There Were 20 In The Back Of A Ute...

... in Cambodia.

One was sick, 

so another one took her to hospital.

{Yes, that's the hospital carpark!}

Man from next door says,

"There is great view from 7th level of my hotel!"

We hand over cameras.

Male leader on team goes with man

{to make sure he didn't steal cameras!}

We all smile and pose.

Men come back with cameras.

We happy with picture:

Great memory captured.

She Moved House 13 Times... In 4 Different Countries... And Survived An Earthquake...

Aloha, my lovelies!

Meet my friend Sonja.

Lover of many colours, especially purple.
Epic scrapbooker.
Always smiling and laughing.
Daughter of the King.


We spent 6 six living together with 18 other people, as we embarked on a journey to Cambodia. 

{us as brick laying buddies at boot camp}

{Sonja, me, Deb and Talea having fun, silly times at boot camp}

{This is Sonja (in the pinky-purpley top) so dangerously perched up there on that 'scaffolding' at the bible school in Cambodia that we plastered and painted. So brave!!}

She blogs over at Butterfly Kisses and recently shared her testimony. I thought it was great and asked her if I could post it on here. (Thankyou very much Sunny!)

This is Sonja's story...

I was born into a christian home in 1993 in a small, farmer town in Germany. I grew up attending a small brethren church that took us an hour to get to every Sunday morning! My sister was born when i was 4. When i was about 6, I first really understood about what Jesus did for me and I gave my heart to the Lord.
When I was 8, my parents felt called to the mission field so we moved further north of Germany so my parents could do the mission training with Wycliffe Bible translators that they needed.
This meant a new school for me... then in 2002, I think it was, we went to New Zealand and lived in Chirstchurch for 9 months to learn English. In NZ I was homeshooled for the first time. We had to leave NZ after 9 months even though we had planned to stay for 12, because my grandfather died. We went back to Germany and lived in my grandfathers house to dissolve his affairs... during which time i went to yet a new school.
Finally we were ready to fly out to the mission field and left for Papua New Guinea! There we had to do a Pacific Orientation Course for 3 months which included 5 weeks of living in a native village without any other white people, just our family.
After our training we moved to Ukarumpa which is one of the biggest enclosed missionary centers in the world. There I went to the school with all the other missionary kids. I had about 30 other students my school grade in my class, so yes it was quite a big school! It was definitely a time of growing for me and it was awesome to go to school with all the christian kids, go to church with them on sunday and hang out everyday! The two years that we lived there was like one giant adventure for me and I was extremely upset and sad to leave.
From PNG, we went to Germany for a visit and then flew straight to New Zealand. There we lived in Christchurch for a few months but ended up buying a shop called the Bin Inn in a small town called Ashburton, an hour out of Christchurch. In Ashburton I was again homeschooled, so it took me about 2 years to make good friends there. Those two years where definitely a big struggle for me. But it was also during that time when I was 13, that I went to a christian girls conference. I don't remember very much of this, but i recommited my life to the Lord there. And my mum says that was when she saw the biggest change in my life. I became a more tolerable person to live with and she could see that i was striving for change in my life.
In Ashburton, I learnt many life lessons and made many great and amazing friends, that have all taught me SO much! 
I also met my best friend Natalie, who went to Cambodia with me in 2009 with Teen Missions! This was a huge adventure for us and I learnt so much more about God, about missions and about dedicating my life to Him alone.
Last year, end of 2010, after living in Ashburton five years to the day, we moved back to Christchurch.
Its only half way through 2011 now, but this year has so far been the hardest year of my life.
We moved to Christchurch and I didn't have many friends there at all as I had only lived there a short time last time. I was just starting to look for a youth group to join, friends to make and activities to get into. I had even found a job, when the February 22 earthquake happened. This destroyed much of Christchurch and also caused much trauma. I went to stay with Natalie in Ashburton the week after the earthquake to get away from the chaos, when 5 days later I ended up in hospital with a ruptured apendix. I was released from hospital a week later, but was hardly able to sit up or do much at all. I needed about 6 weeks of couch rest to recover, during which time I couldn't go to work, so I lost my new job. I also couldn't attend any activities or visit people and so was very lonely most of the time.
When I finally recovered enough to go out again, my parents had decided it was best to leave the country and move to Adelaide in Australia. So I didn't have a chance to make friends in Christchurch and the rest of my time there was very lonely and sad.
In June, I left for Adelaide in South Australia, to join my dad, who had already left to scout out the land and look for work. My mum and sister are visiting family in germany. I am now alone most of the day every day, trying to find work and cooking for my dad.
In the last 10 years of my life I have moved house 13 times... town/city 6 times... and country 3 times.

