In 2019 I got back into photography!

Specifically, digital photography. I had a few disappointments with shooting film this year – mostly because a roll came off the spool, the battery died in the camera and I didn’t know, and one of the backs on the camera opened that exposed the film. Recently I sent off 6 rolls to be developed and am not hopeful that they will come back with great photos but I will share when they are back.

I started taking photos for my church and it really made me get better at shooting manual on my digital camera and getting better at asking people if I can take photos of them. Fortunately a lot of my social circle loves having their photo taken and everyone wants good Instagram content these days.

Kara, Brittany, Phoebe and I decided to have a photoshoot in late December and it went amazingly! We went to Home of the Arts and the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens and there were such a variety of locations and places to shoot at those two places. We want to have photoshoots regularly and be more creative with them as time goes by.

Hope you enjoy, I know I did!

Photos taken with Canon 60D and 50mm f1.8 lens.

The other weekend I went up to Rocks at Seventeen Mile Rocks to celebrate a one year old’s birthday and I decided to take out my new Petzval lens for the first time. I’ve only played with it at home so far so it was a bit of a challenge to work with, but I think I got some beautiful shots.

As you can see, focusing can be difficult with this lens. It requires patience and a lot of trial & error to get it right. I can’t wait to play with this lens more as you really can get some beautiful results. I’d love to take it to the beach next time I go with my friends.

* All photos were taken with Lomography’s Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art Lens.

Ever since my last memory box post in 2013, I’ve wanted to show you the other memory boxes I have. When I started them I didn’t think through the ages too well before writing them on the boxes so I’ve been stuck with 0-9, 10-14, 15-17 and 18-24. The next one will be 25-30 which is quite scary. It’s strange to think how much happens in a section of your life, especially when you organise it the way I do.

The A3 grey cloth archival quality memory boxes (wow that was a mouthful) I use are from both Officeworks and Kikki.k. They were the exact same quality with a difference in price and a different paper pattern on the inside. I’ve been extremely happy with the boxes and would not recommend any other kind to store your memorabilia in.

What’s in my memory box:

1. Knick-knacks my mum collected from when she was pregnant with me and just after I was born (hospital bracelets, cards, newspaper clippings, etc).
2. A NSW Waratah’s jersey and two hats I used to wear constantly.
3. A couple of story books I made in grades 1-3.
4. My “star of the week” poster
5. A calendar
   
6. A selection of my favourite childhood books: Erin’s Voyage, Teddy’s Forest Friends, Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarden, My Special Christmas Adventure (a gift from my Nan & Pop).
7. A joke book that was made for my dad when he was in the hospital and my dad’s business card book.
8. A nameplate my mum made that used to be on my bedroom door, a tooth fairy pillow, bracelet that I got for my christening, a pin that was a gift when I was born, spoon, Minnie Mouse watch.
9. Family photos in both 4×6 and photobook format.
10. Various trophies, medals and awards (this is the only portion of my life that I really got these in!)

I don’t remember a lot of things from my childhood but I do remember getting my picture taken to be ‘Star of the Week‘. It was quite the honour and I always wanted to be a part of it but I remember even back then being nervous about the way I look in the photo. Looking back on it now as a 24 year old, I think I look gorgeous, but at the time I remember seeing it and not being too impressed.

On the right is the pre-school picture calendar we gave to my Nan and Pop at the beginning of 1996. That calendar stayed on the fridge until the day Nan passed away. You could always see it from the outside of the house as the side of the fridge was what you could see at the end of the hallway from the front door.

In 2014 I created a few books with Artifact Uprising (you can see my Sydney book + review here) which included a book of childhood photos just of me, and a book of childhood photos of my brother and I. Honestly the quality of these wasn’t too great – I don’t think scanned 4×6 photos make for the best book so in future I would probably take photos of the photos with my DSLR, but it’s still nice to have and my mum loved them too.

Some of my favourite books are included. We went through a stage where we donated lots of books but I couldn’t part with these.

1. Erin’s Voyage – I remember this book
   always scared me. I didn’t like the idea of being alone in the dark on a
   boat.
2. Teddy’s Midwinter Birthday Party – This was a series of
   books I loved as a kid. It was so magical and dreamy and the stories were
   always quite sweet.
3. Rose meets Mr. Wintergarten – This book is clearly
   based on How To Kill A Mockingbird
   as Mr. Wintergarten as a total Boo Radley vibe. This book also used to
   scare me a bit but it also created a long-lasting family memory. We went
   to Melbourne to visit old family friends when I was about 6 or 7 and when
   we got there the first thing I said was “Melbourne is cold, wet and uninviting” which was taken
   straight from the book.
4. My Special Christmas Adventure – Nan and Pop gave me this
   book when I was a child. I always loved it and looked forward to reading
   it each year. I definitely will get one for my kids in the future.

This is quite self explanatory, but I absolutely love seeing my little handprints. When I first found this I put my hand as it is now on top and it completely covered it. It’s been 19 years…. time goes so fast.

