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

Seriously, this boy has attitude! 

The makings of a rockstar. 

Thank you so much Luke and your lovely Mum for making my morning so much fun – I loved hanging out with you.  Kirsty xx

Yesterday, for Chinese New Years eve the girls got to dress up in their special qipao’s and perform at a CNY dinner – I had such a proud Mummy moment as they bravely stood in front of 200 strangers and sang away in their second language and received the hugest cheer

I thought in celebration of Chinese New Year it’d be fun to share some pictures from when the girls and I spent a month in Shanghai last summer…..

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

Now I should enter a disclaimer that I do think I must be ever so slightly crazy to mix 2 kids, lots of glitter and 3 expensive DSLR cameras, so use your own judgement on this…..

First of all, take a sheet of card, sprinkle thinly, but across a wide area with glitter, sequins, sparkly shapes etc, etc…. let the kids choose their own – we did one each and then lined them up so we could take pictures of each others

For some simple and pretty bokeh fun and patterns just meter the camera yourself, or put on A mode with the lowest aperture your camera will go to – set it to the middle focus point and hand over for the kids to experiment…

The kids did really well – they loved playing, then using a paintbrush to rearrange their sparkles and taking again….

For some extra fun follow this tutorial on how to get shaped bokeh – we made a lens cover with a heart shape cut out and played some more – super extra pretty…..

They may not be the best most sparkly bokeh pictures ever but I think they’d look great printed for Christmas cards or gift tags – and the girls were so happy with their sparkly pictures.

Have fun…… Kirsty xx

Big brother used to be on my site from when he was teeny – but look at him all grown up and handsome…

but little brother had never sat in front of my camera before

they rocked it!

it blows me away when I get so many adorable shots in just 20 minutes!!!!!!! Kirsty x

If you’ve followed this blog you’ll have seen something of the UAE and the celebrations of National Day before here and here.

This week has been filled with parties, fly pasts, concerts, singing, dancing, competitions, fireworks and the whole city has taken on an air of celebration.

If you’re on my Facebook page you’ll have seen my girls all dressed up for their school party and getting into the fun of the celebrations.

For us it’s more than a 1 day party – this is the country where one of my children was born and she’s incredibly proud of it – and just as we celebrate Chinese New Year for Saffy who was born in China, we are thrilled to be part of the celebrations for National Day here in the UAE for Indy.

She may not be Emirati, but UAE will always be part of her identity. 

The girls indulged me a little photo shoot for 5 minutes after school while they were still dressed up in their kandora’s and with some of the gifts they’d been given by their Emirati class mates.

These are just outside our flat – we live slap bang in the middle of the most congested area of town – it’s not the prettiest part but we love it here

So, to all my fabulous friends – Happy National Day – hope you’re getting into the spirit of the celebrations (yes, we even have flags on our car!) and enjoying the long weekend… until next time, Kirsty x

Once Tobi was all modelled out the rest of us headed down to the beach for a play on the sunbeds….

and a totally gorgeous hazy sunset…

Love the families I get to meet – yet again I can’t believe I haven’t blogged these sooner…. but I’m on a roll now so maybe you’ll see more… till then, Kirsty xx

when I was looking back through this years clients I could hardly believe I’d not shared them..

are they just adorable or what??

I hope you’ve all settled back into life in England and have happy memories of Abu Dhabi hanging on your walls

I could have shared all the pictures from their shoot I loved them so much but I’ll be back to share some more client gorgeousness soon, Kirsty x

Courtney Courtney clothing is just perfectly ME – a brand where all the clothing is made from old, recycled, upcycled fabrics – her clothes are just darling, and work perfectly for on to go kids like mine… 

Living in an apartment in town, and having no garden we keep a swing in the boot of our car, for when we find the perfect tree… so I took Indy down to the woods one afternoon and we had fun capturing these of her in her new Courtney Courtney dress…

I loved having this time with her – I’ve missed hanging out with her, just the two of us, since she started at school – her giggles are infectious, and she throws herself into everything she does with passion.

This dress has barely come off for 3 days now – her other dress from Courtney was on for three days before that – you’ll see some pics of that one soon… but until then head on over to her FB page and get yourself on her mailing list – I’m on the lookout for a perfect swirly skirt for each girl! 

Hope you’re all enjoying the Eid holidays as much as Indy and I are… Kirsty xx