Day 28 - 28 January 2012 - Shoes

Hello!

As well as being Day 28, it's also time for the Photo Friday Challenge. The theme this week is Shoes.

Shoes have been on my mind for the last few weeks. Being the start of the school year I had to take my eldest daughter shopping for some new shoes for school. At the shop I took her to the kids section and selected a pair that I thought would fit - oh, the groans and moans that followed! Being the same size as I would wear, I put the shoes on, and then conceded her point that they were VERY uncomfortable. We headed off to the "ladies" section and found the perfect pair. Twice the price, but the perfect pair, nonetheless.  Here is the point of this whole story... my 9 year old daughter has bigger feet than me! I had to get her a pair of shoes a half size bigger than my own size. One day my first-born is going to tower over me, LOL!

Today's photo is her shoes and my shoes matched together. It is no optical illusion, those shiny white shoes are bigger than my old greyed shoes.

Thanks for visiting!

:-)
Michelle

Day 27 - 27 January 2012

Hello!

Friday is swimming lesson day for my little girl. I took my camera along because the pool is under cover, and I thought I might get a couple of photos without getting totally wet in the rain. Today's photo is of the pool lane dividers rolled up at the side of the pool.

I also took several photos of my clever girl practising her freestyle across the pool. I haven't edited these photos, so they are quite dark (dull grey skies and shadecloth covering the pool).  She's cute to look at, though. :-)

:-)
Michelle

Day 26 - 26 January 2012, Australia Day

Hello!

Today is Australia Day. I spent the morning at a Citizenship ceremony, which I think is one of the absolute best ways to spend some time on Australia Day. I welcomed some of our newest citizens and celebrated our national day with them. I love citizenship ceremonies, they are quite emotional, such a big step to pledge allegiance to your new country, your new home! We sang the national anthem (Advance Australia Fair) and we sang the national song (We Are Australian). I don't know what it is, but every time I sing We Are Australian at official events, I get all choked up and teary, so bad that I then can't sing! It is so moving. For those of you who don't know this song, the chorus is this:

We are one, but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come

We share a dream, and sing with one voice

I am, you are, we are Australian

For those of you who want to hear it sung, it is on YouTube, sung by the Seekers (one of whom wrote it).

Anyway, today's photo is of the plate of food the organisers of the event sent me home with. I couldn't take photos at the event, because I had my hands full with other things I had to do. :-)

Missing from this plate are lamingtons (because they were all eaten) and lots of other yummy food. I could only take so much with me, LOL!  Pictured here are: light fruit cake, date loaf, raspberry coconut slice, pumpkin scones and jam, frangipani pie (pineapple and meringue tart), and some very strange cupcakes with maltesers on top. All except the cupcakes are very traditional Aussie morning tea items. The flag was already there, I didn't plant it for the photo. 

Happy Australia Day!

:-)

Michelle

Day 25 - 25 January 2012

Hello!

On Day 25 I went to have lunch with my friends at Blue Gulabi Indian cafe. The restaurant is right across the road from The Gabba - the Brisbane Cricket Ground. The Gabba (located in Woolloongabba, hence the nickname) is home of the Brisbane Bears Australian Football Club and the Queensland Cricket Club. After I ate the awesome, tasty curries and chatted with my friends, I snapped a photo down the road (Vulture Street) as I left.  Here it is:

Yes, it's still dreary grey here in Brisbane. Maybe it will fine up next week...

:-)
Michelle

Day 24 - 24 January 2012

Hello!

Today was the first day of the 2012 school year for my eldest daughter. She's in Grade 4. It has rained non-stop all day long, since last night. Torrential rain. Our pool is overflowing. There are roads flooded all over Brisbane, and all over South East Queensland. I wish I could record the sound of the rain I can hear outside so that you could hear it, too. It is so loud that I can't hear myself type. When it rains like this, I remember the floods from last year. We're nowhere near the same conditions now, but it makes me anxious all the same.

School drop off is today's photo. I waited in the car with the little girl while Daddy carried the tonnes of books in with the big girl. While I waited, I took a photo.

Wet, wet, wet!

There is more of the same forecast for the next few days.

See you tomorrow!

:-)
Michelle

Day 23 - 23 January 2012

Hello!

I know I had said I was going to upload a photo a day. Some days I don't have one good photo and other days it is hard to limit myself to one. LOL!

