A quick show off...

Helllloooooo. A very quick upload of my photos for today! Taken last weekend of my little man, two of the very few I got, where he was actually playing ball IYKWIM! You saw the 'away' pic the other day, well thats mainly what he was doing, trying to escape and evasively manoevre out of mine and the cameras way. But I love these pics of him!! I think I have somewhere in the region of 6000 photos on my puter, much more than 3/4 are of him! Is that sad/scary/weird? I have enough photos for a flicker pad of his life so far lol, but I just love having photos of him. I think it'll be great (mind you he probably wont think so for a while lol) for him when he's older, to see how much he has changed and to see himself at all the various stages of his life. We have had a quiet and chilled day today. He has been great - so well behaved and mischief making at the same time, but in a good way! I am going to get my Christmas shopping done this week, for my family. If I can get sorted it'll be great, and minimise the Christmas panic I get most years thinking - what on earth am I going to get for ......
I'll also upload a couple of things I popped (just had to go back and change popped from pooped - i keep doing that for some reason) over on the BTYD blog for my DT post for this week. The first, a little mini book, and the second, a felt frame using some friendly (and it is really friendly lol) felt. Its really easy to use, to pierce for stitching and to punch - stick it through your bind it all - get the crop a dile on the case etc - its great stuff!!

Right guys. OU stuff beckons. Yack. Not into it at all at the minute!! I think my studying days are over.

Thanks for reading - shall check out your blogs quick, and then get on with the OU stuff. Hows that for procrastinating eh? Lol TTFN

Charli

X

Forgive Me Bloggers....

........for I have sinned. It has been 12 days since my last blog post!!

I was struck down by man flu on the night before our Halloween party, transforming me into Charl - the snot nosed witch (sorry). I have been so busy trying to get my OU course stuff done, that I haven't really had much time for anything else! Apart from taking lots of photos of course, always time for that.

So I apologise in advance for lots of photos, and lots of rambling!

I'll upload my SPS from yesterday first of all, then get on with the Halloween pics and share some from Bonfire night, if you're interested!!

Don't ask what is going on with the SPS pic, I just get so fed up of seeing my geeky smiling mush every week that I now try and think of something a bit different to do. And of course, pouting is not allowed is it, according to you know where lol, however, if I had a pout worthy of sharing, it would be thrust upon you like it or not!

So this was me (below that is, just to save any confusion lol), at our Halloween party! Half my makeup came off (believe it or not lol) due to me blowing my nose constantly. I even took the 'tooth wax' off (this cool black stuff you can stick to your teeth instead of actually colouring them in with something, as I was contemplating doing) eventually, because it was slowing down the scoffing/munching process. I made a pumpkin soup, which was lovely, and a pumpkin cake too! Now I was worried about how the cake would turn out, because of my problem cooker, but it worked!! And it was good - did some orange butter icing for it - yum. I was in a mad rush so didn't end up with my broom, left on my 'a bit high tech for a witch' digital watch, and also one hoop earring. I did make a mental note whilst I was doing my makeup and before I had put my witches outfit on, to remove the earring, because I was starting to look a bit like a pirate, but it slipped my mind! And the hat that I so loved. It wouldn't stay on my humongous head, complete with wig. I still think the scariest part of my outfit was my fringe.

Now, as you can see from these pictures below of me and my sis, we absolutely hate Halloween lol, this is us, getting into character.

