Birthday Celebrations - Sasha & Tepaea

Day 111 – Sat 19^th Nov – Alfie Dog

Wow hard choice today – it seems I either take one or two photos or I take hundreds!!!  Today was a bit epic – I spent the morning in the garden (which I’m slowly getting on top of!!!) then went to a mini festival thing with the BFF and her kids before heading up to antoher good friends house for a BBQ.  The afternoon was spent in the pool drinking beers and chilling out.  It was such a lovely evening and I took heaps of photos – many of which are blurred (possibly due to the number of wines consumed…and the fact I’m trying to shoot manual focus more often than not these days).  Most of the photo’s of the kids I don’t really want to post as they are half naked and I'm so far behind in posting this. I chose alfie dog as my main subject for the day as I just love this photo – he is such a cute puppy and I just like the angle of this photo. 

Day 112 – Sun 20^th Nov – Cousins

Drove down to Sydney today to hang with my cousin’s.  It was the lovely cheeky Miss Tepaea’s 3^rd Birthday during the week so I had promised her a day of playtime – we ate ice cream, swam in the pool and played games all afternoon and it was just lovely.  Miss Tepaea loves pulling faces for the camera and posing for me which is great – this is 3 of my gorgeous cousines posing while they are enjoying ice cream. 

I'm still here!

Well it's been awhile since I checked in here, life is really hectic at the moment, work is busy and I'm now dancing or training 4 out of 7 nights a week and usually out partying for 2 of the other 3 so my one night off is usually spent in front of the couch doing nothing. 

But I am still taking photo's so that is a good thing.

Day 101 - 9th November 11 - Queens Scout

Congratulations to my gorgeous friend (and blog reader!!!) Miss Bronte on achieving this special award.  It was a privilege to be part of your special night - I'm so proud of you.

Day 102 - 10th November 11 - Patterns

Once again I left my photography til the last minute - luckily I have a house full of pretty things to shoot.  I got given this lovely candle holder for my birthday and I thought it would make some nice patterns - unfortunately hardly any of the photo's worked out - maybe it was the wine, maybe I just wasn't being patient enough as I was taking these in the adds of my favourite show - but this one was the best of an average bunch. 

 

Day 103 - 11/11/11 - Beach

Pretty ominous number pattern hey and the number 1 is my fav/ lucky number.  I went to the beach for a walk after work today and got some lovely shots - I'm going to submit them to a web competition dedicated to 11/11/11.  This bird flying is my fav though - it's just a bit different to my usual beach shots. 

Day 104 - 12th November 11 - I'm a great big Tiger

Dad came up and did work on the house today which was brilliant - once I have finished painting etc then I will share the results of his hard work.  I then had a BBQ at a friends house which was lovely before hitting Terrigal Pub for a night out on the dance floor with my dance friends - so much fun!!  This is Tina and Aidan singing "I'm a great big Tiger" and growling at me, he is at such a fun age at the moment and learning how to talk and sing and dance. 

Day 105 - 13th November 11 -  Pretty 

I just styled this part of my home today after doing a bit of a kitchen clean and picking some flowers from my garden so I thought I would share how pretty it looks.  I am reading more and more about how all the home magazine spreads are styled and cropped so I'm going to try and take a few more "stylised" shots over the next few months of my lovely home. 

Days 26-28 Friendship & Food

So it's nearly a month since I started this crazy project and during the week I totally struggle with it, but on the weekends I love it as I get to take photo's of my friends and favourite things.  I'm writing this post Monday afternoon and I'm going to group the whole weekend together as I didn't actually take that many spectactular photo's but they are all a bit of fun.

Friday Night (26th August 11) was girls night - every couple of months all my old high school girlfriends get together for Indian Dinner and copious amounts of wine.  Not many of us still live in the area but we always try and meet up in Hornsby as it is kinda central (except for the Queenslanders) and most of our families still live in the area so we all have somewhere to crash after a few vino's!!!  I am so blessed to still have a wonderful group of girlfriends who know you so well and who you can pick up a conversation with at any time no matter how long since you last saw them.  Tonight's dinner was in honour of Stacey visiting from Qld and also to plan our 40th Birthday Adventure - yep it's looming and we are going to go away for a weekend to Party.  It was lovely to see everyone and we had a brilliant night, laughing, sharing stories about our families and love lives, and planning our weekend away and of course a few of us ended up partying at the RSL afterward (that's 3 weeks in a row for me and I'm far too old for this lifestyle!!!).  Today's photo is of 3 of my closest friends, Tina - my bestie, Sasha and Tracy-Lee taken at the RSL during Pre-Dinner Drinks.  I did take some photo's of all the girls but they are really crap - hopefully Tina's worked out better than mine did.

Saturday (27th August 11) - I woke up sick - not just hungover sick but bronchitis/ tonsilitis kind of sick - I had no voice and felt like crap with a filthy cough.  Tina and I had stayed over at her Brothers house and after a few hours playing with the kids trying to get the motivation to move, we went out for breaky with her sister in law to her favourite cafe.  This photo is of my gorgeous coffee - isn't it pretty - and some pineapple juice to soothe the throat.  It was a crappy photo so I put some effects on it to make it look better - however I didn't really take many other photo's as I spent the entire day on the couch and had a super early night to try and feel better - so this is it for today.

