Witch Book Next?

I'm one of those people who has to finish a book, yep, even if it's crap. I've finished my last book yesterday (thank god!) and now I have to decide on the next book! I do actually have a growing stack of "to-read" books, so I've narrowed it down to two titles:- A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

You know when you pick up a book and you flick the pages either from front to back or back to front? Well, I did that with A Discovery Of Witches. I landed on a random page, as you do - I had a quick read. Then I put both the books beside my computer and opened Amazon to read the reviews. The very first review contained text that was either the exact text from the book or very closely paraphrased! I did flick through the book again to try and find the page but I had no such luck! Although when I find it, I plan on writing about it and linking the future post to this post!

I was thinking of reading The Night Circus, but now I don't know if I should read A Discovery Of Witches...... I have the version that's in a trilogy box set. Argh! How do you choose what to read next?

The reviews for A Night Circus are extremely good, with many readers stating they'd read the book than once. So what's the problem? Well, Erin Morgenstern wrote this book in 2011 and hasn't written a second book. So if I really like it, there's no follow up! I know, first world problems!

I guess I could read the first in the trilogy and then if I need a break I could read The Night Circus? Why is this becoming much harder than it needs to be lol

Deadly Books and Cemeteries From Around The World

I've just finished reading Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: and other lessons from the crematory by Caitlin Doughty. What do I do now? Do I start reading another book or do I wait until my book club book arrives?

I thought the timing was perfect this morning! I knew I'd finish my current book today, and while I sat and had breakfast, I heard the postman and then I heard the scan beep! Sadly, the beep must have been for a neighbour as there were no parcels waiting for me outside. 

I'd like to start reading 199 Cemeteries To See Before You Die by Loren Rhoads, however, should I start reading it today what are the chances that Ghostland will arrive tomorrow? I guess I could make a start on 199 Cemeteries, as it's not a novel. I'd absolutely love to show you some of the images within the covers! But I won't, as that simply isn't fair on the author. Although, if you check the book out on Amazon, you can preview some of the pages there.

I can give you an idea of what kind of architecture you can expect to see. Loren visits the USA Northeast, USA South, USA Midwest, USA West, USA West Coast, Canada, Central and South America and the Caribbean, Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and finally Australia! 

I've been to two of the Australian cemeteries in this book, one of them being Rookwood Necropolis. I was looking online for a photo of the Lidcombe entrance of Rookwood, I used to know the meaning behind the sculpture, but for the life of me I can't remember what it means now, perhaps there'll be something in the book about it. Anyway, when I found the photo above I couldn't help but have a bit of a giggle! I noticed there's a road sign smack bang in the middle of the entrance - the black sign with the white arrow... It says "One Way". So, Yeah.... Only in Australia! 

Anyway, apart from the road sign which I don't recall seeing before (lol) I'm intrigued to see what a visitor from overseas will make of our largest cemetery! I know my thoughts, but I've not travelled the world, so I don't have anything of a similar scale to compare it to. 

It's been such a long time since I've visited Rookwood as I no longer live in the Sydney area. I used to love spending weekends there with my wife, we'd buy lunch then drive on over there. Despite having been there so many times, we even managed to get lost once lol 

A book was written in 1989 called The Sleeping City The Story Of Rookwood Necropolis by David A Weston. I own a copy of this book, and it's one of my favourite books. There are some brilliant historical photos and information contained within these pages.

I've just looked on Goodreads for some further info about the book and discovered that I was the one that added it initially! What's funnier is that I was hoping to find if the book was still in print and discovered there's one review (2017) and it's written is by Loren Rhoads! Loren gave the book 3/5 stars and stated that the book has been sold on Amazon for $200 USD, so I'm guessing at that price, it's out of print! If you would like to read Loren's review, click here.

Okay! I'll catch you all next time!!

Memento Mori Deathling!

