Whilst, the above activities are not affected by the weather, the following is. If the sun is out and I can’t tell you how happy I was that it was out this morning, the hum of the washing machine downstairs is the sound of a weekend morning. This of course provides the following outcome.

Georgie took me to the Valentino Retrospective at GOMA this mid-afternoon as a belated birthday present. Whoa, those outfits are amazing, some are plain crazy, some are beautiful, others are amazing. The work and detail is just incredible.

I took this photo on the way past QAG heading towards GOMA.

On the deck, sitting at the new to our house table. With my laptop (obviously), a pot of of florally sencha and some grapes. This table is the perfect height. I found the old table a bit too high to type/sit comfortably at. This table will also be great for cutting fabric on as well yay.

I can hear a faint din of traffic on Corro drive, the whistles and cheers from the basketball stadium and the sounds of feet fall as people walk through the park.

Today is day 299 for my 365 project. It seems like I’ve been doing this for ages now. Today also marks 292 days till I go to Japan next year with one of the girls. I’m so excited about that trip. We will be away from March 1 to March 15 and will be flying in and out of Osaka. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am. Oh all the places to explore and visit as well as crafty and cute things to peruse.

We got a free lunch today from Lawson’s who are running a Lunch on Lawson’s promo across the country this month. We will also be having a free lunch tomorrow and on Friday as well. Today our sandwich came from e’cco and was just amazing. Somehow I’ve a feeling that our sandwiches tomorrow and Friday will also be amazing. Registrations for tomorrow in Brisbane have closed but are still open for Friday. My entire department will be having sandwiches on Friday as they were all quite taken with our lunch today. If you are in Brisbane and would like a yummy free lunch on Friday, register now! If you are in Sydney or Melbourne, Lawson’s is coming to your town later this month.

And on a different note to finish off with. I’m going back to Uni!! I’ve been thinking about it for the last 18mths or so and bit the bullet a few months ago and put my application in for the Semester 2 intake.

I was very excited when I came home last week to this email.

Dear Helen Palsson,
You have been made an offer in the latest QTAC offer round.

When I logged in to to QTAC I saw this.

In the 6 May offer round you have been offered:
413021 Bachelor of Business – full-time or part-time – Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus
Start Month: July 2010
You have firmly accepted this offer and you will not be considered in any further offer rounds.

and tonight I saw this

Dear HELEN
Congratulations on receiving your offer to study at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). I hope that you are excited about starting your study at QUT, as becoming part of the university for the real world couldn’t be easier.

Here is to brain stimulation and increased career prospects long-term.

In my room at my parents, I have two above my bed. They are the much adored Strippa shelves from Ikea. Ikea replaced these with the Ribba ledges which come in various lengths and colours. I picked up two over Christmas which I then stripped back and painted white…. yeah they come in white but my Ikea didn’t have any… I had fun painting them

We finally got round to putting them up on Sunday. Oh so happy!

Monday night before SES I arranged my art work. Drawings from Melbourne, my favourite Margaret Olley print of Brisbane picked up on a trip to Sydney, an oh so tacky but I adore it fish serving platter picked up for $1 at an op shop, a random photo of myself and a photo of some of my family from when my mother was pregnant with me. I still have a few prints to get frames for and then it will be the game of deciding what goes where.

For the three larger pieces I added a few little strips of double-sided tape to the top of the frames where they lean against the wall for added protection to stop any toppling of art on my whilst I sleep! With out the tape this was quite a possibility as my walls are by no means “flat” – not surprising given the age of the house.

It is soooo nice to at last not have a great big empty wall. On that side of my room it is 3m from the floor to the ceiling – so a lot of empty wall!

Curtains!! 226/365

Yep, at last I’ve finished my curtains and they are up. I went to Ikea between Christmas and New Years. Amongst the things I picked up was this fabric, I had planned to purchase a more “demure” fabric but there was no way I could say no the slightly kitsch, slightly folksy fabric that is Annamoa Fabric … I picked up lining at Spotlight a week or two later… Then the wait happened whilst I tried to find curtain eyelets, eventually I found curtain eyelet tape at Lincraft. I made one curtain at my house on a Saturday. Yeah, let me tell you it was quite an adventure using the kitchen floor as a cutting table. The next day I headed over to Mums and borrowed the kitchen table (such bliss for cutting fabric) and some of her advice. I didn’t quite get the other two curtains finished that day but did the rest of the sewing the following Sunday when I was next over.

They make my room feel so cheery! And oh for lining as well now my room isn’t so bright in the morning and slightly warmer at night.
Yay for new curtains!

Patterned Legs, 227/365

There a few fashion rules I have for myself, one of these is no tights/stockings in Spring and Summer. Really because unless they are 8 denier or less it is just too damm hot to wear stockings in Brisbane during those months. I picked this pair up from Coles over the New Year for a very nice sum of $3.something!

