light at the end of the tunnel...

greetings.

currently i am FED UP with this beyond stupid 'aboriginal spirituality' assignment for study of religion...it's a flogging speech. can you believe it? everytime i sit down to work on it, i get a headache & want to go to bed. but instead of succumbing to that desire once again, i decided to visit my olive tree.


well, as much as i dislike assignments & exams, i have actually always loved exam week for some strange reason. possibly because it means i only have to go to school for specific time slots; when it is absolutely necessary. which is great. i did my english presentation on the 'representation of women in our media.' so thank goodness that is out of the way. i'm looking forward to watching packed to the rafters tonight.

i've been pretty nostalgic & sentimental about finishing school lately... it's really quite...daunting & sad. but i'm trying to just enjoy what little time i have left, rather than being all debbie-downer about it all being over. silly me. i've really missed blogging, just writing down random trivial little thoughts. my noggin is a random one.





i'm currently listening to diana krall. *sigh* she is wonderful. AND, she is coming to concert next year in march! hoorah! so, there's a ticket with my name on it that shall be regarded as one of my christmas presents. you know what else is on my wishlist and has been for MONTHS now? check out this baby, well i suppose it's really a mother, of a package from lomography.com:
heck to the yes! i've also been eyeing off a few of their other cameras :) but the diana mini or F+ is the first on my list.
now to conclude my post (that i sincerely wish could be longer, but i must get back to aboriginal spirituality. grr) these are 10 things i am thankful for:

1. brooke fraser's music and her amaaaazing and inspiring website/blog.

2. coffee & strawberry shortcake for morning tea. my sustenance for the day.

3. books. books. books. & rainy days where you don't need to feel guilty for cosy-ing up in bed all day.

4. frankie & peppermint mag.

5. the organic markets & their breakfast pizzas.

6. friday nights, tealight candles, pianos & acoustic guitars.

7. my beyond-marvelous fam bam & small group sisters.

8. olives.

9. banana scrabble.

10. the art of blogging.

have a splendid afternoon. unfortunately, i bet yours will be better than mine :( simply because you don't need to analyse aboriginal rites of passage and rock paintings.
cheerio! xo

artsy fartsy

OKAY, so i'm getting pretty sick of studying and doing boring assignments...so i decided i desperately needed a blogging break. oh, and today i bought the new Frankie and a curly wurly and strawberry sundae lifesavers :) i guess it's like a little survival pack to get me through these last couple of days. oh man. maths b exam tomorrow. OH THE JOYS.

anyhoo, these pictures that you see are actually of my most recent artwork :) it's a collaboration between wearable and installation art...and i'm really happy with how it turned out.

i guess what inspired the work was the process of metamorphosis. when a butterfly is developing within its cocoon, we are told not to touch or interfere or we could interrupt the process and affect the outcome. i saw that there was a bit of an analogy when it came to teenagers. as we are growing up, there are people around us: family, teachers, peers, etc who like to lay their opinions and expectations upon us, trying to make their mark on our 'cocoon.' they are often so eager to see the outcome, expecting something perfect. my work illustrates this whole concept :) that teenagers need to be given the chance to experience life for themselves and to make their own choices & mistakes. we may not end up perfect, and we may disappoint others, but at least we can have our own dreams and aspirations, and learn our own lessons.

i like it because it looks really organic and whimsical :)

well, unfortunately i must be off to study more for maths. lovely to drop in though :) xx

oh the beauty of inspiration...

why good evening :) so i've been spending the last 45 minutes or so on researching for my art assignment. and i'm proud to say that i have made some progress! hoorah! whilst searching for some cool new artists i came across this indie artist and illustrator Ali J. i think her work is absolutely awesome! they're very simple, but i love the contrast of colours and imagery she has used. anyhoo, just wanted to pop in to share this little bit of inspiration i have experienced :) have a marv night. x

music notes...

oh my...i am so very sick of year 12! it is driving me to the point of insanity. today amanda and i were walking up the stairs, and i tripped. yes, that's right. ahh, yesterday and today have just not been that dandy. yesterday i had a doozie of a music exam...grr! mozart and beethoven and bach...i am ticked off at you. why'd you have to write such complex stuff? and today, i had to hand in my maths assignment. we had to do a home loan...and now i don't think i ever want to purchase a home for fear of mortgage stress! ahhhhhhh. PLUS, i had to write a silly QCS writing task practice last night which kept me up late..and i am sick (my nose drips like our outside leaky tap) and i had to go to the flipping dentist yesterday to have an elastic band wedged between my teeth. my 12-year-old molars haven't grown at all over the last two years...and i didn't like the look on the dentist's face :S so fingers crossed the elastic band does something useful...but for now, my gum is in pain.

but despite these not-so-wonderful happenings, im still looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. im really enjoying art this year. right now, it's pretty much the only subject that isn't making me want to tear my hair out in exasperation!

im actually supposed to be doing my bible assignment right now, but what the heck. i decided to blog because it relaxes me and makes me happy. oooooo and i am also listening to sarah blasko, one of my favourite aussie singer-songwriters. i got amanda onto her this week too, and she likes it of course :) you see, amanda and i are like sisters, so we always like the same things. i love amanda.

so yes, right now sarah blasko is lulling me with "goodbye yellow brick road." it's a cover of elton's john's original, but im liking her version a lot! i also like her songs "we won't run" "hold on my heart" and "all i want." i think she's pretty rad :) so i put a picture of her below. it's her album cover, isn't it cute? i think so.

jellicle songs for jellicle cats...

HOORAH for the weekend! i am so overjoyed :-) it has been a long and not-so-great week i must say. so i am glad it is over. happy sabbath :-)




so this week, a whole group of music and drama students went to go and see Cats the musical! Now, usually i would not call myself a fan of cats at all...sorry to all the cat lovers, but i don't see anything special! butttt the musical was simply amazing..for lack of a better word. the acrobats and the singing was magical!



anyhoo. it is dinner time and i am starving hungry! yay for gourmet pizzas and candles on friday nights :)

ciao for now xx

500 days of summer...

i am sooooooooo excited for this movie! it comes out september 17 (the best month of the year!) and i am counting down the days. it's your typical boy-meets-girl romantic comedy; which i love :-) they make me happy.

tell you what doesn't make me happy? sitting in bed with a tummy ache :-( that really sucks; but i have a heat pack, and there is some chicken and corn soup that i can eat for lunch. ahh im already starting to feel better :-)

hopefully, if my stomach permits, i will be heading off to UQ for their open day very shortly. have a lovely day :-) xx

Lisa Mitchell Love

image via Flickr

"this girl is amazing. she just draws you in. how could you not love her?" FAN COMMENT

i found out about lisa mitchell a while ago, by watching my very favourite show: packed to the rafters :-) she has the most magical voice, it's simply enchanting. PLUS she has the coolest sense of style becauseeeee she is a greenie. she is a big big fan of the op shops (like myself) which i admire even more! at only 19 years of age the young talent has been jetting off on tours all over the globe. i love seeing the talent that Australia has; my other favourites including Lenka, Lior, Sarah Blasko and Cat Empire. my very favourite lisa mitchell tracks would have to be 'neopolitan dreams' and 'coin laundry.' if you haven't heard of her yet (which i would be so very surprised to hear that you haven't) then you simply must go check it all out. i can't wait to go to one of her concerts!

American Dream...

image via cherry blossom girl

Okay, so I have been back for three weeks now. three weeks today actually, but i just have not found the time to blog! my best friend amanda, as well as others, have been pestering me to do a new post for agesssss. and amanda is very disciplined in her posting. so i am aspiring to be more like her!

well, it was the most amazing trip ever! better than i could have ever imagined :-)

we arrived at LAX at 4:30 in the afternoon. yes, there were the legendary palm-tree-lined boulevards; the whole time we were in Los Angeles it felt as though we were on a movie set. we stayed right on santa monica beach in a little holiday apartment that overlooked the santa monica pier (which is simply beautiful at night, and also where they filmed some of the hannah montana movie! haha).

the second day we were there, dad woke us up, much to our dismay, early in the morning so that we could get ready for disneyland! i think i slept most of the way there. we hired this huge yank tank, a toyota something-or-other that we don't have down in Oz because it probably wouldn't fit on the road! and dad had to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road, whilst sitting on the wrong side of the car.

