Pieces of me

Nothing exciting.....

No projects, no pics......just a quick update.

Thanks for the birthday & N.Y. wishes Sue! I tried to email, but it bounced back.

O.k., so what's been happening? Not a lot except for work & kids. I've been working 3-4 days a week at the aged care home - though the maternity leave stint ends in a few more months (well, 4 1/2), so will see what happens after that. I really need to work through this year as it's Alana's last year of high school (big school fees) and Ben is moving home next week and returning to school (more expense), and yeah, I really want to go to NZ for a holiday this year.

Why is Ben moving home, you ask? Well, Ben's hips started playing up about 2 months ago (yep, again!), just before he finished his first year of his apprenticeship - he got to the stage where he was back on crutches and could barely walk, so had to stop working. We went to see a specialist who advised that Ben would have to give up the chef apprenticeship as the hours on his feet were not feasible with his condition. So, now he is moving back home and going to study office administration. Work options are limited for him, so this is something that he can do that doesn't involve long hours on his feet & he's very social, so he'd love a job where he can talk to other people, and has an element of customer service.

I turned 40 - yee hah! LOL. I so do not like not being able to say I'm in my 30's anymore. I'll just have to be satisfied with people saying I look too young to have a 19 year old son, cause, yep, Ben turned 19 in October last year. Can you believe it.

Now, for my current ongoing saga (y'all know there's gotta be one, right?).

Last year I looked in the mirror and was totally horrified to realise that one of my eyebrows was higher than the other - o.k., yes, it took me 39 years to discover this, but what can I say - I'm slow on the uptake, okaaaaay!?!! I also decided that my eyebrows had gotten too thin and I was going to grow them out a bit thicker. Man what an ordeal! Having to watch eyebrow hairs sprout out at odd spots and NOT pluck them. I tell you............will of iron........'nuff said. We did have a backslide - I thought they were ready to sort out, I told Alana what I wanted and let her try to do it (I find it really hard to do this myself). Okay, yes, this was a mistake. I ADMIT IT, O.K.! What made me think that asking a girl who at the time had NO eyebrows (she had waxed them off and was drawing them on.....some goth thing) to sort them? Sooooooooo not a good choice and I had to go through another couple of months of growing & making sure that one side of my fringe ever so casually hung partly over my other eyebrow so that the discrepancies weren't obvious. O.K., it didn't help that I told everyone, but anyway, what can I say? I can't help myself. So, now, for the final chapter. Last week I bit the bullet, went to a local-ish beautician. Explained very carefully and succintly how I really liked the thickness/shape/everything about my left eyebrow, and I wanted her to adjust the right as best as she could to match. Would you believe that she overplucked them! Changed the shape!!!! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH! At least she did manage to adjust the height of the right one. Now, NOW, NOW I just have to regrow them out again and put back the shape I want, but at least I have the height issue sorted. Makin' me crazy!!!!!!

End of vent.

On the creative front - I've done NOTHING. Though I WANT to, I have IDEAS, but I'm struggling with time and the motivation to make it happen. I so want to do stuff with all the clear items that have come out. LOVE, LOVE all the transparent stickers, etc. Anyone know of a good supplier of acrylic albums in AU? Needs to be online so that I can order it from home. I also totally want to turn these frames I did at CHA make and take a couple of years ago into a book - it came with the coolest little charm/tassle - I've had it hanging over my desk taunting me to do something with it. My problem is photos - I haven't taken any in months, and without them I just can't get inspired. I really need to do new portraits of all of the kids as I haven't had any of these for about a year and they've all changed so much (AJ particularly).

O.k., ready for another busy week.....tomorrow...pays at work, alana has VCE orientation, ben has TAFE orientation and the kids start back at school a week from today. I so want to go to the beach, but Alana has to work Saturday - it's going to be a scorchin' week here in melbourne.

Oh, oh.......I'm also enrolling in a belly dancing course - anyone done this? It goes for 8 weeks and I've wanted to do it for ages. At the moment I'm not doing any exercise, all those lovely gym-class muscles have totally gone to waste and I need to do something. I find that when I exercise, it makes me want to do more - and when I stopped the regular gym classes, I also stopped doing yoga at home, couldn't motivate myself to do the one class a week at the gym that I could make and it was just a downhill slide from there. I haven't put on any weight, I'm just not fit anymore. This year I HAVE to do something about it - I'm hoping I might be able to rearrange my work schedule to have Monday mornings to go back to my fave class (kindof like a boot camp/boxing thing), but will have to see if I can make it happen first.

