The Best Part

Amongst the beautiful flowers and dresses and the amazing landscape and sunset, I reckon this by far is the best part. This is what we celebrate. These vows and the emotion behind them is the whole reason for the day, the foundation of their marriage, and what will carry them through long after the flowers have dried up and the beautiful dress is packed away.


To all those who celebrate their anniversary around this time of year I encourage you to re-read your wedding vows often and love, respect and cherish that amazing person that you married :)

If a picture tells a thousand words then here is my essay

Happy three year anniversary my love. You mean the world to me and I wouldn't trade the last three years for anything! We've had our ups and downs, traveled the world, lived in a few different houses, driven a few different cars (although our Kombi 'little Joe' will always be remembered fondly). You have supported me through a year without my immediate family living in the same hemisphere, through intense post-graduate study, throughout a draining and painful pregnancy, and through the vast changes that come with being a Mum. You are the best! I don't think I would have had an un-medicated birth without you to coach me through it all and I don't think I would be breastfeeding our little guy if it wasn't for your empathy, love, understanding and encouragement. You really do make my joys greater and my sorrows more bearable. Thank you for being my constant companion, and for encouraging me in my passions and believing that I can do it even when I'm not too sure. You are a constant delight in my life, and I love you so much! Your quirky way of viewing the world and creative mindset is infectious. Here's to many more years of being absolutely madly, crazily in love with you :)

It is Christmastime for sure

Last night we did one of our family traditions and made the Christmas pudding. We're not always this organised but Ash heads away to China in a few days so we wanted to do some Christmas things before she leaves :) We will miss her muchly but know that she will have a great time away and hopefully come back with lots of stories to tell and photos for us to see.

Everyone had to have a stir, even our little baby boy, although he was more interested in trying to get what was inside the bowl...

This will be our first Christmas as a family of three and it has made me think about what I would like to instigate as our traditions, so I'd love to know what YOUR Christmas traditions are? What do you do, where do you go, what are your essential things to make it feel 'Christmassy' to you? I might steal some of them if you don't mind?

One thing I would love to do is to make Tavi a Christmas stocking, we always had them growing up and I'd love to make a quilted one for him. Even though some Christmas Eves I was sure that us kids had stayed awake the majority of the night, there would always be a stocking totally stuffed full of goodies that mam and dad had somehow filled without us seeing. It also satiated our desire to get up and open presents on Christmas day for probably at least another half hour, so as a parent now I like the sound of that too :)

Service with a smile...and surprises :)

I'm seriously loving these little homie pants, I made some for Tavi and wanted to make a pair and matching onesie for Sienna who I photographed the other week.

Hopefully Sienna and her Mama like them and the photos :)

And my little accomplice? 

He busied himself with a top hat and I'm so very glad he did. 

This is why i tend to have my camera close by at all times. I think you can sometimes have all these great ideas for photos but the best ones are often totally random things that happen. Here's to cherishing the fleeting moments, baby smiles, and random happenings amongst the chaos of life!

My gorgeous friend, her proud Daddy, amazing flowers, a memorable day :) 

 

Just had to quickly put up an unedited photo before I go to...zzzzz

Sew look what I made :)

Aside from finishing off Tavi's quilt (except for the binding) I also made an eye mask today. My sister is heading off to China next week and I thought some pretty eye shades might be nice for her trip. The last few times I've travelled they didn't give out eye shades unless you request them but even then they are made of el cheapo elastic and plasticky material, not very nice at all. These are made using material I had from other projects and some of the lovely bamboo wadding from Tavi's quilt, I plan on finding a use for all of the leftovers cuz its just so nice!

These are simple to make once you get your head around piecing it together...I had to borrow Chris's brain because spatial awareness is definitely not my strong point, but the sewing was very straight forward and it doesn't require much material. If you have some material and wadding leftover from a quilt these would be a lovely gift for anyone heading overseas or who just wants to sleep in after the sun comes up (and really isn't that all of us?). If you'd like to have a go at making an eye mask for you or someone in your life I used this tutorial. Quick, easy, pretty, what more could you want?

592 pins...

...countless pinpricks later, and I finally have something that resembles a quilt!

