summer holiday

we are on holiday!  ...hence not much by way of posts from me... I am taking a real break. 

I love our annual family holiday at the "UC Summer holiday camp" - this is our fourth year and this year I am enjoying it even more than other years.  Last year I was so exhausted and did little else but sleep and run the craft programme.  This year I have a little more energy and am enjoying more of the many social activities, in between crat and getting in plenty of sleep. 

I love that we get away from everything and stop; I love that we don't have to prepare meals, shop, cook or clean.  I love that we get to rest and to catch up with folks we haven't seen for a year.  I love doing the craft with the kids each day, I love making stuff, making a big mess, seeing the kids creativity and joy.  I don't love the tight time frame and stress of getting everything ready since it is straight after Chrismas, but once we are here I remember why I love it so much. 

I have a couple of neato pics but the limited internet access that we have is veeeeeerrrryyy ssssllloooooww - so uploading them is a challenge... but here is one litttle gem....   the family that computes together... teen 2 was on her computer outside at the time of this pic.

I am known...  many beautiful notebooks given to me - it will take me a long while to  use up all of these

I am loved....  added personal touches to dress up an "excellent organiser with a boring cover"

I am blessed... special people who know what delights me and enjoy giving delight.

I am grateful... to love and be loved, to know and to be known. 

Family Clutter

Who would have thought that I would have discovered another area to de-clutter in the midst of celebrations?   
And sadly it was a painful discovery - many important lessons are learnt in pain....

This learing began during an extended "family Christmas" where despite much effort and personal sacrifice to be present, we were treated pretty shabilly by some of those to whom we happen to be related.  I had so much trouble not crying at several times during the occasion.  All seven of us (our five plus two special guests) escaped as soon as was politely possible.

Later this evening we went to a dear friend's house for dinner and to help dispose of some excess food, we told them our sad story and received the love and hugs that were so needed... and not received by family.

I am re-defining family as those who we love and who love us in return.  I am sure there are flaws in my definition and I may need to continue to refine it.  But for now it will rest as is.

I have been asking myself throughout the afternoon why we persist with people with whom we happen to share some genetic history when they keep hurting?  I keep hoping they will get better.  I keep trying.  I keep putting my self and my loved ones out there to love and to give.  I can't change them.

Genes and biology do not give one any right to mistreat, abuse or hurt.
It stops here.
now. 

Our de-cluttering is that we won't put ourselves through it again.  I promise. 

Christmas Joy

I wanna wish you a merry Christmas...

 

... from the bottom of my heart.

 

This was our simple place markers for Christmas.  Teen 2 made them on Christmas eve after I showed her this blog by Lovestitched.  We adapted them from gift tags by using ripped strips of homespun instead of paper.
Simple
Sweet
Smiles

Merry Christmas

Christmas came a little early for hubby and I...

It's a bit hard to wrap this one.  A bow is in order though and I am sure hubby and I will find a few moments at some stage during christmas to sit and enjoy our gift...

It is definately not clutter!  I have long dreamed of having a swing like this and since we now have a suitable space....

In the few days that it has been here, we have all been enjoying the yard swing - as teen3 can attest. :) 

I love sitting and sipping a cup of tea in the shade and gently swinging whilst I relax.  Since it is in our front yard I can also watch the world go by. 

Skill Exchange

A friend and I were both making many of our gifts this year.  Instead of both of us trying to do everything we decided to focus our limited time on the skills each of us were better at doing nd to later exchange the things made so each had some of the other to give.  She is better at knitting than I am.  My skills are more honed with a single, much smaller needle.  

I appliqued and embroidered lots of different and cute tea towels for both of us...

 

My friend turned out lots of lovely bamboo face washers.  If you have never tried a knitted, bamboo washer, I strongly recommend you give it a go.  They are so much softer and nicer than regular cotton face washers.

  

These make excellent gifts when combined with a good bar of soap. I wrapped the soap wth the washer, then added a heart shaped post it note so the recipient knew what they were receiving, how to use it and how to  launder it.  ...It seems obvious until you give one without 'instructions'. 

  It is now nearly 10.30pm on Christmas eve and amazingly everything is done! Gifts wrapped and under the tree, stockings stuffed,  decoratios and food prep all done and everyone is showered and now resting.  In about a half an hour we will be leaving to go to Carol singing before midnight Christmas service to see in Christmas.  We will return home to munch on croissants before retiring to bed.  It remains to be seen what time the teens decide to surface to see Christmas, but I suspect that they will hear the presents calling and wake before the day gets too old.     MERRY CHRISTMAS & GOD BLESS

Cat Assistant

Just to give you a smile. This pic also shows my alfresco sewing area since there is NO room inside to have a sewing space.

