I received my Peters of Kensington newsletter today and my eyes nearly fell out.
They have Eric Carle "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" dinnerware for kiddies. OMG the best ever! VHC is one of my fave kiddies books (and my kiddies fave also), so I flipped and skidded sideways when I saw these beauties...
how freaking cute are these mugs!
and the bestest of all.....THIS little set
Both the destroyer and the princess LOVE their googie eggs with toasty soldiers. So these are coming to my place PRONTO!
And check out this Aussie - print artist on Etsy - Printspace . I am now the proud owner of this adorable pink heart & teddy print (to go in the princesses room) - and this fabulous Sunshine print (to go in my ensuite). Mara also does these rad looking Rock Poster style birth announcement prints - they were just the thing I had been wanting to get framed with one of the kiddies baby pics and the little cross-stitch I made for each kiddo. I'll share how that all turns out once framed when I get to do it. Mara even custom coloured the boy one for me. Yes I know I could have done up the announcements and printed them myself, but seeing as my printer is rather dodgy with colours at tiems AND I don't have access to any of that lovely artists paper, I am totally delighted with how the prints turned out.
And after a seeing this girls stuff a year or two back, I finally broke down and couple of weeks ago I ordered this fabulous Cupcake Peddlers print
from The Black Apple for the princesses room (she flipped when she saw it online - so I can't wait to see her face when it arrives!) - and I got myself this pair - the Rock & ROll print set .
ANNNNND finally, my other find on Etsy was this Qld artist Kathy Panton - who has the most unreal prints of her paintings. Three of this set
will be going in the princesses room - the butterfuly reminds me of Eric Carle's stuff actually, which is probably why I loved it, and this one (but I have purchased the original watercolour) will be coming to live at my house - called I Spilt My Cordial - I am VERY excited and can't wait for it to arrive, I just fell in love with the way the colours and design played on this!
PLUS I noticed today that she is doing a Buy Two get the third FREE deal on her shop that ends today - so if you wanted something HURRY!
OK, that's it for me. I am off to start painting the ensuite now. Wish me luck. I already had the roller drop in muddy water outside, and can't find my little fine bristled brush to do the cutting in, so to say I am off to a less than stellar start is a major understatement....
So I have this week off work. We *were* supposed to be going on holiays to a beach of some description this week, but alas, the farmer had to start feeding stock (every second day) so the trip did not go ahead.
But my week off work did go ahead, I was able to keep the Destroyers daycare days the same as I would have had if I was at work, so I intended to take FULL ADVANTAGE of this and get some stuff done around here - like finally painting my ensuite (yeah, I know, it's only been 18 months, but I have been THAT indecisive about colour it is ridiciulous).
When I thought about my time off on Friday, these are some of the things I thought I might do on different days.
MONDAY: Take the destroyer to daycare, buy paint (I finally found colour I liked), paint stuff, P&F meeting .
TUESDAY: Paint more stuff. Watch gossip girl and skins.
WEDNESDAY: scoot around like a chook with its head chopped off getting things spick & span for the my parents stay on Wednesday night. DO about 50 loads of washing if the smoke haze has disappeared.
THURSDAY: Destroyer to daycare, Farm bookwork (*ugh*), finish up painting, evening talk in town at the princesses school. Watch the repeat of True Blood.
FRIDAY: Trip to the big town down for scary meeting with farm accountant (*shudder*).
SATURDAY: Day at home. Ignore whole family while I do stuff I wish to do. On my OWN! Maybe a trip to the flicks with the chicks (ha I can rhyme like).
SUNDAY: be all annoyed that I have to go back to work the next day. Trust me, that DOES take me a while.
SO I got to yesterday and the destroyer was crook. Here is what monday turned out like.
MONDAY: wonder in disbelief that the destroyer would be sick with very big indications that anibiotics may be needed, try to ring dr surgery about 50 times to get an appointment. Finally get through. Get told that no appointments availalbe, can only see a dr via nurse. Trapse into town. Wait for nurse for 35 minutes. Finally see nurse and am told he'll need appointment with Dr. Get appointment with Dr scheduled for 1hr and 15 minutes later. Trapse around town doing nothing but keeping the destroyer moving in the pram so he doesnt destroy stuff. Get back to surgery 3 minutes before appoitment time. Dr still has six people to see before us. Let the destroyer run riot in the surgery as I am right pissed off and believe I am absolved of all responsibility for him due to exteme stress and the fact that it is not my fault they can't schedule correctly. Finally see Dr 2 hours and 15 minutes after first seeing the nurse. He tells me to just watch him and just bring the destroyer back in the afternoon if he gets worse, or in the morning and he'll give him some antibiotics. Dr hears my very calmly voiced "i already told you we live a 50km round trip out of town" then notices the extreme rage in my eyes, and quickly offers to do up the script then. Walk around to chemist (no pram) and wait another 1/2 an hour for the chemist to bet script done. Go to green grocers while script is being done to get some grapes and zucchini. Go to pay for grapes and zucchini and find the destroyer has pulled out very expensive gourmet peach and licked it. Also pay for a very expensive gourmet peach. Get back to chemist. Dare not try to get paint with destroyer in mood he is in. Get drugs. Go home. Get nothing else done for the day because destroyer is there destroying everything after I get it cleaned. Go to P&F meeting.
TUESDAY: Destroyer is better so drop him to daycare and attempt to get paint. Hardware store does not have paint combo on computer to make it up. Wait while they ring to get combo. Agree to go for a bit and come back as paint will be done by then. Go and buy stuff at supermarket that I forgot to get yesterday, then get bread at bakery, and pick up papers at newsagent. Cannot find more piffling tasks to do. Go back to Hardware store. Paint isn't ready. Give up in defeat and go home as the Farmer can pick up paint in afternoon. Decide that hopefully Thursday I'll finally get to paint uninterrupted. Get incredibly pissed off that my week off work is turning to shit. Make coconut muffins. Drink copious amounts of filty rotten bad-for-you diet coke.
Which brings me to right now when I am coming to terms with the fact that I will now have to do my wednesday jobs today, which in itself is fine, except for the fact that it will all be fucking messed up by tomorrow when my parents arrive. Am contemplating wether or not to even bother with any of that today and just wander aimlessly around the house for a bit and kick something instead.
