My nose runs faster than my feet

I love this shot of the lovely fabric wrap that Christine sent me, hanging against my neighbours shed. I looks like a flag, hey- the national flag of Callyland. Oh, now I want to screenprint it and fly it above my house. I've always wanted to have pennants up there actually, I love the kind that have really long streaming lengths. That's also one reason I love old ships, especially Pirate-type ships.


This is a photo of crates at local shop, I had lined up for my blue blogging, but couldn't get my own computer working. I have lots of blues that were 'trapped' and never got uploaded, so I guess there will still be a strong scattering of blue-ness over future posts. Not that that's a bad thing.

My cold is really digging it's heels in, but that's ok since I don't have to go to drag myself to work this week. I benefit I wasn't expecting. I bought £11 worth of fruit today (got veg yesterday but somehow forgot fruit). This is £4 over what I should spend on an entire weeks shopping, but I can tell my body needs it.

Skimming through Mary Jo's blog (previous post) I was reminded of a couple of women I've been meaning to blog...
Salee Oh
She does really sweet papercuts, they totally remind me of my childhood papercuts as far as the imagery goes... but her's are a)good and b) intact! I was never the best cutter with my blunt craft knife. Oh the sheer joy of discovering (at high school) that scalpels weren't just for surgeons! Even better, since I last looked in on Salee she has done a 2007 calendar with my fave California Colour Girl Jill Bliss. I think actually that I may have mentioned Salee last year, but always good to do again. Mary Jo has a really nice papercut of Salee's on her blog.

Lotie
You're bound to have seen her fashion illustrations, even if you didn't know it was her. MJ has posted an interview with Lotie (again, I can't find a link but the date is 30 Jan '07) and it includes a good selection of her artwork plus views from her Paris flat. I've long liked the drawings she does with water in them as they are like my water dreams, more on that another time.

And finally, she mentioned this, Pomega5 cleansing bar. It sounds really good, but I daren't look on their site as I know it will cost more than 50p. I'm guessing a LOT more.

Marcus Oakley

Marcus Oakely project for Pointer footwear

I'm always meaning to blog about Marcus Oakley ever since seeing his work on T's for Howies and his sewing on his own site. But I hadn't seen his 3D work before, like the piece above.

I don't need to find the time to do a blog on him now, because Mary Jo at Trust Your Style has done a great image filled colourtastic interview with him! Couldn't get a link to the actual post, so if you're looking it's dated 23 Feb '07. Well worth a look if you like fun, bright 70's happy graphics.

Not new for me thanks

Needed a shot of red to warm me up after all that blue.

It's taken me all day, on and off, to write this post. I've caught a cold over the weekend, my own fault for indulging in wheat & dairy filled meals all weekend. Honestly though, I was in food heaven, but now I've this cold and my allergies are kicking off. Ho hum.

The red brolly above was one of my best best christmas presents and was from Ruth (picked out by me in a charity shop Argyll for £3). It's a beauty, pointy tip, dainty leather handle, fabulous tassle. I ADORE it, partly because it isn't new. I've seen new versions of old style brollies, but they just don't do it for me, even though they are rather nice.



It's not that I totally dislike new things, but they don't, on the whole, give me the joy that old bargain finds do. I really find it hard to enjoy new things because I am constantly aware of their cost. With 2nd hand/thrifted items my awareness of the cost (or lack of cost) is a very big part of what makes me enjoy them all the more.

This Christmas was great cause most of my presents were things I chose from charity shops but I have been too busy to blog them, hence the red brolly today. I'll show more when I get time and good light to take photo's.

Got soaked to the skin digging up daffodils and bluebell bulbs before the workmen drive a tractor over them. Such cold rain and now there is a gale blowing outside. Winter is back. Hope you are all tucked up cosy, or better still, are somewhere with nicer weather. May need a blog break if this cold gets worse.

My frozen hand, not sure if the raw redness shows up on the screen? It's all puffed like it's been in the bath too long, that's cause it was stuck in the wet for 3hrs...

