A disappointing few days……

Well,I should be at Anna's crop today.But sadly it has been cancelled.I haven’t managed one crop this month as Sue at Crafty Stash also cancelled hers.So I have lots of unfinished  projects packed away in my crop bag.I was hoping to get some work on my Chicago album done today.I always love this crop as there are some super talented ladies there.

How Anna's manages to pack so much into her life I have no idea.Go and checkout her blog.She is an amazing scrapper and must have so many deadlines to keep to,for all her design teams.I was on a few once  and I found it very stressful,so I won’t be repeating that again.Plus she is the only other Brit on Karen Russell's workshop with me.There is sooooo much reading and assignments to keep on top of,that even I am struggling and I don’t go out to do a proper job as well!!!

I have had a lovely few days staying in London with my Husband,who was working at an airshow.I spent it with one of his colleagues partner,eating at beautiful restaurants,shopping at Antropologie and stuffing myself with Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes.

The morning I arrived I received my latest assignment from Cheryl Johnsons class.It was to take pictures of people out and about on the streets,people you didn’t know.

So this would be a dream in London to complete.

I took hundreds,but unfortunately I only had my zoom kit lens with me.I was planning on buying a new Tamron lens that Karen Russell's recommended.I traipsed to all the camera shops in central London,but  it was out of stock everywhere.It was an overcast day and the kit lens struggled to take crisp photos.So I was disappointed with my results ,but you live and learn.(pack all your lens)

I think the lady I was with hadn’t met anyone like me before.She was flabbergasted as I snapped away at people and had conversations with men that made her blush!I went up to a man In antropologie who had the largest lens I have ever seen.I said to him “your just showing off with that.Can I hold it.”He replied that he was German and couldn’t understand me properly.But I got to hold it and it was so bloody heavy.She giggled afterwards that it would have made a great photo of me with this stranger with his humongous lens in my hand!!!!

So here are some of my disappointing photos of the day.

This was my favourite of the day.It was a shoot that was going on in Green Park.So I took a photo of the photographer,taking a photo.

I got to hold his lens ,and his was BIG as well.

Watch this space today.I am going to post some photos I took of a couple of shoots I arranged last week.

I’m off to eat my breakfast.Hubby nipped to Starbucks this morning to provide me with  breakfast in bed with a newspaper.Heaven

Am I stupid or what????????????

Today's the day I have been waiting for for over 6 months.

I scrimped and saved so that I could try and get a place on Karen Russell's photography workshop.I got up at 2am in order to try and compete with over 2,000 other people to get one of the few coveted places offered.

And I managed to accomplish my dream.I got a place……

But life/things change……….

I now find myself in the most impossible position of my own success,maybe holding me back.

Since I started doing scrapbook/photography classes on line I have found I have a fierce,competitive streak.If a competition with a prize is offered,I am compelled to enter-to WIN.This resulted in me winning two free classes on a Shimelle class.Plus I was one of the winning photographers on Cheryl Johnsons December 2009 class.

Great you might think.

Yes I did to…..

But it just so happens that the classes I have chosen as my prize start whilst I am doing Karen Russell's intensive workshop.

I have chosen Shimelles new Love you pictures,love your pages class

and Cheryl's up coming portraiture people imagery class

Great and I will be on holiday at our apartment in La Manga,Spain in July with no internet access!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish me luck……

January 2nd

CAPTURE

(Caught)

(adore)

(Philanderer)

(23 years of marriage)

I have a feeling a lot of my CAPTURE photos are going to include Teddy.

We had a long lie in,surfing the net,before taking down all the decorations.It looks so bare and soulless now.

Thank you for the comments on my Christmas photos.

Its funny that different pictures were chosen as the best.

This has made it even more confusing for me now!

Here are some others I’m having problems choosing from.

Black and White or colour?

All these shots were taking on the same day.I am so glad it snowed.I’m dead chuffed with my efforts as it was my first month using a DSLR camera.I’d always used a point and shoot before.I can only choose 6 photos from December.

I need one from “a festive photo walk” But oh which one to choose.

Toni commented on my last blog post about whether I print my own photos.I have been unable to email you Toni.so I posted a reply in the comments section of my last blog.I hope it helps you decide and here's a link to my blog post about my printer.

Here's my last page of JYC.

Boo Hoo.

I had this photo in mind from the beginning.I pretty much journalled what I wrote for my blog yesterday concerning my Word and goal for the year.

I hope you have enjoyed my version of Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas 2009.It was much easier than I thought it would be to keep up with.I couldn’t have done it without my new camera and printer.Initially putting the album together in October may have seemed like madness ,but it was a great help and I would recommend people to try it for themselves.

