Elizabeth August 30th, 2010

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days project.

Item #83 on my list was to photograph a day in my life, from beginning to end. It was inspired by a livejournal community that I discovered a long time ago, and putting this together was pretty fun.

And you know what I learned? There is no “good angle” when it comes to that first early morning portrait.

I’m putting all my photos underneath a “more” tag, and I sincerely hope that it doesn’t mess up anyone’s RSS reader! Consider this a once-only, never to be repeated…

On with the show!

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Elizabeth August 30th, 2010

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days project.

Yesterday Tim and I jumped in our little car, and went in pursuit of snow. It was the first time that Tim or I had seen snow since he moved here three years ago, so we marked the occasion with a funny looking snowman (and a few costume changes!).

Next year Tim is going to teach me to snowboard, which I am anticipating with equal measures of excitement and dread. I expect to be front-page news the next day so my plan is to ring around the hospitals and make sure I won’t have any trouble securing a bed. I have a year to figure that part out.

So I can tick “see the snow” off my list – and another one too! Yesterday I recorded my day in pictures from beginning to end, and tonight I’ll be putting together an “A Day in My Life” post so that you can laugh at my bedhair. There will be plenty more snow photos to come in my next post!

In the meantime, I can’t help but think of my icy little friend up on Lake Mountain. I hope he doesn’t get too much sun today, and that his nose wasn’t nibbled by creatures overnight!

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Elizabeth August 26th, 2010

I wish weeks came with satisfaction guarantees so that I could return this one, and request a refund! I have turned to this beautiful image more than once this week…

Prints are available from vol25′s beautiful etsy shop.

(Thank you Epheriell Designs for always finding such beautiful things, and blogging them!)

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Elizabeth August 15th, 2010

Yikes, there’s only 6 weeks to go until my 1001 Days are up!

I’ve lost some of my momentum in the past couple of months, so it’s now become pretty obvious that I won’t complete all 101 Things on my list. But that’s okay, I still have time to complete a bunch more items before time runs out on 28 September.

My little grid tells me that I’ve been working pretty hard over the past 2.75 years, but there is plenty more to do. Here are the tasks I plan to complete in the time remaining:

		001. Weight loss goal #1 I don’t have time to complete all three weight-related goals, but this first one is definitely achievable during the next 6 weeks.
		008. Learn to cook a recipe from 30 different countries (22/30) Only 8 recipes to go! You can see what I’ve been cooking over here.
		011. Walk my dog 3 days/week for 1 month (0/12) We nearly crossed this off a while ago, but then he injured his little legs. We’re going to try this again this week.
		012. Go for three 2-hour bike rides (2/3) I just need to do one more! First, to put some air back in my tires. In my house, this sort of task is referred to as a "boy job".
		020. See 25 movies of Tim’s choosing (23/25) Two to go! This has been fun, and now that we have just bought a spiffy new surround sound system I’m looking forward to the next two.
		023. Build a time capsule This is mostly done – just need to add a letter of my own and seal the box!
		024. Read the dictionary from beginning to end (Now Reading: "M") I’m about halfway through. A few solid hours will put a big dent in this.
		027. Learn the names of every country, and identify them on a map Oh, Africa. You’re killing me.
		030. Learn 5 constellations (3/5) Waiting for a clear night to finish this one, although I have been loving our rainy nights.
		035. Go to Philip Island; and 035. See the snow We’re going to do both these things in early September.
		038. Visit 10 art galleries (4/10) I’ve made my list, a couple of them are interstate.
		040. Read 10 novels by local authors (9/10) Nearly finished my final book, hurrah!
		055. Visit Tasmania Tim and I are spending 5 days in and around Hobart next month, so I’ll be able to tick this off soon. Hooray!
		058. Do an anonymous favour I’m going to tick this off this week. Look out, it might be you! But probably not. Sorry.
		074. Revive my online recipe book I’ve been thinking of setting up a new blog on a free service. If so, this would be easily done in an afternoon.
		077. Make a will I suppose the time has come to take the plastic wrapper off my Will Kit! Geez, dying is a lot of work.
		079. Have the pickup in my guitar repaired I’ve chosen Betty’s transplant surgeon, now I just need to book her in.
		81. Sell some photos I’m part-way through setting up a RedBubble store to list some of my work. You should totally buy something.
		083. Photograph a day in my life, and blog it This might be fun to do when we go to the snow. Yep, that’s a plan.
		084. Participate in 100 Snapshots (82/100) I only need to take another 18 photographs to finish this one off! Naturally I’ve left the more difficult ones until last. Damn. You should check out my progress so far!
		087. Make a photography book My original plan was to create an elaborate portfolio-style book from my best photographs. However, I’ve been tinkering with it for over a year and the perfectionist in me won’t let me wrap it up. So last night I sat down and turned my 100 Snapshots project into a little coffee table book. It’s ready to submit to Blurb just as soon as I take those last 18 photos!
		089. Draw 5 hands (0/5); and 090. Draw 10 people (7/10) I think I need to set aside a few hours and tackle these in a single session. See previous notes regarding perfectionistic tendencies.

