I have discovered, during my time in this parenting gig, that sometimes the smallest effort can bring the sweetest rewards. This week, miss 7 lost another tooth - I've lost track of how many have gone to the Tooth Fairy, but its gotta be at least half a dozen. But this time, she decided that she wanted to write a note to the Tooth Fairy. Well... that all sounded sweet and cute until it dawned on me that I would have be the one to write a reply! And of course I would have to wait until the dead of night to write it and answer her questions... The tired, stressed mum in me wasn't particularly thrilled by this prospect - but Miss 7 wouldn't be deterred and wrote her little note. So late the other night, after reading her letter, I grabbed a pink pen, and wrote a reply to her in my best interpretation of fairy-style writing - ... tiny and swirly. I madly googled for some answers (what do other parents say that the Tooth Fairy does with the teeth?) - and stowed it away in the little bag. And oh my... I could not have anticipated the effect, the magic, the wonder that this small little reply created the next morning. Eyes were wide as she read with excitement, she practically hugged the little note to her chest - a wondrous treasure for her to keep forever! It gave me such a beautiful feeling of warm-fuzzies that I'm so thankful to myself for making that small effort to keep this magic alive for a little while longer. I don't know much longer we have left before she stops believing... but I'm sure as hell gonna milk it for all its worth, while I still can! I work so much with young kids that its always slightly daunting when I don't have any little ones to chase after or tell bad "dad-jokes" to! However when your clients are as lovely as Julia and Darren, well it was just a beautiful change of pace and I absolutely loved this session. They wanted relaxed, fun-loving and casual, and that's what I tried to deliver! Here are some of the favourites from our morning here at Tamborine: Thanks so much guys for such a beautiful, relaxed session! If you enjoyed this, you might also like:
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I must say, its a little bit daunting, putting something out there that you've written. This week I hit "publish" on a little e-guide that I've written, based on my experience photographing families and hearing all the fears from the mums when they arrive for their family portrait session. Things like: "I'm so worried my youngest wont behave!" " My husband doesn't want to be here" "They're not very co-operative today" "I wasn't sure what to wear" This 5 page guide has lots of little tips and advice to help your family session run smoothly, and to help mums relax before the big day! I asked my dad, who's the worlds' biggest grammar & spelling nazi, to proof-read what I'd written and ask if he had any advice. Of course he did a stellar job picking up on my errors, my very bad habit of over-using exclamation marks (!!) and condensing down anything too 'wordy' (I do like to waffle on a bit)... but my favourite comment from him was in regards to the photo that I'd used of myself. He said - "I'm not sure about that picture of you... you look too... hairy" Gee thanks dad. If you'd like to grab a free copy of this guide, you can do so HERE! I'd love to hear what you think (be kind!), or if you have any other tips to add! Sam's family mini session at Tamborine was all about capturing the love and fun between grandparents and grandchildren... I knew that this family was not into posing or sitting still, so we aimed to create lots of interaction and love, with plenty of opportunity for cuddles, tickles and games to get everyone laughing! Sam says "We had amazing photos from our grandparent and grandchild session down on Hilary's property. Not surprisingly the kids were not in the mood for a great deal of cooperation but the informal shots were nothing short of a miracle. It was so relaxed and Hilary just went with the kids chaos" Some of my favourites from the day: Do you have a couple of "go-to" phrases that you dish out when you're talking to the kids? I swore once that if I ever became a mother, I would never EVER use that trusty line: "Because I said so!" - which is really a bit of a non-statement isn't it? Its just something you say when you cant think of a reason... and the kids know it too. And do I say it? Oh hell yeah, all the time. Sometimes the kids ask me for something and I say "NO" without really thinking about it... and then when they question why, well I honestly sit there thinking "Why DID I say no?" Its just habit. My own mum loved trotting out those old familiar lines: “You’re like a bull in a china shop!” (well, I am a bit of a klutz) “My house, my rules” “Think about all the starving children in Africa!” (don't