Photo-a-day week 4

Well we have had a wild week weather wise. January is nearly over….and I am yet to really get into any kind of exercise regime…no luck! But I am super proud of myself that I have kept up with my photo-a-day even through a cyclone!

 

Well, this is the week that was…

Day 22

My darling daughter on the pontoon…

 

 

 

Day 23

For some reason the WiFi in our house only works on that side of the couch so they have to huddle together ! The biggest always gets the best coverage….lifes’ pecking order!

 

 

 

Day 24

And when I can’t find him…I know his iPad has run out of battery and he’s sitting in his room charging and playing!

 

 

 

Day 25

Lots of images of the offspring this week as they are about to go back to school after 8 weeks of holiday…

 

 

 

Day 26

AUSTRALIA DAY…we had such a fun day planned with cricket in the park, snags on the barbie, raft races, slippy slide but it all got rained out…very unAustralian of Mother Nature.

 

 

Day 27

Unfortunately the bad weather worsened…Cyclone Oswald visited and we had a wild night, while this image isn’t very good, it summed – up the day.

 

 

 

Day 28

And this was the beach after Oswald had left…

 

 

 

 

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Cyclone Oswald

What a fantastic name for a cyclone, don’t you think?

Well Oswald hit far North Queensland last week and turned into a monsoonal trough and chose to amble down to our neck of the woods! We have had some wild weather over the last 24 hours…we look like we are on the other side of Oswald now and, while we are still without water, we have been fortunate. Others have not been so lucky and to all those who have lost their homes and possessions, some for the second time in 3 years, my heart goes out to you. Its a hard country this…natural disasters seem to be a matter of course – fire, flood, drought….

For my family on the other side of the world, this post is for you, this is what Oswald looked like for us.

 

 

And then, there was a crash and outside the kids bedroom…..

 

 

 

 

We can only be thankful that it fell the way it did and not back onto us!

 

 

 

We had a king tide and everyone watched as the river rose…

 

 

 

We took a walk to the beach as the waves were 8 foot and we wanted to have a look. This is exactly what the radio was advising not to do, but there was a break in the weather and there is only so long my boys can be confined indoors before they become unplayable! This is what the streets of Surfers looked like….

 

 

 

And this is what the sea looked like….red flags mean that beaches are closed, yeah !!

 

 

 

And this is outside Northcliffe Surfclub…the beach has been blown back and over the road….

 

 

 

We came back from our walk to find a clean-up in progress…

 

 

 

And now this….and so, hopefully, we will have our water back on soon!!

 

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Photo-a-day..week 3

I have to say that I feel like the weeks are flying by at an alarming rate. Doing this project seems to emphasize this…not sure why!?

The children are still on school holidays, so its still pretty relaxed around here…this was my week..

Day 15  

Ok, this is a little embarassing! I hate having my photo taken…it has something to do with what I perceive myself to look like and what I actually look like in photos…it always shocks me when I dont look like Elle Macpherson!! Ha…however when you join a photography forum,  you will very soon come across self portraits. Some people are very artistic and can portray great emotion…I am not one of them! But let me just say one thing….it is very, very hard to get a half decent selfie…it involves a tripod, manual pre-focus and a timer button on the camera! I did it, ticked the box and am not ever going there again! So sorry to impose myself but this was my photo for day 15.

My son did advise me that holding my iPhone out above my head was a far easier way to get a selfie xx

Day 16

This is early morning Nipper training. Wednesdays are at the Broadwater at 5am and its beautiful….

Day 17

We went down to the beach for a morning swim and it was just gorgeous…

Day 18

Summer means teenagers suntanning on the deck…

Day 19

My attempt at macro and manual focus….

Day 20

I had a little disaster and formatted the wrong camera card and lost all my photos from today…so some iPhone shots I took of my boys at their Nipper competition were the only photos I had for today…

Day 21

This is my daughter who saved up for this book and it finally arrived in the post. She is hopefully going to be more stylish than her mother!!!

