#21 - #24

I think I am doomed to always catching up with my photos  - but at least I've taken them!

#21 is fire - and our candlelit dinner date night on Saturday provides the flames!  We so rarely spend quality time together, it was a real treat to sit down with a nice dinner and a glass of wine and talk.

#22 is glowing - and this is a trifle contrived!   I made a new batch of marmalade on Sunday afternoon and was hoping that I could make it 'glow' in the photo, but really the only glow is the smug satisfaction at having made it at all!

#23 is 'hot' and this is our dinner to celebrate the Year of the Dragon - you can't quite see the steam rising from it!

Finally #24 - 'Motion'.  I have to say I was not happy to see what Suzie had posted this morning - it all felt too difficult for a Monday!  But I sneaked out of DD's parent's evening to take this photo - traffic in the rain - one of my least favourite things, driving to Croydon at rush hour in the rain - just to listen to teachers waffling on for ages and waiting in a boiling hot school in between appointments!  Joy!

However, I am deeply pleased with myself for remembering how to use shutter speed and the correct ISO on my manual settings to take this picture!

Days 17-20

Naughty, pleasurable, bad for you, sign...

Well the plague has continued and I have had a very indoors week (apart from today when I went out for lunch with some of my crop friends and cheered myself up enormously.

Naughty #17...

...was the last of the Christmas Hotel du Chocolat chocolates.  Did I eat it?  What do you think!

Pleasurable #18

was the film which dropped through the letterbox today from Love Film.  I have never seen Casablanca and I have a Saturday afternoon girlie date with my DD to watch it.

Bad for you #19

Well! what to choose?  Regrettably I had rather a lot of choices for this prompt, but I chose Angry Birds...

... this is a generic picture in that I have embarrassingly intense crazes on all sorts of stupid computer games and this is just the latest - I blame DH for this one!  I can waste far too much time on these pointless games but gain so much satisfaction when I actually achieve something on them - feel sorry for me!

Sign #20...

Again, what to choose?  Road Signs, something witty, signs of the times - well I did start with this, but finally settled on a Sign of Spring photo - the one and only snowdrop in my garden - I planted lots more, but this brave little soul has come up and warmed my heart. I am no gardener but I get ridiculous satisfaction from growing things.

So that's me, up to date - sighs contentedly :)

Inside my Fridge, Guilty Pleasures, Generous Snacks

It's a good thing you can't catch the plague from a blog as our house is ill-ridden right now!  First DS1 got a strep th roat, then DS2 and now me!!!  DH had a migraine yesterday so we were all feeling sorry for ourselves apart from DD who thankfully is bouncing through life right now - she has so much on that she doesn't have time to be ill!

Inside my Fridge

So! inside my fridge is pitiful and makes me realise how much I need to give it a post Christmas scrub! Still, in the spirit of 365+1 I shall show my shame!! and vow to do better!

On to Guilty Pleasures - #14 - try this beauty for size!

Saturday was my crop day, and my friend Jo was celebrating a big birthday.  Sandra, of Gottacraft fame, offered to make a cake and though I am not often a chocolate cake fan, anything this dark and gooey had to be savoured and it was!  Yummy all the way through.

On to Sunday, Day 15 -  when the plague struck in earnest!  I had suspected it was coming for a couple of days and my GP was generous enough to prescribe me some antibiotics based on my suspicions, the kids' illness and my ability to catch throat infections!  Bless him.  Generous of my dear sons, mainly the big one, for sharing his deeply unpleasant strep throat infection with me, leaving me feeling absolutely rotten.  So this is 'generous' with big sarcastic inverted commas around it!

Which brings me to today, not much better and with DS2 still at home ill.  But snacks are cheerful things and this one is my current favourite brand of snack.

As a regular snacker, this will change soon, but as of today.....

The last 3 days

I thought I'd better catch up with the blogging of my photos - so as not to get too behind.  I've very much enjoyed looking at all the photos that show a glimpse of life in different corners of the world.

Day 10 - Metallic

This is a picture of my keys.  I get lots of grief from my friends about these as they are very bulky and have lots of keys on them!  There are reasons - the first of which is that if I didn't take my car keys and my house keys together I would permanently lock myself out.  Secondly, if I do happen to drop them, I know about it from the noise - I have lost keys before and was sufficiently traumatised to never want to do it again.    I did have a little purge last summer - honest! - which removed the keys which no longer had any use - obvious?  yes but it takes time!

Day 11 - an item of clothing

This is my winter coat.  I am irrationally excited about this.  When my DS2 was born in 2000 my coat wore out.  Since then I have not had a winter coat.  Before you feel very sorry for me, I did have a coat, but it was much more of a storm jackety kind of thing - rain proof and perfectly nice, but not in the least smart.  Each year I decided to get a coat, then put it off til the sales, then decided that the winter was over and I could wait and save my money!  So a decade rolled on and eventually my favourite storm jacket died - oh horror!  So I enrolled the help of a friend and went shopping!  I found this one, and at half price I couldn't say no.  The addition of the brooch has smartened me up no end, and the brooch attracts comments wherever I go.

