I'm Shaving My Hair Off!

Yes!

You read right!

I'm shaving all my hair off for the Leukaemia Foundation and donating it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Project so they can make a wig for somebody suffering from Cancer.  

And yes, it's that time of year again - for me to raise funds to the greatest cause around.  

But I'm not going totally bald, I'm getting a #4 buzzcut all over so I'll still have a bit of hair on my head.  And last Friday, I let Mum know about my plans, which she didn't approve of, but I insisted it was my hair and I wanted to do it.

I'm not going to chicken out and my hair isn't going in the bin.  In fact, I'm planning on buying the Express Post Pack next pay and making sure I have big enough ziplock bags so I can do this on the day... you know, post it all off to Pantene, so they can receive it as soon as possible.

They told me at Pantene that red hair is something people really look for and the company would love to get their hands on mine as it's a unique colour that people really look for.  So, I'm collecting sponsors right now and so far, I've got well over the expected amount I normally get at this time... seeing I received my sponsorship book on Friday and my goal is $560 - but if I raise more than that, that's great!

So, if you'd like to sponsor me, just click on the link below:

The World's Greatest Shave Sponsor Page

This will take you straight to my Sponsor Page - yes my RL name is Lynda Parker.  You can sponsor as little or as much as you wish as every dollar means so much!  

Anyway, I'm going to do this at an event at the Logan Hyperdome on 14th March at around 11am in the main court.  You can't miss it!  These public events aren't quiet affairs... they really go all out!  So, if you can make it to support me, please do, I'd love to see you there.  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here... and yes... my hair will grow back again. 

Okay.... I'm back... Phew! What A Week!

It's been such a busy week, I don't know where to start... but I'll try to fill you all in on what's been happening.

Last Saturday, 7th, February, I had a full day out.  I was away from the house by 9am and off to the Hyperdome Library where I attended a meeting on how to get my name out there into the world when it came to writing and publicising my books.  It was great because what I learned here I could use with my Crafty Pegs business too.
From there, I was off to Mum and Dad's house for around 20 minutes to pick up some things from there.  Once everything was laminated and ready, I was back in the car and off to the bank, then driving to the Mamma Mia Mini Markets which started at 3pm and went until 8pm. 
I didn't make any profit... only a little bit of money and that was it, but no profit.  Oh well.  Anyway, I got onto the road by 8:30pm or so, and was back at my folks' house by 9pm where I had a cup of tea to unwind and I was home by 10pm.  I was in bed by 11pm

What. A. Day!

However that wasn't all... a neighbour two doors down came home with his loud friends and started up a party at 11:30pm - music and all - just when I was dropping off.  I called the caretaker (who complained his hands were tied and that I should call the police) and then I called the police and at 1:30am, the neighbour's party closed up.  This was after the caretaker talked to him at 11:45pm and after I called the police... 

The next day, I was out again.  I felt like crap.  But I went out again because the family was going to the Moreton Bay Yacht Club for lunch for Dad's birthday.  It was a brilliant lunch in a great atmosphere.  Afterwards, we all waddled back to Gabe and Kat's place where we scoffed into Baked Custard with Rice and German Friendship Cake.  I made the former and Gabe made the latter... yummo!

Monday was my craft group and we were all there for the first group of the year.  So many thing were brought along for us to look at.  I bought a big black plate of a fish (which I'm using as a fruit bowl) and we all sat and chatted all afternoon while doing our craft.

On Tuesday I worked on my shopping list and cleaned out more stuff from the house and kitchen table.  My bin was almost full when I put it out that night.  Wednesday was shopping day and I still had stuff to put in the bin just as the rubbish guys came to pick it up.  And I was exhausted, so I didn't go on the computer that night... just shuffled off to bed.

Thursday was the day I received a phone call from the Leukaemia Foundation asking if I was going to take part again... yes I am!  This time I'm going to shave the lot off - a #4 buzzcut - and then donate my hair to make a wig.  The woman on the other end said it was best to look for a wigmaker in my city.  Well, that's a post for another time!

