Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Finally I’ve given some attention to my poor neglected little Etsy shop. I hadn’t listed anything new in it since last October. Yikes! So I’ve now changed things around. Out with the old and in with the new. I’ve decided for the time being that I’ll not list paintings/ACEOs but try something different. TtV photos! I seem to be spending more of my free time playing with my cameras than with my paints and I’m really enjoying this TtV technique so it made sense to go this route for now. I certainly don’t consider myself a professional photographer by any means. I’ve never considered myself as a professional painter either. Or a professional ACEO maker person. I just like creating. And I like Etsy. Sometimes the creations and Etsy work well together. And sometimes not. Part of the fun is not knowing, and then the buzz you receive when somebody likes what you’ve done. Likes it enough to purchase it, or make a nice comment, or heart it, or feature it in a treasury or on their blog. I feel really fortunate in having experienced all of those things with my artwork. I’m hopeful that people will enjoy my new stuff. So here are a few of my TtV photo listings.


I'm lucky to have this one currently in a very cool treasury curated by Marebear. Thanks Marebear!


Now with the promotional stuff out of the way, I’ll leave you with a fun quiz to do. I found this on the awesome Tea & Honey Bread blog recently. I don’t often do quizzes but this one I was strangely drawn to.

You Are Elmo

Sweet and innocent, you expect everyone to adore you. And they usually do! You are usually feeling: Talkative. You've got tons of stories to tell. And when you aren't talking, you're laughing. You are famous for: Being popular, though no one knows why. Middle aged women especially like you. How you live your life: With an open heart. "Elmo loves you!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

As it turns out I am an Elmo personality type. I’m not sure how accurate that result is. Especially considering that I fibbed a little with my answers. Purely out of fear of being labelled a Bert. I really didn't want to be a Bert. Not that I have anything against Bert. He's a likeable enough muppet and all. I just didn't want to BE a Bert. That whole vertical striped skivvy look just doesn't suit me. I'm not saying a body covered in red fur suits me either. Ummm...I've no idea what I'm trying to say. Think I'll just be quiet now.


Nope. I’ll be quiet in a moment. I swear I will. I just remembered this award that the lovely Richie from Sweden of Richie’s Inspirational Designs blog gave to me a few days ago. Translated it means “you have a cute/sweet blog”...awww shucks, thanks so much Richie. Ok, I’m being quiet now. Really and truly I am.

Shadow Shot Sunday #36

Howdy! The Shadow Gallery collages feature one photo from each participant from last Sunday. If you’d like to join in SSS, please do. How? Shoot a shadow, post it on your blog on Sunday (or close to Sunday), then add your link to Mr Linky, and visit other players. First-time participants are required to click here for a little further info before submitting your link. Thanks heaps and I hope you enjoy all the shadows!

Shadow Gallery

The Shooters:
1. JillRuth&Co 2. Gingerbread 3. SweetRepose 4. NakedLadyInBloom 5. AllThingsAlissa 6. Leora 7. Magpie 8. Charlie&Grace 9. Chie


The Shooters:
1. Lighthousegal 2. AboutNewYork 3. PaganSphinx 4. GreyscaleTerritory 5. PictorialSoul 6. WaysISeeTheWorld 7. Mamapippa 8. RosebudCollection 9. WishIWereBaking


The Shooters:
1. Lisa'sRetroStyle 2. HighDesertDiva 3. TheSmallThings 4. Abstractions 5. Babylonezoo 6. DoYouSeeWhatISee 7. MolokaiGirl 8. SacredRuminations 9. KreationsByKerri


The Shooters:
1. ArtSquadGraphics 2. HotFudge 3. MoreOfMe 4. Raven 5. KittyBooBoo 6. LongIslandDailyPhoto 7. TwinkleStarArt 8. AlmostThere 9. EmBelISH


The Shooters:
1. Ladynred 2. Murrieta365 3. JagatFotografi 4. GalleryJuana 5. LaVieEstBelle 6. WorkOfThePoet 7. Clearview 8. MyCameraMySurroundings 9. SummerKitchenGirls

Here's my Shadow Shot(s) Sunday #36



This week I shot a couple of Aussie style shadows to tie in with Australia Day, which is celebrated tomorrow. These City Roos, created using scrap metal pieces by artist Christopher Trotter in 1999 are located on the footpath along George Street, in Brisbane. I think these City Roos are the most popular of all our public art sculptures displayed around the city. Whenever I’ve walked past them I’ve noticed many tourists admiring them and taking photos of the cute critters. Always makes me smile. Coincidentally, Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Australia Day this year. Thankfully we have a long weekend to fit in all of our fun celebrations. Yippee! Happy Australia Day! Happy Chinese New Year! Happy Sunday!

