Summer : The Gallery

Today the summer officially ended when the kids went back to school. I have to say that I'm gutted. I've had a lovely summer. We've had some amazing adventures that have been interspersed with late nights and lazy days camped out in our awesome SoulPad den in the garden.

We've giggled, we've laughed and we've sung along to Sia, Iggy Azalea and Beyoncé till we've been banned from paying music with our men folk in the car.

We've cooked, we've camped, we've paddled in the sea, we've seen Johnny (fucking) Marr and we've spent late nights and damp tent moments with real friends. Real, honest friends.

The summer has been so epic that I couldn't cut it down to a single pic. There's simply been too many memories that needed acknowledging.

Top: Norfolk  Centre: The SoulPad  Bottom: Betty at Camp Bestival, Biba goes geek

Top: Johnny Marr at Camp Bestival  Centre: Camp Bestival, Betty and Me  Bottom: Camp Bestival, Biba

Top: Biba and Betty at Whitby Abbey  Centre: New hair, shy cats and a thinker on the beach  Bottom: The Deep and leaving Camp Bestival

I don't think I've ever been so sad that the summer is over. This year I am truly grateful that I am able to work from home whilst enjoying time with my family. 

Camp Bestival, was without a doubt a major highlight for the girls and for me. Biba had an amazing opportunity as an official teen blogger and totally rose to the occasion, snapping some truly awesome pics of Johnny Marr for me (I may have told her that I wasn't taking her home if she didn't). 

At the weekend our summer den is closing for the season as we'll be packing our beloved bell tent up for the winter..... Or maybe we can squeeze just one more weekend of fun in, what do you think?

For The Gallery - Summer

Tropic Lash Extension Kit Review

I have to admit that I'm quite set in my ways when it comes to skincare and cosmetic use. I always go back to the same products that I've used for years and never feeling the need to deviate even slightly from the brands that I've grown to love.

Then I was introduced to Tropic Skincare through a friend. I liked the look of the Tropic Lash Extension Kit and thought I'd give it a try.

Made from nourishing ingredients including Jojoba and Candelilla the kit creates an instant, natural looking, false lash, effect in three quick and easy steps.

You begin with a coat of the Fixing Gel, then a coat of the Extension Fibres, followed by a final coat of Fixing Gel.

I fell instantly in love with this product. It's so easy to use, giving you a salon extension look in as long as it takes to apply your regular mascara.

What do you think of the results (as modelled by Biba)?

Tropic Skincare Lash Extension Kit £25

I've also been testing some of the Tropic Skincare Range. I will be posting a review of those soon.

World Photo Day : The Gallery

Whitby Abbey

Perched on a cliff top overlooking Whitby, these gothic ruins are breathtakingly eerie and wonderful in equal measures. I've always loved taking photos here.

We spent a couple of hours, snapping the amazing ruins until out batteries died before heading down to the town for seaside fish and chips. We had a wonderful day full of fresh air and a stiff sea breeze.

On the way home we stopped off in the stunning Robin Hood Bay, just in time to join the nightly village ghost walk.

A perfect day.

For The Gallery.

KatchUp Review

Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying out a new private photo sharing platform called KatchUp. I have to say that I wasn't sure that I had the need for a new platform. I'd been happily plodding along, randomly sharing the photos that I wanted to share directly with my nearest and dearest via the usual email / dropbox route.

Then a couple of days ago I was looking for a pic of one of the kids. I knew in my mind exactly which photo I was looking for but faced with the 20,000+ uncatalogued images on my external hard-drive KatchUp suddenly revealed itself as an oasis in my historical, digital, photographic, mess. Here's why.

I'm an avid snapper but I used to be 100% reliant on my SLR, until the iPhone came along. A phone in my pocket made every aspect of my day a photo opportunity and with that came more photographs, a lot more.

I stopped printing and creating albums, which makes me sad because the kids LOVE to sit and look through old photographs. I was snapping more, building up this ever increasing snapshot of life but it was simply being hoarded away on my Mac, hidden like some secret past that no one would ever get to see.

I often thought about sitting down and sifting through the thousands of images I'd amassed (usually when I was looking for something particular) but the job before me was simply too vast and not thinking about it was preferable to trying to sort through the mess.

Then I was asked to trial KatchUp.

In principle, I think it's great. A perfect way to privately, share your day to day moments with your far flung family without flooding your social media channels. But I don't have far flung family. The people I want to share my memories with are under my roof.

Then, as I was uploading a set of images from a summer day out, I realised that KatchUp was the perfect way to simply catalogue my images and in a way that was just as accessible for the rest of my family as it was for me.

How KatchUp Works

A free account gives you an ample 1GB of storage which is more than enough to get you started. There's also a paid Premium account that I'll cover later.

The user interface is beautifully, uncluttered and easy to navigate making it a dream to use.

Once registered, you land on a clean, simple timeline that's ready for you pics and vids, or moments, as KatchUp calls them to be uploaded.

That's actually all the explanation that's needed!

Your 'moments' display as coloured dots on the dateline and you simply click to view all of the individual photographs within that moment.

I'm totally converted and I'll be spending the next couple of weeks populating the moments that have been important to me over the last couple of years.

The KatchUp Premium account gives you 10GB of storage for just £2.99 per month. I have a 50% discount code for my readers. Use the code KMUMTIPS0814 when registering (or in your account settings if you're already a member and would like to upgrade) and you will receive an email at the end of August inviting you to upgrade to Premium membership for £1.50. 

It's also worth checking out the #AugustKatchUp page because if you sign up during August you could win some great prizes including a family holiday to Portugal, a camera or and iPad mini.

www.katchup.com

*Disclosure

I have been given a free, 12 month, Premium KatchUp membership and payment for reviewing the service. The words and opinions stated here are my own.

Silent Sunday - August 10th 2014

For Silent Sunday