It's A Family Affair | Byron Bay

Do you remember the photos I took of baby Everest and his { little } big brother Atlas? 

The links are here, here and here if you want to see them again { the gorgeous sleepy bubbas that they are! } Well, after our shoot Claire asked if I could take some family photos for her too.

The resulting images are relaxed, beautiful and all loved-up. Just like them. Now if only they hadn't flown out to Bali the next day - I want to hang out with these fine humans some more :)

Do you want to see? 

Claire is going to choose a few of these images to share when she's interviewed on the parenting blog The Best Gift of Life soon. Tell us in the comments which ones you think she should choose!

Amber. XO

p.s. Seeing as I'm adding links to past posts I should add a link to the photos I took of Mia the same day - ohhhhhh the light was so good, and she was such a burst of sunshine! Love. AND while I'm saying all of this - someone pointed out to me the other day that my blog doesn't actually SAY anywhere that I'm a photographer for hire... but, ummmm, yes I am ;) So please send me a message if you are interested in booking a session and/or share my page with you friends and family!! There's even a magic blue 'like' button beneath each post that shares it on facebook and I love it when people press that too.  But enough self-promotion hahahaha, I'll stop now and just say Thank you! xxx

184/365 A Boy and His Dog

I can't decide on the photo for today. You choose.

178/365 Palazzo Versace

Date night alert! Getting into the decadent spirit of things before our dinner reservation at Vanitas at Palazzo Versace last Saturday night.

Sigh. I heart Palazzo.
Dare i say - my fave hotel in Australia?!

So yeah, we like to leave the state on date night ;) That's how we roll - they're rare enough that we need to make them special!! Got to work on that parenting/date-night balance. It's only been ten and a half years. Hahaha!

Droolsome foodie-phile photos to come later this week...
Amber. XO

167/365 My Coffee Lover

8am |  Town cafe. Bangalow. 

It's soooo nice when T is home for more than a few days. And we go out for coffee {which is code for: coffee + work } together after we drop the boys to the bus. Like we did this morning.

Ahhhh. The sweetness ;)

But seriously I love it - AND - I find it really weird!!!!! Because - we're still not used to time alone together in the day. I honestly kind of feel like early empty-nesters. Hahaha.

And look at our loved-up match-matchy MacBooks and coffee. LOL. They inspired this photo.
That and... yeah, love. *smile*.

What was the last sweet-kinda-romantic thing you did? Amber. XO

159/365 I Only Have Eyes For You

Edit -  The shoot is up now: here and here. Go have a look! XO

Yesterday, after being woken early to the reminder that we had promised to watch a movie together { that hadn't downloaded the night before }, getting caught in the rain and seeing Rainbows, drinking coffee at the Beach Cafe and talking dreams with T, coming home for lunch and dog walks and more { it's remarkable how much you can fit into a day when you get up early! }, I left my own three reading and creating and being generally snuggly at home and ventured out into the big wide world.

I have been challenging myself to be brave.

To step out of my comfort zone creatively and personally. To say yes. Yes, I'll be there. Yes, I'll attend. Yes, I can do that. One of the key things I wanted to challenge myself with was asking permission to take the photos I want to take. I'm still working on it. There are moments every day that speak to me. People I pass who I instinctively want to capture on film { okay, not on film - on camera - forgive me for my romanticism ;) but it just seems the right way to say it }. Asking to be allowed to look into someones eyes, their life, even for a moment is an intimate thing. So asking to do it can be intimidating.

A few weeks ago I met Claire at the Byron Bay Instagrammers meet-up. We had connected on instagram while I was travelling, realising our Bali / Byron connection. I knew I liked her online but it was a nice surprise to realise I really liked her in person too. And that her and her babies { two under two } are beautiful. Okay, I had gathered that on her instagram but she's striking in real life.

I asked to photograph her. Them.
And she said yes.

So yesterday, I found myself winding down the back road towards Byron. Being brave.

