Oharu.se

Was out today trying to do some photo homework again. This picture doesn’t really fit into any of the categories for this week, but I’m pretty happy with it anyway so I thought I’d post it. It feels very much peaceful and “Winter” to me. Which is fitting since we haven’t had this much snow in many years.

I’m even considering printing it and framing it. But I’ll let it rest for a few weeks at least and see if I still feel as happy with it as I do now. I think I’ll experiment with cropping it too and see if I can get it to look even better, or if the current version is the best.

Last weekend I gave these to my boyfriends brother as a late birthday present. I completely forgot to take photos of them while it was still a shred of light left. But when I realized he would be coming to visit us this weekend, I made him bring them. So here they are. Another pair of Dashing. Hopefully he’ll find them useful.
He refused to model them anywhere near his face, so instead you get to see them in action together with his MacBook Pro. I suppose that has to be good enough.

In other news, I’m trying to get back into some web designing. I used to know a thing or two (nothing too impressive, but none the less) about CSS and HTML, but these day I’ve half forgotten most of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the other half is completely outdated. It will prove an interesting challenge anyway. Right now I’m mostly playing around in Photoshop trying to get a decent mockup before trying to code it all. If I succeed I might even put this old blog to rest and start fresh with a new one. Nothing decided yet though. I’ll await the results of my coding attemps!

Earlier this week I went to my first lesson. I’m taking a class in Photography at the University and I’ve already learned a thing or two, even though most of the things were pretty basic. And I got homework too. It feels kind of funny. It was a long time since I had homework the last time. Only this homework is a lot funnier to do than the old ones. I ‘m going to be taking pictures using a few different techniques. Pretty simple techniques this first two weeks, but some of them are a bit tricky to get right. Or at least to use for the right kind of motif.

Today I’ve played around a bit with one of them, and I think this is the most successful photo of today:

I kind of like it, but I feel like there should be a better motif to show off the technique… I tried taking some photos of my boyfriends bass but I didn’t get any decent shots. I’ll try more tomorrow, but I have a feeling something more.. circular would look good.

I met my friend in town yesterday where she bought some new jeans. I didn’t get jeans (though I certainly should have) but I tried to order the new lens for my camera. Only I was lucky. I didn’t have to order it, they had it in stock despite the website saying they didn’t. When I got home to play with it the light had almost disappeared, so I didn’t get very good shots.

Today I made sure I got some photos during the (almost) 4,5 hours that the sun was actually up, and that’s between sunrise and sunset. The first and last hour isn’t all to useful in my amateurish opinion. I so wish I could trade the dark winters here for something lighter. But I love the midnight sun, so I’ll happily keep the summers. I’m a sucker for light, always turning on the lamps here.
Anyway I brought out last weekends purchases. I figured I would give myself a little luxury from one of my favorite companies, Lush. I love their stuff, but it’s always kind of surprise to see what you’ve got when you get home. Or rather to smell what you’ve got. Since everything they’ve got smell quite a lot (in a good way) it’s hard to make out the individual scents of each product when you are in the store. This time I got a body cream, Sympathy for the skin, which smells like heaven. It’s rather fat which is wonderful because I have dry skin. I even use it for the face when I’m really dry. And the pink swirly wonder right beside are The Comforter. A bubble bar that smells of blackcurrant. It’s the most delicious scent I’ve ever brought home with me. I just want to eat it! I’m really going to take the time for a nice bubbly bath this week.

The photo is taken with my wonderful new lens the Nikkor 35mm f/1,8G AF-S DX. I love it. The minimum aperture on this is 1,8, on my other lens it’s between 3,5-5,6 depending on how much zoom I use. What a difference! I will use this lens soo much, especially when I’m shooting yarn, spinning and knitting. Those kinds of photos can look great with a bit of bokeh. I really think this new lens will be a nice injection of creativity. In the middle of the winter like this I find it hard to keep photographing because it’s just… dark. Right now I really long for summer. But it’s a while left. I’ll just try to keep knitting, sewing and photographing. I’m even thinking of relearning some webdesign skills. I used to know a thing or two about webdesign, but now I have probably almost lost it all.

Do you know what that is? That is yarn. Handspun yarn. Spun by me! I’m so insanely proud of this little 50g skein with 125 metres of inconsistently spun and plied yarn. I will try to make it into something and not just let it sit around my stash forever. It might not be perfect, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find a fairly suitable pattern. I’m thinking a cowl or very small scarf. Probably more like a cowl because of the meterage.

