Thanksgiving

Rosie and Edward had their Thanksgiving service at the church yesterday. It was so lovely to have a family get together - not that there are many of us! My Nana was too poorly to come, but my Mum and Dad came, as did Jenny (Nick's sister) and Nigel (her partner). We even managed to get a photo of all of us smiling and looking in the same direction - after many failed attempts!
I'm doing an alterable item swap on Scrapitude, and am really looking forward to putting all the bits together for my swappee this week. It's so much fun choosing things for someone else, and I can't wait to see what she does with it all!

More photos

I've been a busy little bee with my camera this week. I managed to do sets of pictures of all three of the little monkeys. They're not technically perfect, but I had a lot of fun with them! I was also kept busy this morning trying to dry out the duvet and wash all the bedding after I'd let two naked babies lay on the bed ...

Getting to know my camera

I'm really enjoying the online photography course I'm doing, it's what has made me finally read the manual so I can come off auto. I'm still not getting it right every time - children move far too quickly and I either don't get the shutter speed right, or I don't get the aperture to match the shutter speed. But I'm getting there!

One of the things I've been more active doing is to look on the internet for inspiration. I like a lot of the modern photographic style, but it's very 'now' and I just wonder what they'll look like in 30 years time. For me, taking photos is all about capturing memories and I want my memories to look as good in the future as they do now. I've found a photographer's gallery that I keep going back to look at. I love the lighting, the colours, the composition - in fact for me they are as close to perfect as I've seen so far. If you get a chance, take a look at http://www.kensharp.com/.


I've been fiddling around with B&W today. I'm still sure I've got what I really want, but it's getting closer to it. This was my favourite from today ...

Mothering Sunday

I've had a bit of a wonderful weekend. We had our Mothering Sunday celebrations on Saturday, at my parents' house. I manage to go completely manual on my camera, and was pleased with the results. I'm getting better at choosing the right settings so it all stays in focus! Once again, Edward treated me to a look of shock and horror when I flashed my flashgun at him! Today was wonderful - homemade croissants and homemade strawberry jam. Aren't I lucky!

It's a secret ...

When I went to collect Willy from school on Monday, he was very keen to show me the handprints he'd done, which was very strange as he usually only tells me that he's done 'eat' at school. It all became clear today when I collected him and got this gorgeous card!

Baby Monitor

A little tip for those who have a baby/babies in a cot in the main bedroom , and the 'speaky' bit of the monitor of the lounge - NEVER EVER leave it on when you leave a guest a lounge after you've gone to bed. Even if you remember after 5 minutes, that's still enough time to completely embarrass yourself with what you say and do ...

The twiglets had their first meal of solids this week. It was carrot puree and they loved it! Of course, William being William, he had to finish off their leftovers!

Boo!

I'm not sure what it is about Edward, but he nearly always looked like someone's just said, "Boo!". With Rosie I can get decent pictures of her just looking like, well, like Rosie. With Edward, he looks scared or startled.

Today, Edward had a big smiling session. It was such a strain for him that he fell asleep straight away afterwards!

Money wallet

We're off to my parents tomorrow, to have a meal to celebrate my Dad's birthday. He's having money as his present this year as there are train bits he wants to buy from the train fair he goes to each month.

I always think giving money is not quite as exciting as a gift you can unwrap, so I wanted to make something to go with it. So, I made a paper wallet. It took me a while to find a set of simple instructions - probably longer than it took to make it - but I was pleased with how it turned out. Nice and simple - not too girly, so he can use it. I think I'd quite like to do one for my Mum some time, so I can really go to town with prettifying it!

The Crying Game

All 3 of the kids were crying at 8pm tonight. Rosie has the loudest cry I've ever heard - when she wants to be heard she has no difficulty in achieving her objective! Poor Little Willy has been poorly all day, and being a big softie, I've let him sleep in our bed. He cried for ages in his bedroom until I finally gave in - by which time I felt like a horrible Mummy for making him suffer so much.

I signed up for Flickr today, and uploaded a few pictures. You can see them here.

Muddy Feet

Christmas Day 2007 - driving home from my parents ...

... the sunset was just amazing, one of those skies that if you saw a painting of it, you'd assume the painter had no idea how to paint a realistic sky. As we got close to home, the sunset was still there as we got to Stonehenge, so, along with other carloads of happy Christmas travellers we stopped. I trudged through the mud so I could poke my camera lens through the wire and get the photo I've been longing to get for years.