Friday 31 July 2009

I ♥ Faces Fix it Friday

Fix it Friday again !!

I love this challenge, and this was one that just fell together quite easily. I squared this gorgeous photo of the lovely 'southern belle'. I also found that it just lent itself to sepia tonings by itself, I actually sepia toned a hue saturation layer and then set it to soft light to bring back a hint of colour. I also added an overlay that i picked up off the course i did with Jessica Sprague.

I hope you like my 'fix'.

Here is the original


and here is my take on it





Head over to I ♥ Faces and check out all of the other incredible entries... :)


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Thursday 30 July 2009

Wow...

where has the time gone

I cant believe how quickly time is passing right now.

I have not got any news really. I am working every day, actually am relieving two people instead of one.. lucky I have some kind of multiple personality disorder. I am buzzing around all day, getting all the important things done, leaving the things that can wait.. geeze this week is going to mean a hell of a lot of catch up for someone.. maybe me, who knows. Lucky I love it. But, ooohhh my feet. I stood up almost all day today on hard floors, my feet are aching like buggery. Oh well, should be able to sit on my butt most of tomorrow.

Like I said, I have no news. My life is pretty boring at the moment - doesnt make for an interesting blog.

I have not even had any interesting insights to share. Nope, got nothing. Oh, I have been having VERY vivid dreams. Those kind that stay with you and continue after you wake up. I love those ones. Some of it has actually been prophetic. Some just confusing. Oh well, we will see.

Anyway, going to bed now.

Take care peoples.

xoxo


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Monday 27 July 2009

I ♥ Faces.. at the beach


This weeks challenge at I ♥ Faces is Beach. I happen to have lots of great photos that I took at the beach for my mum for her christmas present last year. I particularly like this one of Kira.



I love that blog, you should check it out now and again. :)


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Monday....

Oh dear, school hols are over... I cant  believe I am saying this but DAMN!!!

Back to work. I am a full time employee for the first two weeks of term so I wont be seeing you anytime soon.

Update
Some progress has been made here. Sand is being shaken from some ears... kind of...in a slowly getting it kind of way. Hopefully we can prevent a relapse. Would be the best thing really, well for now anyway.

ok, am off to shower and dress for the office.

have a great monday peoples


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Friday 24 July 2009

Its a cruel cruel world

I have had a bit of a shocker today.

It has been insanely busy, with around 700k's being driven by yours truly, between home, cardiff, thornton, wallsend and home again.

in the meantime i found out that the grown son of a woman i work with has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. her husband dropped dead suddenly of the same thing only two years ago. three weeks between husband with no symptoms to burying husband. what a shock. now her eldest son has been diagnosed. hopefully it will be a less agressive kind. i am reeling. this is one of the most incredibly kind and lovley women i have ever had the honour of knowing. Certainly makes me think... and wonder.


husband chooses this evening to challenge me. i answer his questions honestly and forthrightly. now he is shattered. he didnt realise that while he had his head in the sand, i was slowly getting over the whole head in sand thing.

i dont know where we are going withthis

but it will be one way or the other, and soon

sigh


going to bed now

xoxo


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

I ♥ Faces Fix it Friday

I love fix it friday. Here is the latest from I ♥ Faces. Mr Handsome.














Here is my take on it. 

 












I love the intense moodiness of this image. I cropped it heavily (you might have noticed that), added some light texture and ended up sepia toning it after heaps of other tweaks. I just get so carried away that I forget half of it.

Anyway, if you want to check out all of the other wonderful fixes by all of the other participants, then just click here.
 



 will blog a proper blog later, ok


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Wednesday 22 July 2009

hey ho fellow travellers

Much going on in my mind today

Many things to think about

for example - Yesterday my brothers wife came over with their two boys (age almost 12 and 8). My mum came too. We had lunch and my mother launched herself into her patterns. I was amusedly watching with a bit of detatchment how she blatently threw herself at my eldest nephew, and he relished the attention that he got over his brother and three cousins. She also attacked me about my hair and how she hates how i wear it. All done in a jovial manner. Later on in the day, when i delivered her the soup i had made for her that she forgot to take home, she attacked my shoes, sigh.

I thought about it all and have chosen to think along the lines that she has my 'best interests' at heart. She obviously thinks I look terrible and doesnt want people thinking badly of me, so she tries to set me straight.

This set me thinking about how I have internalised these attacks that have been happening for at least the past thirty years, since i was a teenager. Probably since she lost control of how i dress or look.

I wonder at what age she will consider me old enough to choose for myself. I will be 44 next month. Shaking head here.


Another thing it got me thinking about is my reaction to her hurtful comments. She was obviously trying to impose her will upon me. I just shrugged it off and moved on. Like I almost always do when someone hurts/offends me or (in my opinion) judges me unfairly. I shrug it off. Straighten my shoulders and move on. I pretend it didnt hurt. I swallow down a tear, shake it off and continue as if nothing was said.

On another level i can always feel that a wound has been reopened. I rationalise it and then push it down.

Why dont I stand up for myself. Why do I let people hurt me. Especially my family. Mostly my mother and brother. They dont have much respect for me I think, not at its most basic level.

As the old saying goes - 'You can pick your friends, but you cant pick your relatives'. Never a truer word spoken.....
 
Oops... was that an applecart I just upset... oh no. Of course not. hmmmmmmm

It doesn’t have to be difficult if you remember that it’s not supposed to be easy.


I wonder if the Eclipse of the Sun today had anything to do with heightened emotions.

