Last night I was glued to my iphone following updates on Twitter about a possible Australian Labor Party (ALP) leadership spill.  ALP spills are nothing new in the history of Australia, this one however had major ramifications.  The leader of the ALP was currently the Prime Minister of Australia.

At 9:30am this morning a change of leadership did occur and Australia had it’s first female Prime Minister sworn in at 1:00pm.  Julia Gillard became the first female Australian Prime Minister.  Amazing.

Regardless of which side of the political fence you sit on you have to take notice of the historical significance of this moment in time.  For the first time in our history we will be governed by a woman.  For the first time in our history we will be governed by a single person.  For the first time in our history we had a Prime Minister lose his leadership before the end of his first term in office.  A big day of firsts.

For many people it was also the first time they realised that under the Westminster system of government they don’t actually vote for a Prime Minister¹ and therefore the Party could decide to have a change of leadership which would lead to a change of Prime Minister.

Today again reinforced to me the there is no amount of money in this world that would see me take on the responsibility and the scrutiny that comes with being a politician.  I admire all those that have decided to serve their nation in this manner, regardless of their political persuasion. It takes a level of courage that few of us will ever need in our lifetimes, and I’m thankful that there are people out there willing to stand up and be the voice to our nation.

While my opinions about the previous Prime Minister had been waning, my heart did break for him today when he made his final address as the Prime Minister.  I think people tend to forget that he lost his job today, and for anyone that’s a massive blow.  It would be a hundred times harder to lose that job while the nation is watching and commenting.  I admired him for the professionalism and dignity he showed in his final speech.  I think it showed the level of his character to be so gracious under what a lot of people would acknowledge was an unusually hard way to lose your position.

For what it’s worth, I think he made the right decision to not contest the role.  Stepping aside has left him with the option of being able to step back into a pivotal role when his party needs him without having the “numbers” from the vote hanging over his head.  It also allows the party to keep a unified front and not display to the public just how fractured they may be.  Something the Liberal Party would do a lot to learn from.

How will Julia Gillard fair as Prime Minister? That’s for the history books to decide; but she will do as good a job, or as bad a job, as any man would in that position.  The fact that she’s a woman should not be the defining legacy of her leadership.

As one voter in this mighty fine country I wish her well and thank her for standing up and taking on this responsibility when she was called on.  I’m proud this day to have voted for the Australian Labor Party, and I’m equally as proud to be an Australian with a female Prime Minister.  I look forward to the day when it’s no longer of historical significance what the gender of our leaders are and I believe this is one small step towards making that a reality.

¹  The Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General, who by convention under the Constitution, must appoint the parliamentary leader of the party, or coalition of parties, which has a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. – http://www.aph.gov.au

I was so excited about the arrival of this little lady.  (And I still am!)  It totally blows my mind to think that M has her own child now.  It’s so wonderful.

When they did the scan that would have allowed them to know the sex of the baby little Amber had her legs crossed (ever the lady) and so the radiographer couldn’t confirm the sex.  It’s been a waiting game to find out and now that we all know for sure I’ve decided it’s time to do some baby inspired spending to celebrate the arrival.

Here’s the top 6 items that are on my current shopping list for little Amber…

1.  Chunky Monkey Crochet Beanie – Winter is well and truly here in Canberra so every child should have a beanie and this one is just too cute!  I love the bright pink colour and the nice white flower.  I’d love to crochet one myself, but at the rate I’m going Amber would be graduating her Masters by the time I was done!

2.  The Virginia – How adorable are these booties!  So sweet and they look warm enough to deal with the below zero weather being thrown our way at the moment.

3.  Buddha Baby Bodysuit & Old School Microscope Baby Bodysuit -  I love these screen printed images.  Amber’s Grandma is in Thailand so the Buddha seems appropriate and I can just tell she’s going to be a genius so it’d be nice for her to get her first microscope when she’s still in nappies!

4.  Hand Painted Wooden Letters – These are so bright and cheerful.  I’m a big fan of having the child’s name in some form in their room and these would be perfect.

5.  Reversible Pinafore Dress -  I had the great pleasure of talking to Sarah from Madi and Me while I was at the Handmade Markets on the weekend and she’s as wonderful as the items she sells.  She wooed me into her stall with her gnome cushions, but then had me over the barrel when it came to her fabulous clothes and quilts.  Unfortunately at the time we still weren’t sure what sex the baby was so I didn’t purchase anything.  However, now that Miss Amber has made her arrival I’m going to be ordering up one of the reversible dress and bloomers sets.  They are just so special!  Sarah was telling me that the pattern is one that her Grandmother used to make for her Mother to wear when she was a baby.  Gotta love a family tradition!

