"Me Time" Yay!

With the kids back at school, I decided to take myself off to the park for some "Me Time".

Red Tulips are so beautiful. But my favourite colour has to be yellow :o)





I was zoomed right in on this Goose when it suddenly flapped it's wings! I was so upset that I cut off it's wing, but, it's still one of my favourite shots from that morning.



Such a pretty scene with the Blossom Tree framing the waterfall. I couldn't resist capturing it :o)



This Moor Hen was sat there so peacefully. I love how it is looking at it's reflection haha.
My friend named the image for me "Who's a Pretty Boy then?" lol
Thank you so much Stella.x



Feeding the birds.



This little Blackbird was hopping around posing for me, I swear haha.

You are my sunshine

Just having some fun with a sunset.

Too beautiful not to share

6 days old

I finally had the pleasure of meeting Victoria when she was 6 days old! Yay!
Here are a few of my favourites.

"Daddy's Girl"



"Special Delivery"



"Baby Blues"



"Cocoon" bought from Etsy shop owner Joliem6201

Another birthday?! AND an anniversary?!

Yep, that's right...ANOTHER birthday!!!
It's my hubby's birthday today AND our 5th wedding anniversary.

A traditional 5th wedding anniversary gift is wood. So here's my hubby, with our kids, in the woods haha.



Happy birthday and happy wedding anniversary darling.
I love you with all my heart and more <3

A 7 day Photo Frenzy!!!

I'm not sure how may people look at my blog but I thought I would share the pictures from a 7 day photo frenzy that I just completed on schedule!
The aim of it was to shoot a fresh picture every day on the day. The theme's were already set.
I am so proud of myself! I even suprised myself at how creative I got!

I didn't always use my big camera either. I used our point and shoot, a Canon SX 110IS, for a couple of the shots :o)


Day 1. March 30th 2009 - Temptation

"Naughty little Easter Bunny"





Day 2. March 31st 2009 - Moody BW

"Moody"




Day 3. April 1st 2009 - The Eyes have it

"Big Brown Eyes"





Day 4. April 2nd 2009 - Emotions

"Teenagers Turmoil"




Day 5. April 3rd 2009 - Love

"For the love of cookies" hehe




Day 6. April 4th 2009 - Still Life

"Victoria's Moon"




Day 7. April 5th 2009 - My creative choice

This Lifeboat Monument was erected in memory of the 27 lives that were lost trying to rescue another crew in December 1886.

LOVE how the afternoon sun was lighting the statue.
And he almost looks like he is posing for me doesn't he? :o)

Happy "Birth" day!!!

Our friends finally got to say hello to their baby girl, Victoria, at 5:53am today.
We haven't had the pleasure of meeting her yet, but, I took a couple of pictures for them anyway.

The weather here today...



"Victoria's Moon" the moon this evening.

Happy Birthday!!!

...to my oldest daughter. She is 23 today.
And as I have been feeling creative recently, and spending alot of time with my kids, I thought I would help them make her some cards.

There are free printables and other craft ideas on www.theknackkids.com

I got Artie from there. Printed out several of them on different colours and cut them out. My kids glued them together like a jigsaw. It was fun!












AND...
my friend is in labour as I write this. So, I made her a card today too.
I LOVE that ribbon!

Happy Mothers Day to all UK Mum's! :o)

Well, it's Mother's Day here in the UK.

How did I know it was a special day?

Could it be because my kids were knocking on my door early, AS USUAL, which obviously woke me up!
I get out of bed and go to the door..."Happy Mother's Day Mum", they said. And then they walked away!
What? You woke me up for that?! LOL
Too cute.

My gifts today were:

from my baby girl (when am I going to stop calling her a baby? She's almost 4 hehe!) - A black sheet of paper with chalk waves.

from my little boy - The card with a tea bag in it :o) and the pink box containing a chocolate.

from my 9 year old daughter - the pink Pyramid with a chocolate in it.

and finally, in the photograph, is one of my most treasured home made gifts from 2005 made by my 13 year old daughter, who is now 17 - the vase of flowers. The vase has a sand texture on it. So beautiful.



Although, I would love to have a lay in on my special day and have tea and food fetched to me in bed, which didn't happen today lol, I realise just how lucky I am for the things they do for me.