A couple of months ago I was looking for a headstone design, not for myself lol but to paint on one of my ceramic pieces. I'd looked on Google images, but nothing was jumping out at me, so I decided that I might look on YouTube for some inspiration. It was there that I stumbled across Ask A Mortician! This channel is run by Caitlin Doughty who's an American funeral homeowner - with a twist!

She's pretty much against everything that your average funeral home owner or employee stands for. Given that I was once employed by a funeral home here in Australia, I "get" where she's coming from and I totally "get" the humour! 

Caitlin has written two books which I own both. I'm 3/4 of the way through Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and it's well worth reading. I don't want to give anything away lol, However, if you would like to read more about her books, you can do so here.

There's a closed group on Facebook called The Deathling Den, which is basically a page for people to discuss Caitlin's books, youtube videos or any other death-related non-conforming topics. Yes, I'm a member lol The group is run by The Order Of The Good Death, this is a charity type group - also powered by Caitlin Doughty - goodness! She's everywhere!!

Anyway, The Deathling Den has started a book club, and yes I have joined the book club too lol The book about to be read and discussed is Ghostland An American History In Haunted Places by Colin Dickey. I'm very much looking forward to reading this book! Although the words "Ghostland" and "Haunted" appear in the title, this book isn't about spooky houses, is more an examination and debunking of these so-called "Haunted Places". My copy is yet to arrive as I had to purchase it from the UK, so I'll have some catching up to do as the club starts reading this week!

Okay, I'm outta here! If you're after more Caitlin info, she has a number of pages on Facebook, she's on Instagram, Twitter and has a website. Just Google her! See you next time!

Kiama Mini-Break

I know it may have seemed that I abandoned my blog once again, however, I didn't. I just needed a bit of a break after losing Lily. We had her cremated and I had a photo of her printed. The days following her passing, there were a couple of weird events - we think she may have popped in to torment the dogs, something she loved to do! Today's blog post isn't meant to be a sad one. I just wanted to add the photo below to my blog.

Roughly a month ago, we went to Kiama for a 5-day mini-break, I mentioned that we were going back in February. As usual, breaks are never quite long enough! We were lucky as it was sunny for most of the time we were there, it only rained the last two days which really wasn't that big of a deal as we had done most of the outside stuff.

The first day that we arrived, there were markets on. We love markets! I did wear a hat, however, I was a bit slack in the sunscreen department and got quite sunburnt! Lesson learnt? Maybe lol 

While we were there, we stayed at Kiama Shores Motel. Now, just for some background info lol. When we travel, we're not the kind of travellers that seek five-star accommodation. For us, accommodation is just somewhere to sleep and to have breakfast and/or dinner. 

According to Google, this motel was 4.1/5 stars and was also well priced. As you can see from the photo, the motel was clean. So what was my issue? Weeell, there wasn't a kitchenette. We had a fridge and a kettle, but no kitchenette. There was also two BBQ's for patrons to use, but given the lack of kitchen amenities, we didn't have utensils or even plates to be able to use the BBQ's. 

The lack of kitchen facilities also meant that the kettle had to be filled from the bathroom sink, the same place that the two mugs had to be washed. This was an issue for me, I don't have OCD, but I do like my kitchen stuff separated from my bathroom stuff.

There was a cafe downstairs called Speak N Easy and we had breakfast there every morning as not only was it convenient, but they had a decent menu, it was well priced and the staff were friendly.

Ok back to my kitchenette issue! Aside from the kettle refilling problem, towards the end of our stay when it was raining and we were getting tired, we couldn't grab some take away earlier in the day to have later on for dinner as we didn't have any cutlery, plates, or even a small microwave. This meant that we went out for dinner every night. Admittedly, the restaurants we went to were great. However, in this day and age, is a kitchenette too much to ask for?

One restaurant we went to was called Ritzy Gritz Mexican Stonegrill and the food was pretty amazing! They didn't scrimp on anything and the surroundings were very Tex Mex!

