Cluckingham Palace

it's in the stars

Home-related tasks like cooking, knitting and even cleaning offer you a surprisingly rewarding experience today, so set aside some time to have a quiet night in and be a homebody   

so that is todays forecast  and it's Monday... my normal cleaning day 

as the stars are pointing me in that direction I guess that is what I am doing.   Luckily I am actually in the mood to potter around and clean and tidy up after the weekend.

Had a fun weekend overall.   Cait's birthday on Friday followed by a scrummylicious dinner at La Fondue which I still think is better than the Melting Pot.   Then Cait and her friends stayed up half the night watching scary DVD's - and all slept on the lounge floor followed on Saturday by more DVD's, eating, laughing and swimming.

Mike did quite a bit around the yard - so that looks much tidier - and we also got all the shelving that came out into the car and off to the dump so another job done.    I organised my craft space in the garage - my desk