KI

I am so frigging excited.

Its all confirmed and I've booked the flights.

I'm heading over to Kangaroo Island for 7 days towards the end of this month on a photographic tour with Pete Dobre. At this stage there is 4 of us that he's tutoring on landscape photography and on anything else that pops up. The very nature of photography is to expect the unexpected so who knows what else we'll get up too.

We'll be up pre dawn to post sunset capturing the essence of KI. And spending a bit of time at Remarkable Rocks at different times of day on different days. (the light is ALWAYS changing, so the mood of the landscape changes.)

A friend and shutter sister, Ann, from Port Lincoln is coming on the same trip and she's the one who planted the seed of an idea in my mind (and I thank her deeply)

I had plans of heading up to Babinda, just south of Cairns in June/July to meet a wonderful online friend and owner of Scrap Therapy. After Cyclone Yasi swept through with such devastation, I was left unsure of what I should do. Thank you Lee-anne for your blessings on my trip to KI. You are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!



These last few days have left me sad and mortal. Grandma ma ma marmalade (my kids' personal nickname for their Great Grandmother) passed away and we travelled over to her funeral. Annie found it very difficult and whenever she saw me in tears she would just crumble. It broke my heart. In her words "I just cant stand it!!" And she bloody well meant every word. She was very aware of what was going on and I had a yarn to her before hand to give her an idea of what to expect. But the strength of her distress really got to me. We had lots of cuddles, a big box of tissues and just time to give her the chance to express herself to get those feelings into words and get them out.

Sean's aware of dying is a part of living and that one day we all will die. I just hope I can have the dignity that Grandma had.

annie

I've just finished processing this shot of Annie from 2 years ago. Hasn't changed much has she!!

grandma ma ma marmalade

One for Sean's album. Grandma's funeral is on Tuesday this week. I am so very glad that the kids have a bunch of photos to help jog their memories of her.  The journaling is in present tense as the photos are from 2 years ago and up until now her biscuits were the best. (hope that made sense)

Had a bit of a girl's night last night. When the shooting husbands are away, the girls will play!!! Felt a bit ruggered this morning, but nothing that panadol didn't fix    ;op

We got stuck into 'cowboys' and played heaps of CD's. ahh the memories those tunes conjured up.

annie's sports day - pictorial report

Annie had a great Sports Day. This is the first year of being in the Flinders House (yellow). Some of the jumping events were done prior to sports day at the town oval as there's no pit of sand for the landing. Annie did really well with long jump and was recognised for her effort  :O)

 200 metre sprint. coming around the sweeping bend.

Her favourite event was the shot-put. Each throw was better than the last. 3 throws and the furtherest was counted. I don't know her final distance. bummer.

relay race. going round the cone.

So very proud of Annie. She put in 100% effort. It's all about participation and giving it your best shot. Winning is a bonus, but not the main goal. Having fun is!!

Flinders were the third out of 3, and the Primary Sports Day totals are added to the Secondary Sports Day (held on the following day) for the final tally. So I'm not sure what the final result is.

little Miss S (so sweet)

Oh Miss S. You do have the perfect pout when you're asleep. 

Congratulations to Miss S's parents. She is adorable!!!!!


(more over at Tiff Firth Photography)

tooth fairy tricker

This was an emotionally difficult LO as my Grandmother (the kids' Great Grandmother) who we called Grandma ma ma ma Marmalade passed away only a few days ago.

I knew this one was coming up in my 'works in progress' album so coming across wasn't a great shock.

From watching the kids' reactions they are really pleased to have a photo of her with them in it. Me too!!!

We'll be putting her to rest next week.

oh dunny boy

this LO has been sitting on my scrap desk slowly getting done between photo shoots and the processing of those photo shoots.

Finally got it all done at Scrapworkz in Lincoln last night (hi Girls!!)

Hey Janice. Recognise any of your pre Christmas challenge pieces??

go flinders

annie's sports day outfit supporting FLINDERS

braces - one month

a month ago Annie had braces put on her top teeth.

this was then.

this is now.

already there is a huge difference. Particularly with her eye teeth coming down even further and the gap at the front has narrowed a bit.

I am so very glad that we decided to do a photo every Monday to catch the progress of the moving of her teeth. And she can see a lot of difference in these shots too, so it makes it worth while for her too.

We will miss her appointment for her first adjustment as we will be away for her Great Grandmother's funeral.

  Annie has not really had any discomfort at all this last month and only one tiny little ulcer that bees wax helped solve.She's really on the ball as far as brushing her teeth after each meal. She does it at school too. I'm very impressed with her being so responsible with her teeth.

Pretty darn proud really!!

50th birthday shoot

I was the 'paparazzi' at a 50th Birthday party last Saturday night. I did really split my sides laughing when I sat down with a particular group of people there. I had sore cheeks from laughing so hard.

Can hardly call this work when its this much fun.

Happy Birthday C.

Now give your brother back his HOG lol

a few more over at Tiff Firth Photography

gma

rest easy Grand ma ma ma ma ma ma Marmalade.

