Cucumbersome - another blog I love at the moment

This blog has some lovely things and heck, anyone that shares my stationery fetish must be a very cool individual. What led me to this blog was her Instructable on making a leather necklace. Nice, simple, adaptable to a belt or bracelet or handbag strap. Whatever. Nice idea. Must share such wonderful simple ideas,...

A fashion DIY blog

Well, everyone knows how much I love to make things. That's a given, right?

One of the Facebook groups I subscribe to posted some gorgeous little DIY projects from a blog called ...Love Maegan. They're just delicious and very inventive and do-able so I had to share it all with you and store it in a place I'd remember for future reference.

There is even a DIY for converting an old leather skirt in to the wild thigh-high boots you see in the photo. Varooom. My favourites are probably some of the necklaces and belts. Nice blog to visit and be inspired by.

Duct tape bags without the ugly.

Consider my sewing machine truly done and dusted. Hurrah.

Ultimate Duct tape purse

Ultimate Duct tape bag

How to run a florist shop,...

I'm stoked. Two lovely people have gone to the bother of explaining all of the issues involved in starting and running a florist shop. This gives me a blueprint for my dream of running a florist shop. Open a flower shop is an American site, written by a florist with solid industry experience. While Startup's Florist Shop page is clearly written by a business startup expert with no floristry experience. I think both sites present really solid information with perspectives that are both needed.

It would be really nice to run my own florist studio. Nice, indeed.

I just can not get enough of cardboard construction!

Here, we have an amazing collection of cardboard innnovation. I'm not sure which one is my favourite,... probably the very simple cardboard room divider because it's an idea I can easily flog off with.

Bathroom clean in 9 minutes?

The illustrious Shannon Lush claims that she cleans her bathroom in 9 minutes. I'm a cynic, but I really want this to be true. It always takes me hours to scrub the crap and mould out of my bathroom.

She also makes these claims that old pantyhose are the best cleaning cloths known to man,... it's almost enough to make me want to wear the darn things, just so there will be some old worn out ones on hand for cleaning.

Gorgeous Kids Castle made from cardboard boxes!

I am absolutely loving this idea by Mr McGroovy. It sure is groovy, Sir.

I am working on one of these for Grace's 4th Birthday in August. I've just lined up 8 refrigerator boxes thanks to a very nice lady at a refrigerator delivery company. Stay tuned for the photos of the final project,... the pic here is what it should look like, according to Mr McGroovy.

Playing with Food

I have been reading the Evil Mad Scientist's Playing with Food section and I am just overwhelmed. There is so much fun on these pages,... I just don't know which one to share with you!

There are edible googly eyes, lolly lovehearts with your own customizable messages, circuitry snacks (a nod to my previous life at the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering), instructions on how to cook your hot dogs by electrocution, Pacman pappadums, the competitive sport of marguarita stacking, pretzelized pilcrows (the paragraph symbol),...

This is a ten year old boys idea of heaven and, frankly, I'm not too far behind him!

The lovely photo above is of an italian salad, Insalata Caprese, pimped with a little bit of olive to look like eyeballs. When reading the Evil Mad Scientist site's "Playing with Food" section, there is obviously no limit to their imagination. Enjoy.

Pimp your filing cabinet.

Filing cabinets have got to be one of the ugliest mo-fos in the world of furniture. They are definitely function over form. But I have found a technique for covering them with something nice like wallpaper that could turn an eyesore into eye candy. Check it out.

Organics,...

I think it's so important to consider the impact of our waste products upon the earth. We can't just keep doing the landfill thing indefinitely. I'd like to have a compost heap or a worm farm,... in a rental unit a worm farm is probably more suitable than a compost heap. Check out a good summary of both composting and worm farming online here on Moreton Bay Regional Council's fact sheet on composting and worm farming. Nice.

A hundred blogs that will make your more organised.

I need more organisation in my life.

Here's a hundred blogs that will make me more productive. I must read them. I must read them all.

It's on my to do list,... OK?

enjoying the emotion. reflecting on my past.

I've been reflecting on my past, trying to establish where all this damn PCOS started and why. I've been trying to build a bridge and get over it. Somehow it's not that easy. It would be easier to have someone lop off my head and replace it with a prettier more intelligent one. Anyway, it was nice to read the ramblings at bless the mess. because they reminded me of my then - age 20 - and my now - age 36 and in chaos. It reminds me, too, that Christianity doesn't have to be coated with cheese. (Following on from that, Chris Goins blog is interesting too - but far more preachy.)

