I know things have been a little (okay, a lot) craft light around here lately. I’ve no real excuse – well none that I’d expect anyone to accept anyways.

But this week, I actually did something. It was small and quick, but it was a craft project all the same.

The book for bookclub this month was Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and so we assigned everyone a character to lightly consider their motiviations, or point of view

Cardstock and waterpaper squares…

Quickly blended some watered down acrylic paint to semi-match the cardstock…

attached the watercolour paper to the cardstock and – ta dah!

The topic for shutterboo’s flickr challenge this week was lingerie, and I started the week with absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

I finally decided to enlist the help of my friend Amy – a lingerie addict if ever there was one – and gave much consideration to how it was I was going to actually ask her (how do you ask someone if you can take photos of their underwear??).

It was my careful phrasing of the question that actually gave me the idea I landed on…

I took a handful of shots, but these are the other two I considered submitting…

image by John White

Happy Australia Day to those so inclined!

Even if you’re not Australian, why not take the day to pretend you are? Wear thongs, have a barbie… get in the spirit of things :)

I’ve had these photos sitting on my desktop waiting to be sorted for a couple days now, and have only just had the time to play with them.

Last week my friend Vicky and I went on a little roam around the country side. She didn’t tell me where we were going, so it was all the better for being a surprise.

Turns out when I said that I had photographed every inch of the Nepean River and was in need of a new location, she was actually listening. Of course Vicky, being Vicky, her suggestion didn’t come in the form of a new location, but rather pointing out the error of my way and taking me to a new area surrounding the same river.

We started the day out at Yarramundi Reserve, which I’d never been to before. Turns out there’s a little river/beach where people go swimming and everything. Why did no one tell me this was here?

My favourite part was this weaving embankment of rocks dividing the river…

We even did a little wading ourselves! Kind of hard not to with everyone else splashing around having fun.

After the river we had lunch at a beautiful little cafe in Karrajung Village where Vicky and Andrew are planning to have their wedding reception. Then, since we’d already gone this far up the mountain, we decided to keep going to Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, where the wedding will be. This was perhaps a bad idea as now I’ll just have to go back and take even more photos.

And if the flowers were not enough, dispersed throughout the garden beds were curved stone steps and lovely little wooden benches to rest on. The best was the one below, overgrown with little patches of moss.

I’ve driven past this shiny red beetle about ten times, and every time I’ve wanted to stop and take photos but haven’t had the time, or it’s been raining etc.

But not today!!

Pretty, don’t you think? This beetle must go pretty speedy, being as red as it is…

It’s not unusual for Alex and I to go on photo hunts, just the two of us – especially if no one else is home. Our old standby, however, is down at Nepean River, and I think we’ve shot it from nearly every conceivable angle. So if anyone has any suggestions for other local spots, they’d be much appreciated.

(and yes, I borrowed Alex’s fancy camera for this last one – not a chance that comes along very often, so you’ve got to enjoy it while you can!)

The shutterboo Weekly Photo Challenge this week was ‘eyes’ – and if any of you know me in real life you’ll know that I have eye issues at times, so this one was a little hard for me.

My original idea was to take a close-up of my brother, who has really nice brown eyes – but he wasn’t exactly a willing model at the time and this was coming across in the photo.

In the end I managed to capture this scared look on my cat’s face. She really doesn’t enjoy being outside.

Next week’s topic: lingerie. I have no idea…

Bethany was commenting yesterday that she doesn’t get the chance to get out and about to take interesting photos. Alex and I frequently go on photo outings, but Beth usually stays behind. So yesterday, on the way home from the movies (The Princess and the Frog – go see it!), we made an impromptu stop at Nepean River to take some photos.

And for the first time ever – I’m still in shock – Alex was without any cameras. So the three of us camera hopped on my little camera. Not recommended photo-outing procedure.

I’ve also been working on some more portrait-style photos, as I don’t feel comfortable with them. Of course this may be due to my lack of models… any takers??

location: Weir Reserve
models: Bethany and Alexander Johnson

• Tudor Nametags

• Hair Clip Board
• Alice in Wonderland Charm Bracelet

School holidays means sleepovers in our family. When I was little I would visit my grandparents and ‘one more week’ my way through the entire holidays.

Now that I’m older, and am apparently now the cool cousin (turns out I’m cool to six-year-olds, who knew), it means sleepovers with Becca – or, more accurately “Beekie”.

I tried to get a few photos of our fun so I should share what Hannah sleepovers look like but, as usual when trying to play with Hannah, most of the photos turned out like this…

And this was the best of the blurred ones. She moves so fast that it’s often hard to get a clear shot.

This sleepover was rather low-key for a Hannah-over. There was no princesses to save nor goblins to fight. But still, we had fun.

There was blocks…

And much toy accessorising, including new scarfs for Bear (the same bear that received a dress last year) and Ted, ribbons for Skye, Lily and and Rosie, and bracelets all around.

Basically this meant that she knit a row of a scarf – all on her own! I was so proud – before giving it back to me and saying i could finish it. While she likes craft, she’s not into the organised craft-thing. She much preferred to cut the wool into little tiny bits and then knot them back together.

But Hannah knows the Becca-rules. She’s more than welcome to almost anything she can find in my craft room – but she has to actually make something. All those little bits of wool had to be used for something.

At first she thought a hat would be a good idea. Especially since it meant she could try her hand at fashion photography…

But this idea waned when it the ‘hat’ kept falling off. But new ideas flow fast with Hannah… nothing to worry about! Out came the Hannah-beads. I try to keep some Hannah-friendly supplies on hand, and these bigger beads are much easier for her to thread.

Everyone in the house was soon adorned with more bracelets, necklaces, anklets and headbands than one could ever want.

And of course, no sleepover is complete without some colouring in and a Disney movie or two…

And a bedtime story… in case you can’t tell there are about 20 toys in the bed with us

The next day was filled with more drawing, watching another movie, and riding the new scooter she got for Christmas and then a trip to Spotlight (where she managed to find a new fairy mask).

All in all we had a great time… she even tried to talk us into staying another week.

We were talking about children on twitter today – which led to the sharing of photos and eventually the sharing of our own baby photos. And while looking for an appropriate photo to send, I came across these amongst my mother’s photos.

It appears that my love of beads – not to mention the sharing and teasing – started very early in life*.

*okay, so I already knew that, but this was the first documented evidence.

Alex and I braved the heat and set out to the library today. I coaxed him with the promise of photography magazines and he crumbled.

We managed to get a parking spot in the very front row, right under a shady tree – virtually unheard of for a Saturday morning! There were still plenty of people around, however, enjoying the library’s air conditioning no doubt.

I went in with a plan. Return books. Reborrow the one I hadn’t finished. Pick up the two books I wanted. Don’t look at the other books. Don’t pass go. Don’t pick up $200.

That so didn’t work.

With Alex off looking at the photography section I had far too much time on my hands. I sat down, desperately clutching the three books I was leaving with. JUST THREE! I didn’t move – I wasn’t going to move. And then a book caught my eye. And then just one more. And then…

Well.

I left with a small pile. And yes, I do stand by that ‘small’.

And of course, no Alex-and-I outing would be complete without a photo here or there.