things to be thankful for 6.

* We did a practice pack of our backpacks and it all fits easily! Hooray!

* I have two days off next week! Thats the first in about 4 months!
* I am continually suprised by the sheer quantity of COOL people blogging in the world - and how easy it is for me to read their beautiful thoughts/stalk them! (thanks people I follow!)
* I get to hug my amazing best friend in a month!
* Last night, after work, my angel and our good friend and housemate went to our favourite bar, drank (pumpkin) beer and ate haloumi and laughed. I'm so lucky.
* Our friends had a healthy baby girl a few weeks ago.
* My dear friend will be moving into our house in less than two weeks time! Yay!
* I haven't lost my sunglasses (total miracle I tell you)
* We scored a free coffee's this morning. So much love for Yullis.
* I just tried to find some positive news on The Guardian website, and was very dissapointed. But I found one piece of good news.

"By banning logging, mining and oil drilling in an area twice the size of California, Canada is ensuring its boreal forests continue to soak up carbon.." 

So that is something to be thankful for!

Picture is from the amazing Kelty at Steep Street.. I love to drool over her work. Well not literally... but ahh it's so whimsical and lovely! Check out her wedding photography *sigh*. I thought I'd put a halloween-esq picture here because, well, it is halloween... even though it's a lovely spring-timey day in Sydney.

believe

In the begining I believed in stories, fairies, invisible friends...
And then I believed in myself, my world, and that I could be anything,
And then I believed in God and getting good grades,
And then I believed in experiencing life,
And then I believed in Jesus, God and Love.

And now... all I know is my tiny human brain will never understand the vast complexity of the world.
But what to do with this one piece of knowledge? I could leave it at that and just carry on experience and living. I could keep on seeking and seeking and seeking answers. Of which there are a multitude, owned by other people and even the ones that fall under the same name are all slightly different. Each beleived through a different set of eyes. No two people believe the same thing. Surely?
I could piece little bits I hold to be true together... and try and wear it around me. But what does God think of that?
I know I can believe in a God who unwaveringly loves all, who loves and marvels at the Earth and eveything living in it, who understands what it is to be human - the random irrationality of emotion, who loves freedom and choice, who is the master of mystery. That's what I want... but is that okay with Him?

beautiful things of a different kind 3.

Coming back closer to home for todays not for profit organisation... This is one that features very prominently in my life. My angel works for Hope Street. The following words are from their most recent newsletter...

other beautiful things of a different kind here and here...

Favourite things: stationery

Seeing as I'm on the topic of stationery... I'll have all of the below thank you...

How amazing is stationery?! Unfortunatly I think it almost always looks better en-masse in a shop, but a girl can dream of shelves lined with a rainbows of diaries, neatly stacked tins of beautiful bits and bobs, and the papers of life always looking attractive, right?

1) galvanised metal chalkboard cabinet, pottery barn, 2) wood grain folders, MOMAstore, 3) hedgehog paperclip holder of cuteness!, MOMAstore,4) blue tins, Smiggle,  5) mad desk lamp,  6) tins of clips and rubber stamps, Cavallini & co.

list love

Sorry I abandoned my posts on Monday, but it was my first day off in 2 weeks, so I played with my angel all day. We did lots of organising and fluffing about for our big adventure. I love the concept of being super organised - making beautifully composed lists which neatly get crossed off in order, one by one... but try as I might it just doesn't happen. Not the way I dream of anyway. The lists are never beautiful - though they are plentiful, and the crossing off invariably is a) messy and b) done in order of easiest to hardest not what is most urgent to least!

I have a little book which I have decided is the list book. It has its own matching pencil and every time I think of a new list that needs to be made it goes in there. Now I have several travel ones, a christmas shopping one, an "other presents" one (so many birthdays/weddings/babies this year!) a dinner party one... all sorts. At least it makes me feel organised even if I don't refer to it as often as I should and even though the hard things to do always happen last and latest.
We finished off the evening with a dinner date, we even had entrees and dessert! Fancy! I had fried ice cream for the first time in my life and it wasn't a let down at all!

