Tuesday, March 31

Felt Sushi

Felt Sushi
Just sharing this felt sushi I made for Beth to play with, seeing as she's such a sushi addict. It obviously can't be too badly made, because Beth knew what it was the minute she saw it, and was really happy! :)

Monday, March 30

Little Miss Cool

Little Miss Cool
This would be our Little Miss B wearing sunglasses to church on Sunday... she's such a funny little muffin... that and she also for some reason associates going to church with going shopping, so the last few times we've been to church, we've gone shopping to eat lunch out (sushi of course!)... If you ask her "Where are we going?" on a Sunday morning she will answer "To church... *SHOP*!"... it's so funny seeing how excited she gets about shopping!

Other updates... she's also become Little Miss Bossy at the moment... during the day I will here the following (and variations) -

"Mummy SIT!" - I was sternly told this when I got up to get a drink of water whilst we were in the middle of playing shopkeeper and I was tending the cash register!
"Mummy draw" - She always wants me to draw whilst she's drawing
"Mummy paint" - As above.
"Mummy sing!" - Said whilst I was playing some music this afternoon whilst she was playing with some stickers...
"Mummy come" - When she wants me go and play something with her... (she says this often if I am sitting at the computer!)
"Mummy read" - When she wants me to read her a book (or 10!)

Apparently, I am her own personal trained monkey and I am to do whatever she tells me... :)

Afternoon Tea Party

Afternoon Tea Party

Beth got given this tea set for her birthday last year from her grandparents... I've been meaning to take a photo of it for ages, because it is, quite simply, the sweetest, dearest little tea set ever... Beth just adores having little tea parties with it... Of course, I couldn't get a photo of her playing with it when I took this photo.... she was too busy playing Mario Kart with her Daddy on the Wii! Hi-tech kids these days...

Thursday, March 26

The Mission: Take A Passport Photo Of A 2 Year Old

The Passport Photo Shoot

I've been wanting to post up these photos for a few weeks time, but I've been reluctant to because I didn't want to jinx myself if the passport photo got rejected. We are heading off to San Diego in May for almost 2 weeks, so we had to organise a passport for Beth... which of course involves having to take a passport photo. And that was probably my hardest gig to date! The criteria for passport photos is virtually impossible when it comes to trying to take a photo of a 2 year old toddler who can't/won't sit still or listen to instructions.

The quick rundown - passport photos have to be a front-on photo of a person, eyes open, with no open mouth, no teeth showing, no smiling, no hair in eyes, neutral expression. For complete guidelines, check out this link - Australian Passport Photo Requirements... this is what we were going by

So these are the results of what happened... I had Phan assisting me in trying to get Beth to sit still and look at the camera. 20 minutes passed by and some 50 photos later, I get one good shot (the enlarged photo in the corner), which almost got rejected by the person going through the paperwork at the Australia Post branch, because "her face is slightly tilted down"... Are you kidding me? Did these people not realise how hard it was to get this one photo? I was ready to have a breakdown if they rejected the photo! (Thus my reluctance to post these photos until now). Fortunately, it all went through the passport processing office with no issues and I picked it up today, so I can now laugh at the experience in hindsight... She was laughing and being so cheeky during the whole shoot... and to get her to keep her mouth shut we had to bribe/give her Natural Confectionery Company snakes... which is why it looks like she's eating in some of the photos... LOL... The photo that we used the enlarged photo... and doesn't she look like the happiest of campers in that photo? LOL... If looks could kill, that would be Beth's killer stare... :p She's stuck with the photo now in her passport for the next 5 years.

Tuesday, March 24

Finding Treasures - Part 2

Finding Treasures - Part 2






















Same shoot... different focus.... little Beth rummaging in the box... I have no consistency in my pping at the moment 'cos I'm still experimenting with all the Eye Candy actions and loving them all! I just can't decide what look I'm going for... once I decide what I like I'm going to be processing a series of these photos into a storyboard...

Monday, March 23

Finding Treasures...

Finding Treasures























I have a special box that was given to me on my 30th birthday (by my dear friends Bec & Jo) which is filled with sentimental cards, quote/inspiration books and little things that I have collected over the years. I keep it high on a tallboy and every now and then Beth will point to the it and ask to look through the box. Beth loves to rummage through it and takes her time flicking through the books and "reading" the cards that are stored in there...

