#silentsunday

#silentsunday

#Silent Sunday

Cheeky #silentsunday

#silentsunday (featuring a diva)

Ten Things I Love To Make & Do

So, here’s 10 things I love to make and Do… excluding anything to do with my children, friends and family as that’s just obvious now isn’t it!

Number 1: Antiquing (furniture refurbishing)

Yes, one of my latest hobbies is to buy old vintage furniture and refurbish it into shabby chic loveliness. My latest projects are a 1950s dressing table, chest of draws and a set of bedside draws all of which I plan to refurb with Annie Sloan chalk paint in the colour Paris Grey.

Below, Paris Grey Table I’m working on

Number 2: Jumble Sales & Bootfairs

I love digging through the treasure at the local jumble sale, I’ve had some amazing finds at both bootfairs and jumble sales… Not forgetting the odd charity shop.

Below, A wicker Basket Full Of Pretty Vintage China From Jumble Sales, Bootfairs And Auctions

Number 3: Blogging:

Of course… Blogging is a big love hence the reason I blog both here and at my long running blog A boy with Aspergers.

Below, Collecting A Mad Blog Award For My Blog ‘A Boy With Aspergers’ In 2011

Number 4: Candle & Soap Making

Soap making is a relatively new hobby but I’ve been into candle making since I was about 8 years old and make every thing from scented tea lights to candles in vintage tea cups

Below, Pretty Decopatch Jar Candle

Number 5: Jar Craft

I love jars and the many uses they provide. I store everything from craft bits and bobs to cup cake sprinkles in them. I’ve decopatched mason jars and upcycled spice jars.

Below, Homemade Sweetie Jar Gift

Number 6: Drawing and Painting

Since I was at nursery I’ve loved to draw and paint. I love creating art whether using spray paints and stencils, acrylics or pastels.

Below, Spray Painting

Below, Pencil Drawing

Number 7: Decopatch

The modern take on decoupage, I use Decopatch papers to decorate everything from paper mâché hearts to twinket boxes.

Below, Decopatch Frame With Corsage Detail

Number 8: beading

You don’t need to be good at something to enjoy it. Beading isn’t something I do particularly well (well, when it comes to jewellery making that is)! But I’m still learning and having fun in the process.

Below, Handmade Clay Beads

Number 9: Photography (Ok, this ones a tiny bit family focused though not entirely)

I’m no great photographer and despite Having a relatively good camera you will catch me using my iPhone half the time. However, I don’t do it as an art as such, or to make any pennies! I take pictures because I love to capture a moment. Moments with my children, family and friends. Images that make me smile when every single time I look at them, no matter how long down the line that may be.

Below, Penguin Taken On A Family Day Out At London Zoo

Below, Image Of My Daughter

Below, Another Image Of My Daughter That I Edited On Photo App

Number 10: Entering Skill Based Competitions

I just love a creative comp, there are so enjoyable to take part in plus you can win so amazing prizes. Past prizes for me include cash, shopping vouchers and toys. Check back here on the blog from time to time as I often feature some great online competitions all requiring some kind of skill.

Below, A Fun Cath Kidston Competition Entry

Below, My Daughter In A Homemade Halloween Costume For Creative Comp

An appropriate picture for a #silentsunday

Snowy Snaps From The Weekend

Almost all of us in the UK, have woken, at least once, in these past few weeks, to find a blanket of the white stuff right outside our window.

All week my instagram timeline has been filled with a string of images all showcasing beautiful snowy pictures of smiling children sledging, snowmen glistening, historic buildings transformed into snow palaces and much more besides.

So what’s a girl to do? Especially one who loves to indulge herself in a little instagram every now and then? “Daily… Me? No… Never!”.

So, yes… I have uploaded a few of my favourite snow snaps to my instagram and have therefore decided to spread the snowy joy this way by uploading some of my snaps here too!

The dog & The Snow Man

A Snowy Church Court

Beautiful Snow Covered Church

A Chilly Hand Shake

The Building Of Mrs Snow Woman

Under The Spot Light

Snow Meets Light

Giant Snow Balls

Snowy Church Top

The Snow Battle

Making Footprints

Friend Walks Dog

Applying The Finishing Touches

Communication

A Red Head Enjoys The Snow

A Snowy Tumble

So… There they are. Sadly my 12 year old who has a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome, didn’t come along to the Heath for some Winter fun. I think the prospect of being cold was enough to put him of… That and the fact he has a cold sore meaning his been hiding away from the world since it first made an appearance a few days ago.

