Morning Cobwebs to Full Moon

A few weeks ago whilst walking round the park quite early I saw what would have made a lovely photograph but didn't have my camera with me, not even my phone, so, a lost opportunity. However, the other morning I was walking in the same area and lo and behold, just a little bit further down the path was this lovely collection of cobwebs in among the weeds. After exclaiming that I should have had my camera with me, I then remembered the phone in my pocket ….

 I must explain: the sun was shining in my face, I could not see what I had focused on and there were other reasons that meant I had to rush so, I pointed the phone in the general direction of the cobwebs, clicked, and hoped for the best.

I was very happy to later find that the phone had captured this eerie look as well as the cobwebs and, although I don't think this pic could be classed as being 'technically correct' (and that is a debatable point in any case!) I really love this look and those colours and couldn't believe that the webs had come up so strongly. 

I haven't done anything at all to the original photo, above, but wanting to show the webs more clearly I then went on to crop, and then clicked the button for 'enhance', in iPhoto on my computer ….

 I would be interested to hear what you think about these pics, and if you do like them which one would be your preference? Personally I like the second one and Hubby likes the first; we don't agree on everything :) I have a love/hate relationship with my phone camera but perhaps I should think again about this!

Then we had a full moon and when I popped outside to take a look it struck me that it might be worthwhile taking a pic or two while the clouds were moving about, so picked up the Sony HX300 and just snapped ….

…. just humour me please, I'm practicing and having a good time!

Okay, on to crafty things: last post I said I'd picked up the crochet hook again and would show you next time what I'd done. Because I had felt like a bit of hooking again and didn't have anything in particular in mind, down came Jan Eaton's book from the shelf - '200 Crochet Blocks' - and on page 100 I found number 165 Coffee and Cream. As you can see I chose to use different colours (Rowan wool cotton, bought on our visit to Perth in April) so it's not coffee and cream at all, but oh how I love this yarn and these colours. I only worked rounds 1-6 as I wasn't all that keen on the rest of the block, and to be perfectly honest was becoming a bit confused with it, and then - and I won't bore you with the long story - decided to make four of these part squares and develop them into a cushion …. the rest of it is just Double Crochet, Half Trebles and Trebles - going with the flow and hoping it would work out okay!

When I make cushions these days I also make my own inserts as most of the time it's just too difficult to find the right sizes; for this cushion I made a pink one as I thought it would be a nice change to see the pink peeping through the crochet - do you like it? The pic bottom right is the back, a pretty little rose cotton that I fell in love with on one of my visits to the fabric store.

And more cushions ….

Some of these fabrics you've seen before in various projects, but the cushion bottom left consists of scraps from a dress my daughter Tracy made a while back, and the heart is one left from the little heart quilt I put together a few months ago. So as you look at the cushions you'll see the three fronts on the left and their backs on the right. I'm thinking I may change the fancy buttons on the French-look fabric to something more simple, but undecided at this point!

One more cushion, only one, really ….. plus another fabric basket ….

The strip of fabric in the middle of the blue cushion is from one of the Japan Made cottons bought a few weeks ago - it makes rather a strong statement don't you agree?

This bag is slightly shorter and wider than those I shared with you last post - it just worked out that way using two fat quarters and I rather like this size and shape for youngsters to manage. 

Hey, I made another cotton dress last week, for summer! It's a NewLook pattern this time, number 6068, and comes with a couple of variations - I didn't think until now that I could have photographed the pattern front, sorry! It can be made with short sleeves or no sleeves at all, and with or without the collar but I rather fancied a smart linen collar to finish it off and hopefully give the dress a lift. Of course being linen it does crease easily, as you can see, and being white it will show the creases but then, I like natural fabrics so have to put up with that side of things.

It all came together quite well I think and I like the rosy fabric, but when my Hubby kinda bites his bottom lip and half smiles at something then I know he's not really impressed. Men can be a bit funny - he seems to think this is not my style, but as I said to him, it's pretty and cool for summer weather  ….

In the garden this week? Well there's the lovely Nodding Violet in the pot ….

…. as well as the jasmine getting ready to open its lovely buds and share its delightful perfume with us. There's also this lovely plant that cloaks itself with the most delightful bells when the time is right for it - this little one is a cutting Hubby took from the parent plant a wee while ago and you can see it's doing well.

I think that's about it for this time lovely folks! I've been enjoying keeping up with all your news and crafts and derive great pleasure from your lovely posts, thank you. Thank you also for your kind messages here, it really cheers me to know you enjoy your visits to my little place.

An affirmation taken from a little book entitled 

'Ten Keys to Wellbeing' by Gudrun Kretschmann:

"Beautiful thoughts create beauty,

I choose to be always sustained by them"

Wishing you all happy fun days!

With my love,

❤Joy xoxo