The Silly Smile

The Silly Smile

Sunday, March 22

Pretty Things & Yummy Treats

We have bought and made some things to decorate Beth's bedroom -

The Sweet Teapot Quilt
Here's a close up of the detail on the teapot quilt cover that we got last weekend... It's so sweet and adorable











The Cute Coverlet Then I fell in love with this quilted coverlet in Myer... I had a voucher from the credit card, so I ended up spending the voucher on this... Add to the fact, that Myer was having a one day 40% off Hiccups branded linen and accessories and I really scored a bargain... well... can you still call it a bargain if you technically didn't spend any money on it? :p

The Plush Toadstool

I also had my eye on the plush toadstool cushion all week (I'd seen them in an online store), and I was so excited to find it in Myer... *and* it was also 40% off... how could I resist?

The "Tickly Octopus" - pp2

I made this decorative hanging thing for Beth's room... it's a basically a whole bunch of ribbon, fabric and tulle tied onto a wooden circle and then hung from the ceiling... I don't know what to call it, but Beth calls it her "Tickly Octopus"...

Portugese Custard Tarts

Beth and I made these portugese custard tarts for dessert one night this week... we followed this recipe and omg... they were so yummy and more-ish... Well, Phan and I thought so... Beth, didn't really like them... but she loved helping to make them!

Kid Friendly Sushi

I also made sushi for Beth for lunch yesterday... She's a sushi fiend at the best of times... so I thought I'd treat her and make a homemade version with some left over rice and chicken we had from dinner on Friday. Basically, I mixed a couple of teaspoons of sushi vinegar with warm normal rice (the left over rice)... put some nori (roasted seaweed) down on a sushi mat, spread with the rice, cut the chicken into some batons (the left over chicken had a coriander & spring onion flavour) and place on the rice, sprinkle with some lightly toasted sesame seeds (takes 2 minutes in a non-stick pan), add a couple of batons of cucmber, roll up the sushi roll and serve. I cut them into thin little rounds so that Beth could pick them up and eat them easily... perfect healthy finger food lunch for her!

As a side note, I have now also upgraded to Photoshop CS4 (Thank you Phan for being a student! :))... Woo hoo! Loving the improvements so far... and combined with the dual monitors, my workflow is so much easier to deal with now! :)

Saturday, March 21

Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

I've been a bit slack on the blogging front the last few days... Firstly, Phan and I have discovered this hilarious sitcom called "The Big Bang Theory" and we've been watching an episode or two every night... I think it's one of the funniest sitcoms I've ever watched... definitely aimed at my generation and those younger... and perhaps I find it so funny because it appeals to the little geek in me ... LOL... Here's a couple of little snippets from the show courtesy of YouTube -

Trip To A Sperm Bank
Heavy Lifting

Secondly, I've been making some more felt things and baking... There'll be a post coming later with photos and stuff... ;)

Thirdly... well... things have been busy... we've had playdates, plus all the regular playgroup, swimming, KindyROO stuff... so I've been getting tired quick!

Update... Beth's still chatting away... She says to me - "Mummy draw" and makes me draw with her whilst she's drawing... She's always dropping things and exclaiming - "Oh no... blue pen fall down... Oh no... flower fall down..." and then making me pick things up for her.

I have more stuff to share, but I gotta get my butt in gear and take some photos and things... so I'll be back later with a better post... Just enjoy the photo I took of Beth this morning for now... Love this photo, 'cos she's looking at me!

Tuesday, March 17

My New (Slightly Insane) Awesome Setup!

My New Awesome Setup!

Uh huh... that's right people... I've hit a new high in geekiness and I'm now running *DUAL* 22 inch monitors side by side... and uh huh... that's Photoshop opened up across the two monitors... Look at all that real estate! Totally loving it... And loving Phan for suggesting it in the first place... :)

Having dual monitors really suits my "style" because I have this terrible habit of having a gazillion windows open at any one time (partly due to my ex-software engineering days, partly because I do a lot of photoshop & digiscrapping)... so now I have all this space to help manage my multiple windows...