All of the above tasks are achievable during the next 6 weeks, and if I manage to cross them all off I will have completed 93 tasks out of 101.

It feels really good to know that I can still kick butt at this thing if I try my hardest over the next six weeks. I’m a little disappointed that all 101 tasks aren’t achievable in the time remaining, but have given myself a stern talking-to about letting go. I mean, when I wrote this list almost 3 years ago I didn’t know that I would be changing jobs, moving house, travelling interstate 600 times for family reasons, and paying big vet bills. I didn’t know that I would buy Tim 30 presents for his 30th birthday or that we might host about a million visitors during that time.

So I’m giving myself a break and recognising my achievements for what they are – whether I stop at 69 completed tasks or make it all the way to 93. Either way, that list is filled with stuff that I’d never have bothered to tackle if I hadn’t slapped a time-limit on them. So hooray for me!

Got any tips for getting through the next 6 weeks? Useful strategies? Irrelevant stories about Auntie Mabel’s pet Chihuahua? I’m all ears!

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Elizabeth July 14th, 2010

Borrowed from Epheriell Designs

I’m worried that I might be losing my blogging mojo.

Real life has been difficult to write about lately. Nothing terrible has happened, and there has been no earth-shattering news. Things are ticking along quite well in most areas of my life and for the most part life is good.

So why can’t I write?

I have some theories.

Once upon a time I used to write candidly (and regularly) on a fairly private blog. I had a strong readership of ‘trusted strangers’ who used to follow my little adventures and offer their thoughts. Over time a lot of real-life people started to read along, and I began to fear that damage might be done with thoughtless words. I’ve never been big on speaking to real-life people through my blog, so I think I began to choose my words more carefully.

But, real life happens and it doesn’t make sense to keep a personal blog without acknowledging the things that go on. Otherwise it would just become a catalogue of links and other peoples’ pictures. Yawn.

There’s an awful lot of unwritten Real Life from the past couple of years that I wish I could talk about now. A couple of friendships have been let go, and wasted energy restored. It would serve no purpose to re-hash it all here, but these were big decisions that have helped to shape the person I’m becoming.

I like this person way better than the old one, for what it’s worth. But that doesn’t mean that these changes haven’t left a dent or two.

So, I’ll continue to mull over these ideas and figure out some balance that will keep me blogging and engaged with you guys again. I miss this place a lot lately.

How are things with you?

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Elizabeth May 9th, 2010

Photograph by Hey rabbbit ♥

Rachel Denbow from Smile and Wave asked her readers these questions last month, and I thought it might be nice to share them here as well.

1. When do you feel happiest?

2. How do you take care of yourself?

3. Are you internally (by yourself) or externally (by others) motivated?

4. What do you do for fun?

5. What intimidates you?

6. What is something you’re proud of?

7. Finish this sentence. I never _____________.

8. Favorite vacation spot.

9. Today is a (rate from 1 – 10).

10. Finish this sentence: If you knew me really well you’d know

Share your answers in the comments! I’ll come back later and share mine too.

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Elizabeth May 2nd, 2010

Dear April;
Are you sure that was thirty days? I would like to request a recount.
.

