Cafe Peahen

Hearty Chicken & Veg soup (sorry no picture)

2010-09-15T18:28:00.002+10:00

This one is for Mel. It's a very basic, cheap and nutritious chicken and veg soup that can really be made to everyone's taste.

Ingredients

2lt chicken stock

1cup diced potato

1 med diced carrot

I small diced zucchini

1 med brown onion diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 long red chilli (seeds removed and sliced)

1/2 cup dried soup mix

1/2 cup soup pasta

2 stalks celery diced

500gm free range chicken fillets (skinless)

1. brown onion in a little olive oil.

2. add all veg and garlic and heat through a little.

3. add stock and bring to the boil

4. Add chicken and the dried soup mix and cook for 10 mins then remove with a slotted spoon or tongs and shred with forks.

5. Add the chicken back to the pot and bring back to the boil. Add the pasta and simmer till all vegies and pasta are tender.

6. serve, seasoned with cracked black pepper and perhaps some crusty bread.

Notes: I use salt reduced stock, anywhere between 1.5 and 2lt depending on how soupy I want it. You can use whatever veg you like. I have tried this with various spices and herbs but prefer it without any. The original recipe also called for some lemon juice, sometimes I add it, sometimes I don't. Make the clove of garlic a good one ;)

Quinoa Breaky.

2010-02-13T11:57:00.006+11:00

Quinoa Breaky.(serves 1)

130gm cooked Quinoa
1/2 cup skinny milk
Cinnamon
Vanilla extract
3-4 dried prunes
1 pce dried pear
1 Banana mashed

1. Place Quinoa, milk, Cinnamon, vanilla and dried fruit in a small saucepan and bring to the boil stirring occasionally then turn down heat and simmer stirring until the milk is absorbed and the quinoa is to your prefered consistancy.

2. Stir though mashed banana and bung the lot into a bowl.

3. Enjoy.

*Honey can be added if you need extra sweetness but I find the fruit makes it sweet enough. Experiment with different fruits and add nuts and seeds.

* to cook Quinoa my preferred method is to wash 1 cup quinoa well, rubbing it between my fingers to make sure it's really well scrubbed. I change the water a few times then leave it to soak for about 30mins. Then I bung it in the rice cooker with 2 cups of water and let the rice cooker do the rest for me. I store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.

*Nutritional info per serve
Cals - 379
kjs - 1587
fat - 2.9
sat fat - .1
Protein - 12.8
Carb - 73.9
Sugar - 37.6
Fibre - 7.9
Sodium - 94mg

*worked out using calorie king.

Banana & Oat Muffins

2010-02-06T14:42:00.004+11:00

* 2 cups (260gm) wholemeal SR flour
*1tsp ground cinnamon
*1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
*1 cup (100gm) rolled oats)
*1/2 cup (100gm) brown sugar
*2 whole eggs
*3/4 cup (185gm) low fat passionfruit yogurt
*1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable or canola oil
* 2 bananas mashed (250gm)

1. Preheat oven to 200deg and bung some paper muffin cases in a 12cup muffin tin

2. Sift flour, cinnamon and soda into a bowl. Empty flour husks from sifter back into the bowl along with the oats and sugar, stir to combine

3. Whisk eggs, oil and yogurt. Add the mashed banana and stir until combined. Pour into the dry ingredients and gently mix with a wooden spoon until just combined.

4. Spoon even amounts into the muffin tray and bake for 20mins or until golden and cooked through.

*I used the devondale dairy thick and creamy vine passionfruit yogurt, anything yogurt would work.

*Nutritional Info per muffin
Cals - 229
KJ's - 960
Total fat - 6.8
Sat fat - 1.5
Protein - 5.7
Carbs - 34.9
Sugar - 14.4
Fibre - 3.9
Sodium - 225
*worked out by using calorie king.

A summary of Anna and Ryan 2009.......

2009-12-19T15:13:00.002+11:00

..........In photos of course.

A collection of some of my fav portraits from this year.

Foreground, Middleground & Background.

2009-12-18T19:25:00.003+11:00

Man it has been a while since I posted.....I know.

So much has been happening, I have been counting cals, exercising and losing weight and finally back to my pre-Ryan size pretty much. I have not picked up the camera much, but have had some wonderful wins at Camera club.

I have so many photos to share on here, a special family members wedding, my babies growing up, my hair all chopped off and some special trophies.....however at the end of this rather busy day it all seems to be too much effort and I can't be bothered. I hope that I can update my blog properly one day.

The main thing I wanted to blog about tonight was a "special moment" today. Other photographers will appreciate this. A perfect "foreground, middleground and background". The only thing missing was the blissful sound of the shutter on my camera.

Foreground: The outer edges of our Xmas tree, silver and purple decorations and simple clear fairylights.

Middleground: Anna and Ryan playing with Anna's Disney princess cards in the theater room in front of the window, the evening light creating a stunning halo around them.

Background: Cam "rolling" the cricket pitch outside the theater room. The enthusiasm amuses me.

I was kicking back at the kitchen table when I saw this and was mesmorised, too scared to go get the camera incase I missed the moment so I decided to enjoy it without the capture.

After being exposed to some rather depressing crap on the internet lately it was a welcome uplifting moment that I really really appreciated, and on that note I might go and watch a Jane Austen movie in bed while Cam watches the cricket.

Jodi, if you read this I hope you and your lovely new husband enjoyed your honeymoon in Australias most beautiful state. I hope you are both well. I also hope you guys loved Port Arthur as much as we did. I also hope you got to see Richmond, the Richmond Jail was especially interesting.

I really have so much more to post about and so many photos to share but really where do I start? I have been so slack I am so behind. Best I leave it till after Xmas.....then after the New Year.....Then after a special family visit LOL. Perhaps I will catch up before the busy April B'day Rush.

My poor neglected blog.

2009-08-21T15:58:00.003+10:00

I do love my blog dearly but I have once again neglected it! I am a poohead I know. Anyway it has been a busy few months since Ryan's B'day. I have had alot of work to finish, I have been to see Eskimo Joe live in Melbourne with my Awesome neighbour Sarah, I have been away on an awesome girls weekend with my PH family, a very special friend announced her pregnancy and my #1 cousin got engaged which means a trip to QLD for me at the end of the year. I have taken up running again only to slack off AGAIN!

The main thing keeping me busy here though is the kids. They are growing so fast, as are their attitudes. We had a mini photo session yesterday, a good opportunity for me to update the blog and profile pics.

Poor Ryan has inherited my crap eyes, one of them being smaller and a different shape to the other. Mum and Dad recon Anna has inherrited my temper and gift of the gab.

I have fallen in love with Eskimo Joe (Thanks Sarah) and listen to them most days if I can LOL. The concert was awesome, I actually wore the dress I am wearing in my photos here (yes it's a dress not a shirt) and some awesome new boots I got. I'd not slept the night before the concert, I was bloated like nothing else and my chin had errupted with the worlds hugest breakout......everything was against me....but with some good underwear and a LOT of makeup I got myself out the door, even thoguh at the time I didn't feel like it, and boy am I glad I did. There is nothing like a good live band....NOTHING! Looking forward to the next time.

I am still going to camera club but have missed a few nights this year. I have missed my last two judgings and am yet to find out how I went. I have heard whispers of a first place though which is awesome.

Well....It's that time of night....time to put the apron on and cook dinner.

Our baby boy turns TWO!!!

2009-06-23T21:05:00.002+10:00

Can you believe it? Our baby boy turned two today! We had a great day, it started off with pressies after breaky. He got a Tonka truck off Anna and a tool bench and drill off us. I then whipped up a quick batch of cup cakes then we all headed off to Rain Hayne and Shine farm in Balnaring. Ryan loves chickens and took a liking to one in particular, he was chasing it saying "pat pat pat" so I tried to catch it for him....however I am terrified of fowl, they creep me out and I chicked out (LOL, get it....chickened) anyway I chickened out everytime I got close.

Ryan had a great time....Anna not so much, she was scared of everything and complained the whole time. I did a bit of complaining myself, there was poo everywhere at the farm and I got some on my camera bag and it STINKS.....Not happy.

AFter Ryan's nap we took the traditional family "birth time" photo then we did the "cake" we did not go all out for Ryan's cake, we decided to do it cheap and just go with cupcakes. Infact.....I am so tight that I only decorated 4 of them then froze the rest for a future Mum's Group LOL. Nevermind....he loved it. That's it...we had a family afternoon tea on Sunday to celebtrate his B'day so we kept today very low key and just to the four of us. It was great.

Of course I have a few pics to share. OMG I have not blogged about our holiday.....crikey I had better get some sample boards done up of that so I can blog all the photos. Watch this space.

The B'day Cupcakes.

Blowing out the candles and stuffing his face.

P.s......Hi Jodi XXXXXXXXXXX

Distracted.

2009-05-30T12:23:00.003+10:00

I am so close to finishing my second last client session I have to work on but then THIS vision came to me....and I just HAD to throw it together before I lost it. I don't do stuff like this much anymore so when I see something in my head I have to go for it. I took these images when I first got the new camera but have not done anything with them yet. All the templates out there for things like this have larger gaps between the images but I wanted to keep these close so I did my own in Lightroom.....it was very quick and lots of fun.

I am going back to the old way of uploading so excuse the small images from now on. I am not renewing my pro flickr account so some of my images from my blog will dissappear over time too.

This time it's Ryan's turn....

2009-05-14T16:21:00.002+10:00

You may notice I take A LOT of pictures of Anna and no-where near as many of Ryan. That is simply because he doesn't sit still long enough so I tend to give up easily with him. However, yesterday we managed a little mini shoot with him. He was running aorund naked wearing his Dad's Ugg Boots so I HAD to grab the camera. However he ran and hid in Anna's toy box and this is what we ended up with .

Very cute indeed huh!

We also received my canvas of Anna I am going to use a sample stock for clients to see and feel today. It's so nice to see one of one of my kids at last. It's stunning of course!

Caleb

2009-05-11T18:50:00.002+10:00

Here is a little sampler of one of my most recent fav sessions. I have been lucky enough to know this young man since he was born, his Mum and I were in rooms next to each other when Anna and Caleb were born. He was a CHAMP having his photo taken and Vanessa ended up with a fantastic gallery because of it.

Anyway......here is the sampler.

Fresh Baked

2009-05-11T15:57:00.002+10:00

I have been soooo slack taking pics of my own kids lately so Anna and I just had a 3min shoot, These images are "Fresh Baked" and still hot. Taken less than an hour ago. The ones I posted on facebook yesterday were so populat I felt inspired to show off some more.

She makes it soooo easy.

A couple more......

2009-05-09T11:05:00.004+10:00

OK....I couldn't just show two pics from the shoot so here are a few more.

Anna and Ryan update.

2009-05-09T09:24:00.002+10:00

It's been a while since I posted recent pics of Anna and Ryan. They had a little photo shoot so we could put an album together for their Grandma and Grandpa for their birthday so here are a couple of pics from that.

Other than that we have been very busy here. I have been researching more albums as I didn't like the last lot I got in the end, so I have sound a new supplier and have ordered some stock to use as samples, I have also ordered a mini canvas to use as sample stock. I have had a couple of wonderful photo shoots and just need some child free time to really put in some hours of processing now. I am shaking up my proofing and ordering system for the business as the old way isn't working too well at all. I have had camera club entries to get in and had a judging the other night which I went quite well in but I will post about that another time.

This post I just want to show off my babies. Here they are.

I know I know.....they are GORGEOUS......it's soooo tempting to have another baby.....but we wont LOL. They are loads of fun. Anna is getting really good at riding her big girl bike and Ryan has just sleeping in a big boy bed. They are watching the old Alice in Wonderland right now which has given me this rare op to blog while my monitor warms up for photo editing.

I'm feeling very blessed in this life. I am a very very lucky Mummy and Wife. Oh that reminds me....Anna made me the most wonderful present at kinder for Mothers Day. It is a photo of her in a frame she made that has a magnet so I can stick it to the fridge. I was stoked when she gave it to me.....best present EVER.

Anyway....that's enough dribble. Wishing all my mummy readers a Happy Mothers Day for tomorrow, and wishing everyone else well too.

XXX

22/4/09 - my tantrum

2009-04-24T08:35:00.002+10:00

On Wednesday I had a tantrum at something Cam had said and stormed off in a huff. On instinct I grabbed my camera bag and the book I was reading and headed to Nunns walk. My Fav place. I had been wanting to check out more of what lies below Nunns Walk......as Nunns walk is a track that runs along the esplanade in Morington/Mt Martha with lots of little smaller tracks comming off it leading down to the beaches below, so I did. It was a nice walk to the leash free beach, which wasn't sand but rocks. It was lovely, not another soul in sight and the sun was out but low. I took a few photos, I am happy with perhaps 2 or 3 of them. Here is one of them

I processed it yesterday with a very special Man in mind. It's getting printed right now and I will enter it for Camera club if the print turns out alright. I think I will call it "Russell's Day", Russell is my husbands Dad and on the 22/4/09 just hours after I took this photo Russell closed his eyes for the last time. I don't know what else to say, it's not my place to talk about Cam's feelings and my blog isn't the place I would talk about it anyway. Anything I want to say to him I have already said so I wont use my blog to communicate some soppy corny message to him (he is probably up to his eyeballs in my soppyness). He knows how I feel and I know how he feels and that is all that matters right now.

Anyway, so that's whats happening here at the moment. It's needless to say that I wont be waving to you on my way to Healesville Jaykay......I had to pull out of this weekends trip, judging by the weather I would not have had much fun anyway and would have spend the weekend in my sleeping bag doing nothing but reading.

Strangely enough, the 22/4 was Anna's due date 4 years ago.......so we celebrated by letting a couple of nurses jab her with her 4yr old immunisations LOL.....sadistic parents we are. She was amazing, she din't cry, she said "ow ow ow" as she WATCHED the needle go into her arm (dunno where she gets that from) and then accepted her jelly beans and jumped around popping the bubbles that filled the room from the bubble machine. I was so so soooooooo proud of our brave little girl. We had promiced to take her to Cold Rock, the ice cream joing but when we got there we realised they didn't open till 1pm........dogarses. So we had to get her a Mc Flurry instead. She decided then that she likes needles I think LOL...........however a few hours later when one of her arms started throbbing (the one that copped the tetanus I think) she quickly took her words back saying "Mummy don't ever take me to that shop again with the ladies with the needles, I don't like needles anymore." At 2am the next morning my heart officially broke as she was blubbering "It hurts it hurts" and she held her arm to her chest as if it were broken. As she climbed onto the toilet using her hand on the wall to steady herself she yelped in pain as the pressure of her hand on the wall obviously shot the pain through to the top of her arm. We had a snuggle on the couch as her panadol kicked in and my heart ached as her body was trembeling in my arms. Back in my room Cam was sleeping in a sleeping pill induced deep sleep, sleeping off the shock of losing his Dad. Ryan woke 3 times that night, we susspect he is teething. You can't help but feel a tad depressed when your home is so full of pain.

Today.......3 days later it is much better. You wouldn't know Anna had her needles, Ryan slept all night last night and Cam is much more like himself, but suffering allergies which I suspect came from going through a bag of dusty/mouldy old photos yesterday. All in all, the glass is definately half full. Oh and yes.....I did feel like a total arsehole for having that tantrum wednesday morning.....there you go Cam, that was for you XXX

Celebrating Calibrating.......

2009-04-18T20:10:00.002+10:00

OMG.......No.....OMFG. Seriously I hate calibrating SO MUCH I lose clumps of hair every time I have to do it. The lab I was getting my prints from has lost the plot and the prints are getting redder with each order. Not only that but I ordered a 5x7 and 8x12 of the same image for camera club and they both came back different colours. After recieving and email stating "there is nothing we can do, our printers are calibrated as close as possible" I swear I had smoke coming out of my nostrils......their close enough is not good enough for me or my clients. I did not just get myself into debt buying this sweet new camera which produced sweet colours just to have some half arsed "pro" (and I use that term loosely) lab totally screw my colours up. SO.....I have found a new lab, but with a new lab comes new calibration requirements and I have spend the last week doing not much other than calibrating and tearing my hair out. It has not been a good week.

While all this is going on I have sessions backing up to be processed and am finally up to the newborn session I have been DYING to get up to. I but a good dent in that session today. I also need to get this months Camera club entries finished, printed and mounted in less than 2 weeks (EEEEEEEEK). I have just finished one entry........here it is.

