A winter spray of sunshine!

I don't know what is so special about winter blue skies and yellow flowers but it makes my heart sing!  Every winter for a couple of weeks our Brook is just a sea of yellow and this year with my new camera, just something I could not resist! 

We are on our second week of winter's break at the moment and there are so many places to be and things to do and we are running out of time fast!  I adore school holidays and having my girl at home!  Today was such a perfect day, perfect weather, perfect company it was hard to do anything but get outside and spend the hours playing at the park and strolling along the Brook with good company...........thank you Cathy and Rosanna, these flowers pretty much some up what a bright and fun day was had by all in your company!


I just love the days where you have nothing planned that just seem to organically form to leave the most beautiful memories!

Flooding in Northern NSW!

We spent a lovely long weekend in Coffs Harbour last weekend but we unfortunately seem to be a jinx lately with the Brisbane floods in January and now the flooding down south, friends and family should avoid inviting us anywhere as we seem to bring bad weather where ever we go!  So even though it rained all weekend it was lovely catching up with David's parents and the kids loved spending quality time with their Oma and Opa!

Most of the time was spent relaxing and we did manage to visit a couple of garage sales and fit in an hour at keggel 9-pin bowling, which is similar to ten pin but a lot more relaxed no change of shoes required, so disappointed those gorgeous bowling shoes are so attractive lol!

We travelled home on Monday hoping to get home in time for Amber's ballet lesson but unfortunately we spent two hours stuck in traffic at Corindi which is half way between Coffs Harbour and Grafton because of flooding over the highway, so even though we didn't make it back in time for ballet, we are counting our lucky stars as they closed the highway the next day, so our long weekend nearly turned into a two week holiday!  Thankfully David parents are fine a little water logged I am sure but at least they are high and dry!

Camera in the city!

Wow, we finally had our last photography lesson in the City, so we were all packed into our Teacher Andi's van and off to the bright Brisbane lights!  We had such a wonderful night and like he promised us.................we would not want to leave!  A good time was had by all and it was nice to put all the theory finally into practise!  I would highly recommend Andrew's classes either through Stafford Heights community adult education if you are lucky enough to live in Brisbane and he also runs classes from his website here at http://www.photoslamour.com they are very well priced and he really breaks things down into simple terms, so if someone like me can do it anyone can!  Plus he backs this all up with free support after you have finished the course, just brilliant!

Please don't take my amateur photos as proof though, a lot of practise is still required like anything good I suppose takes commitment and patience and a lot of practise!  But at least now I feel I have the ability and know how to begin on this amazing adventure and what a thrill that is!

Now I am busting to head back into the city to practise some more!

Same shot below taken three times but playing around with the white balance changes the accent on the colours!  I can't believe something this simple can change the look of a photo this much!

My new camera!

Well after along time drooling over slr cameras and reading other inspirational blogs filled with the most breathtaking photos, my husband has finally given me the best present I could ever ask for, my very own canon slr 600D, I will probably spend the next couple of years without any presents, but I don't care as this is the best present ever and every time I turn it on it feels like Christmas to me anyway!

So after two months and one adult education class(I kind of know my way around the camera when placed on manual), I feel I can finally unleash myself on the world, well my little pocket of the world anyway!  I am taking my teachers advice and trying to practise, practise, practise and I am trying my hardest not to use the automatic button any more!  I am sure there will be times lol!  I still have a lot to learn and I am not sure how long it takes to get to that point where you feel as one with the came but I am going to give it a good go, even if I drive my two year old crazy pointing the camera at him all the time and dragging him to every corner of the world looking for fun locations!

It is so lovely to have a passion for something again, it seems like such a long time ago that I felt this excited about something, something just for me!  Now I have to try and live up to all my hype, hopefully, and the biggest reason for wanting the camera is so I can take photos of my gorgeous children to cherish in years to come, even if they tell me to go away!!!!!

Sports Day!

Well it was sports day yesterday for the preps through to the year 3's and what can I say but a good day was had by all! My heart was in my throat I was so nervous for her, it is funny how your past can bring up all these memories on days like these! I think I was more nervous than my daughter was!

Expectation, is such a hard thing to handle as a parent, you don't realise when you are a parent how hard it is to hold back on what was once your successful sport(yes hard to believe but I was once a good athlete and sports days were the highlight of my year at school) or subject that you loved and succeeded in may not be where your child's talent and love is! So I find it one of the hardest things as a parent to just step back and be thankful that they are enjoying it so much and that it doesn't matter where they come or how well they do as long as they love doing physical activities and learn about how wonderful it is to work as a team and that the skill of sportsmanship is so much more valuable!

Amber is certainly like me, and not a sprinter so I think her time may come in a couple of years when there are longer distances to contest but if it doesn't that is ok because that was my joy not necessarily hers! So no records were broken but damn she had a fabulous time! They year 2's only had a 60m dash and a fun rotation of ball games, high jump and long jump, with a super tug of war challenge against all the rival house colour teams at the end!

I could not be any prouder as a parent when you hear your child go up to another child and congratulate them on racing so well! And my wish for her in the future is that hopefully one day she will get to experience something like that and if not she has already learnt a beautiful thing that no matter where you come she is a winner for giving it her all and being so gracious in defeat and well I couldn't be a prouder mother because in my eyes my daughter is a winner and my star and she always will be!

Memories!

I was looking for a photo for my daughters show and tell last night and I came across this video, its not the best quality, but it made me smile! It seems like a life time ago that Amber was little, she is such a grown up young lady now!

It has reminded me to stop being so slack with my son and get the camera out and in his face, even if he is not that keen on the idea, he will thank me later lol! The kids were just glued to the videos last night, asking me to play them over and over again!

Rock on Amber, your mummy loves you to bits and your sweet voice just melts my heart!




As a final note I just had to post a picture of my daughter in these pants from last winter I just love them to bits and I wish sometimes, just sometimes that she would enjoy wearing jeans, but she is a dress girl through and through which I dearly love but just once in a blue moon would be nice lol, I guess I at least got them on her once!