Summer Simple Pleasures

Or, upside down AU Winter snippet :)

As per Whirliegig's post I'm adding some snapshot memories.

These are the flourless chocolate cupcakes, featured in my recipe of the month, in their various stages: being stolen by Phill before I put the topping on, being iced (the cupcakes not Phill), smothered in cream cocoa and cinnamon.


This sunset is the most spectacular I've ever seen.. I chased it home all the way from work, barely looking at the road :p, it was a river of gold. Flecks of dove grey, pink and gold gathering into one clump of pure gold ripples ahh. The fluff ball clouds covered the entire sky from powder puffs to steaming banners on the other side. Was bitter sweet because I didn't make it to the camera in time, but here's the after glow:

No Bars Hold

So, I was having a discussion with my man this morning, what was it even about..? Oh yeah, he'd bought a game to play for his work commutes and he'd finished it in one night. And how he pointed the finger at me for being extreme, well I thought that was about as extreme as it got as far as self-discipline went; you know.. no bars hold!You're probably thinking 'what?!'. Well I hadn't understood the original term so I knew it sounded something like that and I understood it as much as ever. My husband thought this was very funny, and proceeded to crack all sorts of jokes about chocolate bars and prison bars..

I got dressed, sorted clothes, played puppies with Dev, had a deep and meaningful with Blythe and Phill made a passing comment about breakfast bars and I remembered! no holds barred!!!

I laughed so hard the tears streamed. I laughed that I would say something I didn't understand, I laughed that I didn't turn a hair, I laughed that I didn't mind looking like an idiot, I laughed that I didn't understand the original term so I wouldn't realise I'd gotten it wrong anyway!! I laughed at what Phill must have thought, I laughed at how ridiculous the comment was and most of all I laughed that it took me an hour and a half to figure out :D.

Belly laughs are soooo good to start the day :). So remember No Bars Hold! If anyone asks, of course you know what you're talking about ;).

The weathers been rather cold (for here) but today we had a lovely spring day and nature thought it would prove it ;). These are currently brightening my garden.

Well, welcome back me? or about time!! or Who?! :P

Yeah... I've been through some gloomy moods since my last blog entry. I got half way through typing up my Gold Coast trip blog when I realised - I wasn't any good at writing.

You guys don't want to read a journal entry, boring! Either I keep it short and sweet or make an interesting story. So, I'm going to practice that, I'm not a writer but I don't want to give
up altogether, lets see what I can do after some training.

These big mummas are coastal golden orb-weavers. They showed up oo, this year only and now they're Everywhere! They make golden webs and they've nearly encased my balcony lol. I don't mind them, they keep the bugs down, I just don't want to run into one in the middle of the night in a mad rush to get my washing in :P. They can grow as big as your hand.

Personally, my hormones are out of whack, but I got some blood tests done; 'seeing' a doctor, attempting to eat better :P, so we'll see some progress.

I've learnt something interesting though, when I can't control my chemical responses reasonably or in other words my emotions are irrational! - after suffering ups and mostly downs for months I realised that 'hay yes, I might be sad today, but its just an emotion and I don't actually feel sad'. Make sense? I might be more sensitive, prone to disappointment and easily brought to tears and over worry but I realise that I'm blessed, I'm loved, I'm actually happy underneath and I suddenly know whatever I feel isn't true. To take everything I feel with a grain of salt and say I'm ok. And you know, it makes the WORLD of difference. The difference between coping and not. If I don't feel like doing anything, I still do and I feel good by the end of the day :). Instead of the opposite which I would if I took my moods as an excuse and indulged them (which is soo easy to do when you feel depressed).

My 'babies', these are the offspring of a net-casting spider, I think! There are stacks!! They've spread all around my comfy balcony chair, I might have to do something about all these spiders if I ever want my balcony back.

That'll do for a bit of deep self revelation ;).

We've had an interesting term, Blythe got a bad review in the beginning of the year so to bring the responsibility back to her I instituted a homework 'catch-up' schedule (for this term).

