Leigh is back at it again. She’s got the whip out and is cracking it in the “Bloggest Loser Challenge” for all the bloggers out there who might want to shed a bit of their winter poundage. I managed to lose 3.5kg or so during the last challenge. Now I’m up to a 5kg weight loss….which may or may not be a fluke. I have been trying to be a little more conscientious about my eating habits and exercise levels but I wouldn’t say I’ve been extremely regimented as far as either one goes.

Over the course of the challenge, I’d like to think I can lose at least another 5kg – maybe more considering it is going for another 12 weeks. Given that I have reached my first 5kg loss milestone, I’m going to go and treat myself today. Lush is my all time favourite store when it comes to yummy smelling, spoil yourself silly products and I think it is about time I went and stocked up my supply.

Edited to add – I’ve decided that it probably deserves it’s own little page here. So if you want to follow my progress through the challenge, just click on The Bloggest Loser tab.

July 7th, 2008 | Category: Home and Lifestyle |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

Well no, I’m not going to transform this pumpkin into Cinderella’s coach to take her to the ball.

But what a beauty hey? And to think it started life as a bunch of seeds, carelessly chucked into the corner of my sister’s backyard. Believe me, there was no effort in propogating the pumpkin vine that it came off. It sprung up almost overnight and proceeded to take over most of the backyard and has produced about six or seven pumpkins the same size as this one. She took it as a bit of inspiration and has since turned her rather dead grassed area into a thriving backyard vegetable and fruit garden. She has been blessed with not only a green thumb to grow them but also wonderful soil for growing produce. I’d better start trolling my recipe books for pumpkin based foods to make the best use of it.

July 6th, 2008 | Category: Home and Lifestyle |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (3)

Everyone knows that getting underneath the fitted sheet in a sunfilled room is the warmest place to be in winter! Although I don’t know how she could possibly be comfortable like that….our bed sheets are really tight to put on the bed in the first place. Come to think of it, I have no idea how she even got herself under there.

July 1st, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

Halfway through the year – scary!! Only 26 more photo ideas to come up with on a Sunday…..how on earth am I going to make it?? Nevermind, I promised myself I won’t quit this challenge so I guess I’m just going to have to get creative.

This weekend, I decided that my bathroom needed a bit of a revamp. We have a shelving unit in the bathroom that provides access to the cat park for the felines of the house. But it was made out of plain masonite and although well constructed, it was ugly as sin! So I got this really bright idea that I could buy a tin of primer and a topcoat and make it all pretty.

So eight hours later, here’s my finished product. I think I might have to make it even more funky by getting a paw print stencil and putting some kitty prints over the top and sides in a white or pale yellow paint. And it was all too easy with acrylic paint – clean up is a breeze, even if you end up covered in it from head to toe. I do think though when it comes time to repaint the house, that I should probably get a professional to do the job for me.

June 29th, 2008 | Category: Home and Lifestyle |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

I love photos and visual elements on blogs so when I realised there was a new photo challenge out there, I just had to get on and do it didn’t I? I’m just not content with doing one at a time.

If you have ever listened to Hamish and Andy on their drive time show any time over the last couple of months, you would have found out about Chip-a-palooza – the release of the People’s chip by Smiths across Australia. It is gravy flavoured and rumoured to be quite delicious. Of course, being at work today, I didn’t have the desire opportunity to just duck down to B105 and stand in line with all the other desperados fans to grab a packet. Ok I might be just a little bit jealous I didn’t get a taste but if it’s as great a hit as they’re saying, I’m sure that Smiths will be selling them in your local 7-11 any day now.

What does that have to do with cakes? Absolutely nothing. But I would rather have cake over chips any day. Now if they start promoting one of these cakes down at B105, I might just be persuaded to drop everything to go get some.

1. I see Cake, 2. Steve and Elizabeth’s wedding cake, 3. Cake for a Gardening enthusiast, 4. The Groom’s Cake, 5. The (donut) Cake – Front, 6. running shoes wedding cake, 7. nikkormat camera cake, 8. dragon cake, 9. I Want Birthday Cake Too!!

