Bwahaha I found this on Melinda’s blog, and had to share.  I can so see myself in this!!

So, you know that saying that things happen in 3′s… well all 3 (I think) has happened in the last week.  The question is… is it 3 things a week or a year… ‘cos if it’s not for the year then 2012 is going to be one EXPENSIVE year!!

The 3 things that have happened…

1. Lance somehow dislodged the bottle rack in the fridge and it broke in half.  Thankfully, I’ve managed to find a Samsung Service centre close by, and it’s only costing R120 to replace.  I had visions of buying a new fridge when this happened!!

2. On Monday I dropped my beloved iPhone… and smashed the glass.  It was well and truly buggered up.  After initially thinking I would upgrade to a 4S, I quickly changed my tune after discovering how much that would cost, and thanks to #Twoogle, I found 2 places that repair iPhones. I went on Tuesday morning to get it fixed on the way to work… R1550 later though!! And the place I used, Part Store in Honeydew, was R800 cheaper than the 1st place I tried, G Mobile near Northgate!!

3.  Then this morning, Beauty informs me that the vacuum cleaner started smoking yesterday.  Then she told me that she’d tried to clean the bedroom carpet with soap and water, and dropped the bucket and then decided to use the vacuum cleaner to dry the spill. It’s not a Wet/Dry.  She told me that she was “encouraged” when she noticed bubbles in the filter chamber.  She’s blimmen lucky she didn’t get electrocuted considering it was smoking from the cable!! Anyhoo, because of the huskies I needed another very very powerful vacuum cleaner… so R2000 we’re sorted again (I stopped at Makro at lunchtime today)

This has been one expensive week… not counting the school fees and new uniforms I’ve bought in the last week!!

There goes my idea of buying a couch sometime soon!

I’m going to open a bottle of wine tonight I think

Just a list of randomness from my weekend of slothfulness.

1.  No photoshoots meant that I spent the weekend like I did pre client-shoots… just with the kids… and afternoon naps

2.  I did do some editing and finalising of albums though no rest for the wicked.

3.  Yesterday, we went to Fiona’s little Zoe’s 3rd birthday party.  I had a ball!! The kids loved playing with their friends in the pool, and around the pool, while I drank homemade ginger beer and sangria Was just divine to sit and chat to people I haven’t seen in ages.

4.  We got a skip (those huge big rubbish bins thingies) for random rubbish that we needed to get rid of, as well as a few trees that needed removing.  Andrew is the most incredible gardener that works magic, and he managed to finish chopping both trees down (and don’t moan… the conifer was diseased and the lemon tree wasn’t bearing fruit anymore and I’ve already replanted new shrubs ) and mow the lawn and tidy the garden yesterday.  Anyhoo, the skip was quite something.  We put our household rubbish (you know, old boxes, old broken see-saw and slide, old poles and random scrap metal etc from cleaning up the garden and the left over carport pieces that were mangled) in the skip on Thursday, and then more on Friday… and yet more on Saturday afternoon.  And every time, within an hour, it was magically emptied.  We even heard someone rummaging at 1am on Saturday morning! It worked out perfectly actually, because then there was enough space for the trees!

5. It was hot, the pool isn’t exactly sparkling at the moment, but we swam a lot.  I told Bradley it was like swimming in a dam, he needed to get over himself. The pool is actually clean, but not blue.

6.  I took the dogs to Walkhaven this morning, and they had a ball.  I wore my new wellies so for once I didn’t get my flip flops stuck in the marsh area.  Aren’t they cute!?! They’re covered in jelly beans! It was beautiful there, and I forgot to take my camera… huge regret!! I would have loved to take macro photos of the veld flowers today.

7.  One of my resolutions is to be in more photos this year… I would love to have a shoot in the veld at dusk… in that beautiful light with the gorgeous flowers that are around at the moment.  For now, my wellies are in the photo from earlier today when we had a massive thunderstorm… on Connor.

