Anna Says - How to Get Children To Smile At The Camera

Taking photos of children can either be a simple joy or a big fat pain in the big fat butt. Trying to co-erce a smile from a grumpy baby is near impossible. Crazy six year olds don't always want to pose and do a proper smile and don't get me started on three year olds! 

But having photographs of your children at different stages is important {here is where I could share that there are very few photos of me as a child, as I am the youngest of four etc etc, but I won't...}. I did a bit of surfing and came up with some great tips on how to take nice photos of your kids. Oh, and you will get a peak at how the 'Cool Kids' are shaping up.

Photopoly is a great website for all sorts of photography things. I gleaned these 6 tips from their site, they made a lot of sense to me....

1) Make the camera an everyday device

I have to say that I have noticed our children are much happier to have photos taken since my camera has been out and used more and more. We also take photos on our iPhones and with my compact Fuji all the time, so it is something that is just a natural part of our family life.

2) Bend Down, Stoop, Crouch, Kneel

Get down on their level. It just makes sense to make the experience as natural and organic as you can make it. You want relaxed happy faces, not fake, threatened ones. Clearly, I need to get better at this - no photographic evidence! Ha ha!

3) Take Advantage of Good Light

We have taken some stunning photos in the late afternoon/early evening when the light comes in at a low angle. It makes for photos full of halycon moments. The light at the beach is amazing too!

4) Tweak Your Composition

Instead of thinking that you need to have a head and shoulder shot against a white wall - try to fill the frame with your child - close ups and super close ups can be truly cute! Also, take note of what is in the background, if it is too busy, you lose your child in it. Photopoly suggest grass or trees as a background. If you can use a wide aperture and get a blurry background, you will also get the same effect.

5) Don't Make Them Pose For You

Keep it natural. I like to think of taking photos of my kids like a trip to the zoo - I take photos of them in their natural environment and doing their own thing.

6) Take Age Into Consideration

Taking photos of crawling babies is hard. You have to take lots of photos to get that one decent picture. We have lots of photos like the one below, BabyCool doesn't always smile nicely for the camera! But, he was enjoying his first birthday cake! With digital technology, we can afford to take twenty photos to get one good one. 

More Ideas....

Some other great ideas could be to get your kids to act out emotions. I got this idea from the fabulous blog - Be A Fun Mum.... Try - happy, sad, scared, thoughtful, princess etc... There are some more great photography tips on this blog. Click HERE to read more....

I then used the program 'Picasa' to make them into these collages. Picasa is a free download and allows you to edit and do cool things with your photos.

And finally, to wrap up... 

Here are some more B style tips...

1) Take your photos OUTSIDE - get some colour and life into those backgrounds! Try photos in the rain, on a windy day, with leaves etc etc.

2) Don't always take photos of your kids when they are looking at you. Photos of your children looking at something or enjoying life are wonderful. This is one of my very favourite shots of BabyCool - it is his first experience of sand {this was taken seconds before his first TASTE of sand ;0) }

3) Use your phone to take photos and then get some good apps.... I love Instagram, Bokeh Booth and Diptic. There are hundreds of them. Such a great way to add filters and fun to your pictures. The photo below is of Miss Z at a wedding, filtered through Bokeh Booth for iPhone.

Go out today and take some photos of your little cherubs. There will never be another today and....

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.

Eudora Welty

Friday Food - B's Pizza {I can't believe I am sharing this one!}

We have reached a point in our lives where making pizza when friends come for dinner is now socially acceptable. Most of our friends have children and I only know of one child {mine} who does not like to eat it. It is a very social thing to share slices of pizza and chat away the evening with friends, add some wine too, of course.

I have been really been taking my pizza making seriously this year {I know, it is a little sad}. I have finally perfected the dough. The toppings. The cheese and have invested in some 'pizza stones'. And I am now about to reveal how to make fabulous-better-than-a-pizzeria pizzas.

I make my pizza dough in a breadmaker. The dough is beautiful and soft and so easy to work with. I do love working with bread doughs! If you don't have a bread maker, you could use this recipe... Click. Give yourself enough time though - bread dough needs to rise and be knocked back etc.


I like to use bottled pasta sauce instead of store bought 'Pizza Sauce' or tomato paste. I find that they are too dry and too... sticky. Pasta sauce keeps the pizza moist without overpowering it with that intense paste taste. I also think that tomato paste is best used in sauces where it can cook out a bit. You could make your own tomato sauce with sauteed this and that - but I usually make pizza as a relaxed easy to put together meal, so a night with no saucepans is the aim.