Eddis is a social 9 & 1/2 month old catten and likes to be near humans, especially me, and must be involved.  He is involved in my sewing and amazingly didn't attack the moving sewing needle as it wizzed up and down. 

Bigger than Ben Her ... Christmas gift making

Teens 2 & 3 model some of my latest gift making. I have been making gifts this year and have had some fun making practical  non-clutter stuffs. 

A friend does a lot of cooking and especially BBQing meals in the warmer weather.  She has muttered several times about splatters that ruin her clothes leaving grease spots which don't come off.  I had a brain waive - she needs an apron.  I looked around and was surpirsed at the obscence prices for nice ones. Brain wave number two -  make one. 

Have you noticed the abundance of tacky/crass aprons available?  Also they are often shaped for men and don't tend to sit well on women, and look even worse on well-endowed women. 

hmmm, I think I can do something about this.  I took an apron I own, made the bib part wider at the top, shaped it up, tapered the sides instead of straight and woohoo - simple apron pattern that works for my friend. 

Off to the fabric shop to find a cute fabric.. of course teen 3 who was with me saw the range of fabrics and decided that she 'needed' one, and so did her friend who loves to bake (good idea since I didn't know what to get her friend), and so does her sister who is a big messer and so does sister's boyfriend and so does.... and so does... soon my plan to make one apron became making EIGHT aprons!  This is how it happens !!!!  One simple idea seems to grow and grow and grow until it becomes bigger than ....  of course this happens accross other gift ideas too.  I seem to end up mass producing a great simple idea until it is no longer so great or so simple.... 

One day I may eventually wise up before I embark on these oversized projects....  don't hold your breathe on that though...

Gift Stash Dee-clutter

The other clear out was a less obvious one but what equally as needed and the timing was Perfect! …I have noticed that Christmas is less than a week away… so I have been going through the gift stash – all three boxes of it.  Yes, you have just discovered one of my hoarding weaknesses.  When I see lovely things on special I like to buy them for my gift stash so that when ever we have a gift giving occasion we can go there and find a suitable gift for the occasion.  This has served us well for many years.  Only it has become a bit of a monster.  The girls have all moved on developmentally, in taste and interest and so have their friends.  There are gifts in the gift stash which have languished for some time for no reason other than kids grow up and change…  This isn’t the fault of the very lovely gifts and should be in no way held against them. 

What to do with three boxes full of lovely stuff, most of which we will never use???

Gift it to someone else and let it be their problem?  That sounds attractive but I just can’t give a gift to someone I know unless I am sure that person would love it.  Yes I know, I know.  I put myself through all sorts of knots trying to ensure that each gift is just right for the receiver and I know I need therapy for it but it has to go down the list a long way since there are many other things I should see a therapist for first!

My brain wave was to put it under the tree for one of the local charities to distribute!  Another YEAY!!!!  We get a bit more stuff out of our home, it goes to bless another person and we get to have a warm fuzzy as well as reinforce a value to the teens.  I think this is win, win, win, win!

With the help of my teens we chose, wrapped and packed up all of the lovely gifts into cute gift boxes (this also cleared some of my extensive stash of gift boxes) and delivered them to be distributed.  Again we had happy Christmas music on and had a great time together doing it.  I left the boxes partially open so the charity workers could see and decide on who was best to receive a particular gift (yeah my deep-seated desire to please even strangers with a gift is good therapy fodder).  The gifts looked fantastic!  I should have taken a photo but I didn’t even give it a thought, so you will have to take my word for it.

Dee-cluttering beyond November

Since the November de-clutter challenge ended, the Dee-cluttering has continued at a different pace and in a slightly different manner.  We have now unpacked most things and are mostly settled into our new home.  But the whole thing has shown us that we still have way too much stuff and so bit-by-gentle-bit will continue to Dee-clutter.

This week we have focused on two areas. This post will focus on just one of them – Hubby’s side of the robe. 

With the Christmas specials around us and hubby having gained weight as well as about to start a new job in January the need to update his wardrobe was on his mind.  I have learned over the last 20 years that when he is motivated to address such things I make it a priority and clear my diary since these moments are few and far between. 
He hates shopping, especially for clothing, and would be quite content if clothes magically appeared in his robe, where all he had to do was reach in and find the first thing his hand fell upon.  Sorry babe, it doesn’t work like that in the real world.

He is very particular (fussy?) about the feel of the fabric – it must be soft cotton which hopefully needs little if any .
He is no longer a straight-ish shape.

Oh and he is also quite particular about what prints he will and won’t wear.