For an extra hour after school every day she'd do times tables, maths trainer, spelling, story writing, handwriting etc. I tried to make it varied and fun(ish) so school work wouldn't be seen
as punishment. I tell you what though I was sick of it! lol, it meant we had to cut back on our normal after school outings and I was spending my cooking/tidying time doing homework. And if we missed it, I'd feel guilty.

It did make me realise how little I knew about the world though and how I'd like to expand my kids education myself (and to pull out my finger!).

Today we start our school holidays (for 3 weeks), yay :) and I've got a plan for the first time, not just lounging around!

Phill starts a new job in a week. It doubles his hours from 20 to 40 and triples his pay. He needs to commute 4 hours a day though, so he's going to see if he can stomach it. I hope so as he has a plan; down the track is a regional manager position which he can do here on the Coast. His new job is IT help desk for public schools; so a secure job and he can work from home half the time after a probationary period.

Blythe had an 8th birthday party, she themed it a pajama party. I'd bought 40 silver and gold helium balloons and Phill blew up about 50 white ones so the lounge room looked like it was floating in clouds ;). Every thing was silver and gold, I made two moon and star cakes and we played all sorts of games. The girls mostly liked Limbo and the boys (Dev and James) played with Dev's Thomas train tracks!

I've been having all sorts of interesting ideas: investments, careers, projects, business', all of which I have no training with or can't afford! But they're good ideas :). Naturally, being me,
I want to do all of them and don't feel thwarted. The perfect friend/partner for me would be a doer! Someone who could take all this intellectual creation and give it life. In a perfect world.. :). As a result, I may be studying next year with the aim of creating a fulfilling and economically viable path for myself :).

I've been reading unearth this lifes blog (I haven't been reading blogs since I stopped blogging!) and I'm very inspired and motivated to make a healthier lifestyle for my family.

I've never gardened.. ever, I usually kill green things :(, so my aim in being self sufficient in the vegy and fruit department might be somewhat of a challenge! :D

So far we'll wait to see where we're living (considering the big job change) and then I might need to learn a few things o.o !!

Look what I found prowling my garden!
And something tha'ts actually happy its raining non stop.

I wont be making any promises with my reblogging, but I'm hoping to maintain it again; daily, weekly, monthly? Ever is a good start ;).


So its very nice to 'see' all you fine folk again :D, see you round!

Bits and Pieces of an Absent Month

warning, I've included some photos of sketches of nudes.. so up to your discretion

Another apology owing... :) I have to say.. when I first started my blog, I was encouragingly surprised that I got stuck into it and posted up each week; I felt it was good as an outlet and connection to the outside and to friends and it kept me honest.

But I have to admit, since being really busy the last month - being occupied every weekend (my normal blog time) - giving me a forced break; since then I have found it very hard to come back to my blog. I still feel all the above reasons but I guess I put a lot of time into it (mostly the photos) and to what purpose? Who reads my blog? A few very treasured people :). But is this blog really worth it? to anyone? Well.. ok, its worth it to me, but I guess its a little discouraging to think most people just aren't interested. Its fair enough, I mean, of course I'd find my trip to Canada and my day to day stuff interesting .. of a sort :D. Anyway, I'll put my little violin away now; on with the good stuff! Or at least some news :P.

Dogz in da Hood! = title of my blog suggested by my husband :). This is 'softy' and his usual mode of travel.

So.. in the last fortnight we got flooded, bogged, nits, over grown with mold, sick, allergic, caught in the rain, ant invaded, lost stuff, etc, but nothing serious ;) :P, we're ok, kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop though.


Its been raining hard incessantly all up and down Queensland, to such an extent the soils so sodden its just come through the walls under the house (we're on a hill), through the entry and garage. Not much house damage, but I threw out all my old work clothes, $100 suits.. my pregnancy clothes, some of my funky skinny clothes (saved some, yay, now just the skinny part to worry about :P) and all my art work.. that was the real kicker. I shed a tear and took photos of what I could, its all a bit crinkly. Would you like to see some stuff I used to draw? :)

After school I did a year of Interior Design (I didn't continue because I got married and had to find a job.. that and I didn't really want to continue :)). One subject - building studies involved drawing up exact floor plans including exact scaled widths of walls etc; well I hated it.. so I was allowed to pick up another subject instead. I finally found figure drawing, a night class and loved it. Was so peaceful, and beautiful and organic.