As for toppings, you can go crazy, add anything that takes your fancy. But... less is more. Don't overload your pizza. Just add a few of a few things - if that makes sense!? Choose really good ingredients but don't be tempted to copy the Dominoes menu - go for something unique to you. 

B's Pizza

Pizza Dough
Prep Time: 2 minutes
'Cooking' Time: Dough: 1 1/2 hours {in my bread maker} Pizza: approx 15-20 minutes
Serves: Makes enough for 4 X 25cm pizzas 
This makes 32 slices - enough for four greedy hungry adults and a couple of kids


Ingredients
300ml of water
50 ml of olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups of bread flour {plain flour is fine}
2 1/2 tsp yeast


Method


1. Put all the ingredients into your breadmaker IN THE ORDER LISTED ABOVE.

2. Turn your bread maker on to the 'Dough' setting.
3. After about 1/2 an hour check on the dough. If it is all sloppy, add a few more spoons of flour. If there is still dry flour, add a smidgen more water. If you have had to make adjustments, check on the dough again in 10 mins. It should be a nice neat ball of dough.

The Toppings

Must Haves...

Pasta Sauce 

Masterfoods Pizza Topper

Cheese

B's Favourite

Bocconcini

Mushrooms

Tomato

Salami

Method


1. When your dough is about 10 minutes from being finished, put your 'pizza stones' into the oven and turn it on to 220 degrees Celcius.

2. Cut up and prep all of your ingredients.

3. When the dough is ready, give it a quick roll on a floured board and divide it into four.

4. Roll out the dough or use your hands to stretch it out. If you are feeling brave, you can toss it in the air! 

5. Make 4 cartouches - these are circles of non-stick paper - saves so much time washing up!


a) Tear off a piece of baking paper about the size of your pizza stone 

b) Fold it into four

c) Hold the point and fold two more times

d) Hold this triangle over your pizza dough with the point in the centre - cut the paper to be a little bit bigger than this.

6. Put the rolled out/stretched dough onto a cartouche. 
7. Spread the base with pasta sauce and sprinkle with pizza topper.

8. Arrange your ingredients on the pizza base 
- If you are using grated cheese, put it on first - I know this goes against convention, but my friend Shelley does this and it does mean that the topping is stuck to the pizza by the cheese and it doesn't tend to all come off with the first bite. 
- If you are using bocconcini, put it on last.Slide the uncooked pizza onto a board {if you have one of those fancy pizza spatulas use this, I use a retro piece of laminate that my family squabble over for a birthday cake board}.

9. Take a pizza stone out of the oven, slide your pizza onto it and put the pizza straight back in the oven - do this efficiently - you don't want to lose that precious heat in your pizza stone or the oven.

10. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees Celcius.

11. The pizza is cooked when the base is crisp and the cheese is golden.
12. Enjoy with a crisp salad, good wine {or beer} and great friends.

Variations...

Thin Base - roll dough out to the 25cm.
Thick Base - roll dough out to 20-23cm - allow a few more minutes of cooking time.


Pizza Stones - you can get these at a cooking store for around $25 each. I bought my terracotta saucers from a plant pot supplier in town and both cost me under $20. You could get some cute small ones too - for the kiddies - how cute!
- you don't NEED to use 'pizza stones', but we think that they help to make the base nice and crispy. 


Oh - I could take all day talking about variations for pizza... Use your imagination and go nuts.

Other things you might like to use on your marvellous pizza creations...

Mozzerella 

Feta

Ricotta
Blue Cheese


Ham
Bacon
Prosciutto
Anchovies

Capsicum

Onion {caramelised is fabulous!}

Roasted pumpkin

Tomato {roasted cherry tomatoes are great}

Finely sliced potato

Olives

Pineapple

Eggs

Oregano

Basil

Rosemary

Chilli

Garlic
Rocket {sprinkle over after cooking}

Some combinations you could try:

Roasted Vegetarian: Roasted tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini with semi-dried tomatoes, basil and feta cheese


Supremo: Mozzarella, salami, ham, pineapple, onion, red capsicum and mushrooms


Hot Mama: Mozzarella, salami, red onion, mushroom, olives and  chilli {you could mix it in with the pasta sauce}


Friday Night Love: Bocconcini, salami, olives, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and fresh oregano

Mediterranean: Feta, finely sliced potato, caramelised onion and  rosemary {My lovely cousin Melissa told me about this combo, I can't wait to try it!}

Dessert: {my party is out about this... but go with me} Put the ingredients on the pizza in the order listed: brown sugar, banana, nutmeg {is much nicer than cinnamon in my opinion} blobs of ricotta and a sprinkle of a bit more brown sugar

Thankful Thursday - Good People

I am linking up today for the first time with, 'Kate Says Stuff' and her link-a-doo called, 'Thankful Thursday'....