We had two-day trips to Berry which is the most gorgeous little township about twenty minutes from Kiama. If you ever go to Berry, you simply have to go to The Dairy Bar! OMG! We were only planning on going there once for a look, but after spending one day looking around, we had to go back for another!

On the second trip to Berry, I purchased a new tarot deck for myself. I had actually checked out some reviews on this deck a few years back on Amazon. I can't remember why I didn't get it, perhaps it was out of stock? Anyway, I saw this deck on the shelf and the book was right beside it. I'd already picked up a few other decks but put them back on the shelf as I didn't click with them, so when I saw this deck and guidebook, I knew it was coming home with me. 

I purchased The Halloween Tarot from Shambalaa, they have two storefronts - so should you go looking for a new age shop and find a clothing store - keep looking!  

Ok, well I think the length of this blog post has made up for my absence!  

Rant and Cross Stitch Progress

Thanks to the current run of disgustingly hot days, I've done some work on my Old School Is Cool cross stitch from CloudsFactory. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't have all the floss colours required for this project, so I purchased the ones required online. Now, this isn't a whinge about paying for postage because I have no issue whatsoever with that, it's a bit of a whinge about the size of the parcel!

So I purchased nine skeins of floss from Spotlight. Now unless you're ordering a huge amount of floss, it pretty much weighs nothing, however, it arrived in a 3kg bag!!!! Not only did the postage cost almost as much as the contents, but nine skeins could have been posted in a much, much smaller bag. Apart from the ridiculous price of postage, imagine how many people aside from myself are purchasing floss online from Spotlight and are being posted this size bag, which is then thrown into general rubbish and goes into landfill! In the future, I'll no longer be ordering floss from Spotlight unless I'm purchasing other items which require a box that can be recycled.

Rant over, onto my progress. I've finished one out of five cassette tapes and started a second. I still haven't decided what titles I'll put on them as yet, but as those are backstitch and I leave that until the very end, I've still got plenty of time to think about it.

This is my first-time stitching on opalescent aida and I'm not sure I'll stitch on it again. You can't see the sparkles in the photo, but they're there. Some of the sparkles are also over the holes and create some resistance on the needle and to the floss. The aida itself also has a sticky feeling, liked it's coated with hairspray... Who knows? Maybe by the time I finish, the feeling will no longer be an issue for me.

Our new Annette Sym - Symply Too Good To Be True recipe books arrived as well, we also ordered the Healthy Snack Bible and for some reason, it was missing from the order, so I've emailed them about this. Apart from this book being missing, the newly revised editions are great! Both the photos and instructions are clearer, and the nutritional information tables have extra information as well. So if you're wanting to change your diet as well as controlling your portion sizes, I can't recommend these books enough! 

2018

My poor, poor blog! Only one post last year and none in 2016! What can I say? 2017 kept me busy and quite preoccupied. I plan on making a more concerted effort this year to blog. Trust me, there were many times last year when I wanted to blog, however, I chose not to as I didn't want to commit to re-starting when I wasn't sure I could follow through lol

So committing to this blog for 2018 isn't a new years resolution, I don't do those lol I do however set goals! 

So what are some goals for this year? Well, my first two are:-
1) Making an effort to write posts for this blog even if they're about absolutely nothing (just so the blogosphere knows I'm still alive and kicking because I know you all fret when I'm not about lol) :) 
2) Lose weight. Yeah I know this starting to sound like a resolution lol It isn't! I've never been one to be overweight in the past, but I am now and changes have to be made. I'm not talking about going on a diet because diets are temporary and "fadish", I'm talking about making a sustainable lifestyle change (to quote a friend). I'll add more goals as I go along, that's the difference between goals and resolutions, they're not set in concrete, they can be added, changed or removed completely.

How am I planning on my lifestyle change? Well, prior to owning the shop my wife and I used to cook from Annette Sym cookbooks. Somewhere along the line we cooked less of her food and ate more junk or became a little blase with our diet. The long hours of owning the shop - I believe had quite a bit to do with this.