6.  Etch A Sketch T-Shirt - What better way to immortalize this awesome childrens toy than with this funky shirt.  The message is simple but true.  Love it!

I did however manage to squeeze in a little purchase from the wonderful Michelle at Poppy, Bean and Bloss. I purchased a fabric covered button hair tie.  Not the most practical purchase given my hair is still trying to recover from the post surgery hair-loss cutback, but I just couldn’t say no to the cut little ducky!

So for the past few days I’ve had the little duck sitting on my desk while I ponder what to do with her, then it hit me.  Yo-yo!  I could use the yo-yo skills I learnt at Brown Owls and make a cute little brooch.  So that’s what I did!

I’m rather chuffed with my made brooch skills.  I feel like Michelle and I have collaborated on our first ever project with great success.  It’s rather cute and is currently dressing up the lapel on my red winter coat.  I just love it!

I had another little success this week with the arrival of a coffee table book that I made using Apple’s iPhoto application.  Using the photo’s from our recent camping trip I put together a little thank you present for my folks.  I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

Now if I can just get my butt into gear and get it into the post for my parents I’ll be even happier.   The photo on the front of the book is one my Dad took and I think it looks stunning.  He’s got such a great eye.  He was the whole reason I got into taking photos and it’s great now to be able to talk to him about the photos he’s taking and the little tricks that I’ve learnt.  I just hope he gets a little thrill from seeing his images in print.

I’m so happy with how they’ve come out that I’m going to go back and make books of our trips overseas and some family based books.  It was so easy to do and really quite cost effective.  The only downside was that it took three weeks to get here from New Zealand.

♥♥♥♥♥

Want to peek in to other peoples amazing and wonderful creative spaces, then head on over to Kootoyoo!

1.  Vintage Salt & Pepper Shakers 2.  Lemon Still Life Oil Painting 3.  Dangle Earrings 4. You Are My Sunshine Typography Wall Art 5.  Bright Sunshiney Day 6.  Peakaboo Bunny in Yellow

P.S. Those of you that are in Canberra this weekend, don’t forget that the Handmade Markets are on Saturday 5 June at the Kamberra Wine Company.  I’ll be there, will you?

]]> http://www.gnomeangel.com/friday-fancies-hello-yellow/feed/ 4 http://www.gnomeangel.com/flickr-faves-orange-you-glad/ http://www.gnomeangel.com/flickr-faves-orange-you-glad/#comments Mon, 31 May 2010 23:03:15 +0000 gnomeangel http://www.gnomeangel.com/?p=1938

1. Orange as any orange on a tree, 2. Orange muffins, 3. cara cara oranges, 4. Orange flavour

I’m crushing on orange at the moment.  I think it’s because so many of the trees in Canberra are swiftly moving through their autumnal colour spectrum. It’s beautiful.  It makes the gray days bearable.

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If you’d like to see more flickr faves head on over to ArtMind!

1. Memories of Winter (Explored & Front Page), 2. Winter’s Coming, 3. Winter Day, 4. the hounds of winter

Winter is well and truly here in Canberra.   Last year I struggled through winter.  It seems so dark and horrid, but for some reason I’m really enjoying the onset of winter this year.  The days are bright and crisp and the city seems to be coming alive as it moves from autumn to winter.

I wonder if my opinion about winter will change once we’re in the middle of it.  When the days are short and dark.  I’m not going to think about it, I’m going to concentrate on enjoying the lovely days while we have them.

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If you’d like to see more flickr faves head on over to ArtMind!

A few months back I was listening to Triple J on a Friday morning and I heard this song on the way to the shops.  I feel in love with it, but as is sometimes want with radio stations I didn’t manage to get the name of the artist nor the song title.  Wah!

I tried in vain that Friday to find the song but alas the internet gods were not with me.  So imagine my happiness when I stumbled across this song while window shopping in iTunes.  Rock on!  And I could finally put a name to the song: Dan Sultan

I immediately purchased the album and have been grooving to it ever since.  Gotta love it when the internet brings you a little bit of joy!

