Friday 10 January 2014

Inspirational Idea #2

I have seen this video on television before, but i just saw it on Facebook, and though i had to write about it.


This amazing man, Nick Vujicic, was born without arms and without legs. At age 8, he has said he wondered why him. why did it have to be him. I, myself, am not religious, however he found God at 15, and only went up from there. He has said it was not an easy road, but now he is a motivational speaker, married and loving life, even making jokes about himself, such as one time he said he was coming down a waterslide, and everyone at the bottom saw him and gasped. His reaction wasn't that they were all judging him, it was that he really wanted to pretend to freak out as if he had lost his limbs on the ride.

I found this man very inspirational because his outlook on life is incredible. He could have been hurt by all those people, felt he wasn't good enough, but instead he found it amusing.

Nick's full story can be found here

Rays & Sailing

As a lot of my family live in tasmania, I don't really get to see them that much. My youngest cousin, is now 10, and i have only seen him twice, once about a week after he was born, the second he was only 4 or 5. I sometimes feel, i have missed out on knowing him a bit. But he showed us around the wildlife refuge the other day i hung out with him a little bit. Today, however we got on really well together and had a lot of fun.


As we were sailing out of the bay and mooring, a few swans starts swimming along beside us for a few minutes.


As we were heading out, we decided to jump off the back of the yacht and hang on to the dinghy and let it pull us through the water. It was quite hard at first because the water was pushing against us pretty hard. For a while we just held on and floated on top, but then we put our legs underneath the boat, in the slip stream. It was actually really fun and while hanging out here for a while had some pretty good conversation.


We moored in a small bay, and we took to dinghy into shore, and the two of us explored for a little while. We went back for the snorkels, masks and flippers and also explored underwater for quite a while. We saw lots and lots of flathead and the most exciting part, five eagles rays, and two very big stingrays, the same species of which killed Steve Irwin. They were very close to us and it was an amazing sight to see them in the wild, the eagle rays, with 30 or so centimetres, and we only went within around a metre of the larger, more dangerous stingrays. Unfortunately i didn't take any pictures, because i didn't have the GoPro with me, and obviously my good camera is not waterproof.


The view of the water, rocks, yachts around us, and incredible sea life beneath us was so serene and peaceful. I absolutely loved seeing my uncle and cousin properly for the first time in ages. If anyone is in the Hobart area, i really recommend going for a sail because the water was crystal clear and there were really some amazing sights. 



What I'm wearing:
 Topanga 'sea lilly' bikini




Wednesday 8 January 2014

Trees, trains & fish

Off to the salmon ponds we headed this morning. They are in the town of Plenty, near New Norfolk. They were hundreds of different fish in all the ponds. 


They were all sorts of fish, including rainbow trout, brown trout, salmon, pink salmon, albino trout, tiger trout and a few more.


It was all setup like an old-fashioned british garden, with pathways between all the ponds, approximately 50 different native and induced trees, many hundreds of years old.


As I was down in Hobart visiting my grandparents, i thought i should show them to you. This is my grandma, and my granddad decided he didn't want to be in the photo so stayed behind the camera.


As we were leaving i found this lovely little seat under a 300 year old tree, and had to have a photo.


On the drive home, they is also a really old set of train tracks, that are no longer in service, but used to transport the newspapers from the factory to all the corner stores in Hobart.


and of course i couldn't just pick one, so here is three. :)




I'm wearing:
Tee: cotton on
Jeans: Forever 21
Shoes: black Hi-Top converse



Tuesday 7 January 2014

Birds, Treehouses, & Country towns

We started today by going to Kettering to visit my uncle and cousin, who own Raptor Refuge in Tasmania that helps re-home and rehabilitate injured wildlife creatures, such as eagles, owls, lizards, reptiles, seabirds, and many more. 

 This is my youngest cousin in an enclosure with one of the birds they are rehabilitating, and reteaching to fly after it was injured.


Side view of another row of enclosures with more owls and eagles being looked after.


Two beautiful masked owls, sitting in a nesting box in their new home while they are in the refuge. Sorry about the horrible quality. I had to take it on my phone, because the netting on the front was too small for the lens of the dslr. 



They also built a pretty awesome tree house together. The view from the top in amazing, as shown in the picture above, although it really doesn't do it justice. You can see much further down to the harbour with all the yachts moored.



After we left the refuge we headed for lunch in this cute little country town, situated through the breathtaking sweeping hills of Tasmania in amongst trees, at the bottom of a valley that has a river running through it.