Mmm.. it looks totally insane, but it is so very practical... :)

Okay, while I'm here, I'll share a photo of our little Miss B, totally crashed out yesterday afternoon... I was trying to wake her and even the camera shutter and speedlite going off didn't stir this little princess...

Crashed Out Princess

Monday, March 16

Happiness In Motion

Happiness In Motion

Sunday, March 15

The Teapot Quilt Cover

This morning after church, we went looking for a new quilt cover for Beth to go with her lovely new bed. We've just discovered that there's a Sheridan outlet not too far from where we live, so we went there to have a look... Lucky for us, they are having some big sales at the moment and we found the perfect quilt for Beth... It's called "Tea Party" by Sheridan Kids and it RRP at $99, reduced to $69 and then 50% off the marked price... so we got it for the bargain price of $35! It's old stock, so I've not been able to find a link to what it looks like close up, so I'll have to take some proper photos of it later. But basically it's this pink printed patchwork design with teapots, cupcakes, hearts and other things all over it... Beth totally adores it! She kept saying "Teapot!" the whole time I was trying to put the quilt cover on.



Saturday, March 14

She Should Be Having A Nap...



Thursday, March 12

The Curious Artist

The Curious Artist...

Just another shot from the day of painting last weekend... This one processed with Eye Candy actions again... Sheye even left a lovely comment about it on my Flickr stream which has totally made my day (if you click on the photo, it will take you to my Flickr stream and you can see her comment)... I just adore Sheye's work, so to get a comment from her totally rocks my world (yes... I know... I'm a bit sad huh?)

This morning, we went to an indoor playground at Chermside with some playgroup friends. It's like a giant inflatable jumpy castle with a huge slide and whole bunch of soft blocks and shapes and stuff that you can jump on. I thought Beth might take a little while to warm up to the idea, but within 2 minutes, she was in there jumping up and down and having a total blast and then figuring out how to get to the slide and sliding down it. We had 2 incidents where something happened that result in Beth being upset and crying (loudly!)... I think the first incident someone had slid into her accidentally from the slide, the second incident, I think someone jumped into her and bumped heads... but she seriously had so much fun, the little accidents were not that big a deal... She was in jumping heaven for the most part (which I'm hoping will curb the jumping on the bed business, rather than encourage it!). Our friend Skylar & Veronica were both there... and Beth had a great time jumping in the castle thing with Veronica and then laughing and playing with Skylar as they built some cave like structure out of foam blocks and knocked it over repeatedly. Beth used up a heap of energy, because she had a sweaty head within 30 minutes... we stayed about 1.5 hours... Could probably have stayed a little longer, but I could see Beth starting to get really tired and we needed to get some lunch and do some grocery shopping before heading home.

Anyway... I'm off to have some lunch and a rest...

Wednesday, March 11

The Crazy Artist And Other Ramblings...

The Crazy Artist

We've been doing a lot of art and craft lately... Beth loves painting, almost to an obsessive point... this is a photo I took of her on Saturday.

I have to say, I'm really enjoying the developmental stage Beth's has reached at the moment... She's becoming so interactive and sometimes I just have to stop and wonder what is going on in that little head of hers. A few other ramblings from this week -
Cheese soup is still on the menu.... she still continues to mention "Cheese Soup" at random times... I think she wanted it for dinner yesterday because she started saying "Cheese soup" the moment she sat at the dinner table. :)

Beth has been going around saying - "How about... ?" She's picked this up from me, and I didn't realise how often I say the phrase "How about...", as I often say it to distract her from something or when asking her a question or to give me to time to think of something to say to her... eg "What sound does an elephant make? How about a monkey? How about a snake?"... or "How about a sandwhich for lunch? How about we have water instead of juice? How about we have some fruit for afternoon tea?"...

Beth was obsessed with wanting to bake something yesterday ... She kept going to the cupboard and getting the flour container and the sugar bag out... and I had to keep make her put it back... Until one point, she went to the cupboard where I keep the measuring cups and she got out a measuring cup... then got the bag of sugar out of the cupboard, opened up the bag and tried to pour it into the cup! Lucky she didn't get much out... it could have been a disasterous mess! She's such a little mimic-er at the moment.

Today, we were briefly at Chermside and we stopped to look at the puppy dogs in the window... She looked at them for all of 2 seconds before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the store to look at the fish tanks... LOL... she is definitely her Daddy's daughter! She also loved looking and pointing at a budgie that was in the store that kept hopping from side to side on the perch... she thought it was the most amusing bird!

The other adorable thing she does is read books to herself... Most books she will read like this -

"One day... < insert babbble > "... (turn the page>... "One day... < insert more babble > "... (repeat until we get to the last page and then)... "THE END!"

One book she does kind of know how to "read" is "The Hungry Caterpillar" ... on the fruit pages she'll say -

"One apple... CHOMP CHOMP" "Two pears... CHOMP CHOMP" "Three plums... CHOMP CHOMP" (she can't do the strawberries or the oranges though)...

Then she points at the cheese, lollipop and watermelon on the next page and then chomps through the leaf. Then she'll say "Biiiig" (at the picture of the big caterpillar) and then "Cocoon" (at the cocoon) and finish on the last page with "boo-ey futterby" (beautiful butterfly).

Just makes me laugh thinking about it...

The Big Girl Bed - Captured On Video

'Cos Bao complained asked for a video snippet, here's Beth enjoying her bed yesterday...



The Big Girl Bed

Big Girl Bed

Yes, our girl is growing up... She has her own bed! Phan and I have briefly talked about getting Beth a bed for a couple of weeks now and on Sunday, whilst we were at Chermside, we saw a toddler bed at Target which was kind of the catalyst that really got us seriously thinking about buying a bed for Beth. So we popped out to a homemaker centre and looked at a few bed places... found this bed, which I just adored (I just love the tulip cutouts in the bedhead), bought it and it was delivered yesterday. It just all happened so fast!

We spent yesterday afternoon putting the bed together (took us about 30 minutes, with Beth trying sooo hard to help us by holding the beams in place and trying to put the screws into the holes and things... she was so cute being a little helper!) She couldn't wait for the bed to be put together... and as soon as we had the mattress on the base she was climbing up on it and bouncing around on it. She got upset when we made her get off so we could put a waterproof mattress protector and a sheet on it... and the minute that was done she back and jumping up and down and getting us to tuck her in under the quilt and pretending to sleep for 10 seconds before getting up and bounding around on the bed again. It was a huge hit... I honestly thought we were going to have a lot of antics at bedtime, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be... actually, it went fantastically. She only got out of bed once and wandered out to the lounge room about 15 minutes after we had tucked her in . After that, she just called out to me about a gazillion times and wanted me to keep tucking her in for about an hour as she was trying to fall asleep (which is really not unusual at all, because she does this normally, but only for about 30 minutes)... And then she finally fell asleep about 10:30pm... and slept straight through until 7:30am! Not a peep out of her all night! I am so happy and proud of her. When she woke up, she got out of bed and went outside her bedroom door and for some odd reason decided to stand and bang on the wall outside her room until I came said good morning to her... and there was the start of the day! :)

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about this big step... She's really growing up now and she's just loving being a "big girl" and having her own bed... So happy the transition (so far) has gone without any issues. She's currently having her first afternoon nap in it and that's been drama-free... :)

This morning, we had a great swimming... Beth got to go in boat (well, a inflatable dingy)... She loves the song "here is the sea, they wavey sea, here is a boat and here is me"... so when I told her that was a boat and she was going to get to go in it she started singing that song to me... Whilst she was in the boat, she wasn't sure whether she liked it or not... I think she really wanted to like it, but she wasn't sure... but once she got out of it (there were 4 kids in a boat for a few minutes) she told me the "boat fun"... :) Too cute! We also did this experiment, where the instructor took each child, put them on a foam mat thing balanced on the edge of the water and had them sit on the mat and then fall backwards into the water to see what their reaction/response to falling into the water would be... and then the instructor pulls them out of the water. (I've explained this badly... I've made it sound worse than it is. The instructor is in control the whole time and it only lasts a few seconds and we had the option to not do it if we thought our child would be traumatised by it). Apparently, some kids just fall towards the bottom, others can't orient themselves, some spin around and swim towards the surface. Beth did pretty well... she managed to spin herself upright and try to swim towards the surface... and she didn't inhale too much water and wasn't even distressed about it at all (there were a few kids in the class that cried and were wondering what on earth had just happened). In fact later on, she sat on a ledge and tried to turn around and fall into the water backwards again by herself! She's a fruitcake! Anyway, it was an interesting process to see what a child's instinct is and also to reinforce that you can NEVER leave your kids in the water by themselves for any length of time...

