Going Organic

Since I started working on my garden in the past month, I've been seriously looking at what I'm eating - and looking at labels more closely as well.

And ... well, you wouldn't believe how much salt and sugar is in a lot of things we put in our shopping trolleys. 

So, I've been slowly going organic in my home. First it was me installing the green house (which I'll be saving up for a bigger one to be able to grow veggies and other fruits so I can save myself money each pay) and I've begun growing the herbs and a Black Cherry Tomato vine in there - it's looking great! 

Now, I've planted out some garlic - which will take a year to harvest. I don't mind; as I'm a patient person when it comes to plants. 

So, seeing I'm the type of person who loves to cook all my meals from scratch, it's something I've begun to look at when I'm shopping. I've gotten into eating ketchup - and not the ordinary one, but the organic one. Sure it's a little more expensive, but it's worth it too! It has less sugar and no salt in it; and I read the ingredients as well. 

It's amazing when you go organic in your diet... everything changes - you eat less junk food (even though you do eat it, and know it's there, you don't eat as much of it as before). You drink more water and tea. You sleep so much better than you ever did before; and you have so much more energy as well. 

All of this takes time to happen, but it happens. However, when it's only you doing it, it becomes difficult to go anywhere where nobody else is eating organic foods; as they think everything is organic when it may not be. I know this sounds like I've joined a cult - but read the back of everything you buy (believe me, I've had to in my life of being allergic to a lot of things in food) and you'll find out there's a lot of additives in food you never knew existed. 

Going organic is great - but it's not cheap. What makes it cheap is when you start growing your own food, herbs and cooking everything from scratch... that's when you see how long it takes to do things, like make a pizza. The dough takes around an hour - and the pizza establishments put sugar in their dough to make you eat more; but when you make it at home, there's no sugar in the recipe. It just tastes wonderful all on its own. 
If we all grew our own herbs and veggies and made time to cook everything we ate, I think we'd be a little more healthier, the big shopping centres will have to support the better way of living and there'd be more fruit and veggie markets around. 

But seeing that's in a world of another universe where none of that exists, I guess we'll have to start off small and work on this together, one person at a time. I'll do my bit, but if you wish to join in and 'go organic', that's entirely up to you. You have to stick with it though - and yes, there's an upside to it:

You lose weight.
You enjoy fresh food more.
Cooking becomes something of a love.
You look at your garden differently.
Shopping is a whole new experience - not a nice one.

I have been changing the way I live for years - slowly moving my tastes from Cadbury's Chocolate to Lindt Chocolate... from sweet and creme-filled biscuits to gluten-free seaweed biscuits. From margarine, to nut oil spreads to good, old-fashioned butter. It's taken me time to learn to use Olive Oil and butter in my cooking and not sunflower oil or any other types of oil... it just tastes so much different and better. 

And going organic shows in my blood test results. My sugars are a steady 4.6. My cholesterol is high (but that's my medication do that bad crap) but my lifestyle has kept it from doing anything awful to me. My weight has stopped yo-yoing all over the place. I'm going well for somebody in my mid-40's, when I thought I'd be a complete mess... and I'm not. 
Don't get me wrong, I have had times when I do fall off the healthy, organic ways and munch into some of the worse food around - and I did it recently when a friend of mine took her own life - and I felt awful. I didn't sleep, I felt sick and I put on weight from it all. So, within a few weeks, I jumped back in and worked my way into taking care of myself again even more than before because I'm still grieving and feeling her loss even more than ever now I'm finding myself singing (she was a singer) and enjoying the music more than ever too... and keeping to the good eating way of life is best.

Going organic isn't a cult, it's taking care of yourself in the right way. I call it 'Living Like My Grandparents' because it is. It's living and eating the food, making the meals, drinking leaf tea and full-cream milk and cream and butter the way it used to be. It's getting outside and working in the garden every weekend. It's going for an afternoon walk every day to see the day out - no matter what the weather - and it's keeping yourself away from the takeaway food which is clogging up our arteries and making us sick. 

Let's stop making ourselves sick and go back to eating like our Grandparents did. If you look back into the 1940's - 1970's, you won't see a single overweight person in photos or films. They ate burgers, pizzas and other junk food, but it was all without the crap we have in it today. They didn't sit in front of computers and they worked out, walked and swam, enjoyed dancing and going out to dance halls (and by the way, where are those big dance halls today - oh that's right, the governments have destroyed them all!). The kids went out to roller skating rinks and enjoyed life... and that's how life should be: organic in every way.  

