I Need A Clone!!

Yes I do need a clone! I have to finish painting the house, I have to sort out the jungle in the backyard and I need to get my small business up and running! Plus..... Just do all the other regular things that we all have to do! My brain isn't content with organising itself like a normal brain, it likes to grab a whole bunch of ideas and then it says "let do this!" When it isn't physically possible! Okay, so for the sanity of both myself and my wife, the painting will be finished first. If it isn't, horrible things may happen to me.... lol The garden, I am figuring can be done intermittently between sorting out my small work from home business.

When I was a kid I used to attend hobby ceramics classes, I just loved it! The other kids would attend the class, like me one afternoon a week after school. The only difference between me and the other kids was that, I would work on my pieces on the weekends. I constantly had more than one piece on the go at any given time. Then I got older, moved out of home and had 'grown up' things to do.

My brand spanking new studio size kiln.

Anyway about two years ago, I decided that I wanted to get back into ceramics and I took some more classes. Unfortunately my work roster changed and I could no longer attend the classes, as they were held during the day. I was stuck.... I wanted to continue working with ceramics, but I was unable to do so due to work. So I looked into buying my own kiln.... the second hand ones were appealing - simply due to cost. But there was no guarantee that the previous owner hadn't fired lead based glazes in them. So I started looking at new kilns.... holy moley they were expensive!!!! 

The kiln being loaded.

The other issue I had was, that I had actually never fired a kiln before! I actually knew nothing about them. So my research begun..... Everything I read stated that if you're going to buy a kiln, buy one bigger than what you think you need. So I looked at new kilns and picked the one I thought would suit me, and then did as I was told and looked at the next size up. This was getting dearer by the minute lol How on earth could I justify spending thousands of dollars on a kiln for a hobby? Plus, I would have to take out a loan, as I just didn't have that kind of money lying around. It was also around this time I was becoming increasingly miserable at work.

A Merlin/wizard tile - trivet.

In the past people had requested particular items, which I made and sold to them. Other friends had also told me that they believed that there was a market out there for my work, as it was a little bit different to the usual ceramic ware available. So this - combined with my unhappiness at work got me thinking.... What if I could earn a living from doing this? I spoke to my wife about my idea, she knew how I was feeling at work and she also knew that I wanted to continue with my ceramic work. So we looked at the prices of the kilns and decided to purchase one. When you purchase a kiln they are made to order, so you need to be prepared to join a waiting list.

Some Halloween coasters.

When it was my turn for my kiln to be built, my Aunt was diagnosed with cancer, so I requested that I be dropped back down the list. Then my Aunt's treatment seemed to be working, so I advised the kiln builders I was ready. This scenario actually happened three times..... Then one day I was able to take possession of the kiln. I started buying stock, and building up a collection that I could sell. I had almost gotten to a point where I had enough stock, until one day I noticed that most of my pieces had cracked!!!

A platter of four condiment bowls.

I had no idea what had happened, as I inspect all of the pieces when I take them out of the kiln. After doing some research online, I discovered that there could only be two reasons for this happening. The first was the temperature in the kiln and the second was the glaze. I checked the kiln temperature and it was correct. So I spoke to a company who sells glazes, and before I had finished explaining what had happened, the guy knew what was wrong. I had been sold a glaze that was not compatible with Australian clay, yet it was widely distributed.... I was told that the glaze doesn't crack immediately and that it actually takes a couple of weeks for the cracks to appear.

An experimental four-way glazes vase.

So where did that leave me? Well I am now pretty much starting from scratch. I still have a lot of stock that I have not painted, but all of the stock that I had painted, needs to be broken and put into the garbage as it is no longer food safe. I also purchased new glaze that is compatible with Australian clay. I guess the up side to this incident is that, these items weren't sold. As the glaze would've cracked after the sale, leaving the owner with an inferior product and me with a bad reputation.

A collection from my last firing with the new glaze.

As my wife is on holidays in a couple of weeks, the house painting will be finished (thank god!) and then I will be able to get back to my ceramics and start building up enough items to sell. I already have a domain name, however the website isn't live yet - due to not having enough stock to list. I do however have a Facebook page set up:- Crack Pot Ceramics. Once my website is live, it will also be connected to this Facebook page. 

My Crack Pot Ceramics Facebook page.

