Nappy Free time

So we have some guests from New Zealand here, our good friends Sam & Julz, and their beautiful little girl Maddie, who's 7 months old.
It's bloody hot here in Melbourne. Today it was 39 degrees (C) which is about 100 F or more... anyway. So it was bloody hot!
Today we decided to extend the "nappy free time" before bathtime a little longer, simply because The Little Mermaid was on, and us mummies really wanted to watch it. Kids were not very interested BTW. We have floorboards so the occasional accidents are ok because they can be cleaned fairly easily. Well by the time the movie had, what, ten minutes left, they'd each had two of them. NO, i lie. Three. But this was fine, the movie was almost over, dinner had been had, and the bath was about to be filled.
I was holding little Maddie and as I dared to open my mouth and say "no more accidents, esspecially on my lap" Something happened... from the other end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No sooner was mum taking her off my hands, my trackies being pulled off (curtains were drawn btw) that Emerson, standing up at his little table and chairs started CRYING. Not whinging but CRYING. He was standing in a HUGE MESS!!!!!!!!!!!

At the same time. Can you believe that?
I swear you could ask for that kind of timing...
So lots of wipes later, a bucket of nappysan, and a BIG SOAPY bath later we are all clean.

So that's our funny story for today.

And finally here's some images of Miss Maddie asleep & then awake because while Emerson can't stand being in front of the camera, he cannot stand anyone else in the limelight and had to come chatting away into the studio. Waking my beautifully, sleeping, (kinda) curly baby.





(see he wouldn't even have a photo!)
xxx
P.S oh and who wants to know if Emerson is getting a little brother or sister???

Slackness (with Excuses) and images from Sydney

Ok so I've been rather slack. Nov 24th was my last post. OVER a month ago!
OOPS.

But it's been a HUGE two months. As you know we dashed off to New Zealand, then I came home and in three days photographed a wedding, two charity sessions, two other sessions and had about ten hours sleep.
Then packed little Emerson up to fly an hour on a plane (again!) to go to Sydney!
Sydney was unreal. Fantastic little break from reality for me. Busy - but still a break.

Caught up with Amanda & Bec and had some fun photographing away from the usual lines of business. Not that I complain about business - but it was great soul food to finally photograph things that I wanted to do for ME. If you know what I mean!

(is it totally old-fashioned and unexceptionable to arrange marriages at 15 & 20 months old?? Cause I'd like to think that in this case it's ok.. What you think Amanda? Lilly Sears??!!!!)

Came home to dad having MAJOR surgery and struggled with Emerson and being stuck in the house, with pains coming back like my first pregnancy. How tiring are second pregnancies? Can't imagine at the moment what they must be like with more than one child.. How do you do it?!

Having been readmitted to hospital with a major infection, dad is recovering well. ALMOST got admitted AGAIN on Christmas eve, but thankfully the painkillers they gave him kicked in well (I think the glass or two of Red wine he had might have also helped :) ) He was able to spend Christmas at home.

We had a wonderful day - kids were up at 6am (and we were expecting 4am)
Santa had arrived, and there were HUNDREDS of pressies under the tree (so many that for me that contained chocolate WOOHOO!)


And now it's boxing day and I'm patiently waiting for Blu Domain to unveil their new site so I can decide which one I want. DAMN DIFFERENT TIME ZONES!
I've been slaving away at my business's "new look" for weeks and now that I'm on "holidays" from business - can spend the time to do it. And hopefully catch up on personal images.



We have our BIG 20 week ultrasound tomorrow (not half excited) and will hopefully find out the sex of the baby. (YAY) but will also find out what a sus little lump is which appeared a few days ago (why do weird things appear on public holidays???) So I have been "taking it easy" and not allowed to lift more than food to my face (haha)
Hopefully nothing major but still a little scared..


Tonight our dear friends from New Zealand arrive with their 7 month old baby girl! YAY!
Went to stock up on baby supplies this morning. Had forgotten how expensive it can be when your buying nappies, formula, baby food, teething rusks, wipes etc all at once. My gosh I'm glad the cupboard wasn't empty as well, I would have been sent broke!

Anyway I think that is enough of my yipper-yapper!!

I hope everyone had an AMAZING Christmas/holiday season and hope everyone was spoilt.
I will be back with some more images soon..

xx promise xx

Trip to New Zealand - Part one

so this will be another one of those annoying PART I-II-III type blogs...
Sorry!!
Been a week since we've been back but then I disappeared from home again (more about that later :) )

So here is Emerson absolutely LOVING the airport. Flying with a toddler is not an easy thing.. The plane trip in the air may only take 3 1/2 hours, but being international flights, check-in, customs etc takes ages and it's a long process. He was a real tropper.
Finally fell asleep on the plane for a while.. allowing mummy here to watch 30 minutes of "knocked-up"...
Garrison in a "dream-like state". Not common that he looks so.. umm, how to put it.. angelic? usually I get "rock star" poses!




