I'm not very good a blogging these days

It's been awhile...

I know i said i'd get better at this but life really has just gotten in the way.

Fork This has been non-existent (but that is about to change).

Work has been beating both BJ and I up on a daily basis. End of financial year is FINALLY over but we are still trying to recover.

Gordon is now 6 months old... He's grown so much from when we got him. He is still a crazy fun pup who loves life. He's awesome!

And Cooper is still a grumpy old man (but he secretly loves his brother).

We decided recently to create a little more debt for ourselves and go back to the USA in August to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary and the 10 year anniversary of The Dawn and Drew Show at Farmageddon.

We leave on the 3rd of August and are just counting down the day for a much needed break.

Tonight we are looking forward to catching up with friends over some good drinks, good food and a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity. Time to break out the expansion packs.

xx
Smorgy

Pin It

2013 Wrap Up

Wow! What a year!

2013 is coming to an end and I have to say it's been my most favourite year yet.

I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life and go adventuring around the USA for a glorious month.

I was able to see friends that I have been apart from for far too long and celebrate over and over again with everyone I love.

BJ and I had the wedding we truly wanted. We wanted to have a fun day with family and friends but didn't want to spend a lot of money as we wanted to honeymoon in America and continue a month's long celebration. We made a lot of the decorations and call in favours where ever we could. It was such a relaxing, joyful day and i would not change a thing.

The honeymoon was amazing! 

It had been years since we saw some of our friends overseas and we did not want to waste a second while we were over there. We kept ourselves very busy and had lots of adventures. (We finally saw Niagara Falls.... Wow!!)

We were both very much overworked this year. Saving every cent we could for our wedding/honeymoon. As well as working hard to save up our holiday hours. But it was worth it to have the honeymoon we both dreamed of.

This year we have also brought a new family car and finally got rid of BJ's egg mobile.

Tonight BJ, Cooper and I are going to hang out together with some homemade burgers (which I can hear BJ making right now) and celebrate the wonderful year we are saying goodbye to. We will bring in 2014 together. A NEW year which I plan to be just a good... If not better.

xx
Smorgy

PS: 2014 will include more blogging, more Fork This, as well as a lot of goals I am setting for myself and will work hard to achieve. I plan to have another VERY productive year.

PPS: Thank you to everyone who helped make this year soo amazing. Happy 2014 Everyone!


Pin It

Fork This 76 - From Florida With Love

BJ and I recieved a care package from our friends in St Augustine, Florida.

Have a look at all the goodies we got.

Delicious!!

xx
Smorgy

PS: BJ is very much enjoying his cheese in a can

Pin It

Fork This 64 - Happy 1000 Dawn & Drew

This weekend our friends Dawn and Drew of The Dawn & Drew Show are celebrating their 1000th episode with Dawn-A-Pa-Drew-Za 5.0. We weekend filled with camping, drinking, minions and fun in a barn in Wisconsin.

Dawn and Drew have been doing their fantastic podcast since 2004 and are one of the longest running podcasts out there. BJ and I have been big DnD fans for years and are lucky enough to call them our friends.

We were also lucky to go to Dawn-A-Pa-Drew-Za-3za in 2008, when we were traveling the States. We got to spend a week on the Dawn and Drew Farm, help setup for the festivities AND i got to celebrate in my 22nd birthday with a group of amazing people from all over the USA.

We decided this week's episode was to be in flashback to that grand week on the farm - Making new friends, getting dressed up, being drunk as and having a ball.


xx
Smorgy

PS: Yes that is me at the beginning chugging from a GIANT Tequila bottle on stage... Happy Birthday to ME!!!

PPS: How fantastically horrid were our costumes... Those mullet wigs are still hanging up in the DnD Barn today (Which makes me smile whenever i see a photo)

PPPS: The lovely song on our episode is called 'Girls On Girls' by Smitten Bayou.

Pin It

Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy *No Spoilers*

BJ and I are both really excited about the final Batman this Thursday. BJ LOVES this trilogy and has been talking about it non-stop for 12 months, waiting it to be out... If you've spoken to him, im sure he's mentioned Batman... A LOT! I too love this trilogy but am excited for another reason. This Batman trilogy is the first new trilogy BJ and I have experienced together from start to finish and I am excited and sad for it to come to an end.

Batman Begins was the FIRST movie we ever saw together. We went to Reading Cinemas in Chirnside Park and it was before we were even dating and only the second time we'd hung out together. Batman Begins was the start of what was to become a very large (and expensive) addiction between BJ and I. We love going to the cinemas and if we could we'd go every week.

