Xmas 2009

Our Christmas day......

Surprises from Santa

YD helping to construct new toys

The absolute joy in *Boy's face when he (they) finally got the most desired toy

And the family fun that is Wii.
'Can we get one too Mum?'

And finally

Last wednesday I took #1Son to the Gallery of Modern Art for their latest exhibit (before the crowds hit). As with past years they have great activities setup for youngsters linked to the displays. He had a great time and even took and interest in the art...











But best of all for me was the little parcel waiting on the door step when we arrived home! My Christmas ornament exchange finally had arrived after me giving up on it the week before.

My exchange partner was Tonya from West Virginia and she made this lovely Angel for our tree. Its so pretty. Thanks Tonya! and Thanks Lisa's Chaos for organising the fun exchange.

For her ornament I found a painted 'tin' Australia ornament -finding something Australian that wasn't tacky or a kangaroo on a surfboard was a bit of a search but I thought the 'old' look made it ok. Just in case Tonya didn't like the Aussie flavour I also found a pretty felt snowflake to go with it then wrapped it all in Aussie green & gold. It got there in about a week which was quite amazing!

my elfed boys

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

You may ask why I didn't elf myself - well, I couldn't find a fairly recent, forward facing pic of me! I'm usually behind the camera or I have paint on my face.....

today we did some christmas craft!

styrofoam balls

paint

glitter

wrapping ribbon

pins

and ta daaaaa!

oh, and when YD decided to buy a Bubble machine (yes just before xmas! not reason of reward for anyone....) bubble popping became a competitive sport in this house!

Tourists in Brisbane City

On Monday, my Dad got it into his head to take my boys plus their male cuzzie (the girls being at school) into the city to take them up the town hall clock tower. Actually, this hadn't been his 1st attempt as he'd tried 2 weeks prior only to find it closed...

Anyway, I thought 'he can't do town with 3 little boys, I'd best go too'.....so I got all dressed only to find that Mum had also planned to go. So there we were being tourists in our own town without the reason of visitors.


After the train trip in Dad was astounded to find the 'closed' signs up again after he had rung to ensure the tower would be open. It would appear security didn't turn up for work so they couldn't open until someone was found -1.5-2 hours, sorry. There is a museum you can visit tho......which took us about 3 minutes with the boys.....

Ok, fine, we'll go down and check out the Myer Xmas windows and visit santaland where 2 of the boys rode the train --->
3 did a little colouring, 1 started a letter to Santa while my Dad browsed the computer / electronics depts.


Then we finally wandered back to King George Square, newly refurbished with lovely looking light grey granite paving (which reflects the hot sun & heat) and still without enough shade. We saw the relocated sculptures taking pics with the ever popular kangaroos <--- and admired the new solar powered Xmas tree & accompanying sleigh & reindeers ---->







Finally we ventured in, peeking into the "Lord Mayors Seniors Xmas Lunch" so the kids could see the huge pipe organ all lit up. In the foyer the ceiling is beautifully ornate (probably some special name for it) and possibly also fairly recently re done as it was so clean. I also liked the mosiaced floor patterns.

We head up to the base of the tower in a lovely wood panelled lift which opened to a group of people waiting by a 'tower closed' sign in a smallish, not air conditioned room. On questioning they had been told it would open at 12 but it was not about 12.05......so we waited about another 10mins and a guy arrived to say it would be a still longer wait - most of the gathering crowd left at this but Dad pushed him a bit and we had someone up there about 5mins later.

Finally we all loaded into the old fashioned 'cage' lift to the top, stopping to see the inside of the clock faces (made with crushed opals & something else) then upwards to the top. My Dad hadn't been up there since 1964 and I don't think it had changed too much bar all the security/safety glass.



Once the Town Hall was the tallest building in the city....it is hugely towered over these days. In the pic to the left <---- you can see the tower reflected in the tall green glass building. Underneath that, is the very pretty Albert Park Uniting Church. Neither Mum or Dad had ever been inside so following our tourist mode we decided to venture in before heading home. It is really beautiful inside too -lots of dark wood, lovely organ pipes and stained glass. The old guy manning the door asked where we were from and gave the boys a xmas cartoon brochure which kept them partly entertained on the train home. So Dad was happy to have finally achieved his return visit to the clock tower.....still not sure what he thought would have changed..... and the rest of us had a nice few hours in the heart of Brisbanes city. . . . . ps-the security person who finally arrived and thus allowed the tower to open was, when we finally got up there, sitting near the fan, reading a magazine (it may have been a book) just outside the lift .......with no veiw at all of the people walking around the tower on the floor above...still haven't worked that one out!

I have a contract

And so it goes...the last child starts school and Mum returns to the workforce......

Well I hadn't exactly planned it that way but here I am with an employment contract.
I am very happy to say that it's only for 15hours a week and best of all it was offered to me by the boys lovely school headmaster and as time goes on I'll only have to be in the 'office' 1 day a week.!
And its at school during terms and mostly school hours!!

