365/152 Bargain.

Col bought the right hand chair and three more like it in August four years ago when all the summer stock was on sale... and last year he bought about eight more very similar, again about a quarter of the early summer price...
.. it was interesting to see how the quality and amount of metal they used in the more recent ones showed the leaner, cheaper manufacturing.. sad, but true.. but they are still fit for purpose..x

365/151 Groceries.

..sorry Jen .. rant ensuing .. went to get salad, milk and bread but added few extras so I could use those blessed tokens if I spend enough ... Ta da .. then discover tokens not valid til Saturday.... ?!!

365/150 Messy

.. without a doubt, even though there are plenty of contenders.. my scraproom desk is the messiest place I know.. and hopefully this will prompt me back to sorting first the room and then the list of pages I want to do...

I joined an online monthly scrap challenge but with only 24 hours to go I may well have failed the first hurdle..oh well, back on the saddle come June xxx

365/149 Tools

..introducing the tidiest tool board in our workshops this evening... the hydraulics staion..I could have shown JB's artist's tools or my scrapbooking metal tools, or maybe even Kate's make up 'tools' but STS should really be the first port of call where this prompt is concerned.


Colin's motto is 'if at first you don't suceed, get bigger kit'

365/148 Unfinished.

Unfinished.... is what my blog about this weekend is, but I'll give you a potted history now and put that right.

Friday we went out on the boat, hung around St Michael's Mount as it was a bit 'lumpy', but it was sunny and we had a few laughs, spent time together and best of all it was still not the weekend!

The girls had things to do so I left with them after a cream tea on the Mount and we battled a brisk wind across the causeway,while the lads waited on the tide and caught a few mackeral while waiting to moor the boat back up.

 Saturday Lisa and family came by for Zac's last,(Yes really the last) leaving 'do' so we enjoyed the girls in the garden (paddling pool and sand always help) and had some barbecue... and this week Lyla decided that walking is an option after being a prolific crawler..

Walking : age 14 & half months



Oh, what did we do before we had the big deck..?

Zac left this morning, sporting a hangover from a late night in 'Sound' with college friends, but putting on a brave face. He flies this evening to Sydney via Singapore but by all accounts the plane is only half full and there's plenty of space to rest up ahead of getting to the ship Wednesday.. the only thing is what to do with a day in Sydney when he and his pal arrive.. oh, such difficult decisions..x

Life is so normal when he's here, but the void just one person leaves in your house is palpable.. everyone feels it but we don't really discuss it.. and hey, 12 weeks til he is home is 3rd September.. so enjoy the summer everyone, it is shortlived !!
(but hey, with his and my birthday, sounds like another excuse for a party..!)

365/147 Cleanliness

I thought I would end up posting a picture of my favourite cleaning product.. Flash with bleach.. there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good bleaching of worktops and bathrooms.. don't get me wrong, I don't do it that often, but when I do it shows and I am quite smug with a box ticked!

This last minute Zac has provided the perfect picture and tutorial... he is just about to go out to meet his college pals for a bit of a night on the town before he leaves tomorrow (I was going to write 'boogie'there but hell, that ages me!) and he's eating some biscuits before he goes. Obviously I am sneaking some too and twice he has offered me the pack and only half a biscuit is offered next.... the second time I laughed and he explained that it's the 'clean' way to eat them... you break it in the packet and eat half and then eat the other half with the minimum of crumbs!!!


He is so a combination of us two.. hates having crumbs or sugary fingers like Col and just a pedantic Virgo like me.. .. reminds me of the time we went to a car boot with another Virgo pal of mine and the three of us tried to lay a couple of covers on a creaky papering table.. and get it symmetrical.. at least we realised (eventually) that we should just 'let it go'...

365/146 Boring.

Undoubtedly, despite the evolution to the dishwasher machine, 'doing the dishes' is by far the most boring job in the house.

The debate over who should wash or wipe has given way to who didn't pack it or who should unpack it...the problem is I always ask 'someone' instead of specifying a person, so then when I moan it turns out it was me who should have been more specific!!! I'll never learn!
We've hada great day, up early and took the day off.. easterly wind but we went out inthe boat regardsless, spent a good amount of time back of the Mount, in the lee, but the sun was shining and we were all together which is what it's all about..

