things that make you go "hmm."

I stumbled upon this site here via Ali E's blog, and this sweet necklace caught my eye. I'm not normally a necklace person (I twiddle and fiddle and they end up annoying the cr#p out of me) but I think I could make an exception for this.

Do you think this should go on the Christmas/Birthday List (you know, the one where you have to do all of the shopping for it yourself?!)

And check out her blog too, pretty photos, very inspiring!

Post Holiday Blues Allright!!

There's been nothing but smoke haze and dust (oh the DUST!) here since we returned from the coast, so is it any wonder that I wish I were still there? Oh the greeness, I think that's what I am missing the most! Actually, as we drove up the coast (doing our best to ignore the shenenigans in the back seat!) I think we both took a deep breath and took in the sheer greeness of it all, once we reached the "tropics" from Ingham north.

When I was a child we used to visit my grandmother, who lived in the Port Douglas hinterland, probably twice a year (maybe more). And while I love living out here (the humidity on the coast during the wet season absolutley kills us westerners!) I didn't realise how much I soaked in the greeness and lushness and mountains on those visits. Refuelling the soul I guess?!

Anyhow, let these photos below show you just how gorgeous Mission Beach was. There are many beautiful beaches of course, all up and down the Queenland coast, but this fitted us perfectly. Very slow, relaxed and a set of four units that weren't too flash, but not dumpy, that suited our rough and tumble mob. This was a get together of all of Trevor's brothers, their offspring & wives, and his parents.

I think this photo captures how wonderful the weather was. Look at that sky. And nephew being photographed by his mum - he was playing at being shipwrecked or something (normally gruesome! he's 10. I think its a stage?!)

Check out the view from the pool! That blue you can see behind the fence. THAT, my friends, is the ocean. A mere, oh, 50 metre walk from the front door of our unit.

I think this is my favourite photo from the time we were away. Dunno why! Just is. (and can you tell which blokes don't get their shirts off often? Good thing you can't see their feet and ankles! Just as white!)

This below is my response to Nicole's latest challenge. Digital, sort of collage for me to have printed and put on cs. I think I will be doing more and more of this in the future (though what to do with that huge stash of paper?!!) Anyhow, I am not sure why, but I think this is missing something -or is the title wrong? There's something about it, but then again it is done, so moving on!!

And you know what? I even took some rather crappy videos, in fact spent a great deal of time on the beach doing just that and having a ball! Have yet to work out how to deal with them, but will work on that.

And speaking of "work" I had better get back to doing something constructive and putting away some of the crap that seems to be spreading all over the house, and in turn getting covered with dust. Which incidentally, is not red like you southerners are getting, its greyish. So mixed with the smoke haze, makes a very hazy sky!

Home

Remember where I have been? The gorgeous tropical green lushness of Mission Beach... lovely weather - sitting by the pool and looking out to the bluest of oceans just metres away.

Got home today - and drove all of the way west from the coast through a thick haze of dust. While I feel for you poor southerners in the midst of the dust storm, don't think that we are missing out up here in the north. Rather than red, its a white cloud...

Welcome home. Sigh.

Photos to come of that blue, blue ocean!

Just quickly

A quick post before we head off to the coast on Friday morning for a few days. Jobs to do in the city (as usual, and the list keeps on growing!) and then a couple of nights on the beach front at Mission Beach!!

In the midst of the preparing (like madly watering the garden) and packing, or rather THINKING about packing (the great procrastinator that I am)I have forgotten to post about my boys big third birthday!!

(did a crap job of editing that photo, didn't I? isn't the colour awful?!)

He had a great day - nothing overly special was planned - but gifts (all stuff a little boy's heart desires - tools, and trucks, and a red wheelbarrow!) and cake, and his dad home ALL day, and driving on the forklift, well that made it all pretty wonderful for him. That and having a win over his father at tea time and getting away with not eating dinner (grrr!)

Can't believe that he is THREE! I told him (jokingly) that now that he is three, he was too big for cuddles (being a very snuggly boy) - he got the saddest look on his little face. Oh I love winding my kids up. Probably makes me an evil mother (like how I told them pressing the door lock on the car keys would make the car BLOW UP KABOOM - I think they really wanted to press the button to find out, but boy...what if Mum wasn't kidding! I could see the cogs turning!)

Anyhow, I'll take lots of pics of Mission Beach for you all. And I can promise you the one photo you won't be seeing, is me in a bikini, or any swimming costume whatsoever!

so excited

I had a win!! I've been wanting to refresh the girls room for awhile now...ages ago I saw this quilt cover in a catalogue and fell in love with the gorgeous colours and its ability to conceal little accidents with felt pens (NOT allowed, but still...) It was a little expensive for my budget, so I put it out of my mind.

Today I happened to check the website of this retailer - and they were ON SALE! yippee!! So have ordered (not the patchwork one) and the quilted pillow, and plan to try and sneakily re-arrange their room and put on the new covers, just before Christmas somehow, as an early Christmas gift for them. I've already ordered, thanks to the Target Toy Catalogue, a gift that requires their room to be re-arranged to make space, so its all falling into place nicely!

The girls have a lot of old timber furniture in their room (my mum love restoring furniture) as well as dark floorboards, and timber beds, and pale blueish gray paint on the walls, so combination of colours on the quilt will go perfectly.
I am feeling so organised for Christmas, for now!!

Yum

After my rant earlier today, I thought I should post something a little lighter....

I don't know why this appeals to me so much, but isn't it nice?

And that's all I have to say about that! ;-)

Annoyed. Very.

I have just gotten off the phone after talking to a representitive of Harvey Norman's Online Photo Processing Centre. To say that I am annoyed could be called an understatement. (never annoy a woman with PMS!).

A week or so ago I uploaded this pic here below to HN Online. I made it up in Elements, and very carefully made sure that it was a 4x6 WITH about a 5mm border around the edge, and a slightly wider border on the right hand side, which I planned to crop.

Below is a scanned image of what I got back in the mail. The bottom and left hand edges have not only lost their white border, but they've cropped into part of the photo, as well.

This young man that telephoned me (and now I feel OLD, this kid sounded like he was still in school) asked a few questions and then informed me that "oh, because it was 4x6, that's why, we print the smaller digital print.. etc etc " You know what I mean? I then questioned as to WHY they didn't inform when selecting the size to print that it wouldn't print TRUE TO SIZE (as in - it says 4x6 when asked what size?!) I eventually got that cranky that I thanked the young man for his call and hung up.

These prints weren't expensive, it was more the principal of the matter (I used them because it was quick, and I wanted them back straight away) , but the only thing that I have proven is that I won't be using Harvey Norman online again. I will stick to Extrafilm, where I have sucessfully just had printed my lovely collage photos (the ones I have been sharing with you) and I couldn't be more happier with THEIR service and he quality of the prints. No cropping there, and I followed the same process, making sure that all of my prints were within the photo size (like 8x10, or 6x8 - and even if I deliberatley didn't fill up the page, they still came back exactly right).

Enough ranting, how is your day going?! :-)

One more thing

Whilst in the crafty frame of mind, I thought I would also share this gorgeous tutu tutorial that I found...whilst riding along ("on a pushbike, honey!") the other day, my friend Andrea (the pink gumboot lady) and I were discussing tutu's and where to get them, and I said HEY, lets not be silly, we can make them!

Because lookie here:

We could totally make our own and then take photos of our own kids, and get that expensive photographer look, at home!

Are you inspired yet? Here is the link for a super easy no-sew version, but I have a simple sewn version happening in my head that might be quicker to make than the no-sew one. May not be as cute, but I have to think about it and see if it could work and be as poofy.

By the way, these images are TOTALLY lifted off the internet - do a search and see what YOU can come up with - I have seen a ladybug tutu, the obvious fairy/princess tutu, a princess pirate tutu, and a bumble bee version. So cute! Possibilities are endless....

Internet goodness

Just a quick post, I just came across this cute bag tutorial and free pattern and thought I would share....nice isn't it! If only the sewing machine fairy would 1. fix my machine and 2. sew this for me! (or make more hours in the day, especially dedicated to "play time"!)

Here is the link to the downloadable instructions and pattern.

Now, off to vaccuum my kitchen and loungeroom floor and threaten to give all of the kids toys to the "poor kids". Always gets them scurrying to pick up their crap, especially when the garbage bags start to come out!

Sigh. Modern parenting at its best. I am sure that method never made it into the child rearing books!

A different view...

I just had to re-post this comment from Nicole (hope you don't mind!)... while she might have been giggling about the need for police escort on our little bike ride, I thought her whole comment and reaction totally hilarious!! Nicole, you made MY day (or evening, as the case may be!)

"OMG how HILARIOUS!!! Loving firstly, your brilliant photography! Loving secondly, all the mad women in your town (esp the batman meets bee and the pink gumboot lady!), thirdly, loving that schools there have less than 6 kids (!!) and LOVING that a group of balloon bearing, fairy dressed and tutu laden cyclists needed a police escort!!! Wow, this post totally made my day....."

Firstly, thanks all for the photography comments! I've really had fun the past week or so, snapping away, and I have to say that for the most part (apart from slight sharpening on some) they have all been unedited. Not to say they don't need editing, it's more that I didn't have the time and they seemed OK!

But mostly, I enjoy the response that you guys give on our life out here, while not all that exciting or different (in that we all have a house to clean and kids to chase etc etc etc) it gives a different perspective to life in Australia!

And honestly, I didn't really give it a second thought that we had not one, but TWO police cars and officers in attendance on our bike ride! (and yes, this town is filled with mad women. I would argue that I don't fall into that catergory, but I am sure that my husband, and the husbands of the bee bat and gumboot fairy might beg to differ!!)

Oh, one more thing - our school is the big one in our three "small schools" cluster. We've got TEN kids! ;-)

The Tour

Last year we had a principal who was a mad keen cyclist and all round fitness nut, so he organised a little bike ride for our small school to do. There is a one lane bitumen road that leads out of town, and the first property/station is about 8km away, most of that on the bitumen. The plan was to ride out there, have a sausage sizzle at the homestead (very kind and generous ex-parents of the school letting us use their bbq & wonderful shaded lawn and garden for everyone to regather their energies on!) and then return back to school.

The kids loved it so much, that we did it all again this year (with a new principal). This time we invited two other small schools (as in under 6 students from each school) to join in the fun.

We did a head count, and there were more adults than children, what with the parents, teachers, and the local constabulary offering road blocks and escort (easiest day they've had in a while!)

Here they go!! The older kids are bits of speed demons, so one of the mums plus a mad keen (read mad) fitness fanantic teacher aid went with them to keep them on the straight and narrow. A police car went in front, as the "speed car".

This little mob is the smaller kids, and the adults that hadn't seen a push bike in QUITE awhile! Nothing like jumping off the deep end and doing a 8km ride (16km if they rode home as well!) to re-introduce the joys of bike riding!

Quite frankly, I think I prefer my bikes to be red, motorised and wearing a little HONDA label. But more on that shortly...

Our principal Miss Mac issued a "dress up" challenge...one super crafty mum with much attention to detail (and must not like sleeping - I'm living in a town of mad women! I'm the only sane one here!) dressed up her two daughters, and two push bikes in a fairy/princess/butterfly theme. That's her in the pink gumboots (prepared for every weather condition?!)

I have to say I was a totally slack mother with too many other things to think about, and all I did was blow up some green and orange balloons and tied them to the front of Kate and Georgie's bikes. See if you can find them!

Miss Mac is wearing the tutu that she crafted herself. It was very...stiff and sticky-outery. This is an action shot from the moving car - I was support crew, with trailer on the back with spare bikes and those belonging to the little ones who puffed out.

Even our local policeman got in the fun of things. I have never before seen regulation issue police socks before! They made quite a hit and he was kind enough to model them for me.


Remember that mad keen fitness fanatic teacher aide? (she asked if I could make her legs look longer. Her nickname is Shorty, so can understand her wish!) She went as a rather confused bumble bee.

The attention to detail! These little bee thingys were attached to her bike helmet. And bobbled the whole way!

Remember I said the bumble bee was confused. Some where along the way it ran into batman.


That's it for the photos - I didn't want to share the other pics, which are of other children - some people might not like that.

I did ride for awhile, on my new bike - on the way home when the sun was hot and burny. Lets just say I have been reminded of a few extra muscles in my legs...and possibly may find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning!

Photos

No story to tell, just more photos of burning off around our little town (apparently hasn't been done since 1974, the year of the great flood...!) I do intend to do a collage layout of these - been having some fun twiddling with my camera settings and flying by the seat of my pants, trying to get a good dark-time photo!

