my place and yours

This weeks theme is: why do you live where you do?  What a great idea!  I'm looking forward to reading everyones stories over at helloowl You should come and play along too!

We currently rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in Melbourne where we have been living there for almost a year.  We live here because of my husbands work.  He was offered a promotion and we decided to make the big move (for the 2nd time!) from Brisbane down to Melbourne.  It was a tough choice, but we decided we would make the most out of this opportunity.  We do love Melbourne and it's coffee and shopping and AFL and excellent public transport!

Having said that, Brisbane has very much become our spiritual home.  We lived there for about 4 years and have the most amazingly wonderful friends there.  We also have a lovely little house with a big backyard and a vegetable garden that I miss very much!  I also miss the weather.  I miss the consistency of the weather mostly.  I got used to not having to think about what I was going to wear, or whether I needed to take an umbrella or jacket out.

Anyway, we will definitely end up back in Brisbane someone soon.  Our little house is being rented out and we will get to see it again!  For the time being, we'll soak up all the Melbourne we can.  

my creative space (better late than never)

This week I have been continuing on with my cross-stitching and enjoying the whole process.  It's really taking shape now and I'll be sad when it's finished.  It's such a great TV watching activity and (unlike quilting) is not very messy, and doesn't take up a lot of space.

I have alsp started sewing together my quilt top finally, only to discover that I had put a piece in the wrong way around!  Grrr!  So I've unpicked it all and now get to start again.  Ah, the joys of sewing!

Otherwise I'm busy getting organised for my Dad's birthday weekend, and have lots of printing and ironing to do this weekend to get these shirts ready!  Phew!

Check out some more creative spaces here

tomorrow when the war began movie - my review

Last night I joined a throng of teenagers to enjoy a free preview screening of the tomorrow when the war began movie (thanks to myspace and black curtain screening).  Having imagined this book turned into a film for many many years, I had high hopes.  I grew up on this series and am a very big John Marsden fan.  I seriously doubted that the movie could ever be as good as the book but I was excited to see it come to life none the less.

The good bits

• It was fast-paced - lots of action and it flowed really well
• There some great snippets of humour courtesy of Homer and stoner Chris - very much geared at the teenage set and judging by the cinema I was sitting in, it certainly hit the mark!
• I was very pleasantly suprised by the soundtrack - some great Aussie songs were thrown in that reminded me of being a teenager too 
• I think the casting was pretty good (if not perfect).  Ashleigh Cummings (aka Robyn) was brilliant and sat really well with the way I imagined that character.  
• The scenery was great.  Hell looked as I imagined it.  It was shot near where I grew up so it felt really familiar to me, the way the books do.
• The inclusion of mobile phones and laptops were a nice way to make it applicable to teens today

The not so good bits

• I am still not 100% convinced that Cailtin Stasey was the best choice to play Ellie.  She had a real tendency to overact in Neighbours, and she did a little in this movie too.  Having said that, I'm not sure if I could ever be happy with the casting of a character that is so vividly alive in my imagination.  She certainly had big shoes to fill, and I didn't hate her performance.    
• As is always the case when books become movies, some really good bits were left out and some strange bits were put in
• What was with the guns?  They started toting guns before the war even started in this movie!  And they they then suddenly have machine guns, and a rocket launcher even makes a sneaky appearance at the end.  What?!
• I really don't like the way they changed the Herron Bridge scene, although I understand for the most part why they did it.  What I really took objection to was the change it made to Robyn's character.  Not sure how they're going to deal with that in the next movies.
• What was with that last cliff-gazing scene?  I believe we could've done without that.

So, there you have it.  I was actually pleasantly suprised by this movie and I throughly enjoyed watching it, even though it is very much a teen movie.  I really hope this brings a new generation to John Marsden and this brilliant series of books.  It deserves a million times the adoration of the Twilight series, that's for sure!

So go and see it!  Just take your teenage goggles with you :)

sakura season

This weekend I noticed something new about Melbourne - cherry blossoms!  Lovely beautiful Sakura have been surprising me on every other corner.  This is only our 2nd ever almost-Spring in Melbourne, and you certainly don't find cherry blossoms in Queensland!   I don't know if I would have really paid much attention to the cherry blossoms here if it weren't for our trip to Japan in March - in which we caught the very beginning of cherry blossom season.  Over there they go absolutely crazy for cherry blossoms!  You can get Sakura perfume and body wash, eat Sakura jelly, drink Sakura Steamers from Starbucks...the list goes on!  Of course we went crazy for it too! I have more photos than I care to count of the tiny flowers from our two week trip (case in point above).  But they are just so beautiful aren't they?  And they smell amazing too!

I'm really loving seeing these flowering trees around Melbourne.  They make me remember our wonderful trip to Japan, and also give me hope that perhaps Winter is nearing its end.

election craziness

I'm not normally one to get political, so I apologise in advance for this post.

But this whole election business has been driving me crazy.  For the first time in my voting life, I feel incredible dislike for one of the candidates - can you guess who?  No prizes for guessing that it is Tony Abbott of course! It's not just his smug looking face.  It's his policies, his racist remarks about refugees and his 1950s view of women.  I just can't even think about what this country would be like with him leading it.

Not that Julia Gillard is much better, mind you.

I won't go on anymore than that.  But do watch this great video from Getup! Australia which busts some myths about a very topical election issue.



P.S  If you don't hear from me on Monday it's because I've had to relocate to New Zealand :)

my creative space

The cutting out is done!  Sound the trumpets!  Hooray! (That's just the last of the pile in that picture, there's plenty more pieces where they came from)

You see what a little blogging promise can do to my motivation levels?  I wanted to make sure I had something to write about today too, haha!

So now it's time to start sewing this quilt together which, quite frankly, I'm a little scared about.  There's so many pieces I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to keep it all straight and beautiful.  Oh well.  At least I am about four billion weeks behind everyone else so I can read ahead.

I'm also about to have my first ever sewing encounter with stretch fabric (I'm obviously having a very ambitious week).  Who knows how that will turn out?  Any tips?

Now I'm headed over to kootoyoo to be inspired by what everyone else is doing

alex in the sun

like a headless chicken

I have so many things on my 'to do' list at the moment.  I have fabric and other notions covering every spare space of my house.  Plus I am in the midst of organising our trip to Italy AND my Dad's birthday weekend in September.  Oh, and then there's all that boring housework stuff.  Sheesh!

But at the end of an office-bound day, I just don't have any energy to do anything.  I hate it.  Why is it that sitting still and staring at a computer is so exhausting?  All it makes me want to do is sit in front of the TV all night.  It's a never ending cycle of laziness.

But...I'm determined to get my craft on over the next few days, and sew my way through the weekend!  It's my mid week resolution (inspired by a lunch time trip to Spotlight - oops!)


P.S  If you're feeling extra nice today, please vote for me (and my kitties) over here.  Thank you! :)

my place and yours

This weeks theme is: what's the last thing your brought for yourself?

This weekend my best friend was visiting from sunny Queensland, and we had a fantastic time.  We crocheted, drank, ate, watched classic 90s movies, went shopping, talked and laughed.  

We also ventured into a Japanese style photo booth and laughed like school kids as we had these photos taken.  So much fun!

See what everyone else has been spending their money on over at hellowl

my creative space

Guess what I've been doing this week?  Cross stitching!  Can you believe it?  I can barely believe it!  But a lunch time wandering at Spotlight revealed a cross stitch kit that I just had to buy and make for my friend.  I'm really enjoying it so far too.  It's a great TV watching activity, cat snuggling kinda project.



That's about all the crafting I've been doing this week.  I've had a few failed crocheting projects, but I have pulled them apart so nothing to show there.

Now I'm off to see what everyone else has been doing this week at kootoyoo.

pets on quilts show

I just couldn't resist entering this cute pets on quilts show.  I have only one quilt to my name so far, but my cats Alex and Jasper have given it their approval.  They of course, assisted with the making process as only cats can.  They helped me pin everything together and carefully observed the binding process.  Yep.  Very helpful.

Alex is about 3 years old now and was rescued from an RSPCA shelter.  He's an interesting creature.  Think Garfield, and you're pretty much spot on.  He has little interest in being held or patted most of the time.  But he does like to follow me around the house and observe from a close distance.  And he will purr madly away when he's being brushed.

Jasper, on the other hand, is your typical younger brother.  He is a Tonkinese and was bought from a breeder about 2 years ago.  He must be the centre of attention at all times and is very good at stealing things from Alex - namely food and toys.  He loves a good pat and loves to sleep under things - blankets, beds, furniture...whatever is on offer.  He certainly keeps Alex on his toes!

Despite their differences, on top of (or under) this quilt is their favourite place to sleep.  It is a nice lap quilt and has become a necessary addition to TV watching in this cold Melbourne weather.  As soon as it comes out the cats emerge from whatever place they had been sleeping in to take up new residence on top of the quilt (and us).  It always makes us laugh.  They seem to have no interest in us sometimes, until the quilt comes out!  I'm not sure why they love it so much, but they do.

I must say, I'm pretty proud of it too :)

you cannot be sad whilst watching this

Just saying :)

cats and lamingtons

This weekend we bought some new toys for the kitties, and then got to spend plenty of time watching them play.  The new toys entertained them for a little while until they lost one underneath the TV cabinet.  Todd rescued it, along with an old toy that had been lost under there for a while.  So, who cares about new toys now?  Apparently not our cats!  They are far too enthralled by the old toy they had forgotten.  Cats, eh?  Anyway, there's something so mesmerizing about watching cats play.  They're so energetic and crazy and uncoordinated.  It makes me smile.

