Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween.
This photography technique is Pareidolia in which the photography captures a face in everyday objects.
This is a day lily seed pod and it was great that the 2 top were empty and the mouth was still full. A ghoul face with spider webs!
It was before the snow came.
I loved the red and green colors - dare I say the Christmas colors.
We have had snow and last night it rained and now it's all gone again. I guess it will not be white for Halloween at the end of the week.
It was very interesting to read another of Amy's books. This one takes place in China in the early 1900's. Violet is the main character who is growing up in a courtesan house owned and managed by her mother Lulu who is an American. They are living in Shanghai in the International Settlement under China's last imperial dynasty. They see the collapse and how that affects businesses and trade. They see the consequences of the 1918 Influenza epidemic. It was eerie to be reading about that one during this one.
This is a story of strong relationships between female characters. Violet suffers a long heartbreak, tragedy, betrayal in her young life. But with faithful friends she makes it through.
I really enjoyed the book.
Another set of skeins of yarn for my afghan.
Beautiful blue color from my sister.
Will have to work on finding an actual pattern for a classic granny square.
I have owned this set of hooks since my early twenties. Nice to some things last a long time.
This is the crane that is used to build a new high rise close to my place. I could not see it this summer because of the leaves but now I can see it pretty well.
I manage to get it sparkling in the sun through the trees one morning.
Construction has not really slowed down here during the epidemic. Glad to see some people kept their jobs.
I will have to take a walk and check out how tall the structure is becoming.
There are a lot of leaves on the ground and they make a lovely sound when I walked through them.
There were big snowflakes falling for a few minutes. In my neighbourhood we don't have snow on the ground yet. I am surrounded by many areas that do have snow on the grassy areas.
I took this shot from very near the ground to have some good depth of field.
Love the few snowflakes captured at the same time.
This is "Frank the Owl". He is a multicolored glass figurine from Piers 1. He was rescued by my sister from the trash and donated to me.
I love his big blue eyes. He is very cute and has no chips or damage of any kind. Thank you sister. His body is multi - colored glass with orange feet and beak.
I love glass despite that at times it is hard to photograph.
The navy yarn arrived with my sister from my Mom's house. This is what I will assemble my new afghan when the squares are complete.
I checked my old files this morning. Wow, I did a lot of crocheting in my twenties. Many were given away as gifts. I have 2 which stayed with me.
I have documented what yarn I used but not the size of the crochet hook or the pattern. I will have to get started and do some sample squares to get them to 6.00 inches.
Thanks to my sister again I have had 3 meals of turkey dinner. Turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and dressing with garden fresh carrots.
It was very good and another thank you to my sister.
On my walk yesterday I stopped at the recycle center and rescued these 3 books from a box. I will quarantine them for a couple of weeks.
I have been reading a lot being at home so much so I need a regular injection of new ones. I think our libraries are open but I have not been visiting them.
Winter has come very quickly to our area. These flowers were still around. The first is Pink Yarrow, the middle is a dried Echinacea or Cone Flower and there were still roses and buds.
You can check my Photostream SMDPics to see which photo I submitted.
I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #101 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #262.
I have gotten very few shots of Blue Jays but last week I got this one.
I was so excited. He had been foraging on the ground which helped me spot him. I did get a few shots on the ground but would prefer a tree shot.
He then accommodated me and sat there for a very short while before he flew off into the wild blue yonder.
I finished this book during my low energy phase. It is a memoir so a true story. A woman of the world but struggles with mental health. When she decides to settle down and have kids she suffers a miscarriage first then has a baby but by then the partner is gone!
She builds a group of people to be her "family". Her mom and brother are involved but there is the nanny Tita which I believe saved her life. She became an employee, a partner, and a friend during the critical first 3 years of her baby's life. There were several others who came in and out of her life at critical points. She had the capacity to embrace these folks which is wonderful.
Great story of adapting, going with the flow, discernment, hurt, process emotions and just moving forward when you are lost.
This is an afghan I crocheted in the 1970s. Can you tell? The oranges, the browns were primary colors in that period.
Interesting how being sick makes some things clearer. I have decided that I would like a more "me" afghan for my bed so I put the call out of free yarn when I researched the price of new.
My aunt dug through her stash and donated some. My Mom called the other day and said she had some I could have. I have no idea how much I need so I will have adjust along the way.
This is the stash I was given with no orange or brown visible.
