28 November 2012

would you blog the same way, if you started blogging today

Greetings all, 
Would you blog the same way - if you started blogging sooner than when you launched your blog - TODAY - or later with all the knowledge & expectations you have acquired since wanting to create a blog.  I ask this as so much has changed since i hit 'publish' on my first blog post 6 years ago.  
I was living in Darwin, my 4th baby had commenced preschool, my business was humming along, i just launched a wholesale range of products & blogging was newish.  I posted 30 times over those first 3 years, little stories about my small business & family.  The blog was a neat tool for niche exposure, resulting in 50 stores around the world stocking my products, being featured in almost every glossy magazine published in Australia (Frankie issue 6 was my first) & loads of media interviews.  With four young children & a soldier husband, fledgling business, interstate moves & wars, i was too busy to blog frequently.
Things i did plan for where - protecting my children's identity - not using their real names, birth dates, schools or where they might be . . . nicknames, vague party timings, no logos  & past tense events.  I figured, my blog & business were my ventures, they didn't ask to be exposed or identified on line . . . & if my husband had his way, their faces wouldn't be photographed either.  I never joined in nasty debates, petitions, forums, band wagons or got fired up about anything published on line, just like in real life, people have their opinions, it's one sided, only here i had the power to delete the weirdos more easily.  I didn't wish to be dragged into other people's negativity, when in reality, they were total strangers!!  We were more cautious back then!!  
  I realised social media was an essential business tool 3 years ago, when i was established in the market scene in Canberra & meeting loads of other people who were blogging.  I changed my business direction from wholesale to direct sales.  It was less stressful & more profitable + very enjoyable, dealing directly with my customers.  Blogging regularly over the past 3 years has seen my tiny statistics grow to over 25K+ hits a month & i've added Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest to the mix over the past 12-18 months (with 3500 extra followers to my platforms) & just 2 months ago, i discovered Instagram.  I still don't really understand Twitter; Facebook is handy for friends who don't blog; i upload Pinterest in bulk & run as it's a time zapper; Instagram is my new love: point & shoot, easy & speedy, quirky & friendly.  All those hits & followers, i am very glad my popularity came slow & steady at a pace i could handle.  
If i blogged 10 years ago . . . my life would be very different, of course with a preschooler, one year old twins, a husband away at war, living in a 3 bedroom town house in Sydney & sewing my days away.  I had to beg American fabric companies to ship Amy Butler, Michael Miller & Alexander Henry fabrics to Australia.  My life was very quiet & i had to count my groceries as i shopped to ensure i had enough money to pay for them.  I babysat the little boys of two friends (full time) to make ends meet.  It was busy, however, i was truly in my element as motherhood came naturally to me.  Would you want to hear about breast feeding, mashing up food & seeing my toddlers in giant cloth nappies though??  
Then there would have been 9 months of me vomiting all day every day, unglowingly pregnant, helplessly dragging myself through each day caring for 5 children, sewing the few orders i could manage.  Imagine my posts??  Dreary!!  I never joined a mother's group as i couldn't stand the comparisons with same aged children, i doubt i would have read stay-at-home mummy blogs for the same reason.  In my spare time, i didn't want to read/ talk/ catch up with people living the same life as me, i wanted to dream of travel, fashion & design. 
 If i waited to start my blogging life now . . . i would be overwhelmed by the options - blogging is so popular + there are trolls, spammers & stalkers, eek.  Would i even start if i knew people who have never met me, think they know who i am & judge me, even dislike & argue with me, just from what i have written on a two dimensional blog??  The on-line-social-media-world seems more angry & nasty now, i do post social commentaries with my strong opinions on topics & they are well received, however, i find the light fluffy posts (on love, fashion, colours, animals, fabric) just as satisfying.  I can't worry about offending someone who has misinterpreted something i've written - i know i have a good heart - i'm not a trained or professional writer & this is not a mind-blowing-cerebral-blog.  I avoid sarcasm - it rarely works & i'm not out to enrage people or spark uprisings.  I try to keep it positive & interesting, current & colourful. 
 There is also money to be made with advertising & promotions, which direction would i desire??  Is my aim to share, build a community, catch up with old friends, network with fellow designers, or seek fame??  I'm closing down my business, hardly anyone i knew before i started blogging (school, uni, jobs) has a blog . . . i only have my lifestyle to post about with sporadic giveaways.  If i was starting off a blog now, with children aged almost 9 to 13+ . . . i'm a different kind of stay at home mother/ house wife . . . STILL at home??!!  The demographic is hard to pick, you can over think it, who might be reading - either go private or remain guarded.  You can always stop & delete if you don't like it, or block weirdoes.
Would i start a blog in the future . . . if i hadn't already started, yes, absolutely.  The blogging community i'm in is friendly & largely unhostile.  I really admire the bloggers who don't seek out any attention other than creating a diary of their world, they are the most delightful.  If anyone goes along for the ride, lovely.  I don't like drama or seek out the more emotional blogs,  I've had plenty of garbage slung my way, i don't bite, i just continue to plod along happily in my little world, dreaming of a farm & future with my husband, as our children slowly head off to university & their own lives, we'll still be young & have plenty of living to do too!!  You should build yourself up so that it is very difficult for others, particularly strangers on line, to ever mess with your happiness. 
I adore blogging, my readers are my 'colleagues', reading posts are our daily chats at the water cooler & enrich my day.  I'm glad i started where & when i did.  I believe slow growth = small hiccups.  I hope the balance of my life - my love for my husband, our fun children, the chickens, eggs, farm dreams, fashion, decor, baking, cooking & all the other colourful facets of my days - are enjoyable to read, including my social commentaries, i'm over due to post one, some many topics buzzing in my head . . . to those who are starting a blog now, good luck, if you're honest & true about what you like, say & feel, blogging will come easily.  All i know is that i am comfortable with what i've posted so far & my photos now are wayyyy better than they were when i started 6 years ago, even 6 months ago!!  Love Posie
PS had so much fun tripping down memory lane to dig up these photos of my children, all posted on my blog 4-6 years ago!!

26 November 2012

The Lord of the Rings Lego for xBox

Greetings all,
Last week we received a pre-release copy of the Lord of the Rings LEGO for xBox game, which my son test drove on the weekend.  He had a ball & i was a bit of a hero for providing the game.   Thanks One Green Bean & Warner Brothers!!
We set our boy up to play the xBox & heard him giggling away.  Sisters came & went (up to two players at a time) as he worked his way around Mordor, living out the Lord of the Rings stories.  There is action, horse riding, scary trees attacking you, a creepy Lego Gollum is involved . . . & Frodo is the main character.  The goal is to destroy the ring, just like the books/ movies.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this, the graphics are fantastic & story comprehensive.
Personally, i thought the facial expressions were hilarious & very entertaining.  Between the action on each level - the story plays out with the Lego characters - like the Hollywood actors in the movies.  Yes that's a 'Lego' Orlando Bloom!! 


Like a typical 8 year old boy, he didn't want to put the controls down (he is allowed a couple of hours of gaming on the weekends only) & pose for a photo . . . this was the best i could do.  Yes the xBox is currently in our bedroom as my husband has back issues & this keeps him quiet too!!  Don't judge, the xBox only just came back to our house here in Canberra, it was living in Brisbane at the bachelor pad.
Due for release this week, keep your eyes peeled for this fun stocking filler.  Love Posie