The headmaster, being the insightful guy he is, has spotted my organisational skill set from my fete work (which I'll also be doing again next year) and with a few internal changes has decided that the production of the weekly newsletter should be separated from the current persons job description. I'm perfectly happy with this and while I know it will probably become boring, I'll also be involved with other print projects & designs.

So while I had planned to have this next year off as far as a Mum could (& possibly working on being a little lighter), I am delighted at being given this opportunity. Happy days....

over for this year

Friday was #1Son's last day of school for the year -he's happy to be on holidays! I'm happy not to be doing the lunch & 'get your uniform on' routine for a while. I'm not looking forward to weeks on end of bickering between the boys as they get sick of each others company.

As an aside, I'd like to say what a wonderful teacher he had in the last half of the year. She was an absolute gem and I hope there's a chance in the future to have her again sometime.

.................................

*Boy also had an 'official' end to his kindy days on Friday night at his Graduation. At least this time I was prepared for how cute they would look in their little gowns, but his lovely teacher had me tearing up when she started crying during her speech. *Boy was ever the star with a wave as he walked in and an award for 'IT specialist'! He has a couple more weeks at the centre until he finishes so it will be interesting if he protests that he's finished now.... He hasn't actually spoken of being excited about starting Prep but I think he's looking forward to going.

snakes, ticks & pademelons

This past weekend we had a clear schedule (ie I wasn't painting), so on a spur of the moment decision we went camping - down to lovely Binna Burra, about 1.5 hours south of Brisbane and inland from the gold coast.

So we got there, set up the tent and sorted ourselves.

There were a group of scouts camping nearby and they were shouting about a snake so we duly had to go and check it out - it was some hugemungus python! Fairly safely asleep(?) in a patch of sun at the base of a tree. Across the road from the campground but big enough to reinforce YD's parania about snakes....

After checking him out we wandered off on our 1st bushwalk which went to a lookout thru dry bush & rainforest. It was a fairly easy walk even for the kids. #1Son was quite facinated with all the beautiful mosses growing on the fallen logs -he had to keep touching it and couldn't understand why he shouldn't...

There were some amazing huge trees with interesting knot thingys and finally the lookout was lovely ( but didn't have any barriers to stop little uns falling over the cliff so we couldn't sit and relax!). The boys thought the walk back was a little scarey as the sun was going down but we actually got back in time to wander up to the lodge to see the sun actually set so it wasn't that dark!

It was after our walk when I had just finished cooking dinner that I discovered a dreaded tick on my neck!!! eeeewww! YD gallantly pulled it off but I seemed to be allergic to it and my neck swelled somewhat and was quite sore for the next few days. Still is a bit....

Our next day involved a few other short walks and part walks - very hard with *boy's short legs... but it really tired the boys out. Unfortunately I decided we would eat at the (very exy) restaurant buffet that night which was a bad decision in many ways but the most being that the buffet wasn't a quick serve yourself one and the 6.30pm start time meant we were lcky to get ourselves out by 8.30 by which time the boys were almost asleep at the table....and had only eaten 6 slices of bread and a sausage between them (for the cost of $20). The staff were very nice and tried to get things going for us as quick as possible tho.

Then we had the walk back to the campsite.....in pitch dark night time. I had thought to take a torch but its little glow wasn't very wide in such darkness. We did point out how wonderful the stars were but *Boy especially was more than a little scared. All the was over tho when we found about 15 Pademelons (kinda like little roos) in our torchlight just as we got close to the camp.

Our pack up day was a hot one and we stopped in at Dreamworld again (so have pretty much now almost got our monies worth from the passes) and after re doing favourite rides & seeing the tigers we had lunch then went thru to white water world which the boys loved. It was so nice to be amongst the water and altho we had to separate to follow each boys daring levels it was very nice. I would hate to try it mid school hols tho - hard enough watching the boys in the crowd that was there!



My photos were taken with my NEW CAMERA - a panasonic lumix FZ35 -which was my birthday pressie. I haven't yet read the manual but its a beautiful camera!
I did have a problem with the computer crashing and wiping the card tho halfway thru downloading the pics. I would like to again thank Fe for her help and recommend the free recovery program I found called PicaJet which got most of my pics back.

Bits to remember

At the start of November 2009......

I've been Face Painting for 2 yrs and am very happy to have found such a great job.



#1 Son has decided he wants to be a pilot when he grows up. He wants to fly the Thunderbird's O.X. spaceship.

He now seems to believe you can make anything you can think of -today's request was for YD to 'make' him a digger to dig up the rocks at school..... I blame this symesters toy building project at school.




*Boy thinks he wants to be a teacher -great thinking son, never have too many male teachers! Not sure if he has the temprement tho....

