Lovely Christmas Things

 Here is one of my new decorations for the tree this year, obviously it HAD to be heart shaped!

I've tried to be 'thrifty' this year and had a go a making my own Christmas wreath;

With home-made dried oranges;

....and bunches of cinnamon sticks;

My other major project was a fairy for the top of the tree, and I didn't pay a penny! Everything I used was just laying around the house. Here is a list of items I used believe it or not...A bamboo stick, toilet roll, copper wiring, hair pins, carrier bag handles (un-twisted made beautiful wavy hair), ribbon, feathers (yes they were just in one of my drawers), bra padding and beads off a broken braclet. Ta Da a beautiful fairy!

Rebecca x

Finally, my name up in lights!

Ok, this was our first attempt at capturing sparkler writing,
demonstrated beautifully by my mum;

I had the idea from a newspaper cutting my mum gave me, explaining how you could take photos of fireworks and sparklers creating not just an instant image of someone waving a stick around, but with a slower shutter speed you can record something way more special!

  

My hubby even had a go, showing that he can spell his name! My step daughter was more creative, starting with her name (which obviously needs to be written with the letters back-to-front), then a star with a firework in the background.

 

 And for the piece de resistance...the whole family lined up;

Rebecca x

Beachcombing for eye catching subjects....



'The Huts'



'Breakwaters'

'I'm Waiting...'

'Concentration'

'Lunch Queue'

'Ready to sail'

'Paddling'

'Flying in'

Rebecca x







Anything beachy...

....And I'm there! Here are some pics I took while my Ward family were having fun at Frensham Ponds, Surrey. A beautiful sailing lake surrounded by sandy coves and sand dunes, no heart shaped pebbles there but plenty of photo opportunities;

Rebecca x

Keeping it in Focus...

The easy option is always just to press and shoot and you can get some good pics just by doing that, but now I have a camera with the ability to focus manually I wanted to experiment with how you could make pictures slightly more interesting by blurring different parts, here is what happened that day....

                                                                                                                                                                 

Rebecca x

© REBECCA WARD 2010

Weekend Project

Bored with my pine table and chairs I decided to paint them this weekend! The table had its long, skinny legs painted 'english man on the beach' white and the top was sanded down to within an inch of its life and buffed up again with natural wax. The chairs were layed with matching paint and then because I don't like anything ordinary, a scarlet heart has been added to each chair, finished off with a layer of varnish to protect from scraping bottoms.

I'm very pleased with the results....

 

Inspiration at last!

Last week my mum gave me a picture she had seen and thought of me. The photo was a beautiful evening sky with clouds swept across the sky, the trees in the foreground silhouetted against the illuminated sky. An image that would be fun to try to imitate to see if I could make my clouds as wispy and dramatic as the photographer had captured, so out came all my paints and brushes and I found a couple of canvases that would be perfect, I decided on the smaller one to make the picture more intense.

An hour later I was staring at this newly started creation, numbed and slightly lost as to how to continue, I had lost the flow of the picture and knew I wouldn't be happy if I continued. Kettle on and chocolate in hand I decided I needed to just paint and not worry about the outcome, so I put the other picture on hold for now, grabbed the larger canvas and the following picture was born!!

Waves on the beach

                                                                                                        © REBECCA WARD 2010