The 14 Year Old Boy

The frustration of a 14 year old boy!  Not their frustration the parents frustration!  The grunts, the groans, the eye rolling, the shoulder shrugging, the "alright" with a sound t on the end, the disgusting hair, the same clothes, the disinterest in anything suggested by a parent.

I cannot wait until my son who by the way was such a cool and fussy dresser when he was younger stops wearing sports shorts, if I never see a sports short again I will be a happy woman.  They get washed, only when I drag them off his bedroom floor and he sneaks outside and pulls them off the line and puts them back on, unfortunately they have been designed to dry in a milli second.  I even caught him with the clothes dryer on with 2 socks inside, what the hell I said, you have millions of other socks but to which he replied "what the hell mum, they are my favourite socks" and got the big sigh when I turned the dryer off and hung them on the line!

I feel like the neighbourhood taxi, dropping off, picking up, dropping other kids off, going back to get my son's bag that he conveniently forgot.  Then you actually have a little turn in the car with his friends suggesting that they are starting to "take the piss and you are over running them here there and everywhere" they all look a bit mortified and start with the "sorry" and they make you feel like a bitch of a mother and guilty for losing the plot.  Then you get home, they eat your fridge bare, drink your drinks and stink up your bedrooms and you wonder why you felt guilty even for a moment.  You occassionally get a rare glimpse of the man they are about to become when they realise you have been pushed too far and they start following you around to the point when you stop and say "what is it that you want" and they say "nothing, just thanks mum, I do appreciate you and I love you" followed by a big hug and you just melt and realise that they are still the little boy you always loved.

Then they wake up the next morning, back to feral mode....and you proceed to leave them notes reminding them to "clean up their room, adjust the attitude and appreciate life" and you realise you are really fighting a loosing battle but I have been told time and time again that it does get better.  So all I can say is roll on 15!

I don't have pleasure of having a girl but I remember from my own dirty looks and eye rolling that I gave my parents, I assume that girls are just as bad?  At least girls wash their hair!!!

Sunsets

It never fails to amaze me the amount of truly spectactular sunsets we get in Western Australia.  We are truly blessed being able to see the sun set over the ocean each night.  Luckily we live coastal and get to see this each night, mostly we take it for granted but sometimes the sky puts on such a display the hues start to change the colour of your lounge room, making you get up off your chair and look to the sky for the incredible display.  Here is a peak at this week's sunset for those of you that missed it.

Artwork - Evening Sand Dunes

Another piece of artwork that I just finished yesterday afternoon, inspiration is from a photo that I had taken at Quinns Beach around 6.00 in the evening, just as the sun was going down.

New painting

Here is my latest offering of my son Jesse, fishing in Exmouth but I just realised I forgot to put his fishing rod in, will have to add it in as it looks like he is actually thinking something deep whilst gazing out into the sea....

Burn Baby Burn

On a lovely overcast morning, I headed off for a walk, I decided to walk to my friends house which took me approximately 30 minutes.  It was 10am and although it was warm it was very overcast and the sun was not shining brightly.  I arrived at my friends and she announced that we were taking her dogs for a walk/run down the beach.  Off we went, and frolicked down the beach for another 30 minutes.  It was such a gorgeous morning, if you are ever depressed take two golden retrievers down the beach with a ball and you cannot help but laugh as they bound over and over again into the sea full of love, life and energy.  It is a sure fire way to perk up anyone's day.  Just watch out for your toes for when a 40 kilo dog lands on your foot, you can be sure it will hurt like hell and bruise your toe nail!

We headed back to my friends house, she made me a delicious healthy lunch and after begging exhaustion she kindly dropped me back home to save my legs.

Around 3pm in the afternoon, I noticed a red patch on my neck, weird I thought just getting burnt in that one spot.  I had however put sun cream on my face, it is a ritual that I stick to religiously.  By 4pm my chest, back and shoulders were bright red, I was so badly burnt, I couldn't believe it, I was so mad at myself for allowing this to happen but it was so unexpected when it wasn't even particularly hot.