Gung Hay Fat Choi!
Shadow Shot Sunday Participants

1. La Vie Est Belle 2. Gallery Juana 3. PJ 4. Sweet Repose 5. High Desert Diva 6. Bobbi 7. Lisa's RetroStyle 8. Bobbie -2 9. t. allen-mercado 10. Heart to Art 11. The Summer Kitchen Girls 12. Mamapippa - Belgium 13. More of Me - EG WoW! 14. Hot Fudge 15. Kuusela Finland 16. EmBelISH

17. maryt/theteach 18. Raven 19. Olga aka orchidgirl1979 20. Charlie and Grace 21. Chie 22. Pagan Sphinx 23. Paz's New York Minute 24. Gemma 25. Twinkle Star Art 26. Jill 27. Long Island Daily Photo,USA 28. Terri - teelgee 29. BABYLONEZOO (France) 30. Molokai Girl 31. Dianne 32. Lighthousegal

33. The Small Things 34. Carin 35. ctmott 36. Fog and Thistle 37. Elizabeth schmid 38. JAGAT FOTOGRAFI 39. TwoBarkingDogs 40. Mart 41. 2sweetnsaxy 42. Digital Polaroids 43. Sacred Ruminations 44. Memories Through Photography 45. Rebecca 46. Ice Pony Trekking 47. Raven's Nest

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A couple of things I love

This post isn’t the one I had intended to do today. It’s a quick substitute for the one that didn’t happen because plans got all messed up. As they sometimes do. So rather than venting my frustration and annoyance here, I thought I’d post something positive. A couple of photos of things I love. And may I say that the cup of coffee below tasted every bit as good as it looked. Oh the magical powers of coffee! Good coffee makes everything better! And good coffee is what The Three Monkeys café delivers every visit.



Sadly, my two loves are very incompatible…
“Is it possible to get a cup of coffee-flavoured coffee anymore? What happened with coffee? Did I miss a meeting? They have every other flavour but coffee-flavoured coffee. They have mochaccino, frappaccino, cappuccino, al pacino…Coffee doesn’t need a menu, it needs a cup.” - Denis Leary

Shadow Shot Sunday #35

Howdy! The Shadow Gallery collages feature one photo from each participant from last Sunday. If you’d like to join in SSS, please do. How? Shoot a shadow, post it on your blog on Sunday (or close to Sunday), then add your link to Mr Linky, and visit other players. If first-timers could click here for a little further info before submitting your link it would be appreciated. Thanks heaps and I hope you enjoy the shadows!

Shadow Gallery

The Shooters:
1. GiddyJax 2. Ramblingwoods 3. LaVieEstBelle 4. AlmostThere 5. RosebudCollection 6. ViewsFromRavensNest 7. JagatFotografi 8. DoYouSeeWhatISee 9. NakedLadyInBloom 10. AboutNewYork 11. PictorialSoul 12. Olga 13. HighDesertDiva 14. MeAnnMyCamera 15. SweetRepose 16. AerialArmadillo


The Shooters:
1. MoreOfMe 2. Me 3. HeartToArt 4. Mammapippa 5. TwoBarkingDogs 6. GalleryJuana 7. Charlie&Grace 8. SummerKitchenGirls 9. JillRuth&Co 10. IcePonyTrekking 11. WaysISeeTheWorld 12. LongIslandDailyPhoto 13. TwinkleStarArt 14. Babylonezoo 15. Paz'sNewYorkMinute 16. Richie