OK.......so I cheated. I could not wait for this lovely preggy lady to give birth to give this a go....so consider this a dress rehearsal for when I get to do it with her own baby. This is actually "Max" the baby whos newborn session I am in the middle of. The idea came to me in the shower this morning and i wanted to try it today before I forgot it. Another idea came to me a few nights ago and I didn not jot it down right away and now it is lost forever so consider that a lesson learned.

Anyway, other than processing a load of images today I also got some shopping in. I managed to drop $150 on books.....I have been bitten by the "Edward and Bella" bug and got all 4 of the Twilight books......plus the first Dexter book. I figured i can read when the kids are up and I can't use the puter anyway, I am sure they will be happy for me to pull up a beanbag in their new playroom and read as they play, they wont disturb me much......really they wont. I also got myself some flanny PJ's. I don't own jarmies and I have 3 weekends away coming up so I fugured I would do my "roomies" a favour and invest in some jim jams. Now all I wanna do is wear them......this is why I don't own jim jams.....it becomes too easy to stay in them allllll day. I can't wait for my trips. First is Healesville with Camera Club, then Phillip Island with Mum's group where we plan to spend two nights in a holiday house in out jarmies drinking cocktails and dancing to whatever music strikes out fancy.....knowing us the daggier the better then last but not least PH VIC MINI MEET WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Ah I am so excited about that. I get to meet an online friend Kym properly, I met her once but this is gonna we AWESOME. Two nights on a "farm" pretty bloomin posh lookin farm is you ask me, loads of photography, dancing, laughing, singing...oh it's gonna go off. Once again I plan to live the weekend in my jarmies and uggies.

So thats it, that is what I have been up to and am going to get up to. After Birthday Bonanza and celebrating calibrating I am left fat, bloated and bald.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

2009-04-12T13:26:00.002+10:00

Yesterday was our dear sweet baby girls 4th Birthday. We had an awesome day. We decided this year to celebrate my parents, Anna's and my B'day all in one day.....we called it "Birthday Bonanza". We got Anna's usual Strawberry Fields Torte Cake and had a BBQ lunch followed by some late arvo drinks. Anna's Grandma and Grandpa stayed the night so they were here this morning for the great eater egg hunt.

Anna got a new bike and helmet for her birthday, within minutes of finding the bike she had managed to fall off it and bruise/scrape her legs up.

Anyway it's been a huge few days and I am buggered so I am keeping this short and sweet. Here are some pics.....just snapshots. I hope to be back with more.

The new bike and the famous birthday cake.

Our Traditional "Birth time" family photo.....we had to cheat this year and take it an hour early as there was no way the kids were going to make it till 7:45pm. Thank goodness Ryan's birth time was at a better time of day for his birth time photo. You can see we are all looking a tad ragged by this stage of the day (a few of us may have been a tad tipsy too).

We have all had an awesome Birthday bonanza/Easter. I really enjoyed having my Mumsy and Dadsy stay the night. Now we are all heading out side into the court to watch Anna ride her bike.

The Great Almond Heist

2009-04-06T10:15:00.002+10:00

On the morning of April 6th I was woken to the mighty sound of Cockies screaching and Anna's delightful little excited voice. Cam had built Anna and Ryan a nifty bench for their proposed playroom the night before and Anna had got up and discovered it and she was calling "Mummy Mummy, look at my table". From the proposed playroom window I we could not see the backyard through cockies, we lost count at 30. They were on the gate, the fence, the almond tree, the Paulonia tree and the roof of our pagola. They were here to ravish our almonds of course......well what was left of them, Cam had harvested them a few weeks before but left them the ones up the top he could not reach.

Here is a pic of two of them plotting their attack on the almonds.

Sneeky Sneek Peeks

2009-04-02T16:27:00.004+11:00

I am flat out at the moment, I have 4 sessions to process. I am rushing this post just to sneek it in while dinner is on.

Here are a few sneek peeks from 3 of the four sessions.

A re-shoot with young baby Max, here he is with his gorgeous Mum.

Baby Max again.

A close friends beautiful belly - my first maternity shoot.

I was with this friend when she got this tattoo done.

I had the pleasure of shooting with these girls are The Briars. They are STUNNING. I have since fixed the little ones black eye and the thing on the wall behind her head, had it printed as a 8x12 and matted it to be entered into tonights monochrome comp.

A Box of Chocolates.

2009-03-27T23:52:00.002+11:00

OMG....My eyeballs are hanging out of my head. I was determined to get at leats one entry finished for this months camera club comp and tonight was the night it was going to happen. Cameron went to the footy with some of his siblings so I had some quiet time to take advantage of.....not that he is noisy LOL.

Anyway here it is, my "Box of chocolates"

If Only I could re do these photos now......why you ask, because I have some super exciting news......I have my new camera. The one I have been wanting for as long as I can remember and I am seriously in love. No more manual focusing for me and now I can offer massive prints and canvas with confidence. I just ordered a new camera bag for it, a 7million dollar home crumpler, only the best for my new baby. Another exciting parcel arrived today, the albums I ordered last week. I have sampled 4 different albums now and think I have finally found the one that I love to offer clients. I have to do one up for myself first to "test drive" it.....damn haha.

Now I need sleep.....first I have to crack and stretch my back from sitting here so long. That box of chocolates was flippin fiddly.

2009-03-24T23:06:00.002+11:00

I know I said I would not blog for a while......but I just finished proofing and editing this session and got the gallery up and HAD to share some of the pics. This is Baby Max. I went to school with his Dad. Isn't he GORGEOUS.

A HUGE thankyou to Ben and Amanda for the opportunity.

Pink overload.....

2009-03-23T21:05:00.002+11:00

My friend Katie needed some help taking photos today.....she had all the gear and the pose idea but just needed someone to point and press the shutter. I had a ball. Now I want lights and a camera that has auto focus SO BAD!!!!!

While I was there I chucked my card in her camera and had a play with her stunning baby Amelia and took some shots of Anna and the famous chocolate for this months camera club comp.

Here are some pics.....

Thanks again Katie. I had a ball and after the play with your Camera I came home and looked into it and Cam says I can get one.......I just have to get my head around not getting my dream camera but I was so impressed with yours today. Might have to have another play in natural light.

Anyway, yes I have been slack here at the cafe again.....with good reason. I did THREE shoots this week. I know INSANE! So I am going to be FLAT OUT processing the sessions. I am also trying to get something done for this months camera club comp. I missed out last month cos I was so busy and can see it happening again. I have less than two weeks to get my entries processed, printed and mounted.

I have sourced a wonderful canvas supplier and have had one done for a client who was super impressed....so much so she wants another one. She is not alone, after seeing it Cam and I want some too. I am also in the process of ordering a few different albums to offer clients which is fun. I love classy albums, I have a dry mount one here for the kids photos and it looks awesome. So.....busy busy busy. I think I have a few really late nights coming up. So I wont be blogging for a while.

Gluten Free Food Porn

2009-03-17T21:09:00.002+11:00

Being Wheat free I tend to use Gluten free products alot. I have been super impressed with the cake mixes you can get, I am no baker and they are the only ones I seem to not dry out. I urge any cake fans to give a gluten free cake mix a go. The Basco vanilla cupcakes are my fav, the woolworths select brand make an awesome lemon cake too.

Anyway, I have discovered the worlds yummiest bake yourself carrot cake. Basco Carrot cake mix. It is flippin divine.

But even I get sick of the sweet stuff and crave a savoury treat to take to Mum's group and seeing how everything has wheat in it I try to take something the kids and I can have. Melinda's gluten free goodies Sundried Tomato and Spinach muffins are AWESOME! Not very healthy but when you can't eat wheat treats like this are very rare so what the heck. Check em out.

Seriously they are awesome. Anyway....that's me for the night. I am having an early one.....I hope to be photographing a beautiful new baby tomorrow.

Ryan.......our sweet sweet boy.

2009-03-16T22:01:00.002+11:00

Ryan is a hard one to get photos of....he is like the looney toons character Taz........always on the move and always destructing things LOL.

Today I went out and got a few new blankets, an elbow pillow and some more beans for the beanbag......strictly for prop use of course. I managed to bury him enough to keep him still for a split second and I have to say I am OVER THE FLIPPIN MOON with the results. I have so so sooooo many photos of Anna but not too many of Ryan.....and most of the ones I do have of him are out of focus. I took these today and as I type they are uploading to get printed. I just love them. Isn't he bloomin divine?

This bottom one is a fav, he is a little stud.

Cafe Renovations

2009-03-14T08:28:00.003+11:00

LOL, Yep I thought the Cafe was long over due for a re-vamp. I used the Cafe overhaul to start my creative juices flowing in preparation to designing my company logo.....which I did last night.

This is huge for me.....I HATE change, never cope well with it. I also dislike anything but white backgrounds.....but I love the Cafe's new look. Now I just need to get in here more often.

Now for some little useless chitchat, I have watched a few movies lately. The day I got my business name certificate in the mail my bestie came over and we had a few (too many) drinks. We attempted to watch a movie, starting with Rachel getting Married it lasted about 5 mins and we turned it off. Next we attempted 27 dresses it is one of my FAV's (and I can't believe in these reviews it got less starts than Rachel getting married) and Kellie hadn't seen it but we were too giggle and chatty to watch.....we only payed attention to the bar scene "B B B Benny and the jetsssssssss". Anyway, the next day I was feeling rather poorly, and after having a look at what was left of the bottle of vodka I realised that I would more than likely feel that way all day so movies it was.

I attempted to watch Rachel getting Married again......well I watched it all but my GOODNESS.....what a waste of life that I will never ever get back. Kellie and I love the movie 28 days but it was like someone had decided to remake it but write the script while on a truck load of downers of some kind. It was the most drawn out boring NOTHING movie I have ever seen.

Next I watched 7 pounds now I am not usually a fan of Will Smith but by golly this was a GREAT movie. I loved it. I am pestering Cam to watch it now.....but he favours movies that suck so I guess he wont like it.

Then while I was sick a few days ago (yeah I copped the lurgy BAD) I had an early night and watched changeling with Angelina Jolie. I am not a fan of Angelina, her acting does NOTHING for me and I find her presence in a movie creepy in general......and this was no exception. It was a very sad movie and not the kind I would have watched if I had have known what it was about first. I hate any movie with kids being hurt in it and at one stage in this movie I wanted to rip through Cam for telling me to watch it, him knowing what i am like I was furious that he has suggested it. Anyway I had to keep watching cos if stopped at that point I would have been picturing little boys being hacked to death with an axe all night, so I watched the whole thing. It was a sad movie, but a good one I guess. The only person that would have been worse for the lead role however would have been Nicole Kidman.

Last but not least......Cam talked me into watching a movie with him the other night. Cam often watches movies at night while I work on photos. He likes creepy, scarey movies and I don't anymroe so it works well for him to watch them while I am busy, anyway I decided to work till 8:30pm then join him. The movie was called Walled In and the opening scene featured something terrible happening to a dear little girl.......I could have throttled Cam right there and then. Seriously I just can't handle it,and it seems every horror/thriller movie seems to feature kids being tortured to death in some way WTF is with that? Anyway I kept watching, thinking the next kid I see doing anything other than making daisy chains I am walking out and going back to work........lucky that was the worse of it. I liked the movie in the end. Cam didn't, messaged me the next day saying it was the worst he has seen in a long time........I find that hard to believe considering the crap he watched on a weekly basis, he and his mate could run the "I am a fan of crap movies" club. Anyway I would not watch it again but it was good crappy entertainment that I didn't have to think too hard watching, I do think it is sad that in this day and age they seem to feel the need to always resort to child cruelty for shock value.

Anyway......so that is it. The Cafe has been spiffed up a little and I just proved I can talk about something other than photography.

One of the most beautiful Mums I know.

2009-03-13T16:32:00.005+11:00

I love this chick, Mums don't come much better than this one....what a gem. I managed to torment her whole family in this shoot but decided to make a Mum themed storyboard as a sampler of the shoot seeing as Mothers day is approaching.

Jane's Boys

2009-03-13T16:29:00.004+11:00

This shoot was booked well before I decided on the fundraiser, I love these boys, they are soooooo photogenic. I also had the pleasure of doing the youngest ones newborn photos........it's really rewarding to get to shoot a family more than one.

Emily and Will

2009-03-13T15:13:00.005+11:00

This shoot was a pretty big deal for me. It was my first shoot where I did not know the Mum or kids and I have to thank both Mum and kids for making it so comfortable for me. Actually I had the advantage of meeting Mum a few hours before the shoot as she was having lunch with my neighbour (Angus and Lucy's Mum). Anyway, I am very happy with the results of the shoot and can see Emily and Will being just as dominant in my portfolio as dear Angus and lucy. So a huge thankyou to Carolyn for letting me torment her kids with my camera, it was truely a pleasure.

Angus and Lucy

2009-03-13T13:57:00.004+11:00

Here is a little sampler of one of the shoots I have done for my little bushfire appeal fundraiser. One of my best shoots to date. I am having a blast at this location, great models help too!

Busy Busy Busy.

2009-03-09T08:19:00.002+11:00

Gee, I got slack real quick here didn't I. I do have a good excuse, I have been REALLY busy. After the bushfires devistated Victoria I started a little fundraiser, I am taking childrens portraits and selling a print package and donating most of the proffits to the Red Cross Bushfire appeal. I started a blog to launch the fundraiser. You can see it here.

I didn't go crazy sending the link out, I had no idea how it would go so I started with a small group of people in my email list and another small group on facebook. Having two small kids at home and a hubby working crazy shiftwork I could only take on a limited number of sessions. I was also offered to put a flier up at my Gym but didn't have to take up the offer in the end. I have only one session left.....actually two as I just had a cancellation. It has been a great learning experience for me, I have an idea of how many sessions I can take on a month now and I have had more experience with other peoples children and at the end of the fundraiser I should have a nice little portfolio.

A special thankyou goes out to my lovely next door neighbour Sarah who booked me for a session (which happens to have been my best session to date) and then refered me to her friends and got me two more bookings. I would show some of the photos but I have not got Sarah to sign my paperwork yet LOL.

Health: Yep, my health went backwards again. I was having tum problems again and thought "great, I can't eat rye aswell as wheat" but I went to the wonderful Monica Henry, and appointment I had waited over 4 months for, and found out it was the yeast......along with a ridiculous list of other foods which after a week of cutting out I was feeling worse than ever......tired, irritable and weak. Lucky for me I had my appointment with my super fab natropath, Samuel Kennedy, approaching and after a good chat with him we think we know what all my problems come down to.......my lack of gall bladder and my ability to digest properly due to that. So it's not the wheat as such, as in it;s not an allergy, it's y bodys inability to digest the wheat that is causing the problems. So I am on these drops which will help my first stage digestion, 3 days of being on them my tum was starting to ease. One week later and my tum is alsmost 100%. Amazing. My concern now is for the kids. Seems everyone in y family has tum issues and my kids are no exception. I am going to take them to my natropath to see what he thinks, maybe we can help them avoid having major issues down the track.

Camera Club: I had my third comp judging this week and I got a second place for my monochrome and a "highly commended".

A little announcement: I have my business name. I have not set anything else up but once I do I will link it from here. I am in the process of designing a logo but have had to put all things "Mugshots Photography" on hold till my fundraiser slows down. As it is I have two sessions to order prints and mounts for, another just got the gallery up and another I am in the middle of processing (this session I am processing now I am having a ball with, there are some stunning images of these siblings). I have a session this coming thursday I am also really excited about, my fav girls to photograph (other than my own of course).

Last but not least.....my family: My kids are fantastic, they really are. You know there are times when I am pulling my hair and wonder what I was thinking but those times are sooooo out weighed by the magic times, like when Anna tells me randomly she loves me, or she hugs Ryan for no reason other than she loves him, or when she sits quietly "reading" a book when she thinks no-one is looking and makes up stories to go with the pictures. And Ryan, he is a little firecracker.......a cyclone.........our own little tassie devil "Taz". But he gives the worlds best cuddles and does the cutest things and never makes a fuss over the small things that Poppy does. I love watching him dance, he has not got Anna's rhythm but Cam and I still love watching him dance. (I need to come back and read this later after is has taken me an hour to get them packed up into the car because Ryan unpacks things quicker than I can pack them and Anna has a 30min tanty over going to the toilet and washing her hands).

A huge thing for Anna at the moment is she has started 3 yr old Kindy. She is loving it, I assume she is doing OK there. She is so lovey dovey after I pick her up. This week after Kinda we went shopping for new jeans for me (yep, I had to get some smaller ones whoo hoo) and Anna says as we are walking down main ST Mornington "I love you Mummy, your my favourite girl, thankyou so much for taking me to kindy and coming to get me" with the sweetest look on her sweet little face. I stopped right there in the middle of main st and gave her the hugest cuddle..........5 mins later she was peering under the door of the change room announcing rather loudly "HI MUMMY.....I CAN SEE YOUR KNICKERS"

Another first Place WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO

2009-02-06T12:11:00.004+11:00

I am pretty bloody stoked and still on a high. I love this portrait so it is great to see a professional liked it enough to give it a place.

As far as health goes, I am still feeling great. My workouts are going great guns though my diet has not been great this week. I did not bother weighing myself this week. Why ruin my good mood? Alcohol intake has also been bad this week. I have been "emotional drinking" a little. Anyway, I feel great, am getting stronger and feel physically ready to start the walk/run regime......but don't think I am emotionally ready. Scared of failing? Scared of not being able to commit?

I am so excited about my photo. What a high.

Ah, I can't believe I almost forgot to mention Anna's big day today. It is her 3yr old Kinder orientation. We have to leave any minute actually, better get the pram out of the car. She is so excited. I had a quiet cry earlier, she is growing up. I hope she makes some fantastic new friends and there are no bully's there. I am not a fan of bully's.

Taking health for Granted.

2009-01-31T08:13:00.003+11:00

I used to take my health for granted. It was something that was just always there, sure I would get the odd cold but generally I was always healthy and my health was just there. After having Anna I got into shape, I started running and lost all my preggy weight and was in the best shape of my life. I felt fantastic.......but I was also drinking a fair bit and having late nights and after the initial health kick wore off I was eating some nasty sugary foods quite regulary.......chocolate bullets being my main weakness. But I still felt awesome most of the time.

Now I have to work hard to feel healthy. If I drink that little too much I crash, if I eat too much sugar I crash, if i don't get enough sleep I crash. I am obviously still in a semi fragile state but when I do everything right I really feel AWESOME. Like right now. This week I have stayed alcohol free (last Say was my last drink) and besides two bowls of ice-cream (not like me I know but it's been hot) I have been excellent with my sugar intake. The week before however I drank too much alcohol, I was eating and sleeping well but my alcohol intake was pretty bloody bad and I payed for it. I felt low again, and I put on 500gm despite all the exercise and how controlled I was with food.

I wasn't going to weight myself this week, I think I might go to monthly weigh ins but something made me get on that scale yesterday and was shocked when I had lost that evil 500gm because although I have not touched a drop of alcohol for 7 days I have not been walking (WAY too hot) and only made it to the gym twice. Oh and I have been eating up a storm, not bad food, just alot more of what I have been eating. I seemed to be so much more hungry this week and figured "whats the point" after last week so just gave into the hunger. I can't help but wonder if last week I wasn't eating enough. I dunno. Anyway, whatever. All I can do is keep trying and keep taking it slow so I don't burn out. I am putting off the walk/run regime for a bit longer. I feel ready to start it but with the heat the way it is I would rather just put it off and put in the hard yards at the gym and build my strength up even more. Speaking of the Gym, wow.....I really feel my strength improving now. I am LOVING it. When I first started back I felt weak and heavy and kind of blobbed my way around the circuit. The standard practice at COntours is to do two circuits, I used to always do three because I enjoy it and it is my only "me time" so I made the most of it......however when I first started back I would be looking forward to the end just after completeing the first circuit. My muscles were tired and I just wanted to stop, and this is after dropping all my weights down to below what they were when I first started there. Anyway, I don't know exactly how many visits I have had there since starting back.......six perhaps, lets say six, so after six visits I am bouncing around the circuit THREE times and I have upped most of my weights, I have actually upped my weights on four of the machines to more than what I had them at before I took my "break". It's awesome. Today I have some achies but they are good achies. I feel I am supporting myself better at the machines, rather than struggeling to stand or sit up straight at them and one of the instructors has been helping me get more out of the cardio boards. My only sook is that I can;t get there enough. If only they had child minding facilities LOL.

Oh and the other night when I blogged I did eventually pick out some photos to get printed for next months Camera Club Comp. Well I could not fully decide so I just uploaded a small selection to get printed and figured I could make up my mind once I see the prints, I got the prints back yesterday and think I have made my selection. Can't wait. The theme is "Up Close & Personal". We can submitt two small and two large colour prints and one Monochrome but the monochrome doesn't have to be in the set theme, its "open" so I am submitting what I think is my all time fav monochrome of Anna as a 8x12 print. Wish me luck LOL.

One more thing I want to blog about, because it was a milestone to our family, is Ryan's first swim at the beach. He has been to the beach (not often) but never for a swim. We all went yesterday.....as a family.....all four of us. Things like this don't happen often enough. Anyway it was awesome. Anna is obviously over her fear of the beach, which is why we stopped going because she was just miserable everytime we went and Ryan headed straight for the water..........but didn;t like going in to far with us, he was just happy to stand at the shoreline and throw things into the water. Eventually he was happy to go knee deep and sit in there as the little waves came in. He was so cute. All giggles and smiles. They each only nearly drowned once. We were there for 3 hours and by the time we left we all had stingy red beach eyes. I am happy to report absolutely NO sunburn. No photos because there was no way I was taking my camera. Cam got some on his phone but I am sure that is where they will stay. If I ever get him to get them off I will have to add some here. I topped the day off with a mega workout at the gym, I was the only one there which was awesome, it was air conned which was double awesome, by the time I got home the power had gone off here and the house was not a nice place to be......lucky for us it was only out for a few hours. It went out again during the night, I bloody hope it doesn't happen today.

Anyway, I need to get a silverside on so we can have cold meat and salad for dinner. Toodles. XX

Procrastinating

2009-01-28T13:38:00.003+11:00

I am supposed to be picking the photos to enter in the next Camera Club comp but just can't bring myself to do it. I HAVE TO THOUGH cos I am running out of time to get them printed. AAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anyway, oops I just accidentally published this before finishing LOL. Anyway, I woke up this monring and my knee felt better, went to the gym and all wasy GOOD so WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Yay. Last thing I need right now is an injury when I am feeling so damn motivated.

It's hot today and I mean HOT. You know it's hot when you hang washing out and get burnt, you need to drink a lt of water afterwards and by the time you hang the last item the first ones you hung out are almost dry.......oh and the pegs all snap cos they are so brittle. Lucky for us we have cooling, poor Cam is trying to sleep in this heat though.

It's been a while since I posted pics. A few od my old school friends and I got together last Saturday for a sausage sizzle with all our kiddlets, it was awesome. Below are a few pics. I had a great time, even if I did set the BBQ on fire......oooops.

Teans little man Will.

Tean

Nikki's stunning DD2 Indi

Nikki's stunning DD3 Miette (Nikki makes stunning babies)

and below is ME LOL. Having fun with a self portrait so I could change my flickr buddy icon.

Ouch.......

2009-01-27T07:58:00.002+11:00

Effen OUCH!!!!!

I dunno if it is the new shoes or not but I have woken up this morning with a bloody sore, really sore knee. Hurts to bend both ways, hurts to put weight on.

We went for two walks yesterday but they were tame walks, hills but only small ones. I spent A LOT of time surfing the net yesterday and I have this terrible habbit of sitting with my legs crossed like a kid when they sit on the floor, I am actually wondering if that is what has done it.

I am going to rest it as much as I can today cos as of tomorrow I can actually make it to the gym 3 days in a row then Mon, Tues, Fri next week and I really want to go.

It's meant to be 40deg for the next 4 or 5 days, so it works out well that I can make it to the Gym.

Anyway, I have to do the grocery shopping, at two different shops with both kids. Give me strength LOL.

Low.

2009-01-25T20:31:00.002+11:00

I'm on a low.

I did not resist the wine yesterday (not that I got drunk or anything but I still had some) and I did not resist a cupcake (but I was smart enough to send the leftover ones home with Nikki for her family to enjoy.....thanks Nikki, so only one it was).

I'm not feeling great today, I am 98% sure I know why (the choc craving gives it away, always does).

Some good news though, my friend did end up having her baby. Congratulations Katie. She had a little girl, 5-6 weeks early. 5lb 12oz from memory, in special care but doing OK. That is all I know for now. I can't wait to see this little princess.

Oh. And I got new "wheels" today. Will take them for a spin tomorrow. It's funny how my old ones feel like concrete now LOL.

Anyway, that's it from me. Might skip weigh in this week.

It's Friday......weigh in day.

2009-01-23T08:17:00.003+11:00

I put on 500 bloody grams.

With last weeks big loss I wasn't expecting much this week, but I wasn't expecting a gain. I went back over my diary, I exercised twice all but one day. My diet was fantatsic. My alcohol consumption was terrible......this week is to be 100% alcohol free. I also ate a massive Thai meal on Wednesday night. Still, with the amount of bloody exercise I am doing I wasn't expecting a gain.

A small part of me wants to say "F This" and eat a block of chocolate and sit on my bum and watch a chick flick. Thankfully the rest of me is enjoying the extra energy I have an the fresh air and seeing how I don't even feel like sweet treats like chocolate eating a block of it would just be silly. And if I am going to be totally honest with myself I have to admitt that clothes are beginning to fit better. This is just a minor set back. Next week will be better (It bloody better be).

Oh, I am having a BBQ with some old school friends on Saturday, I am making cupcakes......I think I will be able to resist alcohol but will I be able to resist a cupcake?

Signing off,

Peahen, the fatty Boom Bada.

P.S. My dear friend Katie's waters broke at 34 weeks in the wee hours of Wed morning. Today she will find out if they need to induce or they can send her home with antibiotics. If I was the praying type I would pray that Katie gets to go home and her little girl gets at least another 3 weeks in the oven. Thinking of you Katie. If you come home I hope you do nothing but REST REST REST. No more processing ungrateful "friends" photos untill the wee hours of the morning.

2009-01-19T12:57:00.002+11:00

Back from the natropath.

WHOO HOO. I feel like I have passed some kind of exam in highschool. As soon as I saw my blood scan on the screen even I could see the improvement LOL. I have good looking while blood cells and apparently a high count now. Inflamation gone and my red blood cells are separated (still room for improvement) and I think they stayed plump, he didn't mention them collapsing like they usually do LOL.

The only thing on my list of symptems that has not improved is my skin, I told him if anything it is worse. My hands are so dry it's uncomfortable. He had a look with with his microscope and as he grabbed my hand straight away he commented on how cold they were. He had me on Iodine for my thyroid but it hasn't helped at all. My BBT is still low and even dropped a little. He is convinced I have a thyroid problem and has now put me on a new treatement. Homopathic Thyroid Oxine. Fingers crossed this one works. The money I spent today could have gone well towards a new pair of bloody runners.

Next I mentioned my suspected hormone imbalance, the pigmentation on my face has got worse. He said it could all be thyroid related but also the Mirena has thrown my balance out and he has given me some red Clover to help balance my hormones. If not I will take a test and it will be sent off to see where I am at.

The extrememe thirst, well, fingers crossed it's all related to the thyroid. If it persists we have to look at doing a glucose test to see if I am pre-diabetic. He suggested I make sure I am having enough salt, especially if I am exercising and sweating my salts out then not replacing them. He suggested soda water (Ewwwwww) then even salt in my water (Ewwwwwwww even more).

Best news, Infection is under control finally and I am kicking arse.

So motivated.

2009-01-19T09:32:00.003+11:00

I am just so so soooooo happy when I am motivated. I have so much more energy these days and find myself unable to sit still.

Yesterday I was going to have a "free day" which to me doesn't mean sugary or fatty binges, it just means that I can relax a little on the bood v's bad carbs and have a home made wheat free pizza without beating myself up over it LOL. Speaking of the "risk promoting carbs" I have been eating corn on the cob this week and I had raw carrots twice. UmmmmmmMah. I know. I just can't follow this zone thing strictly, though I am still useing it strongly as a base to my diet.

So, yesterday, I thought I might give my legs a rest, being walking alot of hills but this glorious weather sucks me in everytime and we ended up out after dinner again. Same route as the night before, about 40mins and yes there were hills but they are tollerable. However, my shins started to hurt as soon as we set off so I am thinking these hills are getting the last bloody word in. Am I going to have a break from them.......well anyone who knows me well knows that I am most certainly going to keep giving it hell untill I am crippled with shin pain PMSL. Goes to show how much of a beating my body has copped in the last 2-3 years, shin pain just from walking.....god help me when I actually start running.

Anyway. I have my natropath appointment today, I have alot to talk with him about. I am definately going to mention my recent increase in thirst. Yes I understand I am exercising usually twice a day but seriously......3-4lt and still thirsty and my skin is so dry it is cracking. Something seriously not right there. I had two small glasses of wine last night and drank TWO litres afterwards I was so thirsty, that wine dried me out so much.....that made my water tally almost 5lt yesterday, and I know what your thinking.....No I wasn't up all night peeing.

Oooh, an old friend popped over yesterday morning. Crissy, my old running partner in crime LOL. Fingers crossed she is about to have some changes in her working hours and we will be able to start seeing each other more again. Having her over yesterday really confirmed how much I miss her friendship and now I am feeling so much more switched on and social I really want to get it back. She is a friend who shares my passion for exercise but at the same time shares the lazy moments and while on a run would think nothing of it if I needed to pull back or stop for a stretch. Hopefully it's not too long before we are both on that glorious Nunns walk track again, plodding along while having a nice little chat.

P.S. This will NOT be a AFD, I WILL be finishing that bottle of white tonight, probably while watching an embarrasing amount of Greys Anatomy episodes in bed LOL. Ah Bliss.

Walking on the spot.

2009-01-17T11:22:00.003+11:00

I woke up feeling flat this morning, though I was in bed by 8pm last night I did not go to sleep till about 11pm as i was watching episode after episode of Americas Next Top Model. Most women probably watch that show dreaming of having the looks, bodies and personality to become a model.......I watch it and dream of being the one taking photos of these women LOL. Anyway, I decided to take it a bit easier today and just walk to the shops and that's it. But it really was a nice day out and it felt so good to be out walking and the kids were so happy in the pram, a 30min walk was easily doubled and we ended up at the bottom of the steepest hill I have ever tackled with these two in the pram. I swear it was like climbing a mountain. At one point, I honestly felt like I was walking on the spot and at any moment the pram would actually push me back and we would all roll all the way back to the bottom PMSL.

I am seriously loving getting out with the pram again. It certainly adds resistance to a basic walk LOL and gets us all out of our messy house.

Now we are all tackeling a massive pile of fruit, watermelon, blackberries, strawberries and apple, oh and some almonds.

*Note: My fav black cargo style pants are getting way too big. WHOOT. Can't wait till I fit into my old fav pants, I have them all out of thier boxes hanging in full view for inspiration. Tried on a pair yesterday.....have a fair way to go.

* Come back to add in tonights walk, after dinner Poppy asked to go for another walk, I wasn't going to do an after dinner walk cos of this mornings efforts but the sun was out and it looked too good outside to say "no" so off we went. Again what was meant to be a small walk was doubled LOL. 40mins but flat compared to this morning, any hill well appear flat after this morning LOL. I am absolutely LOVING being on the move again. I am hoping all this walking is a good work up to when I start the Run/walk. I can't wait. I need new shoes though, mine have gaping holes in the inside at the heal exposing the plastic inside and that is causing rubbing that HURTS.

Got my photos back.

2009-01-16T16:14:00.003+11:00

These are the photos I got first place for in my first comp last year. I am still very very happy with myself. I only just got them back yesterday so I thought I would get a picture of them with the certificates.

I also have my own photo matting gear now so I had a go last night. I got these two done and will enter them this month. I stuffed 3 attempts.

This image is my wallpaper on my puter LOL. I love it. It was a special rose from a very special man.

Cop this for motivation, exercising and blogging. YEAH! Once the kids were in bed today I jumped on the bike, and the sun is shinning so looks like an early dinner followed by a nice long walk may be in order for me and the kids tonight. Lovin life.

