I admit I'm a hoarder.

I think I've crossed that fine line between stash and hoard. I admit I have a problem with craft stuff. When I say I've tried pretty much any craft out there and have all the stuff to go with it, I'm not joking. This week is my annual clean the workroom week. It used to take a couple of hours, a day at the most but now it's taking almost a whole week. Mind you, it is a very thorough clean. Each box is opened and the contents inspected carefully, box washed out with a solution of vinegar and water and then repacked. Books are taken off the shelves, shelves are moved to vacumn behind them, washed with water and vinegar, and then books are sorted and put back.

This year I've been a bit more ruthless. WIPs that I know I'll never get around to finishing were ripped out and rewound. Odd balls of yarn that I'll never use went into a bin to go out. Luckily, all the natural fibres can be composted so that's a good thing.

Tossed out are all the pretty boxes that I've collected that I might someday use in a craft. I found a ziplock bag full of pretty shiny foil that I had no idea I had.

The hardest thing is not to get sidetracked. As I go through the boxes, I find stuff that I've forgotten and it's like seeing old friends. You want to stop and visit. I have 12 large paper bags of fleece...all washed and some are picked.  These bags are the big garden recycling paper bags and not your wimpy grocery bags. Yeah. I have a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure I've stashed beyond my life expectancy.

Waiting...

Waiting

This is my Jenkins Lark Turkish spindle. I've had this for a while now and have not touched it since the first spin. Life and other projects came between us. It's light and beautiful and spins like a dream. The fibre is Falkland Islands organic merino/polworth blend. Very soft.

You don't spin on a spindle because you're in a hurry.  Output on a tiny spindle is much slower than output on a spinning wheel.  If you want fast and immediate results, you spin on the electric spinner.

I've forgotten how to slow down.  To wait for the results one inch at a time.  I'm still impatient when I see how long it's taken just to spin this little bit of yarn but I'm working on it. 

Columbines in Gold

Columbines in gold 

It started with a new cellphone and a thought of what I could do with a then unheard of cellphone camera of 5 whole megapixels. It was a personal challenge to see if I can take decent pictures with a cellphone camera. I've upgraded my cellphone camera a couple of times and now 41 megapixels later, I'm hooked again on photography and all that it offered in digital manipulations. The best part now is seeing what I can do on my iPad and phone. Instant editing and so very portable. Apps are getting so good and so sophisticated that the line between computer editing and editing on the go has almost disappeared. When I see an effect done with Photoshop, I think of how I can duplicate the same effect on just the iPad or phone.

The picture above was editing directly using an editing app in the Lumia 1020. The textured overlay was another photo edited in the phone and blended with the columbines. 

May 2014 Calendar

2014 May calendar

April showers brought May flowers. Lots of May flowers. We had a few days of sunshine and was able to enjoy the full magnificence of the magnolia blooms before they fell and rotted.

Photo taken on the Nokia Lumia 1020 and edited on the iPad.

May is also EDiM (Every Day in May) where you challenge yourself to do a quick sketch a day. I've decided this year to actually draw something in a real sketchbook. So far so good.

I'm also going to keep going with the photo a day as well. I'm pretty impressed with myself that this will be the third month. Commit one month at a time.