Chasing Rainbows

Change

I was going through a folder in Outlook this morning and came across a reading I had done in January by Fox and Owl... I think I appreciate it more now than I did then... My major animal totems are a hawk (I look out for others because I'm able to see the big picture), white macaw (loud, verbal, self-expressive and creative), lion (strategic with good hunting/gathering skills and protective instincts), elephant (community minded and family centred), ant (this is a bit of a downfall lol will focus on a project without stopping even to rest or sleep, community minded) and leopard (instincts and intuition, self-confident, self-assured and empowered to handle whatever comes their way). Although, I've always been that person I never really saw myself that way, and I guess I didn't when I got the reading either, even though the message yelled at me with flashing lights! 

This was the interpretation from Melissa "You have a great deal of energy that you are constantly using for one project, purpose, or reason.  While you have a larger pool of energy to pull from (than many people) it is not endless. Going at the rate you have been without relaxing and taking a break will either burn you out or make you sick. Learning how to take care of yourself is very important. Remember that other people have gifts that they can use to assist you too.  You can let go of the reigns a bit, and trust Universe and others to do at least half a good a job in your absence. You are a strong leader with a heart for people.  With your great instincts and strategic way of seeing things …. There is no wonder people seek your assistance in their lives.  Yet even the healer needs healing from time to time.  Even the counselor needs counseling sometimes.  Even the cook needs to eat sometimes. Enjoy nature and do some creating! This will be rejuvenating and good for you.<3" 

Unknowingly, that is the path I've taken. I've simplified my life and I'm enjoying the little things like sunshine and dandelions.  Thanks Universe for reminding me how far I've come :)

Labour Day

I feel quite lucky, because today is a public holiday here in Queensland. I've continued my do a little each day in the backyard and it's finally coming together. Of course being on the other side of one of those 'littles' I feel like curling up and dying lol (a little dramatic I know but I'm waiting for my pain killers to kick in) Isaac came home from his weekend with his father at lunchtime yesterday, so I've been able to do more than I expected out there! He even exclaimed that he'd had fun out there with me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have quite a large backyard that was dirt and overgrown shrubs when we moved in. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've moved the chicken run from around my other veggie patch, gave them the backyard lawn clippings and made it more secure so they can't get out and eat my seedlings. Apparently they are tasty. (So is the grass next door in my neighbours yard, personally I think they just go over to annoy me!) I still have the front yard to mow and whipper snip but that's two more 'littles'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was today's breakfast, hash browns and Hollandaise. They were really good!

Hash browns

• 2 grated potatoes
• 1 grated onion
• an egg (and egg white if you make the Hollandaise)
• plain flour (or in my case potato and rice flour) - enough to make the mixture the same texture as cake batter, you may need to add more because as the mixture sits the water comes out of the potatoes
• salt and pepper

Mix and fry in batches in olive oil, drain on a paper towel. I used large potatoes and it made enough for the 2 of us. You can add herbs, some strong flavoured grated cheese or even some speck or bacon to these to make them a bit fancier.

Hollandaise

• 3 tbs butter
• 1 egg yolk
• lemon juice
• salt

Melt butter in the microwave, add the egg yolk and whisk until it emulsifies, (thickens and goes slightly lighter), add the lemon juice and salt, little by little until it tastes right to you. (yes I know this is cheating because it should be made over a double boiler but it still tastes good!!)

Hope you've all enjoyed your weekend as much as I have mine :) 

 

 

 

 

Lazy Sundays

I made damper today for lunch, in fact I made it twice, because the first time I forgot to put baking powder in it. Oops! The chooks liked it though :) Isaac came home early from his father's and we sat outside and ate it with golden syrup. Was lovely :)) I managed to sit out there (with a pillow under my bottom and one behind me) for nearly an hour. Unfortunately, I started to go numb so I got up and hosed the seedlings and came inside. It's such a beautiful day I had to be out in it.

(Really need to do something with that basket of sandpit toys that lives on the table though!!) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seed sprouting, photography and lazy days in jammies!

Last Sunday I spent the day reading Rhonda Hetzel's blog after my friend Ngaire posted a book review of Rhonda's book on her blog. Who would have thought something so simple would have changed my outlook and recharged me!

Since the anniversary of my car accident last month I've been feeling quite useless. After doing two hours of "work" (facing up screws) at Bunnings my back spasmed for 4 days, which I really wasn't expecting, and physically it took me back to pre-back rehab. The most frustrating thing for me is that even though I can't stand or sit for more than 30 minutes without severe repercusions later (and the next day) I'm quite fit and still very flexible. Those are the two things that have gone against me (believe it or not!!) when seeing specialists to assess my condition. They see that I can almost touch my toes and think "wow she doesn't really have a problem", even after explaining that I used to be able to place my whole palm on the floor, they go by what they see, this was cemented when I was seeing an Exercise Physiologist last year. After I'd been seeing him for a couple of months he'd still exclaim "you really are very flexible!"... um yes I have been saying that all along! Thankfully, I have a great GP who does listen, and has known me for 14 years, so understands me a lot better than the specialist who's seen me for 15 minutes!

Due to lack of energy my veggie patch became very overgrown and the only things still growing were the self seeded pumpkin (which has an impressive vine with fruit that drops off too early), two tomato plants and an eggplant. With Isaac's help last week we tidied it up a bit and I decided to replant. I have a stack of seeds and a lot of them were past their useby dates but after reading this post on Rhonda's blog I decided to see if they were all really past it. 

Varied results with them but lots of them haven't done anything yet so I watered them and put them back on top of microwave in their greenhouse (plastic shopping bag). To help my back I'm going to plant my seeds into empty toilet rolls then transplant into the garden with Isaac's help. It will lessen the chance of root damage by little fingers and save them from being landfill!

Yesterday, I was very lucky to be able to do a workshop with Rachel Richter. I haven't used my dSLR for years. It was covered in a thick layer of dust even though it was securely in my camera bag. The workshop was all about understanding how to shoot manually and then practicing on models that she'd organised. Now I do prefer to shoot buildings, wildlife and generally things that sit still lol, so I did find people hard, but for the first time I understand what the settings on my camera mean. I read the instruction book that came with my camera once in a vein attempt to understand but no... didn't help! Rachel explained in English (yes I did read the English part of the manual but it still didn't help) lay terms that I finally understood, and answered all of the silly questions I had. This morning when I took the above photos I used my camera on manual settings instead of grabbing my iPhone which is a major step for me. If you want to learn how to use your camera I can't recommend a workshop with Rachel enough!

Photo of a softie owl I made a little while ago. He was made out of a lot of fabric scraps and recycled jeans. I have another one ready to sew up and stuff for a friend but I have so many little 'feathers' cut out I may make a few more while I'm at it!

Thanks for reading. Happy Sunday!!

Testing testing... 1... 2... 3

I've decided to blog again so my poor Facebook friends don't get sick of me talking about my lastest adventures in my garden and bread and yoghurt making! There will be the occasional crafting post but, unfortunately, as I can't sit for very long, that is still limited to what I can do standing, reclining on my bed or on the sofa!

Today I received an order from Eden Seeds. With my little helper (thank you Isaac) I'm hoping to be able to plant lots of goodies in my veggie patch. I've always been a seed collector but never knew why a lot of them wouldn't grow until I read a blog post by Rhonda Hetzel. So I made a list of all the vegetables that we eat on a regular basis and picked varieties that would grow in Brisbane. It feels good knowing that when I collect the seeds after they've fruited they WILL actually grow!

Ten Rules for Being Human

Love this.. read it here.It made me smile :)

Ten Rules for Being Human
by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

My bucket list

No I'm not dying... not any faster than anyone I know anyway! I have a lot of things that I'd like to do 'one day'. I figure that if I write them down I have a better chance of ticking them off.

1. Drink a latte and eat a chocolate crossiant in a cafe in Paris
2. Ride in a hot air balloon
3. Go camping at Kakadu National Park
4. See Uluru at sunset
5. Visit the Pyramids of Giza
6. Make a difference in at least one person's life
7. Go sky diving
8. Walk a few kms of the Great Wall of China
9. Go to Nepal
10. Sail around the Whitsundays
11. Go on a road trip that lasts more than 4 days
12. Go to the Lourve
13. Climb the Eifel Tower
14. Holiday at Orpheus Island
15. Learn to make pasta
16. Watch Bathurst live
17. Do a Thai cooking class
18. Have a vegie garden and have it produce vegies!
19. Learn to say 'cheers' in 10 languages
20. Learn to knit
21. See Stonehenge
22. Study and get a degree
23. See "Christ the Redeemer" in Brazil
24. Learn the piano again
25. Go to Latin dance classes
26. Visit Machu Picchu
27. Stay at Golden Door
28. Pick tulips in Amsterdam
29. Make a quilt for my bed
30. Visit every state/territory in Australia
31. Go to King Island and eat without thinking about the fat content of anything I put in my mouth
32. Make a garden sculpture out of machinery
33. Read The Chronicles of Narnia
34. Allow myself to make mistakes
35. Sleep in a castle
36. Learn to take a compliment
37. Win a game of tennis
38. Have a basic knowledge of world geography
39. Watch "The Wizard of Oz" again
40. Feed dolphins at Tangalooma
41. Watch turtles hatch
42. Create a sacred place in my home where I can go for quiet time
43. Go to the Melbourne Cup
44. Own a pair of red cowboy boots
45. Go to the Blue Mountains

As the end of the year draws near...

I get reflective. I think about all the things I haven't done. Mind you that doesn't motivate me to do anything other than veg out on my holidays LOL I thought I'd like to make a list of all the things I have accomplished this year though, and my unused blog seemed to be the perfect place!

1. I learned to say thank you to compliments without making it a negative thing
2. I rearranged the house so that we use what little space we have more effectively
3. I stopped buying breakfast, lunch and coffee everyday
4. I am taking better care of myself spiritually, mentally and physically
5. I have a budget and financial plan for the next year 
6. I made gnocchi from scratch
7. I managed to work full-time and be a single mum and not go mad
8. I had one accident (involving a data cable, phone, computer and my foot)
9. I had one hospital visit (see 8)
10. I learned to be gracious and accept the help from my colleagues and friends (see 8 and 9)
11. I de-cluttered my house and my mental baggage
12. I grew very fond of Comsopolitians

I want to start compiling a bucket list too, a lot of it will revolve around travel, which is where point 5 (above) comes in. Factored into my budget are two holidays per year. I'm kicking it off by taking Isaac to Sydney for his 10th birthday early April 2010. With the list of things that I think we should see the weekend will be stretched over three days I think! (I'll have to go back down by myself do to all the things that would be deemed boring by a 10yo boy though!)

Other than learning to cook gnocchi, I've been cooking more from recipes. My kitchen is so tiny, it doesn't lend its hand in opening the cupboard to see what pops out at me kind of cooking which I am used to. Of course most things I cook I do take creative shortcuts/diversions with them :) Like the date scones below that mysteriously turned into pizza scrolls!

I've been working on my Art Journal over the past few days, very determined to finish it before the end of the year! I'm over half way done now which is good... the end is in sight!

 

 

I was planning to post a whole lot of eye candy I've been looking at on the net but I think I'll leave that for later. Thanks for visiting, I'm not going to neglect this little space anymore, so if you come back you will be rewarded with pretty pictures :D (or more lists who knows lol)

 

Life is a gift :)

I was sent this in an email the other day. I've posted it on Facebook but I wanted to post it on here too because I don't want to lose it.

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more."

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2.. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch..

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck..

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow..

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business..

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

 A wise woman is Regina :)

Today was just one of those days...

You know what I mean... those days when you get up on time and have everything planned and then something happens to put a spanner in the works! This morning Isaac wouldn't get out of bed, I called and called and when he finally came he was all croaky and looking all pale :( I think it was sinus because it seems to have cleared up with an anti-hystamine. So, I stayed home from work, medicated him and planned to scrapbook the day away! Sounds good doesn't it :D We had an early lunch and I felt a bit tired so decided to have a nap. Three (yes 3) hours later, I got up. I guess I was tired LOL I went and got the washing off the line and Isaac followed me out and fed the guinea pigs. Well, that was followed by a "MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!" Flower, one of our first guinea pigs had had her babies (again), four in total. One was dead though, probably due to the fact that poor Flower was trying to get away from the male guinea pigs who were climbing all over her. So we dashed off to the produce store to get another guinea pig cage so she could feed her new family in peace. The little one who died was her colouring, the rest are their dad's... Caramello.They're so tiny compared to the last two, but very cute!!