November Roundup & 365

Burning (308/365)

Another month has passed and we're already almost halfway through December...and I am totally slacking off, both with achieving goals and updating this blog.

November was, at least, fairly busy in comparison to the previous few months!
I started off the month with a last-minute trip to a bonfire and fireworks display in Cuckfield, Sussex, with a friend, my sister, and her boyfriend. In the few hours we were there, I took some of my best photos for November! (I also ate a hot dog. Can't have a bonfire without a hot dog).

Later on in the month, my sisters and I went to Stylist Live and had a fun 'Sister Sunday'! We had manicures, tried some cocktails, got pick 'n' mix, and a fantastic goodie bag!

Toward the end of the month, I went to Hyper Japan Christmas with some friends, and spent all my money, ate tasty food, saw neat lanterns and a cool band.

Something I never got around to blogging about was this:

Dandy Alpaca (332/365)

For a while, I'd wanted new art to go in this frame. Originally it held a band poster, but the band disbanded several years ago and I rarely listen to them anymore, so it was time for me to get something new!
Of course, all the posters and prints of the right size were way out of my price range. Then I saw some neat animals-in-vintage-clothes photomontages using recoloured vintage portraits and photos of animals.

"I can do that!" I thought to myself.
So I did, and this is the result.

This took several hours in photoshop, most of which was spent on the alpaca's head! I made it using a photo of an alpaca that I'd taken earlier this year, plus a vintage carte de visite that was in a box of pictures in the attic.

As fortune would have it, Bob Books had a Black Friday promotion at the time I'd finished this picture, so I sent it off to them to be printed as a poster. It turned up at the end of the month and fits perfectly into the frame. Now Mr Dandy Alpaca lords it over the room.
I think he needs a lordly title.

Santa's Workshop (321/365)

Alongside photoshopping alpacas and Going Out And Eating Stuff, I also spent time making props for, and putting together, a christmas window display for a charity shop. I made metres upon metres paper chains (from A4 paper), wrapped old boxes up like presents, sewed two giant candy canes, cobbled together a 'Santa's Workshop' and 'North Pole' sign using...well, paper and trash, to be honest.... and made 14 lines of 'falling snow' from cotton wool balls and sewing thread.
Making this stuff took around four days, and when putting the window together, I also recovered the chair to make it look more 'Christmassy'!

November 365 Project Photos. Click to see larger (on my 365 Project page)

Anyway, here's my 365 Project photos for the month of November. I felt that most of them were a bit of a 'miss' this month. Need to get my photo mojo back. This month's pictures are a bit better, at least!

Other things I did in November:

• Continued to learn/practise Japanese and German on Duolingo
• Continued trying to memorise all the countries in Africa (goal #33 - nearly there!)
• Finished my Christmas shopping (hurrah!)

Not exactly successful on the goals front, but better than nothing!