(as you can see!)

till next post.. xxx

Missing

Maybe someday you’ll have woken up,
And, barely conscious, you’ll say to no one:
"isn’t something missing? "
You won’t cry for my absence, I know -

Though I’d die to know you love me,
I’m all alone - Isn’t someone missing me?

And if I sleep just to dream of you
And wake without you there,

Isn’t something missing?
Isn’t something...


(Missing - Evanescence)

BUZZ BUZZ

WOW crazy crazy times!!

Due to a illness in the family I will be in New Zealand from tomorrow (yes tomorrow nothing like a last minute holiday) until the end of next week!!

I'll have internet access but not sure *HOW* reliable it will be :)

Have a great weekend and week and I'll fill you in on my travels when I get back

For those purchasing presets, I will do my very very best to get them to you asap, but if it's not within the usual 48 hours please please forgive me - You will get them I wont forget about you!!

Thanks guys! :D
xxx

Jumping the gun (knitting)

So this is my first totally blog entry totally decicaded to knitting! LOL
Since I was 5, or so, I've been one of 'those' knitters... you know the kind that knitted scarves and hats on the round... and made things up..
So lately it's been my mission to learn to follow patterns. Mum was going to "teach" me but we haven't really had time..
So I bought a couple from spotlight (eek) and tried to read them. Started to understand.
Then the first pattern I "followed" was given by a friend (wink wink) and I kinda followed it.
And i was proud.

Then I was ORDERED by Amanda to make some of the cutest booties known to mankind and succeeded - but need to get some yummy yarn to really make them ;)

THEN! I finally spoke to mum about one pattern that I had for a baby cardi. And finally "got it".
I found a yummy yummy yarn store close to me that means I will no longer hold 'shares' in spotlight and actually get some decent yarn (happy dance)

So I wanted to make this cardi in a beautiful stone colour, but they only had two balls, and I needed three.. SIGH.

But as much as I wanted to go against hte norm and NOT make this cardi in the usual newborn colours - I decided there is a time and a place for newborn colours and got some yummy Debbie Bliss yarn in baby cashmerino in Olive-y green...

AND OMG!! Ive successfully divided the piece and finished the first front left side! (and btw our power in our area went out last night so the last three rows were done by candelight (how very medieval!)

I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!

hehe

so now I have to save this post and go take a picture.

So fellow knitters, what do you think?!
I'm patiently (actually not patiently) waiting for my Debbie Bliss baby knit books to arrive (from the UK (would you believe it was cheaper to get them directly from the UK with postage and the exchange rate - then to buy from my local store... and for less than the stores price, I'm getting TWO books :D)
then I'm going to have SOOOOOOO many projects on the go... GRIN

So in other news, we had a prediction done on what sex the baby is (but not going to tell until the scan - just in case :D) but I'm EXCITED! We even got a personality prediction - and a future reading for Emerson, so put it in this way in 26 years I'll tell you if she was correct LOL

AND - I managed to sneak in the 5D to a Shihad gig on Monday night!
WOOHOO! They are Garrison's FAV band from New Zealand. (some of you may know of them as Pacifier)
Got some UNREAL pics, but they are for another post as this one is DEDICATED to knitting :)

So I have 4 sessions + Shihad to proof, about 6 orders of prints to assemble and no energy cause I haven't slept in two nights... EEEK

And November is going to be a GREAT month - I'm so excited... but can't tell you why (aren't I mean????)

So that's it. Hopefully some more pics for you soon :D
xxx love to all :)

A lil church in St Kilda

As you may or may not know, Bec came to visit for a few days so I had to use my brain (ha ha) to think of some locations to go photo taking... there is this cute little church in St Kilda with lots and lots of ivy which I've been meaning to go to for ages, but having a visitor gave me the excuse! Turns out it's not a church anymore but someones house! It's part of a little apartment complex now... but no one seemed to care that we were there!

Emerson looking for the fishies... wish I could show you his face when he demonstrates what a fishes "says" - too cute.. cracks me up on a daily basis...

(black + white for good measure)


Since we took him a few days ago to another church in the city, he walks up to doors and says "nok nok" with his little hand... too cute.. glad no one was actually home thou.. might have been kicked out! ha ha...





With Bec in his pjs.. was very concerned about her arm... Well Bec left last night.. and Gemma here turned into a real 'mother' packing her a packed dinner... first we made two sandwiches... peanut butter & Vegemite (yes for you Americans who know, that disgusting black stuff us Aussies seem to love! ha ha) then some biscuits and cut up cheese.... two teabags, some milk in a baby food jar, measured out sugar, four dipping biscuits, an apple and three strawberries.