Every Saturday night my Dad and I would go to the football and I would wear this jersey and get it signed by the players. Being a shy introvert I found it really difficult but my dad supported, encouraged, and nudged me perfectly to get me to go up to the players. I was almost always the only little girl there so I stood out. The jersey has a massive stain on the front now and has for years but I’m too scared to wash it in case all the signatures bleed. I wore the hats all the time but haven’t worn them since I was about 10.

If you haven’t read about my Dad’s story before, you can do so here. When my Dad was in the hospital kids at my school wrote him cards, letters, and created a joke book to try to cheer him up. The jokes are awful but it was such a sweet gesture. I remember everyone at Clovelly Primary School being really supportive – my dad was a student there himself in the 1960s-1970s. The business card book is full of clients, potential clients and subcontractor numbers that Dad used for his business. I’m honestly not sure why we still have it – I bet the majority of numbers don’t work anymore.

All of these knick knacks are kept in a plastic pocket. They are mostly cards that my parents received when I was born but it also includes the pregnancy test, my umbilical cord clamp, hospital bracelets, and a newspaper clipping from the day I was born.

Name plate that my mum made. It’s been with us for years. The tooth fairy pillow still has the glitter in it. A bracelet and pin that I got for my christening from my Godmother. The spoon is completely random – I am not sure if it was mine or my dad’s. The watch is a Minnie Mouse watch and the face glowed in the dark, but it doesn’t work anymore.

My story books that I made were pretty terrible when I was little, but they are sweet to look back on.

I love seeing the old photos and drawings from that time. I’ve got to say – my writing for 1st grade isn’t too terrible. I found my dad’s old English book not too long ago and his was much worse.

I have a really small selection of photos in my memory box as most of our photos are kept in albums, but I also keep a photo box album of just my school years. I really love having just these photos of my perfect family at that time, along with a photo of mum & dad (top right) from before we were born.

Apparently I have always loved rainbows. Probably because they are so easy to draw and they have such pretty colours.

This is my storywriting book from the first grade. Some of the best lines are “my mum mouse” and “my brother’s friend has two chickens“.

I was never a kid who got any gold medals, but I did get a lot of participation medals. All of the medals are for participating in Nippers (a beach swimming club for little ones) except for the third one along which is for “class service”. Only a few kids in the school got these so I was pretty happy with myself at the time.

That’s everything! I love going through my memory boxes – each one is different and has a completely different vibe. This was the happiest time in my life and the most simple – obviously there were some dark moments but the rest of it was as perfect as you could get.

This year I discovered one of my favourite places on Earth: Crystal Castle.

I went there for the first time a month ago with my friend Simone and her baby girl Lilly and it was wonderful. Before we got there I was feeling really down and low energy, and even just being five minutes away from there I started to feel so much better. It is located in the Byron hinterland with very little phone service, and I think that keeps it pure. When we actually got in there and had a look around and started to walk among the crystals, I felt even better.

At Crystal Castle you have your choice of different nature walks and psychic readings. Both Simone and I got a psychic reading and loved it – it was actually one of the best experiences I have ever had. The lady that read for me was so positive and saw so much potential for me, which made me feel a lot better and gave me the motivation and the pick me up I needed. She was on point with my personality and my gifts. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and to get some negative information or difficult information to handle but it never came which was such a beautiful feeling. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone see all the things you have going for you, whether you are in that energy or not. We didn’t do any of the different nature walks that day as we had the pram with us and the weather wasn’t too nice, so when the opportunity came to go with some of my other friends, I was excited to explore more of what Crystal Castle had to offer.

Brittany, Janice, Sarah and I made our way down to Crystal Castle last Sunday, despite the weather report telling us there may be rain and lightning. We got incredibly lucky as there was no rain and no lightning! It was a beautiful, sunny, humid day which was beautiful and such a relief. I didn’t get a psychic reading this time, but I did get aura photos and was disappointed to learn that my aura was still red. I think it will remain that way until next year when I make a lot of changes to my life and I start a new journey.

My favourite feature of the grounds is most definitely The Wishing Tree. Thousands of wishes and intentions have been set and hung on the tree over the years. Some have fallen onto the ground. My friend Janice said that maybe all the wishes that have come true are the ones that are now on the ground. I loved that. I certainly hope mine will fall to the ground someday. I checked where I hung my wish and intention last time and it was still there.

I’m so glad I took my DSLR as it was a beautiful day and I didn’t want to have to wait for film to be developed! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed my day there.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting Crystal Castle. There is truly something for everyone, whether you consider yourself a spiritual person or not.

Well that was a pretty lame attempt at poetry, but it was fun. I’ve never written poetry before except in school when they made us, and I hated it at the time. I’d like to do it some more, it’s really interesting and fascinating to read and to hear. I love that you can convey so much in so few words, and that there could be years worth of story in just one line.

Keegan Allen’s Life.Love.Beauty was my favourite book release of last year. It’s hard to describe just how badly I’ve wanted a book like this to be released – I’d always hoped John Mayer would create a similar book, filled with photos, words, lyrics and much more, so we could gain insight into his unique and creative brain.

