moments

Guard well your spare moments.
They are like uncut diamonds.
Discard them and their value will never be known.
Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We saw a wee bit of sun yesterday...I quickly grabbed the camera to capture the moment before it passed.

I'm working a wee bit this weekend, then have plans to knit, and go on a photoshoot somewhere with Mr. NK on Sunday...maybe toward Multnomah Falls to capture some waterfall action and look for May flowers...fingers crossed our plans come to pass.

What about you...anything fun planned for the first weekend in May!?

Happy Friday! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend filled with many glorious moments!! xo

rainbows

What's a girl to do when 24 of the last 27 days have been rainy and gray?

Build a rainbow.

My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.
~William Wordsworth

Paul Atwell socks in Dashing Dachs 'speckled wildflowers'

wordless

swirls and lace

We had a good weekend...it was filled with knitting, photography, gardening, and too much food!

We also took a little road trip to the Hulda Klager lilac gardens in Washington.

More on that later.

What did you do for fun?

Cupcake? Running? Cupcake? Running?

Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it turns out!

Keukenhof Sok by Anne Hanson in 'Dahlia' yummy sock yarn from Miss Babs

jiggyday

Another week completed.

Alot was accomplished...

...and alot remains to do.

But it's Saturday, the sun is out and the blue skies are beckoning.

There's always tomorrow.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

March RSC Slip Jig socks by IrishgirlieKnits in RSC 'My wild irishgirlie'

earth day 2010

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~John Muir

These are but just a few of the sights I saw on a recent walk down a rural road. I thought I'd share them with you today...Earth Day.

I hope you will be able to take a brief moment today, look around you, and celebrate.

I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead,
few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.
~A Chieftan from Nigeria

wordless wednesday

blooms

We had a busy weekend here at Chez NK!

The needles were flying...

the camera battery had to be recharged like 3 times!

And look...

We planted poppies...I couldn't resist the bright orange, yellow and pink petals, they just had to come home with us!

And those bulbs...ranunculus and freesia, ala inspiration from Susan!! I've never planted bulbs before, so my fingers are crossed that they will aim upward and not go underground!

And the sun...I think I suffered some heat stroke while taking these shots!

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.
~W. E. Johns

Paul Atwell socks in Dashing Dachs 'Speckled Wildflowers'

C and C photo assignment: light and abstract

Happy Saturday! Today is the last installment of the C and C Spring photography workshop. This week's assignment is 'light and abstract'.

We were to get close to our subject (I interpreted this as macro; see above) and make a well known subject artistic, and even unrecognizable, all the while paying attention to the light, and playing with a larger aperture (bokeh madness!). Light is always the silent subject in any image.

So, armed with my macro lens and set of extension tubes I hit the road. I chose to illustrate the assignment with a series of images from a glorious blossoming cherry tree I found bathed in evening light.

abstraction

abstract via alternate color choice

alternate focus and filling the frame

I couldn't get the reflection image to work as envisioned, so I thought I'd give you an 'out of context' abstraction instead.

Landscape

Finally, an image based on one of the previous assignments...I really liked the exercise that used negative space...this image doesn't have a lot of it, but I'm still getting used to the idea of composing with negative space.

3 things I've learned:

Macro is my friend

I would enjoy more compositional studies, similar to the still life study. They're hard...I want to conquer them! LOL!

I love the excitement that different angles and negative space can give to an image.

Thank you Carolyn and Camilla for all the time and thought you put into this fabulous series of exercises! And thank you to all the participants for taking the time to post and visit everyone's blogs and leave such thoughtful comments!!

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.
~Robert Green Ingersoll

sok light

I'm baaaack!!! And with knitting content to boot!

The Keukenhof Sok is coming along nicely. This is sock number 2, the leg is finished and I'm on to the heel!

Sooo....any thoughts on AI?? I'm relieved that Siobhan is safe...I'm still hoping for Crystal, Siobhan, Casey and Lee to be the final four.

Happy Friday!! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! xo

From within or from behind,
a light shines through us upon things,
and makes us aware that we are nothing,
but the light is all.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keukenhof Sok by Anne Hanson
Miss Babs sock yarn in 'Dahlia'

wordless wednesday

C and C photo assignment: color story

Good morning! It's Saturday! You know what that means...no, not sleeping in. It's time for assignment 3 of the Spring C and C photography workshop.

The assignment was to pick a color and tell a story with it, either visually, or with words. I picked green...I wanted to do pink...I had a whole story in my head with pink; I ended up with green. I think it was the walks along a local creek that swayed me toward green...all those ferns!

I couldn't help myself, I had to pop this image into b&w just to see what would happen...I love color, but sometimes a little silence after a busy week is welcomed.

Please go check out the C and C community, as I'm sure there will be many delights for the eyes if you follow the links here.

Happy Saturday! xo