THEA IS TWO and UP AND COMING

Hi Todays blog is about Thea turning two and what is up and coming .

so Thea is now two where has the time gone?!this year as Dom was away with work and everyone was on Easter holidays we just had cake at home and some visitors! 

As Dom was away we decided to give Thea her main gift from us to her early so she had that on the Friday her birthday was Easter Monday , so I do think this was a bit confusing as she had the excitement on Friday and then on Easter Sunday I left out her Easter bits so she was excited then again on Monday I set up a little gift area so when she woke up she had banners and balloons and her gifts .

Our main gift  to Thea was a IKEA kitchen and some accessories to be honest she was way more excited about the accessories than the actual kitchen we have a funny video of her opening the accessories being super excited and then one of her opening the kitchen looking at it and running of to play with the accessories!

Thea had some lovely gifts this year she a lucky little thing and the lovely thing is she loves and uses every single one  Thea is peppa pig mad so she's been enjoying books she got she also got some first  readers which she loves for bed time current bed time fave is princess and the pea she kills herself laughing over the pea being in the bed it makes me laugh every time we read it sometimes I'm allowed to read it to her other times she reads it to me although she cant read yet she starts with once there was a princess and then basically talks about what she can see.

taken on Nikon D5600 by myself

I cannot believe how much Thea has changed in this year she's really independent I think for her age although  im sure most two year olds are she's very strong willed and determined  she does a lot alone now, she walks alone down the stairs - this was a big change as for a short while she wasn't to brave on the stairs, she puts herself into her high chair and does the belt up with no help! she does her own teeth and loves doing her own hair in the bath - I do have to re rinse as she sometimes has a lot of shampoo in her hair ! 

Thea can say a lot more than I could at this age it amazes me everyday she starting to form sentences and can ask for a snack or drink and she can say what she wants to watch on t.v or the I pad - yes we let her use the I pad some don't agree but as shes not on it all day I have no issue with it, its actually helped her start learning her colours and she can count to 10 and do the ABC.

Thea has always loved nursery rhymes and is really into singing them and dancing her all time fave ones are of course MR Tumbles's mix on youtube !

the ant got to close!

This year still brings challenges with her allergies currently on the food ladder and due an appt in august which we hope brings good news as so far every appt has been the same result with her food allergy and this 9 month round seems to look the same mixed with this stormy heat lately her skin has flared and been the worst we have seen it since she was a lot younger.

onto up and coming I still have drafts that need completing and publishing, we bought a new pram as although I love and still love the stomp v3 system which technically we could have continued to use we went for the new system that is just the stroller which Thea can get in and out of herself and is slightly smaller as we installed a baby gate in her room where we store the pram and having to lift the other one in and out was not fun and we have no where to store it other wise !

of course its still ickle bubba I really have a lot of love for this brand and would highly recommend it if your in the market for a pram.

a random blog that will be up at the start of next month will be butterfly hatching and releasing 

very excited about that probably more so than Thea I was on the hunt for fun things to blog about and was talking to a friend and she said she uses the kits in the school holidays with her kids.

Thea is not a huge bug lover has a fear or spiders not to sure why as we have only encountered 2 in her entire time so far! youtube may have something to do with that she was watching a slime spider video?!

Thea hated ants but always wanted to watch them but if they get to close she's not keen recently went to do a photo session and I caught the funniest photo of Thea ant watching but an ant got to close I will insert the photo, we were taking photos of a stunning dress made by a lovely mum on Instagram which leads me to my next point I will probably write some blogs on insta again as I have found a hobby in taking photos of clothing and of course headbands we were lucky enough to join some amazing teams lately with some amazing head pieces and clothing 

Dom bought me for Christmas an amazing Nikon camera which frankly im still learning to use but it takes amazing photos! so really been into taking Thea spam for our insta account! 

Thankyou for reading there wont be such a long break between blogs for a while as I have the time to write! if you would like daily Thea spam find us on insta send me a dm when you request so I know your from the blog xx

keep an eye out for the stroller review and the butterfly hatching!
Hannah and Thea
xXx

flutter sleeve romper and red tutu from melies tutu

Photo by me on my i phone

Hi ! A blog on maternity photos ! 

So as we know I love a good photo why ? Because time goes so fast in baby world not so much bump world that feels like an eternity towards the end ! I joke a lot with the saying i take a photo a day! but i really do most days if i'm not at work take photos!

I documented my bump myself weekly and lost all the pics that were saved on my bump app but I do have some pics from my bump updates and random ones I took along the way and our lovely friend Ewa took so bump ones for us also! 

I love having the memories and I still having had Thea want as many memories as possible it really does go so fast before you know it your nearly at one year! 

I look back and I'm thankful my sister took pics In the hospital the are some of my fave to look back on, I'm also glad I took some bump ones along the way I was huge - if you asked me at the time I said I didn't think I was that big ha ha but looking back at baby shower photos and those last few bumps - I was rather big swelling had already started and later with the c section complications got worse where was I looking ! Totally in denial ha ha !

I wanted to have maternity ones done and by luck a friend of ours had started some photography and asked if she could come and photo the bump ! 

