Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

"Once More, With Feeling" is the title of an episode of popular US television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was the only musical episode in the shows's seven seasons with the cast all singing and dancing and experiencing life differently through their singing and dancing. While the episode was by no means my favourite Buffy episode, the title stayed with me. It will be no secret to anyone who's ever visited my blog (or my Twitter or my Facebook or... you get the idea) that I enjoy taking photos, enjoy sharing the beauty of the world I live in; that I love sharing with the world some of the amazing scenery I see when I look out the window or go for a walk outside. Photo by @Nimavenl I take photos of that which I see around me, however what I see isn't just visual. It's influenced by what I think and feel and experience and hear and smell around me, it's not just a static image but a feeling, an impression, a sense of wonder and amazement and...

The Fourth Doctor Gallery - BBC UK Whereas one Doctors like bow ties and fez's  another had a thing for scarves. Very cool looking and awesome scarves too! While thinking about a new knitting project the idea of knitting a Doctor Who scarf crossed my mind. I bought knitting needles a few weeks ago, so am pretty much ready to go. As soon as I've finished deciding what I want to knit so I know what wool to buy, that is. I learnt to knit when I was about nine or ten and sadly never quite progressed from the "this is how you make a scarf that looks like a 9-year old made it" stage. This means I need to start with a simple project - one of the many reasons why a Doctor Who scarf is a logical first place to start! It's got large blocks of colour which makes the knitting easier and is eclectic-looking enough that a few "smudges" in the places one colour touches another won't be a problem. Source : The Caffeinated Lifestyle Having decided on wha...

As it gets colder outside and I am trying to find excuses to stay indoors more and more, I'm trying to come up with new ways to entertain myself away from the wind, the rain and the cold. I've rediscovered my 1000-piece "Starry Night" puzzle by Van Gogh (yay for getting past the point I was at last time!) and am trying to decide on other crafty projects for when the puzzle is finished. I take photos, like puzzles & games and I enjoy writing, however that is about as creative as it gets for me. I'm perfectly content spending a whole weekend doing puzzles, playing games and reading a good book. I enjoy doing those things as much as others would enjoy a DIY project, the restoration of a car or building model trains and such. I do love the feeling of being productive, however when the weekend comes around I'm happy to turn my brain off and enjoy Weekend Mode. No stress, no hassles, no customers yelling at me, no alarm clocks and no schedule to stick to....

As written about from time to time on this Blog, I am an avid photographer. I've been using Instagram (a smartphone app for sharing photos with other users) for about 8 weeks now. It is an amazing thrill to see that other Instagram users, absolute and total random strangers I don't know and have never met or had contact with before, like the photos I take. They sometimes even like them enough to leave comments or to follow my updates. As not everyone these days has a smartphone or cares to download and/or use a photo sharing app, it is very handy that Instagram photos are also available outside the app. Click this link to see a copy of all my photos on Pingram , and if you happen to have your own Instagram account, don't be shy and come on by! 

Wandering around the mall last week, I decided I needed to work on my creativity - and possibly get me a new hobby. A week later, I'm wondering why that crazy thought entered my mind. I read, I write, I do crosswords, I enjoy photography - surely those are good hobbies to have?! Source: Wikipedia My muse disagreed however, and when I saw a 1000-piece puzzle of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night , I simply had to buy it. I honestly can't remember the last time I completed a puzzle that didn't involve words, so to say that completing this puzzle is a challenge is definitely an understatement! It's a challenge I'm enjoying, however! As of today, the outside pieces are all in place, as are the bottom left and the top right pieces. As for the rest... I have about five piles of purple puzzle pieces ranging from pinkish to almost black, a pile each with brownish and blackish pieces, another huge pile of greenish pieces, a bunch of stars ready to be fit...