WAIT! i almost forgot to mention something of utter importance; the night we arrived there, we actually drove around for HOURS (and i am not exaggerating!) looking for the place we were staying, and therefore didn't get around to filling our very hungry stomachs until 11:00pm! (aeroplane food is disgusting, and i hate it). Butttttt...we did happen to find a lovely little organic caffe called "Urth Caffe" for some yummy little delights :-). we felt right at home, and our organic needs were well catered for. every morning we were in LA we got a delicious latte from there. there packaging was really cute too, check it out:

Okay, I think that if i keep this up, i am going to be wayyyy too descriptive about everything. so im just gonna give you the highlights with some piccies :-)

Disneyland was pretty amazing...it really is where dreams come true (soooo cliche!). we had toffee apples, took a tour of mickey and minnie's houses, and watched the street parade and the fireworks show; it was all very magical. i bought some mickey mouse ears, and minnie mouse ones for my lovely friend mini, which we actually wore for our school photos just the other day.

we also had the pleasure of going to an LA dodgers game at their homeground stadium, right near hollywood, which was pretty cool. and we went for drives up and down the boulevards, ate lunch and admired multi-million-dollar celebrity homes (such as katie holmes and tom cruise) in beverly hills, and of course did some serious shopping :-) mum and i especially loved the shopping at third street promenade. we followed the star walk down hollywood boulevard, and passed the hollywood wax museum where i got the most amazing vintage Wizard of Oz bag! it is just great!

We also hired bikes and rode along Santa Monica beach.

we went shopping at a shop by the name of "anthropologie" and it has officially become my favourite shop in the world. it was so whimsicallll (i love that word) and i liked every single thing in the shop! they decorate the shop so well, and they had a wall of vintage cameras which was just amazing. this is it:
the shop was just gorgeous:

the yellow school buses were ultra cool :-)
as were the newspaper dispensers!

we got to eat at some really nice places, but this place called "shutters" right on santa monica beach was one of my favourites!

We spent 6 wonderful days in LA, and then drove up to San Fran via the coastal drive which was just stunning. there was so much wildlife; we stopped to spot a HUGE group of elephant seals and they make extremelyyyy weird noises! we also saw little squirrels, a deer and its faun (aww!) and some real big eagles. it was really quite awesome :-)

San Fransisco was really nice too, but a lot different to LA. it was really foggy there and just had a really different vibe. We stayed right in the heart of the city and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. My little brother posed quite a valid question; "why is the Golden Gate Bridge not golden, kelse. why is it red?" i said he should google it.

We ate at the coolest diner while we were in SF; called Lori's diner. it had an old blue mustang, black and white tiled floors, piccies of Marilyn and Audrey, red seating booths and the best choc malt milkshakes in town. it was so cool :-) here's a picture of it, courtesy of google images:

i also bought my formal fabric in SF :-) which was so very exciting! i can't wait til mum starts making it!

Well basically that is a very short summary of my trip :-) i hope you enjoyed. xo

up, up, up and away!

i know i have neglected my poor blog for much too long, but year 12 really does keep you busy! Right now im almost jumping out of my seat thinking about tomorrow 3:30pm when i will be boarding a DJ something or other that will take me from beautiful brisbane down to sydney, followed by a 12 hour flight from sydney to Los Angeles!!! that's right folks...i am jetting over to the states :) today i prepared for the very looooooong flight by purchasing some essentials: the latest issue of frankie and teen vogue, as well as the highly-acclaimed novel: "tomorrow when the war began" by john marsden. i have been told it is fantastic! thankfully, v australia provides you with a rather extensive music and movie selection aswell. today i also made sure i stopped at ted's camera house to get some polaroid film...gee it's expensive...but it's so worth it! so i will have to upload some pics from the trip onto under the olive tree when i return. i am hoping very much that i will get one of me standing in front of the golden gate bridge in san fransisco.

i will have to buy a lot of chewing gum before the flight...and maybe some panadol considering the severe ear pain i suffer on flights :( it was pretty bad on our year 12 sydney trip flight...i was deaf for a few hours after the flight...

on a brighter note! on our agenda is disneyland, a dodgers baseball game, legoland, beaching it, and shopping of course! i cannot wait :) i will miss all my lovely friends while i am away, but i have promised to bring each of them something back :)

well i do believe it is bye for now. promise to post details of the trip when i get back in two weeks! adieu lovelies! oxo

these are a few of my favourite things...

i decided to share a few things that put a smile on my dial :)

packed to the rafters

Lenka

polaroid snapshots

kit nailpolish is amazing. try it.

anyone who knows me knows that i am a sucker for olives. in fact, when my parents asked me if there was anything in particular that i wanted when i graduate, i said a tub of olives would be fine :)

vitamin water - these are the most refreshing drinks!