Be back later with some photos... :)

Monday, March 9

TV Free Days!

Would you believe that Beth and I haven't watched *any* TV in the last 2 days? Honestly, that is such huge achievement in our household. It is all too easy and somewhat of a habit to just switch on the TV and let Beth watch Playschool (her favourite show at the moment... at least it's educational!) for an hour in the morning, whilst I am getting my thoughts together for the day and then again for a couple of hours in the afternoon.. especially at the end of the day when I'm trying to cook dinner and don't want her underfoot.

Yesterday's TV free day started with us getting ready for church in the morning. I knew that if I switched on the TV, we would have a mini-meltdown when it needed to be turned off. Beth isn't a huge fan of church at the best of times, so I didn't want to exacebate the situation unnecessarily. As it turned out, Beth had a great time at church and even started singing (rather loudly and out of tune... it was really funny and quite embarrassing for Phan and me!) the hymns and the mass parts. After church, we went to Chermside to do some things and Beth got to have a Boost juice and her favourite sushi for lunch. We went home, Beth had a nap... and in the afternoon Phan had the fun task of mowing our overgrown lawn ... it was very obviously overgrown as Beth all weekend had been telling Daddy - "Long... Grass.... Long... Grass" over and over again... :)

We had some leftover chicken casserole (which I had frozen previously) for dinner, which resulted in me not needing to do much to prepare dinner, other than cook some rice... so we did some art and craft (another favourite activity of hers at the moment) as the rice cooked and the casserole reheated... Beth had her dinner, followed by bath-time (another reason for wanting to ditch the afternoon TV watching... she has been chucking tanties and not wanting to have a bath in the evening... but without the TV, she's more than happy to go and have a bath... even singing "Bathtime... Bathtime..." as she goes her merry way... :) After her bath, she sat at the table as Phan and I ate dinner and we all chatted and talked together... Beth was pretending to stir something in a bowl and we had our first interactive conversation that went like this -

Me - "What are you doing Elizabeth?"
Beth - "Stirring"
Me - "That's good stirring... what are you stirring?"
Beth (a moment to think and then...) - "Soup"
Me (surprised at the logical response) - "Wow soup?! What kind of soup are you stirring?"
Beth (a little pause... then) - "Cheeeese!" (followed by a cheeky grin and giggle)
At which point Phan and I just cracked up laughing with her. The hilarious thing was, it wasn't some random words she was saying, because we repeated this conversation/questions several times and each time she would say she was stirring "Soup".. and that it was "Cheese" soup... so funny!

So now I'm thinking I've got to find a recipe for this cheese soup that Beth is making. :)

After her soup making antics, we progressed into playing shopkeeper (I set up some empty nappy boxes to make shelves in a store with the some play food (and felt food) and then we used her toy shopping trolley or basket to go shopping and then we went to the cash register which was tended to by Daddy... :) I need to go and get some toy money (or make some) though to enhance the experience...

After playing shopkeeper, we had bedtime stories (we've only recently started this up again, because we went through a phase where Beth was so tired and ratty that she didn't want to listen to any stories!) before going to bed.

Today, Beth and Daddy slept in until 7:45am! (She had stirred at 6am, but Phan went in and they both went back to sleep). I needed to sort out getting some passport photos for Elizabeth printed, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been! I had taken the photos myself (following the guidelines on the Australian passport website... and I might mention I took about 50 photos and managed to get 2 photos that fit the criteria!) but I went to 4 different places and no one could print it for me! Very frustrating. We ended up going to KindyROO and then having to drop into Chermside afterwards to get them printed (with no hassle at all!)

