Watching a beautiful sunset in the UK

One of things I love to see is a beautiful sunset, I quite like sun rises as well, although I see less of them as I'm not much of a morning person.

Last year I was lucky enough to film a beautiful sunset from my own front door, something we don't see too many of here in the north east of England.

Rare Spoonbills on the river Wansbeck

Recently my husband commented that there must be a new bird on our local river, as he had seen a lot of twitchers ( bird watchers) going past.

When we went to have a look we discovered these beautiful spoonbills. So I took some photos and made a video, the island is a small nature reserve which is in the middle of the river.

How to make money online, Instagc

One of the things I like to do is to make money online. Let's be honest extra money always comes in handy,

I'm a member of various sites and I thought I'd share my thoughts on them, starting with Instagc.

Instagc is one of those sites that offers a little bit of everything, it has a search facility, offer boards, tasks, surveys and point booster codes. To use the point booster codes you need to have made 1 point in the last 5 days. The points themselves are easy to find with many being posted on facebook.

Getting Paid
That's the part you really want to know :) Whilst instagc isn't ever going to make you rich you can easily get gift vouchers from them, they stock a range of different vouchers from just £1, and I usually cash out straight away from amazon. Currently a £1 Amzon voucher costs 160 points.  One of the best things about this site is the vouchers come instantly so there is no waiting around.

Making the Money

Offer boards are well online boards which have different offers you can do, these in general need a lot of caution as they can lead to spam email and spam calls to any phone you use. I would advise against downloading anything unless you are sure of where it has come from. That said if you are cautious there are some easy offers. The boards also offer paid to watch videos and surveys.

The offer wall I use most often is called Minute Staff as these are various ads that you click on for different amounts of points, whilst they are quite low paid they are quick and easy to do. My second favourite is probably peanut labs as they also offer different surveys, although I quite often do these on other sites.

Paid search, Instagc offers a search facility through which by doing ordinary searches you can win points.

Tasks On Instagc you can get paid for doing various internet based tasks, mostly through Crowdflower. I do them from time to time, and you simply go to that page, a list of what's available to you will be displayed along with how much it will pay. Ones I've done includes searching for websites, or verifying work.

Surveys

Instagc now has it's own survey section which offers a range of different surveys, you're u can also do surveys on the peanut labs wall.

Instagc also have an active membership with a chat facility and competitions each week, as well as sweepstakes. It's also possible like many sites to earn from referrals. 

So in conclusion I find these a fun site to use, and one you can quickly get vouchers from.

Building a Swallows Nest

Last year we were lucky enough to have a pair of swallows build a nest under our front porch. They went on to successfully raise 3 chicks, which we were overjoyed about.

Swallows are such beautiful little birds, which are a real feature of the Uk, although they are mostly seen flying.

It's now that time again and I'm thrilled to say we think they are back, at least they have flown back and forwards to inspect the nest, and are generally hanging around chirping at each other. Hopefully they will go on to have some more chicks this year, and I'll get lots of photos and videos.

The video here is a photo video I made last year, it shows photos of the nest at various stages as it was built using mud and twigs from our local river.

Seagulls at Amble in Northumberland

This is my video taking in 2015 of some seagulls bobbing in the water at Amble.

I love all birds and I find this video quite relaxing to watch.

                   

The Beautiful North Sea at Cambois, Northumberland

Cambois is my local beach here in Northumberland, it's a lovely quiet beach with beautiful sand.

It doesn't really have any amenities apart from a pub at one end, and plenty of car parks so it doesn't really attract a lot of people apart from dog walkers.

In my video I am zooming into the neighbouring resort of Newbiggin by the sea, well it's church :)

Why I love Sun holidays

In common to last year this year I went away on a Sun newspaper caravan holiday.

For those of you who don't know the Sun newspaper here in the UK runs several promotions throughout the year for a cheap caravan holiday starting at £9.50 a person. The holiday is based on 4 people so actually costs from £38 for either 4 nights mid week or 3 nights over the weekend in a caravan park.

You collect codes from the newspaper over the promotion, and when you have enough you book through the post or online. It's a bit more fiddly than a normal booking as you have to give a choice of 4 places you want to go, and especially if you do it by post you're not guaranteed your first choice, I prefer to book online as you can check on their site what is still available.

There's quite a wide choice of where you can go in the UK, last year me and my husband went to Scotland and this year me and my husband went with my parents to Skegness, stopping at the Golden Palm holiday park.

The holiday itself was good fun, although the caravan was a bit too snug for 4 adults. Skegness itself is a great place to visit though, with lots to do.

The main reason I love the Sun deal though is they provide a great cheap holiday base to see places in the UK you might otherwise not bother with, or not be able to afford.

Skegness for me is one of those places, it's not somewhere I would ordinarily think of going, but I really enjoyed it.

Windmill Reflections on the River Blyth

                                                                                                                                                                                             

My video of the reflection of a windmill on the River Blyth in Northumberland. Whilst fog is cold, and reminds me of the old horror film I quite like the peace and quiet it creates.

The North Sea.

The North Sea

The North Sea is the main sea between the east of the Uk and scandanavia. 

It's often quite a wild sea, as apart from being tidal, it is also very cold and often windy. It's quite changeable.