All of this combined means that I WILL NOT buy clothing for him without having him present to inspect and approve any choices.

Hubby, teen 3 and I went shopping last week and bought him five new dress shirts plus seven new polo shirts. YEAY. don't have to go through that agian for at least a year.

BUT....  the new clothes have sat in a heap on the floor outside the robe ever since because there was no room for another thing to go in it - (so not like a girl - those pretties would all have been modeled for family appreciation and worn at least once by now). Now my hoarder hubby was faced with a dilemma – clear out the robe or move house to one with a bigger robe. Thankfully he decided that as much as he hates parting with any piece of clothing - no matter how old, stained or worn out – that the time to cull had arrived.

This morning, with the support of happy music (Kiwi band "The lads" - on very loud), fans on full, slightly cooler weather and me barring the only exit from the bed room – we went through all of the summer shirts in his robe, he tried on any of which he was unsure about fit and we made a pile on the bed of rejects, putting all keepers into the robe. It took less than ½ an hour.

He is a happy man and I am a happy woman. I am not even going to ponder how such things work, but will just accept the feeling of elation …

the results: keepers + new shirts = eight happy shirts and space yes only three of his old shirt still fit or aren't worn out!
 

the discards - told ya there was a lot of them.  Either worn out or no longer fit...

The shelf with the polo shirts - notice lots of stripes. He wears more of these hence after the clear out of these a fortninght ago and the purchase of new ones he now has ten polos.

Us - well sorta, kinda...

Found this cute little wideget and wasted some time playing.



My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

song clutter

I have just been reading a few of my favourite blogs that I like to follow.  Jennifer Juniper of "Hope Studios" asked what are your most favourite and least favourite Christmas songs?  This tapped right into a current hot spot for me.
I have been hunting this year and for the last three years for a CD with the 'pure' Christmas songs.  That is songs that focus on the meaning of Christmas; CD's without any 'corruptions'.  I can't find it and am slowly coming to the conclusion that it simply doesn't exist.  I have decided I may need to compile my own Christmas album, sourcing the best of each song and making my own CD or playlist on my computer. 

I love the traditional Christmas carols and songs that focus on Jesus' birth, the message of the Angel, the meaning behind it all... "Joy to the World", "Hark the Herald Angel sing", "Silent Night", even "Away in a Manger" etc.

I used to tolerate but now loathe, detest, can't abide, (is that strong enough?) songs that diminish the real celebration... no farting on santa's lap please;
songs that focus on the weather - "Jingle bells", "I'm dreaming of a white christmas";
songs that focus on santa - "jolly old st Nick", "santa claus is coming", "rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer"...  you get the idea.
I can tolerate and even appreciate some of the in-between songs that address issues around the central Christmas message - "Little drummer Boy", "Good King Wenseless", "Happy, Happy Day." etc.



I wonder if I have become less tolerant... or perhasp more selective or discerning??  Have I developed a stronger sense of meaning? ....   I can't say for certain.  what I do know is that when I hear songs that lift my focus off the mundane, the hustle and bustle, my problems etc and re-focus it to why we have the celebration, I feel more peaceful, calm and centred,  treat others better and keep things in better perspective.

playdough

Today the teens decided to make the playdough for family camp.  Teen 1 didn't want to cook the dough using the regular recipee so decided to try out a non-bake salt-dough recipe. 

Icky, sticky, messy, goop.

Much kneeding later it became nice, soft, pliable play-dough.  The kids will love it. 

I suspect that the next time play-dough is needed we will go back to the cooked recipe.

Well teens, what do you think, was the hour of kneeding and then the nex thour of scrubbing the bench tops a better way to make play-dough? ;)

We'll make a new fashion trend - multi-coloured hands look cute.

Family camp

For the last four years my family has been packing up and heading off to Family Camp straight after Christmas for ten days at the luxurious Sunshine Coast.  The first year I earned our passage by being the camp chaplain.  The following year we took over running the children's craft and it has been a whole family affair.  For seven of the ten days at camp we run the children's craft programme for two hours in the morning for up to 30-50 primary age kids with a few secondary ones who just love to do craft.  Other camp morning activities include games/sports and teen activities and creche for the littlies.  Whilst all this is happening the parents are either in the adult session lead bby the chaplain or making the most of having some time when the kids are happily occupied elsewhere.   

Preparing and running the craft is quite a production. 
On the first day of our first year doing craft I had been told to expect around 30 kids.  It was wet and we had 50 kids turn up! Just as well I had over-prepared.  There was hubby, myself, two teens (who weren't much older than the kids) and one other mum who felt sorry for us.  Amazingly it went well.  After that session we hit the shops to increase our supplies. 