ON another note, wasn't Hugh Jackman just delish in his Oscar hosting job? Well I only bothered watching his opening bit, then turned the telly over afte best supporting actress was announced. But Hugh is just tooooo good! ANd I never realised Anne Hathaway had a set of pipes on her - that was a turn up for the books! I will say that the "praise by others" of the nominees thing was crap - just put up a clip of the nominee in the movie like always - the gush gush suck gush bit that the presenters did was just BORING. That is way I turned it off after BSActress was announced.
And finally, I saw a little bit of the telecast for the National Day of Mourning on Sunday (Kev vie Rudd's speaking voice and speeches make me want to vomit AND tear my eardrums out with a spoon - so I didn't watch much). Anyway, I saw the bit where "We Are Australian" was sung - it was so good! They changed a couple of choruses and some Kingslake survivors sang those - totally fantastic, watch it here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx5eWbjQ-XA
Just watched the ep of lost I taped from Wednesday night.
Hurley is freaking sensational. I love pretty much love everything the writers have come out of his mouth. And I am glad Sayid's hair went back curly. It was weridly offputting when he had it all fairy and straight. And Sawyer is gold - I pretty much love everything the writers have come out of this mouth too!
And who is that older lady that Ben was talking to - is it the professors (name escapes me) mother who he told Desmond to go find?
And can I refrain from looking at spoilers???
I think the answer to those two questions are "probalby not" and "no idea".
I'll let you decide which is for which.
Happy weekend peeps! I am embarking on a week off work. Yay me. And painting things (not so yay), but at least I have a week off.
YAY YAY - there is a 2nd monthly category going up again at www.categorystories.wordpress.com and it is very exciting to be able to swing that again! Which means double the chances to have a crack at winning this months very rad prize from www.tallyscrapper.com .
The 2nd February category is "DATE NIGHT" and here is what I did done do for it.
In other pivotal news, my TV viewing time is being rather stretched of a "Teww-sday" (as the farmers neice used to say when she was a tiny tot) as Gossip Girl is running at the same time as the very ace vampy show True Blood
(I would call it Twilight on crack with some southerner trailer trash thrown in). It is FABULOUS.
It is apparently based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels (which I have not yet read), and stars Anna Paquin as the telepathic lead character of Sookie. I think Anna Paquin is freaking dynamite.
And Bill the Vamp (pictured above with Sookie) is rawther sexy in an odd-non conventional way - can't quite put my finger on it but he is very engaging to watch! He is a vamp who was changed back in the Civil War, so his turn of phrase for some conversation is pretty cute ("May ah call on youu Soo-kay"). Funny. (*and hotness*)
And Ryan Kwanten (ex Home and away for those of you playing in the back seats - did you know H&A has been going for 21 years - that blew my socks off today. I.feel.old) is also on there, being raunchy and very very stupid. And hilarious, as Sookies dim brother Jason. Check out is arms.
And Sookies boss Sam at the bar is in love with her, and it seems he goes strangely missing and then a "protector" dog turns up outside the bar. Or somewhere near Sookie. Hmmmmm what a mystery. I. wonder. who. the. dog. really. is (duh). For some reason Sookie can't seem to read Sams mind about this whole dog/transformation thing. But his crush is still cute (and so his he)>!
ANYWAY The show is on my must watch list now - it's fab, well, except for the vamp fangs, they look too weirdly pointy or something, and I always thought the fang teeth were the next ones over?? (and what is WITH the need for bad hair blonde guy vamps in things - like this dude below - gah, it is way too annoying!)
OH and Lost is back on. Sigh. Love.
Ok. Not much more news from me. Play nice on the swings this week kids.
It is a good thing because he is now one degree of separation away from me because My Friend Hannah was the party pie hander-outer at the telathon last night, so got to ask him if he wanted a party pie and Orlando said "No fanks luv".
Unfortunately, she has no photographic evidence of this..... and no autograph for me. She also met Police Chief Christine Nixon and perved on Hamish and Andy.
ETA: I actually didn't get to watch the fundraiser either (bar about 2 minutes of Edie Maguie, and seeing him made me want to be sick a little bit), so I found out all of this after the event, and after I had already made my donation during the week at coles. Although I reckon if I had have called anyway, I would have been stuck with John Farnham or someone of similar non-Orlando ilk, and i would have just been cranky then. *snort*
Ok, so we need to focus again on the good. And there are some really (dare I say it) heartwarming things happening in the aftermath of the bushfires.
1. $49 MILLION DOLLARS so far raised for the bushfire vicitims from private donations. ONYA AUSSIES - talk about a corker of a whip round! And as much as I think COLES stink, the fact that they set up donations points via all their cash registers made it much easier to pop some money to the Red Cross, so they redeemed theselves slightly there. And the profit donation from all shopping tomorrow - nice one!
2. Sam the Koala - yeah yeah, I know EVERYONE has seen the footage now, but MAN it is soooo freaking cute the way she put her paw in Mr Tree-the-fiery's hand.
3. The little kid at the recovery centre who was interviewed on SkyNews last night, who was asked if it was a good day that the cricketers came to visit. And if meeting Ricky Ponting was good. The kid said "YES". He was then asked if he knew who Ricky Ponting was. The kid said "NO - but he gave me this tshirt".
4. The fact that people are looking to rebuild their communities again - that is so positive and inspiring.
5. THe story about the horse that saved his owner - that is AMAZING, and the horse survived.
6. Totally unreal things people ended up having to use like Pepsi and any other liquid they could find to douse flames when hoses stopped working - that is incredible!
As much as my brain can't take any more sadness, I am almost morbidly drawn to coverage of the bushfires. And looking at this picture above reminds me of the Canberra fires a couple few years ago. We were over there with the Princess for the weekend, and managed to find ourselves after taking a wrong turn near Woden, just as one of the pine plantations went up into what seemed like 10 storey tall walls of flame, before turning the car round (like many others on the road at the time) and getting the hell out of there back to the relative safety of Belconnen. I had NEVER seen anything scarier in my whole life. And I can only imagine it was about 1/10000000nth of what the feeling of terror was compared to what those poor people felt before the bigger infernos hit their communities in Victoria.
