Silver & Glass (#SundayPropShop)

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Whenever I take a photograph I'm always very aware of the background, of the angle, the shadows cast by me. I don't always get it right, but I do try. It's only in the last six months that I've really become aware of different aspects of lighting; natural light versus a flash, slightly dull daylight as opposed to bright sunshine.

And staging.

In the past I've taken a simple photograph of a review product, or of a recipe I've created. Simple and uncluttered. But when I look back at the photographs that I've taken of some of my best culinary creations, I cringe. Poor lighting, no frills, dodgy angle; nothing to show it off. And I had no idea about any of this until I discovered Capture By Lucy who stages her photographs beautifully. Every photograph is so beautiful and like a work of art.

Now I'll admit that I'm not about to buy a bunch of appropriately coloured flowers to make a cake look better, because it's just not me. However, Lucy has made me realise that there are better things to present a quiche on than my standard, grey, Ikea crockery. That there's probably something better than a white plate as well. She has made me think about all the vintage glassware that I have from my nan and great aunt, polish up the silver cake slice and tongs, use the patio table in the golden hour.

Which is why my poor dad had to wait for a slice of his Blackforest birthday cake earlier…

SundayPropShop

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I'm linking this up with Capture By Lucy's Sunday Prop Shop; a new linky showcasing the way props are used in photographs.

365 #36

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How was your child's first week back? Have the school shoes lasted?

The 365 linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts via comments. I can't emphasise this enough, it's the whole point of the linky!

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
365



Days 244-250 of Project 365

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244-250 of 365

244. Eruption (Following our science exploration activity the previous week, The Boy perfectly replicated how to make a volcano independently. We're now out of vinegar as he did it quite a few times. The blue lava wasn't quite as effective!)

245. Flinger (After I finished my first day back at work, I took The Boy down to one of the local beaches for some plopping good fun, our last bit of freedom before school started the next day.)

246. First Day (I know I've used this elsewhere, but what else could I have for today; his first day of school.)

247. Rainbow House (He came home with this painting that he'd done the previous day in school after listening to the story of Winnie the Witch who painted her house different colours.)

248. Xylophone (Another painting, I suspect there may be a few of these. I was incredibly impressed when he told me it was a xylophone; he's even got the keys different lengths and the pegs to hold them on!)

249. Swing (An exhausted little boy after his first week in school, he could barely manage to swing himself. Two minutes later, just as I'd taken my camera in out the way, he fell off backwards and nearly winded himself. Cuddles and Peppa Pig soon solved the problem though.)

250. Mix (Whipping up a birthday cake for Grandad who came over for a birthday tea. )

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

First Week Memories

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This is a memory post. One for me, not one which will interest anyone reading it really. My blog tends to be a mix of real life events, play activities, reviews and photographs. 95% of it is written with the audience in mind, sometimes there comes a post where it is so I can remember something. This is one of those times.

Tuesday

I took The Boy into school at our allocated time, and we were accompanied in by the headteacher who was coming to check on the new pupils. I didn't mind her walking in with me as she's actually a parent from my school, so have spoken a few times with her. I handed The Boy over to his new teacher who showed him his peg, hung up his P.E. kit, book bag and told him where to put his lunch bag. Apparently I didn't need to send a second bottle of water in for him to keep in the classroom. We went into the classroom, I showed him where the toilet was and he asked the teacher if she'd like to play dominoes with him. Kissing him and walking away broke my heart, and I was ready for my little self-indulgent weep when I found the headteacher next to me again. While I understand that she was trying to reassure me, I was a bit miffed that I was robbed of my tears. This was a big moment for both of us.

It was only when I got home and the sun broke through the mist, that I realised I'd forgotten to give him a hat. I couldn't nip one in for him as I didn't want to disturb him.

When I picked him up at 3.20pm, he was happy to see me and I noted the big difference between nursery staff who were happy to share what he'd done that day and how much he ate, a teacher doesn't seem to do that. As a teacher myself I get that, but as a parent on the first day, I'd have appreciated the opportunity to find out about my precious bundle and whether he'd been anxious or not. A lesson learnt for my own professional practise.

Over the course of the three hours following picking him up, I managed to ascertain that he'd; played tag with the teacher on the field (best bit of the day), painted a rainbow house, listened to Winnie the Witch, eaten most of his lunch (no yoghurt or mini roll but did eat his wrap, crisps & fruit which is good considering the dinner hall was a distraction), played dominoes, blew his nose himself, asked to go to the loo and had milk, banana and apple for snack. He couldn't remember any children's names, which is what he said about nursery too.

A successful first day then!

Wednesday

Nana took and picked up The Boy today, a difficult step for me, but needs must!