And this is Shamus Snr. in his home made 'just been attacked' come 'one of the affected from 28 days later' outfit. His makeup was fantastic - he really looked like he had been hurt!! The cuts and bruises, bits of torn skin - ewwww - looked a little too real. Freaky bunch - aren't we? This is my Ma and Ray posing for a pic as Catwoman and Frankenstein - loved both their outfits! Young Shamus was a bit freaked out by Grandpa Ray's mask at first, but he got braver as the night went on.This is Shaun snr below, with his Mum and Dad, and my brother Jack, far left at the front. Note the ghoul that Shaun is holding onto at the back, created by his fair hand, to scare the local children coming for 'Tricks or Treats'. This year, I thought I'd mix things up a bit and get some plastic spiders and worms and stuff to put in amongst the sweets. I saw a few unimpressed faces, when some kids pulled out spiders instead of sweets!! TRICK mwuahahahahaha. Some kids don't really want tricking do they, they actually just want toffees or money. In fact most kids!! I read something on my sisters my space page which made me chuckle the other day - talking about swapping parts of outfits to maximise profits when out trick or treating.



Just have a look at my sisters face on this pic below. She was in character all night, and it was hilarious. Shaun Jr looks slightly worried I think - she looks like she is about to kidnap him!
And this is my little man in his skeleton outfit. Well part of it - he wouldn't wear the rest! He had a load of fun, and was mischief making and making the most of having two sets of grandparents around. My Dad should have made an appearance and didn't bother. Shame that, because he missed a really great night.
And the award for costume most likely to make you pee yourself with laughter goes to......Melissa, my sister. I swear, I was double over with laughter most of the night. She reminded me a bit of that granny of No 42 with the Kumars, and she does a mean impression of her too! Its the teeth that do it! But she was hilarious. There's something about being around my sis, that makes me feel like a giddy teenage girl again.

To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each others hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. Clara OrtegaAnd here are some of my pics from our bonfire night last weekend. Having a play with shutter speeds and what not - here's my ma .....


...and here's me trying to get an impressive sparkler picture. Check the one after out. Can you see what I was trying to achieve, and failing a bit miserably?

I was trying to write my name in the pic below, but I ran out of space, and only managed 'Cha'. Ay dear... Have a look at our 'hard as nails' friendly neighborhood heron below! Never moved a muscle whilst these fireworks were going off! Might be because he is made of stone lol didn't even notice it when I was taking these pictures!

So there you go. That is it from me today (that's it?? lol), I have got a couple of crafty things I want to share with you but Ill pop them up tomorrow now!! A layout and a few other bits, and another scarf I should be finishing fairly soon too.

I'm really looking forward to catching up with you all - I had a peep at a few blogs last night, but I will get round them all by the end of today! Have a great rest of the day, and thanks for stopping by!

Bleepin blogger.....

I'm typing this, whilst I wait for the blogger to (hopefully) upload my pics again. Somehow - I don't think its going to be happening! I keep getting an error message :(

I'll give it one last try and upload the pics to photobucket if it still doesn't work, failing that I will have to ask for help!! Ah - its done it...

So the above photos were taken on my web cam, as I was suffering from cant-be-arsed-erenteritis, a common complaint I believe - and I therefore had no motivation to fanny about with my SLR - I mean, that would have actually involved going downstairs for it!!! Naaaaa...... anyway, the web cam didn't seem to be working properly. I kept clicking on the darn thing and nothing seemed to be working, until I heard a really loud noise that sounded like a gunshot (almost causing me to fall off my chair) because I had my speakers turned up far too loud. Apparently, the camera had a three second delay on it, and took three photos, one of me normalish, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, one of me getting more confused, and the final one with me getting near peed off, because I couldn't fathom it out. If only it had took another, when the loud noise had happened - would have loved to have seen my scared mush! And on a brighter note, at least it isn't one of those annoying CHEESE!!!! pics that I usually do for Saturday lol
This next one is of my little man - I love it! He was pulling some really funny faces whilst trying to get the lid off his shampoo. I have a few others of him contorting his face into all sorts of expressions. You could be having the cackiest of days, and you just have to look at him and he'll flash you this gorgeous smile, and nothing seems to matter. Discovered yesterday that he is sensitive to something in tomato ketchup, and it cant be the tomatoes because he eats them like apples! Momos, he calls them. His little face came out in a red rash, so shall have to investigate further - it happens with a few other things too.

