Sunday, June 27, 2010

Me time in 10 easy steps

This week my WH (wonderful husband) has been away with stocktake & a managers meeting so I have spend a few nights alone. I have taken the opportunity to have some me time, also know as hot chocolate on the couch infront of the heater with a blanket time (me time is so much quicker to say).

I do love a good cup of hot chocolate, neither my WH or myself drink tea or coffee, so much so that for birthday's and Christmas I am usually given something to do with hot chocolate. Last Christmas my sister-in-law gave me this hot chocolate on a stick, and I have saved it for just an occasion.

Here are my 10 easy steps to my perfect idea of me time hot chocolate:

1. Gather the necessary equipment (my case saucepan, cup, milk & hot chocolate on a stick)
2. This is my hot chocolate on a stick (yummy looking isn't it!?)
3. Measure out milk using my cup and pour it into the saucepan
4. Clean up milk that I spilt while 'trying' to pour milk into the saucepan


5. Put the heat on low and slowly warm the milk
6. I test the milk temperature with a very sophisticated technique, put my finger in the milk
7. Put hot chocolate on a stick in the cup
8. Pour warmed milk over the hot chocolate on a stick & stir

9. Sit down on the couch & keep stirring the hot chocolate on a stick (my milk was alittle cooler than it probably should have been)
10. Drink






Friday, June 25, 2010

It arrived!


Late last month I got an email from one of my fav website Esty (it's kind of like Ebay but for handmade & vintage items) letting me know that some of their sellers were offering free shipping. I came across Cup Kozy, I love this store! Cup Kozy makes reusable alternatives to the cupboard sleeves that many coffee shops use around their take-a-way cups.


I ordered one and it arrived today! Not only did I get my Cup Kozy but it also cam with a free Cup Kozy sticker and a love Cup Kozy badge.

So excited to go out and order myself and lovely hot chocolate (we don't drink tea or coffee) and try out my Cup Kozy.

Cup Kozy is such a simple idea and is actually making a difference environmentally, reducing the number of cardboard sleeves being thrown away. I really love things like this, they might be simple but they have the potential to have a huge impact on something that most people just don't think about (including me).

Cup Kozy as well as having a store on Etsy has a really great website, also Cup Kozy has a special limited edition Earth Day Cup Kozy with $1 from every sales of the Earth Day Cup Kozy will go towards planting trees. Love that!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Where were you when.....

There are a number of historic moments in time that are remembered by where you were when you heard the news. Like the first moon landing, when JFK was assassinated, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the boxing day tsunami. The first two I was not born so kind of wasn't around, but I do vividly remember where I was when the 9/11 attacks took place, in bed. I woke up to the news breaking over the radio, and watched it unfold through out the day on TV.

Today was another one of those days, for Australians anyway. Starting last night our government started to put into place actions to get rid of our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. By 9:30am Kevin Rudd was no more and we had our first female PM Julia Gillard, though on the surface it seems like Australia has made history with its first female PM, Julia Gillard has not been elected by the people. We are at least 3 months from our next federal election, which in its self makes what happened to Kevin Rudd also historic as this was his first term as PM and he didn't get to finish that term.

This certainly does make me think about who I will be voting for in our up coming federal election, I think that I might be paying more attention that I normally would. I defiantly won't be voting for Julia Gillard's party just because she is a woman and so am I. There has been alot of talk about her attracting the 'female vote', I hope that women vote for more than just the sex of the politician.

No matter what you honestly think about either side of politic in Australia, this election will be interesting. Don't know if I will go as far as to say 'exciting' but things will defiantly be interesting.

Well....Kevin Rudd....I am sorry you got stabbed in the back by your own party before you got to see out your first full term. But you went out with your head held high and a smile on your slightly sad looking face. Good Bye.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Everyday I......

My cus Talia posted three things that she does everyday click here to see her three everyday things. So I thought that I would share three things that I do everyday, well...almost everyday....if I am at home I am very very likely to have done these things.

1. Drink water (I have a real problem drinking the recommended daily intake, and pay for it with migraines)

2. Watch TV & surf the Internet and fave blogs (recognise the blog in the picture?)
3. Play with Curios (he takes the best pictures!)
What three things do you do everyday?





Sunday, June 20, 2010

Achievement

My WH (wonderful husband) has this jumper that we bought a year or so ago, it was purchased to be worn while he is running. But he loves it so much that it gets worn almost always. About 3-6 months ago somehow the zip got broken, WH was devastated. I decided to have a go at replacing the broken zip myself. I have done abit of sewing when I was is high school, year 8 as most students as well as year 11 & 12. I do enjoy using a sewing machine and making things, I currently have the use of my mother's sewing machine.

Yesterday I spent sometime carefully unpicking the stitches that held the old zip in place. Discovered that replacing the zip should be pretty straightforward (thankfully!).


Today after church I popped into Spotlight and bought a new zip, found they were having a 20% off store wide sale (score!). Then when I got home I inserted the new zip and sewed it all up. I found it easy enough to replace the zip, still not the greatest sewer in the world. Quite proud of myself.

WH was absolutely thrilled, wore the newly repaired jumper around for the rest of the evening. Feels very good to repair my WH's jumper, much better than throwing it away and wasting money on buying another one.
Someone couldn't leave me be at the table, loves to chew the pins (certainly not something I want him to be doing)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Market Day

Good Morning Saturday! In our house Saturday is market shopping day, every Saturday I go to our local farmers markets and pick up all the fruit a veg we will need for the rest of the week. I love it!

