Year of Jewellery Winner

I am a member of the Australian Beading Forum... an online beading group that consists of over 500 members. It's a fantastic site where beaders from Australia and overseas can display their work as well as enter various challenges.

Each week the Year of Jewellery challenge takes place where a theme is selected and members contribute their pieces to fit that particular theme.

The most recent theme was "The Fall of Troy". When I thought of Troy four things came to mind... the Trojan Horse, old coins, lots of gold and discs.

So here is the piece I designed.

Bohemian brass chain embellished with brass coins, brass discs and glass beads. The gold embellishments were from a very old necklace I had which I pulled apart. In fact I remember playing with and wearing this necklace as a child so it could be nearly as old as Troy! The gorgeous lampwork horse which worked in beautifully in representing the Trojan Horse was made by a fellow forum member.

Well judging finished this morning and I am proud to annouce I won by 4 votes and am now the proud owner of this great Winner's banner to display!

I am very excited as this is one piece I am very proud of!

Our little Ansel Adams

One Sunday afternoon I was frantically trying to finish off a necklace I was making for a beading challenge which was due to be submitted online that evening.

As Alan was at work I had to keep an eye on Spencer at the same time... sooo... to keep him distracted and away from my beads that were sprawled everywhere I gave him my camera to keep him busy for a few minutes.

It wasn't until later that evening that I thought to check the camera... not only to see what photos Spencer had taken... but to make sure it was still working.

So anyway here are a few photos that he took. I found it really interesting to see the shots from an angle and perspective that I normally wouldn't... not to mention a shot of me loading the washing machine!

Spencer's first hair cut

Yes you read right!

Spencer had his first hair cut. He had been asking to have his hair cut for several months. He'd ask us during the week but then when the weekend would come and we'd offer to take him he'd say "no hair cut".

Well on Saturday 28 June 2008 when we woke up we said to Spencer "how about you have your hair cut today Spencer" and he excitedly replied "ok but I want girl to cut my hair".

So off to the hairdressers it was. His hairdresser's name was Lisa. She placed Spencer on a really thick foam cushion placed on the chair so he was raised up high and then put on the most gorgeous, colourful Wiggles cape. Well of course Spencer was immediately impressed!

She then sprayed his hair with water and told him he must sit very still to which he replied "ok"... and that's what he did! We were very impressed at how well he did and even Lisa commented a few times on how great he was for a first cut.

At the end of the cut she placed his gorgeous baby curls in a special "Baby's First Hair Cut" envelope with her name and the date and then placed some gel in Spencer's hair. He was very curious what the "stuff" was and why he needed it in his hair to which daddy replied "you know mate I don't know either"! Let's just say daddy isn't a fan or user of product!!

So now everyone can stop nagging us to have our little baby's hair cut. I must admit he does look a lot older now and has lost that gorgeous baby look about him but I guess we had to let go sooner or later... he will be 3 in October! Alan and I nearly shed a tear as we walked out with him and I have to say I am still getting used to not being able to stroke my fingers through his beautiful blonde curls.

But hey - he STILL looks gorgeous!

Head in the clouds?

I couldn't resist posting this photo of Alan during our recent visit to Currumbin. He was walking along with the boys and as Alan is rather tall I took a photo of the 3 of them to show just how small the boys still are.

Well you can imagine how surprised we were when we were looking at the photos from the day later that evening to discover Alan had no head!!

Spencer was looking at this photo as I was loading it here and said "daddy have no head" .... too funny!

Attack of the lorikeets

When we visited Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary back in February we unfortunately missed the lorikeet feeding show. So during our recent visit there in June I was determined to feed the lorikeets. This time we caught both the 8.30am and 4pm feeds.

Well what an experience! I had seen pictures of people feeding the lorikeets with 4 0r 5 lorikeets on their head but nothing prepares you for the amount of lorikeets that come to feed.

Everyone is given a little metal tray. The trays are filled with honey water which the lorikeets love and are natually attracted to. Then you basically hold out the tray and wait for the lorikeets to land!

Spencer loved looking at the lorikeets and their pretty colours. I thought he might have been a bit scared of them as they certainly weren't scared of us! Whilst holding his little plate he would have up to 7 or 8 lorikeets on the tray at once and giggled away as the lorikeets landed.

Alan chose not to feed the birds during the morning show as he admitted he was a bit freaked out by sooo many birds but we encouraged him...ok... we bullied him into taking part in the afternoon feeding! I think in the end he was forced to overcome his fear as those lorikeets may be small but they are pushy little buggers. He did however have one feisty one who was considered the "dominant" of the bunch who kept fighting off the others as he landed. He's the angry looking one sitting on Alan's arm!

I of course had several birds land on my head but thankfully none of them pooped! This poor guy standing next to us had one do a massive wee on his head - poor guy was bald so it just ran down his head and into his ear...ewwww!

A day with friends at Currumbin

We visited Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary earlier this year & bought a season pass so when the long weekend hit in June we invited a friend to join us for another visit. We were joined by our friend, Iris, & her little boy, Jacob, Spencer's best friend who is 2 months younger than Spencer.

We had a great day with the boys running around frantically looking at all the animals and enjoying riding the train and squealing as we went through the little tunnel.

We stopped off at McDonalds on the way home which as you can imagine delighted the boys (not so much the adults) and needless to say they slept the whole way home. We had picked up Iris and Jacob around 7.30am and ended up dropping them home around 7.30pm so it was a HUGE day but fun was had by all and a whole day without any tears... I think!!

To infinity and beyond...

Like most little boys Spencer just loves Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story. I don't know how many times he has watched Toy Story but he still manages to get excited the first time he sees Buzz fly around Andy's room... or as Woody would say "falling with style"!!

So whilst shopping today our mission was to invest in a new pair of flannelette pyjamas for Spencer. We had already looked in a few stores and could not believe our luck when we came across this awesome pair of Buzz Lightyear pj's. Spencer had actually fallen asleep at this time so was unaware of the fantastic surprise in store for him when we got home.

Well I wish I was lucky enough to have taken a photo as Alan pulled them out of the bag to show him ... the look of excitement on his face was priceless and even scored a "that's cool".

Although he doesn't look impressed to be wearing his Buzz pj's in the photo below he was happily "flying" around the room before going to bed tonight.

The big question is... will we be able to get them off him in the morning!

Mum... do you think this is too tight?

Nearly every Saturday for the past... oh I don't know... 18 months or so... Spencer has had swimming lessons.

He is now in B3 which is a more advanced class than he was used to and is focused more on actually learning to swim than building the children's confidence in the water. He no longer sings nursery rhymes but instead has to float on his back, used a kickboard and even "glide" in the water... all very serious moves for a 2 year old!

Over the past few weeks his teacher, Helen, has been suggesting we buy Spencer a swimming cap to keep the water out of his ears as he really wasn't enjoying floating due to the water getting in his ears.

So last week we finally bought him a very swish swimming cap from the swimming centre and today was the first day he wore it.

Well... Alan put the swimming cap on Spencer and when Spencer came running out to show me I yelled to Alan "do you think you've got it on properly" trying to keep back my fits of laughter.

As you can see by the photo below it wasn't on properly and changed the look of Spencer's face completely. Although it looks like Spencer is in pain from cap being too tight he actually thought he was pretty special and proceeded to run around the house excitedly.

Me? Well I just could not stop laughing at how silly and scary my son looked. Would you have recognised Spencer in this photo without me telling you it was him?

Needless to say the cap worked a treat at swimming and Spencer did some fantastic star fish floating ... and the best bit? NO water in his ears! Hooray!

It's ok... you can laugh at how silly he looks too... I know you are dying to!!

Star gazing...

Over the past few weeks Alan has been obsessed with binoculars... why you ask? Because he decided he'd take up bird watching... the feathered kind!

So for the past week or so he has been doing lots of research online, comparing lots of brands of "noccy's" as Spencer calls them and finding the best priced noccy's on Ebay.

Well today his noccy's arrived and tonight he ventured out to the backyard in the dark and the cold to check out the stars.

Perhaps tomorrow he'll spot some birds!!

It's a bug's life

When Aunty Janine came to visit recently one of the gifts she had for Spencer was a bug catcher... you know the type... we all had one as a kid didn't we? Well I was amazed to see that these things have not changed one bit... I suppose what is there to change when it comes to catching bugs right?

This week as we were admiring how well our gorgeous herbs were growing in the garden we spotted an adorable little "gwasshopper" so we couldn't resist catching him & putting in the catcher.

As he was feeding on our basil we put a few leaves in for him to nibble on as well as some leaves from the cauliflower we had bought.

We only kept him for a day but Spencer had great delight in watching his little green friend jump around, eat the leaves he had fed him... and was amazed at the size of the gwasshopper's tiny poo!

My Mighty Knights

I can't describe how excited I was to see my Mighty Knights beat the Sydney Roosters yesterday. By the end of the first half the Roosters were leading 20-12 and I must confess I wasn't too confident the Knights would win.

But boy did the Knights come back in the second half...

