Flea Market Finds - successes keep rolling in

I've had such good luck with my thrifting lately.  I've eased off on my visits which makes them more enjoyable.  I have been spending longer sorting through piles and digging through boxes.  I've also spent ALOT less money which is always a bonus.  I've been more particular about what I buy.  I refuse to pay more then it's worth and have learnt that there is no point in asking for a cheaper price - they will NEVER give it.  I read alot about other's thrifting adventures and am always ginormously jealous how HOW CHEAP your goodies are.  I have started to come to terms with the fact that all of the op shops in my area, are expensive.  I just have to hope that the day that the grandma dropped her doily supply off to the op shop, that the nice Salvo's lady decides to price them at a reasonable price - not at $3.50 each (go jump lady).  This week I found that exact stash of doily's that grandma dropped off and the nice Salvo's lady priced them at $1 each.  (that's the cheapest I've ever seen doily's go for around here).

So I bought a couple more...

... and I was talking to Wendy over at The Textured Leaf and she suggested a few ways to clean them and make them nice and bright and look new again.  They are currently hanging on the line drying.  I will do the same with all my existing doily's because they look 100% better!

Yes it's a mug stand, no I don't drink tea and coffee....  I heard this neat idea lately (my brain is a sift and I've ALREADY forgotten who's blog I saw it on.. SORRY!!) to use a mug holder to hang scissors, double sided tape... all those little bits and pieces you work with and lose easily, will now be found on my mug stand, which I intend on painting white or something more attractive.

I sifted through the patterns pile as i always do incase I find a cute vintage kids clothing pattern, this time I found this...

... I can't wait to have a play with these!  Adorable.

A couple of baby blankets - perfect for quilt backs maybe?

And then I found this mini cutting mat.  I have a decent sized one that I use on my craft desk and whenever I go somewhere else to sew or craft and need to take it, it's kind of awkward to transport.  So I found this smaller version to travel around with me.

And last but not least...

A queen quilt cover and pillowcase set.  Isn't it divine?  Will be perfect for my guest bedroom (if we ever have one haha).  Absolutely gorgeous and I'm almost certain it's never been used.  It has that lovely stiff new fabric feel to it.  SO pleased with this find.

Well that's it for this week.  Link in over at Sophie's!

Green challenge

I've joined into a Green Challenge over at Really Reasonable Ribbon's Ramblings.  I love green, but didn't want to all psycho obsessive green or anything!  I made a card, and one of the conditions was that I needed to use ribbon as part of my creation.  Here's what I came up with.

 Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Blogger (reduced sized) Butt Update

BACK ON TRACK LADIES!!  I'm not going to dodge the bullet on my weight loss this week.  Straight to it.... 1.2kg!!!  So stoked with my efforts.  After two dismal weeks, finally a result I am 100% happy with.  Well, that's a lie.  I would have preferred to lose 50kg this week, but we all know that won't happen.  It's now been a month since I officially started WW.  So here's my progress (I can't believe I am telling you all this - I am hugely embarrassed but need to do it so I don't do this to my body again).

Weigh in: 129.9kg

Week 1: 125.8kg (4.1kg loss)

Week 2: 125.5kg (0.3kg loss)

Week 3: 125.3kg (0.2kg loss)

Week 4: 124.1kg (1.2kg loss)

Total weight loss: 5.8kg

So that's the digits.  Now you know just how heavy I am.  My goal is to get down to 80kg.  I don't care what anyone says, but I will never get down to 65kg which is my supposed healthy weight.  I have a big frame.  If I got down to 65kg, I'd be borderline anorexic, seriously.  So my goal is 80kg.  80kg is achievable.  And maintainable. 

Anyway, enough of that.  My thoughts and experiences of the week:

- I didn't do so well at not eating my exercise earnt back points.  Oops.  

- I exercised a buttload, but not on purpose.  Our house is being painted and had to move our lives into boxes and move everything to the centre of rooms.

- I did go on the Wii Fit one day for a bit though!

-  I made delicious vege & ham pizza last night and finally crushed this annoying craving I've had for pizza all month.

- I was slack at writing down my points again - resulting in less then desirable dinners due to lack of points to work with.

- Useless fact:  I learnt that picking your nose can result in breathing difficulties through your nostrils.

- Started putting lime juice/slices in my water to make it more exciting.

- I made chips - moutain bread, cut into triangles, spray oil, sprinkle salt, hot oven, 2 minutes, DELICIOUS and low in points!

- My husband recognised that a pair of pants were baggy on my reduced butt size.

- I realised I am borderline obsessed about steamed dim sims (they're delicious and low in points = dangerous).

