Say Cheese!

Well, ladies and gentlemen... I have some wonderful news….

You will be happy to know that I FINALLY bought myself a big girl camera! I'm insanely excited about this....I bet you are too, especially if you've been reading my posts and cringing at my awful, grainy, blurry iPhone and iPad photos!

If you read my post a few weeks back, I was looking at getting a little pocket camera. Nothing fancy, just a point and shoot. I'm in no means a photographer, nor do I have any idea about cameras. I just want to point and shoot....no fuss.

Everyone that replied to my question, on here as well as on my Instagram, all recommended I get a DSLR, however, just that abbreviation alone scared the crap out me and I kept leaning back toward the el cheapo digital pocket camera.

Before ditching the idea altogether, I did a little research on some DSLR cameras (that I later learned stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex - gah! Complex stuff right there!!!).

I had a few brands that I looked at but I think the Canon stood out for me - not sure why, I was honestly going off a gut feeling, because I have absolutely zero camera knowledge.

I ended up picking up a DSLR camera in pristine condition on eBay for an absolute bargain. 

I got a Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi. It has 12.2 mega pixels and it came with a 18 - 55mm IS lens. The seller was absolutely awesome and he threw in a Canon EF 75 - 300mm zoom lens and a Manfrotto Tripod.  Merry Christmas to me!!

He was super sweet and gave me a full run down on how everything worked on it, tips and tricks etc. That was much needed.... I feel somewhat a little more comfortable with the camera at least now!

I had a bit of a play with it today and cannot WAIT to get some more great shots with it.

The photos just so not even compare to my iphone pictures now. They hit them out of the park! Yew!

Thanks to everyone who pushed me in the direction of a REAL camera.

I'm looking forward to being able to get photos printed and blown up with them not being grainy and terrible. 

My family better get used to having a camera jammed in their faces..... I'm going to get all paparazzi up in here!

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Today, the kids and I went for a walk to take a few snaps. I was absolutely stoked at the results and quality of them (not hard comparing to iPhone pictures I suppose) but for a non-photographer, I think I got some pretty cool snaps of the kids.

I am busting to finish typing this post so I can get to the uploading! I can't wait to see the difference…. 

Here it goes………!

NOTE - I was originally going to write a rather lengthy post about the making of this dress, however, I've been busy, so I thought I'd just add the photos of it here and merge the new camera/pinafore dress into one post.


This is a dress that I made for my daughter recently. I used a New Look pattern that I scored from an op shop for about $2.

Excuse the terrible ironing job, it was a bit 'hurry up an put this on so we can go take some photos!!!'. 

It's a gorgeous little dress. It has buttons on either side of the bodice as well as one button on the top left shoulder.

It's a perfect little dress for summer! Nice and breezy. I made it with some op shop fabric also. Its a lightweight cotton.

Here is a bird, photo bombing my son...

Last one…. A photo my eldest son took of my daughter and I.

I am over the moon with the quality of the camera and the photos!!!!! Best investment ever :-D


I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender Review

It has been almost 2 years since I've been of eyeing off Vitamix blenders. We eat super healthy, love juices and smoothies. I make heaps of raw food, treats, snacks etc. but found that between the crappy old blender we had and my food processor, there was only so much I could do.

My husband recently started going to the gym heaps more and he wanted to get on board the 'green smoothie train' so he was at the point of also wanting a better blender.
I watched countless comparison videos, comparing the Vitamix to other high speed blenders. They left me more confused and a little apprehensive. Which one do I buy??? When presented with too many options, I get a little overwhelmed.

As we all know, the Vitamix costs a LOT of money. This, obviously is a massive deciding factor for many people, us included! The reviews I had read online are not great. They are ok, but for that price, the blender should also be able to wash the dishes and vacuum the floor for me!

I was under pressure, I was *this* close to ordering one a few months back, seriously, I was going online to buy one.  I googled 'Vitamix Australia' and the first thing that came up was an advert to the Froothie website. It had the description "do not buy this blender - trial the Optimum blender for $471".

