mission accomplished

Today is fast-food friday, ive decided that i will have 1 meal on 1 day of the week that will be whatever i want but not to go over the top and hopefully i will get better with just sticking to that. (no thats not my cheeseburger)

Tia is a bit odd today, clingy, quiet, not wanting to eat fast food or much at all, theres lollies right next to her that she hasn't even opened.. she musn't be feeling very well. =(

I got off my butt, ignored every anti-social bone in my body and went to the community centre and booked Tia in for her first childcare session (thats what its called) for next thursday. 9.30am til 2.30pm for under $20! need to remember her Immunization papers! (better write that down somewhere) and we get to go shopping for a lunch box and drink bottle! YAY!
i think im going to miss her more, then she will miss me!

i have to accept that shes growing up! i have to accept that she wants to play with kids and talk to other little kids, hopefully then she wont be making 'friends' out shopping and then being distraught in that i've finished looking at clothes and now i want to leave..

**update Tia left her afternoon teletubbies tv program to sit on her bed with her head between her knees. So i put her to bed, she was up til 10pm last night and she didnt sleep in this morning, so maybe thats it.. **

Im praying Tia doesnt have some sort of projectile vomit bug.. i hate cleaning up vomit! lol!

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Now playing: Micheal Buble - Spider-man Theme
via FoxyTunes

what a yesterday!

*i could so go a massage right now!*
my plans today? clean up, laundry and dream of more clothes shopping.. (but only dream, lol.. cant afford anymore this week)

My day yesterday.. lol. i tried hard to get my shopping done quick, i got hubby's sake, i even found 2 shirts and a cardigan that i luv for him, discovered a new shop.. found a pair of gym shorties for me for $4 at kmart (they have a few good gym gear going cheap)

hmm.. Little tia was a drama queen, ive realised that i had always given in pretty much when im on my own at target and let her have chocolate and i didnt today and i heard all about it for the next 5 minutes.. she is telling me 'no snacks mummy, no chocolate mummy' and im saying yes tia, no snacks, no chocolate thats good.. ??!! i found it confusing.. i got thru my grocery shopping and walked home.. and my journey had just began!

300m my shopping trolley 'granny trolley' broke.. the wheels are slowly going around and going more and more horizontal until they are horizontal (well only 1 went that far) i'm thinking, thats ok.. ive still got wheels i can still get this home just another 200m to go! I had to walk on the grass as walking on the footpath was giving me electric shocks! i hate electric shocks, im so glad im a smarty after 4 shocks i was so sticking to the grass!(even if it was more work) at 100m i loose the wheel that was occasionally going horizontal.. ive just got to get it up my street and im outside some small shops 2 guys check if im ok and if it can be fixed but i tell them, nah its dead it cant be fixed..(but they check anyways..) im fine.. i eventually got home, had some lower back pain.. exhausted... relieved to be home i think i spent a hour recovering then went out to the laundry mat to do the towels.. i luv clean towels.

our lil flat is tiny, theres no room for a washer, we couldnt even fit it on a wall bracket! wouldnt we need to know where the frame is in the wall also for that? ah well no point in knowing since it cant be done!
if i get my house tidy today i will show, how tiny my flat cage is.. lol.. ;) now if i could wrap my head around a good breaking lease excuse we'd be alright.. well perhaps, BUT im so over meeting real estate people and those forms.. argh!

so despite everything, i had a good day yesterday! whoot!
i am so feeling yesterday in my shoulders and arms, OW!



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Now playing: Silverchair - Straight Lines
via FoxyTunes

OMG Burkes backyard is back!

"AFTER almost two decades as the star of the Nine network's Burke's Backyard, gardening guru Don Burke was dumped for being too old and boring - now the troubled station is hoping he will be its saviour.

After the devastating loss of its young gun Jamie Durie to the rival Seven network, Nine is counting on Burke to hit back with a "refreshed" and "new-look Burke's Backyard."