The Shooters:
1. MyCameraMySurroundings 2. GreyscaleTerritory 3. ArtSquadGraphics 4. Abstractions 5. Lisa'sRetroStyle 6. HotFudge 7. TheSmallThings 8. Clearview 9. SylviaK 10. MyPhotojourney 11. MolokaiGirl 12. DailyVintageSquare 13. Fog&Thistle 14. WorkOfThePoet 15. PaganSphinx 16. Magpie

Here's my Shadow Shot(s) Sunday #35




Some shadows I found last month around Kings Beach at Caloundra on the beautiful Sunshine Coast. I think it was Kings beach. It may have been Bulcock beach. I get my beaches muddled up. I lived on the Sunshine Coast for a couple of years and even then I couldn’t manage to remember the names of all the beaches. There are a LOT of beaches. Caloundra is a very pretty location. While being a popular holiday destination it’s never quite as crowded as other areas of the Sunshine Coast, such as Mooloolaba and Noosa. You can still find space enough to run around like a loon on a beach in Caloundra without colliding with too many other beach goers. First shot is a section of the fence of a playground area with stumpy shadows surrounding it. The second is of a cool looking beachy bench. The third shot was taken from the boardwalk looking down along Pumicestone Passage. It was a lovely walk. It was an extremely hot walk. The refreshing and yummy icecream that followed shortly after was a very sweet relief. Mmmm...burnt caramel!

Hey shadow shooters! If you ever find the Mr Linky box not displaying, just pop back in a little later to add your link. The Mr Linky hosting site has been experiencing a lot of difficulties over the last few days and has had many brief outages. The issues are often resolved fairly quickly. Alternatively, please feel free to leave a message via the comment box letting me know that you are participating in Shadow Shot Sunday this week and I will be happy to enter your name and link for you just as soon as I can.

Happy Sunday!
Shadow Shot Sunday Participants

1. Lisa's RetroStyle 2. La Vie Est Belle 3. Hot Fudge 4. maryt/theteach 5. High Desert Diva 6. Sweet Repose 7. Bobbie -2 8. Gemma 9. Jan 10. kden 11. Raven 12. Pagan Sphinx 13. Summer Kitchen Girls 14. Gallery Juana 15. Gingerbread

16. Jill 17. Kitty Boo Boo 18. More of Me - EG Wow! 19. Twinkle Star Art 20. Rebecca 21. PJ 22. Terri - teelgee 23. EmBelISH 24. Alissa 25. BABYLONEZOO (France) 26. Sara Chapman in Seattle, USA 27. Carin 28. Chie 29. Mamapippa - Belgium 30. The Small Things

31. ctmott 32. JAGAT FOTOGRAFI 33. Elizabeth Schmid 34. Molokai Girl 35. Lighthousegal 36. Long Island Daily Photo,USA 37. Naked Lady 38. Dianne 39. Kerri 40. DaviMack 41. Sacred Ruminations 42. magpie 43. Leora 44. Ladynred 45. Charlie and Grace

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Growing Up in Brisbane

Firstly thanks to sweet Richie for giving me a Marie Antoinette award recently. This is the 2nd time I've been lucky enough to receive this award and I'm still none the wiser to what it means. Thanks heaps Richie!

I recently visited the Growing Up: 150 Years of Brisbane – 2008 Lord Mayor’s Photographic Awards exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane. Not only was this exhibition a great opportunity to see some amazing work from local emerging photographers, but it also brilliantly captured the beauty, vibrancy and diversity of this little town from so many different perspectives. It made me proud to call Brissy my home.


The exhibition also includes images of 1890’s Brisbane from the Elliot Collection and a very nice display of antique and vintage cameras that had me drooling. If you’re a local I fully encourage you to check out this exhibition. Be sure to allow for plenty of time to see it all. I wasn’t expecting so many photos to be on display so I was a little rushed to see it all on the day I went. I’ll be going back. The exhibition is on until 8th March (the MoB program guide states 22nd February). As with all MoB exhibitions it's free admission.


The MoB is located on the ground level of this magnificent building, Brisbane City Hall. This heritage listed Brisbane icon is under threat due to major structural problems. Sadly it may need to close permanently if substantial repairs are not carried out urgently and the Lord Mayor is wanting feedback about the future of the building from Brisbane residents by 6th February. There is a detailed wikipedia page all about the history of Brisbane City Hall, so if you would like to learn a little more, then click here.



