Paw Prints

Ravens at Live Oak in Joshua Tree National Park

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

I’ve the gigabytes of photos taken at Joshua Tree to go through, and some of these actually please me as a photographer. I am particularly delighted with a series of photos of a pair of ravens. I managed to catch some wonderful in flight images, they allowed me to be close enough that I could take photos with some detail — and the black birds on the sandy stone with the bright blue sky makes for powerful contrasts.

I think this is the best composition of the bunch, although other images capture wings and flight and other profiles.

I am a bit overwhelmed by the other photos. I am slowly sifting through, trying to identify when the image captures something well (documents a feature or the aesthetic of a contrast or the details from which i might identify a plant or stone).

Another challenge is with bracketed images. My bracket range was a little too large. I wish i’d been more disciplined about using a tripod, and that i had bracketed so that i could try HDR. As it is, i bounce back and forth between partly over and partly under exposed images. (“The rocks are great here, the branches have great detail here, rocks, branches, rocks, branches….”)

Going through the images is a lovely distraction for the evening.

My First Hat

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

Inspired by these Minerva Yarns 1936 directions and the toasty experience of falling asleep with the santa cap on on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, i added a seventh increase in the round fairly early on. I’ve tucked it in as a pleat in the back — a good technical experiment. The major lesson learned is to use stitch at every increase, not just the beginning of the “row.”

Were i to want to improve this a little more, rereading the instructions i find two rounds of no increases would be welcome as the final band on the beret.

There are a variety of places where my projects hang up. Printing could be one place where i short cut. My previous research is old, and just for postcards. Note, PRICES ROUNDED

vistaprint no longer has the free card offer. Looks like roughly $35 for 100 with color back. Still a nonstandard size: 5.47 x 4.21 Matching envelopes are available with return address imprint (100 @ $22.50, 50 @ $20, 30 @ $12) or blank (100 for $5).

http://www.psprint.com/printing_products/short_run_postcard_printing.asp offers a similar rate to for 4×6 postcards. No envelopes. Looks like A-6 is what they size that would fit 4×6 postcards and an Amazon search for “4×6 envelopes” turns up options.

cafepress.com: note cards 4.25″ X 5.5″ (20 @ $18, 10 @ $10), greeting cards 5″ X 7″ (10 @ $15, 20 @ $24)
6″ x 4″ postcards are .75 for a pack of 8 — vistaprint or cardstore is probably better

cardstore.com: 4¼x6 postcard 60c (100 for $60), 5×7 folded cards $2.50 (1-9), $2.00 (10-19), $1.50 (20-99) + CA tax
Zazzle.com is a little more expensive than cardstore on postcards, but probably more flexible (full color on both sides)

Apple iPhoto greeting cards are $2 each (1-24) which is better than cardstore, but not cafepress…..

printers, pod, print on demand

Crochet Cat "Patches" for DKB

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

I challenged myself to get this done for my youngest nephew while travelling back east for a Yuletide visit. During take offs and landings, in the car as we drove around, and during some of the chats while visiting, i worked on this toy. He’s understuffed in the bottom, simply carelessness on my part. While inspired by the pattern at Crochet Me, the head and ears are different. The head has a little more shaping in reduction, i left off the legs (running out of time, there), and the ears are just one layer, triangles worked in a base ring. The ears *are* a bit big for the head! Yoda cat?

The two color work on the side turned out well, but i somehow didn’t manage such clear demarcation on the black head top.

Still, fun to get a project done while traveling. And it was a good pattern to work on while visiting with other folks.