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So, in the middle of a crazy normal week here, *skip* announces as I am putting on my shoes this morning…. there’s a turtle in the backyard.
Yeah, right.
Oh, hang on. There’s a turtle trundling earnestly across the backyard.
We have NO idea where he came from, but he was heading towards our neighbour’s place. They have a couple of annoying terrier type dogs who would have thought he was a wonderful toy, so we sidetracked him. Actually, we turtle-napped him for the day. We first wanted to find out if one of the other neighbours had lost him in the storm last night. Failing that, *skip* rang the local vet. No lost turtles.
We kept him in a basin with some water for the day, and in the evening, let him out for a walk on the lawn. He got quite tame by the end, wasn’t scared of us at all.
It turns out that these clever, long-lived creatures ocassionally just go walk-about on their own. Looking for a new pond, a new hip happening scene. Sadly many of them fall victim to cars on their journey, so we decided to turn my car into a turtle taxi and deliver him safely to the local wetland. Lots of fish and ducks and reeds for him to flollop around in.
We’re going to miss that cheeky guy though 
Just thought I’d give this a workout from my iPhone. Although the teeny tiny keys are frustrating me. It’s been another wild and crazy week around here. The boss and I finally made it to sydney after the disaster of September. Which meant getting up at 3.15am again. Blech. On the road to the airport just after 4, on the right plane to the right destination at 6. Lunch back at the airport at 3pm. Heading back to Adelaide 4.30, dropped off home again at 7pm. Which is fine until you have to work at 9.30 the next morning!!
I have rewarded myself with a new toy – a wii fit to complete the wii we surprised the boys with a couple of weeks ago. I’m loving it so far (day two) we will see how long I last. On the up side, I can do a workout when it fits into my schedule, and that is very important around here when it means about 10pm.
I have also treated myself to going to the movies 3 count them!! 3 times. Saw fame (good fun but a little light on plot!). Julie and Julia was awesome. Loved Meryl Streep. She totally made it for me. And also mao’s last dancer, of which I had read the book a couple if years ago. Had read very mixed reviews about this one, but was glad I saw it. My test of a movie, especially one I see away from my family, is if I can’t wait for *skip* to see it. Julie and Julia and mao’s definitely fit the bill on that one. Fame, not so much. :p
I have also been busy learning new skills at work – creating dye sublimation work. Eg putting photos onto mousemats, coffee mugs etc. Which has entailed me learning Corel. Eeek! Things are going fairly smoothly so far, although printing is one thing heat pressing is another challenge altogether!
Ok time for lights out.
Night!! 
At least I would if I could remember what it looks like! Adelaide is still having, on the whole, grey, miserable days. Wet, dull and dreary. So we’ll turn to face the sun metaphorically speaking, pull our socks up and move onwards.
The past week has been emotionally, and physically horrendous. Extreme stress to the point that it has made me sick. I walked into work on Thursday morning, and my boss greeted me with, “Good morning – why do you look like crap?” Oh well, hardly having slept for 4 or 5 nights in a row and that’s just for starters.
However, today I managed to get something creative done. I finished a couple of layouts, one of which I’ll show you today, another one is an old one from last week. I’ve had such a dry spell, but this afternoon, the work just flowed off the end of my mouse. It was so easy! It felt good.
On the home front, this week mission successful to 1) rearrange our lounge room, including getting a new bookcase for dvd’s and games. 2) Tyson’s room makeover is complete with a small bookcase for him as well. 3) operation shed cleanout is continuing with 4 boxes of books donated to a local community 2nd hand book shed and 2 boxes dropped off at the local opshop. 4) I have broken down into the recycling a few more empty boxes from the shed, but the recycling bin is only emptied every 2 weeks, and I do need to leave room for things like bottles and jars. Unfortunately. So I have to stockpile the boxes. I think I’ll still be recycling them next year!
Next on the list of things to do is get some more framed pictures hung up in the bedroom, and organise some prints for newly freed up wall space in the lounge room. I know what I want and I know where, I just have to organise it!
