Liebster Award x 2

I've received my first award over here on my photography blog, the Liebster Award 

And I have been lucky enough to have been awarded this twice in the past week, 

once by my wonderful daughter Rachel, you can find her here at Rachel's Blog 

and then by the lovely and expectant Aija over at Crafty Smiles.

For anyone that doesn't know, the Liebster award is given to inspirational blogs with less than 200 followers.

Liebster is a German word meaning dearest or favourite and the tradition is that I would pass on the award to 5 other blogs that have encouraged, inspired and motivated me. To accept the award here's what you need to do:

1....Thank the person who gave you the award on your blog - (CHECK)
2....Link back to that blogger on your blog - (CHECK)
3....Post the award to your blog - (CHECK)      
4....Pass on the award to 5 of your most valued blogs (less than 200 followers) (CHECK)
5....Leave a comment on those 5 blogs to let them know. (CHECK)

I know that this award has been doing the rounds in blogland and not everyone likes adding awards to their blogs so please don't feel that it's compulsory it's just a bit of fun.

Here are my 5 blog choices

A Place for Everything - one of my newly found blogs I looking forward to seeing more of Patricia's cooking, makes and photography

Homemade Life - Paula is another very versatile blogger with a passion for food, creating and photography

A Picture of Grace - who makes the most amazing felt creations and who is also taking part in the CREATIVE CONNECTIONS CRAFTFEST

Tilly Flops Creations - who despite suffering from arthritis and fibromalgia  manages to stay sane and smiling by creating some wonderful gifts

It's all about the Light - Janice that some fantastic and inspirational photos and is always on hand to offer advice

As you can see my choices cover a wide range of bloggers, some crafty, some photography and some a mixture of both!!!

It just leaves me to thanks Rachel and Aija for giving the Liebster Award and thank you to those of you that enjoy reading my blog.

February Scavenger Hunt

Here is the new list for the Febraury Scavenger Hunt organised by Kathy over at Postcards from the PP

1. Music
2. Food 
3. Love
4. Cupid
5. In the Sky
6. Black and White
7. 5
8. Leap Year
9. Train
10. Crowded
11. Empty
12. Heritage

Fancy joining in???

Camera Club

Despite the wintry weather there was a good turn out for camera club last night and the topic of the evening was Adobe Elements, 

just wondered how many of you use this editing software, which version you use, how you get on with it and would you recommend it??? 

We started off with the basics, cropping, enhancing with the lightening and darkening tools, dealing with converging lines and wonky horizons!!!

It has made me realise that I do NEED to get this software as although I have been pleased with the results when I use Picasa the Elements package is on another level.

The second half of the evening we watched a DVD tutorial on layers by Barry Beckham, this answered so many questions for me with regards to selecting and removing an item from your image, making transparencies, merging layers and much more the website is worth a look and I'm hoping that once I do start using Elements I can borrow the club's copy and have a play around!!!

Snow is falling.....

This is what we woke up too in Essex this morning.....

The snow is too soft for sledging....

Next door keeping warm......

Hope you are all keeping warm today...I'm off to read up on some photography books to find out the best way to capture the snow!!!

January Scavenger Hunt

Here are my photos for the January Scavenger Hunt organised by Kathy from Postcards from the PP, better late than never!!!

 This is the sun very soft in the sky on a frosty morning.

Soft

 The two buildings of Bradwell power station

two

I have been practising creating blur, this was harder than it sounds as I think I needed the cars to be travelling a little faster!!!

blur

 Bright red holly berries - managed to capture these before the Thrushes came along and ate the lot!

in season

 My bathroom is in a half finished state at the moment so I played it safe with a photo of the plug

in my bathroom

 Yes, unfortunately this is my mess, the cutting table in my workshop, I left it in this state when I closed up shop for Christmas, what a lovely job for January!!! 

mess

 I know I've already posted this photo on my blog but this was the only information photo I could find for January - my new USB memory stick.

information

 We had the pleasure of the company of these ducks one bitterly cold Sunday afternoon in the local park. Brr!!

company

 A discarded cigarette packet in the lane near our house so not only harmful to humans but for the wildlife too!

warning

 Two of my very odd children "planking" in the park.

odd

 I hadn't realised I far up the hill I could see until we went a little further into the farmers field near our house and spied the church in Danbury. The highest point in Essex.

in the distance

Sorry no pretty doorways or grand entrances for me just the sign to the entrance of the private road near our house.

entrance

I'm going to try much harder this month to get out and about to get some more photos and definitely not leave it until the last minute, if you would like to see more scavenger hunt photos pop over to Postcards from the PP and don't forget to join in too.