Sucking it up or taking the easy way out?

2009-01-16T09:43:00.003+11:00

Would it have been easier to take the car to the shops this morning to get our bread and milk? Bloody oath......it's blowing a gale outside which if your walking on your own is fine but with a double pram with two heavy kids in it going up a rather steep incline (well even the smallest inclines feel steep when your pushing two kids in a pram)it can feel like your making a huge mistake LOL. Still, I love to walk to the shops because I HATE HATE HATE getting both kids in and out of the car and walking them through that dredful car park at Bentons square so it's all good.

So. Yay to me, for not taking the easy way out. There was a time late last year when it was a struggle to get off the couch and have a pee, I am loving my new energy and getting my motivation back. This is the Karina I used to know LOL.

Oh, have some photos to post later.

A nice surprise.

2009-01-16T07:52:00.000+11:00

Weight this morning.........63kg

I wanna chicken out......

2009-01-15T20:02:00.002+11:00

............from tomorrows weigh in.

I have eaten really well this week, I have exercised most days if not all of them but still I do not feel I have lost weight, I don't feel lighter and if anything I feel like I have put on. I have done everything right, I know I have, I have done the best I can in the condition I am in.

Had my first day back at the gym today. Went well, dropped my weights and took it easy. My legs feel tired and heavy now the muscles in my upper back, are they lats? Anyway they are also feeling heavy and tired.

I have decided to hold off the walk/run for a week or two, I really want to do this right and planned to ease pack into it all so started the gym and the walk/run at the same time seemed silly. So I will give the gym a week or so then start it, I have to do the walk/run straight after the gym so I don't recon I would go too well ATM anyway LOL.

Have been walking more with the kids the last few weeks. We order our bread from bakers delight, they only bake wheat free on a friday so every friday we walk to get it, plus the odd walk during the week and now a few after dinner. I love the after dinner walk. I want to make the most of that before daylight savings ends. The kids love it.

Tonight the kids and Cam had fish & chips. Cam loves his fish & chips. I hate it. I hate fish and since going off most nasty carbs I don;t miss potato so you can shove the chips. Have never liked battered stuff (except those franks in batter when i was a kid) which is good cos due to the wheat they are right off the menu. So I made myself grilled chicken and a really simple salad. I was going to have a few chips but they were rank so I had two and left it at that.

If there is anything I want to do differently next week it will be my alcohol intake. Though I have been drinking in moderation I have been drinking the last 4 nights. The hot weather a few days ago had me fanging for a beer (or two) and tonight I am finishing last nights bottle of Merlot. Everything else I have been happy with. I feel GREAT, motivated and on my way. Of course I am hoping for a weight loss tomorrow but I don't think I am going to get it. I remember after having Anna I was going boot camp for months and never really lost much, then I started running, and still didn't lose much untill all the sudden it all just fell off. It was frustrating when I wasn't losing but it payed off in the end. So if the loss is slow to start with I will just keep going in hope it happens like that again.

Anyway, wasn't gonna blog tonight but I am waiting for Crissy to come online for a chat so I had some time on my hands. Now I wont have to say much tomorrow cos I have already blogged LOL.

If I don't blog tomorrow you know it was bad news on the scales and I am off scoffing a batch of nachos with loads of avacado LOL.

A goal for 09

2009-01-12T08:42:00.002+11:00

I never make resolutions. EVER. but this year I made ONE general resolution and that was to set goals to achieve one thing.....to get back to my old happy self. With last years, what I refer to as my "Crash", I really became very unhappy. I am frustrated at my level of fitness and motivation and my weight but at the same time I was too tired and sick to do anything about it. It was a very very VERY frustrating and upsetting time for me and I am sure Cam and the kids. Anyway. I feel I am in a better place now to start getting my life back on track and gaining some much needed control. Time to set some of these much needed goals. Not all my goals will be blogged and the ones that will be blogged will not all be blogged at once. While I have always found my blog a great motivational tool I also hated putting myself "out there" only to crash and burn and be embarrased. So one thing at a time here.

Goal #1 - Lose 5kg.

I have not decided yet if I will add my weekly weights, though I will be a good sport and add my starting weight, as of last Friday so the 9th Jan.......65kg. Why Fridays, cos that is how I work, I have always weighed in on a thurs or friday. Cop it.

I am in a great position to do this. My food cravings are well under control, since seeing that natropath my sugar cravings are killed and I really no longer feel a slave to sugar. Theory is the reason I was loading up so much on it was cos of the bacteria infection I had, bacteria feeds on sugar so it tricks your body into thinking it needs sugar so you get cravings. Seriosuly since getting that bacteria infection under some control I have noticed a MASSIVE difference in my sugar intake. Anyway, I am drinking loads of water and green tea, I am limiting alcohol by setting myself a certain amount of alcohol free days a week (I have to have at least that many but of course having whole alcohol free weeks would be better). I am eating more protein and fresh food while following the zone diet as well as I can. I have started walking and using my bike ove rthe last few weeks and have not fallen sick so am upping the anti LOL. So yes this is it, it's now or never, it's time to shed that weight.

My natropath says I may have a little trouble shedding the weight due to my sluggish thyroid, and TBH I have been very surprised that I have not been losing much weight with the way I have been eating (I really have made HUGE changes in the last 2 months)but I will try not to worry too much untill I have been exercising consistantly. I am hoping that getting back to regular exercise will help my thyroid naturally, and when (if) my body ever starts working properly after the iud removal and my hormones come back to normal that will also help.

I would love to start the walk/run regime. I just don't know if I can dedicate 3 days a week to it.......It's not like I want to wish the years away with the kids but this is one thing I am going to love about the kids being in school. Just to be able to take 30-60mins out of the day for ME consistantly....sweet. Anyway, I will have to do it on Gym days, I am hoping to go back to the gym tomorrow......the decision is pending but looking very very hopeful. If I can I will perhaps go for my first walk/run. I am really looking forward to the walk/run regime.....esp the first week so I know I can do it easily.....not like the first time I did it LOL. I have the tools I need to do it right this time, I know how to take it slow, the first time I did this it was more like a walk/sprint and I wondered why it was so damn hard.

Anyway. So there, it's out there. Yes I NEED to lose this weight but I also really WANT to. I can only count on myself for motivation so I need to be focused and strong. Today, I just want to take the kids to the park. It's a decent walk with two large kids in the pram so I am happy with that for exercise. Just checked the radar and though it looks gloomy we will not be rained on. So off to get Ryan his milk then off we go.

Walk Run Regime

2009-01-11T20:30:00.002+11:00

When I was really struggling with ingury when I first started jogging after having Anna a dude from the running forum posted the "Walk/Run" Regime for me. It was a great way to start running. I can't believe I have to start right back at the start again......Oh well, I am just happy to be feeling well enough (for now) to even feel like getting back out there at all. So this is it, copy and pasted from the forum.

Running Regime for Beginners

Each session takes 30 minutes

Week 1 - Run 2 minutes, walk 4 minutes. 5 repetitions

Week 2 - Run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. 5 repetitions.

Week 3 - Run 5 minutes, walk 2.5minutes. 4 repetitions.

Week 4 - Run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes. 3 repetitions.

Week 5 - Run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes. 3 repetitions.

Week 6 - Run 9 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat then run 8 minutes.

Week 7 - Run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute. 3 repetitions.

Week 8 - Run 13 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat.

Week 9 - Run 14 minutes, walk 1 minute. Repeat.

Week 10 - Run 30 minutes.

Some rules to remember.

Run as slowly as possible, especially in the first few weeks. You should be able to maintain a conversation while running even if you don’t particularly want to.

Always stretch your calves, quads, hamstrings and groin after running but not before.

After the first two weeks, buy proper running shoes. You can’t spend too much on shoes.

Do three sessions per week. Never run two or more days in a row in the first ten weeks. Your legs will need at least forty-eight hours to recover from the stress of each run.

Have fun. If you follow the regime and the rules you should stay injury free. You’ll be amazed at the results.

I don't know when I will start this, I just wanted it here for when I do, might add it to the direct links bar so I don't have to look for it when I need it.

"Zone" Breaky

2009-01-10T15:09:00.002+11:00

I am adding this to my blog mainly for my own benefit, the sheet my natropath gave me with this recipe on it is getting all mangled in my kitchen and water drops are washing the ink away. So.....this is the breaky my natropath put em on to to replace porriage with banana and honey. I love it.

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups unprocessed bran

1 cup oatbran

1 cup rice bran

1/2 cup natural sultanas

1/2 cup currents

1/2 cup chopped dried aplicots

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup green pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Being wheat free I have had to alter it a little, I replace the 2 cups of unprocessed bran with a cup of each rice bran and oat bran, or usually 1.5 cups oatbran and half a cup rice bran depending on my mood the day I make the batch.

I could not find rice bran at the supermarket but I was able to get it at the local gluten free shop. I am sure health food shops would also stock it.

Getting Festive with Food

2008-12-20T07:36:00.004+11:00

This is my first blog post on my brand spanking puter. The other one was not cutting the mustard for photo editing so my lovely hubby was kind enough to get me a new one (and is now secretly coverting it I bet LOL). It's a ripper and the monitor is devine for editing.....much better than the 15" I was using.

Anyway, I suppose now would be a good time to brielfy discuss my health this year. It's a long long winded story that I am sure no-one really wants to read so I will just keep it very brief. Pretty much since Ryan was born I have not felt right. I can't get my motivation back, I am always tired and ALWAYS getting sick. It's as if I never recovered from his birth. Anyway this year I have been lethargic and in general unable to cope with the days smallest tasks........pushed to the edge with the big ones. Everytime I tried to get back to running or pushed it at the gym I would end up sick, headcolds would last 6 weeks and eventually I ended up with a sinus infection. On top of that I was having stomach issues, bloating to the point I looked pregnant and it was hard and uncomfortable and pains that would have me crippled, doubled over begging for a hot water bottle.

Without going into the boring details of how I was diagnosed, in my quest to find out what was wrong with me I found out I was wheat intolerant, I was carrying a bacteria infection in my gut which was attacking my imune system and making me very very sick and I have a borderline underactive thyroid and my hormones were all over the place due to my Mirena IUD (which could have also been feeding the infection). I went to get the IUD removed but the strings were GONE. I had to have an ultrasound to make sure it was still where it should be then have it surgically removed. You ladies would know what these bastards look like, well the stem of the IUD had actually bent up against itself in some way and so the strings were pointing up rather than down if that makes any sence.

Anyway. I have been on treatment for the last 5 weeks for the bacteria infection and within days pf tretment the bloating started to go down. I was put on an immune deficiency diet for 2 weeks which included no sugar (even fruit) which was actually easier than I thought and helped kick some of my insane sugar cravings. I have now been put onto the Insulin Zone system diet which I am loving. With it I am really getting into cooking and food preparation, as all our meals are thoughtfully prepared now rather than re-heated or slapped together in two pieces of bread LOL. I am certainly feeling the benefits....even if I am not losing much weight. That brings me to the thyroid. Apparently the reason I am finding it so hard to shift this weight is because I have a borderline underactive thyroid. It also could explain why I am always so cold and have this mega brain fod. So for now I am on Iodine for that but if that doesn't help will have to look into hormone replacements of some kind.

So.......that is where I am at right now. Feeling pretty bloody good, I have answers and am recovering. Enjoying being wheat free, there is not too much I miss at all. I have not even missed my choc bullets (I actually cried when I read the back of the packed and asw they contained wheat and I thought they made me sick cos of how many I eat LOL). I can't even remember how long I have been wheat free for....must be at least 2 months. The zone diet is awesome, it makes sence and it has really helped with my energy levels and food cravings. I get to relax a bit on the weekends.

I was ordered to stop exercise by my natropath. He said my white blood cells were in such a state that I had no stamina and any exertion would make me sick.....which is what was happening. Within 4 weeks he was surprised to see the improvement in my blood and told me I could return to the gym but I suspended the membership till Jan so Jan it is. Looking forward to it as my "Me time" is pretty much zero these days and really affecting me.

So we are 5 sleeps away from Xmas. We are all prepared here. I have already recieved all my gifts LOL, I got my new puter, a new LENS which I am totally in love with and a camera case (which is actually a projector case I could fit my son into but I wont go into that) so I have been well and truely spoilt. I taking a lamb roast, silverside and wheat free cupcakes to our family Xmas feast. I should have picked salad as a very good friend of mine gave me the BEST EVER salad recipe and we have been eating it most days here and I just want to share it with everyone LOL. Maybe next year. Anyway, here are a few festive food pics for you.

Wheat free lemon cupcakes Mmmmmmm

Grilled chicken breast with mediteranian seasoning (thanks Jess) and the famous salad. (my lunch a few days back)

This is how a group of Mum's relieve some Xmas stress LOL. Monring champers at Mum's group this week. One od the ladies (same one with the dang salad recipe) had a jar of these hibiscus flowers in syrup. Your meant to put the flower and syrup in first but we forgot which is good cos I would not have got this shot other wise. Loving this lens. One of the ladies didn't touch hers...........can I be bold enough to hope for a Xmas BFP?

Flowers and Foliage

2008-11-16T19:38:00.007+11:00

For personal reasons I have backed right off portfolio building, but I have still been taking LOADS of photos and playing as much as I can. I have always drrled over some of the amazing flower and foliage images in flickr and cursed the price of lenses. There is no way I can afford a macro lens to be able to play with flowers and foliage.....WRONG! Well I was right, I can't afford one but I was wrong to think that not having one should hold me back from trying. So I have been getting the most out of my 50mm and then processing the crap out of the images to get some different and what I think are lovely results. I consider this practice for the experimentals in next years camera club comps. I find it really hard to REALLY cut loose on my photos in photoshop, I feel kind of "naughty" doing it so I often hold back. Some of these I have gone to town on and others I held back. Some I wish I binned and others I love and am considering walling. All of them I had a ball producing and learned from each and every one of them.

A Family Member turns 11

2008-11-16T18:58:00.004+11:00

This post is more for my absolutely amazingly wonderful husband who is 120% dedicated to his dog Jack.

I was not able to blog this when I wanted as blogger has been a bit off a poohead lately.

At approx 11am on the 11th of the 11th 11 years ago a very important family member was born. The family actually started as Cam and Jack, Jack was kind enough to let me into thier family 8 years ago and we kind of expanded from there LOL.

I will never forget the time Cam and I took the Kayaks out....or was it the tinnie? Anyway, we got back ans found the gate open, we were out for HOURS but there was Jack, sitting in the driveway waiting for us. He is loyal and offers nothing but unconditional love. Happy B'day to Jack for the 11th of November. Perhaps he should have been named Horace!

All photos here taken at 11am on the 11th of November as Jack turned 11 years old!

Photographers day out at The Briars

2008-10-18T09:09:00.007+11:00

A few days ago a wonderful group of female photographers got together and had a little photo shoot at The Briars in Mt Martha. I was very very lucky to be a part of this little group.

One of the photographers happened to have a rather large bunch of balloons as it was her youngest daughters first Birthday.......they made a fab prop. So we set the kids off running with the balloons, twirling parasols and climbing trees like monkeys (or possums). The kids had a great time, as did we. There were outfit changes and tantys (one guess who the tanty thrower was)

It was a huge experience for me who specialises in "Mug shots". To get out and take "environmental" shots was rather challenging.....and the processing afterwards was even more of a challenge. I take most of my portraits indoos using natural light and have NEVER had to deal with colour casts like what we copped from this shoot. But I think I managed some sweet photos. I am hanging to see what the other girls got. I know Amanda got some stunners of our little Anna. Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. You wanna see pics right?

Amanda's little girl Trin

The Murphster.

I love this one of Anna. Yes there was some dress swapping LOL

And for those of you who really know me well, no I did ot vomit or pass out at the sight of the balloons. I think being in the big open area helped LOL. I handled it really really well.

I'm a WINNER

2008-10-18T08:29:00.002+11:00

Sitting here thinking, I really can not remember too many times in my life where I have come first in things......except in swimming when I was a kid where it was a wonderful regular occurance.

Last month I entered my first Camera Club comp. I entered 5 photos. Two large, two small and an experimental. The photos were then given to a professional photographer for a month and he was to judge them, give points and critique. Then at the next montly meet we were to recieve our scores and hand in our next months photos.

