12 of 12 (v5.0) - November

Man alive, am I actually posting this late! January 11th, in a whole new YEAR. Sorry about the delay folks, I needed to get a new PS Elements for watermarking photos (and sometimes editing and resizing), and that required Snow Leopard... long story short, I'm back!

In the meantime, I discovered the Hipstamatic iPhone app, which is awesome - funky colour-tinted photos, vintage looking, bold colours... wild! That will be my 12 of 12 for January.

Anyway, back to Novermber ;-)

No timestamps, as I'm not getting my camera out just for that. I was visiting two friends from Uni, and their two little boys for a few days, as Gem was running a 10K that weekend (her first, which she rocked).

1) Leeds city centre

Went into Leeds with Gem and the boys, as we were dropping Jon off at his workplace (he had his Christmas do that night, so couldn't drive home after, obviously). We needed to visit Bravissimo so headed into one of the old-style arcades in Leeds city centre after dropping Jon off. I liked the look of the quietish arcade and architecture.

2) Leeds City Centre

And the Christmas decorations!

3) Leeds City Centre

Close up number 1 of one of the balls making the Christmas tree above.

4) Leeds City Centre

And close up number 2 of of of the balls making the Christmas tree. Looks like that watercolour effect you can get in some photo editing programmes :-)

5) Starbucks, Leeds City Centre

Will playing at taking photos of me (that's what his hands are doing - improvising a camera). When I took some photos of his brother Jake, Will suddenly stopped being shy, and charmingly kept ducking into the photo, hee.

6) Bravissimo, Leeds City Centre

The shop hadn't been open when we first tried, so we'd ducked into Starbucks for a drink. When we came back, Gem did her shopping and fitting, while Will and I amused ourselves in the main bit of the shop. Lots of fun wandering round an underwear shop with a 3 year old boy, asking him what colour Mummy likes (hey, it kept him busy, OK?). I have a lovely (though slightly blurred) photo of Will holding up a sheer black thong, so you can just see his face through the fabric. Gem - I will send you a copy of it :D

7) Leeds Museum, Leeds City Centre

Drawings of two dinosaurs I liked in the museum (read what they are saying). Hee. Rawr.

8) Leeds Museum, Leeds City Centre

Jake wandering over one of the exhibitions about the local area - a large map. Giant Jake!

9) Leeds Christmas Market, Millennium Square, Leeds City Centre

I got some nutcracker decorations from this stall - very nice!

10) Leeds Christmas Market, Millennium Square, Leeds City Centre

Merry-go-round at the Christmas Market.

11) Somewhere on the drive back to Barnsley

Leftover McDonald's cardboard cutout (not from November 12th), propped up in Gem's car on the way home.

12) Barnsley

Leftover cupcakes Gem had bakes (and the boys had decorated) when we got back.

Bonus - Barnsley

Yummy squash and lentil curry Gem made with a Slimming World recipe. I really must try making this myself.

Thanks to Chad for coming up with the 12 of 12 idea, and you can read (though you surely have already) all the other participants' entries here.

Thanks for reading and waiting!