tonton

I'm not sure if Tonton is a boy or a girl. But I do know Tonton is fabulous! Tonton travelled all the way from Israel to hang on a little person's wall for a while, before that little person will be old enough to play with his new clown friend.

I found him/her here while I was looking for a beautiful present for him, following his arrival into this big wide world. Tonton is as wonderful in person as in these pictures - bright and beautiful. Tonton is the equivalent of a quiet book only transformed into a clown, perfect for engaging those fine motor skills and tiny hands. My eldest two have been given quiet books and absolutely love them. All of Tonton's body parts and clothing pieces are removable by way of zippers, buttons, buckles, velcro or laces. The only thing that isn't removable is Tonton's pompom! When small hands have finished playing, Tonton can be hung on the wall to make everything cheery (or creep you out*).

Tonton arrived wrapped in vivid blue tissue paper and bow, with a colourful wooden keychain attached as a thankyou, and a sweet note from Karni. I wouldn't hesitate to make another purchase from her lovely shop. Handmade is the best!

*After yesterday's post, it would appear there are quite a few of you with clown phobias.. You absolutely, positively, did NOT make me laugh at said phobias. Honest.

happy

If I were a clown, I'd be a happy one. I'd have a big, bendy smile with bright red lips. My cheeks would hurt from all the smiling, and they would be sweet, candy pink from people telling me what a wonderful clown I was.

I realise this metaphor is completely ridiculous but I had to link the photo, no? Big bendy smile and sore, candy pink cheeks, absolute truth. THANKYOU SO MUCH for all the love on my big news post. Of course, I expected no less from you lovely folk, but you really blew me away with your support both here and {sharp inhale} here. For successful business purposes I must learn to love it. Okay, liking will suffice. No pun intended.

I really should have done a proper post tonight but, well.. Rafters is back. And then, as if that weren't enough, while scrolling the guide, I found Parenthood is back tonight, too! If you need me, I'll be on the couch with a cuppa (actually the floor - we're still in the strictly no food or drink on the new couch stage).

Tomorrow I will share the rest of this sweet, rosey lipped clown.

Big kisses to you all, my friends! xx 

beginnings

I had hoped to drop by early last week to let you know things would be pretty quiet here for the remainder of the week. I just know you hang on my every word.. ahem. Obviously that didn't happen with consecutive 52 posts appearing instead. And a gap of SIX whole days in my Lightroom library. I cannot recall the last time my camera sat idle for almost a week. I actually took it on an outing midweek and didn't have the want or the energy to pick it up. Instead I chose to soak up the day with my memory and enjoy the company of a beautiful friend and her smalls.

I feel like I woke at 4am last Monday morning, readying the Small and I for a 6am flight home from a quick trip to mum and dad's, slept a few hours during the week and ended up here again - Sunday night. Of course this would be the week hubby would return to work too. I had at least a fortnight of work to do, and only five days to complete it in. I had been asked to shoot an event coming up in March. The event includes advertising and official sorts of paperwork. All official like. Official things that I had no idea about, nor had any one of such official things prepared. There was poor communication on both sides of the fence, my not asking and their not telling. But I got there in the end, deadline met. Never mind the midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am finishes. Oh the burning eyes.

The burning eyes were worth all the hours. I learnt a great deal. Pushing ahead even though I was unsure of the route.. it was a foggy road but I was sure of my destination.

And so, a little labour of love is born..

My deadline would never have been met without the help and support of three amazing ladies. One in my little sister, giving her honest opinion of every question or company name suggestion put to her over many months (with fear of hurting my feelings banished to the abyss), and lending her capable hand, and mind, to write my company message (example of such scary officialness). Words I would never have been able to put together myself, but written as if she were standing in my shoes. I guess only flesh and blood could have come up with something so right.

Without realising it, my eldest little sister has given me food for thought for a long time. Indirectly, yet enough to warrant a pensive gaze. She asked me to capture her new son for her and her husband, over Christmas, as well as their new family as three. Waiting as many weeks to see these up on the computer, to see how beautifully they turned out, gave me more incentive to be sure of my destination.

