Today...

Today is just another ordinary day.

Or is it?

Today...Falcon is 3 years 9 months and 0 days.

Today...Pepper is 4 years 4 months and 25 days.

Today...Jasmine is 0 years 1 month and 25 days.

Today...Gus is 40 years 0 months and 11 days.

And today...I am 37 years 0 months and 0 days.

Happy Birthday to me. Yay!

Yes, this was my (or "our" as it was a cake for Gus' birthday too) birthday cake that
my family generously supplied on Saturday. And boy was it delicious!! :D

*hugs*

10 Things

I used to watch a lot of TV. Nowadays, not so much. Our {almost} state-of-the-art 46" Full HighDef LCD TV sits idle - just a big black object in the Media Room.

I can't pinpoint the exact date when I gave up watching TV (although it has been several years now). Maybe when we ditched cable TV (because it was getting boring and expensive when we weren't watching it). Or maybe it was when I found other things more exciting to do, like scrapbooking and chatting on online forums! Or maybe I just got really sick of all the DIY and Reality TV shows that dominated Prime Time TV. Whatever the reason and whenever it was, at some point in time I turned off the TV permanently.

I definitely feel better for it.

But enough about that. I thought I'd share with you today 10 TV shows that I USED to watch. Religiously. They're not in any order, nor are they all from one period in time. They span at least a decade or two from my childhood through to early adulthood. They're not all the same genre either, although I did have a huge preference for any Japanese anime or other cartoon, animal documentaries and crime/detective documentaries. So here goes:

• The X-Files
  
• Magnum PI
  
• Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life (cartoon)
  
• Dukes of Hazard
  
• Cold Case
  
• Better Homes and Gardens
  
• Astro Boy/G-Force (or any other Japanese Anime)
  
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
  
• Knight Rider
  
• MacGuyver
  

Of course there were others, but these are the first ten that come to mind. And boy, what a trip down memory lane!! Did you used to watch any of these shows?!? Or what do you watch religiously now? Were there any other 80s or 90s TV shows that you used to watch? Let me know in the comments and we can reminisce together!! LOL

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Today's post has been brought to you by Shimelle's 10 Things on the 10th regular feature. Why don't you join in as well? Click here to link up and see what everyone else has to offer today. :D

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*hugs*

It was Air Supply!

There were four people in the dimly lit room that night. It was very late. Despite the spaciousness of the room, the three women and one man were crowded together in one corner. There was an air of waiting, an air of expectancy.

Music played softly in the background. One song faded out and after a very short interval, the opening bars of another song started.

As the lyrics of the song began, one of the women sat back on her stool and said quietly, “The music has been good tonight. Lots of good songs.”

“Yes, the music has been great! I’ve really enjoyed it.” One of the other women replied.

The first woman spoke up again. “This isn’t the original version of this song, is it?”

“No, it’s not.” answered the man. “I think this version is by Human Nature.”

“Oh. Do you know who sang the original version then?” asked the woman.

The man thought for a moment before replying, “Um, no. I can’t remember. It is an old song though.”

A moment of silence passed.

“I can’t seem to recall who sang the original either.” said a second woman. “It’s going to bug me now. No doubt I’ll remember later!”

Another brief moment of silence passed.

Then, with a bit of effort, the third woman spoke from the bed she was lying on. “It was Air Supply.”

“Oh yes, that’s right! Air Supply!” exclaimed the first midwife.

“Well now, you can’t be in that much pain if you can remember such details.” The second midwife said, teasing the woman on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that, my dear friends, is one of the more humorous memories I have of the labour suite, in one of the more lucid moments between contractions.

Oh, and if you were wondering, the song being referred to was “I’m All Out of Love”. ;)

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This story is my first attempt at Sian’s Storytelling Sunday (yes, I know it's now Monday here, but it's still Sunday somewhere else in the world! LOL). I hope you enjoyed it and you can find more stories here.

Come back shortly for today's Monday Giggles (after I can get some sleep!).

*hugs*

ABC...