The Boy had a terrible night, and woke up with a horrendous hacking cough that sounded like whooping cough. His nose was both blocked and streaming, and it was the type of grottiness that would have seen him stay home from nursery, but not something that I could do to him on only his second day of school. A hearty dose of Calpol and he was in the hands of Nana to take to school.

After I'd staggered home from school, I had time to give him a cuddle before I whacked some pasta on for him to eat dinner. This earlier dinnertime is something that's really tricky to adjust to when I'm working until 15 minutes before he needs to eat. Time to stock up on some Little Dish meals for my working days until I can batch cook him something that can be reheated easily.

Thursday

Another Nana day, and I am finding it particularly difficult to not be the one to pick him up at the end of the school day. To not be the one who sees that little face, carries the lunchbag with a few scraps left in it or the bookbag with the latest painting, not hold his sticky little hand, catch his stumbles on the 500 yard walk home. It's tough. Especially as this week is hard work in school and I'm not getting home until gone 5pm.

I came in exhausted and found a little boy with huge, dark, purple shadows under his eyes, pale and physically shattered. One thing that I am noticing is that The Boy is wolfing down his dinner, portions that he would struggle with before. It astounds me because he's not that much more active than with me, but it must be the constant stimulation and ongoing chatter.

Today I've established that his favourite part of the day was playing on the field. I knew this school was the right choice; nestled away in the corner of our town, no through road, rolling banks on a large field, it's the perfect surburban school. He also came home with two more paintings; the bow from yesterday, and a fabulous painting. It was clearly of something but I couldn't quite work it out at first, until he told me it was a xylophone. I was astounded.

5th September 2013 (Thursday)

Friday

The Boy was absolutely shattered today walking to school and I expected tears, but luckily he was still very excited to be going. It was the first day that I'd taken him since his starting day and mum hadn't explained what they did in the morning first thing, so luckily the teacher saw me hovering as she walked around to the classroom at 8.55 a.m. He tottered in quite happily with her, but the final turn and wave before he went into the building was a real heart-wrencher.

I managed to get all the washing done (but not dry because of the weather) during the day, and one or two blog-posts. I am trying to get into a new routine so that our weekends are free for playing together.

After school, The Boy and I played together in the garden quite happily and he chatted about one or two other things that he'd done in school. He's not very forthcoming in his information as he can never remember what he's done, or so he says. I nipped in to get a drink for us and I heard a huge wail; he had fallen backwards off the swing and nearly winded himself. He has never fallen off his swing before, so it shows how tired he is. Cuddles, chocolate and Peppa helped sort him out. It just shows how desperately tired he is from school.

A Day On The Beach

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Over the course of the Summer, we've been to many different places in a bid to have a 'great family day out' and they've all been pretty damn near perfect. We've garnered many memories and had a lot of laughs along the way, but the one place which is always guaranteed to make us feel at ease as a family is the beach. And while we've been to quite a few spectacular beaches during the past two months, it's the one that is on our doorstep that always brings out the child in all three of us.

Barry Island.

barry island

For most it's synonymous with Gavin & Stacey, or Butlin's holidays in the 1970s, but the holiday camp days are long gone, and most of the programme wasn't even filmed in the locality. Barry Island is so much more. A blue flag beach with golden sands and clear water, protected from strong winds by the rocky peninsulas at either end of the Whitmore Bay, the sounds of the funfair fade once on the beach and the sandcastle building begins.

A fortnight ago we decided to pack up for the afternoon and head down to sate The Boy's incessant pleas to visit the Island. It was August Bank Holiday Sunday, and it was sunny. I expected to have difficulty finding a car parking spot, let alone a spot on the beach. However, it may as well have been a weekday in December, it was so vacant.

And we did all the things that you should do at the beach; built the most enormous sandcastle fortress, buried each other in the sand, ate chips, splashed in the sea, kicked sandballs, flew a kite, and then washed our bits off in the sea afterwards (that might have just been The Boy though).

A day on the beach

Gavin and who?

barry island 1

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country kids

It's Scrunching Time!

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Pegging out the washing on the line earlier, The Boy came running up to me and presented me with a yellow leaf. He asked why it was yellow, and I explained that it was because Autumn was coming and during that time the leaves turn yellow and fall from the trees. He quickly realised that it meant Summer was ending and complained because, "I like Summer and it means we get to play outside a lot!" (I should probably point him at any of our outdoor play posts from the past twelve months to illustrate that the weather doesn't phase us!)

I do like Autumn, it brings with it new curiosities and wonders of nature, and is a great time of year to expand a child's knowledge and understanding of their world. We love hunting for conkers and being the ones to discover an unopened spiky case, the first people ever in the world to see that shiny, chestnut brown conker. We also have a great hunt for acorns, but they have to still be in their cup; there are far too many conkers that fall and ditch their cup on the way, and somehow they're not quite so magical then!

