Photo Scavenger Hunt

For skywatch please scroll down to the bottom of this post.

I stumbled across this blog by chance earlier this month.

Being a fan of random photos I decided to try my hand at the scavenger hunt. A lot of them are taken with my phone so a bit blurry. I will try and take my camera out and about with me more often next month.

The photos we needed to find for June were

a childhood memory - my old house. I was passing one day so stopped the car and grabbed a quick shot from the car.

a farm animal - a duck counts right?

an elephant - this one posed me a problem until last night when I was in B&Q and saw this baby bedding display - very quick rubbish shot as I felt a bit silly

architectural detail - for this one I chose Blackpool Tower. Not quite the Eiffel Tower but still an architectural delight

cheese - all month I've been meaning to take a picture and ended up leaving it until the last minute when we only have Dairylea triangles left

cutlery - my middle son has special cutlery because of his hypermobile fingers so this is those intermingled with some other bits and pieces after I washed them

night - 3:26am the time I had to get up to take my husband to work one weekend this month so he could go to a motorshow where his work were having a stand.

something beginning with z... our car - a Zafira

the view right outside your door this one I combined with the next one as the view from our door is very boring and usually just has cars but the other day a posh one was there
a wheeltrim - yes I know it is an alloy wheel but it does have a trim on the centre

something with your town's name on it - the timetable at the local train station

tree branches -we encountered these branches while we were out for a walk

and finally today for this weeks Skywatch is a seagull in a perfect vantage point to spy on people and getting ready to pounce when they get some food out at Blackpool

Oopsie

On Monday evening I went to pull that cord that would bring the slats of the venetian blind in the kitchen down so I could shut it and the whole lot came flying down along with plaster, dust and a right mess.

Now the blind has been in place for well over 10 years and our first thought was that some damp had gotten in there somehow but it was all as dry as a bone.  I have no idea why it fell down but we were left with a bit of a problem to solve because I hate not having anything up at the window.  We live in a long terrace with other houses looking straight across at both front and back so I needed to do something to have a bit of privacy.

I ended up making a dash to town yesterday morning before a hospital appointment to source some net curtaining and a tension rod.  Luckily there was some plain net in a clearance bin at only £1 a metre so I snapped it up and spent the afternoon taking it up by a few inches and then ironing the creases out. Plus scrubbing the window and surrounding area.

It isn't perfect but much better than nothing until we can get the plaster sorted out.

I really can't wait to start decorating the kitchen.  The green paint is vibrant and loud and I hate it with a passion.  It is such an immense task though so I'm thinking of maybe september when the kids go back and the weather isn't too hot or too cold.

Looksie at what I got in the post today.

Enough to open a wool shop I think.  They were bargain packs at stupid prices so I guess I'm going to be busy making some flowers for the shop in some lovely new colours.

Hot Hot Hot

Well it looks like we have summer here in the UK for maybe a couple of days.

I'm not a fan of intense heat and prefer spring and autumn to summer.  It is so much more comfortable to be out and about in cooler conditions and definitely preferable for sleeping.  Not that we have been getting much sleep recently as the equivalent of the Jeremy Kyle show have moved into a rented house over the back from us. 1am they decided to take themselves and their loud conversations inside last night. Anyway the forecast is for cooler conditions from tomorrow so maybe sleep will come easier.

This lady will be happier (I hope) when the sun turns the thermostat down a few degrees.  She is in season at the moment and is not happy at all.  When she is in season she pees more frequently, the weather means she needs more water so therefore is peeing even more.  Poor love is being hounded by our male dog who, despite having been castrated, is very randy and won't leave her alone.

My husband on the other hand loves the warm weather and would spend his time outside if he wasn't working.  He took our youngest camping in the Yorkshire countryside on saturday for the night before the weather got stupidly hot.  Boring, moaning old me refuses to go. My excuse is nobody to look after the dogs as the eldest teens wouldn't hear them if it involved getting up before 11am. The real reason (and he knows it) is that I prefer to have comfort and practicality surrounding me on my holiday.  Having to tramp through a muddy field to a toilet in the early hours of the morning is just not going to happen.  Caravans yes (with a proper flushing toilet) tents absolutely not!

The place they went to looked gorgeous from the photos he brought back and I wouldn't mind a drive out there (just not overnight).

This photo makes my heart jump a bit with terror - look at that slope!

and this one - well it sums up my little man.  He has aspergers and has to know everything about everything and apparently he NEEDED to know the workings of this train carriage.  He never stops talking and last time they went camping middle man went with them aswell. He texted me several times saying he was fed up of little mans random facts about things he had no desire to know.  Aspergers meets autism with those two. People say they are the same thing but not so with my two. Their traits are so different it is unbelievable.

Anyway back to trying to cool down.  I've given up with my hair.  It is straight but even the power of three day frizz free from Frizz-Ease isn't working so for the first time in  a very long time my hair is tied up. My face has a nice red glow and sheen and not from the sun I would add lol.

Skywatch - 23rd June 2011

My little man loves to watch the clouds.

