I forgot one

You know those silver steel shelves that you can get from Bunnings for about $20 - meant for the shed or the laundry (where mine was destined for).  Well, I got rather sick of the kids reading books and the husbands newspapers (our weekly delivery of the Queensland Country Life and the NQ Register.  And if you haven't heard of them, I am not surprised - content rural /agriculture based!) all over the place.  So I spent a HOUR AND A HALF putting together these stinking shelves...which I think don't look that bad actually!  The writing you can see on the wall is where we measure the kids heights (considering transposing to a strip of timber each and relocating to another spot).  I threw the kids reading books and sight words from school in the little baskets - instead of dropped wherever they left them or on the coffee table.  The newspapers and truck books go on the bottom shelf....and the top shelf hold a few pretties just to try and make the shelf look less like it should be in the shed, and more like a peice of modern designer furniture!  :-) It sits near the dining table/kitchen area.

With clever angles and careful editing

I've taken up Nicoles challenge from last Friday. I wandered around my incredibly dusty and untidiy house (school holidays not helping rectify the situation!) with my new 50mm lens attached to my camera, and took some snaps.  Little bits of my reality, on this day.

I pruned some long braches off a gum tree in the garden and found these amongst the offcuts. Too good to leave them there, they came inside. Love flowers in a vase...I know they won't last long. But still, they make me happy.

who would believe that gold fish were so dirty.  Incredibly grubby tank, and my finger getting the attention of the fish who wanted to hide in the corner.  The tank lives either on the kitchen bench corner or the dining table.

These grassy stalky things are in a big pot on near the doorway to our bedroom. Trevor hates them as he has to brush past them  (they hang into the doorway) when he goes to bed. I love their colours and their shape, and really should put them in a different spot. Also an old photo (from over 8 years ago of Trevor and his family).

pillows on my bed.

the new alarm clock the kids and I got Trevor for his birthday. It has huge green numbers and lights up the room crazily.  I certainly can read it with my short sighted night vision ;-) but then again, we can nearly read the newspaper by it, its that bright!   and just to keep it real:  dusty, marked bed side table.

new pretties put away neatly in a new jewellry organiser.  I can see where everything is now!

the floor of the boys room.  this is rather tidy actually.

new recipe binder, in which a4 page protectors do not fit. grr.

we live in an old house.  the bathroom has two doors. This is one, the one that opens from the back landing and steps. kids swimming bags.  I like the weathered colour of the door.

on the outdoor setting table downstairs on the cement. trying to keep the kids occupied.

my heavy duty work horse. :-)

our home.

Hopefully I can put these photos into a digi/hybrid page tomorrow, with a few words.  It would be good to do this perhaps on a yearly basis, capturing the little details that catch your eye at that moment, of your home and reality.  Hope you have enjoyed these tiny slices of my world.  You might have noticed that the floor was not included in any of the shots, for good reason. :-) the floor, and any other flat dust collecting surface!

Sketch challenge - my version

So Nicole posted a sketch challenge over HERE

This was the sketch:

Simple stuff hey, and totally open for interpretation.  I decided to do it digitally, mostly because my desk is covered in large piles of crap stuff (see second last post!) and I really like making templates.  So I turned this into one!

(Click on the image to enlarge)  The bit that I will print is just the white part with the photos and journalling (which is 6x8 in size). For this challenge I digitally matted the printed part on teal then white cardstock, so I guess when its printed I will try and do the same. (Finished size 8.5 x 11)

Felt good to play around, even just digitally.  Hope to do some more again soon!

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!

Challenge Layout

Nicole issued another challenge, and although I haven't had the time, or the desire to be frank, to scrap, I delved into the archives and found one that I had done awhile ago, that matched her sketch.

I love this sketch, and the results from it, so think I will be visiting it again! Its nice to come back to an old favourite that had been forgotten about, especially when its one that works!

Still here

I'm still here, alive and kicking. A little overwhelmed with what I should be doing, and what isn't getting done! I guess it's always like that in my world, it's just how much I stress about it on a daily basis that differs (sometimes I care, sometimes I just don't and go and look at my flowers - or go blog hopping!)

It has been and will be such a busy week... on Saturday the kids and I drove 2 hours to a Field Day at a neighbouring town, where Trevor had our concrete troughs on display. We caught up with some friends, I priced some new fancy-schmancy lawn mowers, and bought some plants. And icecreams for the kids. By crikey, for a mid-winter's day, it was WARM. Should have realised, happens every year!

On Monday and friend and I drove to the city and back (a four hour drive just to GET there) and ran around madly spending the funding money our P & C had been granted. Also managed to get a couple of things for myself that had been on the shopping list for awhile (like a new toilet seat!), plus a few things that weren't! ....like gorgeous DCWV "butterflies & blossums" paper that I have been drooling over for awhile, but I discovered $10 cheaper at Big W than anywhere else I'd seen it online.

This is what happen when a country living woman goes to the BIG town: she often gets things that she doesn't necessarily need right now, just because its there NOW and won't be when she gets back to town or its on sale at the time. And sometimes you might even buy multiple of a certain item, because you know, sure as eggs, if its PERFECT, you'll never see it again in six months time when you get to that shop again.

Anyhow, that was a loooong day, got home at 10:30pm after getting up at 4:30 that morning!]

This afternoon we have a little birthday smoko for my neice's 2nd birthday - only a 20 minute/30km drive this time!

Friday the kids have a day out at another school an hours drive away, so I am taking Kate + another little girl there, and continuing on to the bigger town another hours drive on, to do my grocery shopping. There was no room in the car on Monday to get any groceries, so seeing as I am half way there dropping the kids off, I might as well keep going!

On Saturday we are all off to my parent's place, to which a road-train of our steers will be journeying to on Friday afternoon. We have to walk them out to their paddock on Saturday morning, so the kids and I will get a ride on our horses.

After that - thank goodness its school holidays! I think we will all appreciate a sleep in on Sunday!

I'll leave you with this cute project I found somewhere online - isn't it cute? So easily doable, if one wasn't driving around the countryside all week!

I'm not sure how the dotted line behind the butterfly is done on this, whether by pen or stitched, but it's not even enough for my liking. I have a couple of square frames that I could do this to, for the girls room... again, only if I take a dislike to sleeping.

Which won't ever happen!

And this idea below is cute and simple too! Involves some work with a craft knife and working out the right placement of the shapes - but as long as they all touch, and the bottom of them touches the centre fold, she's sweet. Great place card idea! I must try this one day - though what for I'm not sure!

Here's a challenge for you: I want a name for my {non-existant at the moment} photography "business"... I would love to take photos for other people on a more "professional" basis, but right now it's unlikely to go far - but first things first - I need a catchy, appropriate name! Lots of people use their own names, but I really don't think my name has much of an out of the ordinary ring about it!

Put your thinking caps on ladies...I should offer a prize - I tell you what - if I ever get the camera straps that are in my head MADE, the name I like best will get one....I hope you won't mind waiting (especially since my sewing machine is staging a revolt and refusing to work!)

I'll be back with some photos one day, maybe after the weekend (I'll take my camera on the horse this time - the LITTLE one, not my precious DSLR!)