25th August: Reading material!

During the past few busy weeks I have been storing up reading materials.

It is exciting getting to start turning a few pages again, as I have been in a limbo state with my last book for a good month or so now.

I was thrilled to have picked up a full collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. Their simple structures and directness of story telling has made it a simple pleasure to read them.

Sadly I have also been stowing away copies of that wonderful paper my grandpa picks up for me. I have done a quick scout through each, but they wait now for me to find the twenty hours required to read, cut and paste within my book of inspiration.
What would the world be without the written word!

24th August: All there is to do is Smile

I have been sadly neglecting this space of mine. Despite the bus-y-ness, and excitement of all that is going on I have missed coming here to share it.

So without farther ado, here are some things that made me smile:



# Early morning rush to finish music theory for-
# Early morning music lessons
# New shoes which make you want to go dancing
# Spending the day with a dear friend
# Coffee!
# Talking with said friend non-stop for hours
# A lunch of Italian proportions, focaccia and spaghetti
# Being greeted by complete strangers in the street
# Going through racks of gorgeous dresses
# Chocolate cupcakes with thick white icing
# NOT finding a parking ticket upon our late return to the car
# Borrowed books
# More importantly borrowed whole 4th season of Doctor Who! (thankyou thankyou!)
# Drives home with the windows down and music up
# Excited puppies upon arrival home
# Conversations with a special boy
# Hot baths and pajamas
# Watching the first episode of season 4 Dr Who!

Truly there is much to smile about.

7th August: Life is good

Hello hello!

Life is good... Extremely busy, and new... Far too exciting. I seriously have no doubt that if my heart wasn't caged in it would be flying in the Heavens by now.

All minds and hands have been on the enormous job of getting the shop ready to open. This includes any number of tasks from gardening, to plumbing, leveling cement floors, fitting new ceiling and wall panels, cleaning the mess created from these jobs... We could never claim that life has been boring, when each day you head out to face a task you may have never done before, but today you will find a way to figure it out.

Since taking on this building with the great plans to opening a Pieshop/metal gallery, I have learnt so much. Firstly that nothing is impossible. Though it has also taught me a lot about my family as well as myself.

As I'm sure many people find when taking on such a project, it brings out the very best and worst of us all. Tiredness, frustration, and sometimes genuine discouragement toward the whole job brings with it a gloomy mood, which spreads like wild-fire. Though as my Mam points out... So long as one of us is fresh, and in higher spirits, to make the fire when everyone is cold and tired from working... Or spend the time to make a hot meal.
More than any test of skill or work ethic, this project has brought with it the test of patience toward each other.

We have spent countless hours of working together, and overcoming obstacles together... We cannot wait to open it together!

"Cherry, please!"

God's given me a Pie in the sky.
How did I not see this before?!

They say that you sometimes forget to look up

to thank...

Today I remembered.

And I was shown what I am thankful for.

12th July: Father, Daughter Time

Time with my Dad over the years has been spent on some kind of a project or another. Whether it be tiling the kitchen floor together, or fixing a chimney to the roof; passing him tools while he works on a car, putting up new walls or laying a brick boarder around one of the garden beds. We have tried our hands at many different tasks, and this weekend came as no exception.

We had to cut through the concrete floor of the 'Daily Pie' shop to relocate the positioning of the drains. The cutter that we hired for the job was much like a chainsaw, only with a circular blade. Along with filling the whole gallery area with fumes, more fascinatingly this blade makes the most enchanting sound. Under the thumping of the motor, and the grinding of blade to cement, it sounds like a haunting whistling. It was not just one pitch either, but an array of harmonising chimes, that could be heard as though far away; The music didn't belong there, able to be heard beneath the loudness, the echo, and the wonderful bright orange ear-muffs upon my head. But with head down, and eyes front on the job, I pictured a small village on a hill side, and for some reason some monks, with this tune playing over the whole valley.

There was also an amount of jack-hammering done, in conjunction with the cutter. One can not help but feel powerful with one of those in your hands.

As well as relocating where the drains needed to be, we had to also locate where exactly said drain came out. This brought with it the adventure of having to uncover the grease-trap. The lid upon which is made out of 10mm solid steal plate. Lifting it (I can only imagine) is much like opening up a coffin. Not the scary part of finding a body, but the smell is enough to empty your stomach of its contents, and take any appetite away for a good week. Nasty!

Mapping out were the water came out was time consuming to say the least. When you are working with pipes that haven't been used in the past 10 years there is a certain amount of 'who knows what' build up which needs to be flushed out.

