Lavender miraculously not completely fried by the recent hot weather.
Not producing enough to make my own lavender oil but that’s readily available here
A couple of days ago I told you that Monsieur Fluffy Wuffy and I were participating in the Apartment Therapy January Cure …. here’s the update
Cat:1
Cleaning: Nil (well maybe 1/2)
The update is that the furry one doesn’t seem to care for cleaning! He is yet to pick up a cleaning implement … I’m just sayin’ 
In addition he actively takes steps to hinder the process … aka hiding in a clean bin while he watches the human clear up the christmas wrapping paper which is lying all over the floor along with a hefty amount of cat fur which he seemed to shed a bundle of in our recent hot weather
Of course the bin wasn’t dry so it had to be washed again to get rid of all his fur …
He’s clearly not at risk of this!
I may be reduced to reading about other people’s attempts instead.
Happy New Year my www. peeps
Apartment Therapy are running a January Cure to help us all lick our homes into shape for the coming year.
If you click here you can sign up and get an email a day with a hint for re-organising your home.
I’ve signed up and Mr Fluffy Wuffy and I are re-organising. Mr Fluffy Wuffy isn’t so big on decluttering though – his new favourite toys are leftover scraps of christmas wrapping paper which he keeps chasing around the house … tinsel has been firmly put out of reach! I only wish I had a photo of cat-meets-tinsel to put up …. lets just say the tinsel came off second best!
I’ve been reading Lucy Siegle’s To die for – is fashion wearing out the world and it, combined with Deluxe – How luxury lost its lustre by Dana Thomas are really making me think about how the things we consume are produced.
It makes me hanker for skills like these ladies:
and Myrtle and Eunice (I could keep going on and on because there’s a ton of fabulous sewing blogs out there in www. land).
My challenge for the day is to stay away from Pinterest and go follow some tips from Apartment Therapy!
I hope the New Year has started well for all.
I hope that Santa brings you lots of presents
That you stay safe if you’re travelling and that you are with those you love tomorrow
I love Handel’s Messiah and here’s an except to get you into the christmas spiri
and the Hallelujah chorus
and for a little more Christmas music
and if you want a whole playlist for while you eat christmas lunch
Be Merry
Eat Lots
Stay Safe
Happy Christmas
If you’re after some inspiration and patterns for Christmas ornaments head over to this blog - in this post you’ll find a bunch of links to other bloggers who are participating in the ornament exchange.
For some more gift ideas
http://www.leomonk.bigcartel.com/products
and the scoops design website is worth having a look at …. I like this brooch for a little touch of whimsy
Hope your shopping is going well!
To start off some random prettiness from the front porch of a lovely lady I know …
Firstly Christmas
and I’m so far behind where I’d usually be at this time of year
The decorations
are still in a box!
Well apart from the Angels who I must admit have been out all year and this guy
who has made his way out of a box.
To start with some ideas for gifts to make:
Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate mix … I haven’t tried this myself because I’m trying to work out what to substitute for the milk powder. Its a mix that you would pour hot milk over to make the drink so I’m not sure why the recipe has milk powder in it. I suspect its to stop the mix clumping together but it just seems unnecessary …. so I’m working on what to put in instead or wondering if I could just leave it out.
You can find the recipe for Chewy Caramels here
Or if you’d like to try your hand at soap go here or for a really environmentally friendly gift and make some borax free powder for the dishwasher then go here
To make your own little bags in lieu of gift wrapping try this pattern
If click and deliver is what you’re looking for this Christmas
Go here for seeds for gardeners – they have the prettiest packets ever!
For more gardening supplies including organic seeds try this company in Queensland
For a natural product that soothes mosquito bites buy this (I L O V E this product) … and they also have a fabulous repellant (which I also L O V E).
For clothing from a designer that still manufactures in Australia go here
Or here to buy the Ethical Shopping Guide so that your recipient can shop ‘ethically’ all year long in 2013
For some ceramics made in New South Wales try this website or from Victoria try here
For some necklaces with inspiring messages go here. Beth also customises so you can order a necklace or a bracelet with a message of your choosing.
For lotions and potions go here for another local maker
Here for a beautiful website that looks like it sells lovely things for the sewing inclined
and this nifty site which compares the prices of books for you so that you find the best deal
For inspiration from the blogosphere
Sarah Wilson’s Christmas Gift Guide
and from Martha Stewart - if you go here you’ll find one of her lists and from there can naviage to the others
Check this out if you’re looking for a yummy recipe for the post Christmas day breakfast
and here for biscuits if you’re Australian and cookies if you’re American
If you want to try making some bread try this recipe … because how can you go past a blog from “A cowboys wife“?
Some reading to kick off the new year
Try this on regifting
This to inspire some thinking
and Apartment Therapy because its always wonderful
To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World by Lucy Siegle - I haven’t read this yet but I’ve read a review and it sounded like it would be worth reading. I’m waiting for my turn on the reserves list at the library so hopefully I can give a personal review soon.