The toll is looking likely to exceed 200 deaths at this point.
And the stories coming out from surviors and witnesses - it is beyond shattering what they have seen - I can't bring myself to type some of the things I have read in the news reports.
If they find that it was some filthy stinking mongrel arse wipe f**king arsonist who lit those fires, I hope they punsih them to the full extent of the law.
And. then. some.
I hope these communites can rebuild, stronger and safer than before.
THere are many things that need to be answered after this unfathomable tragedy. Should all homes in bushland be built with compulsory underground shelters? With mandatory hose/sprinkler systems for on their roofs? And with a mandatory clear area away from timber? Why isn't there a return to widespread hazzard reduction backburning in cooler months (personally, bugger the endangered mountain gnat if this sort of controlled burn stops the inferno fires happening - controlled burns might actually give these animals a chance at escape unlike the torrent of fire that hit)? Shouldn't graziers be allowed to put stock into parks in a controlled manner to help keep the tinder down - like what they were allowed to do until recently? Is the government ultimately responsible with their lax preventative measures in place with regard to park managment? What about fire sirens similar to those towns in tornado areas have being installed in all highland/mountain towns? Having RFS/CFA volunteer squads better equipped and resourced? PAYING each and every volunteer member an annual retainer as a thank you for putting themselves in danger (they aren't professional emergency service offcers and don't get any equivalent training to deal with such horror - they are just regular people trying to help their community).
Would any of these measures have made a difference in these fires?
I hope the royal commission into this can offer up some strategies and solutions to help prevent this scale of destruction and loss of life happening again.
I have just been watching the news - at least 65 people are dead (number rising) and almost 600 homes (number rising) are burnt, and entire small towns destroyed after the shockingly horrendous fires in Victoria hit this weekend.
We'd just had smoke from the fires come over our area, which is around 600kms away in New South Wales. I hadn't seen the news since Thursday, so I had NO idea until the smoke came over and turned the TV on just how bad the situation was.
It is completely gut-wrenching to watch images of cars burnt out on roads as people tried to escape, whole families dead, and so many more unaccounted for.
It is a day (if not week/s) of mourning for every Australian.
And the fact that it appears some of the fires were deliberately lit makes it even more sickening.
My thoughts are with the firefighters, the communities they are struggling to protect, and the friends and family of all those poor souls lost.
And I feel like a complete arsehole for whinging about the hot days we've had here.
Dang it - it's been over 40 degrees here AGAIN today - I can't take it anymore unless some kindly installs a 15 metre fibreglass inground salt water swimming pool with swim jet and a lovely pavilion over it that can be opened up (roof and sides) and has an underwater speaker so I can hook up my I-pod while i-swim laps......
Yes, I am slightly delirious.....
ANYWAY I have been engrossed in Eclipse (just finished it yesterday - well make that this morning - at about 2am - when i-was having trouble sleeping due to the stinky heat and feeling like sh*t because of the stinky heat.....). And am about to launch into Breaking Dawn. And trying to finish Pride & Prejudice for book club... and another book I got from the library which is due back next week.... my bookshelf-eth runneth over (eth). Reading is the new crack - just though you'd like to know that.... *ha*
Apart from that, and managing to SWIM LAPS at various pools around the place (did I mention I LOOOOOVE swimming laps - if I really could have my i-pod on in the pool I would be in HEAVEN), I and being rather crapped out by the stinky heat, I have done this...
NEW CATEGORY STORIES challenge - www.categorystories.wordpress.com go check it kids! THis month we have a valentine-ish category of "What I Love About ____ " and I used the theme to make this card.... which I may give to my valentine. We'll at least I will.
when Orlando remembers he hasn't told me his address.
Ok I finished actually reading Twilight the other day. And as I know there is about only one person reading my blog, you might like to read my review of it....
SPOILER ALERT - if you are one of the two humans who has not yet read TWILIGHT book then SKIP to my BO reference later (and no - I am not talking about my smelly pits...*snort*).
I gave Twilight 3 out of 5 stars (although it was pegging at around 2 out of 5 there for a while....for reasons noted below).
I put this review on my goodreads list...:
I have stayed away from as many spoilers as possible for the next three books, so this is purely my opinion of Twilight! - and I am not spellchecking as I type, so ignore typos..ha! Also, I watched the movie before reading the book.
I really like the storyline for Twilight, it especially appealed to my inner teenage girl! But, even my 16 yr old self was in agreeance with my current self that Meyers’s writing style is very irritating, only improving from the point of where Bella goes to meet the Cullens. I think if they released the book again and took out 98% of the “perfectbeautifulbreathtakinggorgeouswonderful” references to Edward's looks, it would have read MUCH better. The annoying way Bella continually & repetitively speaks about Edward and his perfection is just bordering on ridiculous, and making her character less appealing as a result. Also Edwards constant referral to how dangerous/bad/unhealthy he is for Bella was just annoying. I wanted to slap both of them at times (just like when I watched the movie!)!
I reckon there surely could have been a better medium in the sulky/emo/annoying way she was played on screen and the vapid/repetitive/annoying way she is portrayed in the book.
The over use of beautiful etc is totally detracting from Bella’s character development itself through the novel, and it is a real shame, because my feeling of the undertones about what Bella truly is or who she is descended from, along with her personality, are being obscured – I can’t WAIT to find out what happens with her, (even after stupidly accidently reading a slight spoiler). I really don't want to believe she is as superficial and "damsel in distress" as she comes off after reading Twilight. I hope as the time line progresses through the other books, that Meyer puts some effort into exploring Bella more and has her grow up a bit.
I am really keen to find out how it all unfolds, and doing my damdest to stay away from any other spoilers (which is VERY unlike me, usually I am trying to HUNT them DOWN!). And I am really happy all the books are out now, so I can read them one after the other, I think if I had to wait for them after reading this first one, I may have lost interest half way through and not bothered. I think this is where watching the movie helped, as I knew action would be coming (eventually, in a pretty rushed way, right near the end of the book.....*ha*).
I also want to slap Meyer's editor, who must have been really slack who just didn’t want to for some reason pick her up on the dodgy dialogue/lack of character development/oddly paced story line – if she had a kickarse editor who forced the issue I think the book would have been 100 times better as a result.