FINAL SCORE

34 - 20

Not only did they keep the Roosters scoreless in the second half but with about 10 seconds to go I said "come on boys put on another 6 points" and within seconds Danny Wicks collected the ball and ran nearly the full length of the field to score! Awesome... if you know what Danny Wicks looks like then you will understand what a funny site this was to see him chug chug chugging up the field... let's just say Mr Wicks is not a small lad and is not the sort of player you'd expect to see dashing up the field!

We have a by this week and then take on the Titans at home so hopefully we will be this successful in Round 8.

Well done boys!

A new take on colouring in

I had been having a rather "challenging" day with Spencer on Saturday whilst Alan was at work. Alan didn't get home until nearly 6pm so it was a rather long day for Spencer and I who were constantly butting heads... as we have a tendency to do. Let's just say we are very much alike and both very determined... to get our own way!

Well unfortunately Spencer lashed out at Alan within a few minutes of him getting home which scored himself some "time out" in his bedroom. Now we don't normally give Spencer time out in his room because... well there are just too many things in there for him to play with so it isn't really time out - but with the day I'd had we just decided to put him in his room. After a few minutes we realised he was rather quiet so went to investigate.

The cheeky little monster had climbed up to one of his cupboards and helped himself to some roller markers and as you can see by the photo below decided to colour himself... he had pink stripes on his hands, feet and face as well as some gorgeous pink lips.

All Alan and I could do was laugh... which was a really nice way to end a dreadful day!

Our garden

The succulents in our front garden are really coming along. These interesting little plants were only about 5cm tall when they were given to me about a year ago.

The plants above are known as "flapjacks" or for the green fingered readers the official name is Kalanchoe thyrsiflora. They are one of the most interesting plants I have seen for some time.

We have about 5 or 6 of them planted in our front garden and two in pots at our front door. Unfortunately only one of the potted ones has taken off - the other is still alive but seems to be struggling a bit. The top and bottom plant is about to flower and has grown a long stem of about 25cm in length out of the centre of the plant.

The shot below is the stem of one of our bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) plants. This particular plant is probably close to 2m high - well let's just say it's as high as our house.

We have 3 of them in our front garden and when we bought them back in 2004 they were in tiny little pots and probably about 25cm tall.

They don't flower often and I don't know if that is actually normal for this variety but when they do flower they display gorgeous purple and orange flowers.

Something to cry about?

As parents we are taught to ignore our children's tantrums and not give into this attention seeking behaviour.

During my sister's visit we were enjoying a relaxing afternoon outside snacking on triple cream brie and watching Spencer enjoy the warm afternoon sunshine whilst playing in his tree house.

All of a sudden our peaceful afternoon was interruped by Spencer's intrusive and bellowing voice having decided to scream about something.

Like most of his tantrums I can't even remember what brought this one on but as my sister was already taking photos of Spencer, managed to take a few shots of him during and after his tantrum.

The first photo is of him in full flight of his tantrum. At this stage he was opening and closing the door on his tree house and slamming it angrily and stomping around the yard.

The second shot is sulky Spencer. I don't know what he's thinking at this stage of his tantrum but I'd like to think he's feeling a bit silly about his behaviour and perhaps regretting becoming angry and so fired up.

The last two photos are after the tantrum has passed and I have my happy little Spencer back. It's amazing to see how quickly his tantrums pass and how he can go from being almost manic with frustration and anger to happily smiling and wanting hugs and kisses and saying "I really sorry mummy".

I think I'll stick the first and last shots on our fridge so next time Spencer has one of his "moments" I can look at the photo, have a giggle to myself and know that within a minute or two normality, and my happy little boy, will soon return!

Finding love in a bag of chips...

A few weeks ago we were eating some Salt & Vinegar chips and Alan found a chip that was in the shape of a love heart.

Although the photos aren't that clear I couldn't resist posting them as I doubt I will ever see a potato chip in the shape of a heart again or Alan posing with one for that matter!

Spencer and his Aunty Neen

As mentioned previously my sister, Janine, came to visit 2 weeks ago so I thought I'd post a few photos from her visit.

She had a great time with Spencer and this was the first time she's really been able to spend some quality time with him since he's been walking and talking.

Of course she arrived with lots of surprises for Spencer and needless to say he was spoilt rotten. His favourite gift from Aunty Neen was his Bob the Builder suitcase, which as you can see by the photos, now insists on taking

everywhere. The shot of him here was taken at Indooroopilly shopping centre when he and Alan picked up Janine and I after our shopping spree. He greeted us with a big smile screaming "Aunty neen.... aunty neen" with his new Bob doll poking out the top of his Bob suitcase... too cute!

The other photos were taken outside the Gallery of Modern Art on 30 March 2008 - our second visit to GOMA!

With a little splash of paint...

