some things you can always be sure of

We've had a lot of sickness in our house this past week. Not a lot of fun for those involved. Or, indeed, for those who've had to live with the sickies! But it does tend to provide a certain amount of time which is usually allocated to useful and productive activities, like work, school, cleaning, shopping or tidying. It would be fair to say that much of this time has been spent recuperating, resting and consuming copious amounts of medicines, but I did use a small amount of it to do something I've been meaning to do for months. I documented a bit of our lives. A bit of our lives that remains constant during times of health and sickness. A bit of our lives that, try as I might to prevent it, invades every room of our house. A bit of our lives that means that I am always noting items as I go about my day, and looking for items that are currently lost. And I'm pretty sure this bit of our lives is probably a bit of many of your lives too. This bit of our lives we call Lego.Here we have Lego on the floor of the living room. There's never a day that something made of Lego doesn't find its way to this particular location. It is the prime spot for building new kits with excellent light for reading instructions and a nice amount of space to spread the pieces over for weeks at a time!The living room also boasts an entire shelf full of Lego sets in various states of completion and disrepair. My particular favourites during this photo expedition were the skiier (snowboarding on one ski as one was lost at school) in front of a wedding photo and the intrepid explorer flanked by winged Egyptian mummies on the mantlepiece. They speak so clearly of life right now! We have Lego that resides in the bathroom. There is Lego in the kitchen.The playroom is home to a lot of the sets that are built but not current favourites. That we are considering some sort of storage system just for the Lego simultaneously fills me with terror that there is such a need and delight that the boys count as a favourite toy something both Michael and I played with 30 years ago.And you can always be (pretty) sure that someone somewhere is hard at work building or altering a Lego creation. Even if they are off school sick!Which makes me wonder, is there something you can always be sure of? I'd love to know :){I wanted to give credit for the textures I used in these pictures - it's something I've wanted to try for a while, and what with all this sick time on my hands I thought I'd give it a go. These are freebies from Joy St Claire whose work I very much admire.}

for the love of taking a photograph

On the days I drive to school I pass through a very pretty village called Crawfordsburn, home to one of the oldest inns in Ireland. But last week it wasn't the pretty houses or the Inn that I noticed, it was the transformation of the roadside in one of the hardest frosts of the winter so far. Ordinarily I am inconvenienced by the slow moving traffic on its way to meet the main road, but last week it merely afforded an opportunity to appreciate just what a freezing temperature and some moisture in the air can do to an ordinary scene. I promised myself that on my first day off I would take myself on a mission to photograph some of what I'd seen. Which is exactly what I did!We often go to the country park at Crawfordsburn with the boys and with other families - the combination of forest park and seaside right beside each other, with the added bonus of a very fine coffee shop makes for a great day out. But I was in no way prepared for its frozen beauty. The large grassy hill where the kids run amok was literally a blanket of frost, each blade of grass defined by the frozen particles surrounding it. The most ordinary plants, fences and paths had become magical in the early morning sun. I was honestly transfixed by it, and filled again with awe for our Creator who dreamed it all up.I'm quite sure the dog walkers who passed me thought I was deranged as I crouched at ridiculous angles trying to get the perfect amount of flare in my shot. I began to think it myself when I took my gloves off to try to warm my hands up (because you know that gloves on cold hands will only keep the cold in, right?!)Was I frozen to the core? Clearly. Were my hands actually in pain as I tried to focus my lens? Oh yes! Was I as pleased as punch for getting out and doing something I love just for the love of it? Darn right I was! And was the coffee date with my very good friend afterwards all the sweeter for my efforts? You betcha!!

birthdays are the best

So Conor turned 5 last weekend and I spent the whole week leading up to it dealing with a mixed bag of emotions (no big shock there!) Excited that for the first time he was excited about a party. Somewhat stressed organising fun activities and food for 12 small people for said party! Sadness that my baby is most definitely not a baby anymore. And sheer disbelief that the past 5 years have flown past so quickly.Our weekend was absolutely perfect. From the overload of crispie buns and top hats to pass the parcel and musical statues. From presents galore to the peace of a walk in our favourite haunt, Mountstewart. From 4 years old to 5 years old. And what better way to share the birthday fun than a total photofest! On Saturday we had a party at home with some of Conor's friends. Pretty much chaos, but when I asked him if he'd enjoyed it he said "Oh mummy I loved it!" The stress vanished in that moment!Sunday was his actual birthday so that was a day for family - just the 4 of us for the morning and then all of us for more cake and presents in the afternoon. These are the kind of celebrations I hope our boys remember when they grow up.Exactly how cute is he in those skinny jammies? And the plane he is drawing is a daily favourite. It's a war plane and is probably bombing a lot of other planes and creating a lot of explosions. It always is!And one last photo, just because it makes me smile. I think I might need this in a giminormous size on a wall somewhere!See?!