"When you see it, it's like a new generation Burke's Backyard," Burke, 60, said on location in Sydney yesterday. "We're living in a whole new environment, a whole new world and this show is about how we survive these new circumstances."

The yet-to-be titled show is co-hosted by chippy Scott Cam, vet Chris Brown and swimmer turned travel reporter Giann Rooney and is currently being filmed around Australia.

It will be road-tested as a one-off special and is expected to be scheduled directly against Durie's Australia's Best Backyards in the 6.30pm Sunday timeslot next month."

read full story here

this is great.. ive stopped watching BH&G and watch Jamie olivers show instead.. i find BH&G just seems to be making trashy, quick but expensive stuff when it comes to interior design stuff, the cooking chick doesnt do it for me either (jamie oliver also used a italian sausage for his meatballs.. i think shes a bit of a copy cat) fast eddy always uses something with 4-6eggs and the gardener dudes are just doing basics over and over.. and they r boring too.. and dont get me started on the host.. BH&G rant, over.. lol


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Now playing: Micheal Buble - Save The Last Dance For Me (Wedding Date Soundtrack)
via FoxyTunes

i luv washing machines!

I must say i've been hand washing clothes for the past 6months? wow, i had no idea it had been THAT long. i seem to do these 6months stints every-so-often.. this is the 2nd time being without a washing machine!

I gathered up all my guts, picked up all our clothes & sheets put em in the 'granny trolley', walked down to the laundromat.. got there, read the instructions at least 20-times and went for it! WOW! GO ME! Tia behaved rather okay, considering we jus stood up and waited..a great result, super happy i didn't have to put in a ton of effort of have that 'wet clothes' smell that makes me sick hanging around in my kitchen (on the curtain rod above the sink, very wet friendly zone & best sun of the whole flat) I am so going back tomorrow! And from now one all $1 coins are sacred! lol!
But I'm so not paying $1 for 6mins for a dryer.. i think i will continue to hang em inside (at least they will dry much quicker than me hand washing them!) i can't help being a tight-arse sometimes. its better for my pocket, better for my laundry & better for the environment and thats how i rationalize it to myself.

Maria i went thru your blog, i found the mini-cupcakes.. but im very interested in your Florentine recipe and i couldn't find it on your blog!

I bought the ww magazine a week ago! And today i finally had time to read it, it even went to the laundry mat and i didn't read it.. tad disappointed, true i got it coz i haven't any ww mags here, and im a big Mcleods daughters fan.. and i was looking for some healthy inspiration articles and good recipes.. but i'm not sure i did find any good recipes (or nothing new) but there was just a few too many lil snippets of repeatable-dud-crap like dairy making ciggies taste bad and articles that look great for males are just advertisements! seriously not worth the $6 (but thats just me)

I think I'm seeing the light in cooking crappy and lazily (as in the end of being lazy)...this is how its been; saturday night was chicken breast on bread, sunday night steak sandwich, monday night i cooked a big chicken stir fry and tuesday we had the other half of it re-heated.
Im looking forward to eating more salad-spring-summer foods! i figure if we eat out less i can feel less guilty by splurging on salad veggies and fruits that cost much more than crappy cheap foods i could easily eat instead (and the result would be not good).

Tv Rant/Rave;
My 5c on Australian Idol. Is this a singing contest or a judges slugging contest?
its 4 judges this year, which is 4 different opinions and 4 people to insult each other.
I must say i actually felt an urge to vote in hope to get 1 person thru! It was mark with his led zeppelin song. Its great tho that from the semi-finals or whatever the 25 are at the moment its straight off with a live band! i remember waaay back when they all sang to the cd-pre-recorded tracks and then there was 'live band' performances which were 'challenges' to the contestants.. (which i thought was really dumb) but its good to see the live band.
(i was watching it last night)I love dancing and i cant wait for 'so you think you can dance' return on ch10 this thursday 8pm! Im not big into watching celebs dance.. but this is different! (if i remember correctly the producer of the show was/is a judge and a real jerk!)


