Day 31

I've been working on my college assignment all day. This is a detail from it. I've spent the day painting layers of purple dye over a page and then brushing over a weak solution of bleach. Then more dye, more bleach and so on. It's produced some really interesting results and I need to go away and think about how I can translate these into stitch.

It's also been the perfect excuse to sit around and sew whilst waiting for each layer to dry.

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Day 30

I was too tired to go out tonight after work so I'm afraid it's another shot from inside. Specifically one of my favourite lights. It's a gorgeous metal ball that measures about half a metre across and is basically bent pieces of metal that are all joined together with white fairy lights threaded through it. It always makes me think of coat hangers but I absolutely adore it.

I promise there will be more outside shots soon.

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Day 29

This is the view from my window. I've been playing with the zoom on my new camera. These street and car lights are over a mile away. I love the fact that it's not obvious what the lights are until you're told. It does seem to be a recurring theme within my work.

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Day 28

A photo of a box. The box contains my new toy!.

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Day 27

This is the beautiful wind chime that my friend has in her kitchen/dining room. I love how the fork tines curve and swirl and the spoons are pretty funky too.

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Day 26

Not bad for a Monday effort. I was starting to think that I would struggle for a photo for today. Then I went to my friend's house and I saw roses on her dining table. Perfect.

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Day 25

When I tried taking a shot of this bracelet in colour, it somehow seemed flat and dull. I much prefer the simplicity that using black and white gives it.

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Day 24

Taken whilst out for the briefest of shops this afternoon. I like how the foreground is slightly out of focus which draws the eye in.

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Day 23

A couple of weeks ago, the ceiling collapsed in one of our Theatres. Today they moved back in after the completion of the building work. I went to help re-stock their drugs and put them away, ready for when the Theatre goes live tomorrow. I knew it would be a long day and arranged with some of the staff to get there early (8am). As I walked in, one of the nurses had just made coffee and placed a steaming mug in front of me. She even made it in the pink mug I love!

We had to have a few of these but we got the job done, helped along with the sticky buns I provided.

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Day 22

This is a picture of the baby blanket I'm making for a friend of mine. I've used navy fleece and acid bright felts. All the shapes had to be hand sewn (I'm OCD about having even, obvious seams) and then finished it on my machine, but she'll have a gift that will make her smile.

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Day 21

This was taken when I went for a lunchtime stroll. It's a section of a board that surrounds a building site. I've often been struck by how it's obviously weathered and been damaged to reveal cross-sections underneath. Gorgeous and textured.

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Day 20

These are ribbons I bought for my new leaf/layer project for college. I'm using them because they have a transparency that I want to explore - it's reminiscent of light shining through leaves. Well that's the theory anyway. They also have a similar width and will bend in the same way as the ornamental grasses I photographed last week.

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Day 19

I saw this whilst out food shopping this afternoon. I like the peeling paint and the exposed wood. I'm sure one day it'll get sanded down and painted, but until then I can enjoy it every time I walk past.

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Day 18

This was taken this morning whilst out for a walk,

These veins are all that remains of the leaves that clung to the wall last year. They reminded me of the strength of fragility. Even after hard frosts, torrential rains and blustery winds, these veins are still hanging on.

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Day 17

I think this pretty much speaks for itself.

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Day 16

I went out for dinner this evening. This is the flower that was at our table. It took several shots and the light from my mobile phone before I was finally happy but persistence paid off. I'm really pleased with this shot.

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Day 15

We had some stuff delivered to work yesterday packed in dry ice. As always it created a bit of a stir - it's lots of fun - so we added some out of date liquids to see what would happen. The effect was quite disappointing and it just sat there.

This morning I was getting rid of the re-frozen mess down the sink and was struck by how beautiful the underneath looked. I rushed for my camera before it melted and took loads of photos. This was my favourite.

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Day 14

Finally a picture of my art.

This is a detail of a larger piece. The piece is part of my new college project which based on leaves and layers. It's a combination of paint and tissue paper and more paint which will be left to dry and then cut up and layered again, maybe even woven. I'll have to see.

Undoubtedly there'll be more pictures posted in the course of the year.

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Day 13

This was taken today at college.

Believe it or not this picture is of lavender. I've taken it using the "neg art" effect on my camera. Whilst photoshop is against the rules, I think effects are allowed. It just had a completely "other" quality that I really loved (and will form a large part of my college project). I couldn't resist making it today's picture.