It's all very exciting, but quite daunting at the same time! I am very much looking forward to being able to spend my time time doing what I love, and that is to paint. I'm just not really looking forward to the 'business' side of things as I don't have a 'business head' lol This is where a clone would come in handy, I could paint and he could take care of the stock, marketing, money, ordering etc lol

Gardening For Non-Gardeners

I can appreciate a great garden as much as the next person, in fact I come from a long line of mad keen gardeners, both ornamental and fruit/veg. My Great Grandparents and Grandparents had great gardens. My Mother and Father could also stick something in the ground and it would bloom... My Aunt's garden was also manicured to within an inch of it's life. I however, have an amazing knack of being able to kill everything except weeds lol

Sulfur Crested Cockatoo's eating seed in my Aunt's garden.

There are two things that I have not been able to kill..... Not that I've tried to kill them lol In our previous house, I planted heaps of roses because they suited the style of house. Now I'd heard that roses were finicky, but I thought I'd give it a shot.... I was amazed! In the years that we lived there, not one of them died! I also planted camellias, simply because I liked them, and surprisingly they didn't die either.

These are outside our bedroom window.

So you can imagine how stoked I was when we bought the house we live in now, and I noticed that the previous owner had planted camellias. Straight away I knew that we would have something, that would grow with little maintenance :o) As I am more of a 'plant it and leave it' kind of person. In the past I have gone down the path of tending to plants, and feeding them etc.... I still killed them. So now I'm a low maintenance - plant kind of person. 

Also outside our bedroom window.

Unfortunately the previous owner only planted camellias in the front yard. She actually planted something of a jungle in the backyard.... Which just seems plain odd, considering that we have an in-ground pool..... So every time the wind blows, the pool fills up with all kinds of leaves, sticks and berries.

Spike - our youngest kitty having a snooze under the camellias.

After I finish painting inside the house, the backyard is my next project, and Oh My God.... It's going to be a big one! It will be the kind of job where a skip bin will need to be hired and the chainsaw will be going at full force all day! I'm looking forward to the jungle being cleared out.... But I'm not so sure that I'm looking forward to the massive mess that it's going to make. I haven't got a photo to show you of the backyard, but just imagine a whole load of out of control trees and bushes..... Because that's what it looks like. It's the kind of yard, that when I do start, I'm not going to be sure of where to begin.

Once the jungle is gone I will be planting low maintenance plants that are also tolerant to salt, as our pool is saltwater and many plants just don't like salt. At the moment I'm thinking along the lines of clumping black bamboo along the back fence, with smaller plants, such as strappy red grasses layered in front. I just love black bamboo, and I think the jet black with the bright green leaves combined with red grasses will look quite striking. 

I still have quite a bit of research to do, as I don't want to plant the wrong plants and then have to do it all over again. I also don't want to plant items that will lose a lot of leaves which will end up in the pool. We actually have quite a small backyard, and most of it is pool - entertaining area. So the garden needs to be compact and - or tall, which is why I initially had the bamboo idea in mind, as it will give us privacy from the neighbours at the rear due to it's height, and it also loses leaves gradually - not all at once like a deciduous plant, which will make both me and the pool happy :o)   

New Neighbours

I guess at some point we've all had odd neighbours, or neighbours that we wouldn't normally choose to socialise with, if we met them at a function etc. Well, we have a woman who lives behind us who is quite mad.... She screams at all hours, she mimics the birds in the trees, she barks at her dogs - You could say that she's barking mad! By the way, I might just add, that her dog was born deaf..... We are (very) slowly learning to deal with her very odd and noisy behaviour. Trust me when I say it has not been easy, and after only living here for a short period of time, we were seriously considering going further into debt, and selling up to get away from the constant and intrusive noise pollution.

Okay, so that woman lives behind us, so the neighbour on one side of us is an older single male and has one son who lives with him. He's pleasant enough and we very rarely see him. On the other side, we had an elderly couple..... He used to open our mail, peak through the fence when we had female friends over for a swim in the pool, tell the other neighbours that I didn't like him because he was Maltese..... The funny thing is that my wife's parents are Maltese... So, What the?!?! He would badger me about our mortgage.... He would tell me that he would pay our mortgage outright, and then we could pay him back at 'different rates'.... He was as dodgy as all hell. Just because someone is old, doesn't mean that they are 'sweet little old' things. 

Gradually he got the message that I didn't want his money and that I didn't appreciate him opening our mail. One day he simply stopped acknowledging us, which I honestly didn't lose any sleep over. Prior to this, if I was out the front - mowing the lawn or getting into my car and I saw him, I would wave and he would wave back..... Then it just stopped, it was as if he was looking right through us.... It was quite odd.

