Just Reality

I was reading on The Craft Revival about the plan for a day of 'Just Reality' posts on social media, and thought I would take part. I'm preparing this post a day early and scheduling it, and decided to share a picture of my current work space. This is one corner of my bedroom, which is luckily the biggest room in this l'il old home of ours, and while it varies it is MOSTLY covered in piles of scrapbooking bits and pieces, cables, papers, tools, paint, laptop and tablet, mugs etc. in a pretty ramshackle kind of, ahem, mess.

Sometimes I blog here and sometimes I pull the laptop into the lounge room - especially at night time while watching some sci-fi tv or The Mentalist or Bones or Castle. I am definitely more productive having a desk, though, and try to set up here when actually intending on achieving something substantial.

Glamorous? Um, no. But I'm fine with it. One little part of my 'just reality' around here :)

A bit shy at blogopolis

The thing I find most interesting about a blog conference with a pretty heavy focus on networking, such as Blogopolis (which I will be attending on Saturday), is this:

How many people are the people on the outside that they are online?

I'm not talking about anything freaky, pretending, faking, law-breaking or any of that stuff. But I know that I write reasonably instinctively how I think without worrying too much about it. I do self-edit on my blog more than I do in emails to friends etc, but essentially I write how I think.



However, I do not SPEAK how I think.

So I am really not quite the same person on the outside. Or at least, I am a lot less likely to be, in real life, meeting new people, the same 'voice' as I am online. Now I don't expect to meet any of my blog readers on Saturday, except for a handful of friends I hope to catch up with, so I feel safely anonymous in that way. But having read that there is enforced allocated seating, to prevent any forming of familiar groups and possible exclusion of individuals, and to foster maximum networking opportunities and all that jazz, totally freaked me out! Don't get me wrong, I think it's a very smart idea, and a good idea, and makes sense. But it puts me well outside of my comfort zone, that's for sure.

So I might just be a tad tiny bit shy at blogopolis. I will also be at the pre-conference drinks and don't expect to be quite as shy at a bar with a couple of friends nearby, but even so. Time to suck it up, and see how I go. If all else fails I will hide behind my camera. Actually, I will probably do that regardless. But I promise I will be nice if anyone says hello ;)

And if I'm accidentally sarcastic, please don't be offended. It means I like you.

Outback Pride on The Circle

As well as being just generally awesome, and run by Ben's folks, Outback Pride is one of Curiouser's clients (website, commercial photography) and the subject of my other blog Season With Saltbush....

Speaking of which, I will totally be revamping that blog soon, I am aiming to be super inspired after attending Nuffnang Blogopolis on Saturday! If you will be there too, please say hi :)

Curiously, more pictures

I've just updated the galleries on the Curiouser website :)

Sci fi Pirate... indeed!

We went to a fantastic Sci-Fi tv party on the weekend, and will share some fun visuals later, but for now let's check out Ash. With a lot of stubbornness on his part, we managed to find him a pirate character (this was non-negotiable according to Ash) who actually WAS from a science fiction TV show. Meet Captain Avery from the Doctor Who episode 'The Curse of the Black Spot'!

A jar of sunshine

My most recent assignment that is up on the Aussie Scrap Source blog is this gorgeous 7 Gypsies display tray which I embellished with Sassafras Sunshine Broadcast papers and stickers and stuff. The memory jar that goes with it is below, and there are more detailed pics on the Aussie blog.

This last one is Sienna's memory jar that she made at the same time, she couldn't resist playing along and I couldn't resist adding her contribution to the blog post ;)

Mmmm Macarons

A lovely gift from my man. Yum :)

Renovator

One of the main reasons for visiting Adelaide during the school holidays - no photo shoots, barely any catch ups (just one family day) - was to help my cousin Bec with a working bee on her house. Here are the bigger things we achieved, with the help of some other lovely people includingmy sister Kell and her husband Roh (gas plumber extraordinaire, he fixed the toilet AND installed an oven, as well as painting the ceiling)... On the day of the working bee, the main thing achieved was the preparation, undercoating and ceiling of the blue room, which Bec and I finished during the following couple of days. It went from this:

To this (though the wall colour is the same as the 'after' hallway pic and that one is far more accurate)

The hallway was just Bec and I, though, and most of my clothes and shoes are now covered in paint! Not that it's very unusual for me for that to be the case. To be fair. Here is how that room changed style (and actually looks better than this in real life, where you really get the feeling of the 12ft ceilings)

The other big visual change was the front yard and fence. Bec's mum totally sorted the whole yard and pruned the rose down like crazy, a friend put the remaining pickets on and the kids and I painted them a few days later.

Family train ride

Inspired by Artsy Ants, joining in with Soulemama's 'this moment'. This was from the family trip to the National Railway Museum in Adelaide on the weekend, my niece Lana and her dad :)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Home again

The kids and I have been in Adelaide for a week, and took yesterday to get used to the idea of being home again, doing dishes and stuff like that. I've got things to share after a week of cooking, family visits and painting rooms in my cousin's house, so stay tuned! This is Sienna and Ash with my cousin's dog, they adore him....

Rollerskating super-Ash

We all had fun, but Ash really loved it... he went around and around, all by himself, for most of the 2 hours we were there. He was wearing his superhero outfit for about half that time, but got too hot after awhile ;)

Toot Toot

This is my 'steampunk' themed layout from the latest Scrapboxx newsletter. I love this photo of Cedar in his Polkadot Lane hoodie that Kell made him, looking quite the funky monkey with his little pose there! I made this page when on my girls' weekend away, and rather enjoyed scrapbooking on the floor in front of the telly and the fireplace, not worrying about little people I even left my things out for the night. On the ground. It was quite a thrill (the excitement never stops around here, I'm telling you.)

Cedar loves loves loves trains, and calls them 'Toot toots'. He is pretty fond of anything on wheels, actually, and while he used to call all of them 'Toot toots', he has now progressed to distinguishing 'car' 'truck' 'bus' and 'toot toot'. His speech is developing really well, and he is an enthusiastic little parrot. We'll have to be careful what we say ;) As always, of course. Hehe.

One of my favourite things the kids have accidentally picked up is Ash repeating 'dammit' (which I must stop saying) but re-interpreting it as 'Bam it!', which sounds rather fantastic actually! I might just switch to that... it sounds kind of Flintstones or super hero or something.