My littlest girl started back at school for the year today. She is in Kindy doing her last year before she goes to big school. I forgot to take a photo of her all ready to head off to school! She had a great day anyway. :-)

My big girl and I watched season 1 of Glee today, while I covered the school books. Tomorrow is her first day of school for the year. Just quietly, I still have a few books to go, sigh! Covering books is not the most exciting job in the world.

Today is raining. When I went adventuring looking for my daily photo, I had to keep wiping off my lens. I probably should have taken an  umbrella...

Today's photo is of one of my frangipani trees. I love my frangipanis. They smell delicious, and they look so beautiful.

I have more, because I couldn't limit myself.

A palm frond.

And a shot of my oleander, looking up into the sky.

And now, I have to go and wrangle the kids through baths, dinner, and bedtime. Catchya later!

:-)
Michelle

Day 22 - 22 January 2012 - Pocket Light

Hello!

Today I attempted to get my Photo Friday Challenge photo taken. I'm not really sure I captured the theme for this week. I might try again. The theme is "pocket light", meaning you need to capture a small pocket of light in the photograph with the rest being dark.

What I found was a Rain Lily. We have rain lilies all around  our pool. You would never know they were there, but when it rains, up they pop, and they flower gorgeous pink flowers a day or so later.  Most of them live under our hedge in the shade. This particular flower had the plant under the hedge and the flower reaching out into the light.

I'm thinking the shade may not have been dark enough for the flower to qualify as pocket light.

I also took a few other flower photos today, which I will share also.

My daughter's rose bush.

I liked this photo, but I decided to crop it a bit closer to see what I got. I can't decide which version I like better - this one, or the next one.

Some rose buds, too.

I also caught my dog, Coco, in a pose. It is very rare for her to sit still long enough, or to show me her eyes, for me to get a photo. It happened today.

She was covered in dirt. She'd been having fun!

:-)
Michelle

Day 21 - 21 January 2012

Hello!

Another day when I forgot to take a photo for my daily photo! We had a barbeque, and I took photos of my friends, but I don't put photos of my friends on my blogs, argh! The only photos I got that didn't have people were a couple I snapped somewhere near midnight of our pool. So that is what you get to see!

:-)
Michelle

Day 20 - 20 January 2012

Hello!

My daughter wanted me to do a psychedelic photo of her, just like I did of me for my self-portrait. So I played around with a photo of her to create a couple of versions. I have cropped the photo of myself for Facebook into a letterbox format of my eyes only, and this is what she wanted for herself. I'm not sure what she is going to do with it (she's a bit young yet for social networking!), but I did it for her, LOL!

When I got the eyes cropped out, I realised I could see myself in reflection in her pupil. :-)

Here is the other version. It's the same photo, just different levels.

:-)
Michelle

Day 19 - 19 January 2012

Hello!

Today I walked into my daughter's bedroom to check on the progress of the stripe painting. The stripes were finished, and in the middle of the floor was a "Christmas Tree" of masking tape.  This pile of tape was about thigh high. It cracked me up. It cracked my daughter up too. I'm not sure the hubby could see the humour, I think he might have still been seeing all that work each time he looked at that pile of tape!

Ignore our beautiful drop-cloths. Under those old 1970s sheets are lovely wooden floor boards. They'll be visible again tomorrow. Do look at those beautiful stripes. It looks like a lolly-shop, doesn't it?  Who in their right mind actually paints striped walls? Ah, I love my hubby! He'll do almost anything for our girls.

:-)
Michelle

Day 18 - 18 January 2012

Hello!

My hubby is on holidays. He took 7 weeks this summer. He isn't very good at doing "nothing". This year he decided that his project was to re-paint our two girls' bedrooms. They've been living in rooms that were painted by the former owners of the house. They chose exactly the same colours as were there previously, but completely different versions of the colours (thank goodness, or I think Daddy might have gone on strike!).

The tricky part of the big girl's choice is that she decided she wanted stripes. Most sane parents (myself included) would have said a big NO, but not Daddy. Daddy just can't say no to his girls when it is within his power to make them deliriously happy.

Today's photo is the halfway stage of the painting of the stripes. The white stripes have been painted and he has taped up the edges in preparation for painting pink stripes. The big blue stripes are the tape.  The old pink colour is visible here in this photo. It is a purpley pink and I am pleased to see it go.

My hubby is a real hero. He can do almost anything.

:-)
Michelle

Day 17 - 17 January 2012

Hello!

