time….

from the book walking medicine lake..

via time….

]]> http://ihateblonde.com/2013/05/20/grow-young/ Tue, 21 May 2013 00:23:19 +0000 ihateblonde http://ihateblonde.com/2013/05/20/grow-young/

Grow young. We’re up all night to get lucky. The gift of life keeps on giving. We’ve come to far to give up who we are, so we say screw a day job. Screw doing anything that involves sitting behind a desk. The human body was made to do great things. It was made for exploring the world. The heart is too strong to hide under a tie behind a desk. Grow guts, and work for yourself. Make you dream a reality and let go. No one person writes the rules for life, you have to be your own author. You have to live with all your heart until it pours out of you.

Sorry I’ve been away my loves, but… I am proud to announce to you all that I am officially a college graduate! It feels so so good! My graduation weekend was so beautiful. My family came into town and we spend the weekend in a penthouse on the 25th floor downtown laying in bed, ordering room service and laughing together. I don’t know what I would do without them. They make it possible for me to follow my dreams. I think the day I grew up was the day I stopped believing that they were somehow trying to hold me back or work against me. I realized that they really just want me to be happy. They want me to be healthy and wear a big smile. My dad always says, “I’d love you if you just breathed in and out.” I think that’s important. It makes it so that everything I accomplish, I do so for me. Not for Mom, Not for Dad, Not for Uncle Ed, for ME!

Basically what I’m saying is follow your passion with all your heart. Let your art kill you. Express yourself until you pass out and then wake up and do it all over again. I plan on spending this summer figuring out just what I want to do with this blog, where my next steps are, and loving the people around me.

Remember, if you are an artist, that’s incredibly powerful. People are scared of you. People are frightened by people who actually have what it takes to live what they love.

xx

bracelets by Jac Vanek X Element 

grow young shirt by Jac Vanek X Element 

sunflower duffle bag by Jac Vanek X Element 

Quit Your Day Job jacket by Jac Vanek X Element 

Do you go to any community events in your area?

I guess I could say I am rather anti-social, but I will engage with other people that I know are like minded.

For example, there are 3 events that I am going to soon. 

The first being “Kilometers 4 Koalas”, a walk event to raise money for the protection of Koalas.

The second being the “Stop The Gold Coast Quarry” meeting, where important matters will be discussed about the proposed quarry in our suburb.

And the third being a “Beach Care” event, where people will plant native species of plants on the dunes, and remove any invasive weeds.

You should check out what community events are happening near you

Peace and love!

Sorry for the long wait on the new blog post I just have been really busy with a little something! So I want to be and actress when I grow up so I auditioned for something for the first time, it was just something small. It was an anti-bullying video that is going to be played at school around the area. So a week after I auditioned I got an email from the director saying that I got a part in it! I was so happy! So we had filming on a Monday that I didn’t have school it was about a few weeks ago so now we are just waiting for an email with the link to the finished product! I can’t wait to see it! Also, to help my acting skills I started taking acting classes every Tuesday for 8 weeks and they are going good so far, I have met a lot of new people/friends.

I also recently got the Apple iPod 5th generation! I love it so far! It is so cool! There was many colors to choose from but I got the blue one because I thought that it looked cool. So, if you don’t know what the iPod 5th looks like, here is a picture for you.

So ya it’s pretty cool, I’ve been wanting it for a long time cause my other iPod had really bad battery life and I cracked the screen.

I also had a field trip today! I had a lot of fun with friends after the trip because the buses took us to a park for lunch so I got to hang out with a bunch of friends there but my best friend was late to school cause she had to go to the doctors so she missed the bus when we left for the trip so I was sad about that, also my other close friends wasn’t allowed to go so I hung out with a lot of my other friends. Also, on Friday I have another field trip to go skating and most of my friends are going on that one so we are going to have a fun time tripping each other like best friends do! haha I’m really looking forward to the summer I’m really busy this summer cause I’m going places with family so that is going to be fun!

Follow my blog on twitter: @ECGirlsLife

Love,

Ash

This past weekend we got a group of friends together and headed down to Hull, MA for day trip. Specifically, we went to The Sea Dog Brew Pub and Nantasket beach.

View from the Sea Dog Brew Pub deck

The Sea Dog Brew Pub in Hull is located on A Street. It is an amazing location! It is right on the water with great views of the Ocean and Boston. The interior decor of the Sea Dog is very cool and its gives off a bright, fun, beachy feeling. My favorite thing? The outdoor deck. It is sunny and warm overlooks the ocean – perfect place to hang out on a nice summer day.

pier – Hull

The Sea Dog has daily specials such as Wing Wednesday and Team Trivia Thursday. We went on Sunday for Reggae Brunch complete with a live Reggae band and a special brunch menu. Sea dog offers a champagne bucket deal that includes for different juice mixers and a bottle of champagne for $25. It as has a great selection of their own brews plus a variety of bottled beers.

champagne bucket – Sea Dog Brew Pub

Nantasket beach is not far away from the Sea Dog Brew Pub. It is a picturesque beach – lots to look at and a decent amount of shells to collect. There is parking right at the beach, however, I was informed it can be pricey. There is also a carousel nearby for the younger children to enjoy. Lots of restaurants and diners can be found all along the beach as well.

