I may have my Mojo back! It has been too long in coming.

 

Sturt's Desert Pea

This won't be a long boring post because I'm off to sew a top for me!!!!!   Holy Hell,   I've waited so long to get up the sewing urge again.      I've sat in the sewing room,  I've sorted fabric, etc, etc, etc.  Nothing worked.      I don't know what has caused this urge but I'm going to run with it and hope for the best. 

Lots of love to you.   xxxx

Be back soon to fill you in bit by bit of what.s been happening.

A lot about a lot.

 

 

A friend's road in New York state

It's planning time.

 Planning a road trip to Melbourne that may be happening within the month and that means......warm clothes.      Now, where I live in Australia there is not a huge call for heavy duty warm clothes at all.
  I have some cardigans and a couple of jackets that are sufficient.   These damn clothes won't wear out!
I can't justify giving them away and buying new because I am the Queen of Frugal.  So, year after year I'm in the same ole same ole stuff.     Lucky I'm into the age on invisibility so it doesn't matter what I wear.  Well..... unless it is some gorgeous outlandish, beautifully bright gear.   I used to love my 'hippie' days.  * big sigh*

In the meantime life has been interesting.  Catching up with friends over coffee.   Some eating out has been done too.      Seeing long lost relatives.     Nursing a new baby.   Love a baby as long as it's not my responsibility and  thank god that can't happen any more.    Walking and exploring along our creek bank where there are interesting rock formations.  Two totally different types of rock are set as though in their molten time they were poured out of a few different containers and flowed in stripes.   I've never seen this any where else and I have been a rock hopper/ looker for years!  

Picking roses, picking fruit and not doing a lot  in the garden.  Buying a new battery for my car 3 days after we had to replace the battery in the old Toyota Landcruiser!    Not bad prices at $147 and $135.   We could not be bothered shopping around as we get all our tyre work done there and he doesn't even charge half the time for the ride on mower tyre patches or little jobs.  We appreciate that.

Visited my mother and discovered after her being there since December 2010 that they have a HAPPY HOUR once a fortnight!!!!!  Wine, beer and a cupcake paper with nibbles.  Who'd have thought?  I love it. 

  But, afterwards I had to quietly point out the dirt and spiders in her room that have been there over 6 weeks!   I got a phone call 5.30pm yesterday from the head health person to tell me how short staffed they are and that it is all sorted now.  I didn't carry on like a 2 bob watch as the old saying goes. Just mentioned it quietly as there's no need to embarrass anyone.   Now, I just have to keep taking out the magazines she hoards......

Another bitch...       (you can take that 2 ways )   my sister, the one that lives in Mum's home and only pays half the power and phone, no rent etc has brought in a framed photo of her and placed it in a prominent spot.     No other photos for Mum to see of her family.   Not the large collage that Mum did up of family random shots that she loves.  Nah.... .  I don't go around to check on the house because I don't want to be threatened again by the brother and if it was all good enough for them to be parasites for 5 years or so before Mum had to go into care, then  it's not worth my worrying.

  The sister did replace Mum's glasses that broke.  Well.... I think she did.
 Maybe it was some of the staff.

Life gets in the way of posting.

Where does the time go?  I get up early but spend too much time on the internet.    Like now!  I should have a load of washing on, out weeding a garden ready to plant corn and get some sewing done.




The day is cool and sunny and  it would be such a delight to be out in the garden.   Planting season does not wait.  So... this is short and sweet.

 
 I think I'm actually finding myself.   I do not want to be what my partner expects, nor do I have to be what my daughter expects.  I think this is why I love to travel.  I can be myself. No one knows me.
 I'm on a journey of more self discovery,   so wish me luck.   xo

Sewing,Sibling Parasites and Weight loss.

All is good on this western front!

The garments  are being completed for my mother.    I'm making little day dresses for her that should withstand the commercial laundry in the aged care home.    The ladies  I've met from the laundry are so nice and helpful when I look for any missing clothes. The laundry is even a nice place!!!

  I brought home her favourite dress to copy from and when I had a good look at it there were darts and seams coming undone.  A nice little repair on them and it's as good as new.   You wouldn't notice these because of the colour and pattern.   Red with black markings.

I hate cutting out.  My back aches like a b#^**~d.    I like to cut out on a large table downstairs that is open to the wind so the day I plan to cut out is the day the wind is blowing a gale.    Should check it out at night and there may be less wind,  not that I'm really complaining about the wind.
I love it.

Today is pretty calm so I'll cut out a few dresses for her.

Mum is doing really well now and I also have come to terms with her being unable to live in her own home.     It's been over a year and has taken  some time for me to accept this.    The worst  was the guilt that I should have been be able to fix the problem.

