bushy park show

This weekend we went to the Bushy Park Show. It’s one of the smaller shows on the Tasmanian Agricultural Show Council’s show calendar each year, and also one of the oldest, having started out as a garden show in 1865.

Bushy Park, if you aren’t familiar, is a major hop growing region in Tasmania. It’s the last hop growing area remaining in the Derwent Valley.

The showground is bordered by hop fields and the beautiful Styx River.

We go to the show most years, but this year Juniordwarf wasn’t so keen. “Do we have to go?” he asked. 

When we told him there would be this,

This looked like something from Dr Who rather than a clown

this,

and this,

  

he reluctantly agreed to come with us.

He did some other things as well, like the haunted house

He came out at the end and said "what were the scary bits?"

and the old favourite, the Lions Club Chocolate Wheel.

 

We saw things like utes,

sheepdog trials

and wood cutting.

We had a good time, although the heat got to us all, so we didn’t stay long. It was a far cry from the same day two years ago when it was cold, raining and miserable. 

where has the week gone?

A week has gone by without me posting a single post. So much for blogging three times a week.

I started a post about how Week 2 without sugar went, but then it got long-winded and started to get into arguments with myself about what I was doing. So all I'll say is the experiment is continuing and if I get through today, I'll have been three weeks without sugary treats or (as far as I can control) added sugar in anything.

Juniordwarf returned to school. It wasn't the big emotional event it was for me in 2011 and last year. In fact the holidays flew by so quickly, the return to school almost caught me by surprise. I didn't really have time to think about it, or even do anything to mark it. I took a couple of photos of Juniordwarf in his classroom and that was about it.

I did some work on my Project Life album. 

As a temporary fix, I moved my November and December 2012 pages that were overflowing from last year's album into a new album, where I've also set up my 2013 pages.

I'm still debating whether to keep doing Project Life in the hybrid way I did it last year, putting the physical photos into an album as I do them, or whether to load everything into a digital photo book and print it once. The main obstacle to doing that is deciding what to do with all the chunky memorabilia that's difficult to scan. It would also mean that I didn't have a physical book until next year some time.

So what are this year's pages looking like? 

I'm glad you asked. 

This year I'm not using any of the core kits. I'm using various digital papers to create background cards for the photos, journal cards and title cards. 

I'm sticking to two fonts - one for titles and the other for journalling - and will mainly be journalling in black or white text. I'm also going to try journalling directly onto my photos, so that I can free up the journal card slots for more photos.

I did that a bit last year, but I plan to do it a lot more this year as I think it looks great. I was inspired by some of the lovely pages from Windy Willow, who is creating some gorgeous spreads. 

So this is what one of my pages might look like when I print out the photos and slot them into the page protectors. It's basically six 6x4 pictures, with the middle row able to be cut into the 2.9x4 size that slots into the smaller pockets. (Yes, I forgot about the slightly smaller width for those "cards" when I was putting this together, so the gaps aren't very even. But this is just a mock-up to show the general idea.)

Because I'm doing a monthly approach, rather than weekly spreads, I don't have title cards for pages where the photos are just random things that happened. Only the spreads where all the photos are of the same subject will have their own title card.

As you can see, some of the 6x4 "cards" have journalling and photos, and some are just photos. I have a 3x4 picture on one 3x4 "card" and the rest of them are devoted to journalling. (I had quite a lot of journalling on this page.)

So that's how it's looking at the moment. I'll be able to see what I think of it when I've printed the photos and put them in the album. 

I've kept it simple, with no embellishments at this stage because I know if I started looking for the "perfect" embellishments I'd take forever, and never get these photos done. And getting them done is my main objective. So the "added extras" aren't being added. I might look into this a bit later in the year if I get time.

This year I'll be linking up with Nightwolf's Den for my Project Life posts, so I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of inspiration over there.

Now it's on to February.

100 things - January review

 I’ve decided to do a monthly review post of where I’m up to with my 100 things to do in 2013 list. 

This way the list doesn’t just become something I write at the start of the year and shove in the back of a folder never to be seen again.

As well as this, I’ve put a page on the top of the blog that I’m updating occasionally. 

Many of the things are ongoing tasks or projects (or new habits that I want to get into), so there isn’t a lot I can actually cross off the list.

However, I can report that I have crossed off Number 33 (read Sweet Poison) and Number 97 (take down the not-an-Xmas tree). 

I really love crossing things off a list. It’s very satisfying.

scrapbooking

It feels like forever since I've completed a scrapbooking layout. 

Last night was our first night back at our scrapping sessions at the local store. I went with the intention of sorting out some Project Life photos and looking at the layouts in my "Work In Progress" album, getting them out, fussing over them a bit and then putting them back.

I forgot the photos didn't I?

After flicking through the unfinished layouts, I realised I had one 2012 photo with me that I was going to create a layout for, so I decided to work on that. What "Work In Progress" allbum? Why finish off stuff in progress when you can start something else and add it to the unfinished pile?

I saw this sketch challenge on the A2Z Scraplets Blog earlier in the day and I knew the photo would work well with the sketch.

Here's the layout:

I can't say I'd normally do a layout about beer, but in this case, it was a photo I wanted to include in last year's Project Life album but couldn't make room for in the divide page protectors. I already had one layout to include in that month, so I needed another one for the other side of the page to even things up.

So it all worked out rather well.

In case you're wondering, the paper, which you can't see very well, is actually beer paper. Yes, they make beer-themed scrapbooking paper. I thought I'd taken a photo of it before i started to cut it up, but somehow it disappeared from my phone. Anyway it's by Paper House, who also make the stickers that feature up the top (the hops).

The chipboard letters are by Fancy Pants designs. 

Soured Ale is by the Two Metre Tall Company, which featured in several of my blog posts in 2011 because we go there rather often.

Bottle cap is by Bottle Cap Inc., and the label inside the bottle cap is taken from a label from one of Two Metre Tall's ales.

picnics

Yesterday was the last of my school holiday days at home with Juniordwarf. It seems like these holidays have flown by. While they are a week shorter than we’re used to, due to Tasmania’s move to a four-term year, the holiday period has gone by in a flash. Next Tuesday Juniordwarf will be back at school.

He’s had a fairly full-on month, with his grandmother lining up a vast array of activities for him on the days he was with her, including the circus, horse riding and activities on the beach. He’s done guest appearances on Slabs’ Monday afternoon radio shows and had a playdate with a school friend.

So this week we took things easy. 

Yesterday, after our trip to the Child and Family Centre, we had a picnic in a nearby park. We were accompanied by some of Juniordwarf’s teddies. I thought he might take one or two when he said that some teddies would come with us, but he said no, he’d be taking 16 of them. 

If you ever wanted to know how many teddies you can fit in two of the thinner green bags, the answer is 16.

Fortunately they brought their own food and I didn’t have to cater for 16 teddies.

Yesterday, I vaguely thought it might be fun to go to the beach. (Thinking of something to do and then actually getting out of the house and doing it on the same day is a rare combination for me.) Let’s just forget about the weather forecast for rain. We are going to have fun.

Juniordwarf has been getting into a Hi 5 DVD that he borrowed from the library, where the presenters create their own imaginary place out of all the places they’d like to be. 

Snowy mountains on a beach on a tropical island? Yep, Hi 5 can make it happen. It’s called Beach Island (or something like that). In his version, the chooks are seagulls, and he makes snowballs by stripping plants of their leaves.

Following this, he hides “jellyfish treasure” in the garden and we go and look for it.

So, I wondered, would he like to go to the beach and look for treasure? After a bit of consideration he decided that yes, he would.

We packed up another picnic and he put his treasure that he was going to hide for us into the basket he uses to collect the eggs, collected Zoe from her shop, and off we went.

We went to Cornelian Bay, which is not the beachiest of beaches, so our beach treasure hunt was more of a woodland treasure hunt. What this meant was that I had to look away while Juniordwarf hid the treasure he’d brought with him. This consisted of some plastic toast, a plastic mug, a spatula and the basket, which we then had to search for. He was delighted when we found something.

 After finding all the treasure, we went for a short walk along the Boat Shed track. 

Juniordwarf picked up a few more treasures along the way – a huge oyster shell, a stripy stone and some pretty feathers – and then it was time to head back for our picnic.

By this stage the promised rain was starting to get a bit heavier, so we sought out the tree with the thickest cover to set up the picnic under. We were immediately discovered by seagulls, which distressed Juniordwarf at first. But even thought they looked menacing, they didn’t come too close and he eventually relaxed.

Most of them left eventually, leaving just one, who I presume was the scout that would signal the others if there was any sign we were going to send any food its way. 

Once we started packing up it too left, disappointed.

I was glad that something so simple kept Juniordwarf happy. It was one of my favourite days of the holidays.

I was also glad that nothing happened to Zoe.

ptunarra

 Way back in November 2011 I posted about our visit to the site of future Derwent Valley Child and Family Centre.

It’s a project that I have a soft spot for because I (and Juniordwarf too I guess, because he attended the meetings with me) used to be a community member of the Local Enabling Group established to oversee the development of the Centre.

The Child and Family Centre initiative is a State Government funded project to “improve the health and well-being, education and care of Tasmania’s very young children by supporting parents and enhancing accessibility of services in the local community”.  Several centres are being built, or are already operating, across the state.

We were only involved in the early stages, in 2010, when the group was making decisions about the site the centre would be built on, and working on the philosophies, visions and objectives for the centre to ensure that it provided services that best met the needs of our community.

The vision that the group came up with for the centre was:

Healthy, happy children thriving in our community

Nurturing and supporting families

As a government employee, who has been involved in several exercises in consultation with stakeholders, I found it fascinating to be involved in a project as a community member rather than as "the Government".  I think that the consultation and level of engagement with the community in this project is something that the Department of Education can be very proud of.

Fast forward to three years later, and the centre is built. It will be open for business next week.

Juniordwarf and I went for a little stickybeak yesterday morning. I was surprised at how emotional I felt standing in the place that had been the goal of so many committed people over the last three years.

While I was taking everything in, I thought back to almost exactly three years ago when I was asked by Katrina, the now Community Inclusion Worker at the centre, if I was interested in being involved with the project. I felt overwhelmed that from the very first meeting in 2010, which at least 40 enthusiastic community members attended, the vision had become reality and I was standing in it.

I wondered if the centre we‘d imagined back then would be anything like the centre we see today. I don’t think the end result is anything like I imagined it would – or could – be. But I love it, and it’s a credit to everyone involved, especially Katrina and Suzanne, the Centre Leader, and all the members past and present of the Local Enabling Group. I feel really proud of what they have achieved and am glad that I was a part of it all, even if it was for just a short time.

I want to wish everyone at Ptunarra* Child and Family Centre all the very best. I’m so excited for you all and look forward to keeping in touch.

 

The building is very impressive. The play spine that runs through the centre of the building is really cool, and Juniordwarf loved it. I didn’t take many photos, but there are some more here to show you what the centre looks like. 

Juniordwarf checking out the upper level of the play spine

Out the front of the centre

The centre's vision on display

* The name Ptunarra and the butterfly logo was chosen in recognition of the Ptunarra Brown which is a vulnerable Tasmanian butterfly.

“The process of change and growth from caterpillar to butterfly is symbolic of the changes that we must embrace as our children grow and learn and develop. Without change there would be no butterflies.”

quitting sugar aaargh

 If I ever had any doubts* about whether I was addicted to sugar, they are well and truly gone now.

Last week I was feeling pretty good about cutting out sugary treats. I’d had a few headaches, but these were minor and didn’t last long. I didn’t find it too difficult to refuse sweet things and I didn’t really want them anyway.

This week is a whole other story. And we’re only two days into this week, so I’m a little scared as to how bad this is going to get.

Last night I felt like I was getting a cold. I had a sore throat and felt a bit congested. I wondered on Twitter whether this might be a sugar withdrawal symptom. Sarah Wilson (who wrote the 8 week I Quit Sugar Program that I’m largely following) suggested that yes, this could be part of the detox and suggested drinking more water and eating more veggies.

This morning, I felt lethargic, irritable, cranky (oh wait, that’s just my normal state) and headachy. I knew that if this had been a normal work at home day, I’d be having several of the shortbread biscuits (that Juniordwarf and I would have made on the weekend) throughout the day. 

Not today though.

I did, however, just want to eat and eat. And eat. And eat. David Gillespie (author of Sweet Poison) replied to my tweet that this could be the stage where things start to turn ugly and recommended non-sweet food treats to get me through it.

Vintage cheese and coffee. 

Not together, obviously and, sadly, not with my favourite crackers. It turns out that for all the ‘bad’ stuff they don’t have, they do have sugar, so for now they’re off limits.

Cue home-made water cracker recipe (do you feel a recipe blog post coming on?).

So I went through the day feeling hungry not that long after I’d eaten, headachy and with a horribly dry mouth and metallic taste. According to Sarah Wilson, it’s all part of the detox.

Along with the physical symptoms, I’ve found that if I’m not actively concentrating on something, I’ve started to obsess about sweet food, and I think about cakes and lollies and biscuits constantly. I even hallucinated that the eggshells I could see through the plastic compost container were mini-muffins waiting to be eaten. 

I’m not really sure if I actually want cakes or lollies or biscuits. I don’t think I do. If someone put a peppermint slice in front of me, I don’t think I’d eat it. But I just can’t stop thinking about them.

All of this is happening while I’m still eating berries in my morning smoothie. There will be a point where I cut them out too (at least for the detox period) and, based on the last two days, I’m a wee bit terrified of how complete withdrawal is going to make me feel.

I honestly didn’t think I was *that* addicted to sugar. But what’s happening now suggests otherwise.

I just have to keep telling myself that every minute I get through this is a minute closer to when it will stop. I have to believe that there will be a point where I won’t want sugar and I’ll feel great. There are a lot of people who have done this and said it's worth it, so I'm hanging in there.

* I did. I didn't think that the occasional more often than not cake/bag of lollies/chocolate bar some most afternoons was something I would have to withdraw from.