spring in pictures :: days 10 and 11
/Well I would have posted photos from Thursday yesterday but, um, I couldn't tear myself away from all the coverage of the royal wedding. Seriously! So I bring them to you today. Our amazing weather has really made such a difference to our days. Just being able to be outside enjoying time together is such a novelty. And to be able to take pictures of blossom on the trees as opposed to scraping wet blossom of the windscreen of the car, well, it just about makes my day. I will never tire of taking photos of blossom, and there were a couple of trees just begging to have their picture taken when we went out for coffee. You may take it for granted that I no longer have any shame in how weird I might look trying to get the best shot, and when that's coupled with all the options of my Hipstamatic app I simply exist in my own little bubble of photo love! Bless my family for ignoring me and letting me just get on with it.
Let me also point out just how pretty coffee is at this particular spot - it's the same place where we made pretty dishes last week. It would have been rude to pick up the dishes and not enjoy some of this!
Or indeed to have robbed the boys of playing 'How much fun can you have with giant sticks?'
The day went on to include a few of Conor's friends who at one point went missing and were replaced by 5 Jedi.
Alas, the Jedi had to return from whence they came, leaving behind only small signs that they had ever been here. This little scene I stumbled upon in the kitchen once the boys had all gone home and it just said to me 'small boys were here and had fun'!
Now as I mentioned at the start of this post, yesterday I came over all of a dither over the royal wedding. Perhaps it was tiredness, or hormones, or general lack of anything girly in this house but I couldn't get enough of it. My lovely sister hosted a royal coffee morning where she greeted us in a formal dress, my mother arrived in some shocking pink kaftan and wedding hat, and I had no good reason not to crack out the spangly silver sandals I wore at my sister's wedding! We laughed, we cried, we oohed and aahhed and generally had a jolly good time. What was not to love? And I don't even care how sad (or just downright weird) it may make me look that I took pictures of the TV screen so that I could prove I was there and watching it live!
Hurrah for a jolly good show, that's what I say!Just before I leave you to ponder exactly what sort of person would take photos of a TV screen, let me remind you that the giveaway for a place on Creativity Boot Camp is still open until 9pm on Sunday. I'll randomly draw a winner on Monday and post it here after 9pm.
Aside from the super shot off Nanny's right foot I love that so many of the pictures I got of Patrick were blurred. I'm sure there are technical reasons like ISOs and shutter speeds that explain it, but not being one for technicalities I'm going to put the blur down to the fact that he moves at lightning speed most of the time. His life is literally all about football right now and that means running, passing and shooting and it's hard to do that without a bit of blur. And for me it's important that my photographs reflect our lives rather than technical perfection (which obviously does have it's place). No doubt they'll end up on a scrapbook page sometime in the future so that I can properly document this little stage of his life.Which leads me neatly to an exciting giveaway, whoop whoop! You can hardly have failed to notice that I'm contributing to 
Oh, he's just too cute! I've had to limit what I post today for fear I may actually give in to all the demands that we get one ourselves!! Cute puppies aside, this picture pretty much typifies our kitchen at work during the day - laptop, Lego mini figures, a small person and a cup of tea - perfect!
Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for some giveaway excitement!
Yesterday I had the most fun photo shoot with the best of friends and their extended family. Photos from that session will be on the blog soon, but after the shoot I was almost past taking any more photos, so the best I can muster up is one from before the session and a couple from my phone. We went to the park at lunch for a while and then retreated home to the garden where we did the same as most of the other days on this Easter break - played Lego, football and Wii. And I may even have fallen asleep on the bench in the sun for a nanosecond! It couldn't be helped, I promise!
Do pop back tomorrow and see if I'm staying on course! And there's going to be a giveaway later in the week. Exciting indeed!
Frequent readers of my blog will know just how much Lego is a part of our lives - Conor goes everywhere with a mini figure in his hand or pocket, Patrick is all about creating scenes which can be looked at but not touched, and I spend most of my time at home on the hunt for missing hats, swords and other tiny pieces of the stuff. The love is strong, but I'm beginning to think someone needs to talk to the chief Lego men about the box to model ratio. Their carbon footprint is definitely going to be bigger than that of the average Lego man!
:: enjoying spending time with friends before they fly home tomorrow :(:: reading a 
(that's another home made t-shirt - original idea spotted 
:: remembering exactly why this Friday is, indeed, so very Good!
There are loads of canons around the castle. Peeking out of escarpments. Pointing towards Holywood and Bangor (how rude!). Lined up in the courtyard. And at just the perfect height for climbing on! Rumour has it that even the mums may have clambered onto one to have a photo taken, but I couldn't verify that!
I love these giant games they have upstairs. It's a shame that there are always a lot of people there and it's impossible to play giant chess or snakes and ladders. But they do provide ample photo opportunities!Our adventure and general busyness these past few days have left all of us feeling grateful, happy and altogether tuckered out. And with more of the same pencilled in for tomorrow it is high time I took myself to bed in preparation. See you back here tomorrow x
I have few words today - it's been busy and it's late. Suffice to say there was football, a friend's birthday party, more football with visiting 
Sheer bliss, I tell you! Talking of creative flow, you may have noticed in my last post that I was pretty excited about 
I love this picture of Patrick, taken last year during mini rugby. I love that he's playing with his bite guard which is pretty much how he spends most of the time on the pitch! I love how happy he looks and the way the sun makes his hair look all surfy and fabulous. The layout itself I'm not sure about! A tad busier than I like things, but I'm trying to break out of safe mode and do things I wouldn't normally do so I'm going to run with it. Things I do love about it are..
...super cute button and stars on the photo, and ...
...little strips of journalling that I made more effort with than I usually would, adding a bit of ink around the edges to make it stand out.After I did that layout I did something else I never do (I know, shocking!) and scrapped 2 inanimate objects! Obviously it needs to be a pretty special object to have a layout created, but I think you'll agree these are worthy subjects.
Now this layout I completely love! It's everything I love on one piece of cardstock! Pictures of pretty things made by apple, a lovely rub on, some buttons, a few strips of paper and a bit of stitching.... {sigh}....! You want to see some of that loveliness close up? Oh, ok then!
It never ceases to amaze me once I get going just how good creating something from nothing makes me feel. I'd have to confess to having dragged the sewing machine out for a couple of (very small) projects lately as well. And in doing so I have laid my borrowed pair of knitting needles to rest and accepted that I'm a sewer, not a knitter. There's just something I love about the feel of fabric in a pile all ready and waiting to be made into something useful or pretty. And it's so much faster which means the gratification comes that much quicker! And there are so many amazing fabric shops on 
Don't forget to check out