Romatherapy Tomatoes???? 228/365

Yeah this is what Woolies calls baby Roma tomatoes…

Peach Upside Down Cake, 229/365

At what point did it seem like a good idea to make an upside down cake in a spring form pan….. Common sense did question it but no I was going to be good and follow the recipe. Let’s just say I had a ball cleaning a black sugary mess in the oven…. Upside down cake + spring form pan = mess!

Other than it was quite a success. The recipe is off Taste and here is the link Peach Upside Down Cake. I had almonds on hand but really didn’t feel like breaking out the blender to make almond meal so used hazelnut meal I had on hand instead and I think it made the cake even nicer. Had a slightly nutty flavour. One thing to note though is that I made this cake Thursday night to take to work on Friday. For morning tea, the cake was fantastic, just the right amount of moistness. When it came to divying up the last few slices for afternoon tea the cake was a bit dry.

Looking Up, 230/365

I saw The Blind Side on Friday night – man oh man what a movie. I was happy to see Sandra Bullock win the Oscar, man oh man that dress was gorgeous and the hair!
I was kicking back on my bed when I got home with a million thoughts going through my mind and I was struck to a degree by the way the posters look from below.

A single flower, 231/365

A single flower, a single plant. This dahlia is the only thing in the front garden at Mums currently.

Sore Toe, 232/365

A change from photos of metal adorned teeth… For the last week or so the tip of the toe next to my big toe has been quite sore. I thought my toenail was digging in but trimming the nail didn’t help it all. I just tried to ignore it, thinking that yeah it will get better. It’s no longer sore but when I decided to change my toenail polish on Sunday I discovered why it had been so sore! Check out that bruise! Four days after taking this photo, I can tell you it is a bit darker as well.

Welcome Lights, 233/365

On the same trip to Ikea as the one when I got the curtain fabric I also picked up these Welcome Lights/Christmas Candolier from Ikea for something like $3 after Christmas. I love them! I’m keeping these out all year! A much more modern version than the set my parents brought out from Iceland with them.

Melbourne snow dome, 234/365

I picked up this snowdome for next to nothing at Borders one day. I was going through photos the other day and finally found the perfect photo. In saying that, I’m still trying to decide what photo to put on the other side!

This hat, 235/365

I’ve posted photos of this hat before but I love it too much not to share more. I’ve moved it from hanging on the curtain rod to a hook on my door. Now it greets me when ever I walk into my room! I do wish my head was a few cm smaller so it did fit me.

Yeah, that is a whipper snipper, 236/365

Our lawn had a hair cut today or really it got a buzz cut. I’ld call it a number 4. Before it could be mown they “trimmed” the lawn with a whipper snipper!

It’s hard to believe that I am 236 days into my 365 day quest! When I tried in 2008 I lasted 75 days. I’m just about two thirds of the way through now, really happy with that.

And that is a wrap!

This is where I iron. Out on the deck, hoping to catch an afternoon breeze or two and enjoying watching the going ons in the park. Much better than looking at a blank window.

This morning when I got up, one of the first things I did was put a load of washing on and as soon as it had finished I put my second load on. Whilst I was putting the washing out, I had a lovely chat to the old lady next door. After a while though grey clouds started appearing and I was not happy. I cherry picked what was dry and retired to the deck with a book and a cuppa so I could spot rain at the first moment.

I was very lucky today in that it didn’t rain and now I have a full wardrobe again

This sight made me happy today

I love this laptop skin – Happy Hippy Clouds and Owls

Today is Tuesday, this is what I woke up to this morning. A flooded backyard. Due to the local geography, our backyard and the next two backyards over flood in the right rain. Yesterday, it rained and rained and rained and rained some more. Apparently it has been grey skies, drizzly and blah, the entire time I was in Melbourne (we had blue skies in Melbourne). Won’t have to water the plants for a while

I went to see Two Fists, One Heart yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed, especially the strong WA music presence in the soundtrack. With a broad brush it had some similarities to Two Hands, in terms of fighting, cars, bouncers and the not the girl ordinarily expected girl as the romantic interest. I would definitely recommend checking it out. Parts made me laugh and parts made me sigh.

This morning I gave the kitchen an autumn clean, top to bottom, I scrubbed, wiped and shined. This photo was taken two weeks or so ago but it gives you a fair idea of what the kitchen looks like.

I also did the seemingly weekly clean of my room; vacuuming, dusting and tidying. I don’t believe I have shared a picture of what my current room looks like. It is small but I do quite like having everything at an arm’s reach.

Talking of my room, that reminds me, I must share the incident that happened earlier this week. I was getting ready for bed, I had closed the deck door, turned off the lights, started the dishwasher and gone to clean my teeth. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard a tumble. I thought something had dislodged in the dishwasher and thought nothing much of it. I finished cleaning my teeth, looked at the dishwasher and it was fine. Then as I stepped into my room, I saw that some of the things from my bookcase had fallen onto the floor, as I looked up I came face to face with a Possum sitting on top of my bookcase. I was slightly shocked to say the least. Possums on the roof, possums on the power lines or possums in the back yard are fine. A possum on my bookcase is another matter. As you can see from the above picture, my room is narrow and there is only one way in and one way out. As I entered the room further the possum jumped and I ducked, it landed on my bed and scattered up to the desk. I started yelling at it to get out of the my room. Johnno hearing my yelling came to investigate and we managed to get the possum out of my room and into the kitchen, then with some fancy footwork the deck door was opened and the possum was let free. As the light was turned on in the kitchen and I walked back into my room, I discovered something the possum had urinated all over my room; the carpet, my bed, the wall, my desk, my laptop etc. Cleaning up possum urine is not pleasant. It is a tick slightly gelatinous liquid and cleaning it off the laptop is not at all fun. Normally I close my laptop when I switch it off at night. That night though for some strange reason I had left it open… if only I had closed it. Now that that story is off my chest…

Something that would surprise most people would be that I actually scapbooked today! I know! It has been a good handful of months since I last did something but the other week, I packed up a fair amount of stuff from my old room and brought it over here. In the picture below you can see the little chest of Ikea drawers that I have covered. They hold my computer cables in one little drawer and then in the others scrapbookig goodies.

It is now just gone 10pm and means it is time to retire to bed with a book and prepare for tomorrow been Monday.

A week after the contract changed, I moved house. I am still in the same suburb but moved a few streets over to a house that is owned by a friend of Karl’s. My room is the smallest room I have ever lived in but I love it. For the first time since moving out of home, all my boxes are unpacked and that feels great! Everything has a place and I have also gotten rid of a lot of crap which is great. One of the things or probably the thing I love most about this house and one of the things that sold me on moving in was the deck. I iron on the deck, I eat my meals on the deck, I relax on the deck, I create on the deck. The deck is good. I am currently sitting at the dining table (the deck is the dining room) with my laptop, listening to the bats screech in the trees, the whistles from the basketball stadium across the park and the trains that crescendo and decrescendo past. If I get home and it is still light or on the weekends, I often kick back on the sofa on the lounge and read a book or do some crochet.

On the weekend I went to a BBQ which was organised by one of the ladies I started SES with all those months ago as we are no longer “newbies” but real members. A perfect excuse to make cupcakes and SES cupcakes is what I made. Vanilla buttercake for the cake and then fondant icing with lollies on top.

Of course, I decorated the cakes on the deck and here is a photo of my set-up.

It’s just after 9pm and I can feel my eyes starting to close so I am going to curl up in bed with my book and wait for it all to repeat itself tomorrow

A youtube link to close the post – Everything’s Amazing, Nobody’s Happy. I thought this was good.

One downside of new house is that I am now in high possum area and said possums are eating my lettuce (not that I can eat lettuce now anyway but I have been giving Mum and Matthew picked leaves once a week). I have moved the pot so it is now beside the kitchen stairs where there is more light at night so I will see how that goes.

When I was cleaning my windows today the resident Scrub Turkey came for a visit as well (yes my street has a resident Scrub Turkey, I tend to see him/her at least once a day). So cool.

My room has picture rails so when Mum and I went to Bunnings yesterday I picked up some picture hooks and wire. I was so excited then when I got home and tried them they didn’t fit! I was devastated. I was sooo looking forward to using the picture rails. At the moment I have some of my foam core mounted photos and LPs propped up on the picture rails and my framed pieces wrapped up beneath my bed.

Once I had cleaned and cleaned some more it was off to Mum’s and then off to The Farm. We have crumbed fish and veg every time we go to The Farm for dinner but tonight the fish tasted even better than it normally does. We also spent time counting the linen to make sure Grandad has enough to house the NZ contingent as well as other general planning. Man oh man I can’t wait for December! Only nine sleeps to go till the first of the outer towners arrives!

Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!

After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.

Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.

Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today

Toto, this is Wooloowin!

As some as you know, I moved out of home yesterday to a block of flats at Wooloowin – a whole transport zone closer to the city Yesterday was spent packing, unpacking, sorting, rearranging etc etc. I have moved out with Andrea, who is well Andrea, we went to uni together and well is my partner in not so criminal crimes. Here is a little peak of the flat. Still lots of boxes all over the place and mmm where should we put this and mmm we need something to go there and mmmm where did I put that?

I am currently computerless though at Wooloowin as I am been really kind to my dear mother and leaving my computer in my old room for the time been no computer, Helen doesn’t know what to do! Means I have to come home as well