ANDRÉE'S BLOG

Hello hello again!

2010-07-15T21:41:00.006+01:00

Well, surprise surprise I discovered that blogger is now much more user friendly and I managed to update the look of this blog to something a bit more fun. Knowing me I'll keep changing it lol. Anyway, I decided it was high time I put down some more memories of us as a family before the years all speed by. We have had a lot of fun in the last year and I want to document as much as I can so we can all look back on good times in the future. Here is a picture of the lovely cute George whose exploits recently have included turning on the hosepipe and watering the lounge, running all the way every day to playgroup without stopping (he seems to be quite fit!), getting out of nappies including at night (not once has he wet his bed, ever!), jumping for long periods of time on the trampoline, singing the grand old juke of york spontaneously while playing with his toys, and dancing very creatively also for long periods of time..!

PS...

I'm adding to this post in order to wish my wonderful husband a happy anniversary! We have now been married for fifteen years, and I thank God for every one of them. I love you Adrian xxx

More British Summer photo's!!

2009-08-26T19:59:00.007+01:00

Decided to Blog Again!

2009-08-26T18:33:00.006+01:00

Well, I've been working on my website and neglecting the blog, so I decided to revisit and post some pictures from our summer hols. We have been so happy to have sunny weather this year. It has been a fantastic summer! These are from a day trip to the beach...

Long Time, no post!

2009-07-18T10:11:00.002+01:00

Sorry I haven't blogged for so long! I've had a busy few months, and I've now begun my Expressionate Photography website (still a work in progress but getting there). I'm posting family photo's on there and I'm planning on updating this blog too from time to time too. In the meantime you can check out http://expressionate.co.uk/.

My Cool Teen (well one more year go go yet!)

2009-04-30T20:09:00.003+01:00

We had a great time discovering another local park this past weekend with loads of space for the children to run around. Lots to discover! I'm looking forward to going there again. Here's one of the photo's of Tamasin which I played around with...you would never know it was taken in a car park of a park... My children tell me they don't like this look... I'll probably look at it tomorrow and agree!

What we've been up to the past few days

2009-04-17T22:49:00.008+01:00

I had fun today with friends at an indoor children's play area with my three youngest children. I was even brave enough to go down the big inflatable slide with George. I quite surprised myself - I am normally chicken at anything like that LOL!

Yesterday I was out with the girls and George and we had a girly time. We did shopping (well, Supermarket shopping -not that exciting), we went to Starbucks and the girls had their hair cut. Tamasin and Charis look lovely and the hairdresser did a great job.

Here is another photo taken a couple of days ago on when we went out to the woods with a good friend of ours and her two lovely children.

Happy birthday to me!!

2009-04-14T15:02:00.004+01:00

I'm glad its the easter holidays because all the children are home and their little touches are helping to make today very special. Here are the messages that they wrote in my birthday card...

'To mum, I really think you are the most brill mum in the world. I love you and hope you have the best 38th birthday in the history of mankind. Love Henry. PS Hope your b'day is great. PPS I know I have already said that"

"To mum i fenk tat you ar the bstie mum in the weld and I lub yoo xxxxxxxxxx luv from Joel"

"Dear Mum, I love u mum your the best!!!! Lots of love from Charis xxx"

"To mum, Thanks for being so gr8. Happy Bday. Lots of love Tam xx"

"0=hug x=kiss To mum, love you! George 0x0x0x0x0x... and 1 more!"

And I also had a lovely message from Adrian in a card just from him!

These are the things that make it so special!

Here's another picture of two of the boys playing together...

PS. Excuse the new blog header, I thought it was a good idea at the time but it looks a little odd methinks....

Joel and George

2009-04-13T16:08:00.007+01:00

These two boys do love one another! It is so lovely to see George's older brothers and sisters looking after him and playing with him. And he loves them all so much!

Today I had a bit of fun with textures again....

Had another quick play in between housework LOL! I'm having a cleaning marathon today but we all need a quick break now and again, don't we?

