one sunny saturday.

on our little trek around melbourne looking for properties ben and i ventured out to king lake. it's always been a dream of ours to own a piece of land, quietly nestled somewhere. a stretch of australia that we can call our own and maggie can call her playground. the real estate surge in the city as made us consider our options and we thought 'why not?'.

on saturday morning as the sun started to beam down (it was going to be 32 degrees) ben and i took the long drive from greensborough out to king lake. on the way there we came upon st andrew's market. we had to stop. obviously. we jumped out and took a stroll. ben found some fantastic music. i found coffee. we wandered around eating a damn fine falafel pita and soaking up the sun.

that's when i found a little stall run by a sweet chick. she had so many cute handmade things. it was refreshing to see something real. i rifled through her fabric basket and sifted through the apron draw and came out of there with these two lovely pieces.

fabric. just the way i like....



cute apron - could not resist!



i strongly recommend not only the market, but the beautiful trip out there. st andrews, king lake, eltham *sigh* so lovely. so quiet. so full of good finds. in the end we looked at the property we had considered and loved it. logistically though it would probably be a nightmare. perhaps when we're a bit older, and wiser and carrying a few nippers. then we might have reason to up and leave the bright lights on the inner city. so, you know what that means, don't you? back to the search...

real estate. a real state.

righto, i'm not going to bark on about it. oh, ok. i am going to bark on about it. real estate. is anyone else looking at property right now? it's friggin ridiculous out there. hoards of people are squeezing past each other during inspections of tiny one bedroom shacks that are lucky to be alive and are so close to the train line they could actually double as a platform. it's madness. complete. utter. madness.

ben and i, as you may or may not have gathered, have started the search. the lord of the rings didn't take this long. we have waded through print outs of possible hopefuls only to arrive at the home either disappointed by the fact that it is attached to nineteen other villas or that the price has suddenly jumped right out of our range.

what bothers me is that i am sure every other person out there is feeling just like us. desperate. hungry. perhaps even a little mad. we would jump up and down and throw caution to the wind and probably pay more for a place than our good sense should let us. and if we're all doing the same thing? complete kaos my good friends. complete kaos.

to add salt to the wound we actually love the area we are living in now. it's a highly sought after area, especially by one religion in particular, and as such the prices on a 2 bedroom mess is closer to half a million than it is to SOLD!

i'm feeling very despondent. very let down. i thought australia was the lucky country? where you could have a big old pool out the back and parsley growing in your garden. where your kids could play on the street without having to wear an etag and dogs can run free all day long. Are we going to end up like San Fransisco? A town with such a terrible real estate crisis that people will actually write a letter to the owner stating their plight in order to win the bid? (i've already tried it!)

we just want a house. just a small one. nothing fancy. something with little windows and a busted up kitchen in need of love. something to rest in and laugh in. a small lawn for my maggie and a garage for my ben. it seems in this town, those small wants are too much to ask.

aussie slang.

i'm trying to post more. onegirl inspired me. today i want to talk aussie slang. my friend jenny form ireland was delighted by some of the more imaginative sayings that we have come to call our own here in aus. similarly she offered up some interesting irish sayings that had us rolling around the floor with laughter. I thought it would be fun to share them with you all and perhaps, if you're feeling in the mood, you might want to add to the list.

Ok, aussie slang:

budgie smugglers - tight mens speedo swimming togs that make it look like you're trying to smuggle budgies around a public swimming pool. Not a good look!

brown-eyed mullet - sounds like a rather harmless 80s hairstyle doesn't it? Think again. It's actually slang for a turd floating in the ocean when you're swimming.

mad as a cut snake - this means your very, very angry. The kind of angry where you could lash out and bite someone at any moment. Where this comes from I will never know. I mean if a snakes been cut in half then he aint goin' no where is he?

irish slang:

sweating chunks - when one is sweating profusely to the point where they know everyone has noticed. the sewat in question is no longer coming out in droplets but rather massive chunks. noice!

batter ya - when you smack and hit someone within an inch of their life. It is not, as some might assume, when you hit someone with a mallet and dunk them in batter for frying.

eejit/sap - someone with little or no hope of every amounting to anything. Say to kids often enough and you got yourself a flatmate for life!

And now for your amusement here is a wall painting we found in sleepy Hobart. I made Ben stop the car so that I could take a photo as proof. As I laughed and pointed out the window near delirious with glee, I failed to notice the man pushing the guy in the wheelchair who had walked into the direction of my pointing finger. Needless to say I was mortified to be given a greasy and jabbed ben in the side to 'put the peddle to the metal' so we could get the frig outta there alive.

weekend finds...

even though we are halfway through the week i thought i woudl tell you about my weekend. it was lovely. so quiet and slow. i got to read. can you believe it? i found time to finish my book!?! it was bliss.

another reason it was particulary lovely was that on saturday ben and i celebrated 2 years together. its seems like only yesterday he walked into that ad agency and smiled his infectious smile at me. i knew there and then that he was someone i had to get to know better. he tells me (two years down the track mind you!) that when he saw me he knew i was the one too. *sigh*

