Category Archives: ponderings

something to smile about

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We’ve just had a week off. A whole week, sandwiched by a weekend on either end and a public holiday on Monday… That’s a whole lotta time to ourselves!

You’d think I’d have tons to share right?

Well, you’d be wrong.

It all started last week when I had to use my day off to drive a whole lotta stuff into the city and to the gallery where Wayne had organised work take part in an exhibition. Then I drove into the city both Saturday and Sunday cause Wayne was the only person who put his hand up to man our part of the exhibition. That meant I spent two days in Hobart… not bad in itself. I watched a couple of movies and had coffee out and did some shopping… But they were days not spent at home, working on… oh… I dunno… anything!

Then, on Monday we had to go back into Hobart to take down the exhibition… more driving in to the city, a whole day pretty much gone.

We live about 30min or so out of the city, more in traffic. But going into the city always blows out. You try to do as much as you can “while you’re in there” and one hour turns to two and so on.

Tuesday grooming and a great playdate with a friend and her poodle. Fun. We all enjoyed that. Wednesday grooming again, all day. Thursday (yesterday) another drive into the city to pick up the Art From Trash entries this time, ours and work ones.

And today… we had an appointment at the tax man.

All bad news I’m afraid. And that’s for last year. In about a month it’ll be more bad news.

sigh.

So, you’d think that having spent only half a day out today, I’d be champing at the bit to get out into the workshop to make something. Anything.

But no. I’m sitting here, near the heater, trying to keep warm. Tasmania turned the cold on for the first day of winter and hasn’t let up since. Big frosts every morning, pea soup fog all day… Lovely.

I’m just too weary to go out there and work in these conditions. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the next day.

Eh. Who knows.

Meanwhile I’ll entertain you for a bit. Will that do?

I love words, language, etc. So its no surprise I love these:

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supplying a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration(n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4.Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high .

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10.Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11.Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon(n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15.Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug(n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor  ( n.): The colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

And how about an absolutely amazing website:

Or the funniest ad ever:

Or maybe this is:

This is funny but also hits cute and sweet:

How about some funny images:

Hope you had a chuckle or two.

z

ripped off – an angry post

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I am angry, in case you haven’t guessed it.

On Wednesday afternoon I lost my wallet and some lowlife found it and went on a shopping spree using my cards.

How did they do that without my PIN? Paypass and Paywave of course! This nifty newest convenient way to shop! Now, for purchases under $100 you don’t need a pin! You just tap and go!

The problem is that ANYONE can tap and go with your card! And to the scum of the earth like the people who found my card, this was wonderful. All they had to do was make sure they visited as many shops as possible in the shortest time possible (before I realised my wallet was missing) and make as many purchases under $100 as they could.

I left work at 3pm on Wednesday as I had a meeting to go to. On the way I stopped at the house of an old guy who sells plants in his driveway, just around the corner from work. I’d been by in the morning and had him set aside a ton of plants for me.

I parked the car, picked up the bags of pots, paid him and put the pots in the car, leaving my wallet on the car and forgetting it there as I drove off.

I’ve never done something this stupid before.

I was at the meeting by 3.20pm.

By 3.20pm the lowlife scum had already found my cards and started their shopping spree.

First they visited Woolworths where they made 4 transactions on the one card. Then they had lunch at Banjos. Then the bottle shop for booze, and the gas station for fuel.

From there they went into the city center and visited Target, Jetty Surf, Red Herring among other places and made multiple purchases on both cards.

Then they went to Moonah to another bottle shop and Harris Scarfe.

From there to Glenorchy to another bottle shop (all up over $200 worth of booze), the shopping center where they made multiple purchases in many shops.

Their last stop was the Bridgewater McDonalds where their $66 dinner purchase was declined.

All in all, in three hours they visited 20 or so shops and, between my Mastercard and my Visa, they got over $1000 worth of stuff.

Not bad for THREE HOURS work.

And all in transactions under $100 each.

I think that surely, if I was a shop assistant and saw someone using the same card for multiple small transactions, warning bells would go off. And my credit card is bright orange, not a common card at all. It stands out. I read a forum on this subject and found comments from people who work in shops where they’ve suspected something was up – in most cases they just let the suspects pay and leave without notifying the police or bank.

While this was going on, I had no idea my wallet was even missing. I had my meeting, then drove home, stopping at a friend’s for a visit. I heard my phone beep, saw a message to call BankWest but planned to call when I got home. When I got home I fed the animals, mowed the lawn and totally forgot about the message.