Three years later we have a pretty tight system going. this year, teen1 is preparing devotions, recruiting presenters, researching new crafts and helping plan craft actities. She has even found a new playdough recipe she is keen to test out.  teen2 is preparing music. all three teens help with preparing the materials and class samples.  I do most of the shopping, co-ordination, planning, running sheets etc.  Hubby steps in to lend a loud voice and help lead as well as cart lots of stuff to camp and around.  teen3 prefers the creche and last year we lost her to the lure of the babies much of the time - to the delight of several of the mum's of babies and toddlers.  she is keen on a repeat performance. 
we have loved doing family camp even though it is hard work.  of course it adds to the madness of prpearatino at this tme of year since we do Christmas, Boxing Day extended family and then get up to go to camp.  that means we have to have everything ready for camp before christmas.  I would dearly love  to have an extra day or three between christmas and camp. 

Our family is growing up and the needs and interests are naturally changing.  Is this our last year doing craft at camp?  that is the question we are trying to decide.  Since it is an al-in family affair I have always included the kids in the decision making.  teen1 would rather not do it again.  teen2 said "I dunno. I like the 'free' holiday and would like to still go to camp but maybe not have to run the craft." I laughed and pointed out that there is no such thing as a free holiday - we work hard in order to have that 'free holiday' at the beach.  Teen3 is still thinking about it.  I feel ambivalent.  Hubby likes going to camp since it is a good break and chance to refresh some.  I both love it and don't like it, somethimes at the same moment. 
In the meanwhile we are busy with christmas preparation and family camp craft preparation.  It is all quite full-on, yet satisfying.

Lists

I am now carrying an extra large bag everywhere I go, mainly to accomodate my lists!  I have not one, two or three but four A5 books and one small notebook, all of whichI I am carrying about.  Dee quote - "if it is not written down it doesn't exist!"  I wonder if my kids will be reciting that in therapy to recover from their mother's habit?

I have my current red, faithful, magnetic flap diary - full of receipts, notes and other bits of paper; my newly decorated by teen2, virginal 2010 diary - which is no longer quite so virginal; a pink stripey notebook (a gift from teen3 for my birthday in march), which is now almost used up; my gifts lists book which had its brownness decorated by teen3 some years ago (santa has nothng on me I'm telling you - every gift given or received for the last four years is recorded in that book); and a small note book for those on the run thoughts that just must be recorded before they are forever lost.  All these books are trying to keep me on track through my days. 
Then if that wasn't enough, today I did up a ten day planner to help my family get everything prepared for Christmas, hluse-sitters and family camp in the next nine days.  We are adding to it and crossing of items busily. 

Do I have an issue?

Yesterday was hubby and my wedding anniversary.  He well knows my love affair with stationery and gave me a new spiral-bound (most efficient kinnd of note-book binding) Lily fronted, cute messages throughout, luxury paper notebook.  He had seen me fondly stroking the pages in a bookstore recently and had managed to sneak it into the basket and get it without me noticing.   It brought tears to my eyes when he gave it to me - but then anyone who looked sideways at me recently either got tears or their head bitten off. 

On my bedside table is a beautiful handmade book - handmade luxury, paper, cover and hand bound and stitched.  I have patted this book for many months and dared not write in it since its loveliness is beyond compare.  when my dear friend gave it to me for me 40th birthday, she told me that she knew I would find it hard to make myself use it since it is so lovely, so I might like to use it to record special thoughts that I would like to keep.  I liked that idea and as it happened, had a message that a previous mentor had written to me in an email.  I wrote it in my book way back in April and put my book aside during a tumultuous year.  On several occasions I would pick up the book and open it to stroke its papery loveliness, but couldn't bring myself to write in it.  It wasn't until I was speaking with this same friend some tme ago and confessiing my inability to actually use the book that she reminded me of our earlier conversation.  Upon opening the book up to the first writing page I re-discovered my ealier written encouragement and smiled.  That message is still encouraging.  So now I keep it on my bedside table and I have been adding to it regularly.  It now houses quuotes and ideas picked up from conversations, books read, blogs perused and musings.  ...and I still like to pat it.

How many notebooks can one woman have? and actually use? before it is too many? well it seems that I haven't yet found the limit.  I do love them and use them.  Most of my notebooks have been gifts - the best kind really.  Lovingly selected and then used until they are barely recognisable, making way for the next note book love affair. 

It works for me. 

sights i love

I love seeing my teens doing things together - or even sharing the same space to do thier own thing.
I love seeing them create.
I love seeig them happy and satisfied. 