It's serious work being 9 months old

Or so this little man would have you think. I took these pictures before Christmas and had such a great time with his family. His mum and dad are so much fun and are completely smitten with their very thoughtful little guy. As indeed was I before long. He has the softest downy hair that had me wanting to stop with the photos and just snuggle him up on more than one occasion. Just look at the mummy and daddy love in these next few images. It is such a joy to watch families all loved up through my lens :)Also loving mum's attempt to make everyone wear an Aran sweater and the fact that dad refused to give in! I loved photographing them and cannot wait to traipse my camera round to his Aunt's house to sneak a few photos of his very tiny cousin!!

the art of cosiness

For a lot of people I know, the bleak winter months seem to fill them with a kind of dread. Months of being cold, having to forgo style and fashion for comfort and warmth. Grey dreary days appear to be never ending and bring with them their fair share of rain, wind, ice and even snow. Not to mention the lack of daylight and gardens which show little sign of life. It would be easy to get dragged into this way of thinking, but it's just not for me. No, for me these cold, grey days are just begging to be filled with cosiness, and I believe myself to be somewhat of an expert in cosy!

Perhaps you fall into the category of people I've mentioned. If so, let me share with you some of my top tips for adding a smidgen of cosy to your dreary winter days.  To start with it is vital to break free of the ties of fashion - cosy and fashion do not often see eye to eye. Take my attire as I type this post. I am wearing a rather pretty shirt dress with some leggings, a pair of cosy knee socks and a pair of fluffy, checked slipper boots (you'll have to take my word for this as I have no photos, but it's  not a word of a lie!) Would I feel confident doing errands around town in such an outfit? Not even slightly, but for my purposes of sloping around the house, playing Lego games and blogging it will do just fine! Give it a try - you'll be amazed at the instant increase in your levels of cosiness!Another piece of advice I would give you is to ignore all the magazine articles that are telling you to rid your home of all things Christmas. By all means take your tree and decorations down, but if you ask me, getting rid of all those lovely candles at this time of the year is a huge mistake. In fact, I see this time of year as the perfect excuse to pick up a few post-Christmas sale bargain candles and accessories! There is really nothing to beat the glow of candlelight on a winter afternoon or evening. The warmth of the light and the flicker of the flame seem so calming. And your cosy attire (as mentioned above) really looks so much more flattering in this light! So get yourself to the garden centre or Ikea quickly to get a hefty stash of candles and tealights to see you through until spring. And if you're feeling brave after lighting your candles, I dare you to string some fairy lights over your fireplace or display them in a vase for added cosy effect!Now to my mind, cosiness is as much a state of mind as it is a physical state. You can wear the slippers and light the candles and still not be in the cosy zone. So how does one achieve this cosy attitude? Well, there are any number of ways to do this but here are a few of my favourites.1. Grab a few magazines of your choosing for leafing through. My personal favourites are Coast and Country Living, but if Heat, Good Housekeeping or People's Friend is your thing, then go for it!2. Be selective in the TV you watch, if any. Now, I am all for an afternoon with the TV off and the sounds of the house providing the soundtrack to my cosiness, but I am also a sucker for a good drama or film should the notion take me. For the purposes of cosiness I find that a delightful period drama that harks back to a simpler time is just the ticket - much more so than, say, the  latest episode of Spooks or 24! My current drama of choice is Lark Rise to Candleford, and I have to confess that I spent a lovely hour (or thereabouts given the interruptions of small people who don't get mummy's need for a cosy viewing!) watching an episode and finishing a bit of knitting. Which leads neatly to my next suggestion.3. Get involved in a bit of crafting. I'm not a knitter by nature, but I wanted to make something small as a gift for a friend and the feel of the soft merino wool was cosiness itself. Creating is a huge part of my life, be it taking photographs, making a scrapbook page or something involving fabric and fibres. It makes me feel cosy in and of itself, and I would greatly encourage anyone to have a go at making something to add to your cosy atmosphere. I fully intend having a go at a few other knitting projects and fancy the idea of making a hot water bottle cover that I can bring to my cosy TV afternoons!4. This next one might be a bit controversial, but for me, chocolate=cosy! Not that I'm not feeling the guilt of the Christmas scoffing. I am, but then there's a part of me that thinks, well if an extra layer of fat doesn't instantly boost my cosiness then what will?!! I suppose what I mean is that a bit of something you love to eat isn't always a bad thing. Or so I'm telling myself, and it's working thus far!The only thing missing from the elements of cosiness that I've mentioned so far is physical warmth. This is partly achieved in your choice of cosy attire, such as my fab slipper boots and knee socks, but the ultimate source of warmth for me has to be a fire. No matter how grey your Saturday afternoon is, a fire will warm the very cockles of your heart! We're really fortunate to have a real fire in our front room (the room of cosy as depicted in this post) and a gas fire in the living room (where the number of Hot Wheels cars and Lego bricks seriously diminishes the feeling of cosy!) Add to the fire a blanket, the magazine, the remote control for the dvd player for my box set of Lark Rise to Candleford and a bar of Dairy Milk and the levels of cosiness will be soaring!Consider all this merely a guide for your winter months to relieve you from the feeling of willing the grey days away. Instead, see them as an opportunity to stay in, play board games, make something and spend some time with the people who make you happy. I guarantee you that spring will arrive all the sooner and your memories of winter will be all the sweeter if you do.

it's been wonderful

I've loved my little Typepad blog but the start of the new year brings with it new opportunities and.......

