3 Inspirations

I'm always looking for ways to be inspired... it comes in so many different forms for me... I thought I'd share 3 things that have inspired me of late -

1. My brother-in-law Phong posted this clip on his wall a while back.. His friends got married and this is the same-day edit video by Paper Crane Productions that was shown at the wedding. It is awesome... I don't even know these people and I cried the first time I watched it. Since then, I've gone back and watched it a number of times and still it inspires me every single time... That music really strikes a chord with me. Sweet, romantic, beautiful and heartfelt.

Nhan + Catherine Same Day Edit Experience | Be my only... from Paper Cranes Productions on Vimeo.

2. I recently came across a photographer who's style I am just loving... check out Zoe Berkovic ... her creativeness is very cool.

3. Somes words to live by... discovered via Pinterest, original source of image Steph Devlin -

Scrapbooking Sunday

Ah, lots of scrapbooking news this week... Wild Blueberry Ink has been the guest designer over at Log Your Memory for June and she designed this wonderful kit for them - Ties That Bind. She has just released it at her Mscraps store and it just gorgeous... the sentiments in this kit are just perfect for expressing those special family moments.







She's also released a couple of cute little element packs - Wired Charms and Grids and Ledgers Masks - they make perfect little accents to any page. And she has some lovely versatile neutral papers too... I can never get enough neutral papers - check out In the Nude Papers.



Over at Oscraps, Fei Fei's Stuff has released an awesome set of templates called Entree... makes scrapping so effortless! -

Photo A Day - June - Week 2

June 8 - Ruby Red
I went for a neighbourhood stroll with Catherine looking for something to photograph today. Came across these awesome striking tiny little berry-like things.

And a bonus photo to show you how I'm transporting Catherine around when I go shooting... (She is going through a clingy phase at the moment, which I think is most likely due to the *3* top teeth she is cutting at the moment!) I have started using my ergo baby carrier in the back-carry position and Catherine quite likes it... And it's great because it gives me both hands free to take photos instead of these one-handed, balancing-baby-on-hip-with-the-other-hand photos I've been taking. Great fun and exercise now... I plan on going strolling around the neighbourhood at least once a week with Catherine in the ergo now.





June 9 - White, Two Sugars
So it's no where near as cute as Bao's Snow White Teapot, but I picked up this cheerful spotty little "teapot for one" a few days ago for a bargain $12. (The teapot sits on the cup when not in use) I love it... just makes me smile... I'm loving me a nice cup of tea in the the chilly evenings at the moment... Lady Grey is my brew of choice.



June 10 - Garlic Press Love
My sister got me this *awesome* Kuhn Rikon garlic press for my birthday last year... Only she would get me something like this *AND* know that I would love it. She actually did a heap of research on garlic presses before you made a decision... (yeah I know who does that?!) but her research totally paid off. I am actually perfectly capable of finely mincing garlic with a knife... But one thing I discovered since having kids is that it's a pain getting that garlic smell off your hands quickly... and its annoying have to clean your hands when you've got a small child tugging on your leg, crying/whining/wanting to be held. So post-kids I've become a garlic press convert... and this is everything you want in a garlic press... easy to clean (it inverts so you can scrape it out), stainless steel, easy to to press... you can even press a clove with the skin on and it leaves the skin behind. Have I made you want to get one? I should become the official spokesperson for Kuhn Rikon garlic presses... :D

As a side note, these garlic cloves pictured here are ginormous... I don't know what's with the garlic at the moment, but the ones I'm sourcing from my local supermarket and greengrocer look like they are on steroids!



June 11 - Where the Fruit Stickers Hide-eth
So Elizabeth has been getting more and more independent lately and she can now help herself to a mandarin/apple whenever she wants... Well actually, she picks one, gets a plate and gets me to peel/cut it for her... Only today, did I realise what she's been doing with the stickers from the fruit...