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Day 12

Yesterday I got off my arse and got round to sewing a skirt I've had pinned for ... well ... a while anyway.

For some reason my sewing machine seemed to be particularly vicious and bent a record number of pins. As I pulled them out and put them to one side, I was struck by the shape and patterns they made.

(I promise this picture was taken first thing this morning but the inspiration occurred to me yesterday. I think that's within the rules!)

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Day 11

Today I decided to tidy my room. Whilst doing so, I decided it was time to take down, from my walls, all the things I've collected over the last year or so ready for a fresh year of tickets, photos, cards etc.

This modest pile is what I took down.

My walls look very naked now but I'm sure it won't be long before they're full of new and exciting things.

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Day 10

This was taken this morning when I got off the train on my way to Oxford.

I was disappointed the other day when there was no snow. I'd been looking forward to taking some snowy pictures but was unable to due to a lack of white stuff.

Looks like I got my wish

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Day 9

This involved a bit of cunning - I took this shot whilst at work. One of the wards I look after is having some emergency building work I had to go up for another reason and, knowing I'd be a while, decided to take my camera.

This is one of the lights the workmen are using as the overhead lights are out of commission. I was going for for an arty "dust floating in the beam" kinda shot but the lads were too tidy (can you believe that?!) Anyway, this is the result. I'm really pleased with it, even though the builders thought I was odd

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Day 8

This was inspired from several shots I took earlier this evening for some jumping off points. Of all the images, this one was something I kept coming back to, so I decided to see if I could play with it a bit. Not entirely sure I have done but I'm happy with the result. I cannot begin to tell you how many attempts this took. First the light, then the gentle rather than harsh focus and then the zoom ... Ah well. As I said I finally got it to look the way I wanted.

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Day 7

Not my greatest picture ever but the best one of today (ie it was in focus). I really struggled with today's image. Couldn't find anything I wanted to snap and then couldn't get the picture to work. Grrrr

However I was quite pleased with this one. Love the orange glow from the lights and the faintly sinister Victorian look it gives the whole thing.

Have now managed an entire week! Only 51 more to go!

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Day 6

I've been to St Pancras today. I had planned to go college but wasn't able to go (boring story).

Instead I went to London and did some work in St Pancras. There were 2 pictures that I thought of using but this one won.

My pictures so far have been outside pictures or inside. This is an outside/inside shot. Something for everyone.

Day 5

Mondays are always going to be tricky. Because I have to travel to college, it means that there is little time to post a picture - don't worry, I'm not giving excuses, just explaining that some Monday efforts will be late/early/random/uninspired.

This probably ticks a couple of those boxes at least.

This morning began early with a phone call from a friend in distress. Once everything was dealt with, I was awake. Thinking I ought to take a picture for today seeing as I was up, I wondered what to snap. (At this time of the morning, it pretty much had to be an indoor shot). Suddenly the answer was obvious. Where else would I rather be at the moment?

Back in bed.

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Day 4

Ok there are two possible reasons for this picture -

1) Pseudo-intellectual. I'm currently reading "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene which is about string theory. Therefore a photo of a string of lights to represent sting theory, Einstein's theory of relativity, speed of light, black holes etc.

2) I wanted to take a picture of my purdy fairy lights.

I'll leave it up to you

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Day 3

This one of the churches in town. I've often walked past it and thought how beautiful it is. This afternoon the sky was that perfect, freezing winter blue. I couldn't resist.

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Day 2

These are my knitting needles. For me knitting is a really therapeutic thing to do - even if there is no end product, there is something relaxing and almost meditative about it. I have a collection that I keep in a disused vase in my room. These are a mixture of plastic, metal and bamboo and there are even crochet hooks in there too.

They're also near the door so provide a handy weapon should the need arise.

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Day 1

This was something I stumbled across whilst walking up a steep hill to my friend's house.

I always find New Year quite anti-climactic and thought provoking. A time to take stock. This sentiment seemed to typify those thoughts. It also made me think of land art. In it's purest form, it only exists in the space it's created in. It's not recorded so if you see it, you see it and respond to it. If you don't you never knew it existed.

I debated about this image quite a lot. Generally I don't make political statements in my posts - I leave that to more insightful people. However in the end it was what the image also represented that was important, hence here it is.

So now I've made a start

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