Uni friends/People photography

We had a great afternoon with my old uni friends yesterday! I went to Sussex University as a mature student (10 years ago now!), and still keep in touch with the girls I made friends with. Essi came over from Finland for a few days with DH Markus, and son Tobias, and daughter Julia (little baby), so we decided to get together. WE made afternoon tea! So sandwiches, quiches etc. Jane bought scones and cream, and Sarah bought a carrot cake.

I tried taking some candid shots for my People Photography course. Here are some of the best. It is sooo challenging this course. It really is outside my comfort zone to take pics of people, and directing them for a photoshoot - well I find that nigh impossible! I just have no idea what to say to them!LOL
I bought Tobias (4) a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker book, and he sepnt ALL afternoon doing it, he really loved it!











Here's Jane doing what she does best, talk!


















I think this might be the best technically. It is Roger, who is Markus's friend, who they are staying with in Brighton. He drove them over, nice chap!

















But this is my favourite! Simon is soo gorgeous, photogenic and is a really nice chap! He is Sarah's husband. I love the way the light falls on his face.

CJ entry

I must try and showcase a bit more of my crafting! I can't usually be bothered to photograph it. But I was so pleased with this, I have to show it to you! It's my entry in a CJ called'Take One Stamp'. Each CJ has one stamp that you have to use. This is a gorgeous Crafty Indiviuals stamp, that I decided to stamp with Versamark, then colour it with chalks. I don't use my chalks very often, in fact, hardly ever! First of all I chalked it all in pink, but then decided to try different colours, browns, mustard, and pink to highlight the butterfly. I have to say that I am really pleased with it! It is mounted on dark brown card, then onto a scrap of Prima paper that I had left over. It is a really dinky little CJ, only measuring about 6 x 4ins. Lovely!

Scrapbooking Holidays

I have recently taken all my old photos out of those 'sticky' albums, and put them into archival albums from Arrowfile. I decided that I would keep all the holidyas seperate. I ordered 12 x 12 albums and a variety of page protectors from Arrowfile. I now have 6 albums full of our holidyas going right back to when we were first married! What I would like to do now is to sort each holiday into the right order, and scrap 1 or 2 pages per holiday. I have just found all the holiday diaries - I always keep quite detailed diaries when on holiday. Now I need to spend some time on each individual holiday!

This project is going to take a very long time!LOL I will update again soon

Wow, we had such a fabulous time in Rome! It really was a whistle stop tour though!

Here is the inside of the Colluseum, completely different to how I imagined! I thought it would be grass inside. I guess all this would have been underneath the 'stage', where the killings and Galdiator fights took place. It really is HUGE!


The Pantheon. It is Soooo ancient. Unfortunately it was shut because of easter and we couldn't go in.

The fabulous Trevi fountain. Actually I was a little disappointed, it didn't seem as big as I had imagined! Maybe because there were so many people about.

A lot of the buildings were this gorgeous terracotta colour.

The Sapnish steps. It seemd that anybody who was anybody in Rome were on those steps on Easter Monday! Such stylish people. And mostly Italians, not very many Americans or Japonese.

This wonderful view is from above Piazza del Popolo. It is looking towards th vatican city (those high walls) and that large dome is St Peters Basillica

One of my favourite shots! Part of a fountain in Piazza del Popolo.

And the Colosseum! It is so big, and so much part of the city. Awesome!

I just love this, a photo of Maurice taking a photo of the church of San Giovanni en Laterano

Finally, we were pleased with ourselves becasue we mastered the public transport system! Not that hard I know! But quite a thing for us. This is the double decker train we caught from Fiumicino airport right to our hotel! (well 5 mins walk to it anyway)

Back with more tomorrow. I did take 252!!! (and I haven't deleted very many) So you will have to see some more.

WE are off to Rome!

WE are off to Rome for a few days! My last and final 50th birthday celebration. We are catching th 8am flight from gatwick so nice early start, and coming home on Wednesday evening. So expect lots of photos!!

Happy Childhood

We have swapped round the computers a bit here. I now have Dad's computer, because it is much better than mine. Nicholas has sorted it all out for me this week. What I wnat to tell you about though is the cine films I found on here! Dad had all the cine films converted to DVD a year or so back with the idea of editing them - he never did! But there are 4 hours of old cine film on this computer!!! They are absolutely wonderful - my 6th birthday, family weddings, beach holidays, relatives visiting etc. I am going to watch a bit every day. Most of the film dates back to the late 1960s early 1970s, and it is just fabulous to see us all so much younger and moving! Just wish I knew how to show you a bit(LOL) but then you really had to have been there to appreciate them!! Maurice and SIL Lynda used to hate it when we got the old cine films out! And of course we always had to watch the bit where we went down the slide off Weymouth pier into the sea backwards - several times!!!

Remembering Dad

yesterday we had a man come to take away the big machine tools from Dad's garage. The garage was Dad's domain, none of us knew anything about the tools or what he did out there! He had a lathe, a milling machine, a bandsaw, a vertical drill etc. But that's what Dad did! He made some fantastic things for us and the grandchildren. I have a shaker style seat in the conservatory, and a bookcase in my bedroom. We have a doll's house which I have tried to decorate and furnish!! In the loft are a castle, a farm, a dolls bed and 2 desks! He also made a full size rocking horse for my brother's children.
As a child I can always remember Dad in his garage. We had a small garden with the garage in a compund, but it was at the back of our garden, so there was a door into it from the garden. He was out there EVERY night! His hands were always black with oil and grease! In those days he fixed cars, and did alot for the Austin 7 club. He machined the cylinder blocks for the engine for restored Austin 7s. He was involved in a record attempt in the late 1970s with Austin 7s round Goodwood circuit. (Andrew and Maurice went to reunion before Christmas - 30 year anniversary!) When I first bought a moped when I was 17, Dad rebuilt the engine! And then I bought a Suzuki 50cc trail bike which I blew up the engine, and he rebuilt that too!
It was the right time to clear the garage. Any sooner would have been more painful, but any later and the tools would have started to detierorate. But it did feel like a little bit more of Dad gone from our lives!