Anyway, Friday came around and I had two appointments:  one for my optometrist and one for my chiropractor.  I received my sponsorship book from the Leukaemia Foundation and within the first day, I raised over $130!  How cool is that?

On Saturday, I did my volunteer work at the Logan Art Gallery.  We had Music in the Gallery for the 20th Birthday Celebrations of the Gallery here in Logan City.  It was so great!  I totally enjoyed the music.  Mum and Dad were down to come along, but it slipped their mind.  So, I recorded some on my phone and showed them when I got off work; and Dad said they should have gone.  Oh well, next time! 

So, it comes to today.  This morning, I had pancakes with lime and sugar and fruit.  The leftover pancakes have been wrapped up in foil for afternoon tea... yummo!  Anyway, that's my week. I hope your week has been as busy and filled-up as mine has.  I'm totally stuffed and need to catch up with my sleep.  But it's good to be tired and happy like this.  So, do tell, how has your week been?  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Hey, Here I am... But Not For Long!

Yep!  Last week was such a busy one, I don't know where to start!  First off, I was at the shops doing my grocery shopping when I found some 'Blessed & Lucky' roasted peanut paste with 'a drizzle' of Maple Syrup... aawww... yummo!  For just $2.40, I thought to try it out!

Then, I had a few days to myself and Dad and I were off and running with the building of the new work bench... how very cool is that!  I had fun designing it, thinking about it and then finally having the money to make it happen!  And Dad was there helping me with the little things that went wrong... so cool!  I love it!
And last Tuesday, we got it finished here at my place as the legs were too long and we even got a metal piece along the shelf so I can put my finished magnets to get varnished onto it.  I am so happy that it went from a drawing in a sketch book to a reality in a little over 4 months... and amazed at how quickly it happened too.

Then, within a few days, it was my Dad's birthday and I had a market at Murrarrie, writer's workshop at the Logan Hyperdome and lunch at the Moreton Bay Yacht Club at Shorncliffe.  All three of the latter things happened within the last weekend just gone!  But Dad's birthday was last Thursday.  I had bought him a bottle of 'Label 5' whiskey... and he loved it.  Now, I know what to buy him in the future... it's a nice whiskey too; and not too expensive.

This week, I have had Craft Day today at the Springwood Community Centre.  Tomorrow I'm off to the doctors to get a skin tag removed (oh, yeah, that sounds like fun, right?) and then, there's shopping on Wednesday and then I have Thursday and Friday to myself.  Woah... that's a first in about two weeks!  On Saturday, I'm sure I'm working at the gallery, but I'm not certain - I'll call up and find out.

Otherwise that's what's been happening, what will be happening and is happening in my life right now.  And why I've been quiet for so long.  And have you checked out my new look for 'A Natural Background'?  Yes... it's got a name change and background... it's been changed over for my hobby business called Crafty Pegs so I can cover more ground with other people in social media.  Go and have a good look at it... Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

So Tired!

It's only Monday and I'm so very tired - already! Well, I had been planning my art/craft workbench for almost 4 months.  I save and made sure it was perfect.  Then, Dad and I ordered in the pieces and made sure it worked.

And it did!

Putting it together took two days.  But I love it; even if it does need a bit of tweaking.  We also need to put up the shelving and finish off my art/craft area, but it all looks great!

But that'll be tomorrow... yeah, tomorrow.

Anyway, today, I went out and did something else which had nothing to do with cleaning, housework or my craft/art bench... I went to my first Queen Beez Craft Group of the year.  It was so great to catch up with the ladies there.  We all had a good chat about what we've been doing, how we all are, sat down and started in on what we are doing right now.

Some of the ladies had been caught up in that horrible food poisoning fiasco at the Chin-Chin Restaurant at Springwood and they are still recovering from it... a horrible problem that has become.  One lady, Bernie, she and her whole family were in Sydney when its affects struck them all down - while they were on holidays - and they all spent their whole holidays in hospital.  She's still not feeling right and it's been over 2 months since it happened.  Her husband passed out about 3 times in the hospital, broke his nose the first time and got 4 stitches in the back of his head the second time and I think he passed out a third time.  