The huge problem is her being "The Boss"!      I say, nicely,   "Mum,   you can't live at home now.  If you did you'd be dead within months.    You know R and K won't look after you.."

  "  I can look after myself. They can drive me to get groceries.  The nurses can come to give me the injections. I can cook for myself. etc etc "        Last visit she was saying how good it is too have all your meals done for you and no washing up!   Maybe, just maybe????? she is settling in.


'She has a lovely friend and the staff like to tell me how much they like her.  The aged diabetes is under control with 4 insulin injections per day!   I'd be freaking out if that were me.  Love my needle phobia.

When I visit,   I take  savoury snacks and of course,  flowers from my garden.  Mum loved her garden.
I have suggested that I bring in some pot plants for her but she keeps saying that they will get stolen [her room is on the main street side with people walking past on the footpath]  or that she will be going home soon.  It  breaks my heart as I would love to make her room pretty for her.  


    It's the family politics that really   shit me off.     The parasitic brother and sister of mine who still live there and only pay the rates and the insurance per year.     Plus,  their own power and phone and that is only after me screaming like hell and getting a death threat from the brother!

  So this year they paid around $AU 52 between the two of them per week to live in Mum's home!   What a pair of deadbeats!!!
My sister is one of the worst /laziest house keepers I know so doubt if the house will be kept clean as it was.  I have not visited for months. Just don't need the hassle.

Gee, I am prattling on..

On the GOOD NEWS side......

I've now lost 6ks.    That is 13.2lbs... since 22nd December.   Over Christmas I ate everything, just not gutsing out.   Tha'ts  7 weeks.    a lot more to go...  I now don't use milk  [except skim in my home made yoghurt]  very little sugar, cut back coffee, no butter, no bread. 

4 x new tyres = $A780.00

Off to the big smoke for an 8 o'clock date to get 4 new Michelin  tyres for my car.

They are usually $261 each but these are going to be $195 with a wheel alignment thrown in because there has been some muck up on the dealers side.   All good!   They are 17 inch, are guaranteed for speeds up to 250ks per hour.  That makes them more expensive.    When I was in England the first time I wanted to see how fast I would go before I got scared!   They drive like lunatics over there!!! 
I got up to 230 ks ph or 143ish mph on a motorway before I backed off.   There were many cars going that speed!!!   The roads in the UK are fabulous.

  I could not drive at 140 ks here!   Our roads are shot due to the flooding earlier in the year and dodgy road mending.  If you fill in a pot hole,  why have it over filled or under filled?   If the road is mended in stretches, it's the same so that every where you drive it's bump, bump, bump.   DUH BRAINS!

My partner is planning on going to the Brisbane area for a break over the holidays. This is around a 1000 ks one way.  I find it dismal to be anywhere in the summer time so I will be minding the farm!  That's woman's talk for 'having time out'.  Hell, some one has to feed the cat and change the bird bath water!

  The last time this happened was in  July and I was loving the serenity when I got a call from my daughter to fly to Brisbane and see her and the boys and then come home by car.  I had to go because our relationship is tenuous at the best of times.    And I did so love my visit.

The main plan is for sewing and walking.  Getting fit and clothed.  I found a great looking pin cushion, scissors holder 'thingy'.  This will be getting made.

  I'd like to return to sewing professionally.  I have no idea of the prices that are charged now.  I was always too cheap anyway but I could sleep well knowing I never ripped any one off and I ALWAYS returned any fabric and notions.  I decided to give it up after we had moved here and my clients came for fittings with their family or spent ages as I always offered coffee etc.  They treated it like a bloody personal visit and let their kids run rampant.  We might have a huge lawn and yes, it is a very beautiful place, but, please how am I going to sew??  I did  say I had to go out a lot of times and that worked well.

  Don't get me wrong, please.  I  like a chat, BUT! 

Apologies....

I've been putting off posting because I did say that I would put up pictures of the house renovations and I have had a shitload of trouble, for some reason getting the printer to scan the photos. 
I wriggled this and that, tried a different programme and then swore a lot.  I think that's what worked!!!
I tried my old scanner but it's driver is somewhere in ether space.

Later today I'll get on to it and scan as many as possible before I get sick of it.   I promised to email old photos to a young friend  from years ago  of her family as her Dad chose to leave this world 9 years ago so these will be of the good old days. I have only recently been able to find this family through Facebook... gotta love it. Also want send some photos of a tour through Europe for a Brazilian hunk I met on that trip  too.  He lost all of his.

