Art Excursion The Archibald Prize.

It was a long weekend in Victoria, we had a Public Holiday for the Queens Birthday. Although in my family it was my Dad’s Birthday so we enjoyed having a small family party for him. On the Sunday we went for an excursion to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery to see the Archibald Prize for 2013. I knew a little about this award, it always made it into the news each year. The Archibald Prize is an award for the best portrait of a distinguished Australian. The variety of ways artist chose to do this with their work was fascinating. The people they chose was often interesting and not so obvious. Whilst the winner was Del Kathryn Barton’s painting titled ‘Hugo’.  Whilst it was not my favourite it was certainly well done, and very detailed. That is the thing with art, people like different pieces. My son liked the one called ‘Jo’ because it had lots of animals in them. I thought they were all very interesting.

Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

After looking at all that art, we went to the gallery cafe, enjoyed a delicious lunch, whilst listening to some delightful live music. We then headed down through the rose garden to the Oak Hill Gallery, a local gallery run by volunteers, to see the Little Archies Portrait Prize exhibition.

Sculpture in the rose garden.

We got to enjoy more art, it was such a visual delight. Once again totally amazed by the methods different artist use to do their portrait. Once again interesting, and delightful.

Oak Hill Gallery

It was a lovely day filled with art. I love going new places and seeing new things. It was such a wonderful experience to finally see the Archibald Prize exhibition in person and not just on the news.

It makes me wonder what other amazing adventures await me in the weekends ahead.

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Links:

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2013

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• 19 May 2013 (gardenia3.wordpress.com)

Ten Blessings!

My Son finally went back to school last Friday, so slowly getting back into my routine. Last week was pretty quiet. We managed to get out one day to the shops to do some errands and enjoy a coffee and milkshake.

I am so blessed for the following:

1. To see my son’s smiling face when I picked him up from school, he was so happy to see all his friends again.
2. I am so blessed to be able to spend time with my family and go on family adventures.
3. I am so blessed that it stopped raining long enough to take my dog for a walking adventure around the lake on Sunday.
4. I am so blessed that I was able to do a guided mindfulness meditation on the weekend.
5. I am so blessed to get my son back into speech therapy and that he loves his new speech therapist.
6. I am so blessed that I could get back to the gym on Friday, after about three weeks off and do the Sh’bam class, I really needed to dance and feel silly.
7. I am so blessed to get three new books from the Library that I really wanted to read. Saves me so much money if I can simply borrow them from the library. Also for the experience of seeing live music on Music Sunday.
8. I am so blessed to been able to take my son and dog for a walk and see sparkly water, the sun shone through the clouds and was making the water glisten with sparkly white light just beaming up from the water. It was so magical to look at.
9.  I am so blessed to be able to curl up in an arm chair with my purple blanket and purple hat and read a book.
10. I so blessed to have a sense of curiosity and a desire to find new places to visit and new things to do, like going to the Alfred Nicholas gardens. So blessed to have a husband who  took me and the boys there, and then took us out for coffee at a lovely coffee shop with open fire, just down the road from the gardens.

So many things to feel good about in my life. Of course I do think to myself each evening of all the things I have to be grateful for the day. Gratitude is a key element of living a joyful life!

What were your ten blessings for your week or even day?

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

The Garden Party

Sunday~Last Day Of Our Weekend Holiday!

Sleep in Sunday, more reading and drinking coffee, followed by a quite breakfast outside overlooking the magnificent view. So quiet and tranquil with only the music of the birds to be heard. Just beautiful living, even if only for a weekend.

The Garden Party

Then it was off to the final event of the Yarra Valley Wine and Food Festival, the Garden Party at Healseville Racecourse. We enjoyed the local music. We tasted the wines,ciders and ales. I am not fond of the sparkling pear however I really enjoyed the sparkling shiraz.We enjoyed the cooking demonstrations on how to make chilli salt squid and salad, and also the Greek cooking class. I learnt so much, I should be much better at cooking now. The racecourse with it’s lovely big shady trees, grass areas and seating provided a lovely relaxed setting. Whilst the weather provided a perfect Autumn’s Day. It was a great day out.

The Local Music Bands Played and Entertained the Crowd

It made me think about what events are happening in my own area, and as I flicked through the local paper I saw a heritage day and a fun festival on. It is a pity I am working that weekend. However when I look there is something always on. I found that since starting this blog and becoming aware of what is on around me, I have become so much more able to find interesting things to do and go. I encourage you to check out your own local newspapers,and local radio and find out what interesting place to go and things to do are happening in your area.

Frustration

Today I was totally frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t complete my course work before my practical session tomorrow. It appears the online course would just not load up on my computer. Whilst yesterday I went to the library to do it, and the pages just took too long to load up. It was so super slow.

So todays post is short and I have chosen to select an inspiring TED talk, by SARK who has written some lovely books. I really enjoyed this video hope you enjoy it too.

