The Year of Living Gorgeously

June Photo Competition - Results

*Blushes*.  Oh well, only a few weeks late.

This month's judge was Kenzie Kate from incredibly gorgeous wedding blog 'Something Old, Something New' which makes me wish I wasn't already married.

Here's what Mackenzie had to say.

June here in New York is always a mixture of joy and doom. Joy from eating outside and unhurried walks out-o-doors and the return of leafy shade on the city streets. Doom from the impeding oppressive heat of July and it's subsequent air conditioning bills. So many of these images really capture the joy of June for me. Having never judged a photo contest before, (and feeling a little drunk off the power of it all), I'm having a surprisingly hard time choosing between all the glorious springtime shots! I hardly ever have a hard time choosing anything, so this says a lot about all the contributing photographers.

In my opinion the most joyous, June-ish image in the bunch was the purple water-lily drinking in the sun by trykemom. (trykemom, can you email us an image?  We'd love to be able to include it here).

 I want to BE the little purple flower. All bathed in sun, sitting by a sparkling stream. The lily actually looks comfortable to me, both warmed and cooled by mother nature. A perfect match for the season.

Having said that, an honorable mention would have to be awarded to the shady cabin view from Aunt Owwee. The technicolor glory of this little paradise really captures the feeling of vacation, (one of my favorite June activities). Everything has the well watered look of early summer, all dried off from the deluge of spring, warming in the sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

Another honorable mention is deserved by cally creates for her June in Scotland image.. I'd love to see that little wildflower enlarged to about 4' x 5', hung a lofty space with lots of light and air. (Again, Cally, we'd love to include the image here, if you can email it).

And lastly, but not leastly, a hearty bravo to everyone who contributed. Even though you all made it really hard for me to decide, I had a great time doing it.

Congratulations to all.  The theme for this month's competition is astonishingly 'July'.  We'll be setting up the competition next week, but in the meantime get snapping your shots of drinking martinis on yachts, setting fire to things on barbecues, lying about in hammocks etc. etc.

A Reminder and a Request

First of all I'd like to remind you about this month's photo competition, which closes on the 30th.  Lots of beautiful June colour up there now - give yourselves a treat and have a peek.

June in the San Juans, Pacific Northwest

For those of you having trouble entering (Maryam, I'm looking at you), you need to first click on the group and then hit 'Join this Group' (bottom right of the page).  When the group is duly joined go the photo you want to enter and hit the  'Send to Group' button above it.  The 'Year of Living Gorgeously - June' should now appear on your list of eligible groups.

My request is as follows.  Readers of my other blog will know that we've somehow fallen into hosting a Fourth of July party here in Seattle (the irony of Brits holding a party for the Fourth of July is not lost on us, but it transpires that we should have a great view of the fireworks from our roofdeck).

However, we have absolutely NO IDEA what goes into making a successful Fourth of July extravaganza. (My chiropractor suggests hotdogs, jello and Bud Light which all sounds faintly revolting).  Please let me have any ideas which have worked well for you or point me in the direction of any online recipes or decorative ideas I can steal. 

All the best ideas will also be featured next month on Gorgeously, with very grateful thanks.

Last Call for May Photos

Some gorgeous, gorgeous photos have been entered this month (even if you're not thinking of entering give yourselves a treat by checking them out).

However if you have got a great photo which sums up 'May' to you then you've only got about 24 hours to enter it and win a fabulous prize.

Good luck!

It's fascinating seeing how the colours in the photo groups have changed from the soft greys and muted tones of January to May's vivid rainbow.

May Photo Competition

It's here and not a moment too soon...

Same rules as usual.  Post up the photos which in your opinion most capture the essence of 'May' in this month's Flickr group and put yourselves in line for a superb prize. 

Washing up will never be a chore again with this beautiful 'Bottle and Watermelon' Teatowel from Atelier LZC, which celebrates all the birds and fruits and flowers and WINE of eating outside.

Not only do we have a a fabbalicious prize but we also have a fabbalicious judge.  MidCenturyJo - Eurovision fan and design guru from Desire to Inspire is the person you have to impress this month.  You've got until midnight on May 30th to enter and you can enter as many photos as you want.

Bonne chance!

Cinco de Mayo

It means beans to us in the UK, but it transpires that here in the US it is a very big deal indeed as a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage.

We took the Minx to the Cinco de Mayo de Mayo celebrations at Dolores Park in San Francisco and had lots of fun eating Mexican food and watching Apaches dancing, though we had to leave to give the Minx her nap just as the mariachi competition was starting.