Beth fell asleep in the car on the way home (with sushi in her mouth!). She had a short nap and then woke up in time to have Sharon, Isaac & Em come and visit... We haven't seen them in weeks, so it was great to catch up with them... and Elizabeth loved following Em around! This afternoon, I made pasta and occupied Beth with some diced up carrots instead of turning on the TV. It definitely entertained her... but it also resulted in her scattering carrots all over the kitchen floor!

Dinner was followed by the same routine as Sunday night, except instead of playing shopkeeper, we played with blocks... and Phan and I were having skyscraper building competitions to see who could build the tallest skyscraper... :) and then Beth played dress ups (kind of... really she just rummaged through a pile of clothes without wanting to put any of it on!)

And that brings us to the end of our TV free 48 hours... I will probably let Beth watch some TV tomorrow... I don't think I want to deal with her "helping" me with dinner again!

A little extra update - Beth is talking a whole lot more too and beginning to string more words together... today's word at KindyROO was shark... and they were taught today at KindyROO that sharks have sharp teeth. So Beth has been walking around point to the stamp on her hand and foot and telling me "Shark! Sharp Teeth!" She's also obsessed with seahorses at the moment and keeps bring this foam shaped seahorse to me and telling me it's a "Seahorse!"... There was also a lizard on the sliding door last night which ran up and hid on the ceiling... so Beth kept telling us "Lizzie... Hiding"... and then got scared of the lizard.

Okay that's my mega update for tonight... I have photos coming, but I just don't have the energy to post them up tonight... you'll just have to stay tuned... :)

Saturday, March 7

When she was baby...

Trip down memory lane...
This photo just makes me go "Awwwww"... found this in the archives of our photography folder... She's just over 4 months old in this photo... back in the days when I wasn't "into" photography... using onboard flash *cringe*... oh well, a little bit of photoshop (yeah, yeah, still loving Eye Candy Actions) and it makes the photo passable... :)

Thursday, March 5

A Time To Reflect...

It's that time of year again... 5 years ago, my Mum went to be with the angels... It's not so much a sad time for me anymore... but more of a contemplative time... A time to just take a moment out and remember her and all the things she taught me while she was with us and the lessons she still continues to teach me now.

My mum was mostly a stay-at-home-mum ... Honestly, that term doesn't seem to give her justice, because she was so much more that that... she was our chef, our chaueffeur, confidante, disciplinarian, seamstress, handyman, financial manager... and the list goes on. She stayed at home with us full time until my brother was a few years into primary school. She valued her role as primary carer of us children, took care of our family in the day-to-day way that only mums do... watched me and my 2 siblings grow up, nurtured us and taught us to believe and have confidence in ourselves. She returned to work part-time as a great example to show us that women can work and help to provide financially for the family too. She taught me so much through her words (and gee, I can smile and remember that she had a wonderful gift for constant nagging too as all mothers do... I believe I am beginning to inherit some of that now as well!)... But I I think she taught me more from her actions... Her selfless way of just doing things because they needed to be done... of never seeking attention for herself... of encouraging us to do things together as a family (which at the time, I did not "get" but now in my much older age, I am so ever grateful and appreciative of those memories).

By far, it is these memories of her staying at home and being there for me during my childhood that I treasure most. Which brings me to Today. The Now. The Present Day. My mum is by far a large part of why I choose to be a stay at home mum. Yes, I am fully aware that we are blessed that I do not have to return to work to help to financially support the family. But, my underlying reasoning for staying at home with my daughter is based one basic truth.

Life is short.

I did not truly understand these three words until this day five years ago... My mum never got to see her 50th birthday. She never got the chance to be a grandmother. She didn't get to see my sister get married, nor my brother turn 18.
But for all these things that she did miss out on, there are so many things that she did get to see in our life.... Our first smile, our first laugh, our first steps, our first day of school, all the activities that accompany childhood like sports days, musicals and concerts... She was there for us and she gave us our foundation for becoming decent human beings in society.

