Drum roll please.

After a couple of emails from well-meaning friends saying "enough already, show us the goods" I realised I can't put off posting them much longer. I'm not sure why I haven't till now...you know when something is so overwhelmingly amazing, you sort of can't deal with it? That's me and this. (Plus Sheye came over today to see it in person, whereas if I had posted the photos she would have peeked and then got cranky about peeking afterwards).

Okay so now I am going to get on my Miss Universe platform for a moment to make my little speech. I'll try not to make it too soppy and free of Wardrobe Malfunctions.

Without several people that help make up my world, this would never have happened. Steve and Lyall have worked countless hours to make it "just so" for me. Although I did get a few "you want what?" glances in the planning stage, they have worked tirelessly without complaint. Before I went away, there was no floor. I came back to just about everything painted and finished, the studio had a floor and I had a red door. It made me cry.

Lyall has not only helped Steve do the studio itself. He has made endles trips to Bunnings for supplies, helped me paint old furniture (which I think deep down inside he think should have been left in the second hand shop) and generally catering to my every childish studio whim. Love you Pa :)

My mum has been chief child-minder, errand runner and dinner maker during the weeks when we lived and breathed the studio. She shoppped, washed and ferried kids. Just so you all know - I have the best mum in the world.

Just thinking about everything Steve does for me makes me cry. He has gone to work every day, come home and worked in the studio till the wee hours then got up in the morning and done it all again. He has come home to dramas that have developed during the day and fixed them calmly and without complaint. It is so amazing to have a husband that supports me, has faith in me and my business and would go to the ends of the earth to make me happy.

I am so very blessed.

My reception with said cupboard that I think Lyall thinks should go back to the fifties where it belongs. I'm afraid I don't agree :) It was in a very sad state when we got it but it has been completely stripped and re-finished. We bought a dodgy Ikea island bench and made it over to match as my reception desk. You can't really see it, but the white is vinyl and it's quilted with red buttons. I love it.

All my retro pretties.

Waiting area...entry to reception on the right. Gum ball machine we may have to rethink after Cassidy and Ivy consumed an amount of cool mints today that I think may be a danger to their health.

Studio view from the front (entry to viewing room in the back corner)

View from back of studio throught to my natural light area (yay!)

The door leading through to reception

I even have a groovy clock

And groovy lights.

And the best part is the garage doors come down to make it secure as well as dark for studio lighting (my brilliant and multi-skilled husband's idea)

I may be a tad excited :)

Just need to get some pictures on the walls and then maybe I will look like a real live photographer!

Confidence.

She ain't lacking any.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails.

'Ma boy. I don't get to take photos of him as often now as I'd like what with school hours and him thinking mum isn't as cool as she used to be :(

I thought the whole "don't embarrass me mum" wouldn't have started until at least grade two. But no. Here he is in prep and he has already start wiping my kisses off. I mean, what's with that? I'm hip, I'm with it - so why am I apparently so embarrassing to my almost six year old? I am a cool mum, damn it! I even restrain myself from calling out "I love you" to him as much as possible in front of his friends. Still, he often says to me - "you just don't get it, do you mum". Obviously not.

Apart from wounding his mother's pride on occaision, he is still the same tender hearted little boy. He loves Toby, the colour green and helicopters and there is no one better than My Dad. The polar opposite to his sister, he is slow to act, easily hurt and easily worried.

And oh so easy to love.

He loves me.

I mentioned to Steve that I don't like the new mini keyboard he got me (I requested a mini one so I can fit all my handy dandy photoshop gadgets in front of me when I'm working). I don't like it because it doesn't have a calculator on the side like my old keyboard did, which I used all the time.

This was his solution.

Rather a bloke-thing to do, but sweet nonetheless. I love that he still makes me laugh every day.

Pretty fly for a God guy.

Cassidy, which most of you will already be aware, is rather talented at coming up with parent-threatening questions at bedtime. It's all part of her cunning plan to cause her parents to lose their minds with frustration and tiredness and then gain Total Bedtime Domination.

She took it to a new level a couple of nights ago with what became a two-night mini series.

(Please remember throughout this description at which the speed that this child talks. She fires questions and answers like bullets on a firing range).

-------

Me: Cassidy, lie down on your pillow please.

C: But I want you to lie with me.

M: Okay, lie down and I will for a minute.

(Aproximately 60 seconds later after she's kicked me in the bladder and hit me in the head with her baby).

Me: Okay I'm getting up now. You're just mucking around.

C: But God wants you to lie with me.

Me: (thinking "no, God is having a good laugh at my expense because I prayed for a daughter and he sent me you") God does not want that.

C: (predicting this response from me and ready with a trusty comeback) Where is God?

Me: (tired and leaving myself wide open) He's everywhere.