Notebook is by the drool-a-licious Kate Spade

dress ups

My Angel had a party to go to this weekend (I had to work) but I played along with the "finding an outfit dress ups" for fun anyway. How lucky am I to have a boy who likes playing dress ups and then doing late night photo shoots! Doesn't he look dashing all done up and waistcoaty! I'm wearing my lovely housemate's coat and ginourmous play spectacles!

This weekend we went to the Eveleigh farmers markets. All the produce is lined up beautifully and it is in an extremely lovely and suitably rustic venue, but it is too expensive for me to do my weekly vegie shop at. I wish it was more reasonably priced, because I would love to be supporting local farmers. But because it's Sydney people know they can do okay when they hoik (yes that IS a word) the prices up so only the wealthy can afford it. Nice to wander through though... and I fluttered my eyelashes and stared longingly enough to get my housemate boys to buy me a beautiful bunch of cornflowers! Me? Manipulation? If flowers are involved then certainly!

colour love

So I recently went a bit obsessive compulsive and re-ordered our cd's into colour co-ordinated order. They are all on the computer anyway so we don't have to worry about never being able to find anything ever again... I think hubby might kill me if I try and do the books!

Check these out for inspiration:

all found via colourlovers.com... read it and drool.

i am, i am not; in conclusion

So I tried a little before and after on myself 2 weeks ago...
Just to report back on how it went...
1) I did crap with not eating sugar... I did cut down though.
2) I did good with the reflection thing! Now to keep it up...
3) I learnt how to use the metal saw at work and I've re-learnt the lighting desk.. which was a very humbling experience.
4) I have a few more "beautiful things of a different kind" up my sleeves. It was really good just surfing cool not for profit organisations all week. I still love and will always love looking at beautiful design and interior decorating stuff, but it is good to get some perspective.

The lust for pretty stuff and a beautiful home versus thinking that I should give my spare money to people less fortunate and recycle old stuff has always been a struggle of mine. This is a disscusion I have had with my friend Mia who has the same dillema as I. She commented that on a trip to Indonisia, she met people who had virtually nothing had filled their homes with pretty things they found... some people just like making things look nice... I am one of those. It makes me happy. It's just a matter of finding a balance. I like fixing broken things and doing up daggy things, even though I still drool over Eames chairs - I will never actually buy one. (Hubby can buy me one for my birthday/Christmas/anniversary/just because present though *coughhintcough*)

things to be thankful for 5.

Almost the end of a big week, and that is somthing to be thankful for in itself!

* Spring is really here, and it's time to switch to the lighter doona on the bed!
* I am going to have a dinner party.
* My angel and I have saved up enough for our trip.
* Someone left a huge pile of stuff out in the back lane which I "stealth recylced" and got: a big white vase, several pots for the garden, 2 bedside lamps that I am going to fix up and make new shades for and best of all a pair of BEAUTIFUL white roller skates with red wheels (that almost, but not quite, fit). But they are sooooo pretty!
* I've had a fair few early marks this week and so am not as tired as I was expecting to be.
* I have a beautiful bunch of cornflowers in my home. The most magnificent blue colour ever.
* Another lot of friends have gotten engaged - I know 5 engaged couples now! 'Tis the time of life I s'pose...
* There are teeny tiny tomatoes on our bushes. I like to tell them how cute they are.
* My little brother is almost done with his HSC exams.
* Our friends at our local watering hole gave me a stack of classic books to read. So nice! 1984 can soon be ticked off my "books I haven't read but am meant to have" list.

coffee

I'm a coffee addict. Quite a big one. I have one every single day. I'd have more, but I don't. Because it's not healthy for me or my wallet...
So I think it's important I share my latest most favourite thing.

Keep Cup.

I know there are a couple of other products out there, but I think this is the best. Certainly if you're in Australia. It's plastic so it wont break in your bag like a ceramic one. It's made from recycled materials and it is recyclable. It's made to measure barista standards. And its 100's of paper cups you wont be throwing away.
In one year by having a keep cup I am saving 10kgs of woodpulp, 1kg of plastic lids and 374 mjs of energy!Eep!

So I'm not, like, selling them or anything. But if anyone is as big a coffee drinker as I am then you should totally do it. Oh and they're only $10. Fricken bargain.