Another reason I am really glad I watched the movie first was that I felt Meyer was a bit lacking in her descriptions (the movie and Robert Pattisons hot personage are filling that in nicely, although it improved from the point she met the Cullens), but hey, its her first novel so I’ll cut her some slack on that.
I actually didn’t mind reading the “of three things I am certain…etc” dialogue in the book compared to how it came off in the movie if that makes sense. IN the film it just seemed ridiculous and unncessary to me (I remember actually saying "duh" after Bella spoke the words). IT didn’t seem as cheesy in the book which I am really happy about!
BUT, to me the whole sparkling vampire skin thing still just is stupid – both in the book AND especially in the movie. I would have been happier I think if Meyer just played it that the explaination went along the lines of “the whole exploding in sunlight thing is SUCH a crock, but we have very light sensitive skin/eyes (etc) and prefer gloomier overcast days or darker situations” (or something).
The book also was a bit of a hard slog to read in amongst Bella's "edward gushing" and only really got "page tuning" from when she met the Cullens and they had the baseball game and met the bad mob. I actually prefered how they wrote the storyline in the movie where the "bad vamp" element was introduced earlier and refrenced as a bit of an ominous presence throughout until the met up. If Meyer had have done that it would have made the earlier parts a helluva lot more interesting - especially as that part involved Charlie a bit more (who I really like!).
But I loved in the book how they delved into Carlisle and Alice's past - that was great, and it was a shame they left that out of the film.
It isn't the best book in a teen-genre I have ever read (most being read from my Adult-who-is-a-repressed-teenager perspective), but it is an enjoyable read - it would be more-so if I had have had someone take to it with a black texta and cross out the multitude of "edward is hot" references. I just hope the rest of the books get better!!!
That said, I really enjoyed the little exceprt at the end of the Twilight book of the novel Meyer has not finished yet written from Edwards perspective - now that is one I can't wait to read!
*****************
There you go. I am sure your day has absolutey been made by reading my perspective on that...*yeah right*.
I am now part way though New Moon - I am sure you are HANGING on the edge of your seat for my review on that one.. Actually, I am enjoying reading it so far - there has been a fraction of the Edward Gushing of Twilight for which I am VERY greatful!
So, what about the BO you might ask?? I refer to the new honcho head guy of all the free world, Barack Obama (what an unfortunate intial combination....I can see the media going berserk on that if his reign time in offce comes under pressure at all).
Congrats Mr O - you did a fine job of making it to the top, hopefully your time will be constructive, positive, peaceful (well more so than now anyway), safe, and remembered for the good things your administration accomplished. And I think it is great to see a young family in the white house again.
I didn't stay up to watch his inauguration, seeing as it hit our screens around midnight or so, and I knew it would be played to death today.
I think it is quite cool to see the USA so into their voting this time round - there was a record at something like 64% of eligible people actually voting. I mean for a country that doesn't have compuslory voting that is a pretty good result.
It will be very interesting to see how he goes. I admit am a cynic when it comes to ALL politicans.
I think many are in it for themselves, especially the ones who seek the upper level jobs that take them further away from directly representing the people who elected them. Granted, we need the high level leaders etc, but I am wary of pretty much everyone in the "top job" and how they got there - what factions are behind them, who is doing all the wrangling and angling to get them there - are they just puppets for more powerful faceless nameless back room heavys who only have their own vested interests at heart and not those of the electors? How much of what they represent is truly them and not the mouthpiece of what others want us to hear?
I think that the way our leaders conduct themselves when not making the great prepared stirring speeches and spouting the memorable and encouraging catch phrases (Mr Myspace PM Kevin07 was sooooo annoying with that - and he still bloody is!!) is a truer sign of their capabilites. Take George Dubya and his constant gaffes when he was unscripted. Aussie pollies have done the same.
Mr O's little line fluff when he was taking his oath of office was two things to me:
A) humanising - it made him seem more regular and it was actually quite cute (he has the NICEST smile!!) - you could see he was so excited and happy and nervous to be there;
and B) a sign that perhaps the great orator that he comes across as, is maybe not 100% obama (they image his people like to portray), but maybe more like 75%. He is very skilled at speaking, but how much of what he actually says is his own? I hope I am wrong - but I really think that when you are taking your oath of office, you would have had the chance to practice it 1000 times since the election to get it 100% right. It wasn't like it was a surprise dialogue you had to speak, or something that was 50 pages to read.
Anyway, I think he did well to achieve the election result, and be where he is today, and I hope after all the hooplah dies down and the celebs go back to doing what they do best (being fluffy "ahct-ors" or muso's) and let him get on with the job, that he does make good choices and leads well, especially since he has such a tough start ahead with the current global situtation.
OK bored enough yet??
You did well to make it this far through my non-spell checked rantings.
So here is your reward:
Just a touch of Henry Cavill in from his dunhill fragrance add - ahhh The Tudors. Best.SHOW!
soooo I might be the last person on the planet to get sucked in by the franchise, but I received the book for chissy=mess but couldn't bring myself to crack it open for a read until I saw the movie (I am nearly always disappointed when I read the book first then see the movie, generally less so when I do it the other way round), which proved to take longer to actually GET to see than I thought. BUT never fear I made it, and I just got back from watching this at the old heritage deco theatre in the not-quite-so-big town over the other way.....
and even though it is an overtly pouty, annoying-at-times in its simpering emo-ocity, teenager vamp flick with some laughable dialogue - I quite liked it! (but then again I also like gossip girl and The Hills - so if I place it in amongst that lot for cinematic brilliance it isn't that much of a stretch really...). And the bit where the dad was cleaning his gun before bella told him edward was there to meet him....classic!! Very brill. And I have a crush on the whole Cullen family.
So if you take out the following:
* the really cheezy bits of dialogue: - for example (and I am paraphrasing here) "there are three things I am sure of - he is a vampire etc" (well NO SHIT SHERLOCK....duh Bella) scene, and '" you are my personal heroin" - I'll probably laugh if I read those bits in the book - I hope the cheese is not melting THAT much in the book),
* the annoyingly just-a-smidge-too-pale vampires that GLITTER in the sunlight..... ummmm WTF?? I like my vampires exploding and turning to DUST in the sunlight thank you very much!!!
