#27 Must DO - Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.

Last week, I took a trip out to the city of Toowoomba, during its Spring Carnival of Flowers. The Carnival of Flowers runs annually, during September. This year running from Friday 18th September to Sunday 27th September. This year being its Diamond anniversary, that’s right commemorating 60 years of gorgeous flowers gracing the grounds of the city. The Carnival comes alive over the 10 days through numerous events from mayoral Breakfast, Longest Lunch, Concerts, Twilight Garden Tours, Parkland Entertainment, to perhaps the most well-known a swinging bright and beautiful floral parade through Toowoomba's CBD.

Through the hard work of gardeners and residents of the area, and council garden crews, the floral gardens, throughout the city, were in top shape for a beautiful Carnival of Flowers. The Weather of course gave a helping hand, with beautiful conditions, to celebrate the diamond anniversary. Upon driving into the town, over the range you are immediately filled with the gorgeous scent of flowers in full bloom. I spent the day visiting Queens Park, one of the prime focus point of the festival, with beautiful manicured gardens, with tiered displays of colour, shape and contrast. Secondly i visited Picnic point, a popular tourist spot for the town, once again, full of gorgeous colour, and relaxing gentle music. Really quite romantic actually.

Also I visited another popular public garden in the area, The Japanese gardens, a real unique and beautiful garden display.

Please check out my photos here 

Check out The Garden Reserve Champion here, via Toowoomba's The Chronicle

Check out the Toowoomba City Grand Champion Garden Here, via Toowoomba's The Chronicle.

Toowoomba's Floral Parada (Pic: Via Toowoomba Chronicle )

Queenslands Q150.. My refined 50 must do's!

Firstly and most importantly, i am excitedly awaiting the arrival of my new camera, Olympus mju 9000! I can't wait til she arrives, which will be any day now, and i'll be sure to let u know.

Anyways, as you would be well aware, this year Queensland, the sunshine or smart state is celebratings its 150th Birthday. Racq ran a search for what is Queenslands must doo attractions, and from the final list of 150 Must do's.. I've slimmed it down to my Top 50 Must do's. Some of them, i've already seen a long time ago, and would love to do again, because i dont have any photographs and so on. So my little project is to slowly work through my list of 50.. and do them, experience, photograph and then blog about it.

So here they are.. Mandee's #50 Queensland Must Do's! (Not in any order or ranking)
#1 Australia Zoo, Beerwah
#2 Brisbane River Cruise
#3 Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
#4 Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
#5 Dreamworld and the BIG 6 Thrill Rides.
#6 Underwater world
#7 Punicestone Passage Bribie Island
#8 Eumundi Markets
#9 Movieworld
#10 EKKA
#11 Wet n Wild, White water world.
#12 Seaworld
#13 Brissie CityCat
#14 RiverFire
#15 Story Bridge Climb
#16 Southbank
#17 Bunya Mtns
#18 Fraser Isalnd
#19 Stradbroke Island
#20 Moreton Island
#21 Springbrook Nat. Park
#22 Q1
#23 Hot Air Ballooning
#24 Buderin Ginger Factory
#25 Mt Cootha
#26 Ruver Cruise the Noosa Everglades
#27 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers
#28 Magnetic Island
#29 Fishing at Lake Awoonga
#30 Agnes waters and 1770.
#31 Port Douglas
#32 Daintree Rainforest and Bloomfield Falls.
#33 Paronella Park
#34 Dive @ The Great Barrier Reef
#35 Kuranda, Scenic railway and Skyrail.
#36 Carnavan Gorge
#37 Bundaberg Rum
#38 Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame
#39 Spirit of the Outback out to Longreach and Winton.
#40 Turtles at Mon Repos
#41 See a game at Suncorp Stadium
#42 Whitsundays
#43 tully River White water rafting.
#44 Whitehaven Beach
#45 Lamington National Park
#46 Sirromet Winery
#47 Capricorn Caves
#48 Whale Watching at Hervey Bay
#49 Widebay AUS Bundy Thunder
#50 Dine @ Breakfast Ck Hotel.

Dust Storm September 23rd 2009.

Hi guys,
So I'm sure any of you aussie's would know about the eerie and phenomenal dust storm that us east coasters experienced yesterday the 23rd. It was so amazing, id never seen or really even heard of a dust storm prior to this happening.
It occurred due to a low front coming across from South Australia, ripping up kilos of red top soil from the arid areas of Australia and dragging them across picking up more and coating the towns, cities and everything in a layer of red/orange dust. The Front is said to have travelled at 65km/hr as it hit the east coast.

So after browsing hundreds of photos of the dust storm affecting areas, i decided to post some of my favourites, as well as my own, of the dust storm from my parents place near the base of the Glasshouse Mountains QLD.
These photos are truly amazing.

As the dust approaches.(Left). Dust Storm here at our place (Above Top )  Dust Storm Surrounds us (Above Bottem)

(Left) Brisbane CBD  (Above Top ) Riverside Brisbane CBD Photo: Annie Ferris, (Above Bottem) Brisbane Jetbase. Photo: Adagold Aviation



(Left) Bondi Beach Photo: Jonas Leibschner, (Right) Sydney Harbour. Photo: Charlie Brewer.

(left) Cremone Pt Sydney,(Above Top Kirrabilli, Photo: John Granger (Above Bottem) Martin Place Sydney Photo: Helen Matherson.

(Above Left) Webcam Footage of Southbank, Brisbane.  (Above Right) Clearview St, Toowoomba.. ironic really.

If i have left your name off a photo please let me know. :)

Health Tips and Surggestions

Most of these  I found through Women’s Health magazine and similar sites, so credit to them.. However I've compiled the key points here for you all as well as some additional Information. 

Part One: General Tips

• Power naps are Great, but for no more than 30 Mins.
• Protect your ears, wear earplugs at concerts, around lawn mowers and similar equipment and at fireworks. 
• Dont waste your money on just tinted sunglasses. They provided nowhere near the amount of UV and Glare protection that Polaroids do. Find a good pair of a polaroids and they'll treat your eyes well. 
• Eat Yogurt.. Why?  It Reduces Breast Cancer, Boosts immunity, and protects against yeast infections. 
• Drink OJ. 100 % Juice varieties. It helps reduce the risk of strokes by 20%. 
• Drink Green tea It is the most potent anti cancer compounds.. EVER. 
• Have more sex. If not just for fun, but also because it leads to fewer colds, and reduced PMS for us girls. 
• Eat a spoon of peanut butter 20 mins before eating meals. It makes you feel fuller for longer and able to absorb Vitamins A, D, E and K. 
• Eat foods high in Iron. It helps reduce fatigue and boosts immunity.
• Eat Salmon, this smart fish boost brain power, prevents depression and coronary artery Disease.
• Try to reduce eating foods with less than 3gms of fibre or more than 10gms of sugar per serving. 
• Don’t eat foods that contain sugar, sucrose and fructose in the first 3 ingredients. ( That’s right the order of ingredients on the back or sides of packages is actually in order the first items being the ones with larger contents )  
• Last of all Floss your Teeth ! 

Part Two - Taking care of your Skin. 

 

#1 Avoid expensive cleanses, My Fav! : Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar.. its only $3. 

#2 Use a UV Lip Protectant whenever you’re out.  My Fav: Sunsense Lip balm SPF 30+  or check out these

#3 Use a anti-ager containing retinoid. My Fav: L'Oreal Dermo-Expertise RevitaLift Day Cream is one of the cheaper products out there.

#4 use a shaver with moisture strips, and don’t shave 2 to 3 days before a pedicure. 

#5 cooked Tomatoes reduce UV Sun Damage. 

#6 Have a skin check once a year to get those spots and moles checked. Keep an eye out in particular for ones that have uneven colouring. They should be a smooth brown to be safe. Don’t know where to go for a skin check. Try Solarderm ( Bulk Billing Available).

Camera Desicions.

So, didn't get a chance this weekend to start on my blog assignment, but never mind always another weekend. But my poor little baby dog got sick and had to go to hospital, for tick treatment. I can't believe those tiny little gross bugs can kill animals and pets. Talk about unfair. I can't see the good of many bugs truthfully. They are disgusting and annoying. ok enough about that.

I need a new camera. my current little one ( pink Samsung 6PM 3x Optical Zoom) is just no good. I want more zoom, so i can get great images but still something slimline and sassy ,but with as many of the top features possible.

After some research i have arrived at my top 5 ( in no particular order) :

1. FujiFilm Finepix F70EXR 10MP with 10x optical zoom. Check it out more here

2. Olympus MJU 9000 12MP with 10x optical zoom. Check it out here.

3. Ricoh R10 10MP with 7.1 optical zoom. More about this one here.

4. Nikon Coolpix S630 with 12MP with 7 x optical zoom. Here it is here

5. Canon SX200IS with 12.1MP and 12x optical zoom. All bout it here.

But I'm hopeless with decisions so i need some input. Comment and let me know. Maybe you even have a suggestions.

New - Own Blog Assignment !

Hey everyone, so recently i had a mandee moment, and thought of an awesome little assignment to give myself and my blog. It goes along the lines of:

Randomly pick 10 Garage sales. ( You know out of the weekend shopper in the Classifieds..They're listed everywhere really)

Step 2, buy one item from each garage sale.

Once all ten items are purchased, pick any that arent a real tresure, or something you dont really want to keep and ebay them.

After sales see if any you made a profit from and what treasures you have now.

So im hoping to do that this weekend, and i'll be sharing my results shortly with you all :)

joined the iphone alliance

So my Lg Viewty has been full of problems as of late and it just got to the point where it was beyond a joke. Sad? no.. finally i could get an iphone that id been oogling over for weeks....ok maybe months. So hello free upgrade thanks to my buddies at vodafone! :) & home i went with my brand new love, my 16GB iphone 3GS. Only had just come into the store that morning, so i snapped it up, no waiting for me. hahah worldwide shortage.. pfft! not for the mandee. Ok ok. so I'm a little stoked about it

So as with everything i love to personalise it. Make it me. So i got a gorgeous case for it, so its precious smooth and shinyness. Check it out here.
Next step was setting it up how i want it and hitting the app store, getting some wallpapers and putting on my own music.

So here's some things ive learnt already about my iphone.

1. They are awesome, so intelligent and do more than you expect. Ooozes intelligence.
2. The Free apps are such a tease, give u a little bit and then kick you out unless you want to fork out for premium . Saying that though there are some great ones out there. Check out my favs:


3. The iphone is all about syncing with itunes, for everything from music to groove to, ring tones, photos and more. Of course Apple being Apple loves to restrict who's content you use, not allowing you to make mp3's into ring tones unless they are purchased from the itunes store. But of course, technology being ever changing and humans being persistent there is a way around this.
Got some songs you love.. want them on your iphone as a ringtone. Here's how:

• Open your favourite mp3 intunes, right click and select 'Create AAC version'

• Next open up your itunes music folder usually in your My music folder, and select the file and rename the extension to ".m4r".

• Windows will ask if you really want to do this, select yes and it now in the ringtone format recognised by apple.

• Drag the file back into itunes and tada! it should appear in the ringtones tab. Sync your iphone and ta da there is your new hot ringtone!!

4. Want to put some custom wallpapers on there? www.zedge.net has got some awesome free ones. Make sure that when your syncing your iphone, select the folder you have your custom wallpapers in, and they'll be sent to your iphone.

Top 5 Apps of the moment.

Remote. control your itunes from ur iphone like a remote.

google mobile quick way to search for what you want on the go.

ebuddy Chat to your msn buddies while out and about.

BrainChallenge Great brain test you can take daily and find out what percentage of your brain you use.

Idork lite Free, addictive game app. try it! just do it!

anyone got some great iphone resources? let me know!

A+ Websites...Social Media and Networking.

I always spend a lot of time trawling around the Internet, trying to find sites, that deliver the best content, easy to find and a site that you know you want to come back to. So just thought I'd share some of my top bookmarks. Some of them are Australian sites, some are global. This is my first installment....

SOCIAL NETWORKING.

1. Twitter

I'm sure nearly all have you have heard of twitter, its been plastered all over the news, radio and linked with a lot of sites. Twitter is an easy way to network and keep updated or share tips or links or even thoughts with fellow twitterer's. You can search and "follow" people that interest you, so that you receive their Twitter updates or "Tweets" as they are referred to. Vice Versa, other people can search and choose to follow you, and read what you post. Now before you think that this is just another additive time consuming site such as Facebook and Myspace and so on. While it sure is addictive, it isn't full of intensive profile information like these sites, but is simply a 140Character Status updates. Saying what your doing or what you thinking or what your loving now.
I love using twitter to network with other people in the design and VA business, and i find its an awesome source of information, tips and other resources.

