Birthday

It was my birthday on Tuesday, I love my birthday every year, I don't worry about getting older, I worry about staying the same. The only thing I don't like about birthdays is  the enviable question "what do you want", I feel pressured into having a list...I am happy with a nice dinner, smelly candles, flowers and my family. Simple things, the girls think I need more...So this year I was prepared, I told my family what I wanted....and I got everything I wanted and more.

I especially love birthdays that go on for days/weeks. I stated celebrating early when my sister and I spent a day at the Eumundi markets, a sisters day for my birthday, she brought me a hot chocolate calla lilly, it had one beautiful flower the day she brought it and it flowered again on my actual birthday.

Hot Chocolate Calla Lilly

I am also very lucky to have a beautiful flowering orchid that flowers every year for my birthday. (I know it is because it is the start of spring....but I like to believe it is for me)

Birthday Orchids

The Saturday before my birthday this year for the federal election. I was so pleased that I had already planned a weekend away with HWMBO, we postal voted and went into a media blackout on Friday, it was very good to escape from the hype surrounding an election. (I considered this a gift in itself)
We had a wonderful weekend at the Bunya Mountains, I got some awesome photos - they will be in a post of their own.

I treated myself to a new lens for my birthday (actually it was a reward for a good tax refund, that happened to coincide with my birthday) It is a wide angle lens which adds so much more to my landscape photos. So far I am very very happy.

Point cartwright sunset

New cushions for my couch, a bread knife, a lens, a weekend away, a flowering pot plant, beautiful flowers in the garden, a gift coming any day from daughter #2 in the UK. What more can I possibly need. A visit from the neighborhood snake, this snake has been around for years all our neighbors have reported visits from him. Tuesday was the first sighting since it began to get cold. We were calling him Harry as in Harry huge...now he is BS which stands for Birthday Snake (or just Big Snake). I love him he is so beautiful. I do have a healthy respect for him and don't get too close. 

Birthday Snake

Curled up in the warm sun

Not such good news for my birthday week, parting with a huge amount of money for Daughter #3 to get braces. I know it will be worth it when her teeth are straight.

Blue bands on the braces

Happy Birthday to me and my other friends who celebrate at this time of year also.

Do what you love.....Love what you do 

Sexy Shoes

Yahoo…finally I have reached my goal weight, 16 weeks, 13kgs. I am one happy camper. Ideally I would like to lose 4kg more, although I don’t think I will. I was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt when I was weighed, I thought it would be a so so feeling, but I did the internal happy dance and felt very proud when everyone at weight watchers cheered for me. I got a gold star. I promised myself a new pair of shoes when I reached goal weight; the plan was a comfortable pair to wear everyday. This is what I bought…I feel sexy I am going to look sexy now.

I was told everyone needs one pair of red shoes in their cupboard. I love impulse buying. HWMBO does too!

I had another wonderful weekend, full of photography and friends. Saturday afternoon RA RA from Toowoomba came down and we went to the new Botanic Garden in Maleny, I got my best bee shot ever and the views were to die for, it costs $11.00 to get in, but it is private property. We spoke to the owner for a few minutes, he is from South Africa after moving to Australia he was disappointed in the lack of gardens, so he created his own, after opening a few times for the garden tour he was convinced he could open to the public. By charging an entry fee he can continue the good work.



One of the many flower photos I took on Saturday



The view of the Glasshouse Mountains well worth the $11.00



This is the best photo I have of a bee, the small size doesn't do it justice. I am gong to print this one for myself.



Sunday saw us out of bed early for a cooked breakfast by HWMBO then on the road for a photo shoot with the Free Spirit Dance & Music School, they invited us to photograph their rehearsal as a two way help, we get to practise on real live dancers and they get photos for their website and promotional material. It was a fun day for all of us. There was 6 photographers and mirrors everywhere so it was a challenge to keep out of everyone’s way and not get yourself or anyone else in the mirror.

Nice chat and lunch at the Palmwoods hotel ruined by the fact Ra Ra tripped on some uneven concrete and hurt both her knees and hands. She will contact the pub because her shoes were ruined in the fall.

She tripped on the corner - I hope they come good, it was a nice pub. The food was good and the service was excelent. It was hard to watch them not want to admit there was something wrong when she fell

After a bit of first aid at home Rachel was preparing to go when our Mentor rang to see if we were keen for a sunset shoot at Point Cartwright, hell yes if he is driving from Monteville everything must be right for a good photo….you would think. There were wispy clouds, the tide was out, there were rock pools to reflect the sky….but nothing there was no colour, no magic bust of sunrays NADA.

This was the best I got…pretty happy anyway

I had another random person contact me to buy one of my photos…Full Moon at Point Cartwright. Woohoo. 

AND I have a date set to do the photos for my colleagues wedding in February 2013.

Life is good.