TUESDAYS TREASURES

Theres no way I can pretty up this little box.  It has a story behind it. Way way back when Mr Mik and I decided that we would get married my future mum in law worked as an O.T. in Social Services teaching handcrafts to a group of elderly mentally challenged people.  She had always spoke to them about her family and what they were up to so when they found out we had finally decided to get married they wanted to make a little gift. So this old chocolate box was gussied up and they put in broken jewelry, old beads, bits and pieces of lace, all sorts of little things. For over 29 years it has been the treasure box, things taken out, things added to it. Homeless bits and pieces all go in the little box.  Its tatty and cracked (just like me) but I hope it will still be sat on the windowsill in my craftroom for many more years to come.

Its current contents are a pair of dolls shoes for the doll I never made, the ribbons and bells from the girls Lindt easter bunnies, two old belt buckles, a plastic bracelet picked up off the street, wooden beads, a badge off one of our old cars (could be off the old Kingswood wagon), hexagon papers, an original lifeboat whistle, broken jewelry and lots of the original pearl and glass beads that came with the box, sea shells, hairclips, a couple of drawing pins and lots of little fiddly bits too numerous to mention. 

Jan

JOIN CLARE over at Clarescraftroom for Tuesdays Treasure, McLinky doesn't want to play today with me so look for Clares Blog in my sidebar

On a roll........

I got my design mojo back, its been a long time coming and very welcome at this moment in time.  Sat playing with threads and colours all weekend apart from a quick trip down to the markets. Weathers been iffy all weekend but the sun finally did show its face for a couple of hours yesterday enabling me to get the washing dry.  New seedlings safely in the veggie patch, all staked and supported. So it was quite a productive weekend.
I decided after much research to make Poppy dog her food, so I set to yesterday and made special dog cookies and wet food.  She obviously knew something was going on in the kitchen, she kept popping her head round the door every time there was a banging of saucepans, she sat in anticipation at the edge of the doorway as the pot stood cooling..........and finally with wagging tail and whole body quivering in excitement she stood in front of her dish. She looked at it, she sniffed it, she backed away, she sat down, she sniffed it again and tentatively pushed the food around, she looked up at me as if to ask what I was poisioning her with.  Finally she tried it, the next second I looked it was all gone and she was sat on the mat licking her lips.  She produced the biggest known burp known to doggykind and then curled up on the sofa and went to sleep. No thank you, no nothing.  When Matt came home I had to tell him, no I hadn't bake biscuits for him they were for the dog, actually there was nothing in them that a human couldn't eat except they might be a bit hard on his teeth, he went away muttering something I didn't quite catch.
Today the sun is shining occassionally but the drizzle has stopped so the washing can get line-dried again today.  Better get to it and make the most of the decent weather.

Jan

Break out........

I am so sick of eating healthy, watching every little thing. Every so often I break out and eat bad bad food......... bacon butties made with stodgy white bread with slatherings of HP sauce.  Soooooooooooo good I'm going to go make another on and I might even stick a fried egg on top. 

jan

Two posts in one day .............

......................what some people will do to get out of cleaning, I don't know!

I've nearly finished putting everything back in the computer corner, only to realise that I have put everything back how it was before I moved it last time. Oh well at least i got to give everything a good clean.  I wonder how long it will take Matt to notice everything has been moved.

I haven't added to or taken away from the pile of files i took out of the cabinet to move it, but it seems to be a rather tight fit getting them in. Thats a job for another day I think. A quick vacumn round the rest of the house and thats it for me I think.  I have been getting my yarn stash down, I crocheted 30 beanies for the Guardian Chemist/Salvo's Homeless Appeal and I can just about get the lid on the yarn box.  WhenI have lots of little bits of yarn leftover I crochet a flower or a leaf and stick it in a box, one day i will find a project to do with them all. I used a few on the coffee plunger cosy I felted and I've sewn a few to hats and scarves. I'm looking for a really pretty granny square to do, something with a rose in the centre, I need to get this yarn stash down a bit more before I allow myself to go out and buy more.  Last year I went mad crocheting blankets for everyone and I have lots of leftover yarn from that. I have two blankets to make up out of squares I did last year, the gingham blanket is still not finished despite me saying it would be by feb last year.  The hexagon grannys flower garden crochet blanket is still not done, though I might get that finished soon and give it to a friend as a gift for winter.   I found some laura ashley fabric remnants I bought 3 years ago when I was in Melbourne. I had only used a couple when i made Jess's library bag when she started school and these others have been lying dormant until i can find something to do with them. They are 15 inches square and mainly florals and until i see something with the WOW factor that I just have to make then they will stay under the bed in their box.     Actually, did I ever post the anemone flower cross stitch I did. Because I have a vague recollection of thinking at the time I had some fabric that would go with the cross stitch to make a nice cushion.  

