Praktica Sport QT=ONE Camera

I've decided that I need to get on top of my camera films that need developing before starting any more so the end of last week I sent a couple of films off for processing and yesterday I received my prints back.

This first group of photos were taken with a Praktica Sport QT=ONE camera using an Agfa Vista Plus 200 film.

 I'd not used this camera before so I'm pleased to see that it works. It was purchased from Ebay, a lot of three camera for 99p. Looking at the photographs, most were taken last Summer.

These were taken when we had a wander around Chester.

I can't remember the name of this lake, it was nice though.
These next photos were taken with my Konica Pop camera using a LomoChrome Purple film. The film changes the natural colour of the image. Mine have but looking at other photographs taken using this film I think to get a brighter effect I may need brilliant sunshine something we rarely have here in the UK.
    

These were from a day out in Blackpool.

Some more from a day in Chester.
I usually use colour film but after this last lot of prints I definitely want to try out some different ones.
While I'm whittering away about photographs and camera stuff, I thought I'd share the book about Polaroids that I bought this week. 

It features creative ideas, displays (some of these ideas can easily be found on Pinterest or photography sites) and information about some of their camera's from classic to the present day, I never knew that their latest one was also a tablet.

The book was on sale for £3 from Urban Outfitters. I don't own any books about Polaroid so it will fit nicely with my other camera books. Its an OK book for £3 but I certainly wouldn't have paid the £12.99 cover price for it.

Scrap Felt Garland

Feeling fidgety the other day I saw a felt garland on Pinterest which would be ideal for using up some of my scraps.

The garland measures about 95in long which I made in two lengths then joined them together. I cut roughly 800 pieces of felt then sewed through the pieces using a fine crochet crochet. Little L even helped with the sewing.

I'm not too sure about keeping it up though because it reminds me of a Christmas decoration. 

A tutorial to make one of these garlands can be found here.

Redecorating

I'm pleased to say that the bedroom we were decorating before Christmas is now finished  (well except for one thing). It took us more time to sort out the things that we wanted to keep than the actual decorating bit. Apart from the bed frame, carpet and curtains, everything has been replaced.

The light beige walls were painted duck egg blue. It took an age for us to decide on the shade we wanted. The testers we tried at first were either too blue, too green, too bright, etc. We ended up with the shade that we settled on by having a piece of duck egg blue wallpaper scanned.

The beech coloured furniture was replaced by plain white furniture. It's surprising how much more brighter and bigger it makes the room look just by replacing the furniture and changing the wall colour.

Anders made me these shelves at work for my cameras. Previously they had all been stored in cardboard boxes.

It wasn't until I first sat on the new mattress to put my socks on and my feet didn't reach the floor that I noticed it is slightly deeper than our last one. The new duvet set was bought from BHS in the Black Friday sale (it doesn't look quite as bright as this photo shows).

The old lampshade was replaced with this one which throws out considerably more light because of the open design. Looks quite pretty to have dancing light cast about the room too.

When sorting out what was going or staying in the room, I found this blanket which I had forgotten about. I did make it quite a while ago for this room using this dottie angel pattern.

This old dressing table was brought down from the loft.

 After they had been washed I saw that the curtains were in a terrible state. Very faded, stained, with quite a few holes. You can see on this photo how much the curtains had faded compared to the fabric which was covered by the glass top. This is the last thing that needs to be done in the bedroom, I just need to go fabric shopping.

Polaroid Photo Frames

While looking for Polaroid film online the other day I saw that some people were selling the empty cartridges. After a quick search I saw that one use for them was photo frames. I opened up my instant cameras and found that I had three empty ones.

 I left the inside of the Polaroid cartridge as it was because the metal part does a good job of holding the photograph in place.

The insides of the Instax cartridges only took a minute to pull out and once this was done there was room to store more photo's behind the one on display.

Now a lot of my little photos are organised instead of being stacked in the corner of a drawer.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year (a couple of days late I know). I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. We did the same thing as always here. I run around like a headless chicken on Christmas Eve making sure all the usual housework has been done plus any cooking for the next day,etc. Little L loves helping to peel sprouts just as the boys did when they were small. I cook my turkey the night before Christmas so everyone tucked in to turkey sandwiches (besides my eldest boy who had a shift in the pub).

