When I Grow Up - Page 27

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Using a Prism for Flower Photography

August 19, 2016

Playing with light is a photographer’s dream, so what could be better than creating magical rainbows and mystical haze?! Chris had seen some of the effects that a prism could make, so he bought me one to play with. How to use a prism in photography? – it is simple enough – you just hold it in front of the lens, and have a play with what you get. It gives an original look to photographs, and I think works particularly well for flowers. I think it would take a fair bit of practice to actually predict the results and know how to get them though. I discarded many photos because they just looked plain weird, or had too much rainbow or too much glare from sunlight. I tried it first with a bunch of flowers on my table, just to see what it would be like; then I took all my photography gear to Lytes Cary Manor to photograph their gardens, and particularly the apple blossom. This is the result….

Weekly Wardrobe – New Forest Fairy Festival

August 15, 2016

This the event of the year for my Oshun clothing brand. It is the day after the New Forest Fairy Festival and I am utterly exhausted! It was an amazing weekend; incredibly busy; the sun shone and it was a complete success. Unfortunately it was so busy, I couldn’t leave my stall at all so I only managed to briefly visit one of the people I interviewed before the event. It’s a real shame I didn’t see the others, and that it the only down side of the weekend – other than that, it really couldn’t have been better. Everyone is so friendly and the atmosphere is lovely, so what better place to bring you my weekly wardrobe pictures from! Only one outfit this week as I was too occupied with getting ready for the festival beforehand. I’ll tell you more about the festival in my Monthly Memoir post at the end of the month….

The story of a potter – Stephanie Edwards from Poundsgate Pottery

August 11, 2016

I’m another crafter who likes to listen to audio books while they work – the only problem is that time passes too quickly then! If I had a little more time and a little fewer hobbies already, I would definitely have a try at pottery – it looks like so much fun. Stephanie’s is also a little more quirky than the generic bowls and plates you might find at a craft shop. I talk to her about what it’s like to run a craft business….

The story of an artist – Sue Clyne

The annoying thing about having a stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival is that I never have time to have a good look around everyone else’s! There are so many interesting creative people, and artist Sue Clyne definitely has a stall worth visiting. Her paintings are so interesting, I could stop and look at one for a long time! It was fascinating finding out more about her and her work….

Weekly Wardrobe – styling an embroidered top

I know it makes no sense weather-wise, but just as much as I like the look of a vest top with trousers, I like a long-sleeved top with shorts! When I found out this week’s theme from Not Dressed As Lamb was embroidery, I thought I’d have no problem finding items to go with it in my wardrobe – I work all the time with stunning embroidered fabric from India, so I see it often, but it turns out this one blue shirt is the only item I own myself. So to give you a little variety, I styled it up twice….

The story of a log wood carver – Paul Rook

I’m often amazed at the patience involved in some crafts, and wood carving is definitely one of those. Paul Rook carves amazing-looking pagan Green Man faces into logs and they must take him hours! He told me more about what he does and how he started the craft….

A guide for how to survive Orlando theme parks – Disney World & Universal Studios

I’ll be honest, six years ago I’d never even contemplated an Orlando holiday – it just wasn’t something that interested me. We’d done a couple of trips to Disney Land and Universal Studios in California, and that was enough for me. But then they went and built Harry Potter World! That pretty much changed everything, and suddenly we were booking ourselves two weeks in Florida. Four years later we went again with Chris’s family; and last week we ended up there again for the last four days of our road-trip holiday. There’s something so magical and wonderful about those theme parks that is difficult to describe to someone who’s never been. I don’t know what preconceptions I’d had before; whether I was being a bit snobby about it; but I had not expected it to love it there as much as I do! If you’ve never been before and are going this summer, or planning next year’s holiday, then I hope you’ll find this little guide to Orlando useful. Even if you’re not, I hope you find it interesting! ….

The story of a wood carver – Martin at Lady Oak Wood

When I was a kid my Dad let me play around with a chisel and a piece of soft wood and I loved carving patterns into it. When I grow up I’d love to have another go! Martin from Lady Oak Wood tells me in this interview how he is inspired by nature and I totally agree – I love working with natural materials, including wood, and one day, when I’m not so busy with other things, I seriously would love to give wood turning and wood carving a proper try. It was interesting hearing more about it….

Weekly Wardrobe – Disney, Universal Studios & Somerset.

I’m sorry you’re getting several blog posts on top of each other – I’ve been catching up now that I’m back home, and hopefully back on track too. I’m aiming for Weekly Wardrobes on Mondays and each week, two other posts in between. So these are the last photos from my wonderful holiday, but hopefully not the last chance to wear my summer clothes! ….

Monthly Memoir – July

The whole of July was pretty much about our holiday in America. The few days before we left were spent frantically researching where we were going, and the few days after were spent unpacking, washing, and trying to get over jet-lag. We had three weeks away and began in New York, getting the AmTrack train down to Washington DC, picking up a hire car and driving to New Orleans via Nashville and Memphis, and then following the coast East to Orlando to spend the last couple of days in Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios. Wow! I’m exhausted just remembering it! We covered ten states of America (New York, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.) Phew! ….

The story of a crystal crafter – Blackbird Beauties

When I was little and often went to Cornwall in the Easter holidays, I would always look forward to going to a particular shop in Padstow that sold crystals and semi-precious stones (now a bag and shoe shop) and I still have the three that I bought with my pocket money! I can completely understand why Catherine Wilson of Blackbird Beauties describes herself as “crystal nuts”. I asked her more about this, her handcrafted items and how her business came about….

Weekly Wardrobe – USA road trip

Well I’m on the last road trip section of the holiday and catching up from home now. I hadn’t expected such difficult internet conditions so I’m afraid this is a few days late and now you’ll probably get several posts close together! This weekly wardrobe is a bit jumbled as the first outfit pictures were previously unfound. It would have been lovely to get some pictures in the French Quarter at New Orleans, but we were just so busy while we there, we didn’t have time. So then we have a couple more outfits as we travelled towards Orlando….