WAAPA

Well, I would have typed this entry sooner, if work hadn't been keeping me busy.

Last Tuesday I had my audition for WAAPA, as I am hoping to get into acting there. In the morning I was so nervous! My stomach was doing some serious back flips. I couldn't really concentrate on what I needed to get done, but I guess a lot of that was also due to the text messages offering best wishes and leg breaking from family and friends. I arrived early to WAAPA, but I know that had I left any earlier, my grandad (who kindly drove me there) and I would have been stuck in traffic. I went into the foyer and sat down waiting, for what seemed like forever! even though it was really only about 40 minutes. Finally one of the students in their second year of the course came up to me and the girl who was sitting next  to me and invited us to wait in the warm up room for our turn. Looking back, this was the best part of waiting. Once in the warm up room, with 4 others, we all sat don and started talking a little. It was a great distraction and I felt my nerves leave me. Even when I knew I was the next person to audition, I wasn't as nervous as I had felt during the car ride to WAAPA earlier. When the time came for my audition I was as ready as I ever could be. I entered the room and was surprised to find only two people would be judging my performance and deciding if I displayed enough talent to join the ranks of the WAAPA acting class. I was expecting four people. But not to worry. I put on my best smile and sat down in front of them. I wasn't nervous at all. I was very calm and composed. Looking back, I can see how this is an advantage for me.

Next came my actual performances. I began with Emilia from Othello. This one is my favourite, but only by a little. I felt as though I performed to my best ability, showing a real maturity and talent in my performance that will hopefully get me through. My next piece was Beryl. This one I didn't like at first, and found it difficult to perform. But my persistence paid off and I was extremely happy with my performance, again, feeling as though I have shown that I deserve place in next years class. The panel never asked me any questions. It is uncertain whether this is a good or bad thing as one of the guys who had just completed his second year was explaining that the panel tend to be unpredictable and not to think too much on what they say or do. I prefer to think that the panel were convinced enough by my performance that they had no need to ask me questions. Think positive! :)

Now I am back home and I'm waiting for a phone call to say I've been given a call back. We were told to expect the phone call next week sometime. I am a little apprehensive, because if I don't get a phone call, I'll be receiving a letter or rejection. But as I said before, think positive. Work has been keeping me busy however which is good. I have decided that if I am not successful in obtaining a place in next years class, I shall stay home and continue working at the cafe I'm currently at. This would be good as my last 3 jobs have only lasted a month each and having a job for a lot longer would look good on my resume. Also, why quit a job where I can get 38 hours a week to move away and try and find a new one? I shall write again on this matter when i have news of a call back or not. As for my other crafts, well now that I have done my audition, and work seems to be becoming a steady stream of hours, I'll have more time for quilling and cross-stitching, and maybe even some knitting.

Another birthday card

So for the past week, I have been working on this card. I haven't been spending all my time on it, just a few minutes here and there until I finished it on Saturday. I love this card very much. While it is still simple, the main flower has that extra element of difficulty with the combination of coils on two layers and a fringed centre. The bigger petals were made out of two different shades of pink, with an even lighter shade of pink for the top layer of petals. The fringed centre was also made out of two shades, this time of yellow. The branch is simply a strip of quilling paper with 7 "leaves" made out of small strips of quilled paper in a tear drop shape with tight coils glued in the centre. The other flowers are just flowers punched out of pale pink paper, with the bottom layer outlined in a darker pink and the top layer glued on diagonally with a purple centre of glitter. They're mounted on mounting foam to keep up the 3D look. My stamps came out again, but this time just the "H" and the "B" to start off the "Happy Birthday". With that all finished the card still looked unfinished so I added the purple glitter swirl which finished it off nicely I think. The perfect birthday card for my cousin whose birthday it is in 2 weeks.

I have already got an idea for my next card. Because my Grandad's birthday is coming up soon, I've decided to make him one as well. Since he is very into his gardening, it shall be a card full of flowers and bugs. It'll be a great opportunity to try out new designs and expand my quilling skills further. I'll of course keep you updated on it :)

Cross-stitching

So, As I have mentioned before, I have completed my recent cross-stitch project. My mum bought this design for me years ago, but it has taken me a while to complete it, mainly due to my interests in other things (such as good grades in school). But after all this time, I have finished it and I love the end result.

