Spring Holidays...

It has been so long since I have written and the spring holidays have just flown by so quickly. I had good intentions of posting a blog whilst we were on holidays but very limited internet access meant I have had to store all my goodness for when I got home. My hubby and I had a fabulous holiday visiting family in Brisbane and then ventured north for a week in beautiful Cairns especially for my very special friend Tara's wedding. I have many photos and storied to share so best get a cup of tea and a comfy chair.

Brisbane: 21/9/08- 25/9/08

We travelled on Ben's birthday which meant the moment we got off the plane we were in party mode.

Ben and our nephew Delcan celebrating

Declan being cute in his pirate bib!

The Glass Bar @ the Judith Wright Centre was a fab place of afternoon drinks

We had a beautiful day on the Gold Coast with my whole family, this is one of my favourite photos I took on my Polaroid camera.

All the girls together! I just love the quality of Polaroids.

What would Brisbane be without a ferry trip down the river at twilight.

It was very windy on the ferry! (I put this photo in because it made my sister laugh)

Cairns: 25/9/08 - 2/10/08

It was so lovely to be in the Cairns sunshine, although I grew up there I had not been sight seeing in years. We had a fabulous time being all touristy. We also had an amazing time at Tara and Caleb's wedding. My sister and I did the wedding photography and although it was a little stressful it was an absolutely amazing day! Here are our Cairns adventures..

Tara (the beautiful bride) and I before the ceremony

With the lovely couple

Later in the evening on the dance floor!

My new friend Kristy and I in our matching dresses!

Will post some of the more official wedding photos once the lovely couple come back from their honeymoon. I'm so happy with the way they turned out, now my fabulous sister has the fun task of editing them.

Being silly after a few drinks celebrating before their honeymoon.

Beautiful view from Rex Lookout on the way to Port Douglas

On the bridge at Mosmon Gorge

Some beautiful rainforest

A little rainforest fungi, I can just imagine fairies dancing around this in the moonlight.

At the Barron Falls

My little sister Ella and I at the Falls

We had such a wonderful time its a little strange to get back into the normal routine of life. I have been so inspired by the spending time with family and fabulous friends and new people I have met I'm really looking forward to getting into my studio and creating some delightful pieces before Christmas. I will leave you for now to go and take some photos of the beautiful flowers at a blossoming in my garden at the moment which I will post later on this evening.

Much love xx

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A book making, bird watching, doll creating weekend!

Second post of the day! Plenty more in store. First of all I'm so excited that its the last week of term which means this time next week my hubby and I will be in Queensland with our families. Can't wait for a holiday, I'm surprised just how fast the term has gone, although I still have plenty of marking to do! I'm also very excited about my second wedding anniversary which is coming up on Tuesday, we are having a little romantic dinner at the new (and only) Thai restaurant in town. It's been booked out for weeks so we are lucky to finally get a table. So on with my busy weekend..

Yesterday we had our monthly Poetic Justice Publishing (PJP) meeting at Sunshine House just outside of Mildura in Redcliffs. Sunshine house is a pickers cottage on a beautiful property where we have our meetings and book making sessions. We are currently finishing making booklets from a Poetic Licence event held earlier in the year. I got the chance to take some photos of Sunshine House and the beautiful old tractors and windmill that are still on the property from its grape growing days.

Windmill and water tanks in the spring sunshine

I just love this old tractor

Welcome to Sunshine House

Our work for the day, I'm getting good at hand binding!

Finally we are having some warm weather here, its just so nice to feel the warmth on my skin and what better way then to go for a Sunday morning walk around Duck's Foot lagoon at our favourite spot, King's Billabong. The bird nerd part of me came out today as I had a ball taking photos of the fantasic array of wildlife around the lagoon.

A pair of black swans in the lagoon..

A very pretty gallah in flight on the Murray..

Somewhere between book making and bird watching I had an inspirational moment and decided to make my beautiful best friend Courtney and her little girl Lily a joint present. After creating my little character Olive I have always wanted to make her into a doll. I'm so happy with her, she is just how I imagined. So here she is, after eight hours over two days, with miss matched stockings, skirt and buttons. My very first Olive.

Olive

Close up of her cute bow and buttons...

Well I best go get ready for my busy Monday, you just have to put on a big smile and embrace a busy Monday. I will leave you with my favourite things for this week...

This delightful little box of treasures created by Lobster and Swan, I just adore it!

This amazing book I just ordered called Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock. It is an inspirational handbook for making art by reusing old maps, postcards, scraps, letters and envelopes. All of my favourite things!


Wishing everyone a fab week! Embrace spring, by fresh flowers, eat strawberries and dance in the afternoon sunshine.

Much love xxx

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Outdoor Adventures...

How the weeks go by so fast, I have so much to share I may have to do a few separate entries tonight. First of all I had to post a few photos of the Outdoor Education expedition I had the pleasure of being a part of last week. It was a two day adventure through an island on the Murray River and it certainly lived up to its adventure status.

Day One: We were bused in and left with a map and a compass to walk 20kms through the wilderness to reach our camp site with three creek crossings.

Group shot before we started walking..

Our first creek crossing.. what fun!

It was nice to finally see the campsite eight hours later!

