Jikana Damaru: 02/01/12

fine specimens...

Two people can look over the same rocks and see different things.
One will see a lump of chert, the other a sea urchin.

- from Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

I'm enjoying this book. Just need to find the time to get to the last page! It's a story about female friendship and fossil hunting set in 19th century England. Reminds me of the natural objects I used to collect as a child. Not fossils per se but things like feathers, stones, pinecones and driftwood. I've kept this lovely yellow shell for many years. How about you?

P.S I'm not big on heavy photo editing but today I had a play around with one of our Aperture library plugins. Applied this preset using HDR Efex Pro (Nik software) and quite like the result.

school days

are here again & the good bye was still hard to say. i am keeping myself busy today & looking forward to pick up time. her little sister is lost without her. they have spent the past six weeks together. as play mates. & now a new school year has begun. new friends. new challenges. new opportunities & lots more new adventures. i wish my big girl every happiness.

My blog broke

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

My blog has gone on some kind of weird bingeand eaten many of my posts.

I can’t get them back.

My ground-breakingly brilliant* musings on Facebook, summer,body parts and kindness are lost forever. My life-changing post on... that dog thing maynever see the light of day.

The crowds gasp, a small boy weeps...

Normal transmission will resume with Grateful tomorrow...

Inthe meantime, let’s all just look at the pretty picture. Ah, lovely.

Has your blog evergone AWOL?

Thanks for all the (very funny) comments on the lost dog post, BTW.

* Note perception of writing quality rose sharply when itwas found that works were lost forever.

[Image via Pinterest and lost in credit hell after that. Please let me know if it's yours.]

A day at GOMA

We are finally back into the swing of things at work! For those who don't know, I am a nanny. I nanny 3 children aged 9, 7 and 4. I have been with them for almost 4 years now so you can say we are...close! The older kids are back at school and Mr 4 is at Kindy on a 5 day fortnight. He is home on Thursday, Friday and every second Wednesday! Thursday and Friday are taken up with swimming and gymnastics and he spends time with his mum but Wednesday...well Wednesday is our day! It is our special day where we pack our lunch and go where ever our little hearts desire! We have shared so many adventures together that I have wrapped each and every one carefully and stored them away in a special place in my heart! I love our outings! Mr 4 was only 8 months when I started so we have grown up together over the past 4 years! He is my little hero and I will love him forever! Boy can I tell you...we have fun! No matter what we do, no matter where we go...we have fun! Today this was our destination...

We had a little look around in here mainly because of the 'cool' water features they have inside and Mr 4 was obsessed! I finally dragged him to the "Queensland of Modern Art" by telling him I had something MUCH COOLER to show him! Ladies and Gentleman I delivered! Well GOMA delivered but I was his hero in this story! "The obliteration room" which is inspired by the works of Yayoi Kusama was truly spectacular! I had seen pictures on facebook of lots of friends and family who had been, but this is a definite MUST SEE!

Basically there is a white room with white furniture! Everything completely white! Then as you walk in you are given a single sheet of coloured dots! Then you have fun! Stick them anywhere! On the floor, on the furniture, on the roof! We had fun trying to find little white spots that weren't covered! There is even a piano in there and Mr 4 had a ball on that!

No other word comes to mind but COOL! It was just simply cool! I love colour and seeing it like this was just awesome! What an amazing artist! Who would of thought you could create something so awesome with coloured dots. Apparently all of her art is like this so I must check it out!

Another exhibition that was at GOMA was "We miss you magic land" Which I didn't know was there and we kind of stumbled across it but ummmmm HELLO it was unbelievable! These 2 ladies 'pip and pop' also known as Tanya Schultz and Nicole Andrijevic, draw on a mixture of fairy tales, Buddhist cosmologies and video games and create a fluorescent sparkle wonderland. Anything fluro and glitter makes me happy. This place made my heart sore and my cheeks hurt from smiling! The detail was incredible and you couldn't help but feel happy and calm in there! No matter what age or gender - you will simply be amazed!

What a day! So much happiness was shared! We laughed, we played, we shared and we created special moments! 4 big ticks in the SUPER FUN box!

And in other breaking news...remember when I told you I failed yesterday??? Well today I DID IT!!!! Oh man I am so proud of myself! Weeks ago I couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs without my legs burning and loosing my breath. Now I am running 4 minute intervals. O.k so that doesn't sound much when I write it out but for me its huge! My last tip in my "hot tips for running" was to first pump it out! Boy oh boy I was fist pumping it out like nobodies business tonight and now I want to shout it from the roof tops :-) I am so proud of myself and I hope you are of me too! Please if you are sitting there saying "pfft I could never do that" Well my beautiful friends that was me at the start of the year! Now I'm interval training 4-5 times a week and LOVING IT! You can do it!!!!

x S.K.K x

Retreat Home

Today on label love I wanted to show you a new label, Retreat Home, who I discovered at Top Drawer the other week. Their stand was one of my favourites, with its fake grass carpet adorned with a vintage bicycle, a metal bench piled high with the prettiest cushions, and vintage suitcases spilling with delightfully embellished cosmetic bags. To top it off, a pretty duck egg blue caravan called 'Whimsy'. It made my heart flutter, I just had to take a closer look. Oh, and the inside of Whimsy did not disappoint! She was filled with cute applique cushions, peg bags and aprons, and galvanised planters.

To see more gorgeous, inspiring shots check out their Spring 2012 Catalogue. You can also buy everything you see at their online store, Retreat Home.

Here's how the gorgeous collection looked at the Top Drawer Spring/Summer 2012 interior show: