Sepia ATCs

Today I completed my first bunch of ATCs for a swap I'm doing over at ATC_Connection.
ATC stands for "Artist(ic) Trading Card". It's a 2.5"x3.5" handmade trading card that can be created using any artistic format you like.
I do mine in Scrapbooking style, since I cannot paint or draw.

The theme for this particular swap is "Sepia", and I had to make 4 cards. I then send those cards to the swap host, who distributes 3 cards each to everyone that has participated, and keeps 1 card from each person for herself.

On the cards I used print outs of old sepia photographs (one of my great-grandparents on their wedding day, and the other a Victorian photo I found online), a sepia coloured picture of the Houses of Parliament in London, and the last one (which kind of came out more orange than sepia) was a forest photo I also found online.

The embellishments I used included brads, old buttons, chinese coins, raised stickers and felt stickers, and die-cuts.

Tag-a-lot.

Well, I've been tagged by my mum over at Out Back!

Here goes...

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

Each player answers the questions about themselves.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

a) What was I doing 10 years ago?

In 1998 I was completing my final year of highschool, taking subjects in English, Biology, Accounting, Math and Computer Studies. I failed accounting.

I was living at home (obviously), with my mum, stepdad, two younger sisters, and my brother. Our pets included two dogs, and some chickens.

I had some goldfish called Hamish and SPG, but they ate too much and died.

b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today:

I dont even think I had 5 things on my to-do list today.

I had to go to the bank for work, and that was it. I went into work today and spent most of my time online, there really wasnt much for me to do.

And this evening my plans were to update my blog, lj and read some Emma by Jane Austen.

I think that only makes 4 items...?

c) Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate, raw cashews, dried apricots, and lemon slice.

d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Buy a house, spoil my family, give to charity, and travel.

e) Places I have lived:

I was born in Ceduna, on the far-west coast of South Australia. When I was 12 the family moved to Port Augusta, also in South Australia. When I finished highschool in 1998 I then moved to Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, and was there for ten years.

And who am I tagging?

Well, I only know two people who may take part, and they are Jess and Jenny.

Book Review: THE CUSTODIANS

"We're the innocence they have lost. Historyless is how they imagine us and happy for being that way. If only they knew. The only reason we exist is because of fucking history!"


Nicholas Jose's The Custodians is an interesting novel about the development and discovery of a national identity.

Through this novel Jose asks the question: Is there one Australian national identity, or are there many?
The reader is introduced to a number of characters from a variety of backgrounds: the indigenous, the stolen generation, the refugee immigrant, the colonialist decendent, the politician, the revolutionist, the religious.
Through his characters, who consistently cross each others' life paths, Jose is saying that despite racial, religious or political difference, in being Australian their identity is one and the same. That identity is tied to the Australian continent itself, forty thousand years of it and beyond.

Despite the novel being well-written and relatively easy to read, I found at times that Jose cut to and from characters and settings a little too often, which made it difficult to predict where the story was going. However, although frustrating at time, this inability to predict just made me more determined to find out how the story would end.
I also found some characters to be underdeveloped and a little hollow - that the reader is only learning their outer-shell and their deeper meaning is kept secret. This could have been deliberate, or simply a consequence of having too many characters.

However, overall an enjoyable and interesting read that I would recommend, to Australians and non-Australians alike.