Day 12 - Translucent

I had already decided to start taking some photos of my favourite things around the house, and today's prompt made me actually do it.  This candle holder was given to me by a friend who always has lovely things and gives lovely presents so I was more than happy to receive this.  The glass is etched and gives a lovely warm glow when you light the candle within.

My January Counterfeit Kit

A new year, but still the same old pile of stash - so a new project to reduce my stash.  This month I had some of the things in the Cocoa Daisy kit here that we are counterfeiting which is exciting. I've amassed my patterned papers once more and am ready to play.

So here is my kit:

I've replicated the Cosmo letters with another set (not very like them, but I'd love to use them up!)  I've gone with some doily-ish patterns and the bright red paper even though the pattern is different.  Also I had Crate Paper ruler paper, a little scrap of the authentique ruler paper and a ribbon which matches.  I've also used ancient black & cream pp (7 gypsies?) and yellow Anna Griffin paper.  Also sneaking in at the back are some of the newer and delicious Lost & Found 2 with lots of glitter on them.

I'm looking forward to trying some of the counterfeiting challenges that are on the blog from today, and playing with my kit.

Drink Cosy Water

Not a title I had ever envisaged as a blog post, but never mind.  I have kept up with the photo taking if not with the blogging!

Saturday brought the opening of the Damson Vodka that some lovely friends gave us for Christmas (along with Sloe Gin and Blackberry Whisky :) )  It is as delicious as it looks and was thoroughly enjoyed, after a rather large meal at the Smith and Western for my god daughter's birthday.

Yesterday was Cosy - a necessary word for a grim, grey January Day, but as we'd gone out for lunch with some friends I wasn't in my usual snuggly jumpers or other attire that would make for a good cosy photo and as we'd been out all day the house was cold and sad (all traces of Christmas having been gleefully erased by my zealous DH over the weekend!).  I was left with my knitting, the socks of Try Something New Every Week fame - and their progress is cheering, I have now reached the heel - so they are the subject of Sunday's photo - and hopefully will be cosying my feet ere too long.

Today being Monday, I needed to be proactive.  I have this appalling habit of running out of steam during the week, so if I don't do lots on Monday and Tuesday, the week disappears and I get behind and frustrated.  So this morning, I painted my bedroom wall (part of an ongoing refresh for our room), started to make marmalade, and caught up with some of the chores that went by the by over Christmas, when cleaning tends to be relegated to the cosmetic.  Of course, now my sins have found me out, and I'm starting to clean in earnest, to be ready for spring cleaning which begins soon in our house!

Hence the water!  Our bathroom floor was covered in a multitude of sins, so I've scrubbed it, washed down the tiles and generally aimed for sparkling.  My trusty turquoise washing up bowl (never actually used for washing up, but great for cleaning) cheers me up on grey dull days, and I feel so much better now that the floor is clean, and 90% of my list for today is done.  Happy Monday everyone!

Day 6 - going off piste

Sorry Suzie, 'Frost' just doesn't do it for me today!  Firstly there isn't any, and secondly, I can't think of anything relevant to my life today which would count, so I'm digressing and today's photo is white - that's about as near as it goes!!

I was given this hyacinth bowl by a very good friend at the beginning of December and they have flowered since the new year and brought me so much happiness with their beauty and their fragrance.  So today is the day to record that in photographic form.

I can't promise, but I will try to get back on the straight and narrow tomorrow :D

Late already!

Yesterday's prompt was 'Pretty' and here it wasn't a very pretty day - loads of jobs to do, foul weather, sick children - nothing fitted, apart with the little cyclamen in the window box which looks like it's flowering again.  Finally I decided to make a canvas for my god-daughter's birthday on Saturday and this definitely counts as pretty!

As I only finished it late last night, the photo had to be today - cheating?  well, maybe, but I'm not worried.

I am however, worried about what on earth I can find today that is exciting - more foul weather, nothing booked to look forward to, back to back meetings - I'm really going to have to think......

watch this space, and it may (or not) get updated... :)

ETA - obviously with my busy head on yesterday, I forgot something really exciting which took place last night.  DS1's first Set Design exhibition.  He's been battling illness all week to get it done and last night we got to see the fruits of his (and his year group's) labours.  It was great, and here is the photo.

Ugly!!

Today is bin day in our street, which of course I am grateful for, but our bins live in our front garden and I hate them!  I keep wondering how we might make them less visible, but the only alternative (as we live in a terraced house) is to drag them through the house to the back garden, which I really don't want to do - so dilemma lives on!

In the meantime, I live with frustratingly ugly all the time!

A gentle start...

Happy New Year, and I hope this is one resolution I will stick to.

I know I'm a day late posting, but I did take a photo yesterday - celebrate - to me starts with my family, so the photo is of all of us...  on a lazy wet cold January 1st 2012, enjoying the warmth indoors.

For the second day - new - I took a photo of the cabinet I just bought for our dining room as part of the great clear out and changes that we are making at the moment.  Hopefully this will help a lot, and look very nice into the bargain.

I'm hoping that looking back on this next year will provide loads of little reminders of what we were doing in our everyday lives.