inspiration abounds

This week I attended Annie & Amber's 2 Day Brisbane workshops. It was wonderful to be sitting in a room (& simply talking to ) a room full of other face painters -others who get excited about nice brushes, beautiful paints and ways to get great results, quickly. I was definitely inspired and can't wait to have a chance to paint.

We all got painted, painted ourselves and each other, trying the new techniques we were shown and new brushes and paint. Things are so much easier when you are shown HOW to do something rather than trying to muddle thru yourself. Even if its just the way you 'swoosh' your brush or sponge!

I also spent half my time at the shops this morning looking for suitable containers to try making my own split (rainbow) cakes - this may become an obsession....

Hopefully, I can now make contact with some of the other painters I met on a forum and I will hear about more workshops, meetups and there's even talk of a convention here in Brisbane! A whole new community for me.


If you are interested more pics can be seen here.


Apart from these two great days I have had an unusually busy week and I'm happy to say some of it was socially. Both Tuesday night and Friday night I went out with my new 'school mum' friends, 1stly to the movies with the mums then last night we went out for our now regular monthly dinner to which we had generously invited our husbands.
I've also had a poorly attended Fete meeting and an extremely satisfying face painting workshop of my own teaching the ladies who will be on the fete face painting stall the basic techniques and running thru our face designs.

I am looking forward to no school runs for the next 2 weeks but dreading the bickering I know will fill my days with both boys at home...

my 2c worth

So yesterday was a sad day for celebrity with the passing of Farrah Fawcett, my original fav Charlies Angel to cancer then we were told of the sudden death of the King of Pop Micheal Jackson.


As I sit here listening to a tribute show on the TV I have to agree he was a huge & amazing influence on the pop music world -but I wonder at the way that since yesterday, it has suddenly become cool to be one of his fans again.

I was a fan - I remember first becoming aware of him musically with the Off the Wall album (I remember a friend had a lifesize (?) poster on the back of her door). Of course I knew about the Jackson 5 but this was now my teenage years and music was important!

And I stayed a fan - I loved to dance to his music and wow, those thriller videos really changed the direction of music videos. I can even count myself as one of the lucky who saw him in concert.

Until - well I guess when his life became more tabloid news rather than his music...those weird duets with Janet and Lisa Marie...and the public unraveling of his closeted life.

And then I felt sorry for him... No one should have to live their life under such scrutiny but this is what celebrity has come to be. Whether or not he did so many of the things he has been accused of, his version of life was obviously not even close to 'normal' in so many ways.


I hope his children have a chance at a good and somewhat private life now (but chances are slim I guess).

May they both rest in peace.

My little Star is getting bigger

I woke you up much the same as I did 4 years ago -'hello darling, wakeup, its daytime.....' only now you responded much faster to the '....would you like a birthday present'! My little baby has reached 4 and is showering us with love and smiles and lifting any worries I may have had for him a year ago.

So yesterday I went all out and made -with your help *Boy - a no cook Humpty Dumpty cake. (no cook because I used Lamington Fingers and mortared them together with icing to form the wall) You were a great help sorting the Smarties and cleaning off the beaters.

We put the party preparations aside for a bit and you showed me your cool moves on the trampoline.

You got your first box of Lego as an early present from Grandma & Pop and I had to drag you away from it to go to your party! Lucky you, got another box and some other fun presents from your specials friends and cuzzies. Everyone had a feed and did lots of running around.

Today I went to your kindy and painted all your friends faces. I know most mums send cake but Humpty was my limit. I hope you enjoyed it.





Thank you for being my special StarBoy. So glad you came to be mine.
Love Mum xoxox

Fete taking over

A while back I mentioned I had, in a moment of madness, taken on the job of school fete co-ordinator. It is becoming somewhat consuming, but I have to say I am quite enjoying it. My days now have a little more purpose than before...

This is my latest effort ->
a poster for the local shops etc.
A b&w version will be the front of the Fete's flyer.
(yes the real one does have school name & address on it!)

I have also been bringing home all the donations being made to the 2nd hand stalls to sort them (books/toys/clothes/trash'n'treasure) which i have to say I have enjoyed no end. The quality of donations have varied from new to 'I can't believe they think anyone would buy that!'. Some stuff I have tossed as it was damaged etc but a few things have been very hard to pass up - perhaps a garage shopper isn't the best person for this job! The boys too have smuggled several items upstairs onthe condition they are returned for the fete.

SO now I pray for a sunny day and no 'Swine' flu outbreak!



Unfortunately, we have had a slow speed week on our internet connection so I haven't been leaving many comments of late, but I have been erratically lurking.

Snow day

Today was a lovely warm winters day in Brisbane so we took the option of taking the boys to the snow (of course, as you do!).

Our local Anaconda sporting store dumped a huge couple of loads of snow (crushed ice) in the shade out front of their shop and made a toboggan slide and an area for kids to play. It was hugely popular, with a long lineup for a toboggan slide.

It only took a little convincing for YD to join the line and the joy on the boys faces as they slide down was well worth it. (see enlarged blurry pics!)