It was a sign! I was actually terrified of buying a Vitamix anyway, just in case it didn't live up to the hype... Or in case something went wrong with it, from what I've read, their customer service isn't great.

So, I clicked on the Froothie link to check it out!!

The Optimum 9400 blender looked JUST like the Vitamix, it had the tamper tool and everything. The specs on the Optimum showed it was even MORE powerful (a video showed it grinding up garden stones into dust!!!!!) than the Vitamix and it was HALF the price! I was pretty much sold at this point, however, I jumped onto the review sites, as you do, and had a bit of a read. I was very impressed with what I was seeing. It was really reassuring to read that people were extremely happy with the Optimum blender AND that the Froothie customer service team were also fantastic. Some people that had reported issues/faults with the blender on the review sites, had Froothie comment and help them out with replacement parts with no questions asked. THIS was the final decider for me.
I didn't have the gut wrenching, bad feeling I had when I was about to purchase the Vitamix.

So I purchased the Optimum 9400 from the Froothie website straight away! I ordered the silver one.
Shipping was supposed to take only 1-2 days (we are located in the same city as the warehouse) but because they were waiting on a shipment of the silver ones (just my luck!), I received mine in about 4 business days, which is still pretty good.

Unpacking the box was exciting, the blender was well packaged and it came with a raw food recipe booklet, a nut milk bag and the tamper tool.

I gave it a clean straight away and then made a fruit juice in it. I was really keen to see how it handled harder vegetables like carrot and beetroot and also how smooth it made the drink if it had seeds or nuts in it.

I made a juice with beet root, apple, orange, coconut water and some flaxseeds.... To my delight, it turned out smooth as silk. It makes a mean smoothie, I've made orange and poppyseed cake batter in it, I've made fresh fruit icy poles for the kids with it. It is actually, so good.

It had a pretty awful burning chemical smell that came from it while blending, which concerned me, but in the booklet it assures that this is normal for new machines. It is excess motor oil burning off and will go away within a few months of use. 

It has now been a few months, with regular daily use and the smell has mostly gone away but not entirely.

Back onto a positive note though...! 

I have made flour from quinoa (in photo below) that turned out amazing.

I've made almond meal, flax meal and one of my personal faves, hoummus! Yum!

I use it almost daily for smoothies, juices and dips and my husband uses it daily also, for smoothies after the gym. 

When making anything thicker than a smoothie, it is quite hard to get the last bit out of the bottom of the blender because the blades are in the way and you can't remove them.

The clean up is easy though. I usually just give it a rinse with water straight away to prevent stuff getting stuck to the jug. You can also half fill it with warm water and a tiny bit of detergent and pop it onto the base and turn it on. This ensures it gets any bits that might have been trapped in the blades.

Easy as!

The ONLY real problem I've had with it so far, is when I was making chocolate blackbean brownie batter in it, it overheated and turned itself off. I was a little worried that it blew up :-/
I turned it off, took the jug off and let the motor cool down while I finished stirring the batter with a spatula and scooping it onto a tray to go in the oven.
After 10 minutes I put water in the jug to clean the chocolate batter out. I put it back onto the base, turned it on and hoped for the best.... It worked. Phew!!!
I can only think that the batter was a little thick for the blender? I'm not sure... As it's coming into summer here in Australia, it's going to get a very thourogh work out making raw cakes and ice creams, so I'll update this post again in a few months to let you all know how it's going and if I've encountered any more problems.

One thing I do recommend buyng though, that doesn't come with the Optimum, is a silicone scraper. Using a metal spoon is not a good idea to scoop out your food because it WILL scratch the jug badly. 

I purchased a bundle of 3 or 4 silicone spatula spoons with wooden handles, from Coles, for about $5.00. So worth it t keep your jug in tip top shape!

So far though, I'm VERY happy with the blender!!

PS. Sorry for the lack of photos, I honestly didn't think I'd ever write a review for this, but because I'm so happy with it, I kinda felt like I needed to!