A darn good long weekend!

A bloody noice Australia Day weekend for me consisted of some retail therapy (couch in previous post; fabulous sixties frock from overpriced Fitzroy vintage store; divine coffee set from a Brunswick garage sale on the way home from yoga and a swim in the sun), some social time (friends for dinner[...and they were tasty! Mmm!]; a farewell BBQ, and a family lunch), time in the garden weeding, creating new beds, harvesting and planting rocket seeds, and visiting (twice!) the Hotrod Show in town. Awesome!!!

The new foster children

Marika's couch came to live with us on Australia Day. We already love it very much. We think the house has absorbed it with ease.

We are fostering the Shag print, which has pride of place in the bedroom...Shag by name, shag by...well, you know the rest!

What the hell...

...let's make it a round three posts!
Here are some of the places I go to feel inspired/intimidated:
lovely stuff
more lovley stuff
And by meadering about through their links and friends I have discovered lots of other treasure chests. I have also lost a LOT of paid work hours. And I don't care. Why's that? Because...c'mon, join in on the chorus here: "I hate my job!"

Inadequate

Just stumbled across this photoblog. Two friends posting daily morning photos. But I think they are both crafters, so most of the things in their images are all lovely and crafty and make me feel bland and inadequate. I want to do something similar - somehow by selectively cropping my life into 500x500 pixels maybe I too can cause others to feel wistful about me.
(I have a vision of spending hours setting up contrived "casual" scenes designed to create envy and covetousness, meanwhile everything actually meaningful in my life falls by the wayside!)
Jeebuz, two posts in one morning. How bored and apathetic can a girl get?

For my eyes only.

I hate my job. I am bored beyond belief. 14 more workdays left, according to the post-it note I just stuck to my screen. Then a week free before I start my demanding Uni course. Between now and then I have to decide exactly how much truth I tell Cuntrelink about my life in order to solicit small monies from them and then fill out the requisite forms in quintipulate complete with DNA sample and 10-year plan; apply for a Working With Children card; organise some modelling jobs to keep me in bread and water; menstruate (and suffer the compulsory and incomprehensible mood swings...check. Doing that now. Clearly.); move a couch; finish the kitchen island so I can reclaim the spare table for a Uni workdesk; and try and remember how to be a nice and lovable person (harder than it sounds).
And I feel like a big fat loser blogging this black mood, but no-one reads my blog anyway so it's only really for me in the end. And it has kept me mildly entertained at work for ten minutes at least.
God. Bored.

One Off the Wrist!

Yes, it's all in the wrist (and shoulder, glutes, quads & mind)...the wondrous joys of racquetball! Rac-quet, yeaaah [high whiny air guitar solo to the tune of some eighties soft-cock-rock anthem]!

On my first ever time on a squash-court I managed to lose a ball into the fluoro lights, up into the gallery and smack bang into my boyfriend's nads! Awesome! Not the world's cheapest way to work up a sweat, but the fun-factor more than justifies the dollars.

You reap what you sew...

And here are some of the xmas things I made for the kiddies...

In Pursuit of Cool

I love these cannisters. Love. Them. Found in a second-hand dealer in Cygnet, Tassie at Christmas-time. I think they like being near the trippy sixties wallpaper in our kitchen.











This gold pair we actually bought before we even moved in together - our first joint purchase!















This is a cool shallow plastic bowl we scored at the Anglesea op shop late last year. Great for light summer salads!

Another Anglesea score - a fibreglass platter.






One of a set of six placemats, from same Cygnet treasure-den. Akin to the wallpaper, methinks!

Hello.
2007, eh?
Chalk up another year then.

So, December was customarily busy and overstretched, but I actually managed to achieve some set goals, which pleeeeased me. I made (read: bought and hand-decorated) a T-shirt for Dan from an idea of a year ago. Talk about closure on that one! I also made, from scratch - pattern and all - a couple of kooky rag-dolls for the little girls in my world, complete with painted, big-eyed faces. Bratz, eat your hearts out! And knocked off two lovely stuffed bunnies from another internet crafter, again working out the pattern myself from two jpegs. (Not overly ethical, but they weren't for sale or anything, so I figure that covers me.) Was quite pleased with the result, except that my construction efforts were a bit freeform, and one of the creatures has been renamed Bummy Rabbit, for his unique face! (Pictures pending.)
After a gruelling round of barbies and kris kringles (thanks Santa for my lovely herbs!), we headed down to Taswegia for my family's series of dos. Two and a half weeks later, after some serious drinking (my long-lost cousin from the UK led me astray... margaritas and glow sticks were the order of the day!) and eating of much creamy things and meaty things and learning to love sudoku and going through the up and down agonies of whether to buy land down there (nothing yet, but it looks like the way of our future), we crammed our bags to the absolute max of wieght restrictions and staggered home laden with Tassie op-shop scores (more pictures pending), a handmade tagine, my new favourite toy - a badge-maker- and a severe case of culture shock. The wall of heat and smoke-haze that we walked into upon returning to Melbourne (truly living up to its nickname of Smelbourne) was overwhelming and distressing, especially after the relative cool greenness of Tassie. A tree-change to my old home-town looks ever more appealing with Victoria's current state in mind.

And what of January so far?
Well, I got a first round offer to my first preference Uni, and went off to enrol the other day. It looks to be a pretty big year - lots to learn, little income, little free time... but I think I can manage it. This also means I am at last leaving my brain-numbing job!!! After talking about it for over a year! Whoohoo!
I have mental lists of all I want to do this year (you might call them resolutions): in addition to Uni (at which I plan to excel!!!), I want to re-establish my fitness routine, make a stack of cool badges and start selling them, grow veggies (think I may have already killed some of the silverbeet from neglect though! I wasn't vigilant enough with the water yesterday in the 40 degrees heat.), harvest more rainwater, do more sewing, wear more sun protection, do more regular breast checks, spend quality time with friends and generally be an all-round great gal!

I'm sure I can muster up the oomph to do most of those things!