Friday, January 31, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 31 2014

Hooray, we've lasted a month in the Photo A Day Challenge :D
Jan 31 - POLKA DOT
Honey loves her Hello Kitty umbrella - even though as you can see from the state of my lawn, we haven't yet had any rain in which she can use it.
Never mind.
After a month of negotiations we now no longer put the umbrella up in the house, and if she takes it outside, she has to make sure she brings it inside and away from the dogs. We have a 50% strike rate with that happening...

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 30 2014

Jan 30 - BEST INVENTION EVER
I think the best invention ever was picture books. They are so sneakily clever at getting kids (and adults) reading and learning.
The books that Honey is reading is 'Sophie Scott Goes South', which I listened to being read at primary school last year. Honey picked it out when we went to the new Bendigo library today. Technically Buddy borrowed it because Honey chose to borrow a fairy chapter book, but Honey is the one putting it most to use. My job is to read a page of it each night.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 29 2014

Jan 29 - WINDOW
What does 1 + 1 equal?
I remember this joke from primary school and how clever we were telling anyone who answered '2' as being WRONG and that the answer was 'WINDOW'.
I posted this picture onto the FMS Facebook page and someone asked how 1 + 1 made a window and so I also made an explanatory video.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 28 2014

Jan 28 - DINNER
Honey decided that the meal that I was too bland, and so she added a touch of spice to it.
(afterwards it was inedible and even the pups wouldn't eat it - silly Honey)

Monday, January 27, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 27 2014

Jan 27 - SOMETHING I BOUGHT
I got this on the last morning of our trip to New Zealand last year. I bought it from the man who made it, from his stall at a market in Queenstown.
It's a morepork, which is a native owl in New Zealand, and its made out of a Crown Lynn china plate. He lives in my bedroom, with a paua shell as my souvenirs of my first trip overseas.

Australia Day "Holiday"

Hello.
My name is Ninja Mummy and its been 27 days since I've felt the sweet embrace of Coca Cola.
It's been a hard journey, but it's getting easier every day.
I've been substituting Coca Cola with Pepsi, but as they taste completely different, it's just not the same. Not bad, but it's like coffee and tea, you either like one or the other.
Coca Cola is everywhere.
Yesterday at the Australia Day celebrations in Melbourne I forgot to take a drink and my only options to buy a drink (without having to walk forever) was Pepsi (which I'm not wild about as you'd have gathered), Fanta, Solo and the old favourite Coke (or water, but water gets a bit boring sometimes all the time) I ended up doing a walk-past by all the food vans until I found a can of Sprite. Then I topped up my empty can with someone else's lemon mineral water.
Today I did the food shopping while the midgets stayed at home with The Man. I came home to Honey in just her knickers and Buddy trying to scoot in his wagon. Right now Honey is wearing my glasses pretending to be me (Look at me, I'm Mummy) and Buddy is climbing me and blowing raspberries on me.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 26 2014 (Australia Day)

Jan 26 - FUN STUFF!
Today we went to Melbourne for an Australia Day picnic in the Queen Victoria Gardens.
**I literally work 5 minutes away from these gardens and I never knew they were called this
While wandering around, Honey and I stumbled upon a piano that was out in the open which was a part of the 'Play Me I'm Yours' piano project.
I have a feeling that a random piano we found outside a noodle shop in Glenelg, in Adelaide last year, was a part of this project too...
We had good times with Honey playing and singing and me having a go at remembering the music I learnt for years when I was a kid.
I've now decided that when I have a bigger house, I want an upright piano like this one.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 25 2014

Jan 25 - A TASTE OF SUMMER/WINTER
Clearly I have decided to show you a taste of winter summer.
I was really baffled about how I was going to photograph this prompt, and then as I was sitting down at Grill'd with The Man, he pointed out that I'd just ordered a Summer Sunset burger and I was literally about to take a huge bite of 'summer'.
What a smart cookie my husband is!

Friday, January 24, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 24 2014

Jan 24 - YOUR SPACE
My space is wherever I am.

Photo bomb - Jan 23 2014

Jan 23 - BEDTIME
I took Buddy boy with me to Melbourne and got home at 11pm. Obviously someone napped on the way home and didn't need to sleep - ha!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 22 2014


Jan 22 - NICE!
The Man went and bought me some Lindt balls after roller derby training. Wasn't that nice of him!



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 21 2014

Jan 21 - BLUE
Blueberries edited to look even bluer. A delicious prop that didn't last very long at all.

