Call me Saddie the cleaning lady

I finally did it!!  I have cleaned the house.  Not only that but I cleaned the chook house out too!!  It has been such a beautiful day so I was inspired to pull my finger out of my you know what and play catch up on the domestic front.   Once I had finished with being a domestic goddess I sat lazily in the sun on my deck with a nice cup of Earl Grey.  So nice to have the sun visit and actually stay all day.  In a sheltered spot it was perfect.  Made me think of that song by Lou Reed, "Perfect Day" and I have not been able to get it out of my head since.

Sheba found me outside and constantly keep dropping her ball at my feet so I could kick it.  I got sick of that game way before her!

Oscar sunbathed between my feet on the steps.

and I found Tex snoozing in a sunny spot on the out door coffee table.

I needed to change my clothes because I had chicken shit on my knees.  So I grabbed a pair of jeans and had to lie on my bed to do the zip up!!  OMG!!!  It was either start eating healthy or buy a bigger size.  My mate Dawn talked me into joining Weight Watchers with her so I guess that means buying a bigger size isn't an option. We did this about 3 years ago and it was successful but like most, we seem to have gathered the weight back and I also have someone elses, and I am not comfortable anymore. I headed out to the supermarket to get some fruit and things but did a detour to Habitat on my way home.

The shop has been having a change around and it looks great.  I found these two planters in lime green and navy blue stripes.  Thinking of planting them with Dafs.  The book is Michael Palin's Hemmingway Adventure.  I have been watching Michael P on TV in a series on Europe.  Its been awesome.  Oh and in the front is a super soft light weight black shawl.

I have spent the afternoon cruising and snoozing on the deck in the sun. Even my socks were happy with the weather.  Basically I was making the most of it as we are due for it to cave in and turn wintery again this weekend.  If the sun is out I want to be out in it.  My winter Roses, or Hellebore are starting to bloom. 

I love the colours these come in, and I have a few scattered about the garden.  These and my Daffodils are starting to do their thing.  My Dafs must think it is time for Spring.  I'm with the Dafs, enough of Winter, bring on Spring.

Better go shut the house up as it is cooling off.  We have Rugby to watch tonight, our team The Chiefs are playing and fingers crossed they win.  May even go to the pub and watch it yet.

Have an awesome weekend and make sure you do something you enjoy.  Found this gem today and thought I would share it to all you lovelies.

♥

I failed but had a bloddy great day

one of the many welcome hills

Beryl and Mavis from the blue rinse set in the flock

I made a deal with myself this morning, I would go out and see my mate Dawn the Potter for the morning and in the afternoon I would tackle the job called "housework".  FAILED!!!   I called into an Op Shop on my way to her place making me get there a little later than expected.  It is so peaceful out in the countryside where she lives and I tend to relax way too much.  We had a good old natter, as you do, played with clay, well she created while I played.  Then there are always photos to take for her, and put onto her computer and her "whizzy stick" as she calls her USB stick.  I spent an age tidying up her files with all the photos in, breaking them up into folders and naming them so she can find certain things no problemo!!!  By now tummies are rumbling so Dawn made us lunch and will chilled out just a little bit more.  Whats the rush??  Oh yeah, I am supposed to be doing the housework. Yeah yeah!!  Finally guilt got the better of me and I left.  Some how my car took a wee detour and found me an Op Shop I had not entered.  Well what is an Op Shopping gal to do??  Scored a park right outside and I was in.  One of those super old fashioned shops raising money for the church and things are as cheap as 20 cents!!  Yes I found me some treasure.

 

I found a huge floral scarf in a dark mauvey purple with luscious old flowers on it $1-50, a piece of what looks like Cath Kidson fabric for 30 cents, and the purple pottery incense holder for 20 cents.  The shoes came from another shop.  They are Italian leather and near new for $8, and the lady had them behind the counter waiting for me to call in.  What a sweetie!!  So as you see I went to more than one oppy and got somewhat way laid and distracted.  I decided the incense thing would be great for my jewellery I wear each day but remove at night could live on.  My watch, my Mala, and my Labrodarite ring.  Perfect!!  By now it was late afternoon and I had lost the will to clean my house so the plan is now to stay home tomorrow and do it.  Care to place any bets??  

Sheba and Oscar the Camo wearing small dog

Had to share this with you all.  The dogs love sneaking into Jak's room and selecting a crusty old sock off his floor to play with.  Tug of war is the favorite game.  Amazing how far a dirty old sock can stretch too. I tell him to close his door but does he listen??

The totally "you've been busted" look!  Poor wee Oscar gets dragged around the house by Sheba but he hangs on and gives it his best shot at trying to win. Jeez my floor doesn't look too bad, maybe I can put off the housework till next week!!

