Happy Times

My beautiful dad.

The beach houses surrounding the house we stayed in. The agapanthus grows wild in front of these houses. I would love to see them flowering.

The gardens in this small sleepy beach side town are to-die-for.



Table set for Dad's Birthday lunch.






I spotted this cute beach shack when I was out picking flowers and loved it. In New Zealand I've noticed they paint many of their houses black and white which I love.



I had a bath in this huge clawfoot bath every day we were there. I love the little vintage butterfly prints on the wall.




When we eventually renovate the kitchen in our new house I definitely want to have a cabinet built just like this one which was in the kitchen at the beach house. It was so perfect for all the plates, platters, cups etc.

The beach in front of the house.

We've just returned home from a week in New Zealand where we celebrated my father's 60th Birthday. After spending a few days in Auckland we caught a plane down to Napier and drove down to a beautiful beach house my parent's have been frequenting over the past 12 months in a sleepy beach side town in Hawkes Bay. We spent 3 days here with my parents, brothers, cousins, aunty & uncle and our grandmother. It was the most wonderful holiday with lots of laughs, lots of tears and lots of reminiscing. Mum cooked an amazing lunch for Dad on his birthday. I went down the street and picked some gorgeous roadside flowers which I arranged for the table. It was the most amazing week away from work and the craziness of life. Happy 60th Birthday Dad. You are one in a million and we all love you so much.

If anyone is interested in staying at this beautiful house click HERE for details.

Inspirational photo of the week - Yasmine Modestine

Piture singer of Yasmine Modestine

http://www.yasminemodestine.com

http://www.myspace.com/yasminemodestine

3 year old's sew-in weave!! :-(

 Absolutely Crazy! Never, can I see, how someone can justify giving a 3 year old child a sew-in weave. It is not that serious!!  The mother in the video is getting her daughter ready for a pagent. She states that they usually use clip in hair pieces but she decide to do a weave on her child's head this time. I am sure the little girl would have been even more beautiful if the mom had taking time time to create a style with her daughters own natural hair and texture. Wow....

Seen on Beads, Breads & Beyond

NYC Heatwave

Apparently the persistent, sweltering/un-godly/seemingly un-ending oppressive weather...

...Isn't the only thing cooking up the city pavement this summer ...

Granted this particular model tends to enjoy spending more of his time leaping to-and-fro amongst the natural open-air 'obstacle tracks' one might encounter in a city condensed as our beloved Big Apple...

But I figure given as to how everyone and their mothers seem to be questioning global warming these days, might as well for what's tangible in front of us. (*looks up and down abdominal perfection*)... Ahem, yeah... Something tells me I have found a possible source to our persistent 90-100°+ heatwave we've been dealing with for the better part of this month ...

Perhaps some of you might've encountered our New York hottie over on the 'inter-tubes'? He goes by the name Keith, and he's only got about one of the most popular ab work-out routines currently featured there... (a routine mind you that I can attest is indeed as hot as it is effective... give or take the right diet )...

An effective ab-workout indeed... With these kind of results, I'm kind of shocked 25 year-old Keith here hasn't hopped in the game as a P90x alternative...

But yeah... Working-out and Parkour aside, Keith's main draw here is of course his modeling... A career spanning the better part of 3-4 years now, working with the likes of AJR, Luis Rafael, Sam Devries (the photographer, not the model), and a slew of other local NYC talents...

As you've probably been able to tell at this point simply glancing over these stunning results, perhaps a modeling career that can simply be boiled down one over-arching theme...

Just Beautiful...

So I managed to save $1,000.... (for the time being)

Zoom lenses, Prime lenses, mid-range telephoto lenses, which-one-should-I-settle-for-considering-they're-all-so-expensive lenses... Decisions, decisions, and so much variety in utility and quality out there. What's an ultra-amateur/somewhat intermediate skilled photographer like yours truly to do? I'd like a prime lens, but I'd also like zoom lens, and I'd prefer them both super-sharp, but at the moment I'm strapped for cash for about a month or so... Hm... I think this calls for a compromise of sorts ...

Enter the off-the-beaten path lens (aka the I couldn't afford the additional $1,000 for a 24-70mm lens, so I settled for a 35-70mm ). A compromise true, but for a lens once considered as one of Nikon's best... and still insanely sharp even compared to some of the prime lenses within similar range, I figure it's a worthwhile investment... for the time being. (*eyes shift nervously wondering if I should've just saved...* )

Bed-head Ayler

I'm not sure exactly how anyone else feels about this masterful shot of model Nick Ayler by photographer David Arnot... So I'll come out and simply state my opinion...

My initial draw was the hair... followed by the hair... followed still by even more hair... and ultimately ending with the, uh... well, I think you get the theme here. (Btw, yes I noticed that Nick's chest is shaved as well... probably the first time I've paid attention, don't ask me why )...

Abercrombie 2010 Quarterly brings sexy back

You'd think after 3 long years of taking a time-out hiatus over 'controversial' (read extreme quote, unquote) images, the good people at Abercrombie would've learned their lessons...

3 long years without the sight of a scantily clad male-model adorning the pantheon of Abercrombie department stores... Give or take a couple massive entrance mural hotties here or there... and let's not forget the abdominally enhance shopping-bags... and the scanitly-clad fragrances... and the ads... and the male store clerks themselves ... and... well, I think we're seeing a pattern somewhere in all this ...

3 long years out of print and now we're back to this?

All I've gotta say is welcome back A&F Quarterly... You've been sorely missed ...

And what a welcome back it is... Models, up-and-coming actors... established actors (that some of you might recognize)... musicians... and Bruce Weber... all bearing it all for the quarterly? Well, maybe Bruce + a couple others might've backed out at the last minute this year, but apparently a few of the models certainly took it upon themselves to pick up the slack ...

'Bare' in mind Abercrombie's infamous birthday-suit sleepwear line seems to be the major draw once again this quarterly... Guess, some things just never change.

Anyhow, you can currently pick up your own copy of the Abercrombie & Fitch quarterly over at your local Abercrombie store. Just keep in mind they're actually checking for IDs for this one and you should be good to go...

Ahh, to be a soft, comforting mattress right about now ...