I can’t believe how slack I have been at this blogging thing – honestly, I have to get some kind of system going.  Maybe I need to set aside a morning a week or something or otherwise it just doesn’t get done!  Anyhow, back to it…  today:  a gorgeous recipe for Spanish Pear Tart with Pedro Ximenez Syrup.

Last year my Mum got my husband Paul a subscription to Delicious magazine and it was such a great idea!  He loves to cook and he is really good at it too.  As soon as the new issue arrives each month in the mail, Paul sits down and pores over it for hours, salivating, and then cooks me amazingly wonderful things to eat.  So great – thanks Mum!  :)

The cover image is always amazing (the whole magazine is full of good stuff) and we were recently treated to the Spanish Pear Tart with Pedro Ximenez Syrup, from the June 2010 issue.  I tell you, this is the yummiest dessert in the world.  It has a gorgeous Marscapone filling and crumbly almond pastry, amazing tasting pears and then it is topped with a simply lovely syrup.  Paul decided to make one larger tart instead of the individual little ones, because we didn’t have six cute little loose-bottomed tart pans.

I found a variation of this recipe on Eat Well. Eat Green. but here is the recipe as it appeared in the magazine:

Spanish Pear Tart with Pedro Ximenez Syrup

• 1 1/3 cups (200 g) plain flour
• 100 g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
• 1/3 cup (30 g) almond meal
• 1 tsp ground aniseed *optional
• 1/2 cup (75 g) icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250 g) mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup (70 g) thick Greek-style
• melted chocolate, to drizzle *optional

Pedro Ximinez Pears

• 6 small pears (such as corella)
• 1 lemon
• 150 g caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) Pedro Ximinez sherry (a sweet Spanish sherry)

Peel, halve and core pears, leaving stems intact.  Pare 2 strips of rind from lemon and set aside, then halve lemon and rub over the pears to keep them from browning.  Place sugar, rind, cinnamon, vanilla pod and seeds in a pan with 1 1/4 cups (310 mL) water.  Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.  Add sherry and pears, then cover surface closely with baking paper cut to size.  Increase heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes (depending on ripeness of pears) until pears are tender.  Chill pears in the liquid overnight.

The next day, place flour, butter, almond meal, aniseed and 2 tbs icing sugar in a food processor with 1/2 tsp salt.  Process until mixtures resembles breadcrumbs.  Add egg and vanilla and proces suntil it comes together in a smooth ball.  Wrap pastry in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Grease six 10cm loose-bottomed tart pans.  Divide dough into 6 pieces, roll out to 3mm thick, then line the pans with dough.  Chill for a further 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice, then blind-bake for 10 minutes.  Remove paper and weights (or rice) and cook for a further 3 – 5 minutes until pastry is crisp and golden.  Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, remove pears from syrup and transfer syrup to a saucepan.  Bring to the boil, then simmer over medium-low heat for 15 – 20 minutes until thick and syrupy.  Cool.  Slice each pear lengthways almost to the top, leaving the stem-end intact.

Combine mascarpone, yoghurt and remaining 1/3 cup (50 g) icing sugar, then spread into tart cases.  Place 2 pear halves on top, fanning out slices, then brush with the reduced syrup just before serving.  (Brush?  We poured it on!) If desired, drizzle plates with chocolate.

The cook enjoying his creation.

Bonus: I just found a great blog where each month, Katren makes at least one recipe from her collection of 8 years’ worth of Delicious back issues.  I’ll have to get Paul onto that. Whenever I see old Delicious mags at the op shop or second hand book shops, I grab them.  It’s a gift for him, but really it’s a gift for me because I get to eat his cooking!

I know - it’s been waaaaaaay too long since I posted here.   I’m just gonna jump right back in though, with another exciting blog post…

Last weekend, we all went to Sushi Train in Woden for Sam’s 18th birthday.  It was his choice of course, as he has been obsessed with Japan for years and years.  We used to go to a Sushi Train place when we lived up in Sydney (on Oxford Street I think) when Sam was about the age that Jack and Emma are now, and it was just the three of us back then.  In fact we used to eat out literally all the time – living right in the heart of inner-city Sydney there was so much gorgeous food on offer and we had more money then!

