Happy Birthday Karyn!

scraping in with the nick of time.

Enjoy the last couple of minutes of your birthday Karyn!

Happy Birthday! The last year or two it has been great getting to know you and your family 🙂
Hope the day was happy 🙂

Margarita Chiquita

I saw this little quiz on Lindsay’s blogWhat drink are you? So I thought that sounds like a fun little quiz, I wonder which drink I will be?
Helen, you’re a Margarita Chiquita

No doubt about it, you’re a fun-loving mamacita. And no drink suits you better than a saucy margarita. From frozen and frothy to easy and on-the-rocks, you’ve always got good times on your mind, whether you’re out to dance the night away, spice up a fancy dinner party, or add some flair to your knitting club.

And even when you just need a relaxing night at home, you can always find a way to keep things interesting. Like your sassy signature drink, you brighten up any occasion and remind people that any event — from a backyard barbeque to a mani/pedi extravaganza — is better when you call it a party. Olé!

So it looks like my fav drink is my signature drink too 🙂 Though I much, much prefer on the rocks to frozen. What umbrella drink are you?

Had my 3rd exam today that was worth 70% of my marks for the subject, think I went ok, though am dissapointed with the lecturer that all the stuff he said to know for the exam was not on it 🙁

yeah just being real

A long debated post on Scrapbooking or should I call it crapbooking, because scrapbookers suck. This post has swirled round in my brain for a good couple of months now.

Scrapbooking is something that has been part of my life since mid December 2001, when a friend showed me how to do a CM page, her mum was a CMC and my journey began. Buying supplies, doing pages etc, etc. I was happy, I was on a message board with other CMC’s and other customers, we had fun, we chatted, there was never any negativity, there was no burden of getting published, it was just about the photos and the story they tell.

Somewhere after my end of school trip in 2002/03, I was no longer satisfied with CM, I was spending time on 2peas, shopping local sales I was having fun, but even then looking back on it I was relatively unsettled in my work, always going was it good enough, was it hip enough? I wonder sometimes if it was because I was comparing my work to that I saw on 2peas, in the magazines. When I was CM I never questioned my pages. 2peas changed my outlook on Scrapbooking.

This afternoon I was working on some projects for a magazine that I have to have in before I leave for Iceland and I was angry, with the fact that my samples were not playing nice and working out properly. Angry with the world for random minor stuff – possibly due to lack of sleep the night before.

I have come to think that I need to refocus. I am no longer going to chase commissioned work, I will no longer submit to those random calls which are rare even for me to submit to now. I am not going to look at the gallery each day, I will look randomly every so often. I will keep on enjoying my monthly Aussie Pea thread but that may be about it. , I will keep not reading scrap magazines, I question if I will put my work on 2peas or just post the layouts here for my family and friends plus the occasional random who stumbles on to my blog searching for “blood donation fainted” “lee kwan yew quotes” “helen is silly” “skonsur” “australian secret intelligence service blog” “shiney”, “hide and seek imogen heap” plus a good stack more of weird search phrases.

Out of all of my what 16 or so published or to be published works, 2 of those were from submissions, I know I am hell lucky to have had the chances I have had, but I wonder if that ratio has influenced my view on publishing.

For a while now I have stressed the importance of being real in my scrapbooking and I am happy to see others now who are “getting real” in their scrapbooking, because sure I do like getting affirmations (praise) on my work but really at the end of the day do I a give a flying xyron what they think? My work is for me and those I love. It is meaningful for us, they would not give a flying hoot if I haven’t used the latest supplies, hell they probably wouldn’t even notice if it was a CM style page or not. They purely like seeing my photos and what I write. That is it, I could share my journal with them which has random photos and my musings in, just a white page, a photo and a pen and they would enjoy it.

What brought this outpouring on? I am starting to realise my self and what I want or don’t want. I don’t want to see to others get tangled up in a web of publishing and is my work good enough. I wanted to go public to express the conversations I have often with other girls. Below are some random comments from a chat I had with Barb today.

Helen says:
I just am disorientated with the idea of scrapbooking and what it means
Barb says:
I think you do it perfectly helen and I think doing it for money sux
Barb says:
that it is not about being in fashion but about being real? and scrapping like a mess if you want
life is too short to scrapbook to please anyone other than who is in your family (that includes sean)
Helen says:
because my family doesn’t care what I use on a page, in fact they probably don’t even care it is a CM page – they like seeing their photos, they like seeing what I have to say
Barb says:
chris just likes looking at the photos in my pictures on the computer, he couldn’t care if there are mm rub-ons, he just wants to play with my paints lol
Helen says:
exactly

I ask if there is any reason to this post, do others want to see what goes on in my mind? Then I say this is my space on the server, if one reader leaves here thinking about what they do and why they do I will feel content.

101 things in 1001 days

Karyn is doing it, I decided I want to do it, so this list will grow and grow till I reach my target. According to the date calculator I have until March 11, 2008 to complete this list or at least make a fair attempt at it.

