Her Drama-ness

Okay, so it's a stupid title, but I have no ideas for the title of my post, hence the cheesy title, hee....

Anyways, the holiday break has been great so far. I have been such a bummer, it's awesome! :) Okay, so I'm not that lazy, I have been catching up with my household chores, doing laundry, ironing, that sort of stuff, but otherwise, it has been super relaxing and just chilling around the house. I don't head back to the office till Jan 2, which really isn't too far away, I'm so going to struggle once I get back to work!

We haven't done a whole lot for the holidays. We headed to a suburb in Melbourne called Ivanhoe, which is famed for a particular street (The Boulevard) where the residents put in a lot of effort in decorating their homes with Christmas lights. To be honest, it was a little disappointing, some were pretty good, but nothing that really wowed me. And of course, there were HEAPS of people, which can really bug me at times. Also, as we went with Terrence's parents, we couldn't walk the whole street (it's a really long stretch) and probably only saw half, so I kinda wonder if the good stuff was at the other half. Oh wells, I guess there is always next year if we do decide to check it out again. I know Terrence definitely didnt like the crowds!

I also got to fly a kite, it was fun! I know, I must have flown a kite when I was a kid or something, but I don't really have any memory of it, or at least of a successful kite-flying experience. So yeah, it was pretty exciting to see the kite flying high in the sky, and it wasn't a particular windy day either. I relinquished the controls pretty soon though, I couldn't control the kite very well, it was doing somersaults in the sky and took a nose-dive, LOL. I quickly gave it back to Terrence so I wouldn't jinx it further, hee hee. Here's a tiny pic, you can see the kite in the top right-hand corner, the person in the picture is Terrence's dad.



Oh, and would you believe it, we got a white Christmas during SUMMER in Melbourne! Unbelievable! I think it snowed in the mountain areas, and in certain parts of metropolitan Melbourne, there was heavy hail, so it covered everything like snow. We also got a bit of hail where we live, not quite enough to be a realistic white Christmas, but it's pretty wild to see it. That's Melbourne for you, famed for its unpredictable weather; four seasons in a day! Here's a picture; pardon my patchy and dying grass, we're on water restrictions at the moment so we can't water our lawns, and my poor grass isn't surviving.



Last night, I caught up with a friend I haven't seen in ages. We met up for dinner, had our chit-chat, and then watched Happy Feet at the cinemas. It was a great movie, I loved it! The ending was a little cheesy and total BS, but I guess the protagonist has to save the day somehow. But overall, the movie was fantastic, I loved the music, the characters, it was totally enjoyable. I didn't think I would like it this much, the animation was done in a realistic manner, as in penguins look like penguins, and not like the cutesy-fied Disney style (if that makes sense), and I thought that injection of realism may put me off the animation but it didn't. My friend kept telling me she wants a baby penguin - I wish her luck! LOL. I reckon I will be getting this one when it comes out on DVD!

Anyways, that's it from me. I'm off to continue the rest of my lazy holiday, if I'm not back before the new year, I want to wish everyone all the best for 2007, I'll see you in the new year! Take care! :)

Posted by Leeny at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

Okay, so we're not quite there yet, there are still a couple more days but it's so close, the sensation of freedom is washing over me. LOL. It's really not that long a break, but still, 10 straight days away from the office is going to be awesome, and I'm looking forward to catching up on stitching, reading, watching telly or just doing nothing! Ahhhhhh.... it's going to be good!

Also, I wanted to share a piccie of my new stash! :) I made two separate orders in November; one was through a birthday discount with Amy at Down Sunshine Lane, and the other was with Bobbie at Stitching Bits and Bobs. The DSL order had arrived quite a while ago, but the SB&B order only just arrived yesterday, hence the post today. I was so excited, I hadn't gotten new stash for a very long time, maybe even close to a year, which is why I treated myself to a few things. November was the right time to buy as well, using my birthday discount with DSL and SB&B had a 25% off everything sale, so it was perfect! This is what I got:

• Raise the Roof Designs - What Side? (with button pack)
• Raise the Roof Designs - Warmth of a Good Friend (with button pack)
• Raise the Roof Designs - Warm Water Wash kit
• La-D-Da - My Sunshine
• Embellishments for Winter and Spring Snapperlands (with free border charts)
• A pack of Floss-A-Way bags

And yes, if you were wondering, Raise the Roof Designs is one of my favourite designers. Ever since Witchy Washy, I have been completely won over! Although, I only noticed the "quirk" with Warmth of a Good Friend when my order arrived, and I'm not entirely sure about that bit, hee hee. That I may have to edit out!

Btw, these two online shops are GREAT places to buy from. Amy at DSL is just such a lovely lady, she turns around orders so quickly and always provides top-notch service and consistent communications. SB&B is also another favourite place of mine because their service is also great and they have sales all the time, so you can get quite good deals. They also carry Floss-A-Way bags, which I love! LOL. You usually have to wait a little bit for orders from SB&B, but that is not a problem at all as you can get updates on your order, so you know exactly where the progress is at, and the wait is never horribly long anyways. Both are terrific places; and thank goodness for them, otherwise I will be suffering from S.E.X withdrawal symptoms! Hee hee...

