My boys - my reason to blip :)

So here we are: 1000 blip entries! I can hardly believe I'm still doing this, but here I am. I may have no gaps in my blip record but I know I don't manage to upload a photo a day any more and instead upload three or four at a time. Such is life at the moment I guess.

How life has changed since that first entry, watching the Bean playing with his grandad. Now I have two children, the second is only a couple of months younger than Bean was in that photo. I've started a new business / community called "the messy mama", combining my love of art and sharing that love of art and creativity with my sons, with my passion for gentle parenting. I'm priviledged to have prints of my paintings all over the world thanks to the wonder of the internet - and also thanks in no small part to the magic that is Blipfoto, and the community I found in it!

I guess the reason I still take at least one photo every day, and write a journal entry, is because I want to remember this time with my boys. To record the little things - and the big things - that makes life with them special: the funny things they do and say, the route our lives are taking. How they're growing and changing, and how they're changing us.

These days my photos are all iPhone pictures. And an old iPhone model at that! My beloved DSLR has too many issues to get it out on a daily basis now and is kept for taking photographs of my artwork. As a result I'm having to work harder to get "good" shots and have to put a great deal more effort into composition. I'm learning to work with what light is available, using perspective and context to make pictures ones I'm happy with.

And of course my preferred subjects are my boys: the Bean and the Bear, closely followed by the art that we create or that is inspired by them.

If you're thinking about doing a daily journal or a 365 project the best advice I could give you is to think about why you want to do it. And then just do it! Also think about what camera you want to use, or are most likely to use. But the biggest thing is make sure you know why you want to do it. My reason is that it's a record of life.

Using Blipfoto over the past almost-three years has been great. Almost immediately after I began I found like-minded people, on a similar mission as me to record life with their children. The community aspect has been one of the biggest things and even though these days I don't have a great deal of time to read through the journals of even my favourite blippers, I now count a big handful of them as good friends outside of Blipfoto - even if they are spread all over the UK and beyond. One other special thing that I think I've only been able to do because of the addictive nature of Blipfoto is to create a photo book for the Bear, with my pregnancy with him and his first year or so of life. And it's probably because I'm still blipping that he's not suffered the "second child" syndrome of having hardly any photographs!

Milestones

The beginning
100: amazed
200: snow
300: colour
1 year blipnic
500: blipcake!
500 days: life thru a lens
Bear's arrival
2 years

Favourite Blips
This is like the highlight reel for me. Precious moments. My favourites are marked "***"

*** drumming down the garden
starkers
ben go in boat?
jumping!
bare bottomed boy (proud mama!)
happy birthday Bean
family of 4
*** brother love
self with baby and camera
faceless self portrait
lollipop land outtake
painting: what we do
more painting
two happy boys and God's provision
blue tiger
umbrella
laughter
messy feet
Bear 7 months
the faces of Bean
*** crazy Bean in a bucket
loonies
learning to walk
4 year old Bean
*** pumpkin hunting
Bear's 1st birthday
on the toybox
*** moments to treasure