Fab Family Day!

It was a gorgeous day in Brissy yesterday so we decided to take the kids down to the beach. Now there aren't a lot of choice for beaches in Brisbane itself, there are mostly mud flats but there is one really lovely but very busy spot not that far from us - Wellington Point. So we headed down there and the kids had a ball, they had their first swim (well paddle really) and made their first sand castle for the season. It was lovely. The playground there has been redone and Ella and Huddy had a great time playing on it as well as climbing all over the huge root system from the magnificent Moreton Bay Figs there.




Of course I had to take my camera with us to have a bit of a practice, lol.

Huddy loves to kiss and cuddle, I dread the day where he'll be too embarrassed to kiss us in public, I hope he never stops doing this.

We were going to just get take away from the Cafe there but they were so busy we ended up going to the restaurant and having a lovely lunch with a nice glass of wine - pure Sunday bliss!!!!!

Ella and Col decided to swap sunnies.

Of course Hudson had to be in on it too.

This kids got attitude!!!!

When we got home Ella insited on going in the pool for a swim, there was no way I was getting in, the water was freezing. She had a lovely time paddling around although she did admit to be 'freeeeeeezzing' when she got out, lol.

It's not so scary after all!

Last Saturday Kath, Anita and I did a photography course up at Mount Tambourine with a fabulous company called Bluedog. It is run by two extremely talented and lovely people, Nick and Danielle Lancaster who have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to photography and who really made it all sound so simple. I got heaps out of the day and came away having learnt heaps about my own camera as well as Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. I highly recommend them to anyone wanting to get to know their camera better as well as demystifying the lingo that goes with a camera.

I thought I would share a couple of photos (straight out of the camera) that I took on the day, not brilliant ones by any means but just shows you some of the cool things we did........

like freezing water


















and slow shutter speed nighttime photos














closeups with a blurred background

and landscapes with a long depth of field.

On Sunday Col took Hudson for a 'boys' day out to the 'Festival of Speed at Tweed' so Ella and I had a lovely girly day together. We went for a picnic down to a lovely park on the river - Colmslie Park and of course I had to take my camera with us for a bit of a play. Ella wasn't really into co-operating much (what's new) but I did manage to take a couple of photos like these ones of my girl :)

Unbelievable!

For anyone that watched So you Think you can Dance you would have seen this last night but I thought i would share with you. These two guys are astounding! I'm not really into popping but I couldn't believe some of the moves these guys have. Robert the one in the pac man t-shirt must be double and triple jointed to be able to do the moves he does. Awesome - check it out!

Scrap share.....

Just a couple of layouts to share with you.

This one was done for a challenge on The Boxx. It was for a monochromatic lo using the colours, Bright green, orange or aqua, I obviously chose the green, lol.

This lo is for the latest 123 Challenge. I've had this photo of Ella and Hudson for ages and have kept putting off scrapping it because I loved it so much and wasn't sure how I could do justice to it (even though it's not really a great photo).

For some reason the colours in this lo look really washed out but it's not all when you see it irl. I should have photoshopped it but can't be bothered going back now to do it.
*Edited to say I have fixed the colour in the above lo and it looks much more like the true colours it is.

These last two are just ones I put together, trying to use up some of my stash! The first one is a photo of Hudson and I on Mothers Day this year, he loves to grab my face and pucker up for a big smooch - I love it too!

Aaarrrrggghhhh! Me hearties

We've been in total Pirate mode the last week with Hudson's Pirate party last Saturday. He had an absolute ball and has been really sad and disappointed this week that his Birthday is now over, lol. Ella and he dressed up as pirates and I thought they both looked very cute indeed. Hudson was a bit subdued but Ella really got into the whole pirate thing and even had a parrot (well duck) on her shoulder and ran around yelling "Where's your buccaneers? On your Buccanhead" which was courtesy of Col!.
I made name tags for everyone with their pirate name on them which I got from here which we all had a bit of a laugh about. Hudson's was 'Cheatin Harvey Jones', Ella's was ' Cap'n Jezebel Fancypants', mine was 'High pitched Wilma' and Col's was 'Pirate Edmund the Dagger'. Hehe I think they are very funny, If you have a go make sure to leave me a comment and let me know what your Pirate name is too :)

So here's Cheatin Harvy Jones

The Pirate Ship Cake which Huddy insisted on ( I tried to get him to change his mind to a treasure chest because I thought it would be easier but he wasn't having it, lol)

Pirate cupcakes and treasure chests.


More Pirate ships and we also had fish bites in the shape of fish which the kids loved.

Cap'n Jezebel Fancypants with her parrot ;)


and the very cute but Motley bunch of Pirates who were giving us their best "AARRRRRGGHH" :)

doesn't Lucy (the baby) look so cute with her eye patch on, lol.

123 Challenge Blog

September 123 Criteria is....
1. Use scallops on the
2. Use the colour TEAL!
3. Spots! Any way any how :)

Looking forward to seeing LOTS of your layouts ladies!!! What a great and EASY Criteria this month!!!