Spring has sprung

Hello all,
It was glorious these past few days, it had actually felt like spring had sprung. The birds were chirping, the bees (unfortunately) were buzzing and the flowers were in bloom. This is my time of year to shine, I love flowers and I love to take pictures of them. I went to the gardens of my school and walked around smelling all the different fragrances with my friends and did a mini photo shoot amongst the beautiful scenery, then as the sun was still warm I went back later to do my own photography in the area I feel I shine the most.
I took pictures of small waterfalls, I took images of daffodils and tulips, flowering trees and rocks. I enjoyed it so much and because the light was failing me I went back the next day to grab images more images that I hadn't been able to get the day before.I was going to go back again today and see if anything new had sprung but much to my surprise it was snowing and miserable today, not something I like to be out in. I hope this weather goes back to the nice weather of spring, not to hot and not to cold. The perfect temperature to photography in and the perfect temperature for the flowers to bloom in, to soak up the sun.-Photo Alley

The Wordless Bracelet

*I would just like to take a moment and say this is a craft blog and I on occasion will post things that are cultural therefore I hope that no one takes offense. *

Hello all,
I thought I would talk to you all about the wordless bracelet. Yes it is a religious bracelet but it is subtle and also a neat craft, especially if you are a camp counselor or a youth pastor. I made my first bracelet when I was in Sunday school with plastic pony beads but as I got older I wanted a slightly nicer one that does not look as little kiddish. I found one in my room which was probably an older siblings at one time but it fit my wrist alone so I have kept it to the point where the colour had come off the bracelet itself. This began my search for new beads and also new leather because the bracelet is suppose to be adjustable so that it can be taken off to swim or what not. Mine however was just big enough for my wrist and was a giant pain to remove.
The search for beads brought me to a website where I ordered all the colours I needed, by the way the beads I have are wooden or coco is another word for them. However when they arrived the hole was in them was actually too small for the leather cord I had so I thought to my self well I will just restring my old beads and wait till I get a smaller cord, then it dawned on me, why not just re paint my old beads, so that is what I did. I am however still going to make another bracelet with the new beads I bought when I find a cord for them.


Now for the bracelet, I'll give you a bit of the meanings behind the colours a few variations and then a picture because yes I have figured out how to put a picture up.
So the colours on my bracelet are:
Purple, Green, Blue, White, Red, Black, and Yellow.
However you can make the bracelet with just Black, red, white, and green, or with these 4 colours you can add in yellow.
Purple is the representation of the glory of our God or in some instances I have read it to mean Royal, most of the ones that have this colour refer to it as the glory of God so that is what it shall mean in this tutorial.
Green is the representation of our growth through Christ.
Blue is the representation of the Holy Spirit and Baptism. Our acceptance of Jesus and God into our hearts
White is the representation of a new clean heart that we achieve through God. Or the washing away of our sins. This bead can also be clear if you are using a pony bead system.
Red is the representation of the blood of Christ. This is a reference to Jesus dying for our sins.
Black represents death which came through sin. Some references of the bracelet mention just sin but more and more state that it is the death that came from sin.
Yellow or (Gold) represents heaven.



Back to the making of the bracelet.
I prefer leather cord as the bracelet part because I find it wears down nicely to a smooth surface but if you don't have anything I am sure any kind of rope is fine. I will just state that most of the tutorials on the net use leather.
First measure out a length of cord, for my own because I wanted it to be able to adjust I made it 2 wraps around my wrist. Then fold the cord in half and about an inch from that point make a know.
From there you will start adding your coloured beads. Now I'm not quite sure if there is a specific order you have to follow, mine personally follows the way I mentioned the colours before in this blog (purple, green, blue, white, red, black, and yellow) which if I take the bracelet off can be switched to read the other way around as well. However if most of the bracelets of 5 colours I notice the order is Yellow, black, red, white, green. And in others still with the blue I have seen it before the green and after the green. For me I think it does not matter which order but more the meaning of the beads and also maybe the order you think they should go in. Therefore for this step you can put them in any order.
After your beads are on the cord tie another knot to secure them in place.
Now here is the part I had trouble with, you know have to tie a not at each end of the cord with the other cord passing through it so that it will be adjustable. I tied one end around the cord and then adjusted it to my wrist before tying the other end, and then with some clear nail polish secured the knots. However an easier way to do this step is to take 2 more beads, I believe on my original pony bead bracelet they were clear, slide them on to one side of the cord and with the other side slide it through the beads in the opposite direction and then tie a knot in the ends of each side. This way you don't have to worry about the cord getting stuck in the knot and it is also easier for younger kids to do it this way.
There you are done.