Here's George....he's not looking at the camera, but never mind ;0) He is saying new words now, like "this", and he can finally say "no" instead of "mo". He is so expressive with his face its so funny. He had his shoes on today and he wanted some other ones on which were too big. He took off the ones he had on, saying "no" and shaking his head, looking worried. Then he tried to put the huge shoes on. Then he decided they were not right, so again, shook his had, saying "no", and finally with great difficulty finally managed to put the original ones on again (on the wrong feet probably). He is also mad on cars at the moment, especially the one he got from granny and grandad which he even sleeps with.

PRACTICING BACKLIGHTING

2009-04-09T23:00:00.005+01:00

I went out yesterday with a friend of mine and her children plus three of mine and they all had a great time climbing trees and enjoying the great outdoors! Afterwards I spent about 5 minutes trying to do backlighting, in full overhead sun! The sun was starting to go down a little so it was not directly overhead, but still pretty bright.

Fun at the Park

2009-04-07T16:03:00.003+01:00

This is from a while ago, and I wanted to try out another freebie from MCP. This time it's a frame action. I like it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ADRIAN!

2009-04-05T06:48:00.005+01:00

It's Adrian's birthday today and he is away from home. I have a busy day ahead so won't have a lot of time to talk to him during the day. But just in case he looks on my blog, here is a message...

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! I love you and I don't deserve you. Thanks for being YOU! And I hope that you have a great day today.

Here is a picture of your littlest son who loves you and misses you...

On another note, if you're a photographer I want to recommend MCP actions where I got two free actions and tried them out on this photo. One is to sharpen the photo, and the other is to bring out the lights and the darks. With these two actions, you hardly need to do anything else. I also increased the saturation slightly, and softened his skin slightly with the noise reduction median setting at 1 pixel. I think that these two actions are FANTASTIC!

The Gorgeous Charis

2009-04-02T06:50:00.008+01:00

Here's one of Charis from a while back.. with added texture. Just for fun!

And now for Adrian...and he's all mine!

2009-03-31T17:14:00.007+01:00

Another two of George from yesterday...

2009-03-31T14:31:00.007+01:00

I tried to replicate my post processing from yesterday, but to no avail. I did not write down exactly what I'd done. So these two are done slightly differently. I'm not sure which are better...

Fun time out today!

2009-03-30T22:47:00.006+01:00

Adrian and I went out to the woods near our house to try out the video camera and camera, for a quick half hour today. It was fun to try and learn how the video part of the camera works, and of course take some photo's. Here is the first one of George, and I'll post some more tomorrow, including some action shots of Adrian....

Photoshop is fun!!!

2009-03-29T17:05:00.020+01:00

Tamasin and Henry... and George to come. When I've had a bit more of a play with his pictures!

Henry the amazing photographer on the new camera

2009-03-25T21:53:00.027Z

Well, my wonderful husband managed to get me a new camera, and it is fantastic! Actually Henry took these photo's below, and I think he did a pretty good job. He is learning a lot of the technicalities and really enjoys learning how to be a good photographer. These photos were taken indoors at around iso 2500 if I remember rightly. This camera is GREAT for low light photography. These photo's have not received any photoshop treatment. They have only been cropped and re-sized for the web. These were also taken at a shallow depth of field (I think it was about f2.8) so considering that I think Henry did pretty well on his selective focusing.

George is looking rather forlorn here because he has been sick all last night and all day today. Poor little boy. So I have been doing my best to look after him.

Here are Henry's best ones...

The lovely George

2009-03-21T12:50:00.004Z

We had a great day a few weeks ago at a lovely country park, and here is a pic of George from that day. I wanted to see if I can still remember how to post these big images!

Okay, so maybe that is a bit too big! I will keep experimentingLOL!

Hi again!

2009-03-18T17:49:00.027Z

I've not posted in a while, life has been too busy! But it's all been good. It has been children's birthday season, and we had twenty nine children over for a party for Tamasin's birthday, and seventeen for Henry's. George also had his birthday and he made do with a small celebration at our parent and toddler group at church, Teeny Tots. Have also been super busy working with Adrian helping him with his book (proofreading marathon!). But the end is in sight, the deadline is in about a week and we are well on track. Praise God!