Predominantly comprising of film photos and poetry, the book give an insight into both Keegan’s professional and personal lives dating back to his childhood. He experiments with various types of photography and 35mm films – it was great to see him utilise Lomochrome Purple as you can see is true love and passion for photography. If you follow him on Snapchat (lifelovebeautyb) you will see that he’s made many videos about cameras and photography which I love.

The quality of the pages is decent. It’s not a high quality photo book that you would pay up to $100 for. I suspect that due to Keegan’s fan base being so young they wanted to keep costs down to make it affordable for that age group which is understandable. The paper pages are thicker than a regular novel, but they are not high quality photo book paper.

I’ve got to admit that I’m a sucker for hardcover photo books that are great on a coffee table, and this is one that I will always have out for other people to look at. I think anyone who loves photography and emotions will love looking through this book. It’s great to look at just a few pages, or to read as a whole.

I would highly recommend this book for any PLL fan and anyone that’s interested in seeing a book made purely of love and passion. Please let me know your thoughts if you’ve picked it up – I’d love to know if you loved it as much as I did.

Have you ever had a moment where you’ve been rummaging through an old shoebox in your closet that you haven’t seen in years, and discovered hidden treasures?

I’ve had that moment a couple of times over my life and it’s always an incredibly warm and nostalgic feeling that is hard to shake.

Recently, my mum and I have been cleaning out cupboards and closets that have just been crammed with stuff – a lot of it is junk and needs to be thrown out, but every now and then we find something special. I pulled out a plastic tub that was on the floor in the hallway cupboard and quickly discovered that it was a box filled to the brim with ephemera that belonged to my dad. It mostly contained cards, letters and documents from around the time he died, but there were also some unique keepsakes.

Here are some of my favourite discoveries…

Dad’s Memory Box

I’m a big believer in memory keeping and for years I didn’t know that we still had so many of dad’s things. Finding something as special and valuable as his memory box nearly brought me to tears. I don’t know why a lot of the stuff is there and I never will, all I know is that it meant enough to him to keep in the box.

Finding things like this is such a gift. It’s as if I get more of my dad revealed to me as I get emotionally and mentally stronger over the years. When I was younger I felt such grief and loss, as it was like he just vanished and I was left there trying to hold on to whatever I could. Now, I feel like I had nothing for all of those years just so I could discover and have more to hold now.

Box contents: pocket knives, pieces of watches, medallions, cuff links, patches, a pen, jewellery, keys, patches, snooker cue chalk, and two used stamps. I can’t help but wonder why those two specific stamps are there as he was an avid stamp collector and had numerous stamp albums. They must have been really sentimental, or a particular favourite of his.

This is why memory keeping is special – because each one of those things represented something to my dad, but I’ll never know what they are. All I have are the remnants of what was special to him, without the reason why. As humans we go through life alone and it’s a beautiful thing to keep mementos for yourself.

35mm Film Camera

I don’t know who this camera belongs to; it could be my dad’s, grandmother’s, grandfather’s… I really have no idea which makes it even more special. There’s one little problem which is that the shutter is stuck. I’m going to take it to a camera shop and see if it can be restored to working condition as I’d love to capture memories on the same camera that they did. I checked to see if there was any film in the camera but unfortunately there was none when I found it.

Click here to see some family photos from back in the day.

Super 8 Film Footage

This was one of the most exciting things that I found because I’ve had a fascination with Super8 footage for a long time. I unwound it and could see bits and pieces – it is colour film and had a lot of my dad’s family members on it. My best guess would be that the footage is from the 70s. I’m desperate to get it scanned onto dvd so I can view it properly as there were some frames with up to 8 people on there! I’d love to be able to have a Super 8 camera and shoot footage with it all the time but the truth is that I just can’t justify the cost, sadly.

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I’m so incredibly grateful to come across these things – they are so precious to me and it honestly feels like the gift that keeps on giving. He’s no longer here with us and neither are the rest of his family members, but there are still things to learn and discover about them through the things they kept.

Please let me know if you’ve inherited any special items from people who have passed away, or if you’ve found something after they’ve gone. I would love to hear your story.  

Over the last couple of months I feel like I’ve abandoned this little blog. There’s no excuse but I will give you the reason why. I honestly believe it’s because I’ve stopped seeing value in my day to day life and don’t feel like it’s worth sharing with anyone. I’ve been struggling with the idea of mediocrity and have recently found out that I’m just like everybody else and I’m not special or different like I used to think I was. Most people already know that about themselves, but it’s really shocked me and made me reevaluate everything. You could call it a quarter life crisis. All of that said, I’m going to try to update this blog more and maybe by doing that I’ll see the value in each and every day again.

Today I wanted to share with my little getaway from this past weekend. I went with my two friends Janice & Sarah to Yamba – a little town just for a quick weekend trip. We all felt like we needed to get away – they had both finished Uni for the year and I have been feeling pretty stressed about my job & figuring out when is the best time for me to move next year.

Photos were taken on my Canon 60D with the 50mm f1.8 lens.