I was so excited. I had entered one of my all time fav pics and I was certain it was going to do well LOL. The night came around quite quickly and I sat there ill with nerves as the judge put each photo up on the stand and critiqued them and gave the final scores. They started with "smalls" and I could see one of mine but not the other which made me nervous cos the one I couldn't see was one of my bests. Anyway when I knew mine was next I seriously could have puked right there and then, I was so nervous.....and for good reason. The photographer, Peter English (a retired professional photographer) may as well have just told me to bin the photo and start again, and rightly so LOL. Sometimes you just need to be told something is crap by someone else to really believe it. I felt a but better once that one was over, but still wondered where my other photo was, then they moved onto the back of the big photo stand where there were more photos. Yay....it must be there then, I couldn't help but notice that all the pics on this side of the boards were getting high scores and honerably mentions. Now if I wasn't feeling queasy earlier I definately was by now LOL. There were so many photos, I thought it would never end, he awarded third place, then a few more high scores then second place, then an honerable mention......then I saw MY photo being passed to him......I stopped breathing and as he took the photo into his hand he says "Now this is what it is all about" and RAVED about my photo of my little girl. AAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH. I could have cried.....if I didn't mind making an absolute tool of myself LOL. He mentioned the lighting, the eyes, the teeth the smile, the eye contact. He said it was a beautiful portrait of a beautiful girl. I just sat there and beamed my face off LOL. AT this point the judge does not know eho took the photos and doesn't find out till later when he actually hands out the certificates.

You would think that would be the end of my nerves. But no....cos remember I submitted an absolute fav of mine, a photo which I personally consider to be one of the best photos in the world. It was in the "large" category, i'd had it printed 8x10. He seemed to hand out the first place for the large photos really early on, and second and third soon followed so I knew my fav photo had not got as place.......but I wasn't prepared for it to get such a low score. It recieved a 9/15 howeve he did not give me any creative critisism on it like he did for every other low scoring photo so I am going to take comfort in the fact that perhaps there was nothing technically wrong with it and he just didn't like it. He gave another photo of Anna a 10/15, I was not expecting much more cos she had her eyes closed and one eye was slightly out of focus, but he didn't mention those things, he mentioned how the colours were off and he would have prefered to see a tighter crop. SOmething I would never have seen, this is what it is all about for me.....learning to see things alot better so I am just as grateful for the low scores and valuable CC then getting places.

Experimentals were next. There are never as many entries in this category but still I have seen what is done and didn't expect much. I have been to a few judgings now but just never had anything entered. Anyway to cut a really long and what I am sure is a boring story to you short, I GOT FIRST PLACE again. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Peter English raved about my photo again, he said it would make a good advertisement in a magazine, the pose was perfect as was the lighting. Then he wanted to know who took it but was told he would find out when he handed the certificates out LOL. When my turn came to recieve my certificate he said "if you have any money open up a studio". SO if anyone out there wants to give me a rather large sum of money please feel free to do so LOL. I will take free protraits for you for the rest of your life PMSL.

Anyway....here are the winning photos. " Introducing Anna"

and "Bronzed Bride"

If you got this far, thankyou so much for reading XXX

It's Black and White

2008-09-17T23:06:00.006+10:00

As I mentioned in my last blog entry i have been working on my B&W's. MOnochrome has never been my thing. I love colour. But there was something the guest photographer at Camera Club sad that got my bum into gear and interested in improving my B&W's. I think I am finding my very own "grove" with it. These conversions are very very different to the "blown out" ones I used to do using actions. I am liking them though, I am even enjoying them. I seem to be finding my style in B&W much easier then in my colours whcih to me is odd. Anyway here they are.

Um, this one is only half processed........oops.

This one could very well end up on the wall.

It's all about photography.

2008-09-14T22:18:00.005+10:00

I am not going to lie to you, all I can talk about is photography. I know I am obsessed LOL. I just love it. I love nothing more than taking photos.

I have been hanging out to blog these photos I took for a friend off Parents Home but I wanted to wait untill she got her prints. This lovely Mum and her baby were an absolute pleasure to photograph. This baby boy was PERFECT. He slept and he curled. "Mum" ordered a 10x20 storyboard which I was stoked about but once I got it back from the printer I did not want to part with it LOL. I thought it would look quite nice on my wall, it's nice to be so proud of something.

Anyway here is a small selection of the photos.

The storyboard

He really was such a special little guy to work with. Still I learned heaps from the session, always learning.

I am loving Camera Club. I just entered my first Camera Club comp which is exciting. I am not expecting to do great in the comp but I am really looking forward to getting real constructive critisism from a pro photographer.

The photographer who judged the last comp gave us a little talk on B&W's so I have been working on my B&W conversions lately. I am actually having fun with that by developing a better understanding of tonal range in my B&W's I also improve on my colour work.

I have had two "girls nights out" recently......one was just last night. I am a real girly girl and LOVE getting out with a group of great gals and sharing some good food, wine and adult conversation. Last night was witht he Parents Home girls. I was so excited about it for two days leading up to it in my head I kept saying "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE" every time I thought about it. It's a bit of an "in joke" now on Parents Home LOL.

Anyway, I am soooo tired. Cam is watching a horror movie in bed so I have been putting off going to bed. I just can't stomach that crap anymore. But I am barely staying awake now, have not been getting much good quality sleep lately. Everyone has been sick. Cam has had the flu (the real flu) and TBH has not been very pleasent to sleep next to (sorry honey but you know it's true) the kids have also had a nasty virus and when it's not one of them getting you up it's the other. Now Cam is much better but has this annoying dry cough, so yeah, no-one is getting much sleep and everyone is grumpy. We are going on a holiday soon, we all need it.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have so many photos to blog so I really have to get back in more often. Expect another entry soon after this one.

"when are you updating your blog?"

2008-08-05T12:10:00.003+10:00

I can finally add pictures LOL YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

This is the mounted 10x20 storyboard we just got for the dining room.

Here you can see the effect of the linen overlay.

The above two were an experiment gone WRONG!

My absolutely stunning boy, OMG he is just the cutest.

The above two are images from my first newborn shoot.

ANother storyboard I am considering getting printed and mounted. 16x20 I think.

I just did this one tonight, I am happy with it, just experimenting really.

And some more sea/landscapes......whatever you wanna call them. (That middle one is a pond so to all the fickle buggers out there who get thier noses out of joint about the "scapes" being names incorrectly.......it's a "PONDSCAPE")

Ok Ok......I have heard this a few times this week so I am making an effort to update the blog lol. I should be working on the photo I want to submitt to my first comp but I will play here instead LOL.

I have just joined the local Camera club and I am so excited. I feel I have finally found somewhere I actually "fit in". I am really excited about getting my photos judged and critiqued.....the learning really begins now.

I had my second Newborn shoot almost exactly two weeks ago and it went really well. Baby J was perfect and his Mum is one of those natural beauties who shows up as nothing less than radient in the photos. So I am wrapped.

I just recieved an order yesterday with the mounted storyboard I ordered.......it looks sensational and is hanging in the dining room.......hang on have to get my tea, it's been brewing for 20mins........we also got one of my seascapes enlarged to 14x20 just to see what it would look like as I only have a 6MP camera so in theory it should look rubbish but it actually turned out really good......so there goes my dreams of getting a D300 (or better stil, a D700).

The kids are sick, both have gastro. One is sleeping it off in his cot and the other on the couch with her doona. I just sculled my cup of tea, I am so tired.

Anyway, here are some pics. Actually Blogger wont let me upload any pics LOL. So I will leave it at this and come back and finishe this when I can. My Calibration pack just arrived so I am going to get busy calibrating my monitor........my absolute fav thing in the world to do.

Having so much fun

2008-07-04T17:02:00.002+10:00

A few days ago while the bay was chopping up a treat Mum Dad and I went out armed with out camera and cut sick. I think it's safe to say we all had an absolute blast.....well I certainly did and now I am having even more fun processing the gems that came out of it.....well I have processed 3 of them and will be getting stuck into them once I finish this CD for a friend tonight.

Dad took this one of me, I think it is cool to have a photo of me taking the photos below LOL. (Thanks Dad XXX)

A little weird and overdone, might take this one back to the drawing board.

My personal Fav, I love the moss on the rock.

I am itching to get onto these pics of Jodi and her Daughter. I could not resist having a quick go at one this morning.

Our boy turns one.

2008-06-30T19:37:00.003+10:00

Wow! Our boy is one! And what an emotional day it was LOL. Ryan and I had a very shakey start but the last 7 months have been absolutely blissfull and he is such a charming little boy now I just want to hit pause.

The week leading up to Ryan's B'day was very busy with party preparation. I was pretty much on my own for the week so just did little bit by bit. The day before his party my fav cousin Jodi decided to pop in PMSL. Can you imagine the shock I got when I answered my door and herself and her beautiful little daughter were standing on my front porch? Seems they caught word of my home made sausage rolls and could not resist the trip (they are from QLD). My parents and Cam had known for months they were coming and kept it secret from me. It was an awesome surprise, an emotional one too.

Anyway as you can imagine the party preps were a little harder then, I was excited and the house was a tad crazy. Still we got there and the party went well the next day.

You will see in the below pics Ryan loved his wheat dairy and egg free cake. He certainly enjoyed "massaging" the icing. This was the only time of the day I got pics as I was too busy for the rest of it.

On his actual B'day he had a Paed appointment and just afterwards we managed to get a family shot at Ryan's birth time.

Another cousin from the same family was also in Vic for the same week and managed to get down to the peninsula for a night so we managed to catch up for a few hours which was awesome. Kellie from Darwin grew up in Victoria and even though we were still about 3 hours away we were quite close, we even managed to stay pen pals in highschool (I still have her letters). We are only a few weeks different in age. Jodi and her DD are from QLD and we hit it off when I was about 18 at my brothers wedding. Jodi and her DD were at my wedding and they really took the edge off. I absolutely loved sharing my house with them (mainly cos Jodi cleaned up after me LOL) however I am now 1.5kg heavier and in need of some serious detox, we averaged 2-3 bottles of red per night and about 3-5 hours sleep. Miss A just looooved having a little playmate though I think Miss O was looking forward to getting some personal space back by the 2nd day as Miss A can be a little demanding and suffercating.

Anyway it was a very exciting, fun but exhausting week with loads of fond and fun memories (some of which I caught on video and might have to make a you tube clip of).

Jodi was also nice enough to let me shove my beloved camera in thier faces for some mummy daughter shots. Can't wait to show them off if I ever get time to process them.

Anyway, that's it for this update, thanks for the last lot of messages. And No Na, your not a troll PMSL. Here are some pics.

The family portrait taken at Ryan's birth time.

This can only mean trouble! From left: Kellie, Jodi & Meeeeeeee. These two are horrible girls, they pinned me to the floor and spanked by bum......Jodi's spank bruised, she's a violent soul who then went on the attack me in the local chemist causing a right scene. Nevermind, she will get hers.....on you-tube LOL.

Distancing myself

2008-06-14T11:12:00.004+10:00

Distancing myself from the computer that is, for a few reasons. I wont go into one of the reasons, many of you know anyway but I do not wish to give publicity to the matter on my blog.....Trolls do not deserve a mention on my blog.....AAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, I just mentioned Trolls PMSL. Anyway thanks PH and EB girls for being so understanding. The main reasons however are that I am just too busy. Ryans B'day is fast approaching and I want to try and cater it 100% myself so I know what is in the food I am serving.....the content of party pies frightenes the hell out of me. I also need to try and make him a dairy and egg free cake, I really should get onto that. Anyway my life is just so wonderfull ATM that I can't be bothered with the Net much. I am enjoying watching disney movies with Anna and TBH Ryan needs ALOT of supervision so I can not take my eye off him when he is up LOL. I have also been concentrating on my fitness. I Have been purposely avoided making any posts about my progress and still will not say too much cos I don't want to jinx myself but I will go as far as saying I have ignighted a previous passion and it is going well......slow but steady and with HUGE improvements (though I am still a fatty and 4-5kg off my pre preg weight Grrrrrr). So I am just not finding much time for the net lately.

I have still been enjoying my little photography hobby but taken a step back from the "business" side of it and decided not to take any major steps untill both kids are in school, I just want to enjoy them as much as I can before I "lose" them and gain some time for myself LOL. Infact Flickr is pretty much the only online community I am semi keeping up with during this massive online community break I am having......and even that is giving me the willies with "fakes", "trolls" and general bitchiness that I have been witnessing.

Anyway the main thing is I am very happy, getting fit again, very much in love with my family (and my camera of course) I have been suffering some terrible headaches for the last few months.......but that is my biggest complaint so Yay to me. The headaches are just another reason to back off the computer IMO.

Vanessa, you scolded me the other day for not posting new photos LOL. I know I have been lazy and I am sorry, here are some new ones starting with my latest absolute fav of Anna. I just looooove this photos of her (below).
Ryan testing out his new "first pair of shoes" (also note the cool beanie)

Ryan with his new home made crochet beanie, more pics to come of that with a link to the pattern.

I know I have been slack with pics from Anna's B'day (back in April) but here is her B'day cake. We get this for her every year. It's the yummiest cake I have ever ever had.

And I just had to show off a friend of mine's handy work. Kate in our Mother's Group would have to be the worlds best baker and for Her daughters B'day she made this scrummy choc cake and surrounded it with these delightful yellow spinkled cup cakes to resemble a sunflower. It looked and tasted divine.

I have a few more pics to share soon. Ran out of time today though. Lunchtime here and I am feeling rather empty after this mornings Gym then jog.

What it's all about.

2008-05-11T15:59:00.005+10:00

Anna

And Ryan

Happy Mothers Day!

Meet Seth

2008-05-09T15:54:00.004+10:00

A little while back a dear friend of mine let me practice my photography on her beautiful little boy Seth. I'm sure she wont mind me saying it was a little challenging due to the fact Seth had better things to do than sit still for the camera LOL But we managed a few fluke shots. Seth would have to be most layed back, chilled out and charming little guy I know, I personally think his Mum hit the Jackpot with him and I can't wait to take more pics of him....The next lot will feature his big brother.

Anyway....Introducing "Seth"

Above: This is a fav of mine

Another Fav.

Now......Introducing MY BOOTS
Happy Mother's Day to me LOL, this is what I got for Mother's Day, I love them. I had to post them for the PH girls.

I am now 28

2008-05-02T22:16:00.010+10:00

Earlier this week I tuned 28, WOW! Most of the time I feel like I am 40. The day before my B'day I got a haircut and my very first ever massage.....I am not hooked....to massages not haircuts LOL. For my B'day Cam and the kids got me a new Lens and flashgun (which I had already recieved) and a backdrop stand with a white backdrop....which is about to come in real handy as it would appear I have my first real "Booking" in a week or so (Thanks Chelle). I am pumped. Anyway Cam and the kids took me out to lunch and then we went for a drive to Sorrento. I took some pics....Oh I forgot about them and wanted to post the pelican pics, oh well, next time. On the way home we witnessed the most stunning early sunset we have seen in a while. Breathtaking as sunsets always are but we could only stop for pics while the sun was still quite high as we had to get the kids home.

Anyway, here are my last SP's as a 27 yr old....April had me feeling a little crazy in the end. I bit off more than I could chew. I am done with Challenges for a while now. The beginners Challenges were frustrating me and killing my confidence and the "Photo a Day" challenge was great but perhaps I picked a bad month LOL. I had a particular idea in mind for these SP's and it wasn't working. I can't even remember what that idea was anyway this was the end result as I just got so frustrated. I love it, it's funny and portrays how I feel most of the time PMSL.

This was hillarious....I had to set the tripod outside to fit the shot in....and didn't realise that I could have worn shorts and a singlet and got the same effect as wearing just my jocks......so here I am running outside, holding my boobs to set the self timer.....I only took two shots, I was too scared of someone seeing me LOL. I am wrapped though cos it turned out exactly as I had pictured it to.....and my hair looks bloody awesome when flipped upside down. This was for one of my "Photo a Day's"

Another one for "Photo a Day" but this is my absolute last pic taken as a 27 yr old on the day before my B'day. I had just got my hair cut and got this annoying side fringe cut into it. I hate it, it looks OK but it is annoying. There is a grey hair in that photo.
Oh My Beer photo....should I add it? Oh what the hell, it got a good responce so I will. Yep....April......definately sends me CRAZY!!!!!