Best thing ever is that he was in Canberra on Saturday night!  Tickets were so ridiculously cheap it would have been a crime to not to go and see him.  The concert was great.  He was so full of energy, which is so rare these days.  The sound was great and he didn’t disappoint.  I even managed to get off my butt and groove a little – which is a big sign of brilliance because I was feeling like poop on a stick.

In a completely rare turn of events his support acts were great too.  So good in fact that I ended up purchasing Gin Wigmore‘s album, ‘Holy Smoke’.   (In a strange turn of events her album cost more than the ticket to get into the concert…)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy today’s music.  If you really do, go and buy the album! Support Australian music, you won’t regret it!

Edit: I have spent all day today dancing at my desk to Gin Wigmore‘s album, ‘Holy Smoke’ so I thought I should share some with you. It’s a BRILLIANT album!!!

After having the pieces cut out and ready for assembly for nearly a year I finally finished sewing together my patchwork quilt.  The pattern is based on a pattern I picked up at Addicted to Fabric; I just picked the fabrics and away I went.

Shame it’s taken me so long to put it all together.  I had purchased all the equipment to hand quilt it, but after I finished pinning it all I decided it was way too hard to hand sew as my first quilt.  (It measures 210cm x 210cm)

So I’ve decided to send it to Altogether Quilting to let them do the actual quilting for me.  I’ve made the back pieces and I’ve got all the batting, so it should be a walk for them to do it on their machine.

While I was back in Addicted to Fabric buying the finishing touches for my quilt I took the plunge and signed up for the Prints Charming book launch and stitching session.  I’m so excited to be going. (There’s even Prints Charming fabric in my quilt top!)  I can’t wait to meet these talented ladies in person and see what wonderful stitching treats they’ll be bringing with them.

I’ve been working on a little something for the Rainbow of Stitches competition that’s being run over on Feeling Stitchy. I’m under no misconception that I’ll stand a chance at winning, but I’m loving the challenge that working in only one colour is giving me.  I also love this old school vintage design which I found over on Stitchy Britches.

I’ve been playing with different thickness (number of strands) thread.  Trying to give the piece a little depth through the lines.  I’m not going to go nuts with the stitching – plenty of back stitching.  I’m hoping it turns out well, but it’s all about the journey at this stage.

I’m hoping to have this design finished and posted in the flickr pool by the end of today, so if I want to hit that goal I need to get off the internet and stop drooling over the other Creative Spaces on Kootoyoo.  But you can still keep looking – so go, check it out!

]]> http://www.gnomeangel.com/creative-space-patchwork-orange/feed/ 20 http://www.gnomeangel.com/roller-derby-white-star/ http://www.gnomeangel.com/roller-derby-white-star/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 11:44:19 +0000 gnomeangel http://www.gnomeangel.com/?p=1904 This ones for the girls who did the White Star assessment with me tonight – Shona, Ferne, Beth, Nat and Emily. You all rock and I can’t wait to start training with you for our first bout together!

I was singing this song while we were all standing in line in between our assessment tasks. I’d like to say I was as good, if not better, than Jensen but that would be a big fat lie.

I had an awesome night tonight, despite not having skated for five weeks and never having done jumps before.  I passed the endurance part of my test – 20 laps of the track in under 5 minutes.  Everything after that was gravy.

If I pass my white star I’ll start training with the league on Sunday, and then it’ll be training twice a week.  Rock on!

Right now however, I stink and need to get some sleep.

While away on holiday I took the time to stalk some of the op shops in Mount Isa.  I then returned home and did it some more.  I was on the hunt for old souvenir tea towels and some nice retro sheets.  Any fabric I could use for some little projects I’ve had floating around in my head.

Ironically I thought I would have a better chance of getting the tea towels in Mount Isa, but I ended up hitting a jackpot find in Canberra.  I scored not one, but TWO old school souvenir TABLECLOTHS!  Do you know how much fabric that is?!?!?  It was awesome.  But that’s not the best part… the best part was that they were A$3.50 EACH.  I paid A$8.50 for a tea towel in Mount Isa!!!  That’s just nuts.

I’m so happy with my finds… now if I could just get over this viral ear infection I also seemed to bring home with me I’d be in a place where I could actually start working on a few projects using these finds.

♥♥♥♥♥

Want to peek in to other peoples amazing and wonderful creative spaces, then head on over to Kootoyoo!