Dark Knight was viewed at a cinema in Seattle, WA. It was released just before our 3rd anniversary (Which we celebrated at Disneyland) and we were left with a whopper of a story from our adventure to the cinemas. The day had us walking 5 miles to a cinema only to find they weren't playing Dark Knight, then another mile to the next cinema, walking down the side of a busy road which wasn't pedestrian friendly, only to come out of the movie late at night, stranded, with no taxi's around and the fear of not knowing how we'd get back to our motel.

In the end we got a lift from a very friendly fella who played talk back church radio the whole drive back to the motel and wouldn't accept any money from us. Good times!

And now here we are at The Dark Knight Rises which came out right before our anniversary once again. It will be our 7th anniversary... Oh my, how time flies. We have followed this Trilogy for our whole relationship and we were so excited for the final instalment of what has been a great trilogy.

BJ and I walked out of the cinemas opening night, gave each other a big hug and just smiled.

It's the end of an era.... But I look forward to many more trilogies in our future.

xx
Smorgy

Pin It

Fork This 43 - The Maine Gift

This week we received a care package from a friend in the States. Our first international housewarming gift. Check out what we got :)

   

xx
Smorgy Pin It

12 months ago - Part 2

Week to of our USA trip in 2010 was to St Augustine, Florida.
An awesome little town where some friends of ours lived.

Ronald, Lisa and Linc hosted us for the week and we went on some advertures. We went to the Alligator Farm which was awesome fun (But bloody hot). We got to experience Steak 'n' Shake. We did a heap of shopping and we went to see the Dolphin's. AND BJ drove for the first time in the States, which was scary/exciting.

Here are some photos of my memories:

That statue's penis is HUGE

Hahahaha this photo still makes me laugh. I told BJ to pose with the statue but Linc joined in as well.

Turtle Face!!

Turtle Face!!

Naturally if there is a giant animal statue, we get to climb on it's back for photos. 

Aligator Farm

Albino Aligator!!

Here is BJ driving for the first time in the States

 Here is BJ driving for the first time in the States

Steak 'n' Shake - Delicious!!

I LOVE WALMART!!!! Found season 1-4 of The Pretender on DVD... HAD to buy them!

Happiest girly in the world

We took Linc swimming which was a lot of fun. Shame the pool didn't really have any shade from the sun so we couldn't stay there for too long.

BJ showing off his guns to Linc

Here are some photos of the dolphin's. They are such show ponies.

Peek-a-boo!

I love the look on Linc's face

One of my AWESOME tshirt purchases :)

GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR!!

We had soo much fun seeing Ronald, Lisa and Linc again. It'd been 2 years since we last visited and Linc had grown soo much.

St Augustine is such a nice place to go to. It's the oldest town in the States and has heaps of ghost history.
The main street of shops is lovely to walk with lot's of yummy candy stores and restuarants.

We miss you St Augustine.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

25 in a month

So I looked at my calendar and realised that in one month i will be 25. Meaning my birthday will have gone and i'll just be 25.

I've never been big on celebrating my birthday. I don't have a lot of great birthday memories because things always seem to go wrong on that day.

Some amazing birthday i've had have been thanks to my beautiful partner BJ who always tries to make the day as amazing for me as possible.

The BEST birthday that comes to mind is when i turned 22 in 2008. BJ and I were travelling for 5 months and my birthday was celebrated on the Dawn and Drew farm in West Bend Wisconsin for 3 days with people from near and far who we'd never physically met, coming to party in the barn.

Drew Domkus, Dawn Meceli, Megan Newman and BJ Carter

I can remember the countdown to midnight. Everyone decided to climb up to the loft and i have this great group photo taken just after they all screamed

'5... 4... 3... 2... 1.......Happy Birthday!!!!'

It was an amazing experience and truely is my most favourite birthday memory ever.

Generally i prefer to spend my birthday with BJ and Cooper and just forget about the rest of the world for the day. Forget about how much junk food I've eaten or that i'm still in my PJ's at 3pm... Just be happy with the two most important people in my life.

Cooper and I 2009

But people keep asking me what i'm doing for this birthday. 25 seems to be a big thing in everyone elses mind so now i'm trying to decide if i can be bothered organising something for it.

I don't have a great success rate with birthday parties and I don't know that people would actually want to come if i did organise something. I don't want to set myself up for failure, planning something, getting excited about it and then being let down because people have their own lives to live and couldn't come to my little party. The last thing i want is to put in all that effort and only have 3 people turn up (And that includes BJ and I in the 3).

So what should i do?!

Should i organise a small gathering at my house?

A dinner out with some friends?

An evening at a bar for drinks?

Or just plan nothing and do what i normally do on my birthday?