Now for my stunning little girl..........

My first attempt at full on backlighting with low sun trying to get some lens flares. Oh actually I got some of Ryan that evening too.

It's really hard to focus when your looking into the sun and your blinded....so these are OOF. DUnno what the trick is there. Using AF perhaps? My Lens wont AF on my camera LOL....we went to the cheaper option.

Next post I will have to dedicate the the second most charming little guy I know.....Mr Seth. His Mum said I could pick a few fav pics to post so I am going to LOL.

Blog Lazy.....

2008-04-20T22:10:00.007+10:00

.......I know I know, I have been neglecting my blog. I have been super busy with Anna's B'day.......Yes that's right my baby girl is now THREE!!!!!! Ah, when did that happen? Crazy crazy. It wasn't just Anna's B'day, on that weekend it was Anna's B'day then the following day it was a little frind of her's Caleb's B'day, I met Caleb's Mum (Vanessa...Hi Ness) in hospital when I had Anna, we were neighbours LOL, then the following day it was Seths B'day party (most of you have seen Seth's photos on Flickr and have already fallen in love with him LOL. I will post a pic or two of him after his Mum has the CD full of photos). Anyway then a few days later it was Mum's B'day.....I have to say....if I see another B'day cake I am going to repeat my actions of the rotten egg incident. Speaking of Cake, I have to make time to do a post featuring Anna's B'day pics. They are not great as I was more interested in enjoying the day than taking photos and really didn;t care LOL......but I will post them all the same to show you how happy she was and how divine her cake was. I also have to post the rest of the necklace pics.

I have not been well, I'm still not. I am suffering terrible headaches, I am exhausted and I have been dizzy. It's all getting a bit scarey actually. I think I am seriously run down. For a week there I wasn't even enjoying taking photos......but then a new challenege was set in the beginners group I am part of and I have been fired up again LOL. LANDSCAPES......somehting I desperately need help with so the practice and CC given on my pics this week are priceless. I love a good landscape and want to be able to take them. If I get time I will post some tonight.

Today I took the kids to the beach, just for some time out of the house and so I could get some nice photos of them for myself....not for any challenges. I also wanted to practice my Backlighting shots. I also wanted to see what Ryan thought of the beach LOL. Turns out he thinks Sand is very very tasty and the sea calls to him as if he were a baby turtle making his first voyage to the water. Made taking photos very hard, but it also made for a fun time with the kids paddeling in the water and me so happy that they were both having so much fun. I got some nice photos of Anna but the ones of Ryan sucked. He had sand all around his mouth too from the fistfulls he was eating.

Anyway, that is my update. I will try to find some pics to post. First here is one of Ryan yesterday drinking his milk....well pretending to drink it LOL. I love this pic.

The above three were taken on Friday (18th April) I just wanted to test out some settings on my camera, trying to get a better SOOC shot. These are all SOOC and I am very happy with them TBH. Beats spending time PPing them. Oh actually....the bottom one was cropped. I also took some in RAW and the colour difference and clarity are amazing.....but I have to say that this time I prefer the SOOC JPEG's. I will post the RAW one abother time, I'll do a storyboard to compare them.

These last two were taken a few weeks back, maybe even a month back. It was a stormy day....actually it was not long before the melbourne storms hit. I had a turd of a time. It was freezing and I had just been to the Gym so I wasn't exactly rugged up. I had the wrong lens on my camera, I had forgotten to change my ISO from the day before, I fell in a canal and got my sneakers and orthotics wet.....soaked, I had to get down onto my belly for that top shot and came home with sand in my jocks and my lens got covered in salt spray. On a positive note I did not drop my camera in the water, my lens is fine and I love the shots I got in the end.

And finally.....here are todays beach shots of Anna.

"Cracking me up"

Baked Beads

2008-04-06T20:17:00.005+10:00

Baked Beads. What you need!

4 cups of plain flour

1 cup of salt

1.5 cups of cold water

Food colourings

Skewer

Oven Tray & Baking paper

Time.....this is not one to be rushed

What to do!

Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl, if your cooking salt is lumpy like mine make sure you break up all the lumps. Anna did a good job of this for me.

Add the water and mix together before transfering to a floured board or bench. Knead untill the dough is smooth and not falling apart, about 5 mins. You will be kneading more once the food colourings are added so don't be too fussy, you don't want the dough to dry out.

Divide the dough into equal amounts depending on how many colours you would like, Anna decided to make 8 different colours (however not all of them made it to the oven LOL). Add the food colouring, I found the best and most fun way to do this was to flatten the dough, make a little well and just add a little puddle., Then squish it all together over the sink, work it in a bit then transfer it to your bench and knead untill the colour is even and the dough is smooth. Little arms are tried by now so it's time for adult hands to get dirty (the dye will have worn off the following day).

Roll the dough into different shapes....or just round beads if you prefer. Use a skewer to poke holes through the beads.

Place the beads onto an oven tray lined with baking paper so as they are not touching.

Place the tray into a preheated "slow oven" now I have had conflicting on what "slow" means. After ruining our first batch Anna and I found that turning the fan off and having the oven set at 110-120deg was PERFECT. Too hot and the beads will dry out too quick, expland and split. (This batch pictured above ended up in the bin.) Bake for about 2-3 hours, keep checking them. You want them to be completely dried out and hard. I turned ours over at some stage.

That's it....once they have cooled they are ready to be threaded onto some elasic or fishing line to make a spunky new necklace (more pics coming soon).

PAD - April 4th

2008-04-04T21:54:00.003+11:00

Happy Birthday Jodi

Today is my absolute most Fav cousin's B'day. So, Happy Birthday Jodi. Wish I was sinking a few good red wines with you RIGHT NOW......Mwahhhh XXXXXX

Below is my PAD for today. Not much, just a weed in the backyard with some texture. But that is what PAD is all about. Doing what you can with what you have and getting some practice at the same time. I wish my wool arrived today. I just wanna be crocheting right now. I like to crochet when it's cold.

Rotten Eggs

2008-04-04T21:43:00.003+11:00

OMG.....Anyone who really knows me knows I have issues with three things. Balloons, Champagne corks and EGGS.I hate eggs, I hate the smell of them and I hate the look of them. Every now and then I will eat them (up untill yesterday that is......I will never eat one again after yesterday) but I don't crave them and could easily live without them. When Cam cooks them I go nuts about the smell and amost vomit everytime I open the dishweasher when he has put eggy dished in there. A few weeks ago he had "Dippy eggs" and I ended up dry wretching at the sight of them.

Anyway, for some strange reason I don't make a bad omlette and I decided to make one to Anna's dinner last night, but the first egg I cracked was ROTTEN. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. I have never ever smelled anything like it.....Instantly I was sick all over the kitchen floor.

To cut a long story short, I had actually decided to skip PAD yesterday, I'd had a really busy day and hadn't thought of anything to photograph and didn't really care to be honest so I thought I would just skip it. However once I cleaned up the vomit and recovered I dedided that perhaps I would take some pics of the remaining three eggs as a story went with them. I also decided it was time for me to practice with some backlighting. DO I have these eggs set up and Anna comes along and starts counting them and playing with them. So that is how I came up with PAD for April 3rd. The top one was my PAD entry for yesterday. I am impressed with the Bokeh in the top left corner. I was wondering when I would get my hands on some of that LOL.

My Wedding Necklace

2008-04-02T20:20:00.003+11:00

I got this necklace for my 18th B'day from my Grandma and Aunti in Scortland. From the very moment I saw it knew I would wear it on my wedding day......and I did. I am spewing I did not get the photographer on the day to get some pics of it specifically but nevermind, gave me something to photograph for "A Photo a Day" today. The idea popped into my head last night, there are a few very special things of mine I want to photograph for "keepsakes" and this was my #1. I am thrilled with the end result. They were very very very rushed. I took them and processed them all in the couple of hours the kids napped this arvo.....along with having lunch and sorting some washing and catching up on some general surfing so I think I did really well LOL. I only just got my PAD submitted when we lost power and I left the computers off for the rest of the day.

Anyway enjoy, I hope that one day Anna wears this on her wedding day.

Going NUDE........

2008-03-28T19:31:00.002+11:00

.......For this weeks challenge that is LOL. My SP for last weeks "Portrait" challenege sparked a bit on conversation about how SP's are done and apparently somewhere in that chat there was talk of taking SP's in Pajamas sooooooooooooo, Wendy decided that for this weeks challenege EVERYONE had to do an SP........Her wording was "in your PJ's (or not if it takes your fancy)". Well......I don't really own PJ's and don't ask me why but the thought of me taking photos of myself in the Nud was actually more appealing than trying to strike a pose in my skimpie nightie. So I had quickly decided "well I will try a tastefull semi-nude" and over a few beers with Naomi I had come up with this idea involving Cam's guitar and my fav pink wool beanie I croched myself, I was actually just joking and just being a tad silly with her but she really liked the idea and was very encouraging so you can thank her for not only seeing my mug again but seeing me with half my kit off LOL. Now remember this is the same Naomi who inspired me to do a SP for last weeks challenge so if you have any complaints you can access her via the link in my sidebar or the hyperlink above PMSL. Now the original (tipsy) idea that we were really being silly with involved ugg boots or unlaced workboots aswell but I could not come up with a way to hide my cellulite on my thigh.....and Cam does not own a big enough guitar LOL. Naomi, remind me if there is anything I left out from that hair brain scheme LOL.

So. Here they are. The top one is the one I entered in the challenge but the one I entered was much less PPed due to guiedlines. I immeditely thought Cam would like this one as soon as I saw it. The second two are the same but I could not resist a funky colour version. Plus you HAVE to see the beanie in all it's coloured glory.

Oh Gawd......my Dad looks at this blog and is prolly sitting there shaking his head PMSL. It's all your fault Dad, your the one who got me into this hobby.

Oh and my new flash rocks, I would never have been able to take these pics at the time of night I did without it. So thankyou honey for my new flash, not many hubby's would support a wifes hobby the way you do. I love you XXX

Running

2008-03-26T13:20:00.003+11:00

Just a piddly easy 3kms today. That last 5km may have felt great at the time but I pulled up rather sore the next day.....my body's way of saying "hey fattie, ease up". I am soooo missing the Gym with all the public holidays and Cam working. I was rather cranky that I didn;t get to go this morning due to his meeting running overtime and the Gym shutting at 11.

I am serioulsy considering a "Photo a day" challenge for April. WOuld mean that I won't be able to take part in the beginners challenges for the month cos I just can't justify spending so much time on both................OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.............my flash just arrived my flash just arrived. Spose I have some reading and playing to do this arvo.

Anyway, what was I saying, oh yeah. I will only do one of the challenges but seeing how the "Photo a day" allows post processing (PPing) I think I am leaning towards that as it is what I love. However the beginners challenge is all about getting it right in the camera to start with which I certainly need to work on a bit more so perhaps I should stick with that. But I in my heart I really wanna do the Photo a Day.......especially now I have my flash LOL. And it is for April which is full of B'days for us.

What should I do? I am soooooo leaning towards Photo a Day. Having just got into textures....I wanna play.

My First Self Portraits

2008-03-25T12:17:00.003+11:00

A photo challenge thingie I have decided to join set the challenege for the week to take an adult portrait showing character. Being easter everyone is busy and Naomi had requested I do a self portrait as payment for some help she gave me with photoshop so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and do a self portrait for the portrait challenge. I'd had this idea that if I ever did one I would so it wearing my Beauty and the bees clay mask. It's just something I love doing and I thought it would be something a little different....plus it meant I wouldn't have to wear makeup or try to get skintones right in the post processing. I had to just hold the camera out infront of me because I can't figure out the self timer, I had to manually focus the lens and hold it away to the distance I focused it at because my lens doesn't auto focus, these shots were taken in full manual on my Nikon D40 DLSR with my Nikor 50mm f/1.8 lens in RAW. I am extremely happy with the end result and have been having an absolute blast Post processing them (you may notice I am not using abreviations this post, Vanessa that is for you so you know what I am talking about LOL). It's funny looking back at the pics you can see the ones I took before I stretched my face and made the mask totally crack cos I got sick of not being able to mive any muscles in my face LOL. I think that it's after I did that I got the best shots cos I was able to relax my face. SOme were taken inside and some were taken outside. The outside ones were the best (and that was after I cracked the mask totally). Oh and if any of you girls reading are interested, yes the mask is lovely and it makes your skin feel like silk. I can't recommend the Beauty and the Bees products enough and I have everything from thier shampoo bars to thier moisturiser, Anna and Ryan are Baby Bees product junkies too.

I think this is my fav of the bunch PPed yesterday with some new actions. I thought Renee might like this one.

I also have a new watermark, we are not allowed to use the word "photography" on any of our photos (even the ones we do not submit) to be egegable for the challenge comps so I had to change my watermark. My first one was just a bit of fun to learn how to make brushes anyway and it was a bit annoying because it was hard to find sopts to place it on the photos. I like this new one......like the picture of the "Peahen" in it?

I love the post processing on this one. I have never gone for the "blue toned" B;ack & whites but I have been forcing myself to post process using some techniques I don't particulary like. In doing so I am learning more about what I actually do and don't like and I have to say that I am now very fold of the blue tones B&W rather than the sepia toned B&W. I also love the texture I have used on this one, it has what looks like little nails arond the edge of the photo and up the top and around the edges you can see a kind of wood grain. And there is my old watermark. lol.

Again, a post process with a blue toned action, I love seeing this on other peoples photos but have never been able to bring myself to attempt it myself. I just have this thing about "cool skintones" or should I say I used to have this thing about cook skintones. I am just letting go now and having fun and not worrying so much about "perfect" skintones and just doing what I like instead. Again a testure is added.

And finally, this is the first one I post processed so it is the one I entered into the challenge comp. I love this B&W conversion, it is part of the WOW presets I got a few weeks ago and love to death. This was very east to Post process, not alot was actually done to it and the WOW presets make the basics of it very quick and easy. I am also finding adding textures a very quick and easy way of making a pic more interesting.

So, that's it. My first attempt at a self portrait. I had am absolute ball and love the way they turned out but I would not wanna do it too often. I have used my best idea now I think lol. I do have something I would like to have a go at later down the track with the co-operation of my lovely hubby but it wont be till I get a remote for my camera. I should get my flash soon, I am looking forward to taking some pics for some more friends soon.

Running........

2008-03-22T11:08:00.002+11:00

.................More like jogging/shuffeling. Anyway all this photography stuff raging through my head 24/7 is killing me. It haunts my dreams and I am not sleeping well. Post processing, textures, actions, presets, lens's, flashes, backdrops, baskets, fluffy blankets, newborn photo ideas, f/stops, shutter speeds, white balance AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Yes I really do want to scream. I need to clear my head, and what better way to clear your head then going to hack at the Gym........Only today is Easter Saturday and the Gym is shut, BUT, it's a glorious day, the sun is out but it is nice and cool so off to Nunn's walk for me this morning were I planned on shuffeling a nice and easy slow 3kms................

............5kms later and my legs are like jelly. They are certainly not used to this LOL. Was a great jog though, perfect day for it and I could not think of a better way to earn the BBQ dinner and glasses of wine we will be consuming tonight. I could murder a bag of bullets.......my bullet habbit will plague me forever I am affraid.

Well, Happy easter everyone......we are not into easter here, lucky for us the kids are too young to know what those shiney colourful foil things are in the supermarkets. We have so far got away with keeping it all away from Anna but I caved this year and got a 10pk of small hollow cadbury eggs for us to hide and for Anna to find. That is the extent of our easter efforts though and IMO more than enough for a 3yr old.

Ryan is 9 months old tomorrow, OMG. His nansty acid poos have stopped and him bum is busy healing now. Thank god that's over.

Anna is getting her last two molars, she got a puzzle off Grandma and Grandpa for "easter" and she is so good at completing it all on her own.

Oh, I am getting my flash. I am so excited. Fingers crossed it's what I need to get clearer photos. While I am back on the photo subject I have been playing with textures. The last photos I posted of Ryan were my first real attempts, the background was pitch black like the ones of William but I added a texture so the background looked like "linen". I have been playing futher with textures and found a use for many of my digital scrapbooking papers. No examples though because I am playing with Tean's photos for now (William's Mum).