A NEW BLOG!!!

I've decided to blog from my photography site in a bid to make myself blog more frequently and take more photos. Surely this is all good! All you need to do to continue finding out what we've been up to and who I've been photographing is click on the link above and update your bookmarks to make sure you don't miss anything. 

Thank you all for sharing in my ramblings and for your kind words in 2010 - I look forward to seeing you in my new little blog home soon.

Janine xx

an amazing year

2010 - it's hard to believe it's over already. I find the start of a new year both exciting and a little sad. Exciting for the fresh start and all the possibilities a new year brings. A little sad as the passing of another year is marked and I find time running away from me so much faster than I am ready for it to go. But above all I feel blessed that our year has been so full of family, friends old and new, and downright fun!I've spent much of the day trawling through the past year's photographs and have put together a little slideshow of some of my favourites which represent our year perfectly. I hope you enjoy them, whether you've seen them before or not :)So welcome 2011! I hope you will be filled with as many wonderful memories as this past year. And to my lovely readers, I wish the same for you and your families.Janine xEdited: in response to several complaints the slideshow has been updated to include the photos from my sister's wedding that I couldn't find on my new computer yesterday! With any luck, all familial relationships are restored!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Right now...

:: it's the night before Christmas

:: the stockings are hung by the chimney with care

:: the children are nestled all snug in their beds

:: the appropriate snacks have been set out for Santa and the reindeer (along with a note asking if he has any girl reindeer!)

:: the Christmas morning muffins are ready and waiting

:: the fire is lit

:: the tin of sweets has been opened

:: everyone is eagerly awaiting tomorrow for all the joy and excitement it brings!

All that is left for me to do is to wish you the merriest of Christmases and a peaceful new year!

 

Janine xx

Christmassy corners of our home

With all the snow outside, and 2 little boys who have discovered not only the fun of the snow, but the pain of being out in the cold too long, I've had quite some time in the house the past few days. And if I do say so myself, it is looking particularly lovely. So much so that it seemed rather a shame not to share it with the world. And if you're anything like me, there are few things I enjoy more than a peek inside the homes of the online friends whose blogs I read daily! I believe it's a nosiness gene and that there is nothing I can do about it or need feel guilty about. So come on, have a nosey around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love all the decorations we pull out each year, the thought of where to put each one so that it is shown at its best. The candles and the subdued lights of the tree and the garland. All the little wooden trees we have scattered around. The new little reindeer residing beside the twiggy tree in our hall makes me smile every time I pass it.

And already I'm thinking about how I might try a few different things next Christmas (I know, it's a tad early but I just can't help it!). Perhaps a few more handmade items. I have high hopes for a little wall hanging I'd like to make tomorrow but that will very much depend on how the small people are behaving and whether the noise of a sewing machine can be tolerated above the already crazy noise and excitement! But for now I am very content with home as it is. As Ikea have so rightly proclaimed, it's the most important place in the world.

If you're feeling like you'd like to continue nosying around some other homes online, let me suggest this one and this one, both of which make me feel all tingly and warm when I look at them.

oh, the weather outside is frightful...

But we are totally loving it! Finally our snow has arrived. And more of it than we really know what to do with! It seems that all the hoping and wishing and praying I did almost a year ago has finally paid off.

 

I wonder what it is about snow that has some of us smitten. Is it just that everywhere takes on a magical feel as the blanket of white covers even the likes of the shambles that is our 'meant-to-be-redesigned-before-Christmas' driveway (see the house with no wall, 2 piles of bricks and some warning tape flapping in the breeze in the photo above!) ?

 

Could it be that there are photo opportunities abounding everywhere you look? Never before have I thought a rusty gate on our street looked so pretty. It's like it was just waiting for the final flourish of snow before the world realised it had been beautiful all this time but no one had ever really noticed!

 

Maybe it's the newness of all that surrounds us and the almost other-worldliness of the things we never usually take time to look at but which are suddenly impossible not to notice. The little river in the photo above is at the bottom of our road and it's only ever Conor who likes to look, but yesterday it could have been a scene from Lord of the Rings and we were all entranced by it.

 

Perhaps it's the light that changes how we feel. Everything is so bright, there's light bouncing off every available surface, and tiny bits of colour that manage to poke out of their snowy blanket seem so much more vivid than on a dull December day.

 

Maybe it's that we just get to act like big kids, throwing snowballs, building snowmen, slipping and sliding and laughing so much more than usual. That the rules have gone out the window because nothing is normal, and especially not our clothing! I refused to take a photo of myself in my snow attire yesterday, but will gladly share Patrick's crazy combination from Friday.

 

Whatever it is, it has our little family completely smitten. We're getting to wear proper winter clothes, our wellies and outdoor boots, race around like crazy people and break the no throwing rule (within reason), drink copious amounts of hot chocolate and generally make up for 25 years of practically no snow! There's another few inches being deposited as I type and school is closed for the boys tomorrow, so the fun will continue. Along with the photos, the wonderment and the joy!