In my heart forever and now reunited with Grandpa.

28.2.2011

Claire Penn and peacock feathers

I have a Facebook friendship with the lovely Claire Penn. A while back she posted a stunning macro image of a peacock feather with droplet of water on it that perfectly magnified the details of the feather. (look in the 'fine art photography' tab on her www.

With my male peacock moulting his tail recently I was reminded of her photo. I didn't do the water droplet, that's  a challenge for myself later. But I did catch this one that I'm happy with.

A short time ago I posted my pic of the little bird that was asleep on my verandah that I managed to catch on camera. Claire posted a comment on my Tiff Firth Photography page which resulted in her having a play with my photo.

This is one of mine.

and these are Claire's.

We both share a love of Florabella actions and textures. In my opinion, these are simply the best out there!!!

Not much else to blog about. Processing a 50th Birthday shoot from last weekend and visiting a 14 day old baby on Tuesday. Oh and half way through a scrappy LO atm too.

tumby bay pano

I managed a quick shoot over at Tumby yesterday with stitching together a pano as my goal.

I failed miserably. I wanted the jetty as the leading line in the shot, and I found that made it very tricky.

Learning all the time.

my two from a couple of years ago

I'm processing a heap of my own shots for me this week to have them ready for scrapping at some point.

Just had to show these two. Taken Dec 2009.

they really haven't changed a lot since then!!

wiggle it just a little bit

The kids and I had a quick and unexpected trip to Pt Augusta this weekend. My Dad and Jane rang us Friday night to say they were about to fly out of Darwin to Adelaide via Melbourne and could we meet them on Saturday afternoon at my brother's home in Pt Augusta.

Dad and Jane were delayed for 3 days in Darwin as the airport was shut down due to the cyclone, and flew out as soon as it opened. Hence the 'such short notice'

So I chucked together a bag of stuff, and Saturday morning saw us heading North. Kym stayed on a job site here, as it had been delayed several times, and he felt uncomfortable about delaying it again. I do wished he had come up with us, as in my mind, family comes first.  :(

When we arrived I was told that my Grandmother in Crystal Brook had a heart turn Saturday morning. So while I was so close to where she lives, my brother and I went to see her today (Sunday). She was much brighter than I expected and we all crossing fingers that her assessment in a few days will be a positive step forward for her.

By the time we got back to Pt Augusta, said our goodbyes and whizzed through Big W for school clothes, it was much later than I had planned to get the kids and me home. Somewhere around 6.45pm.

Long day on the road for me.



A LO from the other day. I'm having a bit of a love affair with mint green atm. I call it Elizabeth Kartchner 
green as it's her signature colour.

sleeping spoggie

I found this little fellow on my veranda this afternoon. He must have been deeply asleep as I walked past him first and only saw him from the corner of my eye. I grabbed my camera, switched lenses and tip toed out there hoping he was still there.

Its been raining very steadily here today. Over 2.5 inches in the old scale, so I reckon the spoggie was taking a nana nap under the veranda out of the rain.


Good day for it.

the best and most beautiful things....

I had a me day at home today. And I got a couple of LO's done, but it was so quiet. Too quiet. I love school holidays so I can have my kids at home. I love the non routine and being spontaneous with them. I do enjoy the noise of the kids (most of the time), but I don't really like the extra laundry holidays create.

I woke up with a plan today of going out to the coast to capture an idea that I've got, but I needed clouds for it. And today..... no clouds to speak of, at least during school hours. Oh well, I'll try again next Kindy day.

This is all KaiserCraft. They really have upped the quality of their products and expanded on their embellishment lines. I'm in LURV with their English Rose Collection.

watch: don't miss a thing

Stampin Up ribbon sourced from Amy

Aestivation of the Spanish Snail

Little varmits. The Spanish Snails cost us money each year with paddock baiting and grain cleaning.

During summer to survive the heat they enter a period of inactivity called aestivation.

This what our fence posts on our stone track look like this time of year.

I'm not sure if I like the BW better than the colour version. What do you think???

happiness....

journaling says: Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you - Nathaniel Hawthorne



We're going solar!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had the electrician here this morning to put in the sub board in preparation for the solar panels.With the current rebates available including a local council rebate, going solar is cheap.

Most of our power usage is in winter time when we run an air con in Annie's room for heat and a oil heater in Sean's room to keep him warm. Most of our solar credits will happen during summer when our consumption is low (we rarely use the air cons in summer) so our account will draw on those credits during our higher usage. The system should pay for its self in about 6 years at the current elec prices, and they will always be going up, so it should be sooner than later the system is debit free.

On a small downer, when the power came back on from the Sparky being here this morning, the TV shat itself. It's been on the way out for while now, but now its RIP. We've a mate who got an large LED online recently, so we checking them out atm. The only thing will be to work out all the cables. It's a mass of spaghetti behind the TV corner atm (TV, Austar, DVD, Video, Surround Sound System with Amp and Sub Woofer, Wii). It's going to be a nightmare to work it all out and wire it all up correctly. So not looking forward to that.