How good is it to watch all the little plates trundling around and around?  Jack and Emma were quite adventurous too, trying lots of interesting looking things.  Sam really wants to move to Japan and draw for manga comics and I know he will do it too.  He is about to finish Year 12 and then he is hoping to get approved for an exchange program where his uncle and aunt will sponsor a Japanese student out here and Sam will go to Japan to redo Year 12 over there, just for the fun and experience of it.  It’s so funny – someone who thinks school is mostly a waste of time is now happy to do another year!

Sam is my husband’s son from his first marriage and I came into the picture when he was 4 years old, after Paul had been a single dad for about a year.  (He has custody but Sam sees his mum regularly and it’s all good.)  I still remember the first time I came over to dinner and Sam wanted me to follow him around the house, pretending to be dogs or something on all fours with me chasing him.  I didn’t have kids of my own then and I remember feeling so foolish and awkward but Paul just said “He doesn’t care, just relax and have fun!” so I did and I got used to it after a while.  Looking after kids does bring out the kid in us!  We’ve been a part of each other’s lives for 14 years now and I’ve really watched Sam grow up before our eyes.

Happy Birthday Sam!

I have been doing some thinking lately.  A lot of thinking, actually.  I’ve been thinking about this blog and about how very different my life is now, compared to how it has been over the past five years of doing this thing.

THEN AND NOW

When I was a stay at home mum of two small kids, and my husband was away for part of every week for work, and I was often battling depression, anxiety and/or low self esteem, this blog was a real saviour to me.  A place to talk and get some of my feelings out there.  A place to receive comments and feel like what I said might help someone else in a similar situation. Writing for an audience forced me to write, to do something.  I’m not at home all day with kids any more, and I don’t have problems with depression these days.

When my daughter (now almost 7) was growing inside of me, I set up my business and sewed and sewed things to be sold online and at local markets.  I don’t do any of that any more.  I loved sewing things and photographing them and putting them up here.  I really loved the feedback and I loved showing off what I had done.   I still want to sew (and I still have a pile or ten of fabric to get through, and many projects never started) but right now, I’m doing other things instead.  I know I will get back to the sewing and I know it will always be part of who I am, but it will have to wait.

A few years back, I spent a year teaching myself about how to make art, without pixels. I experimented with printmaking and acrylics and scrapbooking and art journalling.  I posted the results on my blog and I saw the progression in what I was doing.

When the kids were home with me (instead of at school during the day as they are now) I blogged about the kids a lot, what they were up to and general kid stuff.   They are gorgeous kids, but really do you need to know what my kids are doing any more?  They go to school and they do homework, read books, make up silly games with doonas and cushions and all their toys, and play with their wired toys (computers, Wii, DS).  As they get older I think more about their automony and their privacy too.  Right now, they are happy to be on here, but that might change one day soon.   Like me, they might want to be seen as they are now, not as they were a few years ago.

NEW BEGINNINGS

I am doing different things these days.  I’m studying at Uni, doing a Bachelor of Graphic Design and minoring in Advertising and Marketing and I am very busy with that and tired a lot of the time!  I am taking on design jobs on the side and trying hard to keep the balance between Uni, paid work, family and my time.  I am still making things, but with pixels now.  My business name remains the same, but what I do is completely different to before.  Now I am doing graphic design and building websites for other small businesses – some of them independent crafters, so I still feel involved and part of that scene, a little bit at least.

Like the sewing and everything else I do, I am self taught in design and coding and online marketing.  I am at Uni to formalise my skills and fill in the gaps, and network – meeting others in a similar position.  I’m so so happy to be back to design – this is what I did before I had the kids and I do wonder where I would have been now (in my career) if I didn’t take 10 years off.

Before I had Jack (now 9) I was working for a big design firm up in Sydney and partying a lot (self-medicating for depression) but falling pregnant with him was the best thing I could ever have done and I believe I am a different and better person for being a mum.  Falling pregnant (a very happy occasion as I had been diagnosed as infertile) forced me to do something about my mental health issues and I worked hard to get myself sorted out, ready to be in charge of a little person.  Just before falling pregnant with Emma I was about to sign up to do a Photography degree at the School of Art.  Again, I’m so happy to have had my daughter instead.  Along with Sam (Paul’s son from his first marriage) we had our family sorted and I threw myself into it all.

GOING BACK.  GOING FORWARD.

When I needed my creative outlet in 2003, I set up the sewing business.  When money got really tight about 3 years ago, I went to work part-time – and found a job in a small design and print shop which gave me the taste for design again and showed me that my first love really was worth going back to.  Over time I realised that the kids were older and at school and it became my turn at last.  So this year, I signed up for Uni, pulled the sewing business and set Red Instead up as a graphic design business instead – and here we are.

OPENING A NEW BOOK

So, to blog content.  If I’m not sewing and showing the results off, if I’m not on an art journey, or spilling about depression, or talking about my kids all the time – then what do I blog about?  Another question:  how relevant – TO ME, right here right now – is everything I’ve blogged about over the last five years?  How do I balance what is for ME in this blogging thing, and what is for you, the audience?   If I am over it all, then should it matter to me that people still want to look at things I did 3 or 4 years ago, that they still see me as that person from way back then?

Thinking about the content of this blog over the previous 5 years, it has pretty much been things that I no longer do and/or that I no longer feel the need to talk about.  I think I need to break away from being seen as a craft blogger and move the blog on to new things.   I’m not even sure what it will be yet. What will this blog be known for if it’s not known as a crafty blog?  I guess it will become another personal blog, hopefully a good one!   I know that I enjoy writing and maybe I will write fewer posts (I already do that!) but wordier posts.  Not all like this one, I promise!  This one is extra long – I hope you’re still reading!

I was talking about all this with my best friend Yvie and she brought up the metaphor of writing in a journal.  She has been writing in a series of journals for over 20 years now and she told me that sometimes she will be part way through one journal, and feel the need to start a brand new book – just because she wanted to move away from what was written in the current book.  Going to Uni and changing my business – I have already changed the focus of my life, and now I need to start a new book.  I don’t want to forget the last five years of my life, but I also don’t want to keep it up here any longer.  I’m going to keep the old stuff just for me and I’m going to give you something new, writing about my life as it is now.

A FRESH START

I’ve been trying to find the answers but I don’t know exactly what to do.  One thing I want to do is to update the design and change things around a bit.  Despite not really knowing what my content is these days, I am reluctant to stop blogging entirely.  (I’ve been doing it so long, maybe it is part of me!)  I’m thinking about turning the vast majority of posts on here to “private” which means that they will still technically be here, but not visible to you or to google.    Starting afresh – with “visible” posts that start maybe from the last six months onwards.  Posts that are relevant to who I am now and what I’m up to these days.  I know, I might have to keep some of the most popular posts from the past alive (hello pillowcase dress – why is that SOOOO popular, I have no idea!) but I don’t see the point (to me) in keeping the old stuff here any more.

In the meantime, I have been slurping it all into Blurb – making a blog book for myself.  I don’t even care that much about getting the layout of the blurb books perfect, it will just be nice to have them on the shelf to keep for posterity.  I have blogged (and lived) some awesomeness and it should definitely be remembered, just not here.

Right, enough words.  Now tell me your great ideas or responses.  I’d love to hear them.  (Do I overthink things just a wee bit?  It’s just how I am!)

Jack turned 9 today.  I can’t believe how big he’s getting.

Paul was up late last night cooking the cake for tonight and loads of tiny cakes for school – what a good husband!   He made a lemon icing for the top and it was SO good.

Not so good at cleaning up after himself though… let’s use every pan we own…

Though I have to say that he didn’t finish cooking and icing them until 11.30pm – really who wants to clean up at that hour?  I was in the bedroom wrapping presents at the time.  Nothing like leaving things til the last minute – we always seem to do that on birthdays and Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jack!  I love being your mum!

How would you like to WIN a shopping voucher worth $150 to spend at Mathilda’s Market, here in Canberra this Sunday?

Mathilda’s Market is full of some of the best of Australia’s crafters and designers,  selling their unique handmade baby and kids products.  Beautiful clothing, accessories, homewares and toys are all there, so it’s a great place if you are looking for a unique and stylish gift for a little person.

Simply leave me a comment on this post to be in the draw to win a voucher worth $150!

Entries close at 4pm Saturday. A random name will be drawn on Saturday afternoon and I will contact the winner directly, so make sure you leave a current email address.  You will need to collect the voucher from the organiser Anne on Sunday at the market itself.

Sunday, 28 February 2010 from 9am to 1pm at Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Commonwealth Ave, Canberra – free entry & free parking.