Blogiversary blue - last day

Originally uploaded by Elena777
The entire flickr set is of the amazing Luly Yang boutique,
I'd be in heaven playing at dressing up in there.


Originally uploaded by Calanan - thanks for letting me blog this though there was no 'blog this' button.


Originally uploaded by djuless


Originally uploaded by the butterfly collector.
I'm utterly envious of this amazing articulated blue fish necklace


Originally uploaded by decor8
I love blues with greeny colours, all the more aquatic.
And of course, I love textured embroidery.

I didn't want to repeat images I've already blogged but a tiny selection of past fave's are...
Camilla's lamp, Corey's french armoir, Grainne's brooch, this room I liked, bird card by Annemaree & Rose and these Anthropologie pieces.

Some of my own blues... my blue things post, some of my old sea themed artwork, illustration, my Fly cards, my teacup photo, me with blue face, graphic I did of the cat on my birthday last year when it snowed (ok the snow was not blue, but it was exciting).

More blue links, cause I really never did show as much as I wanted to this week...
Blue reflections on a mirrored 'crazy paving' style building.
Very cool retro turquoise bus. I'd very much like to own that.
Really lovely faded grey/blue wooden door. It has a woman mowing the grass and lots of dandelion 'clocks'.
Bright blue (not a blue I like really) caravan. It's got sticks for window spars.
This, on the other hand, is exactly the blues I like, always good on panelled wood.
An orange in turquoise pool.
Pale blue sewing machine.
Pot of pens on red gingham against turqiouse
Cute old toy tin car.
Mosaic shoes with a touch of blue by Helen Mary Stewart.
Caravan door with kids 'Ye Olde Shoppe' sign painted on.

Whoops, just realised toes are numb and I was really meant to be trying to access my dodgy email (dodgy software, not dodgy emails). Hope you all had a great weekend, mine was full on but satisfying as I was well fed. Thanks to all who popsted blue pics, or allowed me to post their blue pics. It's been fun. I will do another colour themed week next month, but for now just want to do regular mixes.

Blogiversary blue - Lisa S

Thanks to Lisa S who let me post her 'come aboard pic from here on her flickr.

Yay to you lovely folk who've joined in my week (Tues-Mon) of posting blues. My week has been busier than I expected now that I'm jobless, so I've not posted as much as I'd hoped, or been able to check on all of you but here are some folks that I know have been playing along, much thanks for your wonderful images.

(hope these links all work, blogger was being naughty about them...
Daphne posted a gorgeous mix here
Katherine is posting through the week including blue scotland here and muscles here
Julie posted glass ball & sky here
Charlotte coincidentally posted knitwear here
Amisha coincidentally posted a print here

Wahhhh, blogger just deleted most of my links and I don't have time to do it again. I'm super busy tomorrow, and actually most of the weekend so maybe it'll be mondday before I post more of my blues (all trapped on home computer which isn't working).

Enjoy your weekends people, and remember, if you see any good blues snap 'em and let me know.

Blogiversary blue - ring flask door

My favourite ring, my favourite flask and a rather nice door for Lisa.

Blogiversary blue - gaelic

Another image that I took to use in my graphics years ago, it's been nice unearthing some of these.
Today has turned out to be not as I planned so no big blue posts, just this little ditty for now.

I'm off to make some spicy veg and quinoa soup for my friend who's having a rough time. And after today, I could do with some soup myself, it's been quite chilly and poor Marley was not happy that we didn't romp in the fields. He likes me when I have more energy to indulge his bouncy-ness. He's very bouncey.

If I can get on Mr P's laptop I can post some more later, we'll see. But for now, carrots to chop, with Julie London and Norah Jones in the background.

Blogiversary blue - Flickr faves

Dandelion
Originally uploaded by mitayuudodo.

This is where my head is at a lot of the time.

fiji1
Originally uploaded by mitayuudodo.

I wish I was there.
I remember when I was in Turkey with the love of my life and we would swim in mercurial sea to watch the sun set most days. It was incredibly serene. Neither of us spoke, we just lapped up the silence and the colours.

dogwoods
Originally uploaded by simply photo.

