Photography challenge, days 3: clouds & 4: something green

I was at work early yesterday so I didn't have time to upload my day 3 photo. So here it is. Clouds are hard to come by at the moment (strangely) as its really hot outside this week. Apparently the good weather is only due to last a week so I ain't complaining! Here's day 3's photo: clouds.

I love these wispy clouds, perhaps because of the implication that the weather is good

And here's day 4's offerings: Something green. I took some 'things' green as my flip flops are also green. I took a few different places before deciding on this one (perhaps good weather again) boy, I have a lot of green in my house!

 tomorrow it's something from a high angle. Have to think about that...

Photography challenge, day 2: What I'm wearing

Now I've done it, I'm thinking I could have been more imaginative with how I displayed the subject (clothes), I didn't really have to be in the frame at all - especially as I commented about my trouble with focusing when not behind the camera yesterday. But here we are; I couldn't decide on the two photos so I've put them both up for now.

 I put the one on the right on because it took me ages to do my Heidi hair today so I wanted to show it off! But I think the one on the left is framed better. In both shots I'm totally watching the tv in the other room!

Photography challenge, day 1: Self portrait

I like the blury background and the composition, although that was more because I was stood in the wrong place to be in shot, so serendipidy I guess. One thing I need to work on is the blury detail - especially as it was on timer so I didn't really compensate for the object of focus when I was behind the camera. Something to think about for tomorrow.
P.S. I hate looking at the camera, it makes me look really stern. Yes, I'm that vain...

Day two tomorrow: What you wore today.

30 day photography challenge

I found this on pinterest courtesy of whitepeachphoto.com recons I'm gonna give it a go - more so than my last attempt to do this sorta thing. Will report back.

Singapore Grand Prix

Ok, one thing you should know about me is I am obsessed with Formula 1. I watch the qualifying, the races and the F1 forum on BBC red button afterwards. Once that's all over I'll go onto the website to read all the tweets and interviews. If I'm not at work during the free practice I'll watch that too.

I was absolutely gutted yesterday that I was working during the Singapore qualifying - even more so when I got home and realised It hadn't recorded! But after some reflecting and reading up I'm over it... I was home to watch the race on the Sunday (today).

So this weekend started with the prospect of Vettel winning the drivers championship (constructors championship is already in the bag for Red Bull). This was all dependent on IF Vettel won and IF other drivers didn't gain higher track positions. As it was, he won - despite Button's best efforts in the last few laps (really thrilling to watch) - all his nearest rivals gained good positions, meaning Vettel is ONE POINT off wrapping it up for the season so next week in Japan it'll be his - meaning that he is so far ahead in points that no one will be able to catch him up.

Remember guys, its 'Vettel' like 'kettle'

I guess its taken the shine off the end result, but for me its all about the racing. The sports I like watching, I watch without routing for a team. For me its all about the play itself so I guess I'll enjoy every grand prix until the end of the season for its individual merit rather than because 'my team' won. I like seeing sportsmanship and skill,  hate seeing bad losers (or bad winners for that matter). Sure, there are drivers I prefer, but that's because of skill rather than nationality or team loyalty. I think loyalties get in the way of a good game in sports. I'd prefer to watch a sport and be thrilled at the performance of everyone rather than the experience be tainted by making up excuses or bogus calls.

come on Tim... geddit?

I enjoy watching Wimbledon when it's on, but I can't help cringing with the 'Murray Mania' that hits the British media. Sure, he's a good player, but that is no excuse for crowds to boo opponents or even not applaud when they make a good shot. It's just not cricket, as the saying goes. In my eyes it's equal to watching a soap but only watching when the character you like is on screen; you're missing the bigger picture. The experience should be enjoyed as a whole, not compartmentalised into 'good' moves because you like them or 'bad' moves because you don't. Is this an odd opinion to have - am I one of the minority?

I don't want to alarm anyone but....

As I draw ever closer to my 27th birthday I am becoming increasingly aware of my own mortality, or to be more specific; my age. The prospect of living fast, dying young and leaving a good looking corpse is getting less likely by the day... Not that I'm overly keen on that dying malarky or anything, but the one compensation would be the 'good looking corpse' bit surely? Alas now that just seems to be a pipe dream.

Well not quite like this, but you get the idea...

Now this is going to sound quite vain, but every now and then I have a wrinkle and grey hair inspection; yesterday before work I had a look - no greys yet (phew!) although I'm starting to notice very faint, fine lines on my forehead - the 'surprise' lines, if you will. I've always been of the opinion that all your imperfections are what make you who you are. But then, that was when I didn't have many. Who's laughing now, eh?

 I expect I'll get used to it as I become older and look back at this moment thinking, 'pah! I wish I looked 27!'.

Actually... I wish I look like this when I'm older

When I was a kid I had several operations to remove brain tumors and was left with a dirty great scar on the back of my neck. I've got used to that now and I don't even bother to hide it. When I was 14 I had radiotherapy on the area which thus far has worked brilliantly, but has left a nice baldy patch covering the bottom half of my scalp. That's never properly bothered me, you just style around it. I joke about it being an inconvenience - no trendy pixie 'do's, but It's never been an issue. (Except the first day my hair started falling out, that was bizzare, it turned my stomach watching a full handful of hair slide away from my scalp with no resistance).

Anyways, the point is that I'm over it, but ageing - that's something new, I guess I'll just have to get used to it like everything else, and as I've found out before - turns out most people don't notice these things anyway. Meh, but a crisis of faith - I guess I'm over it, just keep drinking water and green tea!

One day maybe...