Tuesday was so busy, I didn't pick up my camera until just before going to bed.  I took a look around and picked a subject. This ring was given to me for my birthday a couple of years back, and I love it. It is just so pretty. I should wear it more often.

:-)
Michelle

Day 16 - 16 January 2012

Hello!

What do you do when you're lying in bed, about to fall asleep, and you realise you haven't taken any photos today? You jump out of bed (of course!), grab the camera, look out the window of the bedroom, and CLICK!  there's the photo, LOL!  It was raining last night, so the picture is slightly interesting with the reflections in the dark.

Tonight I know that I haven't taken my photo for the day yet (such are the days where I work long hours and forget to take my camera to work with me). I still have three hours to capture something...

Here is my photo for Day 16:

The light is coming from our front porch, the street lights, and through the cracks around our garage doors(that's the lines of light you see on our bushes).

See you tomorrow with Day 17.

:-)
Michelle

Day 15 - 15 January 2012, a little SPARKLE

Hello!

This week's theme at Photo Friday Challenge is "Sparkle". I have spent the last couple of days thinking about Sparkle.

Yesterday I was going to take my camera to my daughter's swim squad session and capture the sparkling water while the kids swam their thousands of laps, but I forgot my camera, oops! That's how you ended up seeing my dinner yesterday instead. :-)

Today I decided it was the day to capture Sparkle. And it is raining. Not much light. Not much sparkling happening around here. LOL! 

I decided that Sparkle for me brought up images of diamonds. Now, I don't own as many diamonds as I would like to, but I do have three in my engagement ring.  Much like a self-portrait, taking a portrait of your hand is quite a tricky task! I took my hand all over the house, wiggled it around in the light, and had a very challenging time trying to get that ring to actually SPARKLE.  I even cleaned it!

This photo is the result of my hand's photographic session:

Trust me, they do sparkle, and I love these rings. We haven't been apart since my husband gave them to me. They stay glued to my fingers day-in, day-out, every single day.

:-)
Michelle

Day 14 - 14 January 2012

Hello!

The photo for Day 14 is tonight's dinner.  Spaghetti with Zucchini (Courgette for those of you in the UK). This dish epitomises everything that I like about Italian cooking - using minimal ingredients to create delicious food. I love Italian food. My step-mother and step-sisters are Italian and I have learned so much in their kitchens. My aunty lives in Italy, and I have learned lots from her also.

Here is the photo:

It's a pity you can't smell it through the computer monitor or, even better, taste it! This was one yummy dinner, even my little (pasta-hating) girl ate hers all up. By the way, this is the big serving bowl, there are about six serves in there, it isn't just a single serve, LOL!

Would you like the recipe? Here it is:

Spaghetti con Zucchine
Ingredients:
Spaghetti
Zucchini, finely sliced (I used one, but sometimes I use two)
Olive Oil - use good quality, you can taste it in this dish, it needs to be nice
Ground black pepper

Grated Parmigiana Reggiano (or other parmesan, pecorino, or romano cheese) to serve.

Method:
Cook spaghetti until al dente. I add salt to my cooking water after the water has started boiling, not before.
While cooking spaghetti, cook zucchini in a single layer in pan with olive oil and pepper until both sides are browned. You will need to do a few batches to get through all of your zucchini slices. If you put them in all together, they will steam and collapse into a soggy mess.
When spaghetti is cooked, place it into serving bowl with a little of the cooking water (just a teensy bit). Add all of the zucchini into the bowl and mix well so that the spaghetti is coated and the zucchini mixed through. Grate on parmesan and serve.

I will admit, I added a little garlic to this recipe tonight, because I love garlic. I have made it without before, and it is just as delicious.

I'll definitely have more food photos this year. I love my food.

:-)
Michelle

Day 13 - 13 January 2011

Hello!

My daughter plays piano. She is 9 years old. She is learning Grade 2 piano. She is on holidays from school AND from music lessons. She returns to school in Grade 4 at the end of January for the new school year.  Being a "strict and mean" parent, *wink* I insist that music practice continues through the holidays. I think I am nice about it - I let her have a couple of weeks off, and then I ask her to do four days practice a week (instead of the usual 5). She thinks I'm nasty. She'll thank me when she goes back to school and faces her teachers (she learns violin also, and is studying Grade 2).

Day 13's photo is my daughter practising. She asked me to sit with her. She also gave me strict instructions to "say nothing". So I took some photos and kept my mouth tightly shut (very difficult, but I did it).