I'm starting the Daniel Fast tomorrow. I can not wait any longer. My health is failing and I need something of a miracle to help me through. There are several versions, a 10 day one, a 21 day one, a 40 day one. My last attempt lasted 5 days but had a significant impact on my health. Please pray for me as I embark on a very important 10 day version.

Furoshiki, wow.

I'm quite taken at the moment by Furoshiki, the Japanese method of gift wrapping. It is lovely and creative and has a practical edge to it too. This technique can be used for carrying and protecting items as well as gifts, so it is a method well worth learning. I must go and find some square of fabric large enough to practise on.

There are some sites that include techniques, but for some reason they're not printable. Oh well, go there and have a look anyway. Perhaps you'll have a photographic memory. If so, you're doing better than me.

Bye now.

Quote of the Day

"I'm going to stick a sausage down your throat and starving dogs up your arse."
- Deb Mailman, quoting someone else on Black Chicks Talking.

ANZAC Day

I saw a kid marchin’ with medals on his chest.
He marched alongside Diggers marching six abreast.
He knew that it was ANZAC Day - he walked along with pride.
He did his best to keep in step with the Diggers by his side.

And when the march was over the kid was rather tired.
A Digger said “Whose medals, son?” to which the kid replied:
“They belong to daddy, but he did not come back.
He died up in New Guinea on a lonely jungle track”.

The kid looked rather sad then and a tear came to his eye.
The Digger said “Don’t cry my son and I will tell you why.
Your daddy marched with us today - all the blooming way.
We Diggers know that he was there - it’s like that on ANZAC Day”.

The kid looked rather puzzled and didn’t understand,
But the Digger went on talking and started to wave his hand.
“For this great land we live in, there’s a price we have to pay
For we all love fun and merriment in this country where we live.
The price was that some soldier his precious life must give.

For you to go to school my lad and worship God at will,
Someone had to pay the price so the Diggers paid the bill.
Your daddy died for us my son - for all things good and true.
I wonder if you understand the things I’ve said to you”.

The kid looked up at the Digger - just for a little while
And with a changed expression, said, with a lovely smile:
“I know my dad marched here today - this is ANZAC Day.
I know he did. I know he did, all the bloomin’ way”.

D. Hunter
(A veteran of Shaggy Ridge with the 2/12 Battalion in WW2)

From: www.anzacday.org.au


I lost my paternal grandfather in the war,... couldn't even tell you exactly which one. But I don't need Anzac Day to remind me how sad it is that I never met him. All need do is think about my dad and how he lived his life. His childhood was destroyed because he didn't have a dad to care for him. His mother had to work day and night to care for 3, and later 4 boys. My dad's history is littered with years spent in childrens' homes around Sydney because his mother was unable to work and care for all 3 kids. He was forced to grow up far too young. He was made to fight for himself, for food and shelter. He learned how to do the laundry and the housework the hard way because he had to. Whenever I hear about the war my heart aches,... not for the grandfather I never knew, but for the dad I did know who never knew his dad.

My dad was in the national ballot in the 60s, I'm so glad he never got called up. I think God protected all of us that time. He is the father to the fatherless.

My handy floristry bookmarks

Chain of Life Network - A wonderful collection of well-researched horticultural information. Includes information for growers and florists.

E-Jay Trading's Online Floristry Course - a very detailed blog written by a talented florist and floristry trainer named Evie

Ezy Bouquet - real florists hate this idea, but the whole notion of 'recipes' makes me think rather logically about what I include in a bouquet and why. Call it revision of the elements and principles of design,...

Flora's Feast - a Cafepress store with gorgeous floral designs

Florist Susan Avery - provides some nice fact sheets and useful information

Florists' Review 101 Wedding Bouquets - a preview of an inspirational floristry book via google books

Florists' Review - site of the well established American floral industry magazine. Good source of inspiration and brief instructions. Click on 'In this issue' to access previews of current and past issues.

Floriculture Australia - Fresh flower grower / wholesaler with great website and some useful care information.

Flower Arrangement Advisor - Great general theory & tips on floristry

Flowergoss - It's like Facebook for Florists. Cool.

Flowers On Board - Floristry wholesaler with some good photos of plants and a broad range of products

Hidden Garden Flowers

Open Directory of Flower / Greenery Wholesalers

Market Fresh Flowers Page - wonderful flower care information direct from the Melbourne Flower Markets. Nice. Specific to Australia, or should I say, the cooler southern states of Australia.

Ray's Florist Blog - lots of good information and tutorials.

Save on Crafts - a handy site with lots of floristry tutorials

Super Floral Retailing - monthly magazine previews include good flower care information and design ideas.

There's also a site called ubloom, google it if you're still after floristry information and none of my other bookmarks have helped you. Frankly, they rate a mention but not a link. They have a bit of information but mostly it's just a big fat ad.

Visions of Silk Blog - tips on working with artificial flowers

My handy bookmarks

ABC TV Site

Brisbane City Library Catalogue

Catalogue Central - for the junk mail junkie (See also Lasoo)

Crafster's ultimate purse, bags & wallets tutorials list

Craft Bits

Ebay About Me page

Exclusively Food - absolutely delicious recipes

Facebook

Farmgirl fare - check out the pizza recipe

Fit Day - diet and exercise journal

Fresh For Kids - Healthy Food info for kids (and grown ups too)

Frugal Families Blog

Frugal Hacks

Frugal Living About.com

Frugal Upstate

Google

Google Australia

Harris Adventures Blog

Heather Castle - Illustrator

Ikea hacker

Instructables

Lasoo - More for the catalogue junkie

Matching Pegs - Blog of old pal, Claire. V. Crafty and colourful.

My Cycle - Online cycle tracker complete with e-mail alerts.

Naturally Tasty - Awesome recipes, if I do say so myself.

Our Daily Bread Devotional - updated daily

PCOS Association of Australia

Snipshot - online photo manipulation

The Cook and The Chef - Maggie and Simon!

The Dollar Stretcher

Thrifty Fun

TV Guide in Brisbane Tonight

Vine & Branches

"Flowers are God's calling cards"

I have been having a little bit of fun with fd's Flickr Toys. This is the 'motivator' but I can't wait to try the mosaic and the 'Hockneyizer' - a type of photo collage. hehehe. Let's play. This will be fun!

Take care everybody,... don't get RSI in your mouse arm like I have. sigh.

The Glamelia Corsage.

Here's a gorgeous idea from Florists' Review, the Glamelia Corsage. This design is created by wiring several gladioli petals together to give the appearance of a camelia. Why? Practicality. Colour choice. If you're using glads for wedding centrepieces, why not use a couple of blooms for Nanna's cute corsage???

I actually went to Florists' Review to find out some flower care info, but got distracted (for about 2 hours) looking at their gorgeous designs and accompanying instructions.

Here's what I went there for in the first place! Flower care info for my darn floristry assignment.

• Florists' Review Magazine - I love their design ideas!
  
• Super Floral Retailing
• Chain of Life Network
• Market Fresh Flowers (Aussie info)

Links I'm loving.

Nothing Design - Asian design philosophy, amazing ideas. I have many favourites among their products but this shadow bench is pretty special.

U Bloom - a nice floristry portal of sorts.

Style Statement: Live by your own design - sounds like something I'm craving,... Hmmm. Not am I even living by God's design at the moment. I feel like I'm living by someone else's design,... someone who's pushy and controlling and thinks it's funny. Someone I used to defend in mixed company,...

Enough of my bitter struggles. Check out my links instead. They're nice. They're worth returning to. I don't want to forget them or have them lost in a sea of my bookmarks.

[sigh]

Hope your Easter Monday was filled with rejoicing because Christ is Risen. Don't forget that tidbit of Good News.

Another florist to learn from.

I love love LOVE this florist because they think outside the square. Floristry skills are not just useful for floral tributes, they're transferrable to other things too. A touch of class florist in Perth does balloon bouquets, lolly bouquets, chocolate bouquets, nappy cakes, and more but they do them in a nice way that does not look tacky. I'm impressed with their work.

While we're on about balloons, here's a link to some instructions for making a balloon topiary tree. I attempted one as a gift for Scott today. I have some way to go. I hope he liked it anyway. Happy 13th Anniversary, Scott.

Totally blown away,...

Just been viewing the amazing website of Grandiflora. Totally blown away.

Am currently contemplating a florist in Brisbane to approach regarding my vocational prac for my floristry course. It's hard to find any that compare to this,... and I would feel completely unworthy approaching such a magnificent florist too.

Garlands looks pretty special too.

The most inspirational florist I've stumbled across in Brisbane has to be Divine Flowers. It's a possibility for my prac, I guess. It's on the same side of town as we are. Their work is Gorgeous. With names like 'Red Hedge', 'Lipstick', 'Chilli' and the most obvious 'I love you', their designs are truly alluring. Go fetch.

