Tuesday, 20 December 2016
The future of IBOT {A new era} | IBOT
- Steve Jobs
And so it is with everything in life, there comes a time when we need to make changes. Changes that will benefit us as individuals, and benefit those around us as a community. IBOT is no different and certainly not immune to change. Over the years since Jess started IBOT (I Blog on Tuesdays) in 2011 there have been many changes in the make-up of #teamIBOT (those lovely souls who make a commitment to read and comment on your posts every week). But none as big as this.
Tuesday, 13 December 2016
Christmas Traditions {Document your days} | IBOT
Tuesday, 6 December 2016
Strangers in the Night {and getting older} | IBOT
Tuesday, 29 November 2016
My first child is starting school next year! {a guest post by Denyse Whelan} | IBOT
As I've mentioned a few times, Punky is off to school next year! It's going to be a huge adjustment, not just for her, but for Dave and I as we become 'school parents' for the first time. Denyse Whelan, retired teacher/principal, parent and grandparent knows a bit about this and she’s taken over here today to help me and Dave out (a bit)...
My first child is starting school next year!
What does that mean for you, the parents, that your first child is starting school?
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Thirty-Six to Thirty-Seven {52 week project} | Photography
Next year is going to be so full of big things, the biggest being Punky starting school next year. I was supposed to publish a lovely guest post about starting school by Denyse today but in my bid to remember everything I need to at this time of year I completely forgot I had it! So that post will be up next week, which is timely as Punky has her Orientation Day. I am so not ready to be a school mum!
Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Home Sweet Home {thankful for} | Life
So today I wanted to change the tone and share a few things that I'm currently grateful for. You might remember that I used to do a weekly post on a Monday called One Perfect Moment, where I would share one thing from the previous week that I was grateful for. It fell by the wayside during last year when things got crazy busy with tafe and final assessments and I never really picked it up again.
Tuesday, 8 November 2016
Filming Life {and what I've learned while doing it} | Photography
After an interesting weekend I've made some decisions about the kind of work I want to do in 2017 and as soon as I've finished the course I'm going to start working on overhauling my business website to reflect the kind of work I really want to be doing, and hopefully start attracting my ideal client. I'm going to revisit the things I learned while doing the Fearless & Framed marketing course at the beginning of the year and also practice, practice, practice making films.
Friday, 4 November 2016
Quick & Easy Healthy Meals | Food
This post is sponsored by Weight Watchers, but all thoughts and opinions including meal suggestions are my own.
It's no secret that when it comes to cooking I'm a bit of a lazy girl. It's not that I can't cook, but I really don't enjoy the cleaning up that comes with it, and I don't like recipes with lots of fussing around. Thankfully I married a man who is not only a good cook, but doesn't mind being in the kitchen preparing something new.
So I've been a bit spoiled for a long time, with a Mum, mother-in-law and husband to do all of my cooking. But, there are still times when I have to venture in to the kitchen to do more than cut up some fruit for the girls or cook my famous three ingredient pancakes, or Low Calorie Mug Brownie.
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Thirty-Two to Thirty-Five {52 week project} | Photography
It's another quick post from me today as I have been madly working away on my second assignment for a course I've been doing, Courtney Holmes' Filming Life. It's been so much fun, learning all about how to create beautiful films for my family and clients using my DSLR and Adobe Premiere Pro. It builds on some of the skills I learnt last year at Tafe and I have totally caught the filming bug. I'm not quite ready to give up the still photography just yet, but it's a nice skill to have and one that will improve my still photography skills as well.
So today it's all about catching up on sharing my 52 week project images, and this week I present to you weeks thirty-two to thirty-five. Enjoy!
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
The day I joined a cult (otherwise known as buying a Thermomix) | IBOT
Anyway, as the title suggests, I have crossed over to the dark side. That's right. I bought a Thermomix. Well, half a Thermomix to be honest. How did I buy only HALF a Thermomix, I hear you say? Well. My sister and I went halves. At the time, we couldn't convince either of our husbands on the necessity of spending over $2000 on a kitchen appliance. However they were more than happy for us to split the cost and share custody of little Thermy (we're still trying to decide on a name, we're waiting for his personality to emerge before we settle on something).
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Celebrate Nude Food Day 2016 | IBOT
This post written in collaboration with Nude Food Movers
October marks the 6th annual Nude Food Day event with Aussies from all around the country embracing the challenge and celebrating by packing a healthy rubbish free lunch, any day or every day in October. We've been a big fan of Nude Food Movers in this house for a while now, so it was with great excitement we opened up a big box of goodies to review!
