{thinking}

I did finish my photo challenge but sadly, didn't post much here. I'm an Instagram lover, I can't help it! Thinking about doing NaBloPoMo but knowing I'll fail...maybe I really am done with blogging. Not sure how I feel about that!


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{a selfie, taste, red & play}

This is as close to a selfie as I feel like getting. It's a mark (of many) that gave me something beautiful: my little girl.

Quite like this one for the theme of 'red'.

I used this one of my little monkey (Matt is against posting pics of the kids on Instagram but this passed scrutiny...barely) but really like this one as well:

This is the park we go to several times a week, usually with his pal Archie and his mum, my pal Jess. Emmett is a roundabout fiend.

We're going to the Weymouth SeaLife  Centre on the Jurassic coast tomorrow for a (hopefully) lovely day out. I expect to give the new camera a thorough breaking in! 

{diagonals & skylines}

Matt came up with an amazing photo idea for diagonal - much better than anything I could have come up with but also INCREDIBLY obscure.

 

The west front of the Salisbury Cathedral is full of statues of bishops (this friendly looking guy is Thomas Ken. I just realised I mixed him up with another bishop in my Instagram post - oops). I also included this note with the photo: Bc4 Nc6. It's a chess move - bishops move diagonally. Clever but obscure.

And today we have a skyline (of sorts) and three lines in the sky. 

Tomorrow is a selfie. I'm struggling with my appearance these days. I'm in desperate need of a haircut and have gained MORE weight since I had Allie. I've been heavier (hello high school) but that doesn't make it okay or any easier to cope with when I look in the mirror or see a photo of myself. I've discovered I'm a stress eater and I'm juggling so much (learning to cope with two kids, house far from the state I'd like it to be, behaviour problems with E, missing my US friends and family, lack of sleep blah blah blah) that I find myself eating not because I'm hungry but just to...I don't know, cope with things I'm seeing, hearing, feeling. 

Anyway. I need to get ahold of things before they get worse. Not sure what to do about the selfie.

In other, cheerier news: Allie rolled over this morning. It tuckered her out so much  that she's settled in for a cuddly nap!

Hope you're having a great day!

{love & close up}

How could I not include my baby girl in yesterday's prompt of 'love'?

My sourdough starter for today's 'close up'. Just chopped grapes, flour and water. Amazing. I'll have to take a photo of the whole jar tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, my husband, Matt, helped me come up with an AWESOME idea for 'diagonal'.

Oh, and this is my first pic taken with my Samsung wb250f smart camera so I was able to take it and send it via wifi to my phone to crop and edit! I'm looking forward to having a good play around with it tomorrow!

{yellow}

I couldn't choose just one today

Also there's been a flurry of kitchen activity! I made blueberry muffins (old fashioned link as the app doesn't do links and I'm lazy/one handed 'cause in feeding Allie).

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins

To die for blueberry muffins, I might add. Then I made sugar cookie dough for Doctor Who cookies but remembered this morning  that I HATE MAKING SUGAR COOKIES. Finally cleaned up the sticky mess from the countertop, rolled it between baking paper and put it, the rolling pin and cutters in the fridge. I'm not getting my hopes up, though. It seemed a little too thin.

I also made a sourdough starter this morning using the devilishly handsome Paul Hollywood's recipe. I've never made sourdough but my mom bought us both copies of his book while she was here and they made a gorgeous loaf last week so I thought I'd try it. I kind of like the idea of something you bake with being never ending...keep feeding it and it'll live forever. I'll have to take a picture once it gets all bubbly. 

Also from yesterday's kitchen:

Strawberry and Greek yogurt ice lollies!

{circles}

I have such a crush on this photo, my August Break picture of the day.

And for Chris...my pretty baby girl. :) She fell asleep watching me doing the washing up (who can blame her?) and I caught her smiling in her sleep. 

{august break 2013}

In the past I've thought of August as my personal New Year. Forget about January and resolutions and all that. August, my birthday month, is time for me to start fresh, change a few things, challenge myself, set goals....

One goal I'm setting is to stop being so negative. Holy cow, am I a negative nellie. My husband has used the word 'contradictory' to describe me more than once or twice in the past few months and it's sadly so true. So, yeah, think POSITIVE (hopefully).

Also, as I'm hoping to get a smart camera for my birthday (39 - how the heck did that happen?!?), I want to do more with my pictures. I've kind of become an Instagram junkie and there I discovered a project called August Break 2013 - a daily photo challenge. You can take pics of whatever tickles your lens but there are some great prompts, too.

I'm going to try to post here everyday but will catch up. I should be able post everyday on Instagram as @eatcraftcuddle, though. I hope!

I didn't hear about it until this afternoon but managed to come up with a breakfast photo...

I love eggs. Eggs any way I can get them. Emmett loves them, too. Well, at least he loves them scrambled. Thank goodness, because Matt hates them. Emmett is a little whiz at cracking them. The smile - grin, really - on his face when he pushes his thumbs into the egg to crack it makes picking out the shells worthwhile!

Goodness, it's taken me all afternoon/evening to finish this post! With Emmett and Allie, I feel like I should get a standing ovation for finishing even the smallest task. Heck, it's taken me twenty-five minutes and three attempts to write this paragraph alone. It's tomorrow already!!