Favourite photo and random photos

Today I was reading Jessica Sprague's blog and she was asking what your favourite photo would be in order to enter a competition to win a free place on her Photoshop/Elements class. Although I never expect to win any of these competitions, it did make me think about the photos I've taken and wonder which would be my favourite. I have many photos that I love of all three of my children but glancing through my files, these photos of Emily on our turquoise chair jumped out at me. This one in particular always catches my eye. It's not in sharp focus but it brings that fun day back to me. We had a mini photo shoot and a good laugh and this one was taken near the end when she'd about had enough. Fun memories and, I think, a beautiful photo! In other news, belated happy birthday to my sister Kay for Tuesday just gone. This was the card I made for her - simple and fun. I did see Kay on Tuesday and she very kindly popped in with some cake this evening. Thanks Kay!!

Today we had Jake and Leah for a little while, while Alison went for pre op blood tests. The children decided to have a go on WiiFit and I caught Leah warming up in preparation :)

A rare photo of Jake smiling, I'm not sure he realised I actually had the camera focused on him.

And then, after taking a few photos of the children, I turned my attention to some of the flowers we got last weekend. Jon's sister Deb brought the girls each a bunch of daffodils which have opened out beautifully.

And Claire also got some white roses from her boyfriend Graham. I could see this one as a big canvas

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow is another fairly full day. We need to pop in to town in the morning and then Emily is going out for lunch and to the movies with a friend. While she's out, I'm hoping to make a start on sewing the little quilt I cut out last week.

xx

Painting and a visit

As you may have realised, I do like orchids and on Friday when I went to visit my friend Alison, her orchids were also in bloom so I had to take a couple of photos.

Alison's daughter, Leah's school was having an inset (teacher training) day so she was at home when I went round for coffee. I've known Ali since before Leah was born so Leah is very used to me arriving with my camera and taking photos while I'm there. She decided she wanted to do some painting on Friday morning so I took the opportunity to take a few photos ;o)

Waiting for Ali to get the paints out, Leah was sitting on the kitchen floor with the light from the window catching her. This is one of my favourites from the day.

This cat pot was what was going to be painted.

Love the concentration.

Here she was watching a fly on the window

On Saturday, Jon's brother Simon came to spend the night with us. He had been over in the UK from Chicago since last Sunday but working up in London. We always enjoy his visits and at the moment I'm trying to persuade him to bring Liz with him on one of these trips. We went out for dinner on Saturday night but because it was Valentines day we couldn't get in to any of the local restaurants so went to The Broadway instead. Jayson (the pub owner) cooked some beautiful steaks for us and it was a really delicious meal.

This morning, after breakfast, Simon and I popped round to see Mum and Dad before Simon headed back up to London and his flight home tomorrow morning. Mum and Dad also enjoy getting to see Si when he's in the area and today I took a photo before we left.

Simon, Mum and Dad

Emily is on half term this week so we don't have to be getting up at 6am. Looking forward to an extra hour in bed in the mornings :) Hope you have all had a good weekend

Until next time.

xx

So, what's happening ...?

Not a lot is the easy answer to the above question. I'm not good at going out and doing things when it's so cold (for me!) outside. My fingers go purple and I lose the feeling in the tips so I tend to stay indoors. We did, however, go round to celebrate my neice Faith's 16th birthday on Sunday. Her birthday was on Saturday but the birthday tea was on Sunday.

Sweet 16 Opening cards

Blowing out the candles

Emily and Claire

Emily, Faith and Claire

Have to have a couple of Tyler as well :)

Too cute!!

Other than that, I've been in the mood for sewing lately but wasn't sure what I wanted to make. I have a small stash of fat quarters and a few larger pieces of material which I decided to go through today. This is what I ended up doing this afternoon ...

I cut out over 100 4.5" squares and then sat playing with them to decide how they would line up. I think I'm fairly happy with this final layout and have now made little piles of each row and numbered them so I know where they go. Now I've just got to sew them all together =) (once I've found all my sewing supplies - some of which are still in boxes from when we moved). I'm looking forward to doing this and seeing it finished.

What are you up to this week???

xx

Photo a Day Layouts / 22 years

Emily and I took Claire in to work for 9am this morning, did the little bit of shopping we had to do and then headed home. It's been on my mind that I hadn't done the Photo a Day layouts for a couple of weeks and, because it's still so cold outside, I thought it would be a good day to get them done. Fortunately I had the black cardstock for the background and I didn't have to go out to get any. So my morning, and afternoon up till now, has been spent sorting through and printing my photos and typing out the journaling. Journaling is not something that I find easy so these layouts literally tell what we did each day. End of!

Week of 22 - 28 January 2009

Week of 29 January - 04 February 2009

though I made a typo on this and didn't have any more patterned paper so I've left it saying

05 February 2009 :o(

I'm glad to have them up to date again.

Today is Jon and my 22nd wedding anniversary. I don't have any scanned photos of our wedding day to share but perhaps I'll look into doing that one day. We got married in Highbury Chapel, Hillcrest, South Africa followed by a reception at Kloof Country Club. It wasn't a big wedding, I think we had about 55 guests, but it felt just right. I can still remember it quite clearly and yet 22 years seems a long time! We've certainly had a lot happen in those 22 years including moving across the world a few times. I wonder what the future holds in store! We're going out for dinner tonight to celebrate. I'd also like to thank everyone who has left messages wishing us happy anniversary on Facebook, it was nice of you to remember.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

xx