Project 52: Week 40 - Lines & Week 41 - Shoes

Well! I'm back.

I got kind of annoyed with my blogging app on my phone that wouldn't let me post photos (and sometimes got a bit funny about posting posts without pictures in) so I decided it was easier to take a week off. This week things'll still be a bit sporadic because I've got a TMA that I really should be working on, rather than blogging, so that kind of needs to be my main focus at the moment.

Next week I'll get things back on track though, I promise.

In the meanwhile, here's my photos for Project 52 for the last two weeks (I'm yet to take my photo for this week's theme Resting).

First up, for Week 40, the theme was Lines. I had a bit of a thunk about various things I'd seen with lines on them and was leaning towards taking a photo of the yachts in the harbour, but then didn't get down town so that idea went out the window.

In the end I settled for something else that always makes me think of lines; balls of wool.

I love the way that the wool wraps and overlaps itself and some balls of wool, particularly those which have variegated wool, can look really striking. This is just a plain creamy coloured ball of wool but I think it shows what I mean about the lines.

I was originally planning on cropping this photo to make it look a little bit more interesting, but fiddling around with the contrast and saturation kind of did the trick instead. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, considering what a boring subject I ended up working with!

The following week the theme was Shoes. This was not a problem for me as I have plenty of shoes. I'd planned to take a photo of the shoes all lined up in the front lobby but as they were kind of in a disarray (and not one that would look particularly photogenic) I decided to work with what I had in the back lobby.

Those are my slip on trainers that I trudge around the garden in when I take Tara out first thing in the morning (or when I'm hanging out washing on the line). Even though they're slip-ons I don't bother pulling them onto my heels properly, so I kind of tread down the heels because I'm lazy. The others are obviously my welly boots, which I've been wearing to walk Tara recently because we've had a lot of rain. All of my other footwear lives in the front lobby, my wardrobe or the cupboard upstairs; the back lobby is where convenience footwear lives.

Again, it's not a particularly interesting photo. I did try a couple of different angles before settling on this one because I liked the background being in focus while the foreground wasn't. I didn't have much space to work in (crouched on the floor in the kitchen doorway) so this was about the best I could do.

Hopefully by next week I'll be all caught up with my photo themes so it'll be another two-for-one with Resting and Fireworks. Those'll be some interesting photos to try and catch!

Practically Moved In!

No Internet again today so no Project 52 post again today.

Instead I've been working on clearing some *ahem* junk out of our spare bedroom, the aim being to put an actual bed in there, rather than boxes of stuff we don't actually need.

These boxes include stuff I've never actually gotten around to unpacking since I moved in. It's been over two years now so you'd think I'd have gotten round to it before now.

You obviously don't know me that well!

When I moved from England to Scotland it was almost seven years before I unpacked my final box, and that wasn't until I'd moved into another place (where I stayed for six months and then packed up and moved home again).

This box (which isn't actually pictured because for some reason my iPhone can't upload blog posts with photos in from home, but trust me, it's big enough to fit me in it!) was one of the last ones we packed before we moved in. It held stuff from under the bed, stuff from the windowsills and other bits and pieces I grabbed and threw into bags on the way out the house.

For a while it lived in the corner of our kitchen because it weighed a tonne. Then we moved it up to the spare bedroom where it has stayed for the last two years.

Until today!

Not having looked at that stuff for so long made it quite easy to bin chunks of it or consign others to the charity shop box. I still have a fair bit to find homes for but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with what I've gotten done up there!

Day Out In Ayr

Just a quick post while I'm eating my lunch at Café Lé Monde in Ayr.

We've come across for a day of retail therapy and I've already picked up a lovely warm cardigan for the winter as well as a selection of tops from Primark to replace some of the stained, worn and slightly threadbare ones that I've needed to replace for a while.

Still on the cards is a trip to Game to see about trading in my old DSi console for a 3DS one and a hunt for some crafty supplies.

But now I need to get stuck into my macaroni cheese...

Backache!

My attempts to get Tara walking nicely to heel are being thwarted by an unexpected complication. Backache!

In fact, it's not just backache, it's shoulderache, armache and neckache all rolled together in one fantastic combination of pain.

It's just started since the training class on Wednesday so I'm guessing the two are connected.

It culminated this morning in my completely giving up walking the dog because I couldn't hold the lead anymore. Tara suddenly lunged towards someone walking towards us and I got a shooting pain down my arm and into my hand.

Needless to say Mr Click is on dog walking duty until I stop hurting.

Any tips for easing back pain beyond taking lots and lots of painkillers?

Dog School - How it went

So last night was Tara's first time at the dog training classes. As excited as I was, I was also a bit nervous too because Tara is full of beans and I was worried that she would embarrass me.

Considering it was not only her first time at the training class, surrounded by people she's never met before, not to mention being around more dogs than she's ever seen since we got her, she did really well.

I walked her from my in-laws' house to the Shinty Hut where the training sessions take place in the hopes of tiring her out. I like to think it worked, otherwise I'm sure she would've been one hundred and ten times more excitable!

When I arrived at The Meadows I was met by a bunch of dogs milling around off their leads and kind of panicked. This did not look like any sort of training class.

That's because it wasn't.

That was a group of people who walk their dogs together.

The actual training was inside the hut. And the dogs all stayed on their leads.

We walked round and round and round the hall, practicing various commands and making Tara walk to heel. We worked on sit and stay; the other dogs worked on lie down which Tara wasn't quite ready to do being somewhat distracted but she knows that command so we'll practice it this week.

All in all I was very impressed with how well she did at the class and I already feel more confident walking her.

I'm quite looking forward to next week now.

Dog School

This evening we're taking Tara to training classes and I'm quite looking forward to it.

I'd heard about them a while ago but had received mixed reports from people I knew so hesitated about enrolling Tara. But then a friend at work let me know how good it was and I kind of changed my mind.

Tara's improved in leaps and bounds over the last year. I think it's a combination of her mellowing out with age, hormones settling down since she's been spayed and also us actually training her ourselves.

But there are some habits we're struggling to break her of; jumping up at people is one, walking properly on a lead is another (the halti does the trick but she hates it and is inclined to pull like crazy if it's not on).

So we're going along to the dog training classes to see if we can get her a little more trained.

This could be rather interesting...

What do you do with unloved books?

On Saturday some people from work organised a table-top sale to raise money for the STV Appeal. I love things like this because it's an easy way to pick up some cheap DVDS and books.

It also proved to be a great opportunity to offload some of my unloved books.

You see, we've started work on turning our spare bedroom into more of a bedroom, as in having an actual bed in there so guests have somewhere to sleep. Right now it's pretty much a bedroom for boxes, some of which haven't even been looked at since we moved in!

I had several boxes of books that I kept on meaning to eBay or post on BookMooch but never seemed to have time to do. Not having Internet access at home except by iPhone means that when you do get online your online time is kind of at a premium, and listing stuff on eBay is so time consuming.

So it seemed like a good excuse to have a clear out and in one go I was able to get rid of two boxes stuffed with books.

And they went pretty well. The guys running the table-top sale bundled a bunch together and the Horrible Histories and Doctor Who books went quite swiftly. Unfortunately my Russian Dictionary remains unloved.

And on the day I was able to pick up two DVDs, plus a box set of Planet of the Apes films, and a couple of Kingdom Hearts games for my DS. A good day all round.

What do you do with your unloved books?