Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

Yesterday I did a bit of a photo shoot for the completed secret knitting.  I'd planned it all out in my head -- Dunbar Cave again, with brilliant blue skies, blazing autumnal foliage, and the warm golden light of late afternoon.  October has been behaving more like September recently, anyway.  It would be perfect. Then it rained.  Really rained -- not to mention the unexpected 30-degree overnight drop in temperature. But since I have a deadline to send this off, I decided to go for it anyway.  My sweet model was a trooper, and we just worked the umbrella into the photos.  I think I might like the shots I got even better than what I'd originally planned for. You only get the vague, distant, or slightly blurry ones today, since after all it is a secret project and I can't really show you until it becomes un-secret.  When that happens, though, I'll have a proper post with all the photos and more details about the project!  For now, jus...

Once again I've been neglecting my blog... it's the time of the semester when professors decide you really need more projects, and there seems to be a performance every week, and you start getting stressed about being ready for the opera or your voice juries.  (That's if you're me, anyway.)  So today, three things that have made me happy this week! These no-bake cookies.  They have craisins in them and they're so yummy!  Between the oats, peanut butter, and dried fruit, I can pretend they're healthy... right?  (I bet they'd be good with other kinds of fruit in them, too.  I plan to experiment!) My Amy Pond scarf.  It's over half-way finished now, I think!  The colour is refusing to photograph correctly - it's a true red, not at all orange, not too blue.  This is the closest I could get, but the red is a little darker and more saturated. This book!  My professors know me too well.  One of them found this at a used book...

I've been on a bit of a crafting hiatus these last several weeks, as my hands and wrists decided to let it be known that I'd been overworking them*.  I've been wearing a brace on my right hand and trying to teach myself to be ambidextrous (since the left hand is not nearly as sore.)  Apart from the pile of choir dresses and tuxedo trousers I hemmed, I haven't touched a project since mid-September.  Three weeks of essentially no knitting has been difficult! Today, though, my hands were feeling better and I decided to tackle the quilt tops I pieced last month.  Now I have two lovely quilt sandwiches, just waiting to be quilted! I also sliced up a pile of fabric scraps into strips, ready to become another quilt top. The brace is back on for insurance but I don't think I've damaged myself by today's exertions.  If all feels right tomorrow I'm going to give knitting a try! *Possibly mild carpal tunnel syndrome, although it doesn't fit mo...

I went for a walk today after church -- mostly just to enjoy the gorgeous weather, but also to scope out possible sites for a future photo shoot. The weather was perfect!  Maybe about 60, with sun and a brisk wind, pleasantly chilly when I took off my coat.  (People at church kept asking me why I was "bundled up" - I never thought that a lightweight trench coat, thin scarf, and hat chosen for fashion purposes counted as bundled up when the projected high is 55*... but maybe I'm wrong.) These are all at Dunbar Cave state park, just a couple miles from school.  The trails are very easy - the longest is only about 2 miles - but it's pretty!  The woods were alive with squirrels and birds, and I startled saw a doe and her fawn off the trail at one point.  Down by the lake (Swan Lake!) were ducks and geese, and turtles sunbathing. Mostly there were other hikers (complete with requisite "exercise" clothes and a couple of dogs apiece).  ...