Mum and Dad spent Christmas with us and apart from food and presents they also bought a range of scrapbooking DVDs. Now my last huge scrapping blitz had been for Mum and Dad's 60th anniversary last year when we made a group album to celebrate. I really enjoy cutting small bits of paper into even smaller bits, but work life, a busy family and a lack of space to scrap... (I do have a space, but it has become a junk haven) have stopped me from doing much this past year. These DVDs apart from having a somewhat sophorific effect (though that could be due to late nights, too much food and finally mentally relaxing this holiday) really got my scissor fingers itching.
So apart from a brief " nana nap" that each DVD facilitated, the inspiration to begin to play has lead me to once again drag out my paper, scissors, glue and brads. Armed with $20 worth of photos from Harvey Norman and a scrap booking Calendar for 2010 - (just glue your pics in the thoughtfully provided white squares and rectangles!) I am now trying not to ignore everything while I scrap.
The only problem with scrapping is that once I start I don't want to stop... food.. sleep.. TV.. exercise.. housework - all seem like optional extras. I resent stopping to prepare meals, food is something that can be shovelled down - when absolutely desperate. Exercise consists of walking from table to car and car to scrapbooking shop. If I clean, it's only to clear the table for more scrapping room - the TV is merely background music and even my latest longed for novels lie gathering dust. The trouble is with a family and house guests, they expect feeding, and someone who keeps normal hours, so I clear the table of paper scraps and prepare meals, while my brain ticks over.. just waiting until the moment I can once again take over the table.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
How to avoid housework!
7.00am: I woke up this morning determined to get the house cleaner and tidier today. But decided that since it was Saturday, I might just have another couple of minutes of rest.
9.00am: Finally out of bed, feeling a bit guilty about wasting the last two hours, I stripped my bed and threw the sheets in the washing machine, keen to try out my new green eco pegs once the sheets were ready to hang out. I squirted a bit of cleaner into the toilet and then the wheels fell off. I realised that I hadn't had anything to eat. Now I am supposed to be eating healthily, so I thought I'd better have something substantial for breakfast , so fixed myself a nice bowl of muesli and a cup of coffee. I decided to take it outside to my front garden, and took my novel to read while I drank my coffee.
9.30am: Finished my coffee and realised that I was a mere 70 pages from the end of the book. Might as well finish it and then I'll be able to get back to cleaning with no distractions.
10.30am: We need milk, there was about a tablespoon left in the bottle. It was a lovely day, too nice to drive so I decided to walk. Chat to a couple of friends in the shops, pile way too much stuff into one of those little baskets. An hour later and two green bags full, I staggered into the kitchen to unpack.
11.30am: Time for a cuppa and a few pages out of my new book - some Ian Rankin short stories.
12.00: Lunch time. The TV was on and I got caught up in a steam cleaner infomercial - I want one of those! Wouldn't that make cleaning fun and easy? What is it about infomercials? They are so boring, repetitive and I hate the music they put on them, but I sat mesmerised.
1.00pm: Magnum PI comes on TV - I love that show and decide to put my feet up for an hour!
2.00pm: I began to unstack the dishwasher and thought I'd tackle the kitchen, but wanted to listen to something - I turned on my computer so that I could download a podcast from one of my favourite Radio National shows and as I waited for it to load, did a bit of browsing which lead me to a free ebook site, this in turn lead me to Project Gutenberg and I discovered that they need volunteer proofreaders (I'd never noticed that on the site before)- What a great idea - giving a little bit of time to proofread to get more books on Project Gutenberg - I love to read, I'm a pretty good proofreader (of everything but my own writing) and I thought it may expose me to books I may otherwise never even contemplate. Why not? So I signed up and spent a pleasant two hours reading the rules and protocols and then proofreading 5 pages - what fun! But back to housework.
4.00pm: The sheets! I had forgotten them and the garden was now in full shade, so there's no point hanging them out now so into the dryer with them (sorry environment) and back to that toilet, now flushed many times over. A little more cleaner, brush and wipe down. Now we are getting somewhere!
4.30pm: I headed back into the kitchen for a renewed attack. Listening to the book reading I stacked the dishwasher, thinking about tackling the stove and then I noticed that we were out of dishwasher tablets.
5.00pm: I could do them by hand or go for a walk to the shop. I decided on the walk with the dog for company. Had a chat with my husband who was filleting fish in the back yard, replanted yet another plant the dog had pulled out.
5.15pm: Encouraged my son to go with me to mind the dog while I bought the dishwasher powder. The afternoon air was so cool and fresh, that I continued walking until it was quite dark.
6.45pm: Home again, dishwasher on and I began to make dinner - a zucchini quiche. The bag of oranges beside the stove caught my eye, better juice a couple before they go off. Juicer on and 15 oranges later, remembered the sheets again. I made my bed and then back to the kitchen to clean. I took the rubbish bin out to put in the big bin and the cat and guinea pig both squeaked at me. Feeding both animals, I noticed that my pot plants were looking droopy, so turned on the hose and gave them all a water.
7.30pm: Back inside, the table needs clearing and setting and the dishwasher emptying. Dinner
8.30pm: Dishwasher on again and time to sit down in front of the tele. As I look at my unwashed floors, untidy lounge room, huge mountain of ironing, I sigh. Oh well there's still tomorrow!
9.00am: Finally out of bed, feeling a bit guilty about wasting the last two hours, I stripped my bed and threw the sheets in the washing machine, keen to try out my new green eco pegs once the sheets were ready to hang out. I squirted a bit of cleaner into the toilet and then the wheels fell off. I realised that I hadn't had anything to eat. Now I am supposed to be eating healthily, so I thought I'd better have something substantial for breakfast , so fixed myself a nice bowl of muesli and a cup of coffee. I decided to take it outside to my front garden, and took my novel to read while I drank my coffee.
9.30am: Finished my coffee and realised that I was a mere 70 pages from the end of the book. Might as well finish it and then I'll be able to get back to cleaning with no distractions.
10.30am: We need milk, there was about a tablespoon left in the bottle. It was a lovely day, too nice to drive so I decided to walk. Chat to a couple of friends in the shops, pile way too much stuff into one of those little baskets. An hour later and two green bags full, I staggered into the kitchen to unpack.
11.30am: Time for a cuppa and a few pages out of my new book - some Ian Rankin short stories.
12.00: Lunch time. The TV was on and I got caught up in a steam cleaner infomercial - I want one of those! Wouldn't that make cleaning fun and easy? What is it about infomercials? They are so boring, repetitive and I hate the music they put on them, but I sat mesmerised.
1.00pm: Magnum PI comes on TV - I love that show and decide to put my feet up for an hour!
2.00pm: I began to unstack the dishwasher and thought I'd tackle the kitchen, but wanted to listen to something - I turned on my computer so that I could download a podcast from one of my favourite Radio National shows and as I waited for it to load, did a bit of browsing which lead me to a free ebook site, this in turn lead me to Project Gutenberg and I discovered that they need volunteer proofreaders (I'd never noticed that on the site before)- What a great idea - giving a little bit of time to proofread to get more books on Project Gutenberg - I love to read, I'm a pretty good proofreader (of everything but my own writing) and I thought it may expose me to books I may otherwise never even contemplate. Why not? So I signed up and spent a pleasant two hours reading the rules and protocols and then proofreading 5 pages - what fun! But back to housework.
4.00pm: The sheets! I had forgotten them and the garden was now in full shade, so there's no point hanging them out now so into the dryer with them (sorry environment) and back to that toilet, now flushed many times over. A little more cleaner, brush and wipe down. Now we are getting somewhere!
4.30pm: I headed back into the kitchen for a renewed attack. Listening to the book reading I stacked the dishwasher, thinking about tackling the stove and then I noticed that we were out of dishwasher tablets.
5.00pm: I could do them by hand or go for a walk to the shop. I decided on the walk with the dog for company. Had a chat with my husband who was filleting fish in the back yard, replanted yet another plant the dog had pulled out.
5.15pm: Encouraged my son to go with me to mind the dog while I bought the dishwasher powder. The afternoon air was so cool and fresh, that I continued walking until it was quite dark.
6.45pm: Home again, dishwasher on and I began to make dinner - a zucchini quiche. The bag of oranges beside the stove caught my eye, better juice a couple before they go off. Juicer on and 15 oranges later, remembered the sheets again. I made my bed and then back to the kitchen to clean. I took the rubbish bin out to put in the big bin and the cat and guinea pig both squeaked at me. Feeding both animals, I noticed that my pot plants were looking droopy, so turned on the hose and gave them all a water.
7.30pm: Back inside, the table needs clearing and setting and the dishwasher emptying. Dinner
8.30pm: Dishwasher on again and time to sit down in front of the tele. As I look at my unwashed floors, untidy lounge room, huge mountain of ironing, I sigh. Oh well there's still tomorrow!
Friday, August 21, 2009
So what do they do with their fridge magnets?
My son was doodling and presented me with a small scrap of paper with a charming little fish drawn on it. I admired it for a while and contemplated using it as a bookmark, but instead walked to the fridge and popped it on the fridge with a small cat magnet. As I walked away I thought about a stunning home I had seen on yesterday's episode of World's Greenest Homes . It had a magnificent kitchen - all clad in solid timber. Many of the homes I have seen on the various TV shows I enjoy, like Grand Designs, seem to be featuring this trend of hiding everything away behind panelling and cupboard doors. Yes it's all very slick and while I'd love an appliance cupboard to tuck away my toaster, kettle and the like, and possibly think that a disguised dishwasher may not be a bad idea - but hiding your fridge? Honestly - it's a kitchen - a place of food preparation - why be coy about the fact that you have a fridge? Ironically many of those kitchens feature massive, obvious ovens, and yes, it was ovens, plural, in one notable home - to balance the room's aesthetics! But oh dear me, let's not have anything as vulgar as a fridge on display.
With your fridge so cleverly disguised, obviously these homes would never have that relaxed attitude found in so many Australian homes of encouraging guests to help themselves - "Want another beer?" "Sure, grab one from the fridge?" "Want a drink of cold water?" "You know where the fridge is!"
I guess all this fridge hiding maybe a backlash against people like me who have their lives on display on the fridge, school notes, dockets, photos, memorabilia, kid art works...it looks messy, but it's the sort of mess that takes a house from being a showpiece to a home that is actually lived in by real people. The added bonus is that many of those magnets holding that paraphernalia in place, were given to me by friends and family. They are the ideal little token, perfect for a child to buy with limited pocket money, little bits of whimsy, corny sayings, little visual jokes. I love them. So I wonder what do those people do with their fridge magnets?
With your fridge so cleverly disguised, obviously these homes would never have that relaxed attitude found in so many Australian homes of encouraging guests to help themselves - "Want another beer?" "Sure, grab one from the fridge?" "Want a drink of cold water?" "You know where the fridge is!"
I guess all this fridge hiding maybe a backlash against people like me who have their lives on display on the fridge, school notes, dockets, photos, memorabilia, kid art works...it looks messy, but it's the sort of mess that takes a house from being a showpiece to a home that is actually lived in by real people. The added bonus is that many of those magnets holding that paraphernalia in place, were given to me by friends and family. They are the ideal little token, perfect for a child to buy with limited pocket money, little bits of whimsy, corny sayings, little visual jokes. I love them. So I wonder what do those people do with their fridge magnets?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
How I came up with the name.
My sister, Veronica was in town for work, and coming as she does from a smaller Western Town, we were mking the most of some sister bonding and shopping. We had been having a great time, settling into a familiar relaxed vibe we share. My 15 year old daughter, had been listening to us throwing comments back and forth cackling at our witticisms while she indulged in some major eye-rolling and sighing (often tell her that the best part about being a mother is having the ability to be a major embarrassment to my kids ). She made some comment that we turned into a joke, that we thought was hilarious. She just groaned at my remark. I gently teased her about having no sense of humour and intimating that maybe she had been swapped at birth. She sighed and said "You know Mum, you and Aunty Veronica aren't nearly as funny as you think you are!" Told!!
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