101 in 1001

Ooops been a couple of weeks since I updated, I’m still plodding along.

I have completed a couple since the last update.

Have completed number 50 which was Chloe’s canvas of her name in Chinese. Here it is:

The colour round the edge is more pinky than it looks in the photo. I’m pleased with it, and cant wait to decorate the girls room so I can put it up, next to Hope’s

I have also completed number 92 – Wear my leg warmers around the house.

I bought these leg warmers last year when I went on a girly weekend to Butlins and we dressed up in neon clothes for one of the evenings. I said at the time that I’d always wanted some leg warmers (though i dont know why) and that I’d wear them around the house … which ofcourse I hadn’t, hence why I put it on my list.

I dug them out the other day for a photo I wanted to take to tribute a fellow member of HPAD. I’ve since worn them round the house when I’ve got cold.

And I am halfway to completing number 7 – put together an album of Me and Sam. I have today put in an order on photobox for some photos of me and Sam, they should hopefully arrive tomorrow and I will put them in the album straightaway.

Well today I completed number 59 – take Hope to Ballet Class.

I took her along this afternoon and enrolled her. I was so excited however came away feeling so disappointed. Hope didn’t join in at all, wouldn’t hold anyones hand in the group exercises and wouldn’t watch the teacher, just bimbled around on her own getting in the way. I felt a bit embarrassed to be honest, however after speaking to the teacher and a friends reassurance I will keep sending her and just hope after a couple of weeks she’ll start paying attention and join in. However, Hope enjoyed herself, and cried when we were leaving so I take that as a good sign.

So yay!! Thats another one completed on my list.

I’ve almost completed Chloe’s canvas too – have painted it, and drawn on the symbols – I just need to get a smaller paintbrush to paint the symbols in.

Wow 2 updates in 2 days aren’t I doing well.

Well today I started working towards number 50: Do Chloe a canvas of her name in Chinese.

The reason I want to complete this one is that I did one for Hope when she was born. Just before Christmas I swapped the kids rooms around so the girls now share and Callum has his own room. So I have a boy in a pink room and 2 girls in a blue room. So when Sam gets home in February we are going to decorate the childrens bedrooms (numbers 35 and 36). So when the rooms are painted Hope’s canvas will go up in her room so thought it would be nice if Chloe had one too. So I popped to B&Q earlier and got a couple of sample pots of paint, I already had a canvas which had been up in Hope’s bedroom but I’d decided would not be going up in her new room. So this evening I have been giving it a couple of coats of white paint to cover the paintwork already on there so I can make a start on Chloe’s canvas. Whilst in B&Q I also grabbed a couple of paint charts so we could start thinking of which colours we’re going to paint the walls.

I mentioned in an earlier post that aswell as the photography items I’ve already listed I was going to put a small photo album together of my father-in-law and also frame photos of each of my children with him. Well today I bought a small album and put the pictures I had printed for the funeral in them and also bought a frame with 3 aperture windows for the photos of him with the children. I will be sorting out some photos over the weekend to be printed for various photography 101 items and will include these with them. I know these 2 aren’t part of this project but they were important to me so I’m glad its done and wanted to share.

I’m making a good start to a few things this week.

I’ve got myself a notebook where I’ve written all my 101 things, and then have other pages for my lists. So have pages for my 101 films and 101 books so I can keep on track of them.

I have written my list of horror films (list is upstairs so I’ll update the blog with them when I’ve got them to hand.) I also registered with The Happiness Project. I will have a good look at this over the weekend as the website wont work on my laptop (says I need to upgrade the flash player though I did and it still didn’t work – very annoying). Sam goes back to Afghanistan tonight so will have a look once he’s gone.

http://happinessprojecttoolbox.com/

I haven’t started looking for photos yet but will do – have been spending my evenings with Sam before he goes.

However I have sorted out number 59 – Take Hope to Ballet classes. I spent sometime googling the other night and found a few dance studios in the area. I emailed a couple and based on recommendations from friends have chosen one and will be taking her for her first lesson on Saturday. I am very excited and so is she – she’s looking forward to being a “ballerine” (she just wont add the a to the end of it lol)

I am very tempted to change one of my items already – number 19: Complete HPAD 2010. I completed a photo a day project in 2009 – I really enjoyed it (was the 3rd year of trying). However since Alec died I’ve been struggling to keep up and dont have the enthusiasm for it. So I’m going to give it some thought and may change it next week – I will try and keep to a photography orientated challenge.

Thats all I have to update at the moment – I’ve been reading to Callum most days – he’s in the reception class at school so is learning to read – he brings books home from school which are aimed to helping them learn to read so we’ve been reading them after school every night. Hope often comes and curls up with us to listen to the story.

My herbs are growing, unfortunately my chilli’s haven’t – I’m going to leave it another week incase they are just late bloomers but I’m not hopeful to be honest so I’m going to get some more and try again.

I’ve looked in my cookbooks and found some nice King Prawn dishes which i’m going to attempt for number 31 – however they didnt have the sort of thing I’d thought of so will look online for more recipes.

I haven’t cooked a new dish this month yet, with everything revolving round Alec, and then Sam coming home and now going back to Afghanistan I haven’t given it much thought. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll get it done this month tbh but if I dont then I will cook 2 new dishes next month.

Well I’ll leave it at that – dont want to bore everyone! lol

Take care x

Its been another quiet week for the 101 in 1001 project. It was my father-in-laws funeral on Thursday so we spent a few days away from home.

However we’re now home, funeral is done, our goodbyes said – its time for life to get back on track and that includes my project.

So this week I’m going to set myself a couple of goals:

I’d like to complete number 44 – throw out old shoes.

