Linen

I really love natural linen and I have no idea why - but I'm drawn to it again and again in its various shades. I particularly love it paired with cotton, either plain or print and most especially red! I don't like wearing it because it does that nasty wrinking thing that makes you look sloppy after 30 seconds, but in anything else it's my favourite and my best (to quote Lola).



This is the beginning of my second pillow for the challenge, and my first ever attempt at hand-basting. Now I know why I will never do this for a larger project, it takes forever! But linen, she's a difficult mistress and until I get some 505 spray I'm going to have to suck it up and do it this way. And there's no denying, the basting has a certain appeal! This linen is a darker shade, with an almost green tinge to it, which makes it hard to pair with things but I think it'll be better for the pillow than a more natural oatmeal.

As a complete contrast, how about this photo I put through various iPhone filters until it looks (to me anyways) almost baroque in its hues




Unfortunately I can't remember which apps I used - I think Snapseed and Super Retro...I need to write these things down! It's funny with Instagram, forcing you to use the square format is quite good as it challenges you to think about images in a different way. I had a hard time not changing the linen photo to that size!

Weeds

I took a few photos yesterday of the weeds we picked on Sunday because they looked so lovely sitting on the kitchen table in the morning sunshine.

I don't know what these grasses are (and they may be native for all I know) but I think they'd make a lovely fabric print.



There was also a lot of Queen Anne's Lace and it's just so amazingly detailed and complex - not to mention in about 4 different shades of pink! Again, would make an amazing fabric print and I adore the Queen Anne's Lace pillowcase embroidery pattern over at Sew Mama Sew by Alicia at Posy Gets Cozy (one of my favourite blogs!)



I had some focus issues with these shots, I think my depth of field was too shallow and I ended up with weird horizontal bands of focus that looked awful. I obviously need to come to grips with using this technique instead of just doing it and hoping for the best. Miz Booshay I'm not :) Though I'd like to be because she can take a good photo and isn't pretentious about telling how she did it. And if you haven't downloaded PW's action sets for Photoshop from the link above then you're missing something :)

Hebe flower

Hebe flower, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Yesterday Mat had to work so Hazel and I walked down to the lovely trail that runs along the harbour edge and had a picnic alongside one of the settling ponds there. We call it Lizard Island because the little bronze skinks come out to sunbathe on the rocks of the ford across the outlet. We stopped by the bakery on the way and Hazel got a gingerbread man and I got an apple turn-over which turned out to be an apple strudel when we got there and opened our little paper bags, and we shared a cheese and ham roll. Hazel watched for skinks and I took in the view across to the city, and down to the bridge and Rangitoto. It was very nice and even the gorse was looking its best covered in yellow flowers and making the air smell like coconut tan lotion. There's a line in a poem my Dad's very fond of that goes something like "golden furze, unprofitably gay", that's what it was. Then we went hunting for plants to bring home and draw. I felt a bit guilty walking home with a huge handful of various things but kept reminding myself they were introduced weeds one and all. All except for this little hebe flower that Hazel picked from a bush near the park. Tiny and perfect. We haven't managed to draw anything yet but we have it booked in for tomorrow.

Lawn daisies

Lawn daisies, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

There are fancier (and bigger!) flowers in the world but lawn daisies are one of my favourites. So many of them around at the moment, spring is definitely in the air!