I’m sure I won’t be alone in wondering where on earth the last 12
months went…hmmm? Under the bed? Swept away with the spiders? In the
broom cupboard? It’s all just a blur really and what did I achieve this
year, I ask myself?
Big Fat Diddly Squat! That’s what! In Aussie
language (in case you’re not familiar with our sometimes strange way of
expressing ourselves here in the land downunder) that means very little,
almost nothing – at least nothing worth putting up in neon lights
proclaiming to the world how jolly good you are.
And it’s been almost a whole year since I wrote this post What’s In A Resolution??
– which you can read here – if you’re the slightest bit interested of
course…lol. So I thought I would re-visit the “non-resolutions” list I
“didn’t” make just for fun to see how many things I managed to “not” do
during the year – ha ha! Here they are:- read more by clicking the link above....
I've shifted my blog 'cos I ran out of space and now I can post piccies and stuff and you can leave comments if you wish (nice ones pleeeese lol)....click on the link below and it will take you straight there.
Hi again - guess who?? I've got some news that I just had to share.....my young son is in his second year of high school (groan....the teachers call this a "very trying year for students and teachers alike".....you know - raging hormones and the like!)and during the last week, made it to the Grand Finals of the Junior spelling competition - which is held every year at his school. Well, to say his Dad and I were chuffed (proud) would be a massive understatement!! The night before the competition he brought home 2 whole pages of words to practice! He would only be tested on 12 words in total - but it was random selection so he had to know how to spell them all. So we dutifully practiced his words the night before the competition and hoped for the best. There were 9 Grand Finalist children in his grade and 27 children vying for the title of Grand Champion. I was soooo nervous for him - and I could see that he was really nervous too - but he did so well!!!! He was in the top 3 going into the final round and the kids had to spell words that weren't on the practice sheet, so that was a bit of a challenge. Well he didn't win Grand Champion overall but he did get second in his grade and Mum and Dad and Grandma were just bursting with pride!!!
Now what makes this all the more special and incredible is that our boy has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) - Asperger's Syndrome, as well as Tourette's Syndrome! For him to not only get up on that stage on front of a whole heap of people - but to participate to the extent he did and do so well - was a truly major and momentous achievement!!! All our years of occupational therapy, training, teaching, perservering, drawing pictures, helping him to gain confidence and grow as a person - paid off in that one night. I am very privileged to be a part of this very special, fine young man's life.
It's a long weekend here - so if you guys have days off over the break, and are taking advantage of it by going away for a couple of days R&R, please take care if driving anywhere - and I'll catch you all later!
Goodness time flies - not sure where to, but once we wave it bye-bye - it never shows us that bit of itself ever again....
Well I'm back again and just catching up on some news. I just had my very first sale on ETSY!! YAY!!!!!! Very exciting - I am truly amazed that anyone notices my lil' ol' listings when there must be a good couple of million people selling beads there. Anyway, thank you to the lovely customer who bought my bead - I hope that you love it lots and be assured that much TLC went into the making of it.
You may have noticed that I have been trying very hard to keep new listings happening on a regular basis. My resolve is this: every bead and item of jewellery or bookmark or keychain (or whatever) that is to be listed on the website willbe listedbeforeI reward myself by lighting my torch and trying out some of the new bead ideas I have been busily scratching down in my journal for the last couple of months. I really have to restrain myself from adding yet more beads to the pile that already needs something done to them. I also reckon that once my head is cleared of the backlog of beads to list, I will have a clear run - creatively speaking....
Anyway....back in January (do you guys remember back that far??) I told you - well I half told you - about my holiday over the christmas break and said to stay tuned for the second half of the tale. Well, finally, here it is!
We've come back from Brisbane and Keith Urban's concert.........Best hubby, best son and best mum (that's me!) are getting ready to hook up our camper trailer and head up north to a place called Eungella (pronounced 'yungella') which is near Mackay about 3.5 hours drive from where we live. We were supposed to leave the day after we came home from Brisbane but our camper was not quite fixed from when we had our accident at Easter time in 2009 (now that's yet another story - oh ok, here goes.....quickly......picture this.....camping, isolated national park 8 hours drive from home, no-one else around, ominous black sky, big rains are coming, .....axle smashes on trailer - sooo scary - hubby saves trailer smashing into car and from crashing into bush due to excellent 4wding skills, no phone or UHF radio coverage, leave dead trailer by side of road, drive to nearest town 100km away, arrange for towing - bill for towing $2000, lucky we have insurance! - continue home, hit kangaroo - no damage luckily to us or the roo - get home very very late, next day arrange for trailer to be recovered and repaired - again, lucky we have insurance!).....
