Friday 30 December 2011

The 2011 collection of photo mosaics/samplers (with a little how-to).

I started this on impulse late last night and ended up not going to bed until the wee small hours. It's the first time I've done a year in pictures round-up and I found it to be time consuming and rather addictive but I greatly enjoyed my trip down memory lane and the results provide a wonderful snapshot of the year.

--------------------January

--------------------February

--------------------March

--------------------April

--------------------May

--------------------June

--------------------July

--------------------August

--------------------September

--------------------October

--------------------November

--------------------December

January:- I crocheted two shawls! The beginning of an addiction. Part of our bedroom was actually tidy enough for a photo of it to be included in a blog post

February:- Another crochet shawl, and my first (and only) crocheted cardigan. I found a good snowdrop spot, I'll be back to visit it in a few weeks.

March:- Some late snow. A fancy cake -I placed a stencil (an old decorating mag freebie) over the cake before dusting with icing sugar. I joined in with the Japanese Flower Shawl mania.

April:- An unusually gorgeously sunny, warm and colourful month. We had icecream on the beach. I finally finished my African flower crochet blanket, it took 11 months altogether.

May:- We had a lots of rain in May 2011. However, there were good days too as these photos show. It's still my favourite month, so green and fresh and full of promise.

June:- Daisies, elderflower champagne, the agricultural show, birthdays. Also a special quilt was completed - a joint effort with friends.

July:- We went on holiday, it was beautiful. I recommend you take the Road to The Isles if you ever get the chance (and good luck with the weather!).

August:- I madly started a hexagon quilt. I madly finished my second crochet blanket, I madly started and finished a crescent moon shawl. I wonder what happened to the housework in August!

September:- It seems I couldn't live without another blanket on the go. Number 3 was begun.

October:- We took a short holiday to gorgeous Robin Hoods Bay. Later, once back home, some Halloween crafting. Wild geese, so evocative of October.

November:- A parliament of felt owls. Beautiful Autumn colours. The lavender mouse survives the addition of a cat to the household.

December:- Mincemeat and mince pies. There are still many left. I'm not fed up of them, yet. Snow, gone before Christmas. I finish the year as I began, with yet another crocheted shawl - I've started giving them away.

I hope you enjoyed this little meander through 2011. I'll take a better look at the ones other bloggers have created now I know how long it takes! I'm a little fussy with my photos though, here's how I do mine...

1. I look at the thumbnail images of my photos for each month and pick the best nine - ones which have a strong feature which stands out in a small image size and which would fit a square size frame.
2. I crop the selected photos so that they are square (I use microsoft photo editor)
3. I upload the photos to flickr. I create a set for each month with nine photos.
4. I use BigHugeLabs (free!) to create the mosaics. I set the mosaic size to be 3x3 and the image source to be the relevant flickr photoset. I do this for each month.
5. I eventually go to bed far too late and feeling too cold after sitting in an unheated room for several hours at the computer in the middle of winter, which means it takes me even longer to fall asleep. Today I feel a little tired!

Here's to many more colourful days to photograph in 2012. Happy New Year to you when it comes!

22 comments:

Rustic Vintage Country said...

That is a wonderful month by month trip down memory lane and so colourful. Well done for doing this and try catch up with sleepies tonight. Suzy

driftwood said...

oh so very lovely, what a fantastic reminder of your year, many happy memories tied up in all those squares x

Anonymous said...

Goodness, didn't you achieve a lot? And you have the pictures to prove it, well done and here's to the next year...

Jackie said...

Lovely ~ although it does indeed take a lot of time to do. I've nearly prepared my first one too and will be posting it tomorrow. Happy New Year to you and your family when it comes :O)x

Louise said...

What a lovely set of mosaics and some lovely memories too!

I've never done one of these either but I'm inspired after seeing yours - I might try to do one at the end of each month next year :)

rockinloubylou said...

What an absolutely amazing blog post. Truly beautiful images. I think you have a real talent for photography (as well as for crochet blankets, shawls and baking). Also, really thoughtful of you to include instructions for others. Generous as well as talented!

Lyn said...

wonderful mosaics...I know how addictive they can be but look so good so well done!
looking forward to looking at your photos next year!
xxx

Stocki said...

Amazing! How lovely to have all your work on record and be able to look back at it all like this....it is very inspiring and makes me want to get out my camera immediately! Thanks for the tutorial bit too... I love number 5 especially! Happy New Year to you and yours! :)x

Habbie tot said...

I love your photos, so colourful, I imagine you had a lot to choose from! Have a great 2012, lots more time for crafting. I'll try and up the input to my blog too, not just when you chase me up! ;-)

**Anne** said...

GORGEOUS!!

Anne xx

Michelle Glauser said...

Beautiful. I'm reposting!

Mrs. Micawber said...

Thank you for the tutorial! The images are so lovely - and how fun to recognize so many of them from April onwards. That March stencilled cake really caught my eye tonight, as did the sheep. And I love the February bike photo.

It's fun to stay up late sometimes and work on the computer when the house is quiet and asleep.

Looking forward to another year of your bike rides, handiwork and beautiful photos.

Claire said...

Well thankyou for staying up late to make these monthly mosaics they are wonderful....

Beautiful photos, a good way to look back at the year and be reminded of what you made, where you went and how the seasons played out.

Will be back in the new year to read about your bike rides, lovely makes and life in your corner of the globe.
Thanks for the tutorial too, hopefully this time next year I'll be making my own mosaics, hehe......

Happy 2012 to you and your family from a sunny corner of Australia.....

Cliare :}

Jennyff said...

Must be very satisfying to produce such a colourful record of your year. Hope the next one is even better, Happy New Year.

Rattling On said...

Love the mosaics. Have you ever tried Picasa? ( free Google download, does it all in one place-very easy) I always sit in the kitchen getting cold!
Happy 2012 x

Country Rabbit said...

love your round up of pictures throughout the year- your photography is blissful ;0)

enjoy 2012 x

Simone said...

Fantastic collection of photos. I must do a 'mosaic' one day. Thank you for the tutorial on how to do so. Happy New Year! x

Anonymous said...

Well, thank you so much for staying up into the wee small hours to share these jewels with us! I always love your photos but these mosaics are really fabulous. My favourite is April - no, May - no, October - oh, I love all of them. And how stuffed full of creativity they are, both in crochet and cake! A beautiful record of a well-filled year.
Happy New Year!

Beth of The Linen Cat said...

Your photos look great displayed this way, I love how the colours change month by month.

Happy New Year! I look forward to many happy hours reading your blog and seeing what you get up to in 2012.

Beth (the linen cat)x

Unknown said...

how lovely! I must do that next year... although I don't think I'll be as productive as you!

Anonymous said...

hi, thanks for visiting my blog earlier and leaving a comment...i appreciate hearing from you:) i am really enjoying your blog, the photos are beautiful and interesting. i had a look back at some old posts and saw Largs mentioned...i grew up near-ish there! anyway, it's fun to connect! happy hogmany, claire

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