May In Review

SPADE LIST ITEMS COMPLETED -

#9. Meet someone new and make good friends with them

(Completed 1/5/10)

PROJECT 356 PHOTOS TAKEN -

Day 151 - Seventeen.

Well... today is my birthday!! :D I am now officially 17! Finally! Haha I'm the last one out of my friends in my year to turn 17! I figured because it was my birthday I would take a wee self portrait. It's a little different... but meh! Took me a few attempts to get it right... My parents got me a printer for my birthday which saves me a lot of bother! It's great actually! :) I know, I'm a dork, getting excited because I got a printer... but that's just me I guess! So yeah I've had a good day! Really haven't done that much, just kinda lazed about the house... I took it easy on the whole revision front, took a bit of a break! Just did a few English notes.

It feels weird saying I'm seventeen... it only really sunk in when i opened my present to see those lovely "L" plates... can't wait!!

Day 150 - And My Song Shall Ever Be...

Tonight I was at a big church service in the Newcastle Center... it was a very good night I have to admit! I'm looking forward to the next one! The guy speaking was very good and the worship was awesome :)

Afterwards a few of us went a long the prom for a walk... I didn't have my camera with me, but the sky was soooo pretty, so I attempted taking a few on my phone. They're not great quality but with a bit of editing they didn't turn out too shabby!

Day 149 - "Ooh-de-la-lay!"

Today was a good day! The whole family came round to celebrate lots of birthdays - Thomas' and Lucy's 15th(s), Emma's 18th and my 17th! It was fun :) There was a lot of eating to be done... I'm stuffed!! Here's an example of some yummy stuff -Being all grown up and everything now, we spent the evening watching Disney's Robin Hood... time well spent I think! Ooh-de-la-lay! This is a picture of Emma and me... I love her! :)

Good day :)

Day 148 - "SURPRISE!!"

Today we had a surprise birthday party for the lovely miss Vikki! I managed to capture her expression as she walked in the door to find us jumping out and shouting "SURPRISE!!"

Priceless... :)

So we had a good wee afternoon, just chilling! This is a group photo... love you guys!
But now, its official, at age 16 I'm the youngest person in our friendship group (in our year anyway!) :P

Day 147 - Bonding At The Beach...

Today I had a nice wee bonding session with a friend of mine in the afternoon, we got some ice cream after having a walk on the beach! :)

Tonight I had a failed cinema trip. FAIL.

Day 146 - Run Forrest, Run!

So art is all done now! Hooray!! I was up rather late last night just cutting and sticking and drawing and writing. Twas not fun at all. No.

This evening I decided to go for a run. Random urge I guess, plus its really good for clearing that oul' annoying head buzz! I hate head buzz. Anyways, I went to the end of the Aughlisnafinn Road, which is the road opposite mine at the crossroads. When I got to the end I thought, meh, I might as well keep going! So I ran the Oasis :) It was about 3 miles, so I'm quite pleased with myself! Took this picture with my phone...

Day 145 - Art Etcetera

Art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art art

Day 144 - "Everything Else"

Decided to add a bit of text to my photo today... I'm going through a faze of looking up inspirational quotes! I like them :)

I picked this quote because, well I'm a Christian, and I think C.S. Lewis is amazing, but also because of the good weather we've been having recently! I love the sun! I took this pic almost immediately after walking out of my dining room - this flower was hanging over my parents' balcony and the sun was shining through it, which made it look really pretty!

Okay, break over... I should probably get back to doing some art now...

Day 143 - La Agua

So the good weather returned today! It's finally starting to really look like summer! I took a break from doing art to go outside with my sister and we had some fun spraying the air with the garden hose!Hope you like these pics! :)

Day 142 - My Thinking Tree...

This is a cherry tree in my garden... at least I think it's a cherry tree. Apparently it's quite rare! I used to climb it when I was upset, and just sit in that tree and think. There was a branch that was just the perfect seat! It was really really nice weather today so I enjoyed the sun while I could, however most of the day I was inside, doing art... hooray.

Day 141 - Fuy A Una Fiesta!

Tonight I was at a 'Spanish Fiesta' to raise money for a mission trip to Spain! Just like yesterday, I made a camera mistake... I came out with my camera with its telephoto lens, instead of my normal one. It wasn't quite so "face of rage eating a rage cake" because I was actually able to take pictures... I just had to stand really far away! But I got some good ones :)

I like this picture below... really quite pleased with the depth of field!I took this picture of Corinne and I really like it 'cause she looks beautiful in it! She is wonderful.These next two pictures are the result of Ben Haas' Photo Challenges! The challenge was to get a picture of someone running, have them in focus, and the rest blurred. This effect is achieved by panning. Its really difficult and I think it might have worked better without the telephoto lens on, but these are my best two...