Anyway, we had a few things left to do to the trailer before we could go. Just little things like....wire up the electric brakes and tail-lights, plumb the new under body water tank, pack it full of our gear, etc...not much....just everything! So, we left a day later than planned. The area we went to had no facilities - no shower, toilet etc - which is perfectly fine, we are seasoned bush campers and come prepared with all our own gear. I might just inform everyone at this point, that moi does not "rough" it when we go camping. There is no sleeping bag under the stars or a rough bit of canvas strung in a tree, no squatting in the long grass hoping to goodness that the thing tickling your bum doesn't have half inch fangs that belongs to one of the world's deadliest slithering, scaly creatures - a species which just happens to reside in the nearby bush. Oh no! - we have the Taj Mahal and we like the comforts of home such as a nice warm comfy bed, comfy chairs to park ourselves with a good book, proper stove for nutritional meals, hot showers and if not a flushing dunny, then at least a dunny chair so all that "squatting" can be avoided! Now, you might ask "Why do they go camping if they're not going to do things a bit 'roughly'". Well, the answer is this: I am far too old to be sleeping on the cold ground with creatures crawling all over me! This is the Aussie bush - we have lots of crawly things here! We like to enjoy ourselves when we go camping and being comfortable helps me not be grumpy! (BTW - For those of you not familiar with a "dunny" chair, email me and I'll fill you in on all the gory details...LOL)
Well we camped next to a beautiful creek with running water - it was gorgeous. There are platypus not far from where we were but they are very shy creatures and come out early in the morning (did I mention that I don't "do" mornings?) or late afternoon. We never actually saw any, but there was evidence of them having been there. The campground was deserted when we arrived but over the next couple of days, several families set up camp around us. One such family was mum, dad, 2 pre-teen boys and a gorgeous little fox terrier dog called Picasso. One boy was close to our son's age and they got on famously! They went swimming together, shared Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Darwin Awards II, III & IV and droned on for hours about Dr Who and Star Wars. Mum - whose name is May - is an artist (now do you understand how the dog got its name?) and it was so lovely to chat about arty things to someone whose eyes don't glaze over 20 seconds after you mention the "B" word!(That's "beads" by the way....LOL). We had the most glorious week away, read a couple of books, swam in the cool, fresh water, counted the falling stars at night - had a great time, basically recharged some seriously worn out batteries.
The time came to pack up the Taj Mahal and all the gear and head down the mountain, so we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with our new friends. We had not long gotten down the mountain when the rain started and it just got heavier the closer we got to home. But it was a great holiday - apart from getting stung several times by the ferocious and nasty jumping ants - boy, they are huge!! About an inch long and a massive stinger in their butt which is soooo painful when they hook you. They are actually in our book of Australia's Deadliest Creatures - I kid you not! My son identified them straight away, I thought he was kidding....should have known better than to question his knowledge on dangerous creatures - and we're looking forward to more camping soon. I took my camera out to get some pics of the goannas that often traipsed through our campsite, but the batteries died and we were miles from any shops that sold them - so sorry, no piccies.
Next time I will tell you all about my trip to Sydney and the AC/DC concert - yes I got piccies!! Now it's time for bed - hope you got a chuckle from my ramblings....Catch you later!
Sorry that I have not been back to update for a little while. We had some very sad news - just before christmas my hubby's mum was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer. It was a very aggressive type of cancer and quickly spread to her liver, stomach and goodness knows where else. It was such a shock to lose her so quickly - 7 weeks after the initial diagnosis and we are still coming to terms with the fact that this robust and vibrant person is no longer with us. Her funeral service was quite large and it was when my hubby was putting a few of his personal final touches to the Eulogy that we realised what a full and interesting life she had - with a finger in lots of "pies", so to speak! She was very sporty in her younger days, playing representative basketball and hockey - did lots of different crafts, sewing bridal dresses, curtains, various clothes etc and if you ask my son what was the best thing he remembers about Grandma, I'm sure he would say "the Anzac biscuits"!! She was a member of the Country Music Club (and was recognized for her work by receiving an award several years ago), Country Women's Association, volunteered for Meals on Wheels and was involved in numerous charitable works. I remember that she was proud of me as a beadmaker and would often promote my beads and jewellery at the weekly craft days she attended as a member of the CWA. She is survived by her husband, 5 children and 11 grandchildren.
