Strange times

~ anfieldgirl ~ Leave a comment

We are living in very strange times. 2020 is not turning out how any of us thought it would. We are all, mostly, staying at home, working from home, existing from home. I am finding the adjustment to being in my home 24/7 very easy. I believe I am in a minority with this feeling. I have always been the kind of person that needs to gear herself up to go and socialise. Consequently I don’t have a huge circle of friends and I rarely go out just for the sake of it socially. I go out to hear live music, sometimes to eat, to go to work, to visit family, to exercise.

The current state of the world means I can’t do any of those things. But I’m adjusting. I watch live streams of music from my favourite bands from the comfort of my living room. And you know what – no-one is talking over the band! I watch cookery shows and cook from scratch – I’ve perfected tarka daal. I was able to work from home although I’m currently on furlough leave (that’s the hardest thing to adjust to). I text family and friends or hang out on video chats for my British Sign Language course. I do yoga in my room. I have overcome the limitations put upon me by this world event and my own health issues. I am adjusting.

What I am missing is photography. So I went out into the garden (the only place I’m allowed to go right now as I’m on this pesky vulnerable person list) and pushed myself out of my comfort zone using a 50mm fixed lens. I don’t like it. I never have. I find it restricting and I don’t fully understand how it reacts to light and stuff so I rarely use it. I had a little bit of success with it today, in full manual mode and I do like how light and easy it is to hold. I just get frustrated having to keep moving around with it. I’m too reliant on my zoom lens’ and that’s something I need to work on.

Adventures with a 50mm lens

My Instagram account has become limited to my garden. This isn’t a bad thing but it means there will be a very detailed account of how my garden grew this year. Normally I take pictures on my morning commute to Liverpool City Centre. My commute is now about 30 feet to the end of my garden so I’m expecting to have to get very creative with those pictures.

I planted some out of date seed packets – sunflowers, chillis, sweet peas. I left them pinned to my noticeboard and they stayed there. I never have enough time, the weather is never right, I forgot to buy compost. A million reasons to not plant them. This time out we’ve been given means I have no excuses. So I planted them all. Wow, sunflowers grow fast!!

Speedy Sunflowers

Hopefully more time to write will see me update my blog more than once every 3 years. Hopefully. Depends on that To Be Read pile of books I can see out of the corner of my eye.

Scrapping Again….

~ anfieldgirl ~ Leave a comment

Not sure why but I always seem to have a rush of creativity at this time of year. Maybe as the nights get lighter and the days get longer I want to do more than just curl up and watch tv.

So I’ve been scrapbooking like a demon for the last few weeks. It’s been nice going through my stash and finding things I’d forgotten I had.

I’ve also indulged in a few new bits – mostly from Shimelle’s American Craft ranges. I also found a box full of Basic Grey – I must have sorted them all into one pile last year when I had my big craft room make over.

Lots of music layouts have emerged over the last few months too…. music and photography and scrapbooking – my holy trinity!

So on to the layouts…

Let’s start with the music ones. I’ve been to some great gigs this year. I think I’ve a couple of layouts from gigs I went to last year too that I just got round to scrapping.

The first two layouts are from a gig at the Cavern in Liverpool a few weeks ago – it was part of the Under The Apple Tree tour put together by Radio Two’s Bob Harris. Robert Vincent is a major talent I’m proud to call a friend and it’s so gratifying to see him getting the recognition he so richly deserves and it was a thrill to see him again at the Cavern with his own band and also supporting Nashville legend Kimmie Rhodes.

First up on the bill with Rob was our very own songbird Eleanor Nelly. She is such a wonderful singer and I love taking pictures of her. She’s off to Nashville this weekend – I know she’s going to be a major star in the not too distant future.

Music Layouts - 15

Next up was Catherine McGrath, an Irish singer who is certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with. Her easy, country inspired songs are infectious and have you tapping your feet every time you hear them. My personal favourite is Hell Would Have To Freeze Over. How I wish I’d had this song in my teenage break up arsenal 😉

Music Layouts - 14

This layout features photos from last summer, before Daniel and members of the band headed off on an adventure around the Far East. He’s back in the UK now and I can’t wait to hear some new material from him. I think the next time we see him will almost be a year to the day since these photos were taken at one of my favourite venues – Thornton Hough.

Music Layouts - 13

What can I say about Frank? His music has become the soundtrack to part two of my life. I rebooted my entire existence in 2012 and discovered his music that same year. We saw him at the Palm House in Liverpool’s Sefton Park last year. It was a thrill to see him at such a small venue – he was awesome and despite standing at the back and not seeing much it was one of the best gigs of last year. Paul Dunbar supported Frank and as he’s one of the rising stars in Liverpool it was a perfect night.

Music Layouts - 12

Another layout of Eleanor. These photos were taken the same night as the Rosenblume photos above. Eleanor was the support act and she blew the roof off the place – first time I’ve seen a support act do an encore.

Music Layouts - 11

Mr Mike Peters. The title of the layout says it all really. Another amazing Gathering this year – it’s an annual pilgrimage we make to Llandudno, made even better this year by the inclusion of Ian McNabb as the support act on the Saturday night. I’ve cited that combination as my “dream” line up for many years and this year I finally got to see it. Perfection.

Hero - MP - 1

So onto the non music layouts.

Over Easter we went to Gauntlet Bird of Prey centre in Cheshire. We had a brilliant afternoon, despite the rain. Pete had an up close and personal encounter with a Harris Hawk that seems to have taken exception to his Pink Floyd t-shirt LOL. The flying display was stunning – so many birds circling and just enjoying themselves. The sight of a group of red kites playing in the thermals is one of life’s great joys.

