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2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 9) Cosy & February round up

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Nothing says ‘cosy’ like a crocheted blanket. Here are some of the blankets I have worked on in the last few years including my two current blanket WIPs (work in progress); my rainbow ripple and the Seaside stash busting CAL from Coastal Crochet.

I can’t forget my Attic 24 Cosy Stripe blanket today either – it even has ‘cosy’ in the name!!

February round up

Here’s a round up of some of the other blog posts joining in with the Postcard from Gibraltar Friday Photo Challenge. If you have joined in this month and I have missed you out, please let me know and I will add your link to this monthly round up for February.

Also don’t forget to check out the Instagram hashtag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto to see all the other weekly entries for the challenge.

Week 5 – Green: 

Crafty Creek has the sort of garden I aspire to have one day…

I love how everyone has a different take on the prompts each week, ‘green’ gave us all the chance to go off on all sorts of tangents, from gin to tiles to motorbikes, lots of beautiful nature and greenery featured too. We filled each other’s Instagram feeds with green and Eleonora from Coastal Crochet joined in this week too for the first time and shared some of her beautiful crochet covered green sea glass finds.

Week 6 – Wall Art:

Anne Marie spotted some beautiful ornamental tiles in Spain

What a fine collection of photographs and pictures Crafty Creek has!

The tiles of the Boston subway featured as ‘wall art’ on Instagram, along with beautiful embroidery, mosaics, tiles, graffiti, and paintings. Do check out the hashtag and see all of the amazing photos included in this week’s collection.

Week 7 – Hearts:

Sandra at Wild Daffodil had a fabulous selection of hearts.

Crafty Creek’s embroidery is just beautiful!

Among our Instagram Friday photos this week, a cute patchwork table runner, beautiful buttons, the gorgeous county of Derbyshire under snow, Janet Bryden’s 94 year old Mum, heart shaped sweets in the form of chocolates AND Love Hearts, and a heart shaped leaf. Not forgetting of course the amazing 7000 hearts for Yarndale appeal run by Bonnies Little Crafts and remembered by Pinklady558.

Week 8 – Movement:

Wild Daffodil’s post about Maggie dancing is wonderful

Crafty Creek also joined in, with great shots of penguins at the zoo

On Instagram we had photos from the ski slopes, a ferris wheel at the Princes Street Christmas Market in Edinburgh, motorbike racing, sifting flour during baking, a blurred wildlife photograph, tectonic plate movement, the Falkirk wheel and even some in-car knitting.

If you fancy joining in with the challenge, here are the up coming weekly prompts.

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 5) Green & January round up

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Green is the theme of this week’s Postcard from Gibraltar Friday Photo Challenge. I am a huge fan of green when it comes to the great outdoors.

I like nothing more than a woodland walk in the summertime – it’s always a highlight of my trips back home to England.

These photos (above) were taken on a walk in Wigan, in Lancashire last spring.

Just look at that patchwork of green fields in Cheshire as we took off from Manchester airport.

Gibraltar does have. Bit of green too though, these two photos were taken on a walk up the Med Steps, in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

Now, here’s a round up of some of the other entries to the Friday Photo Challenge during January:

Week 1 New Beginnings 

This photo challenge got off to a great start on Instagram with Sandra Capano (@capanosandra) featuring the first Gibraltarian sunrise of the New Year and others marking the beginning of a new chapter in their lives with retirement (@janetbryden) and a house move (@rainbowsnmore)!

In blogland Sandra at Wild Daffodil joined it too with her new Attic 24 blanket along with Anne Marie Hearinga  who featured New Year fireworks as her new beginning in Instagram.

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 1) New Beginnings

Home

On Instagram there were some lovely photos of people’s homes, from a beautiful cross-stitch embroidery of houses by @hookstitchsew and views of Lincoln (@pinklady558), the Black Isle in the Highlands of Scotland (@bluejake235), Swanpool beach in Cornwall (@dwphotography63), a cottage in Oxforshire (@isisgem) along with a front door to die for from (@kathycobrey). Not forgetting @alisoninadalucia who featured a lovely mosaic of the Legs of Man, from her home the Isle of Man.

Anne Marie Hearinga originally from the Netherlands, but now residing in Gibraltar, also joined in posting photos of her two cats on Instagram and writing about her many house moves on her blog.

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 2) Home

Me, Myself & I

I was a little bit silly putting this as one of the prompts for the photo challenge seeing as I’m a bit camera shy online. It’s something I have thought about a lot, especially as I was recently approached by someone who wanted to feature me in his work. It was a huge honour to be asked, but for reasons of privacy, I declined as it would have meant me having my face and name all over the shop. I fear that once it’s out, there’s no getting it back and I like the shroud of anonymity, especially living in Gibraltar (which has a population of just 30,000). As it is, I have been rumbled by several people already.

I guess I’m a bit chicken about ‘coming out’ as a blogger, I don’t want people to think I’m silly and frivolous. This is just a hobby of mine, which I love and I don’t want people judging me for it. There, I’ve said it. Perhaps one day you’ll see more than just my shadow, but for now, that’s all you’re getting!

On Instagram, it was lovely to see so many of your faces, some of whom are new to me since beginning this challenge, others, I have followed and have followed me for a while. Again, Anne Marie Heeringa joined in with another blog post and a photo on Istagram. I’m pleased to say that I wasn’t the only shadowy figure to feature in this challenge check out @familyfaulds for a lovely snowy shadow.