So what projects are you all up to over the spring cleaning/autumn organising period?
Thanks everyone for your nice words of congratulation and encouragement. And yes, it’s that easy and more of you lovely people should give it a try!!
I discovered this little treasure trying to get my scrapping back into gear. I created it last month, and can you believe, never uploaded it!?! Well, you can bet I have now! Now lets see if I can create a new layout as well
I’ve even got the Beethoven Sonatas going to try to get some creativity flowing. Although I have to admit, I’ve been a lot more creative in my photography of recent.
I am taking this chance to work hard on preparing for my very own Etsy shop, selling my images. I love them, many visitors comment on them, and I think that the world is ready to share them too! So stay tuned. I need to organise sizes, prints etc, and then I’ll launch on a gloriously unsuspecting public!
Now it’s time to go to bed Work tomorrow. Saving the world, one photograph at a time
That noise you can hear is my life whistling past my ears! Term 3 at school is over, and in the last couple of weeks we have been insanely busy with various commitments. I did another full-time week at work, the same week that Tyson and Sam had their school drama performance, the culmination of months of rehearsals! I also had an almost trip to Sydney, and I have just got home from the Murray Bridge Show. So lets take it one at a time, ok?
Alice in Wonderland.
Our school kids were amazing, all due to their marvellous teacher, Penny. What a lot of work she, and many mothers, put in. Sadly I couldn’t join in as rehearsals were on work nights, but they did just fine without me. At the last minute I did cast and performance photos, which came out really well. Here are my 2 actors. Tyson was officially stage manager, and kept Penny sane. For the first of 2 performances, he had to fill in a role, but the second night, he just worked his butt off behind the scenes. Sammy was the March Hare, who also did the work of the White Rabbit. He had a lot of lines, and did so well. We were EXTREMELY proud of them both – their hard work and commitment.
Almost Sydney.
My boss and I were scheduled for some special training in Sydney last Wednesday. After arriving at the airport at 5am, we discovered our plane was cancelled due to engineering difficulties. We were re-routed via Melbourne, but then Mother Nature had the last say, and we just didn’t get there. At about 2.30pm, our plane was about to take off from Melbourne to Sydney, we didn’t go. We had no guarantee that a flight would get OUT of Sydney to get us home, so we took our chances on the travel agent who got us on the next plane home to Adelaide. So, we spent 8 hours in Melbourne airport, and about 2 in Adelaide before that.
HERE are the best pictures I’ve found on the internet of the dust storm that blew across Sydney. Apparently it was 7 times worse than what is officially classed as a SEVERE dust storm. Now sadly, it was a tragic train of circumstances that was disappointing at best, and extremely frustrating at worst. Especially when they boarded us and then made us sit on the plane at the gate for an hour and a half. I never realised how truly exhausting sitting doing nothing really was. And I’ll never take for granted my smooth flights again. Even travel insurance looks like a good idea as hopefully we will get enough back so that we can afford to try again!
Murray Bridge Show.
I work in Murray Bridge, and was very excited/nervous to get hold of an entry form for the photographic section at the show. I have NEVER entered any photography competition in my life. I don’t even play that sort of thing in forums eg, Digital Photography School. I don’t have time sadly for a camera club, so I never get any outside opinions on my work, and it’s something that I’ve always wanted. Some people I know, I don’t even ask anymore as they just can’t see past the end of their noses, and other people would just say it was great because they really don’t know any better. So the upshot of all this rambling, is that I took a great deal of courage into 2 hands, printed off 6 8×12 photos, mounted them on black cardboard, carefully filled out the entry form and paid my 60c per photo entry fee. This was all a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t even tell anyone apart from work (where I did the photos) and *skip* who helped me pick them out.
This weekend was the show, which was unfortunate, as the weather has been foul. It hailed on and off all day yesterday, today wasn’t so bad, but the wind was off ice and sooooo cold….. We got brave, loaded up with coats, and made the 40min drive up there to collect my entries. We gave ourselves a bit of time to have a look at the show… that didn’t take long but we also wanted to see the photography section before they pulled all the entries down to be collected. To see the competition, as it were. Although the judges provide no commentary, it is still valuable to see what you are competing against.