I'll need to try it out again some time!

I've cropped all these photos to 16x9, simply because I really like that size! :)

Day 140 - Face Of Rage Eating A Rage Cake!

I am utterly ragin'. It's like face of rage eating a rage cake. I shall tell you why -

Tonight I was looking forward to going out for a walk with my friend Sarah and my birthday twin Nicola. I was excited for taking some good pictures, so I brought my camera. The light was fantastic, everything looked so green, I found a perfect clump of dandelions and bent down to take a picture...

'No SD card inserted.'

FACE OF RAGE EATING A RAGE CAKE!! I spent the rest of the night seeing soooooo many photo opportunities, like when Nicola threw a flower into the lake... it looked so darn pretty... my phone camera totally does not do it justice!
I'll post a few pics from my phone camera, just for the craic.

This is a picture of the three of us! Not bad! :)

Day 139 - "TOTAL ECLIPSE" Nom Nom Nom

Does anyone remember that Jaffa Cakes advert from when were were kids? Every time you ate a Jaffa Cake you just had to say "Full moon, half moon, TOTAL ECLIPSE!!"Yep, I did crop this photo in the extreme sense of the word! Hence the crazy amount of grain!

Day 138 - Facebook. I Hate You.

That stupid Facebook tab is so darn distracting. I took this picture while I was procrastinating late on in the evening, as I suddenly realized I hadn't got a pic for today! So I macro'd/fish eyed my laptop screen! I was in school today, working all day on art, so I took this evening pretty easy, just a bit of light work. I also went out for a short run tonight, the first time I've ran since the fun run! It was good to do some exercise!

Day 137 - Craving Procrastination...

I know this isn't a photograph, but it's gonna be my picture of the day! This is one of the nine Photoshop pictures I have been working on for my school Art project... I hope you like it!

I can successfully say I've had a productive first day of study leave! Spent most of the day printing, cutting and sticking. Isn't it odd, however, that for weeks I've been working happily in a messy room, yet as soon as the first day of study leaves comes round I have a compulsive need to tidy it?! My body is clearly craving procrastination...

Day 136 - Bonding Sessions :)

So this photo isn't that great, but I am tired! I stayed over at my cousins' last night and Emma and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking. I loved our bonding session! Just can't wait until the 29th when I can see them all again! :) :) :)

Day 135 - "What Feelings Sound Like"...

Today I finally got to meet up with my wonderful cousins! Emma was playing with her orchestra, CBYO, so I went to go watch her play. It was really really good! Makes me wish i was musical... that gene kinda surpassed me in my family! There was a lot of bant, we headed out to town afterwards and I met a lot of her friends from the orchestra!

Me - So what do you play?

Friend - I play the bassoon.

Me - Oh really?? That's cool!

Friend - Yeah! I'm impressed you know what it is!

Me - Yeah... I don't.

Apparently it's like a giant clarinet thing! So yeah, look up some CBYO stuff on Youtube... they're very good!

I love my cousins, we don't get the chance to meet up much, so when we do, it's really exciting and we have a lot of fun! :)

Day 134 - God Be With You!

May the road rise up to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

May the rain fall soft upon your field

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of his hand

(A Celtic Blessing - appropriate!)

Bill, we wish you all the best with your future.

Tonight was Bill's leaving party, he heads back to America in the morning. I was meant to be at a Duke of Ed meeting at my house, but I really didn't want to miss it. I'm glad I went though. We're all gonna miss Bill... he's a great guy and has made a big difference here! :) We love you Bill! Thanks for a great 7 months!

Do you know what 'Goodbye' really means? It means "God Be With You". I like that a lot better!

When the party was over I arrived home at about midnight, not exactly happy, and walked into my room. At first glance, it was a mess. There was stuff all over my bed, and I thought, oh no, someone has been rummaging through my stuff! Who knows what they've seen! I wasn't in the mood to do much about it, so I sat down on my bed and left it a wee while. When I got up a while later, I realised that, no, someone hadn't ransacked my room.... my bed looked like this -

Yep! That's a pile of junk on my bed that spells out the word 'Hi'. I smiled, and then noticed that this was not the only thing different about my room... apparently my friends, Sarah and Jayne, who were at the DOE meeting had come into my room and left me little messages everywhere! Here's just a few -

Isn't it funny how it'll be the little things people do for you that make you smile the most? I love my friends!

