General | TheBoyandMe

How Old Were You?

April 9, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 9 Comments

I think, if I remember correctly, that I was fourteen. I'll be honest, I can't really remember the first time, it seems that long ago.

Now, stop! Get your mind out of the gutter and entertain the possibility that I'm talking about something other than sex.

I'm talking about drinking alcohol for the first time.

In all honesty, I can't remember the first time I tasted it. It was actually possibly younger than fourteen, but only a teenie-weenie sip of champagne mixed with lemonade at Christmas time. I do however, remember the first time I was absolutely drunk as a skunk, and I remember it with shame and disbelief at my actions. What happens when you get a bunch of sixteen year old, public school girls together for a party in a house with no parental supervision and a drinks cabinet full to bursting? In my case? Vodka and orange happened. Luckily I can tell you that I stopped after the room started to tilt, but several other friends passed out, and the elder brother (who was supposed to be supervising) went to play music in the garage conversion.

At the grand old age of 34, and as a parent, I look back now with absolute horror that my school-friend's parents allowed that to happen. And from that parental perspective, I wonder why my parents never discussed the dangers of alcohol with me? I'm the youngest of four children; two boys, two girls, in that order. By the time it came to me, there should have been enough lessons learnt to ensure I never touched the stuff, surely? But then on the other hand, why would my poor parents suspect that their innocent, well-behaved daughter would do something like that?

This is where it makes me realise that talking to your children, setting a good example of the odd tipple and moderation, without being a hypocrite is essential. Should you drink in front of your children so that it's not such a huge thing? Or should you hide it away, like my parents did?

More and more children are drinking at a younger age, it is not something that we can afford to ignore. With the average age a British teen has their first unsupervised alcoholic drink being 13 years and 8 months, it is not going away. It's been identified that the earlier a child is exposed to alcohol in the home, the more likely they are to drink to risky levels when they are older so that debunks my naive theory that witnessing it at home makes it more acceptable to the child. As the single biggest influence on children’s drinking habits and attitudes to alcohol isn’t marketing or peer pressure – it’s what children observe in the home, I suspect that if my parents had at least discussed it with me, then my first contact with the demon alcohol would have turned out very different.

Watch and work through this interactive video, it's really interesting and has made me think about it.

I luckily came out of the video with a daughter who accepted she could try it when she was older.

What was your outcome?

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#14:52

April 8, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 1 Comment

I'm a rubbish mother! I forgot to add The Boy's Project 52 last weekend. I'm going to blame the fact that we were away. Here it is (back-dated to the right day).

Photography On The Go

April 7, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 11 Comments

When the theme of Photographic Resolutions was set for The Gallery a few months ago, I had to have a long hard think about what mine would be. Amongst them were; learn how to use the manual settings on my dSLR (still no idea), and be in more photos (my husband is taking more but he needs to do it more surrupticiously). The first resolution was to learn how to use mobile photo editing apps.

I stated at the time that the reason I don't use the camera on the iPod Touch is because it's shockingly awful, and while the camera on my phone (HTC Desire) is ok for outdoor shots, it's a bit rubbish at indoor photos. Also the photo editing app on my phone is complicated to remember all the different filters, but I do like the Instagram app for the Apple market (there's now an Instagram for Android, but it's not as good because there's no tilt-focus option).

I finally twigged that if I emailed over the photos taken on my phone to my iPod then I could edit them on Instagram there; hurrah! And then I discovered the wonderful app Camera+ for iOS, courtesy of HPMcQ who does brilliant things with it. Now there is no stopping me and I'm Instagramming all over the shop.

I think I've managed to cross one of those resolutions off my list, here are some of my snaps taken on my phone or iPod.

If you'd like to join in and show off the photos you've taken on the go, I've added a linky below so we can all admire each other's handiwork. It could be a blog-post, a twitpic, an Instagram url or a flickr picture. Join in and let's have some fun!

Snap Shortlist

I am nominated in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Photography Award. If you'd consider voting for me, I'd be eternally grateful, just click on the badge above.

Photo Editing Made Easy

April 5, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 36 Comments

About this time last year I discovered an amazing online photo editing website called Picnik.com. Simple to use, effective and with a plethora of editing options, I soon subscribed to it and no photo was uploaded onto my blog without having the special Picnik treatment (Ortonish to 50% fade and 1960s to 80%). It was so easy to use as photos were uploaded directly from your computer, auto-adjusted on the click of a button, there was a sliding scale of the strength of the filters applied and a variety of frames to be added. For a special occasion, text and extra clipart could be added. One of the most used features for me was the collage function, and I used it to create every page in my 365 book. The $20ish a year subscription was worth it, especially as I could access it from any computer that had web access.