Teens1 & 2 are working on Chrisstmas gifts, showing each other the progress, chatting and obviously feeling satisfied with their creative efforts.  My heart swells with joy and pride.

days go by...

Wow! I can always tell that it is getting closer to Christmas when the days go by at double speed!  what have I been doing these last few days?
first and foremost... tryign to keep cool.  we have just had one of our hottest Novembers where the temps didn't go under 25 C (77F) and I think we may break some December records too.  the days have been so hot that we have had to resort to doing nothing but head to some place air-conditioned to chill for a few hours during the middle of the days.  we have been trying to do some home tasks before the heat driives us to seek cooler refuge.  we come alive a bit in the evenings but then have to somehow sleep.  Urrggh. every where I go, seasoned Queenslanders are complaining about the heat.  warning to anyone planning a Qld summer holiday - you won't need a cardy.  It is really sapping my energy levels making it hard to move, breathe, eat, think and forget any thing else.
The other big thing of late has been preparing for Christmas.  I am managing to stick to my newly imposed strict NO CLUTTER Christmas.  We all have been writing our lists, setting budgets, shopping and sticking to the no clutter gifts rule.  there may be a few exceptions with earlier purchases,but eeach item is getting assessed by new criteria.
Does the recipient NEED it?
Will it bring five minutes of joy and then become a storing, cleaning, space occupying nuisance?
where will it go later?
Is it a consumable? eg food, stationary etc
How will having this item bless the recipient?  
these are tough questions but we have applied them to each item we consider for each person on our lists. 
I am so proud of my kids.  They have each engaged in the new approach with great enthusiasm.

Apart from our new campaign against clutter, with me not working at the moment it has meant thie budget is a bit tighter.   It has been fun and challenging to see how we can do gifts which are within the budget and won't be clutter.  Talk about double jeopardy!
Again my family are enthusiastically taking up the challenge.  I am getting much delight out of seeing each teen work out ways to fill their gift lists.  Teen 3's only source of income is us and she has to been doing household tasks and takes on extra ones too to get a few more dollars.  Hubby, myself and a friend all have shiny clean cars now and teen 3 has some more money as well as a good way to keep cool.

In order to keep to my budget I decided that I would make some of my gifts this year.  Of course, due to moving, unpacking, de-cluttering, garage sale and 18th celebrations, I am rather late in getting started.  That has meant that I have been pushing myself to get things done. (I can't even post a pic or give details as some of the recipients read this blog.)  But I must say they look cute ...

I have dropped into some of my old habits of pushing myself too hard to get a task done.  Just when I thought I was reforming nicely...  I haven't been allowing myself to rest appopriately and have been trying to eek every minute out of the hot days.  sigh.  Will I ever learn and reform?  Of course I have paid for it by being extra tired.  the other aspect is that instead of enjoying my crafting, it has gone from fun to a chore.  In the interest of being kind to myself, that it is time to re-think some parts of this strategy.  Not sure just what yet, but I am well and truly over this.  I really don't know what it will take me to learn to pace myself better. 

Today I did something that I don't think I have ever done - not as far as I can remember.  I stayed in bed all day.  we have a little window air-conditioner and it worked very hard on this stinker of a day.  It was our first official day of school holidays as the last teen finished yesterday (and sitting through the awards ceremony in a large tin roofed, non-air-conditioned school hall in 34C [93.2f] weather was not fun).  Last night we switched off the alarm and with the air-con on slept in till 10.30am!  Then teens all piled into our little room and had some great family time.  We achieved much: decided on Christmas menu and made up shopping lists, planned the last of the gift lists, did some craft planning for famly camp (more on that later), re-worked some budget stuff and even did a little net surfing - it's a funny sight to see four people all on lap-tops, one cat and another teen sitting on a queenbed (I did think of taking a pic but that would have required leaving the room to get my camera).  At one stage, two teens were on their mobiles and I was on the landline - another good photo -op missed.  hmmm that is prob one of those 'gotta be there' things.  It was only when hubby decided it was too hot to cook that he went out to buy grilled fish and burgers (guess who got the grilled fish?) for dinner that I came out to the outside world.  by then the storm had hit and cooled things a little and we ate outside - too hot inside still. 

I will leave you with one pic - a somewhat blurry photo of my tree.  (I have yet to perfect low-light pics in 'simple' mode for blogging.)

Pretty Nails

I went today and treated myself to a manicure.  It was lovely to sit and relax  while my nails were done.  I kept reminding myself that this was not extravagent but a hard earned reward.  I love the result.