It's all too hard! (An essay about taking a photo)


I'm really interested in this photography caper.
Today's Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day prompt is 'blue' and I'm frantically googling photography tutorials to find out how to do special effects just for something different, because I could take a picture of something blue but that seems too easy, you know? And I do enjoy making life hard for myself (and I love competing in my own private game of one-up-manship*)
Today the little people are at daycare and I should be catching up on housework and making some sort of plan for the 2014 school year, but I'm on this here blog spending too much time wondering how to do my photo prompt.
Could I take a photo of something not blue and and change the colour? I did that last year for the prompt 'heart':
Source
Except, the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo is brown and I made it red. And most of the trees red too, except for that purple one at the front. If you're interested, I did it with Photofiltre which is like Photoshop except free. I like it. I think they have updated it so you can do layers in your images, but I like the oldschool version which I've figured out how to use. I've managed to do some pretty awesome effects with it, even an attempt at blue-screen (or green screen?):
Source
I took the photo of Honey in my bedroom standing on my bedhead against the wall. My bedroom wall is pretty much grey (such an attractive colour) so it worked well.
Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do for the prompt? Some days I like to be all creative and think outside the box for my photos (like this photo I took for 'SUN' and some days I take the prompt very literally like this one for 'FORK'.)
Well, I've procrastinated enough. I suppose I now need to do something productive with my day. Tune in later to see what I decided to do for my photo.

*I don't even think that's a real word

Monday, January 20, 2014

Photo bomb - Jan 20 2014

Jan 20 - TO DO LIST
I wasn't the nicest person today. My snark levels were quite high. This should have been the only item on my to do list.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

2014: The Year of the Dragon

So I do roller derby.
Do you know what that is?
If you don't, think a cross between rugby and ballet on roller skates. Drew Barrymore made a movie about it starring Juno. Lots of cool people in Bendigo and surrounds do it.
(Other derby enthusiasts might have a better way of describing it than me, but its very graceful, very tough and it's all done on quad skates). You have to have respect for anyone who does it well. And those who do do it well get awesome derby names like Smashley Simpson* and Babe Ruthless* and Maggie Mayhem*.
I am what's called freshmeat which means I'm at the bottom level of training which means when I do go to training (I've slacked a bit since Honey was in hospital and then I was trying to finish uni) I usually watch the other girls and boys zoom past me because I'm a wee bit uncoordinated and I get frustrated with the stuff I can't do
BUT
I am very very gradually getting better.
My league, Dragon City Derby Dolls are having a freshmeat intake in a couple of weeks and they want YOU! to come and have a try. And who knows? You might love it.
So how about it? Will you come and have a go? DCDD are having an open day and for a gold coin donation you can come and see one of Bendigo's best sport teams showing off the skills which make them awesome.

*These are characters from 'Whip It',  the Drew Barrymore movie I was talking.about earlier. The derby names of the boys and girls in DCDD are much better and much cleverer.

Photobomb - Jan 19 2014

Jan 19 - BREAKFAST
I really hummed and haa-ed about what I was going to eat for breakfast today. This is what I usually eat for breakfast when I go to work in Melbourne - fried eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.

Photobomb - Jan 18 2014

Jan 18 - HAPPY PLACE
I went to my happy place and found scrapbooking paper. It expresses my sentiments for Spotlight precisely.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 17 2014

Jan 17 - TINY
I tried to take a photo of the tiny toenail on this little foot but it was too wiggly, so I settled on a photo of this tiny little foot.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 15 2014

Jan 15 - BLACK AND WHITE
This is my try at black and white photography. It looks pretty artistic hey? I like this photo so much that I made it my cover photo on Facebook.

Hi-De-Ho!

Today I am midget-less.
Sad face :(
Honey and Buddy are at their climate controlled daycare while I am trying to escape the heat at the shops. It's the second day of a 40 degree plus heat wave here in Bendigo and my house has poxy cooling, it ends up cheaper for me to hang out at the shops buying snacks and magazines than run the ceiling fans at home. In fact, I'm having my own personal film festival at the cinemas - yesterday was Saving Mr Banks, today is Anchorman, and tomorrow I may get past the idea that I am going to the movies more than once every six months and see Frozen. Or perhaps The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
Oh! The possibilities.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 14 2014

Jan 14 - 3 THINGS:
These kettlebells belong to The Man. One day I reckon he'll drop one and it will smash through the floor.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 13 2014

Jan 13 - MADE ME SMILE
Today has been hot hot hot in Bendigo, and this Zooper Dooper was extremely welcome and made me smile.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 12 2014

Jan 12 - COLOURFUL
We made rainbow cake at our house today. Honey has eaten all the icing off her slice and Buddy is wearing his as a face mask.

Fat Mum Slim: What on earth am I doing?