January 1st 2010

For last years resolution,I set myself the goal to try and become a scrapbook layout designer.I started on January 2nd and by the end of March I had applied for 4 positions and was chosen as a guest designer for Creatively yours,scrapagogo and Willowtree crafts.

I drove all my friends mad teasing them about how I was now a professional scrapbooker.But I didn’t like how restricting it could be.I love to mix things up and use lots of embellishments and colour,and this was sometimes hard to do with what I was given.So I was glad when my time was up and I could go back to just scrapping for me.

Check out my Flicker site here if you’d like to see some of my past work.

This year I have chosen to set myself the goal of becoming a better photographer.I am hoping this lady will be helping me out.I have my name down on a very long waiting list for one of her photography classes.I learnt so much on Cheryl Johnsons class ,but I would like to expand my knowledge and be given hints of how to take a great photo.

As well as a resolution this year I have chosen a word that I hope sums up my year.The word I have chosen is CAPTURE.The idea for this came from Ali Edwards (she’s chosen STORY).If you’d like to choose one ,here is a great site with some interesting ones.

This fits in nicely with my resolution of being a better photographer

Now I would like some help from you please.Could you help me choose my 6 photos to enter for Cheryl's final piece.I have so many I like I can’t choose.These are some of the ones I like.

No 1

or this one

No 2

I really can’t choose between these either.I love them all for different reasons.I have used Picasa to focus on the bauble.

N0 3

No 4

No 5

I think I HAVE to include this one

But this one is my favourite.Its just a little bit out of focus though.

I’ll share some more with you tomorrow.I want to choose some outside shots as well.You know mix it up a bit.Not put all my eggs in one basket.

Here's my JYC New Years Eve LO.I used the photos I took last night.Under a flap I’ve included a very old,out of focus,photo of my children,me and my sister in law in London on the eve of Millennium.I used a block of journaling which I found on the internet about the event in London.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for my lack of grammar and atrocious spelling in my blog.I read through my journal and found loads of spelling errors and as my daughter likes to point out,my blog isn’t much better.

Believe it or not I was one of only 3 in my whole class allowed to take an “O”level in English.That's how bad my school was.I managed to get a C. God knows how .

I didn’t have a clue where to put full stops or paragraphs and used to just guess.But I think it was because I was a good story teller and they must have liked that.

Anyway Happy New Year.

December 31st 2009

Well,there goes another year.

For me its been a great one.

No parties for me tonight.Thank God.

A night in ,in front of a coal fire with a Chinese takeaway.

This is Tasmins plate,mine was probably bigger.

Ryan is staying in London,clubbing for the New Year.

Today's JYC layout is a montage of 12 small photos (2 to be added) one for each month.Behind which i have journalled things that happened during each month.

My biggest low of the year was losing my beloved dog Buzz.He died in my arms on the 27th January.But our new puppy Teddy has worked his magic and although he is still like a naughty toddler in the house,he has really grown to be part of our family.I’d be lost without him now.

Who would have thought we would have to worry who was looking after our money and that we couldn’t trust banks.Who would have thought that it would be better to spend than save.So that's what I am going to endeavour to do more of this coming year.That is until the interests rates go up.So I’m looking forward to my 2010 trips to Utah,Chicago and China and anything else that takes my fancy.

I’m looking forward to finally finishing our home.My sister is starting a new adventure in 2010,literally rebuilding a house.I wish her well,I couldn’t do it.

Redecorate yes but not rebuild.Oh the mess and dirt.

So goodbye 2009 and HELLO 2010

I wonder what adventures we will get up to?

December 30th

My daughters boyfriend bought me this for Christmas.I have no idea what it means?

Me bossy,surely not.

I wanted to go out today,I’ve been cooped up for to long.But it was hard as I didn’t really want to traipse around the shops.So we decided on a few hours in Cambridge,and to stop at our favourite Indian restaurant for a spot of lunch on the way.

It poured with rain again all day today.We parked right next to the river in the city ,and it looked like it was about to breach its bank in places.The current was so strong ,but you always get some mad people thinking they can beat the elements.

These two had obviously decided to have a nice punt down the river,but they looked like they were going to fall in at any moment.Check out his bum crack!!!

It got funnier when he bent over minutes later.

This amazing new shop has just opened.The staff are in old fashioned uniforms and its packed with all types of sweets.Some I'd never heard of and lots of old favourites.I can see this will be extremely popular with tourists.But for now it was full of English people ohhing and ahhing

There was nothing in the sales worth buying,just a fab cake decoration I’d coveted before Christmas at half price.(here’s a picture I took of it before Christmas) So I dusted of my moth eaten purse and snapped it up.

