Strange birds

You may have realised by now that I LOVE fairgrounds, and every year it is one of our favourite family things to go to the Perth Royal Show.

Stand outs for me are always the noisy atmosphere (sounds of muffled announcements, screaming teenagers and blaring music), show food (donuts and fairy floss), show bags (magazines galore!), home shopping gadgets (this year I got a you-beaut mop and a de-pilling machine) and the lights and colours of the carnival. Usually we stay for the fireworks too, but I was being a bit of a party-pooper this year and didn't want to stay that long.

Funnily enough, I was quite enthralled (who knew?) by the poultry exhibition this year, totally fascinated by the freakishness of them all!  There were GORGEOUS artworks by school students, and I just have to share them here:

Such beautiful use of colour! And now for the freaky birds. This one puffed his chest right out and it wobbled around:

This one had the high collar Elizabeth I look happening:

This one appeared normal, until, woah, you saw his fancy feet:

This one had the whole fluff ball thing going on:

This one grossed me out with the mangled crown look:

And I perhaps felt even a little threatened by the Darth Maul impersonation here:

On entering the poultry pavilion I had expected to just see cage upon cage of glorious fellows like this one:

with his stunning colours, however, the prizes seemed to be given to all the freaky guys. Well, good on them!

Books, babies and big bellies!

In the school holidays, I had a chance to hold one of my book parties in a park, with lots of little cherubs running and rolling around.

The sweet little Lily was there:

And my sister Kristie was looking HUGE with the twins on the way:

What a belly! The old basketball-up-the-jumper routine. (The babies will be here on November the 1st!)

Jack was sooo helpful playing with all the little 2 year old munchkins. Here he is getting a goodbye kiss from Lily.

It was a gorgeous day and a fun time!

Sunday Session - Gavin DeGraw

Time for a Sunday Session with Thea!

I heard this song on the radio and thought it was Guy Sebastian, so I was surprised when this clip came up.

I love the piano, the drums and his voice in this song. He seems a little mismatched with the girl, though, until the end scene, when they look perfect together.

I was wondering what else this guy had done, seeing as I hadn't really heard of him, and realised that he sings this song, which I LOVE:

Seems like two different people in these clips - like he was full of youthfulness and energy in the I Don't Wanna Be stage of his life, and now he's just old and broken in Not Over You. Maybe he's just a good actor. Or maybe certain hats change your appearance.

What do you think?

If you'd like to share the songs you've been listening to, join up with the Sunday Session at Thea's, and check out some other music while you're there! xx

Giveaway Winners!

Hey, thanks guys for joining in with my book giveaway this week! I had fun today, drawing the two winners and wrapping up the prizes ready to send.

So, this is how I chose the winners:

Look up close:

and,

Yay to my two winners; Lisa and Sarah from A Spoonful of Sugar, and Trishie from Under Lock and Key. Go check out their blogs, they are always very inspiring!

When I am next near the post office I will pop these pressies in the mail and you will each have a brand spanking new book to read!

Thanks, also, to everyone else who dropped by and had a go at my comp.  It was fun to get the blogging thing happening again! xxx

Sunday Session - Incredible Kid

I'm joining in Thea's Sunday Session today, because after watching Thea's music choices, I serendipitously found this Paparazzi cover by Greyson Chance. What an amazing kid! Far out! Whether you like the song, the kid or what, you have to say he is ridiculously talented. Love him!

He is just brilliant!

By the way, I am having a Book Giveaway right now that you might like to enter. Go here to take a look! xx

Book Giveaway!!!!!!

The kind people at Harper Collins Publishers have given me not one, but TWO copies of Cecelia Ahern's new book The Time of my Life to giveaway on my blog!!! I'm pretty excited by this, because I haven't had a giveaway for awhile (or really done anything much at all on my blog!), and I LOVE books, of course, if you didn't already know :)

Even luckier still, they gave me a copy of my very ownThe Time of My life book to read and keep for myself, and I couldn't wait to completely devour it!

Now, in case you were wondering, Cecelia Ahern wrote the book, P.S. I Love You, which was then made into a gorgeous movie with Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank.

She has also written some other less famous, but just as fascinating books all with a touch of the magical, and unexpected. Time of My Life is also quite unusual and quirky, and I can SO see it being made into a film, and I can even see Jennifer Garner or Emma Stone in the main role, and maybe Jack Black in the main male role. I think it could be really hilarious, and yet with the underlying message of 'kick your life into gear!'

So, now I'm inviting all Australian bloggers, (sorry to the international people, but it costs about $35 to send one book overseas) to enter my giveaway to win one of these very cool books! All you have to do is:

• Read my review of the book on my review blog, Wise Owl Books, have a bit of a look around at my blog while you're there, and leave a friendly comment :)
• then come back to this blog and become a follower :)
• and leave me a friendly comment! :)

I will draw two random winners on Friday the 14th of October, and, you never know, one of them could be you! Good luck! xx

Sunday Session - Wicked!

Hey it's Sunday Session time, and this week I'm really excited because we went to see Wicked the Musical on Friday night.

It was amazing!! We loved it! Glinda (the good witch) was adorable, and had the funniest lines,

and Elphaba (the wicked witch) had an incredible voice.

There were some brilliant songs including Defying Gravity, Popular, the Wizard and I, and As Long as You're Mine. There was heaps of merchandise too, pens, notebooks, CDs, posters, programmes. I think you HAVE to buy a programme when you see a musical, so we did, but there was also a book which tells the making of the musical, and we had to have that as well! It was designed to look like the Wizard's spell book, the Grimmerie.

So I HAD to share some of the songs from the show with you today. I was surprised when looking on youtube, that Adam Lambert, from American Idol, played the part of Fiyero in the Broadway version of Wicked, between 2005 and 2008, before his Idol fame.

This song was a gorgeous moment in the musical (a bit raunchy for a Sunday!) but I just love Adam Lambert in this.

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(Oh, I can't fgure out how to get the video on my blog, but just click on the youtube link.)

And you have to see Defying Gravity, because it is just such a powerful song, and is a very stirring part of the show. Hit those notes, baby!

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If you didn't get to see the show this time, it will probably come back around in ten years time, so make sure you see it then!!