Steve's Birthday dinner

Hard to believe that another birthday has come so quickly but Steve officially turned a whole year older today! He's not happy about it, but I think he's just getting better with age! Last night we out for a little birthday dinner at the Belvedere Hotel (http://www.ourbrisbane.com/food-and-drink/redcliffes-belvedere-hotel) with friends. The food was yummy but it was COLD! Not the food, the air!!! It's an outdoor restaurant, which is usually okay because they have lots of outdoor heaters. However, unfortunately, our table was not near any of the heaters and we were directly in a wind tunnel, blowing in from the ocean! I checked the temp online when we got home and it was 9 degrees in the city. I'm sure it was even chillier right by the water! Brrr! We still enjoyed ourselves though...thanks to everyone for coming out to help Steve celebrate! Here's a few pictures...





Happy Birthday Babe! I hope this year is amazing for you!

A no picture post...

We had a long weekend this past weekend (the Queen's birthday). Steve had to go into work a bit, as things are really starting to get busy for him. I relaxed during the days, did some stuff around the house and tried to get rid of yet another cold that I have caught. I bragged about never being sick and then ended up with 2 colds in a month. The last one ended up as a sinus infection, involving antibiotics, so this time I am determined not to let it get too bad. Lots of echineacha, vitamin C and I went for an acupuncture appointment and am now taking Chinese herbs. I think the exhaustion of adjusting to my difficult new work hours has completely run me down. Anyway, what can ya do?

Although, I wasn't feeling at my very best, we did manage to have a pretty active social life, with dinner at Darryl and Stacey's on Saturday night, a BBQ in the park with my friend, Kristy and her husband, Steve on Sunday and a dinner party at Jeff's place on Monday evening. We had a great time at all 3 dinners and enjoyed the food everywhere! Needless to say, I am needing a serious detox! I'm considering doing a real detox, just need to find a good detox plan to follow. Anyone know of any good books about detoxing? I don't want to starve myself or anything, just want a good plan to follow for a couple of weeks, to help build my immune system back up and all that good stuff.

In other news, we got a new laptop yesterday! It's very nice, if I must say so myself! We were in need of it, as our current laptop was on it's last legs and seeing as the laptop is our TV, phone, radio and basically our only contact to the outside world, I wasn't going to wait until it died completely!!! Maybe I'll take a picture of it and post it later, to help spruce up this post! I can't believe we went to all those get togethers and didn't snap a single picture...I'm definitely slacking in the blog department!

Nothing to do on a Sunday night?

Why not have your wife dye your hair blue black? Yup, I dyed Steve's hair blue black tonight. It turned out really cool but man was it messy! I couldn't resist taking this picture between my fits of laughter at watching Steve struggle to rinse all the dye from his hair!!!

Finally...Sex and the City!!!

Last night we went to see the much anticipated, Sex and the City. We also went for dinner and drinks at a Vietnamese restaurant before the movie. I think everyone had a great time and I loved the movie! The perfect ending to the 6 seasons that I have watched over the last month! I know, I was bit behind on catching the SATC train, but I finally did in the end and loved it! Such a terrific show and a wonderful movie to bring closure. I love movie closure!
Sexy Sex and the City like ladies!
What could be better than a girlie night out in pink heels with great company and lots of laughs!:)

A few little things to write about...

Steve and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday. Steve took me out for a surprise dinner at a snazzy little restaurant called "watt"on the Brisbane river, located in the Brisbane Power House. The old power house is now used as a trendy artsy fartsy kind of place. They host shows, markets, etc... http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/. The dinner was tasty and the service was good. Steve and I didn't have a clue what any of the food on the menu actually was, other than the ravioli and filet migon. So, that's what we ordered. My ravioli was nothing like you would expect, as it only had 2 pieces of pasta on top of a bed of mushroom and pumpkin. It was still yummy though! We also splurged and bought a $58 bottle of wine (a big deal for us...we usually think a $17 bottle is a treat!), so needless to say we enjoyed ourselves!

