#ITTC COLOUR PALETTE CHALLENGE

I am a huge fan of Instagram and I have so many favourite accounts, it would be hard to pinpoint even just a handful! I absolutely love wasting time perving on their beautiful galleries and sometimes my feed is just so full of beautiful imagery it is often a quick pick me up as I usually feel inspired or just darn happy after looking at the beautiful photographs.

What I am starting is a personal challenge but you are most welcome to join me, what I want to work on is using colour palettes to pretty up my instagram account with a flowing block of different colours and also as a way of practicing and challening my styling and photography practice. Using particular colour palettes seems to be a pattern which is prevalent with the accounts that I personally enjoy looking at and I would like to work on using different colour themes. I have often steered clear of doing it because I love colour and I really couldn't play favourites to just one particular colour palette, but with this challenge I can play around with different palettes each month.

First rule of the colour palette challenge is that you must have at least six consecutive photographs which express at least four of the colours from the colour palette challenge. Yeah, and that's it.
So my plan is to release a colour palette every month and my aim is to have at least six consecutive photographs using a minimum of four of the colours from the months colour palette challenge. Some months I may follow the palette exclusively with my styling and photography, and other months I may just do my six consecutive photographs, I guess it just depends on what I feel like doing or how much I am loving the colour palette.

Ooops, I lied. Second rule of the colour palette challenge is that with each photograph posted (blog or instagram or facebook or ello) you must hashtag #ITTCCOLOURPALETTECHALLENGE that way we have a reference as to our progress (wow, i'm a bit bossy). You must hashtag #ITTCCOLOURPALETTECHALLENGE (just incase the first bolded, uppercase shouty style hashtag demand missed the point). At the end of each month I will decide on my favourite photograph and give myself a pat on the shoulder.....unless you decide to join in, then I will share a pat on the shoulder with you too and we can emoticon high five each other and say, 'We did it!'. 

As of tomorrow, let the challenge begin.

Cowabunga!

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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A TABLE FOR SIX

 Oh my glob, can you believe that this entire set was sitting on the side of the road? As soon as I saw it, I pulled over, knocked at the front door and asked if it was free. You can only imagine the beating of my palpitating heart when they said yes. I took two chairs with me and then came back to claim the rest by foot. It was only nine houses down the road from mine, and it was a collective effort taking the four chairs and the table (which is quiet heavy as it has an extendable center) down the road and up our dirt driveway. So the old table got promoted outside to our deck and this little set got a wipe down and is now our main table. I am inlove and feeling very lucky!! This is exactly what I have been looking for and I would have been willing to pay for it. 

Thank you Universe! What are your top pre-loved finds?

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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INSPIRATION AT THE MARKETS

 

Today was market day and we almost didn't make it there. I was flying solo with the kids as Matty was in Melbourne watching the demise of the Swannies at the grand final. After a relaxing morning pottering about at home, cleaning up my newest roadside fine (oh my glob, an amazing six piece retro/retractable dining table!!) driving around looking for a carpark for about thirty minutes was pretty annoying, I told Paddy that we were going to have to make this our last round drive and then we were going to drive home (a good idea for the markets would be to have a shuttle bus system running in from terrigal carpark). Circling around for the final time, we ended up scoring the best carpark in all of the land. Right out the front of the entrance to the markets.

We always head straight over to the gozleme stand and today we had a slight variation, instead of two cheese and spinach, we had one chicken, cheese and spinach for him and the usual for me. We plonked ourselves down in front of a wonderful blues band, I closed my eyes and I could have been in Byron. So at the table setting I spied a few pieces of table scape inspo, I was loving the different textures of the hangings, some crochet and some woven together. I love this idea of storing the pineapple, as there is never enough room in the fridge and the fruit basket is always too full. I want to do a weaving class, one of my darling friends pointed me in the direction of Kosklea and their workshops, one of which I spied is a weaving class - which I would to do one day.

What types of workshops are you interested in or have you attended?