* Bellas annoyingly frequent "huffs" and pouty looks which just got painful to watch after a bit - and helped drag the movie at times. I wanted to smack her more than once.
* the time it took me to transpose the lovely Robert Pattinson as Edward in my brain instead of seeing Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter movie (whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE - I actually ALMOST shed a tear when he died in the movie even though I knew it was going to happen),
*getting over the pouffy hair Edward sported, I wanted to comb it nearly as many times as I wanted to smack Bella
* and adjust to the "cheery but dim" High School Musical-esque characters of Bella's friends who obviously have been treated with some form of chemical brain dilution stupid agent that makes them not SEE THE BLEEDIN OBVIOUS ABOUT THE VAMPIRES THAT LIVE IN THEIR TOWN AND GO TO SCHOOL WITH THEM,
* the fact that the baddie James character and his really badly bleached, slicked back ponty tail reminded me (not in a good way) of Russel Crowe all puffy looking in Master and Commander OR Tommy "got my crazy scientology pants on" Cruise as Lestat in Interview with a Vampire
I thought the movie was cool with those points taken out of the equation.
ANd I loved the way it was shot, the colourisation, the scenery, the settings - especially of the Cullens house. And the baseball scene was pretty freaking ace. And did I mention I have a crush on the cullen family - they are drop dead cool. (*ha...geddit...drop dead!!) I want to know how the Dad vamp - Carslile - became a blood sucker (abiet a "NICE" one) in the first place, hope I find that out too in the books.
And the fact that even though James' hair horrified me, he was either shirtless or bare chested for most of the movie. That of course made my day.
Here is what I mean about the James/Rusty/Tom similarity....
And that james guy is HOT in real life as Cam Gigandet - lookit - pity they gave him SUCH bad hair in Twilight...
And I have a really really big equal crush on both Jacob
(cutie cute cute - he has the best smile) and Edward (speshly after Edward decided to be with Bella and rocked up to school with her in his fab car and got out with the sunnies on and....SMILED *swoon* great scene). I am not sure who I can choose between yet.
And as I have not read the books and very very little in the way of spoiler action, I am prediciting that the tension between the Cullens and Jacobs mob has something to do with the eternal vampire/warewolf issue, and where I think that the books might play out similar to the whole Underworld (Kate Beckinsale film franchise) ware/vamp "iss-ewes" (said in my best Kath & Kim voice).
And is Bella like some special decendant or something - maybe like the hybrid ware/vamp guy that Scott Speedman played in Underworld? Maybe? or not. Some sort of crossover decendant? Yes? No?
Anyway, I'll have to read the books and find out for myself - and I am doing my darndest to stay away from spoiler action, so (and I can't belive I am saying this seeing as I ALWAYS skip ahead with books/TVseries if given the opportunity - call it "lack of willpower) please refrain from telling me OK. THe little bit I have seen are people saying Team Edward OR TEam Jacob, so I am refraining on choosing as yet.
I might be on a Twilight bender over the next week or so before I go back to work and try and bowl those babies over. After getting the next three books of course. Which would mean breaking my "no new books until you read all you have on hand in the house you haven't yet read" ban. Which is like 10 or 15 books or so....
But I feel an exception to the rule coming on. Just this once. It is a special case after all. I need to decide if I have a higher Edward or Jacob swoon ratio once and for all.
Easter eggs have been at coles since Monday. At the F**king checkouts too of all places.
It is wrong on SO MANY LEVELS that Easter stuff is now out not even two weeks after Christmas!!!
ARRGHHHH why can't there be a law banning releases of "insert-your-religious-occasion-made-all-dodgy-and-commercial" Day crap until like 6 weeks MAX before the day. Unless they create a whole "Commerctermas Day" (I am trademarking that phrase combo of Christmas, Easter and Commercialism all rolled into one) section which you can opt to avoid like the plague until it suits you. Like you need a swipe card and dna fingerprint scan to gain admittance to the area or something. Like I am not a religious person on any level, but GEEZ talk about retailers hitting the lowest level with removing ANY form of spirituality from the two biggest Christian/white fella religious events by having the shit commercialised out ot it!!!!
It makes me right cross! No wonder I was so freaking sick of christmas last year with crap being out like in AUGUST.
And no wonder Easter eggs don't last long with expiry dates seeming to be like a month after easter itself, I'll bet they have been sitting in warehouse shelves for months and MONTHS - like since last Easter!! Ugh. I think I might just do handmade chocolate easter eggs this year so I know they are good..... hmm, now that's a thought!! Anyone with some ripsnorter easy peasy easter egg making ideas PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
Anyway, the bit that is making me crankiest about the whole shebang is that the little eggs they have out are my favourite small solid chocolate ones...very hard to resist.
But now I am annoyed I will ON PRINCIPAL only eat Flakes and Smarties and Kit Kats and Violet Crumbles from the checkout section and NOT eat the eggs. Take THAT coles... *snort*
Back to your regularly scheduled programming of shirtless hotties now..... I nearly fainted in Myer today when I saw the lifesize image of Josh Holloway sans shirt on the davidoff promo poster. Swoon...
Hope that made you as happy as it made me...! I was trying to figure out a way to sneak out of Myer with the poster board but I couldn't get the Princess to distract the sales lady....(*ha*)
I remember when Monkey was totally the acest after school show on TV in the 80's (yes, I know I also loved Educating Marmalade and the Double Deckers AND De Grassi). But Monkey totally rocked. Kung-fu rocked. Big time. Super-bad dubbing and gender-indeterminite characters and pink fuffy clouds and dodgy special effects and all. It has one of the best theme songs EVER - watch and listen to the link in the sidebar!
And I found this excellent site put together by a fan called Lee (best name ever in my opinion) - if you want a total flashback go there and wait for the little clip of Monkey doing that blowing noise thing with his fingers to call his cloud! It also has all the lyrics to the theme song and the opening credit voiceover.
So cool. Our new Category Stories category is "I REMEMBER" - Steph picked it and it is such a goodun. I was tossing up doing Monkey or remembering when Chocolate Paddlepops tasted more chocolatey.... I think I chose the right topic in the end... *HA* Here's what I did done do (scanner did done chop off the theme song lyrics written around the edge....and ignore my crap writing...and spelling mistakes...).
