Postcards from... Canberra!

Are you dying to hear about it?  Well, the wait is over. 

My Mum and I travelled to Canberra in early August. It was a four day whirlwind and we packed it full … for me anyway. We flew from Brisbane to Canberra on a Saturday morning, which took about an hour and a half.  We couldn't check into our room at the Crowne Plaza until after 2pm, so we had a few hours to kill.  

Picking up a rental car took mere minutes and we headed straight to the National Library for lunch at the Bookplate restaurant.  This was followed by selfie opportunities with the gorgeous stained glass windows and a leisurely walk around the Treasures Gallery. They had several amazing artifacts, artworks and (of course) books from their core collection.  There was also a special exhibition of the history of Australian political cartoons.  The video of interviews with political cartoonists was informative and insightful.   

A few hours went by quickly.  We went for a quick drive around Canberra, this didn't take long, to find some landmarks and places we were planning to visit on Sunday and Monday, so we knew how to get there.  We settled into our hotel, picked up some food (finding a park was so painful!) and Mum headed out with some old friends.  I had a good rest! 

Sunday was so much fun and exhausting!  We had a full buffet breakfast at the hotel (included in the price of our stay) and headed out to the Old Bus Depot Markets right next door to the Canberra Glassworks.  There were some beautiful artwork, handmade crafts and jewellery stalls as well as clothes, hats and food.  Oh the food! Mum and I had some fun browsing and purchased a few small items to take home.  The cold weather got the better of me and I bought a pair of gloves without fingertips.  My gloves were annoying me and I had to keep removing them to use my phone.  I enjoyed talking to the stall holders about their particular crafts and expertise.  These markets are a great opportunity to meet some locals and pick up some unique souvenirs.  

Mum had a coffee and I had a hot chocolate from the hot drink stall at the front of the market building and can give it 5 stars!  It was by far the busiest of the stalls.  We ate some fruit that we snagged from the breakfast buffet and walked off to the Canberra Glassworks. 

The Canberra Glassworks is located inside the historic Kingston Powerhouse and much of the building is still in tact.  When you are sitting in a workshop you can look up to see huge pipes, steel beams and big switches.  Thankfully, there are also plaques explaining what things are and which part of the power station you are actually standing in.  There are always artists working with glass in the 'hotshop', you can book in for classes where you get to learn from experienced artists and there are some artist talks on during the week.  If you sign up to create something you get one on one attention and get to keep what you make.  We didn't book in for any tours or classes, but there are viewing galleries in most of the workshop spaces and artists are happy to interact with visitors.  They will explain what they are doing and are happy to answer questions.  We wandered through the gallery to take a look at the special exhibition and marvelled at the price of all the handmade products in the shop.  An absolute must at the Glassworks is a good go at the marble run, shown here to the left.  You can purchase a bag of handmade marbles for $5.  Place the marbles on the platform and crank the handle to raise them to the top of the run (a full flight of stairs above your head) and when they get there they go through different pipes and start falling to the ground.  Suspend the fact that you are an adult and shouldn't care about playing with marbles and crawl on the floor to find all the marbles so you can have another go.  

The core of the Australian War Memorial, 

reflecting pool and original dome. 

We went to the Australian War Memorial and enjoyed lunch at Poppy's café.  Which was lovely.  There were television screens playing audio visual displays in a few locations, comfortable seating, tables and cushions with pictures of old war propaganda.  Then we hurried to the reception area for the 90 minute highlights tour.  There are about 4 of these each day, run by volunteers and is well worth it. This tour didn't cover every exhibition and moved quite quickly through the space, but stories told by the volunteer guide were fascinating and he helped us make connections between exhibits that we never would have done alone.

Memorial Plaques with Poppies left by family and friends 

beside names of Australians who died in armed conflicts.  

There were several areas that we would have liked to explore more, but ran out of time.  The visit was somewhat emotional and I wouldn't be able to spend the whole day there.  However, I would go and visit again.  There is also an audio tour, for the cost of $10 which has additional information about selected exhibits and it very engaging.  There are also 30 minute highlights and 60 minute highlights tours which are free and are repeated throughout the day. There are other tours which are more specific to certain exhibitions once a day. Check out the War Memorial Website for tour times and special exhibitions.

Feeling very sore and tired, we decided to go back to the hotel for a rest. Mum went out with family friends for dinner and I went to bed early.  

I think that's plenty of news about Canberra, for now.  Next week, I will tell you all about our visit to the Canberra Zoo.  

See you Next Week... Hopefully on time?! 

Travelling with Chronic Pain- Packing

I have been travelling!

Chronic Pain has an impact on every aspect of your life.  Even when you go on holiday, the pain comes too.  The pain is usually not quite as bad when I am relaxing and don't have the same pressures that I have during work.  Unfortunately, there are certain aspects of travel that can cause pain too.  All of this means that you have to plan ahead and pack accordingly.

Shelly is very helpful when I'm packing.
This is the decoy suitcase! 

This particular trip was a four day escape to Canberra.  I live in Brisbane, so Canberra is about an hour and half away by plane.  The weather was very cold.. although not cold enough for snow... not in the city anyway.  Four days is not too long, so I packed light.

1. Clothes... including leggings and camisoles to wear underneath my regular clothes as well as underwear. This included jeans, a pair of long pants, several comfortable t-shirts and a jacket.
2. Pyjamas - tracksuit pants, an oversized t-shirt, a jumper and an extra pair of socks.
3. My Tablets!!!
4. Extra Pain Meds - Panadol, a prescription pain killer, magnesium tablets, an anti-inflammatory and more.
5. A heat pack - just a heads up here, make sure you will have access to a microwave before you take up precious space in your suitcase.  In a pinch, a hand towel soaked in boiled water works okay too.
6. An eye pillow - or you can use a wash cloth soaked in cold water.
7. Comfortable and Supportive shoes!!
8. I didn't pack a pillow, but I kind of wish I had.
9. Toiletries and skin care products.
10. Vicks Vapour Rub- it helps with lots of ailments and even if it doesn't help, it shouldn't hurt.

11. Some simple craft supplies- alcohol markers, a bunch of stamped out images, a clipboard, a pen and postage stamps.
12. A good book that I had already started to read and still haven't finished.
13. Bottled water (one bottle, that I refilled whenever I could.. staying hydrated is so important to staying on top of your pain).
14. Ear phones (so important for listening to meditations and music, especially as I was travelling with my Mum and we shared a king bed).

I think that's about it.  I told you I packed light. If you want to read more about how I managed my pain on a road trip check out this post.

What are your Essentials for Travelling?

In the next few weeks I will tell you more about our Awesome Canberra Adventure.

Until Then...

Cards for Guys

Card making is one of those hobbies that has been largely enjoyed by women in the past.  Many companies in the crafting industry are owned and managed by women.  Many of the products that we purchase are certainly geared towards women.  So, making masculine cards can be a bit of a challenge.  I also want to remind you, that crafting and, indeed, card making is an activity that involves many skills and can be enjoyed by both men and women.  There are some great gentlemen in the crafting industry as well and they know their stuff.  If you are interested in learning more about a few of the guys in the paper crafting industry, check out these links.

Tim Holtz

Simon Hurley

Christopher Allen from Brutus Monroe

Today, I'm aware that Father's Day is about 2 weeks away, so I wanted to share some masculine cards with you as well as some tips for designing your own masculine cards.

Tip #1 Masculine Colours

While we often associate Blue with Boys... you don't have to stick to just blue.  We often think about dark colours (like grey, brown, black etc) for our boys and while these dark colour palettes certainly look more 'manly' there are no hard and fast rules about colour.  Think about muted colours, you can use red, orange, yellow and even pink if you use more muted shades. Catherine Pooler makes it so easy to work out the grey content of your colours with her Party and Spa Ink Collections.  Any colour in the Spa Collection should suit a design for any guy in your life.  My main rule with the "boy" cards is to keep my colour palette limited to only two or three colours.  This is a good rule most of the time, but with the feminine cards it's easier to add colour in images.  Keep it simple for yourself by limiting the number of colours.

Tip #2 Geometric Shapes

When in doubt use geometric shapes in your cards.  It's easy to make a 'masculine' pattern in muted colours.  Keep the shapes simple and embrace the straight lines and sharp corners.  Like in these cards...

Of course, when using one or two colours, you can sometimes use various shades of the same colour to add interest without getting too complicated.

Tip #3 Texture up...

If you don't want your boy cards to look too plain, add  a bit of texture.  You can do something as simple as distressing the edges of your card stock, tearing your background or adding a textured embellishment.  You can also add texture with an embossing folder, textured paper, cloth, ribbon (yes, ribbon), burlap, washi tape or even aluminium foil from the kitchen.  This added texture can also add interest when you have limited colours and shapes.

An embossing folder in the background and 

some patterned paper adds texture and colour to this simple card. 

The tyre tracks are a washi tape I bought from Kaisercraft (from the discount bin)

I used glitter paper behind the sentiment for some extra texture.  

The random grunge type background was just ink blending through different stencils.  

I love the stick on dots added as embellishment. 

Tip #4 Keep it Simple

While it's possible to get some awesome images for masculine cards, don't panic if you don't have them.  Only one image is really needed.  A few candles on a birthday card, a cake or a couple of balloons will get you a long way.  As you've seen in the cards above, you can create something great for your guy, with just a large sentiment and a geometric background.

I made this card with left over scraps!  The sentiment is the real star of the show in this card.
I made this card for my nephew, who loves RED!  

Here are some more masculine cards I have made.

Dog's are man's best friend, Right? 

I made this card for my nephew.

I used an embossing folder to make the brick wall

with Fired Brick (distress oxide ink) swiped across it. 

This card has the masculine colours, texture, distressed edges

and the cutest hero image, set up on an action wobbler.  

I used my alphabet dies to create my own sentiment. 

That's it for now.  Do you have a favourite stamp set that you use for masculine cards?  Do you have an awesome colour palette that works every time? Let me know in the comments!

A Quick "One Word" Update

This is a quick on today, because I'm trying to get organised for a Canberra getaway this weekend!  We are going for 4 days and we will be busy.  Apparently, we will also be COLD!  I will tell you more about that in a few weeks.  For today, let's talk about my One Word journey.

If you want to learn more about the "One Word 365" movement you can click here.  If you want to read more about my One Word 365 journey, click here.  My word for this year is PAUSE.

The Pause thing... is working really well for me!  I am loving the time I get to spend reading my Bible and praying.  I am generally more positive, encouraging and kind when I'm speaking.  I was never really nasty or mean when I spoke, but I'm more encouraging and I feel more positive.

When making choices around what to eat, I have been trying out different times and different foods that help me to make good choices.  Recently, I set a notification on my phone for 8:35am everyday to remind me to eat a piece of fruit.  I know I will have a better day if I eat a piece of fruit at this time.  I won't get hungry until lunch time, so I don't get cranky or distracted in class.  It is a great boost and I start out making good choices so I tend to continue that throughout the day.  The notification  says "banana" or "apple" or "orange" so the decision is made for me.  I don't have to think about it.  Nice.  Eating the piece of fruit, forces me to pause for a few minutes in my morning and just breathe... and eat. :) This piece of fruit isn't my breakfast, by the way, it's my morning snack.  I eat breakfast at 5:30am, so if I don't eat before school starts, I am Hangry by lunch time.  

My deliberate rest breaks and regular exercise (almost everyday) is starting to pay off.  I feel better and stronger.  People are noticing that I look healthier.  My doctor and my physio are noticing improvements in my strength and endurance.  I need less pain medication to manage a normal day.  

I've realised that the most important part of this "One Word" thing, is forgiveness and persistence.  I sometimes have bad days.  I say stupid things because I forget to pause, or I make bad choices because I don't stop to think about it.  The important step is to not give up. Instead, acknowledge the mistake, determine to do better next time and set up strategies to make success a little easier.

What strategies do you use to maximise your exercise or 'me' time?  What strategies help you to make healthy food choices? I love to read comments, so please let me know!

That's that then...
See you next week!

Making Lots of Cards and Using Up Scraps

This batch of cards was lots of fun to make!  It took me several days worth of crafting to get them done and I am so happy with how they turned out.  I have certainly built up my birthday card stash and I have a set of cards to give away!  :)

I used a card design that I have made several times, but I used slightly different supplies to give it a twist.  Here are a set of cards I made using washi tape.

I made this batch of cards using scraps of coloured card stock for my candles.  I started by pulling out each colour folder and sifting through them to find suitably sized scraps.  I looked for thin rectangles or pieces that I didn't think I could use for anything else.  I pulled out odd shapes of card stock too.  This took a while, but was easy enough. I made a pile for each colour and then started cutting them into rectangles that were about a quarter inch thick and about 2 and half to 3 inches long.  I didn't measure them exactly, I just popped it in my guillotine trimmer and just moved my card stock along, to cut each piece.

Now I had several piles of coloured strips. I then pulled out my embossing folders and chose ones with fun patterns, like a polka dot, chevrons, thick stripes and some shapes.  I put a variety of different colours into each folder and ran them through my die cutting machine using an embossing sandwich.

Next I made the flames for the candles.  I stamped a whole bunch of the leaf stamps from Eva's Favourite Flowers (by Winnie and Walter), using yellow and orange inks.  I tried die cutting these, but the shape wasn't quite right, so I ended up fussy cutting them roughly to make them more flame like.  I also tried cutting some flame shapes from orange cardstock which I used on one of the cards, but I liked the stamped ones better.

I die cut some Happy Birthday's and stamped some Birthday sentiments in different colours and I was ready to start assembling my cards.  I laid out some card panels and then arranged the 'candles' on each one.  I started out creating a rainbow of candles on each card, and I tried to use a variety of patterns on each card.  As I had more of some colours than others, I decided to make some cards with different shades of the same colour, and making some masculine colours on one card and feminine colours on others.  This was fun.

My suPURvisor is checking my work! 

While most of my cards were landscape, I decided I wanted to try a few portrait orientation as well.  Using liquid medium matte, I started adhering the candles and added the flames to the top of each one, all glued directly to the card panel.  I added stamped sentiments to the cards using foam tape.  If using a die cut sentiment, I stacked them two or three high.  I added clear Wink of Stellar shimmer to the flames of each candle too.  Finally, I used some sequins and stickers to some of them for some final embellishment.

Phew, when starting this set of cards, I was quite ambitious.  I think if I decided to make more cards like this, I would probably make fewer cards at a time.   The design has a lot of steps, so 10 was a bit much. Anyway, I hope you feel inspired to pull out your scraps and make some fun cards.

Hugs...