8.  We have a bowl of nuts in the diningroom, with a nutcracker on hand for snacking.  Kimo got hold of a few nuts this afternoon, and had a bit of a feast by himself.  Silly dog!

9.  I really need to sort the house out this year, we need so much, and it’s going to cost ever so much money

10.  Lance broke the drinks compartment in the fridge… and he can’t fix it.  So this week, in addition to looking for an electrician that’ll actually pitch to do this work (there’s a crap load of work that needs to get done), I have to find a Samsung parts place… or buy a new fridge.  I wish we had a bigger space for a fridge in the kitchen, but one thing I’m considering doing is buying a fridge, and then a small seperate freezer.  Or buying a new fridge, and keeping our current fridge in the garage for extra drinks etc for when we have guests.

And now, I’m going to pour myself a glass of red. Get the kids to bed, and hopefully finish editing a wedding!

OK, this is sad, really sad, and if you’re a softy like me then you’ll cry…

I found a video made by Ben on Alex Beadon’s blog this morning. It was the first thing I read in my reader. The original videos were made by Ben on 18 Dec, which happened to be a week before he died. He died on Christmas night.  I’m going to share the original 2 videos he posted onto Youtube.

They’ve gone viral since his death and I can see why.

I did a bit of Youtube surfing after watching the videos, and this dude was quite incredible.  He had his own Youtube channel too, and I’ll leave you with that… you can go and look at his older stuff…

You need to watch this woman dance. Nicci… hope it’s something you haven’t seen yet, but my word you have to watch it.  I found it on Deb’s blog, and just have to share.

Most incredible pole dancing I’ve ever seen… you need to watch the bit where she’s literally walking… and where she’s parallel to the floor… just AMAZEBALLS!

Bwhahaha!! This is brilliant.  I’m sure my husband can relate to many of these… and I just have to share it… I got this from here:  50 Reasons not to Date a Photographer

1. They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you.
2. On a romantic date, you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”
3. You’ll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines because they’ll point out all the visual flaws.
4. They like to sit in obscure coffee shop and voyeuristically watch people for great lengths of time.
5. If you’re taking a walk outside and you come across some “interesting light” they will make you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.
6. You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals because they’ll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations of the same dish with their iPhone.
7. They get angry when your friends go up to them and say “I am interested in photography, can you recommend a good camera for me?  Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures.”
8. You’ll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum than you’ll wait at the dmv
9. Same goes with old used bookstores.
10. When you think they’re giving you their undivided attention, they’re really wondering how they could fix you with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool.
11. Or they are actually using you to not look so creepy as they people watch everything going on around you.
12. They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than a purse for you.
13. You can’t take a photo with them without taking at least five more.
14. If you ask them if you look fat, they’ll say “don’t worry I can photoshop you later.”
15. They’ll never photoshop something simple for you if the content is not up to their “standards.”
16. That photo they randomly took of you yesterday?  Good luck getting them to send it to you.
17. They spend all their time on the computer (and not for porn.)
18. They can’t have a normal conversation with throwing acronyms and random numbers.
19. They still use film cameras.
20. They spend a lot of time with people cooler than you i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people.
21. They’ll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup.
22. They won’t return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they’re still posting pics on Instagram.
23. They like watching old films that you’ve never heard or will ever understand.
24. They like looking at weird things in general.
25. Instead of having penis-envy, they have camera-gear-envy.
26. If there’s a natural disaster in a far away land, they’re already on a plane going over there.
27. Everything is watermarked.
28. They think everyone else’s photos suck.
29. They want to color correct a lot of scenes from Twilight and Jersey Shore.
30. They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle.
31. Whenever you’re in a group talking and the conversation goes deep, they’re taking notes in some form of Moleskine.
32. They use over priced Moleskine notebooks.
33. They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings filled with health hazards.
34. They always want to show a new photo they took, but don’t really care if you like it or not.
35. They hate your n00bie friend’s new artsy profile picture.
36. Bright, sunny days make them sad, but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!
37. They’ll take you into places that have “culture” as well a high chance of getting mugged.
38. Your birthday present will be a portrait that they’ve taken of you.
39. You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.
40. They will always bug you to be a test subject.
41. Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.
42. Bringing their camera means, bringing 50lbs of equipment.
43. If you break any of their things on accident, you’ll owe them thousands of dollars.
44. You can’t get them a birthday/Christmas present without spending at least $500
45. They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them.
46. They are weird and geeky.
47. They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.
48. They are always secretly judging your creativity.
49. If you’re ever in auto mode, they laugh at you.
50. They orgasm every time they learn a new lighting technique.