See ya :)

hx

a mad mad world

  yep.....mad.........totally!

O.k., here's an update for the one or two people still maybe checking out the blog :)

I am still working 3-4 days a week in Admin (maternity leave fill in) and have clocked up about 6 months, so ony another 3-6 to go. Can you believe how fast that has gone? I can't! Though, I tell you, it has been murder on my creativity. Still, christmas is heading our way, and it's almost a compulsion for me to create during this time of the year.

Update on the kids......

• Ben - just about finished the first year of his apprenticeship

• Alana - almost completed year 11 exams & is working part-time in the kitchen at my work

• Erin - all good, cute as always

• John - changed jobs about a month or so ago, much closer to home, all going good

• Gumboot - gorgeous, naughty - destroyed every cushion I had in the lounge, bar one, for a while there every time I came home the yard was covered in cushion filling snow. Soon to be fixed. LOL.

• Goldie - still declining - though she has seemed to have picked up a bit now that the warmer weather is on us, I don't think she'll last another winter

We had Alana's formal about a month ago - Alana wanted something different & made up her skirt from about 10 different skirts. She looked beautiful and did a wonderful speech. We were very proud of her :)

My computer has been causing me problems (yeah, again - seriously I feel like it's a conspiracy). Anyway, it's fixed, and they replaced the dvd burner (which has never worked properly) and all is good.....at the moment!

My garden has been lovely this year - I put in 3 new David Austin roses & they are flowering right now - love them. My irises gave a good show this year.

 

I've got 4 different colours - I can't remember having that many last year (the first year I had them in), so I was very excited.

It's funny how things work - a couple of opportunities have come up in the last week & I'm not sure whether to do anything about them or not. I got a call from one of the guys at the restaurant where I was working. It closed & has now reopened with new owners & they asked me if I was interested in working there again. Am I? I don't know. I loved it, but juggling 2 jobs just about did me in. I've also been approached about some publishing work - again......I dunno. Been there, done that. I'll have to think on it a bit more.

Now, a reward for making it through the whole post - here is this week's embarassing moment.........you know there's always gonna be one, right? This is me we're talking about! Well, here it is...... it was hot earlier this week and on Wednesday I wore a new skirt to work. It was a sheer skirt, but had a lining so I didn't think to check on  it. Well, when I went to the bathroom in the afternoon I looked in the mirror and discovered that I could see right through the back of it to my clearly unwise choice of blue striped underwear. Lovely. I was mortified, and in my embarassment told one of the girls I had been working with, and she told me that yep, she was aware of this. Well, now I could totally blame her. LOL. She didn't tell me as she was worried I'd be embarassed......well, yeah, but then I would've made sure I sat on my butt for the rest of the day and didn't walk around the building, or if I did so, ensured that I was forward facing anyone I might meet. LOL. I wonder if I gave the old guy who always asks where are my red shoes (I think he has a bit of a fetish....LOL) are an eyeful? I hope he's not going to start asking me why I'm not wearing my blue striped underwear.

Have a good weekend!

hx

o.k.....

my third attempt at trying to post..........

So, I'm wondering if there's anyone out there, of if y'all have given up on me? Well, here's an update......

I'm not dead, incapacitated, or terminally ill......despite the fact that I haven't posted for almost 2 months - I'm just not being creative and have been working, working, working. Though, I now only have one job (the restaurant didn't get its lease renewed, so that finished up) as at a couple of weeks ago, so great on one hand that I have more time at home, but I do miss it!

We have a new addition to the family: Gumboot (nope, not a ginger cat, but he still got the name anyway). Cute, huh? He's a beagle x fox terrier. Naughty, but I luuuuuuv him :) He especially likes cuddles in the hammock.

 

We've had a few more new additions: 3 calves & 3 chickens. Life keeps turning on the williams holding :)

An update on my daffodils: very angry at John for letting the cows into the daffodil paddock - the yellow traditional daffs had been & gone & the white/white one's were coming out, as well as the double yellows & John left the cows in there - well, they ate them ALL! Now I have to wait for a while till some of the later jonquils make an appearance. Totally messed up my whole daffodil season! Grrrrrr.

We've been looking around for a good small car for ben - something cheap (under $5,000) any suggestions? Checked out a Ford Festiva yesterday which looked o.k., but it's a manual & ben has an automatic licence. I'm wondering if he can go back and retest for his licence in manual?

