10 - 1 things you ...

Found this fun list over at Forest Gnomes (v.cool spot over there!) 
Combining my love of meme's and lists ... all of these In No Particular Order.
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10 things you want for Christmas (Purely mercenary here, all about moi!)
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1. Any of my favourite things from Etsy - like this:

or this

sooo many of my faves are already sold sadly!


2. Star Trek the (new) movie on DVD


3. A cake stand, preferrably vintage, like this perhaps

4. A gallery door with Victorian etched glass, maybe a bit like this, for the hall


5. A large silvery mirror for above the fireplace, perhaps something like this

6. Issey perfume! or:


Acqua Di Parma 
 






Colonia- not sure if this is supposed to be a men's fragrance but I found it in the perfume dept of David Jones - very fresh


or a Jo Malone:
Verbena of Provence is my fave 


or good old Eau Dynamisante ... or something of similar summery freshness......


7. Soap, lovely fragrant blocks of soap! Like this sort, pine scented sounds suitably Christmasy ..

8. Guilyan seashell choccies - something about them reminds me of my Christmases growing up beside the beach


9. A couple of good reads: definitely this and perhaps this and this and wouldn't mind this ... and many more than I can include here.


10. An orange at the bottom of my santa sack!


9 musicians/bands you love 
grizzly bear
sarah blasko
tin pan orange
elvis costello
powderfinger
them crooked vultures
children collide-farewell rocketship
angie hart-blue
yeah yeah yeahs


8 things you do everyday
drink skim caps
talk to my cats
cook, eat and think about yummy food
dream about making lovely things
drink black tea
read
listen to music
hugs and kisses to those I love, including all the cats


7 things you enjoy
baking, mainly cakes but biccies and scones and desserts as well
knitting, sewing, crocheting, jewellery making
fabric
reading fantasy/sci fi stories and shows - dr who!
thinking about travel
slow cooking wintery dishes, like 6 hour quinces
the look and feel of early mornings even though I am a night owl


6 things that will always win your heart
all my lovely people
my sweet furry friends
patty cakes (cup cakes for those that are not aussie)
fresh flowers from the one I love
a nice steaming hot cup of black tea
Lord of the Rings and Dr Who!


5 favourites: (some of them anyway)
Movie: star trek (the new one) lord of the rings no.3 - there are sooo many others
Song: while you wait for the others
Book: prodigal summer
Food: blueberries, lamb, hommous, ginger, watermelon, roast potatoes! 
Season: summer absolutely


4 smells you enjoy: (agreeing with the one's Forest Gnomes chose)
freshly baked bread - mmm and I also love cinnamon scented food
dry grass in the summer - well, I'd go for freshly cut grass
fresh linen - yes, crisp fresh sheets, just off the line
lavender - and lemon!


3 places you want to go:
new york
portugal
sicily 


2 favourite holidays
christmas
those that involve travel


1 person you’d marry on the spot:
the one I did!
ok, but in that parallel universe it would have to be:
Aragorn (well, Viggo Mortensen's version!!)

Tweetsgiving sets flight ...

Just a quick tweet for tweetsgiving. I'm so grateful for a million zillion things but right now, I'm grateful to all my workmates who are so lovely and fun to work with. We are so busy at the moment and everyone is pulling out all stops. You are all brilliant. Thank you all for helping to make it feel worthwhile!

Here's a pic that I think shows that lovely sentiment, gratitude ...

Jasper and Rufus, our rescue cats, soon after we brought them home. Happy little chappies in their new garden.

Join in and express your gratitude at www.TweetsGiving.org

Plus you can "Share whatever you're thankful for on Twitter, your blog, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, or blip.fm. Include the#tweetsgiving tag and a link to www.TweetsGiving.org "

I love summer, except when ... or What's Not Hot When It's Hot!

Yesterday has to go down as one of those days. Everyone I talked to today had stories of hours spent lolling in front of fans and houses closed up tightly, trying to keep out the hot dry wind.

Us? We drove to the Blue Mountains ... where it was just as hot as Sydney.

And where did we park the car? Out in the street, as far as possible from a shady tree. So, climbing back in was like entering your oven when you've set it for a roast. Ouch! The trip home seemed to go on forever. Waves of heat from the windows made me keep checking to see if the aircon was working.

And last night? No blogging for me - my little laptop was like a mini heater.

So, what are the things I don't I like about my favourite season? ...