Sunday (28th August 11) - Spring is coming - you can feel it in the air which is brilliant as I HATE winter. I was up early for a Sunday which was good - still feeling average but decided to treat myself to a yummy breaky of french toast, strawberries and coffee, I downloaded a new app on my phone this morning which let's me take crazy action shots and had a bit of fun playing with it - hence the double photo, how beautiful is the sky - both of these were taken on my front verandah - I bought the coffee pot for $2 the other week and I love it, especially now it's warming up I will be spending most of my weekend mornings (when I'm home) eating breaky out on my lovely verandah with my music pumping in the background and a good book or magazine - such a great way to start the day.  The rest of my day was super productive but I didn't take many more photo's - I did however, clean my yard, got rid of loads of weeds, painted a door and had a wicked dance rehearsal.  I also got to talk to my bro, sis in law and niece who live in Scotland which was nice - Eadie (my neice) is soooo cute - it makes me a bit sad that they are so far away and we miss out on getting to cuddle her and watch her grow but thank goodness for Skype - at least we can see each other these days and hopefully when they return at least she will know our faces.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend also.

Cheers Donna

Day 19 - BIRTHDAY!!

I write this post on the morning after my birthday - yes my head is sore - yes i'm probably still over the legal driving limit - but I had a great day considering the slump I was in earlier in the week.


My day started at the hairdressers which is always a treat - 3 hours of relaxing, reading magazines and having someone play with your hair - bliss - so I am back to blonde again - the older I get the darker my hair get's and I like being blonde.

I then went out to lunch with my family and best friend - my sister, nephew and mum came up from sydney, my cousin came down from newcastle with her two boys and of course Tina came down with her two mischeif makers - we met up with my nan at Kincumber pub and it was great to see everyone.  I got some good presents - my sister has just returned from a month overseas so she bought me some goodies from spain and it is all a bit coincidental that as i think about fixing up my front entrance she buys me these awesome tiles and a pot that will work brilliantly there - now I have my colour theme sorted!  Tina bought me wine (how appropriate), nan and mum gave me money so I can do some online shopping - am buying a Bokeh Kit which is a fancy photography thing and possibly a handbag that will store my camera properly.  Kylie got me an awesome frame and a Rob Ryan mug - he is a fancy smancy designer - most impressed.

After lunch the rush was on to get down the freeway to Hornsby as mum, my friend Erin and I were going to Hairspray - all I can say is WOW WOW WOW - this show is amazing - up there in my top 5 musical's ever.  I'm not going to say too much but if you can find the money and want a good night out I would highly recommend you go as the staging of this show is totally unique and the energy of the cast is soooo infectious.  Erin and I then went out partying in Hornsby - hence the sore head right now!

It's raining in Sydney town again and I'm off to the city to buy dancing costumes

Today's Photo is Erin and I at Hairspray - Birthday Buddies out on the town!


adios - Donna xoxo

Day 12 - 12th August 11 - Joshy Woshy

Hooray it's Friday!


Day 12 - so I totally struggled again today - I took a few photo's on the way to work out of the car window, but they weren't great then I took some of the view off my parent's balcony as it was a nice stormy afternoon, but I wasn't really happy with them. I went out to dinner with a friend in the evening and then onto Hornsby RSL to celebrate a friends 18th and almost forgot about my little project.

I kind wish I had remembered to take photos at dinner because we went to my cousin's thai restaurant which was sooooo tasty and I could have got some lovely decor photo's there, but luckily I remembered at the club to take a few photo's of my friends. 

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I didn't take many, but I chose this one in the end. This is my buddy Joshy Woshy, he has just turned 18 and I hate the face that he is pulling but it is so him and anyone who know's him will understand!  Josh's lovely family helped me out two years ago when I needed a place to crash and I feel like he is a little brother even though he calls me granny.  As I said earlier, I hope to have quite a few self portraits throughout this project - so here is my second one, plus a few others taken at the club featuring: Erin, Cookie, Rob and Ta Ta!

ciao donna xoxo

Day 6 - Sat 6th Aug 2011 - Eyes

Big day today - had my lovely friend Bec's 21st Wicked themed Birthday Party, which I was helping do all the decorations for.  After about ten trips to the car I was finally packed and ready to go - had a quick stop off at the Salvo's on the way where I picked up the most awesome cookie jar and then down the freeway to Bec's. 

My other friend Erin and I were in charge of babysitting her little girl for a few hours and decorating the house but first Erin wanted to make Toffee Apples - neither of us had ever made toffee before and every recipe we found online was different so we just experimented - they worked pretty well however there wasn't enough room in the fridge for them to set properly so there was a pool of toffee and brown apples by the end of the night but they still tasted pretty good.   Finally got to catch up with my lil sis also today - she has been overseas for a month and as she lives in Collaroy and I live on the coast, we haven't had a chance to catch up yet.  

I took over 150 photo's today - some of friends, some of my gorgeous nephew playing with Bec's little girl, lots of arty decorating photo's and of course party shots of all our friends.  It was really tough deciding which photo was my fav of the day and even though she is going to kill me - I like this best and also ticks something off my original list.

ciao Donna xoxo