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 21 - Beach

Sunday - the sun is shining, the water is sparkling and despite the fact I have a stack of jobs to do around the house, I'm out of the house for a long walk on the beach.  One of the things I love most about living on the coast is the fact that the beach is so close to me know, I am a total beach bum, I love the sand, I love the surf and try to get there as often as I physically can.  Today I decided to go for a longer drive (20 mins as opposed to 10) to visit Kilcare Beach - in the 90's many a NYE was spent partying at this beach and I thought it would be nice to go somewhere different,  I should warn you this post is photo heavy!

After about 3 hours of aimless wandering and over 200 photo's later, I had walked from one end of the beach to the other, the surf was pumping, there was lots of people out with their dogs, the fishermen were catching giant fish and the weather held out until I got back to the car which was great!  

Being at the beach and listening to the surf is like my form of meditation, and having this "me" time was good for the soul as I could experiment with my photography and think about a few things that are playing on my mind, however it still would have been nice to share such a beautiful day with someone else (the disadvantage of not having many friends on the coast).  The only bad thing was that the surf was riddled with blue bottles so I only got my feet wet once - the water was beautiful but I don't like stingers so spent most of the day walking the soft sand, which after yesterday's post is probably a good thing, my calf muscles are killing me as I write this post. - 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

Days 5 - 5th August 2011 Part 2

Friday Night - I waited til I got home before I even started taking photos today, I knew I had a night in the kitchen ahead of me and potentially a night out on the town.  Turns out I ended up spending alot longer in the kitchen than originally planned so didn't make it out on the town, however I did get over to a friends new pad (Yay one of my closest friends has moved to Gosford!!) and learnt how to play Mario Kart which was good fun.

I decided to capture my adventures in the kitchen, I started off trying to be arty farty and photograph my first glass of wine for the evening but don’t really like the result, I either couldn't get the picture in focus or it was too dark and as I was drinking rose out of a pink vintage glass the camera just couldn't do it justice.

My night in the kitchen involved making chocolate balls and risotto, I did try to photograph the food and some of the chocolate ball photo’s were ok – but really it just highlighted what a messy cook I am.  

In the end I decided to go with this photo because:

a: even though it’s not the best self portrait I wanted to try and photograph myself quite a few times throughout the year to see how I’ve changed (aged LOL) and I think this captures the inner dag in me!!

b: I had no idea how to use the self timer on the Pentax and it took me bloody ages to get it to work so Day 5 is my first self portrait - I'm sure there will be plenty more!