Oh and did I say they come in pretty colours? No? They come in heaps of pretty colours! Huzzah!

early mark

Surry Hills smells like jasmin and jacaranda. The trees and hedges are all in full bloom around my neck of the woods. Cycling home in dusky night lit quiet streets, because it's Monday, is calming after a mixed up old day. Three coffee's and I was still tired all day at work.
I'll probably be a bit quiet on the old blog front for the next couple of days, unless I get more early marks like I did today.

On a happy note I spoke at length to my baby (18yrold!) brother tonight in the dinner break. It's amazing how a sibling can turn from the most annoying little pest who knows how to get your hackles up in 3 seconds to a quite extraordinary human in the blink of an eye (or so it seems). That's easier for me to say, being the big sister who has lived out of home for most of the crazy change years. But, every time I speak to him now I feel so happy that we are going to be great friends as adults. He starts his HSC tomorrow and was telling me about his English exams and it a) made me so happy I never have to do that ever again and b) made me remember just how much school students know! I have forgotten so much of what I learnt at school - mostly because I did a degree that didn't require hardly any of my school knowledge. Sure, I know a stack of stuff about other things now (lighting systems, bill splitting, rent paying, composting,  etc.) but writing essays - eurgh. And I used to be so good at them! Actually that's partly why I started to write here, writing is probably my most favourite way to communicate, I need brain exercise and I need to reflect. Because time is rolling merrily along.

things to be thankful for 4.

* We've found an orphanage to volunteer at while we are in Uganda next year and it looks amazing!

* My angel gets back tomorrow (he's been away for 3 days).

* It's is closing night tonight! After 8 weeks of 8 shows a week - I am very relieved!

* I made a big batch of cupcakes for everyone at work and they've all gone already (I think they liked them!)

* In 6 weeks time I will be seeing all my high school friends who I havent seen in 5- 6 years!

* My mums horses are better - they got real sick a few weeks ago and she was scared they would remain lame.

* I live in a wonderful house, with a garden and lovely house mates.

* My angel keeps on calling me because he is missing me while he is away. (It is nice feeling loved)

* The next show is bringing its own lighting programmer. I am so relieved about this as it is a big show and I would be switching to a different lighting desk that I don't know as well as the current one I am using. Phew! Pressure's off!

* The sun is shining, it is a beautiful day, it is a beautiful world, that just keeps on spinning.

ps. you may have noticed I have a penchant for taking photos of the sun! This one is on the road to my home town.

garden

I'm about to go into crazy work mode and work 14 hour days. In the lead up to this crazy time I have been pottering in the garden. It calms me down and makes me feel peaceful. Here are some pictures of my little oasis in the middle of Sydney.

Because of limited space we are growing lettuce, tomatoes, celery, rocket, strawberries and every herb ever in pots through the garden. We also have a lemon tree, which I gave to Tim for his birthday.

This is one of the first things we did when we moved in. Painted the outdoor toilet/potting shed door bright cheery blue.

This is our mini rain water tank. It collects from a small portion of our roof and also holds the washing machine grey water (that's what the purple hose is!). Guilt proof green garden.

This bit is a garden bed, it's growing sage, marigolds, thyme, oregano, rosemary and pansy.

I love pansy.

always, sometimes, never

I always:
* flush.
* want a cup of tea in the morning.
* dream.
* love to be hugged.

I sometimes:
* think the grass is greener..
* eat too many lollies.
* cry for no reason.
* snort when I laugh.

I never:
* want to be with out my angel.
* eat meat.
* can keep a straight face when looking at failblog..
* want  to drink tequila ever again.


This amazing sunset is taken from my parents garden in my home town.
I saw this style of post here.

beautiful things of a different kind 2.

So. Volunteering. I'm into it. When I was 18 I took a break between moving countries and tried some others in between. I lived in South Africa for 4 months working at TLC an orphanage in Johannesburg that cares for abandoned babies. As much as I went because I wanted to make a difference, the biggest difference was probably in me - as cliched as I know it sounds..