Therre were so many colours to choose from and in the end deep red 49 won.  As you can see I also got the two finger nail art for only $5 extra.  It is a flower, dragonfly and anohter little flower.  sooooo cute!

The last manicure I had was lovely too and I had a nice time chatting to the friendly lady who did my nails.  This friendly chattering about nothing in particular added to my experience.  we chatted about the weather, the news, holidaay plans - lots of non-personal but enjoyable stuuff.  For this manicure, I went to a different place where it cost half what the other place charged. My only complaint this time was that the girl doing the manicure was chatting and laughing with the girl next to her in another language.  It was like I wasn't really there, meybe to her I was just another set of nails. The only time she bothered to speak to me (in quite good English) was to answer a question or to ask me something.  this annoyed me but I was determined to not let it ruin my treat.  I told here that it would be nice if I understood what she was saying so I could share the joke.  So I closed my eyes and pictured myself as she may see me.... just a set of dangling fingers and fingernails.  this brought back to mind an episode of "Bones" where Brennan, the lead character, was out of her comfort zone, minding a baby and trying to amuse a less-than-happy baby.  She was dancing her fingers in front of the baby saying, "Phlanges. Dancing phlanges."  Soon the nails were dancing around in my mind's eye and I started to giggle at the image.  Since I was a non-person it didn't really matter what they thought, if indeed they even registered a human on the end of the hands being manicured.

I considered her behaviour of deliberatly carrying on a coversation in front of me, which was not intended for my hearing to be rude - actually very rude.  Am I the only one who thinks this?  what does it mean to you?  Do you care?  Do you consider it rude for a person in very close physical proximity to ignore your presense?  It's ok, in fact considered appropriate, to ignore those around you on public transport... except that I don't ignore folks around me, but observe them and greet them if they should happen to make eye contact.  Am i the oddity who looks to engage with other people at most times?  Did I even have any 'right' to consider that just becasue I was sitting opposite her while she worked on my hands, that I was also entitled to a bit of a chat?  As it turns out I was very tired and closed my eyes, letting their voices wash over me and just rested.

I came away happy.  Happy with my nails.  happy with my rest.

jewellery de-cluttered... and pretty

My necklaces have been driving me crazy for some time.  I have lots of them, I like to see them and I wear most of them.  I am not working outside of home at the moment, but when working I wear necklaces and earrings to co-ordinate with my clothing.  I like to make some and have a talented friend who also likes to make jewellery.  This presents a storage problem.  I thought I had it solved, but it never quite worked.

Here is the before pic.  I had two necklace stands; one sturdy short one, which whilst functional certainly wasn't pretty. One tall one which was made for my daughter by a lovely friend.  (Daughter didn't use it after a short while so i happily claimed it.)  It is pretty and a good height for my long necklaces but not sturdy or stable - (probably becasue it wasn't meant to hold so many necklaces!)  Hence when i was finding it would fall over at the least provocation causing the necklaces to tangle.  Since i would be trying to access it in the mornings on my way off to work i would usually be in a rush and tangle delays were not fun.
what to do?

solution - cover an old pinboard with pretty fabric, push some push-pins in and hang necklaces.  woohoo!! A pretty, functional and happy necklace holder - guaranteed to give me a smile.  It will hang on my wall very soon so teen 2 won't have to hold it up forever :)  

the nicest part is teen1 made it for me after I told her what i was planning on doing.  she did an amazing job of it.  She even cut out the leaves from left-over fabric [which my dear friend had dyed, printed and then made a doona cover for me. (the same talented chic who made the necklace stand and many of my neckaces)] and appliqued them on (it took me ages to get all the goop off my new iron). - what a sentence!
Now I had better show off the doona cover which this matches... oops I just went looking for the pics and they are in my pre-digital days.  I will take its pic on my bed in the morning and post it for you then (since hubby is in bed and will growl if I try it now).  but I can show you the co-ordinating wall hanging that she also made for me.  It is all made by hand: dyed, painted, made, embroidered, beaded, quilted... and loved. 

I love gum blossom's and miss my ornamental red flowering gum from the middle of the front yard at our old house. 

Oh and while I was at it I did a cull of necklaces that I don't wear any more - that took three out of my collection (and two of them were gifts which I had never liked since they just weren't my style). 

Body Clutter

De-cluttering my life continues and as I am freeing myself (and my family) from some of the physical clutter, it creates space to think, to breathe and to move.  It is allowing me the space to think about not only the other physical things in my space but what other clutter holds us.  I have been giving thought to some of the emotional and spiritual clutter - more on that later...

