Tips from the top...

On Saturday, I headed up to that there fancy London town for a much anticipated day with the wonderful Emily Quinton. Blogging as The Startup Wife, Emily (a wedding photographer by trade) now spins a myriad of creative plates in the entrepreneurial air, including her 'Make Light Photography for Bloggers' course.

I am obsessed with Emily's blog, her Instagram feed and her positive but real approach to life, so it was with great excitement that I set out uncharacteristically early to the village train station. My journey was fraught with difficulty from the start and to cut a long (and expensive) story and journey short, I arrived exactly an hour late. Out-of-breath, embarrassed and more than a little teary, I was soon put at ease by Emily's sincere welcome and the encouraging smiles of my fellow bloggers.

Emily is wonderfully warm, refreshingly down-to-earth and super-talented. She talked us through kit, composition, light, apps and editing. There were many opportunities to get snapping with Emily's constructive and friendly criticism in the background to help us produce half-decent photos.

To be honest, I didn't take that many photos. I was too busy chatting and cooing over Baby Rudi. I also made copious notes to capture Emily's many generous top tips and insider secrets.

We all had a delicious lunch from nearby Pitfields, cake a-plenty and beautiful goodie bags provided by Emily who had literally thought of everything. 

Despite being put back on my train home by the very patient Tamryn and Ruth, it took forever to get home too. I didn't mind one bit though as I left feeling uplifted, inspired and motivated to keep up with this little blog - and privileged to have spent the day with a fabulous bunch of women with whom I'll definitely stay in touch.

We're all crying out for Emily to run a follow-up workshop. Whenever that may be, I'm going to head up the night before...

Thank you, Emily, for an incredible day, and for letting me use the large image in this collage!

Back to school...

Dexter's new (old) desk

A week today, I will have taught my first lessons of the new term. *Whispers*, I quite like the 'back to school' feeling. Don't get me wrong, I love the school holidays and I really love the 6am alarm being turned off for six weeks, but I enjoy the roll of the seasons. I relish the beginnings of Autumn: the beautiful light and the cooler air creeping in, meaning I can legitimately wear sleeves again. To me, the start of September signals a new pencil case, new stationery, choosing winter boots, meeting my new students and getting back into a routine that makes the holidays feel even more special.

 

I am privileged enough this year to be dropping down to a four day week. I'll be off every Wednesday and I'm really looking forward to more time with my boy and a sense of balance - oh, and one week day with the alarm turned off.

 

I'm hoping I'll also get some more blogging inspiration and time to document. Watch this space...

 

Liebster Award

 

My blog addiction means I make regular use of the 'Bloglovin' app on my phone. It enables you to follow blogs and get automatic updates of new posts.

 

The last week of term has been characteristically bonkers. Combine that with an imminent house move, and my self-indulgent blog-reading (and writing) habit has been in a state of neglect recently.

 

However, I was thrilled to be notified of a new post by Alexis at 'Something I Made': thrilled because I like her blog, and even more thrilled because she's bestowed upon me a 'Liebster Award'.

 

I've seen a few of these on the many blogs I follow, and from what I understand, it's a sort of virtual (and non-weirdy) chain letter whereby bloggers get asked a series of questions and have to pass their own set of questions on to some other fellow bloggers. Usually, I delete those annoying chain emails/text messages and am always particularly bothered by those with a vaguely threatening tone. This is different though, and it made my day to be invited in further to the blogging community by someone whose blog I love reading - check it out; she's a talented lady!

 

So, here goes...

 

1. Which is your favourite post on your own blog?

 

This is a tricky one as 'Five on the Door' is certainly work in progress and I'm barely managing to stick to my minimum of five posts per month. I guess I like my 'Mulling over mothering' post as it was a heartfelt post that I needed to write at that particular time. My favourite post from my first blog 'Brighton Ramblings', has to be 'A Letter to Dexter'; it received a lot of love and really summed up my reasons for starting blogging. It also marked the successful completion of my 366 blog posts in one year challenge.

 

2. Do your 'real' friends know about/care about/read your blog?

 

Yes! I always post links on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and usually receive some sort of feedback from friends. Some of my colleagues comment on posts they've read and my parents and in-laws particularly like posts about Dexter.

 

3. Is there anything you regret NOT doing in your life (so far)?

 

Nope, I'm a looking forward kinda' girl. Life's too short to dwell on the what might have beens... Okay, if I had to pick something, I sort of wish I'd got in the birthing pool when it was offered to me during labour. I would have loved for Dexter to have been born in the water, but I was pretty insistent at the time that I was going to stay put on all fours on the bed. Perhaps that's something I'll be able to rectify one day...

 

4. Camping or boutique hotel?

 

Easy: the latter EVERY TIME! I hate camping; I love luxury. We honeymooned at Babington House (arguably, the original boutique hotel) in one of their walled garden rooms: I was in heaven.

 

5. Best way to get from A to B?

 

Horse, hands (hooves) down!

 

6. It's 8pm on a Friday night: what are you doing (in your ideal world)?

 

Tricky. On a summer's evening, riding through the countryside. In less clement weather, I'm in a robe at Brighton's Treatment Rooms experiencing some luxury spa treatments.

 

What I'm actually doing is inevitably falling asleep in a pool of my own drool on the sofa after half a glass of wine and an episode of Corrie. I can but dream...

 

7. Done any good projects recently?

 

Err, as much as I would love to give the Allsop a run for her money on the whole crafty front, I have no time and no skills. The closest I've come is filling my Pinterest boards with stuff I like, particularly with ideas for our new house.

 

8. Best thing to do within a few minutes of your home?

 

There are a couple of really nice parks, some great pubs and a train station to get you to the centre of Brighton in seconds!

 

9. If you could learn a new skill, what would you choose?

 

I would really love to be able to play the piano.

 

10. ...and your superpower, if you had one?

 

To be able to condense a huge number of hours of sleep into about three.

 

11. Finally, why did you decide to start a blog?

 

I like to write and I like to share!

 

 

 

Now I get to come up with my own questions!

 

And I'm asking them to:

 

Just Pirouette and Carry On

 

Ar-Blog

 

Chloe Witters

 

Little E and Bean

 

 

1. What would your dream gig be?

 

2. Who is your favourite literary character and why?

 

3. What has been the best year of your life so far?

 

4. Who is your secret crush?

 

5. Guilty pleasure?

 

6. Tastiest snack?

 

7. Who would play you in the film of your life?

 

8.Which one of your senses could you least live without?

 

9. Favourite cocktail?

 

10. Who would be your dream prime minister?

 

11. Finally, if you were a vegetable, what would you be?

 

 

 

 

Blog Love

One of the things I love most about social networking and my blog obsession, is the sense of community you get with people you may never actually meet.

Whilst I wouldn't what to pigeon-hole myself as someone who exists primarily in a virtual world - SIMS to me is a computer programme I take the register on, not something to build an imaginary family with - since becoming a 'blogger', I feel that my social circle has expanded. I see a lot of people's homes/families/pets/dinners and get opinions on all sorts of things from politics to potty training.

It was lovely this evening therefore to receive a tweet from Charlotte to let me know I feature on her blog today. She's also been displaying a handy link to FOTD on her aptly titled: 'I'm Only Saying What You're Thinking' site.

I am thrilled to appear on such a well-established and brilliant blog: check it out. Such blogging philanthropy seems to be par for the course in this little corner of the virtual world. Plus, I now feel a teeny bit like a celebrity, and I like it.

Thanks, Charlotte, for spreading the blog love!

Monday Snooping...

 

One of my favourite things about other people's blogs is the 'home tours' you find on them. I am fascinated by interiors and have very aspirational taste when it comes to houses. I can't really define what it is that pleases me so much about having a good old nosey, but I have always been very driven by the aesthetic - something my darling boy seems to be sharing as he is obsessed with colours.

Our Brighton home is definitely not interiors magazine- worthy, but we like it and it's very us. Inspired by Alice's lovely lifestyle blog and her 'Corners of My Home' feature, I spent Dexter's nap time today making the most of the beautiful light and pretending I know what I'm doing with my husband's fancy camera: I don't. I also spent a worryingly long time (the boy sleeps well and was full of this morning's cooked breakfast) faffing with trying to get lettering over my photos.

