'happy new year!' by Debby.S

happy new year!, a photo by Debby.S on Flickr.

Here is a wonderful New Year's Eve photo to post today. I think this would have worked well in colour but I think the black and white is beautiful. I hope you all have a fabulous time seeing in the new year tonight and I wish you all the very best for a truly spectacular 2013. Here's hoping all your wishes come true because I know you deserve it.

Happy new year everyone!

'Beauty on a grey day' by Me

Beauty on a grey day, a photo by PhotoPuddle on Flickr.

So have you made any new year's resolutions? I don't normally make any myself. I tend to make big resolutions with myself at other points during the year just when it feels right. Sometimes this is on my birthday as getting a year old seems a perfect time to make a change. And often September is a good time of year for resolutions too. I think because even though I'm in my thirties I've never stopped thinking in school years!

Anyway, since deciding I wanted to do a post on how I don't make resolutions I seem to have accidentally made a few. Here's hoping I can keep them. I don't think they're too hard though.

My first resolution is that I don't want to go on a diet in 2013. By that I mean I have lost my baby weight and apart from a little overindulgence over Christmas I am pretty happy with what I weigh. I want to now eat sensibly so it doesn't creep up when I'm not looking and one day I suddenly can't do my jeans up.

Secondly, I want to read more. I love reading but never find the time to do it. I have a huge 'To Read' pile so it would be good to make a big dent in that.

Thirdly, I want to de-clutter my house and have a good old sort out. I know it's an impossible dream but I would love to live in a house that was tidy all the time.

And the resolution that is most relevant to this blog is that I want to make more time for photography. Other than photos of family and friends I've hardly taken any pictures in the past couple of months. I think I get put off by the bad weather. I need to learn to embrace the grey skies more like I did in the photo above. I took this on a dull day but I think it is still a great dramatic image. Also I got bought Polaroid film for Christmas so I'm going to have fun playing with that.

So tell me, what do you resolve to do (or not do) in 2013?

'Snow!' by Hugrun Lena

Snow!, a photo by Hugrún Lena on Flickr.

Did you all have a fantastic Christmas? I really hope you did because mine was wonderful. In fact I have loved the whole festive season. We've done so much and been really busy and it's been great. Christmas Day itself was just brilliant. It was definitely made extra special by the children who had such great time. Naturally my four year old was super excited but I was really surprised by how much my eight month old got into the Christmas spirit too. He definitely knew it was a special day. He was a bit of cliche because he did spend a lot of time playing with the packaging and the wrapping paper. But the funniest thing was bedtime. Usually he's so tired by the end of the day and completely out like a light but that day he took ages to settle and just wanted cuddles. I genuinely think didn't want to be left alone. I think he would rather have been downstairs continuing the celebrations.

Anyway, there so much I could write about Christmas but I'll stop now and look forward to the next few days chilling at home with family and friends. It's sort of a shame there is no snow forecast as that would have finished off the holidays perfectly, especially as we don't really have to get anywhere in a hurry. I love this snowy Christmas photo as it really has captured the magic of freshly fallen snow. I love it when it snows at night like this. It makes everything just seem so peaceful.

'Christmas Decorations' by sweet berry me

Christmas Decorations, a photo by sweet berry me on Flickr.

It's Christmas Eve Eve and I must admit I am rather excited although not as excited as my four year old daughter appears to be. She has been on such a high all day and it took her hours to get to sleep tonight. Goodness knows what she'll be like tomorrow. Thankfully my eight month old is taking it more in his stride. All he wants for Christmas is a big pile of wrapping paper to play with and possibly try to eat!

Talking of festive things to eat how cute are these decorations? I must make some edible decorations one year. Although not sure how long they'd last on the tree.

Anyway, time to wish you all a very merry Christmas. I hope you all have a fantastic time celebrating with friends and family.