Anyway, about two months ago their house went up for sale and sold very quickly. We're actually expecting new neighbours to move in any day now, as people have been in cleaning the house. I have two things weighing on my mind regarding the new neighbours.... The first is that the old neighbour taunted our Labrador Angel through the fence, even though I had repeatedly told him not to do it..... So whenever the old couple were in the backyard or they had a tradesman in the backyard, Angel would go ballistic as I'm sure she was waiting for him to approach the fence - which he did finally stop doing, however the pattern of behaviour had already been set in motion.

My gorgeous Labrador Angel with her rope toy.

So my concern is, that Angel will view the new neighbours as being either 'the old neighbours or tradesmen' and go nuts at the fence every time the new neighbours go outside. I have googled for answers regarding dogs and new neighbours... Most of the sites had the same info, which was to invite the neighbours in to meet your dog. Okay, yeah that makes sense... But what if - and this is the second thing weighing on my mind.... What if the new neighbours aren't the kind of people that we would either choose not to 'normally' socialise with or for whatever reason, we don't want them in our home?

Angel rolling around playing with her toys.

Angel is not by any means an aggressive dog, she's a rescue dog who was badly neglected when she was a puppy and just loves people. I guess only time will tell what's going to happen when our new neighbours move in, and how Angel will react to them...... I can only hope that things will sort themselves out.

You Want How Much For That?!?!

We have a wall in our lounge room which is blank, and its blank because we've never really found anything that has jumped out at us to hang there. That was until one day we were having lunch, and then after lunch we went for a wander through some of the nearby shops. Now I'm not a 'shabby chic' kind of male lol Don't get me wrong, I love old stuff! But for me, it has to be the real deal! The last few years there has been a huge trend in decorating your home with shabby chic items, and they're just not my thing.... Maybe because they're usually in pastel colours and to be honest, I find them just a bit girly..... Sorry girls lol

Anyway, I saw some photo frames that were made up of multiple photo frames, that were all connected together like a collage. I really liked them! Part of me was thinking.... "No! It's a type of shabby chic!!! Stay Away" But the other part of me was thinking... "These are amazing!!" lol The reason I was in two minds was because firstly, yes they were a style of shabby chic, but secondly, it wasn't your typical shabby pastel colours. These frames were all different colours, and the colours were bold and bright!!  

I pointed them out to my wife and she also really liked them, then we noticed that the store had about four different styles of these frames. So we had a look at the different styles.... At this point I hadn't really thought about the price.... After all, yes they were nice, but they were also very simple in their design. So fast forwarding..... We decided that one of these frames would look great on our lounge room wall, that was until I discovered that the asking price was $300! Are You Serious?!?!?! It's needless to say that we left without the frames..... 

As we walked out the door I said to my wife, that if I could get my hands on some old timber frames from ebay etc, I could make the same thing for a fraction of the price! Then I had an idea! I'm full of them! lol There was a charity shop around the corner, so I suggested that we go and have a look.... Guess what I found?!? A bunch of new and used timber frames!! Guess how much they cost me? $8!!! Now I'm no mathematician, but $300 - $8 means I saved $292! Some of the frames are raw timber, which is great, the others I will sand back before painting. I have been playing around with layering the frames beside each other and over the top of each other and looking at which frames will compliment each other, as I'm not sure if I will use all of them, or if I will perhaps seek out a couple of different shaped frames for some variety. 

The photo above is a picture of our bar, it was built from recycled timber from multiple Balinese fishing boats, and as you can see it's made up of many small and different brightly coloured panels. This is going to be the style in which I am going to paint the frames. I also don't have to worry about buying the paint in which to paint the frames with, as I already have quite a collection of acrylic paints, which I have used in the past when I've made decorations for Halloween parties. The downside to my many 'brilliant' ideas is that, my to do list is already as long as my arm lol So it may be a little while before this job gets done. 

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?'

The Good Bits - Michael Wheeler Psychic Medium

After venting my spleen yesterday, and not being able to write about the positive aspects of seeing Michael Wheeler live. I decided that today, I would list a couple of examples of the statements that he made on Saturday night.

If you have never seen a psychic medium in action, this is how it works... Michael starts each session by 'collecting information or images', he voices what he is seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling or tasting to the audience. In the early stages, the information applies to maybe two or three people in the audience. As more information comes through, it then narrows it down to one person in the audience. 