I’m sat here watching Mary Poppins.I just love the songs in this film especially “Feed the birds.”Its amazing how you remember every single word of all the songs.They just don’t make films like this anymore.

What is your favourite song from this film?

Even as a child I always admired the old buildings and the way the houses were decorated.I can’t believe I now live in a house fit for Mary Poppins.She could even slide down my banisters ,well a little bit.

I had forgotten about some photos I had taken on my old camera .This one made me laugh.There were a few windows decorated like this in Sheffield where my Daughter goes to University.Lovely place!

No JYC today as haven’t had time yet,but its all ready to go.I just have to decide on lots of individual pics or words.

December 29th

What a disappointment it didn't snow today.It’s just been dark and wet all day.I was so looking forward to some more snow.

So,instead I stayed in my new nightie and scrapped,whilst watching my favourite film The Holiday,and then I had a play with Bokeh again.

Has anyone tried the site I suggested?

Teddy ate the heart filter I made,so I’ll have to make another one.I have some ideas for some pictures ,but I need a willing volunteer to help me and believe me there are no willing volunteers,here.

I have to choose 6 photos to enter for Cheryl Johnsons final piece and I don’t know which ones to choose.Any ideas?

I put 3 on to this site and when I checked back there are now 22,717 photos!!! So I wasn’t surprised when mine didn’t get picked.There are some amazing photos on there.

I just took the easy option for JYC and made a collage of pictures from yesterday.

I’ve definitely decided to stop on January 1st.I’ve had a peak at the prompts from last year and there isn’t much that takes my fancy.I’ve printed off a fab photo for the last page of my Journal,but you’ll have to wait until January 1st.

For today's page I used the only group photo of us from the entire holiday.Even Teddy is posing.The journaling talks about how I have enjoyed making the journal and that I hope my children and any future grandchildren enjoy looking back at Christmas 2009 and take on some of the traditions we have.

My Sister has so far been the only person interested in the entire journal.Other people have just given it the cursory look,then abandoned it.

It so weird how different people are.I love reading other peoples Journals and blogs.But then again I love Big Brother,so maybe I'm just a nosey parker.

Sorry I’m off to rescue Teddy who’s fallen head first into his toy basket!!!!

December 28th

Well as you can see me and my Sister are very close!!!

I took hundreds of photos ,but the light was very bad and there was always someone moving in the group.

Look how lovely this shot would have been.But yes you guessed it Hubby was a bit merry from a bottle of red wine.So I have a selection of lovely family group photos with him gurning in them.

Don’t worry after his night sleeping in the cellar I think he will have learnt his lesson.

After lots of sulking ,and the occasional malicious pinch from one of the nieces,I managed to get some lovely shots.

Its such a shame that my Sisters oldest daughter is very withdrawn.She likes to get attention from inappropriate actions.

I must admit I would not want to be her Mum when she’s a teenager.She wouldn’t eat much of her meal,so of course she later asked for food.Off they went and got her a McDonalds.

If you watch her closely ,you see the hint of a smirk thats she’s won.In some ways I can tell what's going on in her head as she has a little of the younger me in her.

This one on the other hand is just like my sister.She's a bit of a tomboy and is like a bull in a china shop.

Because she is so cute it winds her sister up even more.

The ice cream bombe went down a treat.Thanks Jamie Oliver for the idea.It had mint chocolates,maltesers,Ben & Jerrys macadamia nut ice cream and the cake outer was from my travels in Italy.All topped off with melted Mars bar Celebrations and a firework fountain.

I’ll have to complete my JYC tomorrow.I need to tidy the house and put my feet up.

December 27th

Today the worst thing happened.

My laptop stopped working!!!!

We shot in the car to our nearest Sony shop,to get a new lead(which was the problem).But the miserable manager told us they are not included in the guarantee (he was wrong),and we would have to go back to London to the Sony shop we bought it from!!! and that they often go wrong ,and just buy a new one for £90,I’d had it for 2 months and its never left the house?

His lovely employees were so helpful and were flabbergasted at what he was telling us (all lies)We rang the shop we bought it from and they gave us a number straight away to ring to be sent a new one after the holidays.

As we left,the two young boys handed us,sneakily,one of the shops defunct computers leads,so that I wouldn’t have to be computer less.How sweet are they.

I have been practising a bokeh technique today using a homemade filter for my camera.

Here's a fab link to how its done.In fact they have lots of photography advice on this blog

Tomorrow I have my sister coming and I hope to take some pictures with real people in.

I left JYC till the end of the day,so that I had some photos.Tasmin completed her jigsaw she got for Christmas,and we tucked into a cooked breakfast and lots more fattening junk.For me washed down with a McFlurry.

I hear we’re in for another bout of snow this week.So I’m looking forward to that.