• Over 50 stalls filled with exquisite baby and kids wares
• Yummy food prepared by the Hyatt Hotel
• Entry at rear (easy pram access)
• Event held in Grand Ballroom and Gallery.
• Event will go ahead, come rain, hail or shine!
• More info here:  Mathilda’s Market website

Finally a blog post!  Honestly, I have been meaning to get to this for DAYS and WEEKS.  Well, here it is at last!  Time for a cuppa and a read!

One reason that I’ve been finding it so hard to get here is that I have been INSANELY busy for the last month or so.  Of course, I finished up my part-time Office Manager job about a week before Christmas and then it was Christmas craziness (good crazy) and then school hols all of January.  I had a great time hanging out with the kids.  We didn’t really do that much – mostly we just hung out at home – but we did go ten pin bowling, saw a few movies, went to Questacon, swam at Pine Island, played card and board games and we even went to Melbourne.  I guess we did do a bit, after all!

Melbourne was a lot of fun.  I flew down with Jack and Emma (thanks Paul for the points!) and that was exciting already for them.  We sat over the wing there and back and Jack LOVED looking out, especially when exciting things happened like the flaps moving up and down.  On the way back, Emma felt funny and then had a tiny vomit (thank god for those little paper vomit bags!) but she was fine again right after.

Of course, that gave me a great opportunity to tell the kids about a (truly disgusting) prank that Barry Humphries used to do.   I think it happened in the 70s on a TAA plane, though I could be wrong about that.  He took a tin of condensed soup onto the plane and quietly tipped it into a vomit bag and tucked the vomit bag back away in the seat in front.  A little while later, he makes a big scene of grabbing the vomit bag andthen he makes horribly loud vomiting noises for a little while, before looking inside, grabbing a spoon and EATING it in full view of the horrified passengers.  It’s soup, remember! How horrible is that story?  I LOVE it though.  Anyway, back to Melbourne…

Churros on Brunswick Street, Melbourne. Churros are Spanish donuts that you dip in melted chocolate. to.die.for. We made quick work of them.

We had a great time in Melbourne, staying for about 4 days.  My bestie Yvie and her husband Dan had a gorgeous baby back in October and we were SO happy to finally meet her.  She is absolutely gorgeous and it was such fun.  It was a little stressful at times, trying to keep the kids quiet and all that but I needn’t have worried really as Dan and Yvie are easygoing and understanding about noisy older kids who don’t seem to have a volume button.  It was so nice to hang out with a baby again, they truly are just gorgeous things.  Yvie and Dan seem so relaxed and confident, and they are just loving their new time as parents.

Batman Park, above and another awesome park I forget the name of, below.

We went to quite a few parks, CERES for lunch, and Brunswick Street for window shopping and Churros.  We even ran into my niece Ruth and her mum Sascha while we were there, and stopped at a cafe to catch up - such a great surprise!

We caught lots of trams (including a couple of wrong ones – no dramas though, thanks to the iPhone GPS I knew where I was and how to get back) and we did lots of walking.  It was the week just after the massive heatwave, so we were very glad it had cooled down a bit by the time we got there.  We went to the Melbourne Museum, which was awesome and we met up with Al (SIL) and her lot for a play in the park just outside.  We had such a great time away and then we came back to another few weeks of holidays at home – I love Summer!

Cool Kids:  Jack and Emma with two of their other three cousins, Kyle and Cam (the third one, Kenzi, ran away!)

Besides all that, I have been really busy on the work side of things too.   I am going to save that for the next blog post though…

Writing a regular personal blog is hard work, especially if you want to keep it interesting enough for other people to keep reading. Having an idea is one thing, but you then need the time and skill to articulate it in on the page. Suddenly something you do for fun is starting to look suspiciously like work.

Meanwhile Facebook is quick and simple – just bash out a sentence and you’re done. Reader feedback is almost instataneous, and is from your friends, so you’re encouraged to continue.

I am determined to keep the blog going though, so don’t worry.  With my life so busy right now, I may not get here as often as I would like, but I will just have to make time!  I do love blogging!

This morning I was laying in bed, awake but relaxed and not ready to get up yet.  The phone rang and it was my mum calling to tell me that I was in the newspaper!  That woke me up a little.  She read the paragraph out to me but of course, I had to rush out to buy it for myself!

