Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
A couple of months ago, I was pleasantly surprised one day to receive a parcel from one of my favourite companies: SIGG. They make stunningly beautiful, resuable and practical water bottles, and in this parcel were a few essentials for the Winter.
They were to prove to come in very useful during one of our favourite excursions in October: our first football match!
There used to be so many of my fingerprints to see.
On furniture, on walls and things from sticky little me!
But if you stop and think a while, you see I’m growing fast,
Those fingerprints will disappear. You can’t bring back what’s past.
So here’s a small reminder, to keep not wipe away,
Of tiny fingers, how they were, to make you smile someday!
I am so guilty of taking all the family photos that there will probably little documented proof I ever existed when the family looks back on our lives!
So this week's theme is: My Photography Resolution.
Because once it's in writing, you HAVE to do it, right?!
The lady's right: once it's written down then I have to do it. That's why I tend not to write to-do lists, I can't handle the pressure of seeing just how much stuff I should be doing as opposed to blogging! However, I do want to develop my range and skills in photography this year, and so I am setting myself three targets.
1. Learn how to use mobile photo editing apps
This has been a target on and off for the past year or so, but I've found it difficult to want to take photos with the iPod Touch or my HTC Desire because the quality of the cameras are shockingly awful! However, the prompt a few weeks ago has reignited my desire to conquer these beasts.
Earlier this afternoon, I was discussing with someone on twitter about the availability of the photo-editing apps for Android, and remembered about Little Photo which is actually quite nifty and offers lots of filters. These are two that I took last year:
I'm envious of the marvellous snaps on twitter from people using Instagram and have had a go at taking photos on this murky afternoon in the garden, using the filters to try and enhance the photographs. (Still awfully grainy though)
Resolution 1: Learn how to use mobile photo-editing apps, and then use them!
2. Learn how to use the manual settings on my DSLR
Both my grandfather and father were really keen photographers when they were younger (or alive in my grandad's case!) and tried to explain the mechanics of photography to me on several occasions. When I was ten, my dad bought me my first SLR, albeit second-hand and from a boot sale, and I really understood it all. Then I bought a 'point and shoot' and it all fizzled slowly out of my ear. When I met my husband, my MiL gave me her old SLR and I started up again and took some decent shots, but again it all slowly turned to mush in the light of Mr. TheBoyandMe's decent Sony Cybershot.
Then in 2004, I bought a Canon EOS 300D which I adore! And I started with good intentions, but the automatic settings are too easy to resort to. However, this afternoon I had a play with the shutter speed and came up with a slightly ok photograph, but I know that shutter speed has to be taken into account with aperture settings and oh God all manner of things which are beyond me at the moment.
Anyway, photo on the left was taken on automatic settings, one on right was manual. What do I need to do to make that less grainy?
Resolution 2: Learn how to use the manual settings on my DSLR
3. Be in more photos
This is one that I can't control and is therefore more of a prod to Mr. TBaM who reads this blog. He never takes photos, despite having a very good camera that I bought him for Christmas to replace the very good one that had died a month before. It's me that takes the photos, and as a result I'm not in the vast majority of the photos taken since The Boy's birth. And it saddens me.
So, Mr. TBaM stop letting this happen…
…and take some photos please?
Resolution 3: Be in more photos
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Pop over to The Gallery linky and check out the other entries
I am a firm believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I can't cope and feel nauseous if I haven't eaten within about half an hour of waking up, and enjoy the traditional cereal and toast with a glass of milk (or coffee if it's been a bad night) most days. On weekends, we may indulge with a cooked breakfast or a maybe some naughty chocolatey cereal, but on the whole we do eat a sensible breakfast.
Or so I thought.
That was until I received a hamper from the people behind the Farmhouse Breakfast Week campaign who are encouraging us to shake up our wake up!
In the basket are a whole range of goodies including porridge oats, sesame seeds, mixed fruit, mixed seeds, jams and Marmite. There's also a rogue orange which is a little alien to me if I'm honest. Bananas yes, but oranges?