My normal camera was away with Chris at school yesterday so I took a few pics during the day with my iphone. This quilt has been a long time coming, it was the first thing I decided to sew, and now I realize that it was a bit of an outlandish project to be my very first one (if only I could bottle pregnancy induced focus and drive I'd put energy drink companies out of business in no time!). 

I literally learned how to sew while making those log cabin squares, and constantly had to keep re-threading the machine and unpicking so I quickly learned how to do that too. I think the squares were done in about a week but then my sciatica (again pregnancy related) hurt so bad that I couldn't sit at the machine long enough to continue quilting and had to leave it for a while and do some smaller projects instead.

Currently I am working my way through quilting the whole thing, with some more bright material as the backing and luxuriously soft bamboo wadding in the middle. Can't wait till it is finished!

I also took a bit of a break yesterday to spend some time with my Dad which was lovely, can't get over the difference in skin tone between these two!

Tavi sure does love his Anda, and I sure do looooove soy chai lattes. The company was lovely too :)

Challenge for the day: Dads, take your daughters out for lunch or a coffee, don't worry we'll supply the conversation material. I'm pretty sure its never too early or too late to start, and regardless of our age it means the world to us :)

5 Weeks People!!

I always think that I am going to be so much more organized each Christmas than the previous year but I never am!

My friend informed me this week that there are only 5 weeks to go till Christmas and I have some serious sewing to do. I have all my presents planned but now I need to actually make them, and I'd also like to make our Christmas decorations too (I'm kind of an all or nothing person if you hadn't guessed).

So since the decorations are easier I thought I'd start on them to make the house feel nice and festive. I picked up the styrofoam baubles in a pack of 4 for 50 cents and then you can use any scrap fabric and ribbon to decorate so they work out to be pretty cheap. Nice and brain-numbing, I mean relaxing too!

I have wanted to make bunting for the longest time and now I finally have! Bias tape and all, I'm quite proud :) Need to do a trip to Spotlight for some more supplies though, and also does anyone know where you can get a real Christmas tree in Australia?

Looking forward to the first Christmas with our little man. I've decided he is getting a goat...well not technically for him, but I'll go into that another day since he has just decided to wake up and doesn't sound too happy. Until then you may marvel at my sewing abilities, most of which were gleaned from the internet so if I can do it then you definitely can!

What A Difference 6 Weeks Makes...

This is the same little guy at newborn and then six weeks on! Its amazing how quickly babies grow up and change, fill out and get chunky!

After coming home from our hangout at the Sails restaurant at Redcliffe (very baby friendly and lovely staff) I uploaded this photo to facebook with the following caption; tee hee, is it wrong that the first thing that comes to mind is "I shall call him 'Squishy,' and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy."

Evidently I'm not the only one who thinks so judging from the amount likes and comments. He sure is cultivating a fine set of cheeks :)

Along with a lovely personality

It is easy to see that he is absolutely adored by his Mama! I'm so happy to have my beautiful friend back from teaching far far away, and very selfishly hope that she hangs around for a while :) Having babies can be such a huge change, but it is lovely to have friends by your side, especially ones who knew just how crazy you were in high school (and that was before overdosing on a mud cake which we since deemed 'death by chocolate'). It takes someone special to go through all the phases and stages with you, who knows your strengths and faults, and you are still friends with all these years later. Levi, you are very blessed to have such an amazing Mum!!

Could they be anymore different? Kenya vs. Ireland ;) Tavi is enthralled with his little friend, and I think Levi is just starting to notice that he is there.

Lovely Cass and our two lads.

 

We ended up seeing each other the day Mueller had their graduation, seems crazy that we were the ones graduating this time 7 years ago...wonder where we will be in another 7 years?

Hey Baby!

I think I have finished editing the photos I took of Sienna last week. I'm not sure about anyone else out there that takes and edits photos but for me its similar to writing an assignment. I tend to think that I'm totally happy with it but then if I let it sit for a day and come back to it I'll see something that needs tweaking.

Despite having my own baby that I take a gazillion photos of daily, I learned a lot from this shoot and I hope I continue to learn lots and continually improve my skills with every shoot I do. There is definitely something to be said about just getting stuck into it and having a go at whatever it is that you want to do. You can only learn so much prior to trying it and what you learn on the job will often be much more relevant than having tonnes of head knowledge which you may never use.