Hope all you reading this have all had your own winter fun in the snow! My motto is… “Don’t moan about something you can’t change! Instead make it into some fun!” Yes… Its a pretty awesome motto, I know!

A snowy white #silentsunday

How Too Capture Perfect Images Of Your Little Ones

Zulily, the guys who bring us daily events offering both mothers and they’re children beautiful items at cut cost prices, have been asking us bloggers what we think it takes to capture a great image of our kids. We are to give our top three tips on the subject and one blogger could possibly win a Zulily voucher.

Given I love snapping pictures of my children whenever opportunity will have it, I decided this one was for me!

So… Here we go then…

1) Be Sneaky… By this I mean capture images of your children when they are unaware you and the camera are looming. This is how I’ve captured some of my most beautiful images of my kids. Natural smiles are magical as are expressions of laughter, anger, confusion and more! When images are taken this way there is no forced fake smiles, pouting from your 9 going on 30 year old or that of frozen expressions.
This is especially true for my 12 year old who has a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome! He doesn’t really enjoy being photographed and its best to catch him unaware when he is at his most relaxed and happy. I’ve found that as his grown older, trying to capture images of him is now much harder hence the reason I use this tactic often.

Below are some different images of my eldest ‘Little Man’ and my daughter ‘Alice-Sara’. I’ve included both images where they have been fully aware I’m taking pictures and a couple where they haven’t.

2) Relax and have fun… As well as the older two children I also have a toddler of three. His a bundle of energy and always on the go. Running around after him trying to capture a smile just isn’t going to work. As soon as the toddler has the slightest idea I’m trying to get a picture everything goes wrong. He actually tries to look at the screen as I’m taking a picture which means I just end up with an image that displays a flash of his head or some other unrecognisable blur. I’ve found that by relaxing and having fun with my toddler its provided me with lots of magical moments that transfer into great images. When I’m relaxed, his relaxed and this shows through in my images. I don’t keep him confined to the one area, instead I let him explore his environment, especially when we are taking pictures at the park etc.

Below are some of my favourite images of my toddler just being himself…

And here’s some images of Harley with his cousin Amy. They are extremely close in age (Amy is 10 weeks younger). As they have grown together, I’ve managed to grab some adorable images of them both over the last few years.

3. Don’t be afraid to experiment… Of course I prefer to take images with my Canon camera but more often than not I feel the need to capture an image when all I have to hand is my iPhone. This is where good editing tools come into the mix. Photoseed is one of my favourites. Here I can do my more basic editing as well as being that bit more adventures with the different filters on offer. Photoseed also allows me to upload images directly to instagram as opposed to saving them on my iphone, handy when your albums are already taking up 75% of your memory. Nonetheless, when I do have my camera to hand I will often adjust its settings applying different programmes for different subjects and environments. I love to capture motion pictures so will make sure this setting is applied when I’m snapping pictures of the children on the move. I’m also a fan of images taken in black & white or those that sport the more vintage look in which case I often use sepia as filter.

Below are some of my favourite images of my daughter Alice-Sara. The images have both been captured on the Canon or the iphone and filters have been applied with snapseed or Wow FX…

Zulily are also passionate about photography and there site is enhanced with an aray of beautiful images of their models having fun on set.

Every month the guys at Zulily run a competition where they ask you to upload pictures of your little cuties to instagram. This month they are asking you to snap a picture of your cuties sporting a massive grin. Their favourite photo wins a £100 zulily voucher, storage boxes from Feather and Black and a Juicy Couture clutch for Mum.

How to enter…

Upload an Instagram snap of your little cutie in January sporting a big cheeky grin. Be sure that your profile is public, so that Zulily can see your photo.
Now follow zulilyUK on Instagram (@zulilyUK) and tag your picture with these three things….
#zulilyUKJanuaryCutiesCompetition
@zulilyUK
and either: #zulilynewbie (if you’re new to zulily) or #zulilian (if you’ve already joined zulily)

The competition closes on Thursday 31st of January & the Zulily team will be doing the shortlisting on Friday 1st of February. More info on the Zulily Tumbler

To discover more about Zulily who have daily sale events on designer and Boutique clothing as well as homeware and other items for both mother and child, then visit their stunning site and join for free.

This post is my entry into the Zulily bloggers competition