Okay, so I'm still going through the photos from Ironfest so that post isn't quite ready yet. But here's something interesting that I found on Toni's blog My World...Sort Of and thought it would be fun to play along. The ABC of me! Ready?

A. Age: Do you really need to know?!?!
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore that you hate: Anything to do with cleaning pretty much sums it up.
D. Dogs: Two Mini-Foxies, Pepper & Falcon, 4 and 3.5 years old respectively.
E. Essential start to your day: Breakfast, or anything in my stomach!
F. Favorite colour: Purple
G. Gold or Silver: Silver (or White Gold even :D)
H. Height: 5'7" or 174cm
I. Instruments you play: Piano. Sort of... at least I wish I could!
J. Job title: Insurance Administration Assistant, although in about 2 months time that will change to "Mother". :D
K. Kids: One in the oven, just about done. Two furkids.
L. Live: In the most beautiful place that's still close enough for me to be able to sanely commute to Sydney.
M. Mother's name: Helen
N. Nicknames: Win
O. Overnight hospital stays: None as yet. This will change in July.
P. Pet peeve: Where do I start?!?!?
Q. Quote from a movie: "I feel the need...the need for speed!"
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: One younger brother
T. Time you wake up: When it's still dark on a workday, and between 8-9 on other days.
U. Underwear: ?!? Definitely!
V. Vegetable you hate: Brussels Sprouts
W. What makes you run late: Procrastination
X. X-Rays you've had: Sinuses and a couple of chest ones.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Anything edible!
Z. Zoo animal: Polar bear

This would be a great list to scrapbook or make into a mini-album too. I'll add this to my ever increasing list of projects. LOL

If you want to play along too, let me know and I'll come and take a look at your list. :D

*hugs*

Long Weekend Positives

We have had the longest weekend break here in Aus - 5 days!! 4 days for Easter and then a make-up holiday today since yesterday was Anzac Day/Easter Monday. Add to that my usual Thursday off and I've had 6 days off - woo hoo! :D

My OLW must be starting to rub off because I've been trying to focus on the positives all this long weekend instead of the nagging negatives. That's a first for me! We've still got a long way to go though. *grimace*

So let's see what positives have happened over the past 6 days:

* I had an appointment at the hospital last Thursday and everything is fine, including the fact that the results of my blood tests showed that I DO NOT have gestational diabetes - phew!

* The Wicked obsession continues! The long-awaited Grimmerie (Wicked Almanac) arrived and there's lots to take in so I've been going through it slowly. Excitement levels have been high. LOL Just wish there was an Australian edition.

* Typical Easter weather - cold and wet. Yes, this is a positive because it brings in the mist and makes the Mts look beautiful - what you can see anyway. LOL It also means snuggling up beneath a blanket or warm doggie in front of the heater. :D

* Haircut - I finally managed to get to my hairdresser and got rid of the long-becoming-really-unmanageable locks. Short hair is good for now. :D

* Catching up with family and friends who were up in the Mts for the weekend. Along with most of Sydney it seemed. The villages are usually busy around Easter, but this weekend was absolutely crazy!!

* Managing to take the dogs to the dog park not once, but twice! It would have been more had the weather been permitting.

* Making a start on the nursery. We've got all the furniture, just have to find homes for everything! Many thanks to my SIL who gave us HEAPS of clothes from her workplace. We can't complain that bubby won't have anything to wear. LOL

* Having time to reflect on Jesus' death and what that really means to me.


So that was my fantastic Easter weekend break. Today has been an absolutely lazy, sleeping-in-front-of-the-heater-with-a-dog-on-my-lap kind of day, and I'm sad that it's now coming to a close. In trying to remain positive though, I have one day of work tomorrow (Wednesday) and then off again. Gotta love that!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter break too!

*hugs*

You say tomay-to, I say tomaa-to!

Thanks to all those who commented on my post yesterday about Woolies. Apparently there seems to be some difference between the Woolworths stores in Australia and the rest of the world. In the back of my mind, I did know this, but should have realised that perhaps the rest of the world didn't and made it a bit clearer in my post.