Well, that's it from me. Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, have a great holiday and stay safe!

Posted by Leeny at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments

Okay, I've been a little trigger happy lately so I have lots of photos to share! Hopefully it makes for a more visually exciting post, hee hee...

First up, the bushfires still haven't abated in Victoria. We really need some decent rain to help ease the fires but it doesn't appear that there are going to be any heavy rainfalls in sight. Yesterday was a very smoky day, much more than over the weekend. Here are a couple of photos that I asked a colleague to help me take from the office:


Thankfully the smoke has cleared up significantly today, but the battle with the fires continues. Again, I hope everyone stays safe, and these fires will soon be under control.

Last night was also a fairly interesting night for us. A colleague who lives in my neighbourhood informed me about a particular street where the houses had gone all out with the Christmas lights, and said that it was worth going to have a look. There aren't many houses on my street that have done major Christmas decorations, and the only two that have, it's just simple lights, so nothing too fancy. So Terrence and I got the dogs together and we decided to go for a walk to check out these houses. I mean, we have absolutely NO Christmas decorations at all ourselves, so we need to live vicariously through others, LOL. I know, it's quite pathetic, we just weren't organised this year, we'll do better next year!

So, back to these houses, it was a sight indeed! I'm sure there must be fancier out there, I mean, I remember seeing one on the web last year where this dude had his lights TIMED in sync with some song, it was totally full on. But anyways, back to the houses we saw, I haven't seen many like these in person, so it was still pretty impressive to me! There were many more houses with Christmas lights on this street, but there were two in particular that went all out. One of these seems to also be a finalist in some TV network's Christmas lights competition (first three photos). Terrence took a few photos, they are probably not great since it was with his mobile phone, but they're still pretty good. I told Terrence, next year we will blow everyone out of the water with our decorations! HAHAHAHA.... so not going to happen! *grin*


Well, that's it from me today! I'm a happy camper at the moment; tomorrow is Friday, which means the weekend is fast approaching. WOO HOO! A friend is also in Melbourne from Malaysia, so me and another friend will meet up with her for dinner on Saturday, which is always good. Then one more week of work, and it's HOLIDAY TIME! I soooooooooo cannot wait! Can you tell I'm excited from all those exclaimation marks?! LOL. Okie dokes, dinner time for me now, tata for now!

Posted by Leeny at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

I love weekends, they're great. I never appreciated the weekend when I was a university student, but now I'm a slave to the MAN, I relish every weekend and can never wait till they come around. I'm also hanging out for the Christmas break, that will be a nice long break, it's going to be awesome. Terrence's parents will also be coming to visit, so that's good too.

Anyways, this morning, we woke up to a VERY hazy day; you can smell the smoke in the air. This is a photo that I took from my backyard. Normally we get blue skies, or even if it was a cloudy day, you could still see the clouds. Everything is just shrouded in smoke and haze at the moment. I've been in Melbourne for about 7 odd years now, and we have bushfires every year, but this is the first time that I've seen the air like that in the metropolitan areas. Frightening.


Not sure whether this is being covered in news overseas, but Victoria is facing extremely bad bushfires at the moment, in fact, this weekend could shape up to be the worst in the state's bushfire history. Thankfully, I don't live in a region that gets hit by bushfires. I really don't know how the people who live in affected regions do it, their courage and determination to tough it out each year. Every summer you hear about these horrific fires and yet people don't move away, and some stay behind to defend their properties during bushfire season and don't leave until they're forced to. I could never do that, I would stress myself to death. My heart goes out to those in the affected areas, I hope they stay safe and we get some rain to help control these raging fires.

We took the dogs to the vet this morning. Nothing major, they were just due for the annual vaccinations and heartworm shots. They always get sooooooo excited when they go to the vet's, so it's always a major challenge. Terrence almost couldn't make it for today's vet appointment, but he managed to postpone his later commitment by an hour, so that was good. I would be struggling just by myself, two crazy dogs are just too much for me! Anyways, the boys had their shots, got their worming tablets, they also had some blood tests done as part of the check-up and all is well. It did set me back by about $500 (YIKES!), but I guess it's a once-a-year thing, so I'll get over it. But it does hit the pocket when it's a huge chunk at one go like that!

And now, on to some stitchy stuff! Some of you may remember my previous stitchy post about part of a finish for Harmien's RR. It was a modifed design of My Garden Wild by 4 My Boys. I never got round to posting the complete picture, so I'm finally doing it today! This one is a scanned picture. The flower and butterfly are from Roots and Wings by Waxing Moon Designs. I used the Crescent Colours threads that the chart specified. The little flowers and beehive are from Lives to Stitch by Stitchy Kitty. And last but not least, the bees are from Ladybugs and Bumblebees by Cottage Country Needleworks. Oh, and I suppose I shouldn't forget my very boring signature, LOL.



I've also attached a picture of how the entire RR is looking at the moment. This one was taken with the camera. Just one more stop and our RRs return home! Isn't Harmien's RR looking so gorgeous at the moment? Unfortunately, my creative ideas aren't up to scratch so I couldn't get the "full" look like how Harmien and Annemarie achieved. But I still hope that Harmien likes what I've stitched! And also, if my fellow RR buddies are reading this, I just want to thank them for being sooooooo incredibly patient with me. I have been the most AWFUL RR partner this year; constantly missing deadlines and holding up the RR, I just have been terrible. Harmien, Annemarie and Mady are just wonderful folks and have been so understanding. So ladies, thank you so much for being such great RR partners; hopefully there will be a next time when I get my act together, and you'll still have me! :)



Well, that's it from me! I really should get started on clearing the lounge room (otherwise Terrence will nag at me non-stop, how's that for reversal of roles?!), but I'm just feeling so lazy at the moment. It's the weekend! I think I'll do a bit of lazing around but I will get cracking eventually, hee hee. Anyways, if you do drop by, please leave me a comment! I love comments and I just can't get enough of them, hee hee. Thanks for visiting! (^_^)

Posted by Leeny at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

I'm having a fat day. Not that I'm not normally fat, but today, I'm especially feeling it. LOL. Terrence keeps telling me to stop talking rubbish, but he's biased, so it doesn't count. But at least he's being sweet :)

Anyways, it has been a while since I last blogged, so expect me to ramble on and on! I got back from my Korea trip last Saturday but I think I only just recovered! I never do well with travelling, I get motion sickness and I always make sure I have my pills (it's called 'Kwells') with me to help me, but I think this time there were just too many flights and not enough rest in between, so I still got kinda sick. I shall spare you the details as it can be quite gross, LOL. But otherwise, it was still a pretty good trip, just really tiring and I was EXTREMELY happy to get home by the end of it. I didn't take a lot of photos, and from those that I took, I didn't have many good shots at all. So here are the three best ones!







The really good thing from my trip was that I got to see my family when I stopped over in Singapore, especially getting the chance to see my grandfather. It was a bit of a shock at first when I saw him, I mean, I knew he would be frail, I know the kind of treatments that he has to go through, and he's an old fella, so he would be worse for wear. But seeing him, I really got a jolt, it was really emotional and I had to try really hard not to cry. His beautiful hair, which he is always so proud of, is now cut short so he wouldn't be too hot as he's on the bed most of the time now. He's also lost soooooooooo much weight, and according to my family, he already looks a lot better than when he first came out of surgery. He was literally just skin and bones before. There was a photo nearby that had been taken when my family had come to visit me in Melbourne about two years ago; he looked so healthy in that photo, and he was so mobile, going with us to farms for strawberry-picking and that kind of stuff, it's just so hard to see him like that. And the first thing he said to me was, "Just waiting..." :( I just hope he keeps recovering and that he can think positive, it's been slow but he has been making good progress, so I hope he can take one step at a time and he'll be able to get back something close to the quality of life he's had before...

Anyways, I need to move on from this topic as I will probably burst into tears soon. I just have to stay strong, keep staying positive and trust in the doctors. My family is doing much better than me, and they are the ones who are in the thick of it. Something a bit more upbeat, we were in the city tonight as Terrence's brother had a gallery opening as part of his art school, and it was pretty cool actually. We reckoned it was more interesting than the Picasso exhibition we went to earlier this year! Although to be fair, it featured only one period in Picasso's life, and didn't feature his more famous works. So, back to the gallery tonight, I'm not a big art person, but there were definitely a few pieces that appealed to me. And Greg's piece(s) turned out well, which he got an award for it, so he's super pleased about that. And part of his exhibition will probably end up in our house, which is cool too! Hee hee... it's nice to have an artist in the family, helps to fill wall space when I can't stitch fast enough! LOL.

Oh, and while waiting for the tram, I got Terrence to take a photo of the pretty Christmas lights. I like blue lights :) The photo is not great as it was taken with a mobile phone, but it's still pretty good! If you're wondering what that building is, it's the old post office, but it has since been converted to a retail joint, I think. I don't go into the city much, so I can be quite clueless about what goes on in the big bad world, hee hee.


Alrighty, I think I have yakked on enough. Not much stitchy stuff in this post, but I will try to have more of that next time. Oh, I am expecting some stash to arrive, which is really neat as I haven't ordered stash in AGES. I actually ordered from two different places (Down Sunshine Lane and Stitching Bits and Bobs), so it is a bit of a treat. It's kinda like a birthday order as I get a discount from DSL in my birthday month, and I needed Floss-A-Way bags, which I ordered from SB&B, and they were having a sale, so of course I had to get a few extra things, hee hee. It will be an early Christmas gift to myself!

Okay, this really is the end this time, if you managed to get all the way here, wow, I'm truly impressed! Thanks for toughing it out and I hope I didn't bore you too much. Till next time! (^_^)

Posted by Leeny at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments