we're moving..

Hey folks! Since I use wordpress for blogs for work etc, I've decided to move this one over there. You can catch us at - http://theshazanneshow.wordpress.com/

I'll leave this one up for a while, but all new posts will be going there!

8 months.. wow.

It's been 8 months since our last post - can you believe it? That time has just disappeared! After coming back from Canada, I think we felt like we needed a little break from it but decided this morning to jump back on the blogwagon. So here we are!

To catch up on the last 8 months, here's a quick list of what we've been up to:

We bought a house

We renovated a house

Shan got a promotion

Zanne did a copywriting course and got accepted into AWARD School

We have a new nephew

We have a new pseudo-niece

We're in our first lesbian bridal party next month

Our website, My Big Gay Wedding, went live

Shan's tattoo sleeve is almost completed

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with anniversary tattoos

Zanne's in a band (we rock HARD! ;)

That's all the big stuff I think. I'll do a post about the house after this one, since it's a pretty huge deal for us.

Back to day to day stuff - Shan is training for the Bridge to Brisbane, a 10km fun run that takes place in September. She's currently running about 4.5km in 30 minutes and is working up to the full 10km. She has 6 months to get ready. I'll be walking with the babies and old ladies.

We've also been trying to get out and enjoy our own backyard a little more with camping trips and bushwalking. This morning we went bushwalking with our friend Ange and her 6 week old baby girl Audra. She was lovely and slept the whole 9km/2 hours.

Exciting news! While we were walking this morning, Shan's mum called and Shan's brother's wife is in labour! So we're now eagerly awaiting the arrival of their little guy. Hopefully he'll come sometime this afternoon so we can see him before the weekend is over.

So that's us kinda up to date. I'll do a quick post after this about our new house. Chat soon!

house full of estrogen

So, we haven't talked about her much, but our puppy Nacho is 8 months old now and she has suffered with separation anxiety ever since we first took her home. This has been pretty hard to deal with sometimes, especially when her anxiety has caused her to:

* cry non-stop for no apparent reason for hours on end

* cry so much during the night that she ended up sleeping in our bedroom

* get so upset when we'd leave for work it sounded like she was being stabbed

* rip up the newspaper we'd left down for her 'mess' while we were at work resulting in 'mess' all over the laundry

* scratch a huge hole in our couch

After talking with every semi-expert friend we could, the feedback we kept getting was, "she's a companion dog, she needs a companion". We really didn't want another dog, thinking it could end up being double the trouble, but after trying everything else we figured we needed to give it a go. After doing our research we decided to adopt an adult Golden Retriever. We figured Nacho needed guidance on how to be a big girl and a bigger dog would offer her a sense of protection.

On Saturday we picked up the new addition to our family, the lovely Bailey. She's 7 years old and is a purebred Goldie whose owner died 6 months ago leaving her with her daughter, who could no longer take care of her. They were really lovely people and we've committed to keeping them informed of how Bailey is doing in our home.

Bailey is just gorgeous! She's beautiful looking and has a really awesome, relaxed personality. We're both in love with her and so far she and Nacho are getting along well. Nacho is still a bit nuts but we're hoping time and Bailey will help her settle down.

Shan and Bailey on the day she came home with us.

Chillin in the backyard

Nap time

And, just cos she's so damn cute - our little Nacho trying to eat a bone that's bigger than she is.

they call her 'the painted woman'

A few months ago, my lovely wife decided she wanted to get her half sleeve tattoo extended to a 3/4 or full sleeve. She got in contact with her cool tattooist, Tim, and yesterday we went in for the first session.

Seriously, Shan is wayyyyy tougher than she looks!! She sat for 3.5 hours and had all of the outline and some of the shading on her forearm done, including the inside and outside of her ELBOW - the most painful spots to get a tattoo. She'll need another 1 or 2 sessions to complete it but it looks incredible so far. Tim is a genuis. Oh, and when we mentioned we'd seen him at the Tegan & Sara concert, he said he was there at their request and was asked backstage by them because they want him to tattoo them next time they're in town. Yuh, as if we didn't already think he was super cool.

blood...

a lucky lunch with family

I had a meeting on the Gold Coast today so had the pleasure of catching up with my mum and two of my sisters for lunch. I still find it kinda hard to believe how grown up we all are. Out of the 5 girls in my family - 2 have kids, 2 have degrees, 2 are still studying for degrees, and 2 of us are married. I still remember fighting over the front seat of the car, singing to Garth Brooks and Hanson together on long car rides and changing my baby sister's butt when she was a baby. She's 19 now.

Mum with Giselle

Sally and Giselle. Sally is pregnant again and we found out last week she's having a boy!

Hollie with Giselle

And this is how they showed up with Jimmy.

And they say they aren't bogans...

did you miss us?

hey peeps! we're back! Well we never really left but we did give blogging a break for a little while. Between moving house and having no internets at home and having jobs that didnt really allow for blogging, we decided to take a break.

But now, we're in our new lovely house complete with internets and we are back into blogging! I gotta keep this one brief as I need to take Nacho for a walk so maybe she'll stop crying for 10 minutes, but we'll write more soon.

Zanne

Artica

I’ve taken a break from University (some might say “again?!”). I have been studying a Journalism degree. I was studying for personal development, not a career change. With that in mind, and after confirming I already know how to write and I have no passion for journalism, I realised I only intended finishing my three year degree because I like to finish what I start. I might go back to the degree in the future but, after much discussion with my wife, I’ve decided to pursue art.

It’s funny that I never decided to do this before. I guess I was busy travelling or, most likely I might have felt that art is what I do in my free time, not something to make a living from. Anyways, I’m at the point now where I totally hate being a secretary and I am constantly daydreaming of my perfect job… If I could be anything/do any job, what would it be? A tattoo artist. There’s no hesitation in answering that. A big dream, true. But it will be achievable through hard work and baby steps. So I enrolled into drawing classes at the Brisbane Institute of Art. How exciting!

My first class was last night – I’m in love! I wasn’t prepared for the nude model, I was a bit embarrassed to begin in fact, but it was surprising how quickly the model simply became curves and lines and tone. I’m not looking forward to a male model, I have to admit. Ew! I’ve told Zanne I’m gonna draw the male models like Ken Dolls ha!

Anyways, last night was a great experience and I’m totally psyched about this semester. My drawings sucked but I’m determined I will get better. Our teacher seems to think we will all improve in no time – “it just takes practice”. Well then, practice I will!