There is guaranteed to be some photographs of violin playing this year, and maybe some more piano.

:-)
Michelle

Day 12 - 12 January 2012

Hello!

Today was another beautiful summer day. We went swimming this morning. It was my brother's last swim before he left to go back to cold, grey London.  He has spent three weeks in Australia, soaking up as much sun as possible (and doing the grand tour of the country to catch up with friends and family).  After our swim, we headed to the Brisbane International Airport, where I took a number of photos.

This is today's photo:

I miss him already. I hope he comes back home again soon.

:-)
Michelle

EDITED:  I keep coming back to this other photo I took, so I am sharing this one too. It is my daughter looking over the departures hall at the airport. Her uncle had gone to QANTAS Club, so we weren't expecting to see him down there, but I think she was still hoping.

Day 11 - 11 January 2012

Hello!

Today was another ultra-hot one here in Brisbane. I spent the morning visiting with my step-sister and her gorgeous 10 month old daughter. Luckily they have air-conditioning, so we were all comfortable. We came home at lunch time (where we DON'T have air-conditioning). Guess where we spent the afternoon?

You guessed it, more time in the pool. :-)  I absolutely LOVE our swimming pool.

Day 11:

Don't look at the grass, it needs a mow, maybe one of my photos will be our freshly cut grass sometime soon.

:-)
Michelle

Day 10 - 10 January 2012

Hello!

The theme this week seems to be swimming in my pool, but I have broken the theme in my photos, because I didn't take any swimming photos on Day 10. I was too busy enjoying the pool.  :-)  What I took photos of was my craft mess on my dining table, and multiple photos of a couple of cards that I was trying to photograph at night time under regular lights.  It turns out that I really cannot defeat the shadows with my "creative" photography. I really should invest in a light box/tent, and a couple of good lights.

Anyway, Day 10's photo is this one, of my card laying on the floor in the vain hope that I would get a decent photo of it... I didn't... I had to wait until morning for daylight to get my shot, LOL!

:-)
Michelle

Day 9 - 9 January 2012

Hello!

It's the end of a very hot day. It is still stinking hot. I don't have air-conditioning in my house. Sometimes air-conditioning gains a big jump in the priority list of home improvements! It's 7.30pm and still 34 degrees (93F), and muggy with humidity. I was expecting a storm this afternoon, since it was such a hot day, but it didn't come. We'll either have a storm overnight, or it will build into a whopper of a storm for tomorrow afternoon.

Enough of my whingeing about the heat (I truly am a wuss when it comes to the heat, I melt). Now to today's photo. As I said, it was hot. I am on holidays. We were in the pool all morning and all afternoon. The best place to be when the temperature soars.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

:-)
Michelle

Day 8 - 8 January 2012

Hello!

Today was a perfect summer day. Hot, but not too hot, at about 31 degrees celsius (around 88F), blue skies, gentle breeze. A perfect day for the pool.

We spent around 3 hours in the pool today, in two sessions. The kids are worn out. So are the adults.

Here is today's photo:

This is my littlest girl. She's 4. She loves swimming.

:-)
Michelle

Day 7 - 7 January 2012

Hello!

So much happened today, it was very difficult to choose a picture. But, the biggest thing happening at the moment is that my hubby is fixing the walls in our stairwell.  Our naughty beloved dog, Coco, managed to tear the (1970's vintage) wallpaper off the walls in the downstairs entry way and up the staircase during a fit of anxiety as a puppy. We've been living with torn wallpaper that didn't look good even before it was torn!

We had to replace the plasterboard, because the old 1973 plasterboard wasn't up to having its wallpaper torn off, the plasterboard ripped too. For the last two days, I have been living in a mist of plaster dust. It will be worth it in the end.

Here is today's photo:

The undercoat is now on, and the paint will probably go on tomorrow. It is going to be so clean and bright in there very soon.

:-)
Michelle

Day 6 - 6 January 2012 - Self Portrait

Hello!

Until this afternoon, I had a photograph of my washing line filled with the rainbow laundry of my two girls planned for Day 6. Then I saw Lori's post for Day 5, and thought perhaps I would try a self-portrait instead.  My rainbow laundry can wait for another day, LOL!

I didn't realise how tricky a self portrait would be with an SLR. I'd forgotten that the auto-focus required my eye to be behind the viewfinder (the focus points are decided based on what I'm looking at). So I manual focused on my knee at a distance that I thought my face would be from the lens, turned the camera around, and took the photo in manual focus. Actually I took about 15 photos. No make-up, hair straight from an afternoon swim, this photo definitely needed some "special" treatment.

