Camping, bush style.

A few photos from last weeks camping expedition. We spent hours of exploring, four wheel driving and adventuring before we set up camp near the Cells. It was a fairly remote location, the last camp that we had seen was an hour or so previously while we were driving. It's nice sometimes to go bush and forget about everything else! 

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Weekend Wrap Up

On the weekend I returned home to visit family, see friends and attend the Kendall Rodeo! Sadly I don't have any pictures of the action, we weren't positioned in the best location for taking photos. As per usual I spent a fair amount of my time playing with the various animals on the farm. Max is becoming more comfortable with people and has a new fascination with sniffing and licking and Pippa is looking quite big now, we all hope to have another calf born in the next week or so! 

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Inspiration Friday

Spotted yellow feather watercolour by studiotuesday

Cat on a mid century chair by olivedear

Hugs and kisses necklace by PianoBenchDesigns

From here

From here

Happy Friday! 

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2012 Resolutions..

I don't normally make firm resolutions for New Years, I mostly make a general statement and hope I finish it. This year I decided to make some and work on them progressively over the year. In addition to the above resolutions, I also hope to finish my 25 Things before 2012 list before my birthday in June. Lets see how I go! 

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Update: 25 Things Before 2012...

 I didn't entirely finish everything on my to do list before 2012...which is sad, but I am happy for the things I did complete! Here is an update on my list. 

So the 25 things I want to do before 2012 are...

1. Graduate from my bachelors degree, apply to do masters

*Yay!

2. Buy a set of Russian babushka dolls

3. Save money for ski trip to New Zealand in July

4. Save money after NZ (try to get bank account to $2000!)

*Christmas really depleted my bank account sadly, but I am still saving! 

5. Read at least a book a month (if not more)

*I am so happy I managed this! Most months I managed to read at least two books, if not more! 

6. Frame own illustrations and hang on wall

7. Go on a roadtrip with my sister

8. Have a rocking 21^st party

9. Make my first quilt

*Started and...stopped. I have the back and front pieces made, I just need to get my butt into gear and quilt it up! Hopefully it will be ready for winter! 

10. Finish previously started projects:

-White scarf

-Autumn cushion cover

11. Get a tattoo for my birthday

12. Plant some colourful flowers in pots

13. Do enough yoga that I become more flexible again 

*I have made progress, but not as much as I would like. 

14. Learn how to make really cool renders on Photoshop

15. Practice Italian again

16. Buy my own perfume

17. Create and sew a really nice dress pattern

18. Go second hand bookshopping (and cross some books of the shopping list)

19. Clean out old stuff at mum and dads

20. Take my sister to estabar cafe in Newcastle

21. Go to an art show/gallery opening

22. Learn how to make different types of origami

23 Buy a self help book

*I think I might have done this, but I can't remember the exact book. 

24. Take a crafty/arty class

*I took the DIY Dress Up course by A Beautiful Mess. It was fantastic, and I am still working on some of the projects. 

25. Make a baked dinner for the family 

Overall I am happy with what I achieved this year. I am thinking of extending this list until my birthday (in June) in the hope I will finish everything. That way after my birthday I can start a 22 before 23 list! 

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New Years weekend wrap up

Reasons why this weekend was pretty cool:

I came home from my parents house for Christmas and realised a lot of my plants were flowering! They are so pretty. Part of the flowers were actually weeds in the lawn, but they are still kinda pretty to look at.

Restarting working hard on Everyday Mae stuff. I took a mini break over Christmas and now I am trying to be more motivated and productive with how I spend my days. 

New Years Eve! Grant and I spent time at two parties before meeting up with some other friends who drove up from Melbourne. We took them to watch the midnight fireworks at Stockton. It was fun, and I'll pretend that we didn't spend the last 10 minutes in 2011 light painting silly photos before the countdown began.

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November & December Books

So the official story for the lack of November & December books is that I forgot to write the titles down as I read them which resulted in not being able to do a post about them! I was reading though, I'm sure that I finished one or two books in November and in December it was one. I did buy a stack of second hand books that I can't wait to read (above!) and have been making steady progress on one of them. 

The only book I know for sure I finished was one that I borrowed from my sister and read in December. It was called "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. All I can say was...omigod. What an intense book! I don't have the words to describe it, but it kept wanting to come back and finish it in one sitting. I don't think I would be able to reread this book, but it definitely did haunt me. I don't think I will ever forget the story! 

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