keeping the dream alive... may photo a day

As I am sure you know by know, I have been playing along with Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge since January. I am really proud to say that I am still going strong, and if anything, I am enjoying it more and more. I share my photos daily on the smartphone app instagram, and there is this amazing little community out there playing along too. I have met all these interesting people from all around the world, and Australia just from sharing my photo a day. I think it is a bit like having modern day pen pals.

day 1 peace | day 2 skyline | day 3 something you wore today

This is what happens when I ask my husband for advice...
me: the theme today is peace, what should I do?
mr g: we've got loads of peas in the freezer (pause for anticipated laughter, caused by hilarious wit)
me: (actually laughing) that's funny, I'm totally doing that.
mr g: (falls over in shock that I thought his joke was funny enough to use)

Adelaide city skyline from the perspective of Chesser Street, standing right outside the Intrinsic front door. It is a beautiful old lane way overshadowed by old warehouses and new office buildings and covered with a canopy of vines.

At the hairdressers on day 3 with a head full of foil and feeling super excited to get my wooly head sorted out.

day 4 fun | day 5 bird 

Day 4 was a Friday so that could only mean one thing. Drinks with my sister. I think Roxy was a little to keen for Friday fun and was waiting a the car door with a big fat glass of wine, like all good friends should.

You would think in a garden so full of trees that I would be able to find a bird to photograph! I heard plenty. I'm pretty sure they were mocking me. In the end this was the best I could come up with. An out of focus magpie and a koala's butt. Even the koala was mocking me.

day 6 you | day 7 someone that inspires you 

On day six I went to a ladies lunch raising money for Variety club at the Adelaide Wine Centre. A friend is in the Mad Max team and asked if my sister would put together a table. It finished up being a brilliant group of girls, all different and all fabulous. I feel really lucky to have so many wonderful women in my life.  These two lovely ladies are both friends I have made since having children and are both very special to me.

Following the theme of beautiful people. As you may know I work for Intrinsic. Intrinsic is owned by Adèle and Jamie Basheer. Adèle writes all the inspirational messages that appear on all our products. Her journey is an inspiration.

day 8 a smell you adore | day 9 something you do everyday 

I didn't quite read day eight's theme properly. I thought it was favourite smell. I had cleverly planned to have dinner cooking in the slow cooker and to brag about my cleverness as I walked into the house to the delicious smell of dinner already cooked. Then I read the list again. A smell you ADORE. I think adore is a pretty strong word, and I am not sure that my casserole in the slow cooker is really quite right for it. But I had nothing else.

Everyday I drink my coffee. Then I pick it up just wishing there was just a little more left. As a side note to drinking coffee and this cup being a takeaway cup. I have made a commitment to myself to not buy coffee in a paper cup. I have been spending too much money on coffee and it has to stop. I am still allowed coffee in glass or ceramic, so that means that if I have bought a coffee I am drinking it in a cafe. That's my rule.

day 10 a favourite word | day 11 kitchen | day 12 something that makes you happy

I was feeling very lucky to go to another fundraising lunch on day ten. This time it was the Crows Foundation raising money for Heartkids. I went to work for the morning and when we arrived I was excited to find out that it was champagne o'clock, my favourite word. It was another brilliant function and again I enjoyed spending time with and some people I know and love, and also meeting some new friends. My highlight was hearing Lisa Wilkinson speak. She was the best speaker I have ever heard. She has an awesome story and told it so well. My sister has a giant girl crush on Lisa and was in awe for the whole time. Lisa spoke for way longer than she was supposed to, so she finished speaking and had to leave immediately to get to the airport on time. I grabbed my sister and her phone and we ran to cut her off at the exit. I garbled something about massive fan and photo please. And Lisa was gracious enough to have her photo taken with Roxy, who almost passed out from happiness.

When I was thinking about happiness on day 12 I looked at the flowers that Roxy (unnecessarily) bought me to say thank you, and my heart just filled with happiness thinking about how that little thing I did, that cost me nothing, and was really quite easy, made her so happy.