Here it is:

I'm going to play around with colour a bit more this year. This was fun.

:-)
Michelle

Edited to add: I just found another photo challenge which I would like to take part in. It is Photo Friday Challenge by Carly. By luck, my Friday photo was a self-portrait. :-)

Day 5 - 5 January 2012

Hello!

Today was a wonderful day.

Yesterday I had a very, very long and busy day at work. The weather was beautiful outside, I knew that because I saw it on my way into the office at 7.30am, and when I went to get a coffee at 10.30am, and then again when I left the office at 6.15pm.  What I thought was this:

Today I should be at the beach, not in an office in the city.

Fast forward to today. I wasn't at work today. The day dawned cloudy and grey.  Yep, Murphy's Law.  But, my Mum and aunty are on holidays down at the Gold Coast and I had mentioned that I might take my girls down to visit them this week.  So I packed up the girls, filled the car with petrol, drove through the rain, and arrived at the Gold Coast at 10.30am... to a bright and sunny and BEAUTIFUL day.  Only just over an hour away from home and the weather was the complete opposite. Yay!

Today's photo is the beach. I have to say, I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I live in Brisbane in Australia. North of us are my favourite beaches on the Sunshine Coast. South of us are the beaches of the Gold Coast (which run a close second-place to the Sunshine Coast). You didn't come to hear me rambling about my love of Queensland, I'm sure, you probably came to look at my photo for today.

Here it is:

This is taken at North Burleigh beach looking south toward Burleigh Heads. There was actually a pretty huge rip out there today, so staying upright and in one position was a bit of hard work. Take your feet off the ocean floor and you sped north at a record rate. But, the water was crystal clear and the temperature was perfect. I didn't want to get out. My girls had a ball. Grandma and Great Aunty made sandcastles with the little one. The big girl learned how to stand still while the water rips you along somewhere else, LOL!

And because I missed Day 3 due to only joining this challenge on Day 4, I am sneaking in an extra photo, hee hee!

Do you feel like going to the beach now, too?

:-)
Michelle

Day 4 - 4 January 2012

Hello!

It was the fourth day of 2012 in Photos that I discovered this idea. It was 9pm at night and I hadn't taken a photo yet. So what did I go about photographing? My feet, my husband's leg, my husband's glass of wine, and many, many attempts at capturing my dog, Coco.  Coco is a spoodle (cocker spaniel x poodle, aka a cockerpoo in the US) and she is very camera shy. She is also black, which makes it almost impossible to get a photo where you can see her eyes, or any detail at all really!  I took many without flash, but she is so quick they blurred. In this photo I used flash. She got red-eye. I can't find a way to fix red-eye on dogs... I don't know why... I'm giving you some insight into my limited photo-editing skills, LOL!

Here is my photo from the fourth day of 2012:

Coco will most likely be a recurring theme in my photos throughout the year. She is a real challenge to photograph, and I can't resist a challenge.

:-)
Michelle

Day 2 - 2 January 2012

Hello!

On the 2nd day of the year, I was even less prepared for photos for this blog. I was working on a project which involved me taking photos of photos because I don't have a decent scanner, LOL!  I am trying to capture 40 years of my brother's life in a big photo frame. This is a bit tricky, and I may have to modify my goal, but in the meantime I captured a photo from close to 40 years ago of my brother and me.

Aren't we cute? *wink*

At the time we were living on the island of Nauru in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I think this photo may have been taken of us waiting by the front gate for Dad to come home from work.

That may be my last photo of a photo for this challenge, or perhaps not, maybe my scannerless state will strike again and I can take another trip down memory lane.

:-)
Michelle

2012 in Photos - Day 1

Hello!

One of my crafty blog friends (Steph) brought my attention to Lori Boyd's new blog 2012 in Photos. The idea is to capture 2012 with a photo a day.  Great idea! Especially since I am working on improving my photography skills.

I did get some photos on New Year's Day and on the 2nd, but sadly the 3rd was not captured at all.  Tonight I have 3 more hours to capture the 4th day in a photo. I can do that. :-)

This post is Day 1, New Years Day 2012. Had I known I was going to be doing this project, I would have looked for something more interesting...but as it is, I got a great photo of my nephew's gorgeous 6 month old border collie, Duke.

Isn't he gorgeous?

:-)
Michelle