Option 1

Here i something I think I like. Not exactly what I was thinking.........let me know what you think.

Blankety Blank

Well I've been inspired by the lovely Neen of nettle and brier to make my blog wonderfully fancy and nice to look at, but it is proving more difficult than I imagined. There is no end to the amount of free stuff-templates, backgrounds and buttons- that I can find, but it's hard to pick one that is perfect'. I think I like the more photoey look rather than scrapbooky, and I'm not particularly crafty, for a fabric nerd. So for now Welcome to Blandtown!

Thoroughly Thurra

After a long drive in the fully loaded ute, made longer by an unscheduled stop over

and taking on of a whole cars worth of gear in Warragul, I took Trent on his first ever trip to Thurra River.

After a first look at the rough and tumble beach there was much to be done.

There was fishing,

And cooking,

Goannas in the campsite,

And a walk to the sand dunes- the biggest in the southern hemisphere,

the sheer vertical drop down straight in to the river,

and then the walk back to camp down the river.

We also got in some great canoe time, both on Thurra and Mueller.

And then there was New Years Eve- a whole different kettle of fish.
The day before we all drew names out of a hat of other people from our camp and were assigned our characters for the big night.

It drew laughs, stares from onlookers, shock and awe, offense between friends, but mostly just laughs. And hopefully dismissed the impression we were some sort of christian youth camp, but maybe not.

Polly and Luke,




Eri and Monty- complete with the little Nugget in her belly.

Rob,

Heath,


Ad.





A perfect week of beach weather and gourmet food and beautiful friends. Thanks everyone!

Movember

My lovely boyfriend is growing a moustache this month for Movember. Raising awareness for mens mental and physical health.



His aim is to grow a glorious mo' in the style of Tom Selleck.

Doing pretty well after a week I think.





So donate now!!!!!! And wait for the final product at the end of the month.

You'll be supporting a very worthy cause, and making the transformation of my man worth something.

I know I've been slack, but it's taken a while to wind down after the wedding festivities, and to just relax a little after a long period of hard work. I'm so proud of my beautiful friends Kate and Ad. The wedding was just fantastic, but I'm also very proud of all my hard work and how it came off.

We had a great girls night the night before and then spent from very early on, on Saturday, getting ready.

I was there till the last second making sure everything was in place.

A small timing mishap however saw me careening down the aisle trying not to look like part of the bridal party, even while their special music was playing. All I could think was 'Get off the hessian, just get off the hessian and no one will be able to see you.'

It really was so beautiful to see kate coming down the aisle. And no, not just because she had a beautiful gown. But she was so full of emotion. Her mum and dad clinging to her from either side and reciting the 11 times table to calm herself down (true).

Preceded by her sexy bridesmaids.

Congratulations to Kate and Ad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sicky

As I predicted on Saturday night after such a huge party I knew I would be sick this week. I thought we all would be because we went too hard for our poor bodies that are getting old. So I wasn't too surprised when I woke up on Tuesday with a sore throat. Slowly this has progressed to a nose that alternates between stuffy and runny, and a head that tends to feel a little full.

I was quite happy to take on these consequences of having such a great weekend and it wasn't until yesterday that I realised it wasn't actually my fault at all. It was Maggie! She had a runny nose all night, and then the two hours of sleep we had I spent with my head right next to her stuffy snoring nose.

So I'm not getting old after all.

What a relief!

Bok Bok

You know it's Spring when the smell of jasmine is in the air.

And all the chickens are out, or in this case.........hens.

Saturday/night was Kate's hens. Beginning at 9 am for some it was a full on day and night on the hottest September day on record. Ok, I may have made that fact up, but it was still 30 degrees at 8 at night. Unheard of!

The girls met B and I at the shop for little bo-peep stylie Bride action,

then eventually on to Edinburgh Gardens for the 'prohibited penis parephernalia' part of the day.

Then preparations for the most beautiful 21 person dinner ever.

Our very own private dining room at Bar Lourinha, upstairs from all the serfs who had to watch us parade through the rest of the bar.

Listening to their hushed whispers of "For my hens do NOT make me wear a veil like that". Hilarious! We were having the best time ever.

From the moment we sat down and tasted the olives we knew we were destined for something great. A seemingly neverending parade of tasty tapas and champagne and wine and then topping it all off with the blood orange crema. It was the most amazingly rich and sweet dessert ever, and I love amazingly rich and sweet but I couldn't even finish half of it.

Luckily I had the chance to dance it off at the tackiest sleaziest bar. Weirdos and sleazeballs aside it was the perfect venue for a trashy, dancey, champagney, singy, girly party.

Then one final stop to bring us back up to an acceptable level of class. A trendy art deco cocktail bar popular with people 'either trendy or gay'.

