Birthday | Chez Spud

Feb

8

Wordless Weekend..ish

Posted under 39 things to do before you're 40, People I love, Things I make

Saturday…I helped my lovely friend Katherine relaunch her deli business at a local farmers market and it looked like this…

Sunday…Diggy’s 3rd birthday…I made a birthday cake, the first one I’ve ever made (and one of my 39 before 40 tasks)…it turned out better than I dared hope and tasted pretty good (faints in amazement)

And then we had a little teaparty for him with a couple of friends. They played, they jumped, they danced, they ate, they ate, they ate, they ate, and then they passed the parcel wearing a variety of hats:

Digby. Diggy. Diggs. Diggydo. Diggers. Diggery. Diggerygo. MrGrumpy. MrWonderful…

Three years old and how time has flown/dragged since you rocked up. You are so willful, feisty, grumpy, delightful, charming, hilarious in equal measures. ‘Good value’, that’s what we say about you….no half measures…all or nothing…a whirlwind, a hurricane….our little miracle baby.

We are so glad you came along, with your white blonde “springs” (curls) and eyes as blue as the sky. We love your lisp, your earnestness, your huge enthusiasm for life and your total and utter lack of any kind “sense of consequence” (as Batman used to say).

You charm us with your unwavering love for your girlfriend Clara, the way you worship your brother and your insistence on “not LOADS of kithess….jutht only one” You know your mind and you have done from the second you were born. Long may it continue.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy xx

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Jan

12

Birthday Girl

Posted under Uncategorized

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Hello baby Sofie…not such a baby now….all growed up and 1 whole year old! And walking like a professional and sleeping like a champ.

How the last year has flown. You seemed to spend the first 4 months of your life asleep but you’ve made up for lost time since then. Fast and furious, in to everything, zooooooming around with that cheeky smile glued to your face and charming the stars from the sky. Jeepers creepers…where’d you get those peepers….you’re a heart breaker that’s for sure. Already the Megaboys are fighting over you, tussling over who gets to have a cuddle with you.

We love you and your shoutyness when you’re hungry and must have your food RIGHT NOW THIS MINUTE MUMMY I’M NOT KIDDING I’M ACTUALLY STARVING OVER HERE!!

And Diggy especially loves you for your fondness for sucking your thumb. He says that all the best people suck their thumb…

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Sofie. And congratulations to big sister Anna for breezing through the first year of being a big sister with such good grace and so much love xxx

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Dec

5

39 things to do before I’m 40

Posted under Lists of things

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Hey, by the way, it’s my birthday. Oh, did I mention that already? Well, no point being coy about it. Just one year to go before the big 4 oh (or 30-10 as Julochka would say). A time to take stock, reflect, wonder where the hell time is going and a dawning realisation that ‘this is it, it’s not a rehearsal’ isn’t just an annoying phrase smug gits say. I’ve got all kinds of things floating around my head in terms of things I’d like to do, achieve, see etc so I thought I’d make a list and blog it. Because once you blog it, it’s The Law isn’t it? Someone else has done this recently and I can’t remember who. I’m so sorry, but thanks for the inspiration.

Here goes, in no particular order and they aren’t earth shattering…just a little list of should-be-achievable-but-it’s-too-easy-to-put-it-off…

Learn how to use a sewing machine (February)
Learn how to crochet (January)
Make a blanket from crochet granny squares – work in progress as of 8.2.10
Go to Sutton Hoo
Go to Cove Hyth
Have a family holiday somewhere hot (March)
Have a night away from the boys with MrSpud
Take the boys to Banham Zoo (April)
Complete all my Christmas shopping by the end of November
Make my boys’ birthday cakes – one completed (7.2.10)
Learn how to use the Lensbaby (6.1.10)
Hire a Man and a van and visit my family Up North
Make a wedding photo album
Join a choir
Replace ancient framed photos in the house with more up to date ones (photos not frames)
Make a photo wall in the kitchen
Decorate office and install Craft Corner
Go to Lavenham
Learn how to use flash
Get 5 mentions for my client in the Financial Times (boring, sorry) – three done
Take the boys on the train for a day trip
Go to the cinema with MrSpud
Give Chez Spud a makeover (cheating, this is work in progress but who knows given previous track record) (19.12.09)
Ride a horse - (21.3.10)
Sit on a beach and read a book on my own – August
Ditch o2 for Vodafone – after much thought, stuck with 02 and upgraded my phone. V boring.
Make biscuits for the first time (yes, really)
Take a ‘star trails’ photo
Take a ‘smooth’ water photo
Drink a peach bellini (make that 4, in quick succession might as well finish up the bottle right?)
Watch 5 films I haven’t seen before – five done
Do the Secret Blog Project I’ve had in mind for a while
Have a pedicure (22.3.10)
Sleep in a tent in a location other than the garden (sigh) – done (August)
Go to a fireworks display
50 photos in Explore on Flickr - done (August)
Make felt figures (May)
Buy a summer dress and wear it (june)
Learn how to use our alarm clock. We’ve had it 2 years. It’s probably time.