Stress Relief

It's been almost 2 months since my friend Hannah died, and almost a month since her service; and I've gotten right into fixing up the garden in a huge way. I've spent every pay packet on something big in it and normally I wouldn't. 

I think this is way to deal with my loss, and it's also a way to deal with my stress as well.

What do you think?

Over the past month, I've installed a greenhouse, repotted a lot of plants, given my folks two Agapanthus (they flower purple, so that's going to look wonderful this Summer) and I've dug out my late-Pop's tomato seeds to plant before Spring.

I haven't spent this much time in the garden since Little Miss Stevie died in 2012; so really I think it's my way of dealing with a great loss in my life. And my garden is looking so much different now things have been moved around and the greenhouse has been installed as well!

Also, I haven't been posting in here as often as I want to; but things will be changing soon... I will be getting in and talking more about life, how much it's changed and what I've been up to - as my social life has changed a lot as well. 

Anyway, if you'd like to see a more detailed post about my garden, you can go to the blog about - as I keep a blog about my garden now, and there's a good album about it on Facebook as well on My Private Little Garden. If you're not currently a member on that public site, just ask, and I'll let you in - no problems. Well, until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Back to the Real World

Yesterday, I went out to my art class and hadn't even left the unit complex when I saw a Dad walking his two kids out the front to see them off at the bus stop. But he had given one of them his phone to play with - the youngest one - and she proceeded to walk all over the road, in front of my car. Of course I stopped, waited until she was pulled of the road by her Dad and then crawled past. But she was out in front of my car again before I knew it with the phone up in front of her face not looking where she was going.

Now, her Dad became very frustrated with her and took the phone from her, pocketing it and telling her to watch where she was walking - which didn't do anything for her sense of direction. She took the phone from his pants pocket and started looking at it again (he didn't know she had done this). By this time, I was at the car gate waiting for it to open; and the little girl walked straight into the back of my car with the phone in her hand! Her Dad snatched it from her and walked around the driver's side and told both kids to 'come around here' but they walked around the passenger side of my and in front of my car (just as the car gate cleared my car) and ran to their Dad, who yelled at them. He spotted that his daughter had yet again had in her hands his phone! He grabbed it, put it away - again - and then smacked her, then her brother who asked him why he got smacked. The Dad told the older child it was for not doing as he was told (following his father's direct orders) and the youngest for taking the phone when he had confiscated it from her more than once and not watching where she was walking. 

Now... I watched this whole thing and am wondering exactly how are we going to bring up children to understand that those blue glowing screens aren't the end all and be all of everything? 

Okay, I have a smartphone and I use it a lot, but I don't go wandering around with it glued to my face all the time or have it plugged into my ears. I'm also on the computer and on the internet - but only for a certain amount of time. 

There has to be something done about the generation of children we're bringing into this world, as they're going to wind up so engrossed in their computer world that they won't understand or know what's going on around them. 

Seeing how I was brought up in the 1980's where computers were in their infancy, and now they fit neatly in our pockets, I think it'd be a great idea if this generation of children were introduced to a few days a week where they were disconnected from the Wifi completely just so they didn't have the convenience of Facebook, Google or texting their friends. This is so they are forced to get their backsides outside and to breath some fresh air and not air-conditioning, to pick up a real book, get in and and get their hands dirty with some gardening or taking out the rubbish without throwing an all-out tantrum that they're going to miss out on something online... oh yes, that all-famous FOMO. 

And before anyone jumps on here, telling me that's not possible, well, I have at least one day a week where I'm not online. I don't have Foxtel or Wifi in my house and I have recently gone without data on my smartphone and found it rather refreshing to not be bothered by endless texts or any weird phone calls from scammers (yes, they need to know if you've got data to actually call you - strange but true). It was nice, quiet and interestingly mind-clearing to not have data on my phone for a week, simply because I couldn't afford it. 

I seriously think it's time we all turned off our phones and computers for a day and dragged our families out into the real world kicking screaming to breath some air, look outside, turn our faces up to the blue, blue sky (which really isn't blue, but an illusion - I'm not going into here) and enjoy the lovely thing called Nature. Yes, we seem to be missing out on that lately. 