Woolworths in Australia is a supermarket, where I get all my groceries (ie. foodstuffs), not a variety store as it appears to be in the UK and US. The variety store arm of Woolworths (as Alannah kindly pointed out) is called Big W here. Both are doing extremely well and there isn't much chance of either closing down all stores. In fact, I wish they would open a Big W around here, but that's a whole other issue!

So there you have it! It's cool that we all have our different country-specific stores, as well as the more well-known global chains. It keeps us all unique! :D

*hugs*

Pregnancy Positives!

For the past six and a half months, I've been moaning and groaning about how sick and tired I've been feeling due to being pregnant. All I can think about is the negatives, and boy are there plenty of those!

Therefore, as partly an exercise for my One Little Word project for this year (sadly neglected!), I've decided to try and list out some positive things about being pregnant.

So, here's a start to the list:

• Having a very valid reason for doing absolutely nothing and dropping everything in the name of "needing a nap/rest"!
  
• Being able to get hubby to do most (if not everything) for me.
  
• Hubby is actually learning how to cook and make more than just minute noodles. LOL
  
• It's quite amusing watching strangers trying to figure out if I'm pregnant or if my "spare tyre" is protruding.
  
• No more monthly hassles, especially period cramps and bad acne!
  
• I can blame forgetfulness and other erratic behaviour on having "baby brain".
  
• Enjoying gorgeously thick and luxurious hair and lovely strong nails!
  
• Having a valid reason for going gooey over baby clothes and toys.
  
• For once in my life I can have decent sized boobs! Although I'm currently still waiting for them too fill out somewhat. ;)
  

That's about all I can come up with at this stage. Do you have any to add? I'd love to hear your suggestions or experiences.

I want to try and make a mini-book out of these thoughts so I have something to remind me that this pregnancy IS positive and that indeed, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

*hugs*

A Lovely Day and the Play Chair

For the first time in about two weeks, I actually had an enjoyable day! I didn't feel as sick and tired today as I have been so we decided to make the most of that and venture out. Okay, so the main purpose of today was to go and get groceries, but sometimes the simplest tasks can lead to other more enjoyable things - like a nice brunch in a Katoomba cafe; a surprising lack of crowds in the supermarket (on a Saturday morning); everything I needed to buy being in stock(!); sunshine on a gorgeous autumn day (which then turned to rain by the afternoon, but at least I saw the sun today!!); a lovely impromptu picnic lunch by Wentworth Falls Lake, finding a HUGE dog park (old unused golf course) that we could take the dogs to and then enjoying a nice, uneventful and peaceful evening. I definitely need to enjoy these moments as I'm sure I won't get much peace AFTER baby arrives! LOL

Anyhoo, here's another LO I did during the week:

Credits: Echo Park Walk In The Park PPs and ticket; Dog Moments rub-on and paw prints from Dog Gone Cute by Mindy Terasawa; Dog sticker, bone charm and staple from Dog Park by Katie Pertiet; Title font: An Accidental Kiss; Journalling font: SS Play; Template by Splendid Fiins. Created in PS CS4.

We've been really neglectful of the dogs since I became pregnant and virtually incapacitated most of the time. They haven't had their daily walks and are becoming a bit feral! In order to combat this (although I do know it's not the best solution), we play indoor fetch with them of an evening in addition to small training sessions throughout the day (when I'm not working). We started to sit in a chair to play fetch with them and being dogs, they picked up really quickly that whenever we sat in "the chair", a game of fetch would ensue. Unfortunately this means that we can't even touch the chair without the dogs going ballistic and thinking that they were going to get a game of fetch! Thus the Play Chair was born. LOL

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!

*hugs*

Six (and a bit) Months

Wow. Can you believe it? It's been six months already. Well, a bit over six months as I've now just passed 25 weeks. I finally have a baby bump that makes me look pregnant instead of just overly fat! I've had to bite the bullet and buy some maternity wear as items in my wardrobe are becoming quite tight and uncomfortable. We've also been buying all sorts of items in preparation for the baby, and hopefully I'll fill you in on all this in another post.