Busy Busy Busy

Oh gosh - no time to blog and the more I leave it the less time I seem to find so I'm still here just

BUSY BUSY BUSY

like these little things at this time of year

and stressed on top of stressed with a whole heap of things that I won't go into on here - some for professional reasons others because they are quite personal involving how cruel kids can be about others who are different to them. I might talk about it one day but right now I am trying to stop myself getting too annoyed about how my son has been treated.

I had to miss the Punky Scraps challenge last Friday because with all the stress going on I just didn't have the energy to make the layout I had started come across as lighthearted as the pictures are.  It is still half done and I will get around to it sooner or later when I am in the right frame of mind.  If I had had the time I could have done a very angry punky layout but unfortunately meetings etc prevented that.  Please do stop over at the Punky Scraps blog to see the challenge for last week and take a look at what the fabulous design team have created.  Plus there is an extra challenge.

One very good thing that happened this last week was that I got a custom order for my flowers  from a scrapbook kit supplier so I'm busy in a good way crocheting like mad but I'm enjoying it more than ever. So I guess that now makes me a professional hooker lol.  I have to chuckle at that term.

Skywatch - 16th June

Punky Scraps & Days 8 9 and 10

First up is this weeks Punky Scraps Challenge

It is a photo inspiration

Perfect for all those 80s photos I have in the loft but they are impossible to get to without embarking on an expedition of mountainous proportions so I took my inspiration from the 3x3 grid and came up with this.

It is one of the only layouts I have ever done on A4 and it wasn't planned that way.  This piece of corrugated card was an insert in a pack of photo paper and I had put it to one side meaning to cut it up into shapes.  When I was looking for a piece of cardstock for my base it spoke to me (well not really spoke but you know what I mean lol)

Onto the 30 day June challenge and days 8 9 and 10

Day 8 was sunset

I have loads of sunset pictures but I wanted to play properly and use the sunset from the actual day.  I ended up using my phone so the photo is very grainy

The clouds look rather menacing

Day 9 was fresh fruit

This was what my son took to school with his lunch

Day 10 is animal.

I took this quick phone shot of the heffalump sat on my feet most of the time aka Daisy dog

30 Day June Photo Challenge - Days 5 6 and 7

Here are days 5 6 and 7 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge

Day 5 is breakfast today.  Breakfast on day 5 was 2 shredded wheat, milk and grapes with a cup of coffee in my favourite Cath Kidston mug.

Day 6 is Books.  We have tons of books, mostly kiddie ones, so I thought I had better get a shot of the more grown up ones.

Day 7 is High Angle.  The most obvious would be a shot from the loft window but I guess for regular readers that isn't anything different.  I walked past this graveyard this morning which is on quite a hill so I figured I would use that instead.

There are lots of people playing along with this challenge on the flickr group.  People blogging about it aswell that I know of are Michelle, Katy, Alissa, Julie

Punky Scraps Blog Hop

Welcome if you have headed this way from Jolanda and hello to anybody who has stepped in from another source :)

Today is an exciting day in the Punky Scraps calendar. We are having a blog hop to celebrate the launch of the new team and also to say a fond farewell to retiring team members.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be staying on and am looking forward to punking it up over the coming months.

The blog hop is based around this amazing sketch





and this is my take on it

You next stop on the hop is Nina.

Bye for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with more from the June 30 Day Challenge

30 Day June Photo Challenge

For more info on this challenge please see here

I forgot to put up day one so here you go. I hate self portraits of me.

Day 2 I showed you already.

Day 3 was hands. Easy I thought until I realised I can't photograph both hands without using the self timer which I haven't yet mastered. I must learn how to do that. So I settled for just one hand.




Today (day 4) is clouds.

June 30 Day Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 of the June 30 Day Challenge is your favourite shoes.

I chose my wellington boots. I use them for dog walking and yardwork.

Skywatch - 2nd June 2011

Taken earlier this week while I was waiting for a train

For more skies from around the world please take a moment to visit Skywatch Friday (active from 730pm GMT every thursday)

Clouds WIPS and A June Photo Challenge

I've started a new blog for anybody who is interested in clouds and skies etc.  I will be posting skywatch skies over there in future and probably use this blog for my personal and craft stuff.

The Craft Garden June challenge is up.  I made this flower but forgot that hubby is away camping with the boys until later today and he has the camera so had to use my phone which is why it is a crappity crap piccie.

The challenge is from the traditional wedding rhyme - something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.  I left out the something borrowed bit as I thought that once you have something on a layout or card etc then you ain't going to want to give it back.

My old is the fabric, new is the blue lace and blue is obviously the lace but also the navy blue button.

At the weekend I had a really good think about my knitting and where I was going with all the works in progress I had.  It was getting out of hand. I admitted to myself that I am a serial starter of projects.  There was only one thing for it. I needed a fresh start so I frogged the bloody lot of them.  There were about a dozen things - socks, shawls, scarves all of which would never have been finished.  My head is a lot clearer and I really wanted to get started on a granny stripe blanket as a throw for the living room.  We all know that the little voices will say "start me" over and over whenever I see a new project and yes I probably will start them and rebuild a new pile of WIPs but for now I am focusing on this

For more WIPs please see TamisAmis

I found this via a friend yesterday.  I am going to try and take part as the list looks quite do-able.