Another local getting close to the action (all in the name of a good shot!)

Looking down the highway back into town.

This was the next night - taken from in front of my house. Burning off the common area behind the township.

The glow of the flames reflected in the smoke cloud above the flames. And an ironbark tree & embers.

A little bit warm! Good thing for zoom lenses and a steady hand! This was about 8pm, and I turned off my headlights - was like daylight for a bit!

Stay tuned for some great Tour de Prairie action shots, our activity for today - the school kids bike ride to a nearby property and return.

Although...I may not be able to walk to the computer tomorrow to post about that!!

Internet Goodness

As a departure away from my favourite home decor colours (none of which actually feature IN my home, as its a mish mash of hand me down furniture, and the few bits we could afford!), this caught my eye. So fresh and clean and spring like!

A challenge for your next scrapbook page or sewing endevour? - that gorgeous teal/aqua + white + kraft? Hmm - combine with Nicoles' next challenge perhaps?!

I think you could be safe to say that I would be extremely happy to live in the Pottery Barn Catalogue! I want to go on holidays HERE below, at the very least!

Sigh.

See, this is my new Pottery Barn house - love the big glass doors and windows, and the white painted trim, the timber floor, the green walls....

Spring dining, anyone? Gorgeous weather here today, perfect for dining al fresco. If only I had this tree, and setting...

Here's that nice mirror again, this time on my new living room ;-)

Now this below would so useful - a calendar/organiser centre thingy. Brilliant.

That's it from me today, not a great deal of excitement happening out here at the moment. Trevor home so kids "helping" him (its fathers' day after all!)

Til next time!

Bushfire Season

Bushfire season has come early in the north this year, oh boy, did it come early. Its going to be a long dry season, with this sort of thing happening...

A fire was lit close to our small township, so we all dropped what we were doing, and went off to see what we could do. This young fella was very nonchalant in the face of that heat, behind him. He's lighting a fire break with an aptly named tool called a Fire Bug. See how it's dripping flame out behind him?
Actually, this wasn't really a bushfire - I was only kidding!!! {do you think I'd be out there with camera in hand if this were a real bushfire! NOT on your nellie!}

This was really a burning off operation carried out by the local rural fire brigade, burning off the long grass beside the highway and the school. There's lots of long grass out in people's paddocks too, but by burning off beside the road, it should hopefully prevent a stray cigarette butt or idiot passerbyer from lighting up valuable grazing land.

The gang all assembled. Very relaxed looking lot, aren't they! And if you hadn't realised, this is Toyota country! Wonder if they need a new ad?

Here we go!! I am not sure who got to strike the first match, but it didn't take long for the flames to take hold. The men are making sure that the fire doesn't jump over the break on the other side of that fence there. The owner of the land probably wouldn't take too kindly to a fire racing through his pastures!

Here's another firebug, and I don't mean the equipment in his hand!! My husband, wandering through the grass, lighting more fire as he goes. It's filling him with joy, can't you tell? {I think he's feeling in on the inside!}

This one is going into my favourite photo file. I had to do some quick fiddling with my camera settings to get this one, but smoke haze across the setting sun always gives such good light. I love the colour. Probably could be cropped to take out the foreground... that's Trevor, enjoying his fire-bugging moment.

The highway, and the local constabulary checking out the action. Crime is not high in our little town, so he came down to join in the fun - and slow down passing traffic. Something about flashing police lights that gets the foot off the accelerator!

APPARENTLY, the kids couldn't see enough of the fire from inside the car, and nagged me until I let them out, just for some peace and quiet.

It turned dark quickly...but look! pretty...

Who let these clowns in here?! "Smile kids!" I call, and this is what I get. I think this is Georgie's modelling pose. Just so long as she doesn't continue with this pose when she's 15, that's all I can say (with particular attention to the pulling up of the pants leg!)

So that was our entertainment yesterday afternoon. Apparently the fire warden want to do some more this evening...but I think I'd rather watch Funny Home Videos. It looses its excitement quickly, once the wind changes and you downwind from the fire....lots of smoke! cough, splutter, dripping eyes...

As an aside, did you see my new frame overlay? I made it myself using a CZ tutorial, but don't know how to round the corners of my little frame thingy, to match the rounded corners of my photo. Any hints?