This month www.scrapinstyletv.com is sponsoring us - YAY - so rad. So please join in, you have until Jan 31 to get your page linked - and we even have a flickr group now! Go check it out here!
Bye for now. I am off to go kick some demon arse and ride away on my fluffy pink cloud to find enlightenment...
xo L.
And don't forget the applications close on January 15th if you wish to put your name in the ring to join the team of Story Tellers! DOn't worry, you don't need to fight "dirty stinking demons" or roundhouse-kungfu kick your way out of a battle. You just need to check www.categorystories.wordpress.com and check on the post about the Storyteller applications!
I am currently downloading all the pix I have taken since Dec 24, and about to see if the printer will love me enough to print the photos for the new Category Stories challenge which I have to upload shortly!
I am laying low today hopefully not needing to go far, maybe just one trip to town if needed. I was doing up our 2009 calendar last night and realised we have functions/events to attend until mid February - me who never has a social life suddenly is getting a great big one - ARGH! It will mean that every weekend for 2 months (since the Princesses birthday in mid-December) we will have had something on.
Hectic is a very apt way to sum up the last 6 months, I swear it was only yesterday it was my birthday in June!
Christmas was flat chat - we had christmas morning here, then headed down to the Farmer's family lunch for 22 people or so (after a false start that saw us turn around and head back because neither of us could recall switching off the christmas tree lights - luckily they were off, and I realised I had left my mobile behind...duh). We then went to my parents for Christmas Night dinner along with my brother and his partner.
I scored some good stuff of Santa - a new 16gb i-pod (my old 4gb still works except it has run out of room and I still don't have my whole CD collection on it - so the princess is now a very happy camper!), the Twilight book, the Pink funhouse CD and a cute ring. Plus some cash from the relos - quite a good haul!!!
Mum and I hit the Boxing Day sales in her big town over bright and early - we were there at 7.15! I had pretty much found everything on my list by 8am - and they had triple Myer points until then and seeing as I knew most of the things I needed were from there we decided an early start was worth while. I love now how they put the sales catalogues online the couple of days before christmas - makes working out who has the best prices so much easier!! The crowds really got busy about 9.30 or so, but we were really lucky with checkouts, we only ever had 1 person in front if anyone until then, and after that I think the most we had was a two person wait, but that was because of some lucky timing I think - most checkouts were packed!
We hosted some friends (N&M with princess Molly, and J&M with princess Ava) at mum & dads (love the pool) Boxing Day afternoon which was really nice to catch up.
We came back on the 27th, and headed to a friends place to help with the last bit of their house move.
New Years Eve geared up as a very quiet one thank goodness - I basically didn't want to go anywhere, but if people came to us then that was fine! We ended up with two couples and their kiddos coming over, lots of champers was consumed, firey games of uno played, as well as having a crack at the Princesses "Bop-it" game - it is the most addictive thing if you haven't played one before!
Yesterday we took the kiddies to see this in the big town over:
Funny - I love those penguins!! The Destroyer was a maniac though most of the movie till I went and got popcorn and a lollipop around the time of Gloria and Melmans little heart to heart in the hippo pond - then the little blighter was good as gold!
Tomorrow we have a neighbours child's first birthday party which should be cute, then it is off to swimming lessons for 9 days from Monday for the Princess. Busy Busy!
OOOH and lookie what I picked up just before Christmas - an Otek Film and Negative Scanner and it seems to be working quite well! I have only done a few scans so far from negatives, which weren't taken on a very good camera to start with, but here is one photo I think is from around 1994 or 5 of the Farmers neice and nephew:
And I found a slide of me from one of the couple I got of mum & dad originally thinking I would get professionally done, but seeing as it is $3 PER SLIDE (!!!!) to get them done at the camera shop, I figured with the hundreds of other slides my parents, have the $150 for the scanner was a pretty good price! It is great too as you don't need to hook it up to the PC, you pop a memory card in and away you go. Not the quickest thing ever (I have seen auto scanners that are much faster) but I figure for the price and the ease of use it is pretty good.
Here is the one from the slide - me as a kiddo. I still have that purple blanket.....(*ha*).
Both these shots are straight out of the machine, so it will be good to have a go in photoshop to get the smudges and things off.
I see everyone is on the "WORD" bandwagon again, so I figure I might as well sheeple along with it.
But to be slightly different, I am giving myself three words. BALANCE - looking to work out that happy medium with commitments and kids stuff and family activities and personal things I want to do so I can try and get the most out of the year without feeling completely snowed under. ORGANISATION - kicking it up a notch with organisation of my surroundings to see if I can run things a bit more smoothly around here (www.unclutterer.com is a fab source of inspo - I get their daily emails). TRAVEL - as 08 held very little in the way of adventure for our family for a few different reasons, this year we have a proper family holiday owing, and some long lost friends to catch up with.
I have already made a start on the organisation side of things with some pantry and kitchen cupboard de-cluttering and reorganisation, and a bit of a go over of my wardrobe. I am looking to repeat that throughout the house. Watching shows like "How Clean is your House UK" and "Perfect Housewife" make me realise I am actually not that bad when it comes to the house (some of the places featured on there are horrifying!!) but there is always room for improvement.
Ok, the kids are trying to kill each other so I had better go referee.
So, I went to make the cake for the princesses 8th birthday and it was rather dodgy to say the least. Although some of that is not direclty related to my crap cake decorating "skillz". (the cake itself though was nice...I have to give myself credit for that seeing as I made it from scratch!).
You see in the Womens Weekly Kids Cake book (it is a great book - it has the "old skool" cakes from the 80's version of the WW cake book as well as more recent designs all in the one book) - the poodle is mainly decorated with the mini marshmallows in white that are about the same size as a pencil top eraser. Anyway, I didn't get to double check what I needed before I had to shop for the ingredients and I just recalled marshmallows being on the list. So when I got home and saw they had to be a lot of the mini ones in white this required a trek back into town on the morning of the princesses party. To only find there was ONE freaking back of these mini's left, when I ideally would have needed three packs seeing as they contained both pink & white ones - so I had to improvise with extra big pink marshmallows and using some mini pink ones to make a number 8 on the poodles back leg area - sorta like a weird demented branding of sorts. AND neither supermarket had old style twisted licorice like they used in the recipe, I had to settle for chunky red stuff. Talk about shitty! ARGH. Plus I thought early on that the trusty vanilla Betty Crocker "icing-in-a-tub" coloured pink would work (as it has for my more standard cake ventures - see below) - and too late realised I should have probably refrigerated it for a while before hand to thicken it up as it was just too runny. But I soldiered on.