The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball - in a nutshell this is the story of girl meets boy and moves to country to embrace a farming life. It’s hands down a winner over Four Seasons with a Grumpy Goat which seriously did not engage me at all.
I’ve also read good reviews of Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister but I’m waiting for the library to buy it so I can’t give it a personal thumbs up yet.
I’ve also just started reading the Joe Sandilands mystery series by Barbara Cleverly
and now I’d better go and find some decorations to put up!
It wasn’t me …. the red feather is evidence of nothing (except the massacre of more of my toys)
This week with a forecast for inclement weather and a disinclination to shop I placed an order with Mercatus for the “weekly shop singles option” which costs $69 (delivery is free)
The box included
6 potatoes and
a head of broccoli
2 carrots
1 zucchini and
2 onions (1 brown 1 red)
A bag of snow peas (I think its about 200 – 250g or so)
1/2 a cauliflower
1 red capsicum
1 bunch of broccolini
1 large fennel bulb
6 pink lady apples and
4 passionfruit
4 correla pears
One loaf of bread; and
from the butcher:
1 pork fillet
1 chicken breast
500g beef mince
1 salmon fillet and
4 x lamb fillet (circa 300g)
I also added yoghurt (apple, blueberry flavour) and milk from Elgar Farm.
Since I don’t usually cook with fennel I’m now on the lookout for fennel recipes and I have no reason for not cooking creatively this week!
and now for a gratuitous cat shot (he thinks he’s about to take the car out for a spin and as winter has progressed he’s even fluffier than he was in this shot! Fluffy Wuffy the Fuzzy Wuzzy is also teething (losing baby teeth and getting big teeth) and chewing and biting on everything …. the biting mostly directed at me …. what’s with that):
In local Melbourne news:
Craft cubed has started go here to download the program …. it runs until 1 September and there’s lots on including the Craft hatch market at 1000 £ Bend on 1 September 2012; and
go here for the Melbourne City Council listing of what’s on.
Have you been watching Dream Build on the ABC – it’s a series about people who have wanted to build their own house and achieved that desire. The episodes are only about 15 minutes each and they feature both the owner and the architect talking about the project – You can watch the episodes on Iview – I’m loving it
Have a good week peeps,
As you can see he does N O T smile on command for the camera.
Fuzzy Wuzzy the small furry beast has taken up residence.
He was adopted from Pet Rescue (via South Gippsland Animal Aid) after a rocky start being busted gutter crawling by the ranger with his four siblings and mother in the backstreets of Mirboo North when he was a week old – fortuitously for him he was rescued by Pet Rescue and then adopted by me!
The mum and his siblings were also adopted out …. just in case anyone was wondering. I was, because from what they tell me the ranger was not exactly inclined to save the kitty cat and her litter.
It feels like a long time since I’ve been around in this space.
In a nutshell I’ve:-
(a) had major internet dramas with both phone and internet account being hacked (fight ongoing with service provider who claims I downloaded a ridiculous amount of data at a time when I was at work and wants to charge me a hideously large amount of money for data I D I D N O T D O W N L O A D!);
(b) lost the use of phone and internet account whilst stoushing with telecommunications provider (only reconnected after an absolute slanging match);
(c) adopted Fuzzy Wuzzy the small furry beast (no that’s not his real name but he’s shy and he wants to go incognito in the blogosphere…. can’t you tell that from the photo);
(d) “kitten” proofed the house …. heck who am I kidding the house is definitely not kitten proof and in a strange turn of events the kitten has found a hiding spot in my home that I don’t know about. It goes like this – there’s two little toys Fuzzy Wuzzy loves – they bounce and they’ve got a little doovy-whacker on them that means he can carry them about by his mouth. One is pink and one is green. Sometimes the pink one is in circulation, sometimes the green – do you think I can ever find the other one …… No I cannot (and man I have tried … how can the kitten have a hiding spot in my house that I don’t know about – seriously how????).
(e) discovered that you can’t knit with a kitten in the house;
(f) realised that Fuzzy Wuzzy seems to think a tap of the nose (human) with a paw is an appropriate method for announcing its play time – at circa 2.45 am in the morning (there are times when its lucky he’s a cute lil critter).
In other news my work contract ends shortly so I’m looking for a new job in a crappy job market = stress. So I’m hoping for a lot of change soon!
Have you ever watched the Gilmore Girls and seen the episode where Miss Patty is telling the children a story and then switches tack and asks them if they’d like to hear about the time when she danced with the Aga Khan in Paris in 1962 (well … something glamourous like that).
I was watching old episodes recently when sinusitus called for a couch day …. and that scene was in one of the episodes and it’s made me think about how you make sure you live an “interesting” life?
No conclusions reached yet!
On the cooking front this blog has a recipe for pomegranate molasses ribs. I plan on cooking them sometime soon-ish and this.
I really like this concept and how the community can all contribute to help get projects off the ground.
I missed visiting this place on Melbourne Open House weekend – but its definitely on the agenda for next year.
So that’s it for now …. on the quest for interesting, on the hunt for a new job
Ciao for now from me and the Fuzzy Wuzzy
