Colourful Friday - Leaves

Want to see more fun ideas? Hop on over to Robyn at http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com

Scots Corner - Camera Obscura

After a visit to Edinburgh Castle we decided to try out the Camera Obscura which is located just outside the castle. It was built specifically as a tourist attraction in the 1850's by Marie Theresa Short. We had a whooole lot of fun in the "World of Illusions" exhibit, most of which is hands on. The short Vortex Tunnel at the end took me a wee while to stop feeling like tipping over :)
The Camera is at the very top of the building, about 5 flights up with no other access, and we were fortunate to see through it on a lovely day. (When it rains hard or is foggy there is not much to see.) There is a walkway outside on the roof that gives great views over the rooftops of old Edinburgh.
We opted to start at the top and work our way down. We all enjoyed ourselves, though it took me a wee while to regain my balance once we were done :)

http://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/

Scots Corner - Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Plan on spending at least a day at this wonderful, free to the public, museum in Glasgow. After all the wonderful exhibits we saw, my favorite part of the building was the Central Hall of all places. The pipe organ was played at lunchtime which made for a nice ambiance as we ate and wandered round.

And then there's the "Hanging Heads." On their own, amongst the light fixtures, they look somewhat out of place but in context with the rest of the exhibit they make more sense. The expressions are hilarious.

Once we got to Glasgow we took the underground to Kelvingrove and then a short walk to the museum. There's lots of other sites to see in the area but we opted to spend the day inside this impressive building. Definitely a must see again.

Being Creative- July-Summer

A while ago I mentioned that Julia Crossland has a fun activity, Being Creative, going on at her blog. http://juliacrossland.blogspot.com/ She currently has some lovely crocheting happening.

The theme for July is "Summer" and I realized that I already have a number of "in progress"pieces of art work/textiles that would fit that theme. I've picked out my sunflower and butterfly vase mat to work on. I want to add beading to it but have not worked out what and where yet.

The themes for the rest of the year are -

August : Travel

September : Autumn

October : Party

November : Fire

December : Winter

Colourful Friday - Triangles

"Triangles" is the theme for this Friday and I opted not to do my "one photo" personal challenge so I could share more photographs from our recent trip.

1. St. Paul's Cathedral, London

2. Old meets new, River Thames, London

3. Part of the optical illusion hands on exhibit at the Camera Obscura, Edinburgh

4. Tile inlay floor at Glasgow Cathedral

5. Christmas place mat and mug

Next time the theme is leaves :) Hop on over to Robyn's blog to see what inspires some of the other participants http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/

Scots Corner - some photographs from our trip.

Looking toward Holyrude Church from the graveyard.

Stirling Castle - A room with a view looking toward the Wallace Monument.

Life size workers in the castle kitchens looking like they are covered in flour.

Dunblane Cathedral tower. When the tower was extended the workers removed the parapet, added in the lighter sections and put the parapet section back on.

Inside the Cathedral showing the two roof lines. The tour guide was a friend of my brother's. 

The world famous Hamish who ignored us but "worked" for the camera when a larger group of people visited just after us :)

Creating an office area

You might have noticed that there has been a distinct lack of quilting/sewing updates. We've been busy creating a new "office" area in our family room, de-junking areas of the house, and doing a lot of work in the garden.

Before I left for Scotland we worked out a design for the new "office" area, decided on cabinets etc. and John set to work. The back wall had to be removed temporarily to put in new wiring/outlets. A friend helped with suggestions for the "floating" tabletop/work surface.We still have some doors to stain, some spots to touch up and some repainting of the wall to do. We are pleased with how it's all coming along.

We are "trying out" the area at the moment to make sure it works for us. So far so good. My "station" will be by the door and I'll have all my genealogy stored above me. It's currently taking up space in our sewing room/spare bedroom.
John has the area by the window for all his "bits and pieces" (there's a lot) :) The two open areas at each end of the small wall cabinets are for speakers.
We should have been finished by now but "life" has had other plans. What can I say - school is out, it's getting humid and my allergies/headaches have kicked in big time :)

Our work area in the garage. We are using a mahogany combo stain/poly finish which we really like. While it says to use two coats we have found that three coats is looking better.

Before the staining started. We opted to stain the cabinet carcases and table top in situ and the doors & trim pieces in the garage.

Himself attaching the shaped legs for the worktop.

Measuring slowly and carefully before making some final cuts.  Don't you just love our "workbench"!!! It's actually quite solid and works well.

"The Boss" supervising her minions :)
Once this area is finished and everything put away we can start the project at the other end of the room round the fireplace.

Mission Call

Some of you already know that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our oldest daughter, Juliet, has been waiting for her mission call. It arrived yesterday. She will be going to the California San Fernando Spanish speaking mission. She has to go to the Provo Mission Training Center (MTC) first on September 14th. We are so excited for her and happy that she will be able to spend 18 months serving the Lord amongst the California/Hispanic population.

Scots Corner - Stirling Castle

I'm still having issues uploading photographs. This is one of the quieter areas of Stirling Castle. It's the Nether Bailey at the back of the castle. You access this area through the North Gate. There's a wee exhibit in the guard house with prisoner in situ.
At the far end of the Bailey is the Tapestry Studio, which was closed by the time we got there. The tapestries are a work in progress so we were somewhat disappointed to have missed that.
What look like little cottages in the photograph are actually powder magazines. They were built about 1810 and later converted into mobilisation stores.
Just like the rest of castle rock the Nether Bailey has fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. From far outside the castle, the walls surrounding that area make that whole section look like a ship.

Colourful Friday - Red and Green

I confess I forgot till this morning. Aaaargh!!!!! (That and some uploading photo issues over the past week.)

Last summer some pieces of watermelon were left outside due to some ants invading the sunroom. It turned into a "lets leave it there and see what happens over the next few days" experiment. Voila a gorgeous butterfly visited and stayed a while. My red and green watermelon eventually curled up and died, and bleached out, in the sun (and rain).
Happy 4th of July week-end to all of you. I am singing in an American patriotic concert this weekend which is somewhat amusing to me since I am British.
Now head on over to Robyn at Daisy Quilts to see some other participants in the one photo challenge. http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/

Hopefully I can now get back to my Scotland visit and share more photos.