August 2006 – helenthura.com

August 29, 2006

Burda 8517

I made a new top yesterday 🙂 Well I started it on Sunday and finished it on Monday evening. The pattern is Burda 8517 made with some mighty fine Liberty Tana Lawn in a print called Paul that I picked up the fabric in the remnants section at Gardams for a sure fire price of $43.50 (original price for 1.1m was $55). Of course the big question was then what pattern to use and after flipping though all the pattern books they had there we decided on the Burda pattern.

Since this was no cheap fabric we played it safe and made a muslin first and decided to lengthen the sleeves by about 1″ and to skip the elastic casing below the bust. The end result is a top that I am super happy with, feels comfy and looks great. 🙂

August 24, 2006August 24, 2006

Go Wide!

After about 8 or 9mths of umming and ahhing I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Sigma 12-24mm. In the end I picked it over the other ultra-wide angle zoom lenses because it is designed for full frame cameras whereas all the other ultra-wides are designed for cropped sensor DSLRs. This means that the 12-24 also works on my film camera as well the three series of DSLRs that Canon has (1x, 1.3x, 1.6x).

After I had a little play with the lens on 350d, I put it on the Eos 300(the film SLR I inherited from Karl) oh my I loved it even more. It really makes me want a full frame DSLR, 12mm is pure ultra wide goodness! When I get the film developed I will have to scan them in as the perspective is insane!

Of course one of the best things about having an ultra-wide is it just “enhances” the funny faces that Pabbi makes even more 😀

August 22, 2006

One step at a time …

… I proceed to take over the world under the tutelage of my Grandfather and today marked one more step towards that goal.

I’m famous. Well not quite. Well really not at all. I can still think I am pretty cool though and so can you, well if you are my family I guess because that is just a family rule.

What am I going on about and why is that photo displayed above? A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the Picture Australia people at the National Library of Australia asking me if they were able to use the image above in a press release for Australia’s Maritime World regarding the addition of new images to Picture Australia as well as the collaboration between Picture Australia and Flickr. Out of all the photos in the database, they picked one of mine 🙂 I can’t tell you how big of a smile that put on my face 🙂

August 20, 2006

Fireworks at the Ekka

Helen + Fireworks = One very happy Helen.

Really enough said. Fireworks have put a grin on my face and a twinkle in my eye for as long as I can remember and I can assure that is a very long time because I can remember things that happened years before my birth 20 years and 3 weeks ago 😉 … well not quite.

I remember going to the Ekka when we were younger and sitting on Machinery Hill watching the entertainment after a long day of fun at the Ekka and the hush that came about when the fireworks started. I remember racing out to our back balcony on New Years Eve catching glimpses of the fireworks over the tree line. I remember going to RiverFire in year 9 with Mum, Karl and Grandmum and having a blast watching the fireworks and then ripping a ligament in my ankle (playing silly buggers with Karl) which still gives me trouble today. I remember spending New Years Eve in Germany ’02/’03 and watching fireworks going off meters in front of me and then finding rocket sticks in the backyard in the morning and thinking to myself, gee imagine if you were a dog in the back yard and got hit by one of these? I remember leaving a NYE party early this year with Mum to drive back into Hobart to take photos of the Fireworks. When it comes to Fireworks I will go just about anywhere.

I love Fireworks.

Just as we did last year, Mum and I made the trip into the Kings Parking across the road from the Ekka to enjoy the show and what a show it was. A good variety of fireworks and a clear night with just the right amount of wind to carry away the smoke.

August 19, 2006

The All-American Rejects

Last night Sam and I went went along to The Arena to see The All-American Rejects, hellogoodbye and Avalon Drive.

The Rejects were great, way better than when we saw them last year with Simple Plan, I would say they have developed their stage show more. It was a pretty good night overall and the plus of it been an all-ages show meant that it finished nice and early but of course the minus was all the under age kids who need to take the “etiquette of a rock concert” series of lessons that include a study of how a mosh pit works and how to behave in one. 18+ shows are fine, people all play nicely, all-age shows are a whole new ball game.

August 17, 2006

Advance Australia Fair

I reckon our national anthem is a pretty good song, however there are just some cases when you wish the anthem was, say, slighlty more progressive, so when I came across a reference to ABC Comedian Adam Hills perfoming such a version this morning, I had to find myself a copy. A quick search of youtube and there she was in all her beauty 🙂 enjoy.