Today sees another year pass since we farewelled our tiny first born daughter Laura.
She was born on the 11th March at 11pm and today marks her 11th birthday – in some customs that is considered your golden birthday – when your age coincides with your date of birth. I guess for us Laura will always be our golden child – she was never naughty or never threw a tantrum – she will forever be the perfect child who left an incredible imprint on our life in her very short time with us.
As we do every year we visited Laura’s special place in the baby lawn at the cemetery last weekend. This time both Sienna and I decided to video record our visit instead of lots of photos and I have turned all our little snippets it into a short little movie. We released 4 balloons to her in the sky and her present was a sweet little trinket box which the girls had fun filing with petals and coloured rocks.
More special memories of our four girls ….
You can read more about Laura’s story over the years by visiting my previous birthday blog posts here, here, here and here. If you are interested in donating to a wonderful charity that I am proud to be involved with, please visit the Stillbirth Foundation Australia website here.
So my personal photography projects are continuing and so far a little success in getting 3 children together to look at the camera for me each week – they are not necessarily happy about it and when I look back at this series of photos it shows me more about their mood for the day than anything else! It is fun though and so nice to have lots of shots of the three girls.
I am also continuing with my one second a day project which involves taking snippets of video each day and using the One Second a Day app to piece my seconds together. The app makes it so easy so as long as you remember to record your video then the rest is easy! I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!
Here are my 52 Project Shots for weeks 4-8
In other personal projects in the house, last weekend Sienna and I spent a good part of Sunday creating a new blog for her to document all that she finds fun and interesting. After we spent the day together a few weeks ago at The School in Roseberry learning all about movie making on your iPhone and iPad with Hailey and Zali Bartholomew, she was so inspired to find a place to show off her projects.
I am really excited that she wants to blog and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with. Her blog is called Hey Sienna – pop over and see her first tutorial!
Hello and Welcome Back – I know this party started a few weeks ago but I have one word to explain my absence … summer!
So 2014 is off and running and I have been making the most of the past few weeks summer break to kick back with the kids, relax, read loads of books, dream a little. take photos, enjoy the sunshine and warm days. I am feeling very relaxed. For years I have wanted to just switch off for the month of January so I have done just that – I had that pang of guilt a few weeks ago when everyone started to reappear online and back to work but those other lovely online friends convinced me to ignore it and take the time out!
So these lovely few weeks of non blogging have also given me more time to think, plan, dream and start to come up with a formula for 2014 – the direction for Sweet Style, the online store, the blog and importantly me.
Honestly I am not sure if I am 100% there yet – it seems to be a constant work in progress and I am getting closer to sorting it in my mind but there seems to be lots I still want to do, things I dream to do, plenty of things I desire to do but I also need to be realistic about what I can do!
One thing is for sure a lot of what I do this year will involve me and a camera! I am excited by the photography work I am involved in over the next few months and I am also planning a few shoots just for the blog. I am now taking bookings for parties, styled shoots, food shoots and working on collaborations with some fabulous Aussie bakers and stylists. I also have committed myself to doing two personal projects – a 52 weeks challenge involving the girls – one shot a week of the girls together, plus a 1 second everyday project which you can find out about here. The first 3 weeks of shots from my 52 Project are below!
You will notice some definite changes in the online store – I have decided to streamline a lot more so while the store will be there for a little while longer I am focusing on cake stands and bowls for the time being. This means the product lines will be greatly reduced but I will still stock the beautiful milk glass cake stands plus a few other gorgeous lines that I particularly love myself – there are some great bargains to be had at the moment with the remaining paper products so do drop in for a look as you may pick up the perfect item for your next party. (Click here to visit the shop)
I am also working on a blog makeover and look forward to showing more of the direction for the blog in the coming weeks!
I hope the start to 2014 has been exciting for everyone and as always I love to hear from anyone who drops by – I really enjoy hearing what you do like to see on my blog so I can make sure I keep it coming!
Here are those shots of the girls from my first 3 weeks of the project – it will be interesting to see how I keep them motivated for the entire year!