C: Is he in your ear? (Grabs my head and pulls me closer so she can yell down my ear in a silly voice) Heeellllllooooo? God????!!!!!

As planned and predicted, Mummy collapsed in laughter as did she until she was snorting uncontrollably and got the hiccups.

And on to night two....

Me: Cassidy lie down on your bed.

C: I want you to lie with me.

Me: No, we go through this every night and you just carry on silly.

C: (thinking well it worked last night so what the hell) God wants you to lie with me.

Me: (thinking I was prepared) No God doesn't.

C: (to sprinkle a bit of fairy dust and make mummy think I'm cute, singing ) Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so............

Me: Cassidy, at this point you're very very lucky Jesus does loves you.

C: Who is Jesus?

M: (disbelieving that I am nutting over the trinity with a three year old at bedtime) Jesus is God.

C: (flippantly) No mum. God lives in the sky. Jesus is just that other bloke.

----

As mum said when I told her, there's logic for you. They don't give them pictures of God to cut out and glue at Sunday school, they cut out pictures of Jesus - otherwise known as "the other bloke".

Somehow I don't think I'm up for Trinty 101 by bedtime.

she's looking at Nanna in this one who was telling her to sit like a lady with her knees together :)

I take no responsibility for these poses. She just whips em out.

Happy Birthday Super Princess.

The impossibly beautiful Ava would have turned five today. Please keep her precious family in your prayers.

Happy birthday gorgeous girl xo

Studio a go-go!

I bribed Cassidy into some pics in what will be the reception of my new studio this morning. She wasn't overly impressed with the idea but I wagered a lollypop along with a good dose of reverse psychology ("oh well, when Isaac and Daddy get home I'm sure Isaac will let Mummy take his photo.....")

It's getting oh-so-close to being finished. This week has been taken up re-finishing an old cabinet I got off ebay for my reception and tarting up an Ikea desk so it doesn't look like an Ikea desk. Lyall and Steve have supervised and stepped in when measuring or power tools are required (I fully admit that I really can't be trusted with either). Mum in turn has wrangled children that seem to have a magnetic attraction to anything with wet paint on it.

If anyone feels like hanging aimlesly around a shopping centre on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, I am doing a stand for my babies project at Westfield North Lakes. I will be the poor unfortunate soul outside Doughnut King trying to maintain a look of healthy interest without looking menacing. A complicated balance. I feel it will involve a lot of nicking off to the nearby Coffee Club for strength.

Oh, I also have balloons. Please pray that people will actually realise I'm there to book photo sessions, not think that the travelling circus has come to town.

What would session with Cassidy be without a token sulk....

.....and a fake smile that is scary beyond all reason.

This is what sexy looks like.

No, it's not a naked photo of my husband. You can all breathe a combined sigh of relief on that front.

It is my shoe cupboard which until recently was storage for the studio. Before I went away I got all excited at the prospect of having my shoe cupboard back and bought some of those groovy clear shoe box thingies from this mob off ebay. I don't know who thought of that idea, but it must have been a woman cause it's brilliant.

I got all my don't-wear-every-day shoes into boxes and stacked them up out of the way which prevents two things that often shorten their lifespan:

1. The dog can't get them.

2. Cassidy can't get them (after which she usually leaves them where the dog can get them. It's the whole food chain effect but with my shoes).

I realise that this may come across as rather overt excitement for storage, but deep down you all know you're just jealous. I mean look at that. All I need to do is casually toss a designer throw rug over the door knob and it's straight out of Better Homes and Gardens.

Steve snickered in a very mocking way when he caught me taking a photo of my cupboard last night, however I am aloof to such ignorant sarcasm. Besides, I seem to remember a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm for a power board not so long ago......

I guess I can see why people read my blog - it's just one fascinating event after another. Stay tuned for next weeks' exciting episode at the Austins' - Kate Organises the Sock Drawer.

I know, I know.

I'm home and haven't blogged (thank you my darling sister for that oh-so-delicately put email reminder!).

Combination of factors, really.

1. Defying the fact that I'm home and back into "normal" life (let me clarify the whole home and Steve/kids/family thing is great, it's the whole work/routine/on-computer-till-1am thing I'm defying).

2. I am without photoshop at the moment. I might just as well run screaming naked into the street. While I was away, apart from working like a trojan on the studio, my darling husband rebuilt my pc and photoshop hasn't found it's was home just yet.

I do have photos to blog, just waiting for the photoshop ship to dock.

In the meantime, here's a little something I shamelessly stole from my sister Emma's blog that requires no photoshop as it just couldn't get any more beautiful.

My first niece or nephew, that so far I call Squishy. Could I possibly be more excited? I think not :)

A pregnant body and newborn just for me to photographically exploit. Ahhh, there's nothing like having a close relative that you can abuse into doing anything you want. Mwooh har har.