think that ever worked to get me to finish my dinner) "I'm changing my name!" (upon hearing 'mum' for the hundredth time that day) And my own personal favourite, when she got sick of that endless whats-for-dinner question, she would sigh in frustration and then reply: “yim yams” I still, to this day, do not know what a ‘yim yam’ is. Do you have your own favourite 'mum phrases' that you always use? You know, I feel so incredibly lucky to have some amazing friends, and even more lucky when those friends ask you to capture their memories for them. I've known all these gorgeous kids since they were born so it was kinda fun to capture their little personalities on camera, here on our 5 acres at Tamborine. These guys are such a photogenic family too which makes my job super easy! Here are some of my favourites from the day... Always love catching up with these guys! One big ball of stress and anxiety... that was me, exactly one year ago today as we prepared to move house. Its been a memorable 12 months, and I must admit, this time last year I honestly could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Research says that moving home is just as stressful as relationship breakdowns, divorce or starting a new job. I reckon that's about right too - buying and selling aint fun as far as I'm concerned - grey hairs, no sleep, running on adrenaline and nerves... no thank you! But one year on, we're loving Tamborine. Its a completely different lifestyle. We can sit by the pool and see kangaroos grazing in the back field, keeping the grass down for us. Families of ducks and lots of little hares run around. We love the quiet street, cows and horses as neighbours, everyone is friendly and chatty... we feel like we live a thousand miles away, but we are really only 20 minutes away from our old home in suburbia. Feeling pretty lucky (and a lot more relaxed!) right about now! Ok I am REAAAAALY behind with blogging! This weeks blog features last years Christmas Mini Shoots from the outdoor sessions, and I was totally thrilled to have so many returning families back to update those precious family portraits! Here's some of those lovely memories from our mini shoots... Why is it that kids can be hopeless at sharing EVERYTHING, except when it comes to germs? Last week, both kids came home from school with a mild case of the sniffles. A few days of a runny nose but otherwise fine and bouncing around off the walls as usual. Quite thoughtfully, they decided to share these little germs with their mum, and I got struck down last Friday. Typically though, for me, it is lingering like a bad smell, which is ironic considering that my nose and sinuses got so stuffed up, I actually lost my sense of smell over the weekend. What I DO love though is the way my family rallies around me when I'm sick (*cough cough*)... miss 7, the ever caring and thoughtful one, spends her time decorating little love hearts, cutting them out, hanging them from dangly bits and sticking them all over the house with random little banners that read "I love you mummy" or "get better soon mummy"... The house ends up looking like its covered in paper-chains and it takes me days to take them down and I feel so guilty going from room to room removing them. Master 5 has a different strategy. Every half hour or so, he will thrust his favourite teddy in my face, demanding "here mummy, cuddle Lioney, he'll make you feel better" - will not take "no thank you" for an answer, and then he goes back to whatever he was doing, and asking for food. Half an hour later the cycle repeats. Do your little ones look after you when you're feeling sick? Having your family here to visit is a fantastic time to get some beautiful memories captured, and that's just what Bec and her family did! Jensen and Freya were joined by their little nephew Bowie at our big back paddock at Tamborine for their mini shoot, and they were absolutely amazing! It was a joy watching Jensen coaxing some beautiful smiles out of his gorgeous little sister, and Bowie was a total natural in front of the camera! Here's a few favourites from the morning... So much cuteness right there! Thanks for a wonderful morning! If you enjoyed this, you might also like:
