Who I am

One of the first things I do when I discover another blog that tickles my eye, is read the 'About Me' section. And check out the latest posts, of course. As a new blogger, I hadn't bothered to do mine yet, but here's a more detailed version of the one on the side (can anyone PLEASE tell me how to not have it ALL showing on my blog?? I don't want to force people to read all about me if they don't want to!!)

I am 19 (as of a couple of days ago!) and I live with my mum, dad, 16yo brother, 11yo sister and 3yo sister.

(Hehe, Mum and Dad, celebrating 22 years of being married)

This the bro, Jeremy (though I've called him Jem since he was born)

Eve, Janae and I, all wearing our cool tie dyed tops that we made ourselves.

 I was homeschooled from grade 3 and upwards and I wouldn't change it at all!! I love making life lovable, with art, music, food and of course- photography!! I love the challenge of making awesome things but spending as little money as possible, so it helped me a great deal when I won a photo competition, earning me a beautiful SLR camera!! I want my life to please God and I want to become as much like Jesus as I can. My dress style is usually hippy/gypsy or the beautiful vintage!! 

I'd love to have a gypsy type life, traveling around my country of Australia. Benoit Paille's photos of the rainbow gatherings; these people inspire me. I have a very compassionate heart, and I want to go to Africa and Vanuatu or whatever country God wants me in, and help people over there. I've been on one mission trip already, to Cambodia, it was awesome. Saw lots. 

Me with some of the children at the orphanage I stayed at in Cambodia <3

Writing a letter on the ledge of the second story of a bible school I helped paint!! So dangerous!

To save up for all these trips, I'm hoping to work with people with disabilities in recreation type activities; art, music, camps and take them out on day trips. I'm very passionate about treating these people the same as someone without a disability; lots of people don't. I have a guitar (which is a little dusty at the moment, naughty me) and I love playing my violin, Miss Bella. I play by ear and love playing with other instruments. Another instrument I've used alot over the years is my voice. Done various interesting things with that. I had braces for 3 years. I like going to the dentist :p  My hair has a mind of it's own, it is so curly/thick/just wild. I straighten it when I can be bothered; I'm always doing different things with it. Usually I dye it purple. At the moment I have a hot pink chunk of hair behind each ear  ;)

A style I had for over a month, haha. I love to replicate dreadlocks!!

I've worked/volunteered at 4 different schools in the last 3 years, two special schools and two mainstream; volunteered at a big, christian radio station here in Melbourne over 2 years; and volunteered with RDA (horse riding for people with disabilities) for over a year amongst many other things. I have done Auslan (Australian Sign Language) I and II, and have a Certificate III in Education Support and a Certificate IV in Disability. I looked after 3 children regularly for 3 years, their mother is one of my best friends. I became part of their family, they are like my own children. They drive me INSANE at times (I have been known to hide in the backyard and ignore their eventual cries of  'Hannaaaaah!!!!'  :p), but I love them so much too. Sadly they moved interstate last weekend :'(   I will miss watching them grow up  :(   

I worked for a cleaning business for a while too, which I loved. I have an obsession/fascination with trains, and spent about 4 hours a week travelling on them to the city to my classes in the last six months!! I love taking photos from and of  them...

Another one of my favourite machines  :p

I'm so glad that I didn't waste time going to high school!! I've done so much in that time instead. Lots of people think I should have done VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education/years 11 and 12), but I am so not an academic person. I can get the job I want with the qualifications I have!! (I got them through TAFE- Technical and Further Education) (I never knew what it stood for 'til now :p) Though lots of people lately have agreed with me, and said, 'It's just a piece of paper!!' about VCE.

I'd love to hear from others who have never been to 'proper' school, I don't know anyone else who has. (Technically I did Prep on the other side of Australia and Grades 1, 2 and half of 3 at schools, so I can't say I've NEVER been to a school, but just not high school.)

So that's me. If you're interested, just click the 'follow' button, and do up your seltbelt!!

 Oh- and I love apples  ;)

One of a Kind

I realised that I never showed the 'after' photos from this post. So here they are:

The technique I used on the shirt on the right is the most common one, the 'spiral'. Instructions can be found over here. (Except I didn't do the black bits like the guy in the video did.)

The shirt on the left has a little bit of a different pattern, it's called 'spider'. I think mine looks better than the video guy's ones!!

This pattern I just made up and I love the result!!

Since then (January) I've been to a hippy market and bought some much better colours, ones that I am way more likely to wear, as apposed to those screaming bright colours above. (The photo's are cropped like that because they are part of a project I'm doing and they're still secret!!)

I love love love this shirt, it's my favourite one that I've dyed. Just experimented with my own pattern on it too.

And this one is a spiral, but I did it in such a way that there were great gaps of the white showing through. I didn't like it so I just painted the gaps softly with more dye  :)

(These dyes I have at the moment- you paint them on; they're called 'Magic Dye'.)

Have YOU done any tie dying???

Happy/Hippy Days

   For Chrissy I got this cute little tie dye kit!! I'd always wanted to try tie dying stuff, since I love the style so much. I am a colourful person, therefore I didn't have any white clothes lying around for me to dye. SO.. I had to patiently wait a couple of weeks 'til I found some in an op shop and a cheap shop I found underground in the city. In that time I checked out heaps of vids on YouTube showing different tie dying techniques. Thank God for them. The instructions that came with the pack were pretty crappy. So last night I was so excited- I was literally like a kid on the night before Christmas!!! I stayed up late tying ('tieing??') and folding my white shirts:

This morning the fun stuff got started. 

Now I have to wait 'til 12:00pm tomorrow to rinse them out (it says leave it in for 24 hours.. not sure if I can resist for that long..), wash them in the machine, hang them out to dry and then FINALLY SEE THE RESULTS. Man, I'm still so excited again. 

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow, you're only a day away.."

3 hours and 16 minutes, actually.