In the morning I remembered and called them – getting online at the same time to find $500 worth of transactions I had not made. That’s when I realised I couldn’t find my wallet. First thought was that I’d forgotten it at the plant man’s place, but later on I remembered putting it on the car.

I immediately called Bank West and cancelled the Mastercard. They had suspended it by then, however not before $736.63 worth of transactions had gone through.

I was angry, upset, disbelieving, violated. Maybe its cause I’m honest and honest people just don’t think like that… we can’t see ourselves doing something like that so we’re surprised when others do.

I had a playdate for Romeo with a couple of other poodle friends but I stopped at the police station to report the lost wallet/stolen wallet. After all, the wallet contained everything! They said that since the cards had been used it wasn’t just a matter of reporting a missing wallet, it was fraud. However, without transaction details they couldn’t make a report.

It wasn’t till I was at the playdate and said to my friends “at least they can’t use my debit card and access my savings account without my PIN” that I realised they COULD.

And did.

Cause of course my debit card is also a VISA card and it has paywave.

So on the phone National Australia Bank. I wanted to know if they’d used that card. Without being able to answer the security question (what automatic deductions do you have on this account – I knew I had one but couldn’t remember what) they wouldn’t give me any information. Even when I could tell them exactly what my last purchases were prior to losing it, and what payments went in there regularly… Cause I may have been the person who’d stolen the card.

Like the person who stole the card would care about anything other than a balance! Just a simple Yes or No answer was all I wanted.

I was in the city without access to the internet so I went to a friend’s house and logged on to internet banking… . About 10 transactions on that account, approx $250 at that stage. I printed them out for the police.

I couldn’t print out the Mastercard transactions cause they’d closed that account already. Bank West sent me a list. This list had transactions on it that hadn’t been on my online banking in the morning.

They visited 20 or so places and made over $1000 in purchases… All because they could use Paywave and Paypass without a PIN.

(I keep saying ‘over $1000’ cause I’m not sure of the exact amount.)

When I asked the bank to give me a card without the tap and go feature I was told that no one makes credit cards without it any more and it cannot be disabled.

At least with National Australia Bank I was able to get them to issue me a plain debit card, not a VISA, as my replacement card… no chip, no paywave.

Everyone says “hey, you’ll get it all back, the fraud protection on the cards will cover it”. That may be so… but if they’d had to use a PIN this wouldn’t have happened at all. I wouldn’t have to wait 4-6 weeks for my money to be refunded.

I’m angry. I work for my money. I have 3 jobs. It was very hard for me to save to the point where I actually had some money in my savings account and I’d paid out my credit card. Now I wish I hadn’t bothered! If there was no money in my account and my credit card was still maxed out, they wouldn’t have been able to go shopping with my money!

Not long ago credit cards here went from signature to requiring a PIN. I thought that was a great step in security.

Then they bring this in. I just don’t see how this can be more secure.

I’ve done a ton of reading and its all about how fast and convenient this new system is, how much faster and easier we can now spend our money, how its much safer cause no one can scan your card when its in your bag, or duplicate your magnetic strip… That the new chip technology gives each transaction its own unique number or some such, giving the new cards an ‘added layer of security’.

Like this:

What about security?

Although you can make a contactless payment with up to 4cm reach, most credit card companies require you to tap your credit card for the transaction to go through, ensuring you don’t pay for another person’s sale. Even if you do accidentally tap your credit card twice on the terminal, you won’t be charged because every transaction generates a unique authentication code which cannot be used again.
The wireless technology can be concerning because no pin or signature is needed for a sale to be processed. Not to fret – all NFC cards use the latest chip technology, which come with secure encryption (cryptographic key) technology to protect you from thieves who might try to ‘scan’ the wallet in your pocket.
There’s not much stopping a thief from hitting up the shopping centre with purchases under $100 at different outlets but as with other payment methods (e.g pin, signature), most credit cards provide a zero liability policy. This means that you will be covered for any unauthorised transactions, with 100% reimbursement. Some providers state that you must notify the institution immediately in order to get your money back.

Source

Now have a look at this article by the Financial Obudsman Service… particularly look at this line which baffles me:

A customer can only be held liable for unauthorised contactless transactions if:
1. Their card was misused, lost or stolen. 
2. They knew that their card was misused, lost or stolen.
3. They took an unreasonably long time to tell the card issuer about the misuse,
loss or theft of the card.

HUH?… how else would there be any unauthorized transactions on your card if it wasn’t misused, lost or stolen????