Old-Fashioned Values

For my birthday last week - last Thursday to be exact - I went out with my family to a great hotel and had dinner. I love this old-fashioned way of celebrating; it keeps everyone in contact with each other.

But then, I also love old-fashioned things anyway. 

I collect vinyls/records. I collect books and don't own an ereader (and with all my real-print books, why would I?). I cook all my meals from scratch and enjoy every minute of making something where I know what goes into that meal. I love to knit, stitch, sew and paint presents and create things from raw materials - instead of going and buying things from a store and giving it to somebody.

Why, just recently, I brewed up Limoncello... it was amazing and brilliant! I loved doing it - even though it made a complete mess and I had to clean the kitchen a few times to get rid of the stickiness of it. But it worked out and everyone loves it!

I also love to write letters to people. There's one lady in particular who I write to - who will never see this post - and she lives in Toowoomba with her family. Joan Lane has been known to my family for years - decades. Since I was around 6 years old, I've known Joan as my second Grandmother when I met her down the coast at Brunswick Heads. She was just the most lovely and wonderful person there. When my folks wanted to have a night out somewhere, I could go to Joan and Ted's van to be somewhere safe... these people were trustworthy and generous and loving. They were hardworking people and great kids too. 
However, times change, and Ted and Joan moved to Toowoomba when they found they were feeling the holiday to Brunswick Heads was becoming to hard to do. Then, Ted passed away and Joan's family kept her closer. This was around the time I started writing yearly letters to her - and about the time I found out she wasn't too crazy about the internet or technology. 

So, I adapted for her. 

I tried to send her a cd of photos, but she wouldn't even approach a computer - not without Graham, her son - to help her out. However, Graham is busy with work; so it would have been days before she got to see the photos which correlated with the letter. So, I put them onto thumb drive, went to K-Mart and got them printed up. Then, I numbered them, wrote on the backs of them all and then, sent the rather plump parcel to Toowoomba - to her home address - and she could see them all as she read the letter! 

And the letter! Well, there's no printer in my home (as my computers have a habit of closing them down because I don't use them often enough - silly things!). So, I get in and hand-write them. This takes me around 3 - 5 days and I take my time. Sure I make mistakes, but I just cross out the mistake and keep on writing; doing the best I can. 

Well! Joan loves receiving these photos and letters; and I totally enjoy writing them! It's a great way to get my mind to work slower. This is also why I write an offline journal. I get to write down more personal things that I would never dare write on here for the whole world to see, hate me for and criticise me for even thinking... I mean, how dare I be any less than a Human Being having a mind of my own, feelings of my own and the ability to write down my own feelings in my journal; and this is why I don't write down how much things of this world bother me here.

So, wouldn't it be lovely if we all could sit down and write a letter to somebody we know who would love to receive something in the letterbox. Write about how your week is going, what you've been up to, how you're working on your latest piece of art/writing/sewing/work... let that person know in your own words how you're feeling about the weather and the other things in life that seem to get in the way of what you wish to do... then... add in photographs of what you've been up to, your garden, flowers, places you've been to and people you've hung out with. 

DO NOT PUT THEM UP ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA - IT DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF THIS EXERCISE.

What you're doing is:

*  Using the postal system in the way it was designed to be used.

*  Taking your time and enjoying the fact you were actually taught to write with a pen and paper when you were little for a reason.

*  Hoping the person you write to (be it your sister, uncle/aunt, mother/father or grandmother), returns a lovely letter of their crafting. 

Now, you don't do this to your neighbour... you write to somebody you rarely see. You write to somebody who hasn't seen you physically in over a year, but you talk over the phone. And the one thing you must do to make this stick is to write a yearly letter to this person - including photos in your letter - and they will love what you're doing for them.

This is: keeping up communications and contact. They will enjoy the fact you've gone out of your way to sit down over a weekend and actually write something on paper to let them know they are more important than the internet, television and your phone right now... and this is a good thing to do.

So, who do you write letters to using snail mail? I write to Joan Lane. She loves receiving my letters so much; as much as I love writing them. Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Living In the Past

I think I have a love-hate relationship with the future... there's things about the past I love more than things that are going on about now.