Overall the day was amazing and i had a lot of fun. I got to see a bit more of Tasmania, rather than the town where my Grandparents live. :)


Monday 6 January 2014

Inspirational Idea #1


when i first learned no one could ever love me more than me
a world of happiness previously unseen was discovered
because somewhere along the line of aging and scrutiny and time
i was taught to despise myself
but i made sure i kept myself beautiful so someone would love me someday
so i could belong to someone someday
because that's the most important thing a little girl could want, right?
i was thirteen the first time i was embarrassed about my body
of course it would not be the last
and i remember stuffing my bra in the morning 
with tears stinging my eyes 
hoping, praying to something that i could look beautiful enough today braces and all for the ruthless boys
who mercilessly told me i was worthless
because my boobs weren't big enough
and i would go home and put on a sweatshirt with my eyes closed
deny myself to be shown myself
because i didn't dare want to insinuate beauty 
in regards to something so insulting as my body
i mean we all end up with our heads between our knees
because the only place we feel safe
is curled up inside skin we've been taught to hate
by a society that shuns our awful confidence and feeds us our own flaws
and sometimes when i need to meet the me that loves me, i can't find her
a reminder that the mirror is meant to be a curse so i confine her
in my mind 
but when when he or she shouts let me out
we're allowed to listen
but it's met by a chorus of conceited
egotistical 
narcissist 
but since when was self solicitude a sin
since when was loving who we are made an offense by morons that don't matter
change this physicality and that one, don't you shatter the illusion you could ever 
be something beyond your paper fine flesh and flashy teeth and fingernails
echoic accusations of not good enough, never good enough
have you ever felt so numb that it hurts
entertain me
whore
you can't surrender to them 
you gotta remember you're the only thing you'll ever truly have
and no i don't mean your body because someday it'll go bad no matter what you do
i mean you
i mean the way your bright eyes go wild when you smile
and how your laughter's so melodic it's like a song
i mean the way your creativity's compass that leads you to what you love
you don't need any miracle cream to keep your passions smooth hair free
or diet pills to slim your kindness down
and when you start to drown in these these petty expectations
you better examine the miracle of your existence
you're worth so much more than your waistline
you're worth the beautiful thoughts you think
and the daring dreams you dream, undone and drunk off alcohol of being
but sometimes we forget that
because we live in a word where the media pulls us from the womb
nurses us
and teaches us our first words
skinny pretty skinny pretty
girls soft quiet pretty
boys manly muscles pretty
and i don't care whether it's your gender your looks your weight your skin or where your love lies 
none of that matters because standards don't define you
you don't live to meet credentials established by a madman
you're a goddamn treasure whether you wanna believe it or not
and maybe that's what everyone should start looking for


So this is a slightly different post to normal, but this video was so perfect, and the poem was amazing. this was a video response to a recent video by a you tuber, telling girls what they should be. that they should shave all their body hair, they should be able to entertain the guy. seriously. i get being able to have a joke, but the way it was said was as if that was our purpose. anyways I'm sure most of you have seen it, and if you haven't I'm not going to who it was.

anyway, i hope this made you realise something about yourself, or not to worry about what people think about you. Anyways this video nearly made me cry, just because its so true. the last five lines were pretty much every single song or poem about loving yourself written perfectly.

Sunday 5 January 2014

Berry-Licious






Fruit farms where you can pick your own fruit are few and far between where I live. There are wineries a bit further north, where you can pick the grapes, but that is almost it. As I am in Tasmania visiting my Grandparents i thought we should come and do it. So off  we headed for the Sorell fruit farm. Some of the fruit wasn't quite ripe because of the recent extra cold weather had killed them when they were buds. the strawberries and black cherries were the sweetest and most plentiful at the moment.



Wearing :)
T-shirt: cotton on
Coat: Old Navy
Jeans: Valleygirl
Shoes: Black Hi-Top Converse

Saturday 4 January 2014

Questions answered

Someone on tumblr suggested I do a getting to know me post, so I am going to do that now! :)






1. Do you have any pets? Yes, i have two dogs named Sasha (nearly 16) and Ellie, is 3. They are both Border collie kelpie x. I also have a cat called Liz, and she is a 7 year old tortoiseshell.

2. Name 3 things that are physically close to you.  The couch that I'm sitting on, my laptop, and my camera.

3. What's the weather like right now? At the moment its around 27 degrees Celsius, but its quite humid.

4. Do you drive? If so have you crashed? I don't actually have a driver’s license yet. :(

5. What time did you wake up this morning? 6:30. Bright and early!

6. When was the last time you showered? When I got home from a friends house today, after swimming in the pool, so approximately 3 hours ago.

7. What was the last movie you saw? I went to see catching fire a few weeks ago, and I absolutely loved it. A lot of people have said they thought it cut off quite quickly, and that it was a massive cliff hanger, however i have read all the books so even though it was a cliff-hanger I know what is happening in Mocking Jay.

