Tag Archives: Photography

Discovery Date: Admiring Wellington and a Good Book

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I forced myself outdoors for my discovery date today. I had to take advantage of the fact that the rain had stopped (for the moment.)

I took my camera and headed into Wellington city.

I love how our city and the people can progress, but does not turn its back on the beauty from the past.


On your walk down Lambton Quay you are bound to pass buskers and even workers digging right in the middle of the footpath.

I ended my discovery date at Astoria in Midland Park. I grabbed myself a yummy tart and hot chocolate then found a table outside.

There were moments I actually wished I had sunglasses, and other times, a scarf! That’s Wellington for ya!

Recently, I received a surprise package in the mail. My best friend had bought me my very own copy of “A Mother’s Book of Secrets“! (She’s so good to me…totally spoilt!)

Shawni Eyre Pothier co-wrote it with her mother Linda Eyre. It is a BEAUTIFUL book, which I am sure a lot of mothers can relate to.

It is filled with real life experiences and practical tips as well.

I think what makes it special, is that it is written from Shawni’s point of view, which is from the trenches of motherhood. As well as Linda’s point of view, which is looking back on motherhood with a bit of perspective.

Some of my favourite quotes so far:

“There isn’t a more difficult yet more important and magnificent career than that of a mother”

Linda Eyre

“Sometimes success is when we don’t get through the to-do list but instead stop long enough to notice the little things. To savor moments. Not only to notice the delight in our children’s eyes, but to help create that delight.”

Shawni Eyre Pothier

(Shawni has a blog called 71 Toes. It’s a great blog, so be sure to check it out!)

Random catch up

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I have been quite busy lately, and feel like I have been going from one thing to another. It didn’t help that I was sleep deprived some days (we have been getting better sleep, except last night when we woke 3 times for nightmares and power cuts – my daughter has a light on, so she freaked out in the middle of the night when it was pitch black.)

I’m still keeping up the Friday Fun Day with the kids. We took some bread to Aotea Lagoon and fed the ducks, had a play on the playground, then followed the mini train track all around the lagoon.

We had hubby’s family over during the weekend. We all met up with the extended family at Oriental Parade.

I captured my daughter playing with her cousin. I loved watching my niece go from being apprehensive about touching the sand, to digging her feet through the sand, then scooping it up with her wee hands and watching it run through her fingers….so cute!!

We heard these HUGE engine sounds, and looked over to find these boats racing by. I’ve never seen anything like this close up!

They were having Powerboat Racing in the bays. And boy were they loud! It was pretty spectacular to watch.

I hope the weather will be kind to us during the next two weeks of school holidays. I’m looking forward to relaxing and slowing down (as much as you can with 4 kids…hehehe)

I have already borrowed a few treats for me from the library. I have seen other versions of Mansfield Park & Jane Eyre…so I’m looking forward to seeing these ones. (Post edit: Watched the movie tonight. I was really enjoying this adaptation of Mansfield Park. I thought it flowed well – which is sometimes hard to do when you adapt a film from a big novel. Then all of a sudden it got weird, and deviated from the book. Just when you thought that you were pretty safe with Jane Austen movies, it got a bit too racey for me.)

Always & Forever is an audio book. I have never tried audio books, so we’ll see how it goes.

And then I got Hiding Places after reading the positive comments about the book on Steph’s post where she talked about books she would like to read. (Check out the comment section, there are heaps of recommendations on books!) Post edit: Just finished Hiding Places…Oh my! What a great book! Really inspirational!! So glad I read it.

We had a huge package arrive in the mail the other day. I was excited to see that it was the Spa Factory set that we won at Kiwi Mummy Blogs (Thanks Sarah!). This will be a fun thing to do with the kids during the holidays…making lip gloss and perfumes etc!

So you can see from my books & dvds what I plan to sneak into my easter holidays…have you got any plans?

I want it to be summer all year, and live at the beach

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I am getting better at noticing the sunsets and sunrises outside our window (we had a stunning orange sunrise and pink sunset today)….now I just have train myself to sit a little bit longer, really enjoy the moment, and just linger, instead of scurrying off quickly to the next thing. (Can you tell I’m talking about motherhood as well!)

Had no real deadlines except for the school pick up, so we just chilled out today.