I do have another picture for 'boring' ... dear Kate came out and she does have a laugh (she has the reputation for being the best / luckiest fisher), but she makes us all smile by being cross with the wind and sea making her hair curl up...at least she wore footless tights so she could wade out to the little inflatable tender!

I took this little pic and said it would fit the prompt, but she did smile a lot too...

365/145 Soft

.. is the lovely faux fur cream blanket which I hide my feet inside while watching TV and doing a bit of blogging in the evenings.   The girls like faux fur, like the snuggly cushion next to the blanket this evening...

365/144 Artificial

.. Kate had her hair highlighted today.. she loves being blonde! As a little girl she had loads of almost ginger curls and her best buddie Harriet had tight red curls, they were such a pair!  Even at six or seven Kate would change her hairstyle several times a day and then of course, she discovered straighteners!

We've been really proud of Kate the last few weeks, she has managed to get a Saturday job at a local hair place and now she's landed a waitressing job at a Chinese..she's got the work ethic and we were talking about what she may do with her money... mmm, 'I could have a fake tan every week....' but I'm sure when it was her money it would soon seem really expensive.

So it's her first hair spend.. I was abit worried in case she went radicalbut it looks lovely, very blonde, but she's been using all kinds of blinde-in and stuff before, it's just significant that this time she paid!!

365/143 Restful

.. the moments when a party is done and you can lay down and rest your back and your dancing feet.. I wasn't able to get a tenuous link before but this is Zac and Col after our party at the weekend..

Col's superhero was Keith Lemon (he loves Holly Willoughby) and Zac was Iron Man's friend Al.. Aluminium man!

Here's a splattering of the other guests!...
  

Amy & Blake!





Elvis is in the building!





Hulk & Aluminium Man!



  

  (note the shyness in Lyla.. just like Mum in blog below!)


Geri & Cat Woman

 

Sisters.. BatGirl & Barbie!


 

Adam Ant & Keith!

 


Kiss me quick!!

 



Thundercats & Supergirl!

  

Al & .. he's got the moves like Jagger!

 

The Gruffalo!



.. and my apologies for the lack of papparazzi getting Lady gaga and Freddie.. maybe tomorrow!



365/142 Ornament

When I had my second child, I was really surprised it was a girl..somehow I had a second boy in mind, maybe doing that double guessing thing, planning for two boys but secretly hoping for the little girl..

..she was born at home with just the midwife (who I had known from work for several years) and my Mum there with me..

..her dad was away but our dear pal (my Colin now) came by the next day and took this photo with proud brother Ross.

.. we didn't have a name for a girl and it was several days before we settled on Lisa. But really I had fallen in love with the Cornish name 'Tegan' which has since become much more popular... in Cornish it means 'pretty little thing' or 'ornament' so this was her other name.. and when I saw today's prompt it was my first thought.

(She was the cutest thing with the most hair you can imagine, I used to carry her in a sling and complete strangers used to reach out to touch her hair..)

On my dresser I have lots of different silver frames and this is my 'ornament / pretty little thing' as she got older..

A few years later we took this picture of her being all shy on a kind of cycle rickshaw affair in Key West Florida.. I just had to add this pic as her own little girl does that 'shy' little thing with her arms now and I only just see the similarity... awhhh.

365/141 Minimalist.

When you live in a former farmhouse and barn with up to nine other people and you also work from the same site with ten people turning up each day for work, life is pretty hectic and I think you would be be feeling pretty strung up if you tried to be minimalist about much.

And to be fair, in our family we don't do minimalist about conversation or anything. Everything is considered, discussed, explored and informed about..sounds like information overload but it's just the effects of a bunch of talkative analysing people.. that's us!

Minimalist..so that will be somewhat of a challenge for me..as far as photographs go.. so the search began.

