler blue but I'm enjoying looking online at the selections they have, so many beautiful fabrics.

Crafty Creatives Box 10 also arrived with me late this week, the Blue theme is subtle but I love it as blue is one of my favourite colours and quite appropriate as Cardiff clinched promotion this week too, post to follow on this tomorrow.

Lastly, I finally managed to get my hands on this beautiful little piece, Soppy by Philippa Rice, as it had sold out last time I tried to buy a copy and I absolutely love it. This scene on the left sums us up perfectly.



52 Weeks of Film ~ Week 3 ~ Expired Beauty

Week 3  15.4.13

 

Camera - Pentax K1000

Film - Kodak Gold 200

 

 

Back in June 2010 I was in my honeymoon period with my Pentax K1000, one that lasted the whole summer right through to the autumn. I feel bad now I haven't put a roll through her for over eighteen months. This week I have picked a roll I bought in my local Post Office at home as at the time all I had was B&W film and desperately wanted a cheeky roll of colour to shoot one afternoon in the garden. All they had was one 24 exp. Kodak Gold 200, a couple of years out of date but having an interest in Lomography I knew I could possibly expect some interesting results so I was more than happy when they came back looking good. I don't know why I really wanted to take photos that day but I'm glad I did as I love some of these shots, especially the one of our tortoise who has sadly passed away now. This one has to be my favourite

 

 

Other ones I like include

 

 

Things I love Thursday

After all our exciting days out last week this week has been quiet in contrast. The weather hasn't been great, getting warmer but we've also had some rain and I seem to have the onset of a cold. This week I have been loving

♥ My new film scanner I've only scanned a couple of films but overall I'm quite pleased, especially as it will hopefully save me money in long term

♥ New issue of Mollie Makes arriving yesterday

♥ Watching the Great British Sewing Bee and wishing I could make clothes, shame the series is only made of four shows, if there is another series they could make it twice the length 

♥ The new EDF Energy advert, Zingy on a Basset Hound, I love his dance moves

♥ Another little eBay buy :D

52 Weeks of Film ~ Week 2 ~ B&W Love

Week 2  8.4.13

 

Camera - Pentax K1000

Film - Ilford HP5

 

My film scanner finally arrived on Saturday and I sat down all excited to get working on Sunday only to discover it needed to charge for about six hours! Oh well, I did have a little play with it before we headed out for dinner with some friends at their new farmhouse. This week I'm sharing my first roll of B&W film that I shot in my Pentax K1000 and developed myself on my photography course three years ago. Funnily enough today three years was the day my Pentax arrived with me and I've never looked back since.

My first B&W roll isn't the greatest selection of shots, I was pushed for time to shoot and the light wasn't there but I needed to get it done. Looking back I quite like some of the shots I thought were rubbish before, if only because they remind me of where we lived at the time and the places we saw everyday. In the end I picked this one -

 

 

Here are a few more I like