Matt the actor

Matt made his acting debut last night. After what seems like months of rehearsals, the school play opened last night. It is a Terry Pratchett play - The Truth - one of Matt's favourite authors, hence his keenness to be involved. It has been one of the school experiences he will never forget and he is feeling a bit regretful that it took this long to discover the theatrical field. He has three or four small parts, including a fully regaled bishop. He is not too keen on the makeup but is getting used to it.
last night apparently went well (we are going tonight and tomorrow night), with a few nerves but all well after his first line. can't wait to see it and I think Matt will sleep for a week afterwards.

Then he has to get on with the serious business of HSC....

a visitor

Our carport is open on one side and it has plants and a lot of leaf litter right next to where the cars are parked. When i arrived home the other day, I hopped out the car and heard a rustling noise about a metre away from where i was standing. I looked closely and the first thing I saw was brown scales - after jumping as high as was humanly possible, I saw that there were legs as well - phew. Snakes I don't want to have to deal with - blue tongues are a more than welcome addition to the yard.

This one was the biggest I had seen (more than 40cm), so he must have a nice safe home somewhere nearby. He bolted into next door's front yard but I don't think he will stay there for long as they have two dogs now. I suspect Wally (our cat) is more than happy to let him be but the dogs probably wouldn't.

I hope he comes out when the kids are home one day.

sketchy thursday

The latest sketch from sketchy thursdays and my take on it. It is about my Meaghan and how very friendly and outgoing she is at the moment. I hope (desperately) that this continues over the years. She spent the day at her school fete, mostly on the rides, with her friends. The rest of us couldn't go so it was great that she is old enough to go without us - the new phone has allowed some more freedom for her.

The papers are from the October Cocoa daisy kit, with the flower from the October challenge on the Studio site. They chose my Lego lo for their DT pick for the first couple of weeks of October - very pleased about that.

The time is getting close for my new niece/nephew to arrive in the world, good luck Trace, thinking of you and getting excited.

a rare double lo

Quick off the mark for Ali's class this week. In honour of my most amazing friends, no more to be said. (Click on the image to read the journalling.)

Recovering at the moment from a self inflicted injury at the moment. In a fit of family togetherness we all went outside for a game of tips after tea last night. By the time i got there it had become keepings off with a giant ball. It was a lovely night weather wise and we all had a lot of fun. Just as the game was winding down, i tackled Geoff, foot first (Ok I kicked him), forgetting I only had sandals on - doh! I am now down to half a big toenail on my right foot. Will I ever learn that myself and ball games do not mix?

ali's class this week

Just a quick one. Ali's class is going well, this is half of this weeks template, hopefully get the other half (which is very similar) done today. Ali has gotten hold of an Anna Aspnes kit for the class as well (I have used some in this lo - the stitching, clock, tape) which is wonderful as I love her stuff. With the templates, word art and extras, as well as the tutorials, this class is turning out to be good value for money.

random thoughts from a lonely saturday night

This book was one of my childhood favourites. When I had Matt I reclaimed some of my childhood books and was disappointed that this was no longer among them. turns out mum had been through all the books and given some away, including this one - sigh. I have been searching through old bookstores since on the off chance someone had it but no luck. Little Golden books has started reprinting old titles and again I lived in hope but had all but given up. Out of a now long established habit, I glanced at the Little golden book stand and there it was - hooray. At the grand price of $2.95 I reclaimed my childhood.

When I rang Mum to let her now, she too had been in a different big w and had searched through the Little golden books as unbeknown to me, she has also been looking over the years (ok, I may have made a bit of fuss at the time she gave away the original) - she had had no luck though. Nice coincidence and now we can happily walk past little golden books undisturbed again.

More random thoughts (I am practially alone, Geoff has taken Meaghan and Henry to the coast and I am babysitting Matt)

- just finished twilight for the first time - i can see the addictiveness, now I will have to watch the movie.

- went to the movies this afternoon and saw Julie and Julia - go see it - just a nice movie where the audience chuckled all the way through.

- i have been trying not to say anything but the time has come ---- Ok,here goes. I really, really didn't like the da Vinci code book. The breaking point was where two of the top code breakers in the world couldn't read mirror writing aggh, stupid, stupid. Oddly enough I quite liked the movie where my expectations were not very high but i though it made a much better movie than a book. I am avoidig his new book as much as I can. ( related-I tried to like the time travellers wife, but I just didn't although her new one does look good)

- must go my favourite male bollywood star, Shahrukh Khan is on tele in a very attractive red plaid coat, no one does pretend dag better) and I don't think I've seen this one - love bollywood esp the comedies although Devdas is one of my favouritist movies and it is seriously tragic (but very lush)
ahh the dancing has started, time to concentrate...

have a good saturday wherever you are xx

Last night

Geoff and I went to see Elvis Costello (birthday/fathers day present). He is an amazing performer, when they said solo, that is exactly what it was. he played for about an hour and a half by himself and one of his many guitars - no backing band, singers, anyone (except for the sound guys). It took him a while to warm up, the first few songs were a bit rusty but when he started on new variations of his better known songs, it was great. Being by himself also gave him more opportunity to talk to the crowd a bit more - and I think he likes a chat. My favourite for the night could have been 'she' (best known, I guess for being in Notting Hill), very beautiful.