I think the main issue i have is, I'm the organiser... I organise everything, and this is the one thing i really don't want to have to organise. It's not that i don't want to do anything, more that i'd just prefer someone else felt it important enough that they decide to plan something special for my birthday.

Any suggestions, ideas or comments? I'm be happy to hear them.

xx

Smorgy

Pin It

LA Memories Creeping into my Head

So i did part 1 a couple of days ago but sooo many things are popping into my head that i didn't put in that blog.
All these memories flooding back.

Little jokes we had... Things that happened which i don't have photographic evidence of... Such great moments.

One of my memories is from when we went to Disneyland to see the World of Color show we got in a line we believe to be ours. This show is sooo HUGE that there are 5 or 6 different lines depending on which ticket you had.

There were 12 of us in our group. We should have had a line of our own.

Group Shot - Taken just after the show

We were in line for about 10 minutes and then i made a friend.
This strange kid (look around 16 but acting around 8) turned to me in the line started talking to me.
He asked me where i was from because i had a funny accent and i said Australia... He looked at me confused.

Then he noticed i was wearing a Disneyland badge which said 'I'm Celebrating'. Nataly got one each for BJ and I from the reception desk because we love free shit.

"I'm Celebrating!"

He read it and said 'What are you celebrating?' looking at my badge. For a minute i was confused and then remembered i was wearing the badge and replied 'Being awesome of course'.

The confused boy then replied 'I dont know what awesome is, but you can't celebrate it!!'

And i burst into laughter.

Not long after we realised that we were in the wrong line. The kid had turned to face the front of the line and before he could turn back around we were gone.

For the rest of the trip I was constantly being told that i couldn't celebrate being awesome.

The World of Color was incredible as i said in my previous blog. Half of our group decided to go into the 'Wet Zone'. It was closer to the water and not like a splash zone, more just a mist zone. It was quiet refreshing and awesome to being soo close to the front.

Photo during the show

BJ and I loved every second of the show. As this photo will show you. (Check out the weird guy in the background)

And here is a photo of the wet zone group.

Such an amazing night filled with friends, laughter, food, music and water... What more could you ask for?!

I wish everyone could see this show.

xx
Smorgy

PS: I may do more of these as the memories come floating back. It's fun. Pin It

12 months ago - Part 1

I decided to do handful of blogs about what BJ and I were up to this time last year.

It dawned on my this morning that it's been 12 months since we were over in America visiting all our wonderful friends.

We first went to the United States in July 2008. Were we spend 2 and 1/2 months travelling around the country before heading off to Europe for another 2 months and then a week in Tokyo and a week in Phuket to finish the adventure.

While in the States we ment soo many wonderful, amazing people and we knew we'd have to get back there so we promised that in 2 years we would. And we kept that promise. August 2010 we flew back over. This time only for a month and four stops to catch up with our friends all over the country and also to meet up with new friends along the way.

So Part 1 is about LA... One of our more favourite places to be. We arrived on Sunday morning from memory and was greet by Sal and Nat at the airport with a homemade welcome sign. Covered with memories from our last visit as well as some that we were going to make this time around.

 

So the plan for our week in LA was a busy one. Sooo much to do. We had a three day park hopper pass to Disneyland (again) AND we were going to go to Medieval Times (Finally). On top of that we had a heap of other fun stuff planned including: Umami Burger, In n Out, Pinkberry, Hooters AND Bowling night, Flea Market, Kid Robot, Japan LA, Buca Di Beppo, Downtown Disney and much more.

The day we arrived Sunset Junction was on which is a massive street fair right around the corner from where we were saying at Sal and Nat's. We walked up there (after a nap on the couch of course) and wandered the street for the afternoon. 

BJ was super excited about purchasing Roasted corn on the street.

BJ - Super excited about Roasted corn on the street

 Our first meal one arriving in LA was at Nataly's parents place. A delicious home cooked feast. That evening we went to Umami Burger. This trip was a total burger fest and Umami was where we had our first dinner of our trip and our last... Good times.

 

After Umami (Which was AMAZING!) We went to the movies. This cute little theatre just up the road. Where BJ and I fell asleep during the film... Jetlag caught up with us, but it was only Scott Pilgrim vs The World so we didn't miss much. 

New Toys - Bargain Box

We had so much fun in LA (like we always do).Caught up with lot's of old friends and met some new ones.

Group shot in line for Toy Story 3D ride

Glorious In n Out Burger

Hooters

Bowling dance

Medival Times!!!!

Everyone doing the 'BJ Face' on Tower of Terror

 BJ had this stupid face he constantly pulls in photos and it became a thing to pull that face for the ride cameras.