I just tried to widen the margins on the blog, by changing the html code. I wonder if it worked...it means that the photo's will be bigger...

Added note: Yay! After a few tries, it worked!
The next thing is to design a nice header and background and put those in..

Two cute kids!

2009-02-12T21:00:00.017Z

Joel has been doing very well at school. He got his school report and got straight A's. As an example of this, he told me the other day what he had been learning. He said, 'do you know mum, that there are seven continents? They're called planets.' Hmmmm....!

And here is the lovely sleeping George. His latest antics are climbing out of his cot, then wanting to be put back in so that he can climb back out, repeatedly! He also loves to roam about the house destroying everything in sight, and climbing up to reach what is out of sight. He can also now say 'bubbles' (as in bubblebath). He still calls Tamasin 'mum' (as well as me)! We are still trying to teach him to talk more, but he still prefers smiling and nodding. He is very cute, and loves to give us cuddles.

We will all be very glad to see Adrian back tonight after his week away. We've all been missing him, and it will be great to have him back again!

GEORGE IN THE GARDEN

2009-01-29T11:31:00.003Z

George and I like to go into the garden (although it is cold, wet and muddy), to look at the fish and check they're all okay (in our pond), and have a little explore. Here is George trying to get the hang of riding the scooter. He is quite the perseverer!

Butlins and Tamasin

2009-01-28T22:18:00.003Z

Hi there! Well we just had a brilliant weekend away at Butlins with our church, and it was fun! I especially loved seeing our four youngest children all on the Noddy's car and other little rides just to keep George company and look after him. It was a great time. George loved it. It was hard work running after George a lot but I wouldn't have missed it. It was a great time. My camera seems to be working again so that's good. Unfortunately I didn't bring it to Butlins. One of the problems with having an expensive camera (even though mine is quite old now) is that you feel scared to take it on holiday etc with you for fear you will lose it, drop it or get it stolen! And in our rush to get out we didn't bring our little pocket camera with us; what a shame.

Here is a picture of the beautiful Tamasin.

LONG TIME NO POSTING - AGAIN!

2009-01-22T12:08:00.003Z

I have been so busy since my last post with life in general, and doing photography. I have done several photo sessions with my lights for various people, and it has been so much fun! I have learned so much, and yet there is so much to learn.

Unfortunately, the main instrument of the activity (aka the camera) has DIED!! Well, not exactly, but it has an intermittent fault where half of the image is black. I need to find out how much the repair will cost and how long it will take... I have heard these things can take around 6 weeks.. I hope not!

George and Dad

2008-12-21T22:10:00.003Z

When I was looking at my photos I saw a cute photo of George and Dad.

So then I thought to myself AAh thats a cute photo its nice to see little George with his Dad.

And after that I adjusted it.

(BY CHARIS WARNOCK)

more lights practice

2008-12-09T14:29:00.002Z

More lighting practice. This time going for a much more even softer effect...

More practice with lights

2008-12-03T13:32:00.008Z

Not surprisingly, but this studio lights lark seems to be a lot harder than it looks. Half of the problem is a lack of space in our house to set it all up in! Anyway, here are a couple of Joel.

LOOKING FOR MODELS

2008-11-20T17:31:00.003Z

If anyone I know who lives nearby would like to have a free photoshoot, I would love to practice on your children. Let me know!

George the Grump

2008-11-18T13:38:00.003Z

George is so funny... I am trying to get a bit of practice every now and then with my lights and backdrop etc, and you would think that I have no problem getting models to sit for me. Well, George seems to think that this job is for him only. He fiercely guards his position as my model, and will not let any of his brothers and sisters sit in 'his' chair for the camera. This photo says it all.....

Tamasin the model!

2008-11-08T20:54:00.007Z

Had some fun with my lights today with Tamasin..... It seems like yesterday when she was my first little baby! How time flies...

Cross Processing Charis

2008-11-04T17:17:00.003Z

I was browsing through old photo's and tried a cross-processing effect whilst erasing back the skin, hair etc. I know the eyes aren't as sharp as they could be (but this was taken ages ago!!). But I had fun and this is the result.