And cause their could have been screaming children on board, 4 panadol, a pillow, a blanket and a face washer, which could come in very handy.... Ok either I went really overboard, or I'm just too caring. LOL

She arrived home safely... and enjoyed the lunch (or so she says)

So back to work... got orders to prep, orders to package, orders to send, a coffee table book to send back as they STUFFED it up... and a baby cardi to knit...

oh oh speaking of knitting, i have prettttyyyyyyyy yarn... Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino.. in a limy/olivey green... it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to work with, I'm loving it...
and then (and this is a funny story)

I went into an old little backpack nappy bag I have to use on Sunday, and guess what I found!?? My birthday card from my grandmother with $50 in it!!! I mean who forgets about a birthday card with money?? CRAZY!
So what did I do... SPEND IT! And of course on something she would be VERY proud of...
Two baby knit pattern books.. he he
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 2 & the Baby knits for beginners... I found it super cheaper on EBAY from an English store, in fact less than half price what I almost paid in a yarn store... YAY!

anyway I' m sure you sick of my babbling so I'll go now :)

SPECIAL ON PRESETS

Because it's Halloween, I'm having a special on the preset kits!

$us49 for all three kits! That's nearly $40 off!!!

So jump on it! :D

paypal $us49 to gemma@iriscreationsphotography.com

with a valid email address!!


More images coming soon!!

Testing, & me...

Playing with Amanda's new actions...

And lil me.... 11 weeks...

Nothing else really to report :)

Excursions into Melbourne

Bec has invaded Melbourne! Help us all please!
Naa kidding... took a little trip into the city for some images, and to "hunt some red doors"... don't ask - we found them thou..
and no I dont have images of the doors.. but instead...


and of course an excursion would not be complete without a model:
and little Mr. I-hate-the-camera-I-refuse-to-look-at-it-or-do-what-mummy-says"!
is getting better and was quite a good little model!!

Presets

Well the trials have gone brilliantly, and now they have been released!

B+W Kit: $39 usd
Colour Kit: $25 usd
Vintage Kit: $25 usd
All Three kits: $75 usd (saving of $14!)

These kits are perfect for proofing entire photographic sessions and exposures can be tweaked to suit your photograph. Obviously they can also be individualised within photoshop for your own unique look.

To purchase simply paypal the dollar amount (USD) to gemma@iriscreationsphotography.com indicating which set/s you are purchasing. Please include a valid email address for delivery. Purchased sets will be delivered within 48 hours, and due to the electronic nature of presets, strictly no refunds!!

See what other photographers are doing: by visiting the flickr group HERE

Presets for Camera Raw

I've been working on these for AGES, and finally it is all coming together - but good things take time!
Here's a slight preview of some of the presets that are currently being tested and will be available soon!


These have been also processed using Amanda's Texture actions - which are available here

examples of what will be coming out...
B+W
(Set includes B+w, b+w light, b+w dark, b+w blue tint, b+w brown tint, b+w warm tint, b+w high contrast, b+w dream & b+w sleeping newborn)

I will post some more examples soon! In the meantime, a new group has been set up on flickr..

Remember When...

I found out I was getting my 5d + L series + 50mm f1.4??

Well that wasn't the only news:

EXCITEMENT!!!
We are ten weeks pregnant with a strong heartbeat! All systems go! So does that explain the need to make hundreds of cupcakes?? LOL

I'm so happy and excited (even if I'm having one of those weeks of - I feel fat & ugly LOL)
I'm going to get my hair done today - that will make me feel better!
Been a bit more nauseated this time.. In the evenings!

So like I mentioned EXTREMELY EXCITED! And have been DYING to annouce it and decided I couldn't wait any longer!
So there is my news & secret everyone!
xxx

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

As most people know, I'm a bit of a medieval history fan... and I found this quiz...

I put in my answers, and turns out I'm Anne of Cleves..

Anna of Cleves got the royal shaft. She came all the way to England to become the fourth wife of Henry VIII. Once married to Anna, he refused to consummate the marriage, and called her the "Flanders Mare". Talk about a burn, considering that by this time, Henry was the fattest man in England and had a rotting syphilis sore on his leg.

Anna was miffed, but she was too sensible to let it ruin her fun. She was given an annulment and a fat yearly allowance, and she threw extravagant parties and dined on delicacies for the rest of her life.

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?
this quiz was made by Lori Fury

A flower bush

Cause that other post was just terrible when it comes to the quality of images - I decided to post this one...Not that much better.. but we have off days (and sometimes more often than good days.)
Hoping today I'm a bit more on... I have a session for the ACOCP for a family at Werribee Mansion. It's a fairly lovely day out... so here's to hoping!
hope everyone is having a good weekend...

Football Fans are SCARY!

...Especially when their team wins the Grand Final! (and yes - ok it was two weeks ago - I'm behind) But GO MELBOURNE STORM!

And now for some slightly less "scary" images -

A terrible 'candid' one of Emerson riding a "horse"
The bro:
And my latest obsession: cupcakes.. Don't think I have the skills or product photography skills to go into business - but oh the cake mixture tastes so good!!
(yes I prefer the mixture to the final products!)


So please excuse the terrible lack of photographic skills in this post - but thought it made for an interesting post (not).