via aliedwards.com
Are you playing this year? I do some variation of this every year and I'm keen to make a little album that I send away to get printed. every year I say nah I don't need those templates but seriously Ali does such a good job I always cave and buy them.
LOVE the look of the 2013 ones.
I'm even more excited that the week is a normal week - school home life -all good :)
Are you playing?
| | | |
|
With a blink August finished!
I love my iphone so much. I rarely take my camera out these days. Without fail I try to take a photo a day - just something that captures what is going on. Its a great reminder.
This month we have had a big focus on family and work.
My amazing Ma turned 80. My sister came for a flying visit - just one night for a few hours. I worked an insane number of hours and made myself sick ( no lectures please ) It's QCS time and I have also had the opportunity to do some freelance work in an area that I love so much so I have taken that on and quickly had to cut it back, the brain doesn't do what It used to sadly. Still I think I'll find a new a balance with it.
We took a trip to bangalore markets and had an amazing day out at the ekka. The girls became patrol leaders, won science awards, participated in a bake a book contest and I found out I have more surgery looming.
Busy days but happy days. I hope you are all well :)
| | | |
|
As I went to flick off the TV last Sunday night this movie caught my eye. 500 days of Summer. I hadn't heard of it at all and when I mentioned at school how much I enjoyed it I had my senior girls rolling their eyes and telling me they couldn't believe that I hadn't heard of it. I thought I might share it here too just in case any of you my lovely blog readers have been living under the same rock as me. It came out in 2009.
It's sweet and whimsical and I found myself holding my breath for the next scene to start and wondering where it was going to end up. I do love Zooey and Joseph.
...................................................................................................................................
Plot --- > After it looks as if she's left his life for good this time, Tom Hansen reflects back on the just over one year that he knew Summer Finn. Despite being physically average in almost every respect, Summer had always attracted the attention of men, Tom included. For Tom, it was love at first sight when she walked into the greeting card company where he worked, she the new administrative assistant. Soon, Tom knew that Summer was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Although Summer did not believe in relationships or boyfriends - in her assertion, real life will always ultimately get in the way.
........................................................................................................................................
For those readers who always ask about suitability - I wouldn't my two watch this one as the themes are too adult but for teenagers it is most likely fine. You can read up over here on the Kids in Mind site.
| | | |
|
My Ma turned 80 last weekend. 80 can you imagine? She was born in 1933.
A few facts from her birth year
1933 was the worst year of the depression with unemployment peaking at 25.2% with ( 1 in 4 people unemployed ). Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and opened the first concentration camp at Dachau.
We often chat about how much has changed in her lifetime. She is very sprightly and her mind is sharp. The only health worry I ever really have for her is that she will slip over and break some bones. She is very tiny.
We had a lovely breakfast out and Richard organised all of the family to pool together to surprise her with a cruise. She and Pa are heading off in November. She is beyond excited as they live very frugally on the pension. She told us she going to dress up and pretend to be a lady. We have to laugh because she is always immaculately dressed and is the most elegant lady I know.
Not sure how we are going to celebrate her 90th!
| | | |
|
I am not a huge fan of writing so sorry I haven't been here I have been busy so I almost didn't write this post. Because I really don't have anything to add other than LIKE EVERYONE I have been insanely busy.
One dear friend has been texting me most days saying Hello hello are you there ? and I keep replying CRAZY to which she asks does this mean you have gone crazy or you are crazy busy LOL. She's now switched it to hello are you still crazy?
Anyone who works in schools knows term three is not a whole lot of fun. If you follow my instagram or we are friends on facebook you may have noticed all the work photos and late nights. That is where I have been mostly. I have however been trying to document some of that. After taking a year off from work I refelcted that my whole history of work did not exist anywhere in my memory keeping. Not in photos and not even much mention here on my blog. It's tricky to do I admit because you can't post photos of students or staff or tell any details to any stories when you work in schools. But I have been consciously trying to document some of it - the late nights - the reams of data, data data (EQ is data mad right now) - and a project that had me working round the clock just fell over becasue we have gone into caretaker mode with the election date now set agggh so disappointing. Never mind. Lately I have been head deep in QCS prep for the seniors - marking and checking tweaking their programs. It's time consuming and then I fall in a big heap.
via pinterest.comIn the past I would be all stressy about the stuff that I'm not doing. That internal never ending to do list. Now I'm trying to let it all go. I'm still only back 4 days a week but fitting my 5 day a week job into those 4 days. I'm thinking I'll continue like that next year too. I like the idea of having a day off.