Oh the Logical Mind of a Five Year Old!

2008-11-01T13:57:00.004Z

I just had to record this funny moment with Joel today...

He had been helping with loading the dishwasher.

'Mum'

'Yes Joel'

'The dishwasher's loaded now, I just don't know what button to press'

'Okay Joel, let me come and help you. Oh, we can't put it on yet because it's not full yet. We'll put it on when it's full.'

A few minutes later.....

'Mum, the dishwasher's ready to put on now, there was no dirty stuff left so I decided to fill it up with clean stuff!'

2nd try on black and white Joel

2008-10-30T19:31:00.003Z

Well, I am grateful to Adrian (not hubby Adrian, but Adrian the professional photorapher), who commented on the first version of these black and white pictures. So I am taking the opportunity to learn, and here is my second attempt. I can see that the 1st images were indeed a bit 'grey', so the question is, are they now improved any? Let me know!

Black and white Joel

2008-10-30T15:09:00.004Z

I did some more practicing today using the silver side of a reflector to improve catchlights; and also working on using custom white balance and manual exposure. Joel is a very obliging model which is why he seems to feature more than my other children!

George has CHICKEN POX!

2008-10-28T21:02:00.003Z

Well, I did wonder if he was coming down with something yesterday, as he was not quite his usual cheery self. And sure enough, this morning, SPOTS!!! Poor little boy! We set him up on the sofa with LaLa, and his cup, and his little pillow and duvet, and although he kept getting up, he frequently went back to his little 'bed' on the sofa and languished whilst watching childrens TV. He has been quite miserable but we have prayed for him and are hoping it won't get very much worse before it gets better.

It's half term hols for our children, so I decided to try and work out how to use my lights which I have had sitting in the house for several months without me really having had the time to try them out properly. Its a lot harder than I thought, especially as I am trying to do high key with only 2 lights and a reflector.... All the numbers and ratios etc, I really struggle to understand. Henry is being my right hand man, and is learning alongside me. We have had lots of fun, although it has been VERY scary having George around because he is a little too interested in lights, light stands and cameras!

You will see two similar photo's of George. One is an untouched photo of him in his full chicken pox glory (such that it is on day one!), and the other is George with spots removed. Don't look too closely it's not a perfect job. Finally you can see George in his little bed where he has been lying today.

Two more of Joel

2008-10-20T21:15:00.003+01:00

Adrian and I have just had a weekend in Istanbul which was a great time. I will post pictures of the weekend very soon. But for today I will post a couple of Joel which I took today. The lighting was terrible: typical dull English weather which meant high ISO and not very impressive catchlights in the eyes. But it's still my lovely boy Joel ;0)

my three boys

2008-10-05T20:18:00.003+01:00

Its funny because when I think of other people who have three boys I think, wow, three boys! I don't really apply that to myself though, I don't know why. But I do have three boys, and they are all very different and very lovely. Henry is a clever boy who is really thoughtful and affectionate. I really appreciate it when he asks how my day went etc. Joel is really fun loving and also very affectionate. He always asks me for a big hug, and laughs when I say, that will be 30p please! (just a joke). So he gives me imaginary money and I give him a big hug. George is a cute boy who is starting to run around and say things, like more, up, nana (banana). He just started saying dada today. But alas he still calls me baa. Never mind, he will learn in time....

I have not taken photos for a while but I have decided to try and make an effort to keep up doing this blog, and try to improve my post-processing. I am still on my quest to improve my pp re skin tones, and I have been learning some new ways to help with this using photoshop.

Long time no blog!

2008-09-29T18:51:00.004+01:00

It's been so long since I posted on my blog, and indeed so long since I spend time on my photography hobby. Despite having thought that life would get less busy as the children grew older, I am finding that life is getting more busy! It might have something to do with having a little 18month old boy....! I am, however, glad to have things to fill my day because I have been in the position before when I was unable to do anything (when I was on bedrest during my pregnancy with George). I can say that I prefer being able to do things than not. I am actually not very good at resting and doing nothing LOL!