And for the trifecta, a dear friend, one whom it would seem I have known forever, yet have actually known less than a year, counting on one hand the amount of times we have been in the same room together. My heartfelt thanks to the blogosphere for dropping her in my lap. She's been my cheer squad, my proofer, my sounding board, my HTML/CSS guru. And she did it all while looking after her smalls. She fit me and my anal requests into little (and large) pockets of her day to make sure I made it to the end of Friday, with all the officialness, officially submitted.

I am so blessed to have such special women in my life. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou xxx

And then there was you. Yes, you. Playing your part in this little community here, supporting me and watching me grow behind the lens from my first months of posting such lame photos. You've taken the time to stop by, and comment, to leave your words of encouragement and strength, helping me more than you could ever know. It was your loyal encouragement that made me see that maybe I was better than average. Maybe my photos had a bit of special in them. Maybe I could chase the dream. Maybe I could be strong enough to stand up and show my children that they should chase their dreams. And for that, you have my eternal gratitude.

I am green, so very green. I know how to take good photos, but there is so very much I do not know. I want to take great photos. Amazing photos. Breathtaking photos. But rather than waste another year or two, learning more and dreaming more, I decided to do it together. I think 98% of the time, in life, we learn more by being thrown in the deep end. Perhaps I am crazy for jumping. But crazy feels good right now.

*I am having issues with transferring my blog over to my official domain name through blogger. Because of my tight time constraints, this was the best option for me to get a site up and running. Every time I try to set up a Google Apps account to verify my domain name to be able to change over in blogger, I reach a Google server error - please try again later. All the support links and info are giving me no help at all.. my head is close to exploding! If you've experienced the same thing, I would be SO VERY grateful for your advice/help! You can either leave a comment or email me. Thankyou!

4/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Ruby :: sentenced to her bedroom for some 'alone time' following some unsavoury behaviour.. 

Cole :: just rockin

Eliot :: he loves to watch the 'aaars, trucks and ikes' below, from nanna and pa's window

Joining lovely Jodi each week

3/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Ruby :: great excitement (on her part) with the purchase of her very first pair of school shoes.. 

Cole :: asleep with his eyes open

Eliot :: dinner by fish tank

Joining lovely Jodi each week

boob

In both senses of the word.
These fabulous ladies are rocking my socks right now.
If I lived in Sydney I would totally be going along. Erm.. if I was still breastfeeding, that is.
All power to the mamas out there!

recipe :: lemon squares

I was given a couple of great cook books for Christmas which are going to get a good workout this year. Over the weekend we spent the afternoon and evening with some dear friends, and I wanted to take along some afternoon tea since we were given strict instructions to just bring ourselves. It was nice to reach up to the baking shelf in the pantry after having a long hiatus from the kitchen while on holidays.

This recipe comes from a book called Grandma's Recipes (which I cannot seem to find a link for). Mum bought it from one of those book clubs that are left in work lunch rooms/kindy foyers etc where you fill out the order form by hand and your books are delivered to you. Old school, I love it.

In the early stages of bringing this recipe to life, it showed great signs of dying an early death. The problem you see, was in the size of the baking tray. When Grandma encourages the use of a rectangular or square baking tin, in true Granny style, she bypasses measurements. So I reached for my old faithful rectangular slice tin, the one I always use for a slice recipe, the one that has NEVER failed me. Made the base, cooked it, and then when it came time to pour the topping over, realised the amount of mixture I had was waaaaaaay more than was ever going to fit in the remaining millimetres left in the tin. I do believe I cursed Grandma for not giving a heads up on using a LARGE rectangular or square baking tin. I had timed the baking so I would take the tray out of the oven, wrap it in towels, put it in the laundry basket, and stuff it in the back of the car to cool down on the way. I had left myself no room for failure. Since when do I fail at baking anyway?!! Snort.