'329/365 - Festive Monkey' by Samantha Warren Photography

329/365 - Festive Monkey, a photo by Samantha Warren Photography on Flickr.

You know what makes me chuckle? Christmas jumpers! I find it funny how they are rather trendy this year. The reason this amuses me is that in years to come people won't recall that this was the year that Christmas sweaters were cool. There will just be lots of old photographs of people in really cheesey jumpers and people just asking themselves "what was I thinking?".

The same goes for Movember! It's obviously a fantastic cause but Movember won't happen every year forever and like with the sweaters there will be lots of photographic evidence of bad moustaches and no way of reminding people that it was honestly just for charity.

I think this photo is perfect to accompany my thoughts on festive fashions. It's a very well taken and composed picture but what I love the most is Monkey's Christmas jumper. We have one of these Monkey toys at home but his top is nowhere near as cool as this one.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I hope you are having a lovely and festive weekend. Only three more sleeps!

'My very first Flickr photo' by Me

My very first Flickr photo, a photo by PhotoPuddle on Flickr.

I thought tonight I wouldn't post anything festive and instead show you the very first photo I posted on Flickr. I am rather unimpressed with many of my early pictures but this one I actually really like. I find that trees can make really great subjects for photos. I love the shapes of the branches here and of course I love the blue sky.

'Silver bokeh' by LindaScannell

Silver bokeh, a photo by LindaScannell on Flickr.

This time next week it'll be Christmas Eve which I think is very exciting. Christmas Day itself is always fantastic but the night before is definitely the most magical time of the festive season. I've always felt that way even before children but since become a parent it's even more exciting for obvious Father Christmas related reasons!

I found it very hard to choose a photo to share with you tonight. Whilst looking for festive images all the ones that really caught my eye were ones of baubles! I hadn't realised I was so obsessed with them. Or perhaps they are just the prettiest thing about Christmas! I did love this one though. I love it's simplicity and of course it wouldn't be Christmas without a bit of sparkle.

'Olney window' by Clive Wagner

Olney window, a photo by Clive Wagner on Flickr.

I just had to blog tonight as I needed somewhere to express my amazement at how well today's Christmas shopping went. We needed to head out to the shops to get a few bits an pieces so we went to our local town centre. On driving past the car park we usually park in we noticed a huge queue so we thought we'd try elsewhere. For some unknown reason we thought we'd try out a tiny little car park that is always full. Amazingly, there was a space. We didn't even have to wait for someone to leave it was just sitting there all empty. Result!

After a trip to the library and a few shops we decided to have lunch. We were going to grab a coffee shop sandwich but a spare of the moment desiscion meant we had a delicious pizza for lunch at Ask. We felt that we were going to need to get our strength up, after all the next stop was going to be Tesco!

There were more nice surprises at Tesco though. For a start it wasn't really any busier than a normal Saturday and once again we struck gold parking when we got a parent and child space straight away. Then the shop was actually quite quiet. But the best bit was that both our children were complete angels the whole way round. Usually one or both of them get bored.

So all in all we were very pleasantly surprised today. Whoever said that the shops at Christmas are a nightmare didn't know what they were talking about.

Oh and the photo.... I love this. So festive and lovely and definitely looks like a place I'd like to go shopping. It also looks really cozy even though we are on the outside in the cold looking into the warm shop.

I hope you are all having a good weekend.

'Macy's Christmas window in NYC, 2008' by Maryann's *****Fotos

Macy's Christmas window in NYC, 2008, a photo by Maryann's*****Fotos on Flickr.

I couldn't resist another bauble photo with a fabulous reflection. Love the colours too, you've got to have lots of colours and sparkles at Christmas. So what do you have planned for the weekend? Lots of Christmassy things I hope. We need to do a little more shopping, mainly food which unfortunately means braving the supermarket. And we're hosting a family party which I'm really looking forward to.

Happy weekend folks. Hope yours is full of Christmas sparkle.

