#2 shoes. And a new player.

I took Ruby and two friends to a film making workshop at the State Library today.  I was walking along behind them thinking about the FMS photo prompt for today.....shoes.  

I had been thinking about a rush trip to the shops to take a photo of a truly worthy pair of shoes, but knew I wouldn't have time.  I was looking at the girls' shoes and thinking why not?  

Can you see the buzzing energy and excitement in these shoes?  They could barely stand still for the photo....very keen to get to the workshop QUICKLY.

And today, the big girl joins in.  Hooray!  Here's her quick pic.  Adjusted for drama ;)

Giving it another go.... a photo a day for July 2013 (Fat Mum Slim)

There has been more than one year that's started with me declaring to take a photo a day. For up to a year!  Imagine how cool that would be.  But how long did it last? Well maybe a day. Or maybe a few days more.  

Anyway, I'm going to give this photo a day thing another crack.  This time with prompts from Fat Mum Slim http://fatmumslim.com.au/july-photo-a-day-challenge-lets-get-this-photo-taking-party-started/  

These are the prompts - feel free to join in.

Let's see how it goes.

#1 Happiness is....reading in the car on a long journey. Making the most of the quiet time. Being quirky just because you can.  

Girls weekend away

A couple of weeks back, Ruby and I escaped to Byron Bay. There are many wonderful reasons to visit Byron, but we went down for the Children's Day at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. It was a great adventure.

After a big lunch on Saturday, we thought we'd eat in on Saturday night.  Dinner was Ruby's idea, she made me do it. Ice cream and red wine for me. Ice cream and a milkshake for my beautiful girl.

We did a bit of shopping, a bit of eating, a bit of pottering around and a lot of reading and laughing and listening to some super fabulous children's authors.  Hurrah for talented writers and illustrators who invest their talents in stories for children. I was grateful for their energy, enthusiasm, joy, passion and kindness.

It was a delight to listen to Cate McQuillan (Dirt Girl writer, illustrator), Alison Lester (children's author extraordinaire), Edrei Cullen, Wendy Harmer and more. There were some very intense, but heart-warming, conversations between the children and the authors - all showed extraordinary respect for children.  As they deserve.

Alison Lester

Cate McQuillan

She loved it :)

To my delight, on this glorious Sunday in Byron Bay, when I thought the day would be as perfect as it could be, it got even better - there was a sculpture display in the grounds of the Writers Festival. Sigh. I love sculptures. Here are some of our faves.

Gorgeous anodised kitchenware

Lighthouse project - write messages of hope on red ribbons

Magnificent tile/ceramic sculptures

A tower of encyclopaedias!

Hanging lanterns - without light ;) Made from pages of novels

It was a magical weekend. My precious Ruby was wonderful company. Can't wait to escape with her again sometime soon.  

Wishing you peace and love xxxx

Ethel Carrick Fox and other glorious Sunday treats

There's a glorious exhibition on at the Queensland Art Gallery: Art, Love and Life - Ethel Carrick Fox and E. Phillip Fox.  Until next Sunday, you can see beauties like these.  I prefer Ethel's paintings to those of her hubby.  Her love of sunshine and use of light through flowers and foliage is joyous.

Image from QAG

Image of this magnificent painting is from QTIX

We ducked into the Gallery Cafe for afternoon tea, which looked a little bit like this and that:

Ruby and Max are kind and generous.  But they're still kids. Their tolerance is pretty low for walking around an art gallery looking at paintings that are 100+ years old. Sadly. So we made a quick visit to the Queensland Museum. It's always a hit. And with good reason.  As Ruby explained "they know kids. They know stuff kids like. They make it interesting".  

Despite the critics, I enjoyed the Gallery today. The kids enjoyed the Museum.  Win/win.

On our way back, we talked about the Louvre. Not really a fair comparison for the QAG, but they were asking for it when they installed a glass pyramid......

There were lots of peace signs being used today.  Max kinda lost the plot at the end and started doing this :O

We had a fun afternoon. Mark was madly pre-occupied doing census collection work. Shame he couldn't join us. Maybe on our next adventure.

We're enjoying this gloriously sunny, fabulous Queensland winter. 

Hope you're finding a little patch of sunshine too.

peace and love

xxxx

World's best. Right here in Wynnum.

We bought an after school treat at a favourite bakery yesterday.

As we were leaving, with 'the most fabulous carrot cake ever', Max said to the dear old lady (who maybe owns the bakery) "your bakery is the best bakery in the whole wide world.  Not just Wynnum. The world".

She was best pleased.  Beaming with smiles.

He was happy.  Carrot cake clenched tightly in his sticky, sweaty little hand.

And I am grateful for a kind and thoughtful boy who likes other people to know how special they are.

Rainbow inspired....

I can never choose just one favourite. Certainly not just one favourite colour.  I love rainbows, the beautiful co-existence of colours.

I've been super-inspired by Rett's colourful catalogue of holiday photos. So starting soon'ish, I'll start posting some photos from our holiday (I promise they'll be ones you haven't seen before).  Tricky thing is that, on our *winter* holiday there was a LOT of grey and I'm going to have to search hard to find photos for each colour. There weren't too many opportunities to take photos like these.....

But what a blessing that I got to take these!  Before the snooty woman came and told me to stop taking photos. What a cracker.  You'll never guess where we were.......

peace and love and rainbows to you xxxx

We have a resident artist

Our Ruby is a creative little soul.  She loves to paint and draw and doodle and create.  Here's a sampling of her works.  

This first is her most recent canvas, created in a school holiday workshop at The Art Shed.   There's a common theme through Ruby's art.  See if you can pick it ;)

Her art teacher isn't teaching locally anymore and we're on the lookout for someone new. If you know of a fabulous art teacher in the Wynnum/Manly area, let me know!  

Wishing you peace, love and a healthy surge of creativity this week.

xxxx

A lazy Sunday morning

Lazy Sunday mornings are my favourite type of morning. Pottering around the house in jarmies, reading the paper, drinking cups of tea - perfect.

It's nice to live at a slower pace, even if only just for a few hours.

I'm not the only one who loves Sunday mornings. Here's the miss listening (and singing loudly along) to her new itunes purchases while she trawls through monsoon kids clothing online :o. Mr Max is playing the DS. Again.

Mum and Lloyd have been visiting us this past week. And spoiling us. And doing lots of jobs at our house. Very pleased about the new power points in the laundry. And super excited that before they left this morning that Lloyd put my sweet ducks up (from The Collective Store). I stalked the store for about 3 months waiting for ducks in the perfect fabric. I love these ones. They're flying north. Of course.

I hope you're enjoying a gloriously slow and peaceful Sunday too.

Peace and love from us to you.

xxxx