Cute find

I'm processing all my RAW photo files at the moment so that I can burn a copy of images to CD for Larissa. I've got a truck load of images on my PC, many of which she hasn't seen and are images of her own kids.

In the process of getting there, it's been interesting to see the pictures which I'd forgotten I'd taken, so in the name of procrastination, here's one I just felt like sharing.

I've had a kinda 'do nothing' day. I have a list of things to do, but it's all just taking so looong, that I really think I'll be lucky to knock off even one thing on that list. I'm a bit air-headed & confused about which thing is the most important. I guess it's just pre-Christmas priorities getting the better of me. Not helped by the fact that I want to do so many scrappy things for presents & for Christmas Day. It's so hard to know where to start.

I need to tell myself, just do one thing & don't start anything else until that thing's finished.

I should add that the idea for the polaroid was taken from Amanda Hall, my scrappy EB mate. :) Thanks Amanda.

Just showing off

This little guy. What a cutie huh. He is the second son of a mother's group friend, Jacqui. I went around to her house a few weeks ago to take some 4-generation photo's since the birth of her daughter Ruby. I finally got around to starting to work on some of the pics & this one just blew me away. It's one of those OMG I can't believe I took that photo kinda shots. He's just gorgeous & looks so directly at the camera.



Anyway, procrastinating isn't going to get rest of the post-processing done & I'd like to have them finished to take to playgroup tomorrow.

Quick share from today

Just a quick share from today as it's past my bedtime (again!!), I had a terrible night's sleep last night due to toiletting issues from BOTH kids, and I'm trying to finish Harry Potter (last book), before the very last one comes out this Saturday.

I'm so hoping that David is home, so that I can shut myself away and read the whole thing!! I'm so hanging out to read it. I've been having dreams about Harry Potter, Hogwarts, etc for the past couple of years. Nothing kinky of course, more that I AM Harry, and the various struggles I've had to overcome.

I just want to go on record now & say I believe Snape is working for Dumbledore & the Order of the Phoenix and he is NOT on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's side.

I posted a couple of my pics on ILP site which is a site for children's photographers amateur & professional. It's true I have focus & exposure issues & I got some constructive criticism. So now I have some homework. If you're ever interested, ILP has just some of the most AMAZING work on it & I've learnt some really cool tips. I usually frequent the JSO (Just Starting Out) forums and OMG the talent for these so-called 'newbies' is mind-blowing.

Here's an colour pop I've learnt & this is my first try.

Before image



After - popped & cropped image


Photo taken at Rockingham Beach park this morning when I went to visit Karlene, Leo & Harrison for a play date. Great to see them all. They're all looking well and happy. They'd ridden their bikes down with Harrison in the bike trailer. I wanted to see them as I hadn't caught up for Karlene's birthday last week. It was nice doing it in a park too as the weather was just too fabulous to waste not getting out and about.

On the TT thing, I'll try to wind it back on here a bit as it's really quite monotonous reading huh. It was more for my benefit to look back on in a few weeks time & if I'm finding things tough I can (hopefully) look back & see how far we've come. Anyway, I've now made up a chart for me to keep records. BTW, if you think reading it is monotonous, OMG you should be grateful you're not LIVING it! On that happy note, off to wakey wakey Miss Nikita and try to get her on to the loo before I hit the sack for the night.

I took some photos today

The light was great today for taking photos - overcast. So after getting a couple of grocery items, we headed over to NannaJays to take few photos. I've been playing with them for the past few hours and these are my favourites. I was originally planning on trying to emulate the photography of Premier Studios who are located in Banjup. I just love their style!!

I wasn't entirely successful, but am still fairly happy with the results. I think I still need to work on focus issues. It's so hard to think on the run whilst the kids are moving so quickly. Thinking of focal points, composition, exposure, and get that magic shot all at once before they MOVE!!

Anyway, as I say I still did get some lovely shots. Not quite up there with the really great quality pro's, but practice makes perfect.

Wasn't such a good day in the TT stakes for Nikita. Two pooey knickers. Ewwwww, gross. She actually doesn't mind them, until the knickers come off & then the crying begins. And then a wee accident after dinner time. I'm actually more disappointed about the wee accident as she has't had one all week, and I'm hoping it's not the start of something normal. Sorry, had to add a TT note. Not because I'm obsessed, but because I'm just reeeally, reeeally focussed. lol

Sasha's Birthday Invite

Sasha's birthday is under a month away!! She'll be turning 4. We're having a My Little Pony party, and I've made up the invites. We've decided to just have 4 kids from Kindy (which has already increased to 5 lol), and cousin Grace & Samuel over for the party.

I love how the invites have turned out. Particularly because of the super spunky photo of Sasha on them. I printed them, cut them up and laminted them today. Then I added a magnetic strip so that they can be put on people's fridges.

Now for the rest of the planning and organising...! That's the fun part.

Rainy day Sunday

Well it's been a really truly wintery wet day, so we've spent most of it indoors. It's been challenging to find things to keep the girls entertained. The most fun thing they've done would be their Fruit Loop necklaces. They spent a good 3/4 hr stringing the Fruit Loops onto the string, and then about 5 mins to eat them all off again. lol.

I heard that threading activities are good for encouraging a correct pencil grip, so have been planning to do this for a while. Nikita still grips the pencils with a fist, so we need to work on this.

Anyway, here's a couple of piccies from this morning. I'd best go finish cleaning the ensuite now.

Another quick share from Serpentine Dam

Why do I keep putting an "N" at the end of Dam???

Sorry, 2nd glass of wine, and straight to the head. lol

Here's a piccy I've just been working on. Quite happy with the results. I've been playing around with 'creative vignettes' on photoshop and it's just the thing I've been trying to work out for a while now.

Enjoy. :D

She's a Dag!

We went to Jarrahdale for a day-trip yesterday. We were hoping to visit the market. Unfortunately we were a week too early. We went for a walk around the Serpentine Dam and took a few photo's. The image shown above is Nikita's favourite face for when I want to take pics of her. Kind of shy and cheeky at the same time.

It was great to get out and about and visit somewhere different. We also stopped at Tumbulgum Farm and visited the water buffalo. Will post some pics of that stop off too, later tonight (if I get the PC).

Before & After

My earlier post of my photo editting seen here has had a few comments. Most of you picked up the area that was editted, so I need to practice a bit more I guess. As promised, here is the before & and after editting pics.

After editting (as already seen)





















And here's the before-editting shot.

So I've done quite a bit of editting, and most of it's fairly good, but if it's still detectable, then it's still able to be improved.

Quick Quiz!!

Who can pick the photo editting on this image? Taken today at our Parent's Group Christmas Party.


Pls be honest. If it's blatantly obvious, I'd like to know so that I can practise some more. If I did a good job, then I'll still practise some more anyway. Just maybe not at 12.30am when I'm getting a headache & should have been in bed 2hrs ago.

She's a cutie huh. Will post original image in a couple of days, or after 5 responses - whichever happens sooner. LOL. Have a lovely weekend! :)

Christmas Imp

Just had to share this pic taken today. I was doing a Christmas photo shoot for a friend & Miss Sasha wanted to join in on the act (or at least be the centre of attention LOL). To placate her somewhat & reward her patience, I snapped this of her - she's just loves to smile for the camera these days!

Will have to get organised & do my own Christmas photo shoot of my kids someday soon!!

Some recent photos

Just thought I'd share a couple of recent photos. I took these (yes, even the family portrait!!) in the morning just before Charlotte Cooper's christening. Quite happy with how they've turned out, so thought I'd share them.