THEN....... it is a plan to steadily work on scanning ALL my non-digital photos.  Years of work there!  My lovely youngest son wanted to buy me a digital camera years ago BUT ...no... I thought they were too expensive...  Oh, how I wished I hadn't been so stupid!!!!   The fun I have missed out on.  I take my camera with me every where I go.  Even around the house yard!


It's a beautiful day here in mid north Queensland. Just how I like it.   Cool and very cloudy and it's these kind of days that bring out the creativeness in me.  

I'm into lists and a top priority is sewing some every day clothes for myself.  Reckon I'll be in the sewing room for most of the day!     I don't like sewing for myself.   Probably because of the fatness of the body due to the frikken menopause thing happening.
Isn't if stupid how we used to think we were fat and  when you look at older  photos,  you were so not! 

A few years ago I was telling my mother that I had met a friend I hadn't seen for years and that she had said that she remembered me as tall and thin with lovely clothes. [ when I was talking to her I was heaps thinner than I am now!]
My mother replied, " Well, you were tall".    DUH!!!!  What?  Not thin too? Not tall now???    I know, I know,  I'm thin skinned.    ( that means ' can't take personal criticisms) I sewed most of my clothes then or bought at sales.

I've been making us fresh juice most mornings.  It is so tasty and a good way to use up  small fresh veg scraps.  I juice beetroot, celery, parsley, ginger, tumeric, carrots, comfrey, plantain, apple as the main ones and then sip it to mix each mouthful with saliva as recommended.    YUMMY!  I have an old National juicer that we bought second hand years ago but it doesn't miss a beat and the pulp left is pretty dry.

   Herbal tea has always been a favourite of mine. With  many flavours to choose from I am in heaven.    Chamomile with honey and cider vinegar  at night to help me sleep.
  I am a real  coffee lover and  specially love the aroma of the  freshly ground beans! 

After looking at the choices available for medicinal dried herbs,   I have decided to go that way so I ordered a kilo!! of dried Small Leafed Willow.   Wow,  that is a lot of herb!  Yesterday I  put it in small amounts into vacuum seal bags to keep it fresh.  Hell... it will last me a year.  I could have gone crazy ordering lots of goodies from this man but I was soooo good and restrained myself. Next time.  It only took 2 days to get here too.

OK.. I'm off to sew.  Be back soon, I promise.

Dieting sucks. I really have to eat BEFORE I'm hungry so that I don't empty the fridge...just joking!

The Shrinking Violet!

 I'm still going well and still  motivated and   I am sneaking up on my Animal Brain!!   Just a steady, steady loss so that the internal monster doesn't know what I'm doing!

Once we use up all the fattening foods in the fridge and pantry I will only be buying fruit, vegetables and healthy bits.  It is not in my best interests to go shopping when I'm hungry.  Extras like chips and chocolate end up in the trolley! That doesn't happen too often.  I very, very seldom buy biscuits, cakes or sweets so I don't have to retrain myself there.
I'm juicing most mornings using all kinds of plants and fruit or vegetables.  It is an easy way to get the vitamins into you without the cooking and bulky, full feeling.  The exercise thing is happening from the gardening and I am finding long forgotten muscles.

I feel bloody knackered today as a result of waking too early. Too early being around 4am!    Hate that.       It puts me out for the rest of the day!

  I had planned on sewing all day.   I'm finishing off a top for myself that I've had half done for six months.  That's if I find the sleeves.   I have so much "stuff" in my sewing room,  it's hard to remember which plastic roller case holds what.  I really am going to label them......     

I don't like sewing for myself.   It reckon it's the bloody low self esteem thing again.

 Easy sewing..... I have some wadding that came from 6 patio chairs that I've taken out of the old covers and plan to place on top of each other unfolded, then cover to make a light mattress thingy to go under the cushions of the downstairs sofa. Washed them to  freshen first.   Photos coming up!

I am so fortunate that we can't get television reception here along with bad mobile phone coverage. Why?  I hear you ask.  Because I spend the time I would spend watching TV on the Internets reading blogs and researching about  what I need to know.  This also takes up my reading time.  I really miss getting right into a good murder mystery.  I've been connected to the Internet since September 2000.  You would think that I would have had my fill by now.      Nuh... Last night I fine tuned my knowledge of canning/bottling the harvest on the fabulous You Tube.
  I was given a complete electric Fowlers Vacola preserving outfit some time ago by a lovely gent.  I am very appreciative.  I'll experiment with preserving tomatoes first.  Not from the garden but I'll buy a 10kg box for $15/20 from the local highway stall and make  spaghetti sauce, tomato relish and just plain tomatoes first up.
 OK..... coffee time and more blog reading, not to mention Facebook  then I'll sew!