RIP - Nancy Rose
I am getting back into the swing of things and will be listing new jewellery and lampwork beads very soon. Thanks for your patience - sorry about the long wait for new stuff.
Oh my goodness!!!! Has it really been THAT long since I had a Blog attack??? I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Anyway, here's some news as to what I have been up to the last couple of months....(which unfortunately hasn't really included making many beads).
Well my boy managed to make it through his first year of high school! YAY!! So now it's on to Grade 9. We have the big school holidays over here in Oz that last about 6 weeks from middle of December to nearly the end of January and then all the kids file back in their hundreds of thousands to start a new grade. Holidays have 2 weeks to go and in the meantime I need to go shopping for school books and stuff - can't wait....I'm especially looking forward to pushing my way through the crowds in order to fight over that one last metal pencil sharpener on the stand! Brace myself - I must!!
It's Summertime here and all I've been hearing about is the big freeze over in Europe - well I sure wish you'd send some snow our way!! Some parts of Southern Australia (hey isn't South "supposed" to be cooler????) are being fried in 40+ deg Celcuis heat - (or over 104 deg Fahrenheit for those who "speak" this language).
We decided to cool our heels and have a holiday away from hot old Central Queensland. We popped down to Brisbane (about 7hrs drive away - well we're a long way from big cities so 7 hrs IS "popping down" for us!) on 17th December, visited some friends at Burrum Heads for lunch - Hi Ron and Nan!!!! - spent a lovely couple of hours and then on to Caboolture where we checked into a motel for the night and had a lovely catch-up with more friends. Next day we headed into Brisbane and because we had 3 hours before we could check into our unit we decided to have a look around Westfield Shopping Centre in Brisbane. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! It was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo many people - very claustrophobic for a girl from the bush. But the shops were lovely - even though I hate shopping I did buy a new pair of shoes! 3 hours went by very quickly, I can tell you. There are lots of roadworks going on in Brisbane at the moment and even our poor GPS, Shirley, (WHAT??? Doesn't everyone have a name for their in-car navigation system?) had trouble getting us out of one stuff-up. Hubby desperately wanted to go left down a road that was clearly marked NO ENTRY because Shirley told us to. Luckily for us, he conceded at the very last minute that that would be a VERY unwise decision considering that 50 metres past the sign there was no actual road to drive on as yet due to it still being constructed....Hmmm, maybe Sandy's do make better sense than Shirley's sometimes..... (even though Sandy reads the map upside down on many occasions).
The reason we were in Brisbane at this crazy time of year is because we had tickets to Keith Urban's VERY last concert of his world tour! And wasn't it AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Keith and have followed him for years - he always gives a great concert and this one was pure magic! And, and and...... I TOUCHED him!!!!!! Hubby says I would never wash my hand again, but alas, good hygiene won the day.... We took our son - who I have mentioned previously has a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome - and we were unsure of how he would react because of all the noise (he has a number of sensory sensitivities). We came prepared with ear putty, ear muffs and portable electronic game device called a DS player and that's what he did most of the night - play his DS with ear muffs on! Oh well, whatever works I guess.... He did get up and have a bit of a bop around with his mum & dad - and then went back to playing his game! :) He must have been pretty tired because both boys spent the day at Wet N Wild which is a water park with lots of slides and stuff and we didn't get home from the concert until about 12.30am. Next day we left the big smoke and on the way out of town I spent a couple of hours at a place called Gemworld trying to give away my hard earned cash and couldn't find anything I wanted to buy - so I just bought some frit (well I had to buy something...) We spent time with more friends at their fabulous hideaway near the Sunshine Coast and then finally back home to a more relaxed way of living (thank you God!!). It's way stressful driving around these big cities!