Here is the lovely snapshot to prove it, this is what I sent through to my very very brown girlfriend that manages to lie in the sun at 37 degrees for most of the day attempting to get more tanned.  I wonder if you only go a certain colour and then that's it, you couldn't possibly get any browner.  Considering that she has come back from Bali and managed to retain most of her tan, unlike me, my tan washed off within a week, she is well ahead of anyone in the tanning department.

Please ignore my double chin, it was taken with my iphone and believe me I had to delete three of the photos just hideous!

After I sms'd my dear friend this photo, she replied that she was "totally pissing herself laughing at me, and to rub some aloe vera on it and to cover up chalky" She however had no burn marks whatsoever!

So people , it just goes to prove it doesn't matter what the temperature is just sun block up!!!

More Artwork - Sunsets and beaches

I have been informed by my pastel teacher Miss Cindy that I have the pastel bug, she may be right, I am so inspired at the moment so I will continue to paint whilst the need is red hot.



This one is for my god daughter Chelsea

 Keep tuned for more!

New Artwork

My pastel course has been a great success, I am itching to do more and more work.  As promised new artwork is below.

Knees and Facsinators

The Melbourne Cup - Its full of fun, frivolity, fabulous facsinators, fashion, food and faux pars.

Fashion on the field is an event itself, it is so fascinating whether you are sitting in a restaurant fashion spotting or actually at the races, there is a never ending parade of fillies.

Which brings me to my next point - at what age is the mid length thigh dress no longer appropriate?  At a certain age its time to hide the knees.  We spend so much time, money and effort creaming up our faces, necks and eyes, why were we not told that the first things to go are the elbows and knees!  I wish I was told 20 years ago to concentrate some of that expensive cream on the knees and elbows, i probably would have laughed at 20 and ignored the advice but at least I would have been warned. 

Facinators were en mass yesterday - I donned a black alice band facinator with feathers and ribbons and received a thumbs up from a lady whilst driving to work. The hat was back with a vengance this year and the fascinator was stated to be OUT this year but it was very popular and less than half the price of a decent hat.

It seems that Cup day is a day for the ladies to dress up, one of the only days in Perth that it is OK to go all out and nothing is over the top.  I have been to a few Cup lunches over the year's and I am still amazed that whilst they always have a fashion show at all the events I have been to, these young girls/models constantly seem to overtly play up to the old pervy men, that wip their cameras out of their pockets and have the girls sitting on their knees taking photo's.  Why these young girls would want their photo taken with these leaches is beyond me.  I am all for gorgeous girls strutting their stuff like "models" but each year the "models" act like they should be hanging off a pole.  I can guarantee that no woman would actually buy one item of clothing that those girls modelled as I am sure all the women in that restaraunt were rolling their eyes at the girls.  I just don't get it and I probably never will!!!

Anyway it is a horse race that stops the nation, whether you win or lose it is a very fun filled day and it doesn't matter if you back the favourite or the roughie, it is always so unpredictible and it makes for a very entertaining day.  Here's looking forward to next year!

Searching for Inspiration

I have started a pastel course, thank you Cindy, you are a wonderful teacher, I am learning lots of new techniques and skills.  I promise to put some finished work up soon. 

I needed some inspiration so we headed out to Yanchep on Sunday morning to take photos of the breaking waves and sand dunes.  My next pastel attempt is going to be rocks so they were photographed in earnest too.  It was a lovely day, beautiful weather, slightly windy but still warm, the beach was utterly deserted. 

The only problem was the flies, they were rampant, I managed to eat three as it was so difficult for me to keep my mouth closed, I am a talker after all!  Totally hideous, after three spit outs, I vowed to keep my mouth closed for the rest of the time ..... not an easy thing to do.  I have never seen so many flies at the beach, I guess it is the time of year when all the baby flies hatch??  they seem to be the totally irritating little flies that never give up, I had to take my hat off in the end and use it as a weapon.  As we were leaving the beach some tourists arrived taking photos they had their tshirts on their heads and were waving their hands around everywhere, now if us Aussies think the flies are bad, then they will be suffering big time!!!