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Thirty-One {52 week project} | Photography | IBOT
It's just a really quick post from me today. I worked all day yesterday, seriously I left the house at 5:30am and didn't get home till 8:30pm and I am exhausted. All the energy I have left is going to wards not screaming in agony every time I have to get on my feet. Let's just say being an assistant photographer at a proper commercial studio shoot is NOT the ideal time to wear a pair of shoes you've only ever worn twice. I totally underestimated just how many steps I would be doing (10, 000 by 9:30am, well over 20, 000 for the day!). So I'm just going to catch up on a week of my project 52 photos. Feel free to just scroll on by and link up, I know how half-assed this post is!
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
Winter Wedding Wonderland {Hawkesbury Wedding Photography } | #IBOT
I was the photographer for the day (but not the night, more on that later) and it was such an honour to document the day in all it's glory for L & A. It's only the second wedding I've shot in an official capacity, and I can tell you that the experience just gets better and better. I think there's a wedding photographer inside me after all! The ceremony was held at Scheyville National Park, an absolutely beautiful location, and a photographer's dream. The reception followed at the Richmond School of Arts, a wonderful old building in the historic Hawkesbury town of Richmond.
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Floriade 2016 {in pictures} | Places to See | IBOT
As most of you would know, last week the girls and I headed off on a little family holiday with my Mum and sisters. We traveled down to Canberra for a couple of nights to visit Floriade and do a little sightseeing in our nation's capital.
We had a great time, and the girls really enjoyed checking out the flowers and seeing the displays. They especially loved the bamboo grove we found, which they could walk though and play in. The weather wasn't the greatest (think cold & overcast) most of the time, but we didn't let that dampen our spirit.
Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Now that was a babymaker! {Guest post by Middle Aged Mama} | IBOT
In the meantime, here's Janet...
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
5 BEST Photography Apps {for editing on the go} | Photography
Two years ago I wrote a post called Best Photo Editing Apps and shared some of my favourite apps that I used to edit my photos. In two years a lot has changed and there have been a whole bunch of new photography apps released. So I thought it was time I revisited this topic and shared with you what I now consider to be the best photography apps in 2016.
I want to start by saying straight-up that 95% of my photo editing is done on my computer using the Adobe programs Lightroom and Photoshop. However there are times when I'm out and about and I've been snapping photos on my phone (or on my big camera and I've sent them to my phone via my camera's built-in wifi) and I want to clean them up and add a little pizazz before I share them online.
When that happens I have a handful apps that I almost always use. Don't get me wrong, I have at least 15 photography apps on my iPhone right now, but not all photography apps are created equal and there are a lot of crappy ones out there. So this post presents to you what I think are 5 of the best, and if you don't have any others, these are the ones you should have...
Tuesday, 6 September 2016
Father's Day 2016 {Times x2} | IBOT
Friday, 2 September 2016
Favourite Quick Healthy Meals {for Lazy Girls} | Food
It felt so good to finally open up on Tuesday and share how I've been feeling for most of this year. It's never easy to make yourself vulnerable but the pay-off is so worth it. As part of my effort to try and make things easier on myself I've let go of obsessing about food and my weight, and have been putting in place ways to limit my food choices so I don't have to think about it so much.
When I say limit, I don't mean I'm restricting my foods or anything, I'm just trying to make sure that I've got whatever I need on hand when I'm hungry so I can just grab out something and eat and not make a big deal about it. I'm lucky that Dave is such a great cook and has a really good repertoire of meals that he makes.
Tuesday, 30 August 2016
How I see myself {vs how others see me} | IBOT
This year has been a really weird one for me. I've struggled with finishing Tafe and going back to being a full-time SAHM. It's left me feeling really low and doubting myself. I've had to think long and hard about my life and the things I want to do and accomplish. I feel like there are all of these things that I should be doing, and in turn, I've felt kind of paralysed. I've been a terrible house wife and poor Dave has had to pick up a lot of the slack I've been giving.
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
5 things that annoy me {way more than they should!} | IBOT
There are 5 things that have been annoying me lately, more than they should. So I thought I'd list them for you today...
Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Twenty-Six to Thirty {52 week project} | IBOT
Last year I completed two 52 week projects, one for each of the girls. This year I decided to up my game a bit, and not only do a 52 week project for each of the girls, but to also do a Sisters 52 week project, as well as one that was just for me. I'm a member of a really great photography forum, Clickin' Moms, and this year I'm playing along with their guided 52 week project. Basically what that means, is that our leader, the wonderful Sue Bahen gives us a different brief to shoot each week.