As you may recall, Steve and I have a thing about taking a picture of ourselves on every anniversary, to be able to look back to see how we've changed. This year's picture didn't go as planned. We got all dressed up and ready to go for dinner and went to take the picture only to discover that the camera batteries were dead. We popped them on the charger and said we'd get a picture when we got home. Then we forgot (we did have a bottle of $58 wine in us!) and only remembered once we were in our pjs, soooo this year's anniversary pic is a little different from the others....

...but still fun:)
In other news, Steve got a little toy delivered on Friday. He says he's entered stage 2 of "Buff Steve". Apparently there's 4 stages of Buff Steve...stage 1 was losing a big chunk of weight, second stage is losing the last bit of weight, 3rd stage is toning up, not bulky just toned and 4th stage is to develop a super power. I'm already planning how I want to sew his cape. He did a lot of research and finally decided on a Concept2 E rower, for an overall full body workout with no impact. I'm looking forward to using it too, and what's really cool about it is that you can play games with it! Steve has big plans of hooking it up to a computer and competing with virtual computer rowers. Who says were boring?! ;)

Camping...Friday night and Saturday...

Oh man I am so behind on the blog! I've been really tired lately trying to adjust to my new hours at work, which involve very early mornings and evenings with a commute. However, this is my attempt at trying to catch up. Last Friday, we left work a bit early and headed to Girraween National Park for our first ever Australian camping trip. It's also been the first time that we've been camping in a long time so we were pretty excited! It took us about 4 hours to drive there, as we got caught in some weekend traffic leaving the city and we stopped for a bite to eat. We set up camp in some chillier than we're used to weather. Stanthorpe, the town closest to the park, is supposed to be the coldest town in Queensland (the state where we live) and seeing as it's winter, it was forecast to dip down to a nippy 3 degrees, with a high of only 16 degrees!! I bundled up (hat, gloves, scarf, 3 sweaters, fleece pants and wool socks) and didn't mind it at all! It was actually a bit fun to feel some cold on my cheeks again! Having said that, I still wonder if I will ever be able to do a -40 degree day ever again!!! We took a lot of pictures, so I've attempted to post a few of the main events...

There were a lot of birds everywhere! They really were not shy about snatching food either! A kookaburra (seen in the picture above...sounds just like a monkey when he sings!) stole a piece of Steve's toast right off the grill when he turned his back and then later another one (or perhaps the same brave bird) landed right on the grill and didn't want to move, even with Rej and Steve trying to shoo him away!! The birds were very pretty though, however they were also very loud!! It made sleeping in past 7 very difficult! The verdict...I am still not a bird fan!
There weren't too many campers when we were there, which was cool because we had a whole section to ourselves... It's been my goal, since I moved here to see a wild kangaroo. Well, that was an easy goal to achieve at this park! I woke up to kangaroos hopping by our campsite (a whole family of them...it was amazing!) and there were a few of them just having out on the grass by the bathrooms. I was shocked at how tame they were! They didn't even move when we got close to them and took pictures! Mind you we didn't get too close...they are still a wild animal! These were taken on our walk to the bathroom for our morning pee.

On Saturday, we went hiking. The hike was really cool...massive boulders all over the place, many on top of each other. I'm not sure how they came to be like that, but it looked really cool!
Steve's the King of the Castle...
Everyone hiking...we went camping with the Purdys, Rej and Clo and Dan and Amy. One great thing about camping in the winter is no bugs and no snakes!

Lunch break at "Sphinx rock", before heading onto Turtle rock (a rock that resembled a turtle) and Castle rock (you guessed it, a rock that resembled a castle!)
A very tall rock wall...


Group shot...

Shamus has been eating his spinach!
Darryl has too apparently...

My homeless lady gloves...they worked great! Best $4.99 I've spent in awhile!
Hmmmm...what's in here...? Nosy roo!
A very fat possum who went in our garbage when it was sitting right beside us!!! Whatever happened to wildlife being more afraid of you then you are of them?!?
A Mommy feeding her Joey...
...and a wee little Joey in the Mommy's pouch...how cute is that?!

We slept surprisingly well both nights. I was just a little cold on the second night, but nothing too bad. We ate lots of yummy food and drank some wine. All the trimmings for a great camping weekend!

Sunday...Heading home

On Sunday morning, we woke to enjoy warm tea and hot chocolate and a yummy French toast breakfast. We packed up the camping gear and headed into the nearest town of Stanthorpe. They have a market that boasts being the "Warmest welcome in Queensland's coldest town." It was only small but I managed to find a few things and prices were so cheap!
The kiddies relaxing while the grown ups packed up...
When they weren't relaxing they were held under tight security...just kidding!:)

We stopped and had a little picnic lunch in Stanthorpe before heading home. It reminded us so much of Canada! There were ducks and and even a tree changing color! You don't see that very often here!

And that was our trip to Girraween National Park. It was actually kind of nice to feel a little chilly and have rosy red cheeks! Lots of fun! Can't wait to do some more camping soon!

Million Paws Walk

Yesterday, Steve, Jesse and I took part in the RSPCA Million Paws Walk. I was shocked at how many people were there! Jesse was so excited! I don't think he knew what to make of so many dogs in one area. There were dogs of all kinds, many of whom were dressed in costumes and there were even 2 Duck Tollers! That's our first Toller sighting since we moved here. They both belonged to the same family and they were adorable! Apparently, there are only about 400 Duck Tollers in all of Australia. I guess Jesse makes 401:)

We did a 3 km walk and then enjoyed the booths. There were people selling dog/pet stuff (all proceeds going to the RSPCA), food, info about the RSPCA and articles and pictures that could make even the biggest meat eater consider becoming a vegetarian.

There was also fly ball and agility stuff going on and places where you could get your dog bathed. We didn't want to ruin Jesse's day by putting him through that, although he could have used it!

All and all we had a great time and it felt good to help such a wonderful cause. Thanks again to those of you who sponsored us! I would love to get a team together next year and do the walk with a group. So, if you have a dog and like to walk, keep it in mind for next year!:)

Still kickin'!

Yes, we are still here, although I know it's been ages since we've posted anything! I have a few things to catch you up on but haven't had the chance to do it. I'll post some pictures and a little update tonight! :)

Projects...

Awhile back, I posted that I have become obsessed with sewing bags. I just love it! Well, that and the fact that I ran out of windows to sew curtains for;) I had a few people mention to me that I should post some of what I have been working on and here they are...I'm basically teaching myself as I go, so I'm also learning a lot of what I want to change or do differently if I make each of these bags again. Basically, these are my trial run bags that I'll keep for myself and hopefully, if I make some more as gifts or something, they'll all be perfected by then! I get a lot of ideas from this website...http://craftydaisies.com/ and lately, seeing as I am a bit obsessive, I check out bags that I like in stores, and then go home and try to make them myself. It saves SO much money! A lot of the bags I like are very simple to make and buying fabric is way cheaper than buying the bag! So here they are...

I made the above bag as a birthday gift for my sister (I hope you got it by now! Otherwise, surprise!) and then I liked it so much that I made one for myself. I think it's very summery and fun! I also like the design of this bag and think it would be fun in so many fabrics! I got the pattern and super easy to follow instructions here...http://kristinlaflamme.com/musings/?p=119
I didn't really love this bag but I think it will go cute with the right outfit. I made it using a placemat and got the idea off the Crafty Daisies website. Super cheap to make!
I saw a bag similar to this at the market and decided to try making one myself. I made it for about 1o bucks and they were selling the one at the market for $30. I love that it fits a sheet of paper, so it's great if you need to carry documents in it. I took it to my interview and got the job, so maybe it's good luck!

Then, because I hate to waste material, I've been trying to find ways to use up some of my left over fabric. One little project idea that I came up with was to make journal covers. Here's one that I have finished. I actually gave this to one of the girls I work with as a gift.

And voila! What I do in my spare time. I also made a little make up bag but forgot to photograph it before giving it away. I want to make a few more though, so I'll post one soon. I'm also just about to start another bag. I saw one that I liked in a surf shop in Byron and want to try to make one of my own. I have to start it soon though, before I forget what it looked like!

Finally, I'll leave you with my new favorite quote...I saw it in Byron Bay on a card and thought it was very cool...

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." Unknown.

Cool, eh? Perhaps that's why doing creative and new things makes you feel so good! Each little thing you do/create is helping to create a little piece of you!:)