I Spy...

Ok, here is a deviation from a blog focused on Gavin and me and our Australia adventures. I am spying a few cute things on the crafty sites that I frequent. I am also noticing that many crafters are having alot of success lately- I hope it's because people feel the need to buy local, reuse/recycle/upcycle, support independents, etc. Whatever the reason, I love it. I find myself falling asleep into dreams about new ideas and crafts that I want to try. I can't stop thinking about sewing at the moment, and I really wish I didn't leave my vintage Singer sewing machine back in the states...but I also think it may have blown up with its dodgy plug if I tried to adapt it to Oz. Anyway, I am scouting out a new machine. Well, new to me - I would like ot buy a preloved machine, as I am no expert and I just don't need the fancy shmancy buttons and doodads on the new machines. Ok, so back to my point for this post. I just felt like making a random list of neat things that have caught my eye on some craft sites and blogs.

• Her Library Adventures creates these very cute vintagy paper crafts and brooches. I love this style for cards. It inspires me to use up all that lace and garb that my grandma gave me last time I visited.
  

• I really like this awesome idea from Bitter Betty Blogs. So cool! I am already sketching out what little pockets and straps I need in my craft suitcase. Time to hit the op shops to hunt out a suitable suitcase.
  

• I like this idea. Lolly Chops has taken something that almost everyone has around...punches and heaps of magazines. I think I will adapt it to some shadowbox type cards - I have all these punches of different shapes for my scrapbooking, but I don't really use them. I will have to experiment a bit.

OK, that is it for now. I think.... Thank you, wonderful crafty ladies that have inspired and intrigued me!
I just unpacked all of my craft stuff, and I can't wait to start and/or finish some projects. Goodnight. :)

Kayaking at Coles Bay

Gavin and I went kayaking on Sunday. We drove up the coast, stopping for lunch at The Ugly Duck Out cafe (http://www.theuglyduckout.com.au/) .....so yummy! I ate the BEST grilled mushroom and tabbouleh sandwich, and Gavin had an equally tasty lamb burger. Very friendly service, and the cafe makes every attempt to be organic and "green", and is recognized by Green Table Australia. We will definitely be back and bring guests :)

On our way to Coles Bay the rain and lightening followed us from Swansea all the way to Coles Bay where we were staying. This was worrying, but we were hopeful that the morning would be clear enough to paddle. The hostel we stayed at was fine, as we had our own room. Clean and quiet, nothing to shout about though. The rain continued all night, making it a bit hard to sleep.

We woke up to blue skies and sunshine! Yay! We stopped at the bakery for croissants and then walked across the road to the boat launch. We met two very nice guides and had only one other couple in the kayaking group. The morning was beautiful and the water was glassy calm. The paddle trip was so nice, and we saw lots of birds - even a sea eagle.

We stopped for morning tea - coffee and cookies. We saw the pink granite quarry and learned a little bit about the Freycinet Lodge. The entire time on the bay, not a single boat came through until the end of our trip.

After the kayak trip, we had lunch at The Oyster Catcher. Very tasy fish and chips for Gavin and calamari and salad for me. A great view of the Hazards and a hot cuppa coffee. After lunch we stopped at the Freycinet National Park visitor center, bought a two year parks pass, and headed to the light house for the view.

What a fantastic weekend trip! Gavin and I are so lucky to have so many beautiful places to experience around us.

Birthday Boy

Gavin's birthday was Wednesday, and we had tons of fun! At lunch time, we went and test drove the Nissan Pulsar again. Gavin decided to buy it...funny because this was the first car we drove a few weeks ago, but didn't want to make a decision so quickly. So, Gavin got a car for his birthday, it's kind of like all of those ridiculously unrealistic car commercials at Christmas with the giant red bows on top of the $60,000 car - but not, since our is slightly used, far under $60,000, and sans giant red bow!

As per our usual, we went to the pub quiz at the Duke for dinner, drinks, and a good butt kicking. We didn't come in last, but second to last. After all that fun, we headed home for cake and pressies! Gavin liked all of his gifts and the cats liked the paper and ribbons. Chocolate cake was tasty, and a good way to end the day. The big birthday fun happens this weekend. We are going to Freycinet to go kayaking!!!

You Want Me to Drink THAT?