We went to see our friend's 8 day old baba yesterday - how cute!! He weighed 6 pounds at birth and was teeny, cute chubby little cheeks and he was sticking his bottom lip out!! I was slightly worried that I would get all broody, as us women often do in the presence of cute cuddly wee ones, but no! I mean, I would love loads of kids, but I still remember those early days, well. The ones where my boobs felt like they were going to drop off with the initial pain of breastfeeding and a very hungry baby, the exhaustion of sleepless nights, the pain of going for a simple wee etc. Mind you, it was a wonderful time and I loved it - NO STOP, no more babies for me just yet! Unfortunately, my Shaun is still in the 'getting to know softly' stage, so when he went to stroke the baby on the head, it ended up being more of a hard pat. He then proceeded to ransack the house, pulling off expensive model cars from a table and other mischievous tricks. What fun!

And this final pic, is some of my little man's artwork! He loves painting, getting it all over his face and hands. He ended up with a little streak of green paint under his eye, which ended up looking like eyeliner, with him resembling a young Russell Brand/Johnny Depp in pirates of the Caribbean, minus the facial hair of course - made me chuckle! Only trouble is now - its one of the first things he goes for in my craft room, shouting PAINT! PAINT! And attempting to squeeze it out of the bottles on the floor. Bless. So now, I better go, but not before mentioning its my turn to post over on Blog Til You Drop today - pop over and have a looksee? I'll be doing it shortly, hope the pic upload starts working soon!

Thanks for stopping by - I will catch up with your pics now, and then post my BTYD stuff! Have a good day folks!

Show Off Sunday

Howdi folks! Today I thought I would show off some of my pics from the One Big Weekend in Preston. This was inspired by Bobs' fab pics of Brian May from a couple of weeks back! Now these photos are definitely not technically correct in the least - I had had my DSLR for a few days and was just getting to grips with all the settings, and it was the first time I was actually trying to take photos on it without using the auto setting! And without using flash too - I wanted to try and capture the lighting as it was on the day. I had to crank the ISO settings up to 1600 though and so the pics are quite 'noisy'. I had to hold the camera above my head to take the pics to avoid all the heads in front of us so I was a bit wobbly and there was no way I would be avoiding camera shake!! So the guys above are The Fray - who I love. I liked em before one big weekend but seeing them there live was just amazing. Jo Wiley got on stage with them and played a bit of tambourine which was cool - I think she's a fantastic DJ and listen to her in the week on Radio One.
And above, the mighty Kasabian. Now, we had managed to squeeze and push and wriggle our way to almost the front at this point. But when these guys came on the crowd went slightly crazy, and started pushing in their droves - we nearly ended up on the floor, and with 500 quids worth of camera in my hands I was cacking it a bit, to say the least!! But it was brilliant! Me and my sis (who kindly invited me to go to this fab event when she won tickets - how chuffed was I???) departed at this point, because it was getting a bit much and we were getting trampled on. So we went into the next tent. So glad we did because we saw these guys!!

The Gossip - I am a big fan of theirs and Beth Ditto in partic - I think she has a fab attitude, although I'm not struck on the 'flashing her bits' routine. She didn't do this when we saw her thankfully, although she did nearly spill out of her dress a few times when she was dancing for her life on stage. And the mad woman actually climbed into the crowd - no mean feat for such a short lady. The pic above was her shortly before she 'connected' (her words) with the crowd.And then these guys above -one of my favourite groups of all time - Groove Armada. This pic reminds me so much of waiting there, at the very front of the stage, waiting for them to kick off, the crowd going crazy, and just thinking - wow - I'm so lucky to be here!!
And finally, how can I leave without showing off a picture of my boys? This was taken on a walk at Ingleton Falls. Now we didn't take a carrier for young Shamus, so his Dad carried him most of the way - up hill mostly, about 4.5 miles!! And Shamus is a good solid lad - so it was hard work! And he was fed up and kicking off but who could blame him. His Dad was knackered also - hence the sweaty head lol and bear in mind we hadn't even got a quarter of the way through the walk at this point!! But I still think he looks gorgeous, sweat and all. Poor Shamus is not up for looking at the camera, and is probably eyeing up his escape route.

