Fireworks

Every year between Christmas and New Year, Cowell has a Pyrotechnics Display. Apparantly it's the biggest in the state (outside of Adelaide)................We go most years. Tyla loved it and Halle couldn't care less............LOL!! I decided this year (because I got a new tripod for Christmas - thanks Father Christmas xxx) I would try taking some pics of them. Spent a few nights trawling the internet for advice and tips - found some pretty good photography blogs too.........when I get organised I will link them!

Anyway, here are some of the pics - I took over 100!! The joy of digital.................But don't panic, not posting that many here...............close tho!! LOL! I am happy with the way these turned out - no major editing - cropping and some adjustments to contrast and colour. Will do better next year with my NEW CAMERA!!!

New Years Eve was a bit quiet - we went to the local pub - with about 50 others - it was rockin'! (insert rolling eyes here)! Anyway, by about 11 o'clock I'd had about 2 drinks and was ready to go home (yes......I know, must be getting old)and my brother decided to buy a bottle of Sambucca. I'm sure he did it just to get me, cos that was the end of my quiet night! Love the stuff! Ended up getting to bed about 4am. Woke up with a big headache (surprisingly! LOL) and had a busy day cos of the Sports Day every year at Arno Bay. Thank goodness I wasn't part of the committee this year, so only had to help out a little bit.

The Sports Day was great - lots of people this year (bad year on the farm = people holidaying locally) and it is always a fun day. Weather was good altho a bit windy - nothing new there. Tyla had lots of fun - if you live anywhere in that area, I would recommend the day - it's great. Here's a link to the local government so u can check out the area.........

The next day Friday 2nd was my mum's birthday - the big 6-0 this year! And she looks awesome for 60, I hope I am blesssed with her good genes! I went to Port Lincoln to pick up my Nan -she is nearly 93. While I was there I thought I would price a camera............mmmm............yep, I priced it! And bought it! LOL. I am now the very proud owner of a brand spanking new DSLR - Canon EOS 450D - got the twin lens kit. Have read the manual cover to cover and am now playing and experimenting - trying to use the manual settings. Already have a list of accessories that I want - least of all lens hoods and filters - a bit annoyed that lenshoods don't come standard. I also would like a Faster lens.............one day. So far I am very happy with it - love the DOF control. These aren't all taken with the newby. Can you guess which ones are?Got some more interesting and exciting news for you - but I'm going to leave that until another post! Haha, keep you all wondering! One way to get you to come back for a visit!

Thanks for dropping by - please leave me some love! xxx

3 Trees

Our Christmas Day. :-)

Woke up about 6:45 and sent Peter to Tyla's room to gently "wake her", but just enough so she would wake herself (and not think we woke her! IYKWIM! We had to do this cos we had to leave here at 10:30 and wouldn't have been ready to do that if we slept any later). Peter came running back to bed, and we heard Tyla get up and could hear her looking at the Christmas tree..............she came running to our room "Santa's been, Santa's been............................" SO CUTE! This is what she saw....................

All the noise and commotion woke Halle too - amazing, she is so young, but knew that something special was happening. The look on her face was so precious. She walked out to the toyroom and ran straight to where Father Christmas had left a lovely doll for her - she knew it was her's - no doubt of it! He left Tyla a Pink Scooter, which is just what she had asked him for (5 times)!!
Christmas Eve when we got FC's snack ready for him, Tyla wanted to leave him Juice and Rockmelon and carrots for the reindeer. She'd been noticing that Father Christmas was getting a bit skinny this year so we decided that he must have been on a diet and was exercising and looking after his health - so she wanted to leave him a healthy snack! Kids crack me up.............
Anyway...............took about 1 1/2 hours to do the presents and stuff - sort out which one's to pack and take with us etc. The girls were able to have a quick play with their new stuff, then breakfast and time to leave.

So by 10:30, the car and trailer were packed, kids and big dog in the car, piled ourselves in and we left - was so hard making the girls leave their new stuff behind - we just didn't have room to take too much, but also knew there was going to be heaps more.............

