I Said I'd Be Back!

Just as the title says! Wow, so far I've posted twice as many times as I did last year lol Given I only posted once last year, I'm not going to rehash everything that's happened from March 2017 to now.... That would just be silly! I may write about certain things, but only those that stood out.

So what's happened recently? I finished a cross stitch that I started sometime last year. It's called Primitive Ouija Board and it's from CloudsFactory. I love their designs, you can choose something as for a quick weekend stitch or something that will take a bit longer. Plus they're downloadable. This one's stitched on 16 count "Ancient" aida from Picture This Plus. I was really happy with the end result. I did take the picture above before washing and ironing it, which I'm yet to do.

I looked for an Ouija board design for ages until I discovered this one. As soon as I saw it, there was no hesitation lol

Since finishing the Ouija board I've purchased another design from them called Old School Is Cool, I love the "rewind" pencil lol

It also comes with an alphabet chart so that you can create your own cassette labels.

I wanted to add an extra bit of 80's daggyiness to this piece, so instead of stitching on the grey coloured aida, I purchased "Ballerina" Opalescent from Sew It All Australia. It's a fluro pink colour with silver opalescent sparkles through it.

I started it last weekend. I have about half the floss colours required, I could've exchanged some of the colours for ones I already own, but it just wouldn't have looked the same, so I've ordered the floss I need which should arrive this week. 

It's currently summer here in Australia, so why am I inside stitching and not outside in the sun? Because it's too damn hot! We've had a run of days from the high 30's to mid 40's. Thank god for air conditioners!

Catch you next time!

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!

Free!

I'm free! Well almost! My business has sold and exchanges tomorrow at 12pm! So why did it take so long? It was on the market and off the market. I got stuck in a contract with a lazy broker, my website was hacked and needed repairs. I.T companies changed hands and my website was damaged. It was one nightmare after another!!!

Anyway! It has sold and from 12pm tomorrow I will no longer own a business and I will be as free as a bird! Woo hoo!

Tradesmen! Grrrrr!

It's gripe day! I don't know if this is purely an Australian thing or a worldwide thing, but tradesmen in this country have quite a reputation for being dodgy, late or not showing up at all. As I wrote in an earlier post, we're having new fences put up. Our back fence backs onto a house and their property is wide and runs the length of three properties - ours being one of them and then we are having our side fence and gate done.

So today I got up extra early - because we weren't given a time that they would show up - typical.... They showed up around 9am. Then they discovered the fence plans they had were incomplete and they didn't have enough materials or workmen..... They then got in their vehicles and drove off without telling any of the neighbours where they were going or if they were coming back! 

They eventually came back and got into a bit of a debate with one of the neighbours, as two of us have pools and in Australia it's illegal not to have a fence around your pool. The original plan was to do each section of the fence in three parts, so that each neighbour had their old fence down and new fence up in a day. So the new plan is pull the old fence down, put some posts in and 'try' and complete the job the next day. 

As you can imagine, the other neighbour is not happy about this, as this was not what was originally discussed and her pool will be left without any fencing. She made it quite clear that should something happen, she will not be responsible. 

Our side fence is supposed to be done towards the end of this week, when I spoke to the fencer about this, his response was "You've gotta be dreamin'!". So there you have it, I always try and give people the benefit of the doubt - I don't like tarring everyone with the same brush as we have had some very good tradesmen. However this lot are a bunch of louts. I honestly wish you could hear what I can hear while I type. A radio is blaring and they are doing more talking and laughing than work - they sound like a bunch of high school kids! Tomorrow has to be a better day!

A Bit Halloweenie

Well I wish I could say that the shop has found a buyer, but sadly this is not the case. I have had a couple of queries, one which was very promising - however she didn't have all the funds..... I would have bet my house that if she did, she would have bought the shop there and then. Oh well, never mind. It will sell when it's meant to sell. I have always believed things happen for a reason, even when it doesn't make sense. So I will bide my time knowing that when the time is right, the right person will come along. There's one thing I have learnt in life, and that is that you can't stress over something that you have no control over. So stop wasting precious time and energy stressing and worrying and get on with what you can control and that's living! 

So speaking of living, what have I been up to? Well I finally built Tango's new day cage yesterday, sorry it's not a great pic. He eyed it off all afternoon lol and he had his first outside bath in it this morning..... I don't think he's all that impressed lol I should add that it does have toys in it, I just hadn't put them in when I took this photo. So he's outside drying off with the dogs who also had fun in the pool. Last week it was 10 degrees and we had the heater on and today it's 37 degrees and stinking hot!!! I'm sure I've said before a million times, I hate the heat! Give me winter any day!

Onto another topic (as I do lol) Halloween is my favourite time of the year, followed closely by Christmas! However since we have had the shop we haven't had a Halloween party because there's a three day event that we attend for the shop and it falls right on Halloween and we don't have time to do both. However that doesn't stop me from loving Halloween! Just the other day my wife and I went to the shopping centre.... I had no intention of buying anything Halloween related due to us not having a party and decorating the house. 

But.... As we walked past an art and craft shop, something caught my eye! LOL!
First I saw little cardboard coffins, then I saw these cute little Jack O'Lantern wooden boxes lol So I decided to get two of each lol Then when I went to the checkout I saw this Halloween Showbag that they had on offer. The showbag is mostly aimed at kids (ok it's purely aimed at kids lol) but it had all these cool little Halloween projects inside. So yes I bought it also lol I have no idea what I'm going to do with these bits and pieces..... A few ideas went through my mind, but I'm yet to make a final decision :) 

One of the projects is this cute little vampire bat lol I figured that the contents are good for those days when you don't feel like taking on a large project, well that's what I tell myself lol To be honest I just love anything Halloween related!
Which is why I also purchased a couple more latch hook kits lol I received an email from Herrschners and they were having a latch hook sale! Given that the Australian dollar is crap at the moment, I figured now would be a good time to buy something, even though I just received a large Halloween latch hook kit from them.

So I purchased these two Halloween kits:- Little Vampire and Little Witch. I had been watching the progress of someone in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, and she has been doing both. They looked quite good :) I also purchased a Christmas Tree surround called Life's Best Gifts.  

Okay well I had better go and check on the green chicken, he's awfully quiet today! Have a great weekend!