I'm getting ready to purge my scrapbooking stuff - I really need a super-big cleanout - at the moment with my limited time, it's just overwhelming sitting at my desk - totally quashing any creativity. I thought I'd start with the mags - maybe pull out a few things that inspire me, ditch the rest, and get onto clearing the supplies. I'm so not motivated towards any "traditional" scrapping at the moment, more interested in exploring bookmaking and art journalling - I get little spurts of inspiration, but they fizzle out pretty quick - maybe after 8 (mostly) solid years of being creative, I need a big break, challenge or change in direction to recharge. Hmmmmmm. Hoping the purge will help :)

I also pondering whether to hang onto the blog at the moment, with the lack of motivation I'm feeling, but also worry about all the time and effort I've put into it up until this point - I would be sad to see that just "poof" into cyberspace, never to be seen again :( There is literally 100's of hours of work on here-  a great way to keep people subscribing, huh? It's like spending hours and hours on a scrapbook then just throwing it away once you're done. I could attempt to move the stuff to blogger, but, sheesh, that'd take a heap of work too. LOL!

Onto the huge pile of washing that has manifested on my loungeroom chair - surely 4 people cannot go through that much clothes, towels, etc in one week? I'm sure that other people are sneaking in their washing into my basket. Well, whoever you are, stop it!!!!

Have a great weekend!

hx

all work and no play.....

makes Helen a dull girl! Yep, I know it. I haven't even had a chance to upload the layout from the last video.....because...............surprise, surprise: I haven't finished it. LOL. All that I need to do is to glue everything down.....but, nah, hasn't happened. Maybe today if I can find it buried underneath my piles of stuff on my desk.

 Not to mention the pile of magazines/books I haven't read yet - this is only part of them, there's another pile on my desk.

Today is my first day off in 11 days - I've already had a nap this morning & if I'm lucky I'll get another one this afternoon!!!!

I'm enjoying my jobs, but am tired.........the last few weekends I've done more shifts at the restaurant, but should get this weekend off! And, as my weekday job (Mon-Weds Admin/HR) is a maternity leave position, it'll only go for another 6 months or so - so there is an end in sight! I've just got to keep all the balls in the air up until then!

My lofty goals for the day:

• clean my desk, there's probably bills buried under there
• get the washing/drying done
• do some cooking so the kids have some biscuits, etc for their lunches :)
• finish that layout
• go check out the paddock to see if the daffodils are out yet
• start working on the photos/descriptions for the stack of books I want to sell on ebay

hx

still crazy here........

Trying to balance work, family and squeeze in something creative, too! Not easy.

I did manage to film a quick video last week (taken me this long to edit it & post). It shows a painted background technique called Copper Verdigris, includes a cameo by Erin, quite a bit of waffling on from me, as well as a way to up close and personal with my PJ pants. LOL.

I do have a layout to go with this, but haven't had time to quite finish it, so look out for it after tomorrow :)

hx

Well......yay!

Not only have I been busy..........but I've had no internet. Again! Thanks, Telstra! Love you guys xx

Last Thursday afternoon I got back home and found I had no internet. Now, if you've read my blog over the past year, you'd know that this is an occurence that has happened a number of times since I have had "you beaut, super-fast, super callafragilistic broadband connection". But, this time it went one better - not only could the guy at Telstra figure out what was wrong with my internet connection - we tried changing the password twice, turning it off and on. He also announced there "appeared to be something wrong with my line" well, hello? And, hey, I'm onto you Telstra guys when you tell me to turn the modem off and leave it for 20 minutes - seriously, you're doing this just to get rid of me right? Putting me in the "too hard basket". O.k., I know I can be annoying, but, come on!! O.K., so what else? I noticed in the afternoon that I started getting someone else's phone calls. I found out from one of the callers the number she was dialling - we tried it from my mobile, and Hey Presto - it rang our phone. So, who had our number? We rang that and got a fax line. LOL. You gotta laugh. So here I am telling everyone who rang through to our house what had happened and to call this other person on their mobile. It only took me about 2 days to figure out it was my neighbour. I'm guessing someone at telstra put the plug for slot A into slot B and vice versa. Still, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm losing the faith.............maybe it WAS more complicated than that, it DID take them 5 days to fix after all!

hx

Post on the run.....

Wow! I have been away a long time! Typepad has totally changed the screen for creating/editing posts. Well, no time to investigate it now...(will it let me centre photos......that's my real question? LOL!)....I'm just typing a mad, quickie update before I have to go to work!

