Jet Setting II

Well, The trip to Melbourne was substantially more fun this past weekend than it was the last time we went. We organised things to do, such as going to the see the 'Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney's Classic Fairy Tales' at ACMI. It was fantastic to see the original drawings, concepts and cells; the sheer talent was breathtaking! (I bought the book as we were leaving :D)

And later that evening we took in a play that was showing in one of the surrounding towns. It was 'The Shoehorn Sonata' - it was performed wonderfully, and I have to admit, I got misty eyed and some parts were hard to see performed.

My cousin's wedding was lovely and intimate, at the botanic gardens with a small group of relatives and close friends. It was great to catch up with family we hardly see, and to welcome a new member to the family fold.

And it will be off to Sydney tonight for the engagement party of a friend, so much travelling... it's no wonder I'm completely exhausted.

Tangled

SO TOTALLY LOVED THIS FILM (I'm buying it the minute its out on DVD).

I want to go see it again... only this time, not in 3D; though I think we'll end up watching 'The King's Speech' instead.

new vacuum

image sourced from google images.
Ah ha! I am almost more excited over the lovely new vacuum mum & I bought today than I was over all the fantastic things I got for Christmas.

So lets start there. Firstly, I've been sick for weeks (since a fortnight before Chrissy and I'm still sick now, even my antibiotics are being slack). Christmas was nice, its the first one that we've ever had in my life where it was just the six of us (Mum, Dad & the siblings)... so it was quiet but enjoyable. We did Secret Santa again this year in another attempt to lessen our Christmas spending, however, because we've never enforced price limits I still spent almost $100.⁰⁰ on my person and my SS definitely spent heaps on my lovely bundle of gifts!. I received a lovely wooden sewing box and a 'sewing project' bag, which fits all my fabrics and patterns with heaps of room to spare!

There was a whole Santa Sack of goodies, but I'm really too lazy to blog about all of 'em ;)

Now on to the vacuum. The reason we needed one so terribly was that my brother decided to clean up the mess he'd made in the lounge room drilling and what-not so he plugged in our vacuum and it combusted into flames - not entirely his fault; since the vacuum had been on the fritz the day before and we hadn't got around to repairing it. But mum had only warned us girls about the vacuum, not counting on the good deed that was being hatched to surprise her with... so that brought us to the sudden need to buy a vacuum.

So I spent last night researching vacuums and once I found the brand with the most positive reviews I began a search and discovered several large shops were having sales, and the one where we could get it cheapest ended today! so early in the morning I accosted mum over a cup of tea and we made an outing into the wide world of vacuum cleaners and after trekking all the way to Fyshwick we finally obtained the vacuum we wanted & got it discounted further ;) I'm so happy... BEST.VACUUM.EVER

It's just so... slurpy! yay!

Secret Santa

This year some friends of mine & I decided to do secret santa. This is what I gave away :)
A jar full of M&M Cookies mix.
A handmade stocking courtesy of Camille's 'Merry' pattern. {I used 'Clermont Farms' Moda Jelly Roll for the body of the stocking and another Moda red & gold star fabric for the cuff.}
and...
'Patches' the Zhu Zhu guinea pig + outfit (the pet for the girl who can't buy a pet since she's movin' out soon). haha, even 20+yr olds can enjoy electronic rodents :D

Oh, and what did I receive I hear you ask?! - a jumbo gingerbread house :D mmm, yummy :)

christmas time is coming

I'm really enjoying Christmas time this year; not to say that I don't enjoy it every year, but this year, I've been trying to be more Christmas-y. I made a note to myself to have the Christmas tree up sometime during the first week of December - check. I've got to have a Secret Santa present ready to go by this Thursday - check. Christmas carols on my iPhone - check... see? it's all so Christmas-y.

Plus, teaching RE in the schools is over for another year, and so is teaching in the parish, so I don't have to worry about planning lessons and preparing craft activities for the next couple of months... now it will just be focusing on having a lovely Christmas with my family and perhaps making it to the coast this summer :D

Also, can't wait for my sewing patterns to arrive... pity the post is always slow around Christmas time. Though I'm just over the moon that I was able to buy Camille's "Merry" stocking pattern in .pdf form - yay!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

ps: actual picture sewing tutorial for the stockings.

I'm online

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
One more subject finished for the year! I've completed and submitted both my print and online portfolios so that means GD4.2 is over! - Bring on the celebrations :)

Just a couple more subjects to get out of the way and then (hopefully) I'll have finished this degree. {say a prayer for me, thanks}

Anyway, since I've been up over 24hours and I'm basically crazy, I'm going to go have a cup of tea and try to unwind... and then I'll probably crash completely.

so little time

I have been slamming out my assignments this week like some kind of demented machine on the verge of malfunctioning. Each night I sit hunched in front of my computer clicking and tapping before crawling into bed to the malicious chirping of birds. Well, at least I've managed to be productive; yesterday I finished 3 assignments, including one which required me to sew a replica of the toy I'd submitted the day before in order to take photos to put in my portfolio (see square bear above). And of course Murphy's Law strikes true again with this little guy looking a thousand times better than the one I actually ended up submitting. Anyway, I was just so pleased that he gets to feature on the graduating website, even though he missed out on the exhibition book and poster.

Oh I should probably take this space to plug Softies for Mirabel whom he was created to promote. Since we have so many self-directed pieces, sometimes the structure of doing a set brief really helps; and when I stumbled across the suggestion to make a promotional flyer on Meet Me At Mikes I was just swept away with the creative possibility of an actual softie being the poster and the idea of informational vintage inspired swing tags that people could take home and use as inspiration. Of course I know that my idea is in no way realistic, but the aim of the game is to produce a single piece of work that will result in an HD grade, not necessarily a viable marketing tool. Anywho, I was vainly proud of the quality of the piece, I love it when I can look at something and be amazed that it was actually me who made it; then I don't feel like I'm just a phoney somehow sneaking their way through the degree. eh, I babble.

I'll definitely be posting a link to my class' graduating exhibition website once its all online... I just can't believe that the end is almost here, I can still remember first year tutes like they were only yesterday (and not 4 years ago). And now here I am, watching all my friends get jobs in the industry and put together killer portfolios whilst I sit up to the wee hours of the morning flicking through hundreds of photos and dismiss each one as not good enough to grace my portfolio which doesn't even exist.