Hull is an easy day trip to plan and it can be as inexpensive as you want to make it. Definitely a great spot to check out this summer!

Nantasket Beach – Hull

Comments? Thoughts? Feel free to leave comments or follow me on twitter @unabridged_12 :)

Though the  pale and unremarkable man lying starfish on cold grass didn’t know it, the stars he counted and lost track of were indeed symbols of infinity. The deep cadence of the moment was only ruined by his inability to simply stay awestruck.

“I bet God has favourite stars. Stars he lavishes with lots of planets and moons. And all the other stars get together and gossip about these suck-ups.”

He didn’t even laugh at his joke, though his words did flutter through the permeating aether that blankets reality, to fall upon the swirling mass of wisdom that stretched above him. Galaxies twisted and tightened around eachother; forces that lay steady and dormant now being upheaved by their very material. A cosmic hand plunged through the universe, setting and disrupting finely tuned motions like so many non-entities.

All that mattered was that small little man.

David blinked as he thought he saw some stars shift. He blinked again when they parted ways, and a mass of light was seen streaming towards earth.

“Oh my God, what is that?”

The swirling mass of matter bore down on the little human, as he scrambled away, tripping over his loose clothes and slipping on the wet grass. As the light finally engulfed him, he threw up his arms, protesting his divine abduction.

The light seared him for a brief moment, purging him of any material form, if only for a second. Then, it was like a warm blanket; comforting and familiar. Something he could slip into easily.

A disembodied thought rang out across the formless nothing.

“Hello?”

Hello.

There were no legs with which to run; no way to tell where or what anything was. What was once David Smith wasn’t even sure he existed.

“What’s going on? Where am I?”

You’re not.

“Well that’s not very helpful, is it?”

What made David unique in his being was a constant dismissal of all serious behavior. If he had indeed been obliterated from the face of reality, he wasn’t going to let this thing know it bothered him.

Do you still think about me? Humans I mean.

“What? What are you talking about? Are you God?”

So that’s what you still call me?

Between thoughts didn’t exist for David anymore; it was all one long flow of creation; neither starting nor stopping. The conversation would be classified instantaneous, if time existed.

“Err. Yes. Do we think about you? Ah, I guess so? Not as much? I don’t know?”

You seem unsure.

“We’re all unsure. Nobody really knows if you exist.”

I don’t.

“Again. Very helpful. Can I go back?”

Soon. Do you…miss me?

“Miss you? I don’t know you!”

Yes, yes I know. You never knew me. Nobody has, in a very, long, time.

“Are you…are you lonely? Is God lonely?”

I am always lonely. I…I’m sorry. You should go.

David felt a small tug at his consciousness; a ripple in the endless nothing. He felt weight; mass, a glue in the universe that gave him matter. The creeping sensation of sensation tingled, linking his body and being. He was back on the grass. It was raining.

He looked around, sight being a welcome blessing, external reality felt good, like a new car. Still, small flutters of guilt stirred him inside; David felt empathy. He looked up.

“If you ever need to talk, just let me know.”

No answer.

——————————————————————————–

Leave a comment if you liked it, love to hear from you folks! Cheers for reading!

This blog post is titled “Candy Crush” after that supposedly highly addictive Facebook game that Sarah is trying to make me play at this very moment. The title is also very relevant. So the post this evening is not only super beautiful, but slightly humorous. These were just a lot of fun. The swimsuit Sarah is modeling in the pictures is an original 1960s swimsuit that I found in Goodwill a few years ago and have wanted to photograph for a long time… I am very excited to share these with you all.

This is how we mentally prepared for the shoot:

And here are the results… notice all the especially fun editing/light leaks!

 This was after Sarah dropped the lollipop on the cement-like sand and ruined everything…

So, fellow people. While Sarah may look like a perfect human being in these pictures – she dropped the lollipop. Which ultimately makes her a failure.

Love you Sarah.

Special thanks to Hannah for not letting all the props blow away in the wind. 

By Tripadvisor.com

Beautiful blue skies. Warm weather. Sand as smooth as a fine wine. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I am talking about Florida. Pensacola to be precise. I have just found out that this is going to be my next great escape! I am so excited that I have already started researching the fun things to do there. I definitely am going to be checking out the Naval Air Base, which I heard is pretty sweet, but my main focus will be on the world-famous Florida beaches.