I took my 3 year old and her 3 year old second cousin to the Duncan Park Play Area in Linden for a picnic and a play. (My older children named this play area “Friendship Park” because they always seem to make friends whenever they come here. :) )

I got a kick out of watching my budding 3 year old climbers master some of the trickier climbing equipment and hear them exclaim, “Yay! I did it!!” (If you look really carefully at the above picture, you’ll see them climbing solo. At the beginning they needed me to tell them where to put their feet. Now look at them!)

Then we drove over to Island Bay.

They have great rock pools near the orange “bait house”. We went searching for crabs, and found a few in all different shapes and sizes. This little one has one big claw!

We found a neat little rock pool that housed a couple of crabs. As we spent more time there, we noticed the shells started moving around. That was really neat!

Wouldn’t it be great if there was no homework, no meals to prepare, and no chores to be done, and we could just hang out at rock pools all day.*bliss*

Participating in life. Making our choices more meaningful

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Thank you for the all the lovely encouraging comments by the way, they always make me smile!

Lara from The Golden Seven said in the comments yesterday, “You’ve just about convinced me to come to Wellington on the next plane and sit at your front window and stare out of it all day.”

It made me think about how I really don’t stop and sit and admire the view as often as I should. Those times I took the photographs, my children were the ones who recognised the beauty and came to get me. And where was I? I sure wasn’t looking out of the window to notice the beauty that was unfolding right outside.

So, I have been thinking a lot this morning. About how there are things to be appreciated around us, but we may not be paying attention.

Do I take my blessings for granted?

How good am I at connecting with each child on a daily basis?

How well do I notice the world I’m living in and what we can learn from it, and what it has to offer?

Am I missing the beauty that is unfolding right in front of me? 

Am I there physically, but my mind is elsewhere?

Could I be more engaged?

Can I change my actions, to make a positive impact on my life and my family?

I let these thoughts jumble around my head during my discovery date, while I did some writing, planning, shopping and photography.

After pondering all morning, I really wanted to make more meaningful choices in my life.

After picking up my 3 year old from Playcentre, I decided we were going to have a picnic by the beach. We went home, I did the laundry, and got everything ready for the picnic and off we went to Oriental Parade.

It was looooovely.

After an early dinner, we all jumped on the tramp once we finished our chores. We even did a spot of cloud watching.

One of the kids wanted to go to ride their bikes at the school (something they have asked, but it always seemed to be at the “wrong time”) and I thought “yeah, let’s do that!”.

So this is my journey this week….to make my actions more consistent with how I ultimately want to live my life.

If you have any tips on how you have kept you and your family from falling into the trap of a bad version of a grounds hog day, let me know!

“Look mummy! It’s heaven!”

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The kids burst into my room this morning to tell me that they could see heaven!

I came out and looked out our living room window.

Oh wow!!

The kids were so excited, they thought angels were going to come down!

Just before bedtime, my 5 year old said,  

“I want to see heaven again.”

“I’m going to go check”

He walks off to the living room, then returns.

“Hey I got some bad news, heaven’s gone”

“I like heaven…”

:)

Inspirational Quote: The beauty around us

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“Keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life”

KAHLIL GIBRAN

Earlier this week, the girls told my hubby that there was a beautiful sunset, and that they should tell me. When I saw it, my jaw dropped. It was the most beautiful pink sky I had ever seen! I quickly grabbed my camera and started running (yes running!) down the street to the hill/reserve near our place that overlooks the Wellington harbour. By the time I got there the pink had turned into a deep orange and the edges were a mixture of blue/orange/pink. Nature always surprises me at how beautiful it can be! It takes my breath away.