Then turn 40 and give up.

Hmm, ponders adding ‘crop hair super short again’ as a bonus no 40? Answers on a postcard please.

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Sep

22

Lost: one mojo

Posted under People I love, Photography

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Mojo? Mojo, where art thou? Mojo? Come out, come out wherever you are…here kitty kitty kitty.

Now here’s the thing. I have TOTALLY lost my photographic and blogging mojo. Cry. I can’t find it anywhere, I’ve looked in all the usual places, I’ve retraced my steps, I’ve looked down the back of the sofa and everything. No sign of it. It’s been like this since I got back from Blog Camp 2.0 if I’m honest, perhaps I left it in the Blue Room at Julochka‘s house?

I’m hardly picking up my camera and am scraping through my 365 project on Flickr by the skin of my teeth (the photo is above is yesterday’s effort, yet another Megaboy filler shot). I just don’t seem to have any inspiration in terms of what to photograph, or what to blog about. My grandfather is now very sick and frail, it’s his 90th birthday on Thursday and I know this is the last year we will celebrate this with him. I feel consumed with sadness, nostalgia and panic, but mostly anxiety about how he must be feeling now he knows the end isn’t so far away. My Dad visited him this weekend and my Grandad told him to help himself to any tools he wanted from the shed, “But I don’t want tools, I want you Dad” replied my father. And that’s the nub of it…it doesn’t matter how old my Grandad is, what a good and long life he has led, how much it will be better for him not to be in pain anymore…we don’t want to let go of him, we’re not ready for that.

I don’t know what to send him for his birthday, I can’t think of anything remotely appropriate given the circumstances. So I’ll send some photos and perhaps make a storyboard with them. That’s the challenge I will set myself today: pick up the camera and shoot a birthday storyboard for my Grandad.

On which note (storyboards), I was directed to a brilliant blog with absolutely stacks of free actions, presets, textures, tutorials, storyboard templates etc yesterday. It’s called CoffeeShop and is well worth a look around. She has lots of tutorials for Blogger people, and step by step instructions for making headers etc etc. Thanks to Aspidistra who pointed me in the direction of CoffeeShop. Check out her photostream, amazing shots and really interesting photoshopping too. Hmmm, ponders getting Aspidistra to do a guest blog for Camera Club…

Back later with some shots to share. Wish me luck!

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Sep

11

Happy Birthday Bertie x

Posted under People I love

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Four today and so grown up with glimpses of the attitude to match. It’s still a surprise to me that we’ve been allowed to grow and nurture not one but TWO human beings, and thus far we’ve done a reasonable job of it…haven’t mislaid either of them, haven’t broken them or forgotten to change their batteries etc. When I told MrSpud I was expecting Bertie he looked rather alarmed and said, ‘But we can’t have a BABY. We can’t even get our cat in a box and get it to the vets. We’ll probably leave it places’. Four years down and we’ve never left either of them ‘places’…but I will concede that we still can’t get that damn cat in a box.

We gave him a ‘big boys’ bike’ for his birthday, which he’s been keen on for a long time. He’s had a balance bike for a couple of years and can whizz around on it at huge speed. We thought he might be able to manage the ‘big bike’ without the need of stabilisers so we gave it a shot. Success! He could, indeed, ride it without MrSpud doing that traditional rite of passage back breaking holding-on-to-back-of-bike-seat thing. But as soon as he realised he threw a wobbler and refused to get back on the bike unless we put the stabilisers on. We refused to put the stabilisers on. He pleaded, we stood firm, it went on for a while…

Earlier in the day he had his first horse riding lesson. I wasn’t sure how that would go and I was thrilled to see him take it all in his stride, confidently riding no handed and trotting even. He can be rather cautious by nature but he breezed through his lesson. Which made ‘stabilisergate’ all the more surprising. Here he is sniffing the pony’s mane, a preparation for jumping apparently?