High Hopes

Here are a few things that I would really like to own. Preferalby someday in the relatively near future but who knows. Wish I could register for these things as "bridal" gifts, but I guess I'll just have to slowly budget for them instead. First is the umbrella. I had seen it years ago in a catalogue and instantly fell in love. Pretty genius!

Then there are these fantastic red leather sandals. I went searching for ones exactly like this after admiring a three-year-old's shoes at the daycare I worked at. I had thought to myself, it's too bad they don't have cool shoes like hers for adults, and then low and behold they do!! Saltwater Sandals. Will be a must have for me this spring.

There are these adorable folding stools at Pearl River trading company. I'd really like to have one so I can take it outside and sit to do art. Whether or not I'd use it as much as I think I would is irrelavant to the fact I still want to buy one.

And the last little item for the evening, is a yoga mat bag. I'd actaully like to sew the bag, but this picture is pretty close to what I'd be going for.

Crab Paintings and Thrift Shopping

This is the painting of the Australian crab I finished last night. I think its my favorite out of the works I've done while living down under.

Today I went to Salvos and found a few great things.

1. This watermelon spoon and fork set. I realize that they're a little broken, but nothing that sanding and care couldn't fix.

2. A beautiful patterned sundress. Also needs a little work. I've had to undo the straps from the back, and will be resewing them in an X to make them shorter.

3. I bought two books for the plane rides to Ayers Rock and back, and then the long 27 hour stint of flights and airports home to Jackson. Bridget Jones's Diary, and The Hound of Baskerville, neither of which have I read.

4. Lastly I found an art smock, with two big pockets on the front and a tie in the back. I've just washed it to get some of the sizing out of the fabric, but when its done airdrying I'll photograph it. I love it a lot. Just what I had wanted.

Packing My Bags!!

It's official, my bags are packed! Turned my room into a total wreck before rolling up my clothes for hours. I brought an extra duffel bag just in case I'd need it to bring home all the stuff I'd inevitably buy in my six months living abroad. Ended up being able to jam everything into the three suitcases I came over with. Rather impressed with myself. That feat was only possible by sorting through all my belongings I have and setting aside everything I haven't used or don't want anymore to be given to the Salvation Army, Salvos. I'm going to drop it off tomorrow.

And I discovered that I like to cut canvas fabric off of the wooden frames so I now I can take the paintings home with me that I've done in Australia. Brilliant!

A Look Inside My Journal

journals are like our souls on paper

This is a photograph of lucky clovers I found in the front yard of the house I live in. I really love this picture, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but because of the aged photograph effect I put on it using photobucket. I've just recently started loading all my digital images on it so I won't lose them if something happens to my computer. And a quick thought on blogging. It feels a lot like a journal, the ones I have where I write and draw on the same pages. My personal thoughts and ideas but with blogging they're out there for the world to read. Some of the women's pages I've stumbled across are truly inspirational, and even though I may never meet any of them, they have affected my life. I'm going to try and get good at updating this thing. Who knows who might stumble across mine.

Little Things that Brighten My Day

This is my side table at the moment. I thought the collection of things that have accumulated were quite nice. We have my watercolor of the harbour, my palette and paintbrushes. Also some four leaf, five leaf, and even six and seven leaf clovers I found in a one square foot patch out in the front yard. There's also the little pink bike I bought at a fair trade store; it's made of recycled materials. There's my Aussie version of rubber cement, called Clag. My green Indian elephant bank that I think is so wonderful. And my tiny metal jewelry box. And if you look carefully in the back right corner there is the ziploc bag of shells I found at Mona Vale beach.

Here's the inside view of my jewelry box. I not only love this box for its compact travel size, but also for the fact that Matty bought it for me at a consignment store before I left for Australia. I think it used to be a pill case, but my jewelry fits quite nicely inside it.

This is the cover of my jewelry case which I had engraved with my first name. Amelia is scribbled elegantly in the fake gold case.

The other day at the shops I found a dollar store that sells the instrumental part of music boxes. The one I chose to buy plays Waltzing Matilda, and it sounds very beautiful with the little plinks the music crank makes.

Here's the little pink hand made bike. The foot peddles and tires even rotate, but not coordinatedly.