I have also been thinking about a different kind of physical clutter in the form of the excess weight that I carry around all day, every day.  My health is suffering, as is the life I want to live - time to do something about it.  After our two recent moves i have had pain and swelling in my knees and it didnt settle (as i had hoped).  Off to the doc I finally went knowing and dreading being told yet again to lose weight.  X-rays showed no arthritus or bone damange - yet.  it is not too late - this was a huge relief and a big warning.  To my pleasant surprise this new doc didn't go the heavy but told me he would support me in my weight loss.  we discussed options and I bravely stepped on the scales, then off I went.
Fast forward about five weeks and I need to go and weigh in for some confirmation of weight loss.  Except I have managed to get through the first month without having him or anyone else breathing down my neck - I am doing this for me.  Also, it is so hard to get in to see him.  for this first phase I know what to do and just need to do it.  I am doing ok on my own at home so I am thinking that I will pluck up my courage and am asking my dear bloggy friends to help me - this is almost as scary as actually stepping on those scales at the docs.  later when I need further guidance, I will consult the doc again. Mostly I think I need encouraging, cheering and loving accountabilitlity.  Who better to call upon than you?
I need to document what happens and so my blog will help me here  too.  The hardest part is starting.  I have managed that now. Next step is facing and admitting (mostly to myself - since every one else can plainly see) just how bad it really is.  I did take pics when I started a month ago and will be very brave and show them.  This is coming from the woman who took heaps of pics at her daughter's 18th on Saturday night and there is not a single pic of me in my piratey glory. 

I still haven't done the tape measure thing so it is high time to do that...
bust:  117cm - 46"
waist: 105.5cm - 41.5"
hip: 120cm - 47.5"
butt: 155cm - 51"
thigh:  95cm - 37.5"

My scales are different to the ones at the doctor's surgery.  when I weighed in a month ago there i weighed 140.7kg.  On our home scales it was 142.1kg.  I will keep up with my home scales as they will be the ones I will use mostly, (with the occasional check in at the surgery).  
today's weight - 136.1kg  - 299.4pounds
Now I estimate a weight loss of around 6kg in a month.

 

I need to find a way to celebrategetting started and losing 6 kg. Since my fingernails are soooooo long at the moment (with a few chips) I am thinking that finding a nail file and shaping and painting them up pretty sounds like a good treat. - here is the before pic.  I must actually do something nice for me and show it to you.  yes they are real nails, yes i am blessed and i know you are jealous - I have heard it all before.

OK I think that about covers it all.  Phew.  what a hard post.

good news, bad news, good news

Good News - We have finally confirmed that our four year old yellow Lab x Ridgeback will actually protect  our family if we were threatened!  Buddy is the biggest sook of a dog ever.  We have always joked that if an intruder were to enter our property, he would lick and greet the intruder, presenting his ball for a game.

Bad News - the 'intruder' was a 40cm Blue Tongue Lizard.
Teen1 was clearing the yard (in preparation for her 18th party), faithful dog at her side as she went around collecting palm fronds and the like.  Said dog spots something moving in the grass, growls, hackles up  and gets between the intruder and teen1, keeping teen 1 away.  He attacked what teen1 thought was a snake.  Much shouting got the rest of us to come running, to prevent dog beign attacked back by a snake, to drag our hero the dog away, and then catch the two cats, which also came running to check out the commotion and thought they should finish the job that the dog started.  We we left with a confused dog, 2 cats angrily flicking their tails, locked in the laundry and one poor blue tongue with half of its nose hanging off.  :(  I also had three distressed teens to deal with as well as my own stomach doing loops.  The poor lizard had no other injury but this one was a biggie.
When we collected our wits I told the girls we would have to catch the lizard and take it to the animal welfare hospital for either treatment or euthanazing as it would die a horrible, slow death if we left it.  (Some quick googling game me the best techniques - gotta love google.) So brave souls that we are, we got a box and another piece of  cardboard and cornered it so that it ran into the box.  Teen 1 & 3 were too distressed and grossed out to accompany me, so brave teen2 came to the animal hospital with me.
The kind folks at the animal hospital said that we had done the right thing as it would be in a lot of pain.  they also said they would most likely have to euthanase it as it may not be able to be successfully treated.  It would never be able to catch bugs or eat again.   :(  I am still quite distressed about the poor lizard.

The image is of a 30cm Blue Tongue Lizard. You can see how it got its name and why teen 1 thought it was a snake inthe grass.  I found the pic here. Check out Craig Allen's site for some great pics of Australian animals and informative as well as entertaining reading too.

Good News -  I knew there was a charity centre near the animal hospital.  Since we were going  in that direction, we loaded up the car with the last of the garage sale stuff to deliver to charity.  It turned out that the particular charity was the Animal Welfare op shop and they greatfully received our left over items.  I was glad that the charity which would get some benefit was one of the smaller ones (which don't get enough support) and was a very apt one for our recent experience.