There was one older couple sitting in front of us, and their daughter had passed away and she came through. A couple of things that stuck in my mind were that Michael said that they had a connection to Germany. The couple said "No, our background is English". Michael said that this was fine, but that their daughter had given him this connection to Germany, so it must be of some importance, and that they should just remember that, and maybe later it will come to them. He also said that either one or both parents had a tattoo of their daughter. The mother raised her arm and pulled her sleeve up to reveal a tattoo on her wrist, with the name 'Iris' which also had the iris flowers around the name. The mother also stated that her husband had an 'Iris' tattoo. 

Michael stated that their daughter had said, that she knew they (the parents) had visited her grave last week, and saw a single yellow rose on her grave. At this point the mother grabbed her husbands arm and was saying "YES, YES, YES! We went last week, and there was a single yellow rose on her grave and we had no idea who put it there!" Michael talked more about the illness that their daughter endured, and then said that the parents were looking at treatment options overseas, but by then it was too late for their daughter..... That's when it all fell into place! The overseas treatment options that they were looking at were in Germany. . . .

Now I know some skeptics will read this and think.... Yeah whatever.... But seriously, how many thousands of flowers are there? How many varieties of colours? How did he know it was a single yellow rose, last week? Why was it not a red carnation two months ago? This is what I mean by when I say that Michael Wheeler is spot on every time! 

Another woman's Nan came through and everything he said was relevant, then Michael said "she's showing me a lemon tree and lemons". The woman said quite definitely "No, I don't know anything about that". Again, Michael said that this was fine, but to just remember it, because it does mean something..... Michael continued to talk about her Nan and everything fit perfectly.... Then right at the end of the reading Michael said "your Nan is really pushing this lemon thing......." and before he could finish, the woman cut him off and said... (almost sounding annoyed) "I don't know anything about lemons". Michael said "your Nan is now showing me a jar of lemon butter"...... The woman then realised that her Nan used to make lemon butter from the lemons, from the lemon tree....... She had not connected the dots.

Although I have not been chosen for a reading - just sitting, listening and watching the process unfold is quite amazing. I truly believe that there are special people out there, who have gifts that most of us cannot comprehend.

The Amazing Michael Wheeler

Last night my wife and I went to see Michael Wheeler live at Toukley, and prior to the show I knew that I would have so many great things to blog about today! To be honest, I have really been struggling with what to write... I wanted this post to be full of light and positive things! Don't get me wrong! Michael Wheeler is absolutely amazing!!! As we had seen him before, we knew what to expect and I wanted to write about the experience as a whole. So I am going to write about the whole experience, unfortunately not all of it was good and I am probably going to come across as a snotty nosed whinge bag, so I apologise in advance.   

My wife and I have only lived on The Central Coast for a few years. When we first moved here, people that my wife works with described Toukley as "Mount Druitt By The Sea". I personally thought that this was a pretty harsh stereotype and dismissed it, as I didn't know anyone from Toukley and on the odd occasion that I did some shopping there, I never encountered any people who made me feel that this stereotype fitted. 

So last night Michael Wheeler's show was at Club Toukley RSL. My wife and I are not club people, but we wanted to see the show. So I purchased the tickets in advance, and had a look on the website to see what was on offer food wise, and decided that we would have dinner there prior to the show.

After dinner we joined the queue to the function room where Michael's show would be taking place. So far things were going well, that was until we all entered the room and took our seats. The first thing I noticed is, that a number of people had alcoholic drinks with them.... At first I thought that they were bringing the drinks in with them, from the bar outside. Then I noticed that there was an actual bar inside the function room.... Okay, now I'm not at all against drinking! But this wasn't a 21st birthday party with an open bar! We were there to see a highly respected Australian psychic medium. His show was two and a half hours long, and throughout the entire show people were constantly getting up for their re-fills. All night long, all you could hear were people kicking their empty glasses over on the timber floor or getting more and more pissed. Sorry for the language. But seriously, if you cannot go two and a half hours without getting a snout full, you have a problem. Attending a psychic medium show, is not a party, yes it can be entertaining, but it is not a rock concert.

Due to the free flowing alcohol, there was one man in particular that was getting on the nerves of quite a few people - both my wife and myself included. We'll name him Richard, but we'll call him Dick for short. Dick was sitting directly behind me. Dick was drunk before the show started, as was his female partner. When Michael came out on stage and the show started, Dick proceeded to comment along the lines of:- "F**k he's a freak, F**k he's weirdo, F**k this, F**k that"... You get my point. 