I hated every single move, hated having to make new friends, hated being the new person, hated not belonging. I also hated being homeschooled and pretty much excluded from society. Now I hate being in a strange place again... but the one thing that keeps me going is God. Our family is living entirely on trust at the moment, as my dad doesn't have a job, I dont have a job, we need a house in two weeks at least a day before our container gets here, which is also extremely hard to find in this area. Once again our family has been seperated and we have no idea what to do next. But throughout my whole life He has always proved His love to me. He has always been there when I called for Him. I struggled a lot with my faith after the earthquake, but through the appendix operation (I know it sounds weird but its true) He proved His love to me by being there for me, and blessing me with so many little blessings!
The one thing that I have always found to be the biggest blessing in my life is when I spend time in His Word every day and spend the day in constant conversation with Him. I know my life is going to get a lot harder yet, but the only thing I can do to prepare myself is to keep moving forward in my walk with my Saviour who loves me and will never forsake me. He said to me:

"Though the mountains be shaken
   and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
   nor my covenant of peace be removed,” ( Isaiah 54:10)

In the end, I always end up with a deep joy and gratefulness in my heart that I just can't describe and I am so grateful for all the life lessons that I've had the priviledge to learn throughout my adventurous life.
~~~~~


Wow. I was so amazed when I read this for the first time. Inspired as well.
And praise God, Sonja found a job a couple of weeks ago!!


I had decided to go and visit her when I get my P's (which means I'll be able to drive a car all by myself, pretty much), but when I read that she was alone every day, I thought I could just catch a train there!! 
So...
in a couple of days I'll be at the train station in Melbourne city at 7:00am and I will travel on The Overlander for ages and arrive in Adelaide at approximately 6:00pm!! 

Long day. But I love trains and it will just be wonderful.
I'm so excited about seeing Sonja (haven't seen her since our trip, that ended in January 2010!!), going on The Overlander, and just going on a HOLIDAY!!!!

It should be great.

I Opened My Curtains And Gasped...

...for I saw the mystical sight of hundreds of spiderwebs in our cherry blossom trees, and they were all covered with drops of dew...

My mouth dropped open- I was stunned. I'd seen pictures of fields with masses of cobwebs in, but in my front yard?!! Unheard of!

I raced outside, camera around my neck.

And I proceeded to take over a hundred photos (some have been deleted now  :p) It was amazing.

I was so intrigued.

I was in awe; how can God do that??! How can He just make the baby spiders know how to make a web as soon as they're born??

Because He is God and He can do anything.

So I walked away, back into my house, still in a daze...

... amazed at God's incredible handiwork.

{and very excited about the photos too}

What has left you in awe of God?

A Cute Versatile Accessory

Hello!! It is moi. 

I am so happy; I now have 12 faithful followers. It makes my day each time that number goes up!
So to all of you:

!!


Anyway, today I am going to show how to make gorgeous, little fabric rosettes.
Like this one.

They can be used in so many ways:
-on a hair elastic
-on a bobby pin
(like that one up there)
-on a brooch pin
-on cards and for scrapbooking
-decorate the corners of your
tv or computer (if you have a fat
desktop one like me)
-sew them onto your clothes/hats
-make tiny ones for earrings
-on a dog's collar (so cute!)

and the list goes on and on.

They are so quick and easy to make, and you can use whatever fabric and buttons you want, to match any genre of dress. Every girl should like them.

For this size (ends up 4cm across), you need an 8cm in diameter
paper template, which you can use over and over again.

~1~

Pin the template to your desired fabric. I used an old top. 

~2~
Cut out the circle. Sew a running stitch about 4 millimetres away from the edge. I started doing each stitch individually, but then my sister pointed out a quicker way to do it. You put lots of stitches onto the needle, and THEN pull the needle through. Like this:

Make sure it goes into a little bag shape; to help, you can stick your finger inside it.

Here's what it should look like once you've sewn all around.

~3~  

Flatten out the 'bag', keeping the thread tight. 

(The tan spots on my hand are the remains of a henna tattoo)

~4~

Next comes the tedious task of choosing a button. This part always takes me the longest, haha.

~5~

At the same time as sewing your button on, sew it onto your chosen item if possible.

~6~

Admire and wear.

Let me know if you make any, and send me a link to your photo!

Enjoy!

Cardboard Vignetting Filter

