(Short and) sweet sixteen!

A quick one today as we are in the middle of celebrating ds1's 16th birthday. It seems such a short time since he was little and cute and now he is huge but still quite cute!

I have been experimenting with a new camera app for my iPhone. It's called lo mob and is simply awesome! You can choose from all manner of cool effects which make even the rubbish photos look amazeballs :-)

Ahh, 16 and lovely!

It's cold outside.... any excuse for a cosy fire.

Add caption

The noisy Mr Hincapie - mouth shut for a change!

Sporti, shopping and Mr Selfridge.

Hooray, I got my Ilford Sporti photographs back this week.

My house!

Assorted sheds.

I had mixed results... some of them came out ok, the vast majority didn't! A few appeared to have something obscuring the lens, a classic schoolboy error. Some looked like the winding on thingy was not working properly creating interesting effects.

I am keen to try again though, this time I will make a note of the settings so I can rule out any issues there. I was most impressed with Peak Imaging for swift service and no sarcastic stickers telling me what a crap job I had done! (I used to work for Boots and I HATED those stickers but we had to use them).

My floristry course is fast approaching its end. I am very sad about this, what on earth will I do with my Tuesday evenings now? The last couple of classes have been spent creating planted designs... I made an outdoor planter that would have been cheaper to buy ready made and an indoor one which allowed me to indulge in fairies and butterflies as I created it for a friends birthday!

This week it's the planted design assessment and so I am taking it right back in time and creating a bottle garden. Fascinated by these for years, I have never owned one -probably because my track record with houseplants is abysmal. But hey, this one only has to survive the evening!!

Well, it's Sunday and tonight I have to find alternative entertainment as there is no Mr Selfridge :-( I don't normally watch costume dramas but I will admit to having enjoyed Mr Shellfish... I went out and bought the book which the series was based on this week, 'Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge' by Lindy Woodhead. So far it's a really interesting read, although those expecting a rip roaring story along the lines of the series will be disappointed. It's a look at the broader history of shopping here and in the US and the huge impact that Mr S had on changing the face of our favourite pastime. Some of these changes were massively positive - some of them were causing consternation back then and still do today (I am thinking especially of the buying out of smaller shops in order to expand). As a social history it makes for a great book, so maybe that's how I shall spend my vacant Sunday night spot tonight. Blanket, book and a bottle of red!

Mother Duck!

I hardly need to mention it was Mothers Day here yesterday... I was treated to some lovely flowers and gifts by my rugrats.



What a beautiful colour!





Now, Mothers Day is always a bittersweet affair for me. A struggle between appreciating what I have now with what I no longer have. Suffice to say yesterday had its fair share of tears and smiles. One of my brothers posted a beautiful picture of our Mum on FB, I have another from the same time which I treasure.

I often wonder what things would be like if she were still here. How different would my life be now? What would she make of the things I do? What would we have in common? What would she say about taxidermy??!!??

Which leads me nicely onto a serendipitous (is this even a real word?) event from yesterday. My treat for the day was a proper grown up trip to the garden centre followed by a mosey round the antique shops in Lechlade. One of them had clearly had a consignment from a taxidermist recently... a huge cabinet of parrots and fancy birds, a small dome of hummingbirds,  framed moths, spiked butterflies and this beauty.....

Now I always associate kingfishers with my Mum and I'm sure there's some wonderful animal folklore stuff out there. Brother #1 has a tattoo of a kingfisher dedicated to her. So, when I saw this I knew I had to have it and damn the food shopping for the rest of the month! DD was less than impressed with the new dead things but politely said 'they're lovely'. They are currently on my bedroom floor awaiting space to be made. Somewhere.

Meanwhile I'm off to research kingfishers!

Cameras and air raid shelters....

I've been feeling quite sorry for myself this week... a cold that is just hanging around and making me want to do nothing more than curl up under a blanket and hide from the world :-(
Still, I struggled from my pit of despair to make the most of that shiny warm thing in the sky over the weekend (I hear tell it's called THE SUN). DS#1 and I took a wander through the village to take some photographs. I was keen to try out the Polaroid in sunny conditions and wanted to finish off the first roll of 120 film.

St Stephens Church - Clanfield



These results are the best yet... I am describing the distorted colours as 'arty'. I'm not sure if adjusting the light-dark setting would improve this but as each picture takes ages to develop you kind of miss the moment should you want to retake!!



I like to call this picture 'Letterbox'

I discovered that nowhere (around here) takes the 120 film for developing... Boots helpfully talked about 126 film, thanks for that! I have found a company online who have impressed me so far with their patient answering of my dumb questions. The film is in the post to them as we speak.
In more camera news I have also purchased a B&W Impossible Project film. This has the added 'bonus' of coming out B&W or sepia depending on how it feels. So far I have shot 3 virtually blank pictures and this dodgy shot of DD standing by my broken car (a whole 'nother story)

I actually quite liked this one...even down to the weird development blob on the corner! Almost looks antique if you can ignore the poorly Ford!

Oo, almost forgot the air raid shelter bit of news. Very excited at work this week as we managed to persuade the boss that we needed an actual Anderson Shelter to run our forthcoming WW2 days. It was picked up today and delived back to our site. Sadly no photographs at present but they will be here. Soon. In abundance!