Things were much simpler when I was a kid. If a kid bullied you at school, that's where the bullying was kept to - the schoolyard. You didn't have them bugging the crap out of you on your phone, while you were looking things up on the computer or while you were walking down the street; because 99% of the time the parents were the ones who took full responsibility for how their little grots actually acted. I had a bully at school whose parents knew their child was a horrible little grot, so much so he even picked on his little sister - yep, not just me. But he was one of those kids who made primary school so horrible for me that when it came time for me to go to high school, I asked my folks to send me to a different one than the one they had planned for me because of him.

It's not just the bullying aspect though. I have found that other things have changed as well. The way people cook is making us all so lazy. Instead of everyone cooking their family meals from scratch and sitting down at the kitchen table, most people are relying on satchels of powder where you add water, milk or cream and then you add it to something in a microwave pot, pop it in the microwave for ten minutes and hey, after cooking some rice up on the stove (yep, that's just about all people know how to cook now - besides boiling eggs and water), dinner is ready and they go and sit on the lounge and watch 'Gogglebox' or 'Survivor' or some reality television show which makes them dumber. 

Now, I'm not speaking for everyone here... but I've seen some people just pull the oddest things from the pantry and say they're 'going to cook dinner' when really they're not cooking anything, but making what I've dubbed 'plastic food'. I make dinner from scratch - and it takes over an hour to do. I buy my fruit and veggies from a farmer's market where if I don't eat it, the food actually rots in my fridge or on my benchtop in bowls (where I put fruit ready to eat!). I have milk, organic cream and full-cream, salted butter in my freezer and in a butter dish on my bench - where the latter belongs; not in the fridge where everyone seems to think mixing it with margarine is a great idea. 

I've gone back to eating the same way as my Grandparents and have felt so much better for it! My weight used yo-yo, but now it's stable. My blood pressure isn't up and down either. My blood sugars are also a very normal 4.6 - and don't move at all. And for a person who is from a family of Type II Diabetics, and has naturally low blood pressure, the doctors are very happy for me to stick to the 1960's diet I've 'discovered'... you see, it's not really a discovery I've made. The retro 1960's diet is one which is something which has been forgotten by society. 
Okay, we're a lot busier nowadays, but it shouldn't mean that we have to let our diet suffer. And just because I'm not doing paid work, doesn't mean I'm not working on anything in my life. I'm always busily do something to improve myself, my way of life or I'm working on something around my house.  I don't always have time to make dinner - but I make sure I have time to eat good food.

This has meant I have to let go of the futurist way of life. 

Yes, I have the internet - as you can plainly see - but I don't play with my phone constantly. I have a Tech-Free day once a week, where I'll turn off the computer, the television and just go for a whole day without looking either one and enjoy the day away from it all - sometimes, I go for two days without the high-tech stuff just for the fun of it. I'll pull out the vinyls and read some books, put away some art gear, work on the garden, or a painting and enjoy life just how it used to be when I was younger... and you know? It frees up my mind and I get some great ideas for writing. 
When this happens, I jump in and get out the typewriter and type up some pages of work on the table. Yes, I have a manual typewriter just for these tech-free days, so I can get in and get right back to the good ol' days of writing. A typewriter makes me really think about my words before I put them onto the page... it's a great way of writing. 

I'm also in the throws of changing my furniture back into the 1960-70's style of furnishings. In the last month or so, I've bought myself a gorgeous Chiswell Dining setting, and now, I want to buy a lounge to match the rest of the house... as the lounge I have now is very 1990's, and it just doesn't match anything I have. Yes, it's the last piece which isn't a part of the house... so I'll be saving up for a lovely old lounge over time. 

It's not hard to live in the past... what does make it difficult is how the outside world affects you when you step outside your home. This is why I love my home the way it is - retro and cluttered with little things that make it look and feel so cosy. I hang out my laundry on the clothes line and it dries out there - and I've seen so many people dump their clothes from the washing machine straight into the dryer because they claim they don't have time to wait for their clothes to dry on the line. However, when you line-dry your clothes, they last longer, feel softer and have been disinfected by the sun. In a clothes dryer, none of that has happened to your clothes.

If you live a retro lifestyle - like I do most of the time - good for you! I've been talking to a kindred spirit. However, if you're hooked into the futurist life and feel as though I've been bantering at you about a 'long lost era which I'm just dreamin' about'... well, you've failed to see my point here today. Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Life Stages

We all go through stages in our lives; and some are good, some bad. I'm going through that mid-life stage in my life where I'm settling into knowing exactly what I want... and it's funny I should have known I wanted this all along, but I didn't want people thinking I was being a dag about what I liked.

