Project 365+1: Days 162 - 168

I've been a bit lazy this week when it's come to taking photos. In my defence, I have had a lovely new toy to play with. As much as I love my fancy SLR camera, there's something really nice about being able to whip out my phone and snap away when I spot something cute and then share it on Twitter immediately, rather than having to get it off the camera, process it and then upload it.



Day 162: Funky Feet

This was one of the first photos I actually took with my new phone, of my husband's funky feet. I got a gift voucher for Christmas a couple of years ago for Debenhams but couldn't find anything I liked, so traded it with him for book money. One of the things he got for himself was these socks. We call them his Rubix Cube socks and I love them (Tara, the sock monster, also loves them and will happily make off with them any chance she gets!). He's also got some brand new trainers with orange laces (so they match our van)!

Day 163: Lead The Way

This is Tara's new lead. She's given us some fun in the back of the car the last couple of weeks. First there was the game of trying to climb through from the boot to the back seats which we stopped when my in-laws' gave us a dog guard. Deprived of her new game, she took it upon herself to pull up the protective floor mat in the boot and chew/tear it to pieces and was just starting on the carpet under that when my father-in-law got a big piece of wood cut to the shape of the car boot that we cover with a blanket so she can't do any more damage.

Relieved that we'd solved the problem, we relaxed. Tara didn't. Mr Click opened the car boot only to have her shoot out down the lane and across the road towards the beach, gleefully ignoring his cries to get her to stop or come back. We decided that harnessing her in the back was the best option. This worked for all of about thirty seconds before she realised that she could chew through the rope lead.

So we now have two of the above leads, one which is permanently fastened into the car and one which we use for walking her. She also has a brand new spiffy collar (when we got her she had a red one with bones on but some of the holes on it are getting a little worn out so we figured we might as well upgrade that as well); this one is black, with padding, and eyelets to helpfully keep it from wearing out too quickly.

And so far the set up is working. She goes to the car on her lead, you clip her in, unclip her lead and close the boot, then do the whole thing in reverse when you want to get her out. She doesn't particularly like gnawing on the chain and even better, she's walking better on the chain lead than she was on the 'choke' lead we had before. Now if only it had some padding on the handle for us!

Day 164: Mockingjay

There'll be a book review forthcoming, but I just had to take a photo of the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I almost read it in a whole day, luckily it was a day I'd taken off work (though I should add, not with the sole intention of reading, that was just a lucky bonus). You can see from the picture that I was just over halfway through at this point, I read another fifth before bed and then polished it off the following day.

To celebrate finishing these books, I decided to splurge on an ebook copy of The Lord of the Rings today, which was going to be the next read from that shelf on my bookcase. I figure an ebook copy will be easier to take to work. I had my copy within about a minute of paying for it and now I'm going to have to hurry up and read all my other books before I will let myself get to it.

Day 165: Big Mug

Okay, so from this point onwards this week I was pretty much just taking photos to play around with the different settings on Instagram. I can't help myself! It's quite fun, I've popped a border on this, used a filter to make it look like an older picture and blurred it with the exception of the picture on the mug. Fun times!

As Mr Click had his exam on Wednesday, that night we cracked out the REALLY big hot chocolate mugs to celebrate. This is mine (it's featured in my Project 365+1 photos several times already). It came with an Easter egg years ago and I've always called it my 'Friends Mug' because it's like one of their giant ones. It takes twice the amount of hot chocolate than a regular mug so is perfect for post-exam drinking.

Day 166: The Van

And this is our mode of transport this week while the car is in the garage; our big orange VW campervan. It was a gift from a family friend and at some point we will sell it, but in the meantime it's useful for picnics and if we ever decide we want a last minute, low-budget holiday.

Mr Click had to pick me up from work in it the other day and because I was expecting him to be in our car, I just didn't see him. I wasn't expecting to see a bright orange campervan so I just didn't seem to see it at all! This has happened several times since then as well. I've gone outside to get in the car, realised that the car isn't there and been slightly puzzled as to how we're supposed to travel, completely forgetting that we have the van.

I'm quite pleased with the effect on this picture. I wanted something that looked like it was taken during the seventies, though the van's not actually that old (one day we'll get a Type 2 with a split screen, but until then...). It's actually just a couple of years older than me. But I thought I'd try to get the picture looking like some of the photos my grandparents had of their old cars.

Day 167: One Year

This is our house, where we've now lived for exactly a year (we moved in precisely one year ago today). I can still remember happily sitting in the living room on a folding chair waiting for Mr Click to show up with the people who were moving our stuff (like actual chairs) while the boiler repair man worked out the back having taken his shoes off first when he came in (I didn't actually ask him to do it, he just did when he saw all our shoes in the front lobby).

It's a lovely little house. A bit of a TARDIS because from the front it looks like a little bungalow, but our bedroom is hidden away at the back and there's an upstairs too (with a low ceiling) and big cupboards hidden away in there too.

Just ignore the weeds out the front. I cleared the back garden the other day while Mr Click was revising and totally forgot to do the ones at the front. We keep on meaning to pull them up, but for now they're just keeping our trees company.

Day 168: Black Lab

Yesterday we walked Tara's little legs off. We took her for a walk at 6am, then went back to bed planning on having breakfast after a little snooze. I read, she needed the loo, so out we went round the garden, then I played on my phone. By about 8am I was feeling a bit sleepy too; both the dog & Mr Click were zonked out, so I just closed my eyes for a minute. And the next thing I knew it was 10:15!

We had a lovely lazy morning and then walked her to Kerrycroy in the mid-afternoon. Back home for tea, then I walked her to the front entrance of the estate and back while Mr Click vacuumed and put fresh bedding on the bed. By the time Tara and I were halfway to the gate she was lagging behind and when we got home she just flopped on the floor (which I was trying to get a picture of, but couldn't quite get one I liked).

She's so cute when she's sleepy. Just this last week she's really started mellowing out. She'll happily lie on the floor and doze; right now she's stretched out on the floor beside my father-in-law and a couple of hours ago she was lying under any table or chair we let her under. Hopefully having my new phone means I'll be able to catch more of my cute puppy dog's moments.