Another busy one at work. We had lemon chicken tonight for dinner ~ yummo! I've also put my artwork together ready to drop off in the morning for the art show. Fingers crossed!!
Started work on another painting tonight and am happy with the progress so far. Talked with my sister on the phone and my little niece would like to come up for a visit so we're going to see what we can organise.
That's pretty much it for today.
Oops, missed another day! Had a good yet busy day at work. Had a quiet day either side of work and after dinner, went out for a hot chocolate with my dear friend Kath. Was nice to catch up with her again.
Not a terribly clear pic today but it's a zygo cactus in bloom.
Had a great day today. We started off by going in to the Mind Body Spirit Festival in the city and caught up with my dear friend Em who had a stall there. Em generously gave us tickets to get in and we had a wonderful morning wandering around all the various stalls, followed by a delicious vegetarian lunch.
We came home, fed the fishies, put a roast on for dinner, my former husband came over for a visit on his bike, we ate the roast for dinner and it was mouth wateringly delicious, and later settled in to watch a tv series about a woman called Lisa Williams who is a medium clairvoyant. Very very interesting to watch and for the cynics among us, makes you think twice.
Today was a good day.
I did a belly cast for a friend down the Gold Coast this morning ~ was good to see her and we had a lovely morning. Stopped at Yatala pies on the way home and got some yummies for lunch. Played around with my paintings in the afternoon, finished the outside edges on a few canvases and made some alterations to another one.
Bob organised some dinner and then we settled in to watch a movie ~ The Road to Rodanthe. A beautiful movie and bit of a tear jerker. The weekends seem to have become a time to do some movie watching of late which is a good way to relax and chill out. I'm enjoying it. That's it for today. Once again, the pic isn't taken by me but I'm in it, so I figure that's ok :)
Oops, didn't realise I'd missed a day. I'll put that down to a lack of sleep. I've been on call this week at work and on Thursday night, was paged late at 11.15pm. I had to go into work and didn't finish until 7am Friday morning. Needless to say, I was a tad tired but unfortunately wasn't able to sleep much on Friday. Just had a quiet day though and didn't really achieve anything at all.
Grabbed some Thai food for dinner and settled in to what a movie. I can't recall the name of it but it was kind of a black comedy about a poet who used to write suicide poems for people as a job. Quirky and funny in a whacky type of way.
Today's pic is not one I've taken, but it's of Miss Tiara and her cousin Skylar.
I'm really enjoying the little walks to and from where I park my car to work. And speaking of work, I enjoy it so much more when it's that little bit busier ~ the day goes faster and it somehow feels more productive.
When I first started my art class, I tried doing another painting at home so I could practice what I'd been learning. I'm not quite as happy with the colours as they are a little deeper than I'd like, however, I decided to finish it (or at least I think it's finished) and you'll notice it's similarity to the first one. Basically the same scene, slightly larger canvas, deeper colours ~ you get the drift. Anyways, this is what I've come up with.
Had a good day at work, very busy but I like that. I've been parking my car a five minute walk away so I get a little bit of exercise and have been enjoying the walk. The plan is to continue parking it there for another week or so, then when I'm used to that walk, park it another block or so away at the shopping centre which will make it a 10+ minute walk.
It's been a year since I attended an art class, so it was great going back tonight. I took the painting I'd started last time and did some more to that which was fun. Today's pic is of the work in progress.
The rain went away and left a beautiful day in it's place. Our fridge died overnight, so Bob spent some time reshuffling things into the old fridge which will take it's place until the other one is repaired or replaced. He ended up having the day off work, so did a few things around the house. We had dinner at Nick & Jess's place last night ~ was really yum and it was good to spend time with them and fun playing with Miss Tiara. She's such a funny little bean who has just discovered jumping on her bed! Came home, did a few chores, then off to bed. Today's pic is of a gorgeous gift I received in the mail today from my brother.