Day Two: We ditched our packs (thank goodness) and canoed 26kms down to the Murray river through the adjacent creeks. It was just beautiful to be on the water and was a great workout! We also got to experience going through a lock, which is kind of like being locked into a giant swimming pool that changes the water levels from different sides of the river.

My view for the day.

Having fun in the boat!

Canoes lined up for our lunch stop..

Coming out of the lock, as water dropped four metres and we hung onto our little canoes for our lives!

It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to get the chance to go on my next adventure, perhaps without a 15kg pack next time!

ttfn xx

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Morning walks and afternoon tea parties..

How quickly the week has flown by and again I have seen the beauty of country Victoria. I had the opportunity to go to Horsham (north of Ballarat) on Thursday for a graduate teachers professional development. Had a lovely time meeting other teachers from the area and reflecting on what a wonderful year it has been. When I got home look what was waiting in the mailbox for me, a lovely little package that I got from Marmeeraft. I just love Marjorie's amazing work and just had to purchase these adorable owlet bookplates. And look at the sweet little postard and envelope she included, just beauitful.

My lovely bookplates

Lots of extra goodies!

We have had a lovely weekend, very busy as they all seem to be. I've been asked to accompany a group of year 9 and 10 students with another teacher Outdoor Education expedition camping, bush walking and canoeing for two days, this Thursday and Friday. I'm so excited and a little nervous as well, mainly of the 19kms I have to canoe! What I have enjoyed is buying all the bits and pieces I have to take with me. Ben and I have had a lovely time in the local camping stores. As I am not a regular camper we had to start from scratch so now I'm all set for our expedition.

I got some flash new hiking boots and so this morning we decided to go through a walk down at the local nature reserve King's Billabong to break them in. We had a wonderful time particularly because it had rained all day yesterday so there was plenty of wildlife about and plenty of mud to squelch around in. Here are some photos from our little adventure..

The trees are already in full blossom just in time for the start of spring

There is just something about the red gums and salt bushes that makes the Mallee so beautiful and haunting

Can you see the beautiful Kangaroo? Her little joey just jumped in for a ride

I just had to take a photo of these adorable print made by a joey. How cute are the little paw prints!

After our delightful walk I finished my shopping for my bestie Courtney and her little bub who is due to enter the world any time now. Been having so much fun buying sweet things for Lily and Courtney and something her gorgeous little boy Elijah too. Here it all is wrapped and ready for the mail.

Brown paper packages tied up with sting (and ribbon!)

And now for my favourite things this week:

Journaling my spiritual moments

Afternoon tea parties with lovely cups and vanilla cake

The beautiful work of Immortal Longings. As I am teaching Macbeth at the moment I am just loving all thing Shakespeare and the works of Elizabeth E. Schuch are just stunning. She embraces all the most exquisite moments of Shakespeare.

Beautiful Immortal Longings Romeo and Juliet journal


Much love to everyone, hope you have a fabulous week as I will be!
Three weeks of the term to go!

xxx

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Tournament of Minds, Travelling Days and Garden Update

What a big week! Sorry about my lack of blogging over the past few weeks, life has been wonderful, crazy and full of travelling!

I best start at the beginning of the week and my little adventure to Melbourne for the day to an inspiring professional development held at Melbourne Museum. I have never been to Melbourne by myself so it was a very wild, exciting and nerve racking day! I found my way around the city and even got to walk back to the train station and take in the beautiful old buildings and bare trees.

The beautiful Royal Exhibition Building next door to the Museum

The amazing larger than life rainforest in the Museum.
The architecture was just breathtaking.

And that was only Monday, throughout the week I have been madly working to prepare my Tournament of Minds teams to get ready for the regional finals in Bendigo. The week went so fast and every spare our was used in the art room supervising the creation of backdrops, masks and more!

Saturday quickly came around and two 5am mornings in one week have certainly taken it out of me. Thank goodness for Sundays! The Tournament of Minds experience was just amazing experience. Over eight hours on a bus to Bendigo
with 13 hyperactive, sugar filled enthusiastic students was certainly an experience I will not forget. I also had a wonderful opportunity to judge the spontaneous section of the competition and I can't wait to sign up for next year. What fun!

I just loved Bendigo, the architecture was stunning and I just love this fountain in the middle of town.

A very silly photo of me and part of the team. More photos to come!

And after a crazy week I had the a lovely little lazy Sunday, nice sleep in and normal people things like grocery shopping and getting ready for school this week. I also finished off the scarf I began a few weeks ago. As I was taking a photo of it I noticed some sweet things in the garden I wanted to share.

Cute little cotton scarf for Spring

After weeding the garden a few weeks ago, the magical garden fairies found some delightful daffodil bulbs and in only a few weeks we have our very first daffodil just in time for Daffodil Day.

With the beautiful rain we have been having our little pot of rocket is blossoming fast!

Our little book club has come together again after being swept away in the world of Twilight. We have decided to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can't wait, its been sitting on my 'to read' shelf since my birthday!


I will leave you tonight with my favourite artist at the moment, the delightful Jayme McGowan of Roadside Projects. Her artistry and innovation with paper is incredible and her beautiful images tell such beautiful stories.

Just beautiful work and totally inspiring!

Much love to everyone!

Have a lovely week
xxx

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