the month that was.

this past month of blogging has actually been great! playing along with 30 days hath november has been really motivating and has caused me to blog about things in my life i normally wouldn't and to look for inspiration in places i normally wouldn't too.
i've thoroughly enjoyed having a topic each day to blog about and i'm pretty proud not to have missed a single post (some of them were a bit late, but they did get there in the end...)

speaking of which, i'd best get to today's topic, 'three wonderful things that happened this month'

the first of which, was that i won some giveaways...


this wonderful cook book from sophie.




and this amazing pattern book from lisa! i made a special trip to a local wool shop to buy some extra nice yarn to lace up :D
the patterns are quite well written and i would highly recommend it!

the second wonderful thing that happened was that i was invited to the opening of a very cool little shop.



betty's place officially opened last saturday and is somewhere i'd highly recommend you stop by! especially in the lead up to christmas ;) the lovely magdalena, or her hubby will be there to help you out!

the third wonderful thing actually involves this very post!
this post is number 300! 300 posts of me nattering on, who'd have thought!
i thought i'd have a little giveaway to celebrate, to say thanks for reading all my silly words and looking at my pictures and even making the occasional comment. it's awesome :D



the prize for this giveaway is one of two cushion covers... neither of which is 100% finished, but i did pop into spotlight for all the necessary finishing touch items! they'll be finished verrrrrrry soon!




unfortunately, you do not win your choice of cushions, this lady does. i owe her a cushion from back in may! i am such a slack crafter sometimes! so i will let you know once i get them to lyndel, and she has made her choice, but until then, dream of both i guess!

to enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post, easy as pie! oh and it's open to everyone, international readers and all!
i'll draw the winner sunday the 11th of december (at 6pm my time), it should hopefully arrive before christmas that way :D


i would just like to say a big thank you to des for running everything. it's been a lot of fun playing along!

preparing...

for a little surprise for tomorrow.





oh and relaxing a bit. have had a fairly big couple of days at training sessions for work. so much information now in my brain!! feels good :D i really do love to learn!
knitting and blog reading and martini-drinking is supremely relaxing :D

how's your week going so far?

some place i'd like to visit.

one word.




that word is paris.

maybe 2012 is the year?

where is some place you'd like to visit?

still to go...

today's 30 days hath november topic is 'a skill i'd like to learn'
where do i start!?!
how about with gocco?



definitely something i want to get into, start up costs be damned!

after gocco, how about some resin casting?



yep, definitely want to get in on that action too!

what about quilting?



i've had a quilting pattern stuck in my head the last couple of days and managed to get it down on paper. now to get a cutting mat, rotary cutter and complimentary quilting cottons. well it's on my to-do list ha ha!

and last on my immediate list is felting.



my mum owns a very grumpy cashmere goat that sheds all of it's fleece every year. i'd like to do something productive or even pretty with it :D

now to find the time to acquire the necessary items, and then use them. maybe i'll ask for time from santa...
by the way, click on the pictures for their original links :D

what's a skill (or four) that you'd like to learn?

a year ago.

so this is a picture of myself one year ago. sitting on the side of the tarwin river, failing to catch a fish.
there was cider though, and good company, which made the whole not catching fish thing ok really.
oh and i'm wearing my favourite dress!

what were you up to a year ago today? do you have a picture of it?

something i'm looking forward to.

so very many things i'm looking forward to really...
christmas, the new year and exciting opportunities it will bring...



fun crafty times and the possibility of meeting fellow blogger types. also a holiday to canberra :D

hopefully more career growth in my job :D

and who knows, maybe i'll even get some of the things done around the house i've been harping on about all year!

exciting times ahead that's for sure!

what are you looking forward to?

the purse! eep!

so the topic for day 25 of 30 days hath november are 'the contents of your purse'



eep! do you really want to see that? goodness knows what's in there! well ok, i know, 329875293 cards for varying uses and some spare change.
how about the stylised version of what's in my purse?




a couple of business cards, my bank cards, a metcard, about $12 in cash, 4 pearl earrings and a spare car key. nothing too exciting really...

EDIT: i'm realising (based on everyone elses posts, that purse means bag. so click here for a read of that one!

what do you keep in your purse?

it means a lot.

one thing that means a lot to me is this...



nope, not silly self portraits with big cheesy smiles, just the smile itself.
sometimes when i'm feeling a bit blue, i think to myself, as long as i can put a smile on my face, things can't be too bad!
by that logic too, happiness is something that means a lot to me and i guess it's something that can be a bit elusive at times. i definitely know that i'm slowly figuring out the things that make me happy and can therefore make sure i do those things more often :D

big smiles!
one of the many things that mean a lot to me.

what is something that means a lot to you?

