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April 4

me, april 4 2006Because I hate coming up with post titles, lets just use the date as the title. I don’t like posts without photos, so I took a photo of myself today just before I left for uni. Though my hair did not last long before I tied it up in a bun, I like having “longish” hair but I hate the feel of it getting sweaty on my neck. yuck.

I even wore a necklace to uni today, not something I usually do, it is one I made myself for a Scrapbook Creations article I did on making jewellery from Making Memories Stitched Tin Tiles probably two years ago now. I love those tiles.

On to cool things.

I was already ten months ago to make a grass couch in the backyard after seeing this article on the Readymade website and Mum was keen for it as well except we live in a place where that thing called water isn’t exactly growing on trees so if we wanted to have a grass couch in the backyard we would have to move a far, far way away. So dude, if I ever move somewhere where I could do such a thing, it would be the first thing on my agenda.

So imagine how much I loved this article on Treehugger today? Dude, could you imagine five or six of these in a circle, how much would it rock, lounging in grass chairs with a few cold ones with your mates on a Sunday arvo or lazying around on a sunny morning with the paper?

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one desk, many purposes

First off, I want to thank you all for your comments on my last post, and I know there are many more blog birthdays coming up soon, so I want to see some more celebrations.

helen's desk

This is where I work, bludge, create, procrastinate, study, you know the usual.

If you click on the photo to view it at Flickr you can see all the little notes I have added to the picture.

This desk and shelves was a present from my ex-boyfriend for Christmas 2004, it allowed me to open up my room to have more space in as I previously had a desk and the old kitchen table in my room just to give me the workspace I wanted, it was cramped to say the least.

This is one big desk it is 2.6 long and 0.9m deep, computer gear at one end, creative space down the other end and uni stuff bang in the middle.

Due to the length, I can sit at the creative end whilst Mum is using the computer or I can sit on the desk and crochet whilst dangling my legs over the side. I love my desk.

The main feature are the two units designed for 8.5×11 paper and 12×12 paper respectively, they each have shelves that can be pulled out and re-arranged as needed. Like many scrapbookers, how I store my paper is a big factor in dictating how I use the paper, storing by company has never really worked for me as it never made sense, colour on the other hand is a much more Helen friendly method.

Arrangement 1 – cardstock on a shelf by colour in the 8.5×11 unit and paper on the neighbouring shelf in the 12×12 unit, with the extra shelves housing stickers, rub-ons etc. This was nice however it was difficult to flick through the shelves and I was collecting more 12×12 cardstock, which had no where to live.

Arrangement 2 – Pull out almost all the shelves in the 8.5×11 unit and arrange the cardstock (8.5×11 and 12×12) by colour standing vertically. Since I don’t have 9″ worth of cardstock the extra space was filled with my favourite idea books. This was much better except I wasn’t using much patterned paper now.

Arrangement 3 – Need to use more patterned paper, so pull all the patterned paper off their shelves and insert beside cardstock in 8.5×11 unit, much nicer and easier to deal with. Helen is now happy, but what about that space where the 12×12 paper used to be? Now filled up the idea books from the 8.5×11 unit, binder of UM stamps, box of paper scraps, photos etc. So much more practical.

Just a little insight into a portion of the 10.8m2 space which I like to call my room.

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slightly big, possibly exciting

www.helenthura.com is a year old today and to me at least that is big and exciting 🙂 I mean the response when some asks for your email address and you say helenAThelenthuraDOTcom is classic.
Strictly speaking the birth date is March 21 but it didn’t resolve till March 24. Sort of like a three day labour you could say. As a handful of you know my blog is actually slightly older than the domain as I started over at Typepad on March 8 with the title Randomness in Brisvegas, which was also the name of this blog for a while before I changed it me, my camera and my life.

