Lots to catch up on!!

Wow, it's been quite a while since my last post and I have a lot to write about, so be prepared for quite a long post. :)

I'll start with the things you'll be most interested in, crafting.
I came second in the photography self portrait vote!! I was very pleased with that, it meant a lot and was a brilliant photography confidence boost. Here is the lovely prize that arrived through the door a couple of days ago.

I've seen this in Paperchase a couple of times and thought it was so cute, so it was lovely to receive it as a surprise in the post.

So today I have scrapbooked my self portrait, and I really love the final page.

Here are a couple of close ups

It's been great to scrapbook again, it's been quite a while since I've had time to scrapbook. It's also the first page I've ever done with a Christmas theme to it, thanks to my 12 days of Christmas course.

I've been being quite crafty recently,I've made all of my Christmas cards and thanks to discovering Helen's blog, I've been inspired to make all of my friends Christmas presents.

Here is the gift for the girls, a make-up emergency kit.

And for some of my friends that aren't into make-up

Now for the boys, something to target their sweet tooth, a jar of sweets (it was great fun doing these, I was very proud of the result).

This is the design I had for this year's Christmas cards, an idea based around some felt tree decorations I found in Paperchase which made the perfect topper.

This Christmas I have been inspired to make decorations for around the home after looking at some amazing Christmas magazines. This weekend Mum and I have been decorating the house and seeing which decorations we could make that would look good where. So far, this is the garland we have made to go across our fire.

We have another in the production line for another room. I'm really having a handmade Christmas this year!!! :D

The 12 days of Christmas course has finished now, we have been left to go it alone over Christmas and see what we come up with.
Here is my work from the last few days of the course.

 I've never tried to photograph candles before, but this was great fun and I love the result.

This task was to differ the focus between the foreground and background, and I like these two comparison shots.

These photos were taken to capture the reflection in the mirror, something I would never have thought of doing without the course.

And these were such fun to do, light trail photos, I shall definitely be trying these again.

I really enjoyed the course, it was brilliant and I'm very pleased I managed to get a place. I would advise that if CJ runs the course again next year you join it, it was brill. :)

So, onto family stuff and home life.

Like many around the country, we have finally had our share of snow. We were out for a dog walk yesterday when it began to come down and we luckily got home before the snow became thick on the roads. Rolo absolutely loves the snow, and it's deep enough so he has to jump everywhere. Here's a quick photo Mum took of him earlier after his walk.

Aside from the snow, two weekends ago we had a very special weekend. It was my Grannies 80th birthday, which is special in itself, but what made it even better was that we had a massive family gathering. Over mine and James' lifetime, we have only been as a whole family once before, 5 years ago at my Aunt and Uncle's wedding. One of my Aunt''s and Uncle's live in Australia with two of our cousin's, so as you can imagine it is quite rare that we all get together. So my grannies 80th was an amazing weekend, all 7 of us cousins together for the second time in our lives. As you can imagine, it was an occasion well worth capturing on camera, and here are some of my favourite photos from the weekend.

We had a big family meal, with extended family and Grannie's close friends at this amazing manor house (I mean AMAZING, a wedding photographer's dream!!). This staircase was so grand, and as the day fell very conveniently with a group shot for my 12 days of Christmas course, I had to use it in our group shot. I love this photo, it's sooo special, not only because it's all 7 of us cousins, but because everyone, including James, is actually looking at the camera!!!

One of my cousins is a keen photographer and has a lovely DSLR camera, so I cannot wait to see how his photo's turned out.

A special event called for a special outfit, and it was great to get my Prom dress back out of the wardrobe, and especially nice to have the chance to pose for the camera in such a grand location!!! :D

And finally, a photo which was just the icing on the cake for a fab weekend, a glorious photo of me and James (doesn't he look all grown up and smart!)  :)

Sorry that's been such a busy post with thousands of photo's, now I'm on my Christmas hols I should be able to find time to blog, although I have a lot of revision to do ready for AS modules in January!!

Hopefully the snow wont cause too many problems this week for us, and please al of you be safe in the snow. If you are reading this Louise or Richard, I hope your journey across the country isn't too hectic and you make it to Shrewsbury for Christmas day, xx.

Bye for now,

Hannah :)

Self portrait shortlisted!!!

Hi everyone,

The Self Portrait that I took for my 12 days of Christmas course has been shortlisted and is up for voting. CJ (the host of the course) said she'd choose her favourite 3, but as everyone has done such a good job she's decided to put her shortlisted 20 up for a vote on her blog. If you would like to head over, look at everyone's great work and pop in a vote, her blog address is http://www.feelgoodphotos.com/blog/.

I am really enjoying the course, here's an update of my recent photos.

These 5 were taken over the weekend, the frost was gorgeous and our assignment was to get out and about and capture winter. (The third photo is a close up of the amazing frost patterns on the roof of the car)

This assignment was to try out different angles of photography (I decided a toy would be the most willing subject!!)

My first proper attempt at Bokeh (I loved this assignment!!)

And today's, a triptych of close up macro shots.

I hope you like them, I am very pleased that finally i shall have some decent photos to scrap of Christmas!! :)

I went away last weekend, I had an amazing weekend and shall show you photos and tell you all more when I get a chance to.