A woman who was seated beside my wife, commented loudly enough for Dick to hear that she did not appreciate his behaviour. A man seated across from me continually looked over at Dick as if to say "Shut up!". The woman in front of me continually glanced backwards at Dick giving him those "stares". A woman sitting in the same aisle as Dick also commented on his behaviour. Now I don't go looking for fights.... But at one point, I was trying SO hard to focus on what Michael was saying, and all I could hear was Dick swearing - that I turned around and gave him the mother of all death stares. I swear to god that, it took every ounce of strength that I had not to punch him, he had pushed me to my limit. 

Two and a half hours of yobbo drunks has turned me off Toukley. I will never again set foot in that club regardless of who has a show. I am very sorry if you live in Toukley and feel that you have been branded. That is not my intention. I am aware that there are good and bad in all suburbs, but last night I saw a huge chunk of bad, and I can now completely understand why Toukley is referred to "As Mount Druitt By The Sea".

Before the show started, I purchased a deck of cards created by Michael Wheeler and Jackie Austin called "A Journey In Developing Your Intuition". The photo above is not one that I took, as my cards are still in their shrink wrap, as I have not had time today to have a look at them, I will most likely do this tomorrow. 

Michael has one more live appearance listed on his website, and it's actually not too far from where we live, so we're going to go along. It will be interesting, as even though the venue is a club, it's a Country Club - not an RSL. If you ever have the chance to catch one of Michael's shows, I encourage you to go along - even if you're a skeptic. This guy is the real deal, and blows people away with the messages that he brings fourth from the other side. 

ADDIT:- To read about the positives of the show, click here to read the follow - up post.

Can We Trust Our Own Minds?

A number of weeks ago I wrote about seeing a Lisa Williams show, I have also embarked on one of her courses. Then as you know my wife and I went to The Health, Harmony and Soul expo last Friday, where we attended a Mitchell Coombes and a Michael Wheeler show - which were both one hour long. I have always been interested in the afterlife and I have read much about it. 

After seeing those three mediums live, I walked away from all three shows having learnt one lesson. All three mediums stated in their own words that our deceased family and friends, can hear us if we speak to them. Our 'speech' can come in the form of actually speaking out a loud or in thought. 

Now I have always been a non-sleeper. I have so much trouble getting to sleep at night it's not funny, so as a result I usually read until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. However last night was different, I was tired and decided that I would try and sleep without reading. I was lying in bed and the thought that was running through my head was "Am I tired enough? Should I get my book?" 

At the EXACT moment I was having this thought, I heard "Hi love, how are you?" It was my Aunts voice! Well it certainly sounded like my Aunt. You see my Aunt hardly ever referred to me by my name, she always called me 'love'. 

So was that wishful thinking or imagined as a result of the shows I have recently attended? Was it my mind repeating - mimicking something I had heard my Aunt ask me multiple times in the past? Was it actually her? What was it that I heard while I was questioning myself about how tired I was? I wasn't asleep, so it wasn't a dream. Has anyone else experienced something like this? 

What Is Man-Stuff?

In my last post I expressed my frustrations with the lack of products that were aimed at male shoppers when I visited a local handcraft market. The responses I received were very supportive and made me both smile and laugh! One comment in particular that cracked me up was from Lisa over at Button Brain:- 

"LOL I'm hearing you! I guess if you want to see something different at the market you need to lead the way... perhaps you have some 'man-stuff' you could sell?" 

Firstly you need to understand that I had just woken up when I read this comment, and when I saw 'man-stuff' I started laughing!! Because... What exactly is man-stuff? Is it lumps of rope? Is it aftershave? Is it work boots, wallets, belts, fishing gear, train sets, navy blue singlets, hard hats, 100% full fat meat pies with lashings of 100% full sugar and salt content tomato sauce - washed down with non-diet Coke with no pretty slices of lemon or lime stuffed in the top? Geez! What a mouth full! So what exactly is man-stuff and where do we find it?

The Conjuring - The movie we saw.

