Wednesday 28 April 2010

Somewhere.

banjo

Maybe it's the full moon.

Maybe it's the sleep deprivation.

Maybe it's the reading of these amazing women's blogs.

Maybe it's the nagging feeling I've had for the past many months as to the direction this blog should take. Should it be focussed upon the Silly Gilly store or should it be about my life and my experiences?

I find myself proverbially in a space which is not entirely uncomfortable but mostly weird. I want to change. I need to change. I should change (although should is a tricky word, don't like to use that one...).

The boofa that is Banjo has been a breath of fresh (but often stinky puppy breath) air through my home. She has forced me to refocus on my family and on keeping the house clean and tidy. A tidy house means less things for a puppy to chew upon. A clean house means that the layer of mud with which two dogs decorate my floor boards gets removed and replaced each day or so.

It's like having a new baby in the house in so many ways. Experiencing broken sleep for toilet breaks. The dog's toilet breaks that is. Teaching of rules and learning how to communicate with another individual who doesn't speak your language. Cleaning up poop and wee. Feeding multiple times a day. Being housebound whilst the vaccinations take effect.

All these new experiences have asked me to shift my focus from Silly Gilly and my ebay selling back to the home and my family and its new member. It's refreshing. It's giving me a break I didn't realise I wanted or needed. I'm not retiring or selling off the sewing machine, that's for sure. Just sitting back and allowing a new priority to take front stage for a while.

Reading back over this post, I started off in a 'I'm in a weird space' kind of mood. Now as I type I realise that I'm simply in the middle of change. A positive, happy, goofy (my new dog Banjo is seriously dopey and goofy) kind of change. And I would love to introduce some changes to this blog too. Less focus on selling. More focus on being. Being real. Sharing real things.

Hope you stick around for the change.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Banjo



Welcome home Banjo. You've come to the right place.

I have a feeling the Silly Gilly household will suit you just fine!

Please feel free to ooh and ahh and oh isn't she cute over our new puppy Banjo. I'm unabashedly proud and gushy and brain poppingly excited about our new Pyrenean Mountain Dog. She is 8 weeks old and already weighs 9kg!! There's a little bit of work to do in the 'learning to get along with another dog who already lives here and rules the roost' stakes but we're working on that.

Prepare yourself for more gratuitous puppy shots over the coming days. I've also been working on some fantastic secret squirrel projects for other people. Plus, that magazine might just be arriving tonight courtesy of Mr Silly Gilly. Then I can blog about my front cover!!!

Friday 9 April 2010

On the subject of waiting

So what do you do during the school holidays when there is a inordinate amount of waiting to be done? Waiting for the magazine to arrive.... waiting for our new family member to arrive....

Go to the park EVERY day, go to the movies to see Nanny McPhee, take lots of photos to waste some time.

A friend asked today how I got the blurry background in some of my photos like those below. I use the macro setting on my camera. It's the one that very often has a picture of a tulip or flower on the setting selector. All that setting does is focus on things very close to you and throw the background out of focus. It's one of my favourite settings and a very simple but effective way to take great portraits.

I love taking portraits, be they canine or little person, right up close. I love the detail in their faces. Below are some shots of two very patient people in our family who have had the camera right in their face this week whilst I while away the hours, waiting, waiting.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Sometimes it sucks to live in Adelaide...

Especially when the newsagents don't get the new magazines at the same time as the eastern states....

Waiting, waiting...............................................................................