Isn't it funny how we all wonder how people what people think of us? Now, some of you will say that you don't believe in that baloney, but really deep down inside, you do. Before you leave the house, you look in the mirror at what you're wearing and wonder: do I look good today? That's you making an outside judgement of what others will think of you. For me, if I'm comfortable in my clothes, that's all that really matters; so long I have on matching socks, ear-rings and a nice necklace, and nice perfume, I'm set to leave the house.

But it's taken me until I'm into my 40's to realise that I love the 1970's way of living. The decor of my house has taken a huge step backwards a few decades and I'm hoping to keep it there. I have been happily working away at making it look nice, and enjoy the love of coming home to a retro-furnished home. However, I didn't realised how retro my house was until I bought my kitchen table to replace the Art Deco one; and the Chiswell one fitted in so well with most of my living room. The only thing which doesn't fit in now is my lounge - it's too modern; so it has to be replaced with something that fits in with the decor of the room; so make it feel right.

If you told me that I was going to be doing this with my furniture five or ten years ago, I would have laughed at you, asking what the hell you were talking about... and what would people think of me. Now, I'm older, I really just want my house to be comfortable, to reflect how I feel about life and how I want my life to be. It's another stage of my life I'm working through - it's a very cool stage; and I'm looking forward to finding that right style of lounge to fit into my living room. Then it's a case of getting rid of my old lounge... I'm sure that won't take long.

So, what stages have you found yourself going through in your life? Are they as sudden as mine are? Or are they subtle and less noticeable? Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Life Changes For the Better

A few years ago, I started on changing my life for the better; it began with cleaning out my townhouse. I didn't really know where to start, so I looked up Peter Walsh on Facebook and looked at what he was advising people - and I started taking on his challenges to clean out my house.

I threw out so much rubbish and gave away so many things to charities around my area - and I don't miss any of it!

Then, I had to start on getting into doing things that made me happy... and I didn't just mean getting a good night's sleep and drinking green tea every night; this was where I had to find out where my Happyness disappeared to.

Yeah, I wasn't happy with my life.

I thought I was, but I wasn't. 

So, I traced back to the last time I was truly happy... it took a bit of digging around (okay, not a bit, a lot!), and I found I was happiest when I was in my late-teens! The things which made me happy then were books, reading, writing, music and cooking and gardening; which surprised me as they are just basic, ordinary things.

Who would have guessed that the ordinary, plain things in life would make somebody like me happy... I really didn't. So, I got into making my place - which was starting to look good by this time - into a home. I really didn't feel as though my townhouse was really my home.  It wasn't personalised with anything much which said it was my place.

I didn't have a front garden where I had done it all myself.  There were no photos on the walls of my family. I didn't have anything up-to-date... a lot of my things were old and outdated - except my stereo system and home office desk; but that didn't really matter. My place wasn't really my place... it honestly looked as though it was a rental.

But the changes I wanted to do around my house were huge... and to make them I had to start small. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. To make something big happen in your life, you have to begin at the smaller end of the scale: get the photos of your family on the wall, work on the plants in your garden, sort through a few more drawers in the spare room and throw out more junk - one room at a time.
And you know, it's true when you start small, things just seem to snowball. I started with looking at my bedroom... and knowing I needed a new bed. But then, when I looked through the catalogues, it wasn't just mattress I was looking at, it was the whole suite I was looking at - and I was dreaming of upsizing too!

So, I did out my wardrobe and organised that first. I know that doesn't sound like I was working towards a new bedroom suite, but I was. I had to have everything organised enough to make sure I wanted the size of the drawers I needed - and you know something? I haven't looked back. Once I organised the bedroom, the rest of the house kind of followed it. 
I searched for a year to find the exact hall table I wanted - a full year! - and even though it's about 20cm too long, it's just right for what I need it for. I love it! It holds all my family photos, two terrariums and all the hooks, chargers and some light bulbs I'll ever need in the drawers.

And I started small... really small. And it's taken me over 3 years to have the house anywhere near what I want it to be.  Okay, it's got mess still, but not as bad as it used to be. I have art gear everywhere still, and yet my painting projects are all in one area because I built a work bench for my hobby business this year.