Not that I needed to be brave exactly. I was welcomed into their home with open arms.
{ Actually - into the open arms of mutual friends! - who happened to have dropped in for a spontaneous long-lunch. Ha! } And we made photos. My vision of sleeping chubby cherubs coming to life before me. Well, one sleeping cherub... and one who only had eyes for his mama.

#love

It was perfect shoot. Life-y and raw and tender. I have a lot of images to edit but I should have a post together next week. Until then, I just had to share one for my #photoaday2014 project. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Amber. XO

p.s. Are you brave? Have you set your own personal or creative challenge? Please share your story. x

p.s. I have a new facebook like button at the bottom of each post! 

Can you see it's lil' blue self there? Please click on it and share the love :) 

Merci beaucoup! xx

150/365 Twenty Four Years

T and I started dating as baby-faced 15 year olds. 

And we just celebrated our 24th anniversary. 

Yes, I'm starting to feel old ;)

He had been away all week and we were very happy to have him home. Buster was at a sleep-over so it was just us... and and 8 year old. Hee Hee. #romantic. What to do?  Thai takeaway, good champagne and movies in bed. 

Happy days. 

p.s. I have a new facebook like button at the bottom of each post! 

Can you see it's lil' blue self there? Please click on it and share the love :) 

Merci beaucoup! xx

140/365 This World is a Dewdrop World | Issa Haiku

"this world
is a dewdrop world

yes... but..."

.露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
tsuyu no yo wa tsuyu no yo nagara sari nagara

~ Kobayashi Issa, Haiku poet. 1819. 

Wikipedia link here. 

136/365 A Love Letter to my Dog

My beautiful Boston Love,

We chose you when you were just a tiny little bundle of golden fur. 3 weeks old. You were the one for us, destined for us, we were sure. They marked your ear so no-one else could claim our prize and then we had to wait five long weeks until you could come home. 8 weeks old. A new Mama and Daddy to love you and care for you but still you cried that first night away from the tumble of warmth and soft snores that was your brothers and sisters.

You were our trial baby ;)
Our first son.
Our first big joint responsibility.

We tried not to spoil you but failed miserably when faced with your boundless love and wild puppy spirit! We were not the only ones. Bacon magically materialised for you in every cafe in town. Random cuddles on every street corner. The streets of Byron were your universe. Only two things scared you: the garbage truck and unexplained piles of council pick-up that appeared where they shouldn't on the footpath. Once you had learned to brave the big waves, the ocean became your favourite thing and you skinny-dipped with us on empty beaches.

You slept on our feet in our little tent for two in small country towns along the Armidale highway. You ate snow in Guyra. Our road-companion. Sydney. Melbourne. The Blue Mountains. The Sunshine Coast. Where we went you came.

When you were almost three years old a strange new bundle arrived. You sniffed it all over and decided we could keep it. Lucky ;) That bundle was Hug who would grow up to be your greatest ally, your constant provider of dog food and cuddles. In the meantime you would do dubious things with baby scraps and dirty nappies and had to say goodbye to your own teddy-bear collection. Kingsley Tiger arrived not long after, we moved from the beach to the country, built a white picket fence to keep you all safe and our family was complete. With you as our guardian.

Years passed.
Thirteen years.
Your hearing is fading away from you now. Cancer has reared it's ugly face. But still you persevere.

You tap-dance your way into our room for cuddles at five in the morning and wake us up ;) But love is pretty much everything for you now. Any time that we are home you are under our feet ready to give love. Waiting impatiently to receive it in return. Your heart is so pure and so simple. In the busy whirl that is family life you are our constant. 

Give love. 
Need love. 
Be love.

My beautiful boy. We still have so much left to learn from you and your doggy-wisdom mantra!

So, today I say thank you for everything that was and everything that is and for everything that will be. And today? - today we celebrate dogs :) XO

119/365 LOVE.