Blog: Shaping their musical knowledge... Blog: How much will you miss it?... What do you do when your computer starts flashing warnings at you that you're on the verge of hard-drive failure? Umm... PANIC is the first reaction I had! I mean, tech-wise, is there anything more scary than a hard drive crash? All your work, client files, personal data and photos, emails - potentially gone! EEEK! Two weeks ago I got a warning message about imminent hard drive failure. I FREAKED. I immediately shut everything down and started ringing computer repair shops to see what I should do. I was without my computer for two days and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I just about chewed my fingernails to the bone - I finally got it back but they had been unable to retrieve the data off my second hard drive. This was all just before one of my busiest mini shoot sessions of the year, so to say I was stressed is an understatement! All I can say is that I am SO THANKFUL that I am ultra diligent with my backups, especially with client files. I actually lost very little because I'm so careful with backing up after each and every shoot. The only pain has been reinstalling everything from my backup drive, which is still ongoing but I'm getting there slowly! Have you ever lost everything with a computer or hard drive failure? Did you freak out like me?? :) I am always so excited whenever a friend asks me to do a family shoot for them, its so lovely for me to not only enjoy a fun catch up with them, but also to capture some precious memories for them. I have known Cindy and her family for many years as our kids went to Playgroup together. We have watched our families grow together and shared many laughs over coffee together. I had so much fun capturing this beautiful family here at Tamborine in some stunning late afternoon sunshine. And as you can see, there was much laughter going on! Such gorgeous smiling faces! Thanks guys for sharing a lovely afternoon with me! What kind of music do you and your kids listen to in the car? Do you have the Frozen CD on repeat? Or is it 'drivers choice'? I have always been determined that our kids would grow up listening to a very diverse range of music. So in the car, we listen to what I want to listen to. Sometimes that is the radio and top 40 stuff. Miss 6 likes Taylor Swift, and Mr 4 likes anything as long as a man is singing (haha). But sometimes we have a week of old CD's, and it's everything from Silverchair, U2, Hilltop Hoods, Beatles, ABBA, Kings of Leon, White Stripes & Queen . Mr 4 has taken a liking to System of a Down's "Pizza Pie" and requests it frequently. I turn the volume off quickly for any bad language, nonetheless after a particularly aggressive System of a Down song the other day, Mr 4 said "Boy, he was a bit annoyed, wasn't he mummy?" I chuckled all the way home. They giggle along to The Beatles "When I'm 64", and when we're home, Miss 6 loves to watch Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights video, over and over, followed by Katy Perry's "Roar". I want them to know and appreciate the classics, to know many different types of music, before they start to choose their preference. I know that in a few years they will start to roll their eyes at me, but for now I'm enjoying watching them sing along to whatever is going, without judgement. I recently ran a couple of mini shoot days here at our property at Tamborine, and I was lucky enough to meet so many gorgeous families on those days! Today I'm featuring the families from the Saturday session. Sonya and her family - how sweet and innocent are these two?? Such little cuties, although miss Jemma was super shy for most of the session, we still managed to coax a few little giggles and smiles out of her. I love how much fun Lana and her family were having during their shoot! Love and laughter make up a huge part of our lives, and I love capturing that with families! Bec's gorgeous family, loving those big smiles! Rebecca's family - and just look at little Patrick - he was just so adorable and LOVED the camera! Such a cutie... Thank you to all my wonderful families who made the day so much fun! Back in the "olden days" when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure we never had anything as fancy as Book Week. I don't seem to remember any 'themed' dress up days at school where everyone went above and beyond to create something amazing. There is no photographic evidence of this in any of my mums photo albums, but maybe I've just not had enough coffee and my memory is now failing me. But Book Week... oh Book Week! I'm really not sure if I love you or hate you at this point. Its been a mad scramble in the last few days to organise something that vaguely resembles a character from one of our books. Miss 6 starts by asking if she can dress as someone in particular (this year she wanted Elmer the Elephant), which then results in mummy scouring the internet for ideas on said character. Then mummy realises just how complicated this outfit will be (have you SEEN Elmer the Elephant?!!) and then spends the next week talking miss 6 into doing something much more achievable with my non-existent sewing ability and non-crafty tendencies, coupled with a lack of time due to leaving it so late to get organised. Hence this year we patched together the witch from "Room on the Broom". Except that all our brooms are the wrong