CPSH October: Favourites

Inspiration:
Who could resist Emma's gorgeous puppy?



Something I made:
As I'm still attempting to be 85% paleo, Rachie's chocolate cake has me salivating every time I look at it.



Colour: Orange
Emma is truly a talented pumpkin carver....and clearly inspired by the puppy!



Motif: Cherries
Bit cheeky, picking my own, but have I mentioned how much I love my shower cap?



Cosy:
I loved Rachie's nest - cosy and stark at the same time.



We appear to be on something of a CPSH hiatus, which is sad. Maybe it will return again in the new year.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: October

This month's participants, along with me, are Emma and Rachie - please go along and peruse their pictures.

Something I Made

Well, it has been autumn, after all - so here is some of my gigantic stockpile of apple chutney.




Inspiration

Great big acres of blue!



I wanted something this month that reminded me of the summer holidays, which is why I started knitting the blue jumper. This is the lake it makes me think of.

Colour: Orange



I really love this colour of Cascade 220: so vibrant, so much going on - it's a real multi-layered orange. I bought and wound this to knit some pumpkins, last year. It hasn't happened yet; I am afraid the vibrancy will be lost when I felt. It might make it even better though, I suppose, as often seems to happen with Cascade when it is felted.

Motif: Cherries

I saw this shower cap in a shop window on my drive home from work some time last term. It was in an awkward place to get to, and I almost never drove past it when I had any time to linger or when it was open. Then it closed down! Boo. But luckily it reopened nearby. Hurrah! Then I went in and thought it had been sold, boo. But then I saw it was on a polystyrene head by the counter, HURRAH!



It is gloriously kitsch. I have held out against buying a shower cap for a very long time because I wanted one that was perfect. I think this is it.

Now that I have examined the label, I see that I could have bought it online, and any variety of other beautiful creations, from Dilly Daydream. 

Cosy

Costa's spiced hot apple drink:



I must admit to being a bit disappointed that the "hot" was provided by a top up from the boiling water tap, and that it smelled very strongly of apple squash, but it was tasty and warming nonetheless. It made me feel very cosy when I poured it into my own mug and curled up in my chair with it. It's no Pumpkin Spiced Latte, but as long as Starbucks continue to be seemingly unaware that there is life and coffee drinkers outside of city centres, it is the best available option.

Craft Photo Scavenger Hunt: October

We've all gone a bit quiet on this, but it is my turn to pick topics this month so I am determined to get it going again! Here are my topics:

Something I Made
Inspiration
Colour: Orange
Motif: Cherries (I would accept any fruit really)
Cosy

(I have had this post in draft for over a week waiting to do something creative with the topics but now we're halfway through October and I really should just get it posted!)

If you would like to participate, please leave a comment on this post.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: August

It has been so long since I participated in this. I have missed it! I started to worry while I was on holiday that it was my turn to pick topics but luckily that's a couple of months away yet and this month it was Rachie's turn. I expect you're thoroughly sick of hearing me rabbit on about my holiday by now, but since I spent most of August on said, holiday, unfortunately - here we go again.

Something I Made



Cheating a little with something Mr Z made, because I already wrote about my FOs this month. He likes to whittle. This was one of his early efforts during the trip - a tent peg tidy.

Inspiration



The colours at Lake Tahoe had me imagining a blousey, flowing summer top knitted with a dark blue top portion and a more aquatic bottom portion, flowing out of an empire waist. Something else to knit in my copious free time.

Adventure

Stills from the footage I took on my GoPro when we went rafting on the Truckee River. It was an excellent birthday treat for me.









Drink




Being as how we were in California for a large part of August, it would have been rude not to partake of their wine. There was no repeat of the bizarre situation at Yosemite, where the camp shops carried exclusively Australian, French and South African wine (??!!!). The Cupcake chardonnay on the left was a bottle we ordered with dinner at the Caboose motel. I am not a fan of chardonnay because I don't really like oaked wines, but it was recommended on the menu and I couldn't resist the name. This was lovely - and better on the second glass (or mug, since I finished it at the next campsite).
The bottle on the right was a lovely pinot gris. I don't see pinot gris here (I haven't looked) but I have been quite a fan since my friend Beccy put me onto it during my trip to Australia.

