Indigo Cocoons are beautiful wrap around babycarriers using only natural dyes and hemp. All are hand dyed and Claire’s own designs.  All hand dyed and our own designs.

From their website:

Babywearing, the art and act of wearing your baby, has many benefits for you and your baby. Physical, emotional, social, cognitive development is all stimualted by wearing your baby. It also makes breastfeeding on the go even easier, and you get 2 free hands all the while!  Our Cocoons act as a baby sling, front carrier, back carrier and hip carrier, giving you unrivaled versatility and quality. We also offer unrivaled assistance in learning to use your Cocoon.

Below are some images from our session, and you can find out more about Indigo Cocoons from their website.

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But, for those who like to access their websites on the run, we’ve just put together a simple iphone site that outlines some of our services, a little bit about us, and a few introductory images.  If you have an iphone or ipad, the site will load automatically and you will not have to request the iphone version.  On all other mobile devices, just click ‘mobile’ from the splash page, and you’ll go right to it.

Too easy

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From the Heart WA (formerly PNDSA) is a volunteer run consumer organisation providing support, understanding and information to women, partners and families who are affected by stress and depression related to pregnancy, childbirth, and the addition of a new child to the family.

That sums up, in a nutshell, what they are about, but their great new site is full of information and resources.  It’s easy to navigate, and covers the signs of depression, personal stories, resources to go to for help, what other family members can do to support someone suffering depression, cultural differences and stressors.  There are also ways that we can all get involved to help…from a simple donation, to becoming a member or a volunteer.

Please, go visit their site or ‘like’ their facebook page.  And check out the STM – Sunday Times Magazine, pages 14-16 is an article ‘The Parent Trap -The Baby Blues’ featuring From the Heart WA Inc.

And if you’ve been thinking of making a booking, or taking up one of our special offers, this is your chance to make your money count.  Instead of paying us for the session, simply make a donation of $130 to From the Heart WA, and email me the receipt.  I will take that as your session fee, and contact you to arrange your session at a time convenient to you.

This offer applies to all sessions booked Tuesday, August 9th.

From the Heart WA will be at the Pregnancy, Baby and Child Expo this weekend, 13th, 14th and 15th of August, so go and show your support.  Why not offer to hand out their flyers for an hour or so?  It’s a small thing you can do to tangibly help.

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One thing I am constantly reminded of, is the wider network of people that contribute to our well being and help to enrich our experiences; to provide support, ease pressure, educate or inform us, or simply to share our good times.  And at times, I am saddened to realise that not everybody is aware of these organisations or have been pointed towards them a the times they most need them. I particularly notice this with the baby photography aspect of my business.

I know from experience, that the arrival of a baby is unlike anything we expected it to be.  In fact, I’d go out on a limb to suggest that not ONE of my clients has been able to say that they were totally prepared for exactly what it would be like.  And yet, sadly, so many of us suffer in silence, tolerating the sleep deprivation and crazed hormones, telling ourselves that sooo many others have done it beforehand, it must be US that is simply ‘not coping’….and we muddle through, wondering why that maternal joy we can almost tangibly feel, is every so slightly off kilter (or worse).   Often, in the crazy whirlwind of those first few weeks, it is hard to think straight, let alone seek our the support networks that exist to help us, and it is saddening to hear new mothers say ‘oh, I didn’t know about them’ or ‘I found them too late’.

I’d like to do my small bit to help to raise awareness for those organisations and groups in the community as they directly relate to the support of pregnancy/babies/children/families/new mothers and fathers.   Each month, I am going to profile a different organisation, and blog about them on a Tuesday, with links to their websites and facebook pages.  I would like to donate the booking fee from all sessions booked on that day to the organisation profiled that month.   While this may not be a significant financial contribution, I hope to build a resource under my ‘giving back’ category, a collection, that new and expecting mothers come across when they are browsing the web, one that will be here should they ever need to revisit the services.

Please let me know if you are aware of an organisation that should be profiled.  Support comes in all forms, and our needs are all different, so it doesn’t need to be something that is a charity organisation, it can be a fantastic product that saved your skin, or a great book that helped with understanding toddler behaviour.  Please make sure you comment, share info, and provide links, so that others can gain the benefit of your own experiences and knowledge.

No image from me today, and I won’t be attaching images to any of the giving back posts…they are purely for the purpose of promoting the given organisation, not our work

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Dad’s are notoriously reluctant to be included in photos, and it’s a real shame that many families have plenty of images of the children, but not so many of the family together.  Having lost a parent recently, I’m acutely aware of how important these records are.  Your children will treasure and value your family portrait, long after the self consciousness of having your photo taken has faded.

Sessions are relaxed, casual and fun.  There is no need for smiling headshots or cheesy grins, we’re happy to come to your favourite haunts and simply capture your family being themselves.

Sessions can be booked as a gift voucher and make a great Father’s Day gift idea for Dad, and those extra 5×7′s make fantastic Christmas presents for the grandparents!

Please call the studio on 9314 5590, or email us at info@figmentsphotography.com.au to reserve your time slot.

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Bali was, quite simply, lovely.  I can see why so many Australians flock there, and I have to confess I was pleasantly suprised.  Yes, at times it caters so well to the Australian tourists you forget you are overseas, but the Balinese are so beautiful and warm, and it is such a fantastic place for kids.

The trip began with me checking the Air Asia website three hours before flying to see if I was able to book food on the plane.  While I was there, I printed out my ticket and briefly considered if I should risk taking my passport as photo ID, or just my driver’s license.  Then suddenly it twigged…PASSPORT!!!!!  OMG, despite being totally organised and completely packed, I’d given NO thought to our passports.  Luckily they were up to date and I simply had to grab them, but what a goose, I nearly didn’t even think of them.  Not that it mattered as it turned out, our flight was delayed by 2 hours and there was ample time to go home and get them if need be

Eli hasn’t flown since he was 2, so this one was exciting for him.  He was full of questions like, ‘Mum, if the clouds make rain, then where is it all?  We just drove through them and it’s raining in Perth, and the plane isn’t wet” – which wore thin pretty quickly I can tell you!  We arrived at The Breezes Bali to cool fruit juice and smiling faces, and it was just the perfect way to ease into our holiday.  The other family were already there, enjoying the resort, and the kids wasted no time at all getting into the pool.   I’ve never seen Eli have so much fun.  He had a grin that split his face from ear to ear every day.  He adores his cousins, Ellie and Jaime, so just to have them to himself for 10 days was heaven for him, but the other two boys who came along, Harry and Alex, were gorgeous also, and they all really hit it off.  He was exhausted mostly, just trying to keep up with them all, but he soldiered on.   On two nights we let the kids go across to the restaurant by themselves and it was so cool to see them, all grown up, ordering from the menu and sipping their mocktails by candlelight (btw, we WERE just across the pool watching…they weren’t totally unsupervised!)

The resort was fantastic for kids.  While it didn’t have a kids club as such, it was very kid friendly, and every day the kids had activities they could take part in, from feeding the fish, to watermelon eating competitions, to making Balinese decorations for the Balinese dancing that evening.  When we weren’t lounging around the resort, we were off to Waterbom Park, the Bird Park, Safari Park or a day trip to Kuta or Ubud, and when we weren’t doing any of that, we’d try to sneak out for a massage, or a spot of shopping around Seminyak.

All in all, it was perfect, and as much as I love my job, and my life in Freo, I’d kill for another two weeks of that Bali heaven

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And, the best thing of all, we are pretty much caught up workwise!!  So, to celebrate, we are offering free sessions!  Yep, seriously, no session fee for any sessions booked before the end of July…regardless of when you hold your session!  Combine that with our special on session albums, and you can actually score yourself the session, and a gorgeous, matted, archival quality album of 20 5×7 enlargements, all for just $700!

Check out the full details here.

I’ll be back later with some Bali images, and studio updates

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