The enlargement category wasn’t very full. I have to admit that. Out of 4 sections, I had 2 entries in each of 3 sections. There was also an Album print category, with a lot more sub-categories, and the Juniors. There were lots and lots of prints in the Album prints. So I can’t say I had MAJOR competition. This is just a country show. But I was still blown away when I came around the corner to the exhibit, and found my first images…. 2 in People. I won First and Second. Moving down the wall, I spotted one of my “Any Other Subject” with a First, and my second with a Certificate of Merit. And finally I spotted my last 2 prints, in landscape. One didn’t have anything attached to it, but the second print won First in Landscape, with an additional First in Enlargements and then in the middle, was Grand Champion of the show.
My First in Enlargements won me a trophy and a ribbon, and a $10 voucher to a local Computer Store, Grand Champion exhibit won a $25 voucher to the same store, and I also received prize money to the value of $8.50.
To say that I was blown away is really an understatement. I started shaking when I realised what I had actually achieved. *skip* and the boys are so proud of me, and I really would love to think that Dad would have been proud of me too. Photography was his passion, he was the one that always pushed me to work on my skills and my “eye” and he is the creator of this finished product.
I had to be subtle taking this photo, as I know people might think it a bit funny taking pictures there, but I had to record what it looked like!
The funny thing is that this image is one of the only ones I have put on a canvas – it’s 20×30″ and it hangs in my lounge room. It’s always a favourite with visitors. The black and white photo you can see in the top right corner is another of mine, the People category 1st place. – and a copy of this one lives on my fridge. It’s an old one of *skip* with Miss Madi.
So, again, all I can say is WOW. Because the weather was so terrible, we weren’t even sure if we’d go. We sure are glad we did.
Now, I have to come down to earth, as it’s the school holidays, and next week I’m working 4 days out of 5. Life goes on, but I have a spectacular blue plastic trophy to come home too!!!
My little whine and cheese party is over! I got to catch up on a little sleep, and I feel less freaked out. I have also had a couple of productive days off this week which makes everything better too! Got some weeding done out the front, got some stuff tidied up inside, and the biggest news of all, was moving out the washing machine to make room for my new baby!!
It’s arriving tomorrow and *skip* has very kindly swapped his work days around to make sure he’s home for me. Thankyou honey! But he’s not allowed to play with it without me. Work is going to be especially long tomorrow, I can tell. Isn’t it tragic when I can get SO excited about a household appliance!
I had a bit of fun this weekend with some of our fabulous trip photos. I will share more, but meanwhile, here’s a collage I made of many of our reef pictures. I have printed this out 8×12″ and framed it. Currently propped up in the office next to me! It looks like we’ll be in this house for another year or so at the moment, so I’m planning more wall decorating.
This photo of one of the spectacular displays would have to be my favourite though.
All I can say camera wise is that I’m incredibly grateful I had my “Nifty Fifty” lens with me, as it was the fast speed I needed for the light conditions. And I shot in RAW which is a must if you want to fix up all the nasty colour casts quickly and easily. *skip* was blown away by the before and after’s I showed him when the editing was done.
I also have some exciting scrapping news to share, come back soon to have a look. There might even be Layouts!!
Oh my goodness it’s freezing today. Winter is well and truly upon us. South Australia, well, my part of it anyway, has had lots of rain moving through for the last few days. Our nearest weather reading station, about 6km away, has had over 130mm of rain in the last 14 days. And today, not only did it rain most of the day, but it’s been icy cold. I doubt the temperature for the day has gotten over 10 degrees C. *shiver*. Sad to say, I’m not up to fetching wood etc, and haven’t put the fire on yet. I’ve been using the evil air-conditioner. But I’m drying washing in front of it as well, so maybe that makes it a little greener?
