Win! The Perfect French Linen Tablecloth

Strawberries anyone?

If you're ANYTHING like me, you've been eating them by the bucketful recently. I totally and utterly heart them. The perfectly-imperfect ones from the local farmers market are always the best too - those über-huge supermarket ones can be disappOINTING CAN'T THEY. 

Oops, cap locks. I got a little excited there. Understandably.

Annnnnnyway, enough about my strawberry fetishes ;)

Who wants to win a beautiful linen tablecloth from La Mia Bella Casa?! 

Drool over the pictures, and I'll add the dirty details below...

I took these photos for La Mia Bella Casa a few months ago and fell in love with the tablecloths. They were the first things we shot together, and they made me all french-linen-fetishy!!!

Now, in celebration of Spring and strawberries and picnics and all things fabulous, they have decided to give one away, and all you have to do is 'like' their facebook page to be in the running. That's it. 

And then come back here and tell me below where your favourite picnic spot is! - Okay, that's not actually part of the competition but I'd love to hear ;) Jump to it! 

Amber. XO

p.s. This is not a sponsored post; I'm just sharing my photos and personal thoughts, and a link to their FAB competition - because I really want one of my readers to win! xx

Bringing Sexy Back: Winged Liner and Hot Red Lips

Last night’s L’Oreal ProBlogger event was a LOT of fun. 

Pretty, sparkly, no-little-boys fun! Whooooop! #justwhatineeded :)

I hadn’t been able to work out what the approach of the night would be - so I was thrilled to hear practical advice on applying our everyday AND event makeup. The beautiful duo of Elsa Morgan and Jane from L'Oreal Paris Australia talked us through the "tool kit", while makeup artists worked onstage with models so we could see the work in progress. Lots of blending and contouring and skin perfection!

My personal favourite look { gorgeous skin aside; drink water people!! } was featured; Winged Liner. And apparently I’ve been applying mine back to front - Who knew?!! I always start at the inside of the eye and work outwards - but the TIP is to start with your wing line and work back from there, filling it in as you go. Time will tell if I can work in reverse ;) 

Here is a step-by-step:

The other look that I loved was the Bold Red Lip. I was slightly enamoured with Erin-the-makeup-artist's look: superstar RED lips with black rimmed glasses. Such a STUNNING look. It always makes me wish I needed glasses!! That's crazy, right BUT TRUE. Well, I didn’t exactly lose my eyesight but I DID get the red lips! And loved them #heartemojis

I didn’t get any good photos but you can see one here on my instagram { please excuse the dodgy iPhone 4 photography - the camera SUCKS in low light! } 

We also got sent home with a very generous pack o-delights. Yay!

So the QUESTION is - What do you think was in our L'Oreal goodie-bags?! The reader who can guess at least 2 of the products will win a little kit of nail polishes!! I'll post worldwide :) Good luck!

Amber. XO

p.s. Leave your answers below!

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

My fiery heart.

Our Sunday had started with a lazy lie-in { bliss! } and bircher muesli and coffee and sunshine and plans with friends -  we were seriously on track for #bestdayever - and then, T pulled a muscle in his back :( 

Sob.

He's been working so hard and travelling so much... and missing us. And we've missed him like crazy too. And then he's here and in pain - it's just awful. Booooooo.

I asked if he wanted to stay home. But he said no. We had brunch on the beach at Wategos and in the afternoon we hit the road... friends had invited us to a bonfire on their property an hour to the south. 

It was a beautiful clear night and I planned to not take any photos because I'd been snapping through the day and sometimes it's nice to just be. The kids jumped on the trampoline and played dog-soccer and baked Danish 'bread on a stick' around the pre-bonfire pit-fire and we got to know some new people. Our friends have built { stage one of } an amazing house - it's completely inspired - a real-life Grand Design set on 40 acres of Australian bushland with kangaroos { we saw a baby 'Roo as we drove in! } and God knows what else running free?! - oh yes! - a bunch of gorgeous wild kids ;) Ours included!

Fun.

But then they lit the big fire.

And as I walked towards it and saw everyone silhouetted by the amazing fiery light... I turned around and went and got my camera. Sometimes a photographer just can't say no!! 

Night + fire is a mesmerising mix for young boys too. We didn't stay late { I wanted to get my husband home, man this one is a trooper #keepinghim } but the boys had the best time - until the marshmallow sugar-rush hit and it all went downhill fast. Hahaha.

So, here are my photos that I wasn't going to take. I hope you like them. 

When was your last bonfire / camp-fire experience?
Amber. XO

{p.s. Thanks so much to Dana and Stefan for inviting us! We can't wait to return the favour. x }