Other than that I’m sitting at home eagerly awaiting my copy of Respect the Spindle (it didn’t arrive today either), and trying not to stick my nose outside the door. The week before Christmas it snowed, and snowed and snowed. I kind of liked that. It was a bit of a hassle to dig out the car several times a day, but it was light airy snow, so not to bad. Right now though, we are in the yearly cold-period. Yesterday and earlier today my thermometer was showing -30°C (That’s -22°F for any americans reading). And we’re certainly not in the coldest parts of the country. I heard some people further inland had closer to -40°C. Seems like it’s warming up a bit though it’s only about -20°C now and hopefully we’ll be up to -15°C tomorrow, which would be good. I’m planning to go to town tomorrow to order a new lens for the camera. And it’s always a positive thing if the car actually starts when you’re about to go home!

I’m a little late to say Merry Christmas, but heck, better late than never.

I’ve had a wonderful Christmas at my parents house, and we were also lucky enough that my aunt got sick a few days before. It doesn’t sound like a good thing, but she felt good Christmas eve. The problem was that the people they were supposed to celebrate with has a newborn so she didn’t want to take any risk of infecting the baby.
So we got three more people with us on Christmas Eve, one of them the cutest 1,5 year old ever! Yay!

Yesterday and today has been all about taking it easy with the family. I’ve been doing some Christmas knitting and I guess I’m about halfway through in total. Not all people get their stuff on Christmas Eve. Some of them will get to have some more input into pattern and yarn choices, but won’t get them “in time”. So I’ll probably be Christmas knitting all through January. At least that’s what it feels like now. I shall be trying to keep good speed and be done as quickly as possible at least.
I just don’t really feel like knitting that much right now. All I want is to get out my spindle and spin and spin and spin… Or sew. I’m kind of into that right now too, but there’s no time right now. I just have to be patient. I will however get the Knitters Book of Yarn in a few days (X-mas present, arrived too late), and I will also order Respect the Spindle later this week.

Well, Merry Christmas!

Last Sunday I was at my parents to celebrate my fathers birthday, a few days in advance. After that we all headed off to church because it was Saint Lucy’s Day, or Lucia as it’s called around here, where my brothers were helping out with the Lucia procession and all. We’re normally not a very church-oriented family, but it was really nice. I tried to catch a bit of the atmosphere with all the candles and chandelier in the background there.
I had to google Lucia to see what it’s called in English, and I was surprised to learn that apparently Lucia is mostly celebrated in Scandinavia, and particularly in Sweden. You learn something new everyday…

When I got home I felt inspired enough to makesome gingerbread cookies with the left over dough I had sitting in the fridge.

Yeah, it took a while, but it’s about time I posted something now don’t you think? I’ve got some Christmas knitting going on, so I can’t really post anything crafty for now, but I thought a photo of my advent candles would do.

It’s the first year since I moved out from my parents house that I’m able to decorate for Christmas. Last year was all about moving from my first flat. But this year I’m decorating!

Well… stricly speaking I’m not moving much at all, I’m staying in front of the computer, but this blog should revive soon. I’ve been moving out of my old computer and into my new shiny MacBook Pro. Ah, the love.
Anyway, about a month ago I caught a cold and didn’t feel like uploading my daily picture each day, I simply didn’t have the energy. So I’ve been faithfully taking a photo every day, and kept it on the memorycard. I might have missed a couple of days, but I’ll continue on like nothing happened. The goal is after all to take more photos than before, and a day or two missed won’t make much of a difference.
The memorycard is now more or less full, and it’s time to start moving the photos from there, into the computer and Flickr. I won’t publish a months worth of pictures on the blog, but they’ll all be on Flickr when I’m done. Not that there’s much to see, but none the less.

Well, I just about all I had to say I guess. That I’m sort of back now.

Oh, and hopefully I’ll have a new fun project to share after New Years. Since I’m throwing out the old computer I’ll be freeing my desk, and it will become a sewing/crafting corner instead. I’m hoping it will turn out really well.

Yesterday I was out with my family grilling sausages and “bread on a stick” over open fire, drinking some hot chocolate and eating moms cinnamon buns. Just enjoying the outdoors really. It doesn’t happen all that often, but I think we all love it when we finally get out. This time even my grandmother came along.
In my perfect life I’d probably have a day like that every month. I love the fresh air and just the feeling of being outside for a while.