- I forced myself to eat breakfast at breakfast time.  Not after I got to work around 10am. 

- Tried to be better about getting up earlier, to encourage me to go to sleep earlier to get back into a healthier sleep pattern.

And that's about it for this week.

Except the jeans I'm wearing at work today are loose :)

My wonderful WIP... card making mania

Since moving into the parentals house I've been making cards like a crazy lady.  I don't have much to do and have all my supplies here ready to go.

I have plans to make cards for my mum for her birthday.  She is ALWAYS calling me up to buy a card for someone.  So I'll give her a years supply ready to go.

I made two of each design.  

And am keeping one of each for myself!

Because my stash is getting rather low.  

And I'm sure a few will make their way into the shop.

I've also been watching a buttload of Desperate Housewives whilst making them.

It's been a relaxing week, and I'm trying my best to enjoy it because I know next week won't be so fun...

And I probably won't have any time to craft...

Cause I'll be unpacking my house!!!

Which is still not finished being painted.

But I will try and not think about it.  

And enjoy the freedom of housework for just a few more days.

And keep making cards!!!

Don't forget to link in over at The Clip Cafe.  And vote on my poll!!!  Top right hand corner.  It's looking lonely!!

My Creative Space - in ruins!!

Remember my almost finished transformation of my craft quarters posted about here?  Guess what?  It doesn't look like that anymore.  It looks like this....

We got notification end of last week our house was being re-painted starting Monday this week.  We had 3 days to put our lives back into boxes, empty closets and cupboards, shift all furniture and belongings to the centre of rooms.  I felt like crying as I took apart my craft room, put fabric into boxes, stuffed my drawers and brand new beautiful shelf full of stuff in the room, trying to make it all fit.  Sigh.  It will probably take me at least a week to unpack the house and get it back into it's ship shape functioning condition.  But who know's when we'll be back in the house!!  We've been told "at least 4 days", so who really knows (especially since it's forecasted to rain most of the week). 

SO!  In the meantime, I'm at my parents house.  I did manage to take over my card making supplies to keep me occupied while we live there.  I have set up a trussle table out in the gym room with my supplies and so far have made 6 cards!! I think that's a record for me of late.  6 cards within 24 hours?  I am amazing!!

Hopefully I'll be home in my nifty little craft room soon :)

For more spaces, just snap crackle pop over to Kirsty's.

*WARNING* Grumpy post.

Let me give you the full story here.  Thursday afternoon of last week husby receives an email from our Property Manager (as we are renting).  "Painter will begin painting your unit on Monday - will take at least 4 days, must remove everything from cupboards and closets and move everything into centre of room, etc".

Yes you heard right, 3 days notice.  He probably thinks he's doing us a favour, considering that by law he only needs to give us 24 hours notice.  But hello, use your brain and look at what your asking here. 

Despite the anger that I felt after reading that email (and still feel to this very moment), I knew there was nothing we could do about it.  So I spent my Friday  night and Saturday preparing our house to be painted.  Spent $35 on pieces of plastic to put over our belongings.  Moved 3 carfulls of belongings to my parents house - which is nearby - because this is where we had planned to stay. (most was things we just didn't feel comfortable leaving there with a stranger in our house).  I work for my dad and he is my transport to work each day.  Husby works in the opposite direction so needs to take the car to get to there.  So the option that made the most sense was to just stay at my parents house for the week (or however long it jolly well takes).

So we then speak with the Property Manager about compensation.  This is where it gets uglier.  No relief for Rent will be given, and no money for accomodation.  I have called the RTA (Rental rights people) and all they can suggest is to fill in a dispute resolution form.  If we jump straight into doing that, it will cause huge problems with the already problematic Property Manager.  He is a grumpy rude man and in the past has evicted tenants because they're annoying.  Can you image the wrath after finding out we've lodged a dispute?  Yeah.. so not looking forward to what is yet to come. 

What are your thoughts?  Am I over-reacting?

Flea Market Finds... always finding!!!

I love finding new crafty treats.  Sometimes I don't know what I'm going to do with them.  Which is a problem in itself.  Last week I did a huge clean up and found some things I'd found a while back in an op shop.  This week I returned them to that same op shop.  I don't know WHY I bought it in the first place.  Obsession comes to mind.

So I have been making a great effort to only buy stuff that I KNOW what I can make out of it!!!  AND WILL make it into that.... one day :)

So here are my latest finds.

  

and...

and...

Not a bad effort I say!