8 things.

a list of 8 things that some people probably already know about me.

- i'm terrible at sitting still. in fact it's probably the biggest reason i get so much crochet and knitting done.
- i enjoy wearing large rings. the bigger the better. it's considered quite the comedy act at work.


my newest ring purchase. made by the clever girls at finikigirl.


- if i was born a boy, i would've been called drew. when i was told this at the age of 12, i refused to answer to nicole, only drew.
- i have developed a very expensive and unhealthy relationship with shellac. i am forever spouting it's amazing abilities :D see above picture for evidence!
- i prefer savoury to sweet, 90% of the time.
- i enjoy cooking dinner. i like providing delicious food for myself and my bb. i hate cleaning up after said cooking though. dishes urgh!
- i watch wayyyyyy too much tv.
- i can NOT wait to put up my christmas tree. i am hanging out!

care to share 8 things about yourself that most people don't know about you?

travels.

so i know i shared a travel story already, but i have another. except this time it's mostly just pictures. apologies about the quality of the pictures, they're from my scrapbook. the scrapbook i put together when i got back and haven't written a single word into. very angry at myself now as i don't remember all of the things we did everyday!
anywho, this is my school trip to japan in 2005.














yep, that last one is pretty kooky. i definitely wouldn't be able to sell stuff in tokyo!

where have you travelled to?

never tired.

one thing i will absolutely never tire of is being in bed, snuggled up with my pillows and a doona.



luxury.

what would you never tire of?

anecdotal.

i may have mentioned once or twice before, just how damn terrible my memory is. what that means is that when i'm asked to blog about a childhood anecdote i struggle majorly!
perhaps i'll amalgamate today's topic with day 22, 'some place i've travelled' as that is something i can remember.

in 1996, my parents, my younger brother and i hitched up our little pop-top caravan and made our way across the nullabour (with a quick stop in broken hill for some reason...). the sole purpose for our trip, apart from seeing the sights of course, was to visit my auntie who lived in perth.



we were in perth for the sum total of 11 days and it rained, every, single, day (which coincidentally made for excellent olympics viewing weather). it also rained almost our entire trip across the nullabor, apparently we were excellent drought breakers :D
looking at the weather report, mum and dad decided that rather than trek back across the nullabor with more rain expected, that perhaps we should head to somewhere with a bit better climate. so back in the car we piled and up the west coast of australia we went!
i got to feed a dolphin at monkey mia, went for an amazing glass bottom boat trip in coral bay and spent a ridiculous amount of time pulling burrs out of my feet in broome. i celebrated my 8th birthday in kununurra (on the border of wa and nt), but instead of a cake, we had a watermelon that we picked off the side of the road and shared with all the other kids in the caravan park. we kayaked along katherine gorge and spent a very eventful night at the daly waters pub. we missed out on seeing uluru due to a poorly timed bout of gastro (not so fun when you have to use communal toilets, that are over 200m away!)

so very many km's in the back of that car. so many nights spent in a caravan. so many happy memories :D

do you remember any childhood anecdotes?

silly self portraits.

yep i'm a few days behind. my mind has been up there with getting these posts written, but my body has been doing 38023749 other things. bad body!
like last month, i'm not going to be too hard on myself though, i'll get there :D

on saturday night, i spent the night home alone, so decided to finally move all my important files from my old laptop to my new one. so today i thought i'd share 3 years worth of silly self portraits that i unearthed from the photobooth album on my old laptop.
narcissism is gooooooooo!




i might be back later to play catch up!

hope you've had a great weekend!!

my family.

this is my family. my mum (who i introduced you to yesterday), my dad, my brother and my bb.



we were all frocked up for my graduation in april and they're pretty awesome if you ask me.

i came home from running some errands this morning and there was a package sitting on my doorstep. would you like to see what was inside?


an amazing box of goodies from my op-shop swap partner, yvette. isn't she lovely!!!

i've been wearing this little cutie since i opened it up!



receiving this today made me realise i hadn't gotten started on yvette's goody box! very slack of me! i popped over to the oppy and have gotten almost everything i need, i just need to make a couple of things and i'll be done!

also, this is what i was wearing to run my errands and do my op-shopping.
maxi dress + hot weather = summer is coming!

the dress i bought from a shop in richmond and i'm pretty sure the rest of the accessories were thrifted :D

what are you up to today?