Whoops!

I know I said that I was going to be regular with my posts but... Well... Umm...

Ok no excuses really, I just have been missing in action, spending time with my family, working fulltime, making jewellery and cards, going to a few markets and spending time with friends. Not much to do really, whoops I forgot to mention I have become obsessed with my latest fitness craze, jazzercise doing up to 9 classes a week! I really don't know why I haven't spent more time writing my blog, hehe.

So here I go again and I will try to be more consistant 😊

Holiday ~ Kuala Lumpur (KL)

KL was incredible.  The shopping was so brilliant! we stayed at Melia Hotel which was quite nice but not to the same standard for service as Park Royal.  The location of the Melia Hotel was perfect though.  It was right opposite the Berjaya Times Square shopping centre and within walking distance to the Petronas Towers, Central Market, China Town and Menara.  We rarely used transport at all.  The food was fantastic with so much variety to choose from.



While in KL we mostly wandered around the city and found thousands of places to shop (although that might be just a slight exaggeration). I did manage to find one shop with beads!

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I returned home relaxed and just a little tanned.

Holiday

My husband and I have now settled back into routine after a wonderful and restful holiday.  We spent 7 days in Penang, an island off the coast of Malaysia and then 4 days in Kuala Lumpur.  It was fantastic and just what we both really  needed.

We stayed at Park Royal Resort, which was perfect.  It was right on the beach with lots of water sports right outside the hotel.  there was a gorgeous pool and the hospitality was amazing.  There was easy access to a huge range of food choices and a night market on the doorstep of the hotel.  There were hotel organised tours (if you wanted them) and plenty to do.  Most of the time though we spent lazing around the pool and  going for walks in the local area.

In Penang, we visited the Botanical Gardens and the Butterfly Farm.  We went to the most incredible temples and wandered around GeorgeTown and the Little India area (the goldsmith shops in Little India were amazing with the jewellers making at the front of the shop so you could watch how they made the intricate pieces of gold work).

Gemstones

I love gemstones and at the moment I am getting quite a collection. The colours and textures are just amazing. My favourite changes every day depending on my mood. I have always loved amethyst but at the moment my favoutire purple would have to be sugilite. One of my closest friends loves rubies, so I bought some to make her a pair of earrings and maybe a bracelet to match a lovely necklace she had but the colour was just a little too pink. I also bought some garnets and this matched her ruby necklace beautifully. I am not sure how I will use them yet but they will probably be wire wrapped and added to a chain as they are only 4mm faceted. I think that gemstones are so versatile, they can be earthy or colourful or even sparkling. They can be mixed with glass, wood, metal, crystal or acrylic and they always look gorgeous. There is such a variety of shapes and sizes as well as cuts it is incredible. I love setting cabochons into simple silver settings but unfortunately I haven't really had much time for that lately. The majority of the gemstones in my collection are beads and I have tried to buy ones which are natural, rather than dyed or man made. Sometimes though I have not been able to resist some of the amazing colours of dyes sea sediment jasper and even some agates. I am so looking forward to making lots of new jewellery during the next couple of months, while I am on long service leave. Hope I don't bombard you all with too many photos of my new creations. I can't wait to get started but will have to wait until I get home from my holiday. Stay safe, happy and keep smiling Lee-Anne :)

Rest!

The last couple of months have been so hectic, between my full time teaching position, the many markets I have been going to with my jewellery and my family life with teenage boys, and organising a very successful fundraising market, life had become rather out of control! It is now time to take back that control with some much needed rest and relaxation. I knew that I was feeling very stressed and exhausted but until I got quite sick I hadn't realised just how bad I was (probably extremely difficult to live with). A week and a half ago I came down with a rather violent gastro bug (curtesy of my gorgeous children at school). After a couple of hours with the bug in full swing I passed out hitting my head quite hard, it was the middle of the night and my hubby woke me. I didn't think much of it so I just went back to bed. My hubby starts work at 5 in the morning and as he is unable to get someone to cover his shift at that hour went to work intending to get home as quickly as he could. I was still feeling very unwell and decided I needed help to get my boys up an off to school. I am so lucky as my Mum lives very close to me. I rang her and she came over to help. Just before 8 I again passed out this time not only hitting my head again but also cutting it quite badly. Now I was scared to move around in case I collapsed again so my mum rang the ambulance. The ambulance took me to the hospital where I was put on a drip to rehydrate me and I had a CT scan to check for any fractures, there were none. I had 6 stitches in the cut above my eye and I was put on an ECG machine to monitor my heart. The ECG results were unusual so I was admitted to the hospital. Through all of this I just thought the gastro bug was the cause of the problem. After a night in hospital, with monitoring, I was feeling much better, the bug was gone and I just had a nasty headache and a black eye. As I was about to be released the doctor who had been taking care of me told me tat my collapses were actually due to a heart condition, Tako Tsubo. I had never heard of it so I googled it when I got home. It is a type of cardiomyopathy brought on by stress! Well that really scared me! I was told that there was no lasting damage and that it would probably never happen again, phew! But the stress in my life will still be there, how much can I change? How do I reduce the stress from many things that are beyond my control? Lucky for me I have an amazing family who are incredibly supportive and wonderful friends. I am now on long service leave from my job, organised almost 12 months ago, it is funny how that sort of thing works out. I am writing this post from a hotel room where my husband and I are staying, without children, to simply rest. The moral here, hmmm, remember to take care of yourself! No matter how busy you are prioritise and ensure there is enough 'down' time and me time to keep yourself healthy. Stay happy, healthy and strong until next time Lee-Anne :)

Whoops!

So much for me trying to post regularly :(

I have been very busy since Easter.  Between working at school with my lovely class of 27 children and spending time running around with my 14 year old and teaching my 17 year old to drive, there is not much time left.  However, I am now one of the organisers of a local monthly market, which I love doing but it is quite time consuming particularly in the week before the market and I am in the process of finalising all the stall holders for a fundraiser market which is being help this Saturday and then I need to find time to make my jewellery.  Okay so I am a little bit on the time poor side but I do love every minute of it. 

I hope that next week I will be able to post about how well the market this weekend went, but at the moment I am still a little worried about the whole experience.  I have wonderful stall holders making donations of their lovely products for lucky door prizes and a silent auction that will be running during the market.  There will be a lovely lady doing face painting for half of the market time.  The BBQ will run throughout the 4 hours and there will be soft drinks available as well as a coffee and cupcake van.  The variety of stall holders is fantastic from jewellery, cards, scrapbooking materials, ceramics, mosaics, painted glass, resin work, soaps, candles, beauty products, stained glass, to some second hand books donated by a shop in the local community.  It should be an awesome day but having never organised something like this before I still worry!

Guess only time will tell...

I will let you all know on Monday how it all went

Have a great week :)

Beautiful...

A stunning day in Hobart today so I took my son to work and then went for a walk on The Domain. Here are some of the pictures I took during my walk

Mount Wellington

Looking towards the Derwent River and the Eastern Shore

Mount Wellington across North Hobart

Walking track

Domain sport fields

Looking toward Glenorchy