The other aspect of this time of year that we love is scrunching through mounds of golden and russet leaves.

27th october 2012

I'm the type of person who wears sandals until November (unless it's raining) but even I know it's not sensible to kick piles of leaves around in anything other than Autumn boots, goodness only knows what treasures lie beneath.

So what's the first sign of Autumn you've seen?

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Orchard Toys: Who's In Space? (Review & Giveaway)

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'Who's In Space?' is without a doubt one of my favourite Orchard Toys products produced in the last year or so. And I am a big fan and we have a lot of their games and puzzles, so that statement is not made lightly.

The 25 piece jigsaw puzzle is aimed at children aged 3+, and depicts a scene of three astronauts (mixed gender and race, as with all Orchard Toys illustrations) on the moon completing some research. In the background are five of the planets in our solar system, the International Space Station, a comet, and a small green alien in a purple spaceship. Because after all this is a puzzle for children!

[Read more…]

The First Day

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I have been avoiding this day for weeks now.

I knew it was coming and practically we had everything prepared. The uniforms were stamped, washed, ironed, and hung on tiny wooden hangers ready for selection. The lunchbox had been practised. Various water bottles shaken upside down vigorously to see if they were suitable. Proper shoes bought from Clarks. Canvas shoes bought for the first few weeks when it's still hot and he's wearing shorts. Heels broken down so as not to cut little ankles. Lunchtime discussed. Dinner ladies talked about. Independent toileting has happened. Nose blowing practised. His name written over and over again, trying to correct the misformation of a certain letter which has come from nowhere. Snack time explained.

Tears wiped away in private.

Many tears.

Yet the 2nd of September still happened, just as I knew it always would.

And he is ready for school, and he's excited by it. He needs the social interaction and the challenge. Quite frankly he also needs squashing (and as a teacher, saying that doesn't come easily!).

Good luck my clever, funny, bright and sweet little boy. Enjoy your time at school, make friends but stay true to who you are, share and be friendly but don't be walked over, be polite and kind, be yourself because that it who everyone loves. I love you with all my heart, thank you for letting me guide you these past four years, and here's to the next chapter.

First day at school

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Sticky Fingers Photo Gallery

Walkers Mighty Lites

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We don't very often have crisps in this house, mainly because we eat them far too quickly and then I get upset at being unable to have cheese and onion crisp sandwiches.

Being realistic, it's because they are high in saturated fat and while great as a treat, they're not particularly good for you.

I was recently sent a multipack of each one of the three flavours from the new Walkers Mighty Lites range; lightly salted, cheese and onion, and roast chicken.

Walkers Mighty Lites 1

The first thing I noted was that they are ridged crisps which made me very happy as I'm quite fond of another well-known packet of ridged crisps; they're great at locking in the flavour and make the crisp eating experience far more fun. And let's face it, who hasn't bitten the ridges off one by one?

Walkers Mighty Lites main selling point is that they have 30% less fat than standard crisps on average, and this is what makes them a better crisp for the consumer. With only 114 calories per 25g bag and 0.5g of saturated fat (4.7g of fat originally), then they are a far healthier and sensible option for both children and dieters. In fact, why should they get all the fun, they're healthier all round.

And the added bonus, and why they are good for children in particular, is because they contain no MSG (Monosodium glutamate, an additive which can cause nausea, headaches and more serious illnesses in some cases) and combined with no artificial colours or preservatives, it's a fairly safe option for children. All three flavours are also suitable for vegetarians, even the roast chicken!

Often healthier snacks, particularly crisps, can be seriously lacking in taste or the essential crisp texture. They frequently feel more like dried out polystyrene or lack any serious flavour, especially the ready salted flavours. The Walkers Mighty Lites are neither dried out or lacking in taste; they feel exactly like other crisps do but with the added benefit of no oiliness or residual film left on fingers.

I have been giving them to The Boy in preparation for him starting school, usually in a packed lunchbox but he did have some for dinner last night. He was over the moon to be having crisps, as he knows they are usually an occasional treat.

Walkers Mighty Lites

He devoured them, and in actual fact I had to tell him to leave the crisps alone and to eat his sandwiches and fruit or he wouldn't have any left for later in the meal (I'm trying to teach him not to eat his favourite things all in one go, a harder task than you'd think!). They are a fun and enticing addition to any lunch, and will definitely be featuring in his school lunchbox over the forthcoming weeks.

Would I buy these independently? Not for a crisp sandwich, but I definitely will for picnics and lunchboxes.

I was sent the aforementioned products for the purpose of this review, and will receive a fee for my time. My opinion is honest and unbiased.