June 12 - Winter Comfort Soup
Tonight's dinner... my own creation, and rather like a variation on steamboat.... a nourishing combination of rice vermicelli noodles, topped with shredded chicken, tofu, broccoli, baby corn and shittake mushrooms served in steaming hot homemade chicken broth and garnished with spring onions...




June 13 - Winter Sun
Oh winter sun, how I love you. One of the things I am going to miss about Brisbane when we move back to Adelaide are the beautiful winters... sunny days... no biting cold wind... And the ability to hang the washing out and know it will dry...





June 14 - Here I Am
So this is me... I thought I would do a self portrait of myself today... and I thought I would wear the new dress I scored from Review at a bargain 50% off in the Myer winter sales. Doing the self-portrait was a rather precarious exercise, as Catherine kept wanting to look at/push the tripod and I was totally paranoid my camera was going to fall! I also had an "Ah ha!" moment, when I figured out how improve the way I've been focusing self portraits with my remote trigger. (Tip - manual focus is handy!)

The World's Littlest Hitchiker

If you recall last week's photo-a-day, I took a photo of a vintage suitcase that I had managed to find. I've been searching for one for ages with a particular photoshoot concept in mind, so I was really quite excited when I found it... Yesterday I put it to good use...

Waiting For A Ride


The World's Littlest Hitchhiker


Also The World's Cutest Hitchhiker


No Offers For Rides




Change of Tactics - The Stowaway


Going To Hide In Here...


If I Get Found Out I'll Act Cute...

A Little Light Inspired Beauty

I've had quite a kick of mojo lately and as a result, it's been making me want to go out and scout for new locations and find new light. Here are a few of my favourite light inspired moments.

And I'm trying to teach myself how to use Premiere Pro to make slideshows... Adobe really don't make their software easy or intuitive to use... but I'm figuring this is much like Photoshop in that it's really powerful and can so everything you want and some, so if I put in some hard yards to learn how it works, it'll be worth it in the end. I like the challenge of learning new things anyway. So here's what I came up with...

Sunny Days from Clara Huynh on Vimeo.

Photo A Day - June - Week 1

Back in April, when I roped a whole bunch of family and friends into joining in photo-a-day with me for a month, my beautiful SIL Bao commented to me that she was struggling for ideas and that I had it easy doing photo-a-day because I always have my girls around me and they make cute subjects. And yes, to a degree, I agree... the whole reason I got into photography was to capture memories of my girls... so it comes naturally to me to take photos of them everyday. Although, anyone who has ever taken photos of little people will know that they are not always the easiest subjects to work with... ;) However, I think doing photo-a-day so far this year has vastly improved my confidence and ability to take photographs of children.

But in the interest of doing something a little different - I am dedicating June to being a month of photos where the girls don't feature in the photo-a-day. For my family back home in Adelaide, don't worry, I'll still be taking photos of them this month... can't let a month of them growing up go past without taking photos! I'll just post the girls' photos up separately.... (and also on FB, for those who are on there) But photo-a-day June will feature more about me (you might even see a self-portait...), my everyday and the things around me...

June 1 - New Shoes
A few random facts about my feet.

1. I have a mini-complex about the size of my feet. I used to be ultra paranoid about it in highschool, but I've gotten over it mostly... :o). In proportion to my height, I should be about a size 5 or 5.5. But I'm a size 6 ... and have recently discovered post-Catherine my feet seemed to have gained an extra half a size... so I'm now a gigantic size 6.5. There are advantages to being this shoe size... Bao always tells me how hard it is to find shoes in a size 5 or 5.5.... so I'm lucky I've never had trouble finding shoes that fit me.

2. I am pigeon-toed. Always have been. And it runs in the family, because my sister is pigeon-toed... and so is Elizabeth. Apparently I also walk in a very particular/distinctive manner... to the point that a couple of friends in highschool thought that I had walked with a caliper at a previous point in my life. Yes, I have some weird friends... lucky I was good enough friends with them to laugh hysterically about that story they had concocted in their imaginations.