So I shall say TTFN guys, weekend nearly over now, sob sob, enjoy the rest of it wont you?! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Showoffery...

Good morning! A quick pop on before we disappear out for the day, to share with you my SOS photos for this week. First and foremost, my beautiful boy. I took this in Silloth when we went to see my ma there a little earlier in the year - some other photos from the trip can be seen here, in my 'HSMS - Dog' post. I haven't had to alter this in any way - I thought the colour was great on it and didn't think it needed anything else! I love his expression on this photo - it reminds me of how much he loved playing there on the park with his Nana and grandpa. I have scrapped this pic too, here.The second picture, as you can probably tell, I have altered the saturation in the colours far too much - I am blaming my previous rubbish monitor, but truth be told, I think it's probably just me, getting a bit carried away. Its a common feature of photos from people who are 'new' to digital photography - oversharpening or oversaturation of images. But anyway - I was really pleased with it at first! I love this place - its the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster, within the grounds of Williamson Park. I think the place is beautiful, I really love bringing the kids here and having a potter around it. You can get a brew at the cafe, along with a stale piece of chocolate cake if you're into that sort of thing lol. The Memorial never fails to make me think - wow - whenever I see it.

'The Ashton Memorial was commissioned by Lord Ashton as a tribute to his late wife. Born in Lancaster, Lord Ashton became a millionaire producing oil cloth and linoleum which was exported from the port all over the world. It serves as reminder of the importance of Lancaster as a thriving commercial centre, not only in times past but now in the 21st century.'
taken from the website - linked above

So there you go, that's me for today! I'm going to have a go at this weeks challenge over on Blog Til You Drop a bit later on - have a look see!! I found a quote by Marilyn Monroe that I'm going to use for it - here it is:

'I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I'm out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you cant handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.'

Good day to yall then folks - :( Monday tomorrow. And in the words of Bob Geldof.....

Thanks for reading!

PS I dont know if I mentioned it but I got some pictures of my Dad's brothers and sister who live in London!! I may or may not be popping them up here - just checking out that its OK with them first.

It's Show Off Sunday Again!

Good evening folks! Well I got my butt into gear slightly better than yesterday. We've been out vising the rents in law today, so I havent managed to get much done in the way of craftiness. Not only that - but I must get this course work well under way - I am slacking!

So a couple of photos to share with you today, the first taken near to Nicky Nook, Scorton, near to where we live. I love walking by this way - its near to where Shaun asked me to marry him (see bench pic with destructive graffiti c/o Shaun snr), and my Ma loves coming to walk here, so it has lots of lovely memories attached to it. I know now, from looking at this pic, that I increased the saturation far too much - I have reduced it prior to uploading it today though. I had a dodgy monitor at the time, and it literally took me hours to get it to this point - it was far too underexposed in the foreground so had to mess around lightening it and using gradient tools and allsorts. But anyway - we live and learn!

Second is a pic of Shaun I wanted to share - I love this pic and pressed the shutter button without looking through the viewfinder - I really like the angle of this shot, but most importantly - love the expression on Shaun's face, and his little chubby hand holding his Nanny's hat on!

Right guys, I'll skidaddle now, and get done some of what I should have been doing - this bloomin course! TTFN, and hope you've all had a great weekend! Thanks for reading!

HS:MS - Show Off Sunday!