I haven’t done this meme in a while, and I’m literally bursting with random things that are not big enough for a post

• I’m driving to Dullstroom tomorrow for a wedding. I’m really really not looking forward to the drive, because I’m going on my own… but the wedding will be gorgeous.
• I’ve been invited to the long-service awards at work… just the thought that I’ve been working at a company long enough for an award makes me feel old
• My hair looks much better when it’s really short… and this week I dyed it a purply shade of red
• I’ve lost touch with most of my friends now I’m quite sad about it but I seriously have no time for myself let alone phoning someone to chat.
• I hate randomly chatting to someone… I can never think of anything to say
• I haven’t got a clue what to buy the kids for Christmas this year.
• We’re trying to plan our big bucket list trip for next year… it was going to be Vic Falls, but that’s ended up being too expensive.  Now we’re thinking Mauritius, but OMG that’s so expensive in April!
• Did you know it would cost us R50k to get to New Zealand to visit Michelle (Lance’s sister) and Marlise… that’s JUST for the flights!! Holy moly I had no idea it would be that expensive!
• I just love getting the Yuppiechef emails… and I want this new toy… a Zoku Quick Pop Maker.  How cool is that?! (excuse the cheesy pun)

I can’t concentrate on my editing tonight, and didn’t take a photo so can’t blog on my photoblog… so what’s a girl to do, other than find a few random thoughts to blog about here…

- I’m so looking forward to my Cape Town trip.  I’m going down to take photos of my aunt (who VERY excitingly has been given the ALL CLEAR by the oncologist this week).  I’m so thrilled!! And I’m going to visit my other aunt and uncle in Hermanus too.  And then, because my weekend isn’t full enough yet, and you know how much I like relaxing… I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to meet up with some Cape Town peeps… so the plan is to meet up with a whole pile of you on Sunday morning at 10am somewhere in Cape Town.  Please please please say you want to meet me and I’ll set up up a tweetup or something.

- I was proud of myself last night ‘cos I set up Mailchimp for a friend last night, and I designed a cool voucher for her using my images from her shoot… oh and by the way, my friend Mandy (of So Divine! fame) is having another pop-up shop next week in Bryanston, details are on her Facebook page.

- I’m chomping at the bit waiting to see the boudoir photos!!  Oooh and excitingly, I’ve booked a boudoir shoot today, so my plans for next year seem to be starting to take shape… with 3 boudoir shoots booked for the next few months already.

- I feel so guilty about leaving the kids alone with Lance for the whole weekend, so I’m taking Friday and Monday off to be with them.

- Cameratek will be seeing me on Friday… I still haven’t got my 50mm f1.4 fixed… I tweeted about that drama… it stopped working even though it’s only 14 months old

- I’ve been invited to attend the African Fashion shindig tomorrow night as a guest of Intel!! How cool!! So I’m doing a spot of shopping in the morning at So Divine’s shop to find a little funky something to wear… Mandy was wearing the most awesome LBD today from SLICK and I think I really need it!

- I turned down 2 shoots in the last week because I decided that type of photography wasn’t my strong suit very proud of myself for saying no.

- Canon announced their new flagship camera, the 1D X … OMW I would LOVE it.  However, not sure where I’ll get the $6800 by March 2012 You should see the video of the shutter speed! OMG!  Ooh and the ISO!! Wow!