♥♥ Half way through the week ♥♥

♥♥♥ Toodles ♥♥♥

It was bound to happen!!

A SuesDay on a Tuesday that is!!  And a solo one at that. With Sue playing Island girl for 10 days it was me, Nigella no friends!! It was a toss up with doing the housework or going out op shopping.  Hard choice I know that I mulled over in a nano second!!  Sod the housework, it'll still be waiting for me tomorrow.  But then tomorrow I will more than likely go see my mate Dawn the Pottery Queen.

But before I could even head out the door I had a parcel arrive,  this wicked as jacket I got off Trade Me!!  Totally stoked with it, brand new and scrumdiddlyumshish for sure.  I had to wear it out.

My first port of call was the couriers because they left a card saying they had called here yesterday while I was at my Monday Funday Job.  I had a sneaky suspicion it was going to be my fur shrug.  So housework was so far down my "things to do today list".

SURE WAS!!!!!

Must say I am pretty happy with it and could have done with it yesterday as I wore my leopard print tights to work.  Maybe next week!! Quite like it with my stripes.

Then there were my rather high wedge shoes I got from Trade Me that did turn up yesterday. 

My photo isn't the best work I have done but you get the general idea of what they are like. High, so I shall probably fall off these ones.

Enough of what arrived in the post.

Found this soft as Alpacca  poncho with a hood that I shall probably never wear because hoods tend to make me look like I live in the wrong country and should rename myself Suehard or something that rhymes like that.  I have been wanting one of these for soooooooo long, because I owned one many moons ago.  So warm, so soft, so very very lovely.  And so very new and unworn, how convenient!! Oh and I will wear it, just not the hood.

I went to only 4 op shops today as I had planned on tackling the housework when I got home.  But that hasn't happened because I needed to blog of course!!

I did manage to find these cool as labels to put on my preserves when I have produce to preserve.  These are always hard to find so I grabbed them.  Also found this ric rac lace stuff that I know will come in handy.  I really should show you the sad state of my dumping ground I call my sewing room.  I should be ashamed! but I'm not!

  

So the housework I will try my best to do before I go out to see Dawn.  I cannot promise it will happen but it should do, it's out of control.  Thank god friends visit me and not the state of my house!!  Well I shall love you and leave you, and my parting photo is Lonnie my nieces little Jack Russel.  Rather intrigued with the TV.

♥♥ BYE ♥♥ 

Trade Me, Op Shops, and a bit of Retail.

I have been mixing up my shopping of late.  I love my weekly excursion to the Op Shops, and I enjoy hunting on Trade Me, and right now most of the retail shops are ON SALE!!!  Music to my ears.  Apparently winter is over so all the winter duds are on sale, and alot of it is old stock, ie not this seasons current everyone must have!!  So I guess it now gets down to what did I get?? 

This delightful little cabinet I got off Trade Me, it is about 50cm tall and 30cm wide.  How could I not bid on that??  I have a bit of a thing for small storage things.  Probably because when I was young and playing with my barbie doll my dad made me the most beautiful wardrobe for all her clothes.  It now is my Medicine cabinet that sits on the bench in my kitchen.

Yes this is the one Dad made me.  So I would have had this for well on 40years now.  It seemed such a shame not to use it and seen as I don't play with old Barbs anymore I thought medicine cabinet!!  The hinges on the door are made from leather and the draws have been dove tailed.  Techo talk for builders!!

My srumdiddlyumpshish boots I got from my friend that owns a shoe shop.  They were HALF price so how could I say no to Leather fur lined boots that lace up the back.  I rolled the top over so you could see the soft fluffliness that is the fur.  These are like slippers to wear so ultra comfy.

Now the gorgeous bright coloured Russian Doll scarf I got off Trade Me.  I love Russian Dolls and this scarf just begged me to buy it.  It is really light and down right gorge!!

The wooden feet I suspect are from Bali or somewhere similar and think they are candle holders.  I got them and the Swedish wooden stacker toy from Habitat yesterday.  The toy was only $3 and the feet were a $1.

Not the most flattering picture of my good self but I wanted to show off my spotted cardy I got in a sale.  I have a love of spots and stripe so was well made up when I saw this little beauty.  The black ruffle skirt under my layers which you cannot really see was a dress I got in a sale that I chopped the top off to make a skirt.  I love layering my clothes and with my spots and stripes and a splash of red I felt pretty happy.  I had alot of ladies telling me they loved my leggings, and I said "so do I"!!!   I also got myself a pair of Leopard print tights in a sale which have yet to be worn and a leopard print fur shrug thingy that is coming up from Christchurch as the shop up here didn't have one but Christchurch did and it was such a good sale price that I didn't even mind the $10 shipping costs.  That won't be at my door until next week so I shall slap an outfit together of fur and leopard print and my new boots to show off when it arrives.

