The Promise

This photograph of mine was purchased recently to be hung on a wall over in the Wine Country of SA.

wonderful to see it come to life again, and again, and again.

have a great weekend.
t

day tripper

My April 'shoot it, scrap it' challenge has gone live tonight over at Scrap Therapy.

life

A while back I was asked by Scrapbooking Memories to come up with a LO and a card based on a sketch. As Life was published a little while ago, I can now show it on my blog.

I loved this LO back then, and still do now. 

The card I'm not so thrilled with, but it was done, and when its done, I move on. I tend not to come back to it and refiddle. 

day tripper... sneak peek

I've been scrapping all week and its been awesome to get into it again. But I can't show any of them just yet.  ;O). They are all for Scrap Therapy's April Man of the Month, except for this one.

This one is for my 'April - Shoot it, Scrap it Challenge' which uses the Smart Phone photo tutorial I wrote for the Shutter Therapy's March Photography tute and challenge at Scrap Therapy.

The 'Shoot it, scrap it' goes live on Friday night, so I can only sneak peek this one too. I can't link it until Friday night either.

National Title winner

Kym's shooting at the Clay Target Nationals in Wagga Wagga at the moment. On Monday I received a photo on my phone.

Team SA won the Open Down the Line Shoulder to Shoulder National Comp. Meaning SA won against all the other states that competed. So Kym and 4 other shooters (male and female) won themselves a National Medal and are the reigning champs for a year. Gooooooo SA.

The doll is Bob. Annie gave her to Kym years ago to look after Kym when he goes away on his trips. Bob goes on holidays with us (here) and (here) and has become the SA team Mascot at the last Nationals Kym went to. (here)

So right now Kym is the King.

Miss Milly

Sometimes my mojo kicks in really late at night. I was all engrossed with this one at midnight Monday night. I started with an idea from the Color Room and the LO just pulled itself together from there. I love this one. It's my new fave. The pastels are just so sweet. (click on the pic to get a larger image to read the story). Its basically how Miss Milly Pilly Firth became Max the Guinea Pig. Its a bit of a giggle.

smile sneak peek

Been getting my scrap on for Scrap Therapy lately.

And by cripes it feels that good to get creative again. I can't reveal the LO just yet as its for next month's Man(ufacturer) of the Month. But I can show you just a little teaser!!

I think I'm a bit hooked on hexagons atm. I can see a few more LO's with a similar look coming up :O)

u2

So good to the tax parcel in the post on the way to the accountant. And to have very nearly finished the Great Ocean Road photos for the book compilation.

I've rewarded myself with a little bit of scrapping. While at Winter CHA 2012  I noticed lots of layering under the photos on a LO, something that Janice does extremely well, and as it's not something I normally do, I thought I'd give it a go. I think it needs additional papers peeping out from the photo in hindsight, but its done.

I also printed on thin Elastaplast like sports tape for the journalling. Its a bit hard to read on here. It says,

you two have such a wonderful friendship. it really shows. 30.8.2009

With the photography business growing, my scrapping time has somewhat diminished, and I'm now more than my stock standard two years behind from shooting to scrapping a photo. 

I think I need to have some heavy duty scrap sessions, nights, a week even to really get my teeth into my pile of pics. Roll on the Retreat I say!!

that unexptantly natural moment.... sneak peek

I've had a moment to scrap for Scrap Therapy. Next month's MAN(ufacturer) of the Month is......... lol... I can't tell you yet ;OP

But I can show you a sneak peek of the LO that I've just done for it. I am enjoying scrapping so much at the moment. I just need to get the 10/11 tax monkey off my back, and the shots for the Great Ocean Road sent off for a book compilation, and then I can scrap, scrap, scrap.

sigh..... until then, its only on the odd occasion when I intentionally ignore everything else.

Read Mob from the Air

I had the absolute privilege to be asked to shoot stills for the Cummins Read Mob from an aircraft today. The Read Mob was a State Wide event held today at 12pm to 'Freeze and Read' for 5 minutes. To make the Cummins different from the norm, I was to photograph the students and community members from above.

Having the door off was a bonus and something I've not experienced before. You can be damn sure the pilot and I fussed A LOT with my seatbelt to make sure I was locked down tight.

We made three passes overhead, each one progressively lower.  I've popped this shot on here to give you an idea of what it looked like from my point of view. Its also a far away shot of the students for the sake of privacy. The flower shape is the emblem of the 2012 Year of Reading.

As soon as I was down on the ground, I was in the Library working the shots to get them ready for the school newsletter, the library newsletter, the library big screen and the library facebook site. And I am so THRILLED with all the feedback I've heard and received.  That really makes all so very worthwhile when everyone is excited by it.

read mob

Peeps. Grab a book and a chair, or sit on the grass at the School Oval  at midday. The library are wanting everyone to sit in the shape of the little flower emblem above.