Oops missed another day! I'm good at that aren't I? Jeepers but Monday comes around quickly! Had a busy day at work though which was good. It also poured rain most of the day too. Nothing startling or out of the ordinary happening today, so this will just be a brief post.
Today's pic is of Josh's starfish and some type of cod that he's named King Leonitis who owns the fishtank!
Where does the weekend go? We pottered around some more today, I even had a nap in the afternoon as I was really tired from a fitful night's sleep. It rained on and off, so the clothes dryer had a workout.
Dinner was delicious, I made some home made stuffing for the roast chickens and it was scrumptious! I also made dessert which is something I rarely do and they came up wonderfully well too. We had a yummylicious sticky date pudding made from a fantastic recipe I found in a diary a while back. I realised later I should have taken a pic but I didn't think of it.
Had some Xavier snuggles and lots of smiles from him last night. He's so much fun.
Yayyy, it's Saturday! We had a huge day today. We have a rental inspection coming up and although our place is generally pretty clean and reasonably tidy, I like to use the inspection times as an opportunity for a spring clean. So today we've pruned trees, washed windows, tidied the yard, spent a little more time than usual cleaning the bathrooms and done the usual laundry. Tomorrow we'll finish off with the regular household chores and then have our usual Sunday night family dinner.
Bob's gone out to do a couple of massages this evening so he won't be home for a little while yet. I've just had a quite night and am thinking about watching a dvd, but I'm not sure if I'm too tired to make the effort. I'll decide soon!
Oops, I missed a day again. Had a pretty good Friday, work's busy, had work related supervision (kind of like debriefing counselling and personal workplace type of development all rolled into one) in the afternoon and it turns out my supervisor is great friends with my neighbour ~ small world!, and the boys had a horde of friends over last night. So not exactly a quiet night, but it was a good one.
Looking forward to the weekend!
Had a really busy productive day at work and thoroughly enjoyed most of the day. One incident with the boss wasn't pleasant at all but that aside, the rest of the day was great. My feet hardly touched the ground all day!
Came home pleasantly tired, had plans to see a friend before she flies out to WA tomorrow (they're moving to the other side of the country) but not sure what happened, she didn't turn up as arranged. She musta got busy with the last minute stuff.
My friend Kath came over for a cuppa after dinner, it's always good catching up with her.
Another good day today, I have a little more energy again which is always nice. I picked up my new stool for the studio today ~ I love it! I haven't taken a pic of it yet, but I will and then I'll post it at the end of this post.
My 4th son Jon and I went out for a hot chocolate last night. We get along well and it was soooo nice just to spend time talking about all sorts of stuff, but mostly about travel. He has plans to visit a few Aussie cities this year before heading off to London and Europe later next year. He even invited me along with him and his mate! I've wanted to visit some of the same places for years. He assures me if I can't make it, then he'll visit some of the places I want to go and take lots of pictures.
That's about it for now, so will come back to this when I've taken a pic of my new stool.
Today was a good day. I went back to work and managed to stay the whole day. Still have that annoying dry cough but otherwise good.
I had to go to an office supply shop today for work stuff but while I was there found a stool on castors that is just perfect for doing my art work and plaster casting. The guy is going to give me a discount if I pick it up when the work stuff comes in.
Went back to the doc (again!) to check on the ole blood pressure and it's finally coming down yayyy! It was at it's lowest in about 10 mths and was 152 over 79. Still a way to go but a huge improvement on what it has been and when it was at it's peak of 198 over 97. Feeling much better too.
Well that's about it for me today.
I was tagged by the beautiful Bella to answer these questions!
1. Who is the hottest movie star?
Hmm, well I don't know about the hottest but for me, there are a few I find hard to beat. Colin Firth, Matthew McConaghy, George Clooney and Richard Gere are some I really like. A lot!
2. Apart from a house and/or car, what is the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
Probably my holiday in Melbourne a few years ago. I hung out with some of the Tavern wenches for part of that trip and had an absolutely wonderful time.