So tomorrow I will go back to the library and hopefully the computers are on go fast so I complete my work. Anyway I had a wonderful day taking Little Miss Popularity for a long walk

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Risk, Autumn the Shedding of the Old.

Autumn is here, the leaves are changing colour and soon they will fall.

Todays NaBloPoMo challenge question is: Are you more likely to take a risk or avoid a risk?

That is a wonderful question. At this stage of the challenge, I have come to realise that it is better to take a risk. That growth and expansion comes from taking risks. How that looks for me I am not sure.

Today after going to the gym only to realise I left my membership card at home, I wondered if it was going to be a good day. So I sat down and did some work which had been avoiding for a whole month. In a matter of hours it was all done, I felt so relieved and it was easier than I had imagined. I then took my dog Little Miss Popularity for a walk. I noticed that the leaves are changing colours, and  some of the trees are loosing their leaves. It is Autumn and it was a beautiful sunny day followed by a cool night. Some days Autumn is hot, some it is cold, other days it is just perfect. I love that thought of shedding the old, taking time during the hibernation to rest and relax, then break into an energetic full flourish of new growth. It makes me wonder what I need to shed this Autumn, I have been drawn to a lot of simplicity and minimalism books lately. So I think it is time to start de -cluttering. So I think I will take a risk start shedding some of my stuff. My biggest fear is what other people think, will they think I am wasteful and ungrateful. Or worse self-criticism about all the money I have wasted on stuff,  and about  my own foolishness of getting caught up in all this consumerism. It is not just about the clutter in my stuff, but the clutter in my life.

So off I go to contemplate and create a plan to de-clutter my life. I will also contemplate what risks I can take.

 

A great place to contemplate good questions.

Ten Blessings For The Week

Well I got a little busy. I got a lot distracted by life, and lots of wonderful things have been happening. However I always find that thinking about ten blessings for the previous week is one activity that brings more joy into my life. So here they are:

1. I am so blessed to have been able to go to a talk last week at the Library called Lentil as Anything with the founder Shanaka  Fernando, speaking. It was very interesting.
2. I am so blessed to have one son who still cuddles me and gets excited to be picked up from school by Mum. He is such a sweetie
3. I am so blessed to have a whole weekend off to be social and have fun, so lucky to get to a friends party, and to be taken out for lunch by my husband.
4. I am so blessed to have very supportive parents who looked after the two boys whilst  Hubby and me, went out socialising. She also cooked us dinner when we came to pick them up.
5. I am so blessed to have been able to catch up with some friends that I hadn’t seen for a long time.
6. I am so blessed to have been able to have the time and the books too read two books last week.
7. I am so blessed to have a Toastmasters meeting to go to and be involved in. I am also blessed for winning the best evaluator award for the night, obviously I must be learning and growing.
8. I am so blessed to been able to go to the contemporarily art gallery in Melbourne, and see wonderful pieces of art. To have been able to listen to the street buskers, and do a little bit of window shopping. So many beautiful things to look at.
9. I am so blessed to be able to do some educational workshop through work to upgrade my knowledge and skills.
10. I am so blessed that my eldest son still asks me for help with his homework. I forgotten how hard homework could be and it is only year 7. I am re-learning so much.

I could just keep going, and going, however they were the things that I feel so blessed for that stood out in the previous weeks. This whole exercise makes me realised what an amazing blessed life I live. Having an attitude of gratitude really makes a difference.  What were your ten blessings for your week or even day?

Look Before You Leap!

I have been getting a little behind  with my blogging. Just feeling unwell and very lethargic especially today.I woke this morning feeling achy all over, and exhausted, so today I am listening to my body and resting up. I really think it is just my bodies way of saying stop and recharge.

So here is the blog post for Friday. I am currently doing the NaBloPoMo challenge about risk. Fridays question was: Do you always look before you leap?

Oh I am a cautious type of person. I love to reflect, and delve deep into my thoughts. I like to work out my decisions according to the pros and cons. The impact of my decision on my family, how much energy I need to put into that decision, any finiancal costs. I like to list all the alternatives and possibilities. I definitely like to minimise any hazards.  So yes I definitely look and plan before I act on a decision. One of the biggest issues to delve into is identifying is it a risk I really want to take, am I really after these benefits, or am I just following the crowd. Then what are my fears about the risk, there are always fears, this is often what stops me from taking a risk and sometimes I don’t even realise it. With all this knowledge in place I hopefully make an educated decision about taking the particular risk.There is only one problem with this type of decision making, it can go on for a long time if I let it and then it just becomes procrastination wrapped up in the title of preparation and planning.