Yesterday my wife and I went out to lunch before seeing a movie, and while we were having lunch, I was telling her about my last post and the comments received. The cinema that we were going to is located within a fairly large shopping centre. So after lunch we both made a point of looking at some of the stores, that sell both male and female products as we made our way to the cinema. Now I wasn't on a - fact finding - I'm making a documentary - mission lol I just wanted to see how the mall stores, in comparison to the markets, advertise - display their products. Some surprised me and some did not. Now this isn't a 'oh woe is me/males' post at all! lol I have some numbers below because I have a question for you at the end! :o)

We didn't enter these stores, these numbers are purely based on their window displays. David Jones window display was evenly split 50/50, which did not surprise me. Cotton On (clothing store) was also split 50/50, which did surprise me. Williams The Shoeman and Mathers Shoes were both three quarters women's shoes and one quarter men's shoes, Athletes Foot was three quarters women's shoes and one quarter children's shoes. Just Jeans was 100% women's wear, yet Jeans West was 50/50. Best and Less was three quarters women's wear and one quarter children's wear. The Body Shop was 100% women's products. Big W doesn't have a window display, but the first items to be seen through the door were women's clothes.

My wife was actually quite shocked by how little these unisex stores advertised - marketed towards male shoppers. She said that she had actually never noticed this before. Now we all know that aside from the unisex stores, most stores are aimed at women ie clothes, perfumes, shoes, handbags, make-up, etc. I also read a study recently that stated that the average male will spend approximately 25 minutes in a shopping centre. He will walk in, buy what he needs and leave, or become incredibly bored and leave, where women on the other hand can happily browse for approximately 2 hours.

So is this because men aren't interested in shopping? Or because there isn't actually anything of interest being sold, so browsing isn't an option? Is it a case of what came first? The chicken or the egg? Do males really dislike shopping? Or are females just easier to sell to?

I know of males who are keen fishermen, I also know of males who fly remote controlled aeroplane's, I know males who build model towns and build train sets around the towns, I know of males who surf. None of the large shopping centres in my area cater to any of these hobbies. Yet there are stores that cater towards scrap-booking, stationary,  knitting, sewing etc. Yes, I know that I have stereotyped here and that both genders can have interests in each others hobbies. What I'm looking at is the majority gender of these hobbies.

I would like to hear from my readers, ask your husband, partner, son, father etc if shopping centres catered more towards them, and their interests, would they be more likely to spend time there? If you are a male reader, what would shopping centres need to do or sell, to hold your interest for longer than 25 minutes?

Markets, Shopping... And A Bit Of A Whinge

My wife and I are the kind of couple that go out everywhere together, except for grocery shopping.... My wife mostly does that herself lol as she says that it costs more when I go along lol... Anyway sorry, wandering off the topic here as I do.... My wife is working nightshift at the moment, so she's asleep during the day, and there were some markets on that I wanted to check out. So I decided that I would go by myself, it was a bit of a weird feeling being there without her.

The view from the markets

I love markets! Especially when it's a nice sunny day - not too hot, and just being able to browse around at all of the handcrafts and unique items for sale. But there is one thing that I am starting to see a trend in, and that's the number of stalls that are selling mother/baby type stuff. Now before I get flamed or some troll rolls in and abuses me, I do not have an issue with mothers or babies. My wife and I don't have children - because we can't, not because we didn't want any. Neither of us begrudge other people or hold any ill-will towards those who do have children either. . .

Alert! Whinge Below!

Today when I went to these markets, the number of mother/baby stalls were out of control... Seriously. Yes I know that they say that males don't like to shop, or that women make most of the purchases..... But there is also the flip side of the coin, that if there were items for sale that were directed at a male market, men will buy them. I am a male and I shop. If I see items that I can use, or that I think would look nice in our home, I will pull my wallet out of my pocket and I will buy them. I'm also a huge supporter of buying locally and supporting 'the little guy'. But how do I do this, when most of the stuff that is being sold locally is aimed at mothers and babies? We don't all have children, we don't all know people that have children and some of us don't have family members with children. Okay, I had to get that out. I'm not normally someone who 'whinges', but this handmade baby culture thing just got to me today. 

Whinge Over! :o)

A small selection. . . 

On a positive note I found some soy candles! There were so many different ones to choose from, sometimes too much choice is a bad thing for me when it comes to candles lol! I normally go for the same or similar scented candles, but today I decided to be a bit adventurous and buy some that I hadn't purchased before. Daring, I know! lol

So decided on four, which should keep me going until I find some more markets to check out. I hope whatever it is that you did on your weekend was a blast! 

I'm also just going to take this chance to give Lisa over at Button Brain a plug :o) She has started a Weekend Writers Group, click here for the details :o)