Home Treasures

Your grandmother's wedding ring? Darts trophies? A special photograph? If you had to grab one item what would it be?

I love this photo of my Grandma with my sister and I taken a year ago. My grandma died this February and this photo is very important to me.

These paintings are also special to me. The pink camel was painted by my friend Marie and she gave it to me for my birthday and few years ago. I painted the painting of my Grandma when I was doing GCSE art, so about 12 years ago!

Your Sanctuary

It's on Friday that home becomes your sacred space. Do you chill out, re-boot or get away? Is the TV your saviour or a nice Pinot Noir? Share your friday with us.

Hmm...as this photo project goes on I feel I'm desperately trying to scrape together 3 half decent photos. It doesn't help that James has been away since Friday so I can't ask him to take any photos of me so all you have here are a few photos summing up me getting ready to go to my friend Sarah's.

I start my new job tomorrow and am nervous!

I love vintage!

Does anyone remember this shop that I blogged about months ago? Well, if not it's a gorgeous shop on Hyde Park corner in Leeds and it is well worth a visit. Retro Boutique sells vintage furniture, clothes, bedspreads, bags, jewellery, mirrors, artwork and lots more. It's great to go there and just have a nosey round. I went yesterday as I was actually looking for some furniture and got these beautiful art deco drawers. They're from the 1930s and I'm in love with them! I bought them because I liked them so much so their period is irrelevant really- I would've bought them anyway- but it's lovely to get something with a bit of history and character and to wonder about who owned them before. My original plan was to get some Ikea drawers which would've cost more and had no character at all. I'm glad I got these.

Look at the handles!

Then I went next door to this shop which sells very high quality vintage clothing and a few bits and pieces:

The first time I went here I was scared to go down the stairs. The entrance is painted black and it's very dimly lit...I was worried I was entering some sort of dodgy 'parlour'! This display is on the wall as you go in:

I found this lovely painted japanese table which I must've seen about 4 months ago. I couldn't believe it was still there and scooped it up straight away. I love it!

It has a music box in the back so when you open the drawer it plays a little tune. I thought it was so cute and very me and no way could I have left it in the shop. It wasn't even for sale, it was part of the display but the owner let me have it for just £10. What a nice guy.

Dinner Time

Show us what's for supper! Who's on a diet? Who's not?! And who's that eating on their lap in front of the television? The plate says it all. Come on, let's have a look!

Well, this really isn't typical of my evening meals- I often cook something nice from scratch. Last night there wasn't much in so I had this ready prepared stir fry. I was eating alone as James was working late, as you can from empty chair in the last photo.
Speaking of James, perhaps I over estimated his levels of easy-going-ness. He was shocked and upset that I hadn't consulted him over the photos of him getting dressed before I plastered them all over my blog. Ha ha! He'll get over it but I'll have to be more considerate in future!

Midday Madness?

Who's at home? Children? Friends? Just you having a peaceful lunch? Whether it's a calm moment or a crazy toddler-fuelled one, we'd like a peep.

Not very hectic at mine but anyway here's a photo of my lunch. For those of you who have stumbled across my blog for perhaps the first time, don't worry, I'm not mad (debatable), I'm just doing the Uk At Home photo project this week. Toasted bagels with cream cheese and 2 very lovely congratulations cards which arrived this morning (I didn't eat them!) I saved them until lunchtime to open so I had something to look forward to with my lunch (how sad!) I especially love the card on the left which my auntie sent me- she lives in the US. It's so cute with the pigs' snouts made of a tiny pink button. Very me!

Morning Rush

Cereal, toast, lunch boxes, showers, feed the dog, off to school, off to work. Quick, quick! Snap, snap!

Oops! I was meant to take these yesterday morning but James got up at 6.30am and I just couldn't get up at that hour...so I took this set this morning at a more reasonable 7am. I took some of these shots using the 'burst' program on my camera. This setting doesn't allow flash but you can take several photos in a row. I think the blur adds to the sense of haste. Incidently, all the excitement and distraction of being photographed whilst getting ready for work led James to take both sets of keys to work. So I'm locked in until lunch time!





Now, which three shall I submit?

The big tour

Show us what makes the place where you live your home. Capture the essence and emotions- the nooks and crannies, the cat curled up in its favourite place, the piles of laundry after the weekend, whatever says it all about your home.

Not sure how well I've answered this brief, but here are a few of my photos from today. I must say that doing this project today has made me really look at my home and see things that I ignore every day in a new light. I have to face up to the fact that we are messy (even though I like to think I'm not!) I've had good fun taking these photos and trying to get nice shots from what is a fairly small, basic rented flat. We've lived here for 3 years though, so it is home.
I can submit up to 3 shots for today's project and am finding it hard to decide which ones to use. What do you think?