Motif: Cameras

This one was pretty hard. I kept a look out for camera-print fabrics or pictures of cameras or some such thing, but I didn't see anything. I didn't really even have any pictures of Mr Z toting around our his DSLR, except for this one -



I took this at Lassen. You can't see him or the camera very well, but this is the best I can do! Sorry!

Thanks for picking such good topics this month, Rachie. 

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: April Favourites

It's always a really special month when I get to pick the topics for this because I really love seeing what everybody else picks to match my ideas, but it does make picking favourites really difficult! But here goes...

Something I Made
I loved the look of Emma's book and the foodie offerings from Ruth and Serotiny, but it had to be Rachie's green monster smoothie. I have been off the green monsters for the past couple of weeks because I've been leaving home by 6.30 for work and I don't want to use the blender so early for fear of disturbing my neighbour; so I am living vicariously through Rachie!

Inspiration
I'm such a sucker for a beach! Here's Serotiny's -

Rocks
...and here's Ruth's!

Red
Emma's lovely red and white spots inspired me to rummage out my red and white spotty scarf this week.

Western
I really love Rachie's hat -

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: April

So, of course I am late for my own party - I was a good 15 minutes late for my wedding so it's not exactly a surprise. In the meantime, please go and look at the pictures on these lovely blogs -

Rachie
Emma
Serotiny
Ruth

Inspiration
Late this year, but the magnolia is out and I LOVE it.



This was in Oxford last week, on a trip for the AGT students to the university. My AGT job has been disappeared in the latest reorganisation (not my actual job, you understand, just the extra bit) so this is probably the last event I will do. Luckily it was a great one! Oxford on its own is quite an inspiring place, I think.

Something I Made
Golf club sock for Mr Z. I made it up as I went along and it worked quite well.

I finished a cardigan this month too, bar the fancification of the button band and adding the buttons, but there'll be a whole post for that soon I expect.

Red
Continuing on the blossom theme, my tulips have just popped out in the garden. What a treat! Normally they're long finished by now. I have these and an ever-increasing quantity of dark purple ones.



Western



My obsession with Nashville has me looking wistfully at my battered old cowboy boots (the real article, from the very cowboyesque Boot Barn in Vegas) and wishing I could get away with wearing them with skirts and not look like I was in costume for something. I have also been planning our summer western adventure, camping in California: maybe I could get away with it there.

Rocks



Spoilt for choice, really, but I picked this mysterious chunk of rock that has been in our garden for a long time. I remember first seeing it and thinking it was a chunk of raw meat leftover from a barbecue - it is a lot redder than it seems in this picture. I can't remember where it came from but I think it looks quite interesting.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: April Topics

Sorry I'm late! I hope you have fun finding things for the topics this month.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: March

I am so late this month - and I'm hosting, too! My most sincere apologies to all those playing. I realised that I was going to be away until April 1st but just figured I would schedule ahead of time; for some reason that didn't quite work out as planned.

Something I Made

Any excuse to haul out these gorgeous squishy things again -



I would love to say I kept up my one-rose-a-day plan throughout March but that didn't happen. I have been concentrating on finishing a new cardigan instead. However, I did manage to exchange a skein of Cascade that I had bought in the wrong shade of pink, so as soon as I get my winder out again I will be ready to go.

Inspiration



I bit the bullet and ordered three colours of Lion & Lamb from Jimmy Beans this month. I had a coupon. I think I now have enough skeins to complete a sizable pinwheel blanket so I should get started. This colour, Beverly, was my favourite from the order. I took the picture without a flash to try and get the colour right (hence the slightly blurred effect) but I still don't think it has been done justice - it's a real Mediterranean blue.

Quiet

At the beginning of the month, this was me:



We appointed a new headteacher at school. As a governor, I attended the meeting on Friday night to ratify the decision but had to keep it super-secret until it was confirmed with the successful candidate. I sent this picture to my friend when she texted me for the 7th time asking me to tell! She replied with, "Is it written on that post it note behind you?"

Beast



I spent Easter with Jen and her husband and daughter. They keep tropical fish; these big suckers get very animated late at night and come and suck all the algae off of everything. They look pretty beastly to me.