I decided on this layout, it's the first 'Just Scrapbboking' class  and first layout I ever did. I pored for almost the whole six hour session on what papers, what ribbons, what words..and I had so few techniques or papers and embellishments I worry to think what frenzy I would have been in given today's stash!

The picture is my Mum & Dad's wedding day, post-war 7th December 1946. He wore a blue shirt, despite Mum wanting him to wear a white one; he was an only son and had a lot of bossy Aunts who thought they knew better.  I did the layout on the first day after Mum went into the Residential home and I think the significance of when I did the layout is almost as important to me than the picture itself..xx

This is the second page, I think I even had to finish it at home I was so bad at chosing elements!    The little violet stickers pay homage to their winter income.  Slightly crass but importantly added at the time! And on reflection that alphabet was also pretty tame, I think most of the elelnts came free with my album from the Works!

The family group makes me smile if I compare it to how say our Lisa's family group would be with four siblings on each side.  Dad was an only child with just his dad still alive and Mum had a brother and sister but neither of them married young or had children. Maybe in the way of things my brother and I have just redressed the balance with our total of 13 children!

(The page boy was Mum's young cousin Chris Jewels who I met unexpectedly last weekend just after speaking about him. We chewed the family fat a while and promised to keep in touch, appreciating that time passes and some things like family connections can't go unmentioned.. xx)

365/140 Interior

Well last night was party night. We thought we'd have a bit of a get together while Zac was home, a kind of re-run of New Year but without the pressure of it being a 'big night'.  The kids all here, with a few of the folk we work with and some nice friends..

We went with fancy dress again and did a bunch of food, everything you could just eat from the table, but as all the music and videos were done at New Year I was kind of worried we hadn't done enough...but it was great..a bunch of the kids friends came and we had everything from ThunderCats to Cornish Braveheart..!

This is the interior of our kitchen before everyone arrived..and then our SuperWoman who always seems to be the one doing dishes.. at the end of the evening, about 2.30am..

(I think we did enough, my legs ached when we went to bed!)

365/139 Flower

At Christmas 2010 I was given an orchid which flowered pretty much all year, about ten months in all.  They don't seem to need much looking after, the minimum of watering and TLC which suits me fine. It sat in the kitchen window and I only put it upstairs when all that was left was the stems.

I also got a apink orchid when our Lyla was born and that too flowered all summer with the minimum of fuss and was laid low over the winter.

The two of them are back in bloom, so intricate and in nature probably perfectly formed for its attraction qualities to some insect or another.

Pops bought me some daffodils and they shouldn't go unmentioned..

 

365/138 Group

Short one again, but on target... not a lot of news, feeling less grim.. it's only a cold but boy I appreciate feeling fine when I aren't!!

Nice picture this which JB took of a group of coffee cupcakes she made for April's birthday the other week...

365/137 candid

Not even sure what number today is .. but this is my Ross catching up with Col this evening... Blogged from my phone so its unlikely to be linked until the morning. Early bed nursing cough and cold .. lady flu .. urghhh xx

(Next day, smiling now as I analyse the candid-ness.. it must have been unposed, he is holding a pile of ironing including stripey boxers!)

365/136 Portrait of a stranger.

Again, several pondering thoughts about who I might photograph for this, but as is the usual thing for me in the week I know everyone I see during my day.. the nearest I get to a stranger is a delivery guy who brings things to our office, but it was quiet today and I'm not even sure anyone came in.  I was in town earlier,looking out things for our little family shindig on Saturday, but at that point I didn't know the day's prompt.

.. did you see what I did there.. wandered off a whole paragraph of excuses..

..here's my stranger.. well he would be if I was in the same room, as I never knew him, but he is Joe Warren, my Mum's dad, husband to the lady in the picture on Sunday.

..our favourite snapper of strangers is Col's Uncle Bill who when he is over always has his camera at hand, he has a great telephoto lens and when he's showing us the images he has taken there is usually someone eating an ice cream on the beach, or talking outside a shop and we ask who it is.. he says he doesn't know, he was on the opposite side of the harbour .. he should be in the papparazzi!!