It's that time of year...

The first of December rolled around and my teens 1 & 2 marked it in the traditional way... setting up the tree

... and horsing around.

Of course later they engaged in the other tradition....

Scanning the junk mail for wish list inspiration. Note the mountain of junk mail on the couch between them.  I swear the bundles of incoming junk mail gets thicker eacher year.

Acquisitions - part two

I did say that I had some acquisitions to share... well one is actually not a recently acquired item and this post comes in the form of a confession  In April I bought a new sewing machine.  It arrived in a box all sealed up.  I opened the box today. 

Here it is fresh out of the box.  The few people who I have told are somewhat shocked that I bought a new item - a major purchase no less - and it stayed in its box until now.  Hubby came home from work and commented in pleased surprise on the opened box.
Why did I not open it before now????  That is a very good question and I am afraid the answer is not very good.  It has been a hell of a year and all I have done is look at the box longingly.  I have wanted to open it all year and yet I haven't.  I don't know why I deny myself in this manner.
I seem to be good at torturing myself, having done the same thing with another prized item several years earlier - I had bought myself a gift of a statue of a naked lady sitting.  It was to mark the passing of phase of my life.  I had the store gift wrap it and then proceeded to sit it on the hutch. I looked at the beautifully wrapped box for nearly a year before finally opening it.  All year I had anticipated opening it and enjoying it, but didn't allow myself to for such along time.  what finally prompted me to open it then and now?  well it was simply time.  Time to stop denying myself the awaited reward.  No ceremony, I just opened it without any of the usual round of photos and family gathered.  It is time to move forward. 
Here is to the next phase of my life and to a shiny new year.

one last thought... one day I would like to wake up to a new year with freshly fallen snow yet to be marked with footprints... and to ponder what it will look like by the time it is done.  I am perhaps a little too early to ponder this year's footprints, perhaps not, but we sure messed all over our patch of snow and life looks very different now to how it did at the beginning of this year.  Better in many regards, sad and sorry in others, much wisdom gained the hard way.  The year is ending far better looking than it began.  Hubby has a full-time contract for next year and locally too.  Teen3 is going to a new school and is moving away to board during the week in order to achieve her goal. Teen2 is happily settled into a specialist school (after 2 moves of school this year) and many of her medical challenges are sorting out. Teen1 has just turned 18, graduated school, become engaged and enrolled for uni. ...and me. I am recovering, healing and beginning to think about the future for the first time in a good while. I have time to ponder just what I want to do next and that feels good.  food for thought for another day...

now for the fun part...

Acquisitions.  Clearing out things from our new home means that we have space to move, to  breathe and to add some pieces that fit and do a better job in their location.

Here are two of our newly acquired items and I LOVE them both.  The most obvious is the pantry cupboard which fts nicely into the alcove in my bedroom.  Our room has room enough to walk around the bed with our (thankfully) small bedside chests either side of the bed.  There is a small recessed area at the end of the room which will house an 89cm or narrower tallboy or chest.  Our old tall boy was purchased on ebay and whilst I have happily purchased most of our home items on ebay the tallboy was one of my rare sad eBay exeriences where I had paid too much for the purchased item and it was very poor quality.  Every time I saw it (which was frequently since it is one of the first things I see upon waking or walking into my room), I felt bad about my poor purchase.  Getting rid of it and writing off the $55 spent on it was such a relief to me.  An even bigger joy was replacing it with this unit which is PERFECT.  It fits the space.  It looks nice.  It matches our decor, which is all solid timber. [Even though this piece is laminate, it is well made and actually looks and feels like real timber.]  You can see the timber end of our bed in the foreground of the pic, which would also give prespective on our room.  The furtherest I could get away in order to photgraph the unit was to sit on the bed near my pillow.
The tall black thing to the left of the pic is our new fan. There are no ceiling fans and not enough floor space for a regular pedestal fan, so we invested in one of these column fans.  It works very well and the neatest thing (apart from moving air) is that it displays the temp all of the time.  I walked into our sweltering room the other day and the little red display confirmed that it was 33 degrees (91.4F) uuurggh.  Our (hopefullly) temporary solution for a little more height has been to sit it on the pink crate which houses my scarves.  I can move around the end of the bed without stubbing my toe and still open the door to the unit to access stuff. 

Just in case you are a little inclined to feel sorry for me in my small room ... this pic will cure any pity! It is the view from my bed once the curtains are opened each morning.  :) Did I mention that I love my new home?