Under The Maple Tree

THE HOLIDAY PROJECT – DEC 21st & 24th | GREENBANK PHOTOGRAPHER

January 14th, 2012

Very behind with posting again, but that’s life I guess!

Day 12:

We took the kids down to the beach today and it was fabulous weather for it.. It was the perfect temperature, not too windy.. Bliss. Not much else to say really. Sand, surf, kids, fun.

Whenever we go anywhere, I have the pleasure of having two extra tag along kids in my car. My car is after all the coolest by far. I’ve heard it goes faster, and plays way louder music… Well, those are the rumours anyway! Must be true because we can’t do a trip without all the kids piling into my car!

Couldn’t look any more like sunny Queensland, could it?

The kids adore playing on the sand dunes behind the grass just here. They love to climb to the top then jump down into the sand. Unfortunately, we were told by life guards not too long after this photo that there had been a lot of brown snakes sunning themselves on the hot sand, so we needed to pull the kids down quickly. Luckily the kids weren’t playing up there too long before we found out!

Even Charlie braved the dunes.. Not bad for a little toddler!

Gwen, jumping from the top.

Friendly wild life. They must have amazing sight. They can spot a box of crackers from miles!

Gwen spent a good half an hour attempting to catch a “Pelican”. Yes. That’s right, attempting to catch a Pelican. I’ll be sad when the day comes that Gwen is old enough that she doesn’t make those completely adorable mistakes. You know the ones. The one’s where you have to ask you kid to repeat themselves because you swore you must have heard wrong, but nope. It’s really as you heard it. Way. Too. Cute.

She thought our chicken crimpy crackers would be a fabulous lure. They did actually work.. The Seagulls were just way too fast!

And here she is starting to get mildly frustrated.

Behind me here, she was yelling at the boys about how they’re trying to catch the “Pelicans” the wrong way!! Running after them just isn’t the way it’s supposed to be done apparently!

Charlie man. Happy as always to be at the beach. He loves it.

He thought running away and playing in the sand was just so fabulous.

Connor playing with his little brother.

I always think of just how tiny little children are when I get home with photos like this. It just makes them look so weeny and helpless.

The kids are collecting shells here.. One of their favourite activities when the water is getting too cold to swim in.

And sometimes…. Well, accident’s just happen.

It really was a glorious day. The storm didn’t make it to where we were, but it lingered about. It was just enough to make the day a little cooler and make the skies just that bit more beautiful.

Gwen at the end of the day before we headed home. I think she was getting rather tired!

Day 13:

Some days are just spent doing nothing more then chilling out in bed with your favourite dog, and favourite dad.

Day 14:

It’s been too long since I took these to be able to remember just what they were talking about here, but it doesn’t matter really. Gwen is enamoured with her dad. I spose’ it’s easy when he’s such a highly entertaining individual! But she does love to just sit and chat with him sometimes.

Of course, she also loves nothing more then to pose with her favourite pet, Minka.

He never ages, and she’s growing up WAY too fast.

Giving Minka a cuddle.

Posing for me again.

Being 2 days before Christmas, Gwen helped me make one of our traditional little treats, rum balls. She loves to do the coconut rolling.

Day 15:

Each year since we found out about it, we do the Portable North Pole videos for Gwen so that on Christmas eve, she can see a video from Santa.. It just builds anticipation, and it’s so magical for a little kid.. She was enthralled.

Tucked up in bed, waiting for Santa to make his delivery.

Tags: art so pure, brisbane and goldcoast photographer, photo a day, Photo of the Day, POTD, the holiday project, theHOLIDAYproject
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THE HOLIDAY PROJECT – DEC 19TH & 20th | GREENBANK PHOTOGRAPHER

January 5th, 2012

Day 10:

We were pretty tired this day after our massive hike the day before, so we lazed about home for the morning and headed down to the park in the afternoon (after I posted a very last minute gift in the post.. Must remember to stop leaving things to the last minute!!). We went to a park at Springfield Lakes which is fabulous. It’s fenced! Fenced parks with a baby is a must. Why is it that not all parks a fenced?? I just don’t get the logic on not fencing a public area in which toddlers and small children frequent regularly. Props to Springfield Lakes!!