Think, think, what to do? The only thing for it - I got out a LARGE SQUARE baking tin (22cm), chopped the end off the base to fit it into the NEW baking tin, and tried to ignore the little empty hole in one corner of the tin where the smooshed-together-base wouldn't reach. I poured the topping mixture all over the top, shuvved it back in the oven. BAM. When we bit into this little beauty a few hours later.. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Think lemon meringue pie without the meringue on top. With an almost classic shortbread base (soft and crumbly, not hard like shortbread biscuit). I had some ripper lemons because it was perfectly sweet with a marvellous bitter tang as you swallowed. I will not share how many squares I had. Suffice to say, I will be making this one again VERY soon. Grandma totally redeemed herself.

Something I really love about this book is that what it lacks in baking tray measurements, it makes up for in ingredient measurements. Each recipe lists ingredient measurements in grams, ounces and cups. I love to cook in cups - means I don't have to wash the tray off the scales. Lazy much?

Lemon Squares

Base
250g | 9oz | 1 cup butter
125g | 4.5oz | 1/2 cup sugar
250g | 9oz | 2.5 cups plain (all purpose) flour
pinch of salt

Topping
2 eggs
250g | 9oz | 1.5 cups sugar
2 tbsp flour
pinch of salt
2 lemons, juice and zest
icing sugar to decorate

Preheat oven to 160C (140C fan forced) (325F/gas 3). Grease a rectangular or square baking tray with butter (I still lined mine with baking paper so it was easy to lift the whole slab out once cooled, to chop easily).

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the flour and salt and mix to a smooth dough. Press the dough into the base of the tin and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked and golden.

Beat the eggs and sugar until foamy. Mix in the flour, salt, lemon juice and zest. Pour the mixture over the cooled base.* Bake for a further 25-30 minutes until the filling is set. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool.

Sift icing sugar to coat the top and cut into squares (I used a hot knife to get through the stickyness as neatly as possible).

*I didn't have time to let the base cool, I literally pulled the base out of the oven when it was cooked (plus the few minutes spent fixing the tin-is-too-small-dilemma), poured the topping on and stuck it back in the oven. It is hard to imagine this slice tasting any better than it did, but next time I will try it with a cooled base and see if it makes any difference to the taste or texture.

**Sweet little mister couldn't get the squares in fast enough. Leaving room to chew is so overrated.

in the spotlight

My little blog gets to have five minutes of fame in the spotlight today. Thanks for choosing me, Bron! A long list of lovely ladies have graced that inspiring space, long before me, so I'm rather chuffed to be listed among them. Bron has thrown a mix of photos into the Village Voices post. You can find my original post here.

Hopefully I'll be back later with a stills collection from holidays.. if I don't drown in the editing first..

2/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Ruby :: she has her own special china for cups of tea at nanna and pa's

Cole :: those little legs are becoming longer

Eliot :: water baby

Joining lovely Jodi each week

1/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Ruby :: post mango face
Cole :: he was most concerned about the storm rolling in while we played on the shore
Eliot :: always room for more food

Joining the beautifully talented Jodi each week

*Yes, I'm playing catch up (already!). That's what you get for taking a really long holiday..

rome parker :: a preview

This little treasure is eight weeks old, getting chubbier by the day. More of him to come.

home

We are home. Happy to be home, though I wish I could say the same for Melbourne. I miss the sea. Melbourne welcomed us home with chilly winds and long sleeves. Just to make sure we got a good dose of reality, I am sure. This afternoon we had the air conditioner going, and tomorrow will be 37. Spending almost a month in a constant, even, comfortable climate, has not made my relationship with Melbourne Weather any better.

There is a pile of Christmas stacked high on my dining table. At least it's all in one spot now. Rearranging the big kids' room was more important today. There is much cleaning and sorting to be done, of course, as with many, our new year will begin with clean cupboards, and generally less of stuff. My lists are long, some are happy long, but all are overshadowed by my number one task in the coming weeks. Getting our girl ready for school. SCHOOL.

Looking forward to overdosing on the holiday snaps. Happy New Year, friends.

beautiful things

Just reminding myself. And you. Yes, you.

image source (originally found through Pinterest though the link doesn't take you to the source)