Tuesday, 9 August 2016
Psychosomatic {addict insane!} | IBOT
Now, every time I think about it my eyes start to water and feel itchy. When I have to clean Punky's eye or put the drops in, my eyes feel scratchy in sympathy and I'm convinced I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning with my own eyes crusted together.
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
Happy Anniversary {to the craziest man I know} | #IBOT
Today is mine and Dave's anniversary. Not only is it the anniversary of the day we started going out, but it's also the anniversary of the day we got married.
Proving that he's not just a pretty face, when we first talked about getting married we decided that we should do it on our existing anniversary. That way we wouldn't have to remember another date.
Smart man!
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Happy Birthday #IBOT {I blog on Tuesdays} | IBOT
In case you missed it last week, the lovely Essentially Jess has entrusted me to look after her baby for a while so she can take a well deserved break. So between now and the end of the year I pledge to do my best to be the hostess with the mostess, and make sure IBOT continues to be the amazing community that Jess built.
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
What happens when you die {according to my 4-year-old} | Life
"Mummy, people don't like dying."
I was a bit surprised by this conversational tidbit, as we hadn't been talking about death or anything even remotely close to it. So I asked her why she thought people didn't like dying.
"Because they are hurt."
That sounded like a fairly logical conclusion for a four-year-old to come to, so I asked her if she knew what happens when a person dies.
"You fall down, and then someone has to pick you up and put you in bed, and then you need a magical kiss."
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Twenty-Four & Twenty-Five {2016 52 week project} | Photography
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Twenty-Two & Twenty-Three {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Twenty-Three - Sisters} It's not all fighting and dobbing, and when I see them playing together and getting along it makes my heart sing!
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Picture This: Happy Birthday to Me {April & May 2016} | Photography & Life
In April & May I took 3500 photos. Yep. I know. And that doesn't even include the 3000-odd I took while shooting my first wedding! I'm almost done editing that wedding, it's taken a lot longer than I anticipated and I will definitely factor that in for next time! It was an awesome experience, and I can't wait to shoot my sister-in-law's wedding next month.
Today is my birthday
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
Ten on the Tenth {June 2016} | Photography
This is what Friday the 10th of June looked like at our place. Lots of drawing, outdoor play, and breakfast for dinner (toast!).
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Taking it Easy on myself {Lite n Easy Review} | Health & Weightloss
This post written in collaboration with Lite n' Easy
Next week I turn 34. I'm not really sure how I got here, to be honest. Mid-thirties?! Me?! I remember when I was 20, thinking how old 26 seemed. Now? I'm pretty sure my 20-year-old-self would think I'm positively over the hill! But as they say, age is a state of mind, and I still feel like I'm 29. Most days.
It's no secret that I've struggled with my weight since having the girls. After having Zee in July 2013 I set myself a goal to participate in the 5km Mother's Day Classic in 2014. I started 2014 off pretty well, and after a few weeks on Lite n Easy and starting the Operation Move Learn to Run training course I was finally starting to see some results.
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Vivid Sydney {at Taronga Zoo} | Kid-Friendly Sydney
Last Thursday night we did something really fun and headed to Taronga Zoo after dark to see the Vivd Sydney light installation. This is the first year that Taronga Zoo has been a part of the various displays that make up Vivd Sydney.
Unlike the displays in the city, it's much less busy at the Zoo, owing to the fact that it's a ticketed venue. The only way to see the lights set up inside the zoo is to buy tickets at The Ticket Group here. And just so you know, this isn't a sponsored post, I bought tickets after reading about the event at Adventure Baby blog.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Nineteen, Twenty & Twenty-One {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters - Nineteen} Spending Mother's Day at my Mum's, trying desperately to get a nice photo of the girls with their Grandma. This was the most successful!
Sunday, 29 May 2016
Sixteen, Seventeen & Eighteen {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters - Sixteen} Always giggling and laughing, my two peas in a pod
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
5 Simple Tips for Taking Better Photos {with any camera!} | Photography Tips & Tricks
You don't take a photograph, you make it.
- Ansel Adams
When it comes to photography, people often think that if they have a great camera, they'll automatically take great photos. And while it's true that a good camera (paired with a good lens) can definitely improve the quality of your image, it won't necessarily make you take great photos. Any photographer worth their salt can take an interesting and engaging photo, with whatever camera they have to hand, whether it be a top-of-the-line pro-level camera, an iPhone camera or a disposable film camera.