Anyhow, at the park there is one of those massive spider-web thingo’s that kids all seem to love to climb. Gwen’s *never* been keen on them, I guess because when she was old enough to climb them, she obtained her phobia of heights from somewhere? She’s slowly conquering her fear and is getting braver every park visit when it comes to heights. She’ll cross bridges now, even the rope bridges (which was a BIG step), but I missed a photo of that! Little Callum however.. He seems to have no fear of the spider web! For a little boy who’s face is an expression of sheer terror when he’s thrown into the air by anyone, tries to hang upside down on a monkey bar, or sits on someones shoulders, he does amazingly well with the climbing frame. I think he scaled to the top in about 30 seconds, then proceeded to hang by his hands, letting his feet just dangle there. I guess he feels in control while he’s hanging, but not while someone else tosses him in the air? Either way, I was mighty impressed with his climbing efforts for a not quite 5 year old!

Of course, Gwen can be found on her favourite thing.

Although she did also love this slide. It’s fabulous, I wish I took a photo of the whole slide mountain!

Proud of her efforts. She wouldn’t have done this last year!

Hanging ten, and so relaxed while he’s doing it!

Love this shot of him. He was just so serene up there. And no doubt proud of himself that he was the only one in the park that afternoon that made it to the tippy-top!

This was about as high as Gwen was brave enough to go that day, but she was still impressed with herself. All progress is good progress!

Tandem swing pusher. He must have pushed them both for 10 minutes. Gwen’s such a swing kid, she could sit on there all day.

Day 11:

We spent the day at home today so Gwen played outside with her teddy bears, setting up the perfect picnic area for them. Cheer Bear was the special guest today, lucky thing she was.

What could be better then an afternoon shower, followed by a delicious packet of wizz fizz? Pure kid-relaxation!

… And of course, trying to feed it to people who simply don’t want any just adds to the experience. . Fun!

I love that she thought her tongue was blue, when really, it was just her nose. Love her little ringlets, I wonder when they’ll finally be gone forever?

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the HOLIDAY project – Dec 18th | Greenbank Photographer

January 4th, 2012

Day 9:

So although I’m trying to catch up on my holiday project posts, this one deserves a post of all of it’s own because it was such an epic adventure for us an the children. A couple of weeks ago we took the kids on a bush walk to where we affectionately named “Boulder Mountain”. It took us a while and the kids were super proud of themselves, so on our way back we had a look at the ridge of mountains we hiked to see if we could spot the mountain we climbed. We had a pretty good guess but while we were looking at the mountains, we spotted it – King Mountain. We didn’t know it at the time, but now after climbing it we’ve decided to call it King Mountain. It was after all the biggest, baddest mountain of them all… And we conquered it! 6.3kms hiking up and down a mountain as a round trip, done in less then 3.5 hours. Not bad if I do say so myself!

This blog post isn’t for the faint hearted (or for those of short attention span, or lack of caring of our mundane lives), because this blog post will be just as lengthy as our journey up the mountain.. These things take time! I was going to put these in a gallery, but it seems my gallery is broken.. Just on the list of things to do I guess.. Instead it really *is* going to be one massive post, so here goes!

Before we’d even really started our journey, we came across this gorgeous little critter which we’d even seen on a documentary not even a week before hand.

On our way. We’re still on very flat ground here on the way to the base of King Mountain. Gwen of course, is keeping us entertained with her singing.

So she takes the lead, and sings while we’re on our merry way. Map in hand, the kids are going to lead the way.

They seem to know where they’re going.

We came across many gorgeous little bugs, dragonflies, butterflies, lizards and beetles.. Some were lucky enough to be caught, inspected and released!

We’ve made it to the base of the mountain, and this is where the hard work just began… Little did we know. Gwen’s throwing out a Coooo-EEE! to make sure we’re all still in a group.

One of the gorgeous little dragonflies we found. This one was gracious enough to stay put while I took it’s picture.

The terrain was starting to get rough here, but the kids kept up a good pace. They done a fabulous job.

We stopped for regular water breaks, but learned that two 600ml water bottles just weren’t enough for a spur of the moment hike with 3 kids, 3 adults and a baby. Luckily we rationed it well. I don’t know what Gwen was thinking here, I can’t remember what she said when she jumped up, but she looked so deep in thought.

Having a break while we catch our breath.

Connor found what at the time I thought was a baby bearded dragon, but upon inspecting the photos I actually think it’s a baby water dragon. Either way, the kids were wrapped with the find, although the boys were much more cautious then Gwen. Connor found it and picked it up, but swiftly passed it on upon being too scared of it’s squirming, Cally was able to compose himself for one photo touching it, and Gwen thought it was so fabulous she’d give it a kiss. Boy have the tables turned!

Queue lizard kissing!

It really was very cute!