I had a post all ready to go for today with cute photos and everything. I had come to the realisation that although the last few months have been unprecedented in dramarama - there are still so many good things in my life. Enough to make me know for sure that life is indeed cool. Things like smiling children, sunshine and leaves make me so thankful right now... All very nice things.


So why am I posting this one? Well, you have to read the back story....


A vomiting bug has swept through our three children over the past week. Yuckity-yuck-yuck, not something I am thankful for. There has been vomiting in the morning, all through the day, all through the night, on bean bags, in bunk beds, in hair, while breastfeeding, sigh. I feel like a ticking time-bomb - am I going to get it too?


This morning I vented a bit on facebook. I had had enough. I was up through the night with a baby who was sleeping at night, but now is not. I had just rinsed another bucket and discovered over-flowing washing and ironing I haven't been doing since having ill kidlets... So this morning, when I had one baby grabbing at me screaming for what felt like the millionth hour and a big girl sobbing because she felt so sick, I had had enough. Enough. Enough. I had told myself that she had a 24 hour bug and she would be bright as a button sitting at the table colouring in this morning. But no. More vomit.


While hanging out washing, I got a text. A lovely friend 'who was not on facebook' said she was coming over with some naturopathic things that she thought we could use. Within 20 minutes, she was on my door step.


Here is what she brought....

Who does this? Who goes out of their way to bring a stay-at-home-mum-who-vents-on-facebook probiotics and vitamins? Who stops past someone's house on their way to their busy job and important projects to bring some things she knows will help my poor babies' tummies? 


I will tell you who. A lovely lady who has walked a very hard road with her own children and their health. A lady who knows how hard it is to have unwell children and the strain that is on a mum's heart. A lady who knows that sometimes younger mums need someone further down the road to step in with a fresh perspective. 


So, thank you lovely lady. I know you know who you are. You have been encouraging, affirming and kind to a fault with me. I am touched by your generosity both in time and in the natural goodies that you brought. 


This lovely lady and I have been trying to catch up for a coffee for a long time, but life is busy for both of us in different ways. When we do see each other and chat heartily, she is one of those people who I just 'click' with. I wish I had more time in the day, more time to have conversations with lovely people who show so much love and kindness to me and mine.


One day, when my children are a bit bigger and more robust I hope to have the time and the thoughtfulness to do something like this for someone else who needs a helping hand. I have learnt a valuable lesson this morning. Even though there are many bad things happening in our world and even though there are people treating other people terribly, there are still people out there who aim to bring a bit of goodness into the world. And I am so refreshed.


I do have one regret in all of this though.... I wish I had taken the time to do my hair. I looked a right fright. Sigh. 

Write On Wednesday - I Thought I Saw

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It is 'Write On Wednesday' time at InkPaperPen again... 

This week I promise to keep to the timer and not add any more. Really. Promise. 

Write On Wednesdays Exercise 20 - Write the words " I thought I saw" at the top of your page. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Write the first words that come into your head after the prompt. Don't take you pen off the page (or fingers off the keyboard). Stop only when the buzzer rings! Do this exercise over and over if you wish. Write beyond 5 minutes if you like, you can link it up as an extra post.


I thought I saw this as an easy task this week. Given that last week the words just flew out of my fingers faster than any story ever has. It was effortless, seamless and so fun to just let my head bubble forth with the story.


But today, it is not so easy. This is my sixth attempt. I have tried to write a story about a man at the end of the lane in the fog - no good. I tried to write about seeing Nigella Lawson in Harrods - sounded too show offy. Sigh. The words are just not flowing today.


That is okay though. That is the nature of writing and the nature of blogging. Some days the ideas bubble and get all fizzy and my ideas book gets loads more entries. Then other days, like today, I sit staring at a blinking cursor wondering what on earth I have to say. 


I have realised that this blog is meant to be fun. And it is meant to be a reflection of me. So, that takes the pressure off. Not every day is going to be about tangerine and birkenstocks. Some days are foggy and rainy and the brain just doesn't fire.