So nice to be recognised in my local newspaper (the Canberra Times, p. 8 of the Sunday Relax magazine).  Such a nice surprise to wake up to – I had no idea this was running.  I am certainly in very good company, with these other blogs featured as well:

www.apartmenttherapy.com
canberrasgotstyle.blogspot.com
www.archdaily.com
www.designspongeonline.com
www.theinteriorevolution.com
www.doorsixteen.com

So glad to see my friend Lisa Barrett in there too!  For those who are finding the text hard to read, her blurb says:

Written by a Canberra designer, Canberra’s Got Style focuses on interior design, fashion and design events around Canberra.  Blogger Lisa makes a lot of the pieces you see on the site and they’re available in her Etsy shop (a website which provides an opportunity for crafty types to sell their handmade or vintage wares – see www.etsy.com).  Keep your eye out for my favourite, the very reasonably priced cushions with motifs of birds and deer.

The text about my blog says:

Another Canberra blog, Jen leheny’s site is filled with things to sew, cook, paint, craft, ready and buy.  An accomplished sewer herself, Leheny gives detailed instructions on how to make everything from cat beds to a dress fashioned from a pillowcase.  For those who would rather buy than make, there is also a link to Leheny’s online shop where she sells handmade clothes and jewellery.  Leheny’s warm, casual style of writing makes visitors to her blog feel instantly comfortable and welcomed and judging by her fan numbers (almost 300) she seems to have quite a following.

So, welcome to you if you have just come here for the first time, have a look around…  Happy Sunday to you!

Social butterfly. I have taken to using Facebook in a big way lately. I am in love with checking the Live Feed and posting links and status updates. It is the best way to stay in touch with people, even when you are too lazy or busy to pick up the phone and catch up properly.  I check Facebook from my bed before getting up in the morning and I update my status all through the day.  It’s like a snapshot of where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m reading.

I know, you might think – but who really cares?  Well, surprisingly enough, it’s human nature to be a little bit nosy and voyeuristic.  It’s great to get a peek into someone else’e life and day-to-day goings on, and I love to give the same back.  It’s what makes reality TV work. On the internet, we can all be a little bit famous. Egos all around, for sure!

I have steadily used Facebook more and more since getting my iPhone. I tell you, my iPhone has changed my life! I know, a big statement but it’s true! The phone part is secondary to me (though very useful of course) but it’s the little internet computer in my hand that I can take around with me everywhere that is changing the way I do things. I can’t wait until tablets come out, get small and get cheap.  I can’t wait for the future to get here!

A year ago, I knew the term “microblogging” as it related to Twitter and so on, but I didn’t really get it until recently. I don’t think we will ever lose blogs as a hugely popular medium, but I can see how quick and easy it is to write a couple of lines and shoot it off instead of labouring over a proper blog post – with pictures!  It’s so much easier to do the quick link post or status update, and if you do a lot of those over time, you build up a picture of who you are and what you like and what you think your audience might like to see and hear about.

You can see what I have been posting and saying by going here: My Lifestream

Are you on Facebook or Twitter? You can fan my businesses here: www.facebook.com/redinstead (print, web, photography) and here: www.facebook.com/redinsteadhandmade (handmade indie accessories) or see my tweets at www.twitter.com/redinstead

Can you BELIEVE that it’s about to be a brand new year?  It will be a new decade too…  Of course, this is a time to look back on the past and wonder what the future might hold.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas – I know I did.  We spent time with rellies, visiting from Victoria and it was so great to be with family.  The kids all played so well together and had a lot of fun catching up with their cousins.  The adults kicked back and relaxed, chatting and eating and drinking.

Now it is New Year’s Eve and Christmas seems so long ago.  I had a great year and I know next year will be an awesome adventure.  I head to Uni in about 4 weeks to begin my Bachelor of Graphic Design at University of Canberra and I’m really excited.  I know I will get a little nervous too, as it creeps closer to the big day.   In April, I will turn 40.  A big milestone age and one I’ve been thinking about for a few months now.  I don’t feel old (and I am always being told that I look about 10 years younger than I am!) but going off to Uni is the problem, as I know the 17 year olds will think 40 is positively ancient.  I know I used to think that, at their age!   I keep saying to friends:  Do you think I can get away with telling my new uni friends that I am 29, not 39?