Motif: Numbers

Bit of a stretch, this one (I always worry that my pictures aren't "crafty" enough to properly qualify for this game) but here is an interesting chart that was shared with me at a training event I attended in March. It was very interesting.



It shows the brain activity of a teenager, tracked over 24 hours for a week. The argument of the speaker was that this student had more brain activity while sleeping than he/she did during class, and that too often learning is a passive activity when it should be an active one.

Well, there we are! My topics for April are coming up; thank you for your patience.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: February

Rachie picked this month's topics.

Inspiration



Lots of snow! On a very sunny day. I find this sort of weather very inspiring - tramping around in it, making snow angels, then snuggling up with something warm on the sofa. It was a great recharge time and I hit the ground running ready for the Ofsted surprise the following week.

Something I Made



I knitted another seven flowers (one was hiding in this picture) for my felted roses chair. This has been a WIP for over a year now.


New



I've been enjoying these immensely for the last week of February. They are growing on the wrong side of the garden wall, so I only see them when I am coming home. They're a good portent of spring!

Baking

















Just before I gave up sugar for Lent, I iced these. I decided I was sick of not being able to pipe properly when it came to icing cakes, so I had a little rummage online and found a piping practice session at Swinky Sweets in Bristol. We each got a dozen cakes and there were 15 bags of icing floating around for playing with, along with lots of decorative bits. Some of these didn't turn out quite the way I'd planned but it was fun and I definitely feel more confident with a piping bag now!

Motif: Triangles



Excessive cheating, sorry (I have a feeling I have cheated on a category before, with a picture of the same thing taken in the same bar!) but after Ofsted, relief came in a triangular glass.

Thanks for picking this month Rachie! Pop along and see what everyone else photographed.

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: January

This month's topics were chosen by Starla.

1. Inspiration

Provided this month by Mr Z, who has been at the fruit again, and who inspired my starter with Y9 this week (we had studied photosynthesis the day before so this was not apropos of nothing).



2. Something I made



My only FO of the month was the Dragon Jumper, but here is a bonus picture of the neatly-sewn-in zip of which I am overly proud. The green/white was not lined up, I must admit, but it wasn't as bad as it looks here.

3. Resolutions

I haven't actually made any. I haven't done any goal setting for this year either. I have been trying to think of something but all it amounts to is lose weight and get a new job, which is kind of dull but also big things which need a lot of focus. So here's this instead -



I have had my eye on this sock kit for a long time and I finally bit the bullet and bought it. So, I resolve to knit it up before the year is out.

4. Retro



Brass plate I caught sight of when I was wandering around London. I had a whole retro post in mind (it may yet materialise) because I spent a good hour tramping around the old haunts close to my university and taking pictures; but this very shiny thing caught my eye. I always dreamed of somehow winning the lottery and living in one of these gorgeous brick flats, to the point where I scoured estate agents' windows and bought home decor magazines to plan what I'd do with it. The irony is, now I finally have the security of home ownership, my interest in home decor magazines has definitely waned. Now I just look at them to scoff. I accidentally bought one at Christmas and it had a styling suggestion for a bell jar - fill it with plums and satsumas. Yes, it looks amazing, but how are you meant to get the fruit out?!
I digress.

5. Sequins



Some King Cole Galaxy, stocked in quantity at Get Knitted. I keep looking at it, but I just don't need it and I can't think of a project I could use it for, that I can't use a yarn from my stash for.
I don't know how long I will hold out, though.

Thanks Starla, and sorry I was so late!

Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: December

Emma hosted this month.

Inspiration
Or rather, GINspiration...



It feels like everything I've made this month has been inspired by the season, so what better choice than my advent calendar?! I have enjoyed sipping my way through these, on the rocks with a big slice of lemon. I must admit I am still only up to the 14th - making advent last into 2013. No Dryathlon for me.

Something I Made
A special New Year's Eve dessert of my own creation - Mont Blanc brownies.

Motif: Stars
My new starry jumper - perfect for this month!

Gifts
Parpy Jo bought me this silver cake stand. It's so pretty.

Tradition
As mentioned in a previous post, we always top our tree with a Mexican hat from a bottle of Cuervo.

Make sure you go and have a nose at everybody else's! Next month Starla is hosting, so if you want to take part, pop over and leave her a comment.