Love this photo - Wet Zone before World of Color

World of Color

The most amazing creation I've ever seen. I can't even explain it to you. If you go here you can see some videos i took during the show.

Group Shot

Hidden Mickey

I was on a mission to find hidden Mickey's this time around and I got quiet a few photos of ones i found. This one i thought was very clever. In the painted whore carpark (That's Daisy Duck for those of your playing at home)

Does it get any better than LED fairy floss??

The Pope Room

For those of you who don't know there is a resturant in the States called Buca Di Beppo which serves Italian food, Family style. It's delicious and each resturant has a 'Pope room' which is a statue of the pop in a glass box on a lazy susan in the middle of the table... It's FANTASTIC!! Our first time over we went and vowed that next time we would get enough people there to be able to book the pope room.

Next time we go i want to sit at the table that's in the kitchen... It'll be loud but awesome. 

Thanks to Sal, Nataly, Jenae, Chris, Ryan, Lani, Nate, Duncan and of course Shultzman for making our trip back to LA one we'll never forget.

Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. Part 2 will be in St Augustine, Florida. 

xx

Smorgy

Pin It

Fork This - Episode 13

New episode for Fork This. BJ and I make Pumpkin Pie... BJ and I first had pumpkin pie in Wisconsin in October 2008 after a delicious Faux-giving dinner with friends. We've wanted to make it since but just never got around to it. A couple of episodes back we found an imported can of American Pumpkin Pie filling and HAD to buy it.  It was absolutely delicious and we will definately be making this as a regular dessert in our home.



Fork This - 013 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 8

In this episode of Fork This, BJ and I show you a strange and amazing places we visited in Madison, Wisconsin last year. 

Fork This - 008 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

It was called Dead Pals of Sam Sanfillippo (We have a little bit of trouble remembering the correct name on the video.)

You can read a bit about this interesting place here.

It didn't have any set open hours. You would have to call each day to find out if there were any 'surprise' funeral's and if they had nothing booked you could just show up and a weird guy will direct you to the basement. 

It was a strange place. Having these rooms downstairs filled with dead, taxidermy animals propped and posed all over the place. But it was amazing.

Check out the photos we took by going to my Flickr set.

The best part about this place was that most of it was out in the open, Not behind glass... So you could really get up close and see the detail.

xx
Smorgy  Pin It

Fork This Episode 6

Here is the latest episode of Fork This.

Our friends from Nashville, TN sent over a little care package for us and we unveiled it all infront of the camera for you.
Make sure you watch till the end to see some funny Cooper footage.

xx
Smorgy


Fork This - 006 from BJ Carter on Vimeo. Pin It

Memories from 2010

So 2010 was an exciting year. A lot happened and here is a short list of some of the more excited things.

January

Was mostly spent working on my website and try to get it to a point that I was happy to upload it for the world. (Note: it is now in desperate need of an update)

February

I had my first attempt at working with resin and loved it. Even though I haven’t perfected it yet, I still enjoy getting it out and making a mess.

March

BJ and I went to the Mary and Max exhibition in the city. Had a visit from one of our USA friends Chappy. BJ and I also got to experience Tapas and Korean BBQ for the first time… Delicious!

April

I met Rich Fulcher!!! We appeared in our friend Broni’s music video and took my niece to the zoo for the first time.

May

BJ’s car decided to break down in the middle of a major road and the police had to push him out of the way. 

 June

Their was my niece’s 4^th birthday (not to mention a heap of other birthdays). I started re-organising my room and our good friend Kelly came to visit us from Canada (via Canberra).

July

Was BJ’s birthday where he got the AWESOME Freaks and Geeks yearbook box set. I bought a new massive tv for myself, got a little crafty for a friend and got out our box of souvenirs from our last trip to get us excited for the next.

August

Had me crafting some more before the trip. We saw Stephen Lynch Live. BJ and I celebrated our 5^th anniversary together. Then we headed back to the States for a month of travelling and catching up with great friends (Oh and had many trips to Disneyland)

September

We continued our time in the states. We got to go to Nashville and visit the honkey tonks, we spent a weekend having a massive barn party. But the biggest highlight of all… we calved our first pumpkin J

October

I bought a new car!!! We saw Mariachi El Bronx live and up close. Went to the Tim Burton Exhibition. Oh and it’s was my birthday

November

Saw me spending time with the people I love with a trip to the Miniature Trains and I clicked over the 600 kmh mark in my car. (Slow month)

December

I got a little creative again. My niece and I made a gingerbread house for Christmas. BJ and I had our first paint balling experience. I got my old car ready to sell and we bought in the new year with some good friends and fun.

Good times, Good times... Looking forward to move fun in 2011. 

xx

Pin It