Oh What A Night

I have been spending a few days down on the Gold Coast with my family and the photo above is the view I have every morning. No noise other than cicadas, birds, the occasional boat meandering past and yes, even the occasional fish jumping (I kid you not).  Gorgeous.  The photo is taken off the balcony of the bedroom Im in, and is literally just a shot from my phone, so imagine how much better it looks in real life!

Last night my cousin and I hooked up the Wii and had a ball.  We played until around 1.30am and laughed so much we were literally crying half the time. Im hoarse from shouting and laughing. And before you wonder, no we arent children. Shes 27 and Im 37! We were playing tennis, boxing (ouch, feeling that one) and Mini-golf which was an absolute scream.

This morning we are continuing the stupidity by having conversations from downstairs to upstairs via sms.  Why? Cause its just so stupid.  Sometimes, any little thing will just make you laugh and quite frankly, I like to roll around and enjoy those times as much as possible. So sue me. (heh).

Im off now to have a shower cause we are going out for breakfast and a movie. Something chick flicky like Valentines day or something.  And then probably back for an afternoon snooze. Im sure 4 hours sleep is going to catch up at some point.

I think Im bored with the orange

My Blogger theme I mean (photo left).  I actually do like it, I think Im just frustrated that it only has 2 columns. Im putting too much in my sidebar and I'm having trouble finding stuff let alone any of you guys. So Im on the lookout for a funky 3 column blogger template.

Why dont I make my own? Im lazy. Frankly. I need to totally redo my website and get that running too (www.moonshinedesign.com.au) and I think somewhere in the back of my head I want the two to match. So until I find the time...and motivation... to rebuild that site, I will continue to use a random blogger template that takes my fancy.  Hope you dont mind. I get bored easily...

So what do you think of this new look? Kinda cute huh?

恭 喜 发 财- gong xi fa cai (Chinese Happy New Year)

Hell, Thomas and I just spent the weekend with friends celebrating the Chinese New Year. New Years Eve was on Saturday night and is traditionally a 'reunion' time for friends and family - you gather together and eat special food and enjoy everyone's company.  We had a lovely night and the house was decorated in beautiful red and gold lanterns, wall hangings, cracker drops and coins.  Before we went up there I read up about Chinese New Year and so I made the door hanging in the picture left.  The characters are for "Fu" meaning Good luck.  On New Years you hang the Fu symbol on the door upside down meaning "Luck has arrived". I loved the idea so I rushed out to a local store that I had seen had a shipment of Chinese Silk Jaquards, and sewed up a simple square with the Fu symbol appliqued on.  Was the first time I have appliqued anything so Im quite proud of it.  Our friends loved it. They didnt have a door hanging so it fit in perfectly. 

I also made some Red Envelopes for the children - another New Years tradition (also in the picture).  The red envelopes are given to children, unmarried relatives, friends, employees (as a bonus) etc and hold money. The money doesnt have to be huge amounts but it must be in an even number (ie multiples of 2) and must not have the number 4 in it - so no $4, $14 etc. This is because the number four in chinese sounds like the same sound as 'death' when they say it. So its very bad luck.

For me personally, I feel like this New Year is actually my real New Year.  For some reason, our Australian New Year - while it was fun cause we spent it with friends, didnt actually feel like the start of a new beginning like it normally does. Im not sure why.  This Chinese New Year has felt like a new beginning to me. Possibly because of my changing job situation and stuff. I am looking forward to having a spectacular year and it feels like its really beginning now. My mood is high and happy, Im as relaxed as Ive been in years, everything is going right and well. Its just a great feeling of happy optimism and freedom.  Im enjoying it.

So Gung hay fat choy to you (thats how you pronounce it and it means 'may you become prosperous'.)

Oh and if you would like a tutorial on how to do the door hanging just let me know. I took pictures just in case!

Im Inspired

I recently started to teach myself to knit and crochet. Cant say Im doing overly well at it but thats probably because the only time I try to do it is in bed when Im watching a movie or have a headache and cant read. My concentration is not the best. 

But looking at the lovely blanket in the following blog post from Attic24 has me inspired. I want a lovely 'old fashioned' blanket like that to snuggle under when Im on the couch reading and snoozing. I love it. I dont remember my grandmother ever doing anything like that but it reminds me of her so maybe its something that is buried deep in my subconscious memories of her. I do remember her rag rugs. Am thinking of making some of them too since I have found they arent that hard to make. I will see.  I do have a little time on my hands at the moment of course...heh heh.

Photo with thanks from Attic24. Go read her blog, its gorgeous.

A new Beginning...on life changes and opportunities

This week has been busy, challenging, and yet also fabulous.  I was supposed to start work again on Tuesday after having been on leave (aint long service leave a wonderful thing?!).  I got myself ready, actually totally psyched to be going back. Ready and roaring to go and get back into it.Turns out, they actually just needed me to come in to be told I was being made redundant/retrenched. Oh. Well. There you go.

