Some days you just don't feel like taking photographs, especially self portraits, but if you've committed to a 365 project you just have to force yourself and do it anyway - today was one of those days.

I'm preparing for the coming cold spell by digging out all my hot water bottles working out how I can strap them to my body.

Happy Lego Bench Monday!

Oh dear, it looks like this scientist might be about to make a serious boo-boo. Just where are the contents of that test tube going to end up - the conical flask or her mug of tea??! Health and safety would be going mad seeing this.

Resolution - MCP Project 12

After buying a 365 origami desk calendar this year and digging out my childhood origami book, I wondered whether these creations might make good photo props. The idea for this photo then popped into my head, to symbolise my favourite quote of all time and my mantra for this year:

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" 

Mathatma Gandhi

I thought that adding some brightly coloured flowers to a rather lifeless winter tree was a fun way to show that you can make a difference in the world!

It is not humanly possible to open a pack of Rich Tea biscuits, eat a couple, then put the packet away - it has to be forcibly removed from my grasp!

All day I've felt like my head was stuffed full of marshmallows.

My right middle finger is getting a little sore from my knitting attempts, so I trawled the net and found Finger Gloves which protect your fingers from the sharp needles, only to then not be able to find them in the UK - how annoying.

Often when you see something with a scientific eye, you fail to see its beauty.

Military Bling - A Weekend Outfit

If I'm feeling uninspired for what to wear, I can always bring out this favourite jacket of mine to add a bit of bling!

Jacket: Spy Exchange from TK Maxx

Dress: Primark

Buttons on dress: Vintage Military buttons from my mum's collection

Boots: Barratts

Ring: Accessorize (I think!)

Hair: New style I came up with!

An early night calls for me, and my planned blog post will just have to wait until tomorrow.

I think I am going to have to give in and finally start using Photoshop Elements as my main photo editing software, even though it looks scary!

I've been having some pretty weird, and somewhat scary, dreams lately, so I'm not really looking forward to going to sleep tonight.

Happy Lego Bench Monday!

Fancy that? The postman delivering a letter to a bench address! Now that is a good service.

Still can't get over the news about Picnik closing - it's a travesty.

Please Help Save Picnik!

If you're anything like me you've spent all weekend in grief, shock and anger at the news of the closure of Picnik. I still can't believe it. I use Picnik to edit pretty much all of my photos and am on it every day. I'm always telling people how great it is. I have it open on another tab right now, but it is tinged with sadness because we only have 3 months left together. This might seem like an overreaction, but many others feel the same, and there are angry comments being left on the Picnik blog and petitions to sign.

If you are affected in any way by the closure of Picnik, please sign this petition and lets hope somehow we can save it!

I finally know my answer to the question of which celebrity I'd most like to meet - it has to be Karl Pilkington - I'd just love to have a chat with him!

From the Attic - Project 52 Week 2

 

This was a genuine attic find. A while ago I was rumaging in my mum's loft when I found this 1960's/70's original Bullworker complete with fantastic photographic workout instructions! It belonged to my dad and as he is no longer with us I get all sentimental about his things so I knew I had to keep it. It has been sitting in my cellar for a while now with my other exercise equipment, but it hasn't been used since. I did try having a go but it is really difficult. I guess it wasn't aimed at females anyway. I will try out some of those other exercises from the sheet - if only for my own amusement.

Quiz nights are always good for learning new facts and tonight I learnt that Cyprus is a Commonwealth country and Salisbury cathedral has the tallest spire.

Getting a little obsessed with Barbie shoes; on the pretence that they are only props for a photograph.

Meet the Fish!

So far my fish have proved to be pretty camera shy, but that actually says more about me than them. It is so hard to get a good shot of them. Anyway, they've been named after 2 of my favourite TV shows - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Mentalist. Meet Buffy and Angel (the black ones) and Rigsby and Van Pelt!!

Watched a very odd documentary on Channel 4 tonight called Talhotblonde - quite disturbing.

Pink and Green Should Be Seen - A Weekend Outfit

I don't often wear pink as I'm not really a big fan, but a little splash of pink once in a while doesn't hurt! 

Jumper: Apricot

Skirt: H&M

Boots: Faith

Gloves: La Redoute

Scarf: Christmas gift a few years ago

Ring: Can't remember!

Earrings: Dorothy Perkins

I'm still fighting with my knitting, but I think the wool is winning.

It feels like winter has finally arrived, and I'm not overly happy about it.

Happy Lego Bench Monday!

Looks like this businessman felt a bit tired on his way to work this morning.

I never knew goldfish could have individual personalities!

First Glimpse of My New Little Friends!

I'm very excited - got my first EVER pets today - 4 little goldfish!! I have literally never had any kind of pet so my excitement is probably a little over the top, but they are pretty cute. There are 2 Ping Pong Pearlscales (great name) and 2 Black Moors. Here is just a quick glimpse for you:

Why does hair dye never come out as the colour on the box - grrr!

Origami, trees, sunshine, a camera and the park - that was my afternoon.

Trying to learn knitting from a book is really tricky, although that could just be me.

Number 1: Spend time alone in a coffee shop

I thought I should update my ongoing '30 before 30' project. I have been plodding on with lots of the items on the list but some can't be finished until June anyway. I can tick number 1 off the list though. When I took a day trip to Hastings back in August, I ventured alone into Costa coffee. I read my book, people watched out of the window and looked through the days purchases while I drank my favourite skinny caramel latte.

Arguing is one of the most stressful things ever.

Ellenburg Photography Project 52 - yay!