He has been marked as a potential husband by one of the girls, Bianca, who will be in his prep class next year (who is also one of the sisters of a boy in #1's yr).

*Boy has already worked out that Google finds stuff for you - he having a good go at spelling stuff too.....have to get that filter up and working!

I'm not the only one..

Not the only one and that was no surprise to me....
this morning when I checked my emails there was a comment advice from my old Cheeky Cheeks website aimed at my ex partner :

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Geneve's Gallery":

You know Geneive,

I still don't know how I ever offended you when I was going through my own SIGNIFICANT stuff in 2003, yeah, "thanks a bunch" to quote you....



So, I tossed up whether to forward the email to its intended recipient but decided not to, I did remove it from the site tho.....
wonder who it was and how she dumped them....???.....

Christmas Ornament Swap

Last year I was still fairly new to all the wonders of the blog world and when I came across bloggers who had participated in Xmas swaps showing off their special treats I was disappointed I hadn't seen any to join in time.

Not so this year, as I remembered today I should go searching for one to join. After a few disappointments of 'no internationals' (ie non USA) or finding they were to be hand made + X-stitched (not that I have problems with either of these things but it just wasn't what I was looking for) I finally found one at Lisa's Chaos. Yay!!

Lisa lives in Wisconsin, is a Mum, has cancer in remission and is just a wonderful photographer. And that's just what I gleaned from her blog in a short read - I'll be back.... She also has a really lovely blog design - not in the least bit chaotic!

So if you're up far a bit on Xmas fun, go visit Lisa too and sign up before 31October.

Its a tinny boat

Also yesterday, YD found out from a neighbour (yes we speak to our neighbours in this street!) that you can hire boats by the hour to putter around on the South Pine River.

So this morning we were out on the water for an hour of salt water splashing in our faces.

The boys were safely tied into life jackets

but *Boy especially was quite nervous as we took off.

After about 20 mins tho they were moving around the boat and hanging over the sides.

#1Son even had a go at driving!

Next time we take fishing rods for a longer trip.....

As cuddly as a teddy

Yesterday *Boy got creative and made a mouse out of a milk bottle & pipe cleaners. Of course he had to take it to be with him last night......

no more training!

Well it took a bit of convincing but the training wheels finally came off #1's bike today. He was riding without them fairly quickly but wasn't game to try it on the bike path just yet.....soon tho!

Next we'll have to look for a new bike as he is getting a bit tall for the one he has.

4 two

So, yesterday was yet another in the passing flow of birthdays for yours truly. By chance it was also time to catch up with dear friends so we invited ourselves over and had a lovely Barbie dinner while the kids played nicely.

After having had no one to paint since doing my workshop I was just hanging to try out some new stuff so much to my friends amusement I painted us all (and the kids of course). They thought it was a bit weird, me wanting to 'work' on my birthday but it was F.U.N.!

First the girls sat up and I tried some new colours, and swirls. Then, much more interestingly I did the guys up with stitches, scratches, shot wounds, bruises & skin ripped off.

They didn't photograph the best but looked not too bad for my first efforts (on a real person).


Was a bit of a late night for us all tho and we are all off to bed early tonite!


ps - this morning I had Breakfast at the 'Flying Nun' cafe out in Samford - absolutely delicious & recommended!!!!

the Wolfe Brothers

The last 2 days I have spent being inspired by the wonderfully clever, giving and positive vibe flowing Nick & Brian Wolfe, identical twins well known in face & body art circles around the world. They started out in the highly competitive painting world in Orlando FL and have a couple of movie credits for Special FX, have left behind a growing paint supply business, have several how to books published and now travel the world teaching, judging and competing (&winning) in face & body competitions around the world. What a life!

Day 1 we spent painting rubber heads.....doing cool, ultra fast skulls, tribal designs, stars and flames. Then the guys showed us a little more, whipping off things like dino skeltons in moments.

After lunch we moved on to learning basic face parts - highlighting & shadows, expression....

That's my head there -1st in line. I'm pretty impressed!!

........Then the guys again wandered thru the room transforming the basic faces into an array of scarey 'boy' faces.....see, so easy!!!

Day 2 we all returned a little tired as so many of us had been kept up with all the info being sorted thru our heads all night. We started with bruises, scratches, bullet wounds & blood splatters. Yes it was special effects (and gore) day!

Then using the basic from the day b4 we were shown how to do the 'ripped of skin' look....he did it so easily! I can't wait to try.

After lunch we went on to showing how to do latex effects which was pretty cool then finished the official lessons with a full on SFX (pre made) mask -attachment, adding horns, painting it and finishing up with those freaky contacts & teeth. If they hadn't have been teaching us I reckon they would have whipped this one up in 15-20 minutes easily.

Then they started to play and painted just about all of us -I was about 15th and suggested just a little dragon.....and got this work of art......I didn't want to wash it off.