PHOTO OF THE WEEK - FAVOURITE COFFEE MUG

I actually won this mug in a giveaway a little while ago from Julie Ann Bowden's blog. I love it and have all of my hot drinks from it.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - SHADOW

This is my shadow stretched out on the ground

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - CHRISTMAS DAY

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Alex and I spent the day over at my Mum's house with my family. Mum prepared a lovely Chrissy lunch and pudding for dessert. We played games and chatted the day away. We had a lot of fun catching up with all the family.

Grandma, Mum and Grandad on Christmas day

My brother Beau

My brother Reece and his girlfriend Sarina

Sarina and Aaron checking out their bon-bon goodies

I can't believe today is the last day of the year. It has gone by sooo fast, and I must say I had a pretty good year with a lot of positive stuff around me. I, like a lot of other people I have talked to, feel a lot of change is coming for this new year. I am looking forward to it.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year Everyone

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - XMAS LIGHTS

Alex, Aaron and I went to view some Chrissy lights last weekend. I have wonderful memories from when I was little of going and viewing the lights every year with my family. Everyone went to so much effort with their displays and it really made it feel like Christmas as everyone was happy and friendly.

Nowadays you don't see as many displays anymore which makes me a little sad. I can understand why though with the cost of everything going up and up. Maybe it will change again in years to come.

Here are some pics of a couple of the displays we saw -

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS

-------------------------

P.S. I also just wanted to mention that Katie is hosting a giveaway for me on her blog. Pop on over and leave a comment here to be in the draw to win your choice of one of my pendants. Good Luck!

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - WEDDING BELLS

Alex and I had a very busy weekend just gone by. We were up on the Sunshine Coast for Alex's older sister Kate's wedding.

We were all a bit nervous though as Kate is a huge horse lover and her dream was for her and her flower girl to be lead down the aisle on her horses. We were not sure how either of the horses would react to this situation as they have never done anything like this before.

Coming down the aisle

There were a few hairy scary moments as the flower girls horse (who was suppose to be in front of the bride) refused to go through the arch. He dug his little hooves in and wouldn't budge. Kate's Mum had to just go on ahead with Kate.

Kate having a laugh about it

They seemed to be doing well until they got closer to the crowd and he too started to panic, and to every ones horror started backing up into the other horse and almost stood on one of the bridesmaids who were concentrating on coaxing the other horse to follow. Kate tried to nudge the horse forward but he wouldn't go much further, so she had to get off there. She was quickly collected by her Dad to walk her the rest of the way.

Kate being collected by her Dad

Her nervous groom was waiting for her at the other end. Kate's new husband is Scottish so they all looked snazzy done up in their kilts on the day.

This is the groom just as he saw Kate for the first time

It was a beautiful ceremony. I didn't get many photos of it though as it was really overcast and my camera isn't the best in those conditions.

The happy couple getting photos with the horses after the ceremony

After the we did the family photos the bridal party took off to get more photos done. The rest of the guests where offered drinks a nibbles in the venues courtyard, where we all got to chat and catch up with everyone.

Alex's little brother Josh and his girlfriend Petro, Me and Alex having drinks

~CONGRATULATIONS KATE AND GRAEME~

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - I'VE DECKED THE HALLS

It is getting so close to Christmas now!

I am excited about spending time with the family, but Christmas can be such a hard job. I hate trying to juggle all sets of families at the one time, especially when they don't live anywhere near each other. Then there is also the separated parents who you have to go to individually. It is tough trying not to hurt any ones feelings. I think when Alex and I start our own little family we will just be having Christmas at our own home and who ever wants to see us can come to us, lol. I am sure many of you can relate though.

I put up the few decorations that Alex and I have collected over the years last night. We don't have much, but again, once we have a family it will be a bit better. These are not the best photos due to poor lighting.

This is my table center piece

I have always loved this little snowman

This is our little Christmas tree

This is our lounge with the Christmas tree set up

I hope everyone is happy and safe over this Christmas period. Have a great week :)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - BEACH TRIP

Hi everyone!

I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you all did too. Alex and I went down the coast on Sunday. The weather was lovely, although quite hot. We stopped in at the Carrara Markets on our way down as we have never been and they are suppose to be really big and quite good.

They were big although not what I would call good markets. I was really disappointed in them. They were basically just a bunch of dollars and cents shops (cheap nick knack imports) all packed together with a few fresh produce stores in between. It was basically all commercial stuff, and there were only a few handmade things being sold there. I probably would not go back again. Just not my style of markets unfortunately.

We headed off to the beach afterwards which was definitely worth the trip down. It was beautiful and the water was perfect. I will let these pictures do the talking though -

Have a great week everyone :)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Wow, another Monday! Time is just flying at the moment. Hope you all had great weekends.

I am really excited at the moment because during the week I got to catch up with my very good friend Sally who I haven't seen in over two years. We use to work together at Subway after I finished school, and we became really close friends. Unfortunately we ended up losing contact through lost mobiles, job changes and house moves. I have been missing her like crazy, and this week Sally finally tracked me down through my brother's friend and I went over to visit her on Friday. We had heaps of fun catching up and I got to meet her baby girl who is now 10 months old and her son who I last saw just after he was born, he is now 2. We will definitely not be loosing this friendship again.

Me and Sally's little boy Tyler. He is sooo cute!

In other news I have just been busy in my art room preparing new things and finishing old things.

