colourful cotton

Some necklaces I made recently with embroidery cotton and nice wooden beads from a local bead shop (tutorial here, by Jenny of Wiksten/Wiksten-made). I'm also keen to try some different styles of embroidery, like cross-stitch and sashiko. My new Martha Stewart book and the purl bee have lots of lovely looking projects.

(Oh, the possibilities!)

attention : people who like food!

I've just added a little spot on the sidebar (to the right, below the tweets) for the recipes I've posted (all tried and guaranteed tasty). Hope you can try some.

film fun

I recently bought a Pentax K1000 from KEH. I'd been thinking about getting a film (35mm or instant/Polaroid) camera for a while, and was especially inspired by looking through the beautiful film shots on Brian and Molly's photostreams. I really like the look and texture of film photos. I like that the process makes me slow down, to be more selective with what I photograph, and try to compose my shots better so I'm not wasting my film (when I have plenty of space on my DSLR memory card). I'm hoping the more I use this, the more I learn and more practise I get, the better photographs I'll take (with both my cameras). And I do like the idea of having lots
of lovely pictures to look at and remember everything by.

Here are a few photos from my first roll* (there were also a couple in the last post). Stay tuned for more, I've nearly finished my second.

* I was a little disappointed with the processing of this roll. I took it to a local pharmacy, and my film came back marked (see above) and creased. Oh well, lesson learnt, and better luck next time.

two weeks and 2340 miles

(On the road. Somewhere between BR and Houston)

(Galveston, Texas)

(Hello! from the NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas)

(Boots etc in Gonzales, Louisiana)

(Beignets at Coffee Call in BR)

(State Capital in Jackson, Mississippi)

(Dinner at Huey's in Memphis, Tennessee)

(Graceland)

(On the way to Shreveport, Louisiana)

Some photos from our mini road trips, and time in and around BR with Jon's family, who spent two weeks with us recently. It was really great to see them, and
a little more of this big, big country.

We managed to cover quite a few miles in their short visit. We picked them up from the airport in Houston, and spent a couple of nights in Texas (in Humble and strange, kind-of-beach town, Galveston) before heading back to BR for a few days. Over the Easter long weekend, we drove up to Memphis. We spent two nights there, and got to look around Beale St and Downtown, and fit in a visit to Graceland.
On the way back, we stopped in at Little Rock (Arkansas) and spent a night in Shreveport (Louisiana). We spent their last night here in New Orleans, where we
ate ourselves silly – red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya and beignets (too many beignets! Maybe... if there is such a thing?!)

It was so nice to have family with us for a little while. While their visit seemed to
go quickly, the time we spent together felt full, with all the things we got see and do. It was lots of fun. Thanks for visiting us, family!