My little big girl has just turned 10.

Somehow the last 10yrs just flew by and here I am looking at a young girl who keeps reminding me of the baby girl she was a moment ago and then giving me glimpses of the woman she will be in just a moment.

I keep thinking what a delight that I get to be with this wise and amazing soul.

I am blessed. I am grateful!

I have wanted to show you this for weeks but it’s been rather busy here!

Finally the video that matches the photo!

A super special thanks to Pancho and my sister Bene for helping us film this!! Also thanks to Nadia Sunde for the FANTASTIC music and you can hear more here!!
http://www.myspace.com/nadiasunde

From all of us we wish you a BIG fun Christmas!

I find my kids are my little muses and really always have been. So today I ‘m blogging a tiny bit about them.

Firstly Poppy - a little character who delights and huggles us so much! I loved seeing her below playing in the curtains and enjoying the late afternoon light.

Next my little big girl who shortly will be ten! Zali.

She is astounding me with her creativity and abilities. Here is a painting she did for me a couple of months ago. I paid her to paint me a picture for my bedroom. I asked for something Klimpt in style and she delivered an amazing painting. When my mother saw this she promptly paid Zali to paint her one too!! She wants to be an artist when she grows up… I tell her she is well on her way!

thats all for today… back to work!

I know everyone is eagerly anticipating the release of our famous Christmas greeting card and I am proud to be the one to finally reveal it!

Not that you could miss us…

We’ve had a lot of fun around Brisbane in the last few weeks riding bikes, playing in the sand, eating popcorn in a cinema - holding these oversized reproductions of ourselves… ahh the things we do for a laugh art. At least several German backpackers got a memorable photo to send back to their relatives.

I hope you all have a lot of fun this upcoming Christmas season. Do something you haven’t done before!

Like riding a tandem bike with a tag-along (that’s an extra seat off the back), using only one hand, keeping all three of you balanced while all holding ridiculously large replicas of your heads in the other hand pointed in exactly the right direction for a photographer! In a public park…

Now I’m going to cry myself to sleep on my HUGE pillow…

I have recently started my new version of my 365 grateful project. This year I am using my iphone with a handy little app called shakeit.

The EXTRA exciting part is I am doing this project with a wonderful photographer on the other side of the world!

Autumn Fawn is not only an amazing photographer also a gorgeous person. So go check out our combined blog for this project.

http://365grateful.posterous.com/

Here are some of my latest images…for the words to match check the blog.

We are in busy season now, however I love to procrastinate and so have a whole bunch of play photos to share!!

Here is Poppy.

I awoke the other day to find her all dressed like a mini suit.. Jacket, black hat, grey pants… white top and shoes. I asked her where she was off to and she replied that she was being a bit boyish today. (she is too cute!)

Here is my nephew being a little punk when I was babysitting him the other day. Whenever he comes to visit I can’t resist playing with his hair and taking photos…

Now a shot of some ducks I was chasing at a park. They were the sweetest little family. Poppy and I followed them around for ages trying to get photos… they really didn’t mind too much. 12 little ducklings - so sweet!

My darling little big girl who was singing when I took these shots. She makes me smile….

ooh and here is one of my sister’s dog… Bella.

Ok I really must do some real work now….

This post is a couple weeks late. However I still wanted to say hey we have been married 11 years and still love each other! yipee!

I am feeling rather grateful at the moment. Grateful for this wonderful man I managed to snap up when I was so young and silly and then also have managed to keep for these last 11years!

We went to my favourite place for our anniversary and it was wonderful. The beach….

I love that he poses for me… shares my love of art and play and creative ventures… I love that he works his butt off (or eyeballs OUT!) for our family… I love that he is a beautiful dad… I love that he cooks lovely healthy meals… I love that he makes me smile and reminds me to relax about things… I love that he writes me lists of of all the vitamins I am suposed to take… I love that he rubs my feet early in the morning when I don’t want to get up…. I love that he is kind… I love that he is my best friend and knows me the most of anyone and yet loves me anyways! I love that he is warm and lets me put my cold feet on him in bed… I love how he plays the ukele and last but not least I love that he rides a vespa that is pink and doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

Yep! I am going to keep him!

I have my first book cover to show off!

This book is edited by Melinda Tankard and I have just received my pre-release copies.

I have already read it! A great book for anyone who has little girls or big girls or works with girls. A serious read but also inspiring, I highly recommend it.

You can order one here: SPINIFEX PRESS

In other news… we just did a cover for BRISBANE News, also a few shots for the feature article….

Also a little piece on my grateful series….

(oh yes i am featured LARGER then Sarah Blasko!! teeehee!)

But there’s more!!!

One of our little films was featured on this fantastic site:

http://www.serendipityfactory.com/

AMAZING and inspiring site so go check it out….

I am very proud to present our newest clay animation. You can see our old one here.
“My Funny Family’ was written by Poppy (5yrs) and all the characters made by Zali (9yrs).
We had so much fun together creating this little bundle of colour.

My sister Bene came down to help us shoot and animate this so a BIG thanks to you Bene!!

I thought I would include some funny little shots of the behind the scenes.

This is Poppy’s sketches and storyboard for the project.

Next Zali working on the characters.

Different stages of production….

and here is the film…. please note 5yr old humor throughout!

Poppy (my youngest daughter) has written a short story for a clay animation. It is sooo cute and we are NEARLY done!

Here are some pics to get you all excited!!

First pic has thought bubbles inspired by my favorite blogger!! Colour me Katie.

also here is a snippet of the making off this video:

Just some video I shot while we were shooting Poppy’s first clay animation. She wrote it…(5yrs old) Zali made the characters… (9yrs) and my sister and I shot it for them… with their help. (uhm!)