I discovered though I was on a wreck style situation, when as I was icing the bloody poodle in this festy pink icing disaster, the princess came over to check up on her precious cake and then said to me (very kindly I might add).... "hmmm, mum, maybe I should have picked another cake....." and she walked off again.
"WELL DUUUUH" I thought - although I had warned her before hand that I felt my cake making strenghts mainly lay in a design that didn't require complicated manouvers. I am more a "square cake with BC icing and Smarties in the number shape on top" kinda person.
Anyway, after all was said and done it was a pretty dodgy effort, BUT people could tell it was a poodle so that was something I spose.
Here are things I firmly acknowlege about my effort pictured below:
1. It is not in any way shape or form in proportion, in fact it looks like it is a poodle/sausage dog cross due to the stump of legs I had to work with. THis is because I didn't have a flat platter/plate/board anywhere near the right size/dimensions so I had to use the tray which is the biggest flat thing I had.
2. There is pink icing escaping all over the place - I did try to get it off the places it shouldn't be but it was rather stubborn despite it being so runny.
3. I agreee that because I had to use large marshmallowas all around the outline it looks like the poodle has all sorts of mutant growths on it - as the farmer KINDLY told me. He couldn't do better though so I ignored his comment and didnt' tell him that he was right. I am not that stupid.
4. Yes, it would have been easier and a much better result to ask someone who actually knows how to decorate cakes to do it for me, but the princess asked me to do it so I thought I should follow though on that request.
5. Cake decorating (much like gardening and cooking) is not one of my strengths.
6. It is really a crap cake.
7. The big marshmallow cluster just below the face area with a chunk of red licorice sticking out is suppoed to be the puffy ear bit. And I know it looks nothing like that.
Anyway, here it is:
Back to my other love - the TV - Gossip Girl rocked last night with another Blair corker line when she called chuck a Basshole - very hilar. And Nate turning into a manwhore - that's a turn up for the books! And the Tudors tonight was so lush, even if Henry/Brandon didn't feature much.
So I have no other life and very little to report, hope everyone is having a super merry festive season!
here is {almost} shirtless hottie number one - Jonathan Rhys Myers in my fave fave FAVE show The Tudors which has just started again....sigh, lovey it.
And Henry Cavill is still making my heart beat funny - also no proper shirtless pix of him but you have to admit he is rawther easy on the eyes....
sigh.
and lookit this one....
Although in Season 2 of the show his hair is longer and I think I prefer him with more of the buzz cut he had in season 1. NOt that I would kick him out of bed if he rocked up looking like that though. Maybe without the puffy shirt....that is slightly off putting.
OH and GOSSIP GIRL is back on pay tonight with the new season - YIPPEEEEE
- I am happy clappy now. Even though the guys are a bit too "pretty" for me, I totally LOVE this show, the girls totally rock, love their wardrobe and Blair gets the best dialogue! I am having a good TV week now with GG on Tuesday, The Tudors on Wednesday, and Heroes on Thursday (the Amazing Race is finishing this week though I think which I am a tad sad about - it is my fave "reality" show at the moment!). Although, yes I do realise that Gossip Girl is TOTAL reality and all Noo Yark-ah rich 5th ave brats are JUST LIKE them...(*snort*).
Blair totally had the acest line tonight calling bass the Mother Chucker - laughed my muffin top off I did!
OH and CATEGORY STORIES has a lovely new home - visit at http://categorystories.wordpress.com/ and check out our new digs - and a fab new category of DECORATE - in keeping with the festive season and all that....or not, as my page demonstrates...
I love me some Tiffany bling - and just drool over the pretty catalogues that arrive in their gorgeous blue envelopes periodically. THe farmer hates it when they turn up...*ha*.
So please come over and play along with this months Category - and we are also looking for some new CS team members, so check out the post and please have a go!
Hmm, what else. The princess is great, she had swimming lessons at school for the last two weeks which have really helped her confidence in the water, and she can now apparently swim 30 metres too which I am so proud of her for doing, especially as she has been petrified of the deep end up until now! And I can't believe she will be EIGHT YEARS OLD on Sunday - it is tripping me out. Last time I looked I am sure she was still only 3 ish. AN update on the complicated cake saga from my last post - she has decided on the poodle cake of all things... ARGH - I can forsee I shall be dobbing myself into the Cake Wrecks blog on Monday....I can't imagine it turning out well at all - although having another look at the book today it appears just to be shapes cut from a slab cake, iced in pink, with marshmallows and licorice over it, so it will be interesting to see just how much I can f**ck it up. I'll have photos I am SURE next week.
The destroyer has been totally unhinged this week. Might be the weather. Or something. He tried to escape the yard the other day barefoot and went straight into the bindy patch - he wasn't happy, and he is such a strong bugger that it took both the Farmer and I to hold him down to get the bindy splinters out! His latest words that crack me up are "helf" instead of help, and "stoo diva" instead of screwdriver. He is funny, even if he is bad to the bone. OH his fear of big "characters' is slightly abating - I am trying to desensitise him to santa, and after seeing 3 different santas in the big town over last week, he now is not reduced to a howling kicking screaming mess when he gets near the guy in the red suit. THe Destroyer even stood NEAR Santa the other night at our town's christmas fair. So we shall be going back to Myer tomorrow with the Princess as I have an appointment in the big town over, so I am very hopeful we shall get a Santa photo this year that doesn't have me in it......! Wish me luck.
OK, thats about it, shall sign off now. Meeerrrryyyy chistmas to you all.
my poooor little neglected bloggity. It is nearly shrivelled up like a rotten old tomato that has been chopped in half and left in the back of the fridge for too long.
I am blaming extreme volunteer-ism for my absence, have been wrangling the cook book I said I would coordinate for the Princesses school and it has taken pretty much every nanosecond of spare time for the last couple of months.
