Beach BBQ

Since it was such a wonderful day today, my cousins (who are staying with me at the moment) and I decided it would be the perfect evening treat to have a little bbq on the beach at Exmouth.  It was lovely and sunny but pretty windy too!  The sausages got a bit of a crunchy coating!!  But it was still lovely all the same.  Much fun had by all!

There were some kite surfers too which looked like brilliant fun!  One of them had a bright turquoise kite, but I just couldn't get a good enough picture; too far away even with my big lens on!  They looked awesome in the sun, but the photo doesn't do it justice!  And no the sea isn't on a hill!  I was following the surfer and it came out wonky!

It's ready!!

HOORAY!  The caravan is finally done!  And we're heading off tomorrow (or should that say today) to celebrate our wedding anniversary!  So just a couple of before photos...

Not pretty, huh?!?  But after all the blood, sweat and tears (and there was a fair amount of each!), look what a beautiful thing our caravan has become...

And we finally get to start having adventures in it too, starting with celebrating our anniversary!  So exciting!  I have no idea where we're going, but will definitely be taking the camera with me!

A Couple of Adventures

Dave and I recently took a couple of breaks (doesn't happen all that often!) and went off for a couple of adventures.  The first was a trip to Branscombe followed by a visit to the donkeys.  Dave likes jumping on big rocks and throwing the largest rock he can lift into the sea, so here he is enjoying that!

We also saw loads of donkeys and they were just lovely.  I do wonder why donkeys always look so sad.  It's not just Eeyore!

Our second adventure took us to Torquay.  Some very kind and generous friends of ours paid for us to go away for a couple of nights as a treat.  They planned and booked everything for us, including a lovely hamper of goodies to enjoy!  We also got to go to Living Coasts and see the penguins (amongst other things!).  So much fun!

This big ball of fluff is actually a baby penguin!  He'd only been born about 2 weeks before this, so he's really small and cute and fluffy!  They had another one that was born, but wasn't very well so was being looked after in the incubator.  When we got home, we found it it didn't make it.  Poor little thing. 

Was cool to be able to get so close to the penguins and see them being fed as well!

I'd like to say this last photo was because I'm a really amazing photographer, but actually it was a fluke!  I thought I'd missed it, but turns out I didn't!  Looks kinda cool!!

The all consuming caravan...

So lately I haven't been out much especially not with the camera as Dave and I bought a caravan really cheap and have been doing it up.  When It's finished I'll post before and after photos, but you'll just have to be patient!  It won't be long now!  Whilst I was sewing the curtains, I realised that actually I hadn't posted on here in an age, so here's a little taster of the main colour for the caravan!  Enjoy!  (It's not very easy to see in the first picture, but you can definitely see it in the second!)

Dave's first catch of the year!

Thought I'd show it off!

Wedding Season is upon us!

Yesterday was our first wedding of the year.  The couple looked beautiful and so happy!  Would be rude to post a photo of them without permission, so I won't.  I did however, take a photo of the most gorgeous flowers that had been done by a lady in our church.  They were just so amazing, I couldn't resist!  And fantastic colours!

Another wedding and my god-daughter's dedication next weekend!  Just a bit of a hard week in between so I'm not expecting to be able to take the camera out till next Saturday.  Oh well!

Spring has sprung!

And what a wonderful time to enjoy taking photos!  Don't think they need any explanation really!  You can see why in times past people really celebrated the arrival of Spring!

The Weird and Wonderful World of Photoshop

I've had Photoshop on my computer for a few months now, but every time I look at it, it seems far too complicated to do anything with!  This evening I had a couple of hours going begging and thought I might just have a proper look and try out some tutorials to see if I could learn how to use a tiny smidgen of it!  I have a great fascination for photos where you pick out a colour and make the rest black and white, so figured that'd be a good place to start.  They're by no means brilliant, but I plan to learn more!  And I think I also need to remember what Photoshop can do when I'm taking photos too.  You never know, I may begin to use it properly and for something more than just making pretty black and white photos!

Think my favourite is the roulette wheel, but I do like the others too!

It's been a while!

