It's A Heatwave!

Yep, it's heating up big here in Australia, and it doesn't look as though it's going to stop... it appears to be getting hotter.

So, it's five days into the New Year; and I thought it was high time I jumped on here and told you all what I've been up to.

First off, I'm a little injured - not badly - just muscle soreness from twisting the wrong way; that's all.

My car's power steering pump finally gave up on me on Tuesday while I was out dropping a friend off at her place at Crestmead and I spent the longest ten minutes of my life struggling to get my car around round-a-bouts and corners and through traffic lights! It was like driving a damned tank!

So, I thought to take it to my folks' house to grab Mum's car - but that was a bad idea that night... the car's power steering came back for one last punch and scared me, and... well, let's just say it didn't end up well with one of my neighbours. We had a good chat and I ended up taking the car to my folks' house early the next morning... I was so tired that I went back to bed and slept for another few hours. 

But the heat really hit me bad; and I found that Mum's car's steering felt strange... so I left it for a bit and yesterday went and looked at the power steering fluid. It was almost empty. 

This is where I hurt myself. I twisted the wrong way as I closed the bonnet of the car, and well, pulled a muscle in my back. I'm sore as hell. But, I've been doing Yoga stretches all day... and last night I had a hot shower, stretched out the back muscles straight afterwards before going to bed, and today? Gotta say, the more I move, the better it feels. 

But I'm digressing

Um, I don't like driving a car where something 'might' go wrong if I think it's not right. So, I went and got it looked into at a place near me called Napa - it's Autobarn but not Autobarn - and the guys there were really cool, helping me find the right stuff but said yep, it looked liked it had a leak. Told me to advise Mum to get it looked at asap.

Anyway, I was on my way home when I thought to take the car for a good ol' drive... and called up Tutasi - a friend of mine (the same friend I dropped off on Tuesday) and she jumped at the chance to head out to the op-shops and look around for furniture for her and window shop for me... I'd already spend some money in the past few days; so didn't really need anything big.
We browsed through some Super Stores and she found some lovely towels and spotted great wardrobes she really needs and kept an eye out for curtains for her step-daughter's bedroom. We found some great-looking old wardrobes, but curtains were another thing.

Well, we headed home at around 3:30pm after a good day out. I had found a bottle to put my leftover Limoncello in - which was scrubbed and sanitised within an inch of its life - and then I found some gorgeous placemats to replace my peeling ones. I'm so pleased with my purchases. 

Now, this weekend, I'll be pulling down the Christmas Tree and putting away all the decorations into their respectable boxes and the townhouse will go back to everyday living.

I'll be back into declutter mode.
I'll be back into looking at packing things away to hopefully move.
I'm looking at what to paint for the following year.


Yep, this year is going to be a busy one! 

How about you? How's your year going to turn out for you? What are you plans? Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Been A While,... But...

I've been busily writing, volunteering, doing house work, falling down, and donating plenty of gear to charity.

Yes... you read right. I fell down. That happened on Monday just gone, and I bruised some ribs and floating ribs on my right side. It was the type of fall where once I started to fall, I couldn't stop myself, I just had to let it happen! Don't you hate those ones? Same here.

Well, it's been two days, and I'm going okay. My ribs still hurt - but not as badly as yesterday - and I'd taken a chunk off the side of my middle finger; and that still hurts like hell every time I do something - anything! But I keep on keeping on... you know. 

Anyway, I've been busily cleaning out, washing the car, reseeding the back lawn and mowing that once it got long enough... and then going to art class and working on my newest painting. I'm still learning plenty of new things from Aaron... and enjoying how the shadows can be hard and soft in the same painting... and yet mean different things while they're only centimetres apart. 

Otherwise, I've been making pin cushions like they're going out of style. These are for my next market in October; and I've yet to still get myself into making new business cards for that too; as I'm running out of those as well. I'll see what VistaPrint does for me and design a card then get them to post them out to me in time for the market... sounds great, right?

I'm also still decluttering my house - as usual - and writing my blog about it too (A Work In Progress). Check it out with my other blogs... it's a good formal blog which has advice, ideas on decluttering, cleaning and other discussions if you wish to join in. But I've mainly created it to keep me in check with my own decluttering - and it has! I know that sounds weird, but it does keep me in line - and 8 months along, I'm really doing better with this blog on here. It makes me take notice of my house and do the things I promise myself that I'm going to do. 

Well, last week, I got a tattoo of my medical band to my right arm... it's plain, ordinary and right where the police and medics would see it... it's also where the nurses and doctors would see it too in a hospital. this is a good thing for me, as I no longer need to wear a bracelet. A lot of people living with Epilepsy (and other medical problems) are doing this so they can do away with the bracelets - which are easily lost - and have it on their skin instead. 

Anyway, that's all the news from my end. How's your life? Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

February and Hot!

The heat is on... as the song goes; but not everyone loves this sticky, tropical heat. I don't and so when it comes down to it, I think it's just a matter of time before other people think it's high time we got some much-needed rain.

Well, over the past month, I've lost 2.5kg in weight; just because I've cut back on ice coffee drinks and started drinking a lot more water. I've also cut back on sugar as well and had a good look at my house... yep, I've been decluttering. And to go with the decluttering, I've started a new blog (yeah, I know, another one!) which works around my journey of decluttering my place. 'A Work In Progress' is my new blog and I'm hoping it takes off into a new direction for me. I talk about decluttering being a very personal journey, a difficult thing to do, and how hoarding isn't something to be ashamed of but to work on making sure you work through. However, having too much stuff can be just as bad as having too little stuff. So, a happy middle ground is best. Anyway, go and have a look at it and see what you think of it.

While I've been working on that, I've also been working the security of my blogs. You see, my Flash Fiction blog has had a stalker on it for the past year; and he's become very political, very much an arsehole and I'm not going let him bother me anymore. So, I'm afraid that the security of the blogs (all of my blogs) have had to be upped on a permanent basis. I'm sorry, guys'n'gals, but to keep this stalker from insulting my good name I've had to do this.

Anyway, I've been out and about doing things to raise funds to The World's Greatest Shave. I've been to my Dad's 70th Birthday and I've been also working on the large tapestry of Lake Como... it's really coming along well! I have also started up craft group again too. 

So, seeing the school year has started again, what's been going on with you all? Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

A New Blog!

Okay... I'm a serial blogger - you all know this. I mean, just look at how many blogs I manage!!

Well, I went and deleted 'Charlie's Whispers' and then within minutes created a new blog... no not on that subject that 'Charlie's Whispers' was about. I created a new one about gardening. I love to garden and I work with container gardens the best.

So, if you'd like to have a look at it, feel free to and enjoy the first few posts - there's 3 so far about gardening. I've posted a link to a photo on Pinterest where I have a board there all about gardening.

Well, just thought to plug my new blog - that's all.

There's other blogs on a blog roll. I'll be putting up a list of books you can have a look for... I'll be talking about how to make terrariums, repotting Jades of all types, how to work a container garden into any type of space and make your garden look good... and what will work instead of lawn seed too. You'd be surprised what I use to make lawn grow. Well, there you are... I hope you pop in and have a look at My Private Little Garden. Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.