But it is almost done now and they will be up for sale on Saturday, so I might just get some form of life back by then. HERES HOPING!
So, this will again be a quick post to say:
1. I am alive (that is saying something given my extreme fatigue and inability to think straight or negotiate around corners as the random bruising on my limbs will attest...)
2. I am still a bloglady. SOmetimes.
3. CATEGORY STORIES is having some awesome new changes in the next month, not the least being a search for some fresh meat new Story Tellers to join the team - if you are interested, GO HERE to www.categorystories.blogspot.com and see how to apply!
4. I am still in love with Josh Holloway.
5. We have a new DVD-Recorder which has given our old telly digital reception so I can watch shows like Heroes and the Amazing Race without static. I love that new fangled black box! Unfortunately it has extended the life span of our old telly, so I don't know now when I shall be able to justify the purchase of a sexy new flat screen LCD Sony Bravia that I have been perving on at Harvey Norman.....!
6. The Destroyer now thinks he can fly. He rapidly decended from the top bleacher at the Princesses basketball game last week and ended up with a nog the size of a golf ball (or small 3rd world country) on his head....an ice pack was applied and after he was all doughey for about 5 minutes and having me panicing that I would have to brave the hospital emergency room, I asked him a couple of simple questions like which kid was his sister amongst the girls playing on the court (he picked her out), what his name was (he said it quite clearly) and one other question which I am failing to remember just now. He then asked "where are my chippes" so at that point I knew there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. They must make the naughty ones extra destruction proof or something to explain why he was rather OK after that fall. Actually, I think it has improved his intelligence because he sure as shit knows now how to sneak into MORE trouble than he did before!!
7. The Princess has decided she would like to have a family BBQ with sausages for lunch like the Destroyer had for his birthday, for her own birthday celebrations instead of some crazy extravaganza trip to ten pin bowling and the movies and mcdonalds and the play centre in the big town over. I fully support her new found love of bbq'd sausages...!
8. She is happy to have said small family get together if I make her a very complicated cake from the Womens Weekly kids cake book. I then started to think the bowling/movies/maccas/play extravaganza might be the easier way out.
9. I have volunteered to make stuff for the cake stall for the Princesses school fete on Saturday. Wish me luck, and please hope that no one who eats my food ends up in the hospital emergency room.....!
10. I am still as boring as ever with little news. See I figure it is a good thing that some stuff in life remains the same in this fast paced existence we have....*snort*
Play nice in the sand pit this week kids, I may even be back next week (yes, shock horror) with some more bloggy action.
That may even involve a new shirtless hottie photo - you know how much I LOVE THOSE!
Dude - check out the dust storm that hit town yesterday.... apparently the worst in 40 years. As I have said to a couple of people, I think I could grow a pretty good crop in my lungs after being out in this at lunch time....(these photos haven't been altered in any way, this is exactly what it was like!)
That's about all the excitement we have had of late.
Shall be back at some stage soon when I have something interesting to tell..
So swing over there to www.categorystories.blogspot.com and check out our birthday month - it is a recap of all the categories so far, so if you missed any it is an ace chance to catch up!
And we have four awesome sponsors - so there will be four winners.
Way too cool.
So, what else have I been up to. Lets see.
Ummm.
How about....NOTHING! Well nothing interesting anyway. I am coordinating the creation of a fabulous cookbook for the princesses school as a fundraiser which is slowly driving me demented, but we'll get there I am sure! I have been cleaning (shock horror - yes, I am amazed too, as I never seem to have to clean.....NOT!), cooking stuff (actually that is a real shock horror...HA!)
The princess lost another top tooth last night, and it finally looks like her 2nd middle top tooth will make an appearance after 7 months of gapness. She has also been going around singing Mamma Mia songs so I can't wait to get her a CD of them! ANd for the movie to come out on DVD!
The Destroyer is still trying to break everything. He is funny, he is speaking heaps now (although still much of it is incoherent) but he is very good with his manners "peese" and "tank ooo" , has taken to calling Donughts "dunnos" and trying to sing the incy wincy spider ("inny winny pidah", Humpty Dumpty ("hunny ditty onna wall"), Baa Baa Black Sheep (just "baa baa"), and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ("twinnal far"). It is very cute, he likes to sing those songs before he goes to bed, and has a go at the hand actions for some too, very funny!
Oh, I have also just been generally trying to figure out where all the time this year has gone and why Spotlight felt the need to have their christmas decorations out in August.
Seriously, shops that get into the christmas spirit too early should be flogged publically with a giant candy cane - I can barely cope with seeing christmas ads and displays at the end of October, but in freaking AUGUST - what the hell!!! I'll betchya the retailing monsters will have easter stuff out in November.....
Ok, rant over. Acually not quite.... I am so pissed with Ch7 for their dicking around with the Heroes scheduling - the stupid bastards for some reason had held over the final 2 eps of series 2 of Heroes and ran them just prior to the olympic with barely a peep of promotion (or without pointing out when they "finished" the season before that oh, by the way, there are actually TWO MORE EPISODES in the series that we aren't going to show for ages and ages and when we do we won't tell you we are going to do it...) - so I missed the first of the two eps. They then promised Heroes will be back when the olympics is over, so there I was all ready last week to watch, and NOTHING. SO apparenlty they won't be back on till October or something. I tell you what I freaking HATE Ch7 with a passion and I wish one of the other channels had those so I never had to watch their stinky programming EVER!
Ok now the rant is over.
AND I just need to congratulate the fabulous Sharmaine for making it to the top 3 of the Project Scrap-Away comp - such a fab effort - well done! LOVE your stuff!!!!!
That's all for now, hope you weekend is smashing kids!
This is Lee the Wicked and Evil mother to the Princess and the Destroyer, Cranky wife of the Farmer. I like CHOCOLATE and SCRAPBOOKING and *ahem*"attempting" to surf and hottie bombottie stars like Matthew Fox and Orlando Bloom and Naveen Andrews and Wentworth Miller ESPECIALLY when they take their shirts off. I hope you enjoy reading my blog - beware you do so at your own risk to your retinas and brain, cause after you read my slightly delusional rantings your noggin may just want to implode. CHEERIO! L. :)
