New Beginnings

by Kevin Bould

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year. Happy New Home. Happy New Engagement. 

Happy.  

The challenge this week was "Beginnings": With so many exciting things happening this was a bit of a gift of a challenge. Whilst pondering options, we received a number of lovely engagement cards, to add to all of the wonderful Christmas & New Home cards. A small selection of these form the basis of the composition below, together with a lovely New Home calendar - a Christmas gift from Dad. 

I know there are technical issues with the photo, but I'm happy with my first challenge effort. Feel free to provide feedback, good or bad.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/category/photo-challenges/

First writing challenge

A little later than promised (had not realised the timings on the challenge were all America EST), here is the link to the first weekly writing challenge.  http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/weekly-writing-challenge-cliffhanger/

I think that the photo one may prove to be easier... Hope to publish that later today!

Writing Challenge 1. 

Weekly Writing Challenge: Cliffhanger!

by michelle w. on January 6, 2014

We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your writing boundaries and explore new ideas, subjects, and styles.
To participate, tag your post with DPchallenge and include a link to this post to generate a pingback — and make sure your post has been specifically published in response to this challenge. We might just highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed on Fridays, or in our monthly newsletter.
Welcome to the first Daily Post writing challenge of 2014! You might be expecting a New Years’-themed challenge like your blogging resolutions, or a 2013 retrospective — but we read your blogs, and we know lots of you have already written those. Let’s kick off 2014 in a different way: with a cliffhanger.

Sylvester Stallone starred in the excellent dramatic film “Cliffhanger,” and is also looking forward to your entries this week. (Photo by Towpilot, CC BY-SA-3.0.)

For this week’s challenge, write a post that will leave readers waiting for more. Breathless with anticipation. On the edges of the seats. Obsessively clicking “refresh,” waiting impatiently for the end of the story. We want to hear audible groans when readers reach the end of your post and see “To be continued…”
You’ll need to think through the story you want to tell, and then figure out where to split it in half for greatest dramatic effect.
Does this mean we’re asking you to write fiction? Not at all — any kind of post can get the season finale treatment:

• Tell a personal story, but withhold the unexpected ending.
• Write a forceful opinion piece, but don’t reveal your point of view.
• Share a photo essay, but hold back the final, perfect image that ties the rest together.
• Get our mouths watering with a description of your favorite dish, but make us wait for the recipe.
• Show us the steps in your last DIY project, but wait on sharing how it turned out.

Blogging is about sharing our stories, and a good story keeps readers hooked. This week, figure out how to turn your story into a nail-biter.
Publish the two posts whenever you’d like; on the same day, a day apart, or a week apart, depending on how tense you want to leave your readers.  Zero to Hero folks, you’re welcome to get in on the action! Bonus points also available for anyone else who manages to work Sylvester Stallone into their post.
Ready to up the tension? Write!

First Photo Challenge

As promised, here is the first weekly challenge. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/photo-challenge-beginning/


"Beginning. Hello, 2014. And hello and happy new year to our readers, old and new. This week’s theme might be obvious, but I couldn’t help it — it’s a simple and common word, yet can evoke very powerful, emotional images."

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with....

See you later in the week with my photo. Feel free to add your own if you wish, I'd love some inspiration!

Cheers

Kev

It's not the critic who counts

Just thought I'd explain why this title. It's quite simple really; it's just my favourite quote. 

Here it is in full: It's not the critic who counts

“It's not the critic who counts. It's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled. Credit belongs to the man who really was in the arena, his face marred by dust, sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs to come short and short again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. It is the man who actually strives to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasm and knows the great devotion, who spends himself on a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement. And, who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and cruel souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Welcome to my blog

2013 was a bit of an epic. For Jade and I it had just about everything at every end of every scale. It truly was one to remember. We loved, we lost, we laughed, we cried, we travelled (not far, just one circumference of the globe), we brought a new house (where we hosted our first Christmas), we met new friends, we rekindled old friendships and we got neighbours (you know the type you can actually have a chat with and who will take in your parcels when you are not around). We partied at a diamond wedding and we got engaged ourselves. 2014 promises to be even more memorable. If all goes to plan, we will get married, which is pretty phenomenal.  Jade’s currently looking at venues.  

So that’s all great, but why am I starting a blog. In part it’s because I’d like more  tangible evidence of the memories that will be made. To that end, there will be ‘life posts' a bit like this one. Mainly it’s because one of my resolutions is to write more and to take more photographs. I could ‘just do it’ but I’m not great at that, so I thought a blog would give me structure. I’m going to be using the daily post to guide me. I plan to do both the photo and writing challenges. If you notice me missing any, please shout. That’s assuming anyone is reading this. I hope there is, but that’s not really the point. I’m doing this for me and if you’re reading and enjoy what’s here then great.  Feel free to comment. I won’t be hurt if you don’t like a photo or an article and would love feedback and suggestions on how to improve them. 

If you are reading this first post, then I’m going to assume you know me, so won’t write an “about me”, but I will post my resolutions:

• Be more awesome
• Be the best fiancé I can to the wonderful Jade
• Be a good uncle to baby Lily
• Write more
• Read more
• Take more photos
• Get my ankle fixed
• Shed some weight
• Play more Rugby
• Keep blogging!

I get the first photo challenge on Friday (3^rd), and will aim to have the photo published by the next Sunday (12^th).  I get the writing challenge on the Monday (6^th) and will publish that on the 13^th. Until then, Happy New Year and KEEP DANCING!!!