I think the message "Hang in there!" is very cute, especially with the kitten and mouse. It took my a while but the time spent was totally worth it. The best part, I think, was that the hanger came with the design! Now all I need to do is find some where to hang it up. 

Now that I've finished this cross-stitching, I will be moving onto more complicated designs, but not before I get one more out of the way. When in England earlier this year, I bought a design of a stained glass window, to make a bookmark out of. I have started that, and while it is a very simple design, something that won't take me long at all, I'm in need of a decent bookmark, considering how many books I read (IE; a lot!). But after that, my next cross-stitching project will be a portrait of a tiger! Tiger's are my favourite animal and since mum wouldn't let me buy a larger portrait of a tiger mum and her cub from Fox Collection, I went down to Spotlight and found a simpler one of just a tiger's head. Simpler, yet still a step up from "Hang in there!"

However, I have promised mum that I will refrain from beginning it until after my WAAPA audition. But I can tell you, my hands are itching to start it! :P

The impeeding audition

Ok, so in about 3 weeks, I'll be heading to Perth for my acting audition to get into WAAPA. While I have been very good at procrastinating about learning my monologues, yesterday while running through my Shakespearean one (Emilia's speech in 4.3, Othello) I found that I pretty much know the script already. But that's not what I'm worried about. No, it's really the other monologue from Alan Aycbourn's Confusions. Confusions is a script made up of 5 "interlinked one-act plays" where each play has an underlying "problem of loneliness". It is a comedic script, but in the sense that the scenarios and characters are so familiar to our everyday lives, we cannot help but laugh at the sad-ness of the whole play. This is the script I do not know. I don't know why I am putting off learning it, or improving on my Othello piece, because I really enjoy the pieces I am doing. Emilia's speech is a testimony to the culture and relationship between men and woman in the late 16th century. I enjoy it so much, not because I share the same views as her (she pretty much says that if a man cheats on his wife, then when the wife cheats, it is the husbands fault for cheating first) but because of how it would come across in today's society. In today's society it would be seen as such hypocrisy and I like hypocrisy because I believe that at some point in our lives, everyone commits once hypocritical act. The monologue from Confusions is both similar and different. Reading the entire monologue, you learn that Beryl, the character knows she will go back to her abusive boyfriend, despite knowing it's wrong. Again an act of hypocrisy, but there is also the sense of desperation for the need to connect with another human being that comes through (she does relay her story to a complete stranger after all). This sense of loneliness and desperation is such a common feeling among everyone that it is impossible for you not to relate to it. Relating to the pieces is very important as it adds another dimension to the performance. Not only are you seeing this character tell this story, but you believe this character is a real person because of how believable they are being portrayed, and credit for that goes to the performer on their performance, and everyone knows that the best performances come when you yourself can relate to the character and draw from personal experience to create a believable character. This is what Stanislavski's Method is based on.

But why have I just told you all of this? Good question. I guess I am just venting my thoughts on the subject, which is good. But it is very scary to think that I might not be ready for my audition. It makes me question how much I want this audition to go well, and my career as an actress. I really do want this a lot, but why can't I just knuckle down and get on with it? I guess I have to take it one step at a time, but now that I have a job trial tomorrow, the idea that I might have work will just throw me off track again. I need this audition to go well. I need to get into WAAPA and I need to make it as an actress. It's what I really really want. I just can't get motivated enough for it. Help.