I am off to watch Sues son play rugby this afternoon.  Due to the fact that she has abandoned him for 10 days to live the life of an Islander in some tropical paradise, I am to be his stand in mother.  So I am going to let him stay up late, eat junk food and do what ever he likes.  The fact that he flats with my son and is 20 is irrelevant, I am going to let him behave badly!!!!!   Hope she has a splendid time away.

♥ Gotta go, so have a great weekend ♥

SuesDay again!!

How fast do the weeks roll by?  Just seems like only yesterday it was SuesDay!!  Today was another fantastic day out with my wing-woman Sue who was on a roll in the shopping stakes today. She nearly filled up the entire back seat.  I only purchased a couple of things today, and I did try, and was tempted so many times.

I got this bright red Virtue dress which looks shit on a hanger but trust me its nice, has a fancy woven detail on the front.  Also grabbed this gorgeous aqua scarf with bobbles on and they look wicked together.

We did a total of 7 op shops on our SuesDay tour of duty today.  Lots of bits and bobs on offer but some of it is just too pricey for this non working bird.

Found all this lovely lace for 99cents, too good to pass.  Always good to have lace to frou frou up some sewing.  Speaking of sewing, now that I have ample time on my hands I think I need to get that sewing mojo into gear and attack the cupboard full of beautiful fabric.  No excuses now not to get into my room and play!!

I finally got a photo of  my granny mobility scooter today.  Complete with Ape hangers and chrome. Even has a case on the back for your shopping.  Think suitable clothing would be in leather with fringing!!!

I would have to put a basket on it somewhere so Oscar could go out with me tho'.

Guess who found a bunch of Leis and decided to treat me to an Island dance??  Due to being Rarotonga bound and very very excited it was a must!!

So next week I will be op shopping on my tod!!  No Sue for 10 days!!!  She will be missed :-(

This evening I could smell my Daphne bush from my deck, so I just had to go pick a bunch for inside.  I planted this bush when my dad died as he also loved the smell of Daphne.  It always reminds me of him so it is nice to have a bunch sitting on my dinning room table.

I love fragrant flowers.  I have daffodils popping up and have planted my sweet pea seeds. Also put in some of those wicked poppies, the opium sort.  I have been squirreling seeds and seedlings from friends and now planting them all.  Not so sure when to put my giant sun flowers seeds in the ground.

The dogs were having another one of their friendly wrestling matches late this afternoon.  Oscar nearly always ends up on the bottom.

Thursday tomorrow and NO WORK!!!!!  Crikey I could sleep in if I was a sleep in type of person.  I think I will just make it up as the day unfolds and do whatever takes my fancy!!  Hope the sun is out again, I do like winter when the sun comes out to play.

♥♥ Good night all ♥♥

Friday, Funeral and the future

On Thursday I decided to resign from my Grown Up job as I realised I really wasn't grown up enough or maybe I was too grown up??  The nasty gossipy woman got the better of me and I thought it was best for me to go.  They think I just felt the job didn't suit but one of the Surgeons and owners of the business knows the truth.  As I said to him, it was my problem not theirs and they will probably find another person that will be happy to work with these women.  So I am foot loose and fancy free and quite frankly, I LIKE IT!!!!

I finished on the Thursday and this worked well for me as I had the funeral of a dear old friend to go to on the Friday.  My old mate Dot passed away at the ripe old age of 96.  She had finally needed to go into a care home two and a half years ago and from then the gradual decline began.  Dot was an old friend of my Grandparents, they all lived in the same neighbourhood for years.  Years back I ended up becoming Dot's cleaner and when I went back to work I did her cleaning on a sunday morning.  It was more like a fortnightly catch up with some housework thrown in.  Dot was a lovely woman who was so interesting and quite the hard case.  Her husband had dies 20 years ago and they no kids.  The reason she lived so long I think!!!!  So it was good to be able to go and pay my respects to this dear old friend.  There was only 20 of us there, but I guess at 96 most of your friends have already passed.  

With time on my hand, being free of work and all I took in a couple of Op shops after lunch.  The two embroidered cushion covers were $3 each, the magazine wrack was $7-50, the ivory carved necklaces were $3 each, and the pile of books, a series of 5 were $7-50 the lot.  They are for my friend Dawn as she loves Medieval period stuff.  Big fan of wizards and crusades!!  Hence her pottery being quite mystical and whimsey.

These are the necklaces closer up.  Quite intricately carved and thinking quite old.  I would hate to think the barbaric practise of killing animals for their tusks was still going on.