And therein lies the reason why I stay at home with Elizabeth. I want to see all her little milestones... I want be there for her just like my mum was there for me. I don't want to miss out any of this time, because who knows what life has in store just around the corner. In 20 years time, I hope she will look back fondly and remember the times we have spent together... (*Disclaimer - I totally respect and admire working mothers... they have a tough job juggling it all... I understand that sometimes people need to work to be able to provide for their family. I'm just writing this from my perspective and my circumstances.)

Mum, I'm thinking of you and loving you every day... You still influence me in my choices today... and I just try my best to be as good a mum to Elizabeth as you were to me. Love you always. xo

Mum's 5 Year Anniversary

Wednesday, March 4

Awesome Hair

Awesome Hair - pp 3

This is what happens when you fall asleep with your hair tied up in a "fountain" hairstyle and then wake up in the morning sans hair elastic... This photo taken whilst we were in Adelaide... she looked so funny that morning... just like a cockatoo! Again, processed with the Eye Candy actions... I'm loving them... :) (Phan might say a little too much... I didn't get to bed until past midnight 'cos I was playing around with them...)

On a separate note, we had swimming today and there was this *HUGE* inter-school swimming carnival happening and the swimming centre car park was full and all the surrounding streets where packed full of cars! So I had to park at the bottom of a *VERY STEEP* hill and walk up to the swimming centre. It probably took me about 5-10 minutes, but my goodness, my legs were burning from the incline (yes, I'm unfit!) and I was totally knackered from having to walk up the hill whilst pushing Beth in her stroller. I later found out once we got to class, that there are always spaces reserved for people doing learn-to-swim classes. Doh! I'll know for next time.

Tuesday, March 3

The Red Flower Lantern

The Red Flower Lantern


























I got the chance to play around with Phong's 60mm macro whilst I was in Adelaide... It was a sooo much fun... Using a macro gives you a totally different perspective of the world and definitely makes you think differently... I loved it. This photo is of one of Phan's mum's flowers in the garden... I was impressed with how sharp the photos were (once I started to get the hang of how to actually focus!)...

This photo has been tweaked and processed with Sheye's Eye Candy Actions... :) I caved and bought the set last night and I'm having a ball playing around with them... they are just gorgeous! I'm all photography inspired again... which I'm happy about!

Monday, March 2

I've been tagged... :)

I've been tagged by Jen... She's a fellow blogger, who stumbled across my blog and commented on one of my posts one day... I went and checked out her blog and she'd written the most beautiful post about motherhood... I added her to my google reader (and I also noticed she'd added me to her blogroll on her blog) and we've been following each other's blogs ever since... I love how you can "meet" people over the internet... (*waves*... Hi Jen!) :)

Anyway, I've been tagged with the following -

The rules..

1. Go to the section of your computer where you store all of your photos.
2. Select the 6th folder.
3. Select the 6th photo from that folder.
4. Post and explain about that picture.
5. Tag 6 other people

6th photo from my sixth folder

This photo was taken from a folder with photos from our first day trip as a family... We spent the morning of the 22nd of March 2008 at Kings Beach, Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast... it was a one and a bit hour drive and Beth decided to have a little nap on the way... which was a great idea, as she was all refreshed and ready for lots of fun at the beach once she woke up.

Thanks for the tag, Jen... it was fun... :)

And I'm tagging the following people -

Bao

Ty (oi, you have to invite me as a reader to your blog... when did you go private?!)

Maria

Donna

Flora

Anne-Marie

Can't wait to see what photos you come up with... :)

Can You Believe It's March Already?

My goodness... the year is flying by!

Sorry for the hiatus on the blog front this last week... we made a quick flying visit back to Adelaide last Tuesday night and only just got back last night. It was a lovely trip (although too short!) and it was just nice to hang out with family and have everyone see how much Beth is growing up (so quick!)

New blog header for this month... in case you're wondering, the brightly painted background, is actually part of one of Beth's masterpieces of art from playgroup... a combination of using the paintbrush and her fingers... I love it because it's so brightly coloured and the colours are actually distinguishable (normally, with that many colours in use, it ends up looking a poo brown kind of colour).

I'll be back later with a proper update and maybe some photos... I haven't taken many photos recently, but I'm getting inspired again after finding out Sheye has released her Eye Candy Actions, which are just gorgeous and I just can't wait to get (hopefully soon... :))