Ten years ago, I was working as a web designer at the biggest and best design firm in Sydney.  In truth, I found there was stacks that I didn’t know, as I was self-taught and everybody else had their degree but I learnt a lot and had fun.  I wonder how things would have been now if I had stayed along that path.  Anyhow, I gave that up to have Jack.  I resigned from my job to spend my pregnancy getting my shit together, as I had only recently tackled and beaten a major depressive episode.  I worked hard on myself, sorting out some issues and got ready to be a mum.  I threw up all through my pregnancy (and had to be hospitalised for it) but I chilled out and I had an amazing drug-free water birth.  I loved being a mum but I thought I would have lots of time to do other things so I briefly set up a home-based web design business in Sydney.  I took on a few jobs but soon realised that my baby needed me and I needed him, so I closed up shop.  We moved back to Canberra and I settled in to being a mum.

About seven years ago, Jack was getting a little older and I was getting itchy feet so I went along to an Open Day at the School of Art and decided to study to become a professional photographer.  I began getting my portfolio together and was about to sign up officially when I fell pregnant with Emma.  There goes that idea and it was back to being a mum.  My beautiful daughter makes my heart so happy and I’m really glad she came along though!  Still with the itchy feet, I started up my handmade business while pregnant and had my first market stall about 2 weeks from my due date!  It was pretty easy to bring a newborn along and the business grew as the children did.

Sewing and selling my things at markets and online kept me sane and gave me something else to think about besides the children, but two years ago we made the tough decision that I would have to go back to “proper” work – at least it was part-time.  After an initial reluctance, I really enjoyed working out of the home and I was glad to find that running my business meant that I had kept all of my skills current, despite being out of the workforce for over 8 years.  One job finished up due to the GFC and I quickly found another.  I kept the handmade business going as well, though I found it hard to fit everything in!  I have just finished up that second job to begin Uni and I am winding up the handmade business to go back to my pre-baby roots – design and photography.

Over the last ten years, I have battled (and then conquered) major depressive episodes.  I have put on (and then lost) weight.  I have gone from damaged self-esteem to confidence and real belief in myself and what I can do and offer.  I have settled back into life in Canberra after some fun and lively years in Sydney, and I’ve made new friends and pushed myself to try new experiences.  I became a mum and in the process, I grew up.   Five years ago I married the man I love and after 13 years together, we are still very much in love, giving support and balance to each other.

Things haven’t always been rosy – I’ve made some really dumb choices and I’ve had to do a lot of work on myself (along with some therapy) to undo some of the long term effects of those dumb choices (marrying a nasty and abusive man at 21)   but looking back on those times and those lessons, I know they made me stronger and I now know I can handle whatever is thrown at me.  It’s all a mixture of choices, luck and hard work.

I know that right now, my life is awesome and amazing!  I hope yours is too!  Happy New Year and Happy New Decade!

ps.  did you like the goofy kid photos?  Jack got some silly glasses for Christmas so I took a few shots with my iPhone.  Aren’t they priceless?

On Sunday, I was Event Photographer for local self-published success story, Tania McCartney who was launching the second children’s picture book in her Riley series – Riley and the Dancing Lion.

above: Tania’s newest children’s book, Riley and the Dancing Lion and the gorgeous red plane that inspired the illustrations for Riley’s plane rides all around Hong Kong.

above: These two, Beya and Daniel, were just the most gorgeous children – I could have taken photos of them all day.

above: Author Tania McCartney on the right and Candice Edye from Daisy and Dandelion networking group on the left. Two amazing women I am glad to call friends!

above: Tania had fun activities organised for the kids – Beya again, concentrating on some colouring in.

above: Tania likes to read to the crowd of children (and their parents!) at each event – it is gorgeous to see them all so entralled. Tania makes the book come alive for them.

above: Talking to the crowd. Tania has a gorgeous smile and she is always smiling!

above: Amita and her daughter Bella having a look at the new picture book.

above: Tania signing stacks of books.

above: Tania with her illustrator, Kieren Pratt.

Tania has loads more of my photos (and an excellent wrap up of the day’s festivities) on her blog post – I gave her a disc with almost 100 photos on it. If you were at the Book Launch and would like a copy of your child’s photo – stay tuned. I’m organising that soon.

You can see more of the photos that I took for Tania’s book launch at my Event Photography page.  Get in touch if you want to book me for your next event.