I know this has had a lot of blog viewing but it couldn't be missed from my blue week.

Sorry about the black outlines, I've posted these using the 'blog this' button in flickr, and this is how it does them.

Blogiversary blue - mix

this one is from my graphic design days


Marraine posted blue Snow Queen images here


Anna's bedroom


found here from Обыкновенное Чудо

Blue + lime green

Here's that Organic Romanesco I mentioned the other day. It is SO gorgeous I can't bring myself to eat it yet, so it's been getting photographed a lot.

As I said in last post, I wanted to do something to mark my 1st blogiversary and since I'm, you know, just a tad obsessed with blues, bluey greens and blues with other colours I decided to do a week of bluey photo's. Do join me and post some of your own.

I'll do various posts, some of my own pics, some of yours (if you say i can), some from flickr etc. A feast of blues all week.

1st Blogiversary

Yey it's my blogiversary today :0) and it's mild and sunny.

How fitting that my 1st bloggy birthday is the same day as the 1st day of my new life! Oh yeh, last nights celebratory wine and pizza were GOOD.

I'll be doing a proper post later, but in a rush just now so as an intermediate thing I'm posting the blue sky. I'm all about the bluey colours so I'll be posting lots this week, and I invite you all to do the same, got a nice sky today, or some ocean? Maybe some blue fabric or some turquoise signage, I'd love to see.

Dragspelhuset

This is the expanding, cedar shingle covered Dragspelhuset (Accordian House) by 24h architecture as seen here. You know how much I want my house covered in cedar shingles, and this organic curvy look is right up my street, though obviously my house is geometric, but I can wiggle them so they are laid in a wavy way. Meant to post this weeks ago but never had the time... 'til today - I'm officially free of my hideous job!

They suck big time in their, never even left a note to say goodbye or anything. At my official redundancy meeting I joked that I knew the 120 staff from my department were hiding in a darkened room with flowers and cards - joke didn't go down well. Such a humourless manager. And incompetent. And rude. It costs nothing to be polite, or at least civil.

This is very exciting as it means pizza and wine for me tonight. I've been so good, not had pizza in years, but I used to say that if I ever left work I'd celebrate with pizza so I can't wait for this evening.

Now I can concentrate on my health, my home and - hopefully, my own business (longer term). That's got to be a good thing. Thanks for all the messages of support from you lovely bloggers. You are the best.

Coming to an end

I like this faded hydrangea*, it has a calmness that I'm hoping I'll feel when I finish work, which I'm hoping will be after my next shift (as long as I get my holiday time that I'm due). Feels so strange to be leaving so suddenly after all these years. I've loved and hated it. So many good people, so many bad managers.

I'll still not have time to catch up on all my emails just yet as I have a LOT of things to sort out over the next few weeks, but I will reply to everyone eventually. Until then I'll keep my camera with me and continue to post snaps of my day... got some lovely romanesco shots today but can't hook up to a working Mac till tomorrow.

*Why does blogger scale down so many of my photo's? This looked gorgeous at proper size and rubbish now I've had to stretch to fit. I always have the same setting, a 10cm wide, 72dpi pic saved at Quality 6 in photoshop and imported into blogger on the medium quality setting. I never change that, yet many come in tiny, even when I increase the actual pic/quality/compression sizes. Such a shame as it's often ones that had great detail so they get all pixellated and look bad when I scale up withing the post. If you know how to avoid this then I thank you in advance for your advice.

browns & red

Eugh, bad picture quality (blogger, not me). Some nice door bits and an appearance by my trusty camera bag (inc. detail) that I made Christmas '05 in my enthusiasm about going to Sweden. It's been so handy ever since. Can you see I'm trying to make up for not posting and 'made' stuff for ages.

These are not fake cakes, or shop cakes, or show cakes. They are real cakes that Alicia made!

I cannot begin to describe the exquisite torture of seeing these beauties and not being able to eat them. So, in the spirit of 'a problem shared is a problem halved', maybe my tastebuds will feel less under pressure if I'm getting all of you to have the same problem.

