Saturday 29 March 2014

DIANA F+ / AMSTERDAM


Now it seems like forever ago since I was in Amsterdam, but it's not been until recently I got my photos back from the photo developers. Having to wait so long is part of the charm of shooting with analog film, right? Graeme got me a fisheye lens for my birthday, so I played around with that a little too and I'm really excited about how the fisheye photos turned out. I will definitely be using this lens a lot going forward!





We had an awesome time! Went on a boat ride in the canals, visited the zoo, and drank plenty of dutch beer. I love Amsterdam, and it's totally on my list of places I'd love to live. It's just got such a lovely vibe to it, plus I can't help swooning over all those beautiful brick houses lined up against the canals. Will definitely need to go back soon!

Tuesday 25 March 2014

DIY FELT BASKETS


I’m actually fortunate enough to have a craft room/studio in my house these days, that me and Graeme did up last summer. I used to basically only have a cupboard when I lived in my old flat in Glasgow, so this is quite the step up. But since I basically have a ton of craft supplies, it’s still far too easy for this room to become a complete mess. Which is very unfortunate because it’s the first room you see when you ring my doorbell too. So cute baskets to help me stay organized is always helpful! I’ve seen a few of these felt baskets around in shops, and figured that they looked simple enough to make and thus decided to try making my own. And they were very simple to make indeed! The most time consuming part was doing the stitches on the side, mainly because I chose a contrasting color for a bit of a pop and thus felt I had to put a little extra effort into making sure my stitches were neat enough. Here’s how I made my felt baskets:

Supplies: For this project, I used 40x40 cm squares of thick felt, metal label holders, and some thick thread, I used a contrasting strong woolen thread. Tools I used include a craft knife, a needle, a ruler and a cutting board.



Step 1: Measure out and cut squares from each corner of your felt. The bigger the squares, the taller the side of the box will be. I measured 10x10 cm squares using my ruler and cut these out with the craft knife.

Step 2: On what will be the outside of your basket, cut halfway through the fold using your craft knife. This will create nice edges at the bottom of the basket.

Step 3: Attach the label holder. Measure out where you want your label holder to be, make a couple incisions into the felt that correspond to the label holder, and attach.
 
Step 4: Stitch up the sides of your basket using your needle and thread. 

Fill your basket up with stuff and cut out a label. Ta-da!

Thursday 20 March 2014

ADVENTURES IN KOREA

Why hello there, long time no speak! I am back from my holiday in Korea and have finally stopped feeling like a zombie, so thought I’d get my act together and do a little post with some photos from my trip! I probably took about a million photos while I was there, but don't worry, I'm only posting a few! :) 

My sister is currently living in South Korea, so I decided to go visit her and see what Korea was all about. I spent the first week on Geoje Island where my sister lives, which is Korea’s second biggest island and is located at the south of South Korea. It was pretty relaxing, and I ate tons of good food, spent a lot of time walking around and exploring and managed to get in a day of biking and exploring the mountains too. We also took a day where my sister and I went further south on the island and took a ferry to see Haegumgang ("Korean National Scenic Site no.2") and Oedo Botanical island. I did however manage to leave the battery for my camera in the charger that day though (facepalm!), which was such a shame as both were such cool and beautiful islands.


Seoul was pretty awesome. My sister and I went up for the weekend with a couple of people from her work. We stayed at a hotel in Itaewon, and spent the first day on the DMZ tour and went up to Panmunjom and the North Korean border. It was a bit bizarre, but very interesting. I decided I wasn’t quite ready to leave once the weekend was finished though, so while the rest went back south I checked into a hostel in Hongdae and stayed a few more days. I did a bit more sightseeing and visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsangong Hanok Village and went up Namsan to N Seoul Tower. I also managed to meet up with an old friend from when I lived in Doha, as well as a friend from Glasgow University who now teaches English at a school just outside of Seoul. Was great seeing them both! The latter was celebrating her one year anniversary in Korea, and we celebrated with good food and some noraebang (karaoke). When in Korea, right?


I then went down to Busan on the coast and spent a couple of nights there in a hostel on Haeundae beach. I explored Dongbaek and went to the Jagalchi fish market and Shinsegae, the world’s biggest department store. Unfortunately, I also had grand plans of visiting Haedong Yonggungsa temple, but had to cancel due to bad weather. I had also been toying with the idea of doing a temple stay, so will have to save that for another time!

I ate so much good food on the trip, too. I had lots of kimchi, bungeoppang, dak galbi, and bibimbap, as well as Korean soju andmakgeolli. Korean BBQ became an absolute favorite, and the day before I left I went to the supermarket and bought tons of ssamjang, garaetteok and kim nori to take home. I definitely plan on trying out some Korean recipes at home (though I totally regret not getting a Korean cookbook while I was there)!

Wednesday 5 March 2014

FEBRUARY ON INSTAGRAM

Hello from Korea! Yup, I am currently in South Korea visiting my sister, hence why this Instagram catch up has been a little later than usual. I think I might currently be suffering from some delayed jet lag though (as it's 02:11 in the morning and I'm suddenly wide awake), so thought it'd be a good time to blog a little and make my little Instagram collage. As you can see, February was mostly filled with good food, a bit of DIY, a visit from Graeme, and a trip to Amsterdam where my friend and I celebrated our birthdays. A good month!

As I'm currently travelling, it'll probably be pretty quiet around here, but if I have a spare moment I'll be sure to share some photos! And in the meantime, I'll be posting lots on my Instagram, so you take a look at @hildeandhercamera if you want to see more from my Korean adventures!