3. I love ballet flats. Even pre-kids I was obsessed with them. But now, they are an absolute staple in my wardrobe because I'm too unco to chase kiddies in heels (even small ones). I bought these shoes on the weekend and I love the colour (something a bit different for me) and I love that they make my feet look smaller than they are... (*laugh*... yes, that's the shoe size complex coming out in me...)

June 2 - Morning Silhouette
Morning light casting shadows of the branches outside the window on the vertical blinds in the lounge room




June 3 - Banh Bao
I had the random idea strike me to have my first ever attempt at making banh bao at about 8:30am... I had all the ingredients at hand... so I googled a few recipes... combined a few ideas together and voila... 2.5 hours later, one dozen fresh banh bao... :) It would have only have been 2 hours, if my gas bottle hadn't run out half way through cooking the last batch and I had to rejig a contraption on the induction stove to finish them off. (My giant steamer is too big to work on our stove.) Making them was no where near as hard as I had imagined ... I recall my mum spending and entire day making banh bao so I always thought it was hard. It does help though that I got my KitchenAid to knead the dough for me, so that cut the time down a lot. They were delicious... this will probably start being a regular occurence. The advantage of making these early in the day, was that dinner was all ready for that night, so I got to take the girls out for an afternoon shoot too... :)




June 4 - In Search Of Light
Last week, I glanced out the window one afternoon and sighed to myself as I saw the golden glow and said to myself "Oh, the light is beautiful today..."... which lead Elizabeth to come running over and say to me "Can we go outside and take photos?" ... LOL... she is truly a child of mine... I love that at the age of 4.5 she already knows what beautiful light means... :) Alas, on that day, I had to get dinner cooking so there was no time to take photos.... So I made it up to Elizabeth by taking her out for a photoshoot on this day (photos are up on FB, but a blog post will follow soon)... the light was just d.i.v.i.n.e... So glad I forwent an afternoon nap and went in search of the light instead... :)




June 5 - Vintage Suitcase
I've been searching for a vintage suitcase for ages and I finally found one yesterday... :)




June 6 - Signs From Suburbia
Went and did a spot of shopping at Chermside during lunch today, and then Catherine fell asleep in the car afterwards and it was only 45 mins until kindy pickup... so I drove around and looked for something interesting to photograph and this little little market stand in front of a house caught my eye... so quaint and sweet.




June 7 - The Fallen
We pass this tree every day when I take Elizabeth to kindy... (A camelia perhaps??? My botanical knowledge is not that far reaching.) It's just outside the front gate... and it's had a beautiful bed of fallen petals lying there for a couple of weeks now and everytime I see it, I've said to myself "I must take a photo of that!" Finally got around to doing it today... :)

Scrapbooking Sunday

Well, it's been a while since I've done a Scrapbooking Sunday and a few things have been going on...

Firstly, Owl Tree Studio has ended up closing up due to personal reasons... however, on the upside, I'm now CTing for Shirley from Wild Blueberry Inkwho I discovered while I was CTing there. I love Wild Blueberry Ink's designs and am so happy to be on her team! Her shop is over at mscraps, so you should pop over and check it out!

Her latest kit Deja Vu is out right now and is 20% off at the moment.

A here's a page I've done with another recent kit of hers Forecast... the doodles are really cool in this and I love this wordart!




Also I did this simple plage with the cool "Sisters" frame... from Family Photos ... I love it... :) (Also uses the Hope kit papers and brushes)





(Also Catherine's birthday pages in a previous post feature cluster frames from Wild Blueberry Ink too)

Over at Donna Duncombe Designs her latest kit is My Mother's Arms... a cutesy kit in fun girly colours -




And lastly Fei Fei's Stuff has some awesome brand new doodles out - Lots of Love... they are so cute and whimsical... a perfect compliment to these photos.





Thanks for reading along... I'll try and do some more regular updates again!