I was a bit sad at the end of it all because I had a sudden realisation (and this is one of those 'oh my god. I am getting old' moments) that all the concerts we go to now are in theatres. No more do we fight crowds in student unions, or jostle for best position in a pub (or memorably in a scout hall where we saw Violent Femmes in Brisbane). Nope all fixed seating from now on. Although having said that, the first concert I went to as a very young 17yo, was in a movie theatre in Albury to see INXS in 1985. Possibly still the best concert I have seen - maybe that's just through rose coloured time warp glasses.


Oh well, at least we are actually getting out and about again, even if it is in old fogey mode...

A new class

I ummmed and ahhed over whether or not to take Ali Edwards class at The Big Picture, and at the last minute I jumped on in. I loved doing the Jenni Bowlin class there and thought this might be as interesting. Now I am into the second week of classes, I am pleased I did. I can see that although Jenni did a wonderful class, her hands on time was limited, especially as it didn't seem to be a particularly big class. Ali seems to be all over everything. Her class preparation is and astonishing amount of work (including nearly hour long tutorial videos, class handouts and special digital elements). So I am seeing value for money. This class. for me anyway, seems not to be about learning new things yet (I already can work my scanner, and have done quite a lot of digital work) but about actually getting in and doing pages about my life, sorely lacking so far. So if all I achieve out of it is 12 lo's, that will be all worth it.

This introductory page has photos of me at different stages of my life so far. The main photo is of me wearing a dress mum made for me to wear to a school dance (no discos then!). What you can't see is that the pattern has little cannibals - with bones through their noses etc -on it. Not your standard pattern for a dress, but I guess in the 70's anything goes. Very cool purple tho as well as the lace down the front, fairly standard.

looking forward to the next class now xx

The studio challenge

We had to make a lo with at least three patterned papers, only handcutting (ie no punches, die cutters etc allowed) and then make a card and an embellishment with the left over papers. i am not a card maker so this was a challenge.

Luckily my cocoa daisy kit arrived last week and it has some of the yummiest papers in it (I know I say this every month, but I can see me actually using up the whole kit very quickly - never happened before).

I ended up making a card for Mrs Barry - Henry's teacher who has been wonderful this year, as well as a flower with my favourite curly wire stem. Really pleased with the way they have turned out!

I received my first cocoa daisy circle journal from Sue yesterday - can't show pictures until the end but the topic is ' she... ' (finish off the sentence with something inspirational, funny etc. the possibilities are endless and the finished product will be great, many different points of view from around the globe.

me and my tiny brothers

Ok you have to love brothers that make you feel small, in a good way. The unusual thing in this photo is that Rob doesn't have a beer in his hand (must have been on his way to the bar).

Always good to catch up with them - although Rob (Mr Lame as he will now be known) didn't visit the next day as he was still very under the weather - poor excuse to deny your daughter more cousin time...

hair cut was getting a bit roughed up by this time, should've taken photos on the day it was cut - never quite as good afterwards, but still better than it was.

sketchy thursday

here's the latest version of sketchy thursdays. Meaghan loves cooking especially anything with chocolate so the latest Donna Hay book was received with joy. She choose the chocolate sponge cake and she made it with only a small amount of help from me. She has cooked something just about everyday of the holidays, gotta love that!

girl cousins

♠
Will have more photos of Mum and Dad's 50th anniversary soon but here is a quick Lo of the three girl cousins. It has been so long since I have done a digital LO, it took me an age to feel comfortable with it.

Shannon is about to begin HSC exams and hopefully she will get into ANU here in Canberra. Her and Meaghan are getting to look more and more like each other the older they get.

Little Emma is now 2 and a half and about to become a big sister. She was the most social little girl at the party, cruising the room with balloon in tow, the polar opposite of Meaghan at the same age who refused to leave my leg at any stage. Such a little sweetie and all the cousins love her to pieces.

more photos soon (including me with a new haircut that I actually like!)

a new sketch site

Sketchy Thursdays is a newish sketch site and here is my take on their latest sketch. Love this sketch and it will be used more than once I think.

I got to use some glimmer mist on the background paper which improved it significantly I think - the solid colour was just a bit too much. The subject is the great pile of Lego Henry has decided should live at the top of our stairs.

Off to Mum and Dad's tomorrow for their 50th wedding anniversary. Stacks of relatives, friends and any one dad happen to stop on the streets of Mulwala will be there. Shall have photos next week...

Meaghan turned 13 on Sunday as well, looking to do a couple of pages on that so opefully next week will have more to show (she is very taken with her new PURPLE mobile phone, I suspect surgery will be the only way to remove it from her now...).

Have a great weekend, esp here as it is a long weekend. x