Typepad was nice and fills a demand in the market but I was not in that market, I wanted control! To have as much control as they will give you at Typepad it would be US$15 a month versus the US$5 or so this costs me each month and I have total control over everything 🙂 I played with a few different blog applications before I settled on WordPress and in the early days had numerous times of frustration as I learnt how PHP and CSS worked, sure I still have them now but no where near as often. 🙂

I thought it would be nice to have a year in review of the blogs that I feel best show to you and to me part of the journey I have taken in the last year. I want to thank you all for taking part in the ride that is the first year, whether you have been around since the early days or have only recently started reading me, you are all special 🙂

March 29, 2005 – Helen leaves the banana yellow walls and pink ceiling behind and to embrace the serenity of white.

April 1, 2005 – My first recipe post 🙂 The wonderful Skonsur, nothing in the world like ham and cheese on warm Skonsur.

April 18, 2005 – The reason why I do something that I hate 4 times a year (giving blood).

April 19, 2005 – My sweet thing arrived, my Canon 350D that is!

April 30, 2005 – The plans of the eternal traveler and the dreams I have of the world.

May 19, 2005 – Brisbane gets hit with a freak Hailstorm.

June 1, 2005 – The book arrived, that was a great project to work on.

June 16, 2005 – Time to feature my Mum with her divine chocolate cake recipe.

June 20, 2005 – Is scrapbooking all that it cracked up to be? One of the most important posts I think I have made not only to me in realigning myself creatively but also giving others some food for thought.

June 28, 2005 – The utter happiness of arriving back in Iceland.

July 22, 2005 – My account of what it was like to be in a town when a mini-terrorist attack happens.

August 3, 2005 – Helen gets magic worked on her hair.

August 18, 2005 – I revert back to a life of singledom.

September 11, 2005 – I rock out at the Moun tain Goats, turn 20 and then almost die by eating too much chocolate mousse.

September 26, 2005 – Mum and I spend a gorgeous weekend exploring northern NSW

October 10, 2005 – The music that people have shared with me and how it has influenced me.

October 26, 2005 – Helen gets a real fake tooth denture and is now well on her way to getting blue rinses in her hair and lining up at the bank to collect her pension.

November 7, 2005 – How fruity are your friends? Ali (& Liam) and I have a blast at the Whitlams.

November 28, 2005 – Bring on the Ben Lee! Two of my best friends, a cute guy and sweet music.

December 14, 2005 – I get the coolest shower cap, in turn making me the coolest kid on the block.

Decmeber 25, 2005 – Last night was Christmas and what a sweet night it was

December 29, 2005 – After 3 days on the road and high seas Mum and I arrive in Tasmania.

January 14, 2006 – Some of the sweet goodies I picked up on the road trip that Mum and I took to Tasmania.

January 29, 2006 – Tracy releases her Helen digital scrapbooking kit.

Febuary 2, 2006 – There is only two colours in the world – Pink and not pink.

Febuary 13, 2006 – Happy shoes, shoes that I can wear all day long with no pain.

Febuary 19, 2006 – Helen’s best ever biscuits, which I need to make again very soon.

Well that was the last year, what will this year bring? For starters more crafty and creative goodness, more concerts, more cooking, more fun at uni, the joy of trying to find a gradute job in a limited market place, adventures with family and friends and all round fun and goodness. I hope you continue to enjoy the driver’s seat view of the life of Helen Thura Palsson, a 20 year old uni student from Brisbane, Australia.

I leave you with many thanks for your comments and support over the last year.

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round up, round up, round up

Another day and another birthday in the Pálsson troop 🙂

Today my third eldest brother, Hafþór Ingi turns the big 38! Out of my half-siblings, Hafþór is the only one I actually grew up around, as he moved to Australia with my parents in 1980 and moved back to Iceland in 1993 so for the first eight years of my life he was a big part of it.

This photo is of me when I was a wee little Snuffleupagus of just 4 weeks been held by the aforementioned brother who in this photo is 17! Don’t you just love the flags of the world outfit? Perhaps I was destined to be doing International Studies?

hafthor and helen
But this isn’t my birthday so bringing the attention back to the birthday boy. I don’t really have any funny moments but I am sure he does of me. There are some things that I do know, this man is a musical genius in all aspects from singing, to playing to writing, he is a wonderful father with two gorgeous kids, an incredible wealth of knowledge and an all round super cool person and big brother 🙂 Here is a more recent photo – taken last July at the family moot in Iceland, in his entire element with his guitar and perhaps it is the ever adoring younger sister in me, but I reckon he looks like Chris Martin of Coldplay and has a better voice too 🙂

hafthor-at-the-moot

Ok, that was a little longer than I planned on it been so back to the topic as the title of this post suggested – round up.