“To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they’re blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too”  - Victoria Moran.

103/365 Beach Dawg

This is Boston's idea of heaven.
He's such a fish. Completely in his element, even with a missing toe :)

Working on Myself | Lessons of Motherhood

Motherhood is a mirror.

Becoming and being a mother brings a dimension of personal need like no other. A need to face our own faults and flaws. Our deepest fears and our most repressed anger. Our silent hurt. 

It's hard to be responsible for another little person. No matter how much your heart bursts with love for them. We put our own needs behind those of this little person who needs us more than we could ever have imagined before motherhood arrived. They come to us so small and vulnerable. 

And then the day dawns when they are bigger and their bodies flow with energy and their intellect snaps with electricity and ideas. They run wild and free. 

And they don't climb into our beds every single night anymore. Instead, sometimes we climb into theirs to linger on soft nuzzles. And they don't need us to make every choice for them, though we might feel like we still want them to. 

In 1923 Kahlil Gibran wrote: 

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

More than 90 years later, as my own children grow older I can see the wisdom of Kahlil Gibran more clearly than ever. I have always admired this quote. But now I also see that although I am not their destiny I am implicit in their growth in a way that I maybe didn't understand until now...

That my own being, my own essence (no matter how hidden it is beneath layers and whether I know they are there or not) is creating energy and spinning threads that impact upon my children - and yes, my work, my family, my community - in a deep myriad of ways.

And so, I sit in the knowledge that I must continue to work on myself. In recognition of the subtleties and mirrors at work.

Breathe.

Heal.

Be honest with myself.

Embrace and let fall away.

I strive to be a good person. To be bold and brave, to act on my beliefs and stay strong even when I want to crumble. But still hold onto vulnerability and softness and compassion. To feel life and be life and at the same time to release.

These are big asks. It is a big journey. I hope I am woman enough.
Maybe you're on this journey too...? x

97/365 Sheepish

No Mama. I wasn't rolling in the dirt. Promise.
#cheekydog

91/365 Date Day

Byron Beach Cafe.

Lunchtime date with my husband? Check!
Haven't done that in a long time... he has been extra-sweet helping me settle into life without homeschool. It's certainly a transition but moments like this make it much easier. Thanks T. xxx

81/365 Zzzzz...

T has been working so hard. 

His second night in the house since we got home... and he fell asleep on the couch while I was in the shower. Apparently I should have woken him up! But I couldn't bring myself to ❤

45/365 My Funny Valentine

Champagne on the beach with my funny Valentine. February 14 2014.

31/365 Love

Today I got to meet my newest nephew...

Awww, you are BEAUTIFUL little man. You and your darling big brother make my heart sing!

26/365 Happiness Yoga

Our last morning at Green Camp. 'Laughter Therapy'  and Happiness Yoga. Could there be a better way to start the day? 

2/365 Growing up

My darling Hug,

In many ways these months on the road have been both the hardest and the sweetest of days. We are a family of four strong personalities; living and learning and playing and travelling together with a unique intensity. Life can be messy.

But I wouldn't change it for anything... Spending these days with you is an immense privilege. Every day I catch a glimpse of you, like this one, your beautiful face under that trademark shock of hair and am reminded how big you are getting.

How your need for independance and autonomy is building. But that you still need care and compassion and understanding. And love. I hope I can find the grace to both hold you and release you. Already I know I won't be perfect in this task. Possibly not even great, no matter how much I might want to be. I notice myself starting to fixate so I adjust my bearings... It's not about me. 

It's about you my sweet boy. Your life is unfolding.

And I love you so much.

Feeling blue

Lovely.
Feeling blue.

He couldn't have a milkshake.
That makes me blue sometimes too.

#lovethatkid 

Blessed. Our final days with the Gyuto Monks of Tibet.

I don't have the words.

To do these sweetest of days justice.

Blessed. And to-be-forever-remembered.

So I am just going to let the photos speak. x