Then in January of this year, the ever-increasingly arrogant Google announced it was closing Picnik (they had bought it last year) and moving some of the functionality to Google+. Gah! Damn Google+, I didn't have an account, didn't want one and was determined I would not play ball. (I ended up registering one just to see what the fuss was about, then a month later had a warning from them to remove my account, which I did happily, as apparently TheBoy andMe is not a real name. And of course Will.I.Am is)

And then the lovely @EmsyJo told me that there was a successor to Picnik, and it was to be called PicMonkey.

As you can see from the screenshot, it's a cleaner homepage, more sophisticated and a damn sight quicker to use. The three photos up there are sample images to play around with the photo editing options, top left is where a photo (just the one upload at a time for the moment) can be opened or dragged to be edited. And it's really, really quick!

Once in on the main programme there is a simple selection panel on the left-hand side (as with Picnik) and the picture displays in the main window. The main difference for me is when it comes to ease of saving; click the button in the bottom left hand corner, type the file name and about a second later it is saved. No waiting more than ten seconds for it to save.

The marvellous developers behind the phenomenal PicMonkey are actually some of the original engineers behind Picnik so they understand what we want, they know how it all works and they know how to make it better! And it really is.And it's getting better all the time as they work to improve it (before 19th April when Picnik closes).

I'm a huge fan of it already and I wanted to share why. I've taken one of my standard photos from last year and applied some of my favourite filters along with some new additions to their catalogue to it to show what it can do.

There's a great selection of filters to apply, I've featured about half of them. Of course you can also layer them to achieve greater results. Some of the new filters have a crown watermark on them which I am presuming means that they will become part of the possible future subscription service. However, at present there is no sign up and no fee.

The only irony is that unfortunately at the moment PicMonkey don't have the collage function and so I had to use Picnik!

(For another review of what PicMonkey can do, see Domestic Goddesque's post here)

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I am shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards for the 'Snap' category. If you'd like to vote for me, I'd really appreciate you clicking on the button below and choosing my name in that award.

Snap Shortlist

Meal Planning Monday #4

April 2, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

I only managed to have one fail last week, and that was not my fault. My mum (despite the planner being up which is partly for her when caring for The Boy) gave him Friday's dinner for his lunch instead. I ended up doing butternut squash risotto, this time in the slow cooker. It didn't work out well: one minute it was undercooked massively, the next it was slushy. I've therefore carried the lasagne forward to this week's planner.

As we're approaching Easter weekend, I've planned for Sunday to Thursday and am leaving the actual weekend free. I've got plenty of freezer food which we can have depending upon what we're doing each day, however I also suspect we'll be out and about quite a bit and I've allowed for that.

Sunday: chicken (slow-cooker) or mint, chilli and vegetable loaves, with potato fritters and roasted butternut squash and vegetable salad. (Mum, dad, boy cousin and girl cousin are coming over for dinner, hence the choice)
Monday: pasta and salad (going to try a reduced balsamic vinegar dressing as suggested to me by The Kitchen Mechanic. Incidentally, I will be adding this recipe to next week's planner somewhere!)
Tuesday: Butternut squash and spinach lasagne
Wednesday: Shepherd's pie (freezer left-overs)
Thursday: Mango and coconut paneer
Friday: free
Saturday: free

As I type this up, I've realised that we haven't had fajitas in ages and so they are definitely on the menu for next week. A scrummy way of making sure we have plenty of our five a day.

What are you planning for your family meals this week?

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I'm linking this up to Meal Planning Monday over at At Home With Mrs. M.

Why I'll Need A Time-Turner

April 2, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

Now that The Boy is getting older, I've started to contemplate different types of days out with him. He's getting to the age where he has a sustained period of concentration, he's interested in stories and the whys and hows of things, and loves to experience new things. It never fails to amaze me the memories that he comes out with, small events that happened last year but they pop into his head at the most obscure of times when something prompts his recall of them.

I think that the great family day out is something that needs to have a resurgence, it's way too easy to spend the weekends lolling around and not doing anything. When I was a child we always went out on a Sunday afternoon and did something, even if it was only to a park or the beach, possibly a ruined castle, but always something as a family. I don't think there's much of an effort in families nowadays to do this. Maybe parents think that the time spent together has to involve a lot of cost, but I actually think a lot of it comes down to a) the stress of both parents working and b) Sunday trading hours allowing for afternoons spent in supermarkets! Hardly the essence of childhood memories is it?