Look at us now, all engaged and with dog! who would have thought. who would have dreamed! I am exceptionally happy!

sooooo...saturday was 2 years since our first date. o that first date we went to the melbourne fringe festival. *how apt* however after a few wines we decided not to go into the show but rather stayed in the foyer drinking wine and talking and even having a little waltz to no music. I love that memory :)

this weekend there was less alochol and certainly less nerves. we went down to the beach house and just took it easy. on sunday we visited the rosebud market right on the foreshore. there was plenty of junk to rifle through and even some little treasures. here are some things I have found recently that i simply love!



got this great mug on a hunt with onegirl. she will be selling her fantastic finds in her esty shop soon to be opened. keep your eyes peeled!



got three of these. they will make good pie dishes and be fab for reheating :)



my oh my how miss maggie is growing up. check out those ears! here she is in one of her quiet moments, lapping up the suns rays on our beach house balcony. *we love it there*

FYI - i am currently in the middle of my second baby blanket. squares have been cut and ironed and we are now moving on to the sewing. i will keep you posted on my progress. that's all i got. be back soon.

Jesus Camp.

OK. I'm gonna be real careful here. its always the way when you're dealing with religion. tread carefully. speak generically. don't avert your eyes.

on Friday night, after a rousing recommendation, Ben and i watched 'Jesus camp'. anyone seen it? it's a documentary about a camp in America for evangelists. (I'm tipping it's probably the hard core born agains) Anyway, what occurs on these camps is nothing short of mind-boggling.

young kids, perhaps only eight or nine, take part in the summoning of the spirits. during this time, the preacher (there is one woman who does most of it, but apparently anyone with a mic can get up there too) talks to the kids about their journey with the 'holy savior Jesus Christ'. they are questioned about their belief in him, their dedication to him. 'are you one of those kids who goes to school and pretends you are like everyone else? pretends you don't believe in god? you're a phony. a hypocrite. put your hands up'.

on cue the kids begin to raise their hands. well hello! duh! as if any child out there doesn't want to just fit in. i know i was oust for having a funny accent. if i told them i was catholic i might never have made it! as their little faces turned up towards 'our heavenly father' the tears ran down the cracks of their little eyes. these children were crying because they felt they had done something wrong. something evil. that they had publicly embarrassed themselves. the ironic thing is, they were doing all this in front of other kids. kids they probably wanted to be like. when one started crying, they all started crying. when one fell to his knees, they all fell to their knees. when one started speaking in tongues, they all started speaking in tongues. you get my point.

i suppose i am writing about this because i am a little confused on a number of subjects.

one: how many of these camps are out there?

two: has anyone else seen this doco and if so what are you thoughts?

three: is it just me or is religion meant to be about faith. about having a higher power to turn to, to ask direction from and in whom you can seek solace. this higher power does not judge. ever. it treats children as they ought to be treated - as the purest of us all. their souls are young and eager. they will have many lessons to learn, some harder than others. they are sensitive and as such it is our job to protect them.

with that said i will leave you with a disturbing scene from the movie that plays over and over in my mind...

an adult hands a child a plastic 8 week old foetus and tells them that's it wrong to commit murder and then covers her mouths with tape labeled 'LIFE' and insists she summon the holy spirit.

what. is. this. world. coming. too.

many thanks

firstly i want to thank all those people who took the time to join in the great debate. hearing your individual stories has helped quite a bit. i suppose just knowing that each and every woman has to take a moment to think and rethink is comfort enough. i have no set decision as yet, time will bring that. *yeah* you're all fabulous!

moving right along. i was bursting with excitement today when the mail man knocked on our big glass wall. he was bringing my material - ordered with love on z&s fabrics. After attempting my first patch work quilt i caught a fever. it hasn't left yet. and frankly, i don't want it to. i would love to be sick with this amount of dedication and joy forever!

my mission was to find to key fabrics i can use to create a multitude of different designs. i have babies coming out of my ears at the moment. my sister. my friend. potentially my work mate. so a few baby blankets would not go astray. here are the fabrics i found, some of which only cost $3.49 US each :)



*bundles of love*



*love these*



*fun, fun, fun*

the great debate.

i want to put something up for debate if i may. as plenty of you know, i recently got engaged to the lovely ben brocklesby. a happy time, yes? why of course. no doubt about it. however something had clouded my mind in the last 24 hours and i need some help figuring it out.

i was struck by the prospect of not changing my name.

now i will start by saying this: when ben asked me to be his wife my instincts said 'change it'. when i thought about it more i came to the belief that, for me, changing my name would be a public solidification of the life i want to live with ben and the feelings i have for him. i never thought about keeping my name. not even once. not until last night.

bens mum told me changing her name was something she regrets with vigour. she loves her husband and would marry him again and again, but losing her maiden name is something she would definitely reconsider. she believes that in changing her name she lost her identity. that a part of her went and she didn't quite feel like the new name she had married into.

i tend to think that your identity is defined by more than just your surname. am i wrong? what does the consensus say? am i backward in my belief that you can marry someone, take their name and still be successful in life, in business and in your personal development?

*sigh* opinions, personal experience and insight greatly sought.