If you’re not tired of reading, most articles about this flashy tap and go system are upbeat and positive, like this one. Some, like this one, are a bit more balanced as they include the cons, but again, its more about the positives.

Personally, having just been through this violation, I fail to see the positives.

I fail to see how not having a PIN is in any way a more secure way to do things.We should have the chip and a PIN, which is how I use my cards. That’d make sense.

Maybe we just need to be given the choice on if we want our cards to have a tap and go option.

Maybe banks should let people make up their own minds and let them enable or disable tap and go, even it must be available on their card.

I’d like it disabled on my cards please. I know a lot of people would like that too.

I should have replacement cards in a week or so and my ‘dispute’ should be resolved (favourably I should hope) in 4-6 weeks. Till then I just have the fun part of replacing my driver’s license, library card, membership cards, health insurance card, medicare card, etc.

z

stubborn? never!

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Wayne likes to read.

Wayne likes to read all the time.

Wayne has tons of books.

We don’t have enough bookcases for all the books Wayne has.

I like to read.

I have some books.

I also have a Kindle which has tons of books on it.

I prefer to read on the Kindle as its light, easy to hold, easy to read and I will never run out of books while I have access to the internet.

I bought Wayne a Kindle for his birthday in January… He had told me repeatedly that he did not want a Kindle, that he would never use a Kindle and that I better not ever buy him a Kindle.

Did I listen?

No.

Obviously.

Cause I used to feel that way about Kindles. I liked the feel of a book, I liked the smell of ink on new pages, I liked turning pages. Then I bought a Kindle cause taking 15 books to Greece with me on holidays just didn’t appeal to me.

I love my Kindle.

When Wayne ran out of books to read before Christmas he was grumpy. He was reduced to reading cereal boxes. He even read some of my books and that’s saying something. He wanted to read Game of Thrones (I have the box set) but found the type too small to read comfortably.

So I bought him a Kindle Paperwhite (like mine, cause I love mine!) to surprise him. I got him a case for it, I even put Game of Thrones on it.

(Ulterior motive: The books are so long I figured he’d be hooked on both the Kindle and the series by the time he finished book one!)

He flat out refused to try it reminding me how often he’d warned me not to buy him one. It sat on his bedside table gathering dust for weeks. He kept finding books to read: the dregs he’d overlooked on his first pass over the bookcases, what he could scavenge from friends, whatever, as long as he didn’t have to give up his principles and try the Kindle.

Then the day came… He was desperate. He asked me to show him how to read the Kindle.

He’s been using it non-stop ever since. He takes it everywhere with him.

He hasn’t said a thing to me, but I heard through the grapevine that he loves it.

Men.

What can I say?

z

silliness is key

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While looking at the DIY Showoff link party, I found a link to this post from Our Peaceful Planet.

Its all about how humour and laughter are the key to a good relationship.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

Ideas To Get You Laughing
 
These suggestions were chosen to encourage having fun and laughing together.  NOTE: If any of these things sound way too immature, your totally missing the point.
 