Final layout is from a trip to Martin Mere a few weeks ago – we were lucky to go on a beautiful bright day as the daffodils were in full bloom. There have been lots of changes over the winter – MM is one of our favourite places, even just for an hour it’s always worth the trip.

Bear Hunt - 1

That’s enough for now. More to come in the following weeks I think.

Black and White Photo

~ anfieldgirl ~ Leave a comment

I love gig photography – it’s a massive passion of mine – I’m rarely happier than listening to one of my favourite musicians and snapping away while they perform.

One of my major gripes is the lighting at gigs – whoever told venue owners that rotating red, blue and green lights is in any way complimentary never took a photo. My solution to this issue is to shoot in black and white. I often don’t even take a colour photo at a gig.

This set of photographs was taken under the other gig conditions that are troublesome for photographers – low light with no way of adding your own light to the scenario. Again shooting in black and white comes to the rescue.

The subject of the photos is a singer called Thom Morecroft, originally from Shropshire, he currently lives in Liverpool and is a stalwart of the local music scene, as a performer and also running a very popular open mic night. Thom is a great guy – kind and generous and a very talented singer and musician.

The EP that was launched the night these photos were taken can be bought here.

ThomMorecroft - 1

Another weekend, another layout

~ anfieldgirl ~ Leave a comment

So following on from last weekend’s crafting craziness I am back at my desk this morning and being inspired by Shimelle again. This time it’s a sketch – three photos on one page. I do quite often use three photos but I don’t think I’ve ever used them in this configuration before. I like it! I can see this being something I do again. So here’s the brief and the sketch if you want to try this yourself. 

I also did something this week that I haven’t done for years – I ordered something from an online scrapbook shop. Wow – it felt strange going through the pages and pages of stuff I haven’t seen for such a long time. I was very good though and only order consumable stuff (glue and a craft sheet because mine has gone AWOL in the move). I need to have a big tidy up of my supplies before I start buying fancy stuff again as I’m sure anything I see online I have a variation of it somewhere in this room.

Clutter and untidiness is not a reason to shop! <she says, sitting on her hands and trying to forget her paypal password>

Sunday Challenge Three – An Adventurous Colour Story

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I really enjoyed this one. Great colour scheme to use and I get to scrap holiday photos! Perfect.

I’ve been re-discovering my stash – good grief I have a lot of half finished projects! Not sure what any of this stash was bought for originally but it was all together in a bag so I didn’t even really have to think about the colours too much – they just worked perfectly for the challenge.

The photos are from our first holiday together in 2012. We’d had a stressful 6 months to get to that point and so the holiday was a major de-stressing exercise. I’d visited Barbados a few years before on a working holiday and I was very keen to return. Pete had never been there. It was a fabulous holiday – just the right balance of adventure (jeep safaris and the wild east coast beaches) and relaxing by the pool.

See the challenge on Shimelle’s website.

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Sunday Challenge Two – Circles

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This didn’t turn out the way I thought it would – I’m not thrilled with it and I’m hoping it looks better when it’s dry. I used a sepia glaze on the circles, trying to echo the glaze on the background paper (Tim Holtz) but it just looks a bit weird. I may just top them with butterflies if it still looks strange when it’s dry. Or glitter. You can fix anything with glitter 😉

Challenge from Shimelle’s site here.

I have fixed this now – corrected layout is first – disappointing layout below. I realised it was mainly because it was an even number of circles that I hated.

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Sunday Challenge One – Frames

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I love the inspiration for this challenge. I take a lot of photos but I very rarely put them on the walls. This challenge was inspired by a wall of photos in frames and I love it. I really must try harder to put my favourite photos up on the walls around my home.

So here is my frame inspired layout. I used my Cricut to cut the frames and the letters and the brads are My Mind’s Eye. Still loving discovering things in my stash I’d completely forgotten about. I may never go out again 😉

Elizabeth is a wonderful singer/musician that I have become friends with here in Liverpool. Her husband, Gary, is also a very talented musician. I will be taking photos for Elizabeth at her monthly folk music night in Formby – Bow’s Folk.

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Challenge Four – Monochrome and an older photograph

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So I groaned when I saw this title. I just threw away hundreds of old photos that I felt I would never scrap. I have a new life and I’ve scrapped that old part of my life already and I have no desire to keep revisiting it. So out they all went (I did keep the digital versions on a hard drive – I’m not completely heartless, I just don’t need them taking up physical space).

So the oldest photos I have printed are from January 2012. So that’s my “old”. My monochrome colour for this one is blue. I have no idea where the paper came from and I’m enjoying discovering my paper supplies again. The waves were apt because the photos were taken down by Liverpool’s waterfront and the scraps of material were near the top of my sewing box and caught my eye.

The journalling talks about how I love having a willing model – Pete will stand in front of anything so I can take a photo!

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Challenge Three – Colour Blocking

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So I wasn’t really sure what this was but I think this layout meets the brief. It feels like a lot of my layouts – maybe I’ve been channeling early Creative Memories techniques without realising it!

The photos are of three of my favourite Liverpool based singers. Paul Dunbar, Robert Vincent and Gary Edward Jones. All three are amazingly talented and you can’t go wrong seeing any of them perform. Check them out if you’re in Liverpool. ShimelleWeekend - 1 (2)

Shimelle’s challenge is here.

Challenge Two – What do you value

~ anfieldgirl ~ Leave a comment

So the next challenge today was to scrap something that has value to you. Well, it was a no brainer really – the most important, valuable thing in my life is my came… no wait, my husband, it’s my husband 😉

And my home town. The two are intrinsically linked and between them they ground me and keep me sane. And I love them both more than words can say.

 

Read the challenge from Shimelle here.