School Spec 2012 - Our Time

Emma has had a very busy year with her singing.  The biggest event for her was the Schools Spectacular in Sydney last weekend. 

Earlier in the year she auditioned to be a Featured Artist (soloist) for the show.  It required a dvd audition first.  She was successful after this round out of 600 auditionees.  It was whittled down to 200 kids so a trip to Sydney to audition again was required.  She was successful in this round also where it was whittled down to 100 kids left.  The next audition was in Sydney again but Emma unfortunately picked up a head cold and lost her voice the week of the audition so she wasn't picked to be a Featured Artist.  Although she was disappointed she knew that she'd done exceptionally well to even get that far!! 

Anyway to cut a long story short, Emma was then asked to audition to be a member of the Core Choir - 30 high school children with microphones who are the main backing vocals for the whole show.  She made it through that process and after many more trips to Sydney for rehearsals the Schools Spectacular shows were finally on at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Friday and Saturday last week.  We unfortunately couldn't go to any of the shows as we're in full swing with harvest!  Emma was kindly billetted by another Core Choir family so that made out lives so much easier!

Next year Emma will be in her final year of high school but she is definitely going to try again to become a Featured Artist!

Emma's photo made it into the local paper during one of the Core Choir rehearsals in Sydney.

Where Does the Time Go!!!!

I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last blog post!!!  I've been rather busy for those 3 months so I'll explain what I've been up to!

At the end of August I came up with a hair-brain idea to open my own little giftware/homewares/handmade shop in my closest town Coolamon.  I put the idea past my sister Lisa who thought it was a fab idea but only if she could come in on the venture!  So here we are 3 months down the track with our own little business together!

We've been open 3 weeks now and the response has been phenomenal with so many people coming in to have a look and buy things.  There have been lots of positive comments about how pretty the shop looks and "it's just what Coolamon needed" comments!

You can "like" us on Facebook to check out all the photos of our stock and the hard work we've put in getting the shop ready.  We are having a website built at the moment, but we're not sure when it will be up and running.  I designed the logo with the help of a graphic designer.  All I knew was I wanted red, aqua and white as the colour scheme, and then I thought about 2 little birds who would represent Lisa and I as family like the birds from the Partridge family tv show!

This is a photo of our opening night window - we had a champagne and nibblies opening for our friends and family, and also other business owners in Coolamon.  The old "Speedwell" bike belongs to my mother-in-law who rode it to school everyday back in the 1950's.  It's in original condition (rusty!!!) but it still had air in it's tyres when I pulled it out of the back shed!

The "dandelion" lights are from IKEA and we get about half a dozen comments everyday we're open about them - they're a real talking point!  The local "Men's Shed" made the pigeonhole shelving for us, the oval table was a $40 Vinnies find which I painted, and the old meat safe in the back corner had been sitting in a shed on the farm for the last 50 years with junk in it.  I pressure-washed it and re-gauzed the sides and door, but basically left it in original condition.

It's a really beautiful shop to walk into with it's amazing pressed metal ceiling, timber floor, and one wall is all mini-orb corrugated iron!  We've stocked it with beautiful things from all over the world as well as Australia.  We've sourced handmade jewellery from Australian artists, beautiful porcelain bowls from the USA, timber jewellery and homewares from Germany, and our Aunty Jenny Newbound has supplied us with some of her amazing artwork.

We pride ourselves on the fact that nothing in the shop (other than Aunty Jenny's paintings) is over $50 and we're going to try very hard to keep it that way!!  Anyway, Lisa and I are having a lot of fun so far and we hope to continue having fun!!