The Last Few Weeks

I hereby accept the 'Absentee Blogger' award. I have no excuses and I haven't been slack in other areas of my life. Anyway, let's get back into it. Blogging will be my bitch. Again.

The mister and I went on a kid free holiday to the Formula One in Melbourne. It was lovely, we reconnected, drank and walked a lot.

Tough pink car for me.

I love Webber. Not Vettel.

The mister and I all rugged up as it was FREEZING!

We met some awesome people at the backpackers and stayed with a good friend of mine's and her lovely family. I got baby and bunny cuddles which was a major bonus.

Bunny cuddles!

I missed the kids terribly and I swear I'm the only person who wants babies to sit near me on planes.

Dad and I went to see Guns n Roses with ZZ Top and Rose Tattoo. They were fun but I'm glad we were sitting down, it was crowded!

Guns n Roses finale.

Lufflump and I have started at home kindergarten which we've both been loving. We are also in the process of changing his daycares. We need somewhere closer and hopefully cheaper. I'm also excited for him to be in a certified kindergarten program. We'll be leaving Montessori but we can still use it at home. His speech is improving daily and it looks like he will be able to attend a mainstream prep class next year.

Making egg people.

Sesame is growing up WAY too fast. She's climbing and running everywhere. She is such a handful.

Running. Wasn't she just born?

It was the mister's birthday and we made a card. Lufflump drew a lovely picture. We didn't even know he could draw people. He's surprising us daily with his skills.

The mister's birthday card.

Our house has a water feature in the yard which was pissing us off so we bought some fish! We still have more to buy and some plants but it's a start. Apparently I feed them too much but dammit I want $70 giant goldfish.

Our fish. Lufflump called them all Nemo.

A lot has happened, good and bad. My time is currently been taken up by Lufflump's schooling. I'm struggling with including sesame as well. I'm learning a lot as well which feels so good. I hope to start studying accounting next month which is making this month very busy.

I hope to share some activities we'll be doing every week so stay tuned!

Simplify Your Life Week Seven #syl12

I'm finally catching up on the Simplify Your Life challenge. This week is week seven! This year has already gone by so quickly.

I must say I really enjoyed this week's challenge; creating a vision board. I had a few magazines that I wanted to cull anyway so I cut them up before recycling them. I love Pinterest but there's nothing quite like cutting and glueing. It reminds me of school in a good way.

I started cutting pictures out without really focusing on what I was supposed to be envisioning. I did continue cutting out whatever I wanted using my instinct more than anything. I also just glued everything wherever I felt like it, no method to my madness! It worked out pretty well I think.

I did have to leave a lot out as they either didn't fit with my vision or on the actual board. Love, family, house, garden, exercise and healthy food are the main focus. I also added some red lips with lovely white teeth as I'd love to have lovely teeth again and the confidence to wear red lips. It symbolises confidence and saying goodbye to anxiety.

Just like my goals I've made an effort to start small. I don't want my vision board to be too over the top. I've made sure it's still ambitious with holidays, a lovely girly room and beautiful gardens.

I'm putting my vision board in the kitchen or above the TV to remind me to stay positive and focused. They are the main places I think I would notice it. Actually I'd probably notice it most in the bathroom but I think it'd get ruined quickly due to the moisture, so it's not going in there!

This vision board was so easy to do that I don't mind making bigger ones or one with the mister's input as well. Maybe the whole house can be covered with vision boards!

Bad quality photos: had to rush using the mister's phone

Have you got a vision board?

December Photo Challenge #decpics

In late November the wonderful Tina Gray posed a 30 Day Photo Challenge for the month of December and of course I jumped at the chance. 

Here is my December in 2011;

1: Favourite Food 2: Smile 3: Happiness 4: Leaves

5: Morning Sky 6: Books 7: Something Funny 8: Favourite Colour

9: Inspiring Person 10: Nature 11: Something Old 12: Hands

13: Written Word 14: Movement 15: Technology 16: Animals

17: Memories 18: Something New 19: Best Friends 20: Seasonal

21: Where You Sleep 22: Clothing 23: In Your Closet 24: Gratitude

25: Artwork 26: Transportation 27: Daily Routine 28: Nighttime

29: Light 30: Self Portrait

Surrealism

The mister and I try to use Thursdays as date days. Last Thursday we went to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) for our date day. We'd been wanting to see the Surrealism exhibition since it opened back in June but didn't want to take lufflump as we thought it would bore him. I picked up a brochure recently and we made a proper date.

I'm not a big art person. I can appreciate a good piece of work but I don't know the technical side and cannot analyse a painting on colour or brushstrokes. If I like a piece of art it's not based on technique, it's more based on whether I find it interesting or not. I like weird dark art too and I thought surrealism would be interesting and up my alley. The mister likes and appreciates technique more than me which is one reason why he was interested.

The exhibition was split into years and what was popular in surrealism during those years. There were paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, and movies. The early years (1920's) of surrealism bored me. I found it confusing and not overly appealing. It wasn't until the mid to late 1930's section that I saw some photos that today wouldn't be so spectacular thanks to photoshop but for back then that would have blown minds.

Not surprisingly, being the mythological lovers the mister and I are, we both loved the mythology part of the exhibition with brilliant paintings by André Masson. We were both disappointed this section wasn't larger. I fell in love with André Masson's 'Le Labyrinth'. Amazing. I'd love a copy for our house.

Le Labyrinth

They have free tour guides at certain times and we heard some of one tour. The lady didn't know much about the mythology section (I don't know art, saw the paintings for the first time that day and knew more than her) which I found irritating. I understand it was free but if you have a tour guide you'd want to walk away fascinated and knowing more than you did at the start. The people in the tour guide ended up going back to the start and going through again. To me, that defeats the purpose of being in a tour.

I'd definitely recommend this exhibition as it was interesting and out of the ordinary. If you like that kind of stuff anyway, it's not for everyone. It was $20 for an adult entry ticket so if you don't find it interesting spend your $20 a bit wiser. They do have a section for kid's so that may be a good school holiday option.

Do you like art and exhibitions?