Jikana Damaru: 02/15/11

wordless wednesday

More Wordless Wednesday fun here.

I swear! I have just taken a break from blogging. There's has been a lot going on in life lately and I need all the extra time I can get. BUT I do promise to be fully back in action soon- I know I've said this a lot lately but I'm thinking just another week or two. Can you all hang in there until then?! ;) I really miss catching up on everyone's photos/stories/pregnancies/etc. I'm looking forward to being back in the loop but for now here is a shot I took today of my princess.

Isn't she the cutest with that teddy bear face?! She had a good bath and trim over the weekend thanks to her aunt bird (who happens to be a more severe blog slacker). Though I give her props for helping me clean my entire house this weekend as well because I was feeling under the weather, and she was bored...I guess? ;)

Anyway, besides today my camera has been tucked away for a long time now (insert sad face).
This will change in 2.5 weeks when I will be relaxing with my family here:

(Insert happy face).

Be back soon.

Backdrop Tutorial

For me one of the trickiest parts of putting a dessert table together is finding the correct backdrop. A great backdrop can really make or break a table.

A few weeks ago I put together a glamourous dessert table for a 13 year old and I have had lots of comments about the backdrop so today I thought I would give you a look at how I put my backdrop together.

The idea for the backdrop originally came from my friend Jessica from Oscar and Ruby - I blogged about her yesterday and showed some pictures of how her backdrop looked.

I used a slightly different method in how I put mine together and it was a great solution that really made the table look very glamourous.

Firstly I purchased a piece of dowel from my local hardware store. My dowel was 19mm thick. As my table was 1.8m long I had to get a piece that was 2.4m and cut it down to size.

Next I got together 5 or so different fabrics in co-ordinating colours. Some of mine were the ones that Jess used in her backdrop and the rest were extra's I picked up from spotlight.

The great thing about this backdrop was that the strips of fabric where quite vintage looking so just ripping them into strips worked a treat. No being neat, no sewing.

Once I had all my strips of fabric ready I just went along and tied them to the dowel

A piece of ribbon was used so I could hang it on a hook on the wall.

Simple.

And the great thing about this backdrop is that you can easily change the fabric colours to suit another colour scheme.

wordless Wednesday

to play along:
please add your wordless blog post in the list below & link back to here so others can share their images with all of us too
enjoy your wednesday ♥
*thanks for all your comments - I was very safe while taking this shot. the swings are attached to a deck & I was standing on the deck above the swings!

Lena Granefelt

One of my ambitions for 2011 is to take more photographs of my treasures, and to get better at taking them. So, today I am sharing with you some of the beautiful photographs from Swedish photographer, Lena Granefelt. I love the soft dreamy look to them and of course the colours!

Lena was born in 1966 in Stockholm. She works as a freelance photographer, focusing on editorials and advertising since 1992. Lena is with the photo agency, John, and is represented by Agent Molly & Co.

Have a sweet day!

I'm still here...

just been a little pre-occupied.

This baby suddenly feels (and looks) enormous and with 6 weeks left its all starting to feel like things are going to change soon. I finally found the motivation to get the babies room ready and began soaking, washing and folding the trillions of tiny clothes I somehow acquired with Louise.

I miss tinkering with my hairclips but every time I sit down to start getting creative my mind wanders and I usually end up sorting or cleaning or sleeping. I'm sure it will come back ~ I love making things.

Louise and I have been doing lots of "special" little outings - movies, lunches and walks through the park. As exciting as a new addition will be I hope I don't miss the one on one time I get with my little girl too much.

Love is the New Black...

Last week I peered into a letterbox chocka-block full of fun frivolity -- you know, like the Telstra bill... a reminder my car insurance is overdue (oops)... a home-shopping catalogue (shudder)... and my bank statement (eeek). Fun for all the family.

But rolled up next to these bits of paper destined for the shredder was a print I won a while back from the lovely Claire at Paper Scissors Rock!

And today? I scoured around my photo lab/ Elliott's wardrobe and found the perfect frame for said print. I had a hook next to the piano screaming to be filled so I popped it there and, while this may be a temporary home until I find more permanent lodgings, I like it!

Check it:

Thankyou, Claire. I love it.

a date with annie

"I don't have two lives.This is one life, and the personal pictures

and the assignment work are all part of it".

- Annie Leibovitz photographed by Martin Schoeller

Hi, friends! It's lovely to be back. Wish I could say I was off sipping umbrella drinks, but it was the usual return-to-work/starting childcare routine. It's only part-time but still feels like a big change.

Anyway, onto some photography fun...

Dan and I went to the Annie Leibovitz exhibition: A Photographers Life 1990 - 2005. As our first parents-only outing in 6 months (and landing on Valentines day), it was pretty blissful to wander around the gallery, do some hand holding and have an uninterrupted chat.

Onto the exhibition. As well as displaying some of Annie's most famous celebrity photos and powerful reportage shots from the Sarajevo seige, there were some tender, funny, sad and confronting family shots taken over the 15 years... especially her parents, her partner Susan and her three daughters. I love that Annie's mum was this incredibly active oldie - photo after photo shows a her wearing her one-piece swimming constume, standing at the kitchen sink with a leg raised, toe pointed in the air. At the beach. Everywhere. All the time, even as an elderly woman. It's shows off her great love of dancing (missed opportunities too) but there is also some kind of wonderful family in-joke going on.

In contrast, the close to death images of her dad and Susan were hard to absorb but in some ways very necessary to understanding the artist. And it was obviously hugely important to her to share them.

Patting the elephant in the room

We all know I'm not exactly a 'subtle' sort of person. I find it extremely difficult to ignore the bleeding obvious. In fact, I am more likely to give the elephant in the room one great big cuddle rather than ignore him.

How do other people do it?

Like, the other night at the pre-school Parent Committee meeting there was a new dad there. Whilst it was lovely to see a new dad getting involved with the pre-school, when asked if he had anything to add he just went on and on and on. That's the Boring bit. The Elephant bit is that he had his eyes closed the entire time that he was waffling on. So he was speaking to about ten people in the room with his eyes closed.

I thought it was just hysterically funny and had to hide behind the Tonka Truck shelf to stop myself from laughing. Worse than that though is that no-one else in the room appeared to either notice or be phased by this bizarre public speaker.

This sort of thing happens to me all the time. Not the Sleeping-Dad-Waffling part, but the wondering why no-one else looks like they just want to leap up and say "oh for gods sake, open your eyes when you're talking, you look deranged!'.

Other recent elephants have included:

A room full of business people ignoring the fact that one of their own was crying quietly throughout the entire meeting.

- and -

A mother at school waxing lyrical about how sweet her boy is when everybody knows he is the boy who took a knife into Kindergarten last week.

I had to walk away, wide-eyed on each occasion.

So help me, please. How does everyone else seem to be able to ignore the elephant in these scenarios? How do they keep from mentioning the bizarre? How do they keep a straight face because it's all just really a bit too funny?

[Image by DecalHappy via etsy]