As promised, here are the Hunter Valley Gardens photos!

In my last post I showed my road trip photos from the drive to Cessnock from the Gold Coast. It was my first ever road trip by myself and it was awesome. I listened to a lot of worship music and Kyle and Jackie O podcasts to get through and it was so fun to be alone and have complete freedom. I would love to go on another road trip in future, just gotta figure out where!

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the Hunter Valley Gardens to check out the various themed gardens and attractions they have their. It was a slightly overcast day which was perfect for walking around for an hour or two. Taking photos of my friends and family is one of my favourite things to do and Fiona & Sophie were more than willing to be my models! The Gardens are so lovely but I have to say the Storybook garden stood out the most, it truly was magical.

I loved the trip and the wonderful connected, intuitive conversation I had with Fiona & Sophie. I rarely get to experience conversations like those anymore and it was so soul renewing for me. It’s been a few months now since the trip and although I was only there a few days, I’m still adjusting to my regular interactions with people and searching for that same ease of conversation. I’ve found myself to be very emotional and feeling unfulfilled by conversations since returning home and I’m hoping that feeling passes soon.

All photos taken with Canon AE-1 Program using Kodak Portra 400 35mm film.

In late October I went on my first ever road trip by myself down to Hunter Valley region in New South Wales. Driving down the coast was a pretty calming experience, and I got to see a few things I hadn’t seen since I was a child, like the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour! I also went to Sealy Lookout near the Big Banana and was blown away by both the drive and the view – definitely worth the 15 minute detour.

I stayed with my friend Fiona in Cessnock, and our mutual friend Sophie came to visit as well. The three of us met at University in 2010 whilst studying film & television and I’ve always felt like I have a very deep connection with them. Our trio communicates so well and have so many interests and personality traits in common. I see the parts of myself that I love reflected in them, which is a blessing.

We had a really great time in our few days together – we got aura photos, went to trivia, saw A Star Is Born, and of course, went to the Hunter Valley Gardens which is where I took most of the pictures on the trip, which will be the following post, but for now enjoy the trip itself!

All photos taken with Canon AE-1 Program using Kodak Portra 400 35mm film.

Each year I like to visit the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach. This year my friend Simone, her two babies & I went to have a look. Going anywhere with a two-year-old can be difficult and we experienced a couple of tantrums but overall it was a nice day.

2015 was the best Swell Festival I’ve seen and this year’s was an improvement on last year’s so it fell in somewhere in the middle. The highlight was the bird, and the lowlight was the traffic cone square.

Afterwards we headed to a local park to let the kids run wild. Mason is now able to walk with a little bit of assistance which is soooo cute.

Photos taken with Pentax Spotmatic using Kodak Profoto XL 100 35mm film.

My beautiful friend Chynna turned 25 this month. We ventured up into the Scenic Rim with our friend Brittany to have a gorgeous tea party at Tea & Niceties, and explore the local area.

The three of us have known each other for over 12 years but had lost touch since graduating high school in 2009. This year I reconnected with them and I’m so grateful to have them in my life again.

Brittany is full of life and laughter, and is the person I go to if I want to connect with nature and be brought back down to earth. She is very adventurous but also loves spending time relaxing at home which works well for me.

Chynna is one of my more spiritual friends and is the most heartfelt, beautiful, and emotionally connected person I know. She is a kind and generous soul. We spent a lot of time together during our teenage years but didn’t connect on a deeper level and speak about what we felt and were going through until this year.

Photos taken with Canon AE-1 Program with 50mm lens on Kodak Portra 400 35mm film.

As you may know in November I went to Tangalooma Island! It’s only a two hour journey from where I live which made it the perfect island getaway for a couple of days. The only cameras I took were a Fujifilm disposable camera and my Instax Wide 300. I used up all the pictures on the disposable camera and was really happy with how they turned out.

Since I posted a couple of pictures on Instagram the other day quite a few people have asked me what filter I used – I used absolutely no filters and didn’t edit the photos at all. They turned out wonderfully because they were taken on film and film does all of the editing for you. Disposable cameras really are the perfect thing to take on holiday with you – I highly recommend it for your next trip.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

I first started shooting this roll in January and didn’t finish until mid-November. It features Sydney, Crystal Castle, and some babies (the more babies the better in my opinion).