What's Not Hot When It's Hot

1. Not being able to drink my evening cuppa. This is truly saying something.

2. Feeling the hot air on your eyeballs - that's just weird!

3. Seeing the hydrangeas wilting visibly

4. Seeing your poor cats so wilted and listless ... but when they discover the fan it's so cute to see how they enjoy it!

5. Turning into a before shot for oil blotting products

6. Finding that sleep is not going to be part of your evening - at least I had a good book

And today? Cool air, almost chilly! Ahhhhhh, lover-ly.

I still love you summer. But we'd appreciate it if you would keep the lid on those sorts of days for a good long while, please!

How we felt yesterday ...

... but would have much preferred to be doing ....!

My collection at My Place and Yours ....

I've been playing along in spirit with Pip's fun meme, My Place and Yours but today the stars aligned and here I am! Kate has chosen a super theme - My Collection. Naturally, the first thing I thought of was my little owl collection - little both in size ... and in size ....... hmmm, what I mean to say is I have a tiny collection of itsy bitsy owls.

That's my thing, they have to be small, wee little owls. I have the odd one that stands above the usual 20 to 30 cms. My smallest is 23 cm and the largest is 95cm (I just got out my tape measure to check this!) The 95cm owl (the tall glass one) is really a bit too big for my collection but mum bought this for me a long time ago and so it has been given honourary membership to the clan.

Other rules, extremely loose, include that I try to buy an owl each time I go on holiday. Of course, that does not always work out, hence the still smallish extent of my collection. Related to this rule is the rule that they have to be as handmade as possible. I do sometimes find tiny owls in far flung holiday spots but more often than not they are mass produced, moulded creations painted in garish colours. I find that I just can't bear to bring these creatures home to join the rest of the gang! I live in hope of finding weeny owls that look like individuals, bearing the stamp of their talented creators.

Highlights of this collection include:
My Prague owl, bought on our honeymoon, the carved wooden owl at the back of these three.

These closeup shots are pretty ordinary - sorry about that. The flash seems to flare once I try getting closer - more homework required.


My very first owl was bought in the 70s on a school excursion that took us to the (then still newly renovated) Argyle Stores.

It's the blue painted owl in the centre.
(Old Stripey Scarface (cat) is guarding the little troupe - Dad bought him for me from South Australia)

The tall glass owl oversees the band. The smaller crystal owl was another present from Dad one Christmas - he often used to find little things like this for me. Mum was always very impressed with his shopping skills!

The tiny owl on the chair (an Ikea find) is the smallest of my collection.

Sadly, I don't recall where each owl came from. Not to worry, they all live happily with me now. They up sticks and try out different spots from time to time. I do like them here on my bookshelves with some of my favourite reads. You can see that I'm a bit of a fantasy fan - but I also read other good books too:













This has turned into a longer post than I anticipated ... there was one other collection I wanted to show you ....

In this ordinary(ish) looking old shoebox was revealed ...

My mum's vintage lace collection. She had rolled each skein (is that what a length of lace is called?) so carefully, packing them tightly together in this little box, chosen I'm sure because of it's lacey design. Some of this lace is very old and handmade, made by my grandmother, great grandmother and probably various other great or great great ancestors ... sadly there is no one left of the older generation to tell the stories. Safe to say I love every last inch of this collection and even though I think it probably deserves a box lined with silk and velvet, I like that it has been kept safe and secure for so long in this little old shoe box.

Hope you enjoy all the other lovely collections over at Pip's

Celebrating Gratitude with Tweetsgiving

Last weekend I chanced upon this cause while surfing through my blogroll. Tweetsgiving, a global event created by US nonprofit Epic Change, encourages participants to express their thanks using online tools or via live events. It somehow leapt out at me - what a fabulous idea and what better way to show gratitude than to join in with the celebrations that are planned next week, between 24 and 26 November. Anyone can join in - you can bring a heart full of gratitude to the party and you can contribute in any way you like.

I'm joining in here, online via my little blog - I'm new to the blogging world so I don't have a great network of people that connect to my blog world as yet but if I can spread the word to even just a few people, I'll be happy. There seems to be no official Sydney celebration (there is one in Melbourne and one in Canberra) so I guess my little piece will at least be one minute contribution from a Sydneysider!

I haven't quite decided what my posting will be centred around over the two days - that's my homework between now and the 24th!

I've just read this great post by Tanveer Naseer - here he mentions that this years campaign hopes to raise enough money to build a technology lab for the school in Arusha, Tanzania, built last year from donations from Tweetsgiving. How amazing is that. I love the idea of adding to the childrens learning future by adding technology to their world. As an ex high school teacher, currently working with developing learning technologies at a university library, this sounds very exciting to me. As Tanveer says, "It’s wonderful to think that these children now have a place to learn and dream up these wonderful futures, all on the wave of people expressing gratitude."