Keeping with the military theme so far, I also want to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum, which is one of the world’s largest of it’s kind. There is also the Veteran’s Memorial Park, which features a World War II Memorial, a Korean War Memorial, and The Wall South- the nation’s only permanent replica of D.C.’s Veteran’s Memorial.

Besides my love of military-related activities, I also have a thing for visiting lighthouses, so I will most-definitely have to check out the one in Pensacola. Most of my time will be spent laying out getting a tan though, so I will have to find time to squeeze these other activities in. After my trip, I will do a follow-up post on what I checked out and what I missed!

Peace, love, and wanderlust!

As my son and I were just looking round the flats for interesting critters, the sun dropped behind some clouds which made for some beautiful rays.

Here is Henry when he was a tiny little thing 6 months ago!

Oh my, I love this photo. It makes me miss summer badly. Ryan Kenny is an Australian photographer who has done shoots for i-D and Oyster, among many other high profile gigs, and you should definitely check out his dreamy photo diary. It’s Nice That writes “Ryan Kenny smashes up anti-girl power theories with his trusty camera that basically turns every girl it fires a shot at into a hilarious, roll-up smoking, rock diving, water fight starting, firework lighting girl.” Actually, I think it might be that Ryan just hangs out with fun people, because those are all things that girls actually are without being photographed, but there you go.

This week is full of preparations for the graduation, the senior assembly, final exams for the unfortunate seniors who missed too many days of school (not this girl!), and partying. That makes it very difficult to devote much of our precious attention to such menial tasks as schoolwork. Remember my post a couple months back about fighting senioritis? Well, let’s just say that that argument has gone to moot, and I am fully embracing it.

But now the senioritis has spread not only to affect my school performance, but also my motivations to do, well, ANYTHING. For instance, I know you all LOVE food so much. So, I had been planning to make a decadent dish that a pleasant customer at Harris Teeter had described to me in detail involving a lot of chocolate and peanut butter. I was even going to take pictures of each step and show you how to make it too (or how NOT to make it, if it goes poorly).  But obviously, THAT hasn’t happened. Maybe I’ll do it during the summer. Just don’t hold your breath. You might not breath again.

But on to slightly-less-important things. I went to the beach this weekend, and I got tanned! At least, as tan as a white girl like me can get. Technically, I’m still the whitest person I know (besides my dear friend Charlotte, but she’s a ginger, so that’s ok), but I’m tan for ME, so I feel content. I got so much salt water in my eyes this weekend, though. Those waves were GNARLY.

I can’t count how many times I got knocked off of my feet and went hurling through the frothy waves, head over heels, not knowing which way was up. These moments were always filled with that peculiar sense of terror and yet peace, where they seemed to last forever and yet not long at all. Usually, I wasn’t in the water for longer than it took for me to register it, but when I was under for a long time (i.e., five-ten seconds), there was the subconscious fear that I might not come up for air again. I must admit, though, it was quite humorous to watch others in my family undergo the same experience.

At school, for my final week, I am only watching movies for all of my classes except theater! It’s great. I basically get to relax the rest of the week. In theater, we all divided into groups of two or more, and my group is doing scenes from Beauty and the Beast. Due to the lack of a male figure in our group, I am playing the part of Gaston. I know, I’m so manly that you wouldn’t be able to tell I was a girl. NOT.

The worst part? I’ve got to sing and talk in an incredibly LOWW voice. Don’t even get me started on my struggles to walk like a man. I look more like a gorilla.

I know that i will most likely will break down and feel EXTREMLY uncomfirtable at the beach without covering up. It sucks abit to know that they wont have any idea how weird and horrifying this feels for me. Its 2 months until i leave and i feel nervous and i wanna go hide in my bedroom already.

1. Barcelona, Spain
Come and fall in love with the magical fountain of Barcelona, relax on the beautiful beaches and party the night away at Europe’s finest clubs.

2. Zakynthos, Greece
Greek island is always a plus for summer destination. Zakynthos also known as Zante, is a small captivating island in Greece, it has one of the bluest sea and a mini paradise hotel Bitzaro.

3.Venice, Italy
Want something different? Visit Venice and enjoy the gondola ride, shop through the narrow streets and watch the enchanting view at night from the elegant hotel Cipriani.

4.Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon, one of the most welcoming city has a variety of attractions you could visit while enjoying your summer holiday. Top will be a walk around the Parque das Nações and a visit to Jerónimos Monastery. I also recommend the hotel Tivoli, the view is amazing and the service is excellent.

5. Monte Carlo, Monaco
The movie says it all. Classy and luxury is what you hear in Monte Carlo. It has one of the best casino in Europe and also, for memorable pictures stop by the Japanese garden and capture the moment away.

Hello again, we are ON THE ROAD!!!