While my angel and I are in Uganda in Jan and Feb we will be doing some volunteer work, so I have been hunting around the web. Whilst I won't be going to all of these, there are some amazing places and people doing beautiful work. Here is a sneak peek of just a few that are beautiful:
Run by locals with a board in Australia that seeks grants and fundraises Toro is about helping people to help themselves. They set up small loan groups, teach skills that can bring income, do theatre for development and improve health and sanitry knowledge among the community.
I came across this orphanage just today and love their work. It is the longest running orphanage in Uganda (which incidently has the highest amount of orphans of any African country). Check out their latest newsletter here at The Sanya Babies Home.
This organisation World Wide Helpers catalogues not for profits that need vollies and connects them. Its got stacks on the website and all the right information to get you started and find the right place for you. Type in the country you're after or even just the continent and away you go. I found this place which might suit us in Uganda...
Then there is WWOOFering! world wide oppurtunities on organic farms. A huge global organisation, with stacks of places that you can work (almost always with food and board) and learn. A lot of places are just farms and a lot of places are a lot more than that. They are a linch pin to a thriving community. Often with crisi shelters, schools, orphanages attached to them too - well this is often the case in Africa... In Australia it's probably a bit diferent, and here it stands for Willing workers on organic farms... but hey... but still an amazing experience. I've never done it but I am keen (I like getting my hands dirty and gardening!) and I have a friend who is hooked and is going off to WWOOFA all the time!

There are so many more too, amazing people doing work all over the world. The holiday of a lifetime I reckon.

picture of my bestie lizzie at TLC this year.

Favourite things: wrapping presents

It was my lovely friend Mia's birthday the other day. I banged out a note on origami paper using our gorgeous baby blue typewriter. I had to take the top cover off because the ribbon kept on getting stuck. It was so fun tapping away at it in bed with a cup of tea. I felt very decadent!

I love giving people presents - but I have to admit it is mostly because I love wrapping them! Oh my gosh I love wrapping things. I squirrel away pretties all year round and never throw away any wrapping paper or ribbon I recieve, and always get my flowers gift wrapped so that I can reuse the paper! I've been adding a lot of feathers lately too...

This one was for my lil sister in law..

Gift for our friends new baby girl! I went through all my old Frankie magazines and made cards out of all the pretty pictures last Christmas. This was one, tucked into the ribbon I had left over and is just so cute!

beautiful things of a different kind 1.

So I finished reading "I was told there would be cake" by Sloane Crosley a few weeks ago and I really liked it. However, there was just this one thing that bugged me about Sloane. She was so dismissive of charity and volunteering. And it's this attitude in soo many people that I think sucks. May be it is because giving has become a bit trendy, it has some how also become a bit passe.. or something. I dont know really, but from the words of someone much smarter than me:

"If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it; absolute poverty is bad; there is some poverty we can prevent without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance; therefore we ought to prevent some absolute poverty." -Peter Singer

So for this weeks beautiful things of a different kind 1:
This is such an incredible organisation, husband and I give to them every month. In my googling I found out the history of Amnesty, how cool? Check them out.

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by London barrister Peter Benenson. He was outraged at reports that a group of students in Portugal had been jailed for raising a toast to freedom in a cafe. So he issued an appeal for the ‘prisoners of conscience’, as they later became known, who were languishing in jails around the world. He called on people everywhere to join a mass letter-writing campaign to pressure governments to set such prisoners free.

Within months, people in Australia and other countries had formed groups and began a worldwide movement, helping to create Amnesty International.

Today, Amnesty International is the world’s largest human rights organisation - a global movement of 2.7 million supporters across 150 countries. There are approximately 82,000 supporters in Australia working to defend human rights and dignity.

Traditionally, Amnesty International worked to defend civil and political rights, focused on prisoners of conscience, torture and the death penalty. We have responded to changes in the human rights environment around the world, and expanded our areas of work to also encompass economic, social and cultural rights.

In 1977 Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.

suprise

I'm a big fan of suprises. And a big fan of presents. Last night I got both! I pedaled home to find a candle lit room, a large gin and tonic, a tray of strawberries, cheese and crackers (he knew about the no lollies thing)! YUM! And my angel waiting for me! We had a candle lit picnic on our bedspread. It was so lovely, especially after spending so much time apart recently. 

I don't know why it is I'm such a sucker for presents. I'm not a particularly materialistic person, it's just that given the choice of a swathe of compliments every day or a note/bunch of flowers I'd go the later almost every time. It's how I feel loved.

Speaking of things that make me happy... a clean house. I think it's because cleaning is how I got my pocket money as a kid. Anyway, living in a share house has its fair share of cleaning related trauma (or lack thereof). And so... (trumpet please) last week a new order was introduced to the house. It's colourful and cute, it sticks to the fridge and has everyones name on it. I call it "Sophie's little chart of joy' or "how I have decided to spread the load" or "a dirty house will not drive me insane" or ahem... "the jobs chart"...

Move the fridge magnet down when you've done your job, the longer you leave it, the harder it is to do. By the end of last week everyone had moved their magnet. Clean house. Happiness.

i am, i am not.

A little before and after on myself this week. As I grow older I realise how wonderful it is not to be insecure anymore. 24 is great. In recognising my very slowly grown confidence, and sheding of fear of judgement, I have decided to invest in a little home improvement, because I can and because I want to be better. And better.

I love to be in control and have everything to hand. But when it comes to self control, I am lacking. So I decided as I cycled home on Saturday night to put myself to the test. And I thought I should write it down.

I know I am:

1) greedy (Sugar. Oh my gosh I love sugar)

2) vain (I pretend to look in shop windows but really im checking my reflection)

3) proud (so stubborn, sooo sooo stubborn)

4) lustful (oh for a house full of Eames chairs and sexy Miele appliances, want, want, want.)

For the next 5 days I am not:

1) eating cake, biscuits, lollies, chocolate.. - okay so I've already broken this one so I may extend it to Saturday! - did I mention self control...

2) looking in shop windows - not at my reflection anyway.

3) Gonna be proud - and so I will learn some new things.
4) gonna surf the net for things of tangible beauty, instead Im gonna surf for amazing organisations making beautiful things happen in the world...

ps. How cute is my little cupcake that turned into a love heart?! I gave it to my lover.

things to be thankful for 3.

Dear Saturday,
Your cool fresh air is beautiful on my face as I pedal through the quiet morning city. The ground is still wet from last nights rain and it makes the tarmac smell amazing and the streets seem fresh.
Saturday with your cafe breakfasts, and slow starts, thank you.
So even though I am at work I have a million reasons to be thankful:
Inspiring blogs have popped up (like mushrooms) overnight for me to wind my way through.
Last night I laughed so hard I couldnt breathe and my eyes wear pouring tears thanks to this and this.
My haloumi, caramalised onion, 2 fried eggs and eggplant bagel this morning was mind blowing and I'm now full for the rest of the day. ( I love Yullis)
The  garden is full of blooms which make me very happy.
We (okay Tim did - I couldnt even look at the thing) caught the rat that has been eating all our compost. Now the rat is becoming compost himself. Not nice really but it had to be done.
I have lovely friends. It is so nice to drink port in a cosy living room until 1am...
Then snuggle with my angel all night.
Im going overseas in t-minus 50 days!!! eeeee!

Have a lovely Saturday.

spring is springing the Bougainvillea and mint are going wild in our garden.

lamp

This is my AMAZING 60s lamp that I picked up from a junk shop a year ago for $6. It didn't work, so I finally put my electical skills to use and fixed it! After pulling it apart I found that the transformer inside it was dead, totally burnt out because at some point someone had gone inside taken out the fuse and bypassed it meaning the trannie could easily burn up.
So I tested that the rest of it was electrically sound with a multi metre, bought a new transformer for $12 and a fuse, and then soldered it all into place. The transformer I bought was about 3mill too big so I had to trim off some of the plastic moulding on the inside of the lamp (which was there to hold the original transformer snuggly) After experimenting with files and knives I found the best way was just to snip it with really sharp tin snips!
Screwed it all back together et voila! Here it is working on my angels side of the bed.Its only a 15w bulb which is perfect for late night reading, and the transformer is on the switch which means that when its plugged in it's not constantly sucking energy.
Did I mention how its head fully swivels, and its neck extends out to 3 times it size AND that it folds in totally on itself - it reminds me of Wall-e the way it moves.
It feels so good making something work again, but to top it all off... the other day when we went to Mitchell Rd Auction house, I saw this babies twin sister (without the cute paint work) selling for $60!!!! I SCORE!

I also just updated my TREE post and FRIDGE post with pictures.. check'em!