Day 133 - So Long! Farewell!

Today we had a leaving party for my name buddy, Jo, who isn't coming back to school next year! We got her a Hannah Montana cake - and we got a lot of people to sign her shirt! :) I think we had a good wee party! So long Jo! You shall be missed!

Day 132 - Oreo! :)

MMMMM!! Oreo McFlurry! Apparently Creme Egg season is over now... that's a little bit upsetting.

Day 131 - Tuesday?! Are You Serious?!

I want to be off school already! It feels like it should be Friday, but it's only Tuesday! Aaaa!!

Day 130 - Candyfloss Clouds...

The clouds were pink tonight!! :)

Day 129 - I Love My Sister!

Today I decided to take a picture of something that means a lot to me. This is a picture of my bracelet. I'll explain why it's important to me below.My sister made me this bracelet. It's nothing fancy, just some beads on a piece of wire, but I love it. One day in Sunday school the kids were making bracelets for themselves to remind themselves about the Easter story. There were beads left over, so my friend Sarah, who was helping the class, told Katie (my sister) that she could make another one "for someone special". So Katie said "I'll make one for Joanna!" When I heard this it made me smile a lot, 'cause my sister's only 4, and so everything's about 'Mummy' at the minute. So when she made it for me, it kinda meant a lot.

So I've been wearing it since then, and every time she notices I'm wearing it, it makes her really happy, which makes me really happy too! I love my sister. We're best friends.

Day 128 - Why Did The Crab Blush? Because The Sea Weed.

I went for a wee walk along the beach today. I guess I don't appreciate my surroundings enough... I do live in quite a pretty place!My apologies for the seaweedy pictures, I just thought it made some pretty cool patterns?

Day 127 - Upon Rediscovering Macro...

Oh macro, long have I abandoned you!! I apologise!!Again, I'm pleased with these! Two good photograph days in a row, this is quite good! These are pictures of a dandelion in my garden... I rediscovered the wonderfulness of macro today, and I find it quite exciting! :D

I went to see 'The Last Song' tonight with my friend Sarah... it was a very good movie! I don't cry in movies, I don't know why, I just can't, but I was seriously rather choked up tonight!! It was such a good movie, a pleasant surprise from Miley Cyrus there!

Day 126 - Zoom Zoom Zoom!

So it's not often that I say I really like a photograph that I have taken, but this is one of those times. I had spent quite a while trying to get light stream photographs of the cars going past my house, and they turned out okay, but weren't very interesting as they were very linear. Just as I finished taking the last shot I planned to take, my dad got into the car to drive out to pick up my brother. I quickly grabbed my tripod and ran to the corner to get this shot. I love the curvature of the light stream, and it turned out so much better of my ones with multiple cars!

Day 125 - "This Is Where Heaven And Earth Collide..."

Today I was taking some pictures of some art pieces for the school magazine... this is a piece I particularly like...

So I'm currently very much into the band Sanctus Real... if you're into Christian rock music you should check them out... I like them a lot!! The title of this post is a line from their song 'The Redeemer'. I would highly recommend them, they just make me smile a lot!

Day 124 - Retrospectiveness.

This is a picture of a toy truck that was lying on the grass in my garden... it seemed kinda abandoned.So I'm gonna talk about yesterday, seeing as I didn't get the chance to last night. So we (Bill, Mich, Corinne, Vikki and I) completed the Belfast Fun Run in half an hour!! Wooo! Go us! It was an amazing experience, I really want to do it again next year. Vikki commented on how there was such a sense of 'community spirit' and I agreed. It was a beautiful day and everyone was in such high spirits! I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

About the picture yesterday, we decided we would all wear dork glasses, and Vikki and I went the extra mile and wore shorts and stripy socks... we totally rocked that look! About the title of the post yesterday, we decided on a code word, "Doilies", to shout if we were lost or in pain. It worked pretty well I think!! :)

"DOILIES!!!!"

Day 123 - "Doilies!!"

We did it!! We ran the Belfast Fun Run - 5k! It was epic fun but now I am beastly tired! So I'll write more about it tomorrow when my brain is working!

Day 122 - Race Day Tomorrow!

^These are my new 'dork glasses'. I bought them because I wanted to wear them for my 5k tomorrow! YES! It's my 5k tomorrow! I'm kinda nervous / excited! Today some of us went to Belfast, to go to Vineyard Church (it wasn't bad) and to pick up race packs etc for tomorrow! Haha I'm not sure how ready I am for this! :)