A little girl and her horse

When I was a little girl, all I wanted was a horse. My mum had a horse when she was a little girl, so the precedent was set.... I thought it was extremely unfair that I wasn't allowed one... and wow, did I let mum and dad know! To keep me happy, on Sundays, my dad used to take me and my little brother to a little town called Schofields (which was a long, long drive from home) that was a Horse Riding Park, the 3 of us would hop on our 'borrowed' horses for the day, and ride the afternoon away.... This would keep me happy until about Wednesday, then I'd start the nagging again for the following weekend....

Enter Alecia. Not only was she was allowed to have horses when she was a child, she has also bought a horse for her daughter, Chelsea. Unfortunately Chelsea wasn't really the 'horsey' type, and was a little scared of her miniature horse, Lilly, and wouldn't ride her. Alecia asked me to come along to where Lilly, and Alecia's horse, Maverick, are kept (which, believe it or not, is the same Horse Park I used to ride at as a child... which is now 10 minutes from my house, and will be built out with new homes in about 5 years time!) to take some photos of the 'family' before Lilly was put on the market to be sold. Oh yea, Alecia also bought her fiance Daniel 'Don't make me have my photo taken' with them too....

Here are some photos of this beautiful horsey family.

Run Daniel, Run!

After about an hour, Daniel warmed up to the thought of having his picture taken. Isn't he gorgeous!

Daniel & Lilly

Alecia phoned me during the week to tell me that, after we were all out there together on Sunday, Chelsea has now decided to keep Lilly, and has started riding her! Oh yea, and Daniel warmed up to having his photo taken so much, he said I can be their wedding photographer! Score!

I wont be posting at all this week... hubby is taking me to see snow for the first time in my life, which I'm pretty excited about. I'll be back next weekend, but I'm sure I'll be exhausted, so I hope to post some photos from our holiday at Perisher sometime the week after next.

I'm also very excited that next week is the last week of July... which means Winter is almost over! Bring on Spring!

Thanks for reading.

L.

Classic Cakes

My good friend, Melanie Jacobs, owns Classic Cakes.... Classic Cakes specialise in creating handcrafted cakes for any special occasion, from traditional wedding cakes, fun children's birthday designs, engagement cakes, cup cakes, and more. Sydney Metro area.

Ive been nagging Mel to start a blog for months and months now (because I LOVE mine so much!), so I thought I'd post some photos that she took of her beautiful cakes. If you're after a cake for a special occasion, Melanie can be contacted here.

Ok, I'm hungry now.... mmmmm cake!

Aren't you hungry now too?!

L.

Dude - the best Grandfather in the World!

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of the day the most beautiful man in the world - my grandfather - passed away. Friday July 21 2006 was the saddest day yet in my life, but (even tho I'm not too much of a believer of that kind of thing), I know he is in a better place, as his quality of life just wasn't there in the end. Dudes funeral, the following week, was a beautiful service, the sun came out at the right time, and then my dad (Dudes son-in-law), and one of Dudes closest friend, Uncle Jim, toasted Dude in the best possible way - with way too much McGuiggans Black Label.


Dude was called Dude after his love of horse racing - when I was little, they lived on a main road, and he would walk up and down this road, with me on his shoulders, singing 'Camptown Races sing this Song - Doo-Dah, Doo,Dah', so when I began to talk, to me - he was known as Doo-Dah. Now, I'm not sure when it became Dude - it was either when my younger brother couldn't say Doo-Dah, or it was the introduction of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - who doesn't think they're cool, when they're 10, and they call their grandfather Dude?!


Anyway, Dude was a pretty amazing man, lived a very full life, and was very, very loved by his small family. I wish sometimes I would have been one of Dudes friends, back 50 years ago, instead of his granddaughter - Dude was the kid of person who drove his car to Queensland on a holiday (which was a 2 day trip from Sydney, back then), and decided that he didn't want to drive home, so he sold his car, bought a small aeroplane, and flew home. Then, years later, while my mums family were on holiday on the Gold Coast, he left his wife and daughter on the beach, went for a walk, and bought a house at Auction. My nan, who was used to this (and a very patient woman!) , was like 'ok', so they moved into the home on Chevron Island for a few years. The storey's go on - on one of his trips back and forth from QLD, he offered to ship some baby crocodiles to Sydney, to be collected by Taronga Zoo. The croc's were kept in a cardboard box in their backyard.... and then in rained! Nan tells the story how she had to phone all the neighbours and ask if they had a baby crocodile in their backyard!


Dudes real name is Arthur Thomas, and I always said that if one day I have a little boy, I'll call him after Dude - No, not Arthur (thank god, I all hear you say!), but Thomas. Well, in about 6 weeks I'll know the sex of the little foetus in my belly, and if he's a boy, I hope he lives up to his namesake - the most beautiful man in the world.


Here are a few digital scrapbooking pages I did just after he passed away - I hope you can open them in full screen and read them. And yes, that is Dudes bum - like I said, he was a character!








RIP Dude - love you.

L.

Baby '8'

A few weeks back, my brother and sister-in-law became parents again to a gorgeous little boy called Nate... or 'Baby 8' as their 3 year old son calls him! This was my first hold of my new nephew (taken with mums point & shoot): at my parents house, 3 days after he was delivered by caesarean(how quick is that!).

Yes, lunch was weight watchers shaved ham that day :)

L.

Photoshop Friday

I saw a an e-mail today with a really cool trick on how to enhance the colour in your photos, in just a few steps. Check it out: Jessica Sprague - photo ShaZAM! Looks like if you post your ShaZAM'd photo to her blog, you go in the running to win a nifty little camera strap.. Im (hopefully) taking some beautiful photos at a picnic tomorrow - I might have to ShaZAM some of those photos!

Have a fab weekend!

L.

Princess Zoe... (part 2!)

She started out all nice and sleepy.....

Then mummy & dad woke little Zoe up, for some photos.

Zoe wasnt too impressed (not my best photo, but had to share - look at those red cheeks!)

Help me daddy - let me go back to sleep!

Come on daddy!

Ah, finally.... sleepy Zoe!

Now, this is a child I could keep!

Thanks for looking!

Where's my milk?!

Well, little Zoe had her first photo shoot during the week.... and the poor little poppet wasn't feeling too good - she even showed off by doing a hat-trick (a poo, a wee and a vomit, all at the same time - clever girl!). I did manage to get some cute photos tho.... here is my fav from the day - yes, even when she's sick, Zoe still asks for milk!

I'll post more over the weekend - my laptop has died (probably something to do with me dropping it) and my desktop is on go slow mode. I currently use a PC, but im really thinking about replacing both with Macs - any ideas?

Well, what can I say about Private Practice & Lipstick Jungle? Im not sure if I was just tired, and not really in the mood, but I thought PP was trying a little too hard to be 'cool', and LJ... was it just Cashmere Mafia and Sex and the City combined? I have been told they're rating well in the US - PP is even back for season #2. I guess i'll keep watching for the next few weeks, fingers crossed they improve. Oh, speaking about Sex and the City - have you heard Friends are set to go into production for a movie, after the success of Sex??!!?! Im so excited!!! LOVE that show!

Thanks for reading, and I'll post more photos on the weekend (when im another year older... groan)! Happy July 4 for you guys in the US too!