Mosaics, Melbourne Cup, and More Sister Time, please!!

Happy November, Blogger Buddies!! I hope you all had a fabulous Blogtober, and that November has been good to you so far!

Am not sure I have enough full sentences in me to tell you what I've been up to since Blogtober finished, so please forgive me for bullet-pointing it!!

- At the end of a poopy weekend of fighting with just about everyone (including a normally-lovely neighbour and the workman breaking up said neighbour's concrete driveway at 7am on Saturday - that should be pretty self-explanatory!!) I spent Sunday doing a beginners' Mosaic in a Day class with my sister. I would never have even thought of trying mosaics until my sister suggested it, and it was amazing fun! It covered all the major Fun Groups: smashing stuff, gluing stuff, learning stuff, getting messy, and hanging with lovely people! It was really quite calming, although the 6 hours just flew by! And so rewarding to have your own little mosaic to take home at the end of the day!

- I had a phone call from my sweet friend Penny, asking me if I'd like the double-pass to the Royal Oaks on Thursday, that she won in a radio quiz, as she can't take the day off work. "I thought you and your sister might like them!" she said, as Oaks Day is traditionally "Ladies' Day" at the Racing Carnival. So, now, Thursday will now consist of a day off, a new dress, a marquee with complimentary drinks and canapes all day, reserved seating by the race-track (should we choose to have a look at the races... I guess it is the Racing Carnival after all), and some quality sister time!! I am feeling excited about it, now that I have found myself a pretty, comfortable and not-unflattering outfit to wear. Yay!!

- The sad but inevitable 2-week countdown to New Job has begun. It's amazing how much work can get done so quickly when the end is nigh - it's a bit like doing a huge clean-up before moving house, and you look at your now-sparkling kitchen/wardrobe/windows/desk and think "why didn't I ALWAYS have it like this?!"

- Buying a stack of new Christmas tree decorations, after deciding not to give my shabby 15yo decorations yet another whirl! And ordering my tree through Oxfam today! Bring it on!

- Loving issue #50 of Frankie magazine (my subscription to which has been an ongoing prezzie from lovely sister! She really spoils me). It's got the most gorgeous embroidered cover, and so many gorgeous articles and stories inside, including interview with Martha Wainwright and an article on how it's actually not a sin to keep "stuff" that you're sentimentally attached to! Lovely.

- My ongoing pursuit of the perfect sourdough loaf. On Saturday I made a rather respectable olive & rosemary wholemeal loaf - uber nommy and about as healthy as you can get, bread-wise. Yay! It's always so much fun to try learning new things.

- I took full advantage of the Spring sunshine on Saturday and getting loads done in the garden. Tomatoes, marigolds and chillis planted, freesias deadheaded, tulip bulbs extracted and in the chiller, camellia fed, and lots of weeds mercilessly yanked out of the earth. And my Vitamin E (and happiness) levels raised substantially. Huzzah!

Anyhoo, that's about as much fun as I can handle!!

Lots of love to you all, friends!

Louki xxx

Days 25-31 - Woops! Happy Halloween!

Oh dear, how slack am I?!?!?

I can't believe I let the blog-ball drop this badly for so many days. It has been an extremely busy week, with rehearsals and a concert (on Saturday night), plus baking (spooky Halloween Spider cupcakes, complete with creepy licorice legs) and a Halloween party with my lovely family last night.

AND, to end the month on a high, off to a concert with my beautiful sister tonight. YAYY!!

I am looking forward to having a bit of a rest over the next few weeks, with any luck.

All in all, it has been a fun time. And it has been great fun keeping this blog (albeit sporadically) during Blogtoberfest! It will be interesting to look back and see how it looks down the track - I'm sure I'll be cringing at my dreadful writing style and half-baked ideas, but it has been so eventful (and is my last full month at this wonderful job) that I suspect it'll be nice little place to retreat to in a few weeks/months/years when I need to remind myself of this nice little period in my life.

Who knows, I might even remember to update it every now and then!!

Thanks to my wonderful sister for hosting Blogtoberfest, with a stupendous amount of bloggers on board! Great job!

And thanks to y'all for stopping by every now and then, my fellow Bloggereedlies. Happy Halloween!

Wishing you all the love and luck and happiness in the world, for the rest of the year and beyond.

Bring on Christmas, YAYYYY!!!!

Louki xxx

Day 19 - Thou shalt "toughen up a bit"

My colleague just emailed me this gorgeous link, of a very wise little girl giving sage big-sister advice to her little brother:

An Older Sister's Advice

Watch, you won't regret it - it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

It reminded me of being little and confused, and my big sister would look out for me. She would frequently talk me out of doing silly things, she would stick up for me, and she would always have tonnes of fun things planned to keep me entertained when I was sad or when we were going on long drives (mostly to distract me from the inevitable spew-fest that my car travels always became, which can't have been much fun for her either, being trapped in the back seat with me!). There would be bags of games and fun puzzles and always lots of songs to sing.

On one very memorable occasion, she was even entrusted to "fix" my rather strange 3-year-old attempt at cutting my own fringe. She was 7, and, despite having far more advanced scissor skills than me, was (funnily enough) not an expert hairdresser! So hilarity ensued, resulting in tears and me asking my dad if he could just sticky-tape my fringe back on. Dad seemed to fix pretty much everything with stick-tape... and still does! Tee hee.

Up until the age of about 6, I truly believed that I'd end up being a big sister one day - not sure whether I just wanted a little sibling (someone else to be at the bottom of the pecking order, perhaps), or whether I just thought that every little girl got to be a big sister eventually (not sure how I thought my parents might feel about producing infinite amounts of children).

I was so convinced I was going to be big sister some day, but it never happened. And, as it turned out, I always seemed to be the youngest everywhere I went: the youngest niece, the youngest grandchild, the youngest kid in every class, the youngest person at work (not any more!), and in many ways I still feel like "the baby". At least, I still tend to keep things pretty infantile ... tee hee!

My big sister still looks out for me, and we still have lots of fun times together. She's probably the only person who will stick by me when I put ABBA on full-blast and dance around in my pyjamas with a glass of champagne, and who will always encourage (rather than judge) me in the eating of half-a-packet of Tim Tams. Hooray!

So keep your family close, fellow Bloggerifics - they are usually the only ones who will still love you the next day.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Louki xxx