In May I Choose to:

In May I choose to:

• pull out my Project Life Album and work on catching up
• participate in National Scrapbooking Day and get creative
• take more photos with my big camera
• finish my knitted blanket

Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth

Early in April we finally got around to visiting the Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth exhibit at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

Lunch at The Library Cafe before heading into the gallery. While we waited for our food Katelyn indulged in a game of Doodle Jump after convincing me to hand over my iPhone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The centrepiece of the exhibit is Heritage. 99 replicas of animals from around the world drinking from a clear blue lake and surrounded by pristine white sand. It was breathtakingly beautiful and despite the crowd there was a silence and stillness that created a real sense of calm.

As you enter the exhibit the first thing you see is a magnificent Eucalyptus, complete with it’s root system, suspended on it’s side. The tree was relocated from land being cleared for development. Visitors are invited to think about the things that may have happened to the tree during it’s life and imagine possibilities for it’s future and to draw or write a response to the tree. After some convincing Katelyn was happy to accept the invitation and spent a long time working on her drawing – the tree as a treehouse. She was so focused on her drawing and appeared unaware of the people around her.

We then headed into the final section of the exhibit – Head On. 99 wolves hurling themselves into the air before hitting a glass wall and falling back to earth. We joined many others in walking among the wolves and posing for a few photos with them.

Before leaving we stopped in the interactive children’s section, where Katelyn decided to make an animal, a very cute lion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon and so pleased that we made the effort to head to GOMA.

 

 

Currently

Watching: Snippets of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to Australia on YouTube. Love how natural and down to earth they appeared during their meet and greets with the crowds.

Reading: Kristin Cashore’s Graceling. I’ve been powering through this and will definitely be downloading the next two to my Kindle.

Listening: To the rumble of thunder from a passing storm.

Making: The second strip of a knitted blanket. I’ve surprised myself with how much of this I’ve completed.

Planning: Our trip to Hawaii in July.

December Daily 2013 – Day One

So excited to be joining in with Ali Edwards’ December Daily – and hopeful that I will get further than I did last year (I am determined to get 2012’s finished, I really just need to sit down and complete the journalling and add a few embellishments and it will be done).

Yesterday was all about a wonderful afternoon at the theatre. With Mum in Hawaii we had an extra ticket to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Katie was able to choose a friend to share the afternoon with. After careful thought she decided to bring along a friend from her dance school – with the idea that they would appreciate it more than a friend from school (love how thoughtful she can be).

December Daily 2013 – Cover

I finished my cover earlier this week and am very happy with how it turned out. I used Jo Sonja’s Artist Colour in Pearl White to paint the cover and used a Silhouette cut file and Silhouette Vinyl in Gold for the phrase before edging the red binding in gold glitter tape to finish it off. I was originally going to follow Ali Edwards lead and colour some of the stars with gold but decided to leave it.

Like many others I’m using the Studio Calico December Daily kit.

A Day Trip To Stanthorpe

Back in June we made a trip to Stanthorpe, taking my sister and nieces so that my sister could revisit and share with her girls the places that were a big part of our childhoods. We made a quick run out to Girraween National Park and Ballendean Estate Winery before dropping in to visit our Great Aunt.

It was such a joy watching her with the children – she showed such pleasure as she shared the stories of local artefacts before pulling out some of her butterfly and insect collection, and they loved it, all of them listening intently and taking photos with their phones of the things that she talked about.

(not the best photos unfortunately but glad to have them)

December Daily 2012

I spent the afternoon working on my December Daily and am loving the size. Now that I've started my new job I knew that it would be unlikely that I'd have the time to work on it daily so I've been taking lots of notes and planning what stories and photos I'd use for each day – so far this seems to be working. 

December Daily 2012

I watched last year as Ali Edwards and others completed their December Daily projects and was determined to join in this year. I love this time of year and love the idea of having an album that documents the festive season. Yesterday I worked on the cover and am so pleased with how it turned out.

Now to follow through and complete it.

Annie the Musical

Mum, Nicole, Katelyn and I went to see Annie at Qpac today. I loved watching Katelyn's face during the show, the look of delight and smile of pleasure remained in place throughout the entire 2 acts. It's such a pleasure to share these experiences with her and I'm grateful that we have the opportunities to be able to do so – Love that she shares our love of musical theatre.

Scrapbooking with Katelyn

Have had a lovely day scrapbooking with Katelyn. She has shown a keen interest in it lately and the last couple of times that I have printed photos at Kmart she has asked for copies of particular photos herself so that she can scrapbook them. Yesterday we found her a kit at Kmart and she went home and made her first pages. When she was asked what she wanted to do today she asked if she could bring her things over so that we could scrapbook together.

She had such a wonderful time and worked on page after page, she put so much thought into how she arranged the photos on the pages and I loved the detail that she had put into the journaling on the pages that she made last night. It's lovely to see her being creative. I even managed to work on a page myself.