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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LEARNING TO LEARN WITH AUTHENTICITY

Day two of the Slow Living Workshop at Glenmore House in Sydney, we started the day off with some amazing Tarts I have never ever tried anything like these little guys before in my life!! After morning tea Beth took the reins with a rolling pin in hand. As she prepared her pie dough, she talked us through the steps with lots of free flowing questions and answers. After the pie dough was made, she filled them with a rhubarb filling and turned the sides of the dough up to make some little gallettes, which we would use in our styling session later in the day. I have never made pie dough from scratch and I was a bit amazed watching it all come together. I guess the weighing of ingredients is something that has mostly put me off from making it, but after tasting these little galletes and seeing how effortlessly Beth made it, it is now on my never ending list of things to make. During the tail end of the gallette making Stacy Clark started prepping our table for lunch and it was a pleasure watching her balance out the setting by eye and feel, the ball of twine and scissors shadowing her slow move to each place at the table as she made each persons seated place at the table look amazeballs. If we were eating by means of our eyes, we all would have been full from the visual feast of beauty at the table. Lunch came out and it was a delicious fresh seafood pasta dish with a fresh garden herb salad, fresh breads and washed down with zesty jugs of water. The last hours of the workshop were filled with styling, eating and also an insight into post-processing photographs.

This weekend was just so fun. To be around other creatives who like to 'do' and 'make' and talk was beautiful. For me personally, I feel as though I am in a bit of a block with the development of my own style, trying to find and use inspiration without turning into it. It was very encouraging to hear how other creatives continue to develop their own style and how they use social media to inspire them. I feel as though I am searching for authenticity to self when it comes to my style of photography so that I can be more confident with what I am creating and putting out there, rather than feeling like it is just a 'copy' of someone elses style. I am hugely inspired by Luisa's work because I love the way it looks - real, fresh, in the moment. For me, they are elements that I want to exhibit, but in my own way. Beth's photography is deep and I like that there is a high level of consciousness that she puts into her photography, the deep and light feel of her photographs is almost like two polar ends meeting. I like the choices that she has made in defining her style and I guess that is where my mind is at when I am shooting these days, empowering my moments through better choices (and oh my goodness, it is still early days!!!). Finally, I am also inspired by making, doing and consuming to nurture which is why I was attracted to this particular workshop. I love to learn how to make and create, but I am not glossy and neat and this blog is not to put forth a pretty looking blog full of DYI's or perfect moments because that would be too contrived. I am a bit more rough and tumble and follow the lead of the practicality of the moment, I would say that I am a bit of a watered down risk taker. I seem to follow my intuitive needs when it comes to things that I like to become involved with and maybe it's because subconsciously what I value is the developing the ability of learning how to learn as opposed to learning how to master a particular skill - does that make sense? My aim is to keep shooting everyday, but not haphazardly or by co-incidence, but with a level of consciouness regarding my goals towards developing a personal style which is authentic to who I am.

How do you deal with creative blockages? Who inspires you and how do you use that inspiration to create?

 

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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WINTER BREAKFAST

The last weeks of Winter have been slow and drawn out with grey and wet weather, but it's ok because the brighter days of Spring are only a few sleeps away. My favourite part about winter is that it makes having a hot breakfast totally appropriate. Last night I spied a wintry breakfast here and today's inspired breakfast was a hit. Usually, the only porridge eaters in my home are the girls but today the boys were asking for a bowl of porridge too.

WINTRY BREAKFAST BOWL

Porridge

Banana

Chia Seeds

Peanut Butter

Coconut flakes

Milk

Honey

Coconut Oil

1. Make yourself a pot of porridge

2. Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a small fry pan on a medium high heat

3. Cut banana in half and then half again, length ways

4. Place banana's, sliced side down into the hot fry pan and fry until caramalised and golden on one side

5. Place porridge into bowl, top with a spoonful of peanut butter and honey and place caramalised banana on top and sprinkle with chia seeds and coconut flakes

6. Gently pour some warmed milk over the porridge.

Enjoy with sips of coffee or tea.

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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DINNER FOR BREAKFAST

He had a ham and cheese croissant and I had left-over salad for breakfast. Last night for dinner this salad was accompanied by some free-range chicken thighs which were fried off in a pan with some coconut oil for some quick colouring and then baked in the oven for fifteen minutes to finish cooking right through. We had a squeeze of fresh locally grown lemons and sea salt to season the chicken after it came out of the oven.

The salad was adapted from Hetty McKinnon's cookbook, Community, salad recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen, and I was feeling inspired by the zataar roasted carrots with kale, freekeh and blood orange maple dressing. However there was no zataar or freekeh in my cupboards and our oranges had been eaten days ago, so i skipped the zataar and freekeh all together and replaced the blood oranges in the dressing with some little cumquats which we had in our fruit bowl. I also added some roasted canned chickpeas in place of the hazelnuts and some cauliflower which I threw ontop of the roasting carrots for the remaining ten minutes. To serve I pinched a tiny sprinkling of sesame and sunflower seeds over the carrots.

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.