Learning a New Skill

A different kind of happy; learning something new! I caved and bought myself this tiny little cheap sewing machine. I have very, very little sewing experience, so it's been a lot of fun trying to figure out a brand new skill! You've got a peek at a project I'm working on at the moment... and those pretty yellow fabrics are destined to be used together in some other project down the line! Now I just need to schedule a day in which I'm actually AT HOME for more then a couple of hours so I can work on them!

Lest We Forget

Bright, Cheerful Flowers

Flowers is an easy one for me. I love them. I love looking at them, I love photographing them.
I'm looking forward to a day when I can have by own bit of land that I can grow them on.
I love living here because there are flowers all year 'round.

I also love this time of year, watching the quality of light change to this characteristically harsh, bright, white hue of winter. Harsh on the eyes, but there's something amazing in it I can't quite put my finger on...

A Warm Cup of Chai

Today's little bit of happy is a new luxury of mine I've gotten into the habit of.



Each morning I brew myself up a little cup of Chai Tea. I love it; the sweetness from local honey to the warm, earthy smell of the spices.
That little tea-strainer ball on a chain also makes me very happy.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Earth Day. I generally seem to rely on the various blogs that I follow to keep track of holidays such as that, and as most of the blogs I visit are American-based, and I am a day ahead of them, I end up feeling a bit behind when I can't remember the days on my own; just goes to show I need to get in a much better habit of using my calendar!

Another BIG happy is getting back onto high(er) speed internet! The house is on a very odd plan at the moment, where if you go over it's limit everything gets slowed down to dial-up speed. I've been dealing with s l o w internet for the past two weeks, faster internet is wonderful!

Knitting for Friends

Today's little bit of happy is knitting. Of COURSE knitting makes me happy! It's my #1 most enjoyable hobby of all time (I've now been knitting longer then anything else! Except maybe drawing...)
But more then knitting itself, I love knitting for my friends. These are bound for a friend of mine overseas; it's a bit intimidating knitting a pair of socks when the recipient's feet is not around to check measurements on...
This is also my first time knitting a sock from the toe up! So far I'm enjoying it; I'm a bit dubious about the heel coming up though...

Another small happy is for my local libraries! I was able to track down not only a copy of the next Dark Tower Series books, but the one that follows after it as well! I'm all set for reading material for another couple of weeks!

Linens on the Line

Todays little bit of happiness is brightly coloured linen drying on the line...



And a nice, crisp, local apple to enjoy the view with!

Small Happies

Sometimes Happiness can come from the small things.
Since I can use some positive focusing, I'm going to spend some time noticing some little things that make me Very Happy!



First up, a sunny day. A blanket, some comfy pillows and a good book.
Bliss!

I just finished up Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in Steven King's The Dark Tower series. I was underwhelmed by the first book, but got sucked right in when I pushed on with the second. I have flown through these first four in record time.
I've run a small snag in that I can't quite seem to find a copy of the next book in the series either in the library or in second-hand shops, but I'm sure that it will come eventually. So far I've heard that the following books aren't nearly as good as the ones I've already finished though, so perhaps it's best if I take a bit of a breather.

I'm currently reading Geisha of Gion: The Memoir of Mineko Iwasaki. I was intending to wait and begin it on April 23, the "official" start date of the Read The World challenge (a reading challenge which aims to read books from as many different countries as possible in one year), but I had finished Wizard and Glass quicker then I anticipated and it was here and tempting! I even think I may finish this before Friday, too... But no matter, there are still many books from Japan that are on my To Be Read list!

Gah!!

Remember back when I was getting worried about jellyfish getting to the size of dinner plates?...

Now they're the size of car tires(!!!!!!)



I have absolutely no clue what kind of jellyfish these are or where they come from, but they're washing up all over Moonee Beach of late.



I have never seen anything like this in my going-on two years of living here permanently.
Makes even me feel a little bit squemish about jumping into the water...

Colour + Colour Week 14: Orange and Yellow

Just one quick one this week; I wasn't happy with how any of my other arrangements came out, and I ran out of time to take more!



At least something is better then nothing!
Next week: Yellow and Purple!

A Colourful Easter

This has certainly been done before; in fact it was seeing the fantastic results in a blog I enjoy recently that inspired me to have a go at it myself (and of course I can't re-find it again now... note to self, take better notes of your inspirations!)



The only thing that is difficult about making this cake is the patience it takes to bake every layer; especially if, like me, you only have two cake-pans with which to proceed on.



The recipe itself is just a simple butter cake, you can use your favourite one if you have it. A simple search online brings up quite a selection if you don't! The magic comes from the colours of each layer which of course comes from food colouring.




Eventually you have all the layers ready to go! I had to slice the tops off most of the layers to make them sit flat on each other..



And then you start icing.. and whipping up more icing.. and icing between each layer.. and whipping up more icing.. and then even MORE icing. I even had to make a mad last-minute dash out to the store when I realized I had nowhere near enough icing sugar then I had anticipated.



I'm sure you could make your cake a bit more exciting on the outside; but I wanted mine to be a surprise. And I have to say, my plan couldn't have gone any better. My eldest Niece has quite the observant eye to her; and she quickly not only noticed my cake, but told me quite bluntly how boring it was. (I have gotten quite the reputation for family dinners to come up with interesting and exciting desserts)
I told her I knew that it was a bit plain, but I had ran out of time and only had enough ingredients for a basic cake. I appologized to her and promised to make a more colourful one next time.
She made me promise and then said she supposed she could live with a plain cake after all...

Dinner passed and it came time for dessert. I asked said eldest niece if she would like to cut the cake and help me serve it which she quickly accepted (she loves to be a helper)
She cut in and very carefully pulled out the first slice and went "WHOA!! THAT IS SO COOL!"
Both my nieces spent the rest of the evening babbling on about how awesome and yummy they thought my cake was.

And you know what? It WAS awesome.



AND yummy.
Worth every second of assembly time.

Catching Up on Colours!

Eek! How'd I get so far behind in posting, again?!

Week 10: Tan and Aqua









Weeks 11 and 12 were the same; Aqua and Red:







I actually found this colour combo quite difficult, so I slacked off on my second week >.>

Week 13: Red and Orange; now THESE are my types of colours!!














Also: Woo! This is my 100th post!

Warm Buns on Friday

It's Good Friday here, and that can only mean one thing!



Delicious, warm hot cross buns for breakfast. Yum!



It's also the second of April, which means it's my brothers birthday; Happy Birthday little bro!

April Fools

My world has been feeling a little bit topsey-turvey of late!



You see, a couple of weekends ago mum and I took a trip down to a lovely little place near Macksville called "Valley of the Mist". We took a canoe tour around a breath-takingly beautiful chunk of wetlands. (I promise you I'll be writing about this trip soon!)

It was a beautiful day and the water was still. I was struck by the beautiful green foliage and blue sky and reflection off the water.



And who wouldn't be, right?! But all of a sudden I started seeing the world from another angle...





Isn't that amazing? I suddenly went snap happy; trying to see the world at a tilt.







Just enough to disorientate... to confuse which way is "up"





The shift from "this is a landscape" to "wow! pattern! texture!" is so dramatic and instant, for me, it leaves me giggly!





And what a better day to share it with you all, then on April First. Right?!