And that was the week that was…

 

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A photo a day…week 2

I am really enjoying this project, trying every day to be mindful of taking a picture. So far I haven’t forgotten and have used my ‘big girls’ camera for every one…go me!

So….

Day 8

We caught some mudcrabs and cooked them up for dinner one night…I love the colours in this photo…

Day 9

My daughter getting a manicure from her (very patient) granny….

Day 10

My youngest. We were watching some dolphins swim past and he was watching them and didn’t notice me…if he sees me, he pulls a goofy face!

Day 11

Right, this was a failed experiment! I was trying out manual focus in a dark room and never ever found that focus! No luck! I was going to lie and tell you this was an arty-farty image with deliberate blur but ….it wasn’t!! So I present…my youngest childs out-of-focus foot…

Day 12

I bought a bunch of sunflowers from the supermarket…love them, they remind me of our drive to see the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, we passed so many fields of sunflowers. Nothing says SUMMER quite like a sunflower…

Day 13

These eyelashes belong to my sons friends…it is unfair how boys seem to get the best lashes. He was playing a game on the iPad and was too polite to tell me to stop hovering over him with my camera (unlike my own off-spring!)…

Day 14

My baby turned 11 today…its a cliche, I know, but where does the time go?!! I will own up and say that this was not my finest hour in the cake making department. I had made the oldest child a cake in the shape of the number 13 for his birthday 2 weeks ago, and this little monkey wanted the number 11. Ha…I was lulled into a false sense of security by how easy I thought that would be….Happy Birthday sweet boy xx

 

 

 

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A photo-a-day….week one

As readers of this blog….yes, thats my Mom, my Aunt and a few crochet lovers… will know, I have been trying to improve my photography skills. I subjected everyone to the photos I took for various assignments I did last year and everyone was very kind …and the crafters were tolerant. Well I am embarking on a photo-a-day this year in the hope that taking photos often may result in remarkable (ha ha) improvement!

I know that the crafters visit here for some crafting inspiration, so as not to bore you to tears and clog up your feeders, I am only going to post these photos once-a-week. The heat of an Australian summer is not condusive to a lot of love for holding wool so this is good timing. I will always label my photography posts as ‘photo-a-day’ so if you here for crafting….click away when you see this header.

I am joining some rather talented ladies from the ClickinMoms forum in this year long challenge as we hope to keep each other inspired and motivated! Well I have completed my first week and here are my photos….

Day One… this was the middle childs’ 13th birthday

 

 

 

Day 2…This is showing some good intentions for the year ahead (which will involve less sitting on the butt taking photos of my shoes and more running!!!)

 

 

 

Day 3….the middle child listening to some music

 

 

 

Day 4…my Mum is visiting at the moment, she has inspired and supported all my crafty endeavours, and I am so glad I have this photo of her doing some crochet.

 

 

 

Day 5….is a picture of my little Spud. Because when noone else wants to have their photo taken, he’s always willing!

 

 

 

Day 6…is my orchid, still going strong after 3 months, amazing

 

 

 

Day 7…my daughter practising her piano playing…

 

 

 

I am one week down….a photo-a-day, go me!

….51 to go…..

 

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Teenager

Today my middle child turned 13, I have 2 teenagers in the house now. I feel old.

Happy New Year to everyone and a very Happy Birthday to my boy!

 

We stayed up and saw the New Year in with family and friends and then he got to open his presents at 1am. We do this in the hope that we will get a bit of a sleep-in in the morning. And today, instead of having a sleep, I baked a cake and it was delicious even if I say so myself!!

 

He was given the option of choosing a restaurant to go out to for dinner. It is very, very hard having a birthday on 1 January as there are not too many people looking to celebrate after seeing in the New Year the night before so we are always trying extra hard! To everyones’ relief, he chose KFC as a take-out -yay!

And, this….be still my heart

 

 

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