Oh yeah, day 11 my kitchen. By careful use of cropping and camera angles, my kitchen actually looks tidy, and it also highlights my two favourite features. The view and the coffee machine,

day 13 mum

Perfect theme for Mother's Day. I am lucky to still have my kind and caring mum live close enough for me to see her when I want. (Although it would be nice to be a little closer to see her more often) I am also lucky to have a gorgeous caring daughter and an awesome loving step-son. On Mother's Day I was counting my blessings. That is for sure. It can be a really, really, tough day. I was spoilt with a treasure hunt planned by miss m to find my present. Then, with a little guidance from mr g, she made me pancakes. The boy arrived home with a bunch of flowers for me and a bunch for my mum. He scored so many brownie points with that! We then went up to Mum and Dad's for lunch, along with my sister and her family. My choice for day 13's photo is my mum with the grandkids.

day 14 grass | day 15 love | day 16 what you're reading | day 17 snack

Oops. Forgot to take a photo of grass today. Remembered at 8:00pm. Asked the Instagram community if we could call it moody and atmospheric, instead of oh crap it's 8:00pm and I haven't taken a photo of grass yet. They were very supportive.

This was the little poem that miss m wrote me to test out the notepaper she gave me for Mother's Day. It is really beautiful and made me teary. Then she added a little extra to the back. Turns out I had to pay 50c if I wanted it!

I had been reading a book of slow cooker recipes, trying to find some different things to try, instead of the usual casseroles.

I almost always have raw nuts to snack on at work

day 18 something you made | day 19 a favourite place | day 20 something you can't live without

I made the decision. I would do the Barossa half-marathon again. You can read all about it here.

After yet another busy Saturday I made it to Victor Harbour to spend the night camping with a really great group of adults and kids. I was so happy to finally sit my self down in front of the campfire with a glass of bubbles. Relaxing with friends is always a favourite place to be. The physical location doesn't really matter.

We were so lucky with the weather and mother nature blessed our bleary heads with the most beautiful sunrise the next morning. We can not live without sunlight, so it seemed like an easy solution for day 20.

day 21 where you stand | day 22 pink | day 23 technology

I know I could have actually made a statement about something meaningful. But it was Monday morning, I was standing at the bus stop. It just seemed easy.

So much pink to choose from. I looked around the room and saw the girls sweat bands sitting in the kitchen. I loved that the Manchester United store had so much girl stuff. And so did miss m.

My technology at work. I love my mac and wacom tablet. They make me so happy at work. A cup of tea also helps.

day 24 something new | day 25 unusual | day 26 12 o'clock

A lovely stack of new books from the library on day 24. I love the library, it's so (nerdishly) cool to be able to choose a massive stack of books that look interesting and not have to put any back because it will be too expensive.

Oh so very unusual on day 25 to have a deliciously empty diary to sit myself down with my new books and a cup of coffee and try to understand how I can make my blog look the way I want it to. I still don't understand yet. But I did have a lovely day.

At 12:00 on day 26 I was walking past Mary Martin's thinking about the lovely coffee I would soon be enjoying.

day 27 sweet | day 28 the weather today | day 29 a number

Day 27 was half marathon day and crossing the finish line and taking off my shoes and socks was oh so very sweet.

I wrote about the beautiful weekend we had in my last post, so I won't bore you with it again. But  the weather was cool and cloudy, and perfect for checking out the wineries.

I put my sneakers back on again to play basketball on Tuesday night. I'm number 7. We lost. But I was pleased that I could play at all to be honest.

day 30 your personality | day 31 something beautiful 

This was a tricky one. To visually describe my personality. I decided rubber band, I think my best trait is that I can go with the flow and adapt to last minute plans. So I went with I am flexible. I also have a habit of overcommitting and not really judging how long things will take. I stretch too far. Sometimes I snap, just ask mr g. But I do always bounce back.

I was rushing off to a meeting at 6:00pm on day 31, and crossing my fingers for a beautiful sunset. We pulled over at our local CFS (country fire service) to take this beautiful shot of the sunsetting over Adelaide as the sparkly city lights were coming on. I think our CFS one of the best views in South Australia.

How has your month been. Are you still sticking to your New Year's Resolutions? Would you like to challenge me that your fire service has a better view? Have a great weekend

partying my arms off to battle the post-holiday blues

Yikes! I really am getting quite behind, Andrea over at Fox in Flats has already issued a new style dare and I haven't even shared the proof from the last one!! I was on holidays (in Paris, one of the fashion capitals of the world as my daughter precociously informed me) when I saw that Andrea had raised the gauntlet yet again, daring us to break out of our sartorial comfort zones and add some excitement to our arms with an arm party dare. My first thought was 'I am so doing this one, how cool are my proof of dare photos going to be when I am in Paris', but on the second day I realised that I only had enough bling for one day. *sad face* So I bought a new bracelet! *happy face* But I then couldn't justify blowing what was left of our spending money on bracelets, so I sadly backed out.

We arrived home and it was time to go back to work all foggy headed and jet-lagged, and I thought to myself, what better way to delay the post-holiday blues than by having an arm party for a week?! Who cares if I was doing it a week late. I didn't care, Fox in Flats even says on her blog that you can do a dare whenever you like, what's important is that you do it for seven days. And here is my proof...

Day 1: Black, silver and neutrals, to ease myself back to the real world.

Day 2: My fun Paris purchase.

Day 3: I don't work Fridays, so Thursday nights are my Fridays and it was time to toast the start of my weekend. Not quite sure what I was complaining about when I was coming back to a three day week.

Day 4: Having a silvery arm birthday party. Thank you for the beautiful flowers Mr G. (I did not want a present after going way over budget on our holiday!)

Day 5: A red arm party to sit in the sun and watch the soccer with my lovely sister in law. I wish our husbands still played for the same club, so we could do this more often.

Day 6: It started as a simple arm party, but then my sister rocked up and suddenly things were looking a little more exciting with some extra green bracelets. And my head was a little foggy the next morning after a glass of bubbles (or two or three) too many. But it had been nearly a month since we had last seen each other, so there was lots to celebrate!

Day 7: Back to work on Monday and it was a bronzed arm party for the final day. I thought the colours looked too lovely with our beautiful mug packaging to not include a gratuitous Intrinsic product shot!

Whew! What a week after all the partying I needed to lie down with an ice pack and two panadol!!
But seriously, this one was both easy and fun. Although at times slightly annoying, I don't actually like having stuff on my wrists when I am working, it rattles on the table and bugs me. Quite often I take my bracelets and watch off when I get to work and put them back on at home time! But for the arm party dare I just dealt with it.

I did make an new discovery, that a couple of my necklaces are the right length to wrap around my wrist. I love finding things that can do double duty!

This is the third style dare I've taken part in and what is interesting is how it has changed my thinking. I am still looking at adding an extra couple of bracelets when I get dressed. And months after the black out dare, I still find myself looking to the simplicity of the black in my wardrobe. AND as much as I complained about the sparkle dare, I actually bought a sequinned racer back singlet when we were in London, which I have thrashed. So it seems like, in the fashion world at least, seven days is long enough to form a new habit. I wonder what other areas of life that could work in??

Any ideas... have you formed any new habits lately? And are you going to have a go at Fox in Flats latest boot dare?

day 48-60 (february photo-a-day day 16-29) or how did I get so far behind?!?

It doesn't take much for the house of cards to come tumbling down does it? Even when it is something you love doing it can still fall to pieces. A couple of school evening commitments, a busy week at work followed by a work trip away and next thing you know I am 13 days behind in sharing my Fat Mum Slim February photo-a-day pics with you. For some of these days I had planned a bit more of a story to go with them but as things have turned out I think that would be a little excessive, so I will save those stories and extra pics for a different day and for now I apologise for taking so long and giving you so many pics to look at in one go...

Day 60 (february day 29) - something I'm listening to

It's raining it's pouring, the old man is snoring. Well not really, but it is wet and windy and I am feeling annoyed about it. I have just gotten home from five fabulous days in Sydney, where we (Intrinsic) were exhibiting at the Home and Giving Trade Fair. I ate and drank way too much and am now feeling very podgy! I arrived home late last night and have the day off today. After sleeping a little too late this morning I optioned up on one of Andrea at Fox-in-flats' tips for the school run and threw on my gym gear. I did actually plan to go for a run, but I had a princess moment and the rain put me off. Instead I am sitting here on the computer listening to the rain and hoping it will ease off enough for me to actually run.

Day 59 (february day 28) - money

Money... or lack thereof (it's been a big weekend!)

Day 58 (february day 27) - something I ate

What and amazing Lebanese feast at El-Phoenician restaurant in Parramatta! The food was so good, the waiting staff were super friendly and the company was perfect. The only down side was the contribution this made to my current podgy feeling!! (But I still say totally worth it!)

Day 57 (february day 26) - night

Not sure that I nailed this one! It is the view from my lovely hotel room at the Pullman Hotel in Olympic Park with the room reflected in the window. Hmmm.

Day 56 (february day 25) - green

First day of the fair and when I sat down to have some lunch and flick through Instagram I realised that the theme was green and my spinach quiche and spinach and cous cous salad seemed like it would be my best option for the day. 

Day 55 (february day 24) - inside your bathroom cabinet

I left home for the airport at 5:30am so the last thing on my mind was taking photos. By the time I was thinking about the photo-a-day challenge my bathroom cabinet was inside my daggy old toilet bag that I have had for getting close to 20 years!

Day 54 (february day 23) - shoes

I do love shoes, but continuing my time poor theme of the last week, there was no time for staging some gorgeous shot. Instead these are one of my favourite pairs of shoes and are perfect for powering my ride to work.

Day 53 (february day 22) - where I work

My paid work is at the most gorgeous Intrinsic. We create beautiful greeting cards, gifts and stationery to inspire the world. The Intrinsic studios are located off the charming vine covered Chesser Street in Adelaide.

Day 52 (february day 21) - a fave photo of me

A photo of a photo, I want to say how very post-modern. But I know that just dates me as being old enough to remember a world where photos existed only in albums or in frames. And to get a copy meant taking the negative to the photo processing shop. Anyway this is one of my favourite photos of Miss M and me. It was taken by my lovely sister at Pt Vincent, my favourite place. I did have a couple of runners up for fave photo, but I asked Miss M to help me choose, so of course she chose the one of her looking super cute.

Day 51 (february day 20) - handwriting

My hand-writing on top and I think my Nanna's hand-writing on the bottom. I found the recipe tucked inside a very old edition of the Green & Gold Cookbook. I'm glad that I do have some handwritten recipes. I hope that my grandchildren enjoy reading them, like I enjoy reading old family recipes. I'm pretty sure they won't be pouring through my collection of pins on Pinterest, or looking through my bookmarks on my computer filled with nostalgia. There really is something about handwriting that evokes the presence of that person. 

Day 50 (february day 19) - something I hate to do

I hate tidying. This is the dumping ground that is my office. When we have people coming round I do an emergency surfaces tidy and everything lands in the office. I spent day 19 sucking it up and tidying this disaster zone. By the end it was looking pretty good. Not perfect, but a really good start.

Day 49 (february day 18) - drink

It looks like I spend a lot of time sitting around drinking coffee. And maybe I do! Day 18 saw me back in my favourite Saturday spot with a cafe latte and about to make a very late jump onto The Slap bandwagon.

Day 48 (february day 17) - time

It was time to clear this c**p out of my life. I was inspired by Sarah at A Beach Cottage to just get stuck in and do it. She issued a de-clutter challenge and I put up my virtual hand and said I'm in. Unfortunately, my good intentions were also derailed by my busy week. And I am a beach cottage de-clutter fail whale. But that's okay. I did make a good start and got rid of some stuff that had been hanging around for ages. And I even got $16 for the bottles! What I did do on day 17 that was awesome and I am going to continue was to set the timer for one hour and put as much as I could fit in the car boot and then took it straight to the Salvos. And that felt fantastic.

Phew! That was long. Well done and thank you if you're still reading! How has your February? Did you have good intentions de-railed by other commitments?   

day 42-46 (or february day 11-15)

day 46 (or feb day 15) - phone
I wanted to do something interesting. I really do love my iPhone but I couldn't work out how to take a photo of it. Then I started to see the pictures coming up on Instagram of reflection shots. (I don't know why I didn't think of that!) Some were quite clever, like reflections in sunnies and rear-view mirrors. Not just bathroom mirrors. My sub-concious was pondering away on what to do today, and I remembered these earrings. When I was in high school I went on exchange to Chile. I got my ears pierced when I was over there. Mum and Dad would never let me! I then went on an earring purchasing frenzy! Which included these telephone earrings. I think that I used to have them in red and white as well as black. All I could find was this one.

 day 45 (or feb day 14) - heart
We don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I think it comes from a bad first experience in the early days of our relationship. Mr G ordered flowers to be sent to my work, and was expecting to get an excited thank you phone call, or at least some sort of acknowledgement. But the florist stuffed up and forgot to pack the order!! He thought the reason I didn't say thank you was because I was seeing someone else and wasn't sure who the flowers were from! But I just thought he didn't get me anything. Not good!
Clearly we moved past this early hiccup, but we haven't bothered with Valentine's gifts since then.

I got a bit excited in the morning and decided to make the girl a Valentine's themed lunchbox with pink and red food and love heart sandwiches. I also wrote a little Valentine's note for in her lunchbox (like I said I got a bit excited!) Anyway, I picked her up from school, almost bursting with my fabulousness, and as soon as we got in the car I was asking "how was your lunch today?" Her answer a deadpan "good". Hmmm I tried again with, "but was anything especially good?" "Yeah, it was all good" Anyway this went on for a while before I burst and had to ask "What about the love heart bread and the note!!" Finally she remembered and said that she thought it was nice. NICE! Just NICE! I went to all that trouble and the best she could come up with was NICE!

We talked about it again later in the evening, (I wasn't quite ready to let it go!) And it turned out that she did actually really like it all, I was just too eager bugging her with questions as soon as we got in the car. (Note to self: hold back and don't' get too excited about stuff, try to act cool with the girl)

With a theme of hearts there had to be something from Intrinsic. And my kisii stone that I keep on my desk. To round out the heart theme, Miss M got changed out of here school uniform and came out wearing her Melbourne Heart soccer top. Perfect choice and I didn't even ask her to do it. She wasn't happy to be photographed today, so logo only. It's an inexact science with getting permission to use her photo.

day 44 (or feb day 13) - blue

I was full of indecision today. I tried taking the blue sky, which was very exciting to see after the un-summer like weather of last week. But it didn't really say blue to me. I kept looking at the blue foam on the trampoline nets and thinking that I wanted to capture that feeling. Lucky for me Miss M was feeling co-operative and agreed to dress in blue and jump on the trampoline. 

day 43 (or feb day 12) - in my closet

I took a big deep breath and decided to tell it like it is. My real life looks nothing like my Pinterest boards. I am a slob! I have a lovely bid walk-in-robe and I don't even keep it looking nice. With my new Instagram addiction I have found a new blog A Beach Cottage. Sarah is doing a massive declutter at the moment and has called for others to join in. In a moment of craziness I accepted her challenge, so I look forward to this being a before photo in an awesome closet blitz!

day 42 (or feb day 11) - makes me happy
Miss M has a new Saturday morning activity that gives me a blissful hour to waste on The Parade, Norwood. It is conveniently close to the delightful Mary Martin's Bookshop with its lovely little cafe. I sat there this morning loving the peace and quiet. I had brought along a bag of recipe books to read through. I was looking for a vegetarian recipe to make for dinner that night. I found a recipe for mushroom and leek pie that gave me then inspiration to do my own version. It was so yummy. And I had an awesome evening with a people I like a lot and don't see enough of.

stuff I've been loving this summer

Today has been such a beautiful day. The sun was out, the sky was blue and somehow that just made everything just feel good. I started the day going for a run with my sister, which is always a good thing. We had our usual coffee and chat post run (more ticks in the awesomeness column.) I got home from my run and my fabulous hubby had tidied up the debris from having friends round for dinner the night before - yay! And the memory of the really great dinner and even better catch up with friends we have not seen enough of lately was still fresh in my brain. And I got a phone call from my stepson to say that he was going to be home for dinner (we haven't seen much of him lately, which had made me feel a little cross, so that was exciting news indeed! It's weird how I get cross at him, but the only reason I am cross is because I miss him so much)

Soccer pre-season has started, so the girl and I had the house to ourselves this afternoon. I wanted to practice my photography skills in my newly discovered bathroom photo booth. (There is a chance that she spent too much time on screens today while I was distracted - the only negative in an otherwise win of a day) Summer happiness was in my head, so here is my summer happiness compilation!

1. Bargain dress from Jay Jays (I think it was only about $15 or $20)
2 Country Road hat, not such a bargain, but I did have a DJs gift card, and I have worn it heaps!
3 My own personal vintage Ray-bans (can I still call it vintage when its something I have had in the back of the cupboard since the early 90's?!?)
4 Pink beach bag from Milloe by AD designs (not sure who stocks them, I got it at the trade fair) I love the flamingo lining (stay tuned for a future flamingo feature)
5 Made by Cheeky sandals, I have loved these so much (as you can see from the dirty footprints on them!)
6 Intrinsic goals journal - I loved being on summer holidays staring out to sea, dreaming my dreams and writing in my journal
7 Ministry of Sound Chillout Sessions XIV great relaxed compilation

To top off the day my beautiful boy even bought me flowers to say sorry for making me feel sad! Isn't he lovely? How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? What was the weather like in your part of the world?

day 33 - words (or feb day 2)

I work for Intrinsic and all of our products have the inspiring words of Adèle Basheer on them. So with the theme for today being words, it could only be the works of Adèle. This is my favourite quote:

You are the star, the dreamer, the creator of your destiny, unfold your wings and weave your magic. Adèle Basheer

Plus it is my beautiful butterfly illustration prettifying the words. And this is my new favourite product. It is our hopes, dreams and wishes journal or our Intrinsic version of a goal journal. I wrote in mine over the Christmas and New Year's holiday and one of my goals was to start a blog. And here I am. How good is that?!!

Did you set any New Year's resolutions? Did you turn them into goals? How are you going with them?

 

day 32 - my view today (or feb day 1)

I should have learnt to read ahead with the photo-a-day challenges. But alas I am still being caught out by my lack of preparedness (hmm... pleased to see that preparedness slipped through the spell check net, I wasn't sure if it was an actual word!) Anyway, the challenge for Jan 30 was nature, and I chose to take a photo of the gorgeous view across the Adelaide Hills from our back yard not thinking that in 3 days time the challenge would be your view!

It felt way too boring to replicate day 30. I wanted to take a photo of my view as I ride into work through the lovely leafy Adelaide suburbs, but I couldn't find a spot to get the right feeling. Instead I have chosen a city montage.

First: I love riding my bike through the beautiful parklands that surround Adelaide. But I feel massively annoyed by the construction that takes over Victoria Park from November to May as they assemble and disassemble the temproary infrastructure for the Clipsal 500 (v8 super car races).

Second: Lovely, lovely Chesser St. There is a really cool looking bike parked right outside our office door. Sadly it is not mine. Mine is safely locked away until home time. (Check out the photos below, Chesser St has become even more awesome with a Splash Adelaide Installation, it's only there for 8 weeks so we have to make the most of it)

Finally: The view through my window at work.

day 25 - something I made

Woah! What a crazy busy day!! I worked all day. Then I arrived home packed our bags and we headed off to the beautiful Pt Vincent to sneak in one last long weekend before school goes back.

The morning had been frantic, no time for making, although I did take some photos of old projects, it didn't feel right to use an old project, (I'm still feeling funny about using one of our old childhood photos on day 10). I did make my breakfast, but I ate that before I thought about what the day's challenge was. I did spend all day kind of making at work, I'm working on our new stationery range. But that didn't feel right, since it was on the computer, not made with my hands. And aside from that, I can't share it anyway until the range is officially launched.

I saw Styling You's photo on instagram and she'd made herself a cup of tea. That would have been perfect, if I had have thought of it first! But I didn't want to copy. I wondered if I could count packing my bag as making something? I didn't even make my lunch or dinner. As we were driving to Pt Vincent the inspiration hit me. I was hanging out to arrive and see my family and especially, finally relax with a glass of wine. I knew what I could make. I could make myself smile, by pouring a big, fat glass of wine.

Isn't it silly how I have all these rules in my head for how I have to play the photo-a-day game? I really could have just used anything I had made, but it had to follow the rules. Adèle and I are always reminding each other at Intrinsic that we make the rules, so we can break them. Do you ever set yourself rules that are restrictive and also unnecessary?

happy, happy me

hello, welcome to my world

This possibly should have been my first post, but I am going with the flow and not stressing about things being perfect. That way there are no excuses to not blog. If you look at my profile you'll see this was started back in 2007. That's 5 years of excuses. It's about time I just started. If thats what I want to do.

all about me
I'm mum to the gorgeous Miss M and step-mum to the also gorgeous (and very big) G.
I have a husband who finds my various crazes slightly amusing, and hopefully a little bit charming.
We live in the Adelaide Hills and I still find the noise that koalas make startling.
I like to run with and chat to and drink wine with my sister (not all at the same time though).
I love to ride my bike, especially downhill with a tail wind. It feels like I am flying.
I love cooking and try to buy and make healthy food and I don't eat sugar.
And my favourite place to be is on holidays at Pt Vincent talking rubbish with my family and staring out to sea.
I play basketball very poorly and I watch a lot of soccer.
I am president of Miss M's school P&F (a slightly crazy, but good commitment to take on)
I like the idea of being organised and punctual, but the reality is that I am not!
I suspect that I overuse exclamation marks!!

I like to draw and cut and paste. I am lucky enough to get paid to do this and I get to work school hours. Perfect Mum Job. I illustrate and design greeting cards, stationery and gifts for Intrinsic. My job is to make Adèle Basheer's words look beautiful. And I love it. Sarah did a great profile on me for our Intrinsic newsletter a few years ago, I still really like it.

I like setting myself goals, normally, I eventually achieve them.

I'm still not sure what the focus of paper sand{ra} life will be, hopefully you'll join me and we can work it out together. Let me know what you think xx