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 3) Me, Myself & I

Hobby

My word, you are a talented an interesting lot! So many brilliant hobbies were on show on Instagram for this photo challenge, crochet (@tsdailytreasures), baking (@janetbryden), painting, knitting (@capanosandra), photography, reading, gardening (@alisoninadalucia), film watching, patchwork, embroidery, birdwatching (@isisgem), MotoGP (@mrsscjohnson) and even anti-gravity fitness!! Sandra at Wild Daffodil joined in too with her fast growing Attic24 blanket!

I have been truly overwhelmed by all of the people who have decided to join in on this weekly photo challenge so far. I have done my best to mention most of them in this blog post, however I do apologise profusely if I have missed anyone out. If you want to see the Instagram photos for yourself, just search the #postcardfromgibfridayphoto hashtag to see them all there (over 50 were there at the last count). Thank you so much for all joining in!

If you haven’t yet had a go, and would like to, please feel free to dip in and out as you like, there’s no obligation to stick with it for every week of 2018, just as and when you fancy it. You can join in on your blog (if you have one) just leave a link in the comments below and I can find you that way. Alternatively join in on Instagram using the #postcardfromgibfridayphoto hashtag and you can join the gang!

Have a lovely weekend and a great February everyone!

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 4) Hobby

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It couldn’t just be one photo for this week, I guess I have too many hobbies…

Since putting my career on hold to start a family, and then moving to Gibraltar, I have been lucky enough to be able to carve out a bit of free time to do fun stuff as the children have got older. I was always quite crafty as a young girl and enjoyed sewing and creating things, these days I love to crochet and do some embroidery in my spare time. I also attend watercolour and dressmaking classes during school term times (following the path of creative study I would have liked to do in my youth but opted for the ‘sensible’ academic option which came up trumps and got me a job to pay the for mortgage).

But that’s not all, my other hobby is wandering round Gibraltar taking loads of photos and then turning those into blog posts about where we live. It is that hobby which has broadened my horizons as a stay-at-home Mum and reconnected me to the outside world after over a decade out of the workplace. It also gave me the confidence to go back to work on a part-time basis, something which I am really enjoying.

If you fancy joining in with the Postcard from Gibraltar Friday Photo Challenge, you can do that on your blog or via Instagram. Just tag me in your post or post your blog link into the comments below, or use the tag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto on Instagram so we can all see each other’s photos.

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 3) Me, Myself & I

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It was a bit silly of me to put a category in the photo challenge that I wouldn’t be able to full join in with – I’m a bit camera shy, you see…

…so hello! This is me and my shadow…

I am often to be found wandering with small people…

Or in a pack of 5…

If you fancy joining in with the Postcard from Gibraltar Friday Photo Challenge – you can do it on your blog or Instagram. It’s not to late to join, and there’s no pressure to keep it up every week either – just as and when you can. Just tag me on your blog or add a link to the comments below. On Instagram, please use the tag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto and then I can keep track of all the pictures.

Thank you to everyone who’s joined in so far!

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 2) Home

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I have two homes. The one above of course is Gibraltar, our home for over eight years now and where our children have spent all or most of their lives. It’s a close community, welcoming to outsiders, especially if you are willing to contribute to the community effort yourself. We are very happy to be here in this mostly sunny tiny British outpost.

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My other home, the place of my birth, is the North West of England. I was born just outside Manchester and did all my growing up there. This is a photo of the North Cheshire countryside where I have lots of happy memories of family days out, walks and picnics. Both of these photos were taken on the same journey between Manchester airport and Gibraltar airport last spring.

If you fancy joining in with this weekly photo challenge, it’s not too late to take part. If you write a blog post, be sure to tag me in it so I don’t miss it or put a link in the comments below. Alternatively you can play along on Instagram too with the tag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto

Next week’s prompt is ‘Me, myself & I’ – I cannot wait to see your pictures 😊

2018 Friday Photo Challenge (Week 1) New Beginnings

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Hello there and welcome to this, the first 2018 Friday Photo Challenge.

Last year I really enjoyed being part of a weekly photo challenge which was organised by Wild Daffodil and Nana Cathy. Each week, we were given a one word prompt to use to inspire a photograph based blog post. This year (after several years spent organising other photo challenges) they have decided not to carry on with this on a weekly basis. Sandra at Wild Daffodil is now hosting a Monthly Meet-Up instead.

That left me with a yearning for a weekly photo challenge for this year, so I decided to come up with my own. It will (all being well) happen on a Friday – hence the name, and I would love it if you would like to join in too. At the end of this post, you will find the list of prompts for each of the 52 weeks of the year. All you need to do is publish your post and tag me in it. That way I can keep track of anyone who’s joining in and I can share your lovely posts with everyone else. If you don’t have a blog and want to join in on Instagram, just use the hashtag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto

There’s absolutely no pressure, if you don’t want to commit to every week, that’s fine. Just dip in and out as you fancy.

So here’s my first entry for the 2018 Friday Photo Challenge. It’s the photo I took as we drove back home towards Gibraltar after a few lovely days along the coast in Spain. We drove back on New Year’s Day morning full of enthusiasm and raring to go. A fresh start and a New Year.

If you aren’t familiar with this part of the world, Gibraltar is the great big rock standing in the distance to the right hand-side of the photo, the mountains in the back ground stand across the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco in northern Africa.

Here’s the list of prompts for the 2018 Friday Photo Challenge: