We actually got some snow last night. It seemed kind of weird, we haven’t had hardly any snow all year. But it’s so pretty. I got outside for some photos. It was so brisk and nice out and I had lots of fun. Every time I have a little photo shoot, I realize how much I miss it. I need to go out to do it more often. 
I’ve had another busy craft week, so most of my photos are of crafts. But I’ve also included what hubby got me for Valentines day.
I’ve been working on these quilt blocks off and on for a while now. I need to embroider them all first, then I’ll put them together for a quilt.
It’s all back stitches.
Plus it’s pre-marked, so it’s really easy.
I’m also crocheting a back scrubber.
My mom showed me the pattern, it’s really easy.
Plus I received my pre-cut quilt blocks. I can’t wait to work on this soon.
Hubby surprised me with 12 long stem roses and a box of chocolates.
This week went by like a flash, and we were at a Super Bowl party last night, so I didn’t get this posted yesterday. Sarah went on a Purity Retreat for teenage girls this weekend, which is the focus of most of these pictures. This is her second year, and she absolutely loves it. She’s even considering becoming a counselor in a couple of years when she’s too old to go.
Packed and ready to go, got have a shot with mom first. 
Paulie loves to have shots taken with him and his sister all the time. I enjoy seeing their love for each other.
I started taking hand held photos like this with a girlfriend of mine I grew up with. Over the years, Sarah and I have been doing it. I will admit, it’s a lot easier to take with a point and shoot than a DSLR. Plus I forgot to check how close the lens was set before I took it, but it was still fun.
Paulie and I decided to take one after Sarah left and it was just him and me, and yes, I think I have the lens set even closer. lol
And this is the group photo before they left. Yes, I know covering their faces sort of ruins the photo, but I have a strict rule of not putting children’s pictures on my blog without asking for permission first, and I never asked. But I love the smile on Sarah’s face.
This is one of my closest friends, that I’ve know since practically moving to this town over 4 years ago. She is a photographer, and she took me on my first photo shoot when we were on a homeschool mom’s retreat. We’ve been wanting to get a photo of us together for months, we finally remembered last night at her Super Bowl Party.
And this is my new work area. I’m so excited to have a space just for my things, and I’ve decided to clean off the table even more, and bring my sewing machine out of the closet, so this will become a work/craft area. There’s a couple more things I have to move around before I can do that, but I can’t wait.
Yep, I’m finally done with my crocheted yarn bag. It was so much fun to make, and really so very easy. I’m still learning how to neatly crochet in the round, and the connecting part looks pretty messy. Plus it’s a bigger than I was thinking it would be, but it’s perfect for fitting lots of different skeins of yarn in it. So what do you think?
I thought the scalloped edges look nice. I attached the straps on the inside instead of the outside. I still want to add some small flowers on the outside, and I hope to do it soon. Ok, so who’s kidding who, I probably won’t do any more work on this bag because I’ll be busy with other projects. 
But I still like it.
This is what I’ve been carrying my yarn in. 
I like it in my new bag a lot better.
I’ve also started a new bag. I’m making this one a little different. I’m using half double crochets instead of double crochet, and I’m using the same colors for two rows instead of one row. As much as I like my big yarn bag, I don’t always need to carry around that much yarn. So I’m making this new one smaller, for when I’m working on simple projects with just one or two skeins of yarn.
What do you think?
It’s a lot neater and I’m finishing the rows a lot better.
Even though I’m crocheting a lot neater with the half double crochet, it’s starting to ripple a bit. Maybe I’m crocheting too tight, not sure. But I think it will still work fine. I’ve been having some free time to listen to my audio books and crochet, which is nice, getting these done. The only issue is I’m starting to feel it in my elbow, think I need to take more breaks.
I’ll probably make one more small bag after this. I think Sarah would like one for her yarn, so I will make her one. Then I can’t decide if I’ll stick with crocheting or switch over to some embroidery. I still need to finish that one cross stitch project I was working on, but I might try my hand at some doodle stitching instead, we’ll see.
Well, I’m off to work on my bag. It’s been a long day, and relaxing with some crocheting will be nice.
This weeks photos are mainly of my crafts I’ve been working on. I’m trying to finish my yarn bag so I haven’t spent a whole lot of time taking pictures.
My cross stitch project that is sitting idle while I’m crocheting.
The yarn I’m using to crochet my yarn bag.
My mug cozy.
It’s still not finished.
The bottom of my yarn bag.
I need to learn how to finish my row better and not leave such a big whole.
My camera lens is now clean.
I have finally decided on my next crochet project, well my next big project. I’m currently working on crocheting a mug cozy and have it just about done. But I forget to take pictures today when I had my camera out. I’ll get a picture when it’s all done.
But I’ve been wanting to make a craft/yarn bag for a while, but really couldn’t find a pattern that I liked. I was over at Heather’s blog today, and through that post looked at some of the other ladies that visit her blog that crochet too. While doing that I found the perfect crochet bag project for me to try on Attic 24 blog. Lucy makes some really fun things, and I think I’ll be getting some fun project ideas from her.
I like the colors she used for her bag better than the colors I’m using for mine. But I have all this yarn, and I really don’t want to have to spend money for more. Hubby let me know that the colors I have will look good together, because you know me, I’m not good with putting colors together since I usually stick with neutral colors. But I’m going to step out again with colors and start working on this bag. Here is a picture of the yarn I am going to use. (Mom, does most of these colors look familiar? It was for the other project we were going to do. ).
Please don’t get me wrong, I do like the colors, but I wish I could stick with more of a mauve/pink set of colors. But again, I want to use up what I have in the house and not go spend money on more yarn. Who knows, if I really like this maybe in the future I’ll make another bag in different colors.
Oh, and my camera is finally cleaned. I was so bummed to realize the speck was on the inside of my camera and not just on the lens. I’m thankful that our local camera store, owned by a Christian, can clean the sensor. I took it to the store, and talked with the owner who reassured me I didn’t do anything wrong. But he took the hand held rocket blower, took off my lens and just blew inside my camera. I’m still nervous seeing things like that and have no desire to try and do it myself. But wouldn’t you know, it worked! It’s all cleaned, and I didn’t have to pay to have the sensor actually cleaned. I’m so thankful that it didn’t cost me any money and that it’s also a normal thing that happens, that I didn’t go anything wrong with my camera.
My shots aren’t real creative this week. I’ve been sick, so I haven’t pulled out my camera that much. Plus, I just realized, as I was looking at another sky shot I took, that my lens still isn’t cleaned that well. I’m off to clean it up better than I did last time (after I get this posted of course ).
We pulled out our humidifier, which has helped a lot with my sinus infection.
I’ve been working on my crafts while I’ve been sick. This is going to be a plastic bag holder I’ll hang in our kitchen.
We’ve had a lot of birds around here lately, well now they are gone with the little bit of snow we got.
The colors on the mountain looked a lot better, but I just didn’t get outside in time.
The cross stitching is officially done, now I have to do all the back stitching, which I really don’t like.
Sarah made us some yummy no-bakes.
Can you guess what we are doing today? Oh, and for those who don’t know, I’m a huge football fan. I have it one even when hubby isn’t home. So don’t think I’m complaining when I put this picture out there, I’m not. My only complaint is my 49er’s are loosing right this moment.
One of my current craft projects (that’s the other side of my photo background my friend made me ).
Went for a walk before sunset yesterday.
I really like cloud shots.
Kids having fun with their cousin.
My friends pretty Christmas decorations.
I went out when it was frosty one morning and tried getting some creative shots. I think they turned out pretty good.
Mine and Paul’s favorite frosty picture.
I just realized there is a spot on some of these pictures. I checked my camera and just cleaned off a spot on my lens. Guess I need to remember to look at that more often.
I’m also joing Christine’s photo project too.
I think I’ll start with the fun things first, then vent my frustrations.
