Yesterday was...

Blue



Green

Soft

Spiky



Dusty


Shiny

Pretty and not so pretty

Last month my daughter and I went skipping up to the hills for a photo shoot with a lovely and very talented lady called Kirsty Burns.

Kirsty has a fabulous natural talent for photography and runs an Adelaide-based business called Appleseed Photography. It was fun dressing Nevada up for the shoot and we even had the luck of a duck waddling by.... thought I would share some of Kirsty's gorgeous work with you...

And the not-so-pretty of today? This is what greeted me literally three minutes after I brought my 8mth old boofa of a puppy home from being groomed...
Why do I bother!!?

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.

Sunset...

A couple of shots from tonight's photo shoot, taken whilst the sun was setting a beautiful pinky-orange...

What I'd like to be when I grow up...

Amongst all the things I've tried so far in my little old 35 years, one thing that has been simmering on the back boiler for the last 3 years is that I would love to start photographing the birth of a child or two or fifteen.

Capturing dignified, emotional, evocative, heart wrenching photography of all the moments that a third party is privy to when they stand in the background during a birth. A photographer at a birth can record all those little details that the birthing mother and her partner might miss... the glances between the parents, the mood of the room, hand clenches and reassuring touches, patient waiting in hallways, tiny bundles being cradled for the first time... I could go on but we'd be here all night!

Photography, to me, is a opportunity to see all sorts of different angles of an event and the amazing opportunity of being allowed in a birthing room to record that for the parents and their families would be an honour and a privilege.

So that's another thing I'll add to the list of things I'd love to do when I grow up. Having birthed my own child and not being able to remember much of it, birth photography is something that given the benefit of hindsight I should have done but... too late now! Best I offer the opportunity to someone else.....

photo credit: Dave Morris

Bloggy linky update

Updating the things I've been writing about lately....

I'm currently part way through writing the pattern for the Gingerbread House
The camera I think I'm leaning toward is the Nikon D5000
The dressing gown is not even cut out yet, despite my poppets current dressing gown being waaaay too short
Carolyn Slater won the Be A Fan of Silly Gilly on Facebook competition - your brooch is on it's way soon Carolyn!
More books, patterns and general vintagey crafty things will be up for sale here soon...

I'm completely inspired by Fi of dearfii fame... she's just been published in Homespun with a gorgeous matryoska style doll called Pepper. If Fi can do it, design and write a pattern, then so can I. Look out Hansel and Gretel... here I come!

Let's go shopping!

One doesn't hear me say that very often. Let's go op shopping yes, let's go shopping for items costing over $10... no.

But I have the delicious dilemma of purchasing a new digital SLR camera for my early birthday present. The dilemma part of it is that I have no blimmin' idea of which one to choose!!!

Criteria:

• must be able to interchange lenses
• one of those lenses needs to be one with a fantastic macro ability

Simple criteria... but there are so many options out there, I thought I'd throw it to you loyal readers. Do you have a camera with which you are absolutely in love? Are you able to take photos with the background completely blurry and the fore or mid ground sharply in focus? Are you able to take cracker close up shots of still items, such as jewelery or small items?

If so, let me know what your camera and lens set is. Pretty please.
And to finish this photography based post, here's one of my favourite shots of my little poppet, when she was quite young.

Where has the mojo gone??

I've been eating healthier of late. A LOT healthier. Needed to as I want to be alive when my daughter turns 20. Okay bit of an exaggeration there but it's amazing what having offspring will do to the guilt factor and motivation for living just a tad longer.

The downside of this health kick is that I have lost my sewing mojo. Oh. My. Golly. Gosh.
Have you seen it? Anyone??? Please????????? I've looked under the couch, under the dog's bed, and even in the shed out the back. It's just not anywhere. Normally Silly Gilly spends her nights sewing like a mad woman creatively snipping and stitching away. Hopefully my sojurn next weekend at Inspired Stitches will do just that. Inspire.

So not much sewing whatsoever lately but lots of 'I don't need that anymore' or otherwise known as 'Get this clutter out of my studio!!!'. I would rather offer my wares to you loyal readers so in the next week I shall be listing some of my craftily related wares that will be for sale. Think vintage patterns, vintage sewing books, vintage toys. Hope something will take your fancy.

I did crack out the camera though in the kitchen of the wondrous late autumn light this week and took some snaps of the still life about the place.

I did make last week a top for my daughter from a seventies pattern size 3. I will be giving this pattern away this week so stay tuned for that!

The new poster boy for summer

Took this one yesterday whilst the kiddies were playing in the pool.
Absolutely perfect. I haven't tweaked it at all. No photoshopping whatsoever.
This is one of the flukes I always hope for.

Happy Daddy Day!

That's what we have coined as our newest term in our house. Happy Daddy Day. A day, I explained to our 2.5yr old going on 25yrs old, when you appreciate how great your daddy is. And she promptly replied, "Can I have a cake?". Ah, the 2yr old logic is going strong...

We spent a lovely day at the parent's in law's house eating and drinking and eating some more. I also decided today is the day to make a concerted effort at mastering the macro on my camera. It's been bugging the be-jeepers out of me and I need to master it. Or else I'll keep yelling at it and that ain't good. Here's some a pic from today. I am quite happy with it as it's getting quite close to that close up focus/background blurry look I love.

Here is a pic of the Little Bluebirds by Janelle Wind that I have started this week by transferring the stitching outline. My first and most important question is "Who the billy-o has the time and the patience to hand stitch and embroider?????!!". I'm used to being very gung-ho and roaring away with the machine, getting as much done in the small amount of crafting time that I have. But this slow, patient, calm thing.... it's taking a lot of getting used to. Quite meditative really, if I slow down long enough to think about it.....


And if you like the look of these beauties, they are called Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes and they are DIVINE. I made them for Happy Daddy Day. If you'd like the recipe, check below:

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes (makes 12)

1 cup (about 10) finely ground Oreo biscuits (including filling) - (I use my food processor to grind them)
40g unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tbs icing sugar, sifted
375g cream cheese
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Mix ground Oreos and butter in a bowl. Divide mixture among paper cases, pressing down well. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove and cool.

Mash the raspberries to a pulp with a fork. strain through a sieve into a bowl, pressing down well, then discard seeds (I only mash and don't bother with straining or de-seeding. Life is too short!). Stir in the icing sugar.

Place the cream cheese in bowl of an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy. Add the caster sugar in a slow, steady stream, beating unitl combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Pour cheese mixture over biscuit bases. Place small drops (about 1/2 teaspoon) berry puree on top of cakes and use a wooden skewer to carefully swirl though cheese mixture. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until just set. Open oven door and allow cakes to cool completely in switched-off oven. (Taken from ABC Delicious magazine, Sept 05)