Sunday 29 September 2013

New lens.

Hey friends,
After my 50mm lens randomly broke, and the jerks wouldn't cover it even under warranty, I decided to splash out on a new portrait lens.
I got this 85mm bad boy at a pretty sweet price on trade me.
If anyone is interested in having their portrait taken, or needs something photographed, I would love to do it and need as much practice as I can get, so get in touch (:

These are a few quick photos of around the house while I was trying to get my bearings.
























































































Chris took those last two photos of his parents (:

Saturday 28 September 2013

Week 17.

A portrait of Plummy.


Thursday 19 September 2013

Week 16.


























Four months old today.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Waiheke Island

It was my birthday last week, & in the days leading up, Chris started getting pretty suspicious.
I tried not to ask too many questions, but I really just don't have the patience for surprises. It's actually incredible, when I think about it, that I had to twist Chris' arm to not find out the baby's gender, seeing as he is SO the patient one.
Anyway, he rented a little cabin in the bush on Waiheke for the weekend & it was glorious.
My beautiful mum coerced us to come & see her at Little & Friday (work on my birthday ! No !) but she cooked us the most amazing breakfast ever & we enjoyed some mighty sunshine before heading over on the car ferry.

























The weather was insanely beautiful over there, it's so close to Auckland but the weather here pales in comparison. I finally understand what all the fuss is about.


























On the boat over. This guy. Is my jam.




























The place we stayed was literally in the bush. It was so teeny and had a loft bed with a library ladder to get there. I wont get into the logistics of getting a baby up a library ladder every night, but it was still awesome. Also, the wildest spiders ! One of the nights we woke up and turned the light on and saw a spider the size of my hand crawling on the outside of our window.

We mostly spend the weekend going on long, long walks, perusing the morning markets, lying in the sun & eating. A lot. The people of Waiheke are so friendly, we couldn't believe it.




























Also, the freesias ! Holy shit, the whole island smelt like a dream ! They were everywhere. I made Chris drive me around on the last day hunting for them, & I brought back bunches and bunches of them for my house.


























Willow 'driving'.



The whole weekend was beautiful & I can't wait to go back in the summer when it's a bit warmer & I'm brave enough to go for a swim.
x

Sunday 15 September 2013

The end of the project.



Hey lovely people who have been following the project, it is now over.
I didn't quite make it to the very end, but I'm okay with that.
It's been so great & I am so grateful to have such an amazing opportunity to record our little ones earliest days.
The 100 days project is on every year starting in June, & I can't recommend it highly enough.
Follow them on facebook to get the heads up next year, it is the best creative challenge you can give yourself, & I will definitely be signing up again next time !

As for this space here, I will continue using it to document Plum baby's life & some of my photography & other projects.

Thank-you all for your kind words and support x
Holly

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Day 91.

It is so hard for me to articulate this post, I actually had to record myself explaining it and try to scribe it from that. This is the best I could do;
I feel like I haven't been entirely honest with this blog.
There is a thing that has come to exist through the world of blogging, instagram, facebook.
Life envy. People are taking photos & snippets of the best parts of their lives, and presenting them online in this neat little package for us to all marvel over. I actually don't think there is anything wrong with this. I actually think it is important in helping us to focus on the best aspects of our lives, to capture memories, to be able to look back and think, wow, my life has been amazing so far.
I think the problem comes from us looking at our own lives, the behind the scenes parts: doing the dishes, being in our pajamas until midday, having a mountain of washing to fold.
And then we read blogs, and we compare our behind the scenes, with other peoples highlight real.

We have had a hard couple of weeks. Not consistently like every single hours is hard, but just quite a few things have been popping up that are pretty tricky to deal with.
I don't think I have purposely been avoiding writing about these things so that my life appears to be better than it is. I think it can just be difficult to find words to explain these more complex issues. And how to explain it without seeming like I'm constantly complaining ? Do i really want to expose such personal issues ?
I'm writing this post almost a week late, but on this day, day 91, I had my worst day to date.
I cried twice, and I usually never cry. Chris had to come home from work and help me. Plummy didn't sleep for 16 hours in a row & I got so stressed and beside myself I felt completely helpless.
I thought about one of my favourite blogs theroadishome. I love this blog because I feel I can relate to it. Nirrimi had her daughter Alba when she was 19, she had a hypnobirth/water home birth. She is a photographer, & they focus on eating raw/vegan foods directly from their garden. It's everything I love/do/dream. But on this day, her romantic dreamy life made me feel completely alone (& to be honest kind of worthless). It seems like she has never as a mother experienced how I felt on that day.
But when I really started to think about it, if you read my 100 days project, it wouldn't really look like I had, either.
I have a lot of friends who have little bebs and a few friends who are about to pop any day. I realised that it wasn't fair to them, to only see my highlight reel.
I want people to read about Willow's life, and our life, and feel positive about it, but also to know that it's okay when you have the day from hell and you can't manage to get your baby to sleep and your hair is crazy.
It is a really, really beautiful experience to be a parent, but there are hard days.

So. Here are some truths.

Willow started waking through the night.

We have been using disposable nappies a LOT.

About a month ago a couple I had met at the Hypnobirthing classes had their baby. They had trouble establishing a milk supply, and so they sent an email out desperately calling for milk donors.
I really enjoyed donoring and helping them out, hearing about little Luka regaining his strength and health. We kept it up for about three weeks & now Fiona seems to have established a pretty decent supply.
The downsides of donoring; spending three days straight expressing milk to build my milk supply. Including waking in the night to pump milk. Plugged milk ducts. Hyperlactation. Split nipples. Breast engorgement. Sterilising equipment CONSTANTLY. One night I put all the breast pump equipment in a pot to boil and then went to sleep (overtired). Woke up the next morning to find it boiled down to black plastic syrup. My house smelt like fumes, my favourite expensive pot was ruined, and we spent $90 replacing the equipment.

I hope this has been enlightening.
Here is a reminder of how cute Plummy is.


Day 90.

Spent the day at the community garden.




Tuesday 3 September 2013

Day 89.

This morning, after Chris went to work, Willow vomited on his pillow. Then laughed.
Prankster.




Day 88.

These two cuties.

Day 87.

Happy fathers day to the greatest person in my life.
I look back on almost a daily basis, to the night I asked if you could pick up a second pregnancy test on your way home from work. In hindsight, it's pretty obvious what the result is if you need a second test.
I remember pacing back & forth, waiting. Cursing you working nights.
You seemed so shocked, but you were on my team no matter what I wanted to do. There was no question in my mind, that I would follow through. That I would take responsibility for my mistake. And you were right there, matching me point for point.
Thank-you thank-you thank-you.


Day 86.

Sorry guys. I have really, really hit my rut. So close to the end ! I take the photos and stuff, I'm just really lazy with uploading the posts. And my lens broke ! :(
You can all look forward to lots of iPhone photos.

On this day we were just so busy. Because I can't drive, we have to do all our errands on the weekends.
Still, it's nice. We dropped off bags & bags of my old clothes to a recycled clothing store, went to the chiropractor, had lunch at the delicious raw vegan cafe Little Bird in Ponsonby. It was wildly busy, really delicious, but kinda pricey.
Spent the evening strolling around with two of my closest friends, Freya & Eloise, before heading up to George's house for yumyum stir fry & raw carrot cake.
I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great people. I feel in a constant state of inspiration & a drive to constantly better myself every time I spend time with friends.
Thanks peeps.