St. Giles

I love St Giles cathedral.   I don't know who St. Giles was, but I love it all the same, with its angel statue near the door and blue ceiling and decor that reminds you of being underwater.   To me it's both ancient and modern at the same time.   Both religious and light hearted.   You do have to buy a photography license in there, but it's only a couple of quid, so I think it's well worth it.   I went for HDR photos again, and it seemed to work really well.   That was my first time doing them indoors.   The biggest challenge for this shoot was trying to get shots without people in them!   It wasn't high tourist season, but there were still plenty of visitors about.   I suppose that's what comes of living in Edinburgh.

Some of my favorites from this shoot:

                                          Not a great photo but I do really like the statue

So there you have it.   St. Giles in HDR. 

Yogurt and Drag

Here are two things I have been appreciating very much this week:

The first is this stuff: 

The Dairy Collective Russian Fudge yogurt!  My goodness, it's good!   Really yummy yogurt with loads of fudge sauce swirled into it.   I don't care how unhealthy it is, it's amazing!



The second is a song by the Magnetic Fields called Andrew in Drag.   I've been singing it for weeks now.   I love it!   Very catchy, frank and unusual.

I really like the video as well.  Very simple, but pretty powerful, and a great concept.

Shiny Things

I would like, if I may, to share with you some of the recent additions to my jewellery collection.  

Firstly, these little beauties:

Wooden turtle earrings!   I love these a rather large amount.   I discovered these on a facebook ad.   It's against my principle to click on facebook ads, but in this case I really just couldn't resist.   They're gorgeous and I'm really glad I bought them.   They're made of sustainable oak, cut with a laser.  They were bought from this Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/KCsGlass?ref=seller_info




The second item was also an Etsy purchase.   Ah, Etsy, you are both a blessing and a curse!   I had been looking for a decent slave bracelet for a few years but never founds anything that was exactly right.  Etsy to the rescue again!

I can choose where to do up the chain, so I can make it fit even my skinny wrist, it's comfortable to wear, and hardly moves at all so it doesn't get caught in things and sits more or less in place all the time.  hurrah!   http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lellabean?page=1




The third Etsy purchase was from a shop I discovered on Deviant Art from their posts on there.   I had been aware of its existence for a while, but was always too short on money to splash out.   But I evetually gave in.   And I'm so glad I did!

As you'd expect from Etsy, these keys are all handmade and unique.  The keys are Tibetan silver with various decorative bits soldered on.   I've worn these a lot since I bought them and are two of my favorite possessions.   From http://www.etsy.com/shop/KeypersCove?ref=seller_info



Last but not least, my St Christopher.   I'd wanted one for a little while, because I do like to travel and I like the idea of a patron saint of travellers.   So when I was in the Vatican I bought myself one.   I hated myself for it, because it was clearly a tourist trap, and I hate admitting to falling into tourist traps, but on the other hand I do now own a St Christopher bought in the Vatican...  Kind of cool, really. 

It had its first outing on my recent trip to Northern Ireland.   It certainly seemed to bring me luck.   Although I suppose one could argue that it had more to do with the well organised Northern Irish public transport system than with my necklace...   I like it anyway!