Don't forget, my photo shoots are still FREE while I am learning and as long as you are happy to bear with me, I'll do my best to capture lovely memories of you and your family, or your kids, your pet dog, your houseplant...although I do draw the line at pet rocks :p

Contact me: summertimephotography (at) gmail.com to set up a date.

So here are some of those tweaked photos. Sienna you were a pleasure to photograph and your Mum was fantastic for letting me borrow you for a while. There are about 50 that I am happy with, and in future I'll aim for this amount of edits per shoot, although I still have something non-photo related in the works for this darling little girl so hopefully I'll finish that off today and have a little package dropped off to your house soon :)

Like peas in a pod

I'm considering carrying a photo of these two around with me, simply to answer the question "where does the red hair come from"...and resist my desire to say well usually it grows from his head.

Actually the glorious red hair runs strong on both sides of the family, I just don't have any photos of Tavi recently with his Auntie but we'll have to sort that out soon...any excuse for a trip to the coast!

It's a stinking hot day where we are so, while I edit photos, I'm sipping on Chris's latest homemade creation: ginger beer. It is so simple and so good for you, made from kefir, raw honey and organic ginger. Next time he does a batch I'll take some photos of this yummy goodness and show you how we do it, along with our little friends the kefir grains who are multiplying nicely.

These Two

They make my heart happy. They make me smile.

After a week of neglecting a fair amount of housework in favour of doing photoshoots, graduation and end of school celebrations, and quality time spent with people I love, suffice to say the house was not in tip top shape.

After the drudgery of cleaning early on a Saturday morning (which I hate, but I hate it more when it interferes with time that could be spent with Chris) it made me happy to hear a familiar tune. Through the kitchen window I could see my handsome husband playing the song he wrote for me to walk down the aisle to at our wedding, with Tavi sitting his lap mesmerized by the piano and slapping his legs (presumably accompanying his Daddy on the leg drum)

In a week we will have been married for 3 years! It really doesn't seem that long. Through all the ups and downs, our travels and adventures, and most recently launching into the whole parenting thing, I couldn't imagine anyone else by my side.

Although now its better, I have two loves of my life, to have and to hold, to cuddle and laugh with, to struggle on and cry with, to make my heart happy, to make me smile :)

Gallavanting around the garden

My camera has been commandeered by my parents to take more photos of Aisling at her formal in the Hilton, so until I get my precious cargo back here is a look at our place.

Now that the shock of having a baby has become our new normal (as tumultuous and sleep deprived as that often still is) we are starting to get back into the things we love, which for me is my photography, Chris is starting to do more drawing, and we are both enjoying starting up our veggie patch and spending more time out in the garden. Cara is loving the extra company.



So here is a look at what has been happening in our backyard lately: Wheatgrass grown from seeds, I reckon paying $13 or more for a tray is a rip off, much cheaper to just buy the seeds and let nature do its thing.



Once thought to be beans, now possibly cucumber. We have a tonne of these that sprouted from our compost area and I can't wait to see what the end up being. I'm hoping for cucumber, Tavi noms away on it all the time so our own patch would be handy, not to mention better with no nasty pesticides to worry about.

Mini lettuces. The soil isn't so great where we live (for now) so these little guys are taking their sweet time getting ready to be my lunch.

 

Pretty flowers. They came with the house, along with some secret aloe vera that I discovered a few weeks ago.

Mister Oliver did not dissappoint, our basil has sprouted through and hopefully soon will be big enough to eat.

 

We also bought a small chilli plant and within a week there was a chilli. I've dared Chris to eat it raw but he has neither accepted nor declined my challenge as of yet.

But this is probably one of my favourite parts of our garden. Free plants in free pots makes me very happy. We went to the nursery in Maleny with every intention of buying some seedlings but then I saw a bunch of rather sad looking plants with a sign saying 'free to good home' so we scored some purple basil, chives and thyme without spending a cent. Regretfully the chives didn't pull through but with a bit of watering the others turned out just fine. And the wall planters? I procured them from freecycle and Chris hung them up on the wall in our undercover area, it adds a nice bit of life to an otherwise bland brick wall. Practical and pretty.

Lesson 1: ALWAYS look for a 'free to good home section' when buying plants.
Lesson 2: Freecycle is a wondrous invention, forever and ever Amen.

Happy gardening!