Maybe you can join me in participating in this event - you can sign up to be a member of Tweetsgiving and then start telling the world how grateful you are for anything at all.

What a nice way to spread good news and hope to our big wide world!

My weekend outfit

It's now Saturday morning so my weekend outfit is a bit late. It was soooo hot last night, too hot to think so my choices were not working. This weekend I'm off to the Blue Mountains to visit Dad plus my brother and niece are visiting from the country. Should be fun. I've picked a summery outfit but taken into account the fact that in the mountains it could be a few degrees cooler - sometimes we've had fog, mountain mist and jumpers in the middle of summer up there so three quarter length sleeves and jeans should work nicely!

1. darkjeans, 2. decorbathsandals, 3. mutedpurpletop, 4. tiled shrine earrings

What’s Hot + What’s Not Thursday

It's Thursday again and as usual, I'm stumped for an idea. Maybe it's because it's nearly the end of the week (but not quite) and inspiration hits a slump. It's not helped by the fact that I'm struggling to keep my eye's open but I am determined to keep up my daily post ... here goes :::

What's Hot

1. Target t shirts that are marked down to $5 when you get to the counter. I got two of them tonight. Woo Hoo!

2. Cold beer on hot nights. Enjoyed an Amber Ale with our Thursday night Thai takeaway tonight. Yum. (Watch them pour the glass of beer here ... very cute!)

3. Stripes. Marvellous invention.

 

 

 

from here

4. Weekends. I like how they come after weekdays. I especially like that after tomorrow, I get one.

5. This song :::

What's Not
1. Losing this tree.   :-(    Majorly sad to drive past it today and think that it's huge lemon scented presence, which has graced this spot for 100 years or so, will soon not be there anymore :(((


2. 1 is such a massive un-hot thing this week that I cannot think of anything else that warrants a mention.

On a lighter note, here's a couple of photos that I like :::

Fenec Foxes - aren't they sweeties

White lions - look who has a fan club!

Taken at Mogo Zoo

Time Travel Tuesday (on Wednesday)

One of the nice things about my little blog is that I can do things however I like. So having forgotten  that yesterday was Tuesday, here goes with TTT - but this week it's TTW :::

Where are we?
With yesterday's movie still on my mind, I'm in Italy.

When are we?
I had a couple of thoughts. 1973, the year I first visited Europe or 1900 (or thereabouts) when another lovely film was set, A Room With A View.

Which year won? See if you can guess (this one is not going to be too tricky I suspect ....)

 
 

 

{{key}}

 

VTG Black Leather Lace Up by jamesrowlandshop

::: I wore my Bata Ponytail schoolshoes all over Europe. Being tall and prone to rapid growth spurts, my mother didn't feel it was worthwhile buying shoes that I would grow out of when I had perfectly good school shoes that would be excellent for walking. Smart mum, I think now. I hate my feet, I thought then.

 

 Solid Resin Ring in pink and chocolate brown - Venetian Gelato by BuyMyCrap

::: While in Rome I ate my own body weight (probably more) of a most miraculous discovery, gelato . Strawberry was my favourite. The hotel had a gelato bar underneath and I spent most of my waking and sleeping hours in Rome dreaming about eating their gelato.

 Carnival, Micro Mosaic Bracelet by TimelessTrinkets

Micro Mosaic Flower Bracelet by bakersbest1201 

::: I bought a cute little micro mosaic bracelet and brooch while in Naples - I must dig them out ...

 

 Etna by Tefi :: 

::: The smoking volcano, Etna in Naples made me a bit nervous but it was also quite exciting to think it might erupt any second

 

 Gondole Gondole Gondole by risamay

::: Gondolas seemed impossibly romantic

 Florence 07 by canteyphoto

::: We discovered window shutters in Italy - what a brilliant idea, we thought, particularly the ones on the inside of windows

 

Travel Girl Magnets - Molly and Ginger see the Colosseum by echoart

::: That's me, a little travel girl, all dressed up visiting Rome (OK, wrong era but you get the idea) What fun I had!

Thanks mum & dad for a truly fabulous experience.