So, life changes are for the better when you start small - tiny - and they could be eating better, starting to walk every day instead of driving, reading three chapters of a book you've been looking at on the shelf for the past three months.  It can be anything, but it'll be small to start with... and it all begins with you making those changes.

I did; and I'm still doing those changes every day, every week - and I'm a better person for them. Compared to five years ago, my life is a total opposite today. Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Look Up From Your Phone

Living life in the now is harder than we think. There's blogs and posts and Facebook and 365Project - all on the net - and yet we have all these friends and people following our goings-on in our lives; only to find we're so lonely in reality.

When we turn off our computers, phones and iPads and look around our homes, they're often empty or filled with people who are our family; and yet they're complete strangers to us, simply because we don't communicate with each other in the old-fashioned ways.

In the times when of Wi-Fi and Broadband internet, I have found the world has become a much smaller place. Instead of sending a hand-written letter to somebody, we send an e-mail instead. A photograph is easily posted online for so many people to see - and for the most part, we never get to meet them, and some of them, we don't know who they are.

And then there's this short film/ballad I have seen do the rounds on the net, and it's come around again... and I wish to show it to you all. 

I grew up in a time where I'd spend most of my afternoons and weekends out with my neighbour's kids, running around and playing. We'd be on our bikes, climbing trees, playing soccer, swimming and going to the park up the road or skateboarding at the local shopping centre because it would be closed and car park would be empty.

Now, kids are sitting glued to their televisions playing games, to their computers, phones and other devices while their parents seem to think that this is what it takes to bring them up - just to stick a recently invented device in front of them and leave them to it while they themselves are addicted to the glowing screen.

I'm a writer and have become an addict to this screen.  However, it's because I'm a writer I have to change my work ethics to keep up with the times, to make sure I'm not left behind in this world of publishing.

Also in my life, I get in and do other things to keep myself active.  There's volunteer work, painting, gardening, cooking, craft and arts and I also love to refurbish old furniture.  When I do get away from the computer and the devices, my brain feels freer and I enjoy working with my hands more. There's a certain freedom to being able to be away from the new technology... and until you make sure you do this a few times a week, you don't realise how much you actually are addicted to it.  

So, here's the link to the ballad about it. I hope you look up from your devices in the next day or so and take in our world... because really, we're missing out on some pretty wonderful things out there.

I Finished My Grandma's Glory Box

Yes!  I finished it!  And yesterday it came home with me!  I'm so pleased it's turned out the way it did!  And it fits everything in it that I hoped it would - including cushions and some pillowcases that I wanted to store inside there.

And this gave me a chance to get my wardrobes organised too - and so I did those too!

I moved all my sheets down one shelf, my jumpers and Winter stuff from the top shelf to where the sheets used to be and then put the large vintage suitcase from my main wardrobe to the vacant space up top!  It took up the whole space, so nothing else can fit up there - not what I had hoped for - but then that doesn't matter.

I then moved my large, long pillow and boomerang pillow up where the suitcase used to live and they fit perfectly.  
Then, the sheets got a doing out... it was good because I don't use a lot of the sheets in there anymore and it'll be good to get rid of what I don't need.  All the ones I put into the hallway ended up in a large rubbish bag and in the boot of my car to drop off to the RSPCA World at Springwood.

Once I looked around and found that the Glory Box had everything I had hoped fitted in it (the orange quilt, cushions, some little stuffed animals who sit on my bed when I make it and Boomerang Pillowcases), I slotted in the shelf Grandpa had made for the box and put all my gloves inside that and found I had room for other things too - but I'm not sure what yet. 
Then, I looked around and realised that if I wanted to fit in another few pieces of furniture - which I do - the Glory Box will have to go on the end of my bed.  So, I moved it carefully to the end of my bed and found it looks so much better there!  And it's not as big as I had pictured in my head!  

But man!  It's such a pretty piece!  I love it... honestly I do.  I loved fixing it up, and I'm sure my late-Grandma Killips would totally happy to know that one of her grandchildren fixed it up to look like this... to make sure it lived on for another fifty years or so. And you, know?  My niece, Riley will be getting this Glory Box when I'm no longer around... and I'm sure she'll love it as much as I do.  So, what have you got in your family which is an heirloom that has been passed down through the generations and you've finally been able to received?  Do you still have it?  If so, how old is it, and is it still in reasonably good shape to keep on display?  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Oh... and here's a photo of my Glory Box:

Grandma's Glory Box - then and now

Eating Like Grandma

Yesterday, while I was at my craft group, a topic in conversation cropped up about food and how people prepared their meals today; compared to how their parents did in the 1940's and 1950's.