All my life I have loved the challenge of making and creating awesome looking things spending as little money as possible. My cards and scrapbooks are filled with old wrapping paper, pretty envelopes cut up, pressed flowers from my garden, buttons and material from old clothes- just heaps of stuff. Recycling, I suppose it's called. (I even once photocopied a beautiful top and used the print on a scrapbooking page. Oh yeah, one time I put all my marbles on the glass of the photocopier, and- it was awesome, man.) I use free photo editing programs and used a point and shoot camera until I won my SLR.

I just get such a huge thrill from seeing the final result and knowing that I barely spent a cent.

Which brings me to this photo.

The only editing that occurred in this little pretty was a slight desaturation and some darkening. The black vignetting effect was done by holding up a piece of cardboard with a round hole in it up to the lens of my camera.

So simple.

You can try all different shapes for the hole, like a long, thin, horizontal rectangle creates a widescreen effect. Different effects will happen depending on how close you hold it to the lens, how zoomed in you are and how big or small the hole is. Just experiment, and each photo will be unique.

So if people ask what program I got that vignetting effect on, my reply?

A tissue box.

 

Living With Grapheme Synesthesia

syn-es-the-sia n. Physiol. Sensation produced at a point other than or remote from the point of stimulation, as of a color from hearing a certain sound 
(fr. Gk, syn = together + aisthesis = to perceive)


My daily life is affected with something called Grapheme Synesthesia.

It's not actually that bad.

Let me call on my friend WikiPedia to explain:

 Grapheme → colour synesthesia is a form of synesthesia in which an individual's perception of numbers and letters is associated with the experience of colours. Like all forms of synesthesia, grapheme → colour synesthesia is involuntary, consistent, and memorable. Grapheme → color synesthesia is one of the most common forms of synesthesia, and because of the extensive knowledge of the visual system, one of the most studied.While it is extremely unlikely that any two synesthetes will report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies of large numbers of synesthetes find that there are some commonalities across letters (e.g., "A" is likely to be red).^[1][2] Early studies argued that grapheme → colour synesthesia was not due to associative learning, such as from playing with coloured refrigerator magnets.^[3] However, one recent study has documented a case of synesthesia in which synesthetic associations could be traced back to colored refrigerator magnets.^[4] Despite the existence of this individual case, the majority of synesthetic associations do not seem to be driven by learning of this sort.^[2][5] Rather, it seems that more frequent letters are paired with more frequent colours, and some meaning-based rules, such as ‘b’ being blue, drive most synesthetic associations. 

So...

pretty much, I see numbers and letters in colour.

I have all my life, but only learnt recently that it has a name. Grapheme synsthesia. I took this test, where each letter of the alphabet came up 3 times. They came up in random orders; each time I had to make it what colour it was in my mind. Then at the end, it took my results and lined up each letter to see if they were the same (just letting you know, that for some strange reason, the letters 'J' and 'N' don't have any colour for me, that's why they are different colours; because I couldn't remember what I'd done last time):

Grapheme Color Picker Test

0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9

A A A B B B C C C D D D E E E F F F G G G H H H I I I J J J K K K L L L M M M

N N N O O O P P P Q Q Q R R R S S S T T T U U U V V V W W W X X X Y Y Y Z Z Z

Score: 0.8

In this battery, a score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic.

I didn't realise that I had colours for months and weekdays until I did this test:

Weekday Color Picker Test

Sunday	Sunday	Sunday
Monday	Monday	Monday
Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday
Wednesday	Wednesday	Wednesday
Thursday	Thursday	Thursday
Friday	Friday	Friday
Saturday	Saturday	Saturday

Score: 0.5

In this battery, a score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic. 

Month Color Picker Test

January	January	January
February	February	February
March	March	March
April	April	April
May	May	May
June	June	June
July	July	July
August	August	August
September	September	September
October	October	October
November	November	November
December	December	December

Score: 0.48

In this battery, a score below 1.0 is ranked as synesthetic.

There are lots of different ways that synesthesia can affect you. For some people, like me, it makes letters/numbers/months/days have colours. Some people have an image that they associate with the letter or number (I have this but only for a few numbers and letters)(4 and 'H' are green and the image is a house; the image for 8 is the black ball on a pool table; etc). Here are some other examples- some are so weird:


-people can taste words and/or shapes
-some associate a colour to a tone of music (eg; "F sharp is purple.")
-for some people, a noise can produce and colour, texture or shape.


You can read more about it, if you're interested.


British author Steve Aylett sums it up pretty well- "It’s not as strange or unusual as 
it’s made out to be - it’s just a bit of a crossover of different senses. So I see music, taste some colours and so on."