Snood and fingerless gloves

I bought this wool from B&M a while back for *98p a ball!* (although this was before VAT went back up - I think its £1.08 now) I have to admit, primarily I bought it because it was so cheap - I thought I could try different bits out on it before spending money on good wool. But as it happens I really like the colour, so I've made a few bits out of it.

Snood, freshly made today

 I've been looking for a pattern to make snoods for ages, they're so good for bad hair days. I finally found a tutorial on youtube. So much easier than I thought it would be! I did this in a couple of hours - and it's my first one!

fingerless gloves/sleeves

These are crochet - I made them a few months ago, no pattern to them really, just a few rows of single, double and tripple crochet mixed up to create a pattern, and decreasing for the wrists.

Setting it up to knock it down

Every so often I go through a phase where I get bored with my lot and decide to change it up. The problem I have when I do this is that I try to do it all at the same time. I decide, right - I need to exercise more, I need to eat better, I need to drink more water, I need to take better care of my skin, I'm going to groom myself better, I'm going to care more about the environment, I'm going to make a start with my future career plans.

is this REALLY the right outfit for this task?

I end up overwhelming myself with the sheer amount of things I need to do, making me feel like every aspect of my life presently is wrong. I start up doing it all, on top of all the little things we need to do in order to survive; working, shopping, cooking, cleaning etc which, lets face it takes up most of the day in itself. I come up with these great schemes when I have a day off and I have the time, forgetting that I won't be able to do a two hour run and make my own bread every day.

just a little something I knocked up before pilates

I put so much pressure on doing everything at once, I end up with too much on my plate and give up. I was talking to an aquaintance about this a few weeks ago and they told me this 'clumping' tasks together is typical of an introvert (such as myself). Whereas a more confident person would say, 'I'm going to start making some changes' and that would be that, I come up with a long list of separate changes I need to make.

'I have a halloween party, ok?'

Once I fail to become a superhero overnight (which is what my brain thinks I should be) I feel like I've let myself down and I may as well not even bother, so there I crawl, back to where I was in the first place. What I need to figure out is how to stop my regular pattern of thinking and start behaving like a 'regular person'. Any ideas anyone? (she shouts into the abyss).

Here's the crazy part; all those things I feel I should be doing - I enjoy doing them. Exercising, baking, sewing, knitting, living green etc... it's as if I'm punishing myself by not doing them; because I'm not doing them. It makes no sense! I think I'm spending too much time analysing why I do things rather than actually doing them. Perhaps I should be more spontaneous...

Perhaps not that spontaneous... Olaf Brzeski - Dream (Spontaneous Combustion)

Waiting...

So, we went to the financial advisor on Saturday with the dream of potentially buying our first house. We must have seen a million houses in the past few weeks/months. But there are a few clear runners, one specifically we are very interested in, which we discussed. So today (Monday) she's putting an offer in for us.

It's a little weird, going to the next step of buying a house; we've never done it before and it seems like a huge expense but I just don't want to line some landlords pocket anymore. At the moment we're paying rent at the same time as saving a deposit, this way we'll be paying roughly the same on mortgage and be able to save for little things like food, clothes.. ya know... But seriously, we're not destitute or anything - it'd be nice to have one of those 'disposable incomes' us 20-somethings are meant to have (before leaving my 20's - which is getting ever closer!)

So that's where we are; waiting for our offer to be accepted or declined. It's quite exciting. You'll excuse my lack of enthusiasm, it ain't my thang, I'm far to british to show emotion.

Just waiting...

But hey, just to change the subject; check out this photograph I found the other day online, isn't it fab? Its by Polish photographer Yevgeny Kaldei, taken in 1941. Listed as on of the most badass was heroes who never held a weapon on Cracked.com

I am not a robot, I am a unicorn

I know, I've been off the radar for a while- we're house hunting at the moment and I'm exhausted! I'll let you know the results, there's possibly a result, but we're seeing the financial advisor at the weekend. Hmmmm... But in the meantime, I found this clip on youtube, had to share! 

Land Art

Today I was looking through my bookshelf and I came across a book I was given (I think as a joke) a few years ago. The book is a series of images by the land artist Andy Goldsworthy called Black Stones Red Pools.

Red Pool in Dumfriesshire, Scotland by Andy Goldsworthy

As you can see by the above picture, the title's pretty self explanatory; it's a load of red pools and black stones created by the artist using natural pigment from the surrounding area. The reason I like land art as a concept is the connection it had to its surroundings. It's something that could easily be there without human hands, you could almost walk right past it and not see it's there but when you look closer it reveals itself. Land art isn't loud or brash, it nods towards mother nature and tries to emulate her.

A line in Scotland by Richard Long

I love the narrative of this art, the artist didn't just go out with a mission or an image in mind, but the sculpture grows and takes on its own identity. Each stone is chosen, not just picked up; each stone has it's own uniqueness and personality. When I see these sculptures if I close my eyes I can feel as though I am going on the journey with the artist. The first time a saw a piece by Richard Long in the flesh I have to admit I was so moved I had to look away to stop myself from shedding a tear. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some 'art ponce', but it just makes me so happy to see it, to be in the presence of it. It was like meeting an idol, but it was everything I thought it would be.

This kind of work is site specific so the surroundings dictate the size, shape and look of the final piece. It's just so special to see it, you become a part of that sculptures story. I'd urge anyone if they haven't seen any land art before to look it up, and if you can, go see some in the flesh. As I'm writing this I really can't believe I haven't tried my hand at it myself, perhaps its because I'm too in awe of it. This seems like a project I should try. I'll get back to you on that...

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