Dear readers;
I didn’t mean to neglect you for a month, and I’m sorry. Maybe you could start a support group?
.

Dear members of the Victims of Elizabeth’s Neglect Support Group;
May I nominate Exercise and Laundry for the position of Secretary?
.

Dear May;
Don’t feel the need to upstage April. You can take a backseat this year.
.

Dear Regina Spektor;
You are sweet and talented and powerful. Hearing you play last night was such a privilege.
.

Dear random St Kilda fortune teller;
Thank you for talking me into that reading, and for telling me everything I wanted to hear.
.

Dear Tim;
Last night’s date was pretty special, don’t you think?
.

Dear Harry;
I will never understand how your brain works, but you are my most favourite dog.  Also, you will be having a bath as soon as I publish this post, just a little heads up.
.

Dear Autumn;
I’m so glad you’re here. I will live in leggings, dresses and cardigans until October.
.

I really am sorry for not checking in here for the past 4 weeks. I’ve been throwing myself into other areas of my life lately, but I miss writing here. More than that, I miss your comments!

So what did I miss?

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Elizabeth April 1st, 2010

Only a couple of hours until my five-day weekend!

It would be dishonest of me to suggest that I am focused on my work today. Instead, I have decided to simply file this one under “not productive” and stop fighting it! My biggest achievement was organising morning tea for my colleagues (and toasting about 50 hot cross buns) and I don’t want to run the risk of overdoing things.

We couldn’t have that.

So instead of doing work, here are some photos of my workplace through the lens of Hipstamatic.

Lens: John S
Film: Float
Flash: Off

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Elizabeth March 29th, 2010

“Oranges (If She Only Had a Recipe for Happiness)” by MFayre

Can you believe it’s nearly the end of March?

2010 is flying, and it’s almost left me behind once or twice. Only three months ago we welcomed in the new year, and casually discussed the idea of saving more money and finding a cheaper place to rent.

Two weeks later we’d signed a new lease, packed up, moved in, bought furniture, hosted guests, calmed the overwhelmed dog, and found our feet in a brand new part of town; all the while being stretched to the max in our fulltime jobs.

It’s been very rewarding, but utterly exhausting. Last weekend was blissfully unremarkable – no appointments, no guests, no deadlines. I made bread and cupcakes in my funny little kitchen, Tim slept in and reacquainted himself with the couch, we played a board game by candlelight during Earth Hour and spent some time hanging out with the four-legged fur creature.

Those two days stretched out to four somehow, and energised me enough to finish off a few little things around the house that were previously too overwhelming to think about.

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s made me realise just how precious my downtime is, and how important it is to just take the phone off the hook once in a while. It gave Tim and I a chance to just enjoy each others company without watching the clock. I’m all about simple pleasures like that.

Next weekend will be 5 days long, thanks to Good Friday and a couple of extra days tacked onto the other side. I plan to schedule as little of it as possible, and cross my fingers for cold and rainy weather. All I want to do is hang out in my pretty new house, read, write and draw.

(Hey Tim, you’re invited! x)

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Elizabeth March 22nd, 2010

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.

I almost apologised for this image-heavy post, but it wouldn’t have been very sincere!

There is no way to describe how incredible it feels to float above the clouds in a little basket, watching the sun creep up over the mountains and seeing the world wake up. It’s so smooth and gentle, and very serene.

All I can do is show you my pictures. I hope everyone reading this has the chance to do it someday.

(This is just a small selection of the photos I took yesterday!)

Unfortunately the company we flew with placed surprise restrictions on what could be carried on board, and I found myself having to leave most of my camera gear behind. It was really disappointing to have researched my shots so well in advance, only to be told that I couldn’t take a shoulder bag. Put it on your website guys, you list every other piece of information there.

Otherwise it was a brilliant experience. If you think you might find yourself in a similar situation I recommend asking plenty of questions ahead of time and consider getting it in writing. It’s a lot of money, and if photography is your thing you really want to get it right. 5am isn’t the time to be working on your Plan B!

It wasn’t a great way to begin the morning, but I managed to put it behind me and focus on enjoying the experience. Balloon Sunrise ticked every other box, and the Yarra Valley is truly beautiful from the sky.

Thank you Tim for organising this for my birthday!

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Elizabeth March 22nd, 2010

Birthday festivities continued to roll on this weekend, thanks to my lovely friends April & Joe.

I’ve never had to match my accessories to my wings and tiara before!

Dinner was incredible, and topped off with – get this – a cheesecake icecream cake. Two of my favourite things put together! With butterflies!

And wings!

I am so spoiled. Thank God my friends don’t require me to act my age…

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Elizabeth March 20th, 2010

Roses from Mum & Dad

Belgian Chocolate and Red Velvet cupcakes, from the incredible Little Cupcakes on Degraves St

KitchenAid Artisan, in Almond Cream

“Diamonds by the Yard” necklace from Tiffany, by Elsa Peretti

Soft leather handbag by Kate Spade, from Tim’s parents

Beautiful Georg Jensen cheese board and knife

Laguiole cheese knives (ok everyone, I think I’m equipped to eat cheese now!)

A six-course banquet at Flower Drum, a hand-carved swan (with a sparkler), and a bunch of strangers singing me Happy Birthday!

And weather-permitting, this is what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning:

I am feeling very lucky, and very spoiled.

I was given lots of other little bits and pieces as well. Shoe clips, an evening bag, a little bottle of Chanel Cristalle and some sparkly jewellery. My parents also sent me a few pieces of furniture that we needed. Is it sad that I was most excited about finally having a pantry?

So I guess being thirty isn’t so bad, so far. Please cross your eyeballs that we have good weather tomorrow morning! If all goes well we’ll be sailing over the Yarra Valley at sunrise, followed by breakfast at Balgownie Estate winery.

Of course, my friend Sally anticipated that all this attention might go to my head, so she did her best to find me a present that would drag me back down to Earth. I am so lucky to have a friend to remind me that the clock is ticking!

I’m sure this present had something to do with my 101 List, and that it wasn’t purely sadistic. She’s been such a champion where my list is concerned, and we’re celebrating my 30th properly in June when she joins me for a trip to the (remaining) 12 Apostles.

And now we’re off to our friends’ place for another birthday dinner. I have been promised a ridiculous birthday hat, so perhaps I should leave the camera at home!

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Elizabeth March 16th, 2010

Look at the smug expression on that girl’s face.

She has no pain in her hips, she’s never had a filling and doesn’t need to drop her teeth in a glass of water each night. There are no cavernous wrinkles in her forehead, she doesn’t know which aisle to find the prunes in, and she doesn’t even know whether Ridge is married to Brooke or Taylor these days.

I’m sorry, is she too good for Bold and the Beautiful?

In a few minutes that girl will go to bed, and when she wakes up she will be thirty. Her bones will creak and her hair will be grey and she’s probably going to find herself with a dozen or so cats that will need to be fed. She will smell constantly of talcum powder and Dencorub, and every word that ends in an “S” will be followed by the high-pitched whistle of her dentures. All of a sudden she’ll be planning her crossword puzzle sessions around that show with the pedi-egg demonstrations and she will have a favourite reclining chair that always makes her sleepy.

That last part sounds pretty good, actually.

Perhaps the girl in that photo will just catch the tram to work as usual tomorrow, go for a run in the afternoon, and then open her presents. And maybe a cute boy will order Indian takeaway and snuggle up on the couch with her and tell her that she doesn’t look a day over twenty-nine.

I guess she shouldn’t rule that out.

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Elizabeth March 8th, 2010

This weekend Melbourne was hammered with violent hailstorms. The city centre flooded, shopping centres were evacuated and the roof of Southern Cross Station caved in under the weight of the ice. It was pretty serious stuff, and although my suburb was targeted I managed to miss the whole thing.

I was shopping. Oops!

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When Tim called with the news he sounded pretty freaked out. He told me that he kept waiting for our windows to smash, as the hail was golf ball sized and coming in sideways.   He couldn’t open the back door because of the amount of ice piled up against it, and anyway he had his hands full with what was happening inside.

For a while the ceilings held up okay, but at some stage the hail smashed up enough roof tiles that water poured into the laundry and toilet. Tim managed to save the suits, coats and dresses that I had hanging in the laundry but everything else was covered in filthy ceiling water.

Let me tell you – nothing makes you appreciate the little pleasures in life more than wet toilet paper when you really need to go.

I didn’t get home for another couple of hours, and was amazed to see that there were still huge piles of ice on the ground.  It’s incredible that the ice in this picture lasted 2 hours on such a hot day.

We also discovered that the ice had punched about 40 baseball-sized holes into the roofing of our covered outdoor area – an area that we sort of depend on to be covered and rain proof.

Sunday was spent emptying our laundry and cleaning it from top to bottom – not an easy task, considering that it’s the size of a small bedroom!  I treated it as an opportunity to throw out some stuff and get it into better order.  When that was done I cleaned up the post-cyclonic state of our garden, and after 3 hours managed to restore it to its former glory.  More or less.

It was a strange experience to miss the storm entirely, but walk back into a disaster zone.  All my pot plants had the leaves stripped from them, a couple of pots were smashed and I saw lots of plastic-covered windows on the houses of my neighbours.  I’m really pleased that I had the car far away from the area, because although we have a covered carport I’m pretty sure that the hail would have bounced up and dented the car all over.

But of course the Universe works in very mysterious ways.  I may have lost my Sunday (and 60% of my back’s functionality) as a result of the storm, but she sent me the Labour Day holiday as a small thank you for my efforts.  That extra day off helped me to tackle some other little projects around the house that I hadn’t been able to get to, and now our beautiful new home really does feel like it’s ours.

Tomorrow morning (along with thousands of others, no doubt) I’ll call the real estate agent and try to get our roof sorted out.  I feel incredibly lucky that we dodged really serious damage.

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Elizabeth March 1st, 2010

Ah, fresh starts. Aren’t they great?

Here are a few little habits I’d like to improve upon in the month of March.

01. Make the bed every morning
02. Put away my clothes once a day
03. Walk the dog 5 days/week
04. Stop eating as though it’s still Christmas
05. Go for a run twice/week
06. Write something in my journal every day
07. Focus on one room of my house at a time, and completely unpack it
08. Take some photos of my pretty new home
09. Make a nice, big dent in my 101 list
10. By the end of this month, cease being in my twenties

That last one isn’t exactly negotiable, but the others may take a little bit of concentration!

I must say, life is treating me well right now. Our new house is finally starting to feel like home, and we’re gradually finding solutions to all its little problems “quirks”. Like the fact that it has no pantry, and no cabinet in the bathroom, and…

… it turns out that it’s all fine, and nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a bit of clever shelving. Our new home has got so much style and charm, and although it has one less bedroom than the last place it manages to look very spacious. We have incredible sunset views every afternoon, a constant breeze and brand new paint and carpet. As much as I loved our previous house, it’s nice to not have cracks in the ceiling that actually let through sunlight!

On top of all of that, several people have answered my call for butt-kicking me into finishing my 101 Thing in 1001 Days list! My friend Sally deserves extra credit for planning a 10-day visit in which we’ll visit the Great Ocean Rd, do the Neighbours tour, see fairy penguins at Philip Island and maybe even fit in a ghost tour. She’s already orchestrated the Yarra river cruise and taught me sign language, and I owe her a great deal of credit for encouraging me throughout my silly self-imposed challenge.

And later this month I’ll be waving goodbye to my twenties. The big Three-Oh seems to big a big deal for some people, but for some reason I’m not all that excited about it! I’m not dreading it either, I guess I just don’t see it as much of a landmark occasion. My new “chapter” began when I moved to Melbourne I think, perhaps it’s just too soon for another one.

Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind about this during the next two weeks. My family has begun to make a bit of a fuss of me, so perhaps it will rub off!

So, there’s lots to look forward to in March, and beyond. My favourite seasons are approaching, my favourite boy is close enough to snuggle, and work has been very rewarding. Life feels so much better when you’re in the driver’s seat, zipping through the traffic and singing along to the radio!

Have a lovely March. I know I will!

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