Happy 1,000,000,000 second to me...

Oh man! I have missed my 1,000,000,000 second anniversary of being born on the 17th. Awww, what a milestone to miss. I will have to look out for my 1,500 week anniversary of being born on Friday 8 April 2011. No idea what I am talking about? Have a look at some interesting dates related to your birthday.

Lousy Wednesday, Sweet Thursday

The last couple of days have been complete turmoil. I can't believe its only Wednesday. Still, since it is Good Friday this Friday, I can think of today as Thursday and feel a lot better about everything. I can't wait to have a break from work for a couple of days. I think I like the potential of what can be done the most about weekends and holidays. Perhaps that's a bit strange, I don't know. I always used to like thinking of all the ways I could spend, say, birthday money more than the actual spending of it. Because once the money is spent, or the holiday is over, the excitement is gone.

Anyway, I was reading The Punch at lunch today and came across this strange article... "Generally alarm bells should ring if people pose like this". Here is a picture of the pose...

The thing I find most amusing about this article is the fact the majority of the comments focus on this guy's make up. Actually now I have had my attention drawn to it, its hard to notice the gun and the swastika tattoo over the lipstick and eyeshadow. Still I can't help but think that if he was holding something else, like say a flamingo, it would be a fun children's story to read at bedtime.

See what I mean?

Bitey, stingey and snappy

Its hard to admit, but there are still some things out there that stun me. I was talking to my husband the other night and said he should get someone to email a brief summary of something to him rather than asking for it to be posted. After all, surely it is easier to email stuff nowadays right... right?

As it turns out its not, at least for some people. I couldn't really believe it. What do you mean they don't have access to the internet? Can't they walk down the street to the nearest cafe? No? How odd. It is kind of like being told some one can't read or write or swim- and have no intentions of learning. How do they get by in life? What happens if they fall into a waterhole? Well here you would probably get eaten by a crocodile. I sometimes think a lot of people I come across up here think they are like this...

When in actual fact they are more like this...

You mean you drive more than 20min?!? Whoa, how do you manage it, can't you fly that? You mean it was less than 25degrees?!? Argh! How do you survive temperatures like that? And the beaches down south have sharks! I think I'll stick to the beaches up here that are full of crocodiles, killer jelly fish, fish that look like rocks that kill you, small pointy poisonous shells, sting rays and flesh eating bacteria...

War of the worlds

I had the afternoon news on as I was stuffing about after work, and came across an amazing story. A lady in Sydney photographed a couple of UFO's when trying to get some photos of the sunset. Now I am sure everyone knows that Darwin is the next UFO hot spot (possibly due to the high proportion of the population that are on drugs). So I thought that if a UFO was spotted in Sydney, surely there would be one hanging around up here. I mean, it is the next UFO hot spot.

So Jack and I set off, at sunset, to see if we could get a photo of a UFO. Can you believe it, but we actually did. And here are the blurry photos to prove it...

It suddenly appeared, and everything was quiet. It hovered over the dog for a while, appeared to consider abducting him, changed its mind and flew off.

Of course I took my photos to the government and was told that the photo is clearly of a weather balloon caused by dirt on the lens of my camera. But I don't care what they say, we know it was a UFO, I just hope the aliens didn't give Jack a weird skin rash...

Hey you, don't you know who I am?

I was in the shopping centre the other day practicing zen like calm as half the town clamoured for two very slow moving checkout lanes. A lady came along and put one of those 'register closed' signs up as I was paying for my groceries. A rather agitated man came up and wanted to use the closed check out and couldn't understand the poor lady was about to go on her lunch break. He was rather upset it appeared, presumably because he has to share the world with other people. Anyway, my jaw nearly dropped on the floor when he actually said "I am very high ranking, don't you know who I am?" I was immediately reminded of Happy Land's classic 90s tune "Don't you know who I am?" and was humming it as I walked away while Mr High Ranking argued with the poor checkout lady over why she should miss her lunch break so he could get through the checkout quicker.

More cupcake madness

Dez, this is for you... Sweet cakes for all

Cupcake madness

I had a great day today, and even managed to be home on time, Yay! I came across a few odds and ends that I want to share from my lunch time googling.

