GO THE KNIGHTS!

 

Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I am a huge NRL (National Rugby League) fan and on top of that an enormous Newcastle Knights supporter.

So tonight I am off to see the Knights tackle the Brisbane Broncos at their home stadium in Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium. Suncorp is a magnificent stadium - seats around 55,000 and such a spectacular venue and we have really great seats tonight -  members side and nearly on the half way line!

  

Amazingly Brisbane and Newcastle are equal on the ladder at the moment so it should turn out to be an interesting game. I just hope my boys come out fighting fit tonight as I can't handle a loss at Suncorp - surrounded by thousands of Broncos supporters.

I was desperately trying to find my Knights jersey last night and to my horror I didn't find it. I have no idea where it could be as it isn't something I wear throughout the year - only to the games. It's a really nice "retro'' jersery which means it is made of  nice soft cotton instead of that polyester crap they make them out of now and I actually paid a nice penny for it on good old Ebay!

So I will be facing the Broncos and the Autumn weather in my jeans and trusty old Knights tshirt.

GO THE KNIGHTS!!!

The 6th photo

I have noticed a few of my fellow bloggers have been playing the "6th photo game". Basically you share the 6th photo you posted on your blog.

So here is my 6th photo.

The date of my blog post for this photo was 6 January 2008.

It's a shot of Spencer and I on 5 January 2008 at the Ipswich Railworks Museum when they had their Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Spencer had a great day as he was completely obssessed with Thomas at this time. I have to admit that I wasn't enjoying myself on this day as it was an incredibly hot summer day and well trains just aren't my thing! But Spencer had a marvelous day and even came away with a Thomas torch light.

Back when I posted this photo my blog was mostly filled with the goings on of the White family. More recently I have focused my blog more towards my beading with some family related stories thrown in. I recently received a few comments from friends that I wasn't including enough photos of Spencer ...sorry guys... so I promise to include some more photos of him!

My blog not to mention my photography has come a long way since this post. I have been excited to see the number of people who follow my blog slowly increase. In terms of my photography I find myself taking photos specifically for my blog now whereas before I would  just take photos and hope they were ok to post.I use my macro feature on my camera a lot more, especially when photographing my pieces and close up shots of Spencer's cute little face. I also play around with my photo editing software a lot more too. My next step is to buy myself a light tent which I think will make a big difference to my photos.

The 6th photo game has been a fun way to look back into 2008 and see how far my humble little blog has grown...what was your 6th photo?

Where has my little baby gone.. he's now a little man...

My Creative Space

Well I am a few days late this week but here is my Creative Space for this week.

I am currently working on my Artbeads Design Partner piece which is reminiscent of Spring. 

So far I have successfully made 6 peyote beads and plan on making a few round beaded beads. I am debating whether to string them together with some simple strands of seed beads or get a little adventurous and try my hand at Herringbone.

Watch this space!

Don't forget to visit Kootoyoo's page to visit lots of other creative spaces.

Thank you Mr Kandinsky and Mr Leger

The Australian Beading Forum of which I am a member of is currently running a "swap" in which you are assigned a partner and you are required to make something for each other. The theme of the last swap I took part in was Morocco so I was even more excited to learn that the theme of this swap was 

"Art Inspired" 

Back in 1992 I visited Masterpieces from the Guggenheim at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Ohhh what an amazingly wonderful exhibition. I had studied many of the artists on display - Picasso, Dali, Kandinsky, Leger, Chagall and Klee just to name a few. 

I have to admit that my favourite artist is the one and only Pablo Picasso and to see his paintings up close was an experience I will never forget. I can still remember the excitement of seeing his painting, The Studio, painted in 1928 it was sadly showing every year of its age with the paint looking very cracked and fragile.

Having a theme like "Art Inspired" really is a treat. I have so many favourite artists who inspire me, who I adore and who I aspire to be like. As much as I adore Picasso I was drawn to the energy and colour of Kandinsky and Leger.

So without further ado here is my piece

Art Inspired 
by

Deep Brown
by Vasily Kandinsky

and 

Men in the City
by Fernand Leger

The gorgeous glass fused cabochon was made by my very talented husband. He has a way with glass and creating mosaic style pieces like this - I guess unlike me he has the patience when piecing the little tiny pieces of glass together which is quite funny as unlike me he has absolutely no patience with seed beads!

I have to be modest here and admit that I adore this piece. I love the colour, I love the cabochon and I love the memories it brings back of my visit to Guggenheim. Ahh to visit New York one day - what a dream!

I hope my recipient likes it as much as I do otherwise I just might have to get her to send it back!

My little man and his camera

My little man is always playing with his camera and taking shots of just about anything. 

Most of the time I forget to check what he has been taking photos of so today I thought I'd take a look and here is one I found that he had taken of me just after getting out of the shower and cooking dinner.

Not the most flash photo in my mind but Spencer assures me I look beautiful. 

Ahh nothing beats the love from your own child!