So, what's news? A week and a bit ago I went for an interview for an administration role (part-time, maternity leave fill-in) & I was called that night and offered the job. Woohoo! I work Monday-Wednesday and can fit the hours into dropping & picking up the kids from the bus stop. AND it's only 15 minutes from home. How good is that?

So, this has been my week. Monday, Tuesday (new job), Wednesday (had existing appointments, so mad rush around from 8am-6pm getting everything I needed to get done including some new clothes......well, I do have to look good for my job, right? And I so, so love shoes :)))), Thursday (new job, filling in for the Wednesday I couldn't do). Friday (canteen duty at school - pretty much an all-day gig), Saturday (today - restaurant), Sunday (tomorrow - restaurant). So, so, so glad Monday is a public holiday. Maybe after I get some sleep I'll get a chance to excavate my desk and do something craft-related! Whew!

Most of my weeks won't look quite like this, like I do need to see my kids and find a way to fit my gym schedule back into this, but I'm not worry about the gym until next week!

Have a great weekend!

hx

taking a break

Lots going on right now with work, family, etc............picture below not a true indication of current situation. My Sunday crash-out after working Saturday night.

Don't you love the way kids seem to think it's necessary to photograph you when you're sleeping, and, like, totally vulnerable? I guess I'm just lucky I wasn't drooling. Cat is obviously having a good time......opportunistic beastie.

Anyway, I'm taking a short break, will be back in about a week or two with an update, and some project pics.

hx

friday night.......pizza night

Love Fridays! It's been a long-standing (well, 8 years) tradition in our family to forgo any 'slaving over the hot stove' on Fridays, and John goes back to his primal hunter nature and provides the food for the family......ergo.....swings past the pizza joint on the way home and brings back 2 pizzas......his choice....as long as one is hawaiian. Bring on the chest beating. Love it.

I was totally wiped out after working on Friday/Saturday/Sunday last weekend - managed to drag myself to boxing class on Monday morning, but couldn't face Body Bar (weights, cardio, etc) on Tuesday, so I sat around, read a book, took a nap, watched my new 20th Anniversary Dirty Dancing DVD........and, you know, no one puts baby in the corner.......... still. Love, love that movie. I've bred another generation of Dirty Dancing-ites.......the girls love it too. The DVD came with a iron on transfer which Alana latched onto right away. The male cashier at the grocery store (where I bought the DVD) informed me, very knowledgeably that, there's nothing a bit of Patrick Swayze can't fix.......I don't know if we were both thinking about the same bit (or, maybe we were...).....but.......errr....I guess not. LOL. we then debated the relative merits of Flash Dance (him) compared to Dirty Dancing (me). Love my local safeway :)

On the scrapping front - Erin and I are working on a project an all about "Erin - 10 years 3 months" book. She absolutely loved taking her time capsule book (done a few years back for a Murdoch publication) to school, and apparently it was a big hit, so we're going to do something similar in a different format - this time I'll get her input to help with the process - should be fun! I've done the cover - it's going to be a bit of a free-form book with random size pages, etc. I just need to get some current photos on the weekend then it'll be full steam ahead. With any luck it'll be done next week.

Work tomorrow afternoon/night, then the rest of the weekend free!! Have a great one!

hx

playtime......

so.........my muse didn't turn up..........I've been waiting for the applications to roll in - 'cos, even though I haven't got any yet, you all know they're coming. Like who wouldn't want to be my muse? Right? Right? Older women are in, aren't they? And, you know, I have all these plans........wicked, wicked things I can do with paints and mediums................ Obviously there's just been some kind of problem with the email..........or maybe they haven't had time to oil their muscles and take a photo.............ANYWAY.......I figured, since I don't have any great works of art in the pipeworks, I would just have a play around with my art journal.

Water lily page - the steps I took to make this are below - hoping you can read the info, as I put the journalling in in photoshop - if not click on it and a larger image will show up in which you should be able to see all :))

The instructions don't show the final pic, but mention the highlighting & shadowing which you can see on this picture on the petals. Love the way the pearl white lumiere shows up on this.

I actually sanded back some of the lines and shading after I took this picture to soften them down a bit more :)

Supplies used:

JoSonja: texture paste & paints. Inque Boutique border stamp. Stamp It Swirl Whirl Stamp (black). Lots of basic grey papers & some paper from my beloved music sheet book. Think that's it.

Well, I had fun with it! Nothing like a bit of meaningless playing around. As mentioned above, I did soften down the lines, and additional shading a bit more after taking the finished photo at the top. A new page for the journal :)

hx