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Now playing: Sir Mix A Lot - I Like Big Butts
via FoxyTunes

Tiffany my name google game

Tina tagged anyone who wanted to play
Here are the rules:
1) Go to Google.
2) Click on Google images.
3) Type in your name and search.
4) Re post (w/ a link) the picture of the oddest, craziest, strangest, coolest, oldest, etc. person that shares your name. Post multiples if you find a few you like.
5) Pass it on to at least 5 other people

The tiffany rock, only found in Utah!
The chucky bride, rawr me in the morning! >< (i really dont want to watch the movie now) CYclone Tiffany of W.A in jan 1998! how did i miss this? ive been waiting for this and it already happened.. darn! oh wait im the living cyclone Tiffany!There are 46 pages of google images for 'tiffany' i went thru them all.. tarty looking chicks, to lamps, rocks, shoes, dogs, LLAMAS!, a cow,really pretty rings, tiffany & co buildings, a suburb in St louis usa.. and 2-3 famous tiffanys.. meh

consider yourself tagged if u have the time..


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Now playing: Gary Jules - Mad World (Donnie Darko Soundtrack) 1
via FoxyTunes

more slides

These slide things are addictive! 2005 my best friend and sister in law's wedding. Tia the flower girl!

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Now playing: Garbage -Crush (Romeo And Juliet Soundtrack)
via FoxyTunes

i choo-choo choose you

(simpsons reference: ralph & lisa valentine episode) I cant get that line out of my head! (hopefully putting on some music will help!)





How did Monday go?
Well i got 5/14 things done. So this is what happened: I decided to catch up on blogs & forums in the morning. i did my rounds, then i get a text from hubby. "i have no morning tea, no lunch and no money :("



So i get dressed, get tia dressed.. found $60 (i had hidden it under mess so it wasnt visible from the window) grab his lunch from the freezer, walk to the corner shop bought some crisps.. drag miss Tia out of the shop (how dare i take her to the 'lolly shop' and not get her anything!) she cries, demands and behaves like a spoilt brat the whole way to hubbys work.

We get there and Tia still would rather have a lolly than see her daddy, shes putting on a great display, arms crossed etc.. the boss's wife a lovely lady comes and gives her a cuddle, leaves and returns with 2 lollipops! (she is really uber lovely..) Now Tia has a form of sugar in her hands she is happy and wants to see her dad.

I give him his food once he stops running around like a headless chicken getting last-minute-stuff down for his uber lovely boss. Then its mentioned that i am here to do some painting? pardon? hubby "uh i hadnt actually asked her yet" (he means recently..) hubby continues to work his heart out.. "are you just going to stand around?" what? pardon?! you said something about painting.. so a decision, go home and clean my house OR do some painting, but i have to go home and get my paint brushes..

on the way home i visit this small op-shop and found Tia a good pair of shoes, they look brand new like they were never worn, $2? bargain! for a pair of pumpkin patch shoes! return home, collect all my things, have lunch watch Dr phil on the online-baby-adoption scammer chick episode.

At work hubby is hiding somewhere.. cant find him. I meet his friend/co-worker's wife and their adorable bub (envious of the age of 9months, babies sit still, they dont give attitude and they cant draw on walls yet!) she is also painting. YAY i have someone to talk too!

I do my painting, sit and wait for it to dry and leave with hubby at 4:50pm-ish, we visit a furniture shop on the way home for a new computer desk.. have a look around, not bad! Tia is happy to play Nitendogs (lolly and daisy) while we wait.

I get home and start thinking bout my list! ugh! i clean the walls in my bathroom as i cant stand it much longer.. and then think to myself, what am i doing? its not like i work.. i can do this all tomorrow! hehehe. altho i got a small, tiny taste of what its like to be a working mum.. i cant say i envy them at all! Kudos to them, but its not for me..

haha! isnt that cute/gross/funny valentines day card?!

