Self Portrait.

I was looking at some self portraits last night:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/selfportraittuesday/pool/

I don't know why, but I found them fascinating (and sometimes pretentious) and it occurred to me that unlike all these people, I usually avoid being photographed, or if I am photographed I do my utmost to make it look like I really don't mind! I try and reason that even if I don't like photographs of my big bum, it shouldn't matter because everyone can see it in real life whenever I turn round anyway!

The other night it was mum's birthday. We had an hilarious discussion about double chins and how best to avoid them in photographs. And so started an hour of different camera shots, from the floor, from above, from the side and even from the back. We eventually decided on a camera shot taken slightly from above with the photographee looking up Princess Diana stylee. It takes lbs off you! Here's my best shot (with cosmetic computer dentistry I might add!) Look, only the one chin :

And here's Gary. Now anyone that knows Gazza knows he's fat too. This photograph takes stones off him! Look at my hunka hunka burning love. X X X X

So, after much hilarity, I decided to take my self portrait. Digital cameras are very limiting and you can't do anything special with them. I decided I wanted a blurred background and of course my face in focus so I hit on the idea of whizzing round on the office chair! It worked (even if I do look a bit stern) Notice that the shot is taken from above, thus eliminating the multiple chin problem!

And here is a shot of me and daddy in the midst of much guffawing and cackling over something very rude that he'd said!

I have put another self portrait at the top of my blog.

New Shelves and Fabric Dyes.

At last! Gary finally put my shelves up today. It's not his fault as he is working such long hours and hasn't had the time to put them up so far. However, this morning we awoke at 9.30am as Gary has the day off. I couldn't believe it when I saw the time, I never sleep past 8am. I bet I won't sleep tonight now. :0( Anyway, the shelving has been sitting here for over a week now, so I was glad to be able to organise at last. It didn't take Gary long and at last my desk is clear of clutter as it's all on the shelves now. Look at all my pretty colourful boxes and crates.

The little colourful plastic boxes near the top are empty and are waiting to be filled with gorgeousness. The shelf below that holds my dyeing powders and made-up dyes. The crates on the bottom shelf are filled with all my smashing variegated and metallic threads. The box to the left on the bottom shelf holds my silk threads which I think should be kept away from light. And all those those gorgeous little glass jars I got from Freecycle. They're baby food jars, perfect for all my beads and buttons and 'stuff'. I am collecting some more in the week that I'll need for storing some more made-up dyes.

I received some new dyes from Beary Cheap in Australia (wages for pattern sales) and I bought these from eBay:

One of these pots ranges from £5.21- £9.40 (depending on colour) on the website and I got them all from eBay for about £10 including P&P! I have purchased a yellow dye from the website to complete the set, but it's still such a bargain as each pot is 100g (a lot)! I have also purchased some pipettes and small spray bottles to aid with the dyeing process. So expect great things on the hand-dyed fabric front in the coming weeks.

I hand painted a couple pf pieces of fabric yesterday. I don't think I shall ever use them, but it was good to practice and experiment. :0)

I prefer a more subtle, subdued look to fabric. I might try some tie dyeing in the week, that's always fun!