Getting steeper. It’s rather deceiving really. It was steep, with masses of loose rocks and very hard to climb.. Although it was much harder coming back down!

Gwen over heard me talking about photos, and proceeded to tell me that this is how you should pose. Great job instructor Gwen.

Then she sang a little rock and roll song, complete with dance moves.

We’re getting closer to the top here. The kids are still doing fabulously, but not too far past here Gwen had one of our two casualties for the day and slipped and grazed all of her thigh. She took it like a trooper though and kept climbing to the top.

We stopped here for a lunch break to refuel on sandwiches, water and a lolly each. While we found a spot to sit, the kids rested on a log near by.

I didn’t think we were going to make it this far, and they were still in good spirits!

Lunch.

Gwen looks like she was giving Kira the ole’ stink-eye go away look here, but I missed the shot where she actually handed Kira some of her sandwich because we didn’t bring a snack for the dog. She likes to be an animal carer. Part of that is not letting dogs go hungry I guess!

Connor and Kira catching a break while the rest of us caught up. This is where the climbing got tough.

But we made it to the top, and were all super proud!! The view was gorgeous, and this photo just doesn’t do it justice.

Part of our ritual is yelling that we’re the “KING OR QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN!!!!” as loudly as we can once we’ve made it to the top.

Gwen doing her little Queen of the mountain call out.

Connor was rather scared, and I think the only thing that got him onto the rock was peer pressure and the fact that his little brother and Gwen done it first. He was proud of himself once he done it.

And just so one day I can look back and see that I was *actually* there too, here we are on the top of the highest rock on the top of the tallest mountain. Proud of punch we all are.

By the end of it all, it was just far too much for Charlie to bear. Apparently being carried all the way up a mountain on a hike is just way too much hard work for a little baby. Luke’s arms were feeling the baby-carrying burn on the way down. It was hard going no doubt.

Having a relax while Luke rest’s his arms.. They were pretty beat by now.

How men give women heart failure 101. Run along bush track with baby on shoulders, arms in the air. Heart stopping, even for pseudo-aunties.

He did look mighty happy up there though.

Here the kids are doing it old skool style. I can only thank the careless person who dumped two tyres in our beautiful bushland. They kept our kids occupied for the last 20 minutes or so before they ended up wheeling them all the way out of the bush and in a much more appropriate place.

Who’d of thought two old tyres could be so much fun??

Connor was trying to run me over with a tyre here, while Gwen was getting cranky because he was hogging it and not letting her have a turn… Luckily, I managed to come out unscathed!

Even Charlie thought it was a blast and wanted to get in on the action.

Not too far from home now, the kids were still having fun. The baby thought chasing a tyre was a blast.

All in all it was a fabulous day, considering we didn’t even think we’d reach the top of the mountain. You can just see it in the background here. The biggest of the bunch and we done it in just under 3.5 hours. Bravo us!!

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the HOLIDAY project – Dec 16th – 17th | Greenbank Photographer

January 3rd, 2012

I’m rather behind in my blogging of our holiday project photos, but I’m hoping to catch up this week.. Some days I have a LOT of photos because we had some great outings so it’s taking me a bit of time. Oh well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles! I did say I was going to be more relaxed about it didn’t I?? Never mind, the photos are taken, I just have to blog them.. That’s all that counts!

Day 7:

Today we had a bit of a lazy day at home, but Gwen’s pretty fabulous at occupying herself (it’s an only child thing I guess!). She loves nothing more then playing out in the garden, whether it’s catching bug, picking flowers, playing games. She used to watch a heck of a lot of television before we moved. We used to stay home all day and because we lived on a main 80km an hour road with no gate, I never allowed her outside to play unsupervised. The new house we’ve moved to is pretty awesome for outside alone time. It’s all fenced so she can’t get herself into too much trouble. I spotted her outside in the over-grown stables searching for bugs and picking flowers for her fairy house (we hadn’t mowed yet since moving in, and it was very over grown! Luckily it’s all mowed now, although now it’s not quite as green, lush and photogenic!).

I love all of her expressions.. Even her not so beautiful photogenic ones! One day I’ll want to remember them all, not just the ones of her smiling and I do love looking back at all our photos from previous holiday projects we’ve done. I don’t know what she was doing here, whether she heard me coming or she was looking at something else.. But here she is in all of her glory, freshly rolled out of bed, messy bed hair, still in her shirt she slept in with no pants on. I don’t even know if she’d had breakfast yet, even though it was 11am!

She still loves lady bugs, and has done for years. They still mesmerise her.