Tia has just woken up at 10am! wish i could do that, i was woken at 5am by someone taking their bin down the loud driveway outside our window. 6am by hubbys alarm and then again at 7:45am.

Now to get stuff done and get out to the laundry mat! $3.20 for a top loader and $6 for a front loader BUT $1 for 6.5mins in the dryer?!! GAH!!!!! i think i will hang it inside after i drag it all home! why are dryers so expensive in victoria?! why do they make flats with no clothes lines? and no laundry's? We really need to find a bigger place.. on the other side of the highway!


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Now playing: The Cure - Let's Go To Bed
via FoxyTunes

Tia cube

Taken by grandad! in 2006

monday cleaning day

Today:

1) clean walls (we moved into this place and the ceiling was yellow and the walls were yellow.. the doors are strangely stained yellow too. The carpet in our room was replaced so im thinking someone died here (ew) and it took awhile to figure that out? (double ew.. but maybe im just been brainwashed by the many years of constant death-shows on tv (csi, SVU etc etc).. far out!) its the whole house.. its like the person before (single dad i believe) never had a hot shower! as with our hot showers in the bathroom the yellow has been seeping down the walls and dripping off the ceiling (the bits i couldn't reach) and thats what im cleaning today..

2) Clean up the usual weekend-mess-of-a-house. Tia's toys are everywhere, cables and leads everywhere. i dont know how it happens but when hubby is home not a inch of my body wants to clean the house! so it gets messy (unless i know someone is visiting, which is not often)

3) Clean the bathroom, toilet, basin etc

4) Do the dishes..

5) Go to the laundry mat (1st need to figure out what to take to keep me dying of boredom or dying because Tia is bored and decides to be a brat)

6) get Tia to water her plants (1 a pansy the others i have no idea but they are great at flowers which is why she picked them)

7)Vac the house with my little vacuum (the ones only to clean up spills of food kind) yes i have to bend down, and yes if someone recorded me zipping around the house just as its about to run out of batteries i would win Aussie funniest home videos.. (so hubby says)

8) Get tia to clean her room. last night i found this. (we have built in robes but its mainly a hanging closet-thing and even when i do hang up all her clothes she cant reach them. so they stay in her suitcase as we havent gone out and gotten anything else yet) so this is on top of her suitcase. Bubbles and Buttercup are having flowers pulled apart served on a plate (a wing from her transforming horse/pegasus/unicorn toy)

9) Take out the bins and put at curb.

10) Organise all these cables and leads.
11) Fix my painting up so it lines up straight with even gaps between them
12) Find any artwork of Tia's on the walls and scrub off
13) Organise all the paper stuff in our room (bills, payslips etc)
14) See about getting Tia into the community childcare centre so she has someone to play with.

~* WISH ME LUCK *~

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Now playing: Evermore - Light Surrounding You
via FoxyTunes

progress in graphics

Think ive mastered the glitter! Been very busy learning! what do u think?
Graphics stolen from Maria's & Christine's blog.

Sakura sunday

because they are so pretty..
and i would love some cake..

graphics noob

Ok.. so i was playing around with adobe cs3 photoshop last night.. and this is my noob-ish attempts.. i just had to get the glitter thing out of my system. i know alot of people hate glitter images.. but it was interesting to me at 10pm last night.. lol.

I'm trying not to feel so confined.. im used to free-hand and so finding the effects, colours etc etc is getting easier..





yesterday i spent shopping and then recovering.
Its hard! Trying to get shopping done and dealing with tantrums from a very spoilt and strong willed child! argh! "its a disaster" (her words) looking at chocolate at the check-out and me saying 'no'. Yes the world will stop and end just because Tia cant have what she wants.

