photostory friday: 19 already

it only seems like yesterday i was posting pics of miss 18's toga party and having a chuckle about how civilised the 'drinkies' at our place was, down to the fact that they put all their empties into the recycling bin before turning in for the night!

time waits for no man (or woman) apparently, and here we are again

one year later, and miss 18 is now 19

a LOMOGRAPHY camera was on her wish list

have u ever heard of these?

i hadn't!

they're a branded analogue camera, and apparently are all the rage

i kinda tricked her into thinking i hadn't got her one, so she was mighty pleased to discover that i actually had

yes, i used christmas paper to wrap her birthday gift

at least i got her what she wanted!

her sisters gave her MONOPOLY DEAL

it's one of those 15 minute card games

and it's totally addictive

one minute you LOVE it,

 the next, not so much

miss 19's bestie was there too

these guys have been inseparable since before they were upright

miss 21 made the cake

 miss bestie lit the candles

 and they were blown out in one breath
(apparently that's important to note)

random photo taken earlier in the day

i just happen to like it

our family dinner was at a restaurant near here

it was a gorgeous evening, but very sunny

which is not great for taking photos

miss 19 will be using her CS5 skills later to photoshop out those randoms on the beach ruining the background of my shot, AND fixing the horizon

apparently a crooked horizon is an EPIC FAIL in photography 101

these things i don't care about so much

i know about the rule of 3rds and i'm happy with that

(not that any of these photos use that particular rule)

yeah, she'll be taking care of that shadow on my face too...

a cocktail for the birthday girl

when i updated my 365 the next day, i realised that it was the 300th day of the year

YIKES!!!

happy birthday gorgeous

we love you

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

get picky sketch challenge

i haven't entered an online scrap challenge for a while, but i 'liked' the get picky page on facebook, and - well, here's my take on their latest sketch

if you've been reading my blog for a while, you will have seen these pics of when my 2nd youngest daughter and i surprised my and her best friends in australia last month.

after posting these pics several times, it made perfect sense to scrap them too......

go see what everyone else did - there's some amazing talent out there!

wordful wednesday: rookie mistake

so miss 19 (as she is as of yesterday) was hanging out with some friends a few days back when they decided to play with his slug gun (kinda like a BB gun)

as you do

miss 19 had never held or shot a gun before (as should be the case!)

and held the BUTT of the rifle up to her face before shooting it

AS U DO

when you've never shot a gun before

ROOKIE MISTAKE!!!

the dark patch beside her nose is now turning a lovely shade of purple

she likes to tell people she got into a fight in town with another girl (they went out after hanging out at the friend's house), but we all know she's a lover not a fighter

...and i'm sure that's one mistake she'll never make again!

i heart faces tutorial show and tell

i'm a recent and sometimes participant on this website
i haven't done any fix-it-fridays yet, as the tutorials seem to involve FULL photoshop and various 'actions' downloads, but i DID find this very easy-to-follow tutorial on tinting using the gradient map in PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS.
here's my original photo:

and after

the tutorial can be found here and is by Professional Photographer Michelle Johnson

her blog can be found here.

Thanks Michelle!

photostory friday and the mojo tradition

3 years ago, miss 14 and i inadvertently started a birthday tradition, whereby i take her out to one of the 13 mojo coffee locations around wellington.

this is on her 12th birthday at the kent terrace roastery

on her 13th birthday at mojo waterfront

(total coincidence our table number was 13!)

 view out the window - gorgeous spring day!

then last month at mojo 'invincible' for her 14th birthday

it's hard to come to grips with how much she has changed in 2 short years!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday: a blast from the past with the game that ties you up in knots

i was trolling through our 45,027 photos stored in iphoto the other day

(bearing in mind our online photo collection only started in 2001!

as our collection as expanded, so has the number of keywords attributed to photos.

latest additions to this ever-growing list of keywords are:

'teeth' (on account of the fact that i have more than 1 child making the braces 'journey')

'massey' (university) - just in case miss 21 needs to access any of the GAZILLION photos she took during her first 2 years of study

'haircut' (on account of the fact that i love to take pictures of my new hair colour every time i get it changed)

'Dress Up' (on account of the fact that i have soooooooooooo many pictures of me/tara/mr scrappy/the girls dressing up

anyhoo - i found this adorable pic from way back in 2003 and i couldn't resist sharing it with you today

photostory friday: having fun with leftovers

this is a recipe i make from time to time.  it'd be perfect for a summer BBQ, but my family will eat it year round!  we're big fans of the savoury/sweet/interesting texture mix, which is great, coz a lot of kids are weird about texture!

here's the recipe.  it's super easy.  the only cooking involved is the steaming of the asparagus.

note the kink in the salad bowl.  that's where i left it on a warm element and melted it.  i kick myself every time i see that damn kink!

because watermelon is essentially a summer vegetable, it was slim pickins' at the supermarket

there was only ONE GIANT piece of watermelon, so i took it

it sported a giant crack that resembled the crack in the universe

(only diehard dr who fans will get that reference - and no, i didn't take a picture of it!)

when miss 18's bandmate saw it, she said - "we should write a song about it - i found the crack in the universe in a piece of watermelon!"

don't ask me what goes through the heads of teenage girls

they are one of life's great mysteries for sure

 so there was A LOT of watermelon left over

what to do with it?

MAKE MARTINIS!!!

and here's the recipe:

watermelon

vodka

lime

you decide on the 'portions'!!!!!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday: "i'll photoshop you in", he said!

miss 12's netball team had their photo taken by one of the girlss' dads, (and a friend - lucky for him!)

...on a day i was at another netball game

(on the other side of town with another daughter at another netball game - you know how that goes!)

i wasn't there for the team photo, so he said 'don't worry - come to the house, i'll take your picture and photoshop you in'

SURE YOU WILL!!!!!

photostory friday: i smile happy tears every time i look at these pictures

remember when miss 14 and i flew to australia  couple of weeks to surprise my bestie tara and miss 14's bestie?

 we went to the beach

 we got dressed up and went out

 i soaked up some rays

 took pictures at sunset

 went for walks

 hung out

 we even scrapped

 then had to say goodbye.  again.

well....................

this is tara's surprise captured on film

(do we even say that these days - 'film'?)

i don't know

just wondered.....

she was outside, playing with her nieces in the sun

first confusion (this person can't be standing in front of me

- she lives in ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!

then shock

then glee

   more glee

 then hugs and happy tears

Hosted by Cecily and Mary