the swish and curl of her hair…..

love my holi tea and it’s little notes

TV time

donning a hat to pop out to the shop

toe tapping

Get well drawings for a sick cousin…

attempt at a self portrait – Mummies can’t get any alone time! 

apron tied for some baking

puppet show

time to make dinner

Now please do follow on our circle to go see a lady who always inspires me… Val from the Red Balloon Photography and her beautiful family next… and if you’d like to learn more about this fab project with 10 other photographers from around the world go here and go here to see last months when my girls and I were in Istanbul, Turkey..

Until next month, Kirsty xx

Aren’t they just the most loving and adorable family? And isn’t he just such a gorgeous big brother?

And so sweet and caring? Honestly, he took being gentle with baby to a whole new level of big brother protectiveness…

I’m so glad you guys are doing well – and I’ve loved that it gave me a kick to look back on some pictures Kirsty xx

I kid you not… this session was just a delight – from the first time I met them, to our telephone and email exchanges, I just knew they were one of those families on my wavelength….

And the girls – oh, these girls… they are such a credit to what a fun and loving home they’ve been raised in..

they’re not only beautiful, but polite, and kind, and funny, and loving and caring and smart, and chatty and sassy… and all the things I want for my own girls when they become teenagers..

So Mum, I’m keeping your number… and I’ll be in touch in about 8 years… but I’d love to see you again before that to relive this fabulous fun session again – thank you, to all of you, for one of my best shoots, ever… Kirsty xx

PS and yes, that is a filthy old car they’re sitting on – they were fun and up for anything – and I loved it!!!

The day started with a little walk from our hotel to the Blue Mosque – past some random street grafitti – I have no idea what the mushrooms mean but we saw quite a few of them around town!
Spring was in bloom in Istanbul – the girls stopped at every flower they saw – we don’t get flowers here in the desertThe Basilica Cisterns – the girls found them a bit spooky!!Then off for our 2nd trip to the Grand BazaarWe indulged in LOTS of street snacks – fresh juices squeezed right in front of us and the most honey drenched baklava here! The Aya Sofya was amazing – busy with tourists but huge enough that you could still find tranquillity in there – and some kind man offered to take a photo of us when he saw me randomly trying to do the self portrait thing, which was made all the more complicated as Indy’s in the carrier on my back!!!! Yes it’s a total tourist picture but as it’s pretty much the only one of me on holiday with the girls I’ll say yay for getting myself in a photo this month!!!More snacks – ice cream, despite how cold it was, but in a picture perfect spot with the Blue mosque in the backgroundFollowed up with a sugar rush fuelled dancing show for all the fellow tourists walking through Sultanahmet Park!!!!And the stunning Blue Mosque itself

I have to give a HUGE shoutout to all the people who gave me tips via my Facebook page – not only did it turn out two of my clients had lived in Turkey, but so many others gave us tips for the city – I love that this love of travel is shared not only with my kids, but with so many others too – it just makes me smile….

Now you must head on over to see what my gorgeous friend Val at the Red Balloon photography got upto this month, and follow the circle round…

Until next month, Kirsty x

(If you want to learn more about this fab project with 10 other photographers from around the world go here and go here to see last months)

I have to say, I found it really hard to keep this up – to find a moment to capture each and every day – something to remember; something worth remembering – Some days I had more than 1 moment I wanted to preserve and some days none but I pushed myself to pick and choose, to slow down and think and to notice the little things and I did it and I’m thankful for the memories I’ve saved….. now to push myself for the next project….. until then… Kirsty x

I got to know this family over their last year in Abu Dhabi and am so thankful I got to capture them here before they left

They were just the sweetest people to be around

I promise to try and share more loveliness soon – plus, I have my personal projects to catch up on so more of that coming soon too…. until then… Kirsty x

Thanks for looking and enjoying the little moments with me, Kirsty xx

We have a month in our family where all three girls celebrate our birthdays, so instead of starting on January 1st I’m doing it now and documenting it as one picture a day of the little moments in our lives – especially in the lives of my girls. And to push myself to see things differently I’m doing it all in black and white – I’ll write more about that in the next instalment, but for now, here are the first 10 days…

They’re not perfect pictures – they’re not all special “must get the camera out” celebrations – they’re not all posed or smile for the camera pictures – they’re pictures of the every day; the real moments of this month…. Here’s to the little moments… Kirsty x

We created photobooth photo strips for us all – one of each of us, and one of the girls together, one of me and T together and one of all of us and then I put them together into a photo collage!

The girls really didn’t quite understand the concept of a photo booth!! We just don’t have them here – if you want your passport pics doing in Abu Dhai you go to a photo studio!! I let each of us have only 6 photos (I know it’s usually only 4 but I had to give the kids a chance!!) the only stipulation being 1 had to be a nice one, and the others could be as goofy and funny as they liked! We then downloaded them and chose 4 for each strip and put them together in photoshop – we used these photostrip overlays (they work in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) and put them all together. If you don’t have photoshop you could easily do it as a collage project, making a photostrip frame from black card and sticking the individual photos in. (Edited to add: the day after I published this post I spotted this photobooth website on Pinterest - another great alternative to making collages if you don’t have Photoshop!)

Here’s the final version…..

I printed the page up as a 12 x 16 and popped it into a nice simple Ikea frame – and hung it on one of our photo walls – voila! It makes me smile every time I walk by it

Have fun… Kirsty xx

PS For some more fun photo projects see my Instax Heart Project and the Christmas Glitter fun we had

I was soooooo lucky to start out my 2012 on a beach in India. We love India, but visiting the Andaman Islands was amazing – they’re a set of tropical islands, closer to Thailand than India and they are just stunning, and so, so friendly and so different from the normal hustle and bustle of Indian life. I admit, I kinda forgot about this project – I was so very in the chilled out zone whilst away – but these are pieced together from our last morning hanging out at our beach hut in remote North Andaman, before changing and taking a sea plane back down to Port Blair, the capital and heading to Ross Island to visit the ruins of the old British headquarters.We’ve been back just 3 days and I’ve loved this project this month for forcing me to abandon the laundry and tidying of Christmas decorations to sit down and play with some photos and take myself back there… so enjoy a day in the life of the Andamans…

Just hanging out…..Our laundry!!!

In an autorickshaw heading to the sea plane – and I think this qualifies as a picture with me in

Driving the auto!! They really had so much fun – my girls would move tomorrow to a country soley on the basis of it having auto’s or tuk tuks!!!

Waiting for the plane – with our 1 bag (and a good job we travel light too as you can’t take the plane if you have more than 5kg luggage per person!!!) and a view of the beautiful islands as we flew over…..

Saffy sat up front and helped drive the auto from Port Blair airport to our hostel – she was so thrilled with herself (we hired the same driver to take us to the airport the next day to fly back to Delih and so Indy got her turn too!!)

Fresh coconuts….

Exploring the ruins of Ross Island…Abandoned church – the kids loved this because it reminded them of clambering through the temples in Cambodia

Boat back from the island and kulfi from the dockside seller – oh so yummy!!

Dosas for dinner – always a hit, and making sure she got the last drop of her mango lassi!!

That was a much busier day than most of our days on the islands, where we hung out at the beach, or at our hut, or went on a jungle trek or sat around eating parathas all morning, or went to the beach, or to another island… you get the picture…

Now head on over to see a different day altogether with the lovely Andrea,

Until next month, Kirsty xx