So you may have noticed that I have been flooding* this blog# with pictures with strange captions like 'looking down' or 'upside down' or 'manmade' and what have you.
Well, I am participating in the Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge where each day is given a prompt and it is my job (and the job of the other 10,000-odd participants) to provide a photo that fits in what that prompt. For example, today is 'colourful' and I am currently busy busy making something colourful to photograph. Last week one of the prompts was 'natural' and I had a case of the CBFs that day and I just put up a photo that I took in New Zealand last year (did I tell you blogosphere that I went to NZ? Well, I did - midget-free. It was awesome).
I suppose my goal, now that I don't have a fresh-baked baby to distract me and to take up all my time (gawsh!) is to do the whole year, but I am just beginning with January to see how we go.
Fingers crossed I will manage to do all of 2014, but if not, it will be for a good reason like I have scored myself a job teaching.

Photos. So many photos to take and I have such little photographical talent to display.
So come back and look at the from time to time. I have tagged all the FMSPAD photos with the label photobomb, so click on that.
Looking forward to sharing more of my photos with you, especially today's which has required a bit of preparation and the assistance of Honey, and is not even finished yet and it's *checks the clock* 5pm?!?! WHERE DID THE DAY GO?
I must dash - but later tonight you'll see mine and Honey's handiwork.

*flooding - I've been posting a single photo a day, so maybe it's not 'flooding' per say
#doesn't matter anyway because no one follows this blog and it's not like I'm making you look at it (but please, please do look at it)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 11 2014

Jan 11 - LOOKING DOWN
Peering down over the wall of the eastern courtyard at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

How are the resolutions going?

Well, I am glad you asked.
I have not sipped a drop of Coca Cola since December 31 (yay!). I have been fairly good with the not eating of crappy foods. It all depends who you ask. The Man allowed me to have FOUR Lindt balls each night, seeing as he bought me a tonne of them for Christmas and it seemed quite wasteful for him to eat them instead. I had grilled fish and chips in the park with The Man and the midget ninjas, and yesterday I had a chicken teriyaki sub because we were out and about and I forgot to eat lunch before we left home.
I've eaten porridge EVERY MORNING this year, which makes me hungry. So hungry. And vegies for most lunches. And my poor family are being forced to come along on my healthy eating safari.
So yes, although I am not posting about it daily, I am still trying to eat the right things and drinking so much water that its ridiculous.

Photobomb - Jan 10 2014

Jan 10 - MANMADE
All of this meal (except the cheese and tortillas) was wo-manmade tonight.
Carne beef, corn salsa, salad and homemade taco sauce. Yum yum.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 9 2014

Jan 9 - NATURAL
You can't get much more natural than New Zealand. This picture was taken at Milford Sound in November 2013 while The Man and I were honeymooning.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 7 2014

Jan 7 - UPSIDE DOWN.
I dangled upside down from my bed to take a picture of The Man who was so engrossed in the cricket (Big Bash? Ashes? Who cares - cricket sucks) that he didn't notice me doing it.

Monday, January 06, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 6 2014

Jan 6 - HAPPENS EVERYDAY
Being greased by my main man Buddy is a daily occurrence for me. Especially when there is food involved.

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 5 2014

Jan 5: FOUND: The Man found my glasses under the bed. Lucky because I was going to buy new ones.


Saturday, January 04, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 4 2014

Jan 4 - WORDS TO LIVE BY.
What? It's my table and I can do whatever I want to it.

Friday, January 03, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 3 2014

JAN 3 - MY TOWN.
This cemetery dates back to when my town first existed.
It will only be another 40-odd years before I become a real Bendigo local.


Photobomb - Jan 2 2014

Jeepers. Posted this picture everywhere else but on this blog.

Jan 2: BEGINS WITH G: Gas. Continuing on the theme of food, this is my gas stove where I had just finished making dinner.

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Photobomb - Jan 1 2014

Jan 1: LUNCH
Sadly Honey stole most of it, despite it being bland and not cooked enough.

New Year. Same Me (sorry about that)

New Year resolutions eh?
I've been there and done that so many times. And failed miserably. Boring!
So today, which so happens to be 1st January, I've decided to stop drinking Coke and to stop eating processed food.
Coke is easy. The Man doesn't drink it and Honey and Buddy sure don't so really as long as I resist that glossy red label, I'll be fine.
Processed food not so much. I live in a house where quick meals reign supreme. I've changed this *resolution* to be a challenge to myself to see how many hours I can go before I eat junk. If I should lose weight or get fitter along the way - awesome! But currently more homecooked food = less money spent... in theory.
Right now I am cooking steamed veggies which are boring so I'm looking for ways to zazz them up.
Wish me luck!