Gig Life

It has been almost 2 years since I last went to a gig. We use to go to so many but the reduced after we bought out first home and has now become a rare treat since having Audrey.

The last gig I went to was Conor Oberst at the Twilight Zoo in 2015. I was almost 13 weeks pregnant, sick as a dog and we'd just announce that we were having a baby earlier that day. I really shouldn't have gone but I didn't want to miss the chance to picnic in the zoo amongst the animals listening to Conor live.

The forecast said that it was going to rain that night so we were prepared with umbrellas and rain ponchos.

We arrived and got a nice spot on the grass with a few friends we were meeting there and other friends that we bumped into. We set ourselves up, got some drinks and hot food and for a moment I forgot that I had been soo sick for the last 7 weeks.

After the first performer played Conor comes up on stage. Honestly, I could count the number of songs he played on one hand before the lightening started and the clouds rolled in. The venue organisers told him that they had to cancel and send everyone home and Conor got up on stage and told us the bad news himself. He felt bad and wasn't happy about the whole thing.

We packed up all of our staff and started walking towards the exits. Not 2 minutes into our walk the storm hit. Everyone was saturated instantly. Running and screaming through the zoo we all tried to get out quickly. Umbrellas were breaking left and right... Only one of ours survived.

We jumped in the car and laughed sooo hard. What an experience!! How many people can say that has happened to them?!

That was one of the few times during my pregnancy where I actually forgot I was sick. It's one of my fondest pregnancy memories.

We had tickets to another gig during my pregnancy (which were purchased before I was pregnant) and I decided to sell my ticket because I knew that I wouldn't have survived it. I was going to be about 6 months pregnant at an all standing loud, rough, sold out gig. Even if I was feeling well I wouldn't have risked the crowd while pregnant.

So I haven't been to another gig since the zoo. After having Audrey I wasn't something that I wanted to do during her first year. I wanted to be home for her every night. But when The Front Bottoms announced that they were coming back to Melbourne, we decided to get tickets. Their show was the last gig that I got to attend in its entirety.

They are one of my favourite bands to see live and I'm excited to go out and have an Audrey-free night. To sing along with a sold out crowd who all love them as much as us.

PS: I don't care how many times I've shared this video on Facebook. It's one of my favs. It's also a song that Audrey loves because I use to sing it to her a nap time.

xx

Smorgy

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Reality Check

While I sit here on hold with my insurance company organising changes and cancellations of policies on both new and old homes reality is hitting me that after tomorrow I will no longer being living in this house.

We brought this home 3 1/2 years ago and it was the first time either of us moved out of home and the first time living together. It's been an amazing few years and I'm sad to say goodbye to our first home, Tom Selleck.

I'm excited about having more room, a bigger kitchen and TWO TOILETS! But I am really going to miss this place.

As I drove into the driveway this afternoon... The last time I would be coming home to this house. I got a little emotional about it all.

So many great things have happened in this house but it is time to say goodbye. Tomorrow the truck with arrive all all of our belongs will be packed up and shipped off down the road to make new memories.

This year has been HUGE so far and after this move we STILL have the little one on the way.
2015... where have you gone?!

xx
Smorgy

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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

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Feeling Good

I don't know if it's all these Easter bunnies I've eaten or what, but I'm feeling good right now.

This time last year was pretty horrible for me. And even writing just that sentence makes my eyes tear up a little... but... 12 months has past and finally I feel like I am moving past all the bullshit that came from 2011.

I was worried that all the memories from last year would ruin my time off over Easter. But it hasn't.
BJ and I have been painting our lounge room which is a new experience for both of us and It's been fun and exciting and messy and I've loved it.

2012 has already been a fantastic year and
I can only see it getting better.

Happy Smorgy

xx
Smorgy Pin It

We Got The Keys!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Settlement day was very long and dragged out. There were some issues that were out of our control and we didn't get our keys until 2 hours after we were ment to. We we did finally get them we showed up to the property and the previous owner was STILL moving stuff out so we had to sit and wait in our car on the street until they'd finished.