If you've found yourself with a lovely new camera, but you're disappointed that your photos still aren't turning out the way you hoped, don't despair. There are a few simple things you can start practising today to help you take better photos in future.
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Breakfast at The Grounds {of Alexandria, Sydney, NSW} | Places to See
Last week I got to visit a place I've heard lots about but never seen myself. That place was The Grounds of Alexandria, and I was there with my good bloggy friend Kylie from Kidgredients. Kylie was invited to attend a Mother's Day breakfast being held by the lovely people behind Bonne Maman in Australia.
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Gardening with Kids {Planting a herb garden} | For the Kids
About a month ago I went to the local farmer's market with my sister, and while we were there I found a little Cayenne chilli plant for only $5 so I bought it for Dave. He'd been talking about wanting to start growing his own chillis, as he uses so many of them in his cooking he figured he may as well try growing them too.
Sunday, 24 April 2016
Fourteen and Fifteen {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters - Week 14} - Despite the arguments, hitting and hair-pulling, these girls really do love each other and know exactly how to make the other one laugh.
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Document Your Days {For Future Generations} | Photography
- Elliott Erwitt
The little girl in the image at the start of this post is my Mum. She's about 4/5-ish in this photo. She sits on the floor of someones lounge room, playing. There isn't a lot to giveaway the time and date of the photograph save the old-school fireplace & TV she's sitting next to. She sits the way Punky often sits now when she is playing.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Picture This... {March 2016} | Life
March was a busy month, with Easter, trips to the beach, chilli planting, illness & work. I took a lot of photos, two thousand and twenty-four to be precise, so I thought it only fitting to do those thousands of images justice and share just a few of my favourites from the month. Don't worry, I didn't include all two thousand!
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Twelve & Thirteen {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters - Week 12} - On Good Friday Dave had to work so it was just me and the girls having a quiet one at home. In the afternoon I decided we could all do with getting out of the house for a bit, so we headed to our favourite park to waste the last hour before Daddy got home playing, climbing and sliding.
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Family Dinner Night {Part One} | Life
Watching the girls spend time with their Aunties & Uncles & cousin is something that I enjoy immensely. I don't take my camera to every Family Dinner, but more often than not I have it with, ready to document these moments so that we can look back on them in the years to come and remember what life was like.
People often seem surprised
Tuesday, 29 March 2016
Eleven {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters} They love dressing up and playing make believe games together. I woke up to the sound of them playing and they of course asked me to take pictures of them as "bewdiful pwincesses!"
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Ten {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters} When we had our adventure down to Austinmer Beach we met up with my Mum and two of my sisters and my nephew down there. We had such a good time playing and exploring, and then Mum and my sisters headed home while we stuck around for a bit more playing. The girls have them a very enthusiastic send-off!
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Ten on the Tenth {March 2016} | Documentary-style Family Photography
How the heck is it mid-March already? Confession... I still have my Christmas Tree up. Yeah, I'm that person. At what point do you concede defeat and just leave it up until next Christmas?
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
The most important words I say to my Husband {and it's not "I love you"} | Love
When we first started dating I was 20 and he was 21. We've spent basically all of our adult lives together. There have been ups and there have been downs. There are times when we are so loved up it's sickening. And there are times when we can barely stand to be in the same bed together (can anyone say snoring and restless leg syndrome?!).
If there is one thing I have learnt in that time
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Nine {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters} We had a picnic dinner in the backyard. I asked them to show me their dinner. So they opened their mouths. Not quite what I meant!
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Eight {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters} Right now the girls are really in to copying each other and making silly faces. I noticed there was a lot of giggling from the playroom on this particular day and walked in to find them sitting in front of the mirror, trying out different funny faces. I had to get a picture coz it was just too cute!
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Friday Night Lights {Documentary Style Family Photography} | Life
Every once in a while, about every 5-6 weeks, we get a real Friday night. What do I mean by a real Friday night? It's a Friday night where Dave has actually finished work that morning, making the rest of Friday his Friday night. Because of his rotating shift work his Friday night doesn't always fall on an actual Friday,
Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Seven {2016 52 week project} | Photography
{Sisters} I was really sick last week. Like, really sick. Shocking head cold. I spent most of the days lying on the lounge with one or the other girls lying on top of me. Being sick when you have kids is hard work. They don't understand why Mummy doesn't feel like doing 50 million things with them, and when they are sick themselves, the demands become outrageous! So when
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