I have a really long list of things I want to do once I fininsh uni and actually have time to do them. One of these things is to make biscornu (thats french for pointy). I am not sure what they are meant for, but I plan on sticking pins into mine. Here is a picture of one...

I also found another cupcake related trinkety thing at Scrapbooks etc. It seems pretty simple to make, so I will have a go at making one and send it to my cupcake mad friend. I am sure she will love it!

Speaking of cupcakes and pin cushions, I also came across a cupcake pin cushion. How great is that? Perhaps I could make a really big one to sit on while watching tv...

Blog-itis

I think I am developing a google addiction. Well, its more an addiction to blogs than anything else really. There are just so many out there that I keep stumbling across it makes me want to keep looking. Its a bit like walking down a bush track that is twisting and turning, you want to go back because your unfit and it looks like there is a hill up ahead, but you keep going just to see what is around the next corner. Yeah, like that. Anyway speaking of blogs, I think I have found the worlds longest sentence at Sassy Kathy. Its worth reading, and the lesson is; if you have had a bad day don't get a hair cut.

I found this picture while googling. I am sure there are many people who could identify with this. I cant help thinking the inbox is filled with different versions of the same damn scope of work... Its at times like this you need Brannigans Law, but apply it to people instead of planets. Hmm yes, "I don't pretend to understand Brannigans Law, I merely enforce it".

Anyway, I also found a great blog-a life made easy peasy lemon squeezy home- for making alien softies. I am having a great time reading about how to make them and stuff. I had a go at making a dove last Christmas and it kinda worked out. I think there is a lot I would change next time though.

March is a stressy time of year

March is turning out to be such a busy month. I ended up working yesterday and got home fairly late (hence nothing posted yesterday). Work is really busy at the moment, and then I am also trying to finish off uni at the same time. To put it mildly, I am starting to stress out about getting everything done in time. To prove that I am stressed, my eye is starting to twitch like that stressed out teacher in Daria. In fact there have been a few moments where I have wanted to shout every fifth word or so...

Birds and knitting

Last night I had another go at crocheting a granny square and finally got it! A square granny square. Although I got carried away and didn't stop crocheting and now I have a slightly over sized granny square. I looked at it this morning and couldn't bear the thought of unravelling it. So, thought I would keep going until its big enough to put under the lamp on my bedside table to stop it scratching it. Yay, something usable.

My next knitty project will be the cupcakes. I came across them in the April edition of Better Homes & Gardens... The instructions are still in bizarre knitting language but with the kind advice of a friend I can figure it out with the help of revelry or google videos (more of a monkey see monkey do kind of person when it comes to knitting and crochet). Of course, this will be after I finish the cross stitch... oh yeah, and uni of course!


I also had a couple of visitors this morning land on the balcony. I think they were looking for food, but I was worried that if I leave out the left-over budgie seed for them they would start to eat the railings. So I left them to do their birdy thing and took a photo of them instead...

Doggie treats

Dont you just love it when someone sends you something out of the blue? I was thinking the other day that I would cook Jack up some home made dog biscuits, since he seems to be turning off the store bought ones. I even went so far as to google (of course) a recipe for home made dog treats. I was lamenting the fact that I probably wouldnt be able to find a bone shaped cookie cutter and would have to settle for the star shaped ones I found in the supermarket. When what should arrive in the post but this...

Thanks Jane, what amazing timing! So I spent a rather mad afternoon telling young Jack which doggie treats I was prepared to have a go at cooking. I am glad the tin says fairly clearly "Dog Treats" on the side because I can see someone munching away on these without a worry that they were meant for the dog.

Things to sticky tape

I was randomly googling this afternoon, mainly because I really didn't want to move, and I came across this great idea. U create has a tutorial for making your own mosaic picture. I thought this was really good, especially since I can't nail anything to the walls at the moment. So a picture like this that is really light and could possibly be sticky taped in place seems like a good idea. I am sure I will comment on how good an idea it is after I try to remove it from the wall.

Anyway, I was wondering what to do if my new bookshelf should collapse one day. Googling came to the rescue and I found a pretty amazing site that shows you how to recreate furniture you see but can't afford. Well worth checking out Knock-off Wood.