Anyway that's it from me. Have a happy and safe easter and keep the choc consumption to "in moderation".

XX

Meet William......

2008-03-19T20:52:00.003+11:00

......Isn't he just so scrummy yummy. Of course I have "Mum's" full permission to publish these on my blog. Tean, don't worry you wont have my watermark all over the ones on your C.D. They also wont be as sharp as these unfortunately, these have been "sharpened for web" mainly because I have to compress them so much to post them here.

This "shoot" was not easy, my camera was playing up, some idiot had buggered her light meter settings stuffing around with the camera at some stage so I had to pretty much guess my exposures, I had the White balance wrong, I had misplaced my Phojo, the backdrop was threatening to blow away and my subject had a bladder problem LOL. It wasn't easy but it was alot of fun. I took ALOT of pics but only got a handfull of good pics. I also took some pics of Another friends little baby girl, she would have to be the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen and I am hoping "Mum" gives me another crack at it now I have my new lens. The ones I got are not great (not the subject's fault at all, just the silly old cow behind the camera".

Not much else from me today. Ryan has been crook with some kind of tummy upset for about 5 days now and as a result he has lost the skin off him bum, it's just a mass of bleeding and weeping welts. I am not in a good way about it, it's very hard to see such a thing on your own precious bundle. He is in alot of discomfort with it. I have also made a pact with myself not to play with any more of my photos untill I finish processing this lot for my two friends. So you wont be seeing anything new from me till then.

As just mentioned I got my new 50mm f/1.8lens and I lurrrrve it. I have also found my old flashgun so I am able to bounce a flash off the ceiling/walls to help me along with my "natural light" but then found out there is a possibility it may blow up my camera so I have to try and resist using it........as a result I am in the market for a new flashgun that is compatible with my camera. Mothers day is coming up......and Cam did promice me something extra special for this Mum's day while I was near or in the pushing stage of Ryans labour. Time to cash in me thinks.

Anyway enjoy the pics of sweet William, oh and yes two of them are the same just on different angles. Tean he really is a sweet little spunk and I loved meeting him again and catching up with you and Nikki.

Now I have a choc cake in the oven for Mum's group tomorrow. I don't want to ruin it so toodles XX

I know what your thinking........

2008-03-16T12:01:00.003+11:00

........This chick only takes photos of her daughter. Well your pretty much right. My little girls spends far more time with the camera in her face than my little boy. Purely because he is way too busy for me, that's right. He has far too much to do to spare me some time for a photo session. However I begged and pleaded with him and after some clever bargaining he agreeded to squeeze me into his ever so busy schedule this morning for a very quick/rushed photo session and I could not be happer. FInally I have a few semi decent photos of him. Mind you to keep him in the one place (not I did not say "still" I had to have him standing in a clothes basket LOL.

This is a face he pulls that gets me laughing every time.

These two are the same pic, different crops and different PP treatment. The bottom one is my fav.

I am loving Lightroom Presets......

2008-03-13T22:49:00.003+11:00

........And this is why..........

That top one is my new fav pic of Anna. AM loving how this B&W conversion brings out her freckles.

Same Shoot Different Gravy

2008-03-11T22:47:00.003+11:00

Anyone who knows my kids knows they have eyelashes worthy of all womens envy. This pic is from the same shoot as the last posts pics but the PP done on this one was done purposely to show off her lashes. I knew exactly what I was going to do to this one as soon as I saw it. It turned out exactly as I imagined it. I love it.

Playing with Actions

2008-03-08T21:33:00.004+11:00

I have had a whole heap of actions for ages but never really play with them. I think most of them are suited to outdoor shots. Anyway, as soon as I processed this pic I wanted to play with action on it. SO here I am testing all these different actions on it. Here are a few of them. I am still playing LOL. I am saving them all with the action names for future reference.

The Original

Overall Mood-Sad (a fav of mine I think)

Retro feeling - Reddish

Hard Love

Something different.....

2008-03-08T15:07:00.003+11:00

I just felt like doing something different today. I am glad I did cos I am in love with this pic. Our grass is non existant, it's just weeds, it's ugly and it's really really prickly. My arms are scratched up from takign these pics today......I wonder what Anna's are like? She will be awake any minute now so I will find out. Anyway, I am glad something good has come of our crappy dead lawn. This shot just would not have looked right with lush green and healthy grass.

Oh Anna is awake. And what are the first words I hear her say after this lovely afternoon nap "I've got a bum crack" Nice one Anna.

Our little miss serious.......

2008-03-07T15:02:00.003+11:00

Hmmmmm, yes............don't be expecting too many photos of Little Miss Pop smiling in here. She is one surley little girl once the camera is in her face. Besides that I am very happy with this shot. Why is she wearing a t-shirt and trackpants? (not that you can see the trackies).....well because that is what she wanted to wear after lunch this arvo and who am I to argue, I know much better than that these days. It was an effort to get her to wear something to bed just now LOL. I promice some pics of my mini boss to come. He is not photographes as much simply because he wont sit still long enough. There is not a shutter speed quick enough o capture my little bolt of lighting. I am hoping my new lens helps. I did manage a few snaps earlier though, fingers crossed there is at lease one in focus.

And another one from the mini shoot we had outside the other day.

Outdoor lighting.....

2008-03-05T10:28:00.006+11:00

Thankyou Sharon, I think your right. Outdoor pics are much easier to PP. Who would ever have thought that our daggy beige outside blinds would have made such a nice backdrop? I have no idea what Anna was doing here. I think she was singing and dancing hence the need to sharpen the crap out of this photo as she would not stop moving. Looks like she is swinging a bat though and I love it.

Having a break......

2008-03-04T15:58:00.004+11:00

...............From damn skintones that is LOL. Nothing like good ol' Black & White to give you a much needed break from tricky skintones. I just love this photo, I have a friend who would like me to take a photo and make it B&W but leave part of it B&W.....something I havn't done for a long time so I thought I had better have a practice so Andrea if you read this, thankyou very very much cos I prolly would not have played with this pic the way I have if it wern't for you and I just love how it has turned out.

O.K.....That was a short lived break. Could not help myself. Here is another one I just did. I love it! This one is definately getting printed to send to my Aunt who got Anan the Jumper. She is going to love it.

Damn skintones.....

2008-03-03T20:49:00.004+11:00

I swear....these damn skintones will be the death of me. They are driving me nuts. I just can't get it right. This one is getting closer to Anna's natural skintone but still too pink. However if I adjust the tint too much in lightroom her hair turns green.

Anyway, at least I got the focus right in this one. Looks like I will have a new lens soon, Yay yay yay.

Actually I don't think the skintones are as bad on this one as I think. Hmmmmmmm, anyway. Thanks Kellie (EB) for the CC, it all helps. It's very valuable to get other peoples opinions. XXX

Anna's new jumper

2008-03-02T16:36:00.002+11:00

Anna and Ryan both recieved B'day presents from thier Great Aunt in Scotland yesterday. I was allowed to open them right away incase they could wear them before thier B'days. Anna got this beautiful pink jumper and I could not resist getting a few pics of her in it. There are more to come, I didn't only take "Mugshots". I wont get to process them for a while though.

My cheeky little girl.

2008-03-01T14:17:00.002+11:00

Here is another photo from the same little shoot I did just testing the new camera settings and improved lighting in that room. Two different crops of course. The bottom one has been cropped specifically for a 4x6 print. It is very very unlike me to have "eyes" in the center, I generally always have them up the top where they are but to either side BUT I am trying to break some of my rules, trying to loosen up a bit, trying not to try so hard cos it does my head in when I do not succeed. Cropping is also a rule I have recently broken, I would not crop any of my photos as I concidered it cheating. If I could not get the composition right in the camera then I just had to cop it and learn from it but then Cam made a point about post processing and how can I be comfortable with say applying a colour pop but but cropping. Good point love, so here I am stepping out of my comfort zone and cropping.

I actually really love this photo and at first I hated the bottom crop but the more I look at it the more I like it, you could even say I love it now. Oh and I am really loving my watermark. I may not be in such a hurry to make another one afterall. Not bad for "just playing". I only made it to teach myself how to make them into brushes on PS. I wasn't intending on keeping it LOL.

Anyway, Mum & Dad will be here soon.

My Grumpy little girl

2008-02-29T16:14:00.004+11:00

I have been playing with the settings in my camera, I just can't get the beautiful creamy, clean and bright skintones that are all the go with digi photography. The settings I had my camera on certainly wern't helping. I had the saturation up too high and the colour mode set to the brightest option both of which were really exagerating the pink tones in my kids skin. Changing these two setting have made a massive improvement on my shots.

I have also taken one step closer to addressing my lighting issues. You see we have a great room in this house for taking natural light photos, with two massive windows with Roaman blinds which are very easy to lift to let in as much light as possible, funnily enough it also happens to be our theater room so we need to be able to make it as dark as possible to be able to watch the big screen so the romans are blockout and we also have outside blinds installed. Ironic huh. ANyway one of the Roman blinds was not installed properly and could only be lifted about a meter off the floor or about to the top of the couches infront of the wondow thus not allowing any extra light in through that window. The dickheads who installed it went bust soon after instalation (Gee I wonder why, crappy workmanship perhaps) so we were unable to get them back out to fix it. Cam had set somehting up so I am able to manually lift it though with some string holding it up. These blinds are HUGE and a PITA to handle but so worth the trouble to let the extra lighting in so fingers crossed I will be able to get some better focused pics. This pic is not a good example as my focusing was off. I take full blame for that, nothing to do with the lighting. I still seem to have to use ISO 1600 which I HATE doing but I would rather slightly grainly in focus pics than smooth out of focus pics at this point.

Anyway here is todays effort with the improved camera settings and lighting. I have to somehow reduce the red in ALL my pics but I have not touched the colours in this one. I did add a simple colour pop though....something I have not been able to do untill now cos it only exagerates my crappy skintones.

Oh and Philly if you read this, you would not believe the surprise I got when I saw your comment this morning. I was wrapped, I was gushing like a teen who just spotted her fav celeb LOL. I have been admiring your work for a loooong time now, you are one of the photographers who inspire me and you took a look ay MY blog. Thankyou so much. I am thinking of posting this pic in the forum to get some CC on the colours. I feel I am so close to what I am trying to achieve I can taste it.

*I have removed the original photo and replaced it with a much much better version. This time I did play with the colours, I added bit of yellow to it to warm it up. I actually went right back to lightroom and started again from the beginning. Thankyou to the ladies on EB for helping me with this pic.*

One I am happy with.......

2008-02-28T22:56:00.004+11:00

........and proud of. I just love this Photo of my sweet little boy. This one I am happy to add my watermark to LOL. Oh I just wanna kiss those cheeks RIGHT NOW. He is such a sweet cuddly little boy.

*have added a new version of this picture. I am not taking away the old one incase anyone would like to give thier opinion on which one they prefer.*

Learning New Tricks

2008-02-28T21:51:00.002+11:00

Well, I have been perving on the watermarks some of the very clever ladies have on thier photos on EB and have taught myself how to make one as a brush for Photoshop. I am sure this will not be my final watermark but it will do for now. No need to get too serious when I can't even focus a shot properly PMSL. I really want to find a pic of a Peahen to use but the swirly things will have to do for now.

Here is a samply below on yet another out of focus photo of mine.

A problem fixed WHOO HOO

2008-02-27T22:44:00.003+11:00

It's late and I should be in bed but I am waiting for bottles to sterilise. Why did I leave it so late to sterilise them? Well...........I have had this problem with my photo processing for a while now. You see my images look great in Lightroom and PS but once I save them they look completely different and it has been frustrating the poop out of me for months now. I have tried so many things and nothing was working. Untill tonight that is. As a last resort I stuffed around withthe monitor untill nothing and I mean NOTHING looked right. Even the icons on my desktop looked bizzar. Then I cried cos I didnlt know how to change it all back, then I crossed my fingers and tried the image and colour reset option on my actual monitor then hit the auto button and everything was fixed.......including my little problem with Lighroom, PS and Windows. Now when I post process my pics to within an inch of thier life they look the same when I save them.

Anyway, I got some new black fleece for my backdrop today so expect my blog to be flooded with new pics in the near future.....all with the black backdrop LOL. Here is one I took today, most of my pics from today are terrible due to crappy lighting but I liked this one. Of course I have added the gool ol Urban Acid Action....because I bloody well can.

Now back to bottles.

Oh and thankyou so much for the comments guys. Very encouraging. Especially my annonymous EB friend, that was a lovely surprise.

My "not so little" Man

2008-02-25T17:45:00.002+11:00

It's been a little while since I posted a pic of my handsome man. I quickly snapped this one today. I had to make it B&W because he has an unslightly sun/wind burnt face. He is about as cheeky as they come and he looooooves his Mum. He is rough and pulls my hair if I am not smart enough to pull it back. He also claws are my face, neck and chest when he is tired and tends to stick his fingers up my nose when I am feeding him his bottle. He loves to shred paper and had been going to work on an old Cosmo I had lying around with Delta Goodrum on the cover lately. I just love him to pieces, he is my boy and he is handsome as hell and when his face lights up mine does too.

Farmyard pics

2008-02-23T21:29:00.002+11:00

I am mainly adding these pics for the Mum's group ladies to save me emailing them and clogging thier inbox's LOL. The latest Challenge for the photography blog was "metal". Perfect timing considering this weeks Mum's group was at Rain, Hayne and Shine farmyard which happened to be loaded with old metal farming equiptment and other stuff. Anyway I thought it would be nice to email the girls this link so they could see why I was maddly snapping strange things LOL.

Not much else happening here. Have cut runs back to 3kms for various reasons. I hope to be back at 5kms in the near future but I am not going to push it. I am luuuuuurving the Gym. I got an awesome new pair of sunnies for running the other day, actually the same day we went to the farmyard (thanks Andrea) and they are sensational. Soooooo light and so clear and absolutely NO FOGGING UP and bugger all glare. They are by far the best sunnies I have ever had. I will have to take a pic LOL. I have 5.5kg to go to get to pre preggy weight.

Kids are O.K. Ryan has just been crook and keeping me up for 3 nights straight. He is fine now though. Anna had her first real haircut at the hairdressers the other day. Again I must post pics.

We all went to a friend of mines daughters first B'day party today. I can't believe how quickly that year went....Happy B'day Charli. Ryan is 8 months old TODAY..........in 4 months we will be having our own first B'day big bash here. Goodness, how scarey. He is walking a bit when you hold his hands now and he is increasingly cheeky. I just love him to bits.

Well.....I think that's it. I need to go to bed so it is going to have to be it. Oh almost forgot, I am in contact with one of my cousins.....we used to be very close, penpals. We are very close in age. I am extremly happy to be in contact with my Kellie again. You gotta luuuurve facebook. Oh Oh and I am meeting a "net friend" tomorrow. A lovely lady from my Parents group who also happens to be a member of the photography blog. Exciting exciting. Must rememeber to take camera.

Anyway I really have to go to bed. Oh I had better email this link out first PMSL.

Shannon.

2008-02-15T11:29:00.002+11:00

Shannon, I hope you read this. For some reason I can't comment on your blog. I dunno what the go is there. Anyway just wanted you to know I am thinking of you. That's all I will say XXX

Just playing.

2008-02-05T10:21:00.000+11:00

Been a while I know, I have been meaning to blog but just never seem to find the time. Things can be really full on here. I only just picked up my camera for the first time in a few weeks yesterday.

Cam took me out for lunch yesterday, we left the kids with my Mum and went to the tooradin airport restaurant called "Wings and Finns". It is a seafood restaurant but I managed to find a nice spicy chicken salad on the menu, it was divine. All the salad ingredients were very fresh and reeking of quality I have not been that impressed with a salad for a while. We also got a bottle of wine and some desert, I got a Pear, Lemon & Lime tart and it was AWESOME. Lucky for my calorie count we didn;t need dinner last night LOL.

The running and gym is going well, I am jogging 5km each run and getting better slowely. Had a scare the last run I went on involving a car load of guys drinking at 6:15am in one of the carparks I jog through on the track but I wont go into that. That was Saturday morning and I have not attempted a jog since due to a nasty headcold but I have been back to the track and was a little jittery so who knows how I will go when the time comes.