2. Facebook.

Not sure if this really needs an explanation, but facebook allows you to search and connect with old school friends, work colleagues and all different kinds of people you know. Compared to Myspace where you could essentially add just anyone Facebook is more restrictive, only making a friend connection once the person you have requested confirms this. This also gives you more control over your profile and who can see it. Facebook is got a ton of great apps, well more than a ton, some junky and some just plain addictive. It's also a great photo sharing website, allowing you to tag other people in your photo's and a message is sent to them, advising them of this and allows them to view the picture. Facebook also is becoming an essential social networking tool for business's, with Fan Page's and Advertising pages able to be built to promote your company or your website.

3. Digg

This is probably my bookmarking site of choice. Primarily because its familiarity is more widespread throughout the Internet, and built on the common principal that you either love it (Digg it) or you don't. it allows you to see how many other people are 'diggin' the page you have chosen, and also view top dug pages, from various categories.


4. Blogger

After playing around with various blog websites, including wordpress, xanga, iblog, live journal and so on. I've come to love blogger. I'm a fan of the choice of free webpages and utilities, versus website that request you to pay for essentially the same service. I mean why not get something for free. Anyways, Blogger is highly customisable, which i LOVE. Making something unique and customised just the way I like it, really does it for me. There is all the usual facilities you can find in wordpress. I'm just really new to all this Blog world, so i don't know too much about it. But I'm looking to sinking my teeth in! :)

5. Flixster

I love my movies, who doesn't? There is nothing like sitting down with a drink and some munchies and watching a great film. But what about when you want to know a little bit more about a film, or see what other people recommend. OR recommend a film you just watched so that more people can see what a great film it was. Welcome Flixster. Flixster enables you to rate films, write reviews and share them with your friends and the community. it has fun quiz's and games to make it all that more enjoyable. Or even just use it to search for what other people are saying about a film you think you might want to see.

6. Blip.FM

Love music, why not be your own DJ, and cast the songs your spinning and loving to those on your networks. Blip.FM is integrable with Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Livejournal and a heap more as well as the function to be fully customisable by you and your friends. Tell everyone what your listening too!

7. Yahoo!7 Answers

This site is a essential bookmark, Ive used it a ton of times, when you just want a handy tip from someone, or just need that extra help and don't know who to ask. Why not ask everyone.
Here you can read questions and if you can help out post your answer. Or got something to ask, Post a question and check back a bit later, and see what tips and advice others have given you. I love this site, and fully recommend it.

8. DailyBooth

This one is defiantly for those amongst us that is less camera shy. Instead of posting a status message, or a blog or so on. Post a picture of you everyday. Its kinda a way of recording and compiling your life, in the story of pictures. see the way your looks change, record and remember those emotions, this site interested me and easily made it into my bookmarked list.

9. Mashable

For all of us that are social media and network savvy, we love to keep updated on whats happening with the networks, whats new and hot and what isn't. Mashable is all of this and more, providing you with social media news, resources, lists and tips. Its defiantly full of lots of interesting information and links.

10. Witty Profiles

Not sure if this really fits in with Social Media and networking, but i have loved this site for a long time. it's very teenager based, but is full of quotes from light and humorous to deep and in depth. I love coming to this site and just indulging myself in reading the quotes and feeling the feelings behind them.

Have you got some that you love and I've missed? tell me about them :) I love to explore sites.

In the Begining.

Hi,
Just wanted to say thanks for coming and reading my blog. Makes me feel special. I hope you follow me or Bookmark me and come back and read my blogs. I will blog about everything from sites i love, issues i feel passionately about, my design learnings, great images and more! So a bit about me?

I live in Sunny Queensland on the northside of Brisvegas, I love living in Brisbane and QLD , if i couldnt live here i'd definatly choose Melbourne. I love the culture down there! But im definatly always an Aussie Girl.

I adore animals of all kinds apart from:
- Insects and Spiders. ewww so creepy.
- Birds. I hate them. there is nothing to like about birds, - Smelly-Lice-Noisy-Swooping-Birdpoo-
- Reptiles have their moments, i have an appreciation of snakes and crocodiles and so on, But as long as they keep away from me all is good. :D

I started my own Company "iClick Consulting" operating as a Virtual assistant. I provide administration and secretarial support to Business's. I look after a wide range of tasks ranging from word processing, document creation, data entry to research and technology support. Check us out at http://www.iclickconsulting.com.au/

Top 5 interests? Technology (i.e. Computers, Gadgets, Phones, Social Media.. all that)
Animals, Design, NRL, Shopping, Travel. ok so that was 6. lol

Aspirations? True love and a gorgeous family, and to be living a life i love to wake up to every morning.