Want at first sight!

There it is. 
A spur of the moment statement about an instrument I knew absolutely nothing about.

And by 30th Jan, I had a ukulele.

I went looking for a uke on Ebay and when I saw 'the one'...BAM!...do want !!! I also had my sights set on a limited edition uke (I have a thing for rarity) but that was relatively plain and exxy. 

For the next 5 days or so, I watched the listing like a hawk. In that time I read (thanks Wiki) that ukes commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor and baritone. I didn't hang around long enough to find out what that meant. My Google search returned over 8 million results so I figured I'd take a proper look when I actually have a uke.

Back to Ebay. On the last day of the auction, with less than 30 seconds before it ended, I placed my single, all-consuming, devastating bid. One that would blow other bidders away because they didn't see me coming, or their app failed to notify them that they've been outbid, or they have slow internet, or they were frozen in awe of my ninja-ness. In a blink of an eye, the all too familiar appeared on the top right corner of my page "Congratulations blah blah blah". *fist pump*

Eight agonising days later, the uke arrived at my work and that's when I thought to myself "um girl, who are you kiddin?"

That day I was one happy little vegemite and I couldn't wait to get home to find out how it all works. The first link I clicked on was a godsend. 


Step 1: Buy a ukelele *done*


Step 2: Tune your ukulele
Turns out, my little four-stringed instrument needed tuning in the order G, C, E, A (Good Cooks Eat Alot)...it reminded me of All Cows Eat Grass from my years of struggle with music theory :)


Step 3: Learn how to play
This was such an easy tutorial to follow - 3 chords - C, F, G7
And apparently, the chords for Sunday Morning by Maroon 5, which was also my first piano cover on YouTube :)


So. Here is my attempt...



This is as far as I've got to and I can't wait to learn another song soon!

More on my pretty ukulele in my next post :)

♥

Lettuce craving

Yesterday I saw a sliver of lettuce poking out of a burger and I had an instant craving for it (the lettuce that is). So I got me some and devoured it like a crazed herbivore. 
Most satisfying.

And today I was googling dinasours and came across this...

Totally lol-ed :D

♥

Sunday morning

Rain, please don't stop, I want to lie in bed, be drenched in your embrace and drown in your singing...

How glorious it is to have the luxury to sleep in on a rainy Sunday morning. 

Reminds me of being in the most comfortable bed ever, when I was housesitting not too long ago. I'll always remember being engulfed by layers of warmth as I listen to raindrops and the quiet breathing of the best little dog I've ever met.

And here's a little song for this gorgeous Sunday morning. My first piano recording, bearing in mind that I haven't played the piano in about a year and I'm not a singer!

♥

Happy sky

Dear Winter,

I'm so glad that you're back to your gorgeous self today :)

Over the past few weeks, you've blown my fence over (again) and threw hailstones at my car (yes, again). I also appreciate that you've surprised me with a pretty water feature, though I wish that you didn't put it inside my house.

But I forgive you.

Today, you've hugged me with sunshine and blue skies and I'm happier than I've been in a while.

Thank you. You're awesome.

Love,

Chinwei

♥

Morning on the beach

So I'm housesitting and totally loving it. The guest bed is a lush cloud so a little sleep-in is a must on this gorgeous Sunday morning. 

I hop out of bed only because I'm ravenous and have been looking forward to breakfast at John Street Cafe in Cottesloe. After the vegetarian lot and a coffee, I head down the street towards the beach.

John St

Cottesloe beach

It's super sunny and it's really comforting in that sense, but I have to remind myself that it is the middle of winter and I hug myself against the chill as I stroll towards the groyne. I sit on the rocks for a while and stare at the blue green ocean and there's no where else I'd rather be. 

Seagulls swoosh past, waves crash around me and 2 dolphins swim past.

Taking the scenic route back to the car, I revel in the sand squishing between my toes and manage to get seaweed on my jeans. Good look :)

obligatory footprint shot

Vitamin D and happiness levels are back up and I think I'm ready for the working week ahead.

♥

Pinterested!

There is beauty in everything if you'll only stop for a moment to notice it. I love love love looking at photographs, exploring spaces, admiring landscapes, listening to nature, running my fingers over textures, picking up trinkets, smelling roses...just taking it all in and hoping to imprint it all in my brain.

I've bookmarked Pinterest as one of my go-to sites for my daily dose of beautiful and am really happy to find a couple of my paintings on it :)

Water Dandy on Etsy

Blanketed on Etsy

I always see something on Pinterest that makes my heart skip a beat. Here are some of my favourites from browsing today:

Source: vintagethorns.tumblr.com via Erin on Pinterest

Source: mycolorfashion.com via francyface on Pinterest

Source: core77.com via Joshua on Pinterest

Source: oldbrandnew.blogspot.com via Tory on Pinterest

♥

Cool sunnies

I was looking for something to eat for dinner and FINALLY found my sunnies.

just chillin'

♥

Photo excursion - Chittering Valley

It's a public holiday and a perfectly sunny winter's day. The breeze is constant and the temperature is in the high teens.
This is just a snippet of Chittering Valley, an hour's drive north of Perth. 

Blue skies and crunchy gravel

Smokey...loving the smell of wood fires

Vineyards. farms and orchards galore

yellow-y olive-y brown grey greens

Epic clouds and cows

pretty prints

Rundown rusticness

Trigger happy, as usual. Photo credit: mattyp

I marvel at windmills, look out for lego-like tractors in the distance, spot some horses and catch a glimpse of an emu.

♥

Scaredy cat

He catches flies

Pounces on crickets

Marvels at creepy crawlies

Yet when he spots this ant, he squishes himself up against the wall and freaks out.

I remove the ant before he (the cat) hyperventilates.

♥

My avatar

I've been wanting to create paintings with an Avatar feel to it. I'm not into sci-fi and fantasy but I was in awe of the colours throughout the film, especially the blues and greens. Whilst googling for images to refresh my memory, I came across tutorials to create a Na'vi Avatar face. 

And that was it. 

I got sidetracked and was completely hooked on Avatarising myself, spending the next 12 hours engrossed in the task and almost turning blue with frustration, due to my lack of Photoshop knowledge.

Well I kinda like my avatar and have been imagining myself on Pandora :)

Oe tsun stum plltxe na'vi!

♥

Because I can

If I can eat out of a can or jar, you can bet that I will.
Especially if no one's watching ;)

♥

Snow

Heatwaves and intense sunlight make for great photos.

It occurred to me that I have yet to touch snow. I used to scrape ice from our green Kelvinator during hot and humid days, I'd watch the ice melt in my hands and pretend that I was in Siberia.

It's still ridiculously hot here and I feel like I'm being deep-fried and liquefied at the same time.

Things are either blistering, sticky or sweaty.

Yesterday I was furiously fanning myself with a brochure and spilled coffee on my white shorts...a few emphatic smiles from cafe goers made it all better.

I was about to mention another unfortunate incident but nevermind that... 

it just rained! un-friggin-believable! 
3 minutes of reprieve. The air smells of musty soil but it's fabulous, water fell from the sky and right now, it's the closest thing to snow!

♥

One door

As they say, one door shuts and another opens.

I'd rather there not be a door at all.
I'm getting quite tired of having to open and close them.

I wish that there were no doors.

No actually, I'd rather that one door opens before the other shuts...you know, just in case.

Or I could just draw myself a door that's always open.

Ink and watercolour on handmade paper

♥