Fringing

So finally the time has come where I have gotten around to fringing some flowers and then being bothered to upload them onto here (I swear I can be the queen of procrastination at times!). I made this card Saturday morning. It took a while as I don't have a fringing tool and therefore has to fringe the paper with a pair of scissors and my awesome skills :) I made four fringed flowers of each colour. Instead of leaving the paper all one sized, I cut one end at an angle so the fringed bit went from small, to large. I then glued on another small strip of paper to the small end, to act as the centre of the flower. Then I rolled and rolled and rolled all the paper around my quilling tool, gluing at the end. I found the best part to be shaping the "petals" of the flowers. I bent them all the way over, and sort of fluffed them so they ended up curving slightly, like a water fountains spout. To finish off I used some glitter glue in the centre of the flowers to make them sparkle. Putting the card together was really simple. I cut out a green sheet of paper to cover the white front of the card. I then cut out an oval in the centre of the paper to act as a sort of window. I then wrote the Happy Birthday using my incredibly cheap quill I bought when in England, and some fountain ink. I need to work on my calligraphy :S
Lastly, I glued the flowers around the edge of the oval, hiding the rough edges of my bad cutting skills :P
Again, just a really simple card, but I think that sometimes simplicity works best, and besides, I'm just working my way up to bigger things! :)

In other news, since I have been spending most of my unemployed days watching the commonwealth games on TV I have finished my cross-stitch! I now just need to soak it, to remove all the dirt its accumulated over time and then finish it off my attaching the hanger and tassel. I should be posting a photo of it completely finished in a day or two :)

October

So I have neglected my blog for a while.... This is mainly due to me having a job as a temp receptionist for a few weeks. As I'd be working all day 5 days a week, I didn't really have time to update my blog, or do any craft projects as by the time I got home, I would just like to laze about :P.
But I am now unemployed again and while I hope this won't be the case for long, I am definitely taking advantage of the extra time and putting it to good use.
I have recently just completed two more cards, using quilling, and I must say I am quite pleased with them :) One is for my parent's wedding anniversary and another is a card that could be used for any occasion.

This is the wedding anniversary card, although with a few alterations it really could be used for any anniversary. I started out with an idea that came to me while I was at work. A border. So I have quilled four heart scrolls and glued them in the corners of the card. I then coiled some grey strips of paper and shaped them into marquises. This was all I had for the moment, but I thought the card looked very plain so I added the bear and the heart shaped balloons. The bear was a lot of fun to quill. It's my first attempt ever of quilling an animal and I am extremely happy with the result. I used black and tan coloured paper, so I guess that makes it a sun bear :) I didn't add any eyes because I couldn't find any that were small enough. The lettering I find interesting. I found the stamps in K-mart and had to buy them! They are really beautiful but I think they're slightly too big for this card, or maybe the message is too big :P But I stamped the letters onto rose coloured paper (the same colour I used for the hearts) and then simply glued the paper to the card. All done! I'm sure my parents will love this, I know I would!

This is the second card I completed today. I also came up with the original idea at work, but altered it slightly to suit the card. Simply, the card is made up of a 7cmx7cm square blue paper that I got in a packet of mixed crafts paper (once again from K-mart!) with two "S" scrolls in green, 3 tight coils in yellow and two half moon shaped coils, also in yellow. The next layer is mounted on 3D mounting foam, for an added dimension. I glued 3 strips of yellow paper together and folded it into a rose, then added a gold daisy spacer to give the centre of the rose a little "bling". The leaves are simply 2 pairs of marquise coils with basic scrolls glued in between them. The brown paper came from the same packet as the blue. Once this was done, the card still didn't feel completed so I added the blue paper to the border which finished it off nicely. I am also very pleased with this card.

I have still to finish my cross stitching and my knitting, but for the moment, my focus is on my quilling. I know I said I shall post some fringed flowers, and I will, once I get around to it! :P

Quilling

So the other day I decided to get back into quilling. For those of you who don't know, quilling is a paper art where you take thin strips of paper and roll them to make paper filigree. It can be quite a hard art, as it requires nimble fingers, patience and perfection to get the finished work looking right. Thankfully I have all these (well more perfection than patience). Yesterday I started off with something simple. Just a plain 5 petal flower with a leaf and centre.

As you can see, I have coiled the paper and then glued the end after letting it expand. I then pinched one end of the coil to make a tear drop shape. After repeating this 5 times, I glued the 5 petals together. For the centre I tightly coiled (as in, I didn't let the coil expand) a yellow strip of paper and glued the end. I then placed this in the middle of the petals as the flowers centre. For the leaf, another expanded coil, but this time, instead of just pinching one end of the coil, I pinched the opposite end as well to make a marquise. For added elegance, I curled the end of the leaf.

