Has Jack been Naughty or Nice this year?

There are some changes coming to the blog soon, one of them being that Jack is getting his own section! I'm not quite ready to relaunch yet, but I am ready to start sharing the spotlight with Jack.

In keeping with the festive theme of the month, this past weekend, Jack went to Toombul Shopping Centre to visit Santa. It was a special pet photo session held before the shops opened, early on Sunday morning. We've done Santa photos with Jack before, and it was fun, but I found it ridiculously expensive for two small prints, and no digital file. With this photo session, we got six digital images, and plenty of time with Santa to work out what we wanted and the price was really good.

(Jack is pleased to report that he has, mostly, been very nice this year. But Santa thinks he would do well to learn how to stop barking when he's told to be quiet). 

Obviously, it's too late for the Toombul session, but if you want to be notified if they do this next year (it booked out SUPER fast), then follow the Toombul Shopping Centre Facebook.

But Jack didn't want his friends to miss out on the chance to find out if they've been naughty or nice, so he asked me to 'push the buttons' and find out some other upcoming places in Brisbane for your pets to visit Santa. See below for a list. 

Pet photos with Santa:

Saturday December 5 - Caloundra Gardenand Pet Supplies, 14 Baldwin Street, Caloundra - 10am - 2pm (Bookings essential)
 Saturday December 5 - Hotel Jen, 159 Roma Street, Brisbane10am - 3pm

Sunday December 6 - The Pet Pad, Level 1, 32 Doggett Street, Newstead
 Sunday December 6 - Westfield Garden City, Northlakes, and Chermside 8-930am (Bookings essential for all of these) 

Every Saturday and Sunday up to Christmas - Petstock/LittleSnappers Photography, Unit 2, Building A, Harvey Norman Centre, Boeing Avenue, Ballina (Bookings essential)
 Mondays until Christmas from 5.00pm - 8.00pm -  OrionShopping Centre, 1 Main Street, Springfield Lakes

Make sure you share your pet pictures with us if you head along to any of these events! This one was our favourite from the day:

Wardrobe tantrums and dresses as tops

Most days I plan what I'm going to wear before I get up in the morning because if I don't, disaster can strike (particularly on the days where I'm teaching and need to be out of the house early). Wardrobe tantrums are the result of what happens when I don't plan - I am sure lots of you ladies can relate to the way it feels when a dress doesn't look right, so you pull it off and it goes on the floor, then that skirt doesn't fit, so it goes onto the floor too, and before long you're standing in your underwear, hot, sweaty, stressed and usually late. 

But this outfit was a lucky stop to what was fast becoming a wardrobe tantrum. I'd grabbed my Black Milk bowerbird play dress off the hanger on a whim after not planning (on an early start morning too), and I decided quickly it was a winter dress, and too short to wear in the spring now I've given up on tights for the season. I grabbed a skirt off the clean laundry pile and was pulling it on at the same time I was pulling off the dress, but then realised that actually, the dress worked well with the skirt as a top. The green cardigan had been given to me a couple of days before and also easily accessible, and after that, choosing shoes to match was an easy choice! 

I was really happy with this outfit because it gave me some new inspiration and a way to wear some of my shorter Black Milk dresses in the summer. I also wore some of my new Ariel jewellery, bought from Hot Topic while I was in the US. I felt like it was a nice pairing - bowerbirds are collectors and Ariel's kind of the bowerbird of the sea! 

 

Outfit details
Top (actually a dress): Black Milk Bowerbirds white play dress

Skirt: Seams Nostalgic (custom made) 

Bow and Necklace: Hot Topic
Shoes: Crocs

 

Picnic print + small white photo bomber

I've definitely shared this Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny dress in picnic print, styled for winter before. But when I sat down to take some shots for Instagram Outfit of the Day pictures, a little friend of mine kept jumping into the photo. He was helpful in the beginning, standing about where I planned on sitting so I could take a test shot:

But then he was all over me for kisses and cuddles the rest of the time I was taking photos! 

Outfit details:

Dress: Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny Dress (sorry, this is a long gone, much sought after Jenny colourway)

Cardigan: Collectif Jo Cardigan Bluebird in black

Shoes: Vintage black Doc Martens (similar)

Really ridiculously good looking dog...

There’s a new model in my family!

For those of you who follow my Facebook, you’ll know that a few weeks ago, I went with my parents and our family dog, Jack, to have a photoshoot with Kelly from Hairypants Photography.

Jack is an important part of our family and it’s hard to imagine that before him, our last pet was a crazy little Jack Russell called Bobby, who we had to give away when we moved to Queensland (there was about thirteen years between Bobby and Jack). He’s everyone’s boy, but he’s Mum’s baby and I've been halfheartedly looking for someone to take some photos of him for my mum for ages. I stumbled across Hairypants when shoots were on sale, and after flicking through the albums on her Facebook page and hearing myself say “awwwww” about a thousand times, I booked us in.

The thing I noticed right away about Kelly’s work, before we’d even met in person, was that she just gets dogs. And she gets the connection that owners have with their pets. I’ve seen studio shoots that capture the animal’s personalities, but Kelly not only manages to capture this in her shots, she captures that bond; all those looks and licks and kisses, that make your pet special to you.

One of those special looks. Jack and his mumma

Before the shoot, Kelly sends out a client form and asks a lot of questions about your dog; their likes and dislikes, favourite treats, tricks, any particular looks and scenes you want to capture. Then she scouts out a perfect location and you meet her there. She prefers late afternoon “golden hour” shots, and my goodness, is she ever good at picking spots that look like you’ve been sitting in an enchanted forest for the afternoon (when we were just off the track in the Boondall wetlands, being eaten by midges!).

Jack did so well. He’s pretty well-behaved in general, but he responded to every squeak, or toy, or treat and gave so many different looks. He was so well-behaved that he was invited to another shoot a couple of weeks later to model for a friend’s new line of doggy harnesses, leashes, collars and accessories called Winston Manner (launching this month!). There were a few more distractions at this shoot (read: two other dogs), but Jack still managed to perform at his modelling best.

Jack and his mate Winston modelling for Winston Manner

It’s obvious how much Kelly cares about her work. She’s immensely talented, a lovely person and a photographer with an amazing eye. We can’t wait to go back for a whole family shoot next time.

I can’t recommend Kelly enough to those of you who have pets; book in, you won’t regret it. The whole experience was a pleasure for all of us, and we are beyond happy with the final shots! If you’re in Brisbane and do want to shoot with her, I’ve got some referral cards that will give you $50 off your shoot/photos. Leave me a comment here if you’d like me to post you one. Oh, and for those of you who have cats, horses, etc, she’ll photograph them too! I'll be posting some more pics from the shoot on my Facebook in the coming days, so keep an eye out for more cuteness!

Work it puppy!

So what do you think, does Jack need his own Instagram or what?