23 November 2012

some weeks are just freshly squeezed fantasticalness

Greetings all,
Another week done & dusted as the year races towards the finish line.  This year has been full on, with my husband in Afghanistan for the first half, countless children's activities & slowly closing down my business.  Wrapping up this year is tying up a lot of loose ends on a long list.
A big ticket item on that list was the 12-month-check-up at the optometrist to see if this far sighted girl needed to continue wearing glasses to read.  She literally burst out of the chair with the news that her eyes have adjusted & she no longer requires them.  After following the optometrist's instructions on when to wear them & why, it has totally paid off. 
 Mid week i took my high schooler to a VIP Country Road soiree in the city, it was lovely to have personal shoppers & spy the new range.  We picked up new coloured jeans, Summer tops & a pair of pretty yellow stitched linen pillow cases.  Yellow = happiness.
 In Canberra, we have a lot of logging, hay & cattle trucks passing through this regional city (albeit, the nation's capital!!)  I posted this image on Instagram this morning & sparked quite the interested debate on logging.
 Summer to me is platters & lunch boxes loaded up with watermelon.  All 4 of our children were born in the tropics, so this brings happy memories of our wonderful life in Darwin.  I know we eat watermelon ALL over Australia, however, mangoes, watermelon, pineapple (& frangipanis) just scream Darwin to us.
 Often Fridays find me madly juicing up all the fruit left in the house before the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings!!  Apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes (we'd eaten all the celery) with some chia seeds, delicious!! 
Other fantasticalness things this week include . . . discovering our chickens have been wandering into our German Shepherd's yard & they all get along swimmingly . . . i started swimming . . . i saw Sky Fall . . . a delicious lunch with my husband . . . pavlova triumph . . . we planned a fun Christmas party . . . i've been running up a storm . . . i'm still losing weight . . . some surprise gifts from lovely friends . . . great shopping & just a general overwhelming feeling of happiness. 
Gosh i'm loving the colours in my photographs lately.  Thank you iPhone 5, you make me so happy.  Have fantasticalness weekends folks & don't forget all the great giveaways currently on the blog.  Love Posie

21 November 2012

win an autographed copy of Andy Griffiths' The 13-Storey TreeHouse

 Greetings all,
Last weekend, tightly squeezed in between parties, i attended a book signing & presentation by Andy Griffiths - one of Australia's BEST loved & highest selling children's authors - at the National Library of Australia.  It was packed with over 300 children clutching stacks of his books, the atmosphere was electric & i was thrilled to be in his presence.
Naturally my son had left his Andy books at school so we purchased some new books (ok, nine new books) & bless Andy, he signed every single one!!  Including an extra book i purchased to giveaway on my blog.  I told Andy i was doing this (giveaway) & he stopped, looked up & asked if i was a writer, did i run a children's literacy blog - he was so engaging, interested in who i was & what i was doing - i was thoroughly impressed.  This man is as energetic & fun as his books.  
 I hung out with my gal pal author Tania McCartney who had hosted a book awards events the day before with Andy, she said he was fantastic.  With the overflowing crowds, Andy started the event an hour early, to autographed books so no one missed out.  Truly an author who appreciates his audience!!
I've stolen these images from Tania (thanks) as my images were dark.  
Andy gave a fabulous presentation, but truly, he was more interested in questions from the audience & bantering.  He made everyone feel special & his brain goes a million miles an hour, he's absolutely hilarious & spilled the beans on his next instalment in the 13-Storey series (it will involve a chocolate fountain!!)   
 Andy writes like a naughty school boy, it's so entertaining & captures that difficult demographic of fidgety boys who can't sit still.  While he was chatting, there were boys reading everywhere - the Library provided seats & cushions - it was brilliantly organised. 
After he finished, he went back to signing books, the queue was loooong & the Library staff brought around badges, book marks, balloons & chocolate frogs.  My boy continued to read, then bounced a balloon around, made some new friends & back to reading.  While at the signing table, Andy chatted away to my son, which books he liked the most, he treated us like we were first in the queue, when we were easily the 200th!!  Gosh he must have signed thousands of books. 
 My son spent the rest of the weekend with his head stuck in Andy's books.  He has the 13-Storey & 26-Storey TreeHouse books now, the series will continue to expand.  So i thought i'd start someone's collection off with . . . 
an autographed copy of Andy Griffiths' 13-Storey TreeHouse 
. . . in a blog giveaway.
Just leave a comment here & follow this blog (on the right) for your chance to win.  Entries close after midnight Sunday 9th December, just in time for someone's Christmas stocking!!  Good luck, random draw & as always + extra entries per mention on your Blog, Twitter, Instagram, FaceBook.  Love Posie

20 November 2012

hello 800 followers, how do you do??

Greetings all,
Every 100 followers i do a get-to-know-me post . . . this time i'm scratching up things i do believe i've never mentioned on my blog before.  Most are in line with my accident prone & self effacing nature, i can be serious but that's just not as much fun!!
I was the lead actress in a friend's University final assignment - she directed a movie masterpiece based on a romance over coffee - for her communications degree.  I couldn't keep a straight face or remember my lines.  I don't even drink coffee & looking longingly at a guy i just met, over a steaming brew . . . impossible.  My on screen lover had this awful wig on & his facial expressions . . . oh dear, there was a lot of 'cut' while i composed myself.  I also did the voice overs in a sound studio, think: breathy.  Somehow the movie was edited into a winning piece of 'cinema' & my darling friend got her degree, went overseas to a flourishing career with Andrew Lloyd Webber.  
I've never made a photo worthy macaroon.  Tastey but ugly.
When my son was a toddler, i lost him in the house.  I eventually found him naked, on the trampoline in the front garden, sound asleep.  I took a photo for his 21st birthday!!
I actually wet my pants on a date.  My boyfriend didn't believe i was really that busting & fiddled around with my house keys . . . i burst into tears as i wet my pants on my parent's door step.  He still married me.
In my final year of school, my mother ran me over in her car, outside the train station.
I'm a total green thumb, yet over-love succulents & kill them.  En masse.  Massacre.
I broke my nose as a child by swimming into the pool wall really fast, nose first.
I'm allergic to bees.  I've been stung several times & swell severely around the bite.  We had bee laden wisteria all around our pool area.  My parents never thought to cut it down, just treat my stings!!
My first car was a Ford Laser, a bubbly blue hatch back, i bought from my brother.  I loved her until the day she was stolen.  I replaced her with a Ford Laser, an older version white 5 door, i bought from my sister-in-law.  We traded her in when we were pregnant with twins, for a Ford Falcon.  My husband had a Ford Falcon before we bought the Toyota Landcruiser (when we got married & still have 15 years later.)  There was also a Mitsubishi Mirage & Jeep Cherokee in the mix, before we bought our first-ever-brand-new-shiney car this year.  She's magnificent & will be with us for at least a decade.  Long range diesel people mover, we're all set for the farm commute.  The next car we purchase will be for our eldest daughter in a few years, eeeep.  Ford maybe??  
Finally, this is where my blogging happens . . . my first desk top computer since last millennium.  I have a habit of breaking laptops (burning out the engines) so i figured, i don't need a portable computer anyway, i'll go big screen Mac & i love it.
Thanks for following, love Posie

18 November 2012

Lego Duplo Read & Build GIVEAWAY: WIN 1 of 3 TRIPLE sets!!

Greetings all,
Very excited to show off the new Lego Duplo Read & Build sets - in gorgeous colours, your children can read the story book & build the Lego figures as they go.  I adore Duplo, i may have purchased this Lego brick style long after my last baby turned 4, just because they make me happy.
LEGO® DUPLO® BUSY FARM (RRP: $24.99)
The easy-to-follow illustrations and engaging story line make building fun, while familiar objects will fill your child with an immense sense of pride. Busy Farm is the perfect introduction to LEGO playtime adventures! 
 LEGO® DUPLO® LETS GO! VROOM! (RRP: $24.99)
Reading about the iconic airplane and sports car as you build it, using the easy-to-follow illustrations and engaging story line, will leave your child with a great sense of achievement! Let's Go! Vroom! is the perfect introduction to LEGO creative learning! 
 LEGO® DUPLO® GROW CATERPILLAR GROW (RRP: $24.99)
Watch your child glow with pride while building Caterpillar and his friends using the easy-to- follow illustrations and engaging story line. Grow Caterpillar Grow is the perfect introduction to LEGO building fun!
Completely adorable right??  
The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today the group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 9,000 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries. 
I just love how they keep it traditional yet modern.
Win 1 of 3 TRIPLE sets of Lego Duplo Read & Build 
(each winner receives Grow Caterpillar Grow!, Let's Go! Vroom! & Busy Farm, value $74.97) 
. . . just follow this blog & leave a comment at this post.  Extra entries for sharing this giveaway on your FaceBook, Blog, Twitter, Instagram . . . by midnight Sunday 2nd December 2012.
A fantastic stocking filler this Christmas season.  Thank you Lego & One Green Bean.  Good luck!!  Love Posie
PS great time to follow, more giveaways this week including autographed Andy Griffiths book & a double book review from the National Library of Australia!!

15 November 2012

maybe i'm a little twi-hard . . .

Greetings all,
Ok, so i've had a headache for a couple of days & no amount of water, rest or head massaging (read: drilling my knuckles into my temples) is helping . . . so i took to a dark cool cinema this morning to see the first release of the new Twilight movie.  You can call me keen, i don't mind.  I discovered a must-be-used free ticket & after a few goes with lighting, playing the movie & getting the sound on (in a coordinated fashion) the movie was finally running.  I had made brownies before school & packed myself a lunch box with cashews, a turkey sandwich & bottle of water too.  Throw in validated parking & my Twilight experience . . . was free!!     
Look, i haven't read the Twilight books or taken a side for Team Edward/ Jacob, i don't even think Kristen Stewart is a half decent actress . . . i just find the movies entertaining.  I'm not after an intellectual brain drain.  I especially love the stylish decor, gorgeous actors (Vampires not Voltaire) & fashionable clothes as the back drop to the movies.  The scenes filmed in Canada were breathtaking & the wolves were more . . . believable . . . if you know what i mean - they weren't doing that awkward wolf talking like the other movies.  Jacob even acted 'happy' which suits him better than broody.  
I was expecting a bunch of school girls giggling in the cinema, nope, it was me, 4 housewives & a husband.  We chatted on the way out (complete strangers - bonded by the fact we're all at a Twilight movie at 9.30a.m.) & we liked how ALL the characters from each movie, were listed at the end.  
So the verdict . . . i really enjoyed Breaking Dawn Part 2.  I'd take my daughters & see it again.  It was much better than Part 1 & i would happily watch any spin off movies from the characters.  This finale in the saga had heads rolling (literally) & the girls were totally kick arse (Alice, Rosalie, Bella.)  I'm still trying to stomach the baby being named Renesme, i wonder how they kept a straight face calling her that??  Truly!!  She's a beautiful young actress though. 
I treated myself to a little Christmas decorating shopping (after my movie savings) . . . i love rustic, wooden, red & white themed ornaments i would use all year round.  I think the stars are a bit witchy wicker.  
I took the children swimming on Monday & realised six of our beach towels are at my husband's bachelor pad in Brisbane, so best i top up the collection here in Canberra.  As i said on Instagram tonight, "i've never met a tassel fringed towel i didn't like" & at 25% off Country Road VIP sale, i couldn't resist these four. 
A lovely day, good movie, great shopping & delicious lunch.  Off to bed to see if i can have another 9 hour nap like last night, it was bliss, even if i wasn't well.  Love Posie

13 November 2012

a new found respect for florists

 Greetings all,
I had a box of goodies i ordered for Christmas from gidgi to play with last night.  We discovered the donkey & cart cardboard holders had plastic inserts = vases, so we hopped on bikes after dinner & went a searching for pathway flowers.  We have lots of cycle & walk ways through our suburb - with fantastic wild roses, gladiolus, lavender & pansies.  Fear not, we only picked a couple of flowers from each bush, there were hundreds.  Most of the flowers are past their best anyway.  If you want karma . . . i came home with lots of bugs & tiny spiders creepy crawling up my arms.
It was so hard to get the flowers to balance, stay in position, look 'together' & mix the colours, varieties, textures . . . florists are amazing, they are engineers, architects, artists . . . i did a pretty shocking job with these short stems!!  Pretty maybe, but it's all Mother Nature.
 Some images i found half decent enough to post to Instagram last night.  The Belle&Boo cart is adorable.
 An arial view of the blooms, i do love the whispy lavender.  I'm hoping to get another practise in before a pretty event i have coming up next month.   
Florists, i applaud you, this was really REALLY hard work.  Love Posie

11 November 2012

a heavy week, bring on a new one

Greetings all,
Gosh that was a heavy week, something major happened (good, bad, exhausting, fantastic) every single day, i'm glad it's done & dusted, as this week is going to be spectacular, for no other reason than it's a new one filled with promise.
Today is Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, celebrating the end of World War I.  This is an image of allied soldiers, taken in France on 11.11.1918 (in the Australian War Memorial.)  I hope they knew we'd be remembering & appreciating their efforts & incredible sacrifices with our hearts, minds & souls, forever!!
 I made a mobile for our bedroom this week, yes i'm 37 but i had these ceramic clouds to use, somehow.  Then i was day dreaming, looking at some Christmas decorations on my desk . . . rain drops . . . the penny dropped & da dah, i created some rain clouds.  They fit in perfectly with my metal sign on the wall.  The mobile was near impossible to photograph but the way the shadows landed created an interesting effect.
 Now all our hens are laying, we have an abundance of eggs each day, which is fantastic, so we're making ice-cream & baking up a storm, like tonight i made lemon meringue pies, six individual ones.  Plus we have some cartons to share with my husband's soldiers.  
 I've finally deleted all the images off my phone & filed them on my desk top.  This was one of the last from Floriade, pretty non??  I'm slowly working my way around the iPhone, all the functions, it's fabulous.  I also sorted out my InBox, felt like all the weight in the world was lifted off my shoulders.   
 I put a dent in the Christmas shopping last week, felt like i hadn't been to my favourite stores in ages.  I couldn't resist this neon pink tree, nice contrast against the afternoon sky on Friday. 
Wishing you all lovely weeks filled with wonderful opportunities & happiness.  I have a few giveaways live (listed on the right) & more launching soon.  Follow & stay tuned, good luck, love Posie

08 November 2012

my creative space . . . 'creative perspective'

Greetings all,
Creativity is all about perspective.  I've been creative, mainly in a sewing capacity, forever, yet haven't sewn for ages.  I've fed my creativity in different ways, with . . . 
baking . . .
 gardening . . .
 fencing . . . 
 & playing around with photography.  When you can't create something with your hands, you can always find something to photograph!!  
My photography is all about angles, composition, filters.  What is the most popular subject matter at Posie Shoots??  Eggs!!  You can tell from the colour & size of the eggs, we have an interesting variety of hens . . . i haven't created the eggs, yet how i photograph them is well received.  The eggs are laid on hay, collected in a wire basket, popped into cartons (i shoot from all of these different backdrop props) or like yesterday's haul - muddy eggs plonked on the kitchen counter - rolling to a resting position.  
I have no idea how this "instagram image" below occurred, it just turned up in my bulk iPhone download, it was the only one like it, so thought i'd use it & pretend i am clever.    
 The filter on this lavender adds vibrance, sorry Mother Nature but the lighting wasn't great.  I could have taken this shot arial, front on, grassy background . . . i went low with the fence backdrop, to allow more light & avoid capturing the dead shrub next to it.  The rest was computer software creativity.
 If you're putting images up on social media & you want to get noticed, you have to be creative!!  Quality photography equipment does most of the work, like this image below - egg shells in a cream bowl on a white counter - monotones to the maximum.  Organic shapes are great as they don't have to line up & provide their own interesting angle. 
 I love framing things centrally too, i use the grid on my iPhone or SLR.   
What is creativity??  Something you make, or how you see something??  Many people look at my sewing & confess they are not creative, yet they cook up a storm, landscape a garden, sing beautifully or write poetry.  Perspective.  For more Creative Spaces, check out Village Voices.  Love Posie

07 November 2012

snap it 'on the mobile'

Greetings all,
Well i'm loving my first ever smart mobile phone.  We've been together for 6 weeks now & while Instagram has been the biggest surprise, a joyous discovery - i'm really enjoying the camera on the iPhone 5.  So it was very easy to join in this week's Snap It Wednesday with Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love to test drive some of my latest little mobile phone images, blown up on the blog.     
 Having a mobile with a camera (this option is new to me) means you can capture anything, anytime.  Like this road side peacock & hang gliders in the sky - really testing the distance photography limits of the lens & my daughter's drive by snapping, while i was hurtling down a country lane!!  
 I'll start playing around with filters, colours, lighting, outdoors, animals, background & all sorts of imagery now i am slowly mastering the mobile phone.  The iMac desk top with the enormous screen we purchased earlier this year & the ease of downloading images, really helps the phone mobile phone photography experience too!!  
In the meantime, welcome Tuba to the family, she's an Araucana x Wynadotte chicken (amazing feathers) who will lay blue, green, lavender or khaki eggs shortly, can't wait to see which!!  She's still a little timid & settling in with lots of cuddles.  I love listening to the children calling her "Chewba" in an Australian accent or "Tooba" in a faux American one, so funny.  Love Posie

06 November 2012

The Lost Diggers of Vignacourt

 Greetings all,
On Sunday, we went to the much anticipated The Lost Diggers of Vignacourt exhibition at the Australian War Memorial.  We were thoroughly impressed with the incredible images - taken by Louis & Antoinette Thuillier - of Australian soldiers during WWI in France.  
The images were rediscovered last year, on silver gelatin negatives entombed in an attic trunk, in Vignacourt France.  They were about to be tossed out .  Luckily their historical value was realised & they were acquired by Kerry Stokes (head of Australia's Channel 7 & a keen war artefact collector.)  Each negative was carefully printed via the original method, framed & donated to the Australian War Memorial.
 There are almost 100 photographs on display, mainly Australian soldiers, however, French, American, English, French & Gurkhas are included + some of the 100 000 Chinese who worked making uniforms & equipment for the front line allied troops.  I had no idea!!  
 
These are examples of the original photographs & soldiers would have carried them as keep sakes.  It's a quaint farm village where many of the French girls married soldiers during the war too.  Some of the lucky troops who survived the Western Front, stayed in France to raise families.
There are fantastic descriptions with each photo, where they have painstakingly worked out who is in the image or what they are doing.  Here is a young Australian doctor with an Army chaplain, both survived the war.  
This is an Australian soldier playing dress ups in a German uniform.
 This is a heart breaking account of one woman's family sacrifice for war . . . in 1947, aged 74, she donated her eldest son's uniform & records from WWI - he was killed at Villers-Bretonneux.  The boots still had mud from the fields he fought in.  She was a young widow when her two sons went off to WWI.  Her other son was killed in Gallipoli. 
 Can you imagine the incredibly lonely life she had, without her husband or sons, how do you recover from that??
 This is the photo on the way out of the exhibition.  I mentioned to my husband how these soldiers looked like boys . . . he said "you should see how young the soldiers sent to Afghanistan are."  Just brings tears to your eyes.  
Finally, the incredible chest where all these negatives & photos were hiding for almost a century. 
You really must visit these amazing photos & trip down to Canberra, it's the most amazing record of a very different side to WWI - battle weary soldiers taking some time off between battles.  Love Posie
EDIT: we spent our honeymoon travelling all over Europe, however, the week we spent in the north of France, visiting all the cemeteries & battle sites, with my new husband - a handsome soldier - i cried every day.  The respect for Australians is incredible, the sprigs of wattle, flags, kangaroo toys & immaculate memorials . . . head stones & lawn cemeteries shows exactly how much the French appreciate the Australian effort.  Many towns up in the Somme (Ypres, Villers-Brettoneux) celebrate Australia Day each year too.  I'm sure there are many Australian descendants there too.