The school

A year or so ago my team and I had a work meeting out at Ikea. Yes, Ikea. My editor ran into her friend and called me over to meet her. It was Megan Morton. Megan is a interior stylist guru. I'd just given my Ma her book as a gift. I was a little starstruck.

About 6 months after that I was invited to a styling session at Freedom held by Megan Morton. I was sure she wouldn't remember me. My Ma and I sat in the crowd eagerly scribbling notes and taking everything in that she said. After the session I went up to say hello, again starstruck and Megan remembered me. Super!

A few months back now an email popped into my inbox ... from Megan. She was launching a new concept and wanted to hear my thoughts about it. Me? Yes! So I met with Megan and she talked me through an exciting something-something she was cooking up. It's called The School and Megan teams up with creative types and teaches people how to make things. Some times it's things for adults, and some times it's stuff for kids. This past weekend we popped around to decorate cookies and cupcakes in a kids class.

The class was held by Naomi of Hello Naomi. She was soft and sweet and supportive of all the kidlets. Lacey was a little under the weather, but she had a blast. The mini-cookie below was for her Gaga cos we know she loves those sour worms.

At the end of the session Lacey sat down for her end of class picture. So cute, right?

The School is located in Dunning Street, Rosebery. You can find out more here: www.theschool.com.au

Photo a day June challenge list!

It's almost June and I'm surprised I actually haven't had people banging on my front door asking for the list. Everywhere I turn online people are asking, "Where's the list!?"

I'll tell you where the list is, it's right here!

If you're new to photo a day, let me tell you a bit about it. Photo a day is a fun photo-sharing challenge. Each day take a look at the list and take a photo according to the prompt. There are no rules. You don't have to be super creative or take the most amazing photos, it's all about the social sharing of it. Everyone is welcome to play!

Once you've taken your photo you share it on which ever platform you like: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, Blog, Pinterest ... where ever! Make sure you tag it with #photoadayJune if sharing on Twitter or Instagram

Here's how to share your photo:

INSTAGRAM: Upload your photo to Instagram, add a sweet filter and put #photoadayJune in the caption so others can see your photos {share to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr etc from Instagram if you like}

TWITTER: Upload your photo to Instagram, add some words to describe it and use the hashtag #photoadayJune so others can see your photos

FACEBOOK: Create an album titled something like, Photo a Day June, and make the album public, then upload your photos. It's a good idea to upload the list too so you can refer to it and others can see what you're doing. You can also share your photos on my Fat Mum Slim Facebook page. Don't add them to the comments, but instead upload the photo or share a link on my page. Please.

PINTEREST: Upload your photos to a board, and use the hashtag #photoadayJune so that others can search for them.

BLOGS & TUMBLR: Upload your photos to your blog or Tumblr and share with the world.

FLICKR: Share your photos in the Photo a day group.


As always this kicks off on June 1st. Here's to another great month of photo sharing! xx

Facebook Camera: my thoughts

So Facebook bought Instagram, but they've been working away on their very own photo-sharing social app themselves. It was released today and I've managed to have a quick play this morning. Here's how to use it:

1. Download the Facebook camera app here. It's free and is only available for iPhone/iPad/iPods at present {products with iOS4 or later}. Facebook hasn't shared any plans for Android versions.

2. Log-in using your Facebook email and password.

3. On your home screen you'll see all of the photos shared by your friends {whether they're using the app or not}. To use the app to share photos, click the camera in the top left corner - or drag the news feed down to show all of the photos that you currently have in your camera roll.

4. To select a photo that you've already taken, click on it. Choose a filter {and crop if you like, using the crop tool} and then when you're happy with the look of your photo, click the blue 'create a post' box in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Add in your comment on your photo, tag the location if you like and then share it {be sure to check whether you want the photo to be public, only for your friend's eyes or completely private}

5. To take your own photo, click the camera icon on the top left hand corner. Take your photo. Then click the box on the bottom right hand corner to be taken to your photo. Choose your filter. Crop your photo if you please.

6. The photos will be shared back to your profile page on Facebook, as well as in the Facebook camera feed. You can scroll through and comment or like friend's photos on the app.


What makes it different from Instagram?

• Facebook Camera can upload photos in bulk. So where you have to upload one at a time with Instagram, you can tell more of your story {imagine you're holidaying and want to share more than one photo in one go} you can do it easily. But don't worry, Aunty Nancy's trip to New Zealand won't clog up your feed, you'll only see one photo from the bulk upload - and you'll just swipe left or right to scroll through them all horizontally.
  
• Photos don't have to be square. You can crop photos any dimensions you like, it's not about the square like Instagram is.
• You can tag people. Just like the normal Facebook feature you can tap your photo to tag a friend in it. In my experience it doesn't seem to able to tag pages though.
  

What do I think of it?

I think Facebook are smart for buying Instagram because it seems that they just couldn't compete. I think the filters are savvy, nothing mind-blowing though. I wish they'd enabled hashtags, because I think that's where photo-sharing can become more fun.

I think the win with this will be that we won't have spammers. On Instagram we're seeing more and more spammers driving for likes. This isn't possible on Facebook Camera because it's just friends seeing your photos.

Although, on that same note, I do like to find photo inspiration from people who I'm not friends with - which is possible on Instagram. You're limited to just seeing your friend's photos on Facebook Camera. So let's hope your friends are sharing something good!