Tom – my one and only brother. Happens to be my favourite.

Sydney

Sydney

Zakk. 3 months.

At the airport after spending the day in Sydney training for my new job. May 2016.

I was home alone and Sarah couldn’t get home because of a storm so she came over and we built a fort and watched Friends for hours. Sometimes the unplanned days are the best days.

Lilly

Soren. 1.5 years old.

I bought myself red roses. Not going to wait around for a guy to buy me them someday.

The view from our balcony. This always ends up being my standard final shot to finish a roll.

I love not knowing what I’ve taken a photo of, getting it back and being pleasantly surprised. Something I learned over the course of the year is to use the flash with disposables if it’s not a well lit shot.

All photos taken with my Kodak Fun 400 ISO disposable camera.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

Having disposable cameras at parties is one of the best things you can do. It’s super fun and everyone looks awful in photos – what isn’t to like? No matter how great or terrible we look, you can’t deny that the photos are natural and that they capture the moment.

All photos were taken on Fujifilm ISO 400 disposable cameras.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

On Saturday night I hosted a Christmas party with my high school friends.

It was so good to catch up with everyone in person as it’s been over a year since this group got together. I absolutely love hosting. Getting to create an atmosphere that will make for the most joyous and enjoyable experience for everyone at the event is really satisfying and fun for me.

As most of you know, these days it can be hard to truly connect with people on a human level. I often say that we are turning into robots – constantly relying on our phones, computers and self serve checkouts at the grocery store. It seems like basic human connection is not enough and we need to constantly be connected to the world at the same time, but this night proved me wrong. People still want human connection and friendships. We still want to laugh around the dinner table while taking pictures wearing silly glasses and hats. We want to create genuine memories and have honest conversations about life.  It’s a shame that this group doesn’t come together more often. I’m going to try to change that next year.

All photos were taken with either the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300, or the Lomo’Instant Wide. The Lomo’Instant Wide was perfect for this event thanks to the remote/self timer.

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.

We need to live more.

These words that have been circling my head for the last few months, and honestly, I’ve been trying to do it, hence why I have been pretty inactive on this blog. I’ve done my best to leave fear behind and have been out in the world trying to find the things that fuel me and make me happy, whilst trying to achieve some of the goals I have that have always been a bit more difficult for me to accomplish. In doing that, I have become extremely drained and desperate to travel. Tangalooma Island is only 2 hours from where I live which was perfect as we were only able to go for a couple of days.

The first 2 days of the trip were great – exactly what we needed, but on day three is where things kind of turned for the worst. We went Quad Bike Riding and I accidentally went into a wall that has left a huge, nasty bruise on my thigh. Janice got a bruised foot from doing something that she doesn’t even remember. Then I had my first and only panic attack on Day 3 after I got off the Banana Boat. We managed to end the day with a lovely dinner at Tangalooma’s Fire & Stone restaurant which made up for the kind of crappy day we had.

We found out Donald Trump was elected President on the boat ride home on Day 4, which was the worst possible end to the holiday. I think his Presidency will stir up even more passion and fight in those of us who believe in a globalised world where every type of person is accepted. People have fought for generations to get to where we are and we aren’t going to stop or give up now. Everyone woke up feeling divided today, but I think over the next four years we will unite and come to understand that we can’t keep living the way we have been. We can’t keep on living out of hatred and fear. Love really is the only answer to all of this and I think it’s up to those of us who still believe in love to be the ones to make the change, and do their best to change the world for future generations, as those who came before us did for us.

It took me quite a few months to finish this roll of film. I believe I started in early December and finished in February. Then it took me another 4 months to get the film developed. Sometimes that is the beauty of film – capturing something that is fleeting, forgetting about it, and then rediscovering it months later.

These photos were taken on a Fujifilm 400 ISO disposable camera.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

I finally got the film developed from a disposable camera I purchased in Sydney! I was so excited to get it back, and I still have another 2 cameras that I used in Sydney to get developed. I can’t wait to see the other photos.