Thanks Alicia for letting me post this. And for those of you (Anna etc.) who are true baking gals, Alicia has posted the recipe and MORE pictures of 'the making of' here. Enjoy.

(did I mention that I have already sinned this week - tiramisu, family size... TWICE!!! losing your job is just such a great excuse for that kind of thing. My skin looks atrocious now, but the memory of the taste lives on happily)

black & white

Another busy day, thought I'd post some black and white. Enjoy your weekends everyone.

Busy day, no time to chat. The berry bush looked utterly stunning in real life, so red.

frosty morning

Mmm-mmm. I love that muted gray green you get when paint fades or things get frosty. I really wanted a high quality pic of the hand print on the frosty car window but I could see the man over the street looking like he was about to call the police (not my car).

It's funny the different reactions people have to photograph taking. If your not snapping a person, a view or a landmark they can get very suspicious and act like they think your either crazy or criminal!



I managed to access quite a few of your lovely comments but couldn't get the connection working to reply, but thank to all who typed me a message, I really do appreciate you taking the time. I'm gagging to have regular broadband access back so I can begin to read and comment more on all your blogs again, I really miss that.

12 hours later....
Blimey, what a day. I wolloped my finger the other day so typing is hard, but dog walking is harder. Marley was a dream on our sunny lunchtime walk (those frosty pics are from last week). But I'm finally back from his latest walk which was an absolute trial.

He was utterly hyper, as if he'd eaten too many red M&M's, or blue Smarties or whatever freaks kids these days. And then when I got him home he was dreadful, jumping, slightly biting, barking...no idea what was going on - he's never like that with me though he does it with L a lot.

I think possibly he's trying it on with me as the dog training lady was here yesterday and worked ahrd with M and L to get him to recognise her dominance. I reckon he thinks if he can't dominate her he'll try and dominate me. Forget it dog (says I, heart going 500 beats per minute, sweat pouring down my brow, hand shaking and voice GONE). But I did 'win' in the battle for top dog eventually.

When I left my brain was so addled that, in the dark shadow of the tree I mistook a small round Hebe bush for MrP's cat! I was chattering away to it in a hoarse whisper. It was only when I leaned down and stroked it I realised my error. Thankfully no-one saw!

Finally, before you ask, no valentine's cards, well, not real ones (Ruthy, thanks for the one you sent me, it was a hoot though I was freaked that I looked like Ivana Humpalot, from Austin Powers, in that outfit!).

I've only ever had 1 proper card in my life in Primary 6 (5th Grade) from a boy called Craig. I know it was him because he had very distinctive writing - his 'e' was always back to front! Wish I still had it, but my mum always chucked my things away.

Here are some cakes I saw in the bakery last week for all you romantic (or just plain cake lovin') types. And some berries for the rest of you...

Around Edinburgh

More photo's from last week. LOVE that little car! My original photo had horrible buildings, bad shrubs and crap signage in the background so I replaced it with an image of a gorgeous garage door I took earlier that day...much nicer.

The woman I snapped fast, as it was the only time she stood still. She was clearly freezing (it was very cold) but I loved how she'd come out with different ankle socks on and her mulberry bright coat against the frosty grass.

Last picture is part of my ongoing collection of photo's detailing my mild obsession with old cast iron gutter brackets. I want cast iron gutter brackets. I have white plastic ones, not pretty.

Before I go, just a note to anyone who's emailed or commented- I haven't been able to check any yet (I'm not on my own computer doing this) but hope to check on Thursday one my week of work/life/dog meetings has calmed down a bit. Of course, I may just want to sleep through thursday instead. But I do appreciate your getting in touch and I will read them soon. Ciao for now.

Yellow = fun

...

Had my official meeting today and definitely being made redundant. Deary me, strange days. I consoled/celebrated with a tiramisu! Food is so much better when it's fun. See how I like to play with my banana before I make a smoothie. Why do so many parents say 'don't play with your food'? PLAY, play with it!