I won't be moving away from Instagram. I don't know if Facebook bought it {Instagram} to let it die, so that their platform {that was obviously in the works} could be the market winner. I think they can both sit aside each other. Facebook Camera will be an easy way to share photos between my friends, while Instagram delivers a true social experience.

Conversations with sleeping toddlers

{Image via Glen Mullaly}

Poor Miss Lacey is running a fever. She's so hot she could cook an egg on her back. Almost. I know some kids are great sleepers when they're sick, but some aren't. We're in the 'aren't' group. So I sit here in bed with her hot little body right beside me and she tells me in her sleep.

I can't juggle.
Mama, I can't juggle.
Can you juggle mama? How can I juggle?
Daddy can hoola hoop on his leg.

We're one clown short of a circus act, it seems.

And then she fell back into a deep sleep.

How adventurous are you?

{print via happydeliveries}

In just over two weeks I'll be jetting off to my week away in the Great Barrier Reef with Problogger. I'm excited. Excited about the sunshine, meeting new blogging friends, exploring and learning new blogging tricks {I'm a geek at heart. what can I say?}.

Back when I learned that I'd won, after I'd finished jumping up and down with excitement, I started to go through the itinerary with Hubby by my side. There's snorkeling, island and rain forest visits, dinners and then on day five it's a choose-your-own-adventure type day. We can pick from the following:

I thought I'd be brave with my selection. Well, not brave enough to take to the skies, ride a steed and travel the rapids, but brave enough to kayak through the coastline.

"You know what zipping through the trees is, right?" Hubby asked while chuckling.

"Yeah, we'll go through the trees in our kayaks. The trees in the water? Right?"

"No," Hubby laughed some more, "It's zip-lining."

Of course I googled that and it's like a huge flying fox.

Still I stuck with my bravery and booked myself on the kayak and zipping trip. I told my little sister who had a bit of a laugh too, "Good on you for being brave."

As the days got closer and I realised that I perhaps didn't have enough courage {who wants to be the only blogger to pike out on the day, not me!} I changed my choice to something less adventurous.


Are you adventurous? What would you have picked?

What are our kids missing out on?

Last night Lacey discovered our junk drawer. How it's taken her this long, I don't know. I really don't know. Aren't kids born to seek those out and turn them upside down at an early age? Well, last night she turned ours inside out and upside down.

She found postal stamps and wanted to use them as stickers to decorate things and old photos. She found screws that we'll never use but have kept, just in case. And then somewhere deep down in the abyss of junk goodies she found a cassette tape.

"Mum!" she gasped with an air of uncertainty, "What is this?"

I laughed, hard, "It's a tape. We used to..."

I started to ramble but she'd already started to pull the tape from it's cassette and created a mess. I thought about telling her to stop but realised I no longer had somewhere to play it so it's days were over already. Rest in peace cassette tape.

Of course I haven't been able to stop thinking about the joys of my childhood that she'll never get to know:

• Encyclopedias. Of course they still exist but not in homes like they used to. I used to love grabbing a random volume and learning something new. Mount Vesuvius anyone?
• Brick. Remember that computer game that seemed like so much fun? Hitting the ball so that it didn't fall down the hole...
• Life without remote controls. Remember when people had children just so they could change the television channel for them? I remember our first ever remote had a cord attached to it that reached to the TV. We were so cool.
• Staying home alone. I remember that we were able to be left at home at a young age while Mum and Dad went to work. Those were the days. Seriously fun stuff. OK, I might have spent half the day reading encyclopedias, but that was fun!

I'm sure there are dozens more which will pop up as I'm going about my day. Do you remember any? And what do you keep in your junk drawer?

A day in the world.

By now you may have figured that I have an addiction to photography, particularly every day photography. I love snapping things from my daily life, as well as looking at people's photos from their day {it's the equivalent of peeking through their bathroom cabinet or fridge. Oh yes!}.

Recently I was told about a movement called 'A day in the world'. They're encouraging people {starting yesterday, up until May 22nd} to pick up their cameras {or phones} and snap away. Snap daily life and share in a worldwide photographic event. You don't have to be a great photographer, it's just something fun to take part in. I think I might even get Lacey to take a pic and upload it as well.

I shot a day in my life with my new camera. Here it is:

Breakfast with side of vitamins. It was a 4 weetbix kinda morning.

Ready for a work meeting and I kiss this bed-haired monster as I go. And yes, we have mucho toilet paper.

En route.

Meeting done and a quick phone call home.

Dropping Hubby to the airport in my lunch break. He's leaving on a jet plane. Sigh. But I know when he'll be back again.

Back to work.

Happy mail! Clothes from the US of A.

A quick walk up the road to get my dry cleaning. She spotted a bird.

And home again.

Dinner while I work.

And a chocolate treat. Don't tell anyone.

Watching The Block in bed while Little Miss nods off beside me.

If you want to upload your photo and be part of the project, visit here. All of the photos will be viewable onsite and some will be selected to be part of a book due out later this year. Alternatively you can share photos on Twitter or Instagram and use the hashtag #aday12


What do you think would make the perfect photo of your day? Will you be snapping for 'a day'?


This is a sponsored post. You can read more on my disclosure policy here.