340LB Blonde Defends Cruel Heiress

Doesn't that sound like a headline you could find on the cover of the News of the World? The Sun maybe?

We've just finished playing a couple of rounds of one of our favourite games "Man Bites Dog" the premise of which is to make your own news headlines from a set of cards dealt to you. Of course there is scoring and lots of animated discussion about whether or not a headline was valid; they can be as nonsensical as you please (in fact they should be) however they must be properly formed sentences (well, as much as headlines are!) This is a great game for children (and some adults) learning grammatical rules.

We also played four rounds (a full game) of Think Blot. You find "objects" in the "ink blots" on each page with points scored for originality and finding the objects selected by the makers of the game. D was quite frustrated by the final round, being mentally and visually challenged by tiredness and made a great joke of the final round by listing a lot of worms, snakes, pieces of string, balloons on string, various balls and a number of round or roundish fruits. We were all in fits of laughter and I later thought this would be a great drinking game!

I heart Miss Gina!

And am struggling to resist her at the sale price of a measly $110 from Peep Toe Shoes.

Why is it so? I buy a pair of $200+ casual shoes (Merrel) for my husband that he wears to work, trashes in a year and considers little more than covers for his feet, yet I hesitate to buy myself a pair of shoes for half the price that I will love and cherish and literally wear until they are falling apart?

Maybe it's because I'm yet to wear the last two pairs of shoes I bought recently...

Enchanted and Scarlett from Betts.

DISCLAIMER: I plead not guilty to the charge of not wearing the new shoes, on the basis that I can't walk anyway! (Anywhere I go it has to be with the assistance of crutches, lest my knee dislocate again.)

Time Changes...

Time changes everything

Time heals all wounds, just give time time.

Does time really heal all wounds or does time simply allow us to forget them and dull their pain? Does time heal or allow us to learn from our wounds? Do you consider something healed if you can't feel it anymore? Or do you consider it healed when you've covered it with a bandaid?

Twenty years on I still have some wounds from which I am waiting to heal; do they just need more time? Or is it just that day by day as time goes by I am getting closer to the day when I will finally be able to stitch those wounds and leave their impacts on me in the past, where they should be?

Only time will tell...

The never ending quest...

It seems that it doesn't matter what people have everyone always wants more. More money, more time, more chocolate... You get the idea.

Every so often my husband and I go through cycles of running off ideas of how we could make money working for ourselves, we then go right on ahead and keep doing whatever it is we had been doing before, no matter how ineffective that may be at providing the work life balance everyone craves.

I've been reading a fab blog where the writer has challenged herself to amass a net worth of $1M by the year 2015 and came across a list of 1001 Ways to Make Money. I'm only up to 400-and-some so far but it's been really great for getting the old cobwebs cleared from the think tank. I can't wait to share it with my husband when he gets home (from spending money of course!)

Here are some of the ideas that could work for us:


459: DIY or handy man/woman for hire. Someone who can be hired for all the odd jobs, such as replacing doors, tidying the garden, cleaning gutters, all the little things that need to be done, but many people can't do.
We wouldn't be great at DIY to be honest, but we could lend our hands to help with cleaning cobwebs, weeding and pruning in gardens, cleaning gutters, taking down and packing up Christmas lights, packing in preparation for storage or moving, garden clean outs, and probably many more fiddly little jobs.

290: Garage Sale Organiser. Organise garage sales for other people, advertising, pricing, set up, and removal of unsold/unwanted goods.
I think this is one of "those" jobs that people HATE doing, seriously, doesn't everyone have things they could sell at a garage sale? Why aren't there more garage sales than there are every weekend? My guess is because people just plain couldn't be bothered to organise/display all their things EARLY in the morning, let alone pack away the things that don't get sold! I even hate having garage sales myself, so I leave the organisation of our sales to my lovely slave/husband. However if we were able to have a set of tables, table covers, money holders, etc to display and sell items it would be like setting up a new shop every weekend. Each of us having a retail background I can see this becoming something enjoyable. What do you do with the things that don't get sold at a garage sale? Put them back in boxes in your garage? Begrudgingly drag them back into your house? Wouldn't it be great is someone else took them away?! Really, you didn't want them, or you wouldn't have offered them up for sale, would you?

There is a whole section in the 1001 Things list entitled "You Have to Do It Anyway" detailing jobs that need to be done in many houses, like dog walking, ironing, washing, baby sitting, etc. Some of those jobs that you traditionally think of as "kids jobs" but why should they have all the fun? Dog walking is a great way to get to know your local area, enjoy the sunshine, etc (pity I can't walk at the moment but that's only temporary.) Ironing is as boring as watching paint dry sure, but you can do it watching tv, listening to the radio or even watching a movie. Washing clothes is mostly easy too and if you don't have to leave your house to do your job, all the better, note to self, if taking this path don't forget to claim the cost of the extra water, electricity, home presentation, etc when it comes to tax time.