Oh, and I realised after writing this post, that I infact bought other stuff but forgot to photograph it because they were already in the washing pile.  One disadvantage to thrifting any sort of fabric - the smell!! Maybe next week!

Go here if you want to join in!

Blogger Butts - I think I'm 3 weeks in now.

So I anticipated this past week to have been much more fantastic then the last - which you can read about here.  But guess what.  It sucked even more then last week!!!!!!  It's been a bad week, and I've been feeling really stressed and frustrated, but i won't go into that now.  I only lost 0.2kg last week.  But I need to remain positive.  So far my total weight loss is 4.6kg, over a 3 week period.  So even though the last two weeks results have been less then exciting, I am still doing well considering I've only been on the WW wagon for a short time.  It's hard to not get ahead of myself and expect such instant results.  Hopefully the weeks will go by faster and I can consistently lose weight each week when I weigh in.  MUST REMAIN POSITIVE.

So as usual, some of my thoughts and experiences from the past week:

- discovered 1 pt creme caramel, which im now obsessed with
- rediscovered my love for pineapple juice and it's refreshing flavour
- I only exercised once and loathed every of those 30 minutes
- worked out a WW friendly way to make Mexican only to discover husby and I both felt sick afterwards because of the richness of the flavour (we can't seem to handle rich foods anymore)
- drank a tonne of water again
- someone noticed my weight loss in my stomach area
- one of my pairs of Capri's fits more comfortably again
- I re-discovered what a long good nights sleep can do for my body to make it feel normal (had 12 1/2 hrs!)
- I've had more zits this week then I've had in months combined.. sigh.  Maybe the pineapple juice?
- I decided to get my hair cut a little shorter and sneakily realised this may impact my 'weight loss' for next week hahahaha
- told myself that I MUST change my attitude towards exercise and at least make the effort to do it twice a week
- I got a little slack at writing my food and points down as the day went on, and got to the end of the day to discover I only had like 5 points left for dinner.  I've been better at writing down since
- I celebrated the fact that one day when I decide to have a baby, I won't cry and whine about getting stretch marks, because I already have them all over my stomach and boobs and to me that's just normal
- WW frozen meals were on special.  I bought like 12 of them... oops.
- made a decision that when I exercised, that I wouldn't then eat the points I had just earnt back.

And that's about it for this week.  The next week will be interesting.  Husby and I were notified yesterday that our house is being painted next week.  So we are mid destroying our house... emptying all cupboards and putting things in boxes and drawers and yeah.  It's less then fun to say the least.  BUT, I can totally count moving furniture as exercise right?  I might be a crazy lady when I check in next Friday, cause we're moving in with my parents.......  Wish me luck.

Softies for Smiles - UPDATE!

First of all, THANK YOU to all those who have sent softies so far.  They are all AMAZING.  I received two more parcels in the post yesterday from Dianne & Vanessa and I haven't had a chance to thank you yet, but they're all ADORABLE.  The girls at work loved them and we had some of them on our desks for the day to adore their cuteness :)

I have heard back from two groups who are organising fun days in communities that were flooded.  Both are fantastic options to take the softies to and hand them out to the children myself (which I am super eager and excited about doing!)  I am looking into logistics and which date will work best.  One is end of March, the other is beginning of April.  I will let you know within the next week which one is a go and give you ALL the details.  

And lastly I have had some helpers to get more softies made!!  Thanks to my gorgeous nephew & some of the girls at church, and of course to all of you wonderful women out there who have sent in softies, I have got 35 softies in my hot hands ready to give to these wonderful little kiddies!!  

Here are some piccies of some of the softies being made.

Now I need to tell you the story behind this last picture.  Mr Nephew wanted to help his Aunty Christy to "make toys for the kids who don't have toys", in his words.  He proceeded to stuff only about a handful of toy filling in, and then proudly comes and shows me the monster he had just made himself.  I then asked him if he remembered who we were making the toys for.  He promptly responded with "for Spencer!!!!", with glee.  I explained to him that we were making them for the kids who lost their toys in the floods.  Then he asked me if I could make him one because he "lost all of his toys too".  (gotta love how kids minds work).  I told him I could make him one in the upcoming week. 

This is the softie he helped me to make.  When I asked him what he wanted his monster to look like, he was holding this softie, and he goes, "I want it to be stripey blue, with red eyes and a yellow stomach!!!"  Then he looked at me with those eyes.  Needless to say the monster is now part of his softie collection on his bed.  How could I say no???? 

Yay for weekends!  I'll update you soon, and post some piccies of the softies I've received in the post!

Wordless Wednesday

No words, just work - trying to keep up with demand.  Making their way into the shop tonight & tomorrow...