The little skeleton worked very hard today preparing for the Halloween party. He wasn’t too keen on carving the pumpkin though and was wondering why there was so much orange smelly seaweed inside it. Making the rice krispie buns was much better fun.
You must always do the taste test first…
Happy Halloween!
Not alot of blogging this week. I have been very busy working flat out on album designs. Also found myself back down in Red Dot office laying out pages for Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine. The Reader Awards is coming up in two weeks time so there is lots of work to be done on this issue! It’s promising to be a good night. I’ve so much to do I’m running around like a headless chicken.
No post is ever complete without a few photos and here is Seanan enjoying his favourite treat – the Brunch (he gets a bit mixed up and calls it a crunch) Seanan has reached the age where it is very hard to keep a straight face for the camera – too much going on in that little head. He is hilarious at the moment and constantly makes me smile. He’s still not that into school though and very happy to be on a halloween break.
On the subject of Halloween – this is my absolute favourite time of the year. The dark nights have just come in (not enough to get tired of them yet). The wind is howling and the moon is full. Everyone in our gang gets together to enjoy a night of storytelling around the campfire (if its not raining), fireworks, decoration, dressing up, apple-ducking, trick or treats, trying not to break your teeth on apple pie with coins in them, pumpkin competitions, partying and generally spooking the life out of each other. Our family have always celebrated festivities in the traditional sense. I don’t know exactly what it is, but there is something in our very primitive, celtic roots that connects with this festival. The changing of seasons always revives my soul. Lighting the night with fire and stories under the stars is the best way to feel alive.
It is also Niamh’s 2nd birthday party so I have alot to do tomorrow to prepare. Carving pumpkins, making buns, decorating the house with the help of a little witch and a troublemaking skeleton.
Also this week…
Snood – the hair saviour. I always try and work at my hair in the mornings to get that sleek, shiny, ‘can’t-stop-moving-my-head-silvikrin-look’. Sadly weather conditions here leave it like a ‘Jamie-Afro’ fuzz bomb. Today was one of those days with rain and wind shaking their fists at me. So I just popped that snood over my head and all was not lost.
I’m very excited about some new framing options I found this week. I’ve been working for a while on getting this side of things perfect. I will share more on that at a later date.
My sister, who is now personal shopper for Debenhams (yes very handy!), is picking out a nice dress for me for the awards. She is promising that I will look a stone lighter without the workout but she always was a very good salesperson. Its worth a try though.
I’m hoping to do a ‘scary’ amount of partying tomorrow night and still get to watch x-factor.
I’m a huge fan of Ollie, the man with the moves to win, but if the camera guy would stop zooming in on Danyl’s mouth I think he would have a much better chance. We know he has good vocal chords, we don’t need to see them, his gold fillings and his tonsils.
Anyway thats it for now.
Happy Halloween!
My little girl is turning two.
Time is a precious commodity and I haven’t been taking as many pictures of her or Seanan as I would like. This year is going too fast for me. When I started this blog all I did was take pictures of the children. Purely for pleasure and the want to capture every little stage. Things have changed quite a bit from then. Sometimes we have to go back to the beginning of the journey to find the reasons why we began it.
In the world of happy photo blogs sometimes it seems no one ever despairs, or grieves, or has a bad day, or wants for anything. This is not the real truth. I was looking through some photography blogs when I stumbled upon Sheye Rosemeyer. At first I thought I was just looking at the work of a very wonderful photographer but then I read about what happened to Ava and the tears came. It made me think about my daughter and how grateful I am for everyday that I have her. It made me realise how unimportant everything else is in the end. Shoes, holidays, fashion, material wealth, enjoyable but all nonsense just the same. Nothing else matters but the love we have for our family and friends and appreciation of every bit of life thats in them.
This is why I love being a photographer. If there is a chance that even one image can touch someones heart at some point in time, to help them remember, then that is enough for me.
Photography will probably never make me rich, but I know years from now I will be glad I have all these moments to hold, to help me remember her as Sheye remembers Ava.
So here’s to remembering her when she turned two.
Her beautiful blue eyes and honey-coloured hair…
Her giggles and the way she tries so hard to pronounce every word…
Her lashes and soft baby skin…
Her busy mind and pudgy, quick little hands.
Her unstoppable determination, stubbornness and bad temper.
Her happiness and joy in the simplest of things, like soft, warm quilts.
Her ‘schnuggles’ in mummy and daddies bed at six in the morning.
All these things and so much more, I am grateful for.
Its been a tough week for various reasons and it was a pleasure to just get out and shoot some photos purely for enjoyment and experimentation. Sometimes when I’m out walking I see places that inspire me to shoot. When I find a place that I love I then try and find someone who suits the location. I’ve been meaning to take some shots of Stephen for a while now and this was definitely the spot for him. So on Sunday, hangovers and all, we headed out to the lakes in Craigavon to get some photos. This is actually somewhere that has meaning in his life. Stephen and the boys used to hang out under these bridges and maybe contributed to some of the graffti there! I love it and it’s something completely different for me – just what I needed at the end of a complicated week. Stephen likes his Henley gear with a little bit of firetrap thrown in and I think he wears it well here.
Thank-you Stephen for putting up with me!
I went off to do a photoshoot this morning leaving Dessie in charge of breakfast and dressing.
When I returned he was in the middle of committing this most heinous crime against the eyes also known as ‘Dad dressing Niamh’. There are lots of perfectly suitable clothes in her wardrobe – I don’t even know how he manages to find and put together these combos. The socks just take me to the fair. I did ask him to buy Niamh some socks when he went to do the grocery shop last week. He managed to find this wacky pair. I didn’t know Tescos was even doing a ‘socks for clowns’ range.
I’m starting to think he does these things to make sure he doesn’t get asked again.
Ah well, can’t complain too much as he is in the kitchen making a pie bless him and I’m sitting here blogging!
