A Collection of Thoughts

Febuary Photo A Day Challenge

So with a blink of an eye there ends February :)

I had about five days of not taking my Feb photos on the right day but with a flurry over the last three days I caught up. Still totally loving the challenge and the few minutes it takes to think on each day.

Here are some of my favourites up close

Something Green = pretty poppy in a vintage green dress by Stitched Bluebird on etsy.

Hands = Tals starting her journey in music

Drink = The ever present tea in my life

Your View today = The tree I pass on my way to gym each morning

Sun =  A pretty capture while I was out walking

I think that's what I love about this challenge so much it's the little details that would probably pass me by if I wasn't looking out for them. The March 1st prompt is  Up- I wonder if I can grab a shot of the Hot Air Balloons that pass over our estate each morning?

If you haven't started or think it's too much really it's not - maybe give it a go for March? the prompts are ready.

My user name on Instagram is tamarb

Keeping present :) Enjoying my extra day in the year - How about you ?? What's news? do tell.

 

 

Instagram and Photo A Day

I have to say usually I fail miserably at the 365 photo a day thingys that are out there - but this year (maybe cause I have more time LOL) I'm doing great.

Just finished off the first month. I have blogged about it before - You can see all the details here - but basically there is a prompt a day that you take a photos for and upload to your instagram account.

Here is January's

Although I only have the 3G iphone -with the dodgiest camera I find using apps makes a big difference. I can't wait for the newest one to come out. In the meantime I use

Camera+

for taking all my photos - You have the option of saving them to your camera roll which makes loading to your mac or pc easy peasy and perfect for project life. (I haven't yet mstered icloud)

In terms of apps I have lots but my go to ones are  label box  for adding little dymo labels like this

 and I use Foto Frame for making collages

and yesterday I have just started using Filter Mania -which Kate Mason put me onto

 Here is an example of just a few clicks

The nice thing about filter mania is it loads straight to your instagram. I love being able to edit directly on my phone and interact and share them.

So this February - am I really typing that ?? I'm playing in two photo challenges - The #febphotoaday - just like the January one and a new fun one called #blytheaday set by Kate -

 You can read about it here

and here is the promps for the february challenges

You can read about it here

Fun days!

Happy January

I feel like I have just blinked and the whole Christmas season passed me by.

I intentionally wanted to spend lots of time with Richard and the girls through these holidays and today Richard returned to work so I guess our family time is over - so sad.

Now I'm on keep the girls entertained while he works duty -aggh It was so tricky when I was well and now it's almost impossible.

We have booked some vacation care days and some friends will take them for play dates too.

I start back at chemo on the 10th - so my lovely break was over. I wish I could say I feel fabulously well and refreshed and ready to start the latest rounds but those of you who know the chemo route would know that's rubbish.

I reckon I'm functioning at about 40% but I'm getting used to it.

I have 18 rounds to do. 18 - it sounds so many. But I'm not going to dwell because it's still a whole week away.

Instead let's chat about  photo a day. Usually I fail miserably at these types of things - but this year I'm giving this one a go.

You just take a photo using the prompt - and load it to your twitter or instagram stream with the tag #janphotoaday. I can totally do that all from my phone :)

Jan 1st -  a photo of me - taken on the 31st at about 11 pm but that's good enough I say

Jan 2nd - breakfast - buttermilk pancakes and strawberries

 Jan 3rd - something I adore - these two little munchkins

Fun huh ?

I won't mention it again but at the end of the month I should have 31 photos collated to share YAY.

If you want to follow it along - you can follow my instagram account I'm tamarb - and twitter here

Happy days :)

Getting In the Picture

Janelle and Tammy have been regularly scolding me about making sure that I take pictures of me. I become more conscious of it each year after the Day in the Life project where I always take a picture of myself each day. But realistically with iphoneology there is no excuse-  I have a camera with me all the time and all I need to do is click away until i find one i can bear LOL You know how it is. Also I think back to the photos that I love - the very very scare ones of my grandma when she was younger - often kind of blurry with things cut off and random bits in the background- very iphoneology like I think.

So today I was determined to put myself in the picture and I hope to do it regularly.