~~~~

It's annoying at times, because when I need to remember an important group of numbers, sometimes they look 'wrong' because the colours look awful together; so it's makes it harder for me to remember that group of numbers. 

Eg; one important number I have to remember all the time is disgusting- orange, white, red, blue. Ugh! 

The other day I was at a friend's house, and we ended up talking about this very topic. I randomly said, ''E' and 3 are the same colour, and 'S' and 5 are the same colour too.' I pondered this, and wondered why. My friend's mother said maybe because they LOOK very similar. And I've realised that this is true!! It's the same for 'A' and 4, and 'R', 'D' and 2!! Very interesting. Just 'coz they're similar shapes.

{i will add photos when computer stops being stupid} 

Colour is a big part of my life (you should see my bedroom!!) and it helps me to concentrate, and to learn. Like- I did a Certificate IV in Disability earlier this year, at the Centre of Adult Education. 

ADULT education. 

In my time working at several schools, I have seen some schoolbooks with beautiful graphics, pictures and COLOUR on the pages. 

But adults?? Surely they are mature enough to have plain 'black-text-on-white-paper' books?!! Yeeeah, but nah. Not if colour helps them to concentrate on long, tedious words that the teacher says they must read. 

So sometimes if I was really struggling, I'd get my five coloured pens out, and underline the things I had to read.

{i will add photo when computer stops being stupid} 

I dunno, maybe I'm just still a little kid at heart  ;)

But grapheme synesthesia can be fun; the other day when I was at my friend's house with her mum and two sisters, they were pretty fascinated, and the girls were asking 'What colour's my name? What colour's Kitty's name?'

Orange and white of course.

KITTY

(p.s. The letters can change colour if they're in a word, or be the same colour as the letters around them. That's why the letters in 'Kitty' separately would be 'brownish-white-red-red-yellow', when they are all together as a word, it's orange and white. I have no idea why  :p)