- On our next date night, I’m definitely booking at La Cucina di Ciro in Parktown North, their food at this weekend’s wedding was sublime!

- I’ve been watching so many videos lately explaining why photogs need to increase their pricing… so I’m really tempted to hike mine again.

- I read a very eye opening blog post on one of my usual financial blogging haunts this morning about an estimate of 150000 jobs that will be lost in the financial sector in London in the next while.  Really sobering.  And yes, I not only have about 200 photography and lifestyle and mommy blogs on my blog reader, I have work related ones too

Told ya it was random

Anyhoo, hope you read to the end… PLEASE don’t forget to let me know if you want to meet me in Cape Town this weekend!!

• If you’re lugging around a laptop bag that looks like a handbag, then don’t carry a handbag too… you look like a fool (just something I noticed at work this morning)
• Woolies needs to sell nicer vest tops. I’m tired of the shoe string strap ones that Woolies has sold for the last 10 years (or so it feels), I want the more funky, more “in” vests to wear under sleeveless dresses/tops. I want to be able to wear a bra without the straps sticking out. Woolies, you’re forcing me to buy wardrobe staples from Mr Price, and their quality is not great even though their price of R35 for a sleeveless vest is amazing!
• On the subject of clothes, I love love love Tashkaya’s and Slick’s clothes now that I’ve done a shoot with their clothes for Mandy.  Now Tashkaya has the most amazing vests… the fabric is awesome and they’re long so they don’t ride up (I have a grey one)!
• My career is going to change soon, that’s inevitable, the direction however is completely unknown right now and it’s stressing me completely.
• I haven’t taken a photo since Sunday. I can’t remember when last I didn’t use my camera for 5 days.
• Taking photos for myself, and my art, is becoming more of a need… I miss it.
• I haven’t done anything about my bucket list again… ho hum…

It was hectic this weekend… and I’m determined to learn something from everything that happened, so lets see if I can get a lesson spin on the chaos that ensued.

1. To say you’re going to get a rape survivor kit together is easy, to do it is another thing (I donated one at the Slutwalk that took place this weekend). I found myself thinking about every single item that I bought for the bag… and the bag itself.  Would the person like the bag? Would they even want to keep it after the reason they got it?  Is yellow a good colour for a facecloth, maybe it’s too pale considering what you’re trying to clean from your body?  I settled on a nice moisturising soap, after thinking that I’d want to scrub my body raw and I wanted to get something that would help her skin.  I bought lip-ice even though it wasn’t on the list, that’s what I’d like after crying a lot.  The gift that I added was a scarf, a really soft one that she could wrap around her body for more comfort. It was quite an exercise and made me really think.

2. Threatening to not give Connor pocket money is now not working.  He was in top form this weekend, and even ran riot in the shops with a Woolies basket which he walked around Woolies with, using it like a crutch… he had his one foot inside it and clomped around the entire shop shouting his head off… and when I got it away from him he just lay on the ground in the middle of the aisle and refused to move.  And that was the start of the weekend.

3.  I’m not superwoman after all.  After literally running most of the slutwalk trying to take photos, I actually collapsed in a heap after getting home.  We were supposed to go to Wenchy’s house… and I cancelled and had a nap instead. Lance told me I looked like hell… he’s nice hey?!

4.  The dogs make me feel so very guilty for not taking them for walks often enough. Some days Kimo just looks at me and whines it breaks my heart.  I just don’t have the time to take them to Walkhaven and they’re too strong for me on the road if they haven’t been walked for a while.  Lance took them for a run this evening though, so hopefully I’ll cope with them this week

5. I’m feeling cut off from friends right now.  Every invitation we get, Lance is either working or I am, and we don’t get to see anyone… and the kids are now having such boring weekends.  This is not going to get better in the bear future either, considering the number of weddings I have booked.

6. I need to sleep some more, but I have so much editing to get through