 

 1. At the hairdressers - a long overdue colour and cut. I need to share my hairdresser story  I go to a little place in Helensvale and it's so so reasonably priced  $14 if I just want a trim. The last two times they have used a new colour process which takes a little longer it's like 40 minutes for developing and costs a smidgin more but lasts for ages and does a wonderful job of covering the grey. The best I have ever had as I am actually quite grey.  So all up was $49.50 today and I got a goodly way through Sing you Home - which I' m loving - by Jodi Picoult.

2.  Tals needed an "Englishman" costume for guides next week -so we decided a suit taken in would be the way to go- we found the perfect one at one of our favourite op shops for $9 for the two pieces - jacket and pants

3.  It's turned quite cool as the day went on -we were out and about wandering between stores- these are my bargain boots I bought at Target quite a few weeks back they are lasting well.

4. My fab sideboard find - I blogged about it earlier - and there I am in the shadow

5. As we were heading to Lifeline I noticed an Endeavour store I had never seen before - Oh MY goodness it's so fabulous ) I took lots of photos and will share the details and location later. My most favourite op store on the Gold Coast.

6. Heading home - tired and ready for an afternoon nap! I pulled an all nighter last night and went to bed at 5.00am this morning- I had a unit of work to get sorted for school and needed to get it happening. It took all night. I'll share the details round that later in the week too for any Education Queensland readers -I'm using the new Ed studio and oh my goodness so fantastic. Possibilities are endless.

and there you have it - getting in the picture.

What about you ?? I'd love to see you get in the picture. If you do - post a link here - or if you don't have a blog send me a piccy and I'll share it for you :)

 

 

 

 

Lightroom

This weekend has just flown past in a total blur. Today I spent many hours with a lovely blogger Carissa Gorman who just happens to be a photographer too.

She spent the afternoon happily snapping away and sharing lots of lovely tips with me on how to get my camera off auto - and how to shoot in my terribly dark house!

I'm so excited with what I have learnt.- My camera is not set on Auto right now and Ive even taken photos with it tonight - yes in the dark.

She also convinced me to download the trial for Lightroom.

Now I tell you that was a hard sell because I already have and regulary use

 PSE PS AND APERTURE

so there was no way I was going to get sucked into another package

But sucked I am

right in.

why ???  because of this.

 

 

eeek so so so in love

Carissa took the photo and I edited :) so excited to play more with this. I have 30 days to decide if I'm going to buy or not

I'll tell you right now that I am.

I cannot even begin to tell you the stuff I didn't get done today!

PS - did you notice two girls with straight hair ? sigh I couldn't say no.

 

 

 

Week In the life -documenting

I always start this project and think eek this is such a bad week to do it... but you know every week can be construed as that.

It's not a bad week it's a great week because this is my life.  There is no go slow.

It's 11.00pm Tuesday night and I just downloaded two days of photos.

Monday I took my first photo at 6.30am - was at work by 7.00am and then didn't stop through my school day again until I left at 4.30pm

Today though I took pictures of my desk -it's very telling of the time I am at in the senior school year cycle.

We also had parent teacher interviews tonight times two-  for my two and also at my own school so I booked the girls ones for first thing in the afternoon and Richard then rushed me back to do my own.

Another 13 hour day :)

I have many more photos and many more bits to document but I really wanted to get started before it got away from me and I gave it up as too hard.

Here is a snapshot.

How's your documenting going? Do send me a link I'd love to see :) Did anyone buy Ali's templates this year I still think that's what I'd like to use- I'm definitely doing digital.

Week In the life - 2011 - Starts Tomorrow

via aliedwards.com

I'm doing this project again - I loved it last year and despite it being busy and hard to fit in I am still very glad that I did.

I will definitely be doing a digi version again and I am still tossing up whether to buy these new templates or not.

I considered using just my phone and instagram - and then turning it into a blurb book which you can do here - so today I used my phone to capture a series of photos to see how that felt. I do enjoy the ease of shooting and sharing I think I'd like some other styles included in this week's documentation. Of all my phone apps for photos camera bag is my favourite so I will be relying on that.

I love Ali's idea of including numbers so I am going to give that a good go too and see where it takes me.