City Hall Auditorium which houses the famous Henry Willis & Sons grand concert organ, built in 1892.


One of the many demonstrations that have taken place outside Brisbane City Hall. This one in the 1960s.





Initial phases of the construction through to the completion of Brisbane City Hall. These photographs were taken by Bertha Mobsby, one of Queensland's early female photograpers and cinemaphotographers.

If you would like to have your say about the future of Brisbane City Hall, visit here, and then click on Saving City Hall. Please please please get involved. So many beautiful old buildings of Brisbane have been destroyed over the recent years and we really need to save what little history we have remaining.

Shadow Shot Sunday #34

Howdy! The Shadow Gallery collages feature one photo from each participant from last Sunday. If you’d like to join in SSS, please do. How? Shoot a shadow, post it on your blog on Sunday (or close to Sunday), then add your link to Mr Linky, and visit other players. If first-timers could click here for a little further info before submitting your link it would be appreciated. Thanks heaps and I hope you enjoy the shadows!

Shadow Gallery

The Shooters:
1. SummerKitchenGirls 2. Lisa'sRetroStyle 3. SweetRepose 4. RavenRidgeGarden 5. AboutNewYork 6. Babylonezoo 7. HighDesertDiva 8. Murrieta365 9. GreyscaleTerritory


The Shooters:
1. LongIslandDailyPhoto 2. Paz'sNewYorkMinute 3. Richie 4. Charlie&Grace 5. IcePonyTrekking 6. PaganSphinx 7. JillRuth&Co 8. ArtSquadGraphics 9. Black&White&Colours 10. HeartToArt 11. AllThingsAlissa 12. TheSmallThings 13. Abstraction 14. Mamapippa 15. RandomThoughts 16. Me


The Shooters:
1. RamblingWoods 2. MyPhotoJourney 3. AlmostThere 4. WorkOfThePoet 5. RosebudCollection 6. MolokaiGirl 7. ViewFromRaven'sNest 8. LaVieEstBelle 9. DoYouSeeWhatISee

Here's my Shadow Shot Sunday #34


Some jazz shadows for an early Sunday morning. Imagine the aroma of fresh coffee accompanying the tunes. Oh yeah! Now imagine the loud and annoying sound of the coffee grinder. That noise is remarkably close to the sound that the trombone above makes whenever I attempt to play it. Stupid trombone.

Something I didn’t mention last week was that my blog turned one year old on the 1st of January. I didn’t mention it because the birthday passed without me even realising until the week after. I’m hopeless at remembering birthdays. Also I received a sweet Spirit of Christmas award from Laura of Any Occasion Boutique a while back and failed to mention that as well, being so consumed with the spirit of Christmas and all that. A very belated thanks to Laura! I’m sure all of this forgetfulness is due to being in holiday mode. My brain shuts down. Sleepy brain better wake up soon because I’m back at work tomorrow. Aaaarrrrgh!

Happy Sunday!
Shadow Shot Sunday Participants

1. La Vie Est Belle 2. Sweet Repose 3. High Desert Diva 4. Gallery Juana 5. Bobbie-2 6. Hot Fudge 7. maryt/theteach 8. Gemma 9. Mamapippa 10. BABYLONEZOO (France) 11. kden 12. Giddy Jax 13. me Ann my camera 14. Charlie and Grace 15. Richie 16. Pagan Sphinx

17. Olga aka orchidgirl1979 18. Terri - teelgee 19. PJ 20. Summer Kitchen Girls 21. Lisa's Retro Style 22. Twinkle Star Art 23. Raven 24. Jill 25. Long Island Daily Photo 26. Rebecca (Clearview) 27. JAGAT FOTOGRAFI 28. Ice Pony Trekking 29. Carin 30. Dianne 31. The Small Things 32. Paz's New York Minute

33. ctmott 34. TWO BARKING DOGS 35. Fog and Thistle 36. More of Me 37. Elizabeth 38. Daily Vintage Square 39. ramblingwoods 40. Sylvia4 41. Sara Chapman in Seattle 42. Naked Lady 43. Debbie 44. Molokai Girl 45. Julia 46. Tessa 47. magpie

Learn more about Shadow Shot Sunday here.

