So my life has been a little hectic of late. All a good kind of hectic, it's just kept me away from blogging and stuff. If you are connected to me on Facebook you will already know what I've been doing anyway...yep I am a total sucker for the micro-blogging revolution.
One of my crazy weeks involved hanging out with these guys..
I was commissioned to work on a campaign with the Westpac Bank who have opened a new branch in the teeny town of Drouin in Victoria. We worked within the community to promote the new Bank Manager Michael (in the suit) as a part of the local community. We did this by taking the Westpac Mobile Art studio caravan to schools, community groups , the shopping centre etc and asking adults and children alike to create an art piece representing what they loved about living in Drouin. I should add that the above photo was taken by photographer Jonathan Tabensky who filled in the schedule when I could not :)
My involvement in the campaign was to work with both Michael and Stacy the Tour Manager (pictured on the right of me) recording the campaign photographically. I can't even begin to estimate how many photos I actually took...
I'd love to share the photos here, there were SO many gorgeous pics of the most adorable children and amazing art pieces but sadly I'm not permitted to because officially the images are now owned by Westpac :-S. The art pieces were collated and exhibited at a special VIP night for the bank and then sold off with all profits going directly to the Drouin CFA branch.
I was most excited to find out I sold one of my photographs on the night AND received some of the nicest feedback on my work ever. So fab. Here's the image sold to benefit the CFA -
I really want to add that it was all a job I took on kind of reluctantly thinking it would be SO boring following some stuffy "suits" around all day but I can honestly say those two above were really great fun to work with and it has been one of the best jobs I've worked on for ages. Like it seems with ALL of my photo subjects I actually became a bit attached to them and even missed working with them a few days after...what the?
They were both easy-going and fun and not like "bank" people at all. Maybe I was wrong about "bank" people. Could I have been wrong?? Hmm...
I even worked at Farmworld. while beautiful children made art. Eek, haven't been there for a few years but it is THE place to be here in Gippsland!! And it was the place I first discovered scrapbooking ten years or so ago!
Anyway during that crazy week of going here there and everywhere, I also photographed TWO weddings! Oh how I love a wedding, and again I get attached to my subjects and dammit I've even started to become weepy during their ceremonies. Ugh I have gotta toughen up but I just can't help it, it's such a beautiful thing and every ceremony is so emotionally charged that it is contagious.
The first of these two was, in my defense, a gorgeous friend of mine who totally deserves every shred of happiness coming her way. Her and her gorgeous man were married in a deliciously light flooded church with her sweet spunky son as a groomsman. I have a huge soft spot for this boy as he is a great friend of my Alexander and has been forever! He stays here a lot and has often taken part in our family activities like the decorating of our Christmas tree etc. He is like a big brother to Maddy and when he started to cry during the wedding ceremony I wanted to dump the camera and give him a big hug. He wasn't sad, just overwhelmed and since the wedding that boy has been walking on sunshine just like his Mumma!
So I went to the rehearsal the night before and so glad I did, even if I did feel a bit weepy...look at them, aren't they gorgeous?
And their wedding was just beyond words beautiful. There would not have been a dry eye in the church I'm sure. The bride was glowing and the groom looked like he'd won the lottery and then some :) I can only show a few of their photos because I'm just starting to work on them and I don't want to share any here that they haven't seen yet either!
More later after the happy couple have seen them :)
The second wedding was a perfectly elegant twilight wedding on a Friday night at our local Wild Dog Winery. When I say perfectly elegant it really was. It was serene and so calm and every detail was divine!
Again, don't have too many photos to share here until the couple are back from their honeymoon and have seen them first!
Isn't that setting amazing? I was shattered when it started to rain and then I lost my light - argh! But....having said that I got some beautiful shots of the whole event and I'm sure they'll be very happy. I should also mention that the venue raised over $11,000 yesterday for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal How good is that?
In amongst all of the activity I somehow managed to make it to a concert in Melbourne that I had been HANGING for. The one and only legendary Pixies. I "get" that maybe they were/are a little alternative I guess but I'm amazed how many people have NOT heard of them! Happy happy time for me though, especially when I discovered that Suz is a fan too! So we went and got crushed by rude, smelly um, people, and while I can only speak for me, I feel like a piece of my life puzzle is complete now that I've seen them live. They were the soundtrack (well part of) of my youth and seeing them live, well let's just say some parts of me will never age! I only took my new phone as a camera which was bittersweet as we were against the barrier and close and only got this pic really...
I've also been sewing a bit lately. I wish I had time to do more, I have some delicious fabric waiting to be turned into cute skirts for Miss Moo, but for now, I finally made my handbag which I'm totally loving!
And...while I'm on the subject of delicious sewn stuff, I will FINALLY mention my new camera strap yumminess bought directly from here - Made.X.Manda
I casually mentioned my love of red fabric with white polka dots on her Facebook page and before I knew it she was offering me a spotty camera strap. Oh BLISS!! And it was under $30, sent speedily and I LOVE, no I ADORE it! It is SO comfortable around my neck and even on days when I was shooting on and off for 12 hours or more, my neck was still comfy with it. YUM! I can highly recommend Amanda's straps!
I spent Good Friday at Cindy's Egg-sellent crop day in Endeavour Hills. I'm very happy to have finished two layouts for Aussie Scrap Source. Phew I'm a bit behind! They will be on the Aussie blog soon. Speaking of scrapbooking, here's some stuff I've done for the Aussie blog recently...firstly Stamper's Anonymous, I covered Tim Holtz...
I'm finding now that Alexander is older, it's harder to scrap for him, but I'm really enjoying the challenge of it all...
This one is for a fabric product focus - my maternal guilt...
Teresa Collins "Sports" range...
And this is a current fave - "Inspired by Art" and OF COURSE I chose my idol Charles Blackman
This piece is featured in one of my most pored-over books, "Australian Printmaker" by Charles Bannon. I have owned the book FOREVER I'm sure and flicked through and gazed into it for more hours than I care to recount. The piece I chose was "Web"
Here's my page inspired by this art piece -
I have more but I have no idea where the images have gotten to - sigh...
So I'll share the pics from Crazy Hair Day, of my babies. If only my Divine Miss M would let me do something crazy to her hair. This is as crazy as she'd get - blah! Alexander the Great no the other hand - he went nuts!
And....even more client pics to share :)
Isn't that little boy totally scrumptious? Oh how I could happily adopt many of the children I photograph, he was SO much fun and has his Mum and dad completely smitten! I love how he wrapped his little feet around his dad's neck! I laughed and laughed photographing these guys and still have LOADS of pics to come!
And here's some more of the last family I shared...another adorable little boy and smitten parents with another baby soon to enter the family :)
This is a current favourite image. I can't stop being happy to look at it :)
Dad was such a good sport. He didn't even have a big tummy but went to a whole lot of effort to inhale a LOT of air to create that belly. Isn't it gorgeous?
And....here's some of the shots from my latest shoot for Zeve
They have some of THE yummiest fashion pieces coming out later this month - yum yum yum!
Oops a bit small but you can see them better on their website :)
Speaking of
yummy stuff to wear, I'm pretty sure I NEED this....

It's from this shop and I'd be happy with almost anything from there...;-P Especially the cherry bracelet..mmmm...
So as you can see, I've been somewhat pre-occupied with stuff. Good stuff.
Happy Easter!