New Look

That's better. Just what I need to get a bit of inspiration to get back to the old blog. Thanks to the amazing Sheree Porter i have an amazing picture to use as a background. A gorgeous location of the Dandenong Ranges, blackened trunks of a bushfire past, and one chilly stilt lady. Hopefully many more adventures to come, as well as catching up on those of the past few months.

Valentines cheeseyness

Although I don't generally buy in to the whole Valentine's Day commercialism "business" it is nice to be made to feel special and to have the chance to spend a lovely day together. So today was wonderful.

We went in to the NGV to see the amazing Ron Mueck exhibition. It was so amazing and awe-inspiring. What puts the idea in to one's head? They look so real that as you stare at them you swear they are moving. From the initial impact of the smaller than life, dimly lit "Dead Dad" to the giant and dazzling "Wild Man". Every object just made you want to reach out and touch it. Even though all you would get would be a stern "No touching, please", I'm way too square to go to such lengths.

After a brief break for a yummy lunch and passing through the ACDC exhibition at the Arts Centre ,we then returned for a squiz at the rest of the collection, well mainly I wanted to go and see the 'Drape' exhibition. Oh how I love being a fabric nerd!

Lots of amazing fabrics from ancient greek statues to gowns made for Kylie, but my favourite was a Versace. So simple,yet effective, and sooooo well crafted.

Then, in the permanent International Collection, I sat spellbound by a video from Yinka Shonibare. A contemporary dance piece based on the assassination of the King Gustav III of Sweden, but all dressed in his stunning creations using the Dutch Wax Print.

Unfortunately I came to the fascination of these fabrics too late to see his exhibition, I think it was at the Ian Potter Centre, but my god just the pictures look amazing.

I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful boyfriend to spend the day with, and to be able to do it in such a beautiful city, full of inspiration.

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.