Got her another cute dress, i will have to post some pics later.

i need to get my head into project stuff. My hubby sees my time= 1-1.5hrs cleaning and the rest as free-time when i should be doing project stuff.. and yet i've got books to read and catch up on, photoshop & illustrator to learn, characters to draw and beta-testing.. (and reading blogs, forums.. lol..) at least today i sent hubby off with mums digital camera now 4yrs old and hardly works.. but she wanted it back.. figure it would be cheaper to send by courier as its going to cost min $5 by post anyways..
Done the banking stuff this morning..*1 thing down, more to go*

James got his game last night from his friend. apparenty the release date was today, but big stores had started selling it thursday. Myer advertising for $102 or something maybe 109? i cant remember. but scanned at $99 with the limited edition metal collector case *insert whoop-de-doo here*
lolz.

BioShock is a first-person shooter video game by 2K Boston/2K Australia (previously Irrational Games). On January 9, 2006, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired Irrational Games, and would be publishing BioShock under their 2K Games publishing label. It incorporates elements from role-playing and survival horror games. The game is a Games for Windows and Xbox 360 title.^[5] It was released on August 21, 2007 in North America and will be released on August 24, 2007 in Europe and Australia.^[6]

The game takes place in 1960 and follows Jack, a plane crash survivor, as he explores the dystopia of an isolated underwater city called Rapture, struggling to survive the mutated beings and mechanical drones within it.~ Wikipedia

It aint pretty. :/

Cycle of Kindness

According to book two of Aristotle's Rhetoric it is one of the emotions, which is defined as being "helpfulness towards some one in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped~ Wikipedia



Being kind makes you feel so good, and when you receive kindness it makes you feel so good! :D i love kindness, dont you?

LITS forum has been great lately! Whoot for us! lol!
And ive had a great chance of being a beta tester for Excalibur chronicles (ragnarok game) hopefully i can be of help and find any bugs out there (if there is any)

James has his eye on a new game thats released this friday on the xbox360, bio-shock. i think we downloaded the demo twice 1GIG each time, (first time failed)
its a weird shoot em up game, not my type of fun...

Things to do tomorrow: fix my nails, general clean up, supervise Tia cleaning her room, get some milk and learn how to use creative suite..

ok i take it back!

I take it all back... the new computer is here yay! and i just finished putting it all together, horray! and now im doing the slow process of putting over alot of my B-I-G files and downloading stuff i need to install on the new computer..
this is how things happened:
1) i heard the garbage collector finally at 2pm doing our street (it does the other side of the road mind you at like 8am! or something)
2) i decide to go out. change out of trackies i wear around the house into jeans..
3) waiting around for little miss to get her sandals on (and not her shoes as i dont want to wait around for another 30mins)
4) a knock at the door, that i swore was going to be a druggy wanting to know what happened to the druggy/sex worker next door who left 2 months or more ago.. BUT
it was a courier.. and boxes with dell written on it.. come on dude.. dont mind how my 4 year old has spread her paper all over the floor.. its art, ok? no seriously dont pick up after my 4year old.. just leave the boxes on the ground.. argh!
so i ring hubby and tell him im going out.. and he is like what? no! and i said u went off at me yesterday coz u r the one who always goes down the road to get milk.. oh, ok.. sure.. why be suprised? i can walk down the road.. ^^
so as usual something happens as i try to leave the house, had i tried to leave earlier we would have had to fork out another $50 or so to get it delivered again just from the depo ><

i found the packaging interesting... im glad the bag doesnt contain that strange bag person and a bag baby... but why warn me of whats not in the bag? or do i keep this away from the bag people? jus jishing-ya

post damn u

*i keep gettin errors trying to post this*
i think im going to be like stuck mostly at home all week, while the online delivery time estimator makes up its mind. It has said it would be today for a few days now and only this morning it gets changed to a weeks time! they can process the order, make and fly it in 4 days and yet its going to take a week to be delivered by a local courier.. and no doubt if i dont lock myself at home they will ring and i wont be home and then it will be another day of waiting.
i cant help being impatient, im tired of my laptop with no grunt, balls whatever u wanna call it.

Have u seen the latest target catologue? oh they have new spiffy exercise equipment, they look kinda funky too...

hmm, black ops on china planes now? hmm what next. did u hear that one of the factories responsible for the lead paint mattel accident actually committed suicide? my point? China is the biggest threat to USA. If USA goes under, China will buy it out. :( Have you not been paying attention to all the mumble jumble economy stuff of the past year or 2? *silly rant over*

*goes off to plan this weeks dinners*
(otherwise it will be 5am and im like oh no what am i cooking for dinner?!)

like my pancake?

i had been cooking breakfast for hubby last week and tested my hmm luck? at making pancakes without measuring ingrediants but of course knowing what i need: 1 egg, sugar, flour, milk. i bought a cheap mix awhile back (mainly for the bottle) so i have been storing leftover pancake mix made-up in the bottle ^^ oh and now im adding protein powder to almost everything i bake.

my 5cents on current politics.. so rudd had drinks at a gentlemens club cant remember what happened.. the only reason it comes out now? coz the government are still struggling at the polls despite tax cuts and promising to keep interest rates low at the last election and then it turns out afterwards that they have very little control over the interest rates and arent helping inflation with tax cuts etc.. *rolls eyes*

Today is monday which means:
we have been gradually getting kitchen-stuff and it had been just put on the bench, since i dont like the old cupboards. today i cleaned the cupboards, organized all this stuff craft, tools, cleaning products, phone books, plates, tupperware and pots... its like a new kitchen in there, everything organized and tidy! Ive cleaned up the dust that piles up on the tv (absolute dust magnet), ive cleaned up hubbys desk, wiped off greasy tia hand prints on cupboards and walls, vacuumed and changed the spot where i put all the 'recycling trash'.

Its almost the end of winter, i can see spring in some places, but nights and mornings are still absolutely freezing! its noon and im watching dr phil and a 5'2 tall 500pound woman talk while shivering.. and we have crap tv reception here and im noticing this scrolling transparency 'CONWA' on the screen.. how weird.. its only noticeable when the picture is dark..

So i made the DIY meal replacement shake. and i have some tips:
1) either get the biggest bucket tupperware or halve, quarter the recipe so you can a) mix the recipe b) store it!
2) go with metamucil, yes its $20 and the stuff in the food aisle is $7, but i imagine metamucil actually dissolves rather than absorbs and goes all foamy.. bleh
3) dont go with the cheap cocoa. i thought i had learnt my lesson before, i have now. never buy cheap cocoa. Its poor in comparison.
4) if you make it wrong, or too much or decide you no longer want to use it for shakes. add some butter/marg, sugar, a egg and some flour and you got a chocolate cake! (a filling meal replacement cake lol!)


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Listening to: Enigma - Gravity of Love
via FoxyTunes

dell countdown

sakura sunday

not sure where i found this one.
currently playing: hidden ro server/transformers/n3
currently watching: hubby playing oblivion

dell countdown

a crappy day

im having one of those days..
starts of with disturbing dreams followed by pms, then i cant find my atm card, get pee-ed of hubby(he had my card), treat him bad, pisses him off (which upsets me), go to see him and pick up my card, walk to the shops thinking a good shop will make me feel better, the atm says my pin is wrong and eats my card, have no money so its back home again trying not to burst into tears the whole way home.

on a good note. we ordered our dell box last night. a nice pc, 2.0 dual processor, 3gig ram, 150-300gig hardrive, lcd flatscreen monitor, xp, etc etc a lil graphics card i think 256? geforce. (but we can always upgrade when we have money again.. )costed around 1.3k and considering it comes with the screen i think thats a good deal. and the plus to buying with dell is that:
1) its not a pokey little shop that will close down the next week or year..
2) you pay for good service, they replace anything or come out and fix it. how good is that!
3) you get to be lazy and have someone else install everything and put it together and deliver it.

Im cringing! watching Bindi the jungle girl and she is playing around with a leech.. oh creepy. yes lets all go play with leeches.. aren't they jus the cutest?! *aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*