Merry Christmas Everyone

I wish Santa came every night

We had just hung the christmas stockings up on the end of the bed with Mari, and were tucking her in when we suddenly heard the sound of bells jingling outside. A surprise to us all! Marie we think, with impeccable timing... Or maybe...?. :-) Mari threw herself down onto her pillow, squeezed her eyes shut and said "I'm going to sleep now!". I was offered a reluctant cheek to kiss goodnight (quicky!) and now all is quiet. It was a magical moment.

If you want an image of us this Christmas, Rosa is acting as our model.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hi there!

Remember us? It's a been a while. Hey! It's Christmas soon. A month or so to go and.... what? NEXT WEEK?? Oh dear god and all the elves above!
At least we've got our funny looking tree.

New Exercise

The latest exercise "Up, Down, Under and Through…" is up at Fine Art Photography Classes

Mr Balloon Face

Mari's latest drawing. I think it's pretty good, done with scratchy texta on a not-very-blown-up balloon.

Lately I think she's taken a big leap in her imaginative play and artistic creation. She's learning the Alphabet and very simple maths, and making up complex stories. It's good fun. On the flip side she's also learning how to take over our puppet strings.

Watch us dance.

Dinner...

...was delicious. If I do say so myself.

Mee Goreng, followed by Marinated Berries with Cinnamon Ginger Ice-cream and Little Meringues.



Marinated Berries

Strawberries
Cherries
2 Tbs raw sugar
Juice of 1 orange
1 tsp vanilla essence

Cook sugar, orange juice and vanilla over medium heat until reduced by half, and pour over berries while hot and sizzling. Cover and sit for at least two hours.

Cinnamon Ginger ice-cream.

300ml thick cream
300ml milk
1 cinnamon quill
1 knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten (keep the whites for the meringues)

Heat cream, milk, cinnamon and ginger to a gentle simmer, then let sit for 20 minutes. Retrieve and discard ginger and cinnamon, then add sugar and egg yolks to cream mixture, and stir continuously over a gentle heat until it coats the back of a spoon. Don't let it boil. Cool completely in the fridge, then churn in an ice-cream maker, or freeze in a tray, giving it a good stir every twenty minutes until frozen.

Meringues

4 egg whites (left over from the ice-cream)
200g sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, gradually beat in sugar until shiny, then add vanilla. Place tablespoon size glops onto baking paper, and cook at 150 degrees for about 1/2 hour, or until slightly golden. Leave them in the oven, with the door slightly ajar to cool.

Photography Sights

Yes, it's a another blog. I spend a fair bit of time online (no, really I do) exploring photography websites, so Photography Sights was born. Only a day or so ago, so it's somewhat embrionic really. I hope to showcase a lot of really good and interesting photography. It's the same deal with the ads, click and help us lead the life of luxury we were destined for!

So far, with the help of Photography Classes you've earnt us $7.96. Yup, we're rolling in it. And we thank you.

Birthday Pt. 2

Thanks to everyone who sent their birthday wishes, and blessed Rosa with wonderful gifts. She had a terrific day.

Happy Birthday Rosa!

Half way through the day and more to come!

Attachment Parenting... Literally

I think I've mentioned the girls are just a little clingy lately. Case in point.

Oh, it's Rosa's birthday on Thursday. Party? Oh. I knew there was something I was meant to do this week. (Yes, yes. Second child. Neglected.) Send us a cheer anyway. Luckily we're going to the birthday of the daughter of some very good friends on the weekend, and they've kindly offered to share the celebrations.
Actually, I lie. We are having a little party. James is working, and it's just a normal day, but there will be cake and presents and another baby friend coming over to help her eat the candles and blow out the cake (or something like that.) And yes, there'll be music and dancing and laughter.

Rosa, we love you, our sweet, wide eyed, funny girl.

Personally, I love these....

Mari painted these for PapaCliff (her grandpa) for his birthday. It's a family portrait of PapaCliff, MaJenny, and their cat Phaedra.

Speaking of New Ventures

I've been feeling the need to get back into work (the paying kind) lately, but have been a bit stumped. I'm reluctant to use childcare (there's a two year waiting list here anyway), so need something I can work on with the kids around. I vaguely mentioned ventures in the pipeline last post, and the latest that both James and I are working on is this: Fine Art Photography Classes. It's online and free, and concentrates on (you guessed it) the fine art side of photography. There are a lot of online photography courses, but they all seem to concentrate on the technical side of things. "How to get the most out of your digital camera!", "The two-thirds rule for beginners!". That sort of thing. So, we hope, this will corner a bit of the market. Even just a tiny fraction of the market will do. I've placed ads on the site - each time someone (you, for example) clicks on an ad, it earns us a few cents. So, do pop over and have a look. We'll be adding new exercises as often as we can.

So, with that and a bit of freelance work, hopefully I'll dropping a few coins into the tax man's pocket again!

me too!

The reason why Mari's been so keen on her 'job', has been because of mine. Job, that is. Oh yes, I'm eloquent before my second cup of coffee. Anyway. I've been working on some food shots. We have a few ideas in the pipe line for generating an income; some ventures that I can work at from home (mostly) while the kidlets are still dependant 24/7. (One is hanging off my leg right now. Kidlet that is. You know.) And one of those ventures is just plain old taking photos for money. Of course, there's nothing 'plain' or 'old' about it. Love it. So, I've been building up the folio after a few years away. And the food stuff has been fun.

Of course, Mari's shots are infinitely better than mine. But there you go. Shame about those pesky child labour laws.

Monster Dreams

Mari woke up this morning and told me all about a bad dream she'd had. A naughty orange monster was tearing everything in half. Trees and teddy bears and everything. And it was green too. Yikes.
It reminded me of one of my earliest memories. Definitely the first dream I remember. I was the same age as Mari. There were two furry monsters, one blue and one green, hiding behind a fishtank in my grandfather's hallway. I knew (mixing up the laws of physics just a little) that because they were behind water they looked smaller than they actually were. Then the blue monster stepped out and was suddenly HUGE. Adult size. I ran down the hallway into our kitchen (the fluid nature of dreams) and lay myself across a chair and kicked and screamed... There are several drawings i did at the time to illustrate this obviously formative somnatic experience!

More...

Some more of Mari's photos (see below). Again, she busied herself setting up the shots, and hopping up on a chair behind the camera (on tripod) to take the photo, checking the image on the back, hopping down and setting up another scene. And so on and so forth. My only job was to hover in case she leaned a little too hard on the camera and tipped the tripod.

Snap!

Mari has been helping me 'work' lately, and just loves to take charge. These are set up, styled and photographed by Mari all by herself. (I may have focussed for her.) But mostly it was a case of, "I can do it mummy. This is my job."

Off with the Fairies

We had a serious case of the "the walls are closing in and I can't stay in the house a minute longer" blues (Sing it with me!)
this morning. So, we went looking for fairies in the oak forest. The first photo is of Mari peering in the door of a fairy tree house. No one was home, so we settled for a picnic. And a very nice picnic it was too.

Facts

1. Being sick is boring. We've successfully established that over the last two months. Having flu, laryngitis, gastro, 3 week (and still going) cold, excema (on Rosa), and possible threat of chicken pox (Rosa again) since August, well, for lack of any other eloquent phrase, sux.

But...

2. Cleaning is fun! Well, when you've finished anyway. We've finally got the 'other' loungeroom converted from shambles to dining room / photo studio & art/music room. Hoorah!

Duck!

Can we send Mari to the Royal Acadamy yet? It's a duck. But you knew that already.

Aww.... *achoo!*

They might have a cold, but gee they still photograph well...

Sheesh.

You leave two sick kids in a recently tidied room for ten minutes and what happens?

This.

Port Fairy

We headed down to Port Fairy for their annual Spring Music Festival on the weekend. A four hour drive, but well worth it. I had the chance to experience four whole concerts, in child-free bliss. The first was violin/piano duo who played Beethoven's Sonata No.7 in c minor, op.30, No.2, which was stunningly beautiful. The violinist Cameron Hill especially was, well, just fabulous really. And speaking of fabulous, that night, I was dragged (protesting) from the house at 10:15pm to see the Stiletto Sisters, a trio that combine hungarian/russian style folk music with a dash of french passion and one hell of good time! I can't rave about them enough. The next day gave up some beautiful Schubert played by The Benaud Trio, and some very good (if rather unchallenging) Jazz. A great festival, but really, they do need to try and expand their audience somewhat. I'm sure I'm not the only person under 50 who enjoys a bit of classical and/or jazz every now and then. But sitting up the back (as I often was) my field of vision was filled mostly with a sea of grey. Which is fine. It's a grown-up alternative to the folk festival. But still, that's a whole two thirds of the population that they seem to be neglecting in their marketing.


Of course, being in Port Fairy, Mari was very interested in looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden, with moderate success, spring being the right time for fairy watching and all. And Rosa had fun playing with her very good friend Alannah. We also got the chance to walk along the wharf to check out the boats and soak up some sunshine between performances.