We were supposed to hook up our camper trailer the next day and head North.....but that didn't happen when it was supposed to ...... and that's a story for another day! Tune in next time for the continuing saga.........
Have a great week everyone - good to be back!
Cheers
Sandy
30th October, 2009
Just thought I'd pop by to let you all know that I have put another auction up on eBay! I am having a big clean-out of all my excess beads. I didn't realise that I had soooo many bits & pieces, odds & bobs, this & that!! Mum helped me sort them into interesting "piles" (thanks Mum!!) and I went and made a gazillion spacers to match the focals so there is PLENTY to choose from. So check them out, put in a bid and help me clear my stash!! I can't go shopping for my Bali sterling silver 'til I sell them......and without my Bali silver, I can't make the fabulous new range of jewellery I've been creating in my journal! (does that convince you to buy?????). Well here's a poem to help you make up your mind.......
On the home front....my young son is off to a Japanese restaurant today with his classmates! How cool is that! (How come we never did anything WAY cool like that when I went to school??? The most exciting thing I ever did was walk out of the school grounds to the Home Economics room which was located off school premises about 100 yards down the street!). Anyway this is all part of his Japanese studies at school - yeah right, what a junket! He reckons if they feed him raw fish, he's gonna puke! I keep telling him there's more to Japanese cuisine than just raw fish.......Well I'm sure he's having a fabulous time frolicking in the largest swimming pool in the Southern Hemisphere...... Of course, those readers over in the US of A and the like will be shivering at the thought of swimming, won't you? I imagine it would be getting quite cool over in your part of the world by now.....whereas we are once again shaping up for a really stinking hot, dry summer (oh joy!).
Now will someone remind me why I live here AND torch beads???????????
On that note - I will be off........Take care everyone and have a great weekend!!!
Hello again - boy it's been a couple of weeks since I blabbed on here! Been busy - making beads would you believe! I am working on new designs etc and can't concentrate properly with this huge pile of unlisted beads staring me in the face! To list them all individually on my Website/Etsy/Artfire etc would take me to the end of NEXT year so I have decided to do some auctions of bulk beads on Ebay. I have quite a few sets, LOADS of focals, HUMUNGOUS (is that how you spell it???) amounts of spacers and smaller beads, some vessels, lots of lentils, organics, scultured beads, blah, blah, blah - the list is enormous!! So many beads in fact, I'll be having several auctions - so keep your eyes and ears open - I'll let you know on my HOME page when the auctions are up......
My friend, Darrell from Tapley Handcrafts, has been working on a Glass Rod Holder for lampwork artists and sent me one to see what I thought of it. What do you use a glass rod holder for? (....you ask). Well, you know when the rods get a bit short and you really need just a bit more glass on the bead you're working on (and it would be very inconvenient to start melting a brand new rod or maybe that rod is way out of your reach just at this moment....and to get to it you would have to reach over your torch with your free hand and risk setting your shirt on fire.....probably not a good option to take.....) - so you keep hanging on to the end of that little piece of rod and hope that you only burn the first 2 layers of skin off your thumb and forfefinger instead of 3 or 4 layers??????? Well - if you haven't done this, then you haven't been lampworking long enough yet! LOL. Anyway.....I have hemostats, pliers, serrated tweezers etc etc for use in picking up short hot rods BUT this little glass rod holder is truly AWESOME!!!!!!! What a geat tool!!! It is so simple to use and effective - in my books it ticks all the boxes. It can hang on to rods from about 4mm to 12mm in one easy motion - very stable, the rod is secure in the holder and won't accidentally drop the molten glass in your lap (I've had that happen....it's not a pretty sight....and it set my chair on fire - well smoulder, actually......and it wrecked the bead I was working on!! - How rude..). When the rod gets too short, it's one easy movement to grab it with the holder and whip it back into the flame quick smart - no hassle and no loss of fingerprints!! Well I've probably waffled on so much you'll think I'm on commission - just for the record, I'm not.....but there are many, many tools out there (including ones that are sold for this purpose) that can cost a lot of money and then you find out they aren't worth what you pay for them - but my personal opinion is that this is a really good little tool! If you would like to check it out you can go here www.web-access.net/~tapcraft. or check out ebay under lampwork tools...(Tapcraft is the seller name).