Unwind with IKEA

What do you do when you have had a relatively crappy day at work? Well I am sure a lot of people drink something, but not me. No, I construct a shelf out of the broken remnants that arrived a few days ago. I was a bit annoyed when I opened the box to find the three main bits of the shelf unit were nearly snapped in two. Still, you should never underestimate the versatility of packing tape. I now have a new shelf that is held together with packing tape in much the same way as the old one...

Frozen broccoli day

I am rushing this afternoon's post because I got caught up in the excitement that is Tuesday afternoon at Woolies and I still have to take the dog for a walk. For most people this wouldn't make any sense at all, there is food all week round in most civilised places in Australia. Well here Tuesday is the day all the food shows up and the shelves get re-stocked. Its also a great day to run over peoples toes with a shopping trolley. So I got home late after almost doing a happy jig in the frozen food isle when I was able to glom one of the last packets of frozen broccoli. Phew, perhaps I can sell it on Friday for an inflated price...

While i was away I tried to take a whole heap of photos of stuff in general but it didn't really work out. I managed to get a wonky one of a statue of a horse in the rain, but someone looked at me. Then I got all self conscious about it and put the camera away. Although I did manage to get this...

I slightly freaked out at the dismembered hand when I first saw it. I was going to take a photo of it then (it was daylight at the time) but right as I surreptitiously got out the camera, a couple of tourists started draping themselves over it for some holiday photos. Once again I got self conscious and pretended that I see it all the time and have no interest in getting a photo and kept walking. Anyway, the reason I freaked out was it reminded me of a horror movie I saw when I was about 11 at around 3 in the morning (I remember it well). Quite fittingly the movie was called The Hand . Its basically about a guy who gets his hand cut off, which then starts killing people (click on the link to read more of a spoiler about it).

I also got sent some fun stuff in the mail (Thanks Glenda, if your reading this). I am pretty excited about doing the cross stitch book mark. You can never have too many book marks...

Epiphany... kind of

I spent the last few days travelling all over the place. I went to Brisbane via Cairns and felt completely ripped off when I ended up waiting for four hours in the airport when I could have been wandering around Cairns. Instead all I could do was wander around Cairns airport and marvel at the lumpy things they have outside. I am not entirely sure what they are meant to be, perhaps it is what happens when you leave nachos on the coffee table for too long?

Brisbane was surprisingly damp. I don't think I have ever been there when it is raining so I kept mistakenly telling people I was in Melbourne. Although to be honest I haven't really been to Brisbane all that much, so it could rain all the time and I wouldn't really know. I tried to take a photo from the hotel window, I am sure on a clear day it probably looks a bit better.

On the way back out to Gove, I was hanging around in the airport cafe and had an epiphany of sorts. I am sure people have heard of the image of jesus appearing in a burnt cheese sandwich, or in a cornflake, a toblerone or whatever. I found the image of a heart in my coffee...

So I took a photo of it and then drank it. And it was quite nice really

Unidentified Knitting Projects

I feel compelled to share my ongoing knitting project. I started it about four years ago and it can spend up to years at a time shoved in a cupboard. The reason for this is that the lovely long green scarf I have was actually meant to be a hat. I chose the design because it looked easy. It probably was, but I lost count of rows and things and just kept going...

More recently I had a go at crochet. I got the idea from a better homes and gardens magazine for crochet flowers. Although that was a bit complicated for me and only ended in knots (yes, I realise crochet is basically knots, but I was getting the wrong types of knots).

So I googled crochet (where would we be without google) and found heaps of videos of how to crochet. I started out with granny squares but ended up with granny circles. Still, if I stretch out the corners it kinda makes a square shape. Perhaps I just need to stop pulling so hard on the thread.

I will leave the crochet for a little while and focus on my new project (next to my patchwork which is taking forever! I know now why people use sewing machines for this)- a baby sampler for my friend who is about to have a baby. I thought I better get started on it now so its ready for its 21st birthday!

I think it worked out pretty well, there is a days worth of procrastinating there. I'll have to keep posting the progress on it, at the moment its meant to be an elephant wearing a bonnet in a carriage.