My family’s never been that big on photos, which is weird because I love them. Maybe it’s because they knew I wouldn’t want to be haunted forever by images like this:

You may think the fringe is horrendous, but that’s only because you can’t see the eyebrows.

I’m not sure how old I was in this picture, but at a guess I’d say somewhere between six and eight maybe?

It’s weird to think that only seven or eight years later I was designing websites and blogging. Blogging hadn’t even been invented when this picture was taken. That makes me feel old.

Day eight of the photo challenge and I’m still going strong! I’m impressing myself :p

Today’s photo is inside my wallet, aka my purse. I love my purse, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever used and it’s lasted me years so far.

Mostly it’s full of loyalty cards for supermarkets and beauty shops I like, plus Nando’s, my cinema cards, gym card, debit card, driving licence and National Insurance number. At the front on the left you can see my organ donor card. I hate the fact that it’s an opt-in system, but that’s another blog post. On the right you can see a little business card I got years ago from a cafe in Prague – I keep it there because it has a cute leaf design.

I hardly ever carry cash because it always seems to disappear so quickly. I do usually try to have some change for the bus though.

This is my shadow:

He’s called Halo and he follows me around a lot. Sometimes he lies diagonally across the whole of the bed, but mostly he sits on the very edge and leisurely knocks things off my bedside table. On purpose. Just because he can.

The camera flash is my eternal enemy

Halo loves cuddles more than anything else in the world. He always has to be sitting so that he’s touching me, and one of his favourite positions is the facefoot (his face, my foot). It’s kind of like the more relaxing version of headdesk. Sometimes he’ll wrap all four paws around my leg and cling to me like a monkey holding onto a branch.

He’s the laziest of our three cats; he’s the one asleep on my bed on sunny days trying to avoid the light and the heat whilst the others are out running around causing havoc (if you don’t think cats can cause havoc, try having a 16lb cat jump on your car from a six foot wall).

When Halo is at his clingiest, he will try and stop me getting up from the sofa by digging his claws into my jeans to stop me getting away. I forgive him though; he always comes to say hi when he’s been out before he thinks about getting food. Interestingly, Halo is the only one of the three with a complete tail, and he uses it to communicate with strong flicks to say hello. He’ll flick his tail a number of times depending on the number of humans and cats in the room. Who knew cats could count?!

I’m pretty sure the first rule of blogging is ‘don’t talk about what you had for lunch’. Unfortunately for us all, that’s today’s photo challenge.

Fortunately, it happened to fall on Good Friday, also known as a day off for most people So I was at home rather than at work snacking, which has the double advantage of me looking healthy and not weird for taking photos of my lunch (I still feel a bit weird about it though).

Lunch in progress: crisps, sandwich, nuts and strawberries

A novelty for our fridge: an in-date tomato

Cheese and tomato sammich. Mission accomplished.

I’d probably never blog about lunch unless something exciting happened or there were some famous people there, much less take photos, so this is a bit of a novelty post really. Maybe one day I’ll have a princess tea party or lunch with royalty, but don’t hold your breath.

So, what did you have for lunch?

The photo challenge for today is one I’ve been looking forward to a lot: someone who makes you happy.

The person that immediately comes to mind is Joe. We’ve been through a hell of a lot together over the past four and a half years. Two degrees, several jobs, one broken leg, and various weddings and deaths later, we’re stronger than ever. We have to be, especially this year.

We aren’t perfect, but I admire him for a lot of things, particularly his never-ending optimism and his unfaltering sense of direction (without which I would definitely still be lost somewhere).

Today’s photo theme is mail (or post as we call it in the UK).

Google mail is my favourite kind, because it almost always contains a nice shiny cheque. My other kind of favourite post is the stuff I order online, mostly from Amazon, occasionally from Etsy and eBay. I try to forget what I’ve ordered so it comes as more of a surprise when I open it. Recently I’ve been ordering kitchen stuff and household goods…and of course my new camera.

The mail I hate the most is junk mail, especially when the person delivering is clearly bored and we get 10 copies of the same damn thing. I also dislike bills, things I have to remember to put back out (catalogues and such) and boring mail like stuff from the council. But, on the whole, I love mail.

I swear my new camera, iPhoto and Flickr are the perfect combination for photo blogging. I feel like a much better blogger now I have my camera, and uploading photos is so much quicker than it used to be.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to try and do a photo challenge for April. It’s not got off to the best start since I’ve already missed a day (I only found out about it today).

Day 1 – Your Reflection

Note to self – must remember to clean mirror.

Huge bags under my eyes from stress and lack of sleep – but I’m still smiling (just). In other news, I suck at taking reflection photos. I took about twenty and this is the best of the blurry bunch. I’m many things but vain is not one of them, so I haven’t had all the MySpace pose practice typically associated with my generation.

Day 2 – Colour

Oooh, shiny

If you ever want to get on my good side, get me something pretty. I adore pretty things, especially for my house. This is a coaster from a set I bought last weekend. They’re beautifully bright glass mosaics, and like the material girl I am, they cheer me up when I look at them.