Tamasin is now safely at secondary school, which she is really enjoying. She is doing well with learning to take responsibility and be organised. She has also taken on clarinet lessons. She did well and got a merit for her grade 2 piano exam. Henry got a merit for his grade 1 keyboard exam. We have given her a desk area upstairs to do all her homework so that helps with not losing her books etc. The other children obviously have gone up a year also, and seem to be happy with their new teachers. Joel likes his new teacher because she looks very much like Martha from Dr Who!

We have these big pictures in our lounge of the children which I took years ago and really need replacing, as well as the fact that George is noticeably absent. So today I got some photo's ready and have sent them to the lab to be printed at 12' by 12". I really hope they turn out well in print. I am a bit nervous LOL! Anyway, here they are. They are probably already on the blog elsewhere, but I wanted to get five pictures that kind of went together as well.

Did I ever tell you how much George loves ice cream?

2008-07-15T22:50:00.002+01:00

Well, he does!

Caring Tamasin and Sleepy George

2008-07-13T21:07:00.003+01:00

Tamasin is such a caring big sister to her little brother George. And George loves her to bits! Its a shame I cut his hand off though! (not in real life- in the photo). I couldn't resist this other photo also, taken yesterday at the school fete..poor tired boy!

Going for a wee wet walk

2008-07-07T17:59:00.004+01:00

Today the children had no school so we went for a walk to the shops to get some sweets! Joel found a worm, and asked, "mum, is this nature?" I'm sure I have taught him about these things before.....! Charis had fun riding her bike until one of the tyres deflated so much I had to carry the bike and she had to push the buggy. Then on the way back we got caught in torrential rain and looked like drowned rats. I felt particularly sorry for poor little George...

Checking the colors....

2008-07-05T12:07:00.008+01:00

I just tried to do a postcard of the lovely Joel and Tamasin. I am still struggling with getting the skin tones right. The colors always look off on this blog, compared to in my photo editor. If you have any ideas, please let me know! Does anyone know how to check the colorspace for blogger, or safari or firefox??

Practicing getting correct exposure

2008-07-04T21:48:00.002+01:00

I read an article on exposure today and learned about how to achieve perfect exposure. So..... excited as I was to practice, I took some pictures of Joel watching the TV! Well, I don't know if the exposure was perfect, but I was glad to have made a tiny bit of progress today!

The sun is STILL out....

2008-06-30T22:21:00.002+01:00

....and five children are still enjoying the garden! We have been having such lovely weather lately, and it has prompted me to get my camera out again and have a bit of fun! I am currently concentrating on trying to get absolutely correct exposure and also trying to perfect my post processing technique. I find that if the exposure is off it is much harder to get the skin tones to look right. I am going to go on some more training soon so hopefully that will help. I spent literally about five minutes taking photo's. My children are very longsuffering..... LOL! You may notice that George is still covered in his sandwiches too... Joel as usual is pulling his funny faces ;0) The children have been enjoying playing cricket lately, and also football shooting into the goal. The trouble is they keep on losing their balls over fences and on the roof of our garden shelter. Henry did ask me to get up on the roof of the shelter to retrieve several balls, but I am afraid I declined!

Horray the sun is out!!

2008-06-25T19:55:00.006+01:00

It is great that Summer seems to have arrived.... We have been out in the garden a lot and the children have had a lot of fun in the garden with their friends. We are so grateful to have a lovely garden to enjoy. Henry is even getting back into football again after saying he wasn't keen on it for ages!

making postcards!

2008-06-15T22:11:00.008+01:00

I have been having some fun making postcard sized cards, starting with one for my dad for fathers day (the rabbit is there as a joke because they have pet rabbits and my dad really likes them). I had so much fun playing around making these! We had a lovely afternoon in the garden today, it being a sunny day (horray!!). Having bought a petrol mower we are keeping up with mowing the lawn which makes the garden look so much nicer. The next job is to sort out our decking, which has all this peeling paint on it and it really needs cleaning, sanding etc, and repainting. If we have a week without rain, then hopefully we will be able to get that job done. We had a lovely afternoon and evening with granny and grandad and cousin Kai on Saturday, and thankfully we had really nice weather. There was a lot of activity going on, such as cricket and table tennis, football, and a game of bowling on the nintendo wii (granny won that one AGAIN!) We had a great time at church today, and somebody became a christian which was really fantastic!

Hi again!

2008-06-09T14:25:00.010+01:00

I have been busy and not posted for a while again! My photography course has now finished so no more homework!!! We had a great Sunday yesterday, as our church had a fun day in the park aka 'Church in the Park'. We had food, bouncy castle, a talent show, and a church service to boot. We had a fantastic day. I will try and find some pics to put on the blog, but for now here are a few more of the lovely George....

Been busy this half term!

2008-05-30T23:31:00.004+01:00

(Just a quick picture of the lovely George to start with..!)

Now onto the subject of todays post....

It is the last day of the children's half term holidays and we have been having lots of fun doing a spot of decorating. The main children who showed a lot of interest were Joel and Tamasin. They both loved stripping off the wallpaper from the toilet wall, using a scraper and a spray bottle full of water to wet down the wallpaper. Tamasin was the main design influence. She chose white walls with a few blue bits and bobs on a seaside theme. The room, although not professionally done looks far better than it did before so we are really happy. The other room which we have partly done is Adrian and my bedroom which involved painting one wall a lovely chocolate brown, and coordinating the rest of the room with the new color scheme. I was impressed with Tamasin's design ideas. She is on a roll now, and wants to do other rooms! We will have to wait a while for that though LOL!

George

2008-05-22T20:53:00.006+01:00

I just spent 5 mins again with George in the garden, he is teething at the moment so not too happy today! Oh, I pressed a button and the pictures turned out bigger!

Charis again

2008-05-22T09:16:00.002+01:00

I had 5 minutes so I quickly pp'd one of my recent photo's of Charis. It was no good for my homework as it doesn't follow all the rules but I still like it ;0)

Shiny Eyes!

2008-05-21T23:16:00.003+01:00

I am currently working hard at trying to capture great catchlights in the eyes, when taking photographs. Finding the right quantity and quality of natural light is easier said than done! Anyway, here is my best one taken today when out in the garden playing with George.

All about George

2008-05-20T21:17:00.009+01:00

I haven't blogged for a while. Life always seems very busy but I wanted to do another post as it has been a while. George is at last walking! He still crawls when he feels like it, and walks when he feels like it. He is very proud of himself, and if you say, 'stand up', he seems to understand and he stands up for you. He also likes playing a game where he throws balls at you and he wants you to throw them back. Another thing he does is putting things in things. I am now finding strange objects in strange places... He likes to put a lot of things inside the waste paper basket so I always have to check there! George is growing yet more teeth now, and is suffering a bit, poor boy, as he has about three coming up at once. His latest word is 'there' which he says really quite well (with the 'th'!). It one of his first words, apart from 'mumma', and 'annya' (meaning he wants something'). If you ask him where something is, if he is on form, he will say, 'there!'

Charis is growing up

2008-05-12T00:56:00.004+01:00

I took some pics of Charis today, and she is starting to look more grown now, don't you think? (for those that know her!)

Thanks for your lovely comments!

2008-05-06T09:45:00.016+01:00

I just wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who have put lovely comments on my blog.
It is really appreciated!!

Well, it appears that Carole Marie, a new friend in the photography world, has tagged me on her blog, which requires me to answer a few questions…. and since I admire her in a BIG way, I don't mind doing so :)

The rules are:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago
Being a stay-at-home mum to my one year old daughter Tamasin (now 11, pictured above)

Five things on my To Do List today:
Cleaning
Laundry
Internet order
Cooking
Looking after my hubby, 5 children and two houseguests

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Catch up on the DIY jobs in our house and garden!!!!
Drill loads of boreholes for people in Africa to get water, finance orphanages, schools and whatever I could do...
Buy houses for family members and a massive new building
(Have I spent it all yet......?!)

Three of my bad habits: Not drinking enough water, not getting enough sleep, putting off the things I don’t want to do (I copied you there, Carole!)

Five places I've lived: Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Belgium, England

Five jobs I’ve had: Sweet shop assistant, reception hostess for an Italian restaurant, library assistant, Occupational Therapist

People I want to know more about (a nice way of saying TAG!):
Adrian Warnock !!!
Erm......Who else has a blog....? Let me know if you want to join in .....LOL!
I will add to this later !!

Thanks for the Lovely cc

2008-05-06T09:44:00.000+01:00

Tamasin getting some fresh air

2008-04-28T22:00:00.010+01:00

Tamasin has a piano exam the day after tomorrow, and I have been helping her to do a lot of practice especially with her scales, in preparation for the exam. The exam is shortly after school, where she will have spent most of her day doing SATS practice, poor thing! She has a lot on her plate at the moment, also having her SATS tests in a couple of weeks time. Anyway, in one of her breaks from piano practice, I thought I would take a couple of pictures of her. She promised to be my model for my homework this week. Thanks Tam! I was trying some funny effects with these pics. I was going for a kind of rustic look, partly because of the graininess caused by having to use a high ISO.

Playing with photo's while sneezing!

2008-04-27T22:44:00.003+01:00

Had a bit more fun with a Charis photo, because I cannot concentrate on anything else while full of cold today. I am determined to be better tomorrow, because I want to get on with life again!!

I love black and white!

2008-04-27T18:03:00.005+01:00

I have been experimenting with black and white...been trying to have fun while I am sick with a cold. Adrian is looking after the children for me while I am upstairs sneezing. What a lovely husband he is!

Dandelions and gardening

2008-04-26T04:40:00.005+01:00

George had a bit of fun in the garden yesterday, and Henry and I took turns pushing him on the swing. He loved it. But he kept leaning down to try and get the dandelions which were growing in the grass near his feet. That gives you an idea of the state of our garden!! But I do kind of like the look of daisies and dandelions growing in the grass. However, I can see that after the winter we are getting into gardening season again.

More homework.....

2008-04-25T21:11:00.005+01:00

I am still using Henry to work on my photography assignments... still not finished them yet. Hopefully will finish tomorrow as the deadline is Sunday. One photo is where the subject has to be inside some sort of 'frame', and the other is where the subject is being photographed from a different perspective.

Thank you Henry

2008-04-24T22:26:00.002+01:00

Henry is such a star as he has been so willing to help me out with my photography course homework. He willingly posed for me, and here is the best one so far.....Thanks Henry!

Just for fun!

2008-04-23T11:02:00.001+01:00

Having some fun using photoshop elements which I downloaded as a free trial...

Spring is coming (hopefully!)

2008-04-22T10:30:00.003+01:00

Although it is meant to be Spring, the weather has been really quite chilly and wet. There have not been many days when the grass in the garden has not been muddy! But on this day, the grass had dried out a bit, and it was quite warm, so we had some fun in the garden. George loves being outside exploring the world. Even though he had conjunctivitis he was smiling :0)

Family day out

2008-04-21T07:29:00.009+01:00

We recently all went out on a day trip to see Kensington Palace, where we saw a Princess Diana exhibition. I remember the day she died; it was when Tamasin was just a toddler. To see how she gave of herself for the encouragement of others was quite moving. No photography was allowed inside the palace, unfortunately. We had a great day in Central London, and went to a fantastic children's playground (see ship photo) which had a Peter Pan theme and was built in Diana's memory. Of course no trip to London would be complete without pigeons. There were a lot of pigeons, just sitting on the grass which we thought looked quite funny. The children also had fun chasing a poor swan. Honestly Joel!!!!! Don't worry the swan made it safely back to the lake.

Let sleeping boys lie...

2008-04-21T06:52:00.004+01:00

The eldest and youngest members of my family....... I thought they looked quite cute!
(I was also experimenting with trying to do a 'watermark'... )

Funny Saying from 5 year old Joel

2008-04-12T16:34:00.003+01:00

Joel is getting very clever as he is getting older. He is often telling me interesting facts. His latest was this... 'Mum, I know how doctors carry their telescopes...' and with that he casually placed the 'stethoscope' over one shoulder so that it dangled there looking very professional! What an observant fellow he is (even if his facts aren't quite right!).