Drove for 1 1/2 hours to Pete's mum's house - had lunch there with his family, and did the present thing with them too............this is their tree.

They always have a live tree - it's lovely. The girls got new beach towels and lots of other cool goodies (can't remember who gave them what atm, will have to go back through it all)! We organised Peter's siblings to all put in together and gave his parents a Lay-Z-Spa like we have - they were stoked!

Left there about 6ish, drove another 30kms to where my parents were, and had the rest of Christmas day there. OMG, it was chaotic at my parents shack. People everywhere...............loud and busy and chaotic!! And Fun! Couldn't even get a decent photo of the Christmas tree cos there was so much going on...............had to keep the girls outside until Mum and Grahame were ready to give them their presents..................

Both girls got new bikes from my parents. Very spoilt.

Had lots of yummy food throughout the day - too much as usual! Everyone was very spoilt (including us)! Another fabulous Christmas Day.

BUT - too much packing and driving and being organised for us..........and too hard on the kids being all over the place - they were so burnt out by the end of the day..........So next year (or I should say this year) we are having Christmas Day here. Any family who wish to join us are more than welcome, but we are staying at our home with our kids.
I hope everyone else had as much fun for Christmas as we did...............it really is such a special and magical time.

I've Lost...........

..............My Site Counter!! Does anybody know how to retrieve it?? I really don't want to have to start my count again from scratch! Anybody remember roughly where it was upto? I think it was about the 3000 mark..................
Oh and re The Blog Awards.......copy and paste the award to your comp, then when you are making your new post, click on the "Add Image" Icon above and insert as you would add a photo.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Awards..........

I've been nominated for a couple of BLOG Awards...wow, considering there has been no scrapping on here for quite some time, I'm very honoured!

Big thanks to Kylie for this nomination:

The Rules for the Kreativ Blogger Award are :

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.

2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to their blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So, I am going to nominate........................Maryanne, Tiff, Beck, Beth and Ali.

Thanks ladies, I find you and your work inspirational................check out their Blogs - well worth the visit! And thanks Kylie for the nomination - go check out her blog too...........

And another award from Ness......................this award is a bit different......I feel very special to have received this one too. Thanks Ness - go check her blog out too.............

"These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

And the nominees are......................(insert Drumroll here...........)..............................

Kylie, Tracey, Belynda and the 5 ladies from above.....................LOL!

So, that covers the awards. LOL!

We're going away again this weekend, just a quick trip, so will update on our Christmas and New Year when we get back - lots of photos to share, I bet you can't wait....................Hehe!!

Christmas Lights

Wow, how hard is it to successfully photograph Christmas lights? Thank goodness for digital cameras - I spent about an hour last night taking photos on all different settings - these are the best of the bunch! LOL. Doesn't truly indicate how great the lights look, but gives you the idea. We've had lots of fun putting these up this year - first time we have really made an effort with them - actually spent money on them this year, not just using hand-me-downs from my parents. I think all the accessories cost just as much as the lights - timers, leads, solar spotlights etc. This had better all be packed away PROPERLY and SAFELY after New Year or I am gonna be very p'd off!! LOL.
We don't have any decorations inside the house - just the tree, cos we have put all our energies into the outside - and cos we are on a corner, gave us lots of area to "Light Up".

Anyway, we are really really happy with our end result.

Front of house from across the road - lots of trees in front, so is a bit obscured, but you get the idea.

Side of house.

Front of house from corner of street, looking across the driveway.

In the front yard, looking at carport.

Part of front of house, taken in front yard.

Carport Roof.

And the Blow-Ups during the daytime - when it's not TOO WINDY to have them up, anyway.
So, these are our lights! What do you think? Gotta see them in real life to really get the effect, so this is the best I could manage.
And to top it off, we found out last night, we won a prize for "Best Decorated House"! Not sure what the prize is yet, but considering we didn't even know there was a competition, gotta be happy with that!!LOL!