Well first, I really should tell you that I should be ashamed of myself. Last night, I had a fight. Well I had three actually!! And I make no bones about it, I enjoyed it. I fought three men, and they were huge!! My Shaun (snr) was by my side cheering me on too, but he never stepped in to help me, I was doing fine by myself. Yes, you've guessed it, not IRL, but on EA Sports - Fight Night 3 on the Xbox 360!! You see, as I have now persuaded Shaun to have the occasional scrapping night with me, he has quite rightly said that I should get in there and do some of his 'man stuff' e.g. Xbox, fishing etc etc etc. Fair's fair!!This first pic above - I love to bits!! It was taken whilst we had gone to visit Shaun's grandad at the presidents day for the bowlers in Inskip. I think he looks so mischievous!
This pic above was taken during one of our experimental trips out with my (then) new DSLR - I was so impressed with the photos it was capable of - and this was taken on the portrait mode I must confess, cant take credit for the settings on this one Im afraid.

And this, another one from our Wales collection - I took loads, as I always do! I'm probably one of those extremely irritating folk, you know the ones who are always saying 'picture!!'. The thing is, I love life, and I love my family so much, whenever we're together or doing anything special - I dont want to miss a thing! I dont let my taking pics get in the way of my enjoyment of the actual experience as it unfolds or anything, Im not yet that bad!! But its all stuff to look back on when Im old and wrinklier (note the wrinklier, and not wrinkled lol). And thats where my love of scrapbooking comes in. Pictures are great, but when Im no longer here - who's going to tell all the little extra bits about the day? And that's why, when journalling, I usually tend to bare all on my LO's. In my recent challenge post on Blog Til You Drop, I call it a severe case of verbal emotional diarrhoea!! But thats me, Im quite an emotional person as it goes.

Anyway, I love the picture above, because I think, if Shaun didnt have that big ol plastic beaker there, to me it looks like he could have been found there, just living on the beach like some little castaway - my mum said the same thing!! Leaf has been strategically placed obviously to protect the innocent, and to protect me also, as I am already going to get enough grief from the boy when he is older. Shaun snr says that when Shaun jnr brings a girl to meet us for the first time, she'll have to move in for a few weeks so we can show her all the pics and crafty stuff with him in!

Right guys, enough waffle, I shall depart, and catch up with you and what you're up to now! Have a great day!

PS - Weather - grim.

HS:MS - Show Off Sunday!

Im showing off my gorgeous baba again today! I know some of you might have already seen this pic in my post earlier in the week, for the prompt 'curious', but had to pop it up again. We just had this put on to canvas for Shaun's Mum and Dad for their 30th wedding anniversary and they love it to bits! It was taken on the beach in Wales, during our recent break there. I love it because when I look at it, it reminds me of how happy he was on that beach, and so innocent, running round with nothing on, totally uninhibited as kids should be! I can almost hear his little giggles and shrieks of excitement as he was going into the water. I love the way the sunlight highlights his hair.

I've seen a little bit of the world, lots in this country and a few in others, been to some scorching hot and beautiful like the Dominican, some fun and adventurous like Florida, but I have never had such a perfect day as I did the day this picture was taken. To see our son so happy and content like that, made it the best holiday ever for us.

And this one above was one I took in our garden - I put this in my panel for my Open Uni end of course assessment. I love Shaun's expression in this one, his big chocolatey brown eyes and again I love the light on his hair! I know he's dribbling a bit in it but I think he looks really cute!

HS:MS - Show Off Sunday!

This is a photo that I was really chuffed with!! I used to look at photos like this and think - aaah i wish I could take photos like that!! Im not saying it's technically spot on or even near to spot on by a long shot!! But its one that I look at and think - it looks just how I see it when I'm sat watching it in the flesh, as it were lol

I love sunsetty type photos, I think the majority are peaceful and tranquil.

Now, off to finish off the project Im doing for the Blog Til You Drop Blog, which will be posted tomorrow - feel free to take a trip on over there, there's some cool stuff going on!! And a fab challenge posted last night by Ruth! Will update with the photos from last nights 'do', and also fill you in about the grandfather saga, just as soon as I get a spare minute or two!!