10 on 10 April 2015

It’s 10 on 10 time again!

If you missed last months 10 on 10 post… in my quest to improve my photography skills, I’ve joined a group of my delightful Clever Cookie School of Blog friends in a photography project called 10 on 10.

Its a lot of fun and a great way to document family life as my2morrows continue to grow like weeds!

Here’s how it works:

1. We pick a day and take 10 photos. Luckily this group are pretty flexible and the photos don’t have to be all from one day. They can be 10 favourite photos from the last month or 10 photos in 10 minutes. You get the drift.
2. We then all share them in a blog post on the 10th of the month with a link to the next person in the circle who links to the next person and so on and so on.
3. You then pop the kettle on, brew a pot of tea {T2 ‘Autumn’ is my absolute fave} and follow the links, winding around the whole circle until you get to the end.
4. You’ll be inspired and may even discover some new blogs to add to your regular reading list.

So, here’s my favourite 10 photos from the last month…

Early autumn in Sydney means taking full advantage of those last sunny beach days. These pics were from an impromptu beach visit after Master 5’s Little Kickers class on Sunday morning. So much joy to be had jumping in puddles!

Domino fun {thanks Woolies}

We kicked of Easter celebrations with Miss 5’s first school Easter Hat Parade. So much cuteness and some of those hats deserve a medal!

And we continued the Festival of Chocolate with the Annual Easter bake off at work. I knocked up this Easter Bunny Bark {Recipe by Bake Play Smile} #icantquitsugar

We had the best Easter Sunday with the friends we call family. Team brekkie, Easter egg hunt for the kiddies, an 8.5km family bike ride {to work off all those Easter eggs} and fish and chips for dinner by the lake with the ducks and this view.

After 14 years of living in Sydney, it was time to bite the bullet and finally get along to the Royal Easter Show. We had the best family day. Rides, Ninja Turtles show, animals, every kind of food you could want… on a STICK, fairy floss and of course showbags, showbags and more showbags!

My2Morrows were amazingly well behaved {could have had something to do with the showbag bribery} and we’ve now started an annual family tradition!

Now be sure to check out the next 10 on 10 in the circle… The lovely Jo from You Had Us At Hello, and don’t forget to follow the circle until the end, leaving some comment love as you go.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to follow my2morrows on facebook, I’d love to see you there!

10 on 10 March 2015

One of my goals this year is to get better at taking photos. I’m a pretty lazy photographer. Actually, I can’t even call myself that… I’m more of a photo taker. The point and shoot kind. The ‘simple mode’ kind. That’s if I can even be bothered getting the real camera out at all. Most of the time, I just use my phone. Because… convenience.

But goals are set to be achieved, or at least attempted, so with that in mind, I’ve joined a group of my delightful Clever Cookie School of Blog friends in a photography project called 10 on 10.

Here’s how it works:

1. We pick a day and take 10 photos. Luckily this group are pretty flexible and the photos don’t have to be all from one day. They can be 10 favourite photos from the last month or 10 photos in 10 minutes. You get the drift.
2. We then all share them in a blog post on the 10th of the month with a link to the next person in the circle who links to the next person and so on and so on.
3. You then pop the kettle on, brew a pot of tea {T2 ‘Autumn’ is my absolute fave} and follow the links, winding around the whole circle until you get to the end.
4. You’ll be inspired and may even discover some new blogs to add to your regular reading list.

So, here’s my very first 10 on 10. My favourite 10 photos from the last month…

Twilight at Taronga.

A few of my favourite things…

I’ve been loving the walk to school with this cherub

Our quick week end in Port Macquarie

If everything could ever feel this real forever… My Rock God Dave Grohl. Such an amazing gig!

My little garden friend. He’s been with me since my Bachelorette days.

My other zen friend

A girl and her doggie. Bff’s!

So cheeky, so perfect!

The 4 of us!

Now be sure to check out the next 10 on 10 in the circle… The lovely Di from Lime & Soda and don’t forget to follow the circle until the end, leaving some comment love as you go.

Enjoy!