I went out on a date with my husband on Tuesday, and we had a great time. One of the things we did was go to our local camera shop. It is owned by a fellow Christian, who goes to our church. We took a photo class from him, and we try to always buy all of our camera supplies from him. We try to buy local whenever we can. It’s always fun to go in his store because he’ll chat with us for the longest time. Showing us the new techniques he’s working on, or the new things he’s gotten in his store.
The main reason we went yesterday was because I wanted to get another camera bag. I already have a real nice one, a LowePro Sling, and I really like it. All my gear fits in it, it’s padded nicely and it’s very easy to use. But I’ve realized over the months, it’s on the bigger side, though I have seen bigger ones. But because of the size, I just don’t tend to take it out on quick trips as much. I really want to start using my camera more, and everyone says the way to do that is take it everywhere with you, even if you are just running to the grocery store. Well, I haven’t taken it to my grocery store, but honestly, I wasn’t taking it many other places either. Unless I was going on a big photo shoot, I just didn’t want to carry that big bag with me. And because of that, I just wasn’t taking my camera out as much. So I decided I really wanted another smaller bag, for quick trips. Quick question, do you have more than one camera bag? Do you have a smaller version for quick trips and things? Just wondering.
I was blessed with some Christmas money, and as I was trying to decide what I wanted to get, a new camera bag came to mind. So we went and looked, and talked, and looked and talked. I couldn’t decide between one that would fit just my camera, or one that would fit my camera and one lens. I opted for the one that would fit the camera and one lens. The thing I love the most about it is the handle on top for carrying. Or I can use the shoulder strap like a purse. What do you think? Oh, and one more question. In my new camera bag, I have one of my lenses laying on it’s side, is that ok or do I need it upright? It’s a nice, padded bag, so I’m not worried about it getting knocked around, but just wondering if having it on it’s side is bad.
You can see it’s quite a bit smaller than my sling, but I can still fit my wallet in the front pocket, if I just wanted to grab my camera and go. It’s already helped me a lot. Last night as I was heading to a dinner with some friends, I decided at the last minute to take my camera with. I’m glad I did, I got some great pictures. But I know I wouldn’t have if I had only my big sling to take. This was perfect. I grabbed my purse and camera bag and headed out the door. I really think I’ll start taking my camera more places now. And then when we are traveling, or I’m going on a specific photo shoot, I’ll pack everything in my sling and take it all.
Now my frustration, with myself. For the past few weeks, when I’m taking pictures, I’ve put my hand in front of the flash!!!! I’ve messed up more pictures that way. Thankfully they are just shots I’m taking around the house, and I see the error right away and I take it again. But last night, my friend set such a beautiful table I just had to take a picture of it. I quickly whipped out my camera, and since everyone was waiting to eat, I took some quick pictures, but never looked at them. I uploaded them today and so bummed to see I had done it again! Look at this.
Ugh!!!! I don’t know why I’m starting to hold the camera this way. Do any of you deal with that? Really, I’m not sure why I’m doing that, and it’s sooooooo frustrating. I can’t get that chance back from last night, and I ruined the pictures from the table, though I did get some other great photos. Any suggestions as to how to remind myself to NOT put my hand in front of the flash? Really, this is bothering me.
Here is one of the photos that did work.
I decided to do my own 365 photo project calling it 365 Photo Creations. I still plan on posting just once a week, and yes, I know this year it is technically 366 days, but for my project we’ll call it 365. I hope you enjoy following me through the year with some fun photos I’ve chosen to take. I’m also going to work at being less ‘wordy’ with each picture, trying to let the picture speak for itself. We’ll see how I do with that one.
1/365 – First picture of the year.
2/365 – First time using my Knifty Knitter.
3/365 – My birthday month. My mom got me this years ago, it’s so cute.
4/365 – Yep, hubby is trying to learn how to crochet. He’s doing a great job.
5/365 – Seems to be the Christmas present I use the most lately.
6/365 – First finished Knifty Knitter project (we stretched it out a bit when we tried it on ).
7/365 – Second Knifty Knitter project.