  1. Watch funny movies or shows together.
  2. Watch stand up comedians together.
  3. Set a goal to share one new joke with each other every week.
  4. Grab some things in the bookstore humor area and read to each other.
  5. Have a game night where you play a fun board game together. You can even do it with friends. (Crimes Against Humanity sticks out as a good choice.)
  6. Be playfully teasing with each other.
  7. Get over inhibitions and do something silly. Make faces, walk funny, do some slap stick.
  8. Always look for the humor in a situation.
  9. Whisper naughty things to your mate that makes them giggle.
  10. Have a tickle fight.
  11. Play twister together.
  12. Hang out with funny friends.
  13. Learn to laugh at yourself.
  14. Play a fun video game together. (Roy and I play World of Warcraft.)
  15. Ride go carts together.
  16. Do the hokey pokey.
  17. Go to a park and play on the swings and slide.
  18. Have a silly string fight.
  19. Play laser tag.
  20. Have a water, snowball or pillow fight.
  21. Act out a scene from a movie.
  22. Learn to juggle.
  23. Have a bubble gum blowing contest.
  24. Have a burping contest.
Well… that’s interesting. Lets see how we fare.
Watch funny movies/shows together – of course. Although sometimes I have to draw the line at some of the stuff Wayne finds funny. I mean I absolutely hate Absolutely Fabulous. And Kath and Kim. And Little Britain. Ugh. However we share the Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men (with Charlie of course), Mom and a few others.
Watch stand up comedians together – I wish we could watch them live like I used to in Melbourne long long ago. As it is we just watch the comedy specials on TV.
Set a goal to share one new joke with each other every week – no goal, but we share jokes often. Especially the political jokes that get elected…
Grab some things in the bookstore humor area and read to each other – nah.
Have a game night where you play a fun board game together. You can even do it with friends. (Crimes Against Humanity sticks out as a good choice.) – Crimes Against Humanity? I can’t find that game… I found Cards Against Humanity… is that the same thing? I used to love board games but its been a long time since I played any. Time to bring back the fun. Anyone for Pictionary?
Be playfully teasing with each other – always.
Get over inhibitions and do something silly. Make faces, walk funny, do some slap stick – gosh. If we made more silly faces we’d be at risk of the wind changing and staying that way! Anyway, silly voices, silly accents, silly words… all the time.
Always look for the humor in a situation – ok… easier said than done in some situations. But good point and sometimes we can do it.
Whisper naughty things to your mate that makes them giggle – uhuh.
Have a tickle fight – no way. I’m too ticklish! Does slapping each other on the butt as we pass count?
Play twister together – are you kidding? We’d get stuck in some contorted position and have to be taken to hospital like human pretzels.
Hang out with funny friends – as much as possible.
Learn to laugh at yourself – always.
Play a fun video game together – we don’t play video games. Or computer games.
Ride go carts together – that would be fun. Do we even have go carts in Tasmania?
Do the hokey pokey – have you seen us get out of bed in the morning?
Go to a park and play on the swings and slide – LOL… but no. We’ve never done that.
Have a silly string fight – sadly, I’ve never had a silly string fight. Put that on the shopping list.
Play laser tag – I don’t think I could pay Wayne enough to play laser tag.
Have a water, snowball or pillow fight – water yes, pillow yes, snow… no. 
Act out a scene from a movie – does quoting lines from movies till he wants to strangle me count?
Learn to juggle – I’m game if you are.
Have a bubble gum blowing contest – could do, providing we don’t pull out our fillings… speak for myself. Wayne has great teeth. Mine are a whole lot of filling held together by some enamel.
Have a burping contest – HA. All the time! In fact we grade each other on depth, decibels and reverb. 
I guess me and Wayne (or Wayne and I for those of you who are more pedantic than I am) aren’t doing so bad after all.
Pass Go and collect $200.
Might be time to challenge Wayne to a game of Scrabble.
z

life (and loss) on the farm

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A few weeks ago one of our new chickens went clucky. First she sat on the nest and got a bit insulted when we took eggs from under her. Then she got short tempered. Then she got cranky and pecked if you reached for the nest.

So we took the 3 eggs she was sitting on and put her and the eggs in Alcatraz. That’s the original dog run on the property that we’ve mainly used as a chicken/duck pen/hospital/nursery.

The chicken sat on those eggs for so long, never coming out of the nest even to eat, that every few days Wayne or I would go in and poke her to make sure she was still alive.

As you can imagine, she really enjoyed that. Small bruises on our arms will attest to that.

Eventually I walked past one day and saw something I never wanted to see… a baby chicken floating in the water bowl.

They’d hatched and one fell straight into the water. Sigh. Poor little thing.

I blame both of us for that. We (he) should have known better than to put a deep water bowl in there with the hen. Didn’t we (he) learn after all those times we (I) fished Herman Too out of that very same bowl when he was dead set determined to kill himself?

Ok. He may have put the bowl in there, but I saw it and didn’t remove it. So, we’re both to blame.

Three hatched. Two alive. At least we have two live ones.

They’re so cute, and she’s such a good mommy. If you go in there she’ll chase you away, wings out, tail up and pointy beak.

Meanwhile the other three chickens decided they wouldn’t be shown up so they went clucky as well. Only problem is we’d been taking the eggs so they’re sitting on empty nests, threatening us with the business end of their beak for nothing.

Well, except one, which is sitting on a ceramic egg. She plans to hatch a chicken figurine.

The horses are all well. Cass is still locked in the stable, poor girlie. She’s being spoiled and pampered, being fed the good stuff twice a day while we wait till its safe to let her out. Its looking like that might be this weekend. The wound is healing well, only four stitches pulled out so its held together. We’ve been cleaning it every day and spraying it with disinfectant twice a day.

She’s ready to get out. She’s bored.

The others are jealous. They don’t understand why she’s being fed while they have to fend for themselves. Life ain’t fair, is it?

Chipmunk shows off his manly physique.