The quote of the afternoon was 'They are ruining my memories!!'

When they FINALLY left, we drove in OUR drive, walked up to OUR door and unlocked it. The smell of bleach filled our nostrils. Don't be fooled though, they didn't really clean anything they just ran a mop over the floorboards and overpowered the house with the smell of chemicals so it seemed like they'd cleaned.

My plan for when we got our keys was to go to the house and have our moment together. Jump... scream.. hug... And just take it all in, before anyone else arrived.
This didn't go to plan as we lots 3 hours of the time we'd counted on having. So the Fork This episode we filmed of us entering the house was literally the only time we had in there before we unloaded my car (which was filled to the brim) and made the calls to let family know they can come over.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was a bit of a blur. My plan was to take lots of photos and honestly, i have none. Everyone came over and started helping us clean and unpack more car loads. I started to feel really hungry and couldn't figure out why. Then everyone left, i looked at my phone and it was after 8pm. That would explain the hunger. At this point there was a moving truck blocking our driving (long story short, we are on a subdivided block and the people in the house in front were also moving out that day) so we decided we'd walk up the road and get some pizza for dinner. We got back to the house with our dinner, sat on the floor (as we had no chairs) and stuffed our faces.

After dinner we decided to unpack the kitchen items as they had arrived in the car loads and all the furniture wasn't coming till the next day. We worked on the kitchen till sometime after 11.30pm and decided we'd better go to bed as the next day was going to be a LONG one.

Cooper didn't come to visit the house till after we've moved all the furniture in. He loved exploring his backyard and barking at every noise he heard.

He decided to munch on some grass and i got these hilarious photos of him.

 Then he wondered off into the bushs and came out covered in flowers and stuff off the plants and BJ had to clean him off.

 

I think he likes his backyard. We got a doggy door installed so he can freely go where he wants.... At least until he barks at the neighbours. Then he gets yelled at and does the walk of shame back inside.

xx
Smorgy

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When 10 years still only feels like a day

I've tried to make my blogging, tweeting and facebooking more positive lately. And I will try to make this blog as positive as i can.


For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.

Beanca's 1st Birthday

10 years ago my 18 month old niece Beanca was murdered by her mother. Beanca and her brother Chris were taken by there mother one day while my brother was at work and 6 months went without us know where they were until we recieved a call with terrible news.

My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.

Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.

Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.

Chris - Back in Melbourne with us

This women got to leave prison, then straight away, got pregnant and god only knows what's happening to that poor child.

Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.

And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.

At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.

Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.

Warrandyte Cemetery

Yesterday my family had to stay strong and get through the hardest day we've ever had to live, and continue to be reminded about on the 30th of July every year.
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.

The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.


We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.

My rock - BJ

I don't know why but I felt I needed to go back that and it's a place I wanted to share with BJ. He's been there for me the past 7 years. Holding my hand and supporting me through it all.

I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.

I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.


The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.


I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.

Chris and I - 2011

I'm happy to talk about it with anyone who wants to, or answer questions if you have them.
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.

So there is an insight to my world.

xx
Smorgy

Fly free with the Butterflies Beanca xo

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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

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It's been awhile... Remember me?!

Ok, so since the last blog i've been over in the USA for a month visiting friends with my partner BJ.

It was a great holiday with lot's of fun memories and entertaining stories.

Now that i'm back home i'm wanting to try and get some regular craft time happening.

I've been very slack in the past only really getting to sit down maybe once a month and make something.

I may have bought back while a lot of crafty items from the States. (But i stayed under my budget)

Since i've been home i've gotten out the resin and had a bit of a play.

I hope to start sending out more regular blogs. Even if they aren't totally craft related.

xx

Smorgy

P.S: On Thursday i will be attending a luncheon for the Brainlink Women of Achievement Award which my mum is nominated for. There are four finalists and we are very excited about the chance of her winning this award. Pin It