How we eat now is a far cry compared to food preparation of our parents or even our grandparents.  And I can vouch for that.  I've grown up with all kinds of junk food and have found it change and morph into stuff I don't recognise over time - and worse still - something I don't want to.  

Like meat.  I don't want to go near it.  I remember meat used to have marbling in it - that fat in it where it made it tasty.  Now, meat is just red, looks horrible and feels horrible.  I'm not saying this because I'm a vegetarian, but it's just how meat has been treated over time; and the reason why I became a vegetarian.
And before you tell me I'm missing out on some great things... I'm eating more food than I ever did when I was a meat-eater.  I'm eating more fruit and vegetables than my folks have ever seen me get into, drinking more water and Cranberry juice, more eggs and milk and vegemite... and yet, I've noticed that I can eat a lot of food and not gain any weight.

That's another thing too.  My doctors seem to think that I'm overweight and that I should lose weight.  I'm an Australian size 12 top and bottom and dress size and am happy with who I am.  I eat everything to my heart's content and don't like takeaway foods of any kind.  So, why are they telling me to lose weight?  Have you ever had this kind of thing happen to you too?

I'm one of those rare people who buys food seasonally, cooks their meals from scratch (so their kitchen rarely seems to be tidy) and I plan my dinner at around 4pm so I have the time to get in and make my meal properly.  I make all my own spaghetti sauces, pizza doughs, cannelloni stuffings, pasta and anything else that I wish to eat from scratch... and you know, once you know how to make the food you love from the very beginning, you don't want to order in ever again.  Dominos pizza just doesn't seem the same when you've eaten your own home-made pizza dough with your own toppings and cheese... and you've cooked that sucker right on top of a proper pizza stone!  Now, that's how it's supposed to be done.

However, so many people go out and eat the biggest load of fat, crap and takeaway food I've ever laid eyes on and wonder why they're putting on weight.  What I'm wondering is:  why is it that sugar was a natural staple in my grandparent's time - and even my parents' time - and now, it's enemy number one?  It's the same with salt, eggs, carbs and most other things we usually eat that were considered healthy in the 1980's.  However, I have ignored most people saying sugar is poison or salt will harden my arteries or that full cream milk is bad for me.  Yes, I've just looked at what people at in the 1950's and kept up that ordinary, plain, eat what you cook diet.  And you know?  I'm not overweight, I'm not craving junk food and my doctors keep telling me that I'm borderline... borderline what?  Please tell me, because I feel great.  I sleep well, I'm eating well.  My skin is clear, my hair is good...my nails are good too.  So, tell me, what is so bad about eating the diet that our grandparents ate?  It's good fresh food made in the kitchen which does take time.

And for a generation of people who are so time-poor, I think taking time out and living like their grandparents for a while would do their stress good.  Slow down.  Check out what you're eating.  Learn good cooking techniques and enjoy yourself, your life and everything around you.  Life is the journey... not the destination.  Food is your fuel to get there.  Make sure it's good fuel, or you'll be worn out before you arrive.

I Love Cooking!

Cooking is a big part of my life; always has been.  However it hasn't been until the last few years I've gone out and really bought up big on the kitchen utensils and recipe books to learn to make what I can normally get as takeaway food.  Seeing I can't afford to buy a lot of things, and I enjoy cooking in my kitchen, I also love to learn to cook new things.

When I first moved out, I was into the fastest way to make things.  But when that fell through as quickly as my food was produced, I started looking through my recipe books I already had and learning how to make stir-fry sauces, learning exactly what to put into those stir-fry meals to make it taste like a takeaway - or better than a takeaway.  And I also started questioning where my food came from, how good it was for me and how I could store it to keep it longer.  
I found that not everyone was as curious about food as I was.  So, Mum bought me a wonderful book about food: 'What Food Is That: And How Good Is It For Me?' (or something long those lines).  It's a great reference book on nearly every food possible you'd come across in the shopping aisle and at the veggie market.  It tells you how to take care of food once you get it home, what you can cook it with, how to cook it, where it originates from and what the nutritional values it has.  I'm amazed at how much this book has in its index about food.