1) add some more RAM into my computer Done – see this post
2) address dress standards with the local clubs
3) be a tourist in my own city with my camera
4) buy a funky dress for B&D’s wedding Skirt bought from FCUK in London.
5) check out local digital printing options
6) clean my fan done just before I left for Iceland.
7) continue to pass all my assesmentPassed all subjects Sem 1 2005 🙂
8) craft more creations
9) create a wearable art dress
10) decide on a major Doing the dual – IR/history&politics
11) do some early morning portraits in the city/valley
12) do some serious exercise regurarly
13) do something drastic with my hair A cut in London and then colour from Kaliope
14) don’t leave dirty clothes round my room. doing pretty good oct ’05
15) drink a Ravenswood Zinfandel California Vintners Blend again
16) drink some Jever again
17) exercise
18) explore more world and jazz music
19) finish my degree
20) finish the quilt – done and entered in the quilt show (oct ’05)
21) get a new camera bag
22) get a new pair of sunnies
23) get a webcam Yep see here
24) get more yellow patterned paper
25) get pink nail polish.
26) get some new funky bed linen Got some for my 20th bday
27) go back to Hohenkirchen
28) go back to the SF bay area
29) go to a dropkick murphys gig
30) go to the races Tats day, the day we came back from Iceland
31) have a better food variety in my diet – should be at least 25 different items a day.
32) have some more work published overseas
33) hook up with the melbourne peas in december 05/jan 06
34) improve my essay writing
35) keep track of the books I read
36) keep up to date with my readings
37) learn a whole lot more Icelandic
38) learn some more PHP
39) meet some internet buddies met Ali oct 20 05
40) move out of home
41) pick up some wacky things from an antiques shop
42) play a game of netball
43) play footy again
44) play the bassoon again
45) procrastination is something I wish to reduce
46) see a wallabies game
47) see the doc about my poor feet – the pain has to stop
48) see u2 in concert
49) sort out some way to display my photos
50) go to the next Bomber’s game in brisbane
51) track down my Aunt Pauline or her daughters
52) update my photo blog more often every day now 🙂
53) use my quadcam camera at last finished a roll and got it developed – sept 05
54) visit the op shops more often
55) visit the reading room at the British Museum UPDATE – missed out on my last trip to London due to the damm bombers on July 21.
56) work on a another book
57) update the front page of my site. all done and much better now
58) create some business cards.
59) apply for icelandic citizenship UPDATE – Ran out of time to do this on my last trip to Iceland
60) buy an item of clothing either from 66° North or from cintamani
61) print some of my photos for my walls
62) exercise more restraint on junk food
63) return to Iceland again
64) become semi-profecient in Icelandic
65) put a message in a bottle and give it to the waves
66) make something from driftwood
67) work on getting contributions for my book
68) go to the rugby world cup in france in 2007
69) get my veggie garden back in order
70) build something
71) have a successful beach combing day
72) take a sailing trip
73) visit another glacier
74) explore Australia
75) visit a distant friend or two
76) buy a car
77) start cycling again
78) decide on a plan of action for my fake tooth
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100) publish my book.
101) do everything on this list

sleep or create?

I want to stay up and create but I start work in 8hrs, (5am) didn’t get much sleep the previous two nights so my body is screaming that I should go to sleep, but my fingers are itching to create.

A pretty pointless entry but hey.

Whilst you are here, go check out this layout list of super cool layouts from EK.

Sean and I went to see Mr and Mrs Smith after cricket this arvo (they won). What a total crack up, loved how stoic and 2d they were between each other at the start of the film – total crack up and hey any movie that has Adam Brody as well as Angelina and Brad in has to be good even if just for viewing pleasure.

Some things I love right now

Finding ink for my printer in the clearance section at Officeworks – Saved $6 just because someone bought the wrong one!

Mum buying me a very funky red polartec jumper for Iceland/rest of my life. It rocks!

The Aussie thread peas for deciding to run an inspired by me challenge, I feel so honoured! Can’t wait to see what they do!

My BrisPea friends for rocking out and always making me laugh! Barb, Beth, Hayley and Leanne and of course their children and husbands for cracking me up as well.

Having ink in my printer, I can print photos!! Have put off buying a new cartridge for a while so my printer has been in hibernation.

Working on my quilt for my eldest sister’s step-son. 14 days to get it done!

This cool link from AmyGBaby Name timeline (my name is dying a slow, slow death)

My little brother Matthew (who is taller and possibly has more hair then I do.. well not quite) for just been so cute with how he views the world.

New books from the library.

Giving Sean the canvas I drew and the message I got this morning saying how much it rocks.

The new albums from Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and Michael Buble. Ultra cool music!

11 days till the new Dropkick Murphys album comes out!

13 days till my exams finish!

15 days till we leave for Iceland!