I have to dig through my box of patterns to see if I can find the original "granny square" pattern and the size of hook I used.
I have decided to assemble the squares with navy which Mom has donated.
Great watching TV project for the winter.
This book I gave up on about half way through. Having sex is what everyone here is doing and that is mostly what the author was focusing on.
Not my idea of a great book.
I am back to getting outside for photos. This is a pond on my road trip this week. Decided to head to the country rather that compete with people at popular destinations. We still have Canada Geese here as the weather overall has been great. No frost or s**w yet. I love the reflections of the old sticks of wood in the water. A goose feather where they had been bedding down.
I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #100 and
Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #261
I bet they would like to squirrel away supplies for the winter when they are so plentiful.
The squirrel tried to get to the sunflower seeds but the stalks were not strong enough to hold him up.
This book is the one I finished this week. It features many lost classics as recommended by authors who share their stories about the book that got away, lost, or otherwise has not seen a lot of reads.
It's Concord Grape time! I look forward to these showing up in the grocery stores. It is something I usually share with my sister. Not sure it will happen this year. I think we had them as kids because if the price was good Mom would buy some.
I decided to make small cloths to disinfect my camera everyday when I return from my morning walk.
The risk is small because no one touches my camera but I may touch a rail or something else that could be contaminated.
I thought Rubbing alcohol would be the most effective cleaner but it can be a bit hard on the rubber parts of the camera. The easiest is simple soap and water on a cloth.
I bought a microfiber cloth which I sewed the edges and cut into 16 four inch cloths. These will be used once and then laundered just like my masks and gloves.
Bleach solution is effective as well and will likely be used for door knobs, etc. I had been using cleaning wipes but they are not all made the same. They need alcohol or bleach to be effective for the corona virus. I have yet to find a bottle to store the cleaner as you need a soft plastic bottle. I have not had any success storing bleach solution in a spray bottle cause it just corrodes the metal parts in the spray mechanism.
I made a trade with my aunt this week. She asked did I want a denim cushion cover? I initially said no but reconsidered.
Of course, it needed to have sunflowers. She has an embroidery machine which does creates these beautiful designs. The original design has quite a bit of brown but I ask that she replace it would green.
It fit the cushion on the sofa perfectly because I had measured ahead of time.
I gave a about an inch of solid card stock. She did not want brights so I gave her jeweled tones, neutrals, and a few metallic.
So happy to have some of the card stock walk away.
I created a mosaic featuring Alium seed pods with a Scarlet Flax in the center. The third one is the seed pod of the Chinese Globe Flower. I photographed them last year but I did not have any idea what the flower was. I paid attention this year to see what the bloom looked like! Last year I thought it was a Hellebore. But now that I know what it is it is still not possible to find a photo on line of the flower's seed pod.
The Flicker Macro Monday challenge this week is the Dutch Tilt but in macro form. This is a technique where you tilt the camera to create tension when viewing the photo because we like this to stay on the horizontal. You can check out my Flicker Photostream (smpics) to see what I submitted.
I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #97 and
Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #258.
I started with 6 Crumb Square my sister made.
Finished Size: 33.50" W x 38.00" T
Front: 6 Crumb Squares 10" and another 10" column with pink from backing fabric with forest green rectangles then 100% cotton burgundy sashing
Pieces:
10.00" Crumb Squares
3 inch burgundy sashing
Pink & Forrest green column
Accents: Crumb Quilted squares
Thread: White on a cone.
Batting: Plaid Flannelette Sheet 
Backing: Bright pink small print pattern 100% cotton measuring 45" W x 50 inches tall
Binding: Self binding with the fabric from the backer.
Quilting: I stitched 1/4" around the Crumb Squares and the Pink ones in the middle column
Since I was working with squares I had not designed I just dug into my stash of fabric to see what I had. Bright pink is a favorite color so that was easy. The flannelette was excellent size as well. I did need to add some width so I created another 10 inch column with some pink from the back and forest green. Now I had 3" burgundy sashing around the elements.
In the past I have been quilt as you Mom style but I had the front assembled before I remembered that. This one was small enough it would not matter.
Lessons Learned:
Love the self binding! Will do that again for sure. No worries about missing the binding on the front. With the binding well ironed and pinned it worked really fast and easy. I checked on line for the corner but that was easy too. I was expecting it to be taller so I did not calculate so well.