As I write this, I reflect on the last few months and all that has gone on in our household. That I have kept blog posts pumping out is a surprise to me! Last night was another night of crying babies and big girls throwing up in her bunk bed, {my biggest fear in the whole entire world} I am tired today.

10 Things - 10 Reasons Why I Do Not Like It When Mr Cool Goes Away

10 Reasons Why I Do Not Like It 
When Mr Cool Goes Away

1. The buck stops with me - darn. If the power goes out - who deals with it? Me. If a child were to swallow a piece of Lego - who deals with it? Me. If a child pulls another child's hair then screams blue murder - who deals with it? Me. It is a lot of responsibility!
2. I get lonely - Mr Cool and I have been married for nearly 15 years. That is a long time. We have grown quite used to hanging out. Without him around I sigh. A lot. Sigh.
3. I have to make the tea in the morning - Mr Cool normally does this. And, on the weekends, we usually have our tea in bed. Yep, all of us sitting up in our bed nestled in pillows. It is lovely. Without him, it seems a bit too roomy.
4. I have to wrangle the kids alone - this is not always fun. When Mr Cool is around we tag team. He is the good cop, I am the bad cop. It all balances. Without him, the kids just have me. That is not always the most fun. 
5. It is not worth cooking for one adult - so I usually cook something easy and then count on having left overs. Eggs on toast is a favourite.
6. Doing dishes alone is not fun - Mr Cool and I chat and catch up and squabble while doing dishes after dinner. Alone, it is just me. At the sink. Sighing. 
7. I don't like going to bed alone - so I stay up late. I watch just another show. Then another. Then the shows start getting scary. Then it is so late that I begin to think that that bra they flog at around 11:30 at night actually looks really good.
8. I don't like sleeping alone - I have to make a 'Mr Cool' shaped shape in the bed with pillows. Then my imagination kicks in and I imagine that someone is in the house. Then I freak the shazam out of myself and have to force myself to chill out and relax.
9. The kids miss him - a lot. It is hard to be the one who stays at boringo home doing the mundane things while daddy is away having an adventure. Sigh.
10. It is just not normal to not have him around. It doesn't feel like home. Something is just not quite right. Like walking around wearing only one shoe.

Image

How To Give Kids Pocket Money - 1

I am hopeless at giving out pocket money. For a variety of reasons...


a) I actually think our kids get loads of rewards for the things they do: praise, encouragement, treats etc. Why give them cash too?
b) our kids have so many things I just don't know if giving them more money to buy more things is the way to teach them about currency.
c) we have a job chart, which has little magnetic Mr Men on them. They are on the fridge at just the right height for BabyCool to get to. No matter how hard we try, we cannot stop him from pulling all the little men off the charts and putting them into his sweet mouth... sigh.
d) our girls do their jobs in the mornings when I am rushing around packing lunches, getting washing done, showering and rescuing little Mr Men magnets from BabyCool's glottis etc. It just doesn't always happen in an organised way. (The putting magnets on the job chart thing - not the getting ready for school thing.)
e) Mr Cool never remembers
f) neither do I


But, Mr Cool and I think that talking about money with our kids is important. We both come from very different families who treated money in very different ways. It has been an interesting journey to come to a place where we are on the same page financially.


We want our children to understand that money is something to be earnt and then used wisely. We don't want our children to associate fun with the $ sign. We work hard at providing opportunities to have fun with little or no money outlays. This is both to save our monthly cash amount and also to ensure our kids learn that fun is free! We have picnics, go for walks and bike rides, we make our dining room into a cafe, we play board games, we jump on the trampoline together and we visit people. We hardly ever have take-away, as I just love cooking and can whip up tasty, healthy meals easily and quickly. I also bake a lot with the girls and we talk often about how relationships mean more than things.  I think we are doing really well at this aspect of parenting - yay us!


Mr Cool emailed me an article written by Scott Pape - the Bare Foot Investor - about pocket money a few weeks ago. It made lots of sense to us. And got us thinking more about how to talk to our kids about money. Pape says that children should earn their pocket money as this is what it is like in the real world. I agree. 

Pape also outlined how to dish out the cash. Basically, Pape says that pocket money should be in three clear containers, clearly labelled with these three labels:

• Saving
• Spending
• Giving

I find this refreshing. So simple. I like that Pape recognises 'Giving' as a good use of money, I think it is so important to teach children about the importance of helping others. As well as saving, of course. I think it is great that children learn that you can't spend all of your money on fun stuff, that needs to be planned for.

I have been saving all the pasta sauce, apple sauce and jam jars for a while and finally have six {for two money hungry little girls}. I made the labels on the computer, which I Xyroned onto the jars. I used aqua for Miss A and purpley pink for Miss Z. I added some bling to make them a bit sparkly and girly. Now we can start looking at pocket money in a more visual way.

I hope that this new method of pocket money works for us. It will require talking to our kids, which is a good thing. And being visual, I am hoping that we keep up to date with it. 


There is another post to come about Pocket Money. It is right where we are at at the moment, so I have lots to say about it!

You can read the article Scott Pape wrote in full here....

Barefoot investor wrote this article about money

How do you do pocket money? Does it work? Do you let your kids buy lollies with their loot?

Anna Says - Home Hair Dye

Home Hair Dye

So... what do you think Anna means by, 'Home Hair Dye'? I should have checked. I am pretty sure she did not want recipes for making hair dye, she is not that kind of gal. So, she must mean tips for doing hair dye at home. This could possibly be the shortest blog post in history if that is the case. Because Anna, I have three words for you.....

Don't do it!

Oh my goodness. The trials and tribulations I have had with using hair dyes at home. In high school I used a spray on bleach that was activated by the sun - it was called 'Sun In'. To have a better effect, I used to blow dry my hair. My hair was seriously blonde! 


Six months before marrying Mr Cool, I decided to dye my hair red. Not really red red, more of a strawberry blonde red kind of colour. I picked out a box with a colour I liked and my best friend and Mr Cool helped to put it on my hair. However, I had shoulder length bleached blonde hair, the colour really grabbed. It turned out I also needed more than one box. When we rinsed the colour off, I had dark red zebra stripes. Not at all good. 


So, we went out and tried to find another box of the same colour to cover up the bits we missed. Back then, all the stores closed at 12 o'clock on a Saturday, so there were not many places to buy hair colour. We decided on another shade of red to cover all my hair again, two boxes this time. The colour was chosen was definitely not a lovely strawberry red colour, it was more of a tomato sauce red. Not at all good.


I can still see the look on my mother's face when she returned from a weekend away and saw what I had done to my hair. I hated it. So did she. It looked horrid. I went to the pharmacy and asked for a colour stripper, but all they could suggest was bi-car soda and anti-dandruff shampoo to literally strip the colour out of my hair. I went home and did this over and over and over again. And again the next day. It changed the colour to a kind of pinky splotchy red colour. Again, not at all good.


The only solution was to get a hairdresser to look at it. The remainder of the time I had before the wedding was spent pretty much at the hairdresser getting the colour streaked out of my hair over and over again.  When I look at my wedding photos, all I see is my over processed bleached hair... 


But, I did not fully learn my lesson. While living in London, I would buy those boxes of colour that you could put foils/streaks in your own hair. It was painstaking. I am not a perfectionist. I would start off well and then get sick of it and get sloppy. I probably spent most of my time in London with splotchy, weirdly coloured hair.


I then went through an Ash Blonde hair phase. Why, I do not know. I actually had green hair a lot of the time. Khaki green hair. Not at all good. Not. At. All. Good.


Then a ray of light entered my life.


I asked a friend who had dead cool hair, who did her hair. She gave me the number of a lady who cut and coloured hair from a studio at the back of her house. Her prices were good and she was into doing cool styles. When I turned up with green hair, she was very kind. She toned up the blonde and gave me some very funky foils. I had entered the world of cool hair.


I have been going to this same hairdresser for 6 years now. She does amazing work. Her prices are great and after going there for so long, she knows my hair and knows what hairstyles I can handle.


My sister {the one who sews} was between hairdressers so she asked for my hairdresser's number. Now she goes to her too. Then my other sister {soon to be librarian} was between hairdressers and asked for my hairdresser's number. Now she goes to her too. My mum {from whence I came} was between hairdressers, so I offered her the number of my hairdresser - she declined. She said she didn't want to turn up somewhere with her three daughters and find we all had the same hair cut! 


I have toyed with the idea of colouring my own hair again to save a bit of money. But... oi... I just don't know if I can go back to the gloves and the timers and the stains in the bathroom and the chance that it won't take evenly.


So, if you were hoping for advice, sorry. Just go to a professional. Trust me.