If you have any questions about how to do this just let me know.
Signing off
-Photo Alley

End of year

Well the school year is coming to an end and I would just like to comment on how wonderful it was. I learned so much. I find that the human aspect is actually the hardest for me, I'm more of a person who does detail shots and close up photography. I am getting to like human photography but I still like the closer up versions so parts of faces, the hands, feet and legs. I don't really like photography the full body and I believe it's all because of my hard time focusing on farther away objects, when they are closer up I can see them better and therefore can focus better.
Anyways this is just one year of many more years to come and I am sure I will get into human photography more but for now it is spring and flowers are coming, this is my wonderland and it will be where I play for the time with my photographs. When I figure out how to post pictures I'll share with you some of my discoveries.

Everything but Crocheting

So I realized my first blog entry was a welcome to my first ever blog, my second entry told you about some gluten free products and a quilt I'm working on, then there was photography so I thought it was about time I told you about crocheting. You see I was a knitter first, I've always like crafts and all and my mom has been knitting since I was little so I decided I wanted to start. So began my journey in the craft world, I started with a simple knitted scarf, all the stitches where the same and I just kept going till I thought it was long enough. Since then I have gotten a book on how to knit for younger people, it gives you crafts like a purse, hats, and even a cell phone holder. Well the store that I go to for most of my crafts now in my hometown got in a crochet book, made by the same company as the one that did the knitting so I thought this is cool. This started me on crocheting. I made a really cool hat and some of the flowers from the books when I saw an amigurimi book at a book store and thought those are the cutest little things in the world they would be perfect for gifts.
Now when I start a new craft I get obsessed at the beginning, after figuring out how these things were made with some help from my crocheting book ("Crochet- Learn to crochet six great projects" by Anne Akers Johnson, product of KLUTZ) I started making a bunch of them for my niece, there was a pig, cow, and a lamb. But it didn't stop there I went on the net and found tons of cool patterns for free.
You see if you look hard enough and are willing to find a few crappy things you can find gems as well, like what I did. So then I created some jellyfish and started creating my own patterns. When I get the chance I'll post some images up so you can see what I've been working on.
More latter.
-Photo Alley

Copy photography

We just learned how to do photography for copying artwork and other such things that use polarizing filters. And as much as people say it's boring I think I would actually enjoy it. It would be an interesting thing to do because your not only doing photography but you get to see great pieces of art. I think I might just have to invest in some polarizing filters and some light stands. Copy Board here I come.
-Photo Alley

Amazing Packaged Pasta

Hello all,
We decided to try the Rizopia 100% vegetable rice Fusilli pasta. I must say it was pretty amazing. Many of the packaged pasta's that I have tried they have come out slimy and needed to be washed before the table was set. But this, this turned out well. So if you don't want to make your own pasta then I would recommend this type of pasta.

As well I have started on a comfort quilt. Now you might be asking what is a comfort quilt. Well where I come from the guild makes quilts that are then given to patients in hospitals for comfort, aka the name comfort quilts. It's all purple when I get it finished I'll make sure to post an image. I realized that I really like to help out with comfort quilts it is very relaxing.

Well I'm signing off for now, I'll keep you up dated on the progress and any other projects I get myself into.
-Photo Alley

Welcome!

I just wanted to say welcome to my blog, I'm one of 2 Photo Alleys and I'm an artist and crafter. This blog will talk about Photography, Theatre, Knitting, Crocheting, Quilting and Food. Why food? Well food is a big part of my life now, I recently found out I had Celiac and it definitely has been a change so I thought why not let people know about my adventures, not only in the arts but also in food.

To start I thought I would give a little bit of a pointer to any of you that are trying to cook gluten free. When you leave bread to rise, don't leave it un attended it creates a dough rising explosion. We only recently finished cleaning out our oven from the mess but the bread still turned out delicious. Happy cooking.

More from me later, this is just the beginning.
-Photo Alley