We own books 1-7 of the original versions and they were all revised at the end of last year, so yesterday we purchased the full set of the revised editions. You're probably wondering what's so special about her books? They're no fuss recipes, the ingredients used aren't obscure - use them once and push them to the back of the pantry type ingredients, each recipe has a Nutritional Information Table, there's a wide range of cuisines, they contain recipes for snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sweets, cakes, drinks, etc. Last but not least, her books are endorsed by Diabetes Australia.

I think one of the problems today surrounding food and diets is that there's so much information at our fingertips online. The issue is that it isn't all correct! Everyone wants a quick fix and that's what so many of the fad diets promise. To be healthy, it just takes a bit of common sense. For our body to function correctly, it needs to be nourished properly. Forget the low fat, high fat, no sugar, high protein, no protein diets. They're simply not sustainable! Look at portion control and eating a wide variety of veg, fruit, protein etc. As well as getting up off your butt and moving a bit more. Food is the fuel that powers your body, a cliche I know, but it's true. For the record this isn't a sponsored post, just my experience in using Annette Sym's "Too Good To Be True" recipe books. If you're interested in what she has to offer, there are some sample recipes on her website.

Okay, I'm outta here! I'll catch you next time!

Stuff

I read a news article about a month ago and I bookmarked it as I wanted to write a post about it.... Then I forgot lol It's a good thing I bookmarked it. Then this morning I was reading the news and there was a new article that reminded me of the previous article, and since I have some free time I thought I would write about both articles now. They're about stuff. Yep, stuff. All the stuff we buy because we think we need it, are told we need it, it's advertised to make our lives easier or some just acquire stuff because they're keeping up with the Joneses - so to speak.

The older article (If we downsize and de-clutter our lives can we get more out of life?) discusses the amount of stuff we have and the stress it can cause, the minimalist movement, the growing size of Australian homes although family sizes are shrinking - I wrote about this in another post and Red Balloon - I was going to write a separate post about Red Balloon, but I will touch on it in this post.

The second article (Blender wars: Why sellers of stuff are stuffed) is about two companies (JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith) entering the small appliance market. These two companies at present primarily sell electronics and associated gadgets. The reason they're expanding into the small appliance market is because you can buy a toaster for less than a loaf of bread, a blender for less than a smoothie and a vacuum cleaner for less than the cost of hiring a cleaner. This is due to most of the products being manufactured in China, thus reducing the cost. As they're now cheaper we no longer want them as they don't show a personal status of wealth. The article states that the less we want stuff, the more it's discounted.

A Google image - Not my kitchen lol

Personally, I used to be a huge buyer of stuff. In fact the pantry is full of kitchen electrical stuff that I rarely use, however when I do use them, they do cut down preparation time. Could I throw them all out and live without them? Yes I could. Will I? Probably not as they do come in handy. It's the same in my garage - I have a range of power tools that I rarely use, however they're there for when I do use them and although they take up a lot of room they're effective time wise.

About 2-3 years ago my wife and I decided for birthdays and Christmas to only buy each other limited stuff that we would use. We were notorious for buying each other huge amounts of stuff, it got out of hand! So now we buy a couple of trinkets and the rest of the present is in the form of an outing or an event such as concert tickets etc.

These days the only physical stuff I mainly buy is things like pet toys which get demolished, components for my ceramics like glazes which get used to create pieces for me to sell (more on this in a future post) and scented candles and essential oils for my oil burner as I like the fresh scent. Any music I buy is a digital download as my CD shelf is full or I use Guvera a music streaming service. Any books I buy go on my Kindle as my bookshelves are full! Seriously full and that's after 2-3 clean outs! I will on the odd occasion buy a physical book, however it's usually a cookbook as I find it easier than using my Kindle for when I'm cooking. 