Supermarket Catalogues

For a while now, I've been doing the very tightwad thing of comparing prices for my groceries. I do this by creating a price book in an excel spreadsheet and recording and comparing apples with apples. This was described in detail in the Tightwad Gazette and is a key strategy to saving money on things you regularly buy - especially the non-perishables. Knowledge is power when you have your own reliable records of supermarket pricing and you can act when a bargain is more than just catalogue hype and is ACTUALLY cheaper than normal, or cheaper than the supermarket down the road.

So, for convenience sake, I am going to post the links here to various supermarkets from my area. It saves me having a house full of junk mail! Instead, I can just check prices online before I do my shopping list.

• Aldi (Specials posted in advance but generally apply from Thursdays)
  
• Big W
  
• Bi-Lo
  
• Coles (Updated Thursdays, Location currently set to Toombul)
• K-Mart
• Mrs Flannerys - Only posts specials for the first Saturday of the Month
  
• Woolworths (Updated Mondays, Location currently set to Nundah)

Here are some general catalogue sites that are pretty useful for comparison shopping. Save yourself some serious leg work before you go shopping.

• Australian Catalogues (Home) - Groceries (Direct link) - This site includes K-Mart, Ikea, Big W, Myer, David Jones, Retravision, Harvey Norman. Handy!
• Lasoo - This site includes some of the above, plus Target, Toys R US, Sams Warehouse.
• Catalogue Central - This site includes Freedom, IGA, Telstra, Teds Camera House and more.
  
• Oz Bargain - This site appears useful, but also appears to require registration. It is more 'user' based than 'store' based, with people posting specials they have come across. Appears to have lots of cheap airfares.

The No S Diet by Reinhard Engels

I love this diet idea. It's a really simple set of rules to follow:

No Sweets (foods where main ingredient is sugar)
No Snacks (between meals)
No Seconds
Except on days that start with S (weekends, special occasions, sick days)

I've given you some extra explanation to help your understanding of this diet, but in reality it is so simple. It is designed to fit in with our psychological tendencies. There is no deprivation in this diet, just waiting until meal time and a LOT of commonsense.

Even the crazy exercise program Reinhard suggests, the Shoveglove, is based on the psychologically insignificant timeframe of 14 minutes. I'm impressed. I'm really impressed.

Reinhard talks occasionally about the spiritual aspects of this diet,... but he doesn't really highlight them. I imagine he's referring to the deprivations and obsessions that so often occur when dieting begins. I can actually see in its detail some Biblical principles. Firstly, that each meal is not to be taken lightly, but to be appreciated and savoured. If it is not both delicious and nutritious, then it is not serving any real purpose. When you only have 3 plates of food a day, you make them count.

Not that Reinhard say this, but this is the sentiment behind the laws of Leviticus - If food is eaten without attention (like a snack), without gratefulness, or without true regard for the animal who gave up its life so you could eat, then it probably amounts to gluttony. An animal is sacrificed to the Lord and then the Israelites would seek forgiveness from God. They only ate meat when their hearts were right before God. I think that's important. It's obviously something vegetarians are sensitive to - even if they don't believe in God. They're aware that in eating meat they are taking away a life that has value, so they don't eat it. In the Biblical book of Daniel, he is only too aware of this and asks to be fed only vegetables, pulses and water. He was one of the healthiest men in the King's Court.

That's a tangent,... but most of us are overweight because we're gluttons, plain and simple. That said, learning to eat 3 round meals a day and no more, is a significant change for our bodies to accomodate. But Reinhard says that psychologically and physically our bodies adjust to this. We learn a new way of eating and the weight drops off.

"What is the best way to determine my "ideal" weight? I don't think there is much point in having an ideal weight. Have ideal behavior -- habits of moderate eating and exertion. Whatever you weigh then is ideal."
- Reinhard Engels

I'll let you know how I go.

Could I do it too?

Haven't posted for a while. Welcome to the silly season. I have only put on a couple of kilos during this year's silly season but it has been a really really uncomfortable one. A combination of heat, weight and PCOS and its complications has been really bringing me down. My body was doing well before this year's dose of IVF, but since I finished the IVF drugs I have not returned to normal. I have returned to something similar to what I was many years ago. It's not good.

Anyway, I found myself thinking some sad thoughts the other night. I'm not suicidal. I couldn't do that,... but I felt like I was just waiting to die. My body aches every day, my stomach only gets larger not smaller - frankly, I am beyond making efforts to get rid of the excess weight. When I found myself thinking those morbid thoughts, I realised it is time to consider drastic measures. It is time to do myself a favour.

As a result, I've been reading Bridget Parker's blog. I wonder if I could do it too.

[sigh]