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Shadow Shot Sunday #33

Howdy! The Shadow Gallery collages feature one photo from each participant from last Sunday. If you’d like to join in SSS, please do. How? Shoot a shadow, post it on your blog on Sunday (or close to Sunday), then add your link to Mr Linky, and visit other players. Before submitting your link, if you could click here for a little further info it would be most appreciated. Thanks heaps and I hope you enjoy the shadows!

Shadow Gallery

The Shooters:
1. HighDesertDiva 2. SummerKitchenGirls 3. WorkOfThePoet 4. AllThingsAlissa 5. LongIslandDailyPhoto 6. DoYouSeeWhatISee 7. NakedLady 8. ViewFromRaven'sNest 9. Gingerbread


The Shooters:
1. Richie 2. SweetRepose 3. Me 4. Paz'sNewYorkMinute 5. Sylvia 6. Mamapippa 7. Olga 8. Murrieta365 9. Fog&Thistle 10. TheSmallThings 11. RosebudCollection 12. Babylonezoo 13. EmBelISH 14. RavenRidgeGardens 15. RandomThoughts 16. SpittingInk


The Shooters:
1. GreyscaleTerritory 2. LaVieEstBelle 3. AlmostThere 4. WaysISeeTheWorld 5. ThePaganSphinx 6. MyPhotoJourney 7. MolokaiGirl 8. TwinkleStarArt 9. Lisa'sRetroStyle

Here's my Shadow Shot(s) Sunday #33



The second shot was taken the day after the sepia toned one was taken. A big storm during the night had blown these little flowers onto the path and I really liked the fern shadow across the flowers. So of course I had to take another photo! Yes, more TtV shadow shots! The love affair between my Argus and my digital camera continues. I just cannot seem to separate them. And far be it for me to come between true love. Who knows what the future holds for the pair. Maybe they’ll eventually grow bored with each other. Perhaps the digital camera will get itchy feet and take up with a Kodak Duaflex at some stage. But for now, they are very happy and are having a lot of fun together. They click. And click and click and click…

I’ve been noticing lately that quite a few bloggers have been sharing their top picks of the year 2008, in relation to their favourite movies, songs and other things. So I'm jumpin' on the bloggy bandwagon.

My fave film of 2008: The Flight of the Red Balloon, a feature length gem which nicely pays tribute to the 1956 classic short film The Red Balloon. Unfortunately this film had a very limited cinema release in this country. It was also released the very same week as the eagerly anticipated Sex And The City movie (a movie I enjoyed well enough but I much preferred the TV series). The part that Juliette Binoche played in The Flight of the Red Balloon was outstanding. One of her best roles I think. A beautiful film. I recently purchased the DVD release of this film and it includes the original The Red Balloon on a bonus disc.Yay!

My fave CD of 2008: I love music and listen to a lot of it so I can’t narrow it down to one CD only. So my fave five releases of 2008 are, The Lucksmiths – First Frost, Portishead – Third, Kate Miller-Heidke – Curiouser, Nick Cave – Dig, Lazarus, Dig! and Brisbane band Texas Tea – The Junkshop Recordings.

That was fun. I’d sure love to know your faves of 2008 if you're willing to share them. C'mon. I'm curious!

Happy Sunday!
Shadow Shot Sunday Participants

1. La Vie Est Belle 2. Bobbie-2 3. PJ 4. High Desert Diva 5. Sweet Repose 6. Jan 7. Christine 8. Gemma 9. Lisa's RetroStyle 10. Summer Kitchen Girls 11. Paz's New York Minute

12. Debbie 13. BABYLONEZOO (France) 14. Long Island Daily Photo 15. Raven 16. The Small Things 17. Sarah (Art Squad Graphics) 18. Charlie and Grace 19. Alissa 20. ctmott 21. Mamapippa - Belgium 22. Elizabeth

23. Julia 24. Martina 25. Dianne 26. maryt/theteach 27. Sherrie 28. ramblingwoods 29. Pagan Sphinx 30. Richie 31. Ice Pony Trekking 32. Jill 33. Molokai Girl

Learn more about Shadow Shot Sunday here.

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