366 #23

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We're ever so close to the halfway mark, reviewing week 23 and looking forward to the moments that week 24 will bring.

The Facebook 366 group is over here if you'd like to join our little support community.

Time to link up:

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on just a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
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Thursday 7th June 2012 – 'Skyline' (159/366)

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We were going to go to Plymouth Aquarium today because of the rain. So we drove for an hour in the pouring rain. We queued for half an hour for the car park, then were told there was a further half an hour wait to have a space, before being told that there was an hour queue to get into the Aquarium.

So we decided to go on the Wheel of Plymouth instead. As we parked, the sun emerged and the rain stopped. We had a pleasant, albeit windy, stroll up to the 'Eye' only to be told that it was near closure due to strong winds. We could go on if we wanted, but the carriages were swaying severely and I could feel travel sickness coming on at the mere thought of it.

We went to Pizza Express instead.

The Day That… (Review)

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I'm not one for twee momentoes, I don't like the cutesy factor and I don't like something that everyone else has got. Especially when it's something to celebrate a special occasion like a birth or a wedding. Hence the reason I've spent three years attempting to finish The Boy's birth cross-stitch sampler, and am looking at a photoframe with casts of his baby feet mounted lovingly. Others may have similar but those are my child's feet and so they are unique.

It's incredibly hard to find something different, purposeful and attractive to celebrate a child's birth, and so when I was offered the chance to review something that met that criteria I jumped at the chance. The Day That is a company that creates personalised baby gifts in the form of beautiful photographs of sunrises; since Midsummer's Day 2005 they have photographed every early morning on the Cornish coastline.

The idea behind The Day That comes from the founder photographing the sunrise on his own children's birth days, along with the birth of various friends' and family members' children. Knowing that the foundation of the company has an emotional and personal origin makes the prints even more extraordinary. This short film offers more of an explanation.

The website is incredibly simple to navigate and it takes just a matter of minutes to have ordered a framed image of the sunrise for that special day, which is then enscribed with a personalised message making it unique to the recipient.

  1. Choose the date
  2. Select one of the six images available for that date
  3. One the left of the screen are options to change the size and frame.
  4. Select a personalised message for either birth, wedding or other occasion and then input the message to be handwritten.
  5. Click proceed to checkout and pay!

The framed images are delivered by courier within a week of ordering, and are incredibly well packaged in order to prevent damage. This is the photograph that we have at the top of our staircase and it draws admiring glances from everyone who sees it.personalised baby gifts

This 50x60cm print costs £150 framed in beech, there are different sizes and prices ranging from 28x35cm for £85 to 66.5x84cm for £250. Unframed images are also available ranging from £55 to £145 for the same sizes as mentioned. For such an unusual, personalised and beautiful present for your own child or a close friend or family member, I think it's a fair price.

I absolutely adore this unique gift, it shows such peace and calm on the day that my beautiful boy came into the world and the dawn of the day really symbolises the dawn of their life. I can't think of a more different, purposeful and attractive momento of my child's birth than the work of The Day That.

If you fancy getting your very own personalised photo, The Day That have a fantastic offer just for you, where you can get a mounted, unframed print (worth £55+) absolutely free with every framed print you order. To claim your free print, or just to find out more about them, phone The Day That directly on 01736 758109 and tell them I sent you. Their personal customer service is second to none, and they'll be absolutely delighted to take your call!

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

366 #22

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Welcome to the best photos from week 22 of Project 366. We're all doing so well, a couple more weeks and we're halfway through the project.

Last week I had a fabulous competition for you to win an acrylic photo block (worth £29.99) from Busy Pictures and all the entries were fantastic. The winner is Domestic Goddesque with this photograph:

Congratulations, I will be in touch with you regarding your prize!

The Facebook 366 group is over here if you'd like to join our little support community.

Time to link up:

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on just a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
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Instagram: #VictorianDecay

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Earlier this year I discovered the world of Instagram, but it wasn't until I came across other photo-editing apps that I really found my feet with it. The filters and borders on Instagram are very limiting I think, plus it doesn't tend to save a copy to your camera reel. Both of these factors meant that I started using Camera+ more often than not for my IG uploads.

About three weeks ago, I saw Instagram's weekly blog entry and it highlighted the work of an American photographer that takes photographs of derelict buildings in his home of St. Louis, Missouri. I was really intrigued by them and it reminded me of the amazing houses in my own town in south Wales. Much of the area where I live, specifically my town, was built between 1870-1890 with the boom of the coal industry in the Valleys. The houses, which would have been owned by the mine-owners, are grandeur and almost like estates with coach houses and folly-style Summer houses at the bottom of their garden.

However, a small proportion of these stunning examples of Victorian architecture have been allowed to fall into a terrible state of disrepair over the past forty years. Some (like the three-storey redbrick hotel on the seafront or the four storey detached house with turrets and a roof garden) were bought by an unscrupulous 'businessman' for redevelopment. When permission wasn't granted, they had mysterious fires or internal supporting walls were demolished until they were ordered to be pulled down. Other buildings, through the sheer weight of financial upkeep have become derelict and abandoned.

