I came across this tutorial for making shades out of recycled milk jugs. I saw something like this on Design*Sponge or Apartment Therapy but can't find it now. The design reminds me of a couple of Ikea lamps.



Caroline Saul is making fantastic sculptures and lampshades like this one



out of recycled plastic milk bottles.

And here's a lamp that arrives packaged in its own shade:

Since we've been doing a lot of painting and reorganizing in the house, we've also been changing out some of the lighting. I just ran across this Copper Pendant Lamp by Tom Dixon and I totally covet it now.



Here's a link that talks about how it's made.

Too bad it's a little out of my price range!

Here's another picture with a bunch of them.

This was my Project 365 photo from October 15. Sometimes I was really scrambling for subjects for the daily picture.This little lady was right outside my front door.

Field near my house on a fall morning. My first experiment with processing other than the most basic functions. Still working my way through the backlog!

Ok, I admit that I was at a lovely zoo filled with exotic animals and I was shooting photos of...plants.

Sam was born at the Oregon Zoo last summer. There were huge crowds lining up to see him. I didn't get there until October when he was already two months old, but still so cute.

One nice thing about going through my photo backlog is that I'm reminded of where I took the various shots. This one is from a Cyclocross bike race last fall. These were really fun. There are obstacles where the riders have to dismount and carry their bikes. With some of the barriers, the more daring riders will keep going and jump over. The one pictured here is called a runup. It was way too steep for anyone to ride up it so all the racers had to wheel or carry their bikes.

I took a zillion photos of poor quality because I was just using my point and shoot. There were a lot of other photographers there with more experience and better equipment. I had serious lens envy. Still, it was fun to experiment with a different type of photography.

Stalk



Artichoke


Mushrooms

I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted here. I've still been reading everyone's entries but haven't been taking many photos to post. Aaaaand I've been avoiding going through my huge backlog of photos from Project365.

I really need to edit a few every week and get caught up. I'm tired of having that task hanging over my head. So here's the first photo from my new commitment to finishing with the Project365 stuff! It's from October 1.

I recently saw some of James Castle's work online and was really struck by his collages. The library didn't have any books about him. I just happened to be watching Ovation while folding laundry and on the first commercial break, they advertised a show about James Castle that's on tomorrow!

Also, I've been delving into folk music in the past week or so and when I turned to Ovation, they were showing a documentary about Harry Smith's folk music anthology.

It's such a great channel. Occasionally there will be a week when they seem to show nothing but ballet or live performances of bands that don't interest me, but most of the time their programming turns out to be exactly what I want to watch. I couldn't get How to Draw a Bunny, a documentary about Ray Johnson, from the library. He's another artist whose work I really like. A month or two later, the movie was on Ovation. Ovation TV, where have you been all my life?

This post in the pictogramms community today made me laugh. It's a collection of different silly signs but the subject line is in Russian so I don't know if the person collected photos from different places or what.

Spent a little time annoying these guys this morning in the school field next to my house.

These are from last week, one of those walks when I didn't feel like taking the camera but ended up glad I did. I love moss and I'm still looking for ways to get the best photos of it. It's like a miniature world and I want to find a way in.

There's a farmhouse around the corner that I keep going back to. It's not very well kept. There are others in the neighborhood that have been restored and are more charming. This one looks lived in. The paint is worn, the wide front lawn is dotted with old fruit trees, there's a pumphouse behind the garage, and the sheds look like they've been there forever.

I'd taken several pictures of this shed before, though not from this angle.



But once I trespassed in their yard I realized there was another shed looking pretty spooky through the fog.



There are a few more shots on Flickr.

Remember when I was all excited about the Christmas gift I was making for a friend? This is Rufus, who is based on the figures in the Bayeux Tapestry. This was one of those projects that just took over once I had the idea for it. My friend is studying medieval history so I thought it would be nice to make a figure of a knight. Then I couldn't find many good references for 11th- or 12th-century armor so I started looking at the Bayeux Tapestry. The figures are so charming and lively, I was hooked. With the help of a couple of library books I designed this guy and learned a lot about the conquest of England in the process.

He's made of felt with applique, embroidery and couched thread.

( Various shots )

Yesterday I felt like I had a cold coming on but today I'm just a little tired. Keeping my fingers crossed that I might be the only one in the family who doesn't really come down with it. I've had enough of being sick for this winter. Even though it's been a good year with few colds, I get frustrated lying around resting because there are so many things I want to do!

In September I went to Pittock Mansion, "home to Portland pioneers Henry and Georgiana Pittock from 1914 to 1919. During the late 1800s and the early 1900s, their lives and work paralleled the growth of Portland from a small Northwest town site to a thriving city with a quarter million population. With its eclectic architectural design and richly decorated interior, including family artifacts, the Pittock Mansion stands today as a living memorial of this family’s contributions to the blossoming of Portland and its people."

It's a beautiful place and I found it easy to imagine the family living their lives in the gracious rooms. Unfortunately, that put me into a kind of daze so I wandered around recording glimpses of the furnishings rather than getting any good photos.

( Snapshots from inside the mansion. )

I love historic homes. When I was a kid my favorite places to visit were General Vallejo's home and the Toscano Hotel.

If you're interested in seeing more of Pittock Mansion let me know, because I have several more photos I haven't edited yet.

Here's a sunflower from September.

I've been toiling this week to finish my monthly goals which were simple yet time-consuming. I wanted to finish two paintings. Tomorrow I'll put the finishing touches on them. I need to make a few updates to my shop, which I'll also do tomorrow. And after hours and hours of sorting through photos, I finished editing 7 days' worth of Project365 pictures. Woohoo!

On to setting goals for next month. :-) But maybe after lounging around for most of the weekend.

More autumn pictures edited. Why did I take so many?? It's fun going back now and seeing what's in the folder, though.

( The rest of the shots from that walk )

One of my goals this month is to get some of my Project365 photos finished and uploaded. I took a LOT of photos in the fall so it's a daunting task. Here are three from September, when I went to the Japanese Garden and Rose Gardens.



I wanted to hit the Japanese Garden near sunset but there are so many tall trees that most of it was in the shade early, making for grainy photos.



I didn't take a tripod because I just hate carrying one around, not to mention setting it up on narrow paths.



I ended up having more fun in the Rose Garden, where I stopped by chance. Seems I just can't shake my macro tendencies.

For those who didn't see it on craftgrrl this morning, Kali posted about her tutorial on altering old photos. After she softened the emulsion she scraped some of the color away and added her own designs. It looks like she used them as covers for a little book.

Angela Cartwright also has some cool ideas in Mixed Emulsions: Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery.