Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Another Wedding Post....

But probably the last one. From now on I will post the wedding news on the wedding website but I wanted to leave the original post there by itself for a little longer.

Yesterday I finished making the invitations! I thought they would never get done :P I posted most of them this afternoon, and only have a few left to give out (to people I see often so thought it would be easier to give them out in person rather than spending $1 to post them).

It is very exciting and very scary - I am worried I have spelt names wrong, put the wrong invite into the envelope, or forgotten someone. Hope everything goes OK and I can't wait until the RSVPs start coming in!!

On a completely unrelated note, it cost me over $50 to fill up my little Corolla with petrol today. Bloody petrol prices are getting ridiculous!

This was posted at 5:20 PM.

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Monday, April 24, 2006

Inspire Me Thursday April Challenge #3: Find the Art in the Everyday

Wow this challenge from Inspire Me Thursday was hard... I racked my brains for ages to come up with something to do. The challenge was to find the art in the everyday. I always find these challenges with so many different interpretations really hard. It makes it really fun and interesting to go and look at other people's work though!

After thinking up several ideas and then trashing them because I just haven't had time this week, I came up with this:



I decided that something I do every day (at least every weekday) was write on the blackboard in my classroom. So I thought today I would make my writing just a little bit more special and try some pictures as well. I drew a slouch hat and a poppy for the little ANZAC day piece I put on the blackboard.

The kids were impressed by the pics, anyway! Although I must say I was a bit disappointed in my choice of chalk colours.

Kind of a weird interpretation of this theme, I know, but I hope you like it anyway! :)

By the way, no comments on the messy writing :P I know my e's look like i's (the kids love to point out my mistakes).

This was posted at 10:53 PM.

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Sunday, April 23, 2006

Summer & Serenity

How cool is this!?!

Matt is going to blog about this too, undoubtably in a funnier and more well-written way - so I'll keep this short.

Last night we went to the Globe Theatre in the Valley to see the movie Serenity. Now that alone is cool enough (even though we own it on DVD now so have seen it many times).

The really cool part was that it was introduced by Summer Glau - one of the stars of the movie and the TV show it was based on, Firefly. She did a Q&A session beforehand, which was really cool. She was really sweet and funny in person and answered all the questions without seeming like she didn't really want to be there which I'm sure some stars would have done. As you can see from the photos she smiled and laughed a lot.

There were even people dressed up there, which I thought was great although I would never have the guts to do it - the closed I got was wearing my brown suede jacket (which I wear a lot anyway) and calling it my "browncoat". Tee Hee. There was also one guy with a full-size cutout of Joss Whedon (actually it was a little larger than life) and there were a lot of people with Serenity T-Shirts.

It was fantastic to see the movie with a cinema full of Firefly/Serenity fans!! I wish I had seen it the first time with an audience like that: cheering and everything.

It's a shame our pictures didn't turn out better - had to play around with them in Photoshop to get them even this visible (not that I really know what I am doing).



I tried to take one of all the dressed-up people but it didn't turn out. The one photo that did turn out OK was one of Matt & I which we took with the tried-and-true stretch out your hand as far as it goes and hope for the best method. It turned out pretty good considering although I look like I am half asleep/ on drugs. (I'm not I promise!)



Summer was very cool and Serenity was awesome (of course) :)

This was posted at 9:02 PM.

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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter Weekend

We had some great plans for this weekend. Jules was coming over to stay for a few days with AJ, and I was really looking forward to spending time with them. Was looking forward to watching lots of chick-flicks & such with Jules. I had planned to wow my friends and family with a wonderful Easter feast on Easter Sunday.

Not everything works out the way you plan.

First, on Friday night, the TV blew up. OK that's an exaggeration. It didn't blow up but it did start smelling like burning electrical wires and stopped working. Which isn't a good thing.

Little Andrew was upset (not sure why - possibly due to teething, hot weather, being in a new place or a combination of all three). Anyway, he cried a lot and didn't sleep well, so Jules didn't get much sleep either.

We decided to get a new TV. The one we picked was a widescreen too big to fit on in our old entertainment unit. So we thought we would get a new one of those too.

Matt and I went down to JB HiFi & Ikea to pick up the new things while Jules had a nap (after AJ finally got to sleep - she ended up having to take him for a drive in the car to get him to sleep).

We picked up our TV (one of the few things that went smoothly that day), then went to Ikea.

