I'm in a weird place emotionally at the moment. Maybe I mean mentally. Ack! I dunno.
I've had a crazy busy last month and am spending a lot of time right now soul-searching about where I'm at, what I should be doing, what I want to be doing - blah de blah blah blah.
I have changes going on internally and around me. I'm not sure if they're good or bad but either way I guess they're bound to happen. Maybe it's just that I'm aging. Maybe it's because my babies are not babies anymore. I have work changes happening and spiritual changes. I, well we, are struggling financially and that's adding to the feeling of unease and is fostering the anxiety about making changes...
Okay so busy is good, or else I have no idea what I'm doing. I loathe being bored so yep, busy is good. Firstly I want to show you my new website - woohoo! The old one I loved, but it needed an update. And more space!

I have done away with the splash page and I'm still not sure if that's right or not. I find splash pages kind of annoying so decided not to have one :) I'm loving my new business image, it feels like it reflects ME!
Featured on there is a wedding I photographed a little while ago and it's taken me AGES to proof because there were so many fabulous pics :) Here's a hand full of my favourites...

Beautiful wedding, a totally gorgeous day!
I've not long returned home from working as a teacher's assistant on the Mistified tour, assisting Heidi Swapp, and Tattered Angels owner and Glimmermist inventor Wendy Senger. We, that's Suz and I. We started at the Melbourne Mistified workshop day...

It was a fabulous day, and the nest bit was that I knew lots of the attendees :)
Here's a pic stolen from my gorgeous gal-pal Tan..

And I totally love this shot of the "paparazzi"..

We had a day off then off to Sydney for the next round of Mistified!

I managed to nick off for a little bit into Newtown in Sydney to visit a button shop - All Buttons Great and Small. It was WAY further away from where we were than I thought but Newtown is a gorgeous suburb and I took lots of photos of old buildings and stuff. Once I finally arrived there I only bought TWO buttons because I don't really need any more buttons and I had to get back. Distracted by my surroundings and rushing to get back I managed to roll my ankle in a pothole on the rickety old footpath. Like really, WHY?
Ugh it was SO painful and I was on my feet for the next few days and I was so far from home and totally embarrassed and worried about my camera and it really was just the most annoying and painful thing! I tried to just keep ignoring it but I just couldn't. AND I didn't think it was as bad as it was and I felt like an idiot and grrr, I can tell you it looked like this the next day and it was CANING!

I managed to get a bandage from the hotel and basically just strapped it up tight, wore lace-up boots and hoped for the best. Lots of Ibuprofen and Codeine from Suz helped immensely! Two weeks on, it's still SO sore and a bit swollen, but what can ya do?
After we finished at Mistified Sydney, it was off to Homebush to set up for SIA where we were working for Aussie Scrap Source. We were making ATCs and still assisting Wendy and Heidi. I got to meet some online friends I've known forever and see old friends again!

I came home with love/hate for the industry in equal amounts. The love is obvious, why I love working in the industry, the hate was for the feeling that my heart isn't in it as much as it was, how much I missed my kids and just how I've kind of lost my way. It's caused me some of the soul-searching I was referring to. But enough about that for now, here's some layouts I've done for Aussie -
Inspired by children's artwork...


and a focus on flocking...


And my latest Budget Scrapbooking kit...

And...speaking of all things lovely, my Mother's Day was gorgeous. The plan was for Suz and I to have one day back in Melbourne in between all of the touring, and then we'd be heading up to Brisbane for the last part of the Mistified tour. We ended up not being needed and had the option of finishing up at Sydney so of course we took it! As much as I loved the first week, I was tired and missed my babies oh so much PLUS not going to Brisbane meant we were home for Mother's Day. My babies spoiled me, firstly with this lovely decoration on our misty windows...

Maddy made me this scrumptious card and laminated picture/placemat...

Alex made me this from his special Lego, in my favourite colours of course. But I have to give the Lego back - lol...it's the thought right?

Both kids decided that they didn't like the gifts at the school Mother's Day stall, so gave it a miss this year. Instead they gave me this delicious knitted throw that I REALLY wanted...yummo!

I love it to bits!!
A few weeks ago through Facebook, I received a notification from my local radio station about registering your business for the "19 Minutes of Fame" where you can nominate some of your favourite songs and they are played for nineteen minutes and the best bit is that your business gets mentioned on the radio. I decided to register and to my surprise they called me the next morning to say I'd been selected.
Not only did I get my favourite songs played and my business mentioned BUT they gave me tickets to see FAME the Musical which I was absolutely stoked about and THEN they gave me a night for two at the Sofitel Melbourne. Seriously, I could not believe it! Nathan and I have NEVER been away for a night alone since we had kids and that's at least 11 years ago! So we went last weekend.
Fame was at the breathtakingly beautiful Regent Theatre where I was spoiled with Daiquiris in glowing glasses!

And in my opinion, one of the best seats in the house. This is from my seat...

No-one in front of me with their boof-head in the way, no seats in front cramping my legs - OH it was BLISS and so nice just to be alone with my man!
We had a glorious view from our beautiful room. I gazed out those windows for HOURS! That in itself was fabulous! We even slept with the shutters open. :)

The hotel was VERY swanky, much more flash than we're used to and it was LOVELY, the bed was amazing and I had a GREAT sleep!

And of course woke up to this glorious city view :)

After a sleep-in and leisurely breakfast we headed off into the city. The Buddha's Day festival was on so we thought we'd quickly check it out, but we ended up staying for AGES!

I was given the opportunity to make an offering to Buddha which I did, because I wanted to experience it. I'm not a religious person but I'm certainly open and curious. What I did NOT expect was to become completely overwhelmed with emotion. It was scary! It was unexpected and I was so embarrassed. Thank goodness for sunglasses. I can honestly say I had some sort of spiritual experience and I am a skeptic normally...

The whole festival was wonderful, lots of colour, movement, different foods and smells and sounds and street performers and music and it was fabulous, I'm SO glad we went.

I finished up by adding a leaf to the Bodhi Tree with my wishes..

and saying hi to Buddha ;)
I think that's about it for now, I'm off to photograph three-year old twins, their baby sister and Mum and Dad, can't wait :)