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

My 5 links for the week

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A must read about a lesson learned about jealously, envy, gratitude and contentment http://memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/2010/02/lesson-learned.html

A new blog that gives you ideas about dates with your spouse. I love their quote: “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person.” http://thedahlingdatingdivas.blogspot.com/

A great video tutorial on making your very own Kanzashi flower http://www.craftypod.com/2009/09/16/now-with-video/

Look! You can make your own book using “blurb”! Some people have even downloaded their blog entries to make an annual record of there posts http://meetthepassionista.blogspot.com/2010/02/blurb.html

Excellent tips on how to get your email inbox under control! (I cleared my inbox not too long ago, but it has quickly filled up again, so I need a better system!) http://zenhabits.net/2010/02/email-sanity/

Things I Love: Picasa Collages

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A lot of my friends (and I’m sure a lot of you out there) are Picasa literate, but I have been a slow convert to Picasa (“Picasa is a software download from Google that helps you organize, edit, and share your photos. It’s free, and easy to use.”) Unfortunately, my personality is such that I can be a bit slow at converting to things. I didn’t take the plunge to buy some rockin’ boots until a whole year after the fad started!

After you download the software, Picasa searches out all the photos you have on your computer. The new version has face-matching technology. Picasa scans all the photos in your collection, identifies the ones with faces, and groups photos with similar faces together. Then you get to say who is in the photo. Pretty  cool! Picasa has made folders for all the members of my family!

I haven’t really used the photo manipulation functions yet, but Centsational Girl swears by it. What I have done this week is made picture collages.

This was my first attempt at using the photo collage function in Picasa. Me likey! Beats making a photo montage by lining up photos in Publisher any day (Yes I did do that! On more than one occasion! But with Picasa you just choose the photos you want in it, and it does all the rest!)

This is one I did the other day. We had a fun day out with the cousins a few days ago, and I wanted to put a photo collage in each of my children’s journal (Reality Check: Just incase you suddenly had visions of beautiful journals filled with photos and daily journal entries…..Our children’s journals are not up to date, and they have hardly any photos in them *wink* Hopefully my addiction to making collages will help this cause!)

 This is the collage I did for my youngest.

Tonight I have followed Clover Lane’s tutorial to make a banner. After some  fiddling, I came up with the one below. Unfortunately, the blog template that I’m using, doesn’t allow me to “hide” the automatically generated title for my blog that you see at the top of the screen. So I will just have to sigh, and admire the banner in this post instead.

How do you make your headers for your blogs?

Hmmmm…what else can I make into a collage???

My 5 links for the week

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http://www.zenfamilyhabits.net/2010/01/rock-your-family-in-2010/ – I like this post and the simple ideas it suggests to bring the family closer during this next year.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37455554 – I know that Christmas is over, but I saw this and thought this advent calendar was sooo cute!

http://www.organizingyourway.net/resolutions/31-days-of-organizing-for-a-better-2010-happy-new-year – Some great ideas to help you with your new years resolutions.

http://cmphotographynz.blogspot.com/2009/07/jamie-and-paul-mouton_30.html – This is my hubby’s talented cousin’s photography blog. Check out some of my fav photos!

http://www.nicknz.co.nz/Games/ – My daughter showed me this game, and I had a blast on it! Once you follow this link, select “Burger Bustle” where you are the waitress seating the customers, taking their order, serving their food and cleaning up after them. (ummmm…I know we kind of do that as mothers, but in this game you don’t have anyone spilling food on the floor, and you don’t have to cook a thing!)

My 5 links for the week

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http://www.eggshellgreen.com/2009/11/20/how-to-yum-char/ - If you want to take your children out to a restaurant, but not sure if they are up to it, you have to give Yum Char a go. This great post tells you what to expect and how it all works!

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http://destitutegourmet.blogspot.com/2009/11/as-i-mentioned-on-face-book-cheesecake.html - I’m so excited! My favourite chef, Sophie Gray has her own blog! She has recipes as well as honest down to earth posts that we can all relate to. Check out this White chocolate and berry cheesecake….mmmmmm…..cheesecake!!!!

http://www.zenfamilyhabits.net/2009/11/how-to-be-a-fantastic-parent/#comment-618 - Loving this post about how to be a fantastic parent. Has lots of common sense advice, which leaves you thinking, “oh yeah, I’ve got to do that better!”

KMB Represent

http://kiwimummyblogs.blogspot.com/ - Wow, I didn’t realise how many kiwi mummys were blogging out there! I am totally surprised! Check out this site which lists a whole bunch of really interesting blogs (you’ll see me listed there too! *blush*)

http://www.chasingpictureperfection.com/ - Love photography, but need a bit of guidance? This mummy blogger shares photography tips, and you can also join in on her online photography assignments too!