I wasn't feeling to brave as stretch Marks were getting bad and I felt like nothing fitted here's something you didn't see in the pics the dress I wore wasn't done up !

photo by Ewa Highland Photography

I really enjoyed our afternoon with Ewa and i would recommend documenting your journey! i had extra scans and so for me bump/maternity photos went with out saying! pinterest was something i looked at for home DIY bump pics along with photo edit apps such as Enlight and Afterlight great for filters and light settings.
most of my home ones are very easy to do and i'm only really happy with my name letter ones from a point of how they look photography wise! but i love that i have all the memories in a weird way i miss my bump!

i find the i phone camera perfectly good for photos but if your looking for professional photos then having some one else take them for you is better some of mine need cropping as back grounds are not clear and white or i had to hold the camera in a silly angle to get the bump fully in the shot- the name letter photos i took during some DIY in Thea's room so i had a unit in the middle of the room to hold the camera on! the basic i phone light setting i also find good for general picture editing

Photo by Ewa Highland Photography

The above photo was taken by Ewa but i added a phone app filter from Enlight for a previous blog on editing photos i do not do this to all my photos and i never used these filters for most of my of my DIY bump ones but it is so easy! as the weeks fly by now i take more everyday style photos of Thea playing or sitting less pose ones and of course selfies ha ha !
Even though Thea is only 10 months i look back at photos and i cant believe how fast they change in a short time! from not being able to sit to sitting even smiling or being able to hold a toy or even look at the camera!

photo by me with my i phone

Photo documenting is not for everyone of course but for me i will continue to take them and maybe by the time Thea is 18 would have managed to find the time to print date and put them in a photo album! i have mum friends who are so good at organising and printing their photos! how do they do it the only thing i am consistent with is uploading them to the laptop as my phone has little storage which isn't helped by the fact i downloaded season 3 of pretty little liars to watch in hospital when i was having Thea and still have not finished the season or as Dom keeps suggesting downloading it to the i pad to free up phone space! i am half tempted to just ask my sister what happens and be done ha ha anyone who knows the show will be wondering why i am still so behind its been out a long time!

one thing i have been terrible at getting is a family photo of us with Thea and Dom's 3 kids which would be really lovely to have anyone have any tips on how to get a good photo with 4 kids all at once ha ha i think i will be the really annoying mum who wants a traditional family photo every Christmas! i've already got carried away in excitement for matching mum and baby outfits! Instagram is dangerous! i always find my excuse for buying Thea outfits or matching things is i'm helping smaller businesses out and there are mum run shops for hand made clothing on there which are unique and amazing! yep you guessed matchy match blog / fave insta shop blog coming soon!

I also have a few half written blogs on skinny tan and Thea's most used items which have been in the pipe line for a while! and the big 1 blog will be live the week of  Thea's b day as i will have millions of photos from her cake smash and 1 year photo sessions here at home with the help of a lovely friend who is lending me a photography back ground! 

most excited for the outfits and our lovely friend is making a unicorn smash cake it will be to pretty to smash! and my sister is helping with a cake for her b day party that wont hopefully wont be smashed!

thank you for reading! we hope to write again soon lots of blogs pending on a plus i have some holiday to take from work so i can get writing!

Hannah and Thea 

xx

For makeup photos same as baby photos i use INSTAGRAM most but recently i found another app that i love which is ENLIGHT another app i also love and used for my own bump pictures was AFTERLIGHT - great for shadow shots and editing backgrounds not so great for me personally for filters i much prefer insta or enlight! PICFX is one of my most used apps so there is a section on that.
  this is how i edit my photos i am not a professional and i just do it my spare time!  if your a new mum or expecting or have a little one this blog will show some quick and easy ways to get cute photos! the makeup ones are always inspired by photos i see in makeup books or on pinterest!
anyone who knows me well enough will laugh as most of these are colour filters but my fav baby photos are often classic black and white!
As this is a quick little blog if you wanted full app details and a more in depth look youtube is full of tutorials on these apps i just play around with them so i may not be using them to the full potential!

As shown i open insta with a original un-touched photo it takes all of a few seconds to scroll along and see which filter compliments the makeup or if it was a baby photo i would look for outfit colours and which filter brings them out or enhances the light or exposure of the photo.

so as shown in the pic i went for the filter nashville for this photo as it enhances the colour of makeup and hair and evens out the skin as i'm not wearing any other makeup other than eye and lip! insta is the quickest and easiest of the edit apps for me often i barely change the photo! most people use insta so i dont need to go into detail!

ENLIGHT  

I love Enlight for more fun filters you can mix colours in various ways in a mix of combos to create some cool effects as shown below 

this is a duo effect filter, this is one of my most used apps and filter overlay options, you can do a range of combos and a range of shapes and pick the colours you want if you dont want to use the pre set ones
the Elight app has great filters under the analog section which same as the duo you can choose if you want to change them up by using the direction of the colour or mixing or adding colour if you click on tools under any of the filters you can do simple changes like brightness, exposure,shadow,highlight and definition - you could for a super quick edit do that in your i phone camera settings no need for a separate app! 

In Enlight as i said you can choose the direction of the duo filter and the colour which means you and highlight any particular part of the photo for example you could choose one part to highlight the hair only slightly creating a ombre colour look or highlight the skin or face and not the other parts keeping them more defined in the original colours 

duo ombre colour example on one of my makeup looks this photo was taken in day light and i used insta to darken the background and then added a duo filter over the top in Enlight

original image no filters