I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off as a general rule, so the boys and I went to the movies for cheap Tuesday. We finally saw Night at the Museum 2. Not AS funny as number one, but I think half of the fun of that movie is NOT knowing what was coming. It’s a little predictable this time, but still very enjoyable. We ran some quick errands in the rain, to the bank, to game-traders to rescue the x-box 360 disc that *skip* ruined. Come to think of it, I bought that game for him! But a mere $5 and it’s all better now!
So for the afternoon I’ve been putting on washing, and listening to the boys watching movies. Bolt and Desperaeux. I prefer Bolt myself! Actually, my all-time favourite kids movie is Surf’s Up. Love that movie! I’ve also been blog-hopping and nosing around Ravelry looking for some patterns. I have such a big stash of patterns now, I need to actually finish the socks I started back in June, before I got sick. I’m just past the heel of the first one. My only problem is that it’s looking a bit big. Despite my best attempts, I knit quite loosely. Quite loosely as in, 2 needles sizes too big. But they just don’t make dpn small enough for me to get the right gauge, and *shock horror* to all you knitters out there, life’s too short for a tension swatch. I know I knit loose.
But I blame it on the weather. My eyes are dancing with all these plans for beanies, hand/wrist warmers, even a cowl. And I snaffled a couple of patterns for baby gear, for an upcoming happy event next year. No, not mine!
And finally, score one for natural therapies. I went to see my Homeopath last week, and after the first dose she gave me, my cough was reduced to about 1/4. Overnight. And since then, it’s only gotten better and better. Today was my worst day, and I think that *might* have something to do with the freezing cold weather I was running around in? My chest feels about 90% better. Still stings a little bit when I take a deep breath, but no-where near as painful as it was before. So happy to be feeling back on top of things. Although I’m still getting as much rest on my days off etc, because I don’t want to go back there, no way no how!
So have something pretty to look at to say thankyou for wading through all my chatter!
This is my favourite photo of us, so that makes it my new favourite layout! Enjoy!
So, I’ve finally joined twitter. I am interested to see how it pans out. It seems that I may have missed the boat so to speak with it, as many of my friends have long neglected accounts. Hopefully we can get them going again so I’ve got someone to talk to! I still think it sucks that I’m always on the other side of the world to them for the most part…. I miss them being around when I’m around.
http://twitter.com/CassandrasLens
Ok, what else is going on? The sickies are still lingering. Neither Tyson nor I succumbed, which I credit to echinacea and tissue salts. I started mega-dosing on them and have totally avoided it. *skip* spent a week in bed, the sickest I can remember seeing him. He and Sam have lingering coughs that are making them miserable, and nothing I do can seem to shift them. Sam is going to see the homeopath again tomorrow, and I’m hopeful that she will be able to help him where I can’t. She’s already done marvels with him. He hasn’t vomited all month, which would have to be some kind of record for him.
What else is going on? Well, right now I have washing on in the machine, because even at 9 at night I have a glorious fire going in the lounge room and I’m determined to get as much washing dry as I can. Adelaide is in the middle of a real wet (and freezing cold) spell and there’s no chance of getting it dry outside! I am *supposed* to be doing some scrapping, but although I have photo and kit, the journalling has run away from me and I’m not going to chase it. It will come back. I hope.
I am working through 5 days straight off of work! I love public holidays! It’s been great as I have been inexplicably tired lately. I’m not sure if it’s the virus, all the coughers or what, but even when I am quiet and warm, I still can’t sleep. And even when I’ve slept the whole night through, I never feel rested. I’m going to have to see the homeopath about that next time I’m due, as it’s very hard to run a house when you’re so tired you can hardly get up. I’m sure some of it is hormonal, and I’ve never been a winter person. We’ll see how we go!
Oh, and I have MORE new kitchen appliances to play with! We got a new toaster (as the old one was playing up a bit, and will go very nicely into the camping trailer), and I also asked *skip*, as it’s the season of soup, if I could have a stick blender. He went and picked out a humdinger of one, with whisk and chopper and everything. I have NO idea where I’m going to store it in my horrible kitchen, but it was a lovely surprise and I can’t wait until we’re all feeling better and using it.