There's one book I purchased a physical copy of recently and that's only because this book has a lot of activities in it, it's one of those books where you find yourself reading up to a certain section then flipping back to another section that you have already read. I'm no where near finished this book and I can honestly say from what I have read to date, this is one of my favourite books! It's written by Naomi Simson, an Australian entrepreneur who started the company Red Balloon. This company sells experiences, rather than stuff. My wife an I have purchased a number of these experiences for ourselves and as gifts. Naomi started this company with the belief that people find more enjoyment from doing, giving and receiving experiences, rather accumulating stuff. She was right! Like everyone else, she worked a regular job - however felt she wasn't doing what made her happy. So she sunk all her savings into building a website so that she could sell happiness.  

Back to the book, now don't let the title or the blurb on the back fool you into believing that this book is about how to make a million dollars overnight. It's not one of those 'self help, guru, lifestyle coaching' themed books. In a nutshell this book questions you about every aspect of your life. The activities really make you sit back and think about who you are, what you want, what you've achieved, what you want to achieve. It applies to everyone! It doesn't matter if you want to achieve millionaire status, figure out how to climb the ladder where you currently work, run your own small business or most importantly just figure out who you really are. 

I think to some degree we all 'believe' we know who we are. This book really makes you question whether you do or not. The activities are quite insightful, some are easy, but some really make you think. When you have to really think about a question that asks you about yourself, that's a good indication that you don't know yourself as well you first thought you did. So if you're in business, are employed or just want greater insight into yourself, you need this book! 

Now I know this is a bit of a jumbled post lol but the first two news articles were related and one mentioned Red Balloon and Naomi Simson - all topics I was wanting to write about, so that's why it might seem a bit disjointed, but in my mind they're linked lol So I guess in conclusion I want you to look at how much stuff you have, how often you have a clean out and I mean a proper clean out. Maybe give experiences as gifts instead of stuff, memories are built on what we do, not what we have.        

Neglect!

This poor blog has been neglected. There just isn't enough hours in the day to keep up with everything I want to do! I've got a bit of spare time today for the simple reason that we have some tree people in to rip out our garden.... I mean jungle. Plus I have I.T people working on my store computer system. 

I've finished my black and pink cat cross stitch, although I haven't had time to wash and iron it. So I'll leave it for another day. I've started work on a linen piece! My first ever cross stitch on linen!

It's Flip - It Halloween by Lizzie Kate, I started it about 3-4 weeks ago and haven't had a chance to touch it since lol I'll probably forget how to stitch on linen by the time I get back to it! When it's finished, hopefully it will look like the one pictured on the chart.

A while back I bought a Johanna Basford colouring book - Another thing I haven't had time to do anything with lol While the workers were cutting and grinding I decided to pull it out and have a look. I decide on one picture to start on.

I didn't buy the pencils especially for this book, I already had some and I'm not all that happy with them. They don't blend smoothly, they're just too hard. So I found that I was pressing down to get any kind of decent shading out of them. If I continue colouring I will have to purchase some others. I don't know if it's the brand that I have or maybe I've had them too long?

We had some nasty storms here a while back and our fences took a bit of a beating. We wanted new fences when we first moved in as the pickets continually fall off as the timber is rotten, but the neighbours wanted to wait a while. So considering that we were new to the neighbourhood and not wanting to upset anyone, we decided to wait. So 6-7 years on, the neighbours now want new fences. 

We wanted to plant a garden in our backyard when we first moved here, but we knew that would be a total waste of time and money as they would just get trampled when a new fence went in, so we left the plants that we already there in place. This kind of drove us nuts because the plants are near the pool and aren't pool friendly, they constantly drop leaves, seeds, berries and sticks into the pool.