It hasn't been the easiest journey to this point in time and I'm not optimistic about the next three months - emphasised by the fact that I'm feeling quite ill and exhausted as I'm typing this post. I'm impatient for things to return to normal even though part of me knows that once bubby arrives, NOTHING is going to be normal or ever the same again. In some ways I grieve that, even though I know I'm embarking on a whole new adventure which is going to take me waaaay out of my comfort zone! For reasons I don't want to share publically, I'm not looking forward to this new phase of life, but God knows what's He's doing even if I don't!

On a more positive note, baby has been VERY active and it makes me wonder if she's as impatient to be out in the world as I am for her to be?!? LOL So far all the signs have been good and I'm to present myself to the hospital next week for "booking in" - whatever that entails! If baby doing somersaults in my tummy isn't enough to enforce the reality of my pregnancy, I'm sure that the hospital visits and ante-natal classes will!

Now, is that a LO I spy?!? Oh my, it certainly is!! :D

Credits: Adorableness kit by Traci Reed; Template from Traditional Templates II by Scrapping with Liz;
Journalling font - Angelina. Made with Photoshop CS4.

This must be my first layout in about three months. I did manage a few digi layouts for the UKS Christmas Crop last year, which I didn't share on the blog, but you'll find them in my Flickr. I do prefer the touchy-feely aspect of physical scrapping, but in the absence of the energy and stamina needed to sit at my craft desk, digi scrapping is very handy indeed.

*hugs*

True Scrap

Some of you may have heard of the awesome scrapbooking event coming up in April called True Scrap - three days of awesome classes and make-and-takes by some of the top names in the scrapbooking industry. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this out (click on the image for more information):

Looks great, huh? Well, I'm ecstatic to say that yours truly managed to win herself a place in this awesome event! How cool is that?!? I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Now I just have to figure out what time I need to be up as the classes will be based on US Eastern time, which will be about 14 hours behind. That makes it sound more difficult and gruelling than a UKS Cybercrop!! LOL The fact that I've got other things planned for that weekend will make things interesting too. Never mind, I'm sure I'll figure a way around all these hurdles!! :D

Will I see you there in the classes too?!?

*hugs*

Still here . . . & a dose of Monday Giggles!

Hey blog friends! *waves* Long time no "see", huh? I'm still here, barely!

Let me fill you in a little on what's been happening. After starting to recover somewhat from morning sickness, I then was very kindly given a dose of the flu by my very sharing husband. That bout of flu turned into a chest infection which put me in hospital for a couple of hours as we thought it was something more serious! Thankfully the all clear was given after being wired up to a very loud beeping machine and subjected to x-ray vision (without a hunky superman *boooo* ) and I was sent home with nothing more than some paracetamol to help with the pain. Bubby was (and still is!) fine, although everytime I succumbed to a coughing fit she would do the equivalent of cartwheels to show her displeasure. Going to be an active one, this baby!

So that was about two weeks ago and I think I've pretty much recovered from that awful incident. Unfortunately, the morning sickness seems to have returned. Ugh.

But enough about that. I've decided in the light of my One Little Word for this year that I'm going to try and be positive this week. There are a lot of things I want to share with you, some good news and some other little bits and pieces so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a long awaited instalment of Monday Giggles.

Enjoy!



*hugs*

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!!!

Happy Australia Day dear blog friends!

Historically, 26 January marks the day when Captain Arthur Phillip and entourage first stepped onto Australian soil in 1788. These days, along with celebrating that "first landing", we also celebrate what it means to be Australian, to be an Aussie!

There are lots of things that signify "being Australian", but here are the characteristics that I consider make ME essentially Aussie (in no particular order):

• I have freedom.
• I am multicultural.
• I am eager to help those in need.
• I am friendly.
• I have a dry sense of humour, and can laugh at (or make fun of) anything.
• I am ready to take on anything life throws at me.
• Friendships or "mateships" are important to me.