It made me realise that possibly the cereal I have isn't the best and most-filling cereal, especially to last me 'til lunchtime. And possibly I shouldn't be trying to persuade Mr. TBaM to buy white bread because it's not actually very good for you. We were also sent a loaf of granary bread which will make Mr. TBaM feel like he's won points, and a box of home-made, really yummy breakfast energy bars. Now I get what the seeds are for.
I must just add that the breakfast energy bars are delicious and if you'd like to know how to make them, then pop over and check out the Shake Up Your Wake-Up breakfast idea recipes. And this weekend when I would normally provide Mr. TBaM with a cooked breakfast, I shall do him a breakfast hash with bacon and eggs instead, the saturated fat content will be a lot lower than normal!
Check out the Shake Up Your Wake-Up campaign over on Facebook. If you take part in their breakfast challenge this week, then you could be in with a chance of winning £1000 in holiday vouchers! What are you waiting for?
I was sent a breakfast hamper to try out the challenge this week. It's healthy and I need wishing good luck! My opinions are honest and unbiased.
I've been playing with Instagram. I like the range of filters, but think they might just have been invented to hide how shockingly awful an iPod camera is?
The Boy has always loved doing craft, and rightly so. I'm a crafty sew and sew, and love making things, so it's only natural that he should. It's good for him as he develops his hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills through crafting, there's sensory development in there, pre-writing skills, pre-maths skills, as well as being plain, old-fashioned fun!
The only problem is that, like many households all over the land, I am ending up with small bags and tubs of craft equipment littering the house. The piano top has a pile of paintings etc. alongside cellophane bags of googly eyes and pompoms. I need it to be more organised!
Which is when I remembered what one of the mums in my toddler group said about a year ago at a coffee session. She'd made some Mister Maker drawers. So, thanks to Crafty-Hands-On Mum, we popped to Ikea this weekend and invested in some small wooden drawers, paint and varnish. Incidentally, their children's paint is excellent because it's the only one I've come across that doesn't stain our hands, including the red or blue!
Here's our Mister Maker drawers in a simple photo story:
And here are our Mister Maker drawers, all small bits and pieces neatly organised in a fun, cheap and crafty way!
What do you think?
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I like cakes, they make me happy. I also like baking as this too makes me happy.
When Anchor asked me if I'd like to share my favourite elevenses snack as a part of their campaign to bring back the mid-morning goodness, I jumped at the chance to indulge!
Go on admit it, your mouth is watering isn't it?
Strictly speaking, this should be for an afternoon tea. Also strictly speaking, it should be a scone. However, it is neither a scone, nor am I that bothered about whether I eat it at 3 o'clock. I tend to find that leading up to 11 o'clock my blood-sugar levels are dropping and I need a pick me up to get through to (an often non-existent) lunchtime. I have a snack at half past ten on a working day, so why not at home with The Boy?
The reason this is not a scone is because I have bad memories of trying to make them. My grandmother only once tried to teach me how to cook and failed miserably on her part. She read the recipe incorrectly and told me to put a tablespoon of salt in and consequently, and to no-one's surprise, the scones were disgusting! Shop-bought scones always taste chemically and leave me with an after-taste.
Therefore I give you an easy elevenses recipe (adapted from my own blog-post), to be eaten with clotted cream and strawberry jam or not.
Let me just remind you of the simple beauty of my Elevenses:
I have one of these special edition Anchor aprons to give away to one of the readers who comments below telling me their favourite elevenses snack.
Sorry, did I say one? I meant ten! Yes that's right: ten! Anchor are feeling generous and therefore providing ten of you lucky souls with one of these gorgeous aprons, and you just have to do the three really simple things listed on the rafflecopter form (Facebook 'like' & comment are mandatory, tweeting is a bonus entry).
What are you waiting for? Get entering!
