HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wow that was a break longer than expected!!!

I had all intentions of coming back last week, but with daddy still at home ( goes back to work tomorrow) we kinda chilled out and just didnt do a whole heap so I figured I would enjoy the time while it lasted :)

How was all your christmas/new years?? Did you miss me??

I spent Christmas with my family this year for the first time in a long time. My folks are finally retired from the Middle East so it was great to spend Christmas with them.

Some of us were still coping with being lethargic after being sick ( I caught something at the last moment, of course) but we still had a ball. My kids were totally awestruck by the Christmas windows in the city and the HUGE christmas tree and at one point Jumeirah even said " I wished we still lived here!" but away from the pretty lights and hustle and bustle, we spent this afternoon at the beach ( which took us less than 10 minutes to get to) and I realised that this is a perfect corner of the world for us right now :)

We did get to go to one park though, that I loved for many reasons, but the biggest one was it was a huge flash back to about 6 1/2 years ago... this is a photo of Jumeirah and I, in a tree at Fagan park, Dural. It was before I got myself together and became the mum I am today.



I was a new mum, one who thought it would be a piece of cake, but found it so very different to what I imagined. I wish I could go back and hug that self and let her know it would all be ok :) 

This is that mum ( and now much bigger girl!) now :)




Still a mum learning, but one who loves this job more than anything Ive ever done.

The thing that this photo also makes me realise another sad truth.... I still hide behind my kids in photos. THIS year ( yes I have started every year for the last 10 years like this) I am getting rid of the excess baggage... from the mind and from the body.

Its a big year for our little family... new jobs, a new baby in the family ( I cant even tell you how excited I am to be an Aunty again!! Hopefully soon...) and new prospects for me too :)
I still will be at home with two cherubs for most of the week, Jared will start preschool this week for two days so its just me and the monkey for those two days, so I still aim to enlighten you with cool crafts and things. Maybe not everyday, but you'll cope with that :)

Id love to see your blogs too, if you have one!

Christmas :)

So we are on Day 3 of crappy sickness... Jared has watched more tv than I have in years but hes too lathargic to do anything else... So today I sat with him, watching movies and snuggling :)

Unfortunately its made for a very non event for christmas craft. So today, Im signing off for awhile. Ill be back late next week with hopefully all well children!

WE took a trip last night to Sarahs Creek to see the lights on two houses... they are just amazing!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, full of lovely moments and happy memories :)

See you soon!!

try a little kindness

I now have a housefull of ill children... croup, whooping cough ( almost back to normal thankfully) and two vomitrons does not a happy household make.... what a day!!
Over the weekend I travelled down to Sydney to be the photographer at a wedding :) It was a beautiful day.. and aside for the stupid amount of pressure I put on myself, it was loads of fun :)
I got to road test the most amazing piece of photography equipment whilst I was there... probably one of the most important pieces you'll ever own if you shoot for fun or for a living.
This :)

From the outside this looks like an ordinary ( well its more fabulous that ordinary) bag but its the most amazing camera bag you'll ever find, seriously!

I fitted three lenses, my full camera with the 24-70mm lens on it, an external flash, my ipad, phone and bits and pieces and it still looked like a normal bag. Its got lots of storage and zippered sections, padded all around plus two different length straps. PLUS ITS REALLY COMFORTABLE TO WEAR! I wore mine for just over 10 hours and it still wasnt killing me... such an awesome bag :)

I got mine from Camera Chick ( stockist for Australia) from Natalie who couldnt have been more helpful in our transaction :)

LOVE IT :)

If you want to see the wedding shots, head over to Karina Baker Photography and check them out! Like me while you are there and Id love to know what you think of them! ;)

On the way home yesterday, travelling for 6 hours on a train ( ugh) I had one of those lightbulb moments.

When I got on the train, exhausted after shooting all day the day before and not alot of sleep, I got to my chair to find two young boys mucking around in it. They moved to sit behind me and proceeded to start kicking the back of the chair in their rumbles.

Instantly I was annoyed and thought all sorts of mean things about young boys and (ashamedly) about the race of which the boys were. ( Im not saying what this is, it doesnt matter. In Australia though, its a race that is often thought bad of).

They continued to annoy the crap out of me and my chair and I realised they were going to be on the train for the same length of time as me. I couldnt see that they had anything to do, and their dad had already fallen asleep and was oblivious to the racket they were making and so I busied myself by watching a movie on my iPad and ignoring the boys.

Awhile later, I noticed that they had calmed down. I had a snack, I hadnt seen them with anything. I did a crossword puzzle, played angry birds, watched a movie. They walked up and down the aisles, and then sat and watched out the window.

A strange feeling washed over me as I peeked at one of them between the cracks in the chairs. Two of them had no fallen asleep, bored enough to let it take over. Dad was still asleep ( he slept for just over 5 hours) and there was one still awake, sitting there, doing nothing. I looked down at all the things I had for myself... sewing, a book, an ipad, and and iphone. I argued with myself to go and talk to him. For about 10 minutes Im afraid to say.

Until that voice inside continued to tell me that on my iPad was a kids movie. Give it to him to watch. DO IT. NOW.

I got up and went over to him, ( careful to to tread on the sleeping brothers on the floor) and asked him if he'd like to watch a movie. He looked nervously at his sleeping dad, I assured him it was ok, that dad would be fine with it. He took it from me, and looked up and said " Thankyou so much" and then settled down to watch a movie.

I sat down, shocked that I had been so quick to judge not only a race, but also a young kid with nothing to do. I smiled as I heard him quietly giggling at the movie being played. And as it finished, he asked him if he could show it to his brothers, and all three of them watched it again.

I was humbled, to be shown a simple yet incredibly powerful lesson on showing kindness. To be shown how wrong it is to judge without first seeing the whole picture.

I hope that lessons like this continue to come my way :)

bokeh

Last year I discovered a love of Bokeh. I researched how to do it, and off I went in search of pretty Christmas lights :)

For hours I sat and tried to capture this beautiful effect with very little success. Throughout the year though, I have practised and learned this cool art and finally, with Christmas upon us, I have mastered the art of BOKEH.


Ok, so maybe you dont think its cool?? Well wait :) Cos now Im off on a christmas tree light hunt!

At the moment, my littlest angel is incredibly sick and so today swung from the tv, to curling up with her, to a movie, to a snooze.... much to Jumeirahs dismay it was fairly craft free.

Tomorrow I am off to Sydney to shoot a wedding ( I know, the butterflies are only just at bay but Im SO excited) so I wont be here until next week.... hopefully Ill have lots of Bokeh to show you ;) Oh, and some cool christmas craft :)

butterfly

Last weekend we had a family adventure to Coffs Harbour. It rained most of the way up but the kids are really good travellers so it was all ok.

Once we got to our adventure destination ( the Butterfly House) they all were so excited... until we actually got into the enclosure....

30 seconds later I had Jared screaming and Amahli crying to go home as apparently butterflies are SCARY!! Not really but they do fly close to you and that was enough for them. Jumeirah was completely in her element and never wanted to leave. And me with my gorgeous camera?? Had a lovely time, in between the lens fogging up in the heat ;)

But we ended up having a great time, Jared and Amahli calmed down enough for us all the walk the whole way through and then they took off to the maze and I quietly turned around and walked back through... I took a whole stack of photos but this one is my favourite :)

Linking it up to Mom Tried Its linky!!

Ive also entered a competition to win a cool tamron lens ( I entered the wrong photo but I love the one I entered anyway ;) ) All I need is for you to click the link and click like and VOTE!! Please, go do it, Id do it for you ;)

Shoot to Thrill COMPETITION go click it. now :) thanks!

christmas cupcake art

We have had some crazy weather lately... wet and cold, then hot, then full blown storms... we got stuck with one late last week and so I needed an indoor activity to amuse two littles.

The request was for cooking so we somehow found all the things to make cupcakes :)

Amahli was more than excited to help with pouring and even cracking the egg was fun this morning :)

Jared was keen to help but his role was more about making sure the oven was on, finding patty pans, fixing the timer. It was great to see them working together to get a job done.

Once the cupcakes were cooked, we let them cool and I had a great idea for decorating them. I iced them with white icing ( icing sugar and milk, I made it really thick) and let them go solid in the fridge for half and hour.

Once hardened, I gave them some food colouring and cotton buds so they could paint on the top! The idea was that they were going to paint Christmassy things but they were just more keen to paint :)

I left some for Jumeirah to do once she got home from school. She really enjoyed decorating them... but all three enjoyed eating them more.

Well, at least the icing anyways ;)

A new little friend/salt jars

I spent way too long try to work out what to get Jumeirah this birthday... and everything from boogie board LCD tablets ( way cool especially for a techno savvy kid like mine) to theatre tickets, I just couldnt settle on one thing.
Then at music the week before her birthday, she rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of a tree. With such tenderness and concern she tried to help this tiny creature, until its mother came and helped it too.

She was pretty dissapointed when I told her we didnt need to take it home now that its mother was looking after it. I had a brewing thought that a pet bird would be a perfect gift for this little animal whisperer of mine :)
Daddy took a little bit of convincing but finally came around. After a very rude encounter with a pet shop (its a story for another time) I found myself out the back of nowhere looking for an aviary.

What finally happened was we introduced this beautiful boy into our fold :)

His name is Thomas and Jumeirah is absolutely besotted with him, teaching him to talk, eat from her hand, and he spends most of his days perched on either hers or my shoulder.
Hes really very sweet!

So we had her party on the weekend which was incredibly stress free and easy. 8 little friends, an easy beach location, simple party food ( outdoors and not at home means no hot food!), 8 water pistols and a blow up boat made for fantastic fun for such a lovely group of girls.
I had a few backup plans incase of rain but we were incredibly blessed with a brilliant afternoon.

After a swim and food, they asked if I had a cool craft to do ( some of them know me well) and of course I did!

I set them up with a jar each, a piece of carboard, chalk and salt. I showed them how to tint the salt with the chalk by rubbing it. The more you rub it, the darker the colour becomes. Its really very cool :)

For each section of chalk they coloured, we then poured it into their jars. They then repeated the process with another colour and another lump of salt.
Its takes a little while to do which was perfect for me. But they could see how awesome the colours looked layered up in the jar that it kept them working on it till it was done.

Currently Im still trying to find a way to seal the jars so the salt doesnt come out when "encouraged"... think a trip to the hardware shop might be in order tomorrow :)