I'm sort of pleased with the end results although they're a bit amateurish and I don't think Holly Becker will be banging on my door begging me to help style an interiors shoot just yet. I had fun though, and it stopped me sleeping the afternoon away.

I may develop 'Monday Snooping' as a feature, but given that my audience for this blog is still probably limited to people who know me and therefore have actually been inside my home, I may have to take it on tour. Perhaps one day, I'll share the delights of my classroom with you...

Enjoy!

 

Birthday Wishes

 

Dexter was two on Wednesday. He celebrated by not being woken up at six o'clock in the morning as my mum is here for the week, doing her 'keeping Team Wayne afloat' bit in the run-up to half term. In fact, I didn't see the birthday boy until early evening, and we waited for Daddy to get home from work (even later), before the present-opening began.

As was the case for Dexter's first birthday, family and friends had been extraordinarily generous, and the boy received a veritable bounty of perfect toddler cards and gifts.

I was asked numerous times on the day, and in the days since, how we were planning on 'celebrating' the little man's anniversary of his time on earth. My responses have generally been of the flippant, 'hilarious', throw-away nature alluding to the fact that I intend to wait until Dexter actually cares - that is, when he's, erm, about twelve... Okay, perhaps not quite twelve, but as a busy working mummy, I have neither the time nor inclination to throw a massive party. Despite a lack of inclination, I do feel woefully inadequate when I read the blogs of women like Kate. This blog is my current favourite thing ever, but I cannot ever dream of having the talent, skill and general parenting prowess to create such loveliness and special memories for my own child.

I am slightly in awe of the parent blogging community; it scares me slightly too. Whilst I desperately want to create a life that people like me sniff at enviously through cyber space, I just don't think I have it in me. A 'Blue Peter' girl through and through (my mum threw away everything I made), a B grade student in GCSE Art, and owner of an enviable collection of back copies of 'Living etc', I just don't cut it in the world of Kirstie Allsopp crafting heaven. As my lovely (and very creative) friend Hannah knows, the very use of the word 'crafting' as a verb makes me want to throw up onto a pile of washi tape.

I have however, signed up to Emily's 'Photography for Bloggers' September workshop. I've genuinely fallen in love with the concept of blogging as a virtual diary and creative outlet. I've always loved to write, so I figured I'd try to improve the quality of the images I use for 'Five on the Door', particularly to capture special moments for Dexter. I've also got Emily's blog to thank for the children's book ideas which I put on Dexter's birthday wish-list.

For now, the above snaps of the boy opening his gifts in our living room will have to do. Who knows, maybe the blog post for his third birthday will feature a home-made galleon ship, complete with rainbow sponge parrots and a to-scale faux desert island. Maybe.

A new door opens...

Welcome! Open the door numbered five, and step inside. I'm quite excited about this first post of a brand-new blog. You may have come across my writing before at http://brightonramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

That was my first blog: 366 posts dedicated to my little boy, Dexter. I've decided to finish my ramblings though and keep them as an archive for my boy - a sort of virtual baby book. Hence, 'Five On The Door' was born.

I've caught the blogging bug, but I didn't really know where to go from here, having had such a clear focus for the past year. The blogs I tend to enjoy reading (I'm totally addicted), seem to be categorised by the somewhat nebulous title of 'lifestyle'; perhaps that's what FOTD will become.

I have no real skills or talents, but I have a keen interest in lots of 'stuff'. From interiors to fashion, vintage to modern, Scandinavia to Brighton (via Manchester), novels to poetry, and people, in all their guises.

An English teacher by trade, I love words and really love to write. I hope to document the things that make me tick, and practise recording them through photographs too (beautiful photos are another one of my 'things').

So why 'Five On The Door'? Well, it's currently the number on my front door, although we're hoping to move in 2013 - naturally, I'll blog about that! Five is also my favourite number (I was born on 05/05), and numbers are another quirk of mine. The number five feels like a good omen to me. The 'door' idea suggests an opening, a welcome, a passageway into a different place. I hope you'll open it and visit. 

Come on in, kick your shoes off and have a cup of tea - always Teapigs 'everyday brew'. Feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy!