What a week (in pictures)

Its only been a week since I've been back in to my "normal" uni routine and it already feels like I have run a marathon.

This week has been a long one, with plenty of happenings. Here's how it started...

I spent my last lovely warm day at home in the "country" packing up my winter things to head back down south to tackle term 2 of uni. My parents were away visiting my baby sister  in QLD so I was on "animal duty" which means feeding the  four family dogs (sadly our number is now down to three as our little mate Turbo passed away today. RIP little buddy.) along with our kitty and our hens.

I love feeding the chooks, I love having chooks and I wish I had the space here in my one beddy unit to have my own chooks because the never ending supply of eggs is always welcome and I love the "farm-y" feel you get from having hens clucking in the yard.

Later in the week, especially on Wednesday morning I felt my real taste of the new season, "early winter". I got up at the crack of dawn (well, technically earlier) and made my way to town to witness the Anzac day dawn service. It was lovely, a HUGE turn-out and very very cold! I had my winter woollies on and still didn't have enough layers on!

By the middle of the week I was feeling a little lonely and pulled out all of my winter comfort tricks and snuggled in my bed with porridge and tea.

Today saw some more strange weather with a high morning fog around the city but brought out a yummy warmish afternoon.

I had some time to kill after class this afternoon before my last shift of work for the week and purchased these gorg aqua bowls. I eyed them off in Bathurst during my holidays and didn't get a chance to buy them, until today! I am really digging the colour aqua right now and these bowls are just perfect.

Now I am kicking the weekend off with a big glass of red and a tad bit of guilt from a bad "binge" eating day (Oops). So I plan to wake up feeling happy and motivated to tackle a "get-back-on-track" session at the gym tomorrow and meet one of my gorgeous friends for an organic breakfast at one of our fav eateries in town in the morning.

What are your plans for the weekend? Whatever they are, have a relaxing weekend! I plan to do some uni homework, relax, maybe even catch a movie at the cinema (I love the movies!) Happy weekend friends!

I'm in print... well, sort of!!

Hey bloggy friends! I have been one busy bee this week! Week 1 of term 2 of uni is almost over! Hectic let me tell you! I'll be posting about my whole week in pictures later this week!

Firstly, happy belated Anzac Day! I trudged out into the freezing cold at dawn yesterday morning to attend the dawn service here in town. It was mighty early and mighty cold but was well worth it. I even got a little choked up when I was listening to the trumpet play. There was a huge turn out which is so great to see that so many people support our past and present troops! I got some pictures of the service for a photography assignment, I'll post these later.

Now, to my exciting news! I'm in print!! Well kind of. I have just completed an assignment for one of my design classes that involved us designing an 8-page magazine called "LOL" (as in life out loud. Pretty lame name but this was a pre-requisite and we could do whatever we wanted for everything else.)

This week I got the magazine printed and it looks great! We had to use a professional printing company and all, it felt all very official and new. I had to contribute one double page spread to my magazine and then I got to choose two stories from my class mates to use.

I was lucky enough to interview my good friend Jodie from Jellywares for my spread and I'm really pleased with how it all turned out! Jode was great to interview, her creativity inspires me all the time!

Here's a look at what my interview with Jodie looks like (in the magazine it is a double page spread.)

It was such a learning experience working with a professional printer. It definitely opened my eyes up a little to what the "real" world of graphic design may be like. I loved every minute of it!

It feel great to say that I love my job. Well, its not really my job yet but hopefully it soon will be because it feels good to love what you do! Do you love what you do?

A New Addiction...

Oh God. Every time I turn my head there seems to be a new and exciting app or social networking site or gadget-y thing that comes out that I get sucked into and quickly become addicted to it!

First it was Facebook, then it was my iPhone and all of its great apps, then instagram, now I am addicted to Pinterest!!!

Are you on Pinterest? Have you heard of it before? Some of you may be nodding ferociously and yelling "Gee Ellie you are so behind the times, Pinterest has been around for AGES!!" But just this week I got my little "you've been accepted" email from the Pinterest clan and I logged on and started pinning! Now I can't stop!

I remember early in the uni semester this year one of my lecturers was prompting us to try out this new site to use it for creating mood boards for our design work.  I thought it was just another site that I wouldn't really use or need and I didn't think much more about it until a good friend of mine told me all about it a few weeks ago and showed me her boards and just how cool it is!

For those of you that don't know what Pinterest is, its an online site where you can "pin" images, tutorials, websites etc etc that you love and don't want to forget to a category or a board that you have created in your account. Eventually you can end up with a mass of "pin boards" categorised into anything that you like for easy navigation. This site totally eliminates you having to use the old "bookmark" tab on your computer to keep stuff that you want to refer back to. Genius! Its also linked to your Facebook if you want it to be and you can find friends and follow their pin boards too!

Anyhow, I have been using it for a few things lately. I'm getting back into knitting and crochet this winter and it has been so useful for some project inspiration, plus, a lot of great crafty bloggers that I follow are actually pinning already with many of their crafty projects and inspiration posted up! It's also helping me with some graphic design inspiration and I've been looking into some DIY interior stuff too and there are tonnes of awesome ideas on here!!

(image source) - pinned on Pinterest!

I totally recommend checking it out!

What new apps, websites or programs are you addicted to at the moment? Let me know in a comment, maybe we could be addicted together?! lol

When you realise that you're all grown up

I don't know how it was for you when you realised, but for me, over the last couple of months I have started to realise that I am not a young girl any more.

I know it might sound funny since I havent really been a "young girl" for quite a few years (I'm 23 currently) but I think I have only just started to see things like an adult. My life is becoming and "adult" life not a care-free little girl one.

Over the last week I spent time visiting one of my closest and oldest friends (I know she subscribes to my posts via email so here's a big shout out to you Tegs!! lol). She is a little older than me and we have been friends since we were in primary school. I love her to bits and she has been there for me through many years of growing up even though tonnes of kilometers has seperated us.

Before this week I hadn't seen my friend since last May! OMG!! That's ages! I couldnt believe that we hadn't seen each other in the flesh in so long, but as always when we got together it was like we hadn't been apart at all, we all picked up where we left off.

So much had changed in both of our lives since our last get-together. A LOT has changed. Firstly I had seen myself through a hard break-up, a massive trip over seas to Europe, I re-discovered my passion for design, followed my dreams back to uni and relocated to a new town and to start a new path in life. Tegs life has changed even more! Her and her boyfriend of 4 years became "fiance's", and now they are expecting a gorgeous little baby, due in July!

As Tegs, me, and another of our close friends sat around talking about our lives in general chit chat, I started to realise a few things. Our conversations aren't about young girl-y things anymore, we don't go on and on about the latest massive parties we have been to (even though I still love a good party! *wink*), we were talking about buying houses, renovations, mortgages, insurances, cars, weddings and of course the imminent arrival of a new baby!

After our first night at Tegs place I laid in bed thinking about how my life has changed, and is continuing to change but I am definitely not going down the same path as my good friend.... not yet anyway!

We're growing up so fast but I feel like I'm lagging behind a little. I'm just at a very different stage in my life right now and I think I'd like to cling to my adolescent youth that little bit longer!!

I'm not saving to buy a house, I'm saving to buy my next groceries on my current uni budget! I'm not getting married, I'm just happily dating and I'm definitely not having a baby any time soon but I know these are things that I have to start to think about at some stage. I'm not a little girl anymore and I guess I've only just realised!

I think I might just pretend for a while! I know I'm growing up and getting "older" but I'm still going to have my not-so-grown-up times thrown into the mix.

I'm not a grandma yet afterall.... right?!

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Here at last...

I made it through term 1 of uni! I am alive, and still fighting fit! After all of the assignments and part time work and lack of sleep, I have managed to make it out the other end!!

I have arrived home to my country town for Easter with my family. I have decided that I love Easter. Its a perfect time of year. Everyone gets the long weekend off and its just the right amount of time to re-charge the batteries and enjoy some quality time with loved ones without spending too long together and ripping each others hair out! lol

I have been expecting the weather to be cooling off lately but here it is stinking hot! My memories of Easter as a child were cold nights by the campfire on our property by the river. Today, we are cleaning up the back yard and taking the cover off the pool in anticipation for some swimming with my younger cousins who will be spending today with us! Is it hot where you are today?

Wherever you are, I hope this Easter break brings you happiness and rejuvenation. I hope you are spending it with loved ones and eating lots of yummy fresh fish and seafood today (no-meat-friday!).

I'll be kicking back with my Dad to peel some prawns pretty soon too!

Happy Easter Bloggy friends!!

Oh, and Ps. I ended up taking the plunge and purchasing a Mac laptop!! I'm blogging on it right now!! #excitingtimes!! I'm slowly getting used to the big conversion from my PC, but I am happy to admit I am falling in love!

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