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Our lovely neighbours’ left a wonderful surprise in our letterbox this morning.
They have continued sharing at least a dozen delicious eggs with us each week, and in this very hot weather they will often call to let us know the eggs are in our letterbox, so we will find the eggs before the heat cooks them (there is quite a distance from our house to our letterbox).
This morning, on the last day of the year, our beautiful neighbour S. took the trouble to write a string of sweet, memorable, and inspiring New Year’s Eve messages on the eggs. She spoils us with her kindness. And it was such a lovely end to Christmas and the year.
Hope you have a safe and enjoyable New Year’s Eve, wherever you may be. And very best wishes for 2009.
ps. Our plonk is called ‘Arrogant Frog’ – what a funny name.
If you remember a couple of blog posts back, I mentioned taking some Summer Art classes from Uni.
Well I was wondering if anyone might help me with my latest exercise. You see, it isn’t graded, but has to be completed.
I am asked to select a picture, and transform it, then pass it back to my tutor, who swaps my transformed image with another student’s and then I ‘transform’ their image a second time.
The theme of the entire subject is ‘Transformation’, and we are encouraged to be inventive and think for ourselves. So, I thought the best way to achieve ’transformation’ was to open the creative process up to you, my dear readers.
Let’s see what we can do:
the brief is to digitally change, modify, and/or include things to this photo via Photoshop or other imaging software. And save it as a jpeg.
I’m not sure what to do if I get more than one taker. And if you all think I’m being too cheeky, then I will print it out and alter it manually, as I don’t have any imaging software beyond Picasa.
Let the fun begin!
Oh, I guess you need somewhere to send the image. Please use my personal email (if you know it), or this new one – coastal.aussie@gmail.com
Last night, on Christmas eve, my loving family were gathered around the Christmas tree waiting for me to freshen up (we’re still boiling over here), and give out the presents: with lots of jokes and theatrics thrown in. So I was hurrying as I stepped out of the bathroom, and walked quickly into the laundry. But I came to an abrupt halt when I saw a big frog face and huge sucky fingers plastered to the laundry-door’s window ( as in the top photo).
Isn’t it sweet how those funny frogs decide to make an appearance, even on Christmas Eve. It was like their own kind of Christmas wish. And Christmas had a wait a few moments, so I could capture the moment, to share with you.
We had a lovely, quiet, and fun little Christmas.
And I wish everyone a very happy Christmas day.
Thinking of everyone far, and near, and wishing you were all here – special thoughts to TheCatGirlSpeaks.
I saw this on Beth’s blog the other day, and found it engagingly delightful.
I don’t think I’ve deliberately borrowed (*cough, pinched, cough*) anything from another person’s blog before, but after repeatedly returning to view this little clip, I just knew I wanted to share it with other people.
I’ve gone back to ‘Shenanigans’, to view it a few times over. Particularly in the morning, so I start the day smiling, and in the best frame of mind. And singing this little ditty, just might get you through any Christmas difficulties or awkward conversational pauses.
As you may have read in my previous post, I just haven’t felt the Christmas vibe this year. Even our local neighbourhood’s always anticipated Santa parade (performed and created by our rural fire brigade – fire truck included) was washed away in a freak storm.
Well now, I’m just wondering if my mind has just skipped ahead to the New Year resolutions? You know, to all the ‘be healthy’, ‘become fit’ promises we make to ourselves, and then decide to start tomorrow, and then next Monday, and again the Monday after that?
Because, instead of tinsel, and Christmas chocolates, I’ve been plié-ing and relevé-ing, tendu-ing in first and third position. All this and more since the New York Ballet Workout dvd became available at my library.
I’ve been waiting for the dvd for months, and it was worth it, and more. This dvd is torture: pure torture. You have to muster all your determination to even attempt the exercises, and it gets harder each day that you do it. But it’s brilliant. The challenge is what makes it so fun.
It works your concentration, balance and co-ordination all at the same time, as well as muscles you’ve long since forgotten. The New York human sculptures on screen coax the impossible from you, and you thank every power of goodness, for having no one see you as you bend and contort in hopeful mimicry.
Natalia Dudinskaja in attitude. Photo credit:Wikipedia
Attitude is my favourite ballet term so far. I love it when the manly narrators tells me to have attitude. My mate Gamma, the knowledge man for all things Ballet, would better be able to explain what each term means, but I gather attitude is sticking your leg out. It’s a good one to remember when you’re caught in an ugly Christmas queue and someone is bugging you, you can say “I’ll give you attitude, Punk!”
Speaking of queues, I was stuck in a record breaker last Tuesday, in the video shop, and yes, I found myself doing new little ballet moves even then (a good sign that the workout is really working). I didn’t need to kick anyone though, as I was too amused by the new trend for boys to have outlandish afros. No joke, I wish I had a camera.
Back to the ballet though; I’m shock that I already feel different since starting this workout dvd. I even had to put hitches in my daks to stop any more embarrassing revelations of the underwear kind - now that’s quick progress. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised by this dvd, considering the relentless pace the dancers crack, and the way the exercises come thick and fast: making you sweat buckets. So, if you want to tighten your belt a good few notches, and aren’t afraid to dig deep to complete the exercises, then this is the New Year’s resolution dvd for you.
These two Youtube videos are from the second New York ballet workout dvd, which I have yet to attempt. However they’re a good guide for the first workout dvd, for which I’ve been referring to – see if you can do the moves.
This afternoon I took a leaf from Kate’s blog and braved the heat and long grass that has grown so high it is taller than I, and I can’t see where I’m going: to find the perfect little Christmas tree in our back paddock. I know, I know..I’m awful late. But I just haven’t caught the buzz of Christmas this year. I fear it will pass by me.
Our nearest and dearest neighbours have had their tree up since November, so it can’t be the climate over here. It just must be me.
Anyway, I knew there’d be some beauties by the fence line, and I was right, there was a perfect cluster of young trees. And the best tree of all was just the other side of our land – let’s hope the other neighbours weren’t home to see me hanging over their side of the fence, and chopping this little sucker down. It put up a good fight, but succumbed for a good cause.
Please note in the second photo, the use of videos and books in the bucket, to help keep the tree upright. It gets a terrble lean on it, when the decorations are added.
This is the lil’ bonza before decoration, and a hazy photo of it afterwards. You may not be able to tell, but I’m going for a ‘Red and Gold’ theme this year (every year’s a bit different). I hate to admit it, but the before picture looks better. Still, in person, the lit and trimmed tree is very festive.
And as I was decorating, I kept humming a particular carol. I can’t think of the words, but it is sung by choirs in the round and I thought the chorus was something like “Bells, jing-a-ling”, “Dah, da, da, dah”, “Dah,da,da,dah” repeated higher and higher. No one here can think of which carol it is, which is a bummer, as I would have liked it to be playing as I prettified the tree.
Ok, so..now to the presents…Hmm. How many days are left?