Beaded Passion Contest results

I am excited to announce that the results of a competition I recently entered, the Beaded Passion Contest, sponsored by Bright Circle Shimmerstone Jewellery have been announced and it turns out that my Fingal Frolics piece pictured below won the Most Unusual Category.

I was so touched that this piece won a category as this piece is one that I hold dear to me. I made all of the glass cabochons in my microwave kiln and my clever hubby made the large cabochon in the centre of the largest star fish!

There were so many gorgeous entries, including the winning piece by Cindy of CND Jewelry Tales with her gorgeous piece, Plum Lacy, so I am quite chuffed to have won a category.

The prize includes a voucher to ParadoxMoxie and I think I might just invest in some shimmer stones as I have never seen them before and they look rather sparkly and special!

Be sure to visit Bright Circle's blog and take a look at the other amazing entries.

Special thanks to Jessah for running the competition.

♥

Use the Muse is done and dusted!

What a relief. I have just submitted my entry for Use the Muse.

Overall I am quite happy with my piece. When I first saw the kit I knew straight away I was going to go with a "sea theme" and have to admit that the vision I had in my head is what translated into my final piece so I am pretty chuffed with the whole process.

So here is a sneak peak...

Unfortunately today has been a wet day and if it hasn't been raining it has been dark and overcast so it was quite difficult to get some decent photos. Reminder to self... BUY A LIGHT TENT!

My piece is quite long so it was also difficult to get decent photos of the full piece and as we are restricted to only 2 photos I tried to capture shots of the entire piece rather than focusing on close up shots.

Anyhooo Use the Muse is done and dusted until next time.

My little man was so cute today. Over the past few weeks he has been coming up to me whilst I have been beading and saying "mummy are you finished your beading" and I would say "nearly".

Today when he came and asked me I said "yes it's all finished" to which he replied "wow, for so long I have been asking you if you've finished your beading and now you have...good job mummy"... awwww so cute!

The countdown is on...

I am frantically beading trying to get my piece completed for Use the Muse.

I have had such a busy week at work this week with soooo much typing to do and the fact that I hurt my back on Monday made that typing even more difficult.

I was aiming at working on my piece all weekend. I did an hour or so on Friday night but on Saturday night I thought I'd have a "little lie down" at 7.30pm and woke up again at 11.45pm!! Yep I slept right through dinner and the rest of the evening... which meant NO BEADING! Arrgggghhhh.

So today I have done around 5 hours of beading and I reckon I must have a good 2-3 hours of beading left until this piece is done.

So on that note I guess I should go and bead!!

Feeling like Dory

I feel a bit like Dory from Finding Nemo right now... but instead of singing "keep on swimming... keep on swimming" I am insanely humming "keep on beading... keep on beading" in my head.

I have two beading projects on the go at the moment. My Use the Muse piece is due on 12 April... just 6 days away and I have a bracelet as part of an Art Inspired seed bead swap due on 19 April.

I am also feeling a little frustrated right now as I hurt my back yesterday morning. I don't know what I have done to it but I obviously twisted myself the wrong way or a little too much when pulling the ironing board down from its rack on the wall. I got a sharp pain shooting up my spine and nearly 48 hours on and I am still in pain. I am hoping it will pass soon so until then it's lots of Dencorub for me...mmmm gotta love the smell of menthol!

Happy Easter 2010

The White House Easter Egg Hunt!

One scared pussy cat...

Yesterday I was enjoying some quiet time as my husband and little man had gone for a bike ride. I was just about to sit down and get started on some beading when I heard my little mini foxy, Rufus, barking frantically and howling like he was in pain. As I ran to see what had happened I heard a rather large bang near my son's cubby house.

I ran outside to find Rufus had a gorgeous little cat bailed up next to the cubby house. The poor thing looked terrified as you can see by the picture below.

When we brought Rufus home back in 2000 we had a gorgeous cat, Tahja. They became the best of friends and believe it or not Tahja would lick and wash Rufus which was a funny sight!

I don't think Rufus was trying to hurt the cat, I think he was just intrigued to see one in his own yard, but obviously this guy didn't realise that... even though he was actually bigger than Rufus!

We have never seen this cat and don't know where he is from. He was only a small cat and guessing by his size maybe not even 1 year old so hopefully someone owns him and he isn't a stray.

Going by his first encounter with Rufus I am guessing he won't be back in a hurry which is a pity as he seemed a very friendly little fellow!

My Creative Space

I was recently made aware of a really cool blog ...thanks Belinda.

Kootoyoo is a fantastic blog where every Thursday people from all around the world post a picture of their "creative space" to show a current project they are working on.

I have always enjoyed taking a sneak peak into other crafters spaces and especially being privy to a preview of their work.

So here is a sneak peak of what I am working on.... it's my Use the Muse piece. I know I recently posted a sneak peak of this piece but as the piece is due on 12 April this is the only piece I am currently working on.

I have to admit it is providing me with many hours of me ranting and raving and throwing beads around the room frustration over this Easter long weekend. I only have another 9 days to get this piece completed and am starting to panic just a wee bit!