Our local markets has pretty much everything! All kinds of seasonal fruit & veg, spices, dairy products, popcorn (yummy), meat & chicken, food (pancakes, omelets, German sausage, coffee), honey, veggie seedlings, fruit trees, native trees and my favourite Chocolate! Yep my favourite stall is Chocolate Provisions, they have all manner of chocolate cakes, biscuits and brownies! All made with organic & fair trade chocolate, you can buy chunks of chocolate and coco. They also have a great range of bread, my faves would have to be the spelt bread, and the rye bread with olive oil and vinegar.

Check out your local farmers market this weekend!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Can't believe it!

I have been scammed!

I am the type of person who doesn't answer those email you get from foreign relatives who have died and left you money, don't buy things from people who call on the phone or knock at the door. But I had never thought that an ad for a job in a local paper would get me.

Don't worry I didn't send any money, or give away my account details. But I did send a copy of my resume, which contains all of my contact details as well as my age. More that enough information to steal my identity. I almost feel sick at the thought. My WH (wonderful husband) feels even worse cause he saw the ad and thought that it would be a good job to bring in alittle extra money. I have contact the Department of Fair Trade and reported the scam on the ACCC scam website called scamwatch, also changed my email address on my facebook account just to be safe. Not much else I can do.

I have learnt to do research on company's that I apply to work for first, before first contact. If I had done that then I wouldn't have applied in the first place. But I believe that you learn from experiences like this, research, research, research. Google is a great thing, as soon as I typed in the company title then heaps of sites came up saying that the company was a scam.

Be careful out there, unfortunately people try to take advantage of other people for their own gain. Even those of us who are looking for work to earn alittle extra money.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Finds

While searching for something else down stairs I came across this small cupboard, I have had it for ages but totally forgot that it moved with me when I got married to my WH (wonderful husband), that is about 5 years now. It use to be white with pink flowers all over it, but I got tired of that look (and Barbie didn't really use it much after she went into storage) so I covered it it brown paper.

Side note: I got really obsessed with the look of brown paper, I loved the clean look while not being cold. Also spoke to the environmentalist in me. Still find myself draw to the look of brown paper, but not as much as a few years ago.

Any way when I was spraying the metal baskets I got bored inbetween coats, so got out my tin of undercoat and started to paint over the small cupboard. The brown paper had gotten stains on it, I had never sealed it after I covered it (big mistake). But I don't know where to go from here. I like the kind of oddness of the cupboard and the possiblity of storage for small items, but where? My scrap space? Or for jewerly in our bedroom? Or maybe just a display piece in the lounge? Some many possiblities.......hmmmmm.
I think that this will become a fun little project desciding what to do with this small cupboard, maybe I'll paint it red? I also have this cute teally colour that I love. Stay tunned to see what I descide.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Massive job


I really have to get into the habit of transferring photo's from the camera more often, did it yesterday 400+ photo's, all had to be transferred, organised and people tagged. What a job!


Took such a long time! Never again, I will be putting a reminder in my calendar on my phone (and computer) once a month.


Never, never, never again!

Almost there

So close to being happy with my new blog look, love the background picture! The header needs some work, was happy with it but now I have a background and layout I like the header just doesn't work for me anymore. Tried to designed a new one today but I just wasn't in the creative mood.

Speaking of creative things, I think that I have finally come up with a design that I like to finish the chest of draws that I have been redecorating for the last month. Best thing is that my wonderful husband likes it, he thinks it's abit girly but likes it as a girly design. I don't mind really if it looks girly (a girl created it afterall), and everything in our house is pretty gender neutral so a pop of girlyness wouldn't be so bad.

I used photoshop to come up with the design, and I pulled apart of clipart that I found, took the bits I liked and made them work together. Using photoshop I have also been able to give myself about how the finish chest is going to look (love photoshop!).


Now I just have to transfer this design to the chest of draws, a friend suggested that it would be quicker to just draw the design with a pencil then fill in with a paintbrush. The other option is to transfer the image to a piece of card or clear contact to use as a stencil, probably go with the first option, seems to be the easiest way to go.

Also finally got the metal baskets that I found at council pick-up spray painted, my wonderful husband suggested that I went with a clear finish, glad I did. Here is a picture of the finished baskets in their place in the kitchen cart.


The clear coat allows the original colour and look that first attracted me to be seen, and because I don't know what they were used for before I came across them it also protects the food that I will be storing in them. Next is to make some liners for the inside of the baskets, the holes in the baskets are far too big and things fall through (onions, potato's, ginger etc) so a liner will keep everything in, and will give both baskets a uniform look (and hide the not so pretty contents of the bottom basket).

Monday, June 7, 2010

Having issues!

I was doing some work on my blog and this (what you can see) is the result. I don't know what happened! Hopfully I will have it all worked out very soon!

Sorry!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Alittle concerned..........

In a previous post I mentioned a bad experience purchasing paint for my current redecorating project, things haven't got any better. I have made my own grey tinted paint and covered the draw unit with two coats and have just finished two coats of the top colour.

I wanted a nice warm but still bright red, so far the colour is more pinky-orange. Not too impressed, but since the paint cost me $30 I am going to have to just go with the colour. I know that I have only applied two coats and hopefully the colour will deepen with further coats (please!). I am sure that the end result with the black stencil I am planning will still look great and bring a great splash of colour and the feeling of warmth to our bedroom. I have been enjoying sitting and applying each coat of paint, been nice to have a purpose and something to aim towards. Didn't enjoy the sanding! Awful job! So glad that I am now painting. My fingers are covered in paint, first whitey grey and now pinky orange (which will hopefully be red soon) and I am itching to go and apply another coat! Not till tomorrow, have far to much housework to do and the paint has to dry properly in between coats.

Still nothing on the job front, I have been alittle more proactive with the Chaplaincy jobs. Updated my online application and filled in some new questions that SU have added to their online application, and signed up for their RSS feed. That way I know when new schools come on the website, so far there are no schools in the Sunshine Coast area :-( but I have applied for a High School in Caboolture.