3. What's your most treasured memory?
It's hard to narrow down to just one. The births of all my sons are treasured memories, as are the births of my gorgeous little grandbabies. It's just as amazing and magical welcoming your grandbabies into the world as it is your own babies. It still makes me misty eyed to think about it.
Apart from those, there are two that probably stand out for me. The first was Christmas day lunches at my maternal grandparents place. We'd have a sit down lunch of roast meat and vegetables, followed by plum pudding complete with threepences etc inside. Afterwards my grandfather would play Santa Claus and hand out gifts. Granddad could often be persuaded to play his piano accordian and harmonica. He also played the bones or spoons with them. I loved listening to him play.
The other special memory I have is of my sister in law not long after she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She'd lost a considerable amount of weight and her legs had become quite skinny. She and I sat there one afternoon checking out all the way we could cross our legs and laughing hysterically. Loud enough that our husbands came in to see what was going on. They wandered off again shaking their heads. We were also listening to a John Denver CD and in the middle of our laughing, a song came on and she said to me that she wanted me to remember that song. Whatever happened, remember that song. I didn't get what she was talking about for a minute and when I finally did, we were both in tears (she wanted it played at her funeral). The song was Rhyme or Reason. Our husbands walked in again in the middle of our tears, looked at each other then got a tissue box each, handed them to us and beat a hasty retreat. A moment later, we were laughing crazily again at our husbands reactions. Poor guys, didn't know what to make of us. She died about 7 months later and that memory has remained a very treasured one for me.
4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?
I can't think of any that stand out particularly. I know I was often asked was there anything particular I'd like and usually my requests were all fairly small, but they were rarely fulfilled because they were thought to be childish or not practical (like a barbie doll when I was a little girl). Perhaps one that I had the most fun with once I became confident on it was a bike.
5. 4 words to describe yourself ~
Creative, friendly, caring and optimisitic.
6. What was the highlight of 2008?
My eldest son's wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding, very happy and relaxed in a stunning setting on Stradbroke Island.
7. Favourite film?
Sheesh, as usual I have a couple of favourites. Notting Hill & Love Actually are probably two of the biggest faves although there are others I love too, like Tuesday's with Morrie, True Lies and Lil Rascals.
8. Tell me one thing that I don't know about you.
I never liked being the eldest child in my family. Ok, that's not a very positive one so I'll go for another one. My sister and I used to ride horses and sometimes at the end of the week if not all the horses had been ridden at the riding school where we used to go, the lady who ran the school would let us come out for a free ride to exercise them. One weekend, she let us ride our horses home while we had lunch. We tethered them to our swing set and went inside for lunch. When we came out, the horses were gone. We were frantic and had Mum driving us all over the neighbourhood looking for them. Eventually Mum decided we'd have to go and call the lady. The phone was ringing when we got in and it was the lady from the riding school asking were we missing anything? Apparently the horses decided to go home!
9. If you were a comic book/cartoon character, who would you be?
Marge Simpson is probably who I relate to the most.
10. What's one stupid thing you did today?
Said to my boss that I'd have to wait until a co worker came back before I could go out, thinking there was only one work vehicle there when there was actually two.
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I'm going to come back here later and tag a couple of other bloggers.
Back to work today after Thurs n Fri off sick. Thought I was feeling rather well n spritely, but an hour or so later felt like crap, so home again where I slept much of the day. Fingers crossed for tomorrow hey.
Didn't do much else other than sleep, I'd put dinner in the crock pot before going to work so didn't need much effort there. Today's pic is of an eel Bob caught.
Felt a lot better today once the day got on a little. Had a quietish day ~ Bob picked up Jamie this morning. He's going to have the day with us and stay overnight.
Did a little fishing, did a little laundry, baked a cake just for the hell of it, did a little knitting, successfully avoided some housework, did a little painting, enjoyed the hammock for a little while and had a house full for Sunday night dinner.