The Commonwealth Games are on at the moment and Australia of course is on fire! I always enjoy the Commonwealth Games more than the Olympics; they just seem a whole lot more friendlier, because they are the “Friendly Games” 🙂 It’s just great to see things like this, and many other countries getting their first Gold, Silver or Bronze medals, just great stuff! and Ben Lee is going to be playing at the closing ceremony, top stuff!

But to put some family spin on the Commonwealth Games, big kudos to my second cousin Nathan Eglington who is on fire in the Kookaburras (Australian Men’s Hockey team) with a hat-trick in a 5-1 win against England. Should be another Gold Medal for Australia there.

Uni is still uni, but I have now done my first piece of assessment so it really feels like the semester is underway now – it is week 4 of 13 after all.

Go check out some of the designs Tracy is pumping out at the moment, that girl is on fire I tell you.

Big Cheers for EK Success and Jacob getting engaged – so happy 🙂

The Parcel man brought me five (5) new crafty books from Amazon.co.jp the other day – will post more about them soon 🙂

I made the most yummy blueberry muffins last night – total heaven. I used this recipe – Blueberry Muffins from Elsie.com all I changed was that I used buttermilk instead of plain yoghurt and didn’t add the lemon zest because I had no lemons and WHOA total heaven, very, very nice muffins!

I think that was all I wanted to round up for the moment but I leave you with this note, something “big” and “special” is coming a few days time 😀

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not quite marital bliss

I was reading the newspaper on the bus home yesterday and came across this little gem, seems like one angry couple, I wonder what started it all?

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A Mexican couple were recovering separately after a marital spat got out of control and saw them firing guns, throwing knives and hurling homemade bombs, Mexican daily Milenio said on Monday.

In scenes taken straight out of hit romantic comedy “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Juan Espinosa and Irma Contreras fought until their house blew up in a homemade gasoline bomb explosion, Milenio said.

Police called to the home in the indigenous Mayan Indian town of Oxkutzcab in the southeastern state of Yucatan arrested Espinosa. Contreras was taken to hospital with third-degree burns.

A local police official confirmed the report but declined to provide further information.

In the violence-filled movie about the fictional Smiths, Pitt and Jolie play married assassins ordered to kill each other.

Espinosa told reporters he was glad his wife had suffered burns, while Contreras said she was only sorry she had not “hacked off his manhood” during the fight.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

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catch-up

Doing five subjects at uni is sooo much more work than doing the usual four subjects! All I seem to be doing is reading, reading, reading – the “joys” of doing an Arts course 🙂

Brief run down of the last couple of days.

Went to the MoB with Mum on Sunday to see Regarding Retro, not quite what we expected, we would have liked to actually seen the collections in the flesh instead of seeing photos of them – all those aprons would have been a treat.

After that we went into Silk Road to look at work shoes for me, after wearing a pair round the store for 45mins or so I have decided they are better than what I have had before but still no where near perfect. I am currently wearing them round the house this week to see how they feel for more extended periods of time before deciding what to do with them. They are a pair of Ecco Tail – lots of Gore-Tex and rubber so any dairy spills at work will not be a problem. Mum picked up a pair of Patagonia shorts and we drooled over the Women’s Therm-a-Rests very comfy and pink to boot.

Worked this morning before going to Uni for a lecture and a tute, currently doing this weeks readings for my International Relations Ethics subject and I am about to start work on a tutorial presentation on “Ownership and Management Problems in Chinese State Enterprisesâ€? as well a short essay providing an analysis of a Chinese Government whitepaper on the “Building of Political Democracy in China”.

My life basically consists of reading bricks, high-lighters, a pen and a wad of writing paper.

It seems that U2 will be coming to our shores in November – so a bit less than a year after we bought our tickets.