Yesterday we posted about Goats and Organic farms… but maybe you prefer education and tree seedlings?

Either way check out this fantastic and inspiring site! Useful gifts. I am so proud to have worked with this organization!! If you need a last miniute Christmas gift maybe one of these will be perfect for your special someone?

Find out more here!! Useful gifts!

When I was working in India earlier this year I worked with a fantastic NGO. You can read more about it here and here…

We did this little video interview with a single mother who got given goats! It was delightful to see how grateful and excited she was to share her life with us.

Why not give all the tricky people in your life Goats? Or maybe all the people who don’t know what they want for Christmas? These gifts really do make a huge difference!

Or maybe you prefer the absolutely wonderful and my personal favorite… Organic farming training!! This beautiful man loved his farm and how it has changed his life!

To find out more go to the Useful gifts website! HERE.

I am seeing everywhere I go the beginning of Christmas mayhem! Yes indeedy, only 10 weeks apparently and Christmas will be here! EEEK!

While I was in India I had the pleasure of working with a fantastic organization TEAR Australia who with their amazing partners are doing all they can to help transform the lives of the poor and marginalized in India. It was my honor to hear and see the stories of communities being empowered with the knowledge, confidence and tools to work towards their own development.
I took so many photos of sooo many great projects. This one ties in nicely for Christmas! Actually a lot of them do and I will feature a few more shortly.
So what about buying all your family and friends chicken’s for families in India? It enables them to have healthy food for their families and if they get a few chickens they even can make a little income selling the eggs.
Here is one beautiful family, who were given chickens through one of TEARs fantastic India partner projects. They even helped them build a coop to house their growing chickens in! How about going and buying a really useful gift?? Here!!

I also just finished up making a promo video for TEARs USEFUL GIFTS campaign. A fantastic way to share with your friends and family a great ‘gift’ idea.
Take a look and if you like it please do share it around. Also… if you don’t like chickens maybe you would prefer buying an organic kitchen garden starter kit?? Or a goat?

I have to say special thanks to Aaron for making music for me and Natala for being a prop and assistant star and for the lovely Pancho for editing up a storm!

Here are some images from my recent trip to India showing the work I was there to capture. I’m hoping to release more of the images and video by Christmas.

When I look over these images it feels like a million years ago. It was a trip that challenged and inspired me like no other journey I’ve taken. I’m filled with delight just thinking about it.

The first shoot was for an amazing school in Dehradun, north of New Delhi. It was a treat to spend a few hours in a school that was set up to give children from the local slums an education. There are over 1000 children attending this school! The motto for the Sneaha school is ‘Education Is For All’. These beautiful children have faces full of promise and excitement and I’ve never seen kids so grateful to receive an education! This was an assignment I was so thrilled and honoured to capture!

We have been very busy here! So many fun things to share in the coming months.
I have a lovely friend helping us with the blogging so hopefully lots more blogging soon!!

For now a lovely little chat with the very wise and beautiful Suse.

Suse Says -episode 2 from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

Thanks to Natala for helping out with editing this video!! SOOO GRATEFUL to you!!!

Want to see some more of Suse?? Check out these links:
Suse says episode 1.

or another chat and photos!

Last month we had the absolute pleasure of exhibiting a range of images from my 365grateful project. It was so fun to see my tiny Polaroid prints enlarged and displayed together. The exhibit was at the Happiness and it’s Causes conference and I also got to see the Dalai Lama speak!! Was a very inspiring few days!

We now have 32 fantastic giant Polaroids for sale! All funds go to help make the 365 grateful film! If you’re interested please send me an email at hailey@365grateful.com.

The prints are $180 ea and are ready to hang art mounts. Please let me know if you would like to see more images from the range! These are limited edition prints!!!

Also last but certainly not least!

Do you feel like taking a moment and vote for our film in the Sunsuper Dream competition – HERE. We are in the top 10!! Every vote helps! VOTING ENDS TODAY!!!!

EDITED TO ADD:

I have so many photos from India I don’t know what to do!

I have to keep most of the work I was doing there a little bit under wraps for now but will tell more about that soon!! I can’t wait to show you the beautiful stories and people I met with while in India. But for this post, a few shots from my travels.

When I arrived in Delhi I had a sense that I was about to go on a great adventure.

I was so right! Everything about India was remarkable!

From crazy driving to being lost in the middle of the night… from staying in strange ‘hotels’ with pre-warmed beds to walking down hills so steep it would be easier to slide down… to sitting with inspiring women and watching their eyes light up as they excitedly talk about how they help their communities… from slums to villages to the tailor who made me laugh and offered me loads of Chai. From the girl I scared and made her drop the water that took her 1.5hrs to get… to the dogs that scared me at night and made me grab my friends hand in terror – to the stunning women of India who are elegant and beautiful even while draped precariously on the back of crazy fast scooters.

ADVENTURE was had. In fact of all the countries I’ve been to I have never felt so connected and delighted with a country before.

So thank you India for inspiring me. For a sense of perspective that can only come from having lunch in a house the size of my laundry. For the colour and people who made my stay fantastic. Thank you! “Achchacha”

Janet and Darrell were wanting a really fun idea for their engagement sitting… so I put a couple to them and, well, see below for the results!

I was sooo excited that they were happy to spend money on my crazy ideas and my super-fun little sister Bene and I had so much fun and laughter photographing them dancing around town with an inflatable love sign and oversized bear heads!

We have been dying to show you these shots since we photographed them awhile ago, but better late than never! Hope you enjoy them too!

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Alarna at home and in her shop – Little Jane St.
Alarna is extremely creative and has so many wonderful things in her store you must visit!!
I am extremely excited to be working on another little project with Alarna – but more about that soon!

Here she is in her natural environment showing her delightful sense of style…

And this is her shop!

Here is the video/promo and intro into our latest project.

We are a little excited about this and have been a tiny bit distracted working on things to do with this ENORMOUS project.

Hope you enjoy!!

Want to help fund this project? Or become an associate producer?? Check out this fun site we have listed our project with. It is called indiegogo!

Now back to our regular programming!

Here is a photo of our extremely cute Earnest. He has grown up too quick! This is a puppy photo of him we have just sold to a pet food company in the U.S. He is going to be famous!