Anyway, this afternoon, I put a few things away and cleared a space for the kitchen table to be moved out of the way for tomorrow, to make things easier for Dad and me to move the bench.  We'll be adjusting the legs and everything out in my car port tomorrow, and then putting it back... it won't take too long, but it might take until lunch.  So, I made a nice big piece of pizza and will be able to heat it up in the oven for him to eat for lunch I'll have something else to eat instead.

It'll be a good day.  Well, it's getting late.  I better head off to bed.  It's been raining, and I hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow - it shouldn't.  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Colleen McCollough's Obituary Sums Her Up Badly

Colleen McCollough has passed away.  What a brilliant writer, a great asset to what it means to be Australian, here in her home country as well as across the world.

However, how her obit was written, you'd think whoever wrote it wasn't thinking of her as a person, as a writer, as one of the world's best literary people of this generation - as well as the past generation - has ever seen.  No, I read her obituary and thought it was disgusting to find she was judged in the first paragraph to be a man-hunter, to be worrying about her figure to be ... shallow... and that she 'had not problems attracting men'.

This is not how you write an obituary.  

Please find in the link below the article which has started me writing this post:

Colleen McCollough's Obituary Written Badly

A Busy Morning

This morning, I was up nice and early and out the door after a good breakfast to get in and do some things before I dropped into Mum and Dad's place for an hour or so.

First off, I went up to Officeworks, where I had spied a chair for my new workbench online; and I wanted to see it for myself and try it out.  
It was beautiful and comfortable.  So, I looked for a black one, but there were only white and red chairs left in stock.  Oh well, the red one was pretty, and so I picked that one up and bought it.  At $88.00 it wasn't too bad in the hip pocket.  The one problem I encountered was that the box didn't fit in the boot of my car; but in the back seat, another thing I didn't worry about too much. 

The next place I went off to was Target.  I had gotten fitted for a bra there yesterday, and found one of them I had purchased was heavily padded - something I definitely don't need.  So, I took it back for a refund to get something else.  I ended up buying another bra, a pair of knickers (to replace another pair which were really old) and a new night shirt with the Batman symbol on it.  I ended up spending the original $35 I had gotten refunded for one bra... how ironic is that?

Well, I was off to Mum and Dad's house and had a chat with Mum while drinking an ice coffee and trying on my dress for tomorrow night's art opening at the Gallery.  And my dressed fitted me; which I'm pleased about, and it's a lovely dress too.  Mum's really happy I didn't give it away; and that I still love the dress.

I stayed for a few hours and thought to leave, after my second ice coffee (these weren't big drinks), and I really did need to come home to prepare for tomorrow.  You see, I have to start really packing up my gear in the craft area and get in and clean it up... so my work bench can fit right in that spot with the smallest amount of fuss.  I'm really looking forward to this happening.  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

Let's Get Organised - 2015!

Okay, this has been a bit late in coming, but I'm right into it this week; along with other things as well.  So far, I've been onto Peter Walsh's Facebook page and watched all his Youtube videos and have listed down the ones I really need to get done - and not worried about the ones that I have still got working from last year.

So far, I got three of the things on my list done and dusted!  Yay!  How cool is that?  Okay, there's more things to get done, but I mean, I'm not going to rush this and I'm damned proud of how far I've come in the last two weeks.  I'll tell you how far I've come so far:

I've created a Donation Box - which I've filled up once and taken to the Life Line Super Store; and it's now on its second filling, ready to be taken there again.  I'm noting down how many times I fill up that box as well, so I keep track of how much stuff leaves the house.

So far, I've thrown out three big bags of paper rubbish into the wheelie bin; that was just in the last two days.  This is something I'm very proud of myself about... the bin is half full and I'm hoping to get it filled up completely before Tuesday night - which is bin night.