After completing this, I was confident I had revived my talent and could move onto projects with more difficulty. So this morning. I made a design that I put on the front of a card.

On the gold card, I made 3 pink roses, by folding and turning the paper around my quilling tool, then glued all 3 to make a bunch. I then took some green paper and quilled 3 marquises for the leaves, again curling the corners for elegance. I also added an "S" scroll out of the same green paper to make a vine. I repeated the idea of the vine on the outside of the gold card, with longer strips of paper and then added some rose buds but quilling 2 circles out of the same pink paper and then pinching them to make 2 half moons. Again the leaves were made with marquise coils.

As a first attempt at making a card using quilling, I am very pleased with the result. Next I want to try and make flowers using a technique called fringing so I will keep you posted on that. :) 

Also, as a side note, I have almost completed my cross-stitch and shall post it up when I have. :)

The New Government.

Well finally, after 2 and a half weeks, we finally have a government in power. And it's Labor. Narrowly.

Well I for one, am not happy with this. I didn't vote for Labor because I didn't want them in power. Now I know what you are thinking. How can one vote change a thing? Well weren't we told that our vote was a valuable thing and that we should use it well? And use it well Australia did. Well, except for those idiots who decided to cast informal votes. But I'll get to that later. Now, according to EVERY statistic on the election, the Coalition won the most seats with primary AND preference votes (which in my opinion make election unnecessarily confusing). But then how did Labor come to power? Oh yeah, those 3 rural independents; Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. The entire outcome of an election should not hang in the balance of 3 people. Aren't the Australian public supposed to decide who they want in as government? These three politicians have had the country on the edge of its seat for over 2 weeks. But did they really need to? Well I for one didn't think so. Sure, you have to wait 13 days for the overseas postal votes to arrive and be counted, but after that, each day they prolonged their decision, was a day wasted. The government could have made 1,000 decisions in the time it took them to decide who to back! OK, so maybe I exaggerate a bit, but at the least, the new government could have chosen its cabinet and Parliament would've been open again. Yes, it was a big decision to make, but they had plenty of time in which to decide in the 13 days. They did not need to extend the wait to 17 days.

But I guess there's nothing we can do about that now, at least we can be thankful that we now have a government and that everything can return to normal. Back to the election however. To start with, this election has seen a lot of first time voters come onto the scene, and I was one of them. Now a lot of young voters don't like the idea of listening to politions ramble on and on about things that aren't going to affect them right? Well wrong. In the fact that yes, whoever is in government will affect you life. That's the idea. Most young voters don't care who got in and so didn't bother voting properly, which is a real shame, because they are the future of this country and are we going to end up in a country where democracy fails because the generations don't care who is in power? Another popular tactic was to vote by closing your eyes and picking a box, or by looking at the names, and voting on who had the most appealing name (yes I am talking about the Australian Sex Party.) Now I have nothing against this party even though I didn't vote for them (I'm a Nationals girl) because I like what they stand for (same sex marriages, no censorship on the net etc), but how many people who voted for them, voted because of what they stood for? I'm afraid that people (especially young voters) would have voted for them because of their name.

Which brings me to another point that has disappointed me this election. The number of people who didn't vote for the Coalition because Tony Abbot is sexist, or voted for Labor because Julia Gillard is the first female PM this country has seen (which she is not, she became PM by default after kicking Rudd out, and even after this election she still wasn't the first female PM voted in by the Australian government as it was the 3 independents who kept her in power). The idea of democracy is that we don't vote for a PERSON, but we vote for a PARTY of people who believe in what we believe.
But who am I to say that? I'm just one person, with only one vote ;P

Knitting

This is the scarf I ahve just finished knitting. It has taken me forever though, because I'd knit a bit, then get bored, come back to it a few months later and knit some more. But Percerverance has paid off and I know have a nice new scarf to wear. The wool I used is quite interesing. Being forever since I bought it I'm not quite sure what type it is but while it is very soft and beautiful to touch, it's a bit of a pain to knit as it is very slippery on teh needles. I've just used the basic knit stitch, as when I started this scarf, that was all I knew. Next on my list of things to complete is my cross-stitch, which I might get out tonight and have a crack at. But that will take much longer to complete it as I have only just started that. My next knitting project however will be a blanket. I'm thinking of getting a few different colours of wool and stitching squares and then sewing the squares together to make a funky patchwork rug. Hope it works out! :)