Monia and I at bowling before The 1975

We played as Harry Styles and Zayn Malik

The 1975 at the Hordern Pavilion

Went to Luna Park with Dianna – it was really fun but I’ve got to say, Luna Park is not what it was back in the day haha.

Fortune Telling. He told me someone was jealous of me.

This must have been just after I cut my hair. My hair now is pretty long again but I really like the way it looks here.

Failed mirror selfie

Timezone with Janice

My brother aka my favourite person on the planet

Having dinner before Little Mix

Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre

Waiting for Little Mix

My favourite old boots. The insides and outsides are ruined but I will wear them until the day they completely fall apart.

Empty train

All photos were taken on a Kodak Disposable camera.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

Sometimes just three or four hours can repair something that had fallen apart over three to four months. Earlier this year I went down to the creek with my friends – Janice and Brittany wanted to go stand up paddle boarding, Sarah and I were happy to just chill out in the water.

Lots of little things had added up to a friendship falling out and this day was the first time seeing each other since hashing it all out. It was a nice Sunday – we swam for a bit and then got fish and chips for lunch. I hope to have more days like this in the summer.

All photos were taken on a Kodak Underwater camera with Kodak Color 400 35mm film.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

In December I purchased an underwater camera from a beautiful bookstore called Bookface. Sadly they aren’t available online yet as they have only got two stores so far, but they have everything I love. Mostly beautiful books and knick knacks that you don’t need.

Unfortunately my roll of film was exposed to water so the camera is ruined and I definitely won’t be purchasing another one in future (I’m after a Nikonos at the moment). I still managed to get a couple of decent shots out of the roll to my surprise.

* All photos taken with Sunny Life Underwater Camera with Lomography Lady Grey 400 film.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

I had such a great time in Sydney! It’s the city where I grew up and it has a special place in my heart. I took a couple of cameras there so you will be seeing more of my Sydney snaps in future Disposable Diaries.

All photos taken using a FujiFilm QuickSnap (Fujifilm Superia ISO-400 speed film) disposable camera. I got back 24/27 shots.

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

Last month I was fortunate enough to contribute a guest post to Kasia’s blog, Dipped In Rococo. I had decided to share some of my favourite shots from Swell Sculpture Festival this year but I had a bunch left over that I wanted to share with you.

In case you have never heard of Swell Festival before, it’s an annual festival where artists have their sculptures and creations displayed along Currumbin beach. I went with my friends Janice and Sarah this year and had the most wonderful time.

I used my Pentax ME Super with Lomography Color Negative 100 ISO and Fujicolor Superia 200 ISO film. 

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.

Lately I’ve been trying to clean up and organise my room and all my school documents which lead me to find these treasures! I took a crappy disposable camera to camp in grade 6 and I’m so glad I did. Yeah, they’re not the best pictures but it’s just fun to have memories from a time you’d completely forgotten about.

I absolutely love this picture. On the left is probably my best primary school friend, May. We used to hang out quite often.

Alice, Chloe, Ellie

Mr. Hill – my grade 6 teacher.

Tyson – my primary school crush lmao. I remember my goal on the trip being to get a photo of him.

Ellie – she was on my netball team & her dad was the coach.

Honestly cannot remember this girl’s name!

Alice

Me in a super cool visor. Obviously the lighting was really good.

The gang jumping into a three metre deep pool! I remember doing it and freaking out!

It’s so funny that I found these photos when cleaning – I barely remembered any of the people in the pictures until I saw them!

View more from the Disposable Diary series here.

Today I hung out with my friends at Hinze Dam. We all hadn’t been there since grade 9 when our whole year level went so we thought we would go and check it out. We were all pretty disappointed but we managed to have a great time anyway. The most hilarious thing that happened was when we were eating. There was a lot of birds around and we could tell they wanted our food and eventually a kookaburra swooped down, scared the shit out of all of us and then we realised it had taken Janice’s meat off her plate! Kinda crazy. It freaked me out a bit so I went and sat on the swing for a while to calm myself down. Australian animals can be crazy!

After we left Hinze Dam we went to play putt putt. Sarah won and I lost but I did get 2 hole-in-ones!