Ok, so at 9:30 this morning our water went off. No reason, no crazy weather, no unpaid bills (no one pays a water bill here in Hobart), just empty hissing pipes. I found the city council phone number for the water department and got through to a wonderfully nice woman. The city had to do unplanned water mane work. Ok good, we didn't miss an obvious note on the door or letter in the mail warning us. The woman said the water would return at 10:45, so at 11am I check and yep it was on alright.

BUT, it looked like this:

Holy crap, that's nasty! Luckily it did not smell or anything, just really mucky and silty filled water. I was so pleased when we moved to Hobart to find the tap water completely drinkable, clear and clean. I want my nice water back now please!

After running the bath for about an hour, as suggested by the nice water lady, the color did not change (for better or worse).
One more call, the same instructions and no new information about when the mane will be flushed. I tried again, and the water was still going through a range of browns - the bath tub brown to apple cider.


At first, when the water comes out of the tap, it doesn't look so bad. But, when I fill a glass, it has a not so great hue to it that I wouldn't consider drinkable in the least:


On the right, spring water from a bladder that we originally bought for camping. On the left, the lightest, clearest tap water that I have seen today.


I called again. This time, I got a guy, not as equally nice, but he was decent. He put a report in to the work crew to get someone to flush the system closer to our house, and said he would call when that happened or when he got confirmation that it was going to happen. He didn't call back. Two hours after talking to him, I called again. Another nice woman, and more instructions to flush the pipes by running the bath. I have to figure it out by 4:00 she said, the work crew ends for the day at that point, we are out of luck.

Nature is Cool

So, I was very excited last night when I saw these pics of an absolutely GIGANTIC sting ray. I just thought it was very cool, and reminded me of the huge spotted eagle ray that we saw in Mexico. While that one was not nearly this big, at the time it was the largest creature I ever snorkeled with. By the way, don't worry, she was released back into the water.

Today, as I watched the cheesy morning show that pretends to be part news, I saw these images! The huge migration of the golden ray, off the coast of Mexico.

Bluegrass and Tropfest

This was a pretty fun weekend. On Friday I convinced Gavin to go see some Bluegrass at the Lark Distillery (it wasn't too difficult to persuade). We saw the Back Porch Boys, and they were great. They played a mix of original songs and covers. I have to say, the whole evening made me miss Ballard even more- I really wanted to be at Conor Byrne on a Monday night for the bluegrass jam. We drank Moo Brew (a local microbrew), sat in comfy leather club chairs, and tapped our feet to some music. On a side note, beer is not as scary here as I thought it might be. It is NOT as diverse as Seattle, but I have found a few palatable brews. All in all, Friday evening was very satisfying. The rain gods even played to our Seattle style, and dumped a few buckets towards the end of the night. We ended the night with some yummy pizza from our South Hobart Pizzeria, Mondos.

Saturday was not as entertaining, filled with more practical errands and low key activities. We had breakfast at one of my favorite cafes - Zest, the library cafe. After scanning the classifieds, we walked to a few car dealerships in order to test drive a few possibilities. I don't really want to go into the car thing, as we did not settle on one yet. After the car stuff, we stopped off for a smoothie before heading to the market to get picnic fare to take to the botanical gardens for the outdoor showing of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Unfortunately the rain gods turned up again, and squashed the plans of sitting out in the grass for lovely theatre entertainment. So...we opted for some indoor movie joys, and watched Burn After Reading.



Sunday started as a housecleaning, laundry doing sort of morning. We decided to use our picnic goodies and head off to Tropfest, the largest short film festival in the world. Gavin and I snagged a spot on the grass at Salamanca and cozied up for a night of movie fun. Unfortunatley, no Tasmanian films made it to the short-list of finalists for Tropfest, but they did show us two at intermission that were very good. As for the finalist of Tropfest, my favorites of the night were: The News, Be My Brother, and One in a Million. Gavin liked: One in a Million, The News, and Furry Cheque Book. The winner of the night was Be My Brother.

Ok, now it's Monday and I am back to rescuing lizards from the cats, applying for jobs, being crafty, and reading. And Gavin is back to work.

Running...no reallly

Gavin and I started a running routine last week. Well, I started it a couple weeks ago but I quickly learned that I needed some external motivation. I took the advice of a friend and checked out the book Running Made Easy from my library (random side note, but I looooove the library). The plan seems easy enough so far. I had a pretty crappy day yesterday, so I had a hard time completing the run - that, and I did not stretch properly so my calves burned (and not in the good way). I think Gavin will keep me on the program! Updates on the progress to come.