All in all, Dancer and Chipmunk are taking it well but Wally is cranky.

I stay out of his way.

Oh, and we’ve had another animal adventure. Sheep this time.

I think our place has become known locally as the best animal resort in the area.

We keep getting visitors. First there were a couple of pigs, the native hen family, plovers, then the turkeys who visit on a regular basis for a few days at a time, and now we have sheep.

Dancer keeps a wary eye on the new guests.

The horses were a bit put out by the new visitors. How did they get in? The whole place is fenced obviously. The sheep are part gazelle and part greyhound. I saw them run and leap!

Wally doesn’t mind as long as he gets all the treats.

Other than that, I’ve been doing the odd bit here and there but nothing interesting. Hopefully I’ll finish a project or two this weekend to share. Stay tuned.

One thing that I’m pretty sure about now is that I DID fracture my rib. Its been weeks and its still sore.

Mind you, falling on my butt last weekend didn’t help.

No, it wasn’t my fault this time. It was Barney’s.

Let me explain…

Barney was getting in the way of a car which was trying to park in the driveway. I called him over and squatted down to pat and hold him till it was safe.

Its hard enough to balance on your toes in a squatting position at the best of times if the ground is slightly uneven… but there I was trying to balance my center of gravity between my boobs and my butt when Barney decided to lean in.

There was no saving me then. All my weight shifted to my derrier and I went splat.

Again.

Only from a much shorter height this time. And I didn’t land on my sore side.

However, the jolt was enough. Ugh.

Eh. Life goes on.

z

blog facelift

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Did you notice I’ve made some changes to the blog?

I’ve started to try to be more ‘professional’ with my blog. Firstly I started making my photos bigger (I thought they were big enough, but apparently bigger is better – sorry guys). Then I started watermarking my pics so that if by any chance, someone might want to actually PIN one of my photos on Pinterest, then someone else might see my photo and look at my blog…

Or wonder what the hell a ‘Junk4Joy’ is.

The other change I made is to the layout. Firstly I changed the colour of links. I thought I may have been a bit too subtle before.

That’s me.

Subtle.

Just like my grandmother who could blow out your eardrums when she used her ‘inside voice’ in a car.

Lastly, I made the blog wider all over, so that the text part would fit the newer/bigger photo format.

So, what do you think? Do the longer lines make it harder to read? Or is it ok? Can you even see a difference?

I do like the bigger photos. I notice how much I dislike small photos on other blogs now.

Other than that, all is well. Back at work and back to coming home tired and not doing as much as I would like. Basically I just watch, get online and blob.

Yes, I do mean blob.

Except for tonight, when I’m blogging not blobbing.

That is till I hit Publish. Then its back to blobbing and watching tv for a while.

z

the big questions

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Seeing as the this whole busted rib episode has slowed me down, I’ve had a lot of time to think.

Most of the time I try to drown out that voice in the back of my head that asks the hard questions. Like:

Is this all there is to life?
Am I on the right path?
Is this job what I want to do forever?
Should I aggressively try to build up my own grooming business and work for myself?
Should I try to be a serious blogger?
What alternatives are available to me?
Why was I born?
Where is the chocolate?

Most of the time I succeed in silencing the voice.

Its easy enough to do.

I put on a dvd. I read a book. I make things.

Just looking at my To Do list is enough to befuddle my brain into numbness.

But the questions remain. Lurking. Waiting for that moment I let my guard down and don’t have a power tool or clippers in my hand to fend them off.

Really. What do I want to be when I grow up? I’m still asking myself that question. My body is slowly falling apart but my brain is still that of a lost 13 year old.

I’ve said this before and I stand by it: the more choices you have in life, the harder it is to make a decision.

I’m so lucky. I’m creative and there are so many things I love/like/want/enjoy doing. Its hard to pick just one and concentrate on it.

It irks me to see people with little talent and creativity make a success of their lives, but its cause they pick something and work at it. I take my creativity for granted… I can do almost anything I put my mind to, so I do something, master it, then move on.

Story of my life. Jack of all trades, master of none.

I do a little bit of everything and in the end, I get nowhere.

I can figure out how to do things and I can actually follow through with them. I even finish things occasionally 99% of the time. But how can I pick something and concentrate on that and become successful at that – in a way that translates into an income?

Ah.

Now there’s a hard question.

z

anatomy of a fall

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I’m feeling a bit better this afternoon. The pain killers no doubt helped some. I think I’ll live.

On one of my short breaks from the ugly purple recliner I thought I’d take some photos for you.