I'm happy with today's painting although the pic doesn't really show the colours. It's mostly in a really deep purple/violet kind of colour. Also got some really cute pics of Xavier tonight.
My coldy/fluey thing is finally starting to feel a little better so we ventured out today and did a little shopping. Got a couple of seedlings and a zygo cactus from Bunnings, bought some lurvely inexpensive new boots, had sushi for lunch and did a little fishing.
We went out last night to Iain & Sheila's farewell ~ they leave during the week for Perth. I'm sure going to miss them! We had a pizza party type night and enjoyed being round a little fire type thingy. I even wore my new boots for the occasion.
On the way home, the moon looked absolutely huge! It was beautiful. We took a few pics when we got home, but they don't do it justice. It looked awesome over the water.
This silly cold thing is driving me nuts. Felt like crap half the day and kind of ok for the bits inbetween, so obviously didn't do a great deal yesterday. I did watch a couple of movies, one I really enjoyed. It was called In Her Shoes and had Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine in it.
My veggie patch is coming along and the weeds sprouting up from Jon's birdseed are keeping company with the veggies. I have some little tomatoes growing, we been enjoying the shallots for a while, the lettuce aren't too far away and there's little heads on the cauliflowers. Hopefully they will continue to grow well.
Cripes it was cool today. I think winter is on it's way. I found it hard to warm up and seemed to be cold most of the day. Went into work but was only there an hour before coming home ~ it seems they don't want my coldy germs. Hopefully it goes away sooner rather than later.
Had rather a quiet day, slept on and off and didn't really do much of anything apart from a little knitting. Bob's son Jamie turned up again last night, seems he's lost his tenancy at the lodge he was staying in. So we'll no doubt be busy over the coming days finding him alternative accommodation.
Well not much else happening, will be back here tomorrow!
Yayyy I slept! Omg, how good does that feel to finally have a decent sleep after numerous nights of little sleep.
Nothing too major to report today. I had a good day at work and finished a little early which was nice. Started knitting another new scarf, I'll have to start giving some away at this rate! I made my mother in law's meatloaf for dinner ~ delicious!
I need to get in and do some more painting, but feeling a little tired today. I seem to be fighting off bit of a cold/flu thing at the moment, hopefully it goes away real soon. I had a call from the lady organising the art show I've entered and apparently there's been a few changes this year. If I want to exhibit pottery as well, then it's a separate entry. Hmm so need to do some quick deciding and get the entry form off to her in the morning so it will make her mail box before the cut off day on Friday.
Today's pic is of the scarf I finished over the weekend. I did the knit one row, purl one row and as a result, the dang thing curls like a tube. Ah well, you live n learn.
Hmm this would be a novel experience ~ actually posting my blog on the actual day!! And it's only 7.20 pm. Sheesh. Tis a nice change :)
It's my dear friend Starr's birthday today ~ I hope you've had a very happy day.
I had a good day at work today, it was busy-ish without being flat strap. And a relief it was a good day especially after yet another night of little sleep. I've been averaging about 3 hours a night for the last 4-5 nights. I'm very over it and looking forward to getting back into a normal sleep pattern again.
I even managed to get a heap of mail posted this afternoon after work, among the mail an altered book heading back to the US of A and an entry into a local art show.
Bob had a glucose challenge test this morning, they are checking to see if he has diabetes. Hopefully not. Bob ended up having the day off so he organised dinner tonight which was some delicious chinese food.
I finished knitting another scarf this morning but haven't yet taken a pic. Oh and I had a lovely online chat with my friend Lhia in the wee small hours of the morning while I wasn't sleeping.
That's about it. Today's pic is of the view from my window at work. Much nicer than my previous view of a brick wall.
It's my friend Mal's birthday today ~ hope you have a fantastic day Mal. I thoroughly enjoyed having a quiet long weekend. Didn't do a great deal as you can see from the last few days blogs but it was reasonably restful which I really need when I'm not sleeping well at the moment.
Yesterday involved a chat to Mum on the phone, a little fishing, a little cooking, a little knitting, a little painting, even got a call from an art teacher so I'm booked back in for art classes, had a little nap in the hammock and before bed, watched the movie Mama Mia. I love that movie! So a good day all round.
We enjoyed last night's catch for breakfast. Gotta say that cod was deeeeelicious!! Did a little more fishing and caught a couple of good size bait fish to put out on the rods.Did some more painting, cooked a delicious stirfry for lunch and even did a little knitting while I had a rest in the hammock. Ah Sundays are lovely! Kath came over for a visit in the afternoon and then Sheila came over and joined all of us for dinner. Well all of us except Dan & Sidonie because they went back over to Straddie. It was a really nice night and I think Sheila enjoyed playing with the little ones.
Had a nice cruisey type of day today. We wandered up the street, went to the art shop for some paint, picked up some magazines and a few scratchies from the newsagents ~ I even won $12!, did some grocery shopping and got stuck in a bookshop for a while before going to checkout the Old School Art Gallery.
Did a little fishing on and off throughout the day, although Bob was the one who caught some ~ a nice little bream and a good sized cod. Bob's son and his fiance came over for a visit as well.
Also did a little painting on and off throughout the day. Have I mentioned before how much I love having the shed made into an art studio? It's great!
I think I've finished this painting ~ or almost finished it anyway.
Hmm what happened on Friday? Yep I know, I've missed a couple yet again! Friday I went to work, had a good day really and then in the evening went and caught up with my former neighbours at their monthly cul-de-sac get together. I've missed a few this year, so was really nice to catch up with them all again.
Ina gave me some magazines from the UK to have a look at. I've only had a quick peek so far, but some of the scenery looks gorgeous.
Today's pic is of a pretty little double impatiens I have growing in a hanging pot.
Another quiet-ish day at work. We're getting there with the unpacking slowly but surely and finding homes for everything.
I went to visit Kath after work for a little while and she gave me a very cute little white bag with purple polka dots!
Wandered off and did the grocery shopping and while I was out and about, I picked up an el cheapo cd player for the shed-come-art studio. Of course I had to test it out tonight while I did a bit more to the painting I'm working on.
Jeepers ~ I started the day with next to no sleep. I couldn't go to sleep so went out and painted for a while. The while turned a bit longer and it was 2am when I finally lay down for some sleep. But I woke again at 5am! That was good in one way because my son from another mum, Pommy Josh, was being taken to the airport by Jon and they had to leave here before 5.30am. But boy oh boy was I tired! Had a quiet day at work, went to supervision for work in the afternoon, then headed over to see my friend Loraine for a while. Loraine flies off to Launceston early Friday morning on her new venture. Spent a couple of hours there before heading home and grabbing some Chinese food for dinner on the way. The boys were all out watching the State of Origin football match, so Bob & I had some 'us' time for a while. Loraine gave me a big fruit platter before I left, one she liked but too heavy and awkward to pack. So a little momento! I look forward to seeing her in Tassy in a few months.
I'm thoroughly enjoying having space set up to paint whenever I feel drawn to. I painted a little this morning before work and again after I came home from work.
Went to pottery tonight and my dish had finally been re-fired. I'm really happy with the way the colours came up.
It's Pommy Josh's last night in Australia, he flies out tomorrow morning. He's staying at our place tonight and Jon will take him to the airport bright and early (they will be leaving around 5am-ish).
That's about it for today.
Went back to work today in our new workplace and spent much of the day unpacking and settling into my office. The place has a nice feel about it and is light and airy, plus I have a nice view of trees out my window.
Came home, organised dinner then out to the shed to paint. It was great being able to do that and having everything set up so I can just wander in and pick up where I left off. Spent much of the evening in there and just wandered insided to do the dinner preparation and eat. I think I'm going to enjoy being able to use this space. Who knows? I might become more productive with my art stuff as well!
Here's the work in progress.