I also made a new batch of laundry goop, and my first batch of yoghurt for a long time. Mainly I make yoghurt so I can make whey out of it… because it makes the BEST buttermilk pancakes in the universe. With everyone so down and out this week, my plan is to cheer them up with some pancakes on the weekend. However, when you drain the whey, you end up with something like cottage or cream cheese, which is called by various names depending what culture you’re in. I first heard of it as quark, and have also heard the term Labna. Whatever you call it, mix it up with a generous amount of sweet chili sauce, and then use it for dip. Yummo!
Ok, I guess that will do for tonight. Well, since you asked so nicely, I think I can manage a layout…
Don’t forget to tweet me!!
that was ladies and gentlemen!
Oh, and what a week it was. And I am very glad that it’s over and I have TWO WHOLE DAYS off now!! (insert sarcasm due to extreme fatigue here).
Ok, enough whining. I just did my first full-time week in work since 1998. So understandably, I’m a little shell-shocked. However, work still does not SUCK, and although I’m feeling the strain of the long days things, I’ll feel better once I get in touch with the house and family etc more.
Of course it doens’t help that I’ve got hormone levels like trapeze artists at the moment, after 6 years of being almost entirely NON-hormonal. It’s taking a bit of adjusting for both me, and *skip* who is looking like a deer in the headlights at the moment.
So, apart from working my tushy off for the week, I have also successfully purchased my first item on etsy. This is somewhat of an achievement considering that I actually have nearly 2 pages of items favourited. It’s taken me a long time to take the plunge. I will show you what I got soon, but I can’t yet as part of it is a surprise for someone who ocasionally reads my blog. Ocasionally. Can’t be too safe though.
So, what wonders do I have planned for my 2 days off? Housework, of course. That’s not going anywhere. Washing I think, and more kitchen re-organising. I also have a new handbag all cut out to my imaginary pattern, waiting for a buzz through the sewing machine. Hopefully some scrapping, or at least something resembling scrapping. Some photo editing from our trip to the zoo over a week ago. Just ordinary things.
I am taking Sammy to see the homeopath this week for the first time. His vomiting is just keeping on keeping on, and I can’t take too much more of it. I suspect a wheat/gluten intolerance, judging by his other symptoms and our family history, but we’ll see what Wednesday can do for us first before we make any radical changes. I know all about gluten free diets, and frankly, they are a pain in the butt and I’ll avoid it if I can. Not laziness, just a strong sense of self-preservation of sanity.
Speaking of which, I made a big step towards sanity last week. We finally bought a new fridge. The old one was struggling a bit, freezing up and then not keeping cold enough. Running out of room in the freezer ALL the time. Which is hard when you’re trying to be a frugal simple living working mother and just can’t COOK every night anymore. So the grand plan is to fill this fridge and freezer up with all sorts of yumminess to make life a lot easier. I say plan, as, when photos will follow, there just isn’t that much in the fridge or freezer at the moment. It’s going to take a while to fill. Probably a couple of parties or something.
Oh, and this is the coolest part. My fridge has funky blue mood lighting. I kid you not. Ordinary fridge light on top, blue strip lighting down the back. I have no idea why, but it makes me smile every time I open the door, so that’s got to count for something!
We won’t mention the hernia that *skip* managed to develop moving the darn thing in however. Next time, we’ll just pay the extra $25 for installation. Sheesh. It’s a big fridge.
Ok, I’ve got to go put cupcakes in the freezer now for recess….. I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures! Promise!
Ok, so the long hours and tired Cassie continue on without letup. However, we have to add dial-up speeds to the mix now too, as the ever-loving *skip* accidentally went over our bandwidth for the month. 5 days to go before it gets reset!
Meanwhile, here are some layouts that are long overdue for blogging.
Meanwhile, there are still 3 more waiting proper uploading on my hard-drive, chasing down credits etc…. Hopefully a nice job for tomorrow. I get 2 days off out of 9 days this week and I’m going to make the most of them! Right now I’m off to watch some TV with my honey and have a well-earned break!
