Red Strawberries

It’s been a while…

since I really did much. It’s been a busy year, got married, got pregnant.. got lazy.

I’m missing my photography, but I feel uninspired. I’ve yet to take a belly photo of myself. After an initial scare of losing the baby early on I feel it’s somehow jinxing it if I take a picture until the baby would be old enough to live if born. At 20 weeks along my tummy is starting to show, especially in tight tops, and I know heaps of people take pictures the whole way through, but i’m feeling a little superstitious over the whole thing.

Did a photo walk a few weeks back and just don’t feel like I took a good pic of anything. Sat down to edit some to see what I could use and nothing came to me. Being stuck inside with crappy weather and no motivation really doesn’t help at all. Hopefully I’ll find something.

I’ve been a little hormonal today. Probably the first time in this pregnancy I’ve actually felt upset due to hormones rather than just moody and irritated. I can’t find a photo from the wedding of Rob and I that I absolutely love and want to hang up on the wall for all eternity. There are photos of Rob that I love, photos of me that I love, but neither of them together. I think I’m going to have to do some Photoshop work on a couple of images to remove excess wrinkles that don’t really need to be there at the age of 25. I also can’t find any great ones of just me and my family, i’m working out what to do in regards to that.

I’m really looking forward to being a mum, and I think Rob is really looking forward to being a dad. I love how he rests his hand on my tummy to try feel the baby, and how he kisses baby hello and goodbye. Rob’s been really great to me the whole relationship and even before we were dating, but he has been especially wonderful since I’ve been pregnant. I know I can be a bit of a handful and demanding at sometimes, but I think we have a very equal give and take relationship and he makes me feel very special.

So thats basically been my life for the past few months. I really need to do something productive, growing a little person doesn’t feel as productive as it might sound. But anyway, heres a pic that makes me feel a little better:

Baby Phillipa

Last Friday, I got up the nerve to ask my sister to ask her mate if I could take pictures of her newborn baby (just at some stage, not immediately) . My sister called me on Friday night to say that MA and Marsh were free on Saturday morning and that I could head around then with her.

I was pretty nervous, mainly due to the fact that I hadn’t really done much in terms of people photography, due to being a bit too scared to ask people, but I pretended to be confident and know what I was doing and they might have fallen for it

I’m pretty happy with the images I came out with, especially considering I hadn’t really done newborn style photography before.
So here is 10 day old baby Phillipa

Also on a side note, I think I might change my blog layout, even thought I don’t update it nearly enough, I’ve had this design for two and a half years so must be time for a change

142-365 Rose from Sydney Botanical Gardens

142-365 Rose from Sydney Botanical Gardens, originally uploaded by atomixandie.

Testing Flickrs “Blog This” feature

There were heaps of roses out, they were gorgeous!

My Top 5 Photos of 2009

Well, I’ve been quite into my photography for about a year now. 2009 was quite a step for me. I brought my first dslr, 2 lenses, tripod and external flash. I met some fantastic people on NZFM, both online and at meetups, which for me is quite a challenge as i’m horribly shy in new situations. I’ve submitted a few entry’s for competitions and am taking on the challenge of Project365, up to Day 141 tonight.

As I follow quite a few photography blogs, I’ve noticed that many people have been listing their top photos from 2009, so I thought I might give it go. So counting down from #5:
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Strawberry Mousse

Serves 4

• 450g strawberries
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cream
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 2 tsp gelatine
• 2 egg whites

1) Placed washed and hulled strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and cream into an electric blender

2) Place boiling water into small bowl, add gelatine and stir until disolved. Add to strawberries in blender.

3) Blend on medium speed for 30 secinds or until mixture is just combined.

4) Beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Add strawberry mixture and stir until combinded.

5) Pour mixture into four individual serving dishes. Refridgerate until firm.

Chocolate Christmas Puddings

These are very simple to make.

You will need:

• 10 Mallowpuffs (equivalant to 1 pack)
• 20 Jaffas
• 10 Spearmint Leaves (I couldn’t find any so I used green jellybabies as a substitue
• Thick White Icing, Icing Sugar and Water works well

To make:

1. Create a thick white icing mixture, thick enough that it won’t dribble down the sides of the mallowpuff
2. Lay out the mallowpuffs on the tray
3. Spoon icing onto the mallowpuffs, giving it the “frosting” look
4. Put the mallowpuffs into the fridge to let the icing harden slightly
5. Once the icing is firm (but not too hard), place 2 jaffas and one spearmint leaf on top, giving the appearence of a cherry
Note: if you put the jaffas and spearmint leaves on too early, they will probably fall off. This was one of my early mistakes
6. Put back in fridge and let icing completly harden
7. Eat when ready