8. What does your last text message say? I texted the girls who's house I was at today, to say I was leaving to skate to her house :)

9. What's your ringtone? My ringtone is happily by One Direction
. I often forgot that it is my phone ringing, and just start dancing to it then realize what it is... oops

10. Have you ever been to a different country? Yes, a lot. My family travels a lot. I have been to Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Bali(Indonesia), USA (LA, San Francisco, NY, Washington DC, Florida, Colorado, Vegas, Hawaii), Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Japan, Singapore, and i feel like I'm forgetting something but there is some :P

11. Do you like sushi? Yes. As mentioned above, I have been to Japan with my family twice recently to go snowboarding in Niseko. Before I had experienced it, i always assumed sushi was raw fish. After visiting a sushi train over there I realised sushi was actually really good, and now I quite often have it for lunch at the shopping centre when I'm there with friends.

12. What is your eye colour? I have quite dark brown eyes, but they have some lighter brown flecks through them
.

13. Have you ever taken medication to help you fall asleep faster? No. I do have trouble sleeping sometimes, because i will stay up late looking into the light of my iPad or laptop (like now), and after turning it off often lie awake for a while.

14. How many siblings do you have? I have one 18 year old sister.

15. Do you have a desktop computer or a laptop? I have my own laptop that I am on right now, and my school one :)

16. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? My birthday is actually in a week, and I will be turning 15 

17. Do you wear contacts or glasses? I do have glasses, but i don't really like wearing them that much because i don't think i really suit glasses. I don't need them to be able to see clearly, I can still see, my eyes just get sore by the end of the day.

18. Do you color your hair? No. I have dyed it a few times, but it has mostly grown out and faded, so my hair is now a very light ombre colour.

19. Tell me something you are planning to do today. Well it is now nighttime, but today i went swimming and filmed a YouTube video. Tomorrow i am flying down to Hobart, so an unproductive day, although i will probably write and edit on the flight so that is good!

20. When was the last time you cried? I actually cried tears of laughter watching a youtube video by Jc Caylen that he put out a few days ago.

21. What is your perfect pizza topping? My favourite pizza would be aioli (sort of a garlic sauce I guess.), mozzarella cheese, tasty cheese, and parmesan cheese, of course with a cheese stuffed crust. You could kind of say I like some pizza with my cheese.

22. Which do you prefer-hamburgers or cheeseburgers? um... is there a difference?? because at Maccas in Australia we just have cheeseburgers. I would have no idea what would be coming if I ordered a 'hamburger'.


23. Have you ever had an all-nighter? I have, and I know its really bad for your health, and being sleep deprived can slow down your brain function, and make you put on weight, but sometimes I just can't sleep, and i look at the time and its 5:30 so my alarm would be going off soon anyway, so i just get up and make a really good breakfast to attempt to make up for it even though I know it won't, and try to be a bit productive in the morning, by doing work, editing or writing.

24. What is your eye colour? I have quite dark brown eyes, but they have some lighter brown flecks through them.







I hope if anyone actually made it this far, you learnt something about me and will consider following my blog!


Trip & Family

Just a short update today. Tomorrow I'm heading down to Tasmania, to visit my grandparents as it has been so long since I've seen then. I will be there for approximately a week and doing a few exciting things to blog about, such as fruit picking, so there will be photographs from lots of things, and posts for you guys, so i hope you enjoy such posts :)

Thursday 2 January 2014

Future ramblings



Also i thought i should write quickly about what i will be posting on this blog. As i mentioned in my last post i have a strong passion for photography, fashion, beauty and writing.

The first type of posts will be fashion style. I will be posting #ootd's on days that i have something to show you. (i have a school uniform, so during school term it won't be as often, but still if I'm going out at night or doing something.) Another fashion style post, will be hauls and more.

The second will be random interesting things I'm doing, i.e soon i will be travelling to tasmania to visit my family, so if I'm doing anything exciting, fun, or would make great photographs, i will blog that and show you guys what I'm doing.

The third type will be beauty related blogging, talking about makeup or products i have used or tried, reviewing it, and just general beauty related things.

The final type of posts will be other sort of 'tag' posts, such as Q&A posts... and such things.

Thankyou for being to read this. if any of those things above interest you, please follow my blog to see more of my stuff. also the picture of me above was taken by my amazing sister, please check out her photography page


Inspiration & creation


So Zoe Sugg, being one of my favourite youtubers and bloggers has inspired me to create my own. I have always love what Zoe does. I have a passion for photography much like she does. Her blog is amazing and i have always been too scared to create my own, however reading some of her older posts recently has made me realise when she started she wasn't a professional either. Just a girl with a love of fashion, beauty, photography, and blogging much like myself.

I'm not really sure what to write in my first post, but id just like to introduce myself, so I am Anna, also on youtube as annavanloon. As this is such a passion of mine i thought it would be a good idea to start pursuing it in the new year.

So lastly, i know she probably won't see this, but id like to thanks Zoe for being such an amazing girl, and a great inspiration to me and amazing role model to many young girls.