Henry

2008-04-11T12:28:00.002+01:00

Here are two pics of Henry,for today. I am being picky with myself and am not happy with the composition of either (not following the rule of thirds very well). Doing this photography course is making me really think before pressing the shutter.
But Henry was keen to model for me so I was very grateful and he does look pretty cool I think !

One more of the beautiful Charis!

2008-04-10T12:38:00.003+01:00

I forgot to include this one in today's gallery of Charis....

Introducing Charis!

2008-04-10T07:52:00.003+01:00

Charis, our lovely seven year old daughter, is the star of todays blog post. I am starting a photography course online at the moment, and she has been such a help to me, allowing me to take pictures of her. Charis is cute, creative, affectionate and cheerful. I am so grateful to God for her and the rest of my family too. They love me even though I do sometimes struggle to be the wife and mum that I would like to be, and I am grateful to God for that. And I am even more grateful for God's continued acceptance and faithfulness to me.

Psalm 79
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Happy Birthday to Adrian!

2008-04-08T12:21:00.003+01:00

We are having a lot of birthdays lately, and I am also late with posting Adrian's happy birthday message! I am very grateful to God for my wonderful husband who I have been married to for thirteen years this July. Adrian is a very exuberant extrovert who has a huge capacity for all things intellectual. As this is a birthday (although belated) message, I am not going to embarass him and tell you stories about his prowess in areas of physical strength and agility. Or about the time he tested a coat rail I had put up to make sure it was strong enough to hold coats..... Or indeed about a particular talent he has perfected over the years in breaking chairs.

Anyway, I really do appreciate Adrian. He has a big and generous heart, and an unreserved love for God. Although his little ways can sometimes drive me up the wall ;) , I love him and am so glad to have him share his life with me all these years. Happy belated birthday Adrian xxxxx

Happy Birthday To Tamasin!

2008-04-08T11:17:00.002+01:00

I have not blogged for a while owing to technical hitches with the computer etc, and the novelty of blogging wearing off, hee hee hee !!! Anyway, on the 11th of March it was my lovely eldest daughter Tamasin's 11th birthday. She is growing up to be a real helper. She can bake cakes all by herself, and make me a lovely cup of coffee. She knows how to bring a smile to my face. Tamasin is a great helper in many areas, and I love the fact that she and I share the same sense of humor! Whenever Adrian (my husband) doesn't get my joke, Tamasin will give me a laugh (even if just to humor me!)

Pics of George's Birthday

2008-03-10T22:52:00.005Z

George had a lovely day at home with mum today, as the weather outside has been very windy, cold and rainy. Here are a couple pictures of the highlights of his day, ie. opening presents, playing with new toys and eating cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GEORGE!

2008-03-10T10:53:00.000Z

Today is our cute lovely boy George's 1st birthday! His brothers and sisters love him to bits and are so glad to have him; its like he has three dads and three mums in our house. He has just learned to crawl properly, although he still sometimes slips into his old faithful method of pulling himself along on his belly. He is saying 'mama', 'dada' and 'nya nya' which accompanied by lots of banging about seems to mean he wants something. I don't think he has any idea that it is a special day to him but we got him a few toys for his birthday anyway. He absolutely loves his present from his granny and grandad, a farmers tractor with animals which makes noises. He has been spending a lot of time playing with that. Thank you granny and grandad!

Picture of Joel

2008-03-09T20:12:00.000Z

Here is a picture of Joel where I told him not to do his 'smiling for the camera' smile!! When he saw the photo he said it's not a nice photo because he's not smiling. But I think he looks cute!

My First Posting

2008-03-08T16:10:00.000Z

Hi! At long last I am doing what I said I would never do....start my own blog! The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of photo's of my family and what we've been up to. I'm not that good with real life diaries and photo albums because I tend to lose them! This is a picture of Henry who's just turned nine. That's all for today!