And now, for a bit of fun, here are some things that I'm kind of lacking with respect to being a true blue Aussie:

• I don't like beer. Or vegemite for that matter.
• Thongs (or flip-flops to you Northern Hemisphere readers!) are not my ideal choice of footwear.
• I can handle not going to a beach every weekend.
• Sports do not particularly interest me, especially cricket or rugby (oh shock horror!!)
• I don't drive a ute. Or a Holden. Or Ford.

To all my Aussie friends, have an absolutely fantastic Australia Day!! Try not to melt in today's heat! LOL

*hugs*

One Little Word . . .

As some of you know (and are already participating in!), Ali Edwards runs her One Little Word project every year. This year she's even running a full scale online course on Big Picture Classes.

I wasn't going to participate as I had already decided NOT to get involved with any classes or year long projects due to a) impending baby (self-explanatory) and b) never completing any of them anyway (the amount of unfinished layouts/projects/online classes/courses I have lying around would shock you!).

However, last night whilst trying to drop off to sleep, God whispered a single word to to me through the deafening noise of the rain/crickets/frogs outside and even through the fog of my pregnantly ill brain.

Positive

Wha...?!? Huh?!? Positive?

"Positive what?!?", my pained brain thought. "Oh, do you mean BE POSITIVE?"

Silence.

Oh. Must be what He meant. Zzzzzzz...

* * * * *

Throughout all of today, my brain has been pondering this one little word. Positive.

Nope. Definitely not me. I'm as negative as they come.

All the more reason for you to take ownership of the word, spoke the Voice of Reason in my head.

Sometimes I really hate that voice . . .

See! Negativity again. Embrace the word, go on!

Okay, fine! I'm POSITIVE I'm the most negative person in the world, AND the world's worst pessimist. There.

...

* * * * *

As the arguments in my head continued back and forth throughout the day, I was eventually talked around and made to see the positives (ha!) of adopting this one little word. What harm could it do, really?!? And if I don't actually get around to completing any craft projects related to it, at least it will be at the forefront of my mind, right?

So there you have it.

Positive.

Image by skele_kitty from DeviantArt.

*hugs*

Ramp Up Your Knitting Skills!

I'm not much of a knitter. Either I can't get the tension in the wool right, or my hands cramp up before I've even done two rows! So I do admire and envy those of you who can knit.

I'm especially in awe of a lady called Agata Olek who "yarn-bombed" the now-even-more-famous Wall Street Bull over Christmas:



Isn't that awesome!?!? I think it looks so much better, don't you?!? LOL

(To see a video of how she did it, click here.)

Time to ramp up your knitting skills, don't you think?!? LOL

*hugs*

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!!

Okay, okay, you're all probably dying to hear of this news I've been going on about for a while now. Nothing like being kept on the edge of your seat, huh? LOL

Well, for some of you, it might not seem momentous, but it's certainly life-changing for me. You see, around about the middle of this year, there's going to be a mini-WinGus running around. Well, not exactly running around. More like lying around sleeping and crying and generally keeping me on my toes!

Yes folks, that's right, I'm going to have a baby! I'm currently at 13 weeks and feeling pretty awful. "Morning" sickness has morphed into 24/7 sickness, although thankfully I'm only feeling nauseous and not actually throwing up. Doesn't make me feel any better though! I'm also feeling excessively tired and just generally sick. Hence all the sickness and absence from the blog world at the end of last year.

I'm still in a bit of shock. It all happened so quickly! Both Gus and I were under the impression that it would take about a year for my body to return to normal after coming off the contraception, and thus a year to prepare ourselves for it all. What we weren't prepared for was me becoming pregnant within 36 hours of having the contraception removed!!! :o God obviously had other ideas, throwing us into the deep end with no time for preparation or procrastination! I suppose stranger things have happened!

So there you go. That's my big news. I will admit that I am not ecstatic about this whole thing, but I won't go into the details of that. It's certainly going to be a very challenging and interesting year!

*hugs*

A New Year and a New Look!

Happy New Year dear blog friends!! I pray that your year will be full of love and blessings and many pleasant surprises!

How do you like the new blog look (if you're reading this in a Reader, come on over and have a peek!)? I have been working on it for a while now, from about September last year, before I got sick and couldn't do much at all. The header up there I created from graphics designed by the wonderful Crystal Wilkerson. I love her designs for Echo Park and was thrilled when she converted her paper ranges to digi. For those who are familiar with Echo Park, you'll recognise the patterns and embellishments come from Sweet Summertime - possibly my favourite Echo Park range. The colours and patterns are just so fresh and playful! Oh, and if you want to check out Crystal's digi stuff, her shop can be found at Jessica Sprague. I also found this great grid background from DeviantArt. If you haven't been to DeviantArt before, go check it out, it's totally mind blowing!!!

Now, apart from the new graphics and having moved a few things around, you may have noticed some page tabs up there ^^^ underneath the header picture. They're mostly straight forward, but let me guide you around a bit:

• About Me - no explanation needed really! Just go and have a read. :D
  
  
• Tumbler - this is a link to what will be a repository of craft goodies that I find during my travels around the web. It's currently empty as I haven't had a chance yet to add anything, but I will be going back to add some wonderful finds in the next few weeks.
  
  
• Guestbook - this is a great new feature I've added. If you want to make a general comment rather than one in relation to a post, please feel free to pop it in here. I look forward to hearing from you! :D
  
  
• Blog Awards - The few awards I've been graciously given all have a home in the one spot now!
  

And that's it! Well, for the pages anyway. Go and have a play and see what you can find. :D

Monday Giggles will be back this year, starting from Monday, 3 January 2011. How exciting! Have you missed these as much as I have?!? I certainly could have done with a few laughs at the end of last year.

As for other posts, I can't promise I'll be posting much more this year, but hopefully if I'm not flat on my back and have a modicum of energy, I will be able to tell you more about what's going on around here and what I've been up to. Don't worry, you haven't missed out on much so far! But more about that later.

Right, well, that's pretty much it for the new blog. Come back tomorrow for some exciting news! :D  

*hugs*

Merry Christmas!!!!

How on earth did Christmas sneak up on me so soon?!? LOL Mind you, I'm feeling very bah humbug this year. Probably something to do with being so ill lately and the house severely lacking in any Christmas decorations whatsoever. I had such grand plans for our first Christmas in the Mountains AND some really grand plans for this blog, but it's all amounted to naught as I have barely had the energy to scratch myself let alone bring my grand plans to fruition!!!

But enough of my griping! It's Christmas and I want to wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a very blessed New Year. May love abound for you all during this wonderful time. :D

(If you've been checking lately, sorry about the strange blog background graphics. I had it drafted, but it didn't work properly! Oh, and stay tuned next week for a bit of a revamp and finally some good news!)

*hugs*

Where's Winnie?

I know you must be wondering Where is Winnie lately?!?!, so this is just a quick post to tell you that all is not well in the Winnitude world.

Firstly, my bodyclock is all out of whack. I usually get like this during the change of seasons. It seems that my body adjusts to daylight savings time about a month before it's actually applied - so for about a month, my body is totally confused and completely stuffed. One more week to go. I think we change to daylight savings time next weekend. Yay. The other reason my body clock is out of whack is due to the fact that I've somehow developed an awful habit of getting home after work, having dinner, falling asleep in the recliner (usually with a dog on my lap. Or two.), waking up at midnight and freaking out 'cause I've done nothing all night but sleep. Then by the time I've fluffed around, it's 2am and I'm trying to shut my mind down and go to sleep. Only to have to wake up again at 5am to get ready to go to work and the routine starts all over again. On the days I don't work, I'm so knackered that I end up sleeping all day, and then wondering where all the time has gone and why I haven't accomplished anything. Sigh. This September seems to have been a wasted month with very little accomplished.

The second reason I haven't been around is that I've been struggling with a stomach virus for all of last week. I get bad bacteria in my stomach from time to time, but it normally doesn't last 6 days. I don't like doctors, so I didn't go to see one until Saturday when I couldn't stand going to the toilet every 2 hours any longer. The doctor gave me FOUR GIGANTIC tablets to take ALL AT ONCE!!!!! Well, all at once meaning to take them at the one time, not literally all at once. I think I would have choked. Or suffocated. Or both. By Sunday morning I was feeling okay and could actually eat something without it coming out the other end (sorry, I know that's a bit too much information, but I'm just presenting facts!). Good thing too as I went to see Wicked and had to sit for three hours!

(Oh, and Wicked was ABSOLUTELY FANTABULISTICALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More on that at a later date.)

The third reason I haven't been around is because of various events I've had to attend. It's Spring. There is an event or function that I *have* to attend almost every weekend. I hate having to travel all the way to Sydney events, although they are enjoyable once I get there, but the travelling really tires me out. The local events are the best. So close, so different, so enjoyable. :D There's still lots to do!

Finally, the fourth reason why I haven't been around is because I've had to stay off the internet due to the fact that I've pretty much maxed out our broadband limit this month. I've been downloading digital crafting goodies like there's no tomorrow, forgetting that I'm not in the city anymore and as such, do not have access to any *affordable* unlimited broadband plans. Bu**er. Only a few more days until the limit is reset and I'll be back to haunt you. Bwahahahahaha!

(Yes, the lack of sleep has completely fried my brain. Completely.)

Oh, and sorry for the not-so-quick-post. You know how I like to ramble. LOL

*hugs*

Antique Store Fun!

I admit it. I've never really been interested in antiques or second-hand goods, so have tended to stay away from such stores or markets. On the weekend however, I discovered that I have been completely depriving myself of the fun and enjoyment which comes from browsing antique stores!

We've been looking for a round mirror to go above our fireplace and we figured Antique stores might be a good place to start as we don't really want a modern looking one. So we headed up to Blackheath to the large Antique store there. Wowsers! The store was filled from floor to ceiling with loads of wonderful goodies! Furniture, homewares, knick-knacks, clothing - everything (and more!) was represented. It was awesome!

We flipped through old 80s records, exalting and cringing accordingly. Gus came across an old Canon camera and spent some time trying to figure out how it worked. We paged through tattered books on Signal Flags and Anatomy from the 1930s and 40s. I gingerly fingered some absolutely gorgeous dresses from the 1950s. We laughed at fluoro-orange furniture and homewares from the 1960s. We puzzled over the function of unusual items. We marvelled at 100 year old guns, wondering if they still worked.

Three hours later, we stumble out of the shop, exhausted! We didn't find a mirror, but I did get this gorgeous box/travel case.

Gus thought that I matched the case with my vintage looking hat, scarf and cardigan, so I made him take a photo. What do you think? I can just picture myself standing at a railway station waiting for the old steam train to take me to places unknown!! LOL

The actual antiquity of the box/case is definitely up for debate, but it doesn't bother me one iota. It's beautiful as is and it makes a fantastic place to store my mini-books. If I ever make enough to fill it that is. LOL

I wish I could show you all the other items we looked at but unfortunately photography was not allowed and there were security cameras all over the shop. :( Never mind. I'm sure you can imagine it!

*hugs*

One More Sleep!!!!

One more sleep until Wicked. Again. Yay!!!

Oh, and did I tell you that after this show, I'm going to see it FOR A THIRD TIME on September 26th?!?!

My wonderful hubby has agreed to go tomorrow (which was SUPPOSED to be the last show - don't ask, it was a HUGE debacle) as well as the [absolute] Final Show on the 26th. Isn't he just the best?!?!? :D

So, just repeating. One more sleep until Wicked. Then another 14 more sleeps until the final Wicked. YAY!!!!!!!!

I'm not obsessed. No, no!

......

Okay, okay, so maybe I am. Just a little. LOL

*hugs*