Elsewhere for the 5th May, Flickr held its 24 Hours of Flickr event, inviting people to post up images taken on the 5th May from around the world.  You've got until 21st May to post up your images if you want to join in.

Look in the pool and you might find my photo of where we went after the Minx's nap.

April Photo Competition - The Winner!

This month's guest judge was the absolutely fabulous darling Di Overton from Designers' Block, who again had a difficult task - though we could have done with more entries. You've got no excuse for next month's competition, which will of course have 'May' as its theme. Details of the Flickr group, the scary guest judge and the incredible prize are to follow.

Check out April's Flickr group to see which one you would have chosen. Now over to Di....

Being given the honour of judging the April Photo Competition has by no means been easy. Spring is the best time of year when everything is new and fresh and the photographs this month show this in abundance.

I envy people who can take a great photo. I go to Paris often and every time I try to photograph a fabulous shop window I just get an image of me photographing a fabulous shop window.

I get a lot of my inspiration from nature and its fabulous colours though to be honest I was inspired by a scarf I bought in December to use greens and bright pinks together. I digress, back to the competition

 

I have chosen this fabulous image by Cortney Rae called Trout Stream. Each time I visited the photo pool this image just jumped out at me and when something jumps out at me I either pee my pants in fright or I hold the image in my mind. This image says ‘I’m Spring and I’m Here’ it looks as though it’s coming over the hill on a mission to dress that naked tree.

I have chosen two highly commended photos, the first from Aunt Owwee who has captured those jonquils beautifully one fully bloomed and that little bud behind it just waiting patiently.

 

The second is by our host Paola. I never thought rust could be that beautiful.

Oh and by the way if you are reading this Maryam (previous judge) my memoirs would have to be taken from the book store in a plain wrapper.

Congratulations to Cortney Rae!

Photo Competition - Reminder

Richard Serra's 'Wake' in the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle

There is NO excuse!

Spring is springing everywhere. The sun is shining, the birds are tweeting and everything is tra-la-la-ing.

So get out there with your camera, take a photo which sums up 'April' to you and post the fruits of your labours up in this month's photo pool. You've got until midnight on the 29th April to amaze guest judge Di over at Designer's Block with your brilliance and win yourself a quite astonishing prize.

Earth Day

 

This picture of the sun setting over Europe made the rounds of the Internet some time ago, but I thought it was well worth posting up again to celebrate Earth Day.

Every time I see this photo I'm amazed by how beautiful the Earth is, and horrified by how much electricity we appear to be using.

Photo Competition - April

So what does April mean to you?  April flowers? April showers? Spring cleaning? DIY? Easter eggs? Sunny breakfasts?  The first BBQ of the year?  Or are you now heading into autumn?

To my daughter, April means getting as wet as humanly possible

Capture the essence of April with your camera, post the results up to our Flickr group and put yourself in line to win a fabulous prize.  In honour of Spring, one lucky winner will win one hanging steel turquoise butterfly and one raspberry flower by Atelier LZC.

The person you have to impress this month is the fabulous Di over at Designers' Block. 

She has very kindly agreed to be our guest judge, despite the fact that, as well as running what is probably the UK's most popular design blog, she is also going to be launching her own range of 'Ghost Furniture' later on in April.

You have until midnight GMT on 29th April to post up your picture. Good luck to all!

March Photo Competition - Results

Here's the winner! Isn't it gorgeous? Many congratulations to Aunt Owwee - please send us your address via email so we can send you your magnificent prize.

Here's what guest judge Abigail had to say.

To me, this photo represents so much duality, which is perfectly how I feel just now - is it still winter, or almost spring?....even the goose looks confused ;) The lovely grey brown tones of the shot coming from the water and the branches, along with the snow goose's feathers are very evocative of this time of year...when the soil begins to regain some colour as the sun warms it, ready for new growth and spring beauty...but you may well have a surprise with a sudden flurry of pure white snow!! The shimmer on the water is lovely and I always adore the grandeur and majesty of geese......they are glorious birds!!

We also have two Highly Commendeds

by Leela B...which Abigail said made her 'long for summer with all its hot juicy tones'

 

 

 

 

 

by er, me. 'who ' according to Abigail 'has captured beautifully the paper thin fragility of early spring sakura [blossom]'

 

 

 

 

Abigail continues, 'Thanks so much to all the people who took part this month.....and many thanks especially to Paola and Helen for inviting me to guest judge, it was my absolute pleasure!!

Happy Spring everyone!! xx'

By the way Paola and Helen have been enjoying the Spring weather far too much this weekend to indulge in much blogging. The start of April is therefore somewhat delayed...