We soon discovered what we feared, one particular drain point was blocked beyond a simple flushing. Out of said hole was pulled (without getting into too much detail) the better part of a ten litre bucket worth of solid fat and gunk. I now refere to a certain brick of the 'fat and gunk' that was removed as 'beef wellington'.

I have found that at such occasions one reacts in one of two ways... Either you remove yourself quickly from the scene, with hand over mouth and a tear of utter disgust in your eye OR you find yourself getting on with the job of cleaning/removing while making a ridicules amount of corny jokes.

As the picture might indicate, I went with option two. As I was the only one with arm long enough, and narrow enough to fit in said hole.

At this point I would just like to mention how thankful I am that my Dad isn't a plumber! That it wasn't the family business I grew up in. I don't think I could handle that everyday!

After spending my weekend in such a manner it brought to mind a question... What do other daughters do with their Dad's?

29th June: Greek Wedding

Over the weekend I served at my first Greek wedding. It was interesting seeing first hand these things that I have only ever heard happens.

There was a tremendous amount of food and wine consumed, many words of blessings to the happy couple offered, hours worth of dancing danced, harmonising charms of glasses being tapped all at one time, and {of coarse} the smashing of the plates.

What an experience!

18th June: Who needs Jamie Oliver?

I do not believe that Jamie Oliver

could make a meal that made me smile as much as this one!

Blended burger, dagwood dog (aka corn dog), and corn chips

When feeling sorry for myself at the prospect of not being able to eat solid foods, (due entirely from wisdom removal), there was a friend who promised me blended food wasn't that bad...
And sent me this to try to prove his point.

Sorry, but I don't believe you!

15th June: French Films

There is something quite different about foriegn films. They tell their stories in a rather particular way, quite unique from us. Maybe it is something to do with the translation that is given, or even that it is all spoken in words uncomprihencible in my mind, but either way they have a way of touching ones heart.

The order of the day has been french films. Starting with Amilie, which captured my imagination, and lifted what had been a gloomy day (tired of sitting idoly still with face-ache).


Amelie is a girl after my own heart. Wanting to find ways to brighten the days of those within the reach of her life. Although maybe not knowing how to approach certain situations, she does what she can to bring happiness, love.



One of my favourite scenes is where Amelie's father will not consider taking a trip anywhere after having been a widower for many years. To encourage a holiday Amelie takes his dearly loved garden gnome, and sends him on a world tour. Every week or so after the gnome's 'mysterious' disappearance, there is a letter received containing a photo of the gnome in different cities of the world.



I also loved this:

I promised myself I would try this first chance I get!

14th June: Answers by Me

Emily has tagged me to answer a series of questions for a meme.

After taking a while to finish this, here are my answers...

What is your current obsession/s?

Taking photographs, finding colourful things that make me happy, writing down words, making up tunes to play on my piano

What are you wearing today?

What's for dinner?

Grilled chicken with creamy potatoes, and cauliflower

What would you eat for your last meal?

I don't think you could beat a good steak, egg and chips!

What's the last thing you bought?

What are you listening to right now?

You Picked Me by A Fine Frenzy

What do you think of the person who tagged you?

Emily is always looking for something beautiful, and brightening many peoples day while she does so. A caring, passionate, creative, gentle soul; who I am honoured to call friend

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

Right where I am!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

I would go to see the Aurora

Which language would you like to learn?

Hebrew and Italian

What's your favourite quote, for now?

"My greatest wish is for those I have loved to find someone worthy of them"-Nan Witcomb

What is you favourite colour?
Pillar-box RED, (can I pick Rainbow?)

What is your favourite piece of clothing from your own wardrobe?

My leather jacket and crazy-colour scarf

What is your dream job?

Working in my own business. Or having the honoured role of being a mother

What is your favourite fabric?

Colourful for cloths, satin for curtains, and fluffy for throws

If you had $100 what would you spend it on?

A family outing to dinner and the movies

Describe your personal style.

Red lips and nail polish, sparkly shoes, scarves, vests, layers, steel-toe redback boots. At anytime flirting with up to seven scents.

What are you going to do after this?

Hopefully adorning glasses to lose myself in a few chapters of my book.

What are your favourite films?

As it is in Heaven, August Rush, P.S I Love You, Footloose

Favourite fruit?

Watermelon and pears!

What inspires you?

God's eternal love, my family, music, the little things I come across in my day

Your favourite books?

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, Thoughts of Nanushka by Nan Witcomb, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde,

Do you collect anything?

Coins and random curiosities

What are you currently reading?

Purfume: Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Go to your book shelf, take down the first book with a red spine you see, turn to page 26 and type out the first line.

" 'Salina will be quiet as a convent,' and he smiled with amiable irony." The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa

What makes you follow a blog?

Sometimes it is pretty pictures, or inspiring words. Writing that has passion, or someone who is trying to write their truth.

What is one thing you did as a child that you miss doing now?

Making everything seem like an adventure, seeing the world from my dad's shoulders, climbing trees

What would you most like to accomplish in your life?

Bringing happiness and encouragement to the souls around me

13th June: Small Mercies

Amidst the busy time we find ourselves to be in at the moment,
days spent groggily between bed and couch
bring with them a certain amount of frustration.

Swollen cheeks,
liquid foods,
tiredness,
dazy from the pain-killers...

My sanity today has been found in mash potato and gravy.
In finishing books that have laid un-open for weeks,
Adding many albums to my itunes library, (that I have had piled high for too long)
In having the puppies happily fall asleep on my lap
Having time to think, I mean the thinking that you often put off because you tell yourself that you cannot waste your time on such foolishness
In waking up from numerous naps
Being taken care of by caring family members,
Drinking cups of tea, made and delivered by Dad
In watching films all of my choosing
Snuggling under doonas,
Wearing thick knitted socks from Grandma
In listening to opera while it rains outside
And in reading inspiring words that made me look for the good things, when I wanted to be miserable.

11th June: Uninspired

I have been unable to find any form of inspiration of which to write about.
My mind is full of thinking of what tomorrow will bring,
Unlike most days, I have a little more of an idea for tomorrow.
As I have had an appointment set for the past three weeks, awaiting this particular day.

This day in which I will part with the one form of wisdom I can truly acclaim, (with unquestioned sureness) that I have possessed.
I am, of coarse, referring to wisdom in the form of four teeth.

In all honesty I have been waiting for this day with great anticipation; as I have been told that the removal of said teeth will take with it the discomfort that has been niggling at me through my days.

There is only one part of the whole ordeal that is concerning me. I fear not the cutting, and the pulling, the removal or the loss. It is the needle by which they wish to sedate me. No, not even so much the needle, but the very thought of being put to sleep. That terrifies me.

Despite being told how silly my fear is in the scheme of everything, I cannot remove it from my mind. And I am not shamed of it; for it is the idea which has chosen to haunt me. That does not mean I will forever be afraid. But for the moment, I may just remain a little on edge.

Bring on the jelly and custard!

2nd June: Didn't do...

I didn't make my bed this morning,

I didn't comb my hair...
Happily I didn't care!

1st June: Winter Joys

Red nose...
Three layers of cloths...
Dark afternoons...
Scarves and jackets out of hiding...
Woodsmoke stained skies...
Woolen socks from Grandma...
Hopping back in bed fast in the morning...
Frost on the car windows...
Crunchy ground underfoot...
Biting northern winds...
Bare arms of trees reaching to the clouds...
Hot chocolate with marshmallows...
Seeing your breath in the air...
Numb fingers that refuse to bend...
Stolen moments warming in the sun...
Soup and toast...
Snuggling in dooners on the couch...
Boots with thick socks...
Drawing hearts on a foggy window...
Waking in the night, hearing raindrops on the tin roof...


"When all is safely gathered in"

Week of Curiosities: Music

I am quite sure there is not a soul alive who could deny their love of music in one form or another. I love how it is the universal language. That it never needs to be explained. How you don't have to be a scholar or well learned to enjoy its moving nature.

Music is its own living entity. It breaths great breaths in the wind, it hums between the grass in an empty field. Made by the sparrow early in the morning, or howled to the moon by the wolf.

Music is the annoying tapping by my brother on the table, the cracking of the wood as it burns.
It is the chime of a child laughing, it is the beating of my heart.

Week of Curiosities: Maps!

Ever since I was only young I have found an odd fascination with maps of all kinds; globes, flat maps of the world, larger detailed maps of individual countries...

I have poured many hours in journeying from land to land, following the borders of country to country; Traveling miles on paths drawn with my finger. (The quickest, and safest way to travel)

Many of my favourites are of the lands in books, which not everyone has heard of before.

The Kingdom of Moonacre
("The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge)

The Manor of Caldicot

("The Seeing Stone" by Kevin Crossley-Holland)

Week of Curiosities: Australian Skies

27th May: Poem to Share...

As my eyes begin to close now; as these tears roll down my cheek.
What could I have ever done Lord, to repay the debt I owe?

Now these tears that down my face are falling, they do stain like drops of blood.
How could I have known the pain you went through, just to save my weary soul.

Lost in darkness, I wondered alone. Hidden in my own desires.
The path of truth my feet did lose, the way of light for me grew dark.

A look around is all I wanted, until that second turned to years.
Before I knew how long I had looked away, I went missing within myself.

I thought I could walk these paths without you, though my feet began to slip.
Afraid, alone, all my doing; no one to know the last breath I took.

Who will come and be by me, as I go now to face my doom?
My head hangs low as I recall, the pitiful state I made for myself.

When life seemed to come to the closing, eternity now waiting for me,
A prayer within my heart, a longing: "if only to had offered praise."

So these tears began their flowing, from the soul that now could see;
A waisted life, lay out behind me, a path of footprints in the sand.

Through blurry eyes, I saw a hand offered. I was pulled up off the ground.
And a voice, I heard it saying: "I would never leave your side."

Dear Lord you came for this poor sinner, that wondered from your loving care.
Now to you my life I'm giving... Help me stand in truth and love.

Oh, these tears that from my eyes are flowing, they do mean the world to me.
For to think of what You went through, and my life is all I could give.

With faith and love I hope to praise you. With my every waking hour.
Help me to believe and remember, the cost of one lost weary soul.

I had wondered to and fro, across the unforgiving sands;
And to think that you came looking, for the lost sheep that I am.

Thankyou Lord above in Heaven, Thankyou Father, Holy Ghost...
For the Son that you sent for us, for the price you paid for me.

~Sarah-Mechelle~

Week of Curiosities: Inspirational Wall

Over many years I have been collecting different articles, pictures, photos, quotes... Things of inspiration. My wall colleague has been a work in progress, bits added, some removed.

It has taken on a life of its own, as it will never be finished, nor will it stop changing.

Having this week of curiosities motivated me to add the new things I had collected and stored ready to be arranged. Which I am grateful for, otherwise it could have been months before I allowed myself the time to pin them up.

Most of the items I have gathered from news papers, magazines, or family photographs. Though I can fall in love with pretty much anything; from popcorn boxes to old discarded house keys... Some are drawings I have done, or poems I was working on. There are tickets and passes, business cards, coins, a print I am hoping on getting framed, the list goes on. (I believe there is even list of mine up there too.)

Week of Curiosities: Box of Secrets

This week I have decided I will be doing a series of post on things that have piqued my curious-bone over the years. This includes items I found particular, or thought-provoking; Curiosities of the heart that have no rhyme or reason.

The first thing that came to mind upon this decision being made was my box of kept secrets. (Keepsakes). Although the items within hold no special interest of their own, I have spent many hours wondering over the idea that we collect these little pieces of our day and use them as a tool of remembering moments in the past.

My box of seemingly random bits of junk brings me no end of excitement when taken down from the top of my cupboard, dusted, then scratched through. Every time it is like you are finding a little treasure that you had forgotten belonged to you. How at the sight of anything picked out there can be the recollection of a smell, sound, person, scene...

Why I love to keep these precious goodies stored in a box together is that I might keep those special moments safe. That they do not get lost in the bookcase of my mind. Too easy it is to forget something we know; what suddenly makes us remember?

The reason I call it my box of secrets is because to anyone else it would mean nothing at all. Yet I know, (without knowing how), what it all represents.

24th May: Unspoken Words

I am tired of people who refuse to admit to the 'dark days'. Because often it makes the rest of us ashamed to admit our own blue moods.
Why are some things never talked about, so that when one stumbles upon it they feel alone in finding this unspoken circumstance heavy to bear.

It is no secret that there are dark days come over us all, yet why do we feel guilty to bring up the topic. The truth is that sometimes there are days that turn out pretty shit. Why pretend otherwise?
Encouragement comes by knowing your not alone. Hearing that someone, somewhere has faced what is hindering your walk in life, that there is an end to the loneliness.

Knowing your not alone often gives the strengh you need to face each battleground. Moving forward during these times is what makes us fearless.
To be fearlessly courageous is looking at what frightens you, not allowing your legs to become paralyzed where you stand, but pushing on your journey.
For being fearless does not mean you fear nothing, but that you don't allow that fear to stop you.

March on fearless soldior, your not alone fighting this war!