Eeeek - the self portrait blues!

The final choice below:

Never realised quite how hard it is to take a self portrait, with no tripod, no camera skills and no dummy to focus on further away than arms length!!

Needless to say, the results were not promising -but never mind, I am resolved to learn to do better - not at self portraits, but at photography in general!

So, the final choice, and some of the options - was I right?

12 Days of Christmas Photography Course

I've signed up for a photo course with Cheryl Johnson called the 12 days of Christmas.

I am really looking forward to this and hope to get some new ideas for Christmas photos, as I've not got any really good ones. They always seem to be too busy or have too many colours, so this year fingers crossed, I will have something a bit more inspiring to remember the year by and to put in my scrapbooks.

But up first is a self portrait!! HEEEELLLPPPP! I take the photos, so I don't have to be in them. I mean, that's the whole point, so this is well outside my comfort zone. It also brings home the fact that I have absolutely no camera skills despite my lovely Nikon. I just point and shoot.

To my shame, I didn't even know how to work the self-timer, but now I do. So if I get nothing else out of this course (and I'm sure that isn't the case, having seen CJs photos, surely something will rub off on me!) at least I can take a photo using the timer. Thank you CJ, for getting me off my backside and finding out something new about my camera.

As for the self portrait - well, watch this space. It's not done yet!

I love Autumn

The coloured leaves, the clear skies (sometimes), harvest - we've had some wonderful quinces from the garden this year which have been turned into a fabulous ice cream sauce with vanilla and cinnamon. I love this time of year and especially Bonfire Night - now only days away.

I hope the fire brigade don't go on strike, although I sympathise with their cause, but I'm looking forward to going to the renowned Carshalton Fireworks display on Saturday which is traditional in our family.

We also always have sparklers and mulled wine - yum, should be fun.

It's been ages...

since I did much scrapbooking, but especially since I photographed it and put it on my blog!

So here goes, from the Sketchy Thursdays blog which gives me inspiration.

It always gives me pleasure to use up scraps, so an old sheet of pp, a stamping try out with my gorgeous Gel a Tins stamps and scraps to make the flower, from the tutorial at InspiredtoScrap.net have been put to good use.

Somewhere really beautiful

We spent our holidays this year in Galicia - more specifically the Rias Altas of the north coast. The area is peaceful, non touristy and truly beautiful.

I very rarely want to go back anywhere but I can't wait to go back there again some time soon.

Four Goals

Inspired by a post on Elsie Flanagan's Blog, I think four goals might be just amount manageable by the end of the year.

So here are mine:

Goal 1: Knit a pair of socks.

Goal 2: Scan the photos of my grandmother and scrapbook her life

Goal 3: Exercise much more regularly including getting on my bike!

Goal 4: Make Sticky Toffee Pudding with my son.

Long time, no write....

Well , there's an easy explanation for that - our old computer was dying, and going so slowly that it really wasn't worth spending my life waiting for it to catch me up and let me post - so I didn't.

Add to that the busiest year of my life - how can it be that nothing has fundamentally changed, but I seem to have loads more to do?

But here I am again, and I'm going to try to keep this going over the summer just to see what I've been up to, what's getting me up (and down) and some of the highlights of my life and craft.

Lots of the girls at my crop are starting blogs so I've caught some of their enthusiasm to blog again, with my shiny fast computer which lets me do things instantly!

So what's going on? I picked up Adam from his work experience in Wiltshire yesterday, bought some of the produce he's prepared in the farm shop, and some other yummy stuff that took my fancy. He's back next week, so I guess I'll be tempted some more !

Looking forward to 4th July bbq on Sunday with my crop friends and their families - and fireworks - how exciting for us Brits who only have fireworks in November or New Year. It will be lovely not to be cold while watching.

Just admiring the new Echo Park papers and have joined their Facebook page for updates and inspiration - I love new things, but they're the scourge of my bank balance, predictably.