After the initial shock I have realised what a fabulous opportunity this is.  Im happy about this change. I was ready for a change in role, and potentially a change in company. This way they are helping me to make the decision so that I dont procrastinate over it. Excellent! I will be sad to leave all my friends at work of course, but the really close ones are part of my social circle anyway, so I will still see them regularly.

Ive been kinda sitting here trying to work out what to do. I am still on payroll for another 5 weeks while they see if there actually is an internal role that comes up for me - but I doubt this will happen. While my skills are quite extensive, with so much movement in the company at the moment Im thinking they are downsizing again, and that isnt condusive to other roles 'coming up'. So do I look for another job? Do I spend 5 weeks crafting and not worry about it? Could I potentially go back to school the way I dream - could we afford that? My brain churns on and on.

I think what is stalling me at the moment is this - I basically have the option to do ANYTHING. How many times in your life do you get that opportunity? A brand new start. The sun rising on a new era of my life. Its scary and empowering at the same time! And rather than stress about it, Im trying to just breathe it in and live with the moment of freedom. Most of us truly never get to feel utter freedom for any length of time, so just for now, Im going to enjoy that feeling.

My outlook is positive. I had a feeling this year was going to be a fantastic one, and its already started with a bang. Wonderful. I hope all of you are feeling the same positive vibe because its delicious.

MIA....Ive been BUSY

Ive been real busy this week. And that has meant, no blogging. Sorry. Its possibly going to become the standard for me for a while. Im going back to work you see. I wont have so much time here at home.  Its a good thing because it means that I am well, physically and mentally. I will of course miss the time away from work...but all holidays must come to an end (it wasnt  exactly a holiday but you know what I mean).

With the focus back to work thing I have realised that most of my work clothes dont fit. No I havent put on weight, in fact Ive lost a little. I was talking to Hell trying to work out why my clothes dont fit then...and aparently I was so depressed and shattered that I just didnt really care about how I looked, so I wore everything a bit tight and just put up with it. Eeeek.

Having pulled my sewing machine back out I can of course rectify this. Im sewing myself some new clothes. Im also exercising more so I can fit back into what I have, but the new clothes are what I will talk about.

First off I made a basic A-line Skirt (Simplicity 9825) - Picture above. OMG, this is a simple pattern and should have taken me a couple of hours moving slow, but it took me 2 DAYS!  I pretty much stuffed up everything that could be stuffed up. I stuffed up the waistband so many times I lost count. The unpick was my friend I tell you. Its a gtood thing that the fabric was a forgiving fabric and doesnt show the multiple sewing. Then I stuffed up the zip. 3 times.  I finally got it all together and it still needs to be hemmed but that is the easy part. It finally actually looks OK.  I will take a photo soon and post it another time.

At least with all the things I did wrong, I now know this pattern inside out. I will be able to whip it up really fast now in another colour or in a different length. Im thinking the applique version next - but doing it reverse applique. Just not sure what fabric.  Either that or getting something nice like a Nicey Jane or a Lila Tueller and cutting out the patterns to applique.  I will work it out.

Anyway, Im back to work Tuesday so think of me and send me strength. I will be very nervous. Im almost beside myself at the moment - winding up in stress. Im sure I will be fine once I get in there and settle back into normality. Its the anticipation that is the worst. Lots of meditation tomorrow and of course sewing....

Beautiful Beads and Jewellery - Creative Arty Facts!

I have a friend who lives not far from me who creates the most beautiful handmade glass jewellery - Liz DeLuca from Creative Arty Facts. Liz started bead making a similar time to me but she has totally far surpassed anything I can do. She brought her already phenominal artillary of experience with ceramic art (Nationally renowned!), painting and a vivid eye to colour blending and positioning, and she has translated it into beautiful, wearable glass art. I proudly own and wear a couple of her pieces and always get comments when I do wear them. The bracelet and earrings I have from her collections are as prized to me as my diamonds - seriously!

I consider myself very lucky to know Liz because not only is she an artist of the highest degree, but she is also a wonderful, giving and caring person. She has mentored me in my glass art, provided inspiration for my jewellery, and on a personal level has provided warm and supportive friendship during my hard times. She is truly an angel on earth!

Liz will be showing her beads and jewellery as part of the "Women of Substance" exhibition for the Red Hill Gallery. The show will be happening from Feb 12th 2010 and I cant wait to go! It promises to be a fantastic collection of women artists who are the cream of the Australian art scene. Glass, Painting, Sculpting and more. What fun!

Liz has a blog and a website, along with an etsy site. She also holds classes at Mad Monnies here in Brisbane and sells her beads through Mad Monnie as well.

If you love beautiful glass jewellery and beads go check out her work and her blog. You wont be dissapointed.

Creative Arty Facts