The house is all clean now, dusted polished and vacumned so the rest of the day is mine, until I have to get dinner.  Might just crawl under the bed and see if I can find the fabric again.  Knowing my luck it will be in the box at the back of everything else.  Would it be too much to hope for that I actually put it in a place where I could get it again easily. Or would that be too easy.  

I couldn't find the fabric but what I did find was a box of yarn under the bed - fallout from the big box and here was me being so proud of myself for using up over 2000g of yarn.  Okay, so when the small box is gone then I will treat myself to new yarn.                           

Monday

Docs appointment first thing this morning and here I am still sat in my jami's.  I've washed the breakfast pots and quickly tidied the kitchen and thats it for now.  I'll have to nip to the store and get the things I forgot on Friday, I'm with you on the grocery shopping Vicky. Has to be done though..........well if I had lots of money I'd pay someone to do it for me.   Actually thinking about it I suppose thats where my social life is - at the supermarket. I bump into all my friends there and we catch up with all the goss.  I usually go in real early now though, straight in, get what I want and straight out again, home before the roads gets busy with school traffic.

Cept this morning I am being lazy, its a bit chilly this morning - it was a lot chilly last night, so much so I filled up the old hotty bottle and put on my flanny jami's.
Yesterday was a miserable overcast day but today the sky is blue and the sun is shining. I took myself off to the antique/second hand shop and had a good browse, gorgeous vintage clothes and bits of china but nothing that shouted BUY ME.                                                               I have this restlessness again, its driving me mad at the moment. I feel that there has to be something more to everything I am doing. I know I am doing way to much - as in too many irons in too many fires.   I want to sit and craft for hours, I want to get the house painted, I want to sit and read, I want to get out there and do something, I want to stay on the puter all day long digging up the ancestors, I want to have coffee with friends and sit by the lake catching up with the goss, I want to go op-shopping, garage saling, antiquing, I want to learn a new craft, I want to landscape the garden, I want to get in the car and just drive.  So many things I want to do yet I can't decide what to do so I do nothing - well except type endless blogs about what I want to do. 
I make lists, I make plans and then I sit and wait for it all to happen.  Guess I'm going to be sitting around for a long time.

Okay, so now I better go get dressed before I'm late for the docs

Jan

I'n back, blood pressure okay so no problems, got my scripts,caught up with a friend while i was in the grocery store and back home again when in a moment of utter madness if took everything out of the filing cabinet and I'm going to move the computer desk, I'm sat here surrounded by files and everything piled up on the table and you wanna see the muck behind the filing cabinet - second thoughts, no you don't. So I now have to get the vacumm cleaner out and the duster. ooooooh and i found all the paint charts. Well i suppose i'd better get a move on and get it all moved before the day escapes from me.  This is what I do when I get restless, I clean and i declutter and make messes.

June already

Thought I'd better post to let you all know I'm still alive and kicking. Job fizzled out, what they didn't tell you was that it was 15 - 20 hours a week but those hours were split between a team of women. So its back to the job hunt.  I've been cold canvassing this week, what a demeaning thing that is. 
Long weekend this weekend, lots going on. Tour de Tableland Bike Race, Peeramon Feral Pig Hunt, African Circus, Row Boat Regatta on the Lake. All in the same area. There will be rolling road closures tomorrow while they do the time trials and at the same time hunters will be rushing to get thier pigs weighed in. Plus all the boaties, all using the same damm roads.  Timed all that well didn't they.   I'm staying home and being a grumpy old woman. One thing I don't want is to be stuck behind a ute full of dead pigs. 
Mind you there might be a lot of extra men around the place, all those male bike riders in tight lycra shorts, might be worth getting stuck behind them.
Number 2 son has finally got the horticultural traineeship he wanted, so next step is finally moving out. He's saving up for his rental bond and a few house things.  At least I won't be worried about him not eating properly - he's a great cook. 