It's amazing how when you decide to do something to stop yourself getting bored, you, all of a sudden, become very very busy indeed!  So I'm sorry that it's been over a month since I last put something on here, but I do at least have something very lovely to show you!

Some friends of mine are getting married in April and they've asked me to make their wedding cake for them.  It's such a privilege to be asked, but also just a little daunting!  They want 3 tiers of chocolate though so that's not so bad; dark, milk and white.  White chocolate isn't the easiest thing to cook with, so I've attempted that one first.  I've not made a white chocolate cake before so have been hunting for recipes.  If this one actually tastes nice then I'll share it, but from the look of the sponge, I'm not convinced!  Think I may need a different recipe!  Anyway, it's now covered in white chocolate buttercream and looks much much nicer.  The buttercream does taste good!!  This is how it looks...

I'll let you know what the bride and groom think!

I have anew job!

So it's not teaching, but it is doing something I enjoy and am not half bad at... serving people drinks!  I will be working at the Southgate Hotel in Exeter and it's rather posh!

It's so posh that there is a baby grand next to the bar and apparently it's not for show.  People really come in to play it!  If you don't believe me then you'll just have to pop in for a drink!  Don't know when I'm going to be working yet though...  In the meantime check out the hotel website.  

Not Been Able to Get out this Week...

What with having a job interview and a sick husband, there's been no chance to get out with the camera at all this week.  Am heading off to Newquay this weekend so I thought I'd put up a couple of photos of previous escapades in Fistral Bay.

Will attempt to get the camera out whilst I'm there over the next couple of days, but there's a nice hotel, a spa and lovely people to chat to...  We'll see!

I LOVE Ladybirds!

And managed to snap these 2 little guys a couple of months back.  So amazing!

Pretty Girl!

Today I had prayer triplet which has become a quadruplet since the arrival of a very beautiful girl we call Grace!  She's very good and when we pray, she joins in with a few gurgles!  She was sat having a tickly cuddle with Ruthie when I took this photo, which her Mummy gave me permission to put up (just in case Daddy happens to read this!).  She is so beautiful and an absolute joy to have around.  She brightens up the room and has the cutest smile!  I'm sure you'll agree!

First things first

I discovered I hadn't downloaded my Christmas photos from my camera and when I did so, I discovered I do in fact have a more recent photo of my nephew!  He is still truly scrumptious!

So today, I had to catch a bus to get me to church for a meeting and, since I was in town, I thought I'd take some time, with the camera, to go and look at some bits of Exeter I often just walk past very fast on my way to somewhere else.  They're the old bits and they look old and of not much use, except that they are very beautiful and incredibly photogenic!  It's amazing to put so much new stuff around some of these crumbly old buildings, especially when you contrast them.  I took this photo earlier and wondered how many people don't even notice this when they're walking through Princesshay.  I know the developers did it deliberately which I think is pretty cool! 

I took a few other photos which I may well share on a rainy day when I'm bored of doing macro shots of my house!

My Beautiful Nephew

Technically this wasn't taken today, but today got busy all of a sudden and I didn't have time to go out to play with my camera!  So instead I thought I'd share a picture of my first cuddle with my nephew Elliott!  He is truly scrumptious!  He's only a few days old in this photo, but my camera refused to take a non-blurry one when I saw him at Christmas so this photo is 3 months old now!  Can't believe how much he's grown in just 3 months! 

There seems to have been a lot of baby action with people I know this year; 4 born in the last 3 months and another 2 on the way!  But I'm actually related to this one and I get to be his cool Auntie Chrissi!  He even gave me a mug for Christmas that proclaims me the greatest Auntie in the world!  Just hope I live up to expectations!!

First Blog Post...

I've not done this before so it's possible it may be a little bit on the unusual side for a blog!  I'm going to try and take some pictures to share with the world, since I take a lot of photos, it'll always be quite tricky to decide which one makes the cut for the day.  I'll start off with a photo of my Christmas tree...

This is one of my favourite decorations.  I love being reminded of the real meaning of Christmas every time I look at my Christmas tree; when Jesus was born as a tiny baby for just one reason, to grow up and die so that I can have a relationship with him.  Amazing!