For example, my husband and myself had to make a decision about sending our child to mainstream school or to a special school. I had a big butchers sheet of paper which I listed all the options. I researched schools, I took into account all my child’s needs. I took into account our needs, such as time, transport, the other child’s needs, where we lived, and cost. I looked at public schools, I looked at private schools, I looked at special schools. I even briefly thought about home schooling. I looked at funding. I looked the different ways class rooms where run and class sizes. I spoke to so many of his specialist about his options. I trailed him at both types of schools in the pre- prep programmes. I think I covered everything about the subject I could imagine. Did I risk sending him to mainstream and watching him fail and loose confidence or did I risk sending him to a special school and him not reaching his academic potential. At the very last minute I just listened to my heart and decided he really needed to go to a special school. It was an extremely hard decision to make, it came after many tears and sleepless nights. It also came with criticism from friends and some family. The most common one was that we were not giving our child the best chance by sending him to mainstream school. The worst comment was we were giving up on him. (That one really hurt!) However we had the support of his teachers and support workers from his early intervention school who held the ideas that a special school is where he would learn best and it would assist him to retain his amazing self-confidence. I could not procrastinate we had to make a decision. We made that decision five years ago, and it is not a decision we regret. It has definitely been the best place for him to learn and he is a beautiful confident little boy full of enthusiasm for life. He is happy and enjoys going to school.

So yes I definitely look before I leap!

Saturday Morning.

It is Saturday Morning and the Weekend has begun. It has been a quiet week, with one sick child at home. Sometimes I just have those down time weeks, where the focus is rest and restoration.

I have listed one of my posts on Friday Flash Blog. Have sent the boys of to the market with the Grandparents and are about to get ready for a girls afternoon tea. I might even squeeze a walk in before I go. It is the most gorgeous sunny day, with a lovely gentle breeze flowing. I work a lot of weekends so I like to plan something special on the weekends I don’t work on. I have been looking forward to this girls afternoon tea for weeks now.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

To Risk Or Not To Risk?

“There is no discovery without risk and what you risk reveals what you value.”
― Jeanette Winterson, 

This is Month at the NaBloPoMo challenge the theme is “RISK“. I wonder if exploring this word for a month will make a difference in my life. It is such a powerful word and for me a somewhat scary word. There will be many other individuals doing the challenge so it will be interesting to read their views on the subject are.

 Todays question is: Do you think it is better to play it safe or to take risks? Firstly I need to address who I perceive myself to be. I am a quiet introverted individual who likes to play things safe and is very conservative. So I would tend to play it safe. I like to take well researched risks, and I don’t like to risk things that are really important to me like my health, or children’s safety, or our money and house. I really value security. However sometimes you have to take a risk, I was supportive when my husband left his job, to find another job that he would enjoy doing more. Working in a job he no longer enjoyed was affecting his health and wellbeing in a negative way. Health is therefore worth more than money and security to me. I am happy to risk feeling embarrassment in front of people, public speaking scared me, and I remember feeling so nervous that I shook so much I almost fell apart. I joined Cranbourne Toastmasters, and started doing public speaking. I risked feeling embarrassed however I learnt that everyone was really supportive, and I learnt new skills and developed the confidence to take on the challenge. I find being in a Toastmasters club encourages me to take risks( or more appropriately put, get out of my comfort zone in order to grow and learn more things). In retrospect the idea of public speaking was so scary and felt like I was going to die, however in reality nothing bad happened. In-fact only good things have happened like a massive boost in self- confidence and self’-esteem. That is the sort of risk taking I prefer to take. Also for me writing blog posts was considered a risk to me, what if people don’t like what I have to say. What if I look stupid. However writing blog posts, doing this challenge gets me out of my comfort zone, and I am prepared to risk looking stupid, and making mistakes, and people not liking me, because it is helping to grow as a person. I feel comfortable playing safe, and sometimes I push myself to feel uncomfortable and take a sensible risk.  I think taking some risks can boost personal growth, and I don’t think you can live life just playing it safe. A certain amount of risk makes life interesting, I know that, yet I still need to push myself to take a risk. So this month I will be pushing myself even harder to take more risks, and make new discoveries and grow in knowledge, skills and as a person.

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Blogging Task Zappers

Wreck This Journal

Today did another page of Wreck This Journal, it is just a way for me to add some creativity into my day and a spend some time playing.

Today the question on the NaBloPoMo January challenge is: What blogging task takes up a lot of your energy?

Blogging tasks that take up energy well the first one is finding good pictures for my post. Sometimes I have to stop what I am doing and go take a photo. Another task is finding really good ideas to write about. Especially when I am tired there seems to be nothing in my head. Doing a challenge like the NaBloPoMo challenge helps with providing ideas. Then there is the mental task of letting go and pressing publish, whilst my inner critic says it is not good enough. The plus is that sitting down blogging is like play for me. I really enjoy doing it and reading other people’s post. It also has helped me to develop new skills and knowledge. It has helped me to grow and get closer to being the Happy Suburban Chick that I want to be. Many blogging task take up a lot of my energy but the overall effect is that blogging gives me energy, and it is something I look forward to doing each day.

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