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

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

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

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

My kids actually wear uniform to school but in the interests of creativity I decided to ask them what they’d wear if they had their own choice!!

I totally, wholeheartedly approve of their choices – they seem somewhat Kate Middleton inspired, a mix of high street and designer – a bit of GAP, Mothercare, Monsoon and Next with a bit of Stella McCartney and Polo thrown in!!

I’d have loved to have done these outside but man, it’s still so hot here in Abu Dhabi…. so we had to make do with our living room and our Ikea table and stools and chalkboard!! But I am so not complaining!

Saffy LOVES her school and I’m so thrilled about that – I’m hoping this rubs off on her feisty little sister!!

It’s a big year for Saffy too because she enters Year 1 – in the big school, where they get to play in the big playground and do “proper” lessons – not sure what she’s been doing the last 2 years if not proper lessons

If you see me in the supermarket these few days and I’m looking a little down it’s cos I’ve lost my trusty sidekick , my fellow Starbucks girl, my trip to the park playmate, my arts and crafts advisor and my all day long hand holder…. and she’s growing up far. too. fast….

If you’ve had little ones head off to school for the first time and celebrated with pictures come back and share a link with me – or if your big ones have headed back for a new term – I’d love to see how you all captured it.

Happy back to school week, Kirsty xxx

This was just us, down at the beach one afternoon, just the girls jumping in the waves, just me, playing some more with my new toy (my lensbaby!) and each time I play I fall more and more in love… my 2 little sunlit loves, Kirsty xx

PS Edited to add I was super excited that this session was featured on let the kids

I’ve mentioned before how I love the quietness and calm that spreads across the city during Ramadan – that I love that we get to spend more time together as a family and my hubby is home earlier. It’s a quiet time for my business too with it being summer and so hot outdoors and that allows me to work on some other things. Every year I challenge myself to a Ramadan photo project (although I never actually got around to posting it last year – oops). This year was simple – after the fun of capturing my family on my iphone for my Project 10 last month – I decided to capture snaps of Ramadan on my iphone too. Sometimes it’s fun to just take photography back to its bare bones – where the things that make a great photo are not your about your settings or your camera, but about choice of subject, use of lighting and composition. So, here are some of the things I found interesting this Ramadan, via my iphone…

I have a real love of patterns and food, so pictures of dates and sweets are the kind of things that make me smile. We also went to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for iftar as we do every year and every year the building amazes me more. We spent time at the beach where we could hear the prayer call echoing out across the city right as the sun went down. 

I hope you all have a wonderful few days with your families. I’ll be up and running and taking bookings again soon  (with some changes in my fees due to a change in family circumstances – keep on eye on my Facebook page for more on that).

Eid Mubarak to one and all, Kirsty x