Ripples…

One of my interests is crocheting. Earlier this year I came across Lucy’s blog, Attic 24. What a talented lady she is! She spends hours, getting inspiration, researching and designing patterns and then making the most beautiful things…blankets, cushions, mandala wheels and more.

Lucy, is then generous enough to share and allow us to use her patterns. How good is that?  I get to have the pleasure of crocheting, without sweating over the design, especially when she mentioned the maths involved…aaagghh!! Thank you, Lucy!!!

When I was in the UK recently, I ordered some yarn and started on Lucy’s Moorland Stripe Blanket.  I left the work-in-progress (WIP) in the UK and will continue with it when I return for another visit May. It helps to have unsuspecting family there, to clutter up their cupboards with my work 🙂

Anyhow, I got home and immediately felt the need to go out and buy some yarn to start another pattern that I had been admiring.

Such yummy colours! This is what I have started…

Can you see it in the background? Okay…enough teasing. It’s going to be a lap/baby blanket in the Ripple pattern found on Attic 24.

Here are the first 10 stripes of colour…2 rows per stripe = 20 rows.

I have not decided in which order I am going to do the colours. I don’t want to repeat these rows. I prefer to do them in a random order. Now that is going to take some thinking!!

WIP…

I have used Elle Pullskein DK yarns, which are made here in South Africa.

If you like the pattern, do go over to Lucy’s site and find the instructions there. Make sure you have plenty of time and are sitting down with a cup of coffee when you visit Attic 24! It is very easy to get sidetracked visiting all her pages 🙂

I have to confess…I have an eye on her latest design. I can see that I will have a lot of UFOs around my house if I don’t take care.

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Macro Orchid

Orchids are one of my favourite flowers. They always look so delicate, yet I think that they, like some people, have an underlying strength.

I was playing around with trying to photograph droplets on the petals. My efforts were not very successful, but they did not detract from the exotic beauty of the flowers.

Look at this purple beauty…

Monochrome edits…

The last one is my favourite. There is a calm and peaceful appeal about it.

Patterns & Symmetry 2

The Kiwi fruit, when cut open, shows beautiful patterns and symmetry.

Colour…

Playing with Black & White edits…

MOM 105…

At the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta I captured a few flashes of orange. Very kind of them to put on a show just in time for a MOM entry 🙂 The only editing I did on these photos was to adjust the tone and bump up the saturation. I tried a few artistic takes, but they just looked awful. So I kept it simple.

Herewith my entries. Some more photos can be seen here

Do visit MOM to see what other people’s entries.

 

Morning Sky…

It’s a funny old thing, but this morning I got up and took some photos of the sunrise. Well that’s not a funny old thing…the funny thing is that it reminded me of a couple of lines I wrote in my journal a few days ago…

Wait in the morning

Dawn breaking upon the sky

As earth softly wakes

and then these are the words I read in Psalm 19:1 after having taken the photos…

The heavens proclaim the glory of God

The skies display his craftsmanship

Little events weaving life together.

I am linking up to Lori’s Mandarin Orange Monday

I enhanced the colour by using a colour pop method, though I must say that it did not need a lot of enhancing…

Drying out…

The aloe flowers in our garden are dying off. It is sad to see their glorious colour fading. However, I took note of them the other day and was intrigued by the way they are drying out. Nature is not always boring when all seems dull and brown.

 

I love playing with B&W edits. I added a black and white gradient and then a vanilla overlay…

Simbithi Sunset

On Saturday evening I got distracted from what my husband was talking about and this was what distracted me…

A beautiful sunset. My darling man was a tad irritated because I kept interrupting him to have a look at this gorgeous sight, but then he took notice and had a peek for himself 🙂 I find it difficult to capture sunrises and sunsets and get a true sense of the colours. I did cheat and add some fill light in Light Room. In PS I upped the saturation by about 2. That was all I did to that photo.

However, in the photo below, I added a Posterize layer and then an Ocean Ripple layer. It makes for quite a dramatic and colourful picture.

I am linking up to Lori’s MOM Do go on over to her site and have a look at the other entries.

A Close Up…

Well, well Blog….you have been sorely neglected over the past month, but I see you have survived!

What, you ask, has been keeping me away from you? What could be more important than you? Ummm…the answer to that is…ummm…life!

Anyway, dear Blog, you are not the only one that has been neglected. My photography, Mandarin Orange Monday, my art and many other things have been neglected too, so don’t feel bad.

Here are a couple of macro shots of a strelitzia that was blooming in our garden a couple of weeks ago. It was not in the most convenient place to photograph. I had to walk down a little bank and trample over my husband’s plants (shhh…don’t tell him!) to get some shots. I nearly fell over in the process, and…horror upon horrors, my tripod got all muddy!! However, I think the result was worth it 🙂

MoM 26…

This little, actually, not-so-little fellow was hopping around our verandah yesterday. His amazing colours made me run and grab my camera, with macro lens, and take a few shots. I am not so sure about giving him his modelling fees because he was not very co-operative and did not stay still for very long at all. I don’t know what was wrong with him…he kept hopping all over the place!

Anyway here he is and his colouring qualifies him for the weekly Mandarin Orange Monday challenge. Look at those orange eyes! I also like the reflection in the glass top of the table.

My edits were:-

Made a couple of adjustments in the Curves layer

Boosted the saturation up to 15 (at least I think it was 15!)

Sharpened the image by using using a High Pass filter

Orange reflection….

A few days ago I was playing around with my 100-400mm lens. I was too lazy to go and get my tripod, so the photos I took are certainly not as crisp and clear as they should be…that will teach me not to be lazy. I do have a slight excuse, there was a pair of Burchell’s Coucal sitting on the edge of the dam/pond in front of my house and I was worried that they would fly away before I could get a picture. So…I snapped away with my arms wavering under the weight of my lens.

Saying that brings to mind my father telling me not to be in a rush to take a photo…how right he was!!

Anyway, as well as the birds, the buildings across the fairway were casting a reflection of the setting sun onto the water. I thought it might be an appropriate photo for Mandarin Orange Monday.

I did some basic edits in Lightroom, then opened the picture up in Photoshop, where I modified the Curves and adjusted the Vibrance a little. After flattening the image, I  copied the layer, changed the blend layer to Overlay and then added a High Pass filter of 1.5px to sharpen the image.

In a few months time I will probably cringe at having the audacity to put this photo “out there”, but here it is for the moment 🙂