I don’t know what she was trying to catch here, but I have a feeling it was a tiny little butterfly. She missed.

After she’d finished collecting flowers for her fairy house, she sat in her new favourite spot. In her rocking chair underneath a little gazebo outside. Our dog Griz really is quite afraid of adults.. But he just loves children. He’s always happy to sit with her while she’s outside.

All of her hard work flower hunting. These were for her fairy house, which I didn’t end up seeing the finished product of because I went out for the afternoon. I’m sure it would have been colourful!

One of my fur-babies having a snooze on Gwen’s bed, disturbed by me for a happy snap. Luckily she was willing to pose.

My mum’s fur-baby, also lounging on Gwen’s bed in the afternoon warmth. Gwen’s bed seem’s to be the go-to spot for all the animals to have a cat-nap!

Day 8:

Oh how she’s grown fond of all things slimy, creepy and crawly. Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a little girl named Gwen who was far too scared to pick up anything quite as slimy as a snail, as creepy as a Christmas beetle, as filthy as a toad, or as crawly as a lizard. Now she spends many afternoons and night times outside with a bug catcher in hand, ready to find her next victim to inspect. Thankfully most of the bugs and creepy crawlies are set free, but I must say that when she’s with her boy friends, sometimes some toads and beetles aren’t quite so lucky.

Waiting for her snail friend to come out and say “hello”.

Here he comes!

Both eye’s out, and up the thumb he goes. No way would she have let a snail crawl up her hand a year or two ago.

Cute little things.. Pitty they’re so slimy and gross!

She put it back to be with its friend…

.. And patiently awaited it’s grand peek-a-boo entrance. I gave up after a few minutes. I wonder if it ever popped it’s head out to say hello?

Tags: brisbane photographer, child photographer, Photo of the Day, POTD, the holiday project, theHOLIDAYproject
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the HOLIDAY project – Dec 12th – 15th | Greenbank Photographer

December 17th, 2011

Day 3:

Gwen and I are serial radio blasters. I swear you can hear us coming from two streets away. Every day when we get in the car it’s the same routine. Buckle up, stereo ON! Gwen’s such a little groover, she has been since before she could walk. She’s got awesome rhythm for a 6 year old, loves to beatbox (albeit quite badly!), but most of all she loves to sing. She’s written her first song this week, but I’ll share that later in our holiday project when it’s finished!

Chillin’ in the back on a hot summers day.

Grooving to the stereo, singing in her own special way. She even adds her own backup vocals to songs. Very cute!

Telling me my photo-taking opportunity is all over. A total Diva already.

Day 4:

Beautiful evening weather.. I love summer days that aren’t like really awful summer days. I also love that when it gets to nearly 7pm, the kids still have enough light to play. I don’t know what happened to camera hating Gwen this week.. Actually, I take that back, I forgot about the trampoline incident on day two!).. But today she was fabulous, if only for this one gem that I love. Butter wouldn’t melt, eh?

Gwen and the boy she’s going to marry.. So she tells me anyway. They get along fabulously when they aren’t driving each other nuts. I spose’ they’re practically like a married couple already!

Connor’s sheepish, someone’s seeing me hug a girl smile.. Luckily I think he like’s her just as much as she likes him, or I’d be in trouble! Best of friends, I hope they stay that way.. It’ll be interesting to see what puberty and raging hormones does to them!

Day 5:

We had a bit of a nothing day today. Except for the dog. She was tortured relentlessly by Gwen who think’s it’s just fantastic to have a dog who fits your dolls clothes. The dog’s thoughts on this? Does that face not say it all…

We were rather lazy this week. Gwen spent since the last day of school until today in little plats. This is the aftermath. I think she does Cousin It quite nicely..

Gwen has always has this thing about putting her hands up to her face or on her neck as a pose when I’m taking photos.. I asked her why she always chose to do that and she just burst out laughing. Whatever floats her boat I guess! I’ll still never know. Maybe she seen it somewhere one day?

Day 6:

Today we went to visit one of my mum’s elderly clients who always gives Gwen presents for her birthday and Christmas, and has always done the same for us growing up. I really should have taken a photo of Gwen and her to give to her, but hopefully we got back one day on the holidays so I can grab one. After we got home from that, we went back to our friends place so I could mind the boys again.. We beat them home so I took Gwen outside while we waited for them to get home.

Being a fabulous model for me… But there’s that hand again!

Rather grown up looking again.. I love her eyes, they’re such an unusual colour.

