Going by in a blur

Life moves pretty fast.. 

(ten points if you get the movie quote!)

What have we been up to? The usual but we've had birthdays, a Cub camp, a Scout camp, a school residential, not to mention unemployment, days out, a new camera, a new iPhone and days dreaming of a holiday!

The eldest attained her Silver award from Cubs and was invited to attend an awards day, where as well as receiving a commemorative woggle and certificate, there were also activities to enjoy, she loves a good zip wire but this one was so high I wasn't sure if her fear of heights would kick in, several Beavers cried at the top and couldn't do it, I'm not sure I could!

But I should have known she'd be fine!

She's now become a Scout and suddenly from being an elder Cub Sixer she's now one of the youngest newbies. It's a real big change as the age range is 10 1/2 to 14, so some of them look much older! She's already been on her first Scout camp though and lived to tell the tale, she enjoyed having a go at archery and doing fire lighting and knife skills. 

We had the annual St. George's Day parade in March where I very proudly watched both my girls take part. It's great to see how many people are involved and enjoy the movement.

The eldest also turned Eleven last month! It's a cliche but I'm not sure how that happened, she's also turned into a fully fledged phone addict, as she'd happily stay plugged into Minecraft YouTube videos all day if we let her, it's even taken over her book reading habit, which I'm very sad about. I keep hoping the novelty will wear off soon, how many videos can StampyCat have made?!

With her Minecraft addiction, it meant that of course deciding on a birthday cake theme would be easy!

I think I preferred it when they were small and had no expectations on my decorating skills!

It was also my Birthday and the eldest did me a fab painting of my favourite thing - a cuppa!

I managed to use my Birthday money to finally join the rest of the world in having a smartphone, hurrah! So I've been mostly using the camera and getting to grips with Instagram.

After going a long time without a compact camera, I now have two! My iPhone and I also purchased an Olympus Pen EP-1 on Ebay, it's a Micro 4/3rds camera, so it's a bit like a hybrid between an SLR and a compact and I love it! 

We had a lovely family Bank Holiday visit to Cogges for the Festival of the Fleece

and we all had a go at paper plate weaving, which even the littlest enjoyed.

So busy I've not even done anything crafty, I'm thinking I might treat myself to a day off work to remedy that ;)

New camera on a sunny day

 My Canon compact has been on it's last legs for ages, the battery cover was held on with tape, it wasn't focusing properly, the SD card was stuck inside and it wasn't holding a charge for long! 

So I've been waiting for Christmas & Birthday money to help fund a new compact, which then took ages to find one I thought I might like.

 I wanted to be able to shop and actually hold/use a physical camera, but as it turns out, retailers only usually stock the cameras that are new, on special price or 'recommended'.

So after hours/days trawling Amazon for prices, reviews and technical spec's in the end I had a short list narrowed down by price! I was adamant it was to be a Nikon, as I've always been a Canon person and really wanted to try them out, it may not be an SLR but I wanted a camera that was small, reliable, fast and had the ability for me to override any auto settings.

In the end I went for a lovely red Nikon Coolpix S6700.

It's new and shiny and full of settings such as beach mode and image stabilisation but for the moment I'm happy to bumble along playing and it seems pretty good, sharp, good colours, metering, I can't wait to actually test it on the beach!

So, the first test was out on a stroll, would it be quick enough to snap away while trying to wrangle a toddler and a buggy on a walk?!

Yes!

We had a lovely pootle into town via the swings and past the lovely old houses of West End, over the river and a stop at the library.

A simple day but one to remember.

I love all the colours of the front doors and the different styles, I really must put painting ours on my list to do, as it's a very boring white, a whole new front door with a window bigger than a postage stamp would be great, but hey, lets not get silly!

Witney blanket mill chimney in the distance.

 

Back home as usual via Cogges, past the Priory. We're so lucky to have all this on our doorstep.

Feeling proud

A quick photo post of images that were taken on a sunny walk to the park last month, that I want to remember, not just because we had a nice time and I'm glad we all made the effort to get out of the house (!) but because these pictures are not mine, they were taken by my eldest when she wanted to try my SLR that I'd taken with me.

I thought they were great and even more heart-warming is that she loved the camera! 

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?!

I think a small camera of her very own for the next birthday might be in order!