We kept cutting this jungle back and it seemed that as quick as we cut it down it would grow back twice as fast. It was a nightmare and an eyesore! So have a look at the difference:-

Before and After

Now we just have to have the fences ripped out and replaced and we can finally start work on having a garden in our backyard that isn't a total embarrassment. We've waited for so long to be able to do something to our yard it isn't funny. I know it seems like a first world problem, but looking out the windows everyday and seeing this out of control mess of a jungle was awful. They were just overgrown weeds. 

I'm crossing my fingers that we can get the new fences up soon, so that come summer when we look out towards the pool we have something nice to look at.

A Bit Of A Catch Up

Well I said I'd be back lol and here I am! (I'm typing this post on a tablet via an app, so I hope the format is the same as typing it on a PC lol) It's amazing, since I bought the store, I pretty much stopped reading and I completely stopped cross stitching. I was either too tired, couldn't be bothered or spent my time after work looking at new products to sell. But last week on my 'day off' (lol) I started working on a cross stitch pattern that I purchased months ago. It's from Clouds Factory and it's the band Queen.

I should also mention that Queen was in Australia recently and we went with some friends to see them! OMG - Amazing! That is all I can say! lol Anyway, back to the cross stitch :) I've done 2.5 of the boys. I love Clouds Factory stuff as they are just quick, small and simple patterns. I also have a Halloween themed one and a Beetlejuice one as well (I can watch Beetlejuice again and again! lol) I will probably do Beetlejuice after this Queen one.

I've also started reading again, I used to read most nights before bed but then I stopped. I just couldn't focus on what I was reading, my brain wouldn't switch off, I had constant thoughts of what I had to do the next day or what I had forgotten to do that day etc...... But for some reason, since I have stepped back a bit, my brain has eased up and allowed me to read and actually take in what I'm reading, rather than scanning the words and not remembering a word I had just read! Very frustrating!

Apart from getting back to reading and cross stitching, I actually cooked dinner the other night! lol Now this might not sound like much, but prior to buying the store I used to do the majority of the cooking for three reasons: 1. I like to cook 2. My wife doesn't lol and 3. My wife prefers my cooking over hers. Because my wife is a shift worker she needs to have dinner fairly early and I'm never home in time to cook, so she has been doing the cooking. But now that I am taking the odd day off here and there, I'm back online searching for new recipes to try :) :) :)

Okay I'm off! I'll catch you all again soon!

Sprouts and Books

I'm so excited!!! I woke up this morning, and I went to give my herbs a quick water before the heat set in for the day and look what I found!!

My tomato seeds have sprouted! It only took them a couple of days :o) Tomatoes are so easy to grow, I can kill most plants lol but tomatoes just keep on going. If I get half as many from these plants as I did from our last ones I'll have relish and chutney coming out of my ears. Except this time, because I've got other herbs growing, I'll experiment a little bit with herbs added in.

Ok onto my next topic lol (yes my mind jumps around a bit) Yesterday I was reading Behind Green Eyes Blog and she had a great idea... She has heaps of them lol She really likes to read and so do I. My problem is that I usually get stuck in a rut of reading books that are very similar to each other. Anyway, she found a list called:- 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. She also included a random number generator to select her books. So I gave it a spin yesterday and the number generated for me was 961 - The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith. 

So I have downloaded it to my Kindle, as I'm already reading a book at the moment called:- Being a Sceptic is Oh So Easy - Linn B. Halton. It's okay.... I'll finish it, simply because I hate not finishing a book, then I'll read The Vicar of Wakefield. I'm not going to solely rely on the 1001 list, because there are other books I want to read, but I'll alternate between my choice and the generator. I've also added the list to my tabs at the top of the page, and I'll highlight the ones I read as I get through them.

What's In The Back Room?

