Craftapalooza

procrastinate

[proh-kras-tuh-neyt, pruh-] verb, -nat‧ed, -nat‧ing. –verb (used without object)
1. to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost. –verb (used with object)
2. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

Sunday morning, haven't blogged on a Sunday in eons....but my motives are a little sly. The house needs some serious tidying. I've had blinkers on all week about it and I know that if I get my act together and do it I'll feel a whole lot better. So I started putting stuff away and then walked past the computer and well, here I am.

Last night was a friend, Maree's, birthday we went out dancing. I love dancing. I forget sometimes how much I love it until I'm there and remembering just how much fun I have. It helps to be with people who also love it and get into it and aren't shy about it. I was with peeps like this last night. For me it's a form of meditation, the music's loud, too loud to think, the base is thumping and it's surprisingly relaxing.

So this morning I'm avoiding the house, here on the computer. I need to be dressed and out the door in the about 45mins....

Here's the before and after from last night, I'm going to enter it into the SPC this month which is GLAM.

Left: before leaving to go out last night, right: this morning. Feeling rough and tired.

Well, have a great Sunday wherever you are...

Rasterbate me baby....

My interpretation of this month's Self Portrait Challenge theme - Pop Art. I used the rasterbator, get your dirty minds out the gutter, or is that just me?! Rasterbated the image then combined the 4 panels in photoshop. Voila.

The view above is the same image first posted viewed at a smaller size on screen.

Introducing...

Me and my sidekick for May's Self Portrait Challenge. Need I say more? Oh, ok. Well I figure you guys know quite a bit about me from the blog so far...What more can I say? Hmm. Well I have a loud laugh and often get comments about it. I'm used to it and pretty much ignore it, but every now and then someone's reaction to it reminds me, it's loud :)  I'm noisy in the cinema apparently. I agree with the film, gasp, clap my hands, you get the idea. I think this annoys some of my buddies! I'm a bit of a nudie at home, well not all the time, but I've been known to house clean nude.

Umm Spud and I have bonded more in the past 6 months now that it's just the two of us. Cats are fickle creatures, but that's also what I love about him. He's so unimpressed about these pics. What you don't hear is his asking purr that's happening here. It's a combination of purring and sniffing and little throat noises. He wants to be rubbed, but I'm busy, so you also didn't see him sink his teeth ever so gently into my arm during this shoot, just to let me know, you know, that HE's here and HE wants patting. Brat.

Why do I do the Self Portrait Challenge? Probably because it's a shift from my usual craft posts, it forces me to take photo's of myself and be comfortable with them, it shares more of my world that isn't seen past the blog.

If you want to see the larger, up close, scarier version of these images, off you go. Also a big huge thanks and congrats to Kath for putting together the new Self Portrait website, excellent work Kath, you machine!

Self Portrait Tuesday

Ok. You asked for it, yes YOU did. If you're one of the commenters who egged me on....here it is, in all its slightly out of focus hairy moley BO free glory. Would be interesting to have a stat counter on this image, see how many of you can't help yourselves and just have to check out my pit! LOL.

I love the loud and proud hair wearers, thanks for your comments!

Self Portrait Tuesday

Or maybe this post should be titled Self Portrait Cop Out! I had intended on posting a picture of my unshaved armpit, at this point you're either nodding your head or screwing up your face "ewwww" style! LOL. I go through stages, shaving, not shaving. I quite like the unshaved version and no, I don't get BO...however most my friends are grossed out. I wonder if it's a Western thing to be turned off by underarm hair. The reaction is almost like it's dirty. It amuses me. So I took some pics of my unshaved armpit...but just couldn't go through with posting a picture. Firstly, taking a picture yourself of this area isn't the easiest and they all just looked odd. Instead this is a picture of my buddy Gayle and I in December last year. We were having a pub knit n lunch one Sunday arvo, had a great time eating yummy food, chatting and knitting.

I know this month's theme is "All of me, embrace your mistakes" and there are mistakes in this pic (me not you Gayle!). There's the stuff that we notice about ourselves that most don't. The stuff we're silently critical about, like the droopy eye, the crooked smile, the thin top lip, dry hair and puffy eyes. Whilst it's not what you may see, it's what I think of when I first look at this picture. I'm not asking for validation, LOL, just pointing out that when I look at this picture I notice these things. Saying all of that, I really love this picture of me and Gayle.