La Superba

Spent a few hours in a cinema watching a movie called Genova.

from here
Colin Firth should be enough when explaining what encouraged me to see this. :-P
But this aside, the wonderful photography and scenery of Genoa/Genova were big drawcards. Loved the way it was filmed in a very natural, immediate way. The colouring of the film was very muted and unsaturated - I liked that because it seemed to provide a sense of 'realness' and stopped it from looking like a travel brochure.
Also loved that it was not about starring roles or big parts but it was a vignette of everyone, in particular Mary, the little girl. What a wonderful little actress. She really did a great job. And Colin's Joe was very real, played in an understated way.
Things I didn't like? Kelly the older daughter was so brittle, a horrible teen but that was her expression of grief I think. I thought the actress was toooo skinny, and she was dressed way too provocatively but maybe that is exactly what a teenager would be wanting to wear, plus her mother wasn't there to see and her father was somewhat distracted. It wasn't that I disliked the character or the actress but I was more aware that I was thinking about these things, whereas the others seemed to inhabit their characters and the actor disappeared. But maybe this demonstrates what a great little actress this girl is because she was so thoroughly horrible at times.

So, nice day. Caught up with my friend and we had a lovely few hours watching this movie, having lunch, chatting and browsing round a shop full of nic nacs. Left her to do the school run as I dashed off to one of my fave spots for a bit of a wander - Ikea. Yup, I do love this barn of a place. It provides so many cool and versatile things. My thing today turned out to be Christmas decos. A few good candles, Swedish style ornaments and bargain wrapping paper. Way more there this year than in the past so it was a little tricky getting me to stop with the buying!!! Here's a few of my cute finds:

Yes, there are a few common themes emerging here ..

:::::dala horse, moose, bird:::::

hmmm, a tad predictable is moi, non?

Grace

It's a warm night here, summer has come. Cicadas chickering in the background. Crickets. Little wisps of cool breeze lick past me.

Earlier evening was stormy, black clouds gathered and some rain fell but all that is gone now. Lightening show in the distance, travelling north, illuminating the sky with sudden bright flashes.

Salad for dinner. One of the chickens I roasted last night and a delicious red cabbage salad with mixed beans, red onion, carrot, capsicum and a pumpkin seed oil and red wine vinegar dressing.

Afterwards, Dad and I shared watermelon on the deck, making the most of the cool air outside. Reminiscing, sharing a few laughs, planning for Christmas and a few weekend trips coming up.

A Jeff marathon has been playing in the background tonight on the teve. It's 12 years.

Not much more needs to be said really. It's all about grace isn't it.

Over to you Jeff ::::

Pretty fun stuff

Thanks to a post from Moth Heaven, I've discovered a fun new thing. Polyvore lets you drag and drop fashion and accessories and create a new look. Items seem to come from all sorts of spots - shops and designers. I very quickly created a rather nice look with lots of my fave grey, black and jeans, plus a few nice accessories. Fun stuff and a brilliant time waster.

It took me a while to work out how to copy some of these things but I've finally done it. Below is my Sunday night outfit.
Quite like it :::::

Moose memories

So many of the wonderful souls amongst my northern hemisphere blogroll are beginning to celebrate the approach of winter and a very different Christmas to the one we will shortly enjoy. Wintery knits abound along with snowy scenes, crackling fires, fir trees and pine cones and reindeer of all sorts ...

So when a moose suddenly popped out of a blog post, it reminded me of the time I saw one, literally just like that. I was 11, on a train travelling across Scandinavia with my parents. We were trundling through a pine forest, slowing down as we approached a station. Even though the dense, dark green trees rolled endlessly on, I was staring out the window, getting ready to see the town where the train was about to stop. In an instant a clearing appeared and right there, not far from the train, stood a moose. He bellowed, lifting his head and then he was gone and the thick trees were all about us again. This vivid image has stayed with me and I still remember the feeling of awe and excitement at having seen a real live moose (quite exotic for a young aussie gal). Consequently, I do have a bit of a soft spot for these big goofy antlered deer.


Here's rather a gorgeous moose

from here

 

 And a few other nice moosey, reindeery, yes, OK and horsey, christmasy things {both from here}

from  here

and

from here

 

from here

Five senses Friday

Love playing along with these fun meme's - this one's from abbytryagain. Nice way to finish the week.

Seeing: lounging tabby, lolling on his leather pouffe

Hearing: lovely soothing piano and bass music with the merest touch of snare drums on late night jazz, ABC tv - makes me think an evening full of soft candlelight

Feeling: sleepy eyes that tell me it's time for zzz's

Smelling: soft floral scent from my gorgeous Issey perfume

Tasting: The cardamom coffee with turkish delight enjoyed last night, mmm