However I didn't stop there.  I wanted to know how make different types of food.  When Summer came around and it was stinking hot, I asked my American friends for a good Ice Tea recipe and I got one sent to me through the mail.  It was wonderful!  I loved it and have been making it for almost three years now; and it's so refreshing to have Ice Green Tea in the fridge just sitting there waiting for me to drink.  I even made some last year for my niece's birthday and the two jugs I made didn't last 20 minutes on the table!

And this year, I found a vegetarian bible recipe book where the food in it was amazingly delicious-looking... and when I tried out a cannelloni, it looked just like it did in the book!  And it tasted just as wonderful!  I've perfected the recipe and made it for most of my family and they love it!
Now, I'm onto pizzas... I've bought a book on how to make the base and bought a pizza stone and a proper cutter too.  And my first pizza wasn't anything much - as they are with most first-times with most recipes - but the second time, I had a better idea of what it was supposed to look like and be like... so I had a great dough that rose; and rose well!  

Yes, I love to cook.  I love the mess I make in my kitchen, the amount of flour that gets everywhere, the feeling of accomplishment that comes with serving up something that tastes as delicious as it smells; and then, realising I have to clean up... well, that's a part of cooking!  But it's the fun part to see the pots, pans and bowls and spoons all become clean of the food and spices just so I can use them all over again.  
This is what the passion of cooking is about for me.  It doesn't matter how messy my kitchen becomes, it matters that I love the food I make and others enjoy my meals too.  I love how the recipes can be brought back into basic elements and easily broken down into smaller jobs to do.  

So, do you enjoy cooking?  Or do you find it too much of a chore?  My brother always told me that if you call cooking a chore, you've turned your joy into a job... how true that is of anything.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here. 

The Simple Life

Life is supposed to be simple, isn't it?  We are born, we grow up, learn, go to school, graduate (or not), go to college and/or university and then go out into the world and make a living for ourselves and families and live our lives.  

Simple, right?  

Well, not really.  So many things can get in the way, happen and screw up those plans we make for ourselves in the early parts of our lives that we don't realise exactly how complex our lives can become.
In between our health, work, family and paying the bills to keep the roof over our heads, our lives should be a lot simpler than it seems.  Many people have made their lives complicated by taking on a lot more than they can handle; and it's really not that hard to be in the world now and still live simply.

Okay that sounds a bit backwards, but it's not.

For a lot of you, you know me as a blogger, a reader, a collector of handbags, vinyls books and a gardener.  I love to cook and have a major medical condition - Epilepsy - and yet, I live very simply in this world of complex things.  I live from week to week on a Disability Pension - which I manage to put away around 1/3 of each fortnight into 4 savings accounts.  With these accounts, I'm saving for different things, but it doesn't mean I'm dipping into them all the time.  
I don't have a credit card.  I once did when I traveled to the UK, but I filled it up with money and used what was on it.  When I got home, I tried it out as a credit card, but found I couldn't work out the payments, so I had my bank get rid of it and to never send me another - and they haven't.  To date, I have no debt.  I pay all my bills on time, I pay in cash or eph-poss and if I don't have the money, and I want something expensive, I work out a payment plan.  I have been working this way for almost a decade, and it works.  

There's other things that I do to make my life easy.  I cook at home, don't eat takeaway food and, seeing I have my own music collection, I have a huge array of music to entertain myself.  Having my own dvd collection also helps in being able to watch what I want when I want... my movie collection has paid itself off many times over when I've wanted to have a movie marathon over a weekend; and it's been lots of fun.
My life is a lot simpler than most people's.  I'm an artist too, so when I want to do something for somebody's birthday or for them at Christmas, I can find the right things for them in the right places, or I can easily make the thing I want to give them.  

My life never used to be this simple.  I had a lot of stress in it and I found it difficult to live.  But when I organised myself and figured out how to get the movies I wanted to get, figured out what food I wanted to eat and have in my pantry, when I learned to cook different meals for myself, I found that life became easier.  I still struggle with things from time to time, but my life has gotten a lot easier; even though it's taken me a while to get into knowing how to work within my own boundaries and money too.  

So, how do you make your life simpler?  As you all know, I have been cleaning out my townhouse.  This is another way to keep my life in perspective too, and to keep myself from hoarding.  So, even though my house may be messy, everything has a place when I have to clean up... and that's a good thing.  At least I have come this far with my house.  Anyway, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.