These are the culprit tyres.

And this is a diagramatic re-enactment.

I don’t care if that’s not a real word.

Ouch.

Imagine me lying on my side, elbow bent underneath me bottom left, my feet up between the two tyres. Not a pretty sight. Luckily no one around with a smartphone.

Please note the gravelly clay soil. Much like cement.

On the upside, I’m getting to catch up on computer and mobile phone stuff… On the downside I’m not crossing things off my never-ending-renovation-To-Do-List.

Speaking of smartphones, did I mention my new mobile phone? New to me anyway.

I had an el cheapo mobile phone which I bought when I lost my old mobile about 4 years ago. It cost me something like $75. It was simple. Took calls, made calls. Took photos which were impossible to see on the tiny screen, and refused to open multimedia messages.

I’d been wanting a new phone for a while. Not a long time, but I was getting there.

Then one day I ran over my old phone.

I swear, I did not do it on purpose! Many won’t believe that, but I swear its true.

In fact I have no idea how my mobile ended up on the other side of the driveway, near the gate.

Anyway, while lamenting my carelessness great loss on FB (as you do) cause I was going through an especially broke stage and couldn’t afford a new phone… and at a time when my grooming work should have been booming, but wasn’t, due to a lack of aforementioned roadkill phone…

… someone offered me an old phone.

Its a 2 year old Huawei Ascend and its my first ever smartphone.

A steep learning curve which I’m enjoying.

I am ever so grateful.

I am a big believer in doing good for people cause good will come to you from unexpected sources. I’m always giving things away to people who want or need them rather than sell them for personal gain. I’ve never been a “what’s in it for me” person.

Then, when I need something, someone kind will give me what I need.

Like a mobile phone. Or old carpet, or a doona cover.

So I’ve spent today working on a logo design, editing and cropping photos, cleaning up files on my computer, learning about apps and figuring out how to fix an “insufficient storage” error on the phone.

Anyway, I leave you with a couple of pretty pics of the tyre embankment which shows that one day, this will be a pretty wall of plants and not just a row of tyres.

z

new year, new resolutions?

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Its been a quiet day in Lake Wobegon at Wind Dancer Farm. I know its the beginning of a new year and all that, but really, its just another day for us.
I got up this morning and brushcut the lawn since our mower is broken (great). And soon I’ll be going outside to attempt more house painting despite the wind. My resolution is to finish painting the house before I need to start re-painting it.
I spent the last couple of days painting my decorative brackets, figuring out how to attach them to the porch posts and pre-drilling them. They’re now ready to go up. If my right arm can manage it, I’ll put them up today. I own a very heavy drill and have a dodgey elbow and wrist…
It’ll be nice to have the porch finished. Wayne got annoyed with all my junk on the porch a few weeks ago and did a huge clean up. It looks great now (or will once I finish painting and can pick up drop sheets, ladders and paint buckets), but my workshop is full of the crap I had ‘resting’ on the porch. 
At least the front of the house is almost looking gorgeous. The porch facing the back of the house (though its technically the front of the house cause that’s where the front door is… go figure) doesn’t yet have a roof over it and thus no posts to fix brackets to. I haven’t even painted it. Seems silly to paint the rails on that side since I’m planning to redo that part of the porch in the future.
The distant future…
You know what they say? Time flies when you’re having fun. I’ve been resting, relaxing, reading, socializing and trying to get a few things done while I’m on holidays. Hopefully I can cross a few things off my To Do list before I get back to work. And do some creative stuff to share as well!
Hope everyone has a great 2015!
z

nothing to share

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Here’s gratuitous photo of the horses lining up along the top fence, for no reason in particular. They’re looking pretty darn good right now. Losing their winter coat and looking sleek. Every time you go near them lately you get enveloped in a cloud of horse hair, but its getting better. Except Chipmunk. He’s still a hairy little monster cause he doesn’t enjoy grooming. I’ll get him though…

It dawned on me many times over the last few days that I haven’t posted for a while.

I’ve been busy doing stuff that isn’t worth bragging about sharing. Things like working, doing washing, some work in the garden… I did do a trash and treasure market with a friend on the weekend which was barely successful. Eh. Live and learn. I do way better with my craft markets.

I’ve also been busy painting for two art competitions. More on that later.

And this weekend I’m off to the Poodle Championship Show in Melbourne. I’ll be grooming my fingers to the bone prepping 7 poodles and enjoying the smell of hairspray in the morning.

I’ve missed playing with long poodle hair!

z