I was so sad when the MCP Project 52 ended, and while I will be doing their new Project 12 this year, it just doesn't satisy my photographic urges. So thank god for Daphne at Ellenburg Photography who is running a new weekly themed challenge this year! The themes really test you to try new things with your photography, so I really encourage anyone reading this to join in too! If you're tempted at all, please have a look at the flickr group and the blog.

The theme for the first week was resolution. I've been making the same resolution most years since I was about 12 years old - stop biting my nails. It has worked in the past for anywhere between a day and 6 months, so while the odds on success are low, I will be trying extra hard this time (yeah yeah I here you cry). So to help keep me on track I photographed these pretty rainbow nail polishes. I just hope I get chance to use them this year. 

Post-processing: increased the highlight exposure using Picnik

Purple Storm - A Weekend Outfit

It wasn't the warmest day to be posing aroud outside but I took off the layers gradually and snapped away quickly! I've had a huge obsession with the colour purple for some time now and I love wearing it as much as I can.

Dress: Just Ginger

Belt: Peacocks

Cardigan: Topshop

Coat: Topshop

Scarf: Republic

Tights: Asda

Boots: Clarks

Ring: Accessorize

Necklace: Dorothy Perkins

Hair: Simple Gibson tuck - see tutorial

It looks like I might be on the way to getting my first pets ever - some little fishes!

I seem to have a bit of an artistic block at the moment when it comes to writing and drawing, but I'm trying to work through it.

Happy Lego Bench Monday!

A new little project I'm very excited about this year. The idea came to me as I was looking at my collection of Lego minifigures and accessories, and trying to find an excuse to play with them and buy more! Then it came to me - so from now on, every Monday is officially Lego Bench Monday!!

Week 2 - This young lady ventures out to her bench to brush her wigs and decide which one she wants to wear today.

And last weeks:

Week 1 -The start of a New Year's resolution to get fitter and work out more. I think most of us can relate to that.

What new projects have you started this year that you are excited about?

Sometimes I just want a computer expert on hand to do all those things I can't work out how to do, but then I'd  miss out on the massive satisfaction from working them out myself, even if they do take forever!

Plush Team 2011 Review Video

If you like plush toys then please take a few minutes to watch this great video showing all the challenges and ideas the great Etsy Plush Team came up with in 2011! And remember, you can always visit our team shop too!

Taxi Driver left me feeling as if I'd fallen asleep in the middle if a film and missed the most important part, only I had in fact watched every long minute of it.

Starting to become mildly addicted to origami - never thought I'd be saying that, but its strangely calming and satisfying!

Jillian Michaels nearly killed me today with her 30 Day Shred DVD, but as she says, we can always do with a good chest flye in our lives!

MCP Project 52 Weeks 48-52

Well the last few weeks of Project 52 2011 were quite sad actually. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and created so many unusual photos that I would never have thought of otherwise. I will be joining in with MCP Project 12 in 2012, which has a new theme every month instead of every week. I hope to come up with some fresh new ideas.

Week 48 - Twinkle Twinkle

My first attempt at creating bokeh shapes with light. It took a lot of attempts but I finally got a shot I was happy with. Seeing as I only have the kit lens I was pretty pleased with this. I added the cross filter to add some extra twinkle!

Week 49 - Traditions

Another first attempt this week - a clone shot. You can't tell how cold and windy it actually was this day, but I was very glad when the shoot was over, as my hands were almost completely numb. I used a great tutorial for Photoshop Elements, and it turned out to be quite simple to create in the end. 

Week 50 - Festive Colours

Some magic snow and a dustpan and brush were required for this one!

Week 51 - Holiday Cheer

This was another freezing cold day. I'd threaded all the foam snowflakes onto white cotton at home and carefully folded them all up to take with me, but naturally by the time I got to the woods they were all completely tangled up! Luckily there wasn't too much wind else this just wouldn't have worked at all.

Week 52 - What Life is All About

My last photo was this rather sad snowman shot. It fits the theme for me for a number of reasons - either that life is made up of fleeting experiences and people, or just the natural circles of life; birth and death etc etc. Very deep I know! It also gave me an excuse to get the magic snow out again too.

Here's a look at my years worth of photos all together:

Feeling desperately in need of doing some exercise as the holiday food overdose is catching up with me.

Sometimes it's well meaning others that end up derailing your good intentions, but I'm trying not to feel too bad about it.

Mustard & Rust - A Weekend Outfit

I know that loads of bloggers write great outfit posts, and I love looking at clothes and fashion combinations, so I thought I'd try doing one myself. Now I'm no fashionista but I do love clothes and bargains (especially when I don't have much money to spare) so most of my clothes can be found on the High Street along with a few vintage or charity shop finds. Being winter at the moment I won't be venturing into any glamorous or exciting locations so my garden will have to do for now!

Dress: Rare from TopShop

Shrug: Primark

Tights: Marks & Spencer

Shoes: Primark

Necklace: Christmas present!

I pondered my plans and decided my one word mantra for the year is 'organised'.

One sentence journal idea - hmmm...

I first read about the one sentence journal in 'The Happiness Project' book by Gretchen Ruben, and thought it sounded like the sort of diary even I might be able to keep! The only problem is that I've already got a massive list of new and continuing projects and ideas I want to try out this year, and I'm prone to taking on more than I can manage. So I'm going to try it for a week on this blog to see if it suits me. After all, how hard can it really be to write one sentence a day! Hmmmm, we shall see. I'm even writing this post from my phone so it's just like texting really. Here is my first entry:

On the first day of 2012 my true love cooked for me, a tasty goose from Hungary (yes, you have to sing it!).

Happy new year!

The festive period seemed to take over for a while there! I've taken lots of photos but just haven't posted any yet. Hoping to get round to it tomorrow. Got a few new projects up my sleeve to tell you about too!