..a few years ago, over the weekend of the Golden Wedding we went on a fishing trip and as we walked back around the harbour I stopped to speak to someone I knew.

 Uncle Bill took his picture, maybe two pictures.. the guy laughed and said why would anyone want a picture of me.  But on reflection there was so much to  see from Uncle Bill's point of view... this was an elderly man, a resident of the town, in fact a man who had lived all his life within 50 yards of Pemzance harbour. He was wearing a woollen hat and his tanned skin was so 'Cornish' to someone from the outside.

(I'll let you into a secret, the man used to be my father-in-law)

365/135a more portraits without faces..

 Thought I should complete the picture of my household.. this is the DVD collection at the top of our stairs on the chest of drawers. Ross is our big film fan, everything from Braveheart to the chick flicks, and he watches them over and over!

Colin's books, mostly gifts and reference give a flavour of his life and loves.. Rally navigator, motorbike rider, follower of all things military, flight, F1 and motorsport, all things sea, space and speedy!! x

365/135 Faceless portrait.



FaceBooker!



Fancy Cake Maker & Photo Taker!



 

The last half hour I have been wandering about the house taking pictures of the things which I think represent the younger members of our household, but without them in it..

..but then I browsed my files on this tablet and found two or three pics which also feature the person.. so I'll use them and save the clever ones for another of Suzie's prompts, sure I'll find some tenuous links to use them up!



Fire Starter!

We have real division of labour in our house, so no problems working out who goes where.. but to be sure everyone could be in the Facebook seat!  xxx 

.. and to be fair the big boys are featured in the next entry..xx

365/134 Portrait of a woman.

I used to have a portrait of my Dad's mum, Bessi Anne Stone a lady I know little about; she died when he was only 16 and, as he was an only child and died when I was 8, there was never was a time when he talked to me about her. The last time I saw that picture it was in an old oval frame and got damaged in the cellar / outdoor shed of our cottage in Mousehole. I was not that nostalgic then and for some reason did not save it, so who knows if I will ever see her picture.

...........................

This portrait I found amongst my Aunt and Mum's things when 'sorting' after Mum died. It is my maternal grandmother Leonora Edna Warren nee Jewels.  Looking at this picture she has the look of my great niece and I must show it to the family when they are next here. It is funny how we must resemble our ancestors so much yet often never know it as we don't meet or know people who can make the connnections.

This is the only grand parent I ever knew, and if I am honest there was little love between us, she was 70 when I was born and rather old at that point, housebound and frail, much 'older' than you'd expect a 70 year old to be now.

I think she was fonder of my brother, a first (and only) grandson, born when she was not then 60 and able to look after him a bit and enjoy him.  Leo was widowed in her early 40's as was my Mum, and she had three children still to raise. Her husband, my Mum's father was a strong capable type, a local peacher and school teacher so his sudden death must have left her quite helpless.

It's sad to find pictures of your grandparents in their youth, but it does remind you that they were someone's young mum once full of energy and smiles, much different to the grumbly old lady I knew who watched wrestling in TV but wouldn't let me play cards on a Sunday!

I feel a little guilty for my feelings towards her as she was mum to my mum and when I moaned to her she must have been hurt.. as I would if the kids moaned about mine now!

..........................Oh well, to lighten the mood I am off out with some of the family to a comedy show at Fowey's Literary Festival.. bye!!!

Further trials and error?

Last year our scrap group had a monthly challenge and the prompt for January was 'If you really knew me...'

Well this is the double page 8x8 entry I did.. short and to the point as ever..hahah... but kind of a self portrait in line with the entry below..(I did well until 'Think Big' the prompt for June beat me and maybe fine weather interrupted scrap..I was trying to use old images from my own life and somehow 'Think Big was never a mantra I'd had..)

..but who knows, maybe I'll finish the book one day..

P.S. How good is this, three entries one day.. Kate had to be at work by 9am and I got home to an empty house.. and hey, I could have been in bed doing nothing!!  Quick, look busy, someone is coming..

P.P.S. I tried to blog this direct from the image gallery on my tablet but the quality of the image was rubbish.. back to drawing board!