Last night TOF and I went out with friends for dinner.  Dianne was celebrating a 50+ birthday so it seemed only reasonable that we all went out for a bite to eat, catch up and watch the rugby on a big screen.  Our beloved Chiefs were robbed of a win by a somewhat dubious call from the ref, but hey that's how it goes.  We went to a pub called The Speights Alehouse and the meals were humongous!!  Real man sized fodder, luckily I ordered a light meal.

Last week I went to an indoor skate park to take photos of Jak doing his thing.  I was invited when he was the only one there, the uncool factor may have come into play here, so off I went.  I am now allowed to attend when his mates are there tearing the place up!!  The artwork on the walls (Graffiti) was awesome, so of course here is a sample.

 

got to love the colours.

this beats tagging hands down, taggers could learner from this.

 

So my Saturday came and went, as I seemed to be quite knackered and spent a big part of the day sleeping.  This happens from time to time, I think it is me just catching up on the sleep I don't always get.  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and that you are all well and happy.

♥

 

Got pimped on SuesDay

Well pimped is a slight exaggeration, we got hair cuts!!  But before we left we thought "Photos", I set the self timer and I ran, and.... well yes, didn't quite set it long enough so you get me back on in full flight!!!

So after a few more minor mishaps in the art of self timing, finally we managed to get one of us together all dressed up ready to face some shops and my hairdresser.

I am saving the close ups for later on so you get the before and after effect.

Look even Oscar was wearing Red, talk about colour co-ordination!!!

We had 1/2 an hour to hit Habitat before we went to be beautified.  So we headed off round the corner to Habitat and basically slid into a car park, abandoned the car,  and dashed inside.  Oh and I dropped off a bag of magazines and things also.  Made Sue go through it before we went there so she scored some jewels.

Sometimes I get the feeling that Sue is just taking the piss out of Op shopping!!!

 

 




She is a bit of an old scrubber so was delighted to come across a cleaning ladies caddy and a mop!!

 





I was test driving one of the old lady shopping trollies but opted for the rather cool basket instead for $4!!

With 5 minutes to evacuate the building and get over the River via one of the bridges on offer, we headed off to Deb my hairdresser.  I was first to be pampered as I only needed to be trimmed and then it was our Sues turn.

That's the gorgeous Deb attacking, I mean pruning, no I mean styling our Sue into a visual symphony!!  Even Deb was colour co-ordinated with us!!  Pleased to report that Sue was so well behaved that she is allowed to go back for future haircuts.  Well done Sue!!  Back into my trusty Red wagon (good grief even my car is colour co-ordinated) and we were in desperate need of lunch, it was after all 2pm now.  It was sod Jenny Craig and hello Jenny-lunch-bar-lets-get-a-filled-roll.

Before

After

Doesn't Sue look farking gorgeous!!!!  I think Deb did good!!

 After we had eaten our healthy filled rolls and gulped down a steaming hot cuppa we were good to go again.  We only went to  couple more Op Shops.  I got nothing at the Salvo but at the SPCA shop I got this Circle of Friends $5 and this very cool stretchy belt $2 that I will adapt because I seriously doubt it will go anywhere around me apart from a thigh.

Just as I was about to leave I discovered these two hand knitted doggy jerseys for Sheba.  We put her in the one on the left this afternoon and it looks hilarious, but good.  I will have to put a bit of elastic around the neck because it is a bit loose.

We mucked about in a retail shop for a bit and then decided another cuppa was in order and someone needed to use the lav AGAIN!!!!

I have to fess up to going to four Op shops this morning while Sue was at JC weighing in.  I had gone out to register the dogs, $64 fricken each, and had time to take in the  Frankton Op Shops.

This reversible bag I picked up for $4 and it is rather sweet.  All pink and white gingham on the reverse side.  I got a fake silver and paua silver fern brooch that also doubles as the lid to a wee container for $4 as well.  You might see it just above the bag if you look real careful like.

The skirt didn't photograph well, but trust me its quite cool, a real textured fabric with a double ruffle at the hem for $6.

I couldn't resist the bright little ethnic bag, Nepalese I think for only $2-99 and some wicked Balinese batik fabric for $2-99.

Then there was this awesome fur coat that had some cat fur on it and just needed to be de-fluffed.  It is mint and I paid $14-99 for that.  

I am gonna be so toasty warm in that bugger I tell you.

Another SuesDay bit the dust and again it was humor filled and I am sorry I cannot tell you what had me laughing while driving today apart from the fact that the conversation got quite X-rated!!!   My parting photo for you all is us hamming it up in the Mickey Mouse ears Sue bought today for our sons.

taking the Mickey!!!

 ♥ Good Night All ♥