Blog writing

So who knew blog writing could be so hard? Well I find it hard anyway. I decided to start this blog because I have a lot to say on everything and I would like to share these thoughts with a wider world than that of my own mind. You see, when I am doing something, like knitting (as I was just now) my mind tends to go off on tangents. I start thinking about things that I've heard about today, or recently (IE, the Australian election) and I have opinions of them. I want to write (or in this case type) my opinions down, but while my arguments are well formed in my head, when it does come to typing them out, they sound weak and unsupported and just plain silly. Why is this? Could it be some kind of writers block? It could be for all I know. This is why I have decided to write this post, to talk about something. I guess I'll just blabber on and you can decide on what it's on.

I like to think I am a very creative person. Well in fact I know I am a very creative person, I have an imagination and I imagine all kinds of things with it (no shit hey?) But I find it hard to concentrate on one form of creativity. I'm talking about hobbies, such as drawing, or knitting or cross-stitching, cake decorating, quilling, writing, all kinds of things! (and yes, these are the hobbies I do have an interest in) For example, I would love to be able to draw really well. So I have a book that teaches you how to draw. But unfortunately I still can't draw. I love cross-stitching, I find the end results to be beautiful and it's an interesting form of art to hang on your wall, but I have none hanging on my wall that I have completed. Then we move to quilling. I was taught quilling back in primary school and this year I have rekindled that love for it by buying a book on how to quill. The same with knitting, I have had my nan teach me different stitches and I have looked at different designs in books to complete. But I have no finished work from any of my hobbies. This is because I have a very short attention span and in no time, I am bored again and need to find something new to satisfy my creative needs.

In saying this however, there is one hobby that has stuck by me, and that I one day hope to turn into a career. Acting. Every since 2004 I have loved being on a stage, in front of an audience telling a story to them. I guess it's understandable as I do tend to like being the centre of attention among my friends and family, and I have found a way to do that. I hope to audition for WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts) near the end of this year and I really do hope I ma successful. If I am I will attend uni 5 days a week for 10 hours each day (yes that is 50 hours per week, 8 am to 6pm everyday). While this is quite a load to take on, it scares and excites me at the same time. The idea of all that time devoted to acting? I love that idea! Of course, the scary thing is not being able to have my own life, or a decent income during the 3 year course, but I know that at the end of it, it'll be worth it (I hope). Because even though it is very difficult to make it in the industry, it is not impossible, and I am very, very determined to make it.

So now you have experienced one of my minds tangents, I'll bring you back to what I was saying before; Acting is the hobby I have stuck by. But unfortunately, until now, there has been nothing for me to do with acting. I have been unable to audition for any local productions as I went away on a 3 month holiday with the family earlier this year. But that should hopefully change. There are two plays coming up that I would like to audition for, so I will. And in the mean-time, I shall begin rehearsing my audition pieces for my WAAPA audition. And since I am recently unemployed, I have a lot more time on my hands, so I will continue trying out my other interests and keep you posted :)

Blog

So I've decided to make a blog. Not that you who read this (if any) may actually care. But maybe you will. If you like what I say. But if you don't, you don't. Everyone has their own opinion and are entitled to believe in what they want to believe in.
I hope some of you internet go-ers out there will read this, and I hope it will make you smile. Beacuse the world is a brighter place if you smile. If you smile, the sun shines more and the days are brighter (this is the real cause of global warming, and people want to stop it? ). If you laugh, you feel happier, and brighter yourself. If you make someone else smile or laugh, well then, let the flood of warm fuzzies begin! But unfortunately, we cannot alone concentrate on smiling. For not everybody smiles and these people need to learn and it is our job to teach them the smile! So smile on my friends! Smile on :)
Ok, so I might have gotten a little carried away there, but its not a bad motto to live by. All the problems in the world can be solved if kept simple. Ignor all the trash and focus on the essence. Smile.