Jan

WHERE DID THE TIME GO

I blinked and there it was and more than a  week had flown by.  I've been training, its not rocket science but everything has to be done just so.  and there are stairs...........I can run up and down them and get my exercise for the day, I think though by lunch time today the novelty had worn off.  I've stretched and I've bent and I've lifted weights, who needs to go to the gym - just get a job as a house-keeper.

Modeling the latest range of kitchen chic is Punky Plunger.  A soft varigated wool knitted in stocking stitch and subjected to much agitating then decorated with pretty little crochet flowers and leavesand a meandering of running stitch between each flower. Three buttons and felted loops (not shown) hold the whole package together.

I got bored so I got creative. Next will be a hotty watty botty cosy made from a felted fair isle jumper from the op-shop.

Red Letter Day

Happy dance around the room, I got the job, I got the job, didya hear me I GOT THE JOB.  Start training on tuesday, though with what I already know it will be a doddle.  Went to a garage sale and picked up a new computer chair in excellent condition for a fiver, a wonderful book on embroider and crafts for $2 and they threw in two crystal wine glasses I liked and a box for my embroidery threads.  How good was my day.

Jan

Still haven't hear yay or nay

Interview went very well, i was first off the block, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Beautiful place. I meditated before I went, set off early. I think I made a good impression - well I didn't do or say anything I regret. I asked the right questions at the right time. But i think because I haven't heard anything I haven't got it, but that doesn't bother me, its one more interview under my belt, one more bit of experience.  Met my friend in town afterwards (she had an interview for an admin job in town).  So now its the waiting game, she's heard about hers and she didn't get in so now I'm on tenterhooks everytime the phone rings, though because its the long weekend I don't think they'll ring till tuesday.  Isn't it awful Cheryl how intelligent people become blubbering wrecks when they are in a interview situation, its like their brains go awol.

The weather is absolutely terrible, drizzly and miserable and not a day to go garage saling.  Mould is growing on everything as fast as you clean it off. One of the downsides of living in the wet tropics.    One of the things I bet you don't miss Cheryl.

Well I was going to have a productive day today, but got stuck in 1914-1918. Norma, I did some research while ancestry was free on the military history, looks like only Harold and Sydney Skeat had any and my mums grandfather on the Neal side, though he had three attempts at getting in and deemed unfit on each one.
but his brother got in and saw active service in France.  I've got someone on The Manchester Regiments forum looking for me to check everything out.  Its all been very interesting.

I need to get my creative juices flowing again, I have been so bored recently, last night was terrible - I was so bored I did the vacumming and mopped the kitchen floor. I hate being like this but I can't put my mind to anything.  Damm , look at the time 10.00 a.m. and I'm still in my jammys. 

Jan

I GOT AN INTERVIEW

I have an interview for a job tomorrow at 9.00 a.m., don't panic. don't panic. Okay PANIC, oh my god what do I wear, what do I say, will I lost lost - don't be silly, its right on the edge of the lake.  Think girl, of all the questions they will ask you, sell yourself.  oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh I can't do that, I'm hopeless at selling myself, I freeze, I forget what I'm saying mid sentence. Don't panic, don't panic. Your're 51, grow up. Somewhere in there is a mature woman, what a time for the inner child to make her entrance.

Okay panic over, I'm calm, serene.  I've polished my shoes, made sure my clothes are ironed, I'll go through the selection criterea again. I'll go put petrol in the car and give it a quick clean. 

On a lighter less stressed out note, I just made roasted pumpkin and parsnip soup, very tasty.
Yesterday I sent off the amigurumi dolls to the magazine - they want them and the cheque for the last design is in the post.  It looks like my life is on the up and up. So even if I don't get the job at least it is experience, one more interview under my belt, I suppose each time it will get better.  See, I can be mature when I want.


ooooooohhhhhh Norma you like Johnny Depp as well, perhaps I should imagine the guy thats interviewing me is Johnny Depp star naked. 

Jan