O is for Origami (revisited)

Last year I rediscovered origami, and found that the models could make great photography props. I hadn't made many for a while but having very little money to buy props at the moment has spurred me on to make my own instead. I'm hoping to use more origami, papercutting, modelling clay and sewing to make my own props, so I just need to work on some ideas. I did manage to create a calorie free breakfast last week - not all that tasty though.

To gather some new ideas I've been eyeing up some books on Amazon, and these ones made my wishlist:

And for something a little strange, why not try............

Inspiring Lego Bench Monday

My Lego self is as excited as I am this week, as we are starting an online painting course! Our first task is to search out inspiration from books and real life, and to gather our supplies. If you'd like to join us please visit here to book a place!

Project 52 Week 19 - From Trees

I can't believe it is week 19 already. I have been feeling quite uninspired in my photography this past week, although I've had the ideas, just no motivation to create them. But, as today was the last day to get a photo taken on this theme, I decided to force myself to get the shot together. Once I started I was totally in the mood for messing about and getting creative with props, even though it was raining!

I wanted to use the 'from trees' theme to create a little writer's corner, somewhere inspiring, quiet and free, where I imagine I would like to sit and write if I could. Of course, this had to involve a cup of tea and a biscuit! I thought this would fit the theme in 2 ways - literally, as paper obviously comes from trees and is used to make the books containing the writer's words; and also because the inspiration of my imaginary writer could come from the trees and nature surrounding them. Feeling quite poetic as I've just been to a meditation class, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm rambling on.

I used Camera Bag 2 to process the photo. It was quite an overcast, drizzly day, so I set white balance to cloud, but the image came out a bit on the yellow side, so I corrected for this using selective saturation to decrease the yellow/green tones. I increased contrast and luminance contrast a bit, and then just added the 'heavy' effect which creates the matte texture. I finished off with a touch of 'saloon' for the pale vignette and faded colours. 

G is for... Goodreads.com

I can't remember how I discovered goodreads.com, but I will definitely be using it from now on. Goodreads is a site where users can record the books they've read, and give them ratings and reviews. This information is catalogued in a social networking kind of way, so that you can add friends and see what others are reading. Once you have added and rated 20 books, goodreads uses an algorithm to recommend further books you might enjoy - genius!

Even if you simply use it to keep a private record of your reading, I think goodreads is brilliant for everyone. And it is totally free. You can also add a 'currently reading' badge to your blog (like I have in my sidebar), and one showing a list of your favourite books, so your followers can join in too. I'm currently reading Catch 22, and it is a very different book to anything else I've read, but enjoyable so far. Add me on goodreads and you can find out what I thought of it once I've finished!!!