Until then, I hope you're all well and keeping warm.

Bye for now,
Hannah :)

12 Days of Christmas

Hi everyone.
I have been very lucky to get a place on Cheryl Johnson's 12 Days of Christmas course. It started yesterday and I am already absolutely loving it. Every year I get horrid Christmas photos and nothing worthy of scrapping, but this year it's all going to be different. The workshop is giving me great inspiration and tips, so hopefully this year I'll have photos that I'm proud to show.

To start the course off, we had a bit of pre-lesson homework, a festive self portrait to set as our avatar. So here is mine

My cheeky little avatar, which is nothing like any photos I already had of me, was great fun to take.
Yesterday the course started properly with a task based around getting our white balance right. Today's task was to take photos that speak for themselves, that have Christmas themed words and meanings. I've LOVED this assignment. I have had the afternoon off of school as it has been a target setting day today (don't ask, it's a complete waste of time!!), so I've had lots of time to get snapping away. Here are my submitted photos.

This photo captures our family tradition of putting a mince pie, carrot and a drink out for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas eve.

This photo was taken this afternoon after being inspired by an amazing photo on the 12 days of Christmas forum. Here is my version of their amazing photo.

As you can probably tell, I'm loving the course and will keep you up to date with my progress and photos.

On a different note, at my Rangers group tomorrow night we are doing a secret Santa draw. I have put this together as my gift. It is inspired by Helen at It's all Fiddle Fart, I loved the idea and as we were given a £2 limit I decided this would be the best thing I could do for the limit. Here is my take on her snowman soup.

I hope they like their gift.

And finally... I have some glasses. I do not have very poor eye sight, in fact I think for the prescription I have the optician has possibly never given glasses out before. I have been having quite a few headaches recently after school, so have been back to the opticians and asked if I can have a pair of glasses to see if this helps. So here I am with my new glasses on, do you think they suit me? I only have to wear them when I'm concentrating on things, which is quite good as I don't think I'd like having to wear them all the while. (By the way, sorry for the poor picture, it was rushed in poor lighting conditions!!)

Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Such a bad blogger!!!

Sorry everyone, I don't know where the past 4 weeks have disappeared to, but here I am writing on my blog four weeks after my last post!! There's been many things to write on here, just not the time to write it.
I've been off school today, I have a horrid cold and spending a day in Cambridge and sitting outside to eat really didn't do it any good yesterday, so I've spent today at home, with many warm layers and hot vitamin C drinks to boost me. Oh and dare I miss out the fact that there's no rest for the wicked, I've been doing work all day and now finally have some time to update you all.
As I mentioned, yesterday we had a trip to Cambridge. Our maths department organised the trip, which took 30 of us to Cambridge to look around one of the colleges and then attend a maths inspiration talk. The college was lovely (as ever) and really inspirational to look round. That's now the third of the Cambridge college's I've been round, and every time I return home determined to make it there, to work my socks off and become a Cambridge undergraduate!! I can dream and aspire can't I, without that there's no chance of it becoming a reality. The talk was great, the speakers were funny and the things they taught very fascinating.
I received an award at school a few weeks ago. It was an award for my maths last year which I am very pleased to be given as recognition for my effort and achievement.
Still on the school topic (sorry I will get to some recent crafting later), I have been able to collect and bring home most of my artwork from GCSE art. I have collected all my sketchbooks and piece of art apart from the two pieces up on display. It was so good to look through my work again, I can't believe how much time I put into it, it was worth it though and now I need to find somewhere to keep it all!! Anyway, I decided to take some photos and show you a few of the pieces I still like from my sketch books.

There's a real mixture of coursework and exam preperation there, I hope you like it all. It still doesn't seem real that I got an A* for Art!!

Now to some more recent creativeness, the beginning of my christmas cards. I have been really inspired this year from all the amazing blogs I follow and the great websites and magazines to do a homemade christmas. I plan to make all of my friends gifts, make all of my cards and also make some decorations. Mum and I love looking at this blog and have been given a lot of inspiration from her. We both now look at everything in shops in a different way, and mum spotted this table scatter in Paperchase a few weeks ago. So when I had the chance I took a look at it for myself, and these are the goodies I purchased.

I really liked the look of these, and had the idea of some very simple, modern christmas cards. They were not the cheapest of items, but I plan to make quite a few cards from them. The box of table scatter you can see in the photo above is these reindeer. They come in 3 different colours and this is the card design I have for them.

I really like this card, especially the writing that I have spent ages perfecting.

Here's another card design made from a different box of red Christmas tree table scatter.

I am still to decide on a design that uses the larger christmas tree decorations, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

I'm feeling very much in the christmas spirit allready. A few weeks ago our rangers group helped out with the local guides trip to a gang show. It was great fun, the show was good and we beforehand we shopped to our heart's content in all the lovely christmas shops. I have also signed up to Cheryl Johnson's free 12 days of christmas photography course. I have always managed in previous years to either take horrendous christmas photos or take none at all, so the inspiration and challenge will be fabulous and I may end up with some photos worthy of scrapping :) I can't wait. I'll blog my piccies when the course starts.

Bye for now,

Hannah :) xx