The silver lining is we've had stuff in cardboard boxes under the house since we moved here (3 years?), waiting to be 'unpacked' (lol) and although I promised I would do it this year, I have some motivation now ;). Everything down there is all musty stinky and has been stopping evaporation which in turn has been adding to the mold problem in the house. I don't know quite what to do, I obviously want to keep most of the stuff.. that's why its there, but I don't know how to get rid of the smell or where to put everything!

Left: acrylic on canvas, done from a photo of my brother and I. See the degradation of the canvas on the right? I believe things were sitting in moisture/water/mold for some time :(. Right: Ayres Rock, Uluru, acrylic on canvas board.. I believe this was my second painting not done at school. My first was a wave by water pencil on paper, a gift to my brother.

So we've had 502mm of rain in the last 14 days, 159.8 of it in 1 day, schools have been closed temporarily and roads flooded. Down at the local video store the river broke its banks and came lapping at our car.. I would have loved to take shots of the road there completely under water, but alas no camera. Since then I've been carrying my camera in my handbag ;).

Left: you can just see beyond the last car the road is actually covered in water, the whole road was under the day before. Right: the creek had risen more the 2 meters the day before to flood the area, and gone back down two meters over night.

The phallus multicolor mushroom sprouted at school during the rain and in 1 week has spread from 1 eruption to the entire front of the school; pock marked along the road. It is spread by flies which are attracted by their smell (quite potent, rotting meat smell) and has been known to kill dogs. For me it means I hold my breath on the way to school and the kids walk faster ;).

pretty though isn't it

I have been trying to take more photos and I am excited that I see so much more beauty these days, things I wouldn't have looked twice at before; but I don't often stop to take photos. I guess that's the next step :).

portraits.. top left: my brother. top right: Phill, my husband. bottom left: Athena, a good friend years ago. bottom right: Phill when we were dating and he'd put up with posing for me ;).

I've decided to start another blog. I'm slowly making my way towards the plan ;), the plan of finding an internet home and business so I can stay at home and be creative and sell things I love. I spent a entire night contemplating name ideas; that's a hobby of mine.. a game - I love dreaming up 'what if' names. Names of cafes, restaurants, chic boutiques, niche shops.. you know - that 'what if I had such and such a shop, I'd call it xyz'. So I've got all sorts of ideas up my sleeve, but could I find the perfect name? Nooo, I found 20 really good ones, but it had to fit just right.


Well... I woke up with it :). And I love it, it fits me down to the ground. Its whimsical, animal friendly, pretty, quirky and fun. I keep feeling like I need to put my life in order before starting on this epic journey but I know from experience that the journey only starts now, not when things are in order ;). But, I do need to do its heading, background and buttons! Which is like, um, yeah, er, how? So.. Beauty and the Bestiary.. is coming to a desktop near you.

Biggest snail we'd ever seen! Apparently its an African snail and they're a big threat. We didn't know that at the time so we peaceably put it back in the grass :P.

The kids' music teacher show them stuff on youtube, so they've been coming home showing me new stuff like 10 million fireflies and crazy frog and renewing deeply suppressed interest in stuff like beat it and fat. I've been spending a few too many hours watching movie trailers on youtube and The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

I've started reading Blythe The Secret Garden but gee, its pretty depressing lol. Its first bunch of chapters are all about how to emotionally neglect a child and be a badly behaved child. I'm looking forward to reading more instructing and productive chapters ;). But I've been looking forward to this day since.. well probably since I was a child being read stories by my mother and I have to say it doesn't disappoint. The feeling of sharing something you love so much (reading) with your daughter who means the world to you and her loving it too. I love doing the yorkshire accents too, but I'm afraid they're coming out scottish :D, I think that's the only accent I can do.. except for something cross between indian and irish :P.

I uploaded my photos to flickr this time, but when I tried to upload images from the net nothing appeared. Something to work out..
Next blog: Our Gold Coast adventures (last weekend fortnight), more photo goodness like normal with that one!