Then, I've organised my work station area so I can pack up everything nice and quick in readiness for the upcoming work bench.  Dad is as excited about building this thing as I am.  He asked me how much leg room we have with my budget and when heard it was a little over $100, well, he was thrilled - and surprised - that I have that much money saved up.  We are looking forward to getting it in the back area so I can have my shelves up, all my craft and art thing in one space and my living room can be cleaned up properly.  

I've gone through my table linen, and I've found a place to put them for when I need them.  It's good to have them in a spot where I can grab them when I need to put them out.  I also have a few other things - like aprons, hot pot holders and covers for salads - hanging up on hooks near the pantry instead of in the drawers where I can't find them.  

So, there you have it, my first two weeks of my Let's Get Organised for 2015.  It's been great and busy and I'm feeling good about this year too.  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

A Week of Being Busy

This week has been such a busy one, I haven't had time to sit down and just write here.  And for this I must apologise. 

Today, it's pouring - and I mean absolutely teeming - rain.  So, it's time to get my butt into the seat and start writing this here post!

On Sunday, it was a stinker of a day.  I didn't do much except hang around the computer, the internet and the air conditioner - and do you really blame me?  Nah, me neither.  But that's all I really did... and oh, drink gallons of ice coffee and cranberry juice.

On Monday, I was off to Gabe and Kat's place to visit Riley.  My older brother and his partner were both back to work and Riley, my niece, was on her own.  So, we hung out for the day.  I arrived a little early, but I thought it being a Monday, the traffic was going to be bad - well, it wasn't.  Oh well.  Anyway, the day went well.  We talked about school, art, funny stuff we've done, funny stuff her Dad's done and patted Jay the wonderful woofy (who is getting on in years now).  Before we knew it, it was around lunch and we took off to The Fishmongers at Sandgate and had a fish burger - yummo! - and talked about 'Supernatural', our favourite show.  It was very cool!  I found a tomato plant growing wild by the side of the road and picked the most ripe-looking ones (around 8 or so) and popped them into my bag while Riley watched on laughing... when we got back home, I left some on the counter for Gabe and Kat to eat.  I said that I'd done that before - picked them off the side of the road - and there's nothing wrong with it.  Well, we started looking through art magazines and the net and then my Mum called up and said there was a storm coming, so I decided to make tracks home.  Before I did, I left some lovely, large folders of art magazines that I had been given by Kevin and Shirley Austin.  Riley loved it that I thought of her... but I did say that once she was finished with them, that I'd like them back.  I let her keep some magazines that I didn't want and we packed my car, I patted Jay and was on my way home.
I arrived home and put my share of the tomatoes in the fruit bowl to ripen, unpacked and then, I looked around for my hat... where it was it?  Um... it was still at Gabe and Kat's house.  Yeah, I had left a brightly-knitted hat at my brother's house.  How typical of me to leave at least one thing behind by accident.  Oh well, never mind.  

On Tuesday, I got money put across from one bank to another, some shopping done and then I looked at my groaning collection of biographies and autobiographies and remembered my promise to myself this year: to read some of these book this year.  So, I pulled one out and sat down and started reading it.  It was 'You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead' by Marieke Hardy.  I know that sounds like a really drastic title, but really, it's a tongue-in-cheek read.  I sat on my lounge and started laughing the minute I began to read it... it's good funny read about her life.  I can't wait to get right into another reading session this afternoon.

On Wednesday, I did some morning shopping, got some money out, went out and bought a new RAM for the computer and then my neighbour put Windows8 on to it as well.  It was cool.  But it's complex and different too.  I'm still learning a lot about it.  All my Word7 documents come up as Wingdings in WordPad... hahahaa... no, I kid you not!  So, we've had to find another way to get them edited.  Anyway, I'm hoping my friends who I'm communicating with and they're editing my work, don't have problems with my writing.  If they do, well, I'll be up shit creek - literally. 