I love a day along it though, I like watching the power and majesty of the waves, as well as seeing all the different wild

                

Why I have a Bucket List

My bucket list first started as a dream board on Pinterest.

It was inspired by Paul Mckenna's book Change your life in 7 days, as having a dream board is something he recommends. He believes looking at your dreams, and really imagining them will help you to achieve them.

Now personally speaking this last part hasn't yet worked for me, but it's something I'm working on.

For me my bucket list or dream board is a visual reminder and a place of inspiration for all the things I'd love to do or become. It's a way of reminding myself that there's a better life out there, and only I can make it happen.

My dream board is mostly filled with a lot of holiday destinations, as I love travelling, but I have also tried to include smaller more manageable tasks that I can realistically do in a year, as I think it's important to accomplish at least some of your dreams and smaller ones help to build towards larger ones. An example of this is I want to learn to crochet, and to become more flexible. Big dreams include becoming better at blogging :)

Overtime my board has involved, and I have found what I don't include can be as interesting as what I do. The one on Pinterest that always makes me smile is, swim in all the oceans, It sounds great until I realised I have no desire to swim in the Arctic, I prefer my water warm :).

A board I have which is as important to me, if not more important than my dream board is a board to celebrate all the amazing things I've done. It reminds me that I've already done amazing things and will do more, it also helps to remind me that some things I take for granted are on other people's dream boards. Sometimes this is more important for encouraging me than my actual dream board.

This blog is also a way of encouraging me, and helping me to document my path to a great life. Hopefully it will also inspire and encourage you.

So would I recommend you making a dream board or Bucket List on Pinterest or in a scrap book? Definitely, you may not achieve all of them, but the ones you do will be amazing.

What I learned from my 365 Day photo challenge

In 2015 I did a 365 day photo challenge.

When I first started it I wasn't really sure what it was, it started as a love of photography and a bucket list challenge to take a photo a day for a year which I had seen on Pinterest.

I started on the first of January 2015, and decided to use Facebook and a writing site I was on as a way to share my photos and to keep myself motivated. My dad decided to do the challenge with me, as did my brother and a friend I had met online. Through the year we all met several challenges, the worst for me was when my Granddad died in July.

For me the challenge was always to physically take a photo a day, although both my dad and brother went for the approach of taking some photos and choosing old photos for other days. I don't think either approach is right or wrong it just depends on you, it's your challenge. I also will say whilst I took a photo every day, there were days and even whole weeks were for various reasons I didn't post a photo every day.

I think the biggest thing I learned from this challenge was that if I was determined and motivated enough I could do it. Taking a photo everyday sounds such a little thing, but the challenge of finding something different each day, when the weathers bad, you've had a long day at work or you have personal problems, can at times be quite hard, and I have to say a cute furry pet cat comes in handy. The hardest months for me were January and November, during January I was still trying to get into the swing of it, and by November the weather was lousy I'd photographed most things in my house and lacked motivation. The thing that pulled me through was that I didn't want to give in so close to the end, and I knew December would be an easier month. The thing that helped most in January was support from others. one of the things I loved most about the challenge was it made me look at things around me in a new way. and to really appreciate the small day to day things.

One of the things I recommend is getting support from the people around you, the biggest support was my husband, there were many times he'd drive out of his way so I could get a photo, or would sit through 50 photos helping me to pick which one I wanted as my photo of the day. Secondly there was my dad, and brother and internet friend, who actually gave up mid way through the year, but there support at various points in the year was invaluable. Finally there was Facebook and my writing site, the first provided mixed support. Many of my friends were very supportive, others went with the approach of just accepting it, and a couple who I like to think of as less adventurous questioned why I was bothering. On my writing site everyone was much more supportive, maybe because of the nature of people who are attracted to such sites. They tend to be international, and to be in general be more open minded and encouraging of others.

From a photography point of view I learned a lot about using my camera, at the start of the year I had a fuji  compact which was quite bulky, but in August my parents kindly bought me a Sony cybershot hx60, which I love. The new camera is still a compact, but it takes lovely photos and has a 30 times zoom which is perfect for a keen amateur like me. It also is small enough to fit in a pocket, which is good for a challenge like this.

With this challenge I really took the time to try to explore what my camera could do, and whilst I realised the limitations of a compact I was also pleased with the effects I could get. I especially liked the various in built filters, such as cartoon and black and white with one colour. I think from a photography point of view the 365 day challenge definitely helps you to take better photos, and encourages you to learn new photography skills.

Finally I have made the photos into a photo book, which I love. It's great to have a photo record of 2015, and to see that despite some lows it was a great year. This year me and my dad are undertaking a 52 week challenge. That's to take a photo each week, we are doing it with a bit of a twist though as each photo has to show something historical.

December Photos of The Day 2015

December 2015 Photos

The last month of my photo challenge, this photos in this slideshow were easier to do as there's much more going on around Christmas, including Christmas fairs, which the top photo was taking during.

November 2015 Photos of the Day

November 2015 Photos

My Photo slideshow for my 365 day photo challenge from November 2015. This was one of the harder months for me, as my choices were getting less and the weather wasn't helping.

October's Photo of the Day

October Photos of the Day

My photo slideshow from October 2015 for my 365 day photo challenge, this was part of a bucket list challenge I did in 2015.

September Photos of the Day

September Photos of the Day

My Youtube slideshow of my 365 day photo challenge for September 2015