I'll be flying overhead in the plane with the door off, (double seat belted if I can) to shoot the images for the Cummins participation in this Statewide event.

So come one and all, lets do ourselves and our community proud!!!

try

Shabby Chick Shack had a scrap night last night and its ALWAYS a blast. Gina, Amy and Denise came up from Lincoln for it as well. Denise needed to be back home last night so she took her own wheels. Gina and Amy stayed at my home last night as I'm half way home for them and saves a long trip (1.5 hours) very late at night. After a small GPS failure they met me at my home, moved their gear into my Hilux, picked up our pizza on the way thru town and off we went.

Talk about laugh all the way. I don't recall that 45 minute trip being so short ever.

Of course I took a selfie pic of us with the phone whilst scrapping......

With 9 of us there at 'The Shack', and none of us being shy people lol, it was loud with laughter.

I pulled this one together, which I lifted from Wendy Sue Anderson on the  Scrapbook Trends Facebook Page, with my own take on it.

By the time we arrived back here at home it was late, and the girls were keen for a chit chat to the wee hours.

We all stayed in Annie's room like a little slumber party. I did end up moving back to my bed later on, as Annie's single bed made me feel like I was trapped (too small and the sheets too tight).

I woke up at 7.30 this morning and peeped in to find them fast asleep. Again at 8.30 and again at 9am. After their sleep in (which they hadn't planned on so they must have been tuckered out) they had to head back to Lincoln and to their families.

Really hoping the sleep over happens again, it was a lot of fun.

day tripper - sean- WCH

4 years ago Sean had a range of skin allergy tests done at the Pulmonary Clinic at the Women's and Children's Hospital. With his asthma being so severe so young, we needed to know his triggers to help manage the condition. Its taken 4 years since the referral letter to have his next set of allergy tests done for his ongoing management.

So there was no way we were going to be missing this appointment. Sean's had a week of unwellness leading up to this appointment, and thank goodness for his sake, he came good just in time. Poor little bloke has lost weight and looks so thin now. There's not a lot of padding on his frame in the first place so losing a kilo or two really shows.

He and I had to be at the airport by 8.30am to catch our flight across. All I need to check in for luggage was his car seat for travel in a car.

Unknown to him at all, Paige was meeting us at Adelaide Airport to be with us for the day. She offered to drive the 2 hours the night before from where she's living to spend time with us and to help us out as far as transport. All organised very last minute (sorry Paige) so she drove into the night and arrived Adel about 1am. Hence the need for his car seat.


As Sean and I travelled to Lincoln Airport the sky was building up with some awesome looking cloud formations

At the Airport I explained to him that we are going on the plane with the pink nose (Pink Ribbon) and I must have said it like it was his plane.  He wanted to keep it and take it home after. I had to laugh and say no, we don't have a shed big enough or gates wide enough for it. He was a bit sad about the idea of giving it back. Funny little fella.

All the way over his face was stuck to the window looking at the 'tiny' little world down there, looking for ships and whales.

Paige met us and surprised Sean no end. Lots and lots of big squeezy hugs all round. As the day was fairly warm and we had 4 hours until Sean's appointment, I ditched the idea of going to Harbour Town. That concrete place is a hell hole when its hot. So we headed to the Museum to enjoy the aircon and educate ourselves a bit. Paige hadn't been since she was little and Sean's was there when he was an itty bitty little babe.

Selfie outside the Museum

'Stepping in' to the Museum

The big Squid freaked Sean out a bit and he refused to have a photo of him with it, so Paige did. We were on the 3rd floor and this Squid runs the height of all three levels. This shot is at the very top of the head looking down all three stories. Paige was lying down on the Perspex floor so I could get this shot at this angle.

Sean had quite a fascination for the dig pit. Its a oversized sand pit with 'bones' buried waiting to be uncovered.

Of course we had to have a photo with the penguins. I didn't cut the head off the penguin in the original shot, but with the Polaroid framing, it clipped it a bit. :(

In the Marine section there is a big display case that has access for kids to go under it and lift their heads up into the perspex bubble to eye ball the Wobbegong

All in all we spent 2.5 hours there. The time did pass fairly quickly and I'm very thankful that Paige was with us as it was much for fun for Sean as well.

After a quick Macca's lunch and picking up a bag of things for Annie from my sister in law, we headed to the WCH.

With 19 skin pricks done and the histamine control prick showing the only reaction, his level of allergy triggers has decreased. Even the only one that showed up last time, Pine Tree Pollen, being negative this time. This has answered our questions of wheat, barely, oats, ryegrass crops that flower in October, but on the other hand, raises more questions of what is it that sets him off during this month.

All in all it shows he is a seasonal asthmatic rather than allergenic asthmatic. So this in itself is great. He was super fantastic whilst all this was being done. Not a flinch or a cry out, during the pricking of the skin. All he wanted to see was the numbers on his back so Paige and I took a couple of shots with our phones to distract him while the pricking was happening.

Paige was really keen to come in and observe the process. Being a Registered Nurse, she wanted to know the process so she could relate to future patients down the track. Of course we were so happy to have her there.

We gave him some time to run around the hospital playground to burn up some energy before heading back to the Airport. By this time the day had changed from filthy hot, to humid and overcast. Storms were looming and it was damp.

Paige left us at the airport so she could get some study time done (she's going for her Mid Wife degree) and Sean and I had two hours at the airport to fill in. The playground in there has moved out into the main walkway of the airport and is so clean and bright. Sean had a ball in there burning up more energy. He did let me take a photo of him waving goodbye for Paige to send to her.

 

Sean's never had time on the moving walkways before, and as we had plenty of time to play around. He flattened me after taking this shot.

I was nearby with the phone hooked up to a power point to recharge. If the eating places had power points everywhere, you could just imagine the numbers of their customers rising. Nearly everyone has a device that needs charging up at some point, and to sit down with a coffee, or something to eat, while its recharging would pay for the install costs so quickly. As it is now, people are sitting down on the floor near very occasional power point along the wall of the main terminal to recharge their gadgets. This is something I really noticed at most airports I've seen lately. The best solution I've seen so far, is a stand that has four faces to it with power points. (up to you to carry adapters etc) You plug in and hover near it so no one walks off with your gear. Not the best way to get it down with a bit of security I admit, but it does get it done.

The weather closed in and the airport was in shut down as far as flights go, while thunder and lightning raged overhead. Some incoming flights were diverted to Melbourne and all out going were grounded. As our flight was still some time away I didn't worry about it too much, weather conditions change so quickly

 

We met a local family coming home from their overseas trip so the boys all had a great time together. All good distractions for each other. We boarded our flight on time.

We did end late for our takeoff as our plane waited for a connecting flight that had been diverted during the storm. There were 4 passengers from that flight that should have been on our flight. I didn't really mind. I had no time pressure and Sean looked like he was going to fall asleep shortly anyway, which he did.

It was a bit of bumpy flight home, and by the time we landed it was 10pm. He slept through it all. Bless his little socks. It was a big day for him.

Tumby Views

I've had a really big confidence kick today.......!!!

Tumby Views is the new glossy tourism magazine that was launched at the EP Famers and Fishers Market in Tumby Bay.  I've had the absolute pleasure supplying images for this publication to showcase an area that is near and dear to my heart. Kym and I want to retire to Tumby one day, so to be asked to supply images for it was fantastic.

The cover shot is not my photography, but I wanted to add it for visual reference.

Page 4 in Tumby Views. Photographed January 2011

Page 5 in Tumby Views. Photographed January and June 2011

note the BW image is not mine.

Page 13 in Tumby Views. Photographed in January 2011

Page 16 in Tumby Views. Photographed in July 2011

Page 23 in Tumby Views. Photographed January 2011

My testimonial on Page 24 in Tumby Views. Photographs taken throught 2011.

 Page 43 in Tumby Views. Second image shot for Modra Apartment advertising. January 2011

The entire magazine can be read online here

To support the launch of the magazine is the www launch of www.tumby.com.au 

There are 14 of my images on the website.... see if you can find them all.

sports day 9.3.12

Sean had is first ever Sports Day today and it was great to see the junior primary kids be involved with the rest of the school for a combined Sports Day. I had to explain to both him and Annie, that seeing as Sean's group finishes about 11am I would focus the camera on him, and then turn to her afterwards. That seemed to work well and they both were happy with that.

I arrived at the oval after my fitness class this morning  (had a PT session instead seeing that I was the only one there lol), and the day was already warming up.

Sean's been away from school for 2.5 days this week and I did wonder how much practise for today he missed out on. Near the end of his session he spat the dummy and sat out for two events. I think he was just hot, bothered and not sure of what those event were about. I couldn't coax him back into it until the whole JP group did their dances. He loves to dance and he jumped right back in. Little bugger.

Annie really enjoyed her day and I loved seeing her participate and give everything a shot. The school really promotes participation as the focus, rather than winning, which is terrific for the not so competitive kids.

I've only posted just a few pics here, there's quite a few more in the Sport's Day album on my wall on Facebook.

Some of the shots will be in the local paper and in the School Magazine.  :O)

a day in the sunshine

At long, long, long last I have scrapped. And it felt GOOD!!!!! I've intentionally ignored the 2010/11 annual tax that needs to be complied for the accountant asap, I've turned away from the processing of photos for a night and waited till the kids went to bed before I got my 'scrap on'

Shamelessly lifted from Paige Evans LO 'Happy' in the latest Scrapbook Trends Mag