6am sitting at my laptop, watching the sun come up over the beach, nice . Kids and Tanya still asleep, even nicer, and coffee in hand, super nice . We even have an espresso machine!

Thanks to those who have asked where the next blog post is, that makes me feel good, and shows great spirit from you. I thought after a couple of posts people would forgot about our blog, out of site out of mind.

Perhaps I will start with a few statistics. 54 days since I left the cubical (work), 29 days in Australia, 8 nights in the caravan, and 12 days of home schooling.

There are also a few ‘firsts’. First time driving with a caravan, first time parking a caravan, first Aussie caravan park, and our first encounters with the Aussie wildlife.

29 days ago we arrived in this fine land with just our bags and two bikes, and now we are set up for travel on the road. We have shopped till we dropped to get everything we need to get us started. Even buying things like a hammer, knives, forks, and pens and paper. It’s like starting a new life. Our goal has been to keep it simple, cheap if we can and it makes sense, light in weight, small in size and as few items as possible to live in a moderately comfortable way. The camping and caravan stores here are amazing. People camp here in more style and comfort than we did in our own house at home. Slowly I plan to get us set up for free camping so we can camp off the grid (no power and water hook ups) and away from the shops. This way we can stop somewhere for a few nights, in the wilderness, away from the caravan parks.

Our first three caravan parks have been a positive experience. Actually I love them. The best part for me is that there is a real sense of community. People are very respectful of each other and keep things clean, tidy, and quiet.  There are the grey nomads escaping the southern Aussie winter in their hundred thousand dollar caravans, the hard core outback travellers with boats, fishing gear, bikes, quad bikes, etc. Today, next to us, we have some young guys from Denmark in a tent who are travelling the world’s best surf spots with their Toyata Hiace van that has done 400,000+ kms. It’s been great meeting new people and, in fact, you have no choice travelling this way. If you are shy or prefer total privacy then don’t copy us. Back in Wellington I had neighbours I had never met even after 2 years. They jump in their Mercs early in the morning, drive to work, and come home late after the nanny has put the kids to bed. The kids go to private schools half way across town, so our kids have never met them either. In my view the sense of community in the suburbs has been lost and so, from that perspective, our current nomadic lifestyle is a nice change.

Tanya is doing well with the change also.  I think it would be fair to say that the second camp ground in the trees pushed her comfort zone. She definitely has a mild phobia when it comes to the wildlife, or really, the possible wildlife encounters. The only possibly dodgy animal I have found is a meter long Goanna, but further up the island there are wild dingoes. The bird life here is amazing and the dawn chorus is something I will never grow tired of.

I haven’t managed to do any work on my software yet, so at least I have the same productivity as I did working in the government sector. Now that we are settling into a routine I think the early mornings will be my ‘working’ time.

Like every parent the world over our biggest challenge is still the children. This travelling lark would be ‘easy as’ without them . Our brats still fight like the proverbial cats and dogs, can be unbelievable rude to us, and we don’t have access to the government baby sitting service (school) any longer so Tanya and I don’t get a break from them. However, this is their experience too, and I can already tell that, as a family and individually, we will all grow in a positive way. We have started our home schooling programme. This topic deserves it’s own blog post, so I won’t expand too much now, just to say that Josh is screaming forward and with Mikayla it is like pushing shit up hill . That girl has the energy, stubbornness and pure life force that can’t be tamed (and why should it) but for us parents it makes life quite, errrr, ‘interesting’.

Enough words, and now some pictures. Thanks for reading. Feel free to pass the blog link onto anyone you think might be interested.

Here is a picture of our first caravan park at Noosa River. I had to back the caravan into this spot in front of all the seasoned ‘vanners’. Eeek! We had heavy rain all night and the van didn’t even leak.

This is our second caravan park in the bush. We had power but no water, so used the vans water tanks for the first time. I loved this place, the wildlife was amazing and it was quiet and isolated.

The birds are everywhere.

Mikayla is thriving on the wildlife, and she makes new human friends at every new stop. Her current new friend has a bearded dragon lizard as a pet.

x

Enough wildlife to poke a stick at!

Life’s a beach, at the Cooloola beach ‘Great Sandy National Park’, North of Noosa.

We took a drive in the truck along the beach. This beach is a 4×4 beach with some fun deep sandy bits to navigate. We passed a few guys who had got stuck, and I watched heaps of guys trying to exit the beach in some deep sand at great pace. This seemed odd to me, especially when I just drove slowly through it and left the beach without any effort at all (Go Triton!) We are loving the truck. It pulls the caravan well, and allows us to take side trips into the 4×4 zone, yeah baby. Sorry but there are no BMWs, Mercs, Audis, or soccer mom SUVs on the beach here. Real bloke trucks only!

Must go for a run now, thanks for reading.

Cheers

Graeme