I've recently gotten back into music, mainly inspired by Gayle above. She's the queen of music. If she says listen to this you'll like it, I know I will, she's not let me down yet.

She's gotten me hooked on Emiliana Torrini, Belle and Sebastian (their new album rocks), The Magic Numbers and Jose Gonzalez.

SPT - Flickr and blog.

Self portrait Tuesday

This picture would have been taken around 1977/78 and is very accurate in showing how I feel I fit in my family (I have no idea who took the pic). I've always felt separate, which isn't a bad thing, just different. We had moved back down to Perth from living in a closed mining community in the north of Western Australia. We'd left for not very happy reasons I won't publicise here. I'm the one at the rear. My parents were very young when they had me, 18 and 21, I'm the oldest by 3 years. I don't talk about family here and they don't know about my blog. Dishonest? I'm not sure, I just like to keep it to myself. I feel the need to set boundaries.

When I saw the subject for this month's SPT it gave me immediate mixed emotions, guilt being the first, then a little fear and a feeling of sadness. Family is so complicated, well mine is and isn't. I guess it's as complicated as we choose to make it. I'm realising this more and more. I'm learning to be accepting, less judgemental and sensitive and to not be forced into a specific role. Everyone has a role in their family and sometimes it works for you and often it doesn't. So I try to just take it all at face value and not remember the past and just be present when I see them. I know they love me and I them.

Blog and Flickr.

Self portrait Tuesday

The kaleidoscope theme I seem to have going here works in nicely with this month's Self Portrait Tuesday - take an image of yourself in a reflective surface. I think this passes. I'm pretty happy with this, if I do say so myself. Worked out a lot better than expected.

Flickr pool and blog

For all you Flickr freaks out there, great list of Flickr tools.

Self Portrait Tuesday

I haven't participated for a few weeks and I had to plan for this month's theme "self documentary". The image you see here is a collage one morning last week from when I woke up until I walked out the door. Starting at 7.15am with my first view of the day, Doughman, and ending at 7.55am with me saying goodbye to Spud.

I had the camera next to the bed so in the morning when I woke I could start snapping. These images are a mixture of my views in the morning and performing my daily routine to get out the door and in my car.

Blog and flickr.

Keepin' it real - Self Portrait Tuesday

Firstly, a big thanks for Kath for creating the self portrait wave. It's so cool to see everyone participating. Which brings me to my final body image post.

YES, it's my mug again. We were driving to play mini golf yesterday (Public Holiday here in Perth WA for the Queen's Birthday) and in the car on the way I thought I'd snap some more of my face. Doughman was egging me on, "go on, smile, you have a nice smile". Well I tried. I'm just not one of those people who feels comfortable smiling on demand and in front of a camera. Saying that I'm feeling less vain and shy about how I look in these (well, there's a slight twinge of vanity).

I'm wearing my new perscription sunglasses, they make me feel a little ill because the lenses are sooo big and there's a curve. I need to wear them more. I badly need a haircut, I have no makeup on, just some lip gloss and my eyebrows need some serious grooming.

Here's the SPT site and flickr pool.

Self portrait Tuesday

You can't see it properly here but the eye on the right of this picture droops. I had a bicycle accident as a child and ended up with a blood clot in my eye, well just above my eye. I had surgery to have it removed and have noticed as I'm getting older that this eye droops slightly whenever I'm tired or have been crying. I think it's slowly getting worse. Usually people don't notice it, but when pointed out it's really obvious. I'm not overly self-conscious about it until I see photographs which remind me.

I remember coming out of surgery, I was about 7 and still being very groggy and really wanting to see myself in the mirror. I never felt attractive as a child, so I remember being quite anxious about how I was going to look. I can still visualise in my head the image of myself at hospital crouched on the bed trying to crane my neck to see myself in the mirror across the room and nearly falling off the bed. I vaguely remember my mum being there and trying to stop me.

Here's the flickr pool and SPT site.