My personal creative side has fallen by the wayside as I have navigated the work schedule and all our home renos too. I think I have come out the other side now. Yesterday I spent a few hours updating my project life album and working on some photos for friends. I have missed my blog and your lovely comments and emails so I'm finding a new balance and already I feel better for it.
| | | |
|
Today marks the end of our little Hip Hip Hooray series and what better way to finish than with some movie reviews.
Last night the girls and I snuggled up with popcorn and a DVD - it's a long weekend here in Australia so plenty of time for some extra viewing I say.
We watched Lifted which is under the family category at the DVD store but was rated M because of the content -Its about a 13 year old boy but his mother is a drug user ( and she does relapse). I let the girls watch and there was only one scene that I had to explain.
I just checked Kids in Mind but they haven't reviewed it.
Here is the blurb from IMBDHenry Matthews is an exceptionally talented young R&B singer whose happy family life is disrupted when his father, a marine, is re-deployed to Afghanistan. Despite all the obstacles including losing the family home and being forced to move in with his grandfather who hates his music, Henry is inspired to enter a teen singing competition in the hopes of winning and escaping a world that is falling apart.
It gets slow as you go through the song contest and I was thinking blah this is a bit ordinary but then all of a sudden there is a big change and its totally worth watching. It's a tear jerker especially for anyone who has family in the armed forces. We loved it because the girls really enjoy anything singing related and hes really good :)
What's a movie without popcorn? I'm afraid we aren't very fancy here - it's just airpopped corn in our Kmart $12 popcorn machine and if I'm feeling very adventurous I'll add some salt or very kind then I'll add icing sugar.
But if you want something really good check out this link with 40 popcorn recipes that sound more like biscuits that popcorn. I'm thinking I'll have to try the smores one at some stage :)
Maybe sometime soon? If Lifted isn't your style of movie we have also recently watched Cowgirls and Angels which we also enjoyed ( family movie). I was tempted to get this documentary too called I am Eleven. Maybe if we get all the jobs I have in mind done tomorrow ;)
Don't forget to visit Mel- she has a lovely felt banner for you today.
We hope you've enjoyed this little creative start to winter. Keep warm!
| | | |
|
I am a sucker for anything that looks like it may help my girls be more creative:) They love it and frankly so do I! When Mel posted about this earlier this week I quickly added it to my to read later list.
What's not to love ? photo course delivered to your inbox - FREE for the first three weeks and if you complete the whole course you get a little book with your photos in
YAY says me.
and then I saw this
Sigh this one is not free - but far out I want to give it a go- and honestly the girls would love this too! They can shoot on their ipod touches. We share an itunes account so they also share apps with me .... and Im thinking for $39 eeek I could almost claim it as a Mother's day gift right?? I'll hit Richard up for that and see how it flies.
I've been head down in a number of personal and work projects over the last two weeks but I'm surfacing again. Expect a little flutter of links and posts as I share some of the goodies I have been gathering in my down time.
| | | |
|
It was lovely having a day off on a Thursday - especially for Richard who has had to work ten days straight :(
Tals decided she wanted to go to a dawn service so we plumped on Southport. 4.00am for the march and 4.28am for the service. That meant getting up at 3.00am which she thought was an awesome adventure.
She took her torch so she could read in the car.
It was a lovely service and so many people - they said their biggest turn out to date.
We headed home for hot tea and a little rest :)
Our lovely neighbour Barry has been unwell lately with a slew of conditions and is on a strict diet. This weekend is his birthday and the girls have been cooking for him since the beggining of time. Whenever they make a batch of something they always take some over for him - he is their official taste tester he tells them. So they wanted to make him a cake that fitted with his dietary requirements. Off they went with cookbooks in hand and pen and paper and were back half an hour later with a plan.
So yesterday they made him an orange and rhubarb almond cake with syrup. ( He is not allowed apples bananas chocolate gluten ( among other things ).
Turned out perfectly and was a big hit.
They also made these clean eating anzacs - super yummy, healthy and not as sweet as the traditional ones.
Sift the flour, add in oats, coconut and sugar.
In a pot add maple syrup oil and water. Once combined and heated add in bicarb.
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients.
Roll into balls and bake on a tray for 10 - 12 minutes.
I was allowed in the kitchen after that so I made some apple bread - I highly recommend it - even faster than banana bread to make and you don't have to worry about having over ripe bananas. Perfect for in lunch boxes.
And of course I spent a little too long playing candy crush!
Hope you had a lovely day too.
| | | |
|
I saw this list over on Ali E's blog and liked it. It's a bit different from the usual reading watching etc and thought it would be nice for project life too.
via pinterest.com
VANITY: Revlon Colour Stay Lip Glosses, Burt Bees Lip Gloss (do you see a pattern?)
PERENNIAL TO DO LIST: Organise organise organise
REFRIGERATOR SHELVES: Peanut Butter Lindt balls ( only two left sob ) Spinach leaves, feta, tomatos, olives, pumpkin soup.
ITINERARY: Heading to Masters and Bunnings
FANTASY ITINERARY: Tokyo - Harajuku with my girls
PLAYLIST: Clare Bowditch, Birds of Tokyo, Lady Antebellum, James Arthur
NIGHTSTAND: Bible, earphones, ipad
WORKOUT PLAN: Sigh - still on rest... one more week - 10 k on Sunday
IPHONE: Instagram. Facebook. Mailbox App.
TOP 5 LIST: 1. Giving Thanks 2. Participating 3. Documenting 4.Planning 5. Creating
BUCKET LIST: Rennovations, Cruise, Paris, Retire.
MIND: I saw something the other day that said a woman's mind is like having 2689 windows open at once. That's me right now.
BLOGROLL: Ali Edwards Cathy Zielske Rhonda Mason Petra Corcoran Liz Tamanaha ( a bit PL obsessed atm)
WALLS OF YOUR FAVORITE ROOM IN YOUR HOUSE: White walls + Kate Mason Art work = LOVE
LIQUOR SHELF: Omni - always
LAST CREDIT CARD EFTPOS STATEMENT: Masters, Woolies, Spotlight
SCREENSAVER: Currently a plain Mac background but since Tabitha Emma no longer makes them ( I always had hers!) It's on my list to make my own.
TV EVERY NIGHT: My Kitchen Rules! Finals week bring it on. Also excited about Mad Men Season 6 and Game of Thrones
| | | |
|
If you are anything like me you probably went into meltdown at the news that Google Reader was disappearing. WHY????? I hate change. While I didn't really LOVE google reader I certainly loved what it could do - allow me to read all my blogs easily.
At first I thought well this is a good chance to start afresh with a new reader and a new lot of blogs because my taste has changed over time and so many blogs I used to follow have stopped writing or have evolved to be other things that don't interest me.
But that would be kind of drastic so I instead I decided to trial a few before it disappears for good.
At the moment I'm using
Feedly on my Mac (I'm yet to put it on my school laptop .. but it's on my to do list.)
I love the look of it - it's pretty and easy to follow - it's more like reading a mag. You can pin just by hovering over a photo - you can email an article add to evernote tweet or facebook. I like it alot.
On my phone/ Ipad I tried using the free version of Feeddler. I liked it too - simple to use and a good easy interface. It's more like what Google reader is like. BUT I'm going to switch to Feedly exclusively.
I spent some time tonight organising all my feeds - and I ditched a heap and sorted them into categories. It was simple to do- much easier than with google reader.At the moment when I sign in I'm signing in using my gmail account which is obviously my google account - which holds my google reader stuff so everything just transferred.
BUT apparently they have a system place so you don't have to worry about it after google dies. You can read about that plan here
So do tell what are you using ??? Am I on the right track do you think? I know lots are switching to blog lovin...
| | | |
|
Please visit my girls blog - Twice As Nice