For the last few days, the kids have taken to sprinting outside up and down the yard as a form of exercise. Although I think secretly they’re all racing one another without it being a “race”. They’re faces tell me so. Check out the sheer determination. And not to break any kind of Gwen tradition.. Yes. She is in her underwear again. She couldn’t run in a pretty white dress, so undies it is.

Tags: photo a day, Photo of the Day, the holiday project
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the HOLIDAY project – Dec 10th & 11th | Greenbank Photographer

December 17th, 2011

Here we are again after a very speedy year, the bliss of the Christmas Holidays has arrived without delay. I only hope they the holidays don’t pass by quite as quickly as the year did! After a *ahem* moderately slack year on my behalf where my personal photos are concerned, I really had decided a couple of months ago that I wasn’t going to continue our holiday project this year, because the stress of blogging every night eats me up a little bit to the point that I force myself to stay up to 3am to edit photos and post a blog entry each and every day. It was just too much for practically two months…

However! I find myself constantly looking back at our holiday project and photo of the day photos and I treasure them so much. Even the photos where we’ve been doing absolutely nothing special and it’s a mere snap of Gwen chowing down some lunch. After a bit of soul searching quite a few weeks ago I decided it was something I didn’t want to give up on doing because of me being a little bit of an anal perfectionist, so I’m a lot more relaxed about it this year. I’m still taking our daily shots, but I’m going to edit and post them when I can. If that means I have a weeks worth photos to blog at once, so be it! I just need to be careful that I don’t get too behind or I’ll never catch up

So, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I guess I should get on with our actual project!

Day 1:

First day of the holidays… Bliss. Gwen’s such a crafty little being. If she had to choose between TV, toys, or crafty stuff and story writing, she’d choose option C and easily fill hours with it. Not else much to say really. Just my girl today, doing what she loves to do. She’s looking so very grown up these days.

I took Gwen shopping the day school finished to buy a toy as a treat. She chose some new felt pens and some craft bits and pieces.

It seem’s me not taking photos for such a long time worked wonders. She was happy to throw herself at me this week and is excited about our photo project this year.

I love this one.. She looks so innocent (little does everyone know!) and like her little old self, not the grown, much older looking little lady I have now.

Pleased with her efforts I think.

Her finished picture. Gwen – “It’s a picture of a garden and it’s got a sun shower in it. The roses are growing up now, because there’s rain. Grandma’s wearing a necklace and gloves in the sun shower.”

Day 2:

Today we found ourselves at our fabulous friends place so I could mind the boys for the day which Gwen loved. We had a sleep over to make the morning easier so the kids were ready to play as soon as they woke up and the house was empty except for us. They’re great at occupying themselves aside from a sibling fight every now and then. These boys are Gwen’s three pseudo brothers and she loves them all dearly (well….. They have fights…. A lot. Just like real brothers and sisters. But she still loves them!!). Our life wouldn’t be the same with these little critters in it!

Here they are in their make-shift cubby, pretending to be dogs I believe?

Now that they baby’s old enough, he likes to get in on the action too. Luckily they’re pretty accepting of him in their games *most* of the time.

We spend so much time in this house, it’s practically my second home. Thank goodness for fabulous friends that keep you sane, with their equally fabulous boys who make excellent substitute brothers to a lonely only child! I’m sure we’ll be spending a lot of time there this holidays, so meet Connor (eldest on top), Cally (middle boy on the right), Baby Charlie. They’ll pop up here a lot in the next few weeks!

The moment it started raining, out they run to the trampoline like crazy little animals. Then over I waltz to spoil their fun and ask for a photo. They would have preferred to keep playing I’m sure.

Ahhh… Kids.. Gwen was cranky with me here, and not wanting her head to touch someone else’s for a photo. Lucky Cally was happy to oblige.. Connor.. Well, I got the curled lip, I’m going to smile like this so you go away smile.

I felt the need to pull out the big guns… My bottom. Oh boy. How hil-ARIOUS! Luckily I only had to mildly humiliate myself in order to make the little monkeys humour me for a minute for a photo.. Love looking at the expressions on the different kid as I done naughty things. From ew’s, to oh my gosh’s, to I can’t believe she just did that’s. I can still hear the chuckles.

So, now that I’ve cheered them up they’ll be more then willing to post for me for One. Quick. Shot… Right?? ………… WRONG! … I give up after the last shot.

Gwen loves Charlie (when she’s not following the lead of a brother that decides it’s anti-baby time) and on this particular day, Charlie was so enamoured with her. He sat on her, played with her hair, parroted everything she said, sat on her some more. He just seemed to in love with her. He see’s her practically every day, it’s probably like having another sibling who is there all day except for sleep time!

Two little children waiting patiently for their turn, one baby about to try and win the attention of Gwen because she’s not focused on him.

He thought climbing right on top and having a conversation with her would be the way to go.. She thought it was the bee’s knees.

No prizes for who can guess which brother isn’t good at sharing? Gwen’s ok with him having super dooper long turns.. Cally’s not so ok with it!

I’d best break my weekly catch ups into separate entries otherwise they’re going to be way too big to load. Day three and onwards coming soon!

Tags: photo a day, Photo of the Day, the holiday project
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It’s been a while!

December 13th, 2011

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any personal photos, life’s been a little busy! I won’t ramble on too much about the last few months, but I will say a few things about the photos I post here. About four or so years ago, I was incredibly fortunate to meet a wonderful lady who inspired me and made me grow and travel along in my photography journey more then any other one person had. A remarkable woman who’s simply amazing at her craft, I have only respect and admiration for how amazing Andrea is at what she does. When I heard from Andrea that she was making another trip down here, I was very excited! Not because I could pump her for her tremendous amount of photography knowledge, but because this time she was bringing her family.

Andrea has an only child like myself, and she always sounded so ridiculously like my Gwen that I was so keen to get them together over the years. Gwen was excited for months that Maia was coming to Australia, so we spent as much time as we could with them on their short stay here. Gwen had a huge amount of fun with Maia, they really are very like minded, and Maia almost gives me a peek into the future to see what Gwen’s going to be like in a couple of years. Gwen loved Maia visiting and awaits the next time she be able to see her. She sobbed her poor little heart out when found out Maia had hopped on a plane to go home!

Anyhow, I didn’t take too many photos of Maia and Gwen while they were here as they were modeling for Andrea’s workshop together, and when they weren’t modeling for other photographers they preferred to be off playing together rather then being torchered by me, but I snapped a few of them before Gwen was very cold, and VERY cranky. They really were little troopers to be on the beach in the middle of winter, late in the afternoon in skimpy summer clothes.

I’ll continue to be inspired by Andrea and I only see amazing things in her photography career. I wish her nothing more then a huge amount of success in what she does. I think it’s rare to find people who are truly talented and amazing at what they do who are so willing to help others grow. I can only hope that one day I have as much talent and success!

Here’s a few quick snaps of Gwen and Maia before they got too cold on one of their days modeling for Andrea’s workshop. I think she considers Maia her sister from another country now!

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the HOLIDAY project – Jan 28th | Ipswich & Greenbank Photographer

February 1st, 2011

I never tire of watching Gwen sleep. She looks so angelic and peaceful… I love her little ears, they look practically identical to Dan’s… I’m kinda glad she hasn’t gotten them pierced yet. And her little lips. I don’t know who’s they are, I’m not quite sure that they’re mind… Sometimes we think so, other times we don’t. I love her to pieces.

Tags: Photo of the Day, POTD, sunshine coast photographer, the holiday project, theHOLIDAYproject
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the HOLIDAY project – Jan 26th | Ipswich & Greenbank Photographer

February 1st, 2011

These may seem like ratty paper hearts to you, but to me they’re more special then that. These hearts were lovingly drawn, and ever so carefully cut out by my gorgeous little chook, and stuck to my monitor with love and care so that I’ll always remember she loves me. I look at them every day. . I must also add, that since going to prep last year, her cutting skills have somewhat improved!

Tags: Photo of the Day, POTD, the holiday project, theHOLIDAYproject
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the HOLIDAY project – Jan 25th | Ipswich & Greenbank Photographer

February 1st, 2011

After Gwen’s first day of school this year, I took her shopping to wind down after a long first day. Now, Gwen’s quite a fashionista (or at least she thinks so!) and she has some wild sense of style, but she’s also a shoeaholic. She LOVES shoes. She can’t wear many, because she’s got some foot problems but when she see’s pretty shoes she just HAS to try them on. When she spotted these from across the isle (she’s got eyes like a shoe-hawk!), she just had to try them on! To my amazement they were wide enough to fit her and she just fell in love. So for a treat, I told her she can have a book, a toy, or this completely impractical pair of VERY bright shoes. As you can see, she chose the shoes. She would wear these to school if I let her… Not too sure that the principal would like that!

Staring at the dogs next door. I didn’t ask her to pose her hands, that’s just how she was looking