I got a NIKON baby YEAH! After investing….gosh, I shudder to even imagine how much….money into canon over the past several years, I took the plunge and bought a Nikon D700. I only got a cheapie little 50mm lens for now, but that will soon change Soooo… It arrived yesterday and I’ve spent oh, a grand total of about an hour playing and NOT reading the manual hahaha (which I really should, since everything is BACKWARDS to canon!) and thought I’d share my first photos.

Zoe did not particularly feel like indulging me with my need to test out the camera.. and to be fair it was cold outside! But winter early evening/late late afternoon light is so pretty!

The main difference I’ve noticed so far is, like I said, the controls and functions etc all being backwards to canon. I haven’t figured out how to change focus point yet…which I really need to do!! and the filesize is SOOOOO tiny compared to the files out of the canon mark 2. BUT that could be a good thing for my hard drive I guess! The colour tones SOOC seem to be much cooler/on the blue side compared to the redder tones from my canon. Anyway, I’ll update again once I get the feel of things and work it all out, but for now I just couldn’t wait to share.

xox Amanda

6 Comments | Permalink

Is it really halfway through August? MORE than halfway through august? What the crap happened with me keeping up with this blog?!! Wow. I swear I meant to do better LOL. You better head on over to my Amanda Keeys Photography blog to enter in a couple of giveaways I have going on over there Oh and stay tuned there ’cause I have another couple coming up that I’m sure you are gonna want to win

In the meantime… sooo much to catch up on! Is it just me or does anyone else get overwhelmed when it’s been a little while since you’ve blogged.. and so you have SO MUCH to blog and don’t know where to start, so you just… don’t?! I forget what I meant to blog or want to blog and end up just sitting here going… huh… yep

Look, Zoe is not impressed that I haven’t been posting regularily here:

Ohhh I know I’m a horrible mama. She’s teething. Again. And of course I always run out of time and end up trying to take photos when she should actually be taking a nap…

My new hat pattern has been released too! See I meant to blog about that when it happened, and didn’t get around to it either. But go check it out You can purchase and download it instantly for $5AUD. Check out how adorable it is:

Did you know I’ve made it in the tiny newborn size for Kelley Ryden & Skye Johansen among many others?

I got some bunnies! The brown/white one is Mallow. She’s a dwarf lop. And the grey one is Luna, and she’s a mini lop! We keep them inside the house as house bunnies. They are the cutest freaking things ever. Soooo affectionate. They’ll both jump up to snuggle with me on the sofa. Luna especially loves to go and bonk her nose against Lilly for attention.

xox Amanda

4 Comments | Permalink

I’ve been finding more time for knitting these past couple of weeks. Strangely enough, when I decide to protest working at night and ignore my computer, I get so much more knitting done So Zoe now has a few pairs of longies and I’ve been whipping up custom orders for hats, and a few other little bits and pieces. So I thought I’d share a few of the things I’ve been working on.

Firstly, a pair of longies for Zozo. These are similar to the last pair I showed. Knit in Mosaic Moon BFL “Daydreamer” & Woolganics Lotus.

Some shorties knit in Evoke Hand dyed Yarns BFL “Maia Jade” (I really did not like this colourway at all, hence why I made them shorties - I got sick of knitting with fluro rainbow vomit). We only use this at nighttime.

Another pair of longies. Knit in Mosaic Moon BFL “Ravensong” & Woolganics Raindrop.

A cute wee vest ( “Milo Vest” pattern by Tikki) knit in Woolganics Grapefruit moon.

And lastly, a funny little guy I knit as part of her First birthday present. Pattern is “Spherey” by Jess Hutch.

If you’re on Ravelry, you can find me here: http://www.ravelry.com/people/mskeeys I share more photos and stuff of the knitting there if you’re interested. And if you ARE on ravelry, let me know! I’d love to add you to my friends list.

I’m *this* close to being ready to release the newest little hat pattern. I’m in the final testing stages, and so hopefully within the next week or two it will be ready to go! I need one or two more testers - specifically for the 0 - 2 month size and the 2 - 6 month sizes. If you’re interested, please do let me know. I do however need you to get it knit up pretty quickly The pattern is quick to knit though, and won’t take much time at all.

xox Amanda

10 Comments | Permalink

Wow has this past year gone by fast. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was all fed up with being pregnant and anxious about the impending arrival of our baby girl. And well, here we are a year later and who could have imagined the little girl she’d turned out to be? Zoe is sunshine. She smiles and giggles and makes everyone (even strangers) feel loved. When I pull out the camera, she hates it or gets serious which makes me laugh (and cry in frustration too) because it is so different to her in “real life”. She used to be just baby #5, but as soon as she was born we knew - that’s Zoe. The last year… amazing. The co-sleeping, the breastfeeding, the cuddles, the babywearing, the babysnuggling, the kisses, the smiles, the tears, everything. Watching her adore her brothers and sisters. Feeling hurt because she loves her daddy more than me (or so it seems at the moment LOL). Washing her nappies and hanging them out in the sunshine. I’ve loved it all and I’ll keep on loving it all. We’re still breastfeeding and co-sleeping and cloth-nappying and all of the good stuff. In some ways it feels like her 1st birthday is the start of growing up, and at the same time it feels like it’s just another little “day” that went past, and she hasn’t grown any older at all.

I took these on her actual birthday, the 26th of June

Raise your hand if it’s your birthday!

Told you she doesn’t like photos She’s calling for Daddy to pick her up.

xox Amanda

4 Comments | Permalink

WOOOOW has it been a long time since I uploaded! I think I shocked myself when I saw the date of the last post LOL. Sorry about that. What can I say, life with 5 kids is crazy at the best of times Life with 5 kids, a husband studying at uni full-time, and my own business to run? even busier ANYWAY…

Some updates on the workshop front. Kara and I are busily working on some changes we have had to make to the format now that we are doing things online vs in person. So it’s taking some extra time to sort it all out and put it back together in a way that makes the most sense. Rest assured it IS coming and we’ll update when we have a definate launch date.

I am totally bummed that today is the FIRST day of winter. The only season of the year I truly truly madly deeply love is AUTUMN. And this year I went through the most horrible and depressing “slump”. It happens to all of us, of course, but I was just soo tapped out and exhausted mentally I just had nothing leftover for creativity. This dragged on for about a month and a half before I finally worked my way out of it - just in time for a couple of weeks of pretty much non-stop rain so the opportunity for photography was nil! Actually, I DID manage to get a shoot in, but I’m not allowed to show those images yet. Which is a bummer because I really love them. Oh well.

Zoe’s first birthday is approaching with rapid speed. It’s on the 26th of this month (June). Jakob will be 11 in just a couple of weeks (the 18th) and the in July Lilly turns 4, and in August Madison will be 8! Whew. I’m tired just thinking about it.

I spent the past two nights working on a pair of longies for Zoe. I figured it was about time, what with the cold weather creeping up especially in the evenings now. I LOVE the way they turned out. Super freaking cute. Too bad she was not in the mood to let me take any NICE photos. We were only in the backyard too! The ground was sooo smooshy and muddy I had to keep her trapped sitting on that chair so as not to get herself coated in mud. I loooove cold weather, but I sure do hate when it rains so much the ground turns to gunk.

I wasn’t going to show these two, since she looks a bit “huh” and stuff (she’s sick) and I took these ones before I gave her a bath and tried again after she had a super (super super!) quick nap, but I dunno, they’re still kinda cute.

And see, she would only smile at me when I tried playing peekaboo, hiding behind a tree! Sooo yay I have great honkin’ tree branches right in front of her, but I guess it’s OK because she’s smiling.

And one more just for fun. Sweep came outside to hang out with me while I was taking the photos. She’s not allowed in the garden, and I caught her up walking up on the ledge and pointed my camera at her. She’s pretending not to look at me, because if she doesn’t look at me I don’t exist and then she can’t get in trouble HA.

xox Amanda

11 Comments | Permalink

Poor little neglected blog! I have been so bad this past month. But, in all honestly, I just haven’t found the time. I feel like I’m barely holding my head above water with everything that I have to do right now. This year started with a bang, and has continued to keep a hectic pace. So… I guess things like my personal blog get left by the wayside a bit.

So while I’d love to blog PROPERLY… and really, I have so many photos (especially of Zoe) that I want to share, I need to keep it short right now.

I have a new hat pattern available. It is $5AUD and you can purchase it through Tangled Yarns exclusively until the end of April. After that, I will make it available for purchase through my blog and my etsy store.

And a couple of snapshots, more or less, of Zoe this afternoon as we were playing in Zai and Jake’s room before all the kids got home from school. The light in there, even on a rainy dark day, is so pretty.

She’s so lovely to be around… she really is just the happiest, sweetest baby

I’m selling a new design newborn hat in my etsy store too Shown on one of my beautiful recent clients.

A couple of shots from the beginning of March of Lilly that I just love..

xox Amanda

7 Comments | Permalink

Goodness me. I am 28. My birthday was on Friday! I don’t do huge celebrations (er…ever) so I spent a relaxing day with my husband and Zoe while the older kids were at school and Lilly was with her Nanna. We did some shopping and some coffee drinking and generally nothing at all. It was GREAT haha. Then at nighttime we headed out with a couple of friends to one of my favourite restaurants for dinner and drinks (they make THE BEST frozen margaritas mmm). Zoe came along for that too.

She slept nearly the whole time we were there, only waking up when I needed to give her to Matt so I could finish eating.

A phone-pic of (one of) my margaritas. YUM.

I’m SUCH a party animal, we were home by 10.30 (just the way I like it), so we watched “Whip It” before going to bed. Great movie, I really enjoyed it (and it totally made me want to dig out some skates…. until I remembered I’ve had 5 kids and that probably isn’t such a great idea afterall).

Of course earlier in the day I grabbed my camera and took a few photos of myself, just for the sake of it being my birthday.

xox Amanda

24 Comments | Permalink

Is there anything better than a baby hanging out, having a bath in the sink? I don’t think so. It’s the perfect size, doesn’t use much water, and although Zoe freaks if I put her into the big tub, she LOVES sitting in the sink. So, a sink bath every day it is. Although my kitchen sink is right underneath a large window, it was the wrong time of day (the light comes through in the morning, but in the afternoon it’s like a cave!) so my ISOs were high. I always forget to get photos of these everyday moments though, so I just grabbed my camera (and a helper!) and went for it.

She reaaaally wanted that duck (which came from p2c - my kids LOVE when I get a p2c order in because THEY get a duck LOL). And see how wet the bench was? She discovered the joy of splashing.

If you’re going to take photographs of baby in the sink, make sure you have a helper on hand to hold baby and stand right there in case she wiggles

My helper!

Zoe is actually sick with a cold right now, and was not at all impressed when I wanted to take a photo of her all wrapped up in her towel post-bath.

Speaking of being sick, Lilly was in hospital for several hours the other night after she had a really bad asthma attack. She’s still sick now, having ventolin every couple of hours. She has a really high fever right now too (though is thankfully asleep in bed, getting some much needed rest!).

Also, I know this is kind of random, but are any Sydney-siders going to Colour Conference? (Hillsong) at the entertainment center. I’ve never been before, and I am fairly anti-hillsong, but my sister in law keeps telling me how great it is, and now both of Matt’s sisters are going and my niece is going so here I am buying a ticket. Just curious to know whether any one else is headed out there, maybe we can say hi or something.

xox Amanda

16 Comments | Permalink

Let me tell you about these next couple of photos. Before Zoe was born, like… a long long time before she was born (think before LILLY was born… lol) I had been after an antique cane pram a friend and I had spotted at this fun little antique shop. The price tag however was HUGE so I filed the idea away and then promptly forgot about it. Shortly before Zoe was born, I remembered, and found my “dream” pram on ebay (gotta love ebay huh). Now, I finally had Gemma here so I could get her help (spotting, you know, so Zoe wouldn’t fall out of the darn thing) only wouldn’t you know it, the pram was too big to fit in the car we are borrowing. I forgot to mention, but our car kinda blew up a few weeks ago. ANYHOW! Also before Zoe was born I had a little vintage-style bonnet commissioned to go with my pram. However as I said, the pram was too big for the car! So rather than waste the oppportunity, I grabbed one (oh yes, I have multiples) of my antique doll prams and decided to make it work

I know I always mention how I LOVE her serious face! But I’m going to say it again I just LOVE her serious face lol.

I still plan on lugging my full-size pram out one day…..when we get our car back….!

I also photographed her in this sweet little headband for Grace Designs. We have several hair pretties I need to get photographed for Ros, but on this day Zoe was in need of a nap (and Gemma had to catch a plane home!) so I only managed the one. But isn’t it darling? Unlike many hair flower sellers, Ros actually hand-pieces her flowers herself.

I moved her around a bit for a slightly different feel to the light and some “sparklier” bokeh. I didn’t tell Gemma really why I was changing things around so I hope she didn’t think I was crazy.

And then I showed Gemma my “happy place”. I just breathe out a huge sigh every time I come to this spot. My husband and I have been coming here pretty much once a week for the past 12 or so years (before we were married!). I’ve done self portraits in the middle of winter floating around in that water We have always called her the Lady of the Lake. She used to have a head, once upon a time…

I just found this photo Matt took of me while I was “setting up” one of my photos at this spot back in 2004 lol!

My photos of her never do her justice. One day, one day. The statue reads: “Let me, I pray thee. Drink a little water of thy pitcher.” Gen 24th Chap. 17th verse.

xox Amanda

11 Comments | Permalink

WOW it feels weird to write that title. But yep… my tiny little Lilly is at preschool for the very first time today. I cannot believe it. She will be going twice a week (during school hours). She looked SOOOO small compared to all of the other kids, despite being 3 and a half. It was funny to see some of the other kids approach her and talk to her like she was MUCH younger than them (when in reality she may very well be older than a good few of them). Her tininess may well work in her favour at getting what she wants tho All of my kids have gone through this preschool, and we are very lucky in that the teachers are FANTASTIC. Lilly went and picked up Isaiah each time last year, so she is very familiar with the preschool and teachers, so I am hoping that she will be just fine. Me, however? Well as I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye I had to turn around quickly because while LILLY wasn’t crying, I was!! Soooo hard to leave her there. She looked SO tiny. And coming home with only Zoe? WOW. That was weird. I can’t even remember the last time I had ONLY a baby at home.. Hopefully I will be able to get some work done during the daytime while Zoe naps now…

Also, Isaiah started KINDERGARTEN! He actually started on Thursday and I’m finally getting around to having time to “blog”. He went in with no problems at all. VERY excited. So excited in fact, that even though I do a job for the school every year taking portraits of the kindy kids, he told me he did not WANT any photos, and I could “go home” haha. Cheeky boy. Once he saw he wasn’t the only one I had to take a photo of however, he was ok with it - only one shot mind you! I snuck in an extra one when he wasn’t looking though

Don’t forget to check out the answers to your FAQ on the Embrace blog too

xox Amanda

10 Comments | Permalink

Next Page →

• Search
Bloglines | Newsgator | Yahoo






• Categories

  • birthdays
  • commercial stuffs
  • Dolls
  • faq/q&a
  • Funny things
  • Knitting
  • Moses
  • sweep!
  • the book
  • Uncategorized

• Archives

  • August 2010
  • June 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006

• Me, elsewhere

  • Amanda Keeys Photography
  • Fall Into Blue
  • Me @ deviantart
  • Me @ flickr
  • Me @ Ravelry
  • My Etsy Store

• Other Stuff

  • ERRATA for Baby Beanies
  • Etsy
  • Farlow Studios
  • Ravelry

• Shopping Stuff

  • Amanda’s Photoshop Actions
  • CharliPop Kids
  • Eden’s Bouquet
  • FairyDust