'DSC_0206' by margheonair8

DSC_0206, a photo by margheonair8 on Flickr.

Here is a simple yet stunning photo. I love everything about it. I love how cold it looks but cold in a nice way. I adore the colours. Those fresh blues and greens are lovely and the reason they are so gorgeous is that fabulous sunlight. Now here's hoping that if it snows round here the sun will be kind enough to shine like this so I too can capture a few snowy moments.

'Trinket boxes' by Me

Trinket boxes, a photo by PhotoPuddle on Flickr.

I thought I would show you another 'corner of my house' style picture tonight. Here is another favourite corner of mine. I guess things here are what you would call trinket boxes as they are wooden boxes I keep bits and bobs in. The beach hut one I love because it's the closest I have come so far to owning my own beach hut. The other one I bought at a shopping party at a friends house where they were selling all kinds of pretty stuff like this. The heart at the front is actually a picture frame but I never got around to putting a photo in it as I just really like this one of the flowers in the vase. And finally there's a card which my hubby and daughter got me once just to say "we love you". It was over a year ago but I still keep it up permanently just because it makes me smile!

'love these ornaments' by nanaCompany

love these ornaments, a photo by nanaCompany on Flickr.

I must admit I do like photos of Christmas baubles. I think it's for two main reasons - firstly, all the colours as I love bright and colourful photos. And secondly, they appeal to my slightly voyeuristic side. I do like examining the baubles to see what's going on in the reflection! Luckily for me this photo ticks both those boxes. Lots of lovely pretty colours and I've been able to have a good look at what's going on in the rest of the room!

Happy weekend everyone!

'mince pies' by sarahabnett

mince pies, a photo by sarahabnett on Flickr.

The trouble with Christmas is that I'm not a big fan of Christmas food such as mince, pies, fruit cake or Christmas pudding. Or anything really with dried fruit or marzipan. I make up for it though by eating lots of chocolate and instead on mince pies I always make sure I have a box of apple pies in the house.

Although, I must admit I am coming round to the idea of Christmas pudding. I tasted a spoonful from my husband's plate during our meal out earlier this week and it was actually rather nice.

And then I see gorgeous photos like this that really make me fancy a mince pie. I know I won't like it but these look so delicious I could be tempted into trying one. I am very impressed that the photographer managed to actually get a photo of these without scoffing the lot! I bet it wasn't a long photo session!

'Making Christmas cards' by Me

Making Christmas cards, a photo by PhotoPuddle on Flickr.

I think I am going to have to give in and let my husband put the Christmas tree up. It is starting to feel rather festive around here. The festiveness really got underway last night when my hubby surprised me with a meal out, just us two. This was fantastic as we NEVER go out together on our own in the evening. We had a delicious meal in a lovely restaurant and it felt all Christmassy because we had turkey dinner and pulled crackers.

This morning it snowed, not for long and it didn't settle, but the flakes were really big and it did seem rather magical. Then this afternoon my daughter and I spent about three hours making Christmas cards. She worked so hard as she wanted to make the cards and write them all herself. Oh and whilst we were doing this we had the music channels on playing Christmas tunes.

So to conclude, I think Christmas is here and I like it.

'Kitty gift' by Lisa-Mari

Kitty gift, a photo by Lisa-Mari on Flickr.

This photo is for my husband. He wanted to put the Christmas tree up today but for me it's way too early. I am starting to feel festive but if the decorations went up now I'd be bored of them by 25th December. I would happily wait a couple more weeks and literally put them up the week before Cheidtmas but we've compromised and the tree is going up next weekend. We have family visiting and the school nativity so it does make sense.

In the mean time I hope my dearest hubby will enjoy looking at this gorgeous tree instead. I love how this has been taken. The fairy lights have been captured so perfectly. And talking about light, I think what I love most is the blue glow you can see outside as it's such a contrast to the warm and coziness inside.

What about you? Is your tree up?