Migration may have been the subject of discussion. Whose going? When are we leaving? Who is leading the crowd?
This one was singing as the sun came up. I remember their song from when I was a kid. This is the first song bird that I recognized it b
y it's tune.
I finished "The Holding" by Merilyn Simonds this week. Another historical fiction based on holdings in Northern Ontario Canada. The first was in late 1880s is Margaret with her 3 brothers. Then it is Alyson in the 1990's on the same property. I love books about independent women. The garden is what connects them over the long time period. Loved it. Finished it by reading for about 4 hours. My body was not happy to be still that long but I could not put it down.
I have whittled down my collect of blue glass and blue and white pottery. The shelf was so full that getting anything off of it was risked breakage.
I have decided that I don't need that much blue glass!
The shelf is looking better and everything has been washed and I can reach the pieces with out danger.
Maybe the pandemic provides clarity!
I love that the frost has not arrived yet and there a beautiful flowers still to photograph.
This is a Double Click Cosmos which very full instead of a single layer of petals.
This is from the mixed collection and is a beautiful pink.
I think frost will be in order for this week.
I chose several leaves for my mosaic this week.
Can't say I am fussy about seeing yellow leaves and fall coming. Not looking forward to being isolated and no outdoor visits. And this too will pass.
The challenge for Flicker Macro Monday this week is "pouch" and we had to put something inside it. Of course, a tea pouch with a tea bag is an easy one. You can check out my Photo Stream (SMDPics) to see what I submitted for the challenge.
I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #96 and Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #257.
I am working on a quilt this weekend.
ust came apart. I released
6 panels from the door.The door was similar to this one but with panels.
I brought them home, washed them up and had to push some dirt out of the channels with a skewer. It took some time but now I have great translucent panels that can diffuse light wonderfully. They measure 15" T x 19.5" W.
I asked my brother in law when they delivered the sewing machine if he could make some supports which would allow me to stand the panels as I chose. I sent a 2x4 and a plastic panel home with him. When I visited in early August they were ready.
They are great because I can have a small profile, they can support the panel from bottom or side, provide in nice snug fit so make a sturdy structure.
This black base was the shelf that sat on the support in it's previous life. It was just sitting around and I went "Why don't I use that for the base?" It's black which is good. It is larger than the bases I was using.
So I placed it on my pine shelf and snugged stuff to it. The space measures 21" W x 24" D.
That left me space on the left hand side for props, objects and whatever I need for a given photo shoot.
This is the backdrop support at the back of the space. It holds whatever I want to use as a background for my photograph. I use plastic, lace, metallic mesh, and a lot more stuff depending on what I am photographing.
It could be sturdier if it had supports on both ends. I will put my thinking cap on and come up with a stand that I can make which would work better. This works pretty good.
Now the lights for the studio are stored on the metal shelf across from the studio. It is behing me when I am taking photos. The small clip lights just clip onto the shelf support. The larger lights are stored on hooks attached to the top shelf and just hang down along the side of the shelving unit. I have had the hooks for a while but this the perfect place to use them.
I added a power bar along the bottom of the shelving unit which allows the lights to remain plugged in all the time or shut them all off with a flick of a switch on the bar.
I found some LED light bulbs at IKEA which work well for the E17 base lights I have. The small clip ones and the IKEA lamps need this size bulb.
The camera case has it's spot on the metal shelving unit. Just a clip and it is easily on my shoulder ready to go.
There's a clip to hold the tripod. I have added a black ribbon to the head of the tripod and that just gets hooked onto the metal hook.
I was sure glad that I had about a dozen of these hooks and a sturdy metal shelving unit for all the extra photo stuff.
There's a bit of space between the stand and the boxes to store extra plastic panels, reflector, white reflector panels, and color gels.
I am very happy having made the decision to have a permanent space for my photo studio. It is a horizontal space that is always available and everything I used has a place to be stored!
Clean up is quick and easy!
I decided I could redesign it for my studio. I brought it home and washed first thing.
There was a large elastic around the edge that I removed. Now it was flat. I cut it 16" tall and 27 "wide which the most I could get after straightening the curved corners. I sewed some narrow bias tape on the right and left edges where was going to attach the elastics. Finishes the edge and provides sturdiness for the elastic.
You can see the wood supports my brother-in-law made for me for these plastic sheets. They work really well. I have 3 sets.
I made some changes to the studio also so I will do a post on those.