Frankston Sand Sculptures

We made a visit to the sand sculptures in Frankston again.  This year’s theme is Creepy Crawlies.  The detail was just phenomenal!  The kids spent quite a while doing the crafts that were set up.  Then we had a bit of a wander around the displays.

Just had to adore the flea circus…

 

There was a strong Tim Burton influence to the display.

My husband’s favourite was the Beatles!

My youngest just adores the fairies

Imagination is such a wonderful thing…  Click on the images to see larger versions

Check out the other photos on Facebook

Summer bees

Walking to the store last week, we saw quite a few bees laden with pollen.  I was only carrying my small lens, so catching these fast little critters was a bit of a challenge.

The car has been fixed just in time for the holidays, so I am looking forward to taking the kids out a bit to look at Christmas lights, the beach and the city this week.

The city in the morning

For the first time in quite a while, hubby and I went out without the kids (Christmas function!).  By the time we went home, it was 1am in the morning in Melbourne, definitely past my bedtime.  Walking the streets to the station, it didn’t feel like 1am, there was just so much energy and life!  These are just some images I captured on our walk.

  

   

 

PS Don’t try to hail a cab that time of night.  The queues are really long and all the cabs are full!

Feeding the ducks

When you have car trouble so close to Christmas, it takes a while for the mechanic to get to your car.  We have been doing quite a bit of walking lately!  Going to the store is a bit of a trip, so I try to include some other activities.  Last time we took some old bread with to feed the ducks along the way. 

 

My youngest found a feather and spent ages playing with it.  (She didn’t fall in, but her game quickly reminded me how easily little ones can fall into the water)

The sun is shining, so I am going to try to catch up on the washing.  I am going to have to find some time to bake cookies for tomorrow’s picnic at school.  Hope you all have a great day! 

Finding the rainbow

My daughter came running in, really excited.  We all had to go look, she insisted.  Out the back door, we could see the brightest rainbow I have seen in a long time.  With the sunset behind us, the sky was filled with glorious colour!

 

Sometimes the world around is is just magical, we just have to look.  (Walking everywhere at the moment, I need anything to keep my mind off my sore feet!)

Teachers’ gifts

This year I thought the boys might want to try to make their teachers something for Christmas, instead of us running to the store again.  Both boys were really excited about it!  I had some glass baubles that were designed to be filled and decorated, which worked out great.  Each had their own style when making the gifts.

Next year I am going to be more prepared and try to make these:

 http://pinkletoesblogstalker.com/2010/12/more-sparkly-things.html

Positive thoughts

We think the car might have blown a gasket, so working hard to keep positive thoughts.  Christmas-things always put me in a good mood!  I just love the bokeh that Christmas lights make.

The lights create a really interesting reflection on the blinds.  I am thinking really hard about how I can make a portrait with it.

Last year on the sales, I managed to get a cute little nativity scene.  My younger son set it up.  We are reading a bit of the Christmas story to the kids every night.  They are loving it!

 

Gardening

To be honest, gardening is not my forte.  But with the weather over the last few weeks being warm during the day and rainy at night, the garden grew like crazy!  So we all pitched in over the weekend and did some weeding and pruning.  These gorgeous little flowers grow on long stems that started overgrowing our path.  And they seem to attract spider webs!  So they had to be cut back.

I am also trying to grow some lavender from cuttings.  No idea if that is possible (my first attempt at this!), but so far most of them are surviving.  You can see  with the wonky sticks that it was touch and go for a while!

I moved them to the edge of the veranda so they can get a bit of sun and rain.  Now I don’t have to worry when I forget to water them!

FixItFriday - iHeartFaces

This week’s photo was taken by Dana

Original:

 

First I removed the little pathway, added curves for contrast and sharpened the image.

Then I tried a few crops

 

 

Big Ants!

Earlier the week I had to walk to school to fetch my son from sport.  (Clutch on the car broke, so I got a workout!)  My youngest has developed a immense fascination with anything that remotely resembles a bug, including spiders, ants and snails (eeeuuuwww!!)  We spent about 10 minutes watching this huge ant walking along the path.  The little black speck in the foreground is a normal ant.

You will probably be seeing more bugs on this page in the followings weeks.  She makes me take a picture of every one that she likes…. which is most of them.  I think we are finally convincing her not to pick up spiders at least!

‘Tis the season!

The last few weeks have been really hectic!  Between moving house, photographing a wedding (and processing in record time!), finishing my portfolio and all the rest of the end-of-year stuff, we have been running around something silly!  Tonight is my last class for the semester, so, finally, I can start relaxing and attempting to unpack the last of the boxes.  I managed to get our tree up yesterday.  Some decorations didn’t survive the move and I will have to glue the wings back on some of the angels, but mostly, everything is ok… I just haven’t been brave enough to try to untangle the lights yet.

Somewhere in the last few days my Photoshop crashed and I lost all my actions that I set up to create the watermarks.  Now I have to try to remember how I did it!  So please excuse me if the next few aren’t consistent!

The kids got the train up and running, but then only got half way with moving it under the tree.  Guess that is another job they left me with this morning. (along with packing the dishwasher!)

I had better go finish the washing.  My son had camp and everything came back muddy and wet.  He had an absolute ball though!  The weather has been accommodating me, with warm, windy days and rainy nights.  Perfect for the garden and the washing.

Wishing you a Christmas season full of happiness and peace!  (I will post a photo of the giant ant we found tomorrow)