June 27th, 2008 | Category: Internet |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (6)

Way back in February, I remember having a good laugh reading Leigh’s story about the men’s undies left on the footpath outside their house. Now that story made me wonder about the owner of the undies and why he thought the footpath would be a perfectly good place to leave them. It’s not like you go for a walk down the street and suddenly decide, gee I’ve just bought a new 7-pack of Rios from the shop, I’ll just ditch my old pair here and pop on my new ones. The mind really does boggle. But I digress….

A couple of weeks ago, the people renting next door moved out quite unceremoniously. The owner spared no time in getting the house ready for market – the professional cleaners did the house from top to bottom, the exterior has been scrubbed down and the garden has been thoroughly weeded, pruned and mowed. There is now a sparkly new “For Sale” sign outside the front of the house and there is an open house this weekend.

I wonder then, why there is a solitary pair of men’s underpants just sitting on the outdoor clothesline in plain view. Is this a new sales pitch? Free pair of undies with every house sale in June?? Or were even the professional cleaners too repulsed to touch them to take them off the line?? In any case, with the open house coming up this weekend, it will be interesting to see how many people actually notice. LOL

June 24th, 2008 | Category: Home and Lifestyle |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (5)

Almost halfway through the year, hoorah! I have one more week and I’m officially halfway through this challenge – who’s idea was this anyway?

I was scrolling back through my 52 Blessings pile, looking for a subject I have not featured yet. I popped over to my sister’s to take my favourite canine for a walk and took a few snaps, so you guessed it, Mischa is my blessing for this week. Forget man’s best friend, this is MY best friend. Still bright eyed and rambunctious as ever, although she is a big girl now at 9 years old. She came along during a time of great sadness in my life and without her, I doubt I would have come through it in as good a fashion. She is my counsellor, my best friend, my part-time exercise partner and a source of endless amusement for me. She has shared my sorrow and my happiness and I hope she continues to do so for many a year to come.

“Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” – Henry Wheeler Shaw

June 22nd, 2008 | Category: Dogs |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

How often have you heard that phrase?? Kids say it all the time, particularly when they’re told they have to wait until dinner. And I know I’ve been guilty of it myself when I’m late for a meal. If a cat could say it, I think Rosie would be saying it most of the day. Of course, she is hardly starving and gets her 2 square meals a day. I’ve been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to reduce her intake and therefore her weight. At her last vet check, she weighed 6.5kg and I was instructed to increase her meat portion and cut down on her dry food.

I started to feed her the “light” version of Hill’s Science Diet – what I like to call food for the weight challenged feline – and boy does she know it. It’s lighter in colour, lighter on odour and presumably light on flavour as well. She eats it quite happily in the morning but god help me if there isn’t meat defrosted for her dinner. However, six months after starting this new feeding regime, she has lost no weight whatsoever. Her coat is beautiful and shiny, her eyes are bright and her teeth and gums look great….all in all, she looks very healthy and appears to be very content.

I just wished she was so full and content at 4am when I would rather be sleeping.

June 21st, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (3)

This past week, I decided to throw caution to the wind and get a proper pet bed for the cats to sleep in. I’ve been very reluctant to do this before, mainly because Mojo has a perfectly good pet igloo that he decided to no longer use about two years ago and I have never seen Rosie in it at all. But having seen Rosie snuggle into my mink blanket thrown on top of the blanket box, I thought perhaps at least one feline might appreciate my efforts.

Really nice plush pet beds are not exactly spare change, so I decided to be cautious and only get one to start with and see what happened. Well what do you know? Mojo decided that he liked it quite a lot and so then I was in a bit of a quandry. You see, it seems they developed a routine over a couple of days – Rosie got the bed between 10pm and 6am and then Mojo would take over around 8am and guard it until 10pm at night. But I kind of felt bad (no doubt due to my fellow pet lovers at AFW) that they did not have one each. I know – what was I thinking?

So now I have two, so they have one each. BUT, it seems that the sun-warmed front bedroom is still the place to be, despite having two beds available. After a little bit of fussing over Mojo, he finally relented to sharing the space, if not the bed itself. Pity it’s not a good quality photo because I only had my phone handy…..I’m pretty sure I may never see this again!

June 15th, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)