Thursday was a day out at the doctors figuring out why my white and red cells were wonky... it turns out my allergies have played up more than usual this year.  And it's also because I've been hanging out with my neighbour's and their cat more than usual; so my body has been working overtime thinking the cats are threats... great... oh well.  That's how it all goes.  Mum thinks my house is sick, but then I do live on a busy road, and my house is always dusty.  I dust and vacuum and three days later, it's back - so really I've given up.  
Then, we had lunch at Zambrero's at Springwood... a cool little Mexican place.  Mum loved it.  It wasn't too expensive and the food was very fresh.  In the end, we shared the rest of my corn chips from my nachos... delicious!
I hung out at their place after we did some shopping and it began to rain.  Then the next thing we knew, it was 5pm!  Wow!  How did that happen?  So, I headed off home and made myself a quick snack of a cheese platter - as that's all I wanted to eat - and sat down just in time for 'Family Feud'... funny show that.

Today, I've been working on backing up my computer a bit, doing my laundry, have put out the rubbish, sorted through some junk to put in the Donation Box to give away and am hoping to finish tidying up the living room a bit more and have the art area ready to go in the way of being fixed up for the new bench.  Seeing there's not going to be any drawers actually in it, and it's a standing bench, Dad and I should be able to make it this weekend whether it rains or not. So, how was your week?  Until my next post, take care, stay safe, and remember I'm always here.

Creatively Wonderful Things ...

The internet is a wonderful thing, isn't it? 

Well, okay, it depends on how you look at it.

I've found some great things to do with left over milk bottles and drinking bottles you can easily make without too much - well, a bit of glue, a little paint and a drill and string and it's all done.  I'm thinking of looking into working on something tomorrow. 

Here's the link I was looking at:

Recycling Your Unwanted Bottles

A Busy, Hot, Sticky Day

Today, I had a few things to do, but today was also very hot and sticky very early on in the day.  So, I made sure I had a bottle of water with me and I dressed accordingly to the heat. 

I did get a lot done today.  This included going back to Coles and exchanging some vegetable oil for Crisco Vegetable oil.  The Coles brand one was cheaper, but I couldn't for the life of me get the lid off.  I tried everything!  And when I got it to the service counter, the lady next to me took the bottle and she said, 'It's easy.' and then she struggled with it for a few moments before she managed to get it open.  I said I'm not going to wear the oil every time I need to open it.  Shrugging she put the lid back on and gave it back to me... and I got to exchange the oil for a more expensive oil where the lid was a flip-lid not a screw-on one.  

I went off to Life Line Super Store to find some pewter/tin cups to use when I get the new bench built.  I found 5 of them at $2.00 each!  How cool is that?  While I was there, I found a very nice, retro piece to put in my bedroom... it matches everything and looks lovely.  I just have to clean it up and replace the string with wire, and it'll be ready to go.

Before long, I was off to the Logan Art Gallery. They're in preparations to celebrate their 20 Year Anniversary here in Logan City.  And well, they asked the artists of Logan - who have had an exhibition there - to paint something for them on a 20cmx20cm size board or canvas.  So, I jumped right in and did just that.  I handed my piece in last week, and the exhibition opens on 30th, January.  I can't wait!  Well, I went there to loan them a piece of memorabilia I received on the 10th Anniversary.  Chelsea was so pleased I found it, and was willing to loan it to the gallery; as nobody had brought theirs in to show.

I was out into the heat again and driving to Springwood to pick up some conditioner and then to the junk store in search of the over-sized pegs I love to paint.  But they didn't have any, so I looked for some Valentine's Day things to dress up my stall; and found a lot of it hanging around.  So, I spent a bit of money on it and found I could dress up my stall in a few weeks easily.  Wow... so much is going to happen in such a short length of time!

Once I got all I needed, I jumped back in the car and drove home.  It was good to get home where it was cooler and surf the net with the air-conditioner on... I just don't want to be outside right now, it's too darned hot.  Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.