Then Matt and I had a fight about which TV unit to buy. When we finally picked one, they didn't have it in stock. On the way home Jules called and said she would probably go home and not stay the night again because Andrew wasn't sleeping.

I started crying and cried all the way home. Yeah I know I'm stupid. I think it was mostly PMS, but I was just disappointed that everything wasn't going the way I expected it to.

When we got home, Jules helped us move the new TV onto the coffee table (which is our TV stand now that the one we wanted from Ikea will take a few weeks to come in). Matt moved the TV while Jules still had her hand under it (unbeknownst to him) and crushed her finger. It was bleeding and everything it must have hurt like hell. So then Jules was crying because her finger was hurt. I started crying again because it was just one more thing going wrong (and I was in a crying kind of mood).

I think it got a lot better from then on in thank god!

Andrew went down for a long sleep and Jules ended up staying the night after all. Andrew slept though the night which was lovely!

Jules & AJ, Wendy, Paul, Geoff and Matt enjoying an "Easter feast" at the dinner table.
Today I cooked my 'Easter Feast' and my bad luck must have been over because nothing major went wrong. Paul even showed up! The food turned out OK, too.

My carefully planned Easter weekend didn't go the way I hoped it would, that's for sure. But I had a good time anyway (well, most of the time - there were moments yesterday when I couldn't say that but I'm choosing to ignore them). I loved having Jules and AJ here. Even him crying didn't bother me except I was worried about Jules not getting any sleep. I think I am going to choose to remember the happy memories from this weekend and forget the rest (although it may be an idea to remember Jules' hurt finger we are more careful moving things next time!).

Thank you for coming and staying with us Jules, we really loved having you here (also, thanks for putting up with my emotional-ness yesterday).

Thank you to all who came to my Easter feast lunch thing. Hope you enjoyed yourselves.

This was posted at 7:05 PM.

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Inspire Me Thursday April Challenge #2 - A Vernal Equinox Challenge

Autumnal Landscape in Watercolour


As I'm sure you have figured out already, I have kinda changed the Inspire Me Thursday challenge for this week. I think I have kept within the spirit of the challenge though.

The challenge this week was to create a work that celebrates Spring and nature. Well, being in Australia it is not Spring at the moment, but Autumn! I thought that the main point of the challenge was to notice nature around you and celebrate it, so I decided to flip it and do an Autumnal equinox challenge rather than a Vernal one. I can always flip it again later in the year if Inpsire Me Thursday decides to do an Autumnal challenge, and do my Spring one then!!

Hope you like it :) It was done with watercolour pencils and scrapbooking paper. I tried to use the colours that remind me of Autumn. Since we don't have a lot of trees that lose their leaves here in Australia (although we seem to have heaps in our backyard, just to make it more difficult for Matt to mow), I thought of a sunset painting all the landscape in the Autumn colours.

Let me know what you think.

This was posted at 11:02 PM.

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Happy Birthday Mum & Aunty Debbie!!!


Today is my Mum's birthday, as well her sister Debbie's. They were born on the same day 8 years apart. There were 6 kids in my mum's family, and two pairs share the same birthday, different years (Her brother and sister were born on the same day 12 years apart). I think that is pretty amazing!

Anyway, I got mum this beautiful scarf for her birthday. I knew she would love it as soon as I saw it, and sure enough, she went nuts when she saw it - you would have thought she was given a million bucks! It is so much fun giving presents to people especially when they love them.

Lucky I'm in the good books for giving a nice present, because if she finds out I posted these other pics I'll get in trouble! Being the scrapbooker I am I tried to take pics of us out at dinner but my subjects weren't co-operating.



This next one is the photo they actually deliberately posed for!! I guess the camera took too long to take the photo. :P



What a good photograhper I am! :P And I think the expression on my brother's face pretty much sums up his enthusiasm for having his photo taken.

P.S. I picked up my wedding dress today!! I left it at mum's place, not only so there is no chance of Matt seeing it, but also to stop myself from trying it on all the time. It is so exciting though!!! I can't wait for Trina to come up and see it :)

This was posted at 11:21 PM.

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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Inspire Me Thursday April Challenge #1 - A Series of Art

Baby themed embellishments for a scrapbooking layout

I have been so busy making wedding invitations over the last few months (yep it has been months! I only have about 11 left to make now though!), so I haven't had time to do much scrapbooking. For this reason, I was determined to take a scrapbooking angle for this week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge.

The challenge is to make a series of art - more than one piece of art that makes a whole work of art.

I decided to make some embellishments for scrapbooking pages. As I have promised Jules & Dan I would make them a scrapbook for AJ, and have only done 2 layouts so far, I thought some baby themed embellishments would be a good idea. So, I made four baby-related embellishment squares, which I can use on a scrapbooking layout at a later date (read: when I get time and finish making wedding invites!).

Let me know what you think!

And please drop by the wedding website and leave a comment!

This was posted at 5:15 PM.

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Sunday, April 09, 2006

Sailin' Away



We had a fantastic day yesterday! Trina gave us Red Balloon Days vouchers for Christmas last year, and we finally got around to using them - for a day sailing trip at Moreton Bay!

We had to get up at a scarily early hour for a Saturday, because we had to be at Manly Harbour at 7:45am. We made it though, and it was definitely worth it. We sailed (although you couldn't really say it was sailing because we had to use the motor due to lack of wind) to Tangalooma, where we spent most of the day.

The highlight for me was snorkelling around the wrecks. Neither Matt nor I had snorkelled before, so it was a bit hard to get used to at first, but it was SO AMAZING! We saw so many fish swimming around the wrecks, it was great! Wish we had had underwater cameras to take pictures of what we saw - we'll have to find one before we go to the Great Barrier Reef on our honeymoon.

After snorkelling, we went on an inflatable ski tube ride (called a 'JetPilot'), which was really cool! It was very fast and hard to hang on but so much fun!


I even got a chance to steer the ship (out of the harbour) and hoist the sails (with help!). It was great fun! I wish we had had more wind though.

It was a wonderful day all in all, and a fantastic Christmas present. Thanks, Trina!!!

If you would like to read more about our sailing trip, and see lots more photos, please click here.

This was posted at 8:39 PM.

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Friday, April 07, 2006

TGIBF!!!

Thank God it's Bloody Friday!!!

I am now on holidays from school until after Easter. Thank God. It's been a long term.

I had a nice day today, the kids were giving me chocolate :) And as a change from many years, I actually god GOOD chocolate! Nice brands not that cheap stuff that just makes you feel sick. So the diet may have to go on hold until after easter. I have to eat all the easter eggs before the parents read the report cards and decide I don't deserve them any more. Some of them are in for a rude shock because this is the worst-behaved class I have had since my first year teaching. That being said, I still have some beautiful children in my class (who gave me sweet little easter cards telling me how wonderful I am!).

We have been growing bean seeds in the classroom this term and we planted them outside yesterday afternoon because we won't be able to water them over the holidays and I'm hoping it will rain on them. I would be great if they would grow well but they aren't looking too good. Guess we will have to wait and see.

For now, I'm just happy I'm on holidays! My goals are to:
* go to the gym
* clean the house
* finish making wedding invitations
* finish my book and start reading another one (any suggestions? I don't know what to read next!)
* cook a fantastic Easter feast

Think that's too ambitious for one week?

This was posted at 8:31 PM.

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Thursday, April 06, 2006

The Wheels on the Bus go.... Nowhere actually

It's been an interesting week at work.

On Tuesday we took the kids to this exhibit at the Queensland Museum. I was *so* disgusted with their behaviour. Most of them were good, but there were a handful of kids mucking around and they even had to be spoken to by the museum staff. It was *SO* embarrassing. I was really disappointed because I am really interested in Ancient Egypt and was really looking forward to looking at the artefacts. I didn't get a chance to look at anything I spent the whole time trying to control the kids. We ended up leaving earlier because of them which is a shame for the kids who were doing the right thing.

Today was the last swimming day of the term. We got on the bus, and the bus driver went around the roundabout and stalled the bus. After that he couldn't start it again. The kids thought it was hilarious, and kept saying the bus had run out of petrol. I even had a laugh myself when the bus driver got on the CB to the head office and said "the bus isn't going". Their reply was "what do you mean it's not going?", and he had to say "IT WON'T WORK!". I wonder what they thought he meant by "it isn't going" then!?

We rounded up the kids and put them on the other bus but they wouldn't all fit so Robyn (my teaching partner) had to stay behind with about 15 kids waiting for another bus. When we eventually got there the kids complained that the water was too cold.

One more day until the Easter holidays (thank god).

This was posted at 4:01 PM.

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