Sunday Summary

This week, I have mostly been...

Reading | Tragedy in Sedona by Connie Joy

So much tragedy and I'm not just talking subject matter. There's great tragedy in the naïvety of the author, and all those who fell for the questionable 'charms' of James Arthur Ray in pursuit of enlightenment, and at enormous financial and physical cost -- three people died in Ray's 'sweat lodge' in 2009.  

And don't get me started on how badly this book is edited. It's bad, people. Shocking.

Creating | my own gifs!

Indeed: no longer satisfied just by liberally borrowing or adapting gifs from the internet (giphy.com and gifsoup.com in particular):

{...like this one, which I made with a YouTube clip of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, gifsoup, Photoshop Elements for the subtitle trickery, and some sticky-back plastic}

I've taken it upon my creative, control-freak self to try my hand at making them from scratch*.

And I'm ridiculously proud of 'em.

(Did I mention my world is very small...?)

Provided you have a version of Photoshop or PS Elements you too can gif your life away! It's a little time consuming as it involves creating several image layers and piling on ever so slight differences for each one. 

And keeping track of them. But it's worth it. 

No, really it is. Even if staring at an animated fist bump on a loop for too long makes you a little bit dizzy. (It does. Feel free to scroll down now.)

I found the best instructions here.

Now, I'm not sure I've mentioned previously that I have a little passion for creating 'naïve' animation. For the last six years or thereabouts, on and off, I've been creating an animation for Christmas (again primarily in PS Elements) for the entertainment of my family. 

The process, inspired in part by the excellent work of Aardman Animations, involves me photographing Playmobil® characters in various poses (nothing dodgy):

{Driving Home for Christmas | animation still © the quirky brunette, 2013}

editing the photos using layers in PS Elements (changing the mouth shapes, transposing them against naff ClipArt images, that sorta thing), then patching the whole thing together with music in Windows Live Movie Maker.

* I say 'from scratch' -- this isn't strictly true, although I did originate both of these babies. The Boogie Shoes gif was created with stills from an ad-hoc animation I made about three years ago, while the Fist Bump was a badge design:

Simplez.

Snapping | for The August Break 2014

#augustbreak2014

Just as I was thinking my photo a day project was feeling a little stale (and you'll know this is the case by the photos taken on my bed at the end of a day in which nothing has warranted a genuine shot), along came Susannah Conway, spearheading the inspirational August Break project -- with a photo theme for every day of August 2014.

The themes are listed over on Susannah's blog here, and the results featured on Instagram under #augustbreak14 and compiled in a Flickr group here.

Day 1: "lunch"

Day 2: "pattern"
(aside: I love my IKEA flamingo tumblers. I want more of them!}

Day 3: "window"

***NEW FEATURE***

Ten Pins

My last ten pins on Pinterest:

{1. nautical style}

{2. waves}

{3. beautiful homes | and beautiful sofas}

{4. inspirational quote | by thenotebookdoodles}

{5. inspirational quote from Socrates}

{6. inspirational quote from C. S. Lewis}

{7. inspirational quote... I spy a theme here...}

{8. inspirational quote}

{9. why yes, 'tis another inspirational quote!}

{10. more of a motto, I'd say...}

And finally...

Weekly Weblinks

Literary Linkage

• Roald Dahl Funny Prize put on hold
• Ignore the superlatives in book blurbs
• School reports on authors
• Kathy Lette: Women written off by Man Booker Judges

Non-literary Linkage

• Alasitas: Bolivia's festival of miniatures {thanks, Evie, for the link!}
• Things you know in your thirties that you wish you'd known in your twenties (I still need to educate myself on number 17...). Number 21 is The Truth.

{"21. You are not missing out on anything by going to bed before midnight."}

• "Put down your phone" -- a rather magnificent little ditty about, er, putting down your phone and enjoying the real world (...yebbut only after you've clicked through all my links, all right?)

C'est tout, les gars!