My 13 year old daughter cooked Macaroni Cheese for everyone and a Chocolate cake. I am such a lucky Mum.

So Happy Mothers Day to all UK Mum's. And to those who would love to wish their Mum's a Happy Mother's Day, but their Mum's are no longer here, I send out {{{BIG HUGS}}}.

The sad news of Jade Goody's death in the early hours of this morning, on Mothers Day of all days! Makes me realise, even more, how blessed I am today.
My heartfelt wishes and comforting thoughts go out today to Jade's family and her 2 little boys. RIP Jade.

More time out with my kids

Fun on the swings...



a moment of madness lol...



group hugs...



Then it was down to the beach to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy. The kids had fun anyway though :o)







I have had so many great days with my kids recently :o)

Happy "Hug a Ginger Day" EVERYONE!!!

Go find one and hug 'em! :o)

13

That's right, my twins are now teenagers! I'm not sure where that time has gone!
We had a party for them, just a small one. The girls went in to play laser tag and we bowled while we waited for their game to be over :o)

This must have been the calmest party I have ever had the pleasure of holding!
The twins friends were absolutely wonderful. It was nice to see their new friends for the first time. Really, really lovely girls!





Here are a few more snaps from the day.







The motion blur on her hand is sooooo cool!!!



... and a rare moment ... ME being caught on camera by my hubby :o)



I hope you are all having a great time with the people you love :o)

What have I been up to?

... again lol.

Yesterday evening I noticed some golden sunshine trying to get through the closed blinds in my computer room and I told my husband I was almost tempted to go out shooting.
"So go then," he replied :o)
I love my husband much more than words can express!

So, off I go with camera in hand to the beach which is just across the road from where I live.

We have sand on our beach here...yay! (I sound excited because where I used to live we had a pebble beach.)

By the time I get to the beach the golden sun had disappeared behind the clouds and I thought I had lost my chance. Oh well, I'll capture some other things while I am here, I thought to myself.

Down on the beach it was absolutely freezing, with quite a fierce breeze blowing.
Someone was having a great time flying a kite.



I noticed some clouds starting to break and let the sun through. It was almost as if the sun was starting show itself just for me. "Here you go Ali, here is the sunset you have been waiting for."



My hands felt like ice but I wasn't going to be taken away from an un-obstructed view of the sun setting, for the very first time in my life!
It was amazing and it happened so fast!



Wherever you are, I hope you are doing the things that bring you happiness. Have a great day everyone :o)

My warm and happy place

It's not on here.
It's not photography, well, part of it is I guess.
It's not entering photography contests.
It's not with my internet friends (sorry).
It's right here in front of my nose!

Spending time with my children AGAIN!

It's so wonderful just to watch them having a good time and capture those moments.

Watching them party together...



play together and decorate biscuits together...



My warm and happy place is with my family :o)
Where's yours?

History repeating itself

We went to the park a couple of days ago and I got a few shots of the kids playing.
A couple of the shots stood out to me.
Seeing how happy children are playing with things that are free and plentiful. Playing out in the fresh air, getting exercise and just thoroughly enjoying their lives.



And then I got THIS shot...



She looks so much like me when I was younger.

I was editing away and it wasn't until I converted it to BW I saw more deeply into the shot. I saw history repeating itself!

This is what I see when I look at this shot...

"This is ME playing outside and my Dad is pointing the camera at me to take my picture."

This photograph touches me so much that whenever I look at it, it makes me cry.
I'm sitting here in tears right now.

Oh, how I miss my Dad.
He loved photography too and I think we would have had so much fun shooting together.
Unfortunately, I never got that chance, he died in 1999.

I love you Dad and miss you so much! This one is for you.x

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ooh can you feel the love?!

Little Angel

My baby girl wanted to dress up and have some pictures taken. Who am I to argue? lol.

Anyway, despite the fact SHE wanted the pictures taken, she wasn't into posing this day, so I just let her play by the window while I kept clicking my shutter :o)

I LOVE how you can just see her cute little feet through the wicker chair. Makes me screw my nose up and smile.





Have a great day everyone :o)

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Couldn't resist sharing these :o)