Here are a few photos, the first one I took a while ago but played with it for a scrap challenge so why not upload it LOL. The second one I took yesterday, I took it through my closed window in a moving car with three wines under my belt so I am impressed. I have added an action called Urban Acid and a vignette during the RAW processing.

The Third one I took last night, once the kids were in bed hubby suggested I take my camera down to the beach for a play. I need to get some photos for a blog challenge and am struggeling, I wanted to get a shot of 3 beach boxes and had an idea of some effects to apply to them but I just wasn't feeling it last night and came home with some very average shots. The beach was busy and I was worried people would think I was a sicko and taking photos of them. Anyway I did get this beach box shot at Mt Martha South Beach and pretty much Post Processed it to within an "inch of it's life" as hubby would say LOL. I processed it in Lightroom then in PS CS2 I added a vintage action, I have so many I can not for the life of me remember which one, then I added a pink Grad filter then a lens distortion filter, of and of course one of Bud frames I love the finished product, too bad it doesn't fir in with the blog challege theme.

The last photo was also taken last night too, It was taken at Nun's Walk....where I run. I blogged a photo taken at the exact same spot in 2006 in an entry called Picture of Nunn's Walk There is a lookout right where I park when I go for my runs and this is the view from it. Breathtaking in everylight, this is the first time I have taken sunset photos. I was chatting to an elderly man the whole time I was taking photos, he was an artist and interested in what I was doing. I was glad for the company considering my experience at Nunn's walk only a few days ago. ANyway the photot was again processed in Lightroom then taken into CS2 where I added a slight "pop" and adjusted the colour balance to bring out the blue in the sky. Yes I am getting right into post processing, gotta keep up with the times. I added one of my fav Frame actions Jodi's Multiple Choice Frame Action

Well that is it for me, I have more photos to upload before my camera battery dies and then bottles to fill. Kellie, I know you read this and I wanna thank you for taking an interest. I know you love seeing pics of the kids. Lub you xxx

Awesome Frames

2008-01-16T11:30:00.000+11:00

I am up to my elbows in Action but have only tried out a few. I am loving these frame ones by Bud Guinn found here. Admittedly everything looks alot better in photoshop than anywhere else but they are still effective.

Kids are going well, Anna's molars that I have been complaining about for months have finally broken through...barely but the gums broken so we are getting somewhere. It pretty much happened yeaterday and let me tell you, it was the day from hell. I missed out on the gym because she was so feral she had me really upset in the morning and come afternoon my head was THUMPING and I could barely move my eyes. Two beers at dinner time helped with that though. I am going to go this arvo, however it's the perfect day for a run and I am tempted to go for a small jog instead....maybe I should do both to make up for whatever damage I do at Mum's group tomorrow. I just made the most scrummy orange and poppyseed muffins for tomorrow, it was a Gluten free packet mix and they turned out PERFECT. One of them broke as I was getting it out of the muffin tin so Anna and I had to eat it......damn.

I am really enjoying the photography blog I have recently joined, I am going to learn alot of that great crew......I have alot to learn. I have also been madly stalking the photography section of Essential baby crap.....why has my font changed and where the hell did my font choices go? Agghhhhhhhhhh. Anyway been getting loads of tips and inspiration from there aswell.

Ryan is awesome, he is a little Mummy's boy which is so nice for me. He is very cuddle, unlike Anna was. He is very happy to snuggle on the couch with me. He is getting around very fast now and Anna enjoys playing chasey with him, she tires him out very quickly.

Anyway, that's it for now. Will try to post more regulary with photos. Here are ones from yesterday with one of the frames I was talking about.

xx

P.S.....Just coming back in to say I did end up doing both gym and Jog...managed 3km and who should I bump into on my fav track.....Crissy, my old running partner. She was meeting up with her boss for a run and saw my car so jogged out to meet me and gave me some company on my return leg. I was struggeling with a stitch so conversation was hard. How funny, I was coming back....uphill.....against the wind......with a stitch and there is this wonderfully lean chick running towards me waving her arms around at me PMSL. Was a lovely surprise, she is prolly just finishing her run now.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T11:58:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year, welcome 2008! This should be the first year since 2004 that I won't be pregnant for any part of the year. Our family is complete and I think both Cam and I are looking forward to moving on as a completed family.

We whispered "goodbye" to 2007 last night, we went to bed early and only had two drinks each so we were nice and sober. Ryan woke me up just before midnight so I got to sneak in one last kiss for 2007. I listened to the squeaky little teens over the road stop squeaking and giggling long enough for the countdown, then they went right back to partying. The girls squeaking and giggling like brain dead morons and the boys yelling, belching and cursing like real "heros" Oh to be young and stupid again *sigh*

"2008 is sure to be a good year" quoting a text message I recieved this morning. I for one have some high hopes for 2008. A family very close to me has had a really shitty time the last few years and I am hoping that 2008 brings to them a fresh start full of nothing but happiness and the best of luck for each and every member of that family.

To a very special EB friend who I know will read this, I have said this elsewhere but I'm going to say it again. You are very very strong and focused, whatever happens in 2008, whatever the outcome you will know in your heart that you have done everything possible. I hope you get the outcome you are so desperately fighting for and deserve, Hang in there XXX

Here are some pics of Miss A taken on 29/12/07. Hard to believe how much of a poohead she is at the moment just by looking at these pics LOL.

For 2008 I just want my lovely little girl back, I miss her like crazy. I see glimpses every now and then but mostly she is not the same little girl. She has a terrible time teething and these molars are taking forever to break through, her poor little gums are so swollen. Who knows what she is feeling. I have to credit her on her toilet training though. We packed the potty away a few days ago and she is happily using the toilet. I can count on one had the amount of accidents she has had and I can;t rememeber when the last one was. Now just to get her out of nappies while she sleeps.

No stopping him now.

2007-12-27T21:00:00.000+11:00

Well, he is definately on the move now and there is no stopping him. Time to lock everything away. Ryan is just toooo good at this commando crawling. Anyway guess what I got for Xmas? I woke up to my special little boy saying "Mum mum mum". I raced and got the vid camera and got it on video. Whoo Hoo. I was so happy and moved to tears. So Xmas eve he starts commando crawling and Xmas day he says his first words. He is really coming along my not so little man.

Anyway here is one of my fav pics of Anna and a pic I took of Ryan today in the kids new sandpit.

I really have to turn this pooter off and go to bed.*yawn*

6 months today

2007-12-23T20:44:00.000+11:00

Can you believe my baby boy is 6 months old today. OMGoodness, and he looks like he is about 8months LOL. He is a big/healthy boy. Very tall and very strong. He is trying his hardest to crawl, he rolld everywhere and gets into anything he can. He is extremely cuddly, he is just adorable.

We are all set for Xmas, we are so excited and can't wait to watch Anna open her prezzies.

I just had my highschool reunion, it was an awesome night which resulted in me peeing in the bushes (a girlfriend of mine has this theory that you know your having a great time if you end up squatting in the bushes LOL) and requiring a stitch in my ankle from broken glass, I did not get the stitch but I needed it LOL. I have been using tape stuff to hold the wound together and it's healing quite well. Though it does mean no running till it seals over just cos I am scared of infection. I have been going to the gym though and LOVING it. Have even had a slight weight loss which is great but would be better if I could get out to jog more. It's very hard with the two kids and a shiftworker in the house.

Cam and I recently had our 3yr wedding anniversary, My Mum came and watched the kids while we went out Xmas shopping followed by a nice lunch which I worked off that same arvo at the gym LOL. It was awesome, it was great to spend some time without the kids with my husband. Can't wait to have some kid free time again.

Anyway not much else going on here, well nothing interesting enough to publish LOL and the stuff that is interesting enough I don't dare publish LOL.

Here are some piccies of the kids, in the form of signatures again. Oh that's what I have been up to, have started making signatured for other members of the parenting forum I use. I just love making them and need the practice so everyone wins. Anyway here are my latest ones of the kids. O.K so the pics decided to go to the top of the post Grrrr. Bugger it! You just have to cop it.

2007-11-17T19:29:00.000+11:00

Well, I can't be bothered searching through my millions of photos so I have just uploaded some sigs instead.

Things have finally really settled, Ryan is AMAZING. I am so in love with him, I really realize exactly how bad things were back there. He smiles all the time now, pretty much no more screaming fits at all, he sleeps well for his day naps and is improving with his night sleeps....mind you he is still a bit of a poohead at night. He is rolling all the time both ways now and is shuffeling around his play blanket. He is just generally so much happier, content and relaxed and so am I in turn. He is taking some rice cereal each day now, although I was sceptical and against it, it has seemed to help settle his tummy heaps.....or is it the Chiro and Osteo care he is also recieving.....I got desperate.

Anna is great.....with me. But she is challenging her Daddy something fierce. She doesn't see him anywhere near as much as me and she craves his attention and figures the best way to get it is by being naughty so when he is home she is damn exhausting. She is starting to finally take notice of Ryan and show some interest. She mothers "Howard" her toy tiger and it's very cute. She breastfeeds him and tells him he stinks and needs a change and she builds him little "cubby holes" to live in. Oh it's wondeful to observe. She is getting very clingy with the men in her life and when Cam or my Dad leaves the house she has massive Tanty's and screams "My Grandpa" or "My Daddy". It's tragic but kinda cute and endearing at the same time.

The weight watchers isn;t going so well. It's bloody hard to count points and weight stuff when your in a massive hurry to make something so I tend to only eat what I know the exact points value for or just guess. I have been back to my old fav running track and this week I walked there twice. Once just over 5km with just Anna in the pram and the next time 6.5km with Anna and Ryan.....that's alot of weight to be pushing trust me. Anna is about 14kg and I am guessing Ryan is about 7.5 at least and the pram would have to be at least 12kg. Felt AWESOME. I even jogged the tiniest tenny bit the day I only had Anna. You can't jog with the scoop seat attached so it's not an option when I have both of them, as temping as it was.

Anyway as good as it has been feeling I have had to take two rest days so far due to an injured neck/shoulder. I dunno what I have done but my chiro says it's a mess. After some treatment yesterday and some icing it's much much better though and I will have to make an effort to do something tomorrow. My core is SHOT, I feel very very weak and have started some planks and crunches. I have my highschool reunion coming up and have to face the fact that I have to go looking a frump.....why wasn;t it held before I fell pregnant, I was at my fittest and strongest then. Oh well, I don;t really care too much what anyone there thinks. It just would have been nice to be able to wear something hot.

Well that's about it, I have some pasta cooking, I am gonna have it with a sprinkle of parmesan and cracked pepper....my fav. I have just finished my glass of my fav Pinot and wish there was more LOL. I am so happy Ryan has finally come good. He is now the baby I though he would be, I enjoy every minute with him and smother him in kisses.....which I might add he absolutely loves LOL. Cam appears more relaxed with im too and I think they are gonna be great mates, I love watching him play with Ryan, they are forming thier own very special bond.

I promice to post propper pics next time, I just take to many to choose from. Toodles XXX

Where do my days go?

2007-11-05T16:27:00.000+11:00

This isn't gonna be much of a post but it's all I have time for right now. Things are getting better here, if only we could sort out Ryan's night sleeps I recon things would be pretty bloody good.

I will get on ASAP with new photos. Ryan had his second lot of immunisations today. I cried of course. It's one of the hardest things for me as a mother to do but it has to be done and no-one else is putting up thier hand to take him.........Yes I mean you CAM!!!

Anyway thanks Stu and Shannon for your comments. Shannon it means so much to me that you still check in here. Your blog is gone now which I fully understand, Your wedding page is beautiful and I used the same song for mine and Cam's wedding video/slideshow thingy.

Off to check out Anthea and Kylie's blog now, I am on borrowed time so they will be quick visits.

XXX

Time to update.

2007-10-26T14:07:00.000+10:00

Well, It has been a while. It's been a bloody busy 4 months here since Ryan was born. ALot has happened but to summerise, as I have no intentions of goig into it in detain here on my blog, I copped mastitis twice, Ryan grew incresingly difficult, we stopped breastfeeding in hope it had something to do with that, he got worse on bottles, a G.P prescribed him special formula and reflux meds, he got a tad better but not much, he saw a Paediatrician and got stronger medication and has been sent off for an abdominal ultrasound and a couple of other tests and is finally getting a bit better. Since my last post it's been pretty much a house full of screaming here, the "Colic" has definatley made a mess of me.

We all went away as a family to Porpunkah (I think that is how you spell it) for the week the AFL Grandfinal was on, we had an absolute ball. Cam and I drank beer and wine every afternoon and finally relaxed a bit. The kids were great although Ryan had us up several times every night.

Anna is growing up very fast, she is 2.5 years old now and has a very "grown up" attitude LOL. She loves to dress up as a fairy.

Ryan is also getting big, as he should with the amount he drinks. He is a shocking sleeper, we seem to have his day naps sorted quite well but he is still terrible at night, Cam and I are like zombies these days. Now the colic seems to be subsiding and his supposed Reflux is getting under control he appears happier and we are getting loads more smiles. He has been rolling from front to back since he was 2 weeks old, I can't wait till he can sit up by himself. He is a spitting image of Cam, he is a very cute baby. We are hoping we have gone through the worst with him now. I am hoping I will begin to enjoy being a Mum of two soon.

We have also had a Visit from my Cousin Nikki and her lovely family recently, they come all the way from Scotland (Nikki is from QLD but went over to Scotland and never came back LOL). Nikki was lucky enough to witness my lovely Son's screaming. A few people have been lucky to see it now and realise I am not exagerating.

Anyway that's about it here. Ryan is due to wake up so I didn't want to get too involved in my blog as once he is awake that's it for me. I have put together a few photos of the kids.

Before I forget, a massive Congratulations to Kylie on the birth of her 3rd beautiful girl Murphy. She is just divine. Hello to Anthea and yes I am still stalking the Ausrunners so hello to all of you guys aswell.

Will try to use my blog more often now Ryan is settling down. I have started weight watchers and am trying to get back into exercise so I can start running again. I am sure my blog will be the first place I brag about any weight loss.

XXX

Finally some endorphins

2007-08-11T17:47:00.000+10:00

Can you believe my little man is 7 weeks old? I have some fantastic news, he was weighed last Wednesday and he had put on 210gm in one week so we have finally got somewhere with the feeding. I am so happy and proud, I screamed and hugged the nurse when she told me LOL.

So seeing how I gave birth a massive 7 weeks ago and my milk supply is pretty good now I decided it was time to get my endorphin fix I have been craving for so long and start exercising. I only did 20mins on the bike which actually lasted almost 30mins with all the breaks I had to take to re-settle Ryan, then I did some ab work and some resistance band work with my upper body followed with some yoga stretches. Oooooh it felt good. I would like to do this 3 times a week for now and keep an eye on my supply and if it doesn;t effect it I can step it up and spend more time on the bike.

Once the weather improves I will be able to get the kids out in the pram more often, this will be a much less stressful way of exercising as it is hard to exercise while keeping Anna entertained and Ryan settled between feeds. WOuld be much easier to just shove 'em both in the pram and go for a brisk walk up a hill. Anna is about 14kg now so it would be a good work out.....actually unless it is raining tomorrow we have a big hill walk planned cos we are going to walk to the market then to a mates place.

The new protein packed diet is going well and my sugar cravings are almost non existant now. I have managed to put on another kg with it though and I have only one pair on pants (that aren't trackies) that fit and about 4 tops. Hence me wanting to start exercising again. I just wanna get back into my jeans, not even my skinny jeans, my fat jeans would be a good start *blush*.

ANyway the kids are going great, Anna has perked up alot since she was sick and having tantrums 24/7. Best I go and check on Ryan then have a sponge bath before his next feed in case he doesn't like the taste of sweat.

My Little Man.

2007-08-03T20:27:00.001+10:00

Awwww, isn't he a cutie. I am sooooo inlove LOL. Things are going much better I think and I am actually almost looking foward to the next weigh in. He has been a very setted and contented little man today, I feel my milk has increased again and he is feeding more efficiently. I croched that beanie he is wearing in those pictures, it is pure wool from the Bendigo woolen Mills and is a peach. He certainly need it in this freezing melbourne weather.

Have to say a special thankyou to Anthea for all your support, not only just now with the breastfeeding but the past 10 months while we were pregnant. Seems like almost eberyone in our not so little group is or has had feeding trouble of some kind huh! Why can't it just be easy? Anyway thanks heaps and I hope you are feeling much better XXX