Luckily in the last three-five years there has been considerable interest in the remaining treasures, resulting in massive renovation and restoration. It meant it was a bit difficult to find any of them to photograph when I went on a hunt, but I did manage to snap some. I wish I'd thought of this three months ago and I would have been able to photograph the beautiful single-storey church school (which I'd had my eye on for when I won the Lottery) before it was ripped down.

I've started posting these photos onto Instagram using the hashtag #VictorianDecay, but not everyone (including my husband) has access to the network. Here they are:

[slickr-flickr tag='VictorianDecay']

I've been shortlisted for the MAD Blog Awards in the Photography category. If you like these photos, I'd love it if you could vote for me please? Voting closes on 6th June. Thank you

Mum and Dad Blog Awards 2012

The Gallery: Sunshine

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With the sunshine bursting all over the nation, Tara has decreed the theme this week to be just that:

Sunshine!

Watch it rain when she opens the linky!

However, for the moment I am going to use an image that I took on the weekend when we went to London. We've never taken The Boy there before and haven't been ourselves for about eight years, so this was a big thing for us. Originally invited to a press event in the O2, we decided to turn it into a family day out and stayed overnight in a hotel in Slough. We got up early on the Saturday morning (we even had to wake our son, an unheard of event) and caught the train into 'the big smoke'. He adored it and found the underground fascinating.

After we'd finished in the O2, he asked if we were going to London again? I suppose the size of a place is quite a difficult thing for a two year old to understand and so we explained that we were in London. That's when he declared that London was where the London Eye was and Justin had been on that. We'd already discussed the possibility of taking him on it, but weren't sure if he'd 'get it'. After that little proclamation from him, we trekked off to the embankment and found ourselves queueing for an hour in the blazing early afternoon sunshine.

We queued for nearly an hour and he didn't complain once, why would you when you have this to enjoy?

Oh, and yes, he adored the whole experience. My 366 photo from Saturday shows that.

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366 #21

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Well! Hasn't it been a beautiful week?

It's meant that I've had a much better run of photos and have enjoyed getting out there with The Boy and enjoying the world in which we live. For the most part that means our theme of 'Exploring Nature' has been stuck with, with the exception of Friday's shoddy last-minute snap for the sake of of it. Sunshine makes photography so much easier!

I mentioned last week that I have a competition for you, and it's coming at the perfect time for those of you who might be looking for something different for a Father's Day present (although not limited to that occasion at all). I know that there's only so many photo mugs you can buy them, and so this idea of an acrylic block from Busy Pictures is brilliant. More contemporary and funky-looking than a standard photo in a frame, this weighty block would be perfect on Daddy's desk, but just as much as on Granny's mantelpiece, or a kitchen windowsill.

"Freestanding they are weighty enough to not fall over and luminous showing your favourite photo reflecting through the acrylic with depth and shine. Complete with our neat compact presentation box this is a gift that will bring happiness and smiles."

Busy Pictures are offering the entrants of this week's 366 linky the opportunity to win a 6"x4" acrylic block worth £29.99. In order to be in with a chance of winning, you'll need to enter the 366 linky as normal and fill in the Rafflecopter form which is below the photo linky! (It will require commenting, a tweet and a Facebook 'like') The image submitted into the linky does not need to be the image used in your prize.

Good luck!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Gallery: Picture Postcard

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I've spent the last five days trying to work out which picture to use for the fantastic theme set by Tara for the special 100th edition of The Galley. I have really struggled because to me a postcard picture is a landscape, and I've used many of mine before for other Gallery themes or for Wordless Wednesdays. And so the one Gallery that I really wanted to take part in started slipping through my fingers.

And then I followed Tara's e-mail of the post over to her blog and looked at her picture, and the reasoning behind her choice:

"Is there anything finer than the great British seaside?"

And it hit me!

The photo that I have had in my 'pictures->blog->spare photos' folder since last July would finally get to be shown. So thank you Tara for reminding me of one of my favourite photos of one of my favourite locations. I can't wait to visit it again in a fortnight:

Lyme Regis, Dorset.

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366 #20

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140.

That's how many days we've been doing this now. Well done to every single person who's still managing to snap away every single day, and especially to those who are still posting every day.

If it helps? This week I've struggled, and I need to find myself a theme for this forthcoming week because it's difficult to keep taking the same old ones. Maybe I need to get out more often, maybe I need to try another 'From Where I Stand' or possibly even 'Lie'? I'll think on it, but I need freshening up. Don't be afraid to set yourself a theme to keep going on this amazing project.

The Facebook 366 group is over here if you'd like to join our little support community.

Please remember to try and comment on a handful of other 366ers photos, it helps to boost morale.

Oh, and next week I've got another competition for you all!

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