Day 59 - Grey

It was suitably grey as I headed up to town for a little meander round the National Portrait Gallery for my Try Something New Every Week challenge.  I also had a Groupon voucher for tapas in the East End and a lunch date with DH to look forward to.

London looked very grey, although by the time lunch was over it had brightened up a lot and the sun was shining.  Fortunately I'd taken my photo by then!

As a follow up, the Gherkin is pretty grey as well!

Days 56,57,58.

Saturdays are always welcome in our house, and this one dawned blue and bright - even more welcome - and warm for February.  As chez Suzie, Saturday involves football too, and this is DH cleaning his precious F50 boots.  He's quite happy to clean them, I just have to clean the kitchen afterwards!

Sunday - light.

Not feeling particularly inventive today, I just went for the obvious - my lovely shade in the hallway.  It always makes me happy as I think it's so pretty.

Monday morning - grey and miserable, as befits most Mondays in my book.  However, no mist, so I've opted for the only tree in our garden, which is a wonderful marker of the seasons.  Black and stark in winter, it blossoms early, before any leaves sprout, with loads of beautiful white blossoms which the local bluetits and great tits love.  It then grows leaves that are a mix of dark green and dark red underneath, and makes little cherry like fruit - also popular with the birds, it took me years to realise there were any fruit!  Finally in autumn it turns a gorgeous orangey red.  This is its spring look this year :)

Day 55 - Cloud!

After a miserably grey morning, it has cheered up now and the clouds can be clearly seen against a lovely blue sky. So much more positive than the grey!  This is the view out of my front door.

Ordinary Detail

Days 53 and 54

Yesterday, my friend Debbie came over for a natter, bringing amazing soup and bread with her.  I decided that although it was far from ordinary, bread is a staple of life and not a thing I photograph often so.....

and today - Detail

Above is the detail of a layout I did at the crop, based on paper I counterfeited from October Afternoon.  I realised my scrapping life is almost non-existent in my photo story of the year and that's just not true of real life.

Sky high!

Spot the flying pancake!

We only landed two on the floor before DH managed to flip it high enough to show on the photo!  LOOOOOL!
Happy Pancake Day!

Days 48 - 51

I've just about managed to keep up!

Abstract on Saturday (Day 48)

I have to confess I looked at the prompt, meaning to find something clever and cool to photograph, but then forgot all about it in the excitement of our monthly North Cheam crop.  So I photographed my knitting instead - not exactly abstract, but it's what I'm doing right now, and enjoying a lot.

Day 49 - Domestic

Yay, the dishwasher is fixed, but there still seem to be mountains of pots to do, and now it is fixed, the kids don't feel under any compulsion to help any more - so the job falls back to me.  Getting it fixed is seeming less attractive than it did previously! lol

Day 50 - fashion

Not something I know much about, let alone follow, so all I'm left with is my own personal winter fashion, long top, big cardigan, big coat, trousers and boots - this is my new, fresh from India top, courtesy of a lovely friend who's just returned.  BTW it's hard to take a good photo of yourself looking down - I found out the hard way!!

Day 51 - Fragile

I'm not feeling fragile, despite the fact that it's Monday, but my DD is.  However, it's unfair to take photos of a sick teenager, even to satisfy my photo challenge! So I've reverted to another of my favourite things, (if I persevere, I will have enough of them to scrapbook, as is my intention one day).  This is a Worcester plate which my grandmother left me.  I think it is really pretty.

So that's me, up to date again - oh the satisfaction :)

Another catch up

Oh dear, I'm just not getting to blog as often as I wish, and I even had to catch up a couple of photos this week too - must do better.  I've enjoyed the prompts, although I have gone slightly off piste on a couple of days.

Starting off - Day 42 - Portrait of a Loved One

This is my DH, we even got to go out to dinner with some friends on Saturday night so definitely a good night.  This is him scrubbed up for our night out, with my new wall decoration for seasonal interest!

Day 43 - from my past

I've been scanning old photos and documents which were lent to me by my uncle as he wants them back.  This is an identity card that my grandmother had when she lived in France for a year.  I also have my identity card from when I lived in France, which I am going to add to a scrapbook page about our similarities.

Day 44 - Friendship

As it's half term we were pleased to have a visit from my sister and her family 'from the north'.  The kids all get on really well, but as I haven't asked her permission I've blanked out the kids for the blog.  We had a great time with them.

Day 45 - Candle - sorry! didn't quite get there.  With a house full we did celebrate Valentine's Day, but not in the traditional romantic way.  We managed the pink bubbly but not any candles, so here is a photo of my February 'season's tree' which is decorated each season with different seasonal items.

Day 46 - Bloom!

No flowers here, and not feeling that great so no blooming here either!  DS1 and I retired to bed last night to watch a film - I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know anything about the story of Made in Dagenham, but it was fascinating and well made, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I also made good progress on the new socks, so a good evening in the end!

Day 47 - What's in my handbag?