My wife and I live in a four bedroom house, why am I telling you this? Because I decided that I would show you what's in one of the back rooms lol. Out of the four rooms, 1 room is our bedroom, 1 room is a guest bedroom, 1 room at the moment has nothing in it and the other room is like an office - library - dvd storage area.... It's kind of where we put things that don't really have a 'home' anywhere else, OR, stuff that we don't want our cats or dogs to break, as the door to this room always stays closed. All of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them :o)

                                               

On one side of this room, is a row of bookshelves and on the other is a row of dvd - cd shelves. As I'm painting the house at the moment, we drastically culled our book, dvd and cd collections as we just had too much stuff that either wasn't going to be read, watched or listened to again. This room has been painted, so all we need to do in here now is to replace the curtains.

   
There's also a computer desk, and behind where I was standing is a built in wardrobe, where we mostly store stationary, paid bills, important documents... All the boring stuff lol I have a lot of favourite things, both in and outside of our house, but I decided that I would take some photos of my favourite things that live in the back room. 

                                               

This first photo is of the meanings of both my, and my wife's names. My wife purchased these shortly after we met. The second photo is of a poem that my wife wrote for me, also not long after we met. The timber Buddha belonged to my Aunt who passed away last year.

This is 'Alf', he's ceramic and I painted him for my Aunt was I was a kid (yeah, years ago lol), as she absolutely loved the TV show Alf!! Just behind Alf is a couple of coins that we purchased from the Canberra Mint this year. One is an ANZAC Memorial coin and the other is one we pressed ourselves. These items are just sitting on one of the bookshelves in front of some books.

                                               

The first photo here is of a funky glass bowl my Aunt gave me years ago, and the frame beside it is a gift we gave her, it's the meaning of her Irish Clan maiden name. The next photo is one that was taken of me when I was at university. I had been awarded a highly prestigious scholarship and was awarded a certificate at the ceremony. I was actually very proud of myself on this day, as I had achieved something that was quite sought after, and also humbled that the university felt that I was deserving. I gave this photo to my Aunt who wanted a copy, she had the frame made especially for the photo and at some point stuck a butterfly sticker on the glass lol   

Many years ago when my Nan passed away, my Mum, Uncle and Aunt were sorting through my Nan's things and deciding what to keep, and what to donate. My Aunt asked me if there was anything in particular that I wanted.... I asked if I could have my Nan's old timber chest. She asked me why I had picked that old thing? You see my Nan had lots of lovely items that she had collected over the years, why would I want an old wooden box? It was a fair enough question lol I told my Aunt that I knew what Nan kept in her wardrobe, dresser, cupboards etc..... But I never knew what she kept in the chest, and as a child - it always had an air of mystery about it. lol 

My Aunt thought that this was pretty funny and as it turned out, the chest actually belonged to my Aunt - not my Nan! Apparently my Aunt moved house years before I was born, and stored the chest at Nan's house and never collected it. When we opened it, we found out that this was where my Nan stored her Christmas decorations..... There wasn't anything remotely mysterious hiding inside lol 

                                         

These photos are just of a couple of shelves. The first photo is of a shelf that just has little trinkets on it. One of the trinkets is a medal that I was awarded by the NSW State Government. I received this medal when I worked for Triple Zero (000) - This is the Australian emergency services number. I was working during a period when huge parts of NSW were under floodwater due to massive storms. I will never forget that shift, and the calls from people who were absolutely beside themselves with fear.

There is also a little jug on that shelf that my Aunt gave me, she told me that it belonged to my Great Great Grandmother - I think it's the oldest thing I own. The second photo is of a shelf that just contains some of my tarot cards, oracles, new age type books etc. You can also see a gold coloured side profile of a face in a frame. This was originally a jigsaw puzzle, but it had two parts to it. Once you completed the puzzle which was Egyptian themed, you then had to dismantled it, and complete the second part of the puzzle. The second part was to put it together in a vertical position. Some people find jigsaw puzzles frustrating, lol but I do like the ones with a bit of a twist, especially if it's a wet weekend and you have nothing better to do! lol      

So there you have it! Some of my favourite things that live in the back room :o) Do you have a particular spot in your house where you put your 'treasures?'