Where I Forget to Take "Before" Photos

Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing. Henri Cartier-Bresson

 I absolutely adore this time of year. When I go out for walks, my eyes are constantly drawn to all of the colours that have been hiding all year only to burst out aflame in October. On my way out the door this morning, I was distracted by the beautiful red leaves of our blueberry shrubs. I forgot they turn this colour in the autumn. How awesome is it that these plants make delicious fruits and then delight us with beautiful leaves later in the season:


And I swear that we have the most beautiful fire hydrant in the neighbourhood:


I was really hoping to have a finished cardigan to show you today, but I got sidetracked by other things in the house. Since we moved to this house three years ago, I've been painfully aware of how bare some of our walls are. A couple of weeks ago, I was finally so tired of this situation that I've been on a mission to find stuff to display. I had a print from a local artist lurking in the office for a while, and I hastily put it into a frame and stuck it on the wall, only to realize that I really didn't like the frame. It was an old brown frame with a fake gold inner bevel that I picked up for free one day outside of the frame shop. I thought I could live with it, but I woke up on Thursday morning and decided I needed to change it. I made trip to the artist supply shop and wandered around a bit. One of the employees asked me what I was after, and I said, "I need some acrylic paint. Maybe black. Or dark blue. Or maybe grey."

She smiled and said, "What about Payne's Grey?" And led me over to this tube, which is exactly what I wanted - blackish/blueish/greyish paint. You should ALWAYS talk to people who work in artist supply shops. They are SO smart:


I really wish I had taken a before photo, but I was so eager to get it painted that I didn't think about it. Here it is up on the wall in our bathroom now. I really love it. I think it's nice to have things to look at while you brush your teeth. It really cheers me up:


I had some paint leftover on the palette and was loathe to throw it out, so I went around looking for something else to use it on. Whilst gazing at the new print in the bathroom, my eyes looked around and saw a mosaic star I made a few years ago. Here it is sitting on the windowsill in the bathroom:


I was so excited to use the paint that, yet again, I forgot to take a "before" photo. Luckily, I blogged about this star a few years ago and actually took a photo back then. Phew. Thank goodness for old blogposts:


You can see that the edges are unfinished, which always kind of bothered me. I like it much better with the Payne's Grey now. I think it gives it a bit more depth:


So after all the painting, I realized that I wasn't going to have my current sweater project finished today. I was really excited about it, because I'd finished both sleeves, added more length to the bottom and even added a hood. I picked up all of the stitches along the left front, then the hood, then back down the right front side and realized that this was not going to make for a pretty photo this week because, well... you can see what it looks like at the moment. I'll just let you use your imagination about what it will look like in the end:


You can see that I finally made up my mind about which side was going to be the "right" side. I went back to the original plan and have got the stockinette side showing. I think I like it a lot better... at the moment... I hope I don't regret it.

It's been raining a lot here on Vancouver Island. I am so grateful for it after the intensely dry summer we had. While it makes it tougher to get Mr. Seymour out for his daily constitutional, it makes for nice and cozy evenings here on the couch, which is my most favourite place in the world at the moment. And I think Mr. Seymour agrees:


Have a great week!


Comments

LoveOwlz said…
Rascal is adorable, but you know that. I love how your sweater is coming out!
AdrieneJ said…
This little guy is named Seymour. He looks a lot like Rascal, but Rascal passed away back in 2014. It is nice to have a snuggly pup again.