A few pairs of feet in excruciating pain, a few spinning heads, some very full bellies and a long wait at the taxi rank later and we were tucked away in our slumber party beds ready for a couple hours of sleep before the beginning of a new day.

I am in love!

I am totally in love with these boots.

I was looking at the line up for Meredith this year. It is fantastic. My going to this year was dependent on the line up. (I'm sick of average bands and shit weather.) So when I got the news this morning it was great. Jarvis, Animal Collective, Kitty Daisy and Lewis and Sia. So I checked out a few and got stuck on a youtube trail of Sia, stumbling accross a video of her and Fab Moretti spruicking her craft night for TOMSshoes.

I heard of this idea ages ago in some magazine I can't recall. A good natured tourist in Argentina found kids in deperate need of shoes- to prevent injury and increase the distances they were able to walk. So when he got home he started a company where every pair of shoes sold equals one pair of shoes for these kids.

This is the general style they started off with, but now they have a huge range, including my beloved boots.

OMG!

Omg omg omg omg omg omg omg!

It's really happening!

It's really really happening!

We're going to see Britney!

I had to get in to work early to go online for them.

It did not run smoothly.

First of all I had to wait 2 mins to get on to the site,

Then all the general admission tickets were all sold out,

Then it took ages to get back to the page to choose new tickets,

Then I got the tickets for standing- but my credit card didn't work!!!!!!

Oh my god, I thought I as going to have a heart attack.

I called my mum to get her credit card details- but no answer.

After being charged with the sole responsibility of getting these tickets for us die hard Britney fans I could think of no way I could explain to the girls that we had missed out and would have to pay thousands for tickets from ebay.

But then I remembered I was at work. Quickly I whipped out the work credit card and charged it for 5 tickets.

So we're in and it's really really happening. It's really really happening.

I saw Britney in Sydney in 2001. It was just a promo show and I didn't see her perform, but
I got to see her in the flesh. Now it's time to share the night of our lives with the girls. We'll be rockin it with our dances in the crowd.

I can't wait!!!!

A tour

Yay. I finally did it, not so momentous as moving out, but I put my triple r sticker on my new car!


While I've got the camera why don't I show you around the place?

My favourite rambling roses on the driveway. They smell divine.




Our cosy little bungalow.

The Blue Birds of Welcome on our front door.


Our big backyard from underneath the carport- perfect for outdoor entertaining-complete with the hills hoist for ultimate aussie suburban chic.

It's the cutest street, with kids always riding up and down and even street cricket games and easter egg hunts. We haven't actually participated in any of these, but nice to know they are going on out there- except when they wake you up too early on a Sunday morning.

It took me long enough

The time has finally come.......

The largest Skipper child (in age not size) is finally leaving the nest. With Lena currently in the home of parmesan in Italy, and August long gone, poor mumsy and dadsy can now stretch their wings and have their house to themselves.

Trent, ben and I have found a really cute little Californian Bungalow, all original with dark wood panelling and a lilac bathroom. We move next weekend after Golden Plains.

Let the independence begin!

Hooligans

I witnessed a very funny thing today.

I was working in my studio and looked out the window to see my grandpa and his friend out in the carpark on their mobility scooters. Both of them taking it in turns doing circle work and skids in the gravel.

Proof that no matter how long you have been on this earth- you're only as young as you feel.

Adios

I've been absent from the web waves for quite a while now. A combination of not much exciting going on, and too much excitement to sit still for long enough to blog about it.
But now our dear little mini skips is going out into the big broad world, so it seems like a good time to get back in to it, at least so she has a reference of activities going on back home (and so she can show all her new friends how cool her big sister is).

So have heaps of fun and know that everyone around these parts will miss you heaps, and already can't wait to hear all your fabulous tales of adventures of your own.

Love you heaps, my favourite person in the world!

Oiksta Boiksta

It looks like it's all over.

The phenomenon that is my birth month has fallen short.

Although it did start early on the 30th of September there has been no birthday action since Leaving the Prom on Sunday.

What a way to finish it all off though.








The most brilliantly sunny weekend of food and fun and Bollywood.








Even not bringing a real tent (turned out when I got it out of the bag it was a beach shelter) or my lilo having a giant tear in it (first attempt at patching with flouro gaffer tape didn't go so well) or the migraine I had for more than half the time couldn't put a dampener on it all.





And the sun!

A definite highlight of my actual birthday was Mark's special dove blowing demonstration, the unearthing of a hidden super power.

Also the crepes. MMMMMMMMM Yummy!

inspired by the Colombian Pizza en el Parque the pear, bacon and blue cheese combo blew my mind it was so tasty. So tasty I've got a date tonight with the same thing again.

Thank you to everyone for all my events and happy birthday to everyone else who is sharing in the celebratory times.