Also this weekend I shared this giant lamington with my husband.  This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but rest assured it was GIANT.  If you want one too (and I think you do!), go to Cooper and Milla's.

Now, apparently it's Monday again.  Why does it seem like there are more Mondays than any other days?

lost in translation

I thought I would create a bit of an ode to things that get lost in translation today.  It is Friday after all!


Fittingly I will be aided by some photographs from our trip to Japan in March.  I loved Japan so much.  It's beautiful and crazy and cute and amazing.  The frequent errors in translation only made the place so much more endearing.

This is my absolute favourite and it was a gigantic billboard in Osaka.  It makes me smile everytime...

You can read about Pachinko here but all I can tell you is that it is WEIRD.  The parlors have to the weirdest and loudest kinda place you could go.  I'm sure the game itself makes sense to Japanese people, but we just couldn't figure it out.  Even after instruction!  


Here's a couple of menus we came across.  Both of these were found at 'international' hotel chains as well...






And finally, this one that was spotted in a department store.  It's not so much a mistranslation as an interesting choice of words.  Wrong on so many levels!



If you have any photos or stories about errors in translation, please share.  For some reason I find it incredibly amusing!

Happy weekend to you all.

my creative space

This week I have been fighting with my printer and organising supplies to make some t-shirts for my Dad's birthday.  We shall be celebrating his big 5-0 on the Sunshine Coast in September (yes, he is a young Dad).  We're all converging on the coast for a long weekend of fun - all of my four sisters and I will be flying in from different parts of the country with our partners to help Dad celebrate.  We're all pretty darn excited about it too.  We're not often all in the same space at the same time anymore.  I am very much looking forward to hanging out with my lovely family and soaking up some lovely Queensland sun.  Especially after this horridly cold Melbourne Winter!  We've rented a nice big house complete with pool and BBQ, and within walking distance of the beach.

Anyway, in preparation for this big event I thought I would surprise Dad with some cheesy t-shirts.  I've made up this simple little picture and I'm going to iron it on to some singlets and t-shirts.  One for everyone (with some minor tweaking of course)!  As soon as my printer decides to stop being silly I'll be able to print my designs off.  Everything else is good to go.

I'm so excited :)

I'm also excited about reading what lovely crafty things everyone else has been doing this week over at kootoyoo

is it really lazy?

By firstindy via Flickr

It this whole online world making us lazy or more efficient?  I'm not sure...

I am the biggest ever fan of online shopping and am now taking it to a whole new level in doing my grocery shopping online too (everything except fruit/veg and meat).  Now I have no good reason for choosing to do this.  I'm not a working mother or lacking transport or working insane hours.  I just detest doing the whole trolley pushing thing.  I get cranky.  I can't push the stupid trolley.  People get in my way.  It takes too much time.  Is that a good enough reason to buy groceries online?

I just keep thinking about how the way we do things changes so much over time.  Not so many years ago there was no such thing as online shopping.  Heck, there was no online!  No Facebook.  No Google.  No blogs.  Now there is this whole new world with a million different ways to do a million different things.  Sometimes (like when I'm ordering my groceries) I really love the immediacy and convenience that the internet offers.  I love being able to buy things online from other countries and having them delivered to my door.  

Sometimes it makes me feel lazy.  It makes me feel a little bit sad that we can be so self-sufficient.  So cut off from each other in a physical sense.  I sometimes crave the need to touch and feel things before I buy them.  I want to have a chat about products before I buy them.  Ask questions.  Make small talk.

I guess it's about finding a balance isn't it?

Anyway...my groceries will be here soon, and I will be collecting them in my pyjamas.  You gotta love that!

i'll let Jasper say it for me

my place and yours

This week's theme is green.

So here is a picture of the lovely green cactus that takes residence on my work desk - which is (sadly) the place that I spend the most time each day.  He nicely tolerates the temperamental air-conditioning and very infrequent watering.  He gets lots of lovely morning sun.

Check out some more green things over at helloowl 

music for monday

Mondays are not much fun.  I don't like them.  Oh well.  Let's talk about happy things instead...

On Friday afternoon I bought the lovely Washington's new album, "I believe you liar" and I am absolutely loving it.  I'm loving it to the point where I think I'm going to get sick of it if I don't stop listening to it.  But that's what I do when I really love music - I listen to it over and over and over again until I know all of the words and can sing along loudly in my car.  So, thank you Ms Washington for brightening up my Monday morning!  Hopefully this will brighten up yours as well.