I’m going to create my list of horror films for number 71 and also going to start work on my Happiness Project (number 78)

I’m also going to start choosing some photos for the various albums I wish to create and prints I want to frame. (numbers 5,7,8,9). I am also going to create a photo album of my father-in-law – this isn’t on my list, but I dont have many photos of him so I’m going to get a small album and it’ll be dedicated to him so my children have one to look through when they want to remember their Grandad. My aim is to order the photos at the end of the month (pay day)

I think that will do for this week. Will continue with various others – working through the washing mountain, reading to the children, reading books, watching films etc.

Will update soon xx

Sorry I haven’t updated for over a week … sadly my father-in-law died on the 4th which has you can imagine has taken up most of my time.

I have, however, managed to complete 2 things on my list.

Number 10 – Go to a photo exhibition.

The 2009 Wildlife Photographer of Year exhibition was on at Bristol Museum again this year. I had planned to go tomorrow, however my FIL was in the BRI (Bristol Royal Infirmary) and I walked passed the Museum on my way to the hospital. So on the Sunday I went into Bristol earlier so I could pop in on my way to the hospital. The photos were gorgeous. I didn’t get to spend as much time as I’d have liked looking at the photos as I was anxious to get to the hospital but I’m glad I went.

Number 70 – Send a care package to the lads in Afghanistan.

My Husband is currently meant to be in Afghanistan at the moment – the Navy brought him back due to his Dad taking a turn for the worse. I’ll be eternally grateful to them as they got him home on time to see him (he was back on the Sunday and he died on early Monday morning.) We went to Tesco later in the week and bought a load of sweet goodies to send to the lads that Sam works with. I will send another care package later in the year but I consider this task to be completed.

So there we have it – thats me up to date. I’m not 100% sure I’ll get all my monthly tasks done this month – my father-in-laws funeral is this coming Thursday – hopefully once thats done things will go back to normal. I’ll try and have a more cheery update next time.

Well its been a long time – the last list, well what can I say, I gave up on it. When Sam went to Afghanistan earlier in the year I basically struggled to do anything and the list got forgotten about. He’s gone again but I am coping so much better this time. I looked at my existing list but decided that I didn’t really want to do some of the things I’d put on there anymore so I’ve redone my list.

My project starts tomorrow and I cant wait!! Haven’t put very many daily tasks on there so hopefully there will be less pressure this time.

Roll on tomorrow!

Number 79. Buy 5 “Just because” gifts.
I bought my Mum a scrapbooking kit when we were shopping yesterday

And I’ve already done Chloe’s portrait for the new week:

Can’t believe how fast the time is going! We’re on week 7 already!!

Right – here’s Adams portraits from the last couple of fortnights.

I forgot to put the photos of me and Sam on Flickr so will update with those later in the week.

Kids portraits for the last week:

Have completed number 57. Create a book of photos, memories and messages for Sam for when he is away.

Have been working on this for the last couple of weeks – trying to do it secretly.

Have also have worked towards number 21. Create a recipe file and cook everything listed in it.
When shopping in Street yesterday I found a really cute little recipe file so bought it. Technically the wording for this one isn’t quite right – as I’m going to add things to it once I’ve cooked it (if its something I’ll want to cook again) so obviously everything in it will have been cooked. So, once I’ve added my 2 recipes I made a couple of weeks ago for Sam I am going to consider this crossed off as I will add a recipe every time I cook something new from scratch!

Number 26. Send 101 random cards/postcards. (2/101)

I have registered with www.postcrossing.com and have received my first address to send a postcard to – a lady in Finland. Will get a postcard this week to post to her.

Number 27. Identify 100 things which make me happy. (1/100)

Have identified and photographed the first thing – see the photo of Callum above for the photograph.

Watching Callum playing his computer makes me very happy. I love watching him working out how to do the activities – he’s started to do adding up and spelling and I am so proud at how quick he is learning these things at 3 and half.

I am also amazed at watching him playing his games – and the speed in which he is learning the logistics is just amazing. He has gone from just trying to get the character to move in the way he wants him to go to making sure he picks up every single honey pot along the way (Its a Winnie the Pooh learning game) – and if he misses one he goes back to get it.

Not sure what I’m going to work on this week – I find its easier not to plan so will just update once done! lol

Ooops another change!
Number 13 was save a £ everyday for the duration.
Now I thought this one would be quite easy and would be a fab way of having a nice wad of cash at the end of it – however life obviously gets in the way, I keep having to dip into it to get bread and milk, and if we dont have any cash lying around it soon mounts up. So I’ve decided to change this.

I have now changed it too: make a list of 50 things that I love about each of my children.

The reason I’m doing this is because I follow a blog by a very brave Australian woman called Sheye Rosemeyer.

http://sheyerosemeyerphotography.com/blog/

She is a very talented photographer and I found her through her photos on Flickr. 2 years ago, in February 2007, her precious little girl Ava died at the age of 3. Her blog often details the pain and anguish she has gone through, along with her family at this loss and it is something I fear greatly. (By coincidence we nearly called Chloe, Ava). Anyway, was catching up with her blog and as it had approached the 2 year anniversary of Ava’s passing her friend suggested to her that she write a list of 50 things she loved about Ava. Reading the list put a smile on my face as some of the memories were ever so sweet. I thought it would be a really nice thing to do for each of my children so have decided to add it to my list!

Oh and some updates I forgot about:

64. Buy 10 music albums – including 1 artist I’ve never heard of before.

I bought an album by the band The Saturdays. Now although I’d vaguely heard somewhere there was a band called The Saturdays, I’d never consciously heard any of their music. I decided to give it a go and I have to say I love it! I listen to it all the time and am really really glad that I bought it.

68. Buy some inspirational photography books.

I have bought 2 books on Wedding photography which have been really helpful. Have also ordered another photography book which I cant remember the name of – however it has not arrived yet.