Money is everywhere; we just need to find a way to make it come to us!

First, when there's nothing...

I think it must be classic 80s chick flick today on TV1; what else could explain Footloose followed by Flashdance?

I've never seen Flashdance before, I know, it's shocking, deprived childhood I tell you! I never did get that beer ad for me it was just a weird guy dancing to the "Flashdance song". Now though I have seen the movie and can appreciate it really was a great commercial.

However, I'm going to disappoint at least 80% of my friends by saying that Flashdance didn't do much for me, I guess because it's the type of movie you really have to grow up with, a film of it's era. Along with greats such as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, When Harry Met Sally, Nine to Five, Beaches, An Officer and a Gentleman... all these and many more, I missed out on the first time 'round and some of them, I have to say, lose their gloss in watching them retrospectively. I don't think I've ever even seen the whole of Thelma and Louise (but recognise it enough to get the reference to it in The Simpsons.)

When I moved out of home I became a tv, music, pop culture junkie. I felt I needed to "catch up". I soon realised however, that it was a near impossible task. I knew so little of the movies, tv shows and music my friends spoke of, to this day I'll sometimes hear a pop culture reference and struggle to make it "fit".

I love the pop culture of my childhood; I still immerse myself in it as much as possible, I just wish I'd been able to live it as I experienced it.

That said; I will never tire of watching Grease, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias or Ghost, (nor the classic Pillow Talk (Doris Day, Rock Hudson) which I stumbled upon one Midday movie.)

50 Things...

Every so often something appeals to me and I think "ooh, that would be a GREAT blog theme" but I know I don't have time to contribute to my one blog regularly let alone more than one. Even the thought of an other blog theme distracts me and leads me to wonder if I should drop the current blog and just start a new one... Oh dear; how can one not be inspired by a theme such as that of Challenge #50 at Blog This "50 Things..." I am a lover of lists, shopping lists, reading lists, wish lists, Christmas lists, things to do lists, I could so easily write a weekly (or at least monthly) entry with a list of 50 Things... and come back to it to update what had happened to the items within those lists. I just know I couldn't commit to it long term though!

Without further ado...

50 Things I Wish to Have Learned by the Time I'm 50...

1. To be vocal in my appreciation of good things, and
2. To send thank you cards, every time.
3. To be an electrician.
4. That it was NOT my fault.
5. To crochet more than a granny square, and
6. To knit more than a scarf.
7. To cook a Roast Dinner and not ruin any of it.
8. To define goals and achieve them.
9. To save money rather than just having a "savings" account.
10. To love freely and give fully
11. To accept that I may never really know or understand my mother.
12. To believe in my dreams
13. To do the things that I write on my to do list, and
14. To buy only the things that are on my shopping list.
15. To learn enough about one thing to gain a university qualification.
16. To learn a little about a lot of things.
17. To be more assertive, speak up and defend myself, as I already do for others.
18. To learn that no matter how much stuff I have, none of it will fill the void within me.
19. To write, well enough to be publishable.
20. To dance.
21. To find joy in the little things.
22. To conquer my chronic depression
23. To cook and decorate a children's birthday cake
24. To sew something wearable.
25. To say "No".
26. To fly a small aircraft
27. To maintain regular sleep patterns
28. To sing karaoke and not care what the audience thinks
29. To listen to my instincts
30. To kayak, well enough to go on an expedition
31. To turn one of my creative avenues into a money making venture.
32. To do the things that I write on my "To Do Lists"
33. To overcome my anxieties such that they no longer control my life.
34. To grow enough fruit and vegetables to sustain my family.
35. To find faith and a spiritual "home"
36. To host a dinner party
37. To appreciate fashion, and
38. To be able to dress myself stylishly.
39. To maintain my home; not so it looks like a display house, just neat
40. To stop using "collections" as an excuse for hoarding
41. To do things as they need to be done, stop procrastinating
42. To always take advantage of opportunities to try new things.
43. To shop and buy only things I really like and need (rather than collecting clothes with tags on them)
44. To buy only what is on my grocery list.
45. To put down a book which is uninteresting.
46. To take a great photo, using manual settings, and
47. To develop my own photos.
48. To appreciate wine, rather than taking the lead of others.
49. To breastfeed, 'til self-weaning
50. To believe in myself and know that I am worth it.