Life through a lens - Micellaneous Monday, Painting

A bit of a boring post today. I'm going to start decorating our front room today which I have to get finished by the weekend so we can get our tree up. Yes I know leaving it all a bit late but... well I don't have an excuse. lol.

These are old shots taken, gosh in 2007. They were from my old Olympus mju camera which was a lovely little hand-held camera. At the time I remember loving how the green on the bristles was against the rust colour.

Life through a lens - Surprise Sunday, Bumpy

27 weeks and 1 day

Today marks three months until my due date. Yep apparently in three months time we will hopefully have a healthy beautiful baby. I can't believe how quick the time is going but also how different this pregnancy is to the one I had with Callum, hmmm maybe (fingers crossed) this one is a girl. I'm loving all the kicks and movements I get and being able to share those with Daz and Callum. I wonder how Callum will take his role as Big Brother, I know he is a caring and loving child but I do wonder how he'll cope with suddenly not being the only child. I also wonder how the dog will be, silly I know but I'm so intrigued to see what Dash makes of a baby, I reckon he'll like the smelly nappies. Of course I know that Daz will make a fantastic father, he already is to Callum and I know he will take everything in his stride and cope well and dote on Bumpy as much as he does Callum and I. This is going to be our last Christmas as a 3 person family, it's quite scary to think how different our lives will be this time next year but it's also exciting, so many thoughts and questions in my head.... but hopefully I'll have had some better nights sleep than what I get at the moment. lol.

Life through a lens - Showcase Saturday, Blowing Bubbles

I'm forever blowing bubbles

This shot was taken Father's Day 2009. It was a lovely day, hubby's parents came over and we had a BBQ and we blew bubbles and ate watermelon... and typical to Callum he got filthy dirty, I don't know how that boy does it. I wanted to try and capture a photo of him blowing bubbles and to also capture the warmth of the sun and the colours of summer. Sadly the shot didn't come out as planned but I think with a bit of editing I've managed to salvage it. I love the vividness I've added . In the end it's become one of my favourite photos.

And for those who wish to see it here is the original shot.

Life through a lens + Art Project - Foody Friday, Fruit

*sigh* I feel as though everything is conspiring against me cooking today. Alas I don't have the full ingredients to make what I wanted today so I have opted for an easy cheat option for today's Food Friday and next week will bring to you what I wanted to do so today.




Ingredients:

2 small bananas
2 pears
1 apple
Few handfuls of strawberries
Lemon Juice


Slice the bananas, dice the pears and apples, hull and slice or quarter the strawberries. Mix together in a bowl and sprinkle over some lemon juice. Eat.

Simple but so tasty.

Art Project - Thumbprints Thursday, Reindeer

I love the cheeky look on the 2nd reindeer's face, his has mischief planned I reckon.

This weeks Thumbprints Thursday is Reindeer, I thought as we are now in December I should really do something Christmassy.

What you'll need:

• Paper or card in any colour you want

• Paint in any colour you wish

• Pens

This time I chose to do mine on some white paper and use a plum coloured matt emulsion paint (I always have lots of different tester pots of colour in the home). Using just my thumb I carefully dipped my thumb into the paint and made various thumb sized prints, single ones for a face only and two thumb prints for a whole full bodied reindeer. Once the paint was dry (or in my case nearly dry) I then used a silver gel pen to draw on antlers, a face and if needed feet. Very simple and quick to do. You could use some tissue paper to put the thumbprints on and then use as wrapping paper for all those Christmas presents or you could do this on some nice card folded in half and use to make a Christmas card.

Here's how mine looked. I'm going to add some more reindeer on in different colours and set this by for when it comes to wrapping up presents.

Art Project - Winter Wonderland Wednesday, Origami decorations.

Yesterday while sorting through some drawers I came across a packet of origami paper that my sister Rachel had sent over as a present when she lived in Japan. I've never done origami before but I remember seeing somewhere that did instructions on Christmas decorations you could make using origami. So I used the ever useful Google and found some tutorials. It's easier if I link you to them as they have more detailed instructions and lots more to do.

First I tried out the Origami Christmas Tree Bauble on Activity Village. It was a little fussy to do and probably not for little young fingers but I eventually managed to get my pregnant addled brain around it and came up with this!

Then I tried out A Snow Crystal from the Christmas section of the Origami Club.com website, they have some fun things to do there, although my head just couldn't get around the Christmas tree one. The snow flake though was easy enough to do and something I think you could do with kids and they had a few different designs you could do. And of course you don't need to use special origami paper you could use Christmas wrapping paper or normal paper and just decorate it. The important thing though is to make sure it's a square shape (don't ask how long it was before I realised this was important and how many screams I let out.) I'd love to see your creations, have fun!

Life through a lens - Tribute Tuesday, my Dad

This weeks Tribute Tuesday is dedicated to my Dad.



Apparently when I was very little and I was either ill or upset and my Dad wasn't home I'd go sit upstairs on the toilet crying "Daddyyyy come home pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee." I think maybe that sums up how I feel about my Dad. Sure aged 36 years old I don't do that now but he is still the person whose advice I always seek. He can be a miserable sarcastic so and so but underneath it all you really know he's a big softie. If you cut part of your finger off and need taking to A&E urgently he's a good person to have, he'll just take the complete pee out of you for doing something so daft. If you're at a nightclub miles from home and get thrown out for throwing up everywhere you can count on him to come and pick you up and drive you home although you'll get the silent treatment.



When I was younger I sat my cycling proficiency test. The bike I had was an old hand me down from my cousins who had at the time just emigrated to Australia. I was terrible at riding a bike. As well as having to pass the test my bike also had to pass, something it wasn't going to do. I got sent home with pages of things that needed to be fixed on the bike and by the morning. What would any father do? He stayed up till the early hours fixing that bike. The next day came and it was the final day and the day of the tests. I was abysmal but my bike was sparkling and like new. I felt really bad that I was going to fail as my Dad had been up so late fixing the bike... so I told the examiners what my Dad had done... and somehow I passed. Maybe this is where I should say that my Dad isn't one of those handy men Dads. If you need a letter written or a university essay done he's your guy but changing a plug... go to my Mum. Anyhow I passed that test and promptly rode my sparkling bike all the way home using the road not the pavement. Sadly as mentioned I wasn't very good at riding a bike and had many accidents.

Anyway he may be stern but he has his heart in the right place. Here's to you Dad for being you, one in a million.