Yes. It was at 29 degrees Cancer.  Cancer is emotional, home and family. New Moons signify rebirth, beginnings, a clean slate, the start of a new cycle. The New Moon falls in my 8th house.  
New Moon in the 8th House The 8th house is multi-faceted and multi-layered. In the physical realm, the 8th house represents sex and shared resources/finances. In the psychological plane, it represents power struggles within our own psychological makeup and our ability to embrace the "darker" version of our self without it overpowering us. On a spiritual level, it represents "death and rebirth", transformation, regeneration -- the need for something to "die" in order for a "rebirth" to occur -- as in a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. A new moon in the 8th house is generally intense and difficult but also powerful.hmmm - there was lots more information. I found it here  As above, so below. Interesting stuff


I am quite tired now. Will wander off and read for a bit before going to bed I think...

My love to all

xoxo
:)






♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Saturday 18 July 2009

Wow..

So much going on for so many...

Some so very up, some so very down. some so very sideways even.

I have been flat out busy. It has been like Pitt Street here, with the comings and goings - constant. The outcome meant that the Resort looked like a bomb had hit it. Top it off, husband has been 'refitting' the built in wardrobe in our room. Resulting in our clothes and assorted other crap all over the bloody place.

On t he up side of that is that I was able to have that clean out that has been waiting for years, and have another five or six bags of stuff to go to charity.

We are totally reorganising here. And the resulting organisational rush has made my head spin. Whoa. All good though. All good.

I have been having a bit of fun photo editing, as you might have noticed, and only just remembered the Stroud photos. I will post them tomorrow. I promise.

I love photo editing. I find it so satisfying and rewarding, definately something I will be doing more of.


Going to bed now.

Tired and shagged out after a long sqwark.
Couldnt voom, no matter how many volts you put through me.


Keep up the good work.

♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

I ♥ Faces Fix it Friday

Here I go again this week with an I ♥ Faces challenge. This time it is Fix it Friday.


This is where they put up a picture and all you have to do is download it, edit it, and upload your own version onto your blog.

This is the image that was on offer this week.... gorgeous Little Miss.


Here is my edit of it. I enjoyed this one, I got to use some of the techniques I have learned in the Jessica Sprague online course I am doing.




Thanks for looking.

♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen
xoxo

Tuesday 14 July 2009

I ♥ Faces "Sports in Action"

Wow. I just thought about how long since I entered a photo in the I ♥ Faces Monday Tuesday Challenge.

It has been ages for sure.

I was excited to see this weeks challenge is Sports in Action because I have only just taken lots of photos of my son at his soccer match a couple of weeks ago. I really love this shot of him, I love that arm in the air for balance, hair flying, total concentration and eye contact with the ball. I cropped and framed it, evened out the colours a little, but otherwise, it is almost straight from the camera.



Go Plattsy!! (thats his team :)

If you are interested in looking at everyone elses entries, you can see them here at the I ♥ Faces Blog.




Lots and lots of mega talented people!!!


♥¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´Lotsa luv from
Jen xoxo

Friday 10 July 2009

The next step....

Life has a way of making you sit up and take notice.

I have had the most exhausting, wonderful, awful week ever.

It has done my head in and put me in that awful emotional place that i hate to be, but where I make my greatest (so far) connections and insights.

It is gut wrenching, tear jerking, hard bloody work. It hurts .. a lot. But it brings up stuff that I never knew existed and helps me enormously... only with hindsight do I see though... I am not through to the other side yet - I will be soon. I have already seen some amazing things and for that I am sooo grateful.

It is fitting, I guess, that this transition period should fall upon one of the most important weekends of the year. Our transition to the next level. I have sloughed off some crud. It hurt though, as any sloughing will.




I feel on the brink. I can sense the precipice, it is just before me as I reach out my foot to take that next step.

I will be The Fool. I will trust that when I step off the edge, I will be taught how to fly, or there will be solid ground to meet my foot.



I have had my cousin here to stay with me since tuesday.

She is about 15 years older then me and hails from sunny qld.

Her name is Jenny. Like mine. Although mine is Jenni with an 'i'. Same thing though

We have never met in this lifetime, until the 27th of December last year at our Family Reunion.


This woman and I have so many things in common that we could be sisters. I feel closer to her then many that I have known for years. We 'understand' each other. We clicked at the reunion, which was nice, but we have not furthered that, aside from a couple of emails. But now things have changed. She has been here for three days and nights. I worked the days but we sat and talked way into the night. I am amazed by her and honoured to call her 'sister by choice'. She calls me the same. Thank you.

It is exhausting though. Exhausting to be 'on' all the time. I loved having her here, but geeze it wore me out. I think the exhaustion has preceeded this dip.

My boy (9yo) threw up on Wednesday morning at about 4am. He has only just this afternoon been able to get up off the lounge/bed and feel (according to him) 95%.

It has been an intense few days - when he goes down with the gastric, he goes down really hard. I might need to boost him with some vitamins etc ... poor boy.

It went through his class. On Monday this week, 15 out of 24 kids were away with the gastric. Tuesday saw 12 away and Wednesday was 10 (including him). What an awful strain it is.. very violent. So far he has kept it to himself. I am not taking it on, I am tooooo busy.






I just looked back and realised that I have not posted for a long long time. I have not posted since before we went away to Stroud Monastery. OMG what an amazing weekend. I sooo love it up there. It was really really nice to spend some time with the Autumn girls, and to meet and be totally inspired by those wonderful Willows. Rachel, you still need to teach me how to paint that eye!!!!!

The food was incredible. We eat well up there... most certainly do. Excellent.

Already looking forward to next year.




I am tired.

Between my head and my boy, I have not had more then about 3 hours sleep for the past three nights. Plus have worked those days too.

I am frikken exhausted.

Will peruse Facebook (stalkbook) for a while and then hit the sack.

Nighty night

Jen
xoxo