Me & Mine - A Family Portrait Project 2015 - June

Finally! I know that this is the latest my Me & Mine post has been (and they've been bordering on tardy each month!) but things were not going my way.

I wanted a more formal shot this month as we'd had lots of selfies, but trying to pin everyone down to sit for their photo proved very hard. That's what's so great about this project though because it's always tricky so you don't get the picture. Then the time slips by and you realise it's been a whole year since you last had a family photo - probably at Christmas time!

I wanted us to be outside as this month has been glorious, but on the day it was raining. My idea for the portrait was 'stripes' - we all have a lot of striped clothes in our family so I thought a black and white shot of us in our stripes would be striking. Except Wiss didn't want to wear stripes. He wore checks. Of course! But then he did make a concession and put on stripy socks, so how could I complain?! The formality of it didn't sit well with him either so he refused to smile nicely, so we ended up all being silly. You have to do what you have to do...

As always, don't forget to pop to Dear Beautiful over to see all the other great family photos from other bloggers, or facebookers. And why not join in? There's still 6 months left for you to get some great memories captured.

Me & Mine - A Family Portrait Project 2015 - April

Oh my god, it's May already! How are the months passing so quickly now?

Here is our portrait for April - even though it has been glorious weather most of this month there are no sunny shots of us this month as we seem to have spent most of it split into two teams. Wiss and Papa have been spending lots of time together and Ferne and I have been stuck together like glue. It seem that this often happens when you have two, and one is still so little?

What have we been up to this month? Apart from (still) eating all the Easter chocolate around the house, I started running again, I've been making lots of new friends with very inspiring local mums and have been arranging childcare for when I return to work in August (gulp!) We went along to the London Marathon to cheer on my best friend, and the other 38,000 runners. It is always such an amazing day and I am moved by all the hard work and effort everyone has put in to be there. I wanted to take our selfie there but it was just too hectic!

Wiss has been hanging out with his old nursery friends, he started cookery club after school and has been writing lists and list of things all over the house!

Little Ferne has turned 8 months and is starting to show her personality. She is very inquisitive and grabs literally everything that she can get her hands on, and even pulls the table closer to her if things are out of her reach! We have a feisty one on our hands I think.

This is part of a great big linky so don't forget to check out the other bloggers' photos this month. Click on the logo to be taken there, and see you soon!

Me & Mine - A Family Portrait Project 2015 - March

This post is late. Sorry! Life really has been so busy that there doesn't seem to be any time for anything else. No sewing, no blogging, not much reading (apart from twitter and facebook!) but a lot of washing, drying, folding and putting away. Yawn. And lots of cooking...and cleaning up. Now that Ferne has started eating solids there is a lot of mess, every meal time!

I've still been taking lots of photographs though, and I've been using Instagram more recently as it's so immediate. I'm still loving the Me & Mine project and even with just three photos so far it's already lovely to look back at them.

March for us was unfortunately marred with illness - first Wiss, then me, then F, then me, me again F again, and the husband has just recovered too. I can't stand being ill, it's such a waste of time. But fingers crossed we all stay well now; the days are getting sunnier and the evenings lighter, and that makes the world of difference to how I feel.

This month's photo was taken at a wonderful house we have rented often and where we always have such great times. This was Ferne's first visit to Holly Frindle and I'm sure it won't be her last. Wiss enjoyed showing her around, and she especially liked the mule at the end of the garden. There is a huge oak tree in the middle and I thought it would be the perfect location for our family portrait, nestled in amongst the emerging daffodils. Spring has sprung finally!

This is part of a big linky so don't forget to check out the other bloggers' photos this month. Click on the logo to be taken there, and see you soon!

Me & Mine - A Family Portrait Project 2015 - February

Has it really been a month already? February is a short month but it really has felt like it has flown by! I am still struggling to find some time for me, and blogging but hopefully that will happen soon.....I hope!

What have we been up to this month? We enjoyed Valentine's Day, Pancake Day, our 13 year anniversary of meeting, as well as half term and all the activities that involved. Wiss went to Pirate School at the South Bank 'Imagine' Festival, and got up on stage with Cowboy Max, learnt some circus skills at Clown School in Suffolk, and got brave at the waterpark going down the flumes by himself! I had a nasty bout of mastitis which knocked me for six and wiped me out for a week. The husband went to the NME awards show and tried not to feel too old! And February was a big month for little Ferne: she started on solid foods, learnt to roll from back to front, celebrated her 6 month 'birthday' and started babbling and saying 'mama'!

This month's photo was taken by a photographer at the water park - we were not expecting to have our picture taken but it's a great memento of a very fun, and noisy day on the last day of half term.

I am loving being part of this family portrait project - not only are there such great pictures being shared each month by all the other participants, but it is making me find the photo opportunities that I wouldn't have done before. It's wonderful to see all 4 of us together!

Do pop over and have a look at the rest of this month's Me & Mine portraits...

Work in Progress - My New Website!

I'm hoping that by sharing this month's Work in Progress post it will have the same effect as before and really spur me on to finishing it. I have been in the process of updating my website since May but various things have been preventing it's progress (my limited time and website knowledge being the main factors!)

Unfortunately, the site has been down since the start of June which means of course I've not been able to take orders online. But should you wish to order anything you can always email me directly on mail@thisiswiss.com

I am changing the whole site over to an e-commerce shop which ultimately will be brilliant so I really wanted to make sure the photos showed my products off to the absolute best. Step forward stylist Hannah Adams and photographer Ian Skelton! I was lucky enough to have them work on these images and I am so happy with the results. So, here's a sneak preview of some of new This is Wiss product shots. I'd love to know what you think...

Hannah and Ian are starting up a service for small businesses who want to get online. They can provide products shots especially for websites and other promotional images, and can shoot as much or as little as you need. They are also currently working on their website too but if you would like to know more then please drop me a line and I can put you in touch. When I have more details I will be sure to pass them on.

As soon as my new shop is ready to launch I'll be shouting about it, and there will be a great launch promotion too! Stay tuned...

Until then, if you'd like to share some of your WiPs then please leave a link below or tweet me @thisiswiss. Let's turn these half-finished projects into done deals!

Kids Capture the Colour Competition - This is Wiss entry

A couple of months ago I took Wiss on a Toddle around London (a treasure hunt in Shoreditch with a digital camera). I was amazed at how much he enjoyed it, impressed at how easily he could operate the camera and fascinated by what he chose to capture. The world does look very different through the eyes of a child.

When I found out that Travel Supermarket were running a photography competition for 15 year olds and under I thought it would be fun for Wiss & I to think about over the summer. There are 5 categories to enter - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green & White - with a different guest judge for each, and an overall winner too.

The first 100 bloggers to register were given a digital camera, but although I wasn't one of them Wiss was lucky enough to borrow a V-Tech kids camera from Yat at Toddle. We like it so much that Wiss will be getting his own for Christmas (but sssshhh, that's a secret!)

The colour themes were simple enough for a little one to think about but also turned up some surprising ideas, as you will see! Lewis took the camera to a wedding, the supermarket, the park, and even just snapped away at home.

 From over 300 shots, there were lots of blurred photos but also some recurring themes:

Some surprising subjects:

Lots of shoes:

And lots of selfies!

But here are the final 5 photos which we are entering into the Kids Capture the Colour Competition. All the pictures below were taken by Lewis (aged 3 and three quarters) but I have chosen the final photos to submit.

RED:

Lewis loved this scooter in Shoreditch - you can see him reflected in the chrome at the top!

YELLOW:

 

This was taken in Shoreditch again - Lewis was fascinated with the street art, particularly the colours.

BLUE:

Lewis spent a lot of time looking at the sky, noticing how it changed colour, and prompting the tricky question 'why is the sky blue?'*

GREEN:

Lewis took lots of photos of the trees and plants so I had lots to choose from, but I particularly liked the simplicity of this one.
WHITE:

Lewis took lots of photos when he stayed at his Nana Daisy's house.This is his favourite spot to sit and play in the sunshine so it was no surprise he took a photo of it.

If you want to check out some of the other entries you can use #KIDSCTC on Twitter or just google the competition for the blogs taking part. Good luck to everyone who's entered and I look forward to seeing the winning photos!


*Answer: it just is!

Toddle in the City

Last weekend Wiss and I took part in a city 'treasure hunt', but it wasn't a hunt in the usual sense. Armed with a (kid-proof) digital camera Lewis and 5 other little people set off under the guidance of Yat (an urban designer) to find treasures amongst the streets of Shoreditch! They each had a favourite adult with them too, to help supervise.

I heard about Toddle in the City through Twitter and I thought it was a brilliant and original idea. Yat aims her walks at 3-6 year olds which was the first thing to catch my attention. There is so much on offer in London for 5 or 6 years plus and this younger age range is often over-looked but these treasure hunts are a really fun and empowering activity for them.

Taken from a tweet this sums up the aims behind Toddle in the City: "Urban designer Yat wanted to find a fun way to engage kids so they will grow up to love the city. And Toddle in the City was born!"
We all met up on a gloriously sunny Sunday near Boxpark and Yat handed out name stickers and the digital cameras. Lewis has seen cameras, iphones, video cameras etc all his life but he's never actually had one for him to use all by himself. He was really excited and actually very proud to be trusted with such a cool thing!

Self portrait taken by Lewis in a mirror

All the kids were able to start using them confidently straight away so off we set. Yat led the way and pointed out things of interest but the kids were encouraged to take pictures of anything and everything that caught their attention. And this was the really interesting bit for me... It was amazing to see what Lewis noticed. I look at buildings, shop windows, watch out for traffic, other people etc but he took a photo of a spider web by a bin and he even managed to spot a ladybird on a bollard! (Unfortunately, these photos were out-of-focus but he made a good attempt.) I guess the streets of London look pretty different when you're only a metre tall.

Lewis took 133 photos in total, and of course some are better than others, but there are some really great images too. Here's a selection of my favourites:

We were lucky enough to find a local street party run by the Friends of Arnold Circus so after our walk we enjoyed an afternoon of music, chasing bubbles and lounging in deckchairs. Days like that remind me just how wonderful London can be. I sometimes worry about bringing up a child in a city but we are so lucky to have all of this on our door step!

Toddle in the City is running Treasure Hunts throughout the summer in Shoreditch and along Regent Street on the car-free days in July. There's a different theme to each walk so there's always something new to discover.

As you can tell, we loved it! I'm now planning on building on Wiss's new-found photography skills by giving him a camera to document a wedding we're going to. I can't wait to see what the ceremony and reception look like to a 3 year old!


NB: This is not a sponsored post. These are purely my own thoughts and recommendations and I did not get paid for writing this post. Thank you