In June, we'll be going to London for the BritMums Live blogging conference. I say 'we' because there is no way that I'm leaving Mr. TBaM and The Boy here on their own. I maintain that it's because I'll miss them (and I will) but in all honesty, I'm more worried that they'll have a fab time without me and I can't split myself into two. So I'm dragging them to the capital city for the weekend with me. While I'm busy ~~chatting and socialising~~ networking and improving my blog on the Saturday, I suspect they will be enjoying the Science Museum, it's something that Mr. TBaM has wanted to take The Boy to since before he was even conceived.

I'm still trying to narrow down what to do on the Sunday when we have our family time together. I've had fabulous suggestions of London Zoo, the Transport Museum and of course I want to check out Hyde Park and the London Eye. However, I'm wondering how we could forget one of the things that for me is synonymous with London? How could we possibly neglect the West End?

Is there time to squeeze in a child's day out at the theatre or am I asking too much from a (then) three year old? And even then, which production? There are so many different and marvellous musicals on at the moment that I wouldn't know where to start. Maybe one of those that had the 'search for the star' type tv shows? I could always investigate Wizard of Oz tickets but I think that would be more for me in my attempts to get closer to those sparkly shoes that I've always covetted.

I suspect that unless I manage to procure Hermoine's time-turner that we're going to be sticking to the London Eye and Hyde Park, but you never know!

This is a featured post.

#13:52

April 1, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 34 Comments

This is the Hot Wheels track that mummy and daddy made for me this week.

ShowOff ShowCase: The One That Should Have Done Better

March 31, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 3 Comments

This weekend is your opportunity to link-up a post that you wrote that filled you with a sense of satisfaction. You typed that last full stop, pressed 'publish' and thought "yes, this will be a good one!" and waited.

But no bugger actually bothered to read it, or if they did they certainly didn't comment on it!

Why? I can still hear you shouting it at the stats counter/comments log.

Heaven only know why. They didn't deserve it, they were good posts. It's not their fault that they were published on a Bank Holiday or when people were experiencing blog-apathy. They don't deserve to feel inadequate, not when they've done nothing wrong.

This weekend, I'd like you to help that post to hold its head up high! Brush them off, stick my badge at the bottom of the post and show them off for everyone to see. Don't be ashamed of them, help them shout at everyone:

I SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER!

Snap!

March 27, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 16 Comments

When I was a child I used to love watching my father and grandfather taking photos, discussing lenses, pouring over the technical aspects of their cameras. It used to drive my mum mad, but I was intrigued. Despite her frustration, mum gave me my first compact camera (film obviously!) when I was about ten and dad set to teaching me how to take photos. He bought me a few SLRs from car boot sales over the years and I learnt a bit, but overall I stuck to the automatic settings.

When I started going out with Mr. TBaM and met my (then) future mother-in-law, she passed on her old Nikon SLR and refreshed my memory of the techniques. Within a few years I'd treated myself to a digital SLR, a Canon EOS 300D, which I still have and use to take the vast majority of my photos.

I love taking photos, I have thousands and thousands of photos taken from June 2009 (The Boy's birth) and I take tens each day; on the iPod, my phone, my dSLR, hubby's compact or even The Boy's Kiddizoom, I use whatever's to hand. Starting my 365 project last year reminded me about the basics of composition, framing, light, etc. and then the fabulous picnik.com (now replaced in my affection by picmonkey.com) helped develop my editing skills.

Why am I telling you all this geeky stuff?

Because to my complete and utter amazement I've been shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliant In Blogging awards. Me! I never get anything like this, I'm a background person. It has meant the absolute world to me that people either a) liked my photos enough, b) felt I represented a good photography blogger or c) felt bloody sorry for me, enough to nominate me.

You see, I just take photos of my son and our life. That anyone likes them amazes me. That people liked them enough to join me in #Project366 astounded me (the response each week is flabberghasting!). But to nominate me in amongst the big players? A serious thank you to every single one of you, it has meant the world to me.

I don't expect to win, have you seen who else is nominated?! However, I just want to share a few photos that I am really proud of for one reason or another, and if you agree with me, please consider voting for me by pressing the button at the bottom of the post.

Snap Shortlist

This is the only time I'll ask, I've been stung by voting competition before and I refuse to get drawn in to it all. I'll tweet this a few times but it's your decision to make.

Thank you!