Clever Cookie School Of Blog – Freshly Baked Graduate

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed back in August, when I came across this post…

And it got me thinking…

Hmm, I should totally do that course and finally start blogging as my blog had just been sitting there idle for over five years.

And it wasn’t just any blog course, it was run by Chantelle of Fat Mum Slim fame. For those not familiar with Chantelle, she’s an uber talented, creative, successful Aussie blogger, voted 2013’s most clickable woman, founder of the famous #fmsphotoaday challenges and Little Moments App. Together with the equally talented and creative Rowe, an Australian natural light portrait and commercial photographer and co-founder of 3 Annie’s, creators of beautiful leather camera bags – these two creative souls who first met fifteen years ago while both working as nannies in Sydney had spent years brainstorming, dreaming and putting together this course.

So this wasn’t just any old course. If I was going to do a blogging course, this was the one for me. You see it was Chantelle who originally inspired me to want to start a blog all those years ago via her letters to Lacey.

I had just had my first baby, was on mat leave and wanted to start documenting life as a new parent and write letters to my new little miss. I only ever intended to set it to private, it would just be for me to look back on in years to come.

But life got in the way, two babies in two years and next thing I knew… five years felt like five minutes and although I thought about it an awful lot, I had still not started that blog…  And then I saw the Clever Cookie Facebook post, and not long after, I saw this one…

And before I knew it, I had handed over my money and was enrolled in the first intake of The Clever Cookie School of Blog and was sitting on my couch with a glass of wine nervously thinking to myself “Crap… what have I just done? Now I really have to start that blog!”

I’d been wanting to do something like this for a while now. Something just for me, to inspire, to keep my brain active and ultimately gain enough courage to finally start that blog and what the hell… maybe even make it public. HUGE deal for me.

Some people choose Sudoku or crosswords to keep their mind active, I choose blog school.

I received my gorgeous clever cookie welcome pack in the mail and the next week was spent goal setting and learning how to use wordpress, chosing a template and getting the blog as ready as possible for blog school. Then the night before the course started I thought.. shit, it’s all well and good to have a blog, but I really should actually post something!

Clever Cookie Welcome Pack and my original goals set.

Then the back and forth in my mind started. Well what should I do my first post on? It can’t just be on any random topic. Oh the pressure! It was Father’s Day that day and I though bugger it, I’ll just write and see what comes to mind and this is what I ended up nervously pressing publish on.

Short n sweet to start with and the feedback I received gave me a spring in my step for that entire week and from that point on, I think I had what they call ‘the bug.’ Yep, as I’d heard, blogging is rather addictive.

Since that first post, I’ve published five more posts and in four weeks I’ve learnt a truckload of stuff through this inspiring course. Everything from photography to finding your voice. I’ve heard first hand from super inspiring, creative successful individuals like Zoe Foster-Blake, Nikki Parkinson from Styling You fame, Hailey Bartholomew and many more clever contributors.

Being a marketer I thought I was pretty up with some of this stuff, but I have been blown away by the course content and now have a list longer then my leg of things to master and keep me challenged. Things like this…

Created at http://www.worditout.com

Rowe and Chantelle have been simply amazing, sharing their knowledge with so much passion and have been there every step of the way to answer our silly questions and provide guidance.

I’ve been inspired more than I thought possible and I honestly never would have found the courage to start this blogging journey without this course.

The community of Clever Cookies have been so supportive and I can’t wait to meet the Sydney based Cookies IRL (that’s in real life in blog speak) when we get together for our graduation celebration in a couple of weeks.

So Chantelle and Rowe, thank you thank you for pouring your everything into this course and for being there every step of the way. What you have created with Clever Cookie is something very special and I’ve learnt so much from you both.

I’ll be forever grateful for the connections I’ve made with this awesome group of like minded Cookies who will no doubt continue to support and inspire each other for years to come.

In Chantelle’s words…

“Time to throw confetti and pop the champagne! The world is your cookie!”

School my be out, but this little blogging adventure has just begun!

If you think Clever Cookie School of Blog may be for you, check it out here. Highly recommend you do!