type, and I could not find a witches hat on the one day that I went to the shops to buy one (its obviously not close enough to Halloween yet). So we improvised with a big stick with pine needles lashed to the end (thank you, back-paddock), and I turned a box of Rice Bubbles into a witches hat. The wand is a stick with a cut out star stuck on the end. The very sad looking cat is a cardboard cutout, coloured in by miss 6, and attached with duct tape (and yes I've attached the cat facing the wrong way, d'oh!) Very very home-made, but hey, we had fun and that's what its all about, right? So many kids looked AMAZING at the school parade this morning though! So next year I vow to be prepared for this LONG before the day arrives! Chloe and Craig came to our property at Tamborine for a shoot on a cool winter's morning with their little boy Thomas, who was an absolute superstar during the shoot! He smiled and laughed like a pro, giggling at us and wanting to go exploring! There is nothing like a happy, cheeky little person to get you smiling, and to be honest, I edited this whole shoot with a massive grin on my face, because, well how can you not smile when faced with so much cuteness? Thanks so much, Chloe, Craig and Thomas for allowing me to capture this special moment in your lives! Miss 6 has been begging us for months to be allowed to watch the first Harry Potter movie. We've resisted, since her brother is only 4 and would want to watch it too, and we thought it may be a bit too scary and would give him nightmares for sure. But now its school holidays, and the other night we finally decided we'd let them see it - a family movie night! They LOVED it! Funnily enough, Mr 4 was totally fine with the reveal of Voldemorts' face on the back of Professor Quirrell's head, and Miss 6 was the one who freaked! They've watched it a few times since then (the shock factor has worn off now), and I must admit its so cute watching them run around with a stick imagining its a magic wand, shouting "Wingardium Leviosa!" at every opportunity (swish and flick!) and pretending they can fly on a broomstick. Now we just have to deal with the constant requests to watch the second movie! So far, the threat of seeing the giant spiders is keeping that at bay. How are you keeping your kids busy during the school holidays? The very cute little Leo came to visit me recently at Tamborine, along with his gorgeous mum Jo! We set ourselves up outside on a lovely warm morning and proceeded to capture the many varied expressions of this handsome little dude! He gave me the most gorgeous smiles, and was such a happy, cruisey little man throughout the whole shoot, as you can see in the images below... Such a gorgeous little guy! We had a bit of a run of bad luck when we moved here to Tamborine. Just about everything that COULD go wrong, DID go wrong. Hot water system was dead on arrival (no hot water for 5 days, yay!), then the house water pump died (flushing toilets with a bucket ain't fun), a pool pipe got damaged and pool water started gushing out everywhere (duct tape to the rescue!), Telstra couldn't connect our home phone or internet (still waiting on that!), settlement stuff ups galore etc etc - boy that was a fun few months! But you know what? Now that everything is fixed, we are SO much more relaxed here, and couldn't be happier. Its so peaceful. Our neighbours on both sides have horses, we have local kangaroos living down on the back field. We have a family of 5 peacocks who strut around the place (until our dog chases them away), cows are mooing in the distance... and its amazing just how clear the night sky is here, and just how many stars you can see in the sky! We are pretty lucky, and I'm so thankful that we found this peaceful little haven to call home... The Rafter family came to have their family shoot here at my place at Tamborine recently, and not only were we blessed with beautiful golden morning light, our local kangaroos decided to hang out for the shoot too! You can see them in some of the images below. Little Nash had a bit of a sore tummy on this day, and just would not smile no matter how hard we all tried, but we still managed some lovely images nonetheless. Mr Kangaroo wanted to be in this one too! Thank you for sharing your morning with me, guys! If you enjoyed this, you might also like:
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AuthorHilary Hudson Photography. Natural Light Newborn and Families Photographer based in Tamborine, QLD. Australia. Archives
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Hilary Hudson Photography is located in Tamborine, Queensland, photographing newborn portraits and family sessions in the Gold Coast, Logan and Scenic Rim areas of Queensland, Australia.
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