A good excuse to root through my bag, clear it out and not put so much back!  I'm not a big handbag person, and I prefer pockets, but I only have two and so they tend to accumulate stuff!  I found quite a lot a ephemera in there which is destined for my scrapbooking.  Also in it a purse, mirror, eyebrow pencil  (why?) and a lipstick I've been searching for for ages.  My court pass, fold up bag, ipod, headache tablets, odd receipts and tickets, sunglasses and milk pots as I hate creamer.  For my DS1, there is also a starbucks music download card which I faithfully collect on his behalf.  My phone could be in there, but is currently in my pocket!

Day 41 - an early start for Valentine's

I couldn't pass up the snow that fell overnight as my photo for the day, but if you want a heart Miss Suzie, then you shall have one :)

Day 39

Fence wasn't exactly anything I was expecting as a prompt this morning! But in the way of things something turned up unexpectedly as I was on a cold walk to the wool shop. I've never noticed this before so wonder if someone has trimmed back the ivy but neatly fitted into the fence is a milepost and in the interest of recording my local surroundings this is today's photo :)

Day 40 - Compact

No imagination here - couldn't think of anything other than the obvious, my trusty Bobbi Brown face powder, which now has the bottom showing through!  It has to last until we go on holiday so that I can buy one in Duty Free again.  Love it!

Damaged!

Day 38

Today's post is very apt - the dishwasher is broken, the men came to fix it, and predictably they have to order parts which will take time and so they may be able to come back next week, and I'll have the pleasure of waiting for them for several hours to see if they turn up.  Hooray - not!

In the meantime, the kids are getting very good at washing up!

February 2

Day 34 - Interact

We had people for dinner on Friday, but sadly I didn't feel I knew them well enough to take photos to 'prove' my interaction and I was too busy to set up a fake interaction between the little darlings, so I had to settle for my online interaction - FB!   I'm not a prolific user but I do keep in touch with my cousin in America and a few other far flung friends, as well as discovering the minutiae of other friends' lives, and some nice crafty updates.

Day 35 - Liquid

Our dishwasher is kaput!  DS1 managed to break the timer light which has in turn jammed the switches.  I now have a marathon file search to find the receipt (from many years ago) to go with the insurance policy we have before I can get it repaired - grrrr.  In the meantime, my rarely used washing up liquid has come to the fore!

Day 36 - Rubbish!

This is the snow that kept us from going to visit my cousin and her family for Sunday lunch  - I was really looking forward to it so the fact that we couldn't sucks - in fact, it's rubbish!

Day 37 - Packaging

Definitely one of my bugbears, I am an eco warrior when it comes to unnecessary packaging, and yet we still seem to have so much.  This is the overflow from the recycle bin -the bin men are coming tomorrow - thank goodness.

A new month

February is here and here are my official photos to mark the days

Day 32 - Accessory

This is my favourite necklace.  It was bought for me by a very good friend and is made by a company called More Precious than Silver, who make gorgeous jewellery under fair trade conditions in Mexico.  I absolutely love it and as I wear so many turquoise things, I can wear it often.

Day 33 - button

why?  This is a photo collage of some of the buttons I pressed today!

There were less than I thought, although the only button I was wearing was my jeans and I forgot to take a photo of that!

One month gone - 31 photos taken

Well, the month has passed, slowly it seems. but it's been fun taking photos which show a snapshot of life from a different point of view - random prompts, and some of them have seemed pretty random, but in fact I rather like it because I have taken photos that I would not otherwise have thought of taking.  However, I'm further behind on the blog than ever!  Here are the last days of January.  February will follow in another post later :)

Day 25 - motionless.

My two youngest children in slug mode on the sofa - electronic and screens to the fore, they can sit for hours and not move more than a finger or two!

Day 26 - free choice

I've finished my first pair of socks - time to celebrate, especially as they are lovely and warm and it's cold outside.  I'm hooked, and just need to get to the wool shop to get more wool.  DD has joined the queue!

Day 27 - amazing

I took a photo of the lovely blue sky today.  I am a real SAD person so any sun and blue sky is very welcome especially in this rather dull January.  I went out for lunch at our local garden centre with a friend and came out to this beautiful sky.

Day 28 - fluffy

Well, I discovered I don't really have anything fluffy, so the nearest thing is my scarf which is ultra soft and has just been dragged out of storage as the cold weather is really here.  I've not missed the cold, but it's coming now with a vengeance.  I do love this scarf though, so silver lining!!

Day 29 - kitchen utensil

I have lots of these, but I chose to take a picture of our latest favourite gadget - a milk frother to make bubbles on the exceptionally nice coffee we were given for Christmas - courtesy of IKEA - Santa put it in DH's Christmas stocking :)

Day 30 - collection

These days my main collecting vice is stash, but that applies to most of us, so I delved back into the past, to my collection of Disney rubbers that I had when I was a child.  They are grubby and ancient by now, but I've been meaning to scrap them for ages, so a good excuse to take some photos.  This is one.

Day 31 - wheels

Not too many wheels in my life, except the four I drive in, but I trip over several each time I go out of the back door, I'm sure they hate me!! so these are the featured items for today.