Ironically I found both my girls documenting their day -at the same time in different ways. Tals was "styling" and shooting her  pink lemonade cupcakes and she;d borrowed my camera (grrr) and Sof was in her bedroom shooting a game that she was playing with her little point and shoot.

I know they would love to play along but I'm not sure I have the energy that would be required to manage both my own week and theirs. I'll think on it a little longer.

This week I have sports carnival and parent teacher interviews and of course Melbourne on the weekend. It will be a fun week to document.

Will you be playing?

 

Day Four - Hip Hip Hooray For Winter

How fast has this week zoomed by ? I have just two more projects to share ... I "THINK" this may just be my most favourite one ever.

I have seen so many cute photo booth style shoots for all different occasions and I thought - why not have one just for fun on a rainified day inside?

 why not indeed..? so I present 

Photo Booth fun for Little Chefs :)

Three cute as downloads for you to print out and cut up ready for an afternoon of photo booth fun.

Download PhotoBooth

I remembered the boys too and didn't make everything pink  :)

You will need some A4 card - I used white - print your files out - I printed mine at high quality to get lovely colour and coverage

  Cut out each piece ( that's the fun part ) 

Add skewers to the back of each piece with some tape.

 

 Tape or pin a nice piece of fabric to a wall ready for your photo booth.

 Get a  willing model or two - add your props and start shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTALLY  fun fun fun.  You can click for larger. If you do a photo shoot I'd love to see it!

Don't forget to pop over to Mel's blog to see her project for today. One more day of projects to go :)

 

PS Don't forget we have an awesome deal for advertising across our two blogs and in our popular teapot newsletter - go here for details.

 

 

Snapfish Book

Tonight I finished off a project for a friend that I had been promising for some time ...I was prompted by a discount code in my email- which aways helps.

Snapfish are offering 30% off all photo books using the code  BOOKJULAU11 until July 18th.

if you haven't made a book before I highly recommend  it- really simple and the print quality is awesome.

I have now made three  8 x 8 softcover books.

This one was for a friend's son who has a collection of MANY MANY shoes which she wanted to document somehow.

 Here a peek at a few pages

I really enjoyed doing it and can't wait to see his reaction - I popped over one day while he was out and took lots of photos of his shoes lined up and down the stairs. He works for Nike so he has more than his fair share of Nike shoes in there too hence the dedicated Nike pages.

 

I didn't use the templates in Snapfish but created my own individual pages in photoshop - simple ones :0  I used these two digi products from Paislee Press.

 these TTV frames which I love - they come with grungy or clean and these titles -

 
called presslines -there were two sets that I used - here and here

I love getting one project completed before the weekend has even really started.

Hope your night was lovely!

 

 

 

Quick Photo Shoot

I needed some lovely photos of my two and some of me as well for a few things I have coming up. The girls love it when I call photo shoot :)  me ? umm not so keen - to get behind the camera I mean.

Anyhow here are a few outtakes from today -  you'll notice none of me because the three that I took I have already sent away to a project  LOL . I am waiting to hear back and totally expecting a please try again politely worded email. I will share when they are rejected :)

 Is there anything cuter than stockings  and mary janes?

 

I allowed them to bring one prop - because honesty if I didn't put a stop to it we would still be out there now - and Tals chose her much loved Pippi Longstocking Book which she has been carting around everywhere.

 and Sofia of course grabbed her ipod

there was of course the obligatory I love you sissy shot

 

and then this one which probably breaks all rules of composition and who knows what else.

But I love it. Shows their relationship just as it is - they adore one another and love having fun together- at this stage Tals was saying no no how about and Sof was saying I've got an idea and then they both fell into fits of laughter.

Busy week ahead -  cooking for our party, some last minute decos to finish off ,  a tari gallery to share just waiting on one last lot of projects,  Teapot creating - 8 days till the next edition hits your inbox and I'm thinking that this may be the week I get to share a lovely secret that I have been keeping. I have had a weekend filled with so much -I am working hard at keeping a balance and I think I did it well these last few days :)

Tomorrow is reporting for school- eek hope I have lots of hot coffee :)

Happy Sunday Night