A new piece I have started

Making lots of pendants

and I plan to make Christmas ornaments out of these blank gift tags

Have a great week :)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - MARKETS

Thanks everyone for your kind words of encouragement for my first market venture. It gave me a lot of confidence. I was pretty nervous on the day. My Mum, Grandma, and two of my brothers were there though to lend me and hand.

Although we had a nice time on the day, there wasn't really that many people that showed up, and the only ones who did were the residents of the village, no one from outside. I don't think the organisers really advertised there being markets which was a bummer.

I still managed to sell a few items though which I am happy about. Mainly a few dolls and bookmarks sold, none of my art pendants which I was worried about. I don't think it was the right target market to sell my pendants to though since it was at on over 50's retirement village. It was a great learning experience and I wouldn't mind maybe looking into doing the local community markets on a regular basis.

Here are some pics I wanted to share of the day.

My brothers Aaron and Beau at our table

My doll display

Pendants, magnets, bookmarks and felt toys

Mum and Grandma having a look around at the other stalls

MONDAY'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I have been so busy getting ready for an upcoming market event at my Grandparents retirement village this Saturday. I will be selling rag dolls, pendants, magnets, and other arts and crafts. I am pretty excited as it's my very first market venture. I hope it goes well.

Any who, now for this weeks photos. Alex and I decided to invite my Mum and brothers over for a lunch time barbecue on Sunday. It was perfect weather for it and I don't think we have used the BBQ since moving into this house. The food was delicious and the company was even better ;)

Alex on the BBQ

Brad relaxing

Mum and Aaron

MONDAY'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Happy Monday everyone!

On Sunday Alex (my partner), Aaron (lil brother), and I went for a country drive. Our mission was actually to find a place called Christmas Creek that my parents use to take us to when we were little. I haven't been there for years, but have very fond memories of the place. My Mum and brothers still go there occasionally, so we got directions from them on how to get there. Unfortunately we never found the place :( We ended up just giving up and heading back home.

We still had a nice day out enjoying the country views though. Next time we will go when my Mum and brothers go so they can show us the way.

We stopped in at Beaudessert Park on the way and had KFC for lunch. This is Aaron having his fill,

and Alex enjoying his.

Alex and Aaron having fun on the rides at the park. Aaron quickly realised that KFC and a merry go round do not mix well.

This is a quick snap I took out of the car window while driving along through the country. There were so many baby animals around as well that we saw.
--------------
Here are a couple of photos I couldn't resist putting up -

This cute little guy was out on our out door table the other morning trying to hide from the strong morning sun.

Alex moved him around the side of the house where he was a lot more sheltered and even had some water.

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's Monday photos :) Have a great week!

MONDAY'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK

I know, I know, it's Wednesday, but we can ignore that fact can't we? ;)

Here is a pic I took from my art room window last week during a huge dust storm we had. It was crazy! Although we locked ourselves inside with every door and window shut tight, we could still smell and taste the dust in the air.

Everything got coated in the dust that traveled all the way from Australia's red center, and now everyone is busy cleaning their cars and houses. We are actually on pretty big water restrictions due to the drought, but they have been lifted this week for the clean up. The dust has actually caused a lot of people to get sick (my partner Alex included). I hope to never experience one of these again.

It was so eery and you couldn't see very far

MONDAY'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.

I am trying to get back into the swing of things at the moment. All last week Alex was home on holidays, so we spent most of our time finishing unpacking and setting everything up. This week I can get back into my usual routine of painting. I have a couple of orders to finish so they are my main priority at the moment.

Here are a couple of pics of my art room. I still need to add a few things here and there, but it's on its way to being my perfect little studio.

MONDAY'S PHOTO A WEEK

Even though it's Tuesday, whoops!

I have been busy packing for our move on Saturday, so I haven't really got anything interesting to post about.

Except...

Boxes,

boxes,

and more BOXES!

Sorry it's not more interesting this week. I will try and do better next Monday :)

MONDAY'S PHOTO A WEEK

Hi everyone, I hope you all had wonderful weekends.

I had a great weekend. Although it's suppose to be winter here in Queensland, the weather has been beautifully warm and sunny. Alex and I had a wonderful picnic in the park on Saturday. It was so nice to get out doors and relax. We had yummy food, read books and even had a couple of games of out door pin pong together.

Then on Sunday we felt like getting outdoors again. We invited my Mum and Brothers along to go on a bush walk with us. It was so much fun and for lunch we all headed back to our place and got fish and chips for lunch, yummo!

Can you tell I'm enjoying being healthy again? I have had about 8 treatments of acupuncture now and I am feeling so good! I still have the slightest pain in my back, but it is ignorable and is nothing compared to the pain I have been living with for the past 2 years. It feels like I have my life back again and I am so thrilled! I have so much more energy and just want to get out and make up for lost time.

Any who, here are some pics from our bush walk on Sunday.

This is a tree that has been taken over by a strangler vine

This is Aaron, Beau and Alex. We all found walking sticks along the way

This is Mum, me and Brad being silly with our walking sticks

A view from the lookout we stopped at on our way home

I actually lost my camera in the parking lot when getting in the car to leave after our bush walk. Luckily we only went a few seconds away to another spot when I realised it was missing. Alex and I quickly drove back praying that it would be in the car park still. A nice couple who had actually been there when we left picked it up and were still there when we got back. They were so lovely and so happy that we came back to get it. I was so relieved! I should put a contact number in the camera case just in case this happens again.