Here are some photos of Spencer's tree house complete... well at least until we decide to add something else to it.

Over the Easter long weekend we headed to our local hardware store with paint and herbs on our shopping list in order of "prettying up" Spencer's tree house. We had decided to paint the outside of the house brown and were lucky enough to find a pre-mixed tin for half the regular price. Alan also bought a new latch for the door.

The three of us spent the day outside painting the tree house and as you can see by the photo of Spencer, I think he managed to get more paint over himself than he did on the actual walls of the house. Needless to say he had fun and sent mummy's anxiety levels sky rocketing by the amount of paint he had on his clothes, in his hair and on his arms & legs and also the amount of paint he was successfully flicking in mummy's hair!

Whilst the paint was drying on the house my little brown boy helped me re-pot the herbs. Our little edible garden consists of rosemary, chives, basil, mint, thyme and oregano as well as some adorable miniature chili plants. Spencer has his own little watering can which he now uses to water his plants.

The next day I got stuck into painting the inside of the house blue & brown. This was a bit tricky on my back and I came to the conclusion, rather quickly I might add, that it probably would've been smarter to paint the inside before we put the tree house together.

Either way the house now looks fantastic and Spencer's absolutely loving his little "tree house".

From Warhol to T2

As I hadn't seen my sister since June 2007 I thought it was a good time to shout her a visit to Brisbane. Janine arrived on Thursday 27 March and headed back on the following Tuesday... her journey home is another Blog story altogether! We had been teaching Spencer how to say Aunty Janine for the past week and he proudly greeted her with "Aunty neen" as she walked off the plane.

On Friday we were lucky enough to spend the entire day together - no kids and no husbands ... just two sisters enjoying some well overdue quality time together!

Firstly we caught the train into the city & visited the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). To be honest I'm not a huge fan of Warhol but figured this would probably be the only time I'd get to see such a collection of his work. I arrived thinking I wasn't going to enjoy the exhibition so I tried to keep an open mind and not judge the exhibit purely based on his cans of Campbell's soup!

Well to say I was blown away would be an understatement to say the least and I can honestly say I am definitely pleased I took the time to experience the exhibition. It was nice to see that his collection included pieces which weren't his trademark silk screen prints.

Janine enjoyed the exhibit too and we both bought some fantastic souveneirs - some great postcards which Janine has already framed and some fantastic books - our favourite being Andy Warhol Fashion which is a delightful book full of illustrations of shoes, clothing, handbags and accessories - my first love!

A highlight of the exhibition however was the Warhol photo booths. Here you could take your photo in these funky little photo booths. Your photo would appear on the screen after being magically transformed into a Warhol style picture. You then selected the colours of each photo and the photo is then emailed to you.

Janine and I had soooo much fun with this and even went back on the Sunday with Alan and Spencer to get some group shots done. As you can see by the photo they are just too cool... or at least we are!!

After Warhol we made our way to Indooroopilly Shoppingtown for a spot of shopping. I'm proud to say we actually didn't leave the Centre loaded with shopping bags but what I can say is that we could potentially now be financial partners in Janine's newly founded favourite store, T2.

If you haven't visited one of their stores you are truly missing out... especially if you are a lover of tea. Their range of tea is exceptional with well over 50 flavours to choose from. I think we must have spent a good hour in this store and the most difficult thing, apart from leaving the store was restraining ourselves from buying one of everything... Janine was just lucky that each pack of tea only weighed 150gm or her excess baggage would've been even more than the 13kg it was when she left!!

Here is their website if you're interested in taking a look... https://secure.t2tea.com.au/flash/main.html

Overall we had such a fantastic day. I can't remember the last time Janine and I spent a day together just the two of us so it will be a day I will remember for a long, long time.

My Tree House

Take a look at Spencer's tree house. Although Alan and I continue to call it a cubby Spencer corrects us saying "no MY tree house... silly mummy"!!

Alan managed to spend a good 4 or 5 hours today working on the cubby ...umm.... tree house... and we all can't believe how great it is looking. Work today included adding the little tin roof and building the verandah/deck around the edge.

For me now comes the fun part... interior design! I will be responsible for the final touches on the house and plan on painting the house inside and out. I have been warned by Alan not to make the house too "pretty" however when I asked Spencer what colour he would like me to paint the inside Alan was shocked to hear his answer.... PINK!!
I tested him a few hours later and asked him again what colour he'd like mummy to paint his tree house and his answer was still pink...

Now I'm thinking a pink tree house will be the perfect place for mummy to sneak away and enjoy some quiet time sipping a hot cup of Twinings English Breakfast tea and drooling over some beading magazines!

How long do you think it will take for Alan and Spencer to find me?