April - Photo a Day Challenge - Part 2

Day 6 - Your lunch

Day 7 - Shadow 

 Day 8 - the inside of your wallet

 day 9 - younger you

and then my camera broke! Yes, my lovely, brand new Sony cyber shot :( It's all packaged up and is waiting to go back to Sony via the courier but they haven't even been to pick it up yet.

My mobile phone does have a camera too but I just can't get it to 'talk' to the computer, so for the time being I'm going to have to bow out gracefully from the 'photo a day' challenge. Sigh.

Happy Easter from Selkie

 Here are a few photos from my Easter weekend :) The weather has just been glorious so I've been spending most of my time out in the garden.

I decided it finally was time for me to tackle our compost heaps - we have two, one made out of old pallets and the other is just a 'free-form' heap made out of all the grass cuttings and hedge clippings over the last 12 months.

 Look what I found growing in the pallet compost heap! I'm going to keep the baby potatoes for cooking but the mushroom has been 'recycled' back into the heap.

 I was so thrilled to find this hellebore which had self-seeded itself in one of my fruit beds!

 Talking about fruit beds - here are lovely new flower buds coming on my raspberry canes :)

 ...and then after all that gardening and hard work I just had to relax on my swing-seat for an hour or so, along with some reading material, crochet and treats!

First five days of 'Photo a Day -- April'

Day 1 - your reflection

Day 2 - colour  (not so easy on a dull day)

Day 3 - mail (not so easy on a bank holiday!) 

Day 4 - someone who makes you feel happy (not so easy when Peter was working all day)

Day 5 - tiny

I think I will write blog updates every few days on this photo challenge so be prepared! it's a great idea and a perfect way for me to test out my new camera too

April 1st.

 My step-daughter posted one of those ''photo a day'' challenges on facebook today so I thought I'd give it a go - I'm not sure if I'll last the whole month, I'm bound to miss a day or so along the way but I quite like the idea of being given a subject for each day and then trying to think how I can put my slant on it.

The subject for the first photograph is 'your reflection' so here I am.  I quite like how it turned out - & it's a chance to show off my new camera at the same time!

 This is what I'm working on at the moment -- well, the black/grey ones are all finished but I just started the second one of the black/pink this morning. I'm still in love with making the crocodile wristers - they always sell pretty well for me at craft fairs (and on Etsy too) so I am trying to build up my stock of them in the hopes of some sales!

I bought both these yarns (King Cole Galaxy) when we were in England last week - I love the sequins!! I spent too much money on wool when we were over there so I have put my Etsy shop on sale (15% off everything) for the next four weeks in the hopes of bringing in some extra money.

I just had to take a photo of this beautiful print I have - I bought it on Etsy a while ago and love it so much; it's one of my most favourite possessions. If I were to have a tattoo it would be something like this (not sure where I would have it though..)

Last Post of the Month

March has been SUCH a quiet month in my Etsy shop, I'm hoping that it isn't a sign of how things will be for the rest of the year - this month I've only had five sales; last year in March I had just over twice that number. Sigh.

I've decided that I'm not going to print any more of my cards just yet - I had been thinking about placing a order for some new ones with Moo before the Summer season, but I can't justify the cost of it right now and I still have so many in 'stock' so that should last me out the rest of the year. It's  more practical to sell up the ones I already have instead of keeping printing more and more and more of them, so for once I'm going to be practical and do the thing that makes business sense.

I'm thinking about putting my Etsy shop on sale for a while to try and bring in some extra euros - it looks like the ferry (my proper 'day job' for six months of the year) will be at least a month late starting this season...we were meant to be starting this coming Thurs/Friday but things are all up in the air right now.

Ugh, this is a pretty miserable post really - I'll come up with some positives..

We've just come back from a trip over to visit my step-daughter and some friends in England - it was a bit of a whirlwind trip rather than a holiday as we had booked it when we thought that the ferry would shortly be re-starting up, so we were only away for a few days. But it was lovely - and I got to meet up with the mighty Shirley in Cheltenham again for lunch and wool shopping again :)

While we were away my new camera came in the post http://www.sony.ie/electronics/cyber-shot-compact-cameras/dsc-h300 this is the one that I opted for...it's a big step forward compared to my old (more basic) Sony Cyber-Shot. I'm still finding my way round it but I think we'll get on ok together :)

These are some photos from when I went to the beach the other day - I'm really liking the zoom (it's a x35 one compared to my old x15).

Crocodile...

 I've made these a while ago, just after my old camera conked out, but I thought I may as well take photos using the camera my Dad lent me, so they are now available in my Etsy shop :)

..and these (yet more lovely King Cole 'riot' dk)

and these were the ones that I was still working on yesterday!

I'm working on yet more of them (still in King Cole, it really is one of my favourite brands) - when I've been in this depression it's all my head can cope with -- something very familiar and repetitive and of course I love the colours.

another update..

Ugh, I think March has just been a not-so-good month for me just recently - this is only my 4th update of the month and I really feel like I've kind of stagnated lately.

I've hit a real depression - my own fault I'm ashamed to say, as I take tablets to help with my mood/hormones and somehow lost track and managed to lose a whole week this month: with the result that I have been the lowest I've been in years.

I know I'm lucky really - this is only temporary and I know what has caused it, but it is kind of scary to see so clearly how much of a difference my tablets make and how I would be without them :(

While I've been like this I've been re-reading ''Crochet Saved my Life'' on my Kindle (an excellent book) - when I'm really bad I just can't get my head round most of my crochet; I feel stupid for saying it but it just feels 'wrong' and too complicated...

For example I'm making hats for Barbara's the Artist's art retreat again this year but I just had to take a break from it last week as it just wasn't making sense. This is wool that I've already worked with in the past (this will be my third year making the hats for her artists, and every year we use the same Irish Donegal tweed and change the colour each time) -- so I should be capable of it but it's just not working ;(

So I've gone back to making crocodile wrist warmers yet again ...

I took this photo just now, working outdoors on our swing-seat in the garden. I'm not feeling so awful today so hopefully I'm starting to turn the corner back towards normality.

Look at this for a stunningly beautiful clear blue sky!

Oh gosh that's another thing - my beloved Sony Cybershot camera has finally kicked the bucket. It has survived years of me dropping it, leaving it behind me on the beach...you name it...and finally it has had enough and has given up the ghost.

I love my camera so much; this is the first digital 'proper' camera that I've ever had and it felt like an extention of myself: reflecting how I see the world and taking all the photos for my Etsy shop, greetings cards...everything.

In the meantime my Dad has kindly lent me his old camera (which is a bit wonky but still works) - so I've used that to take the photos in this update. It doesn't feel the same though :(  We've gone ahead and ordered a new Cybershot from Sony - I'm hoping that I will get on ok with it, I think that because I had had my old camera for so long it's bound to feel a bit strange to be using something different, but watch this space.