Christmas morning we were woken by cries of 'You're not going to believe this' right in my face. Little L had found her stocking in her bedroom. I can't even remember what time it was, it was so early in the morning. She actually got in bed with us and went back to sleep for an hour or so before going to wake her big brothers up. After opening the pressies left by Father Christmas and from under the tree, my parents and Gran arrived followed by my in laws. Its a bit hectic here on Christmas Day morning. As soon as our visitors have gone I make Christmas dinner. I didn't feel like a wanted a nap this year after dinner. I used to think eating all that food made me drowsy but I think its the wine. I'm not used to drinking it so when we have it at Christmas it knocks me out.

Boxing Day was spent at my parents where I feared for my eyesight when I saw their Christmas tree. They have put new lights on it this year and my eyes aren't great with bright lights anyway but it hurt to even look at that tree.
The night of the 27th December was spent at the hospital with my eldest boy. Shortly after 6pm we heard banging from upstairs which we assumed to be Little L using her bed as a trampoline until she came charging down the stairs telling us that her eldest brother was shaking on the floor and blood was coming from his mouth. We raced upstairs saw he was having a seizure and rang for an ambulance. We were told an ambulance was being sent but there was going to be a bit of a wait because they were busy. Over two hours later an ambulance arrived to take us to hospital where he had blood tests, an ECG and a brain scan. Nothing unusual showed up on the results so he is be referred to a neurologist. After four and a half hours in the hospital we could bring him home.He has never had a seizure before so it was very frightening for everyone. Little L was in the room with him when it happened. He was playing on his game console at the time and can't remember it happening but he said that he remembers that his eyes started going blurry and that he was struggling to concentrate. He said it had happened before but didn't think it was worth mentioning. We informed his boss at work (we knew he wouldn't say anything himself) mainly because I was concerned if it happened again while he was in the cellar. She said that she'd keep an eye on him and kindly arranged for a member of staff to give him a lift home after his shifts (he doesn't finish work until 1am, sometimes later). He's had a little shadow since it happened, Little L won't leave him alone. She wouldn't even go out with Anders the other day and he can't do anything without her tagging along. She wanted to stay in and keep her eye on her brother.
On the 28th we all went around to my in laws for tea where the boys seemed to be in competition as to who could eat the most. Anyone would think I never feed them.
Everything is almost back to the usual routine with people back to work, college and school. I just hope that my eldest boy hears about an appointment to see the neurologist soon.

It's Been A While

It's been some time since I was last here. I've still been reading blogs, just not got a round to posting anything myself. We still have not finished the bedroom yet. We're still sorting stuff out and listing things on Ebay, we haven't got the bedroom furniture yet (though my old dressing table is being brought down from the loft) but we have finished painting. It took us weeks and quick a few trips for paint testers to get the shade of duck egg that we wanted. Hopefully it will be done before Christmas.

Craft wise I've been making some Christmassy decorations.

This wreath was made using a wire coat hanger and a sack cut in to strips.

These were made using Little L's collection of fir cones.

Some Christmas cushions.

Felt foxes 

and a doll have been made for Little L to give in to her school fair.

I think that's it for craft stuff. I'll have to get back to posting more regularly because I'm sure that I have missed something.

From A Dress To Apron

I've had this dress in my wardrobe for a few years now. It looked awful on me when I bought it but I'm terrible at sending my on line buys back. I knew I'd never wear it so yesterday I took my scissors to it and turned it in to an apron.

I unpicked the bodice from the skirt and both of the skirt side seams.

From one skirt piece I cut off 2.5in from the skirt fabric and lining ( this is the piece I was keeping for the front of the apron ). From the other skirt piece I cut off three 2.5in strips. These are to make the waist and neck ties. All of these pieces I sewed together, right sides facing each other, turned them and top sewed around each strip. 
I inserted the ones I was using as waist ties in to the open sides of the waist band then sewed them closed. 
I re-hemmed the skirt and lining. 
Then sewed the skirt front and lining together on the inside so there would be no raw edges showing.

With contrasting fabric I cut out pieces to make the apron top and cut two 1.5in strips from the remaining skirt fabric. 
I used a close zig zag stitch to tidy up the edges of the strips and down the centre sewed a line using a large straight stitch. I then pulled one thread on the straight stitch to turn the fabric strip in to a ruffle. 
I pinned the ruffles to one of the apron pieces then sewed them on.

I pinned the neck ties in to postition ( I didn't want mine to tie at the back of the neck so I cut one shorter than the other ) then right sides facing, sewed the two apron pieces together. 
I turned the apron pieces the right way then top sewed the edges. 
I inserted the apron top in to the top of the waist band then sewed it closed. 
I sewed two buttons on the the apron top and it was finished.