Yesterday I received my new UK Visa - spousal one this time. The changes in visas are good representations of my life: from Working Holiday Maker to Highly Skilled Migrant to Spousal.
On Saturday I went out to photograph the leftovers of the fog, but ended up taking photos of spider webs instead.
1. Spiderweb low in the grass, 2. Behind the vase, 3. Caught leaf, 4. Detail of spiderweb
I went on the book reading binge, which means that I haven’t done much crafting and my brain turned into the muddled confusion of ideas. Once I’ll sort them out, I’ll try to write about some of the books I read in the last two weeks.
Actually looking at my short craft list of 8 items, most of them start with “figure out the materials required” or “buy the materials required”, so hopefully I’ll find time to go shopping on the weekend.
I do manage to draw almost every day – there are very few things that make me as happy as drawing. Fresh flowers come close.
I’m also knitting a baby blanket while listening to TED (highly recommend) and interviews with Sir Ken Robinson, but the blanket deserves its own blog post. I used to love listening to the radio as a child and glad to discoverer the availability of online podcasts that can be listened whenever one has time.
I love colour, but until recently was afraid of it: I struggled to tell which colours worked well together; I would often wistfully walk past bright clothes; I would settle for safe blacks, whites, browns and neutrals. And then I started beading and taking photos and looking at the incredibly beautiful photos and creations of others.
I started to notice my yearning for having brighter colours in my surroundings and clothes, my desire to confidently use colour in my own work, my wish to understand the colour theory. I read, but more importantly I looked for colour lessons in other’s work and nature. And is there a better colour theory teacher than nature?
Eventually I joined A Year of Color group on Flickr, created and run by HappyThings. Last year, every week, she choose a combination of two colours, this year’s the theme is Colour Inside & Out. Having to photograph a certain colour each week really makes me pay attention to my surroundings and find colours in the most unexpected places. I didn’t think we have much red in our house, but I found some and finding red outside during autumn is too easy.
Since the new year of colour started just last week, you can also join and discover the colour in your life.
I finished making another Chinese knot necklace, this one with the lampwork bead by Kathryn Ward.
I bought a sewing machine. Actually, according to my Flickr photostream, it happened a month ago; but last weekend I finally started my first sewing (and second embroidery) project and finished it on Thursday.
Even while making this simple coin purse I learned a lot. I guess there is no substitute for learning by doing, but to prevent myself from making too many silly mistakes I will be grateful for any sewing book recommendations. I have two books titled Complete Sewing Course (one mine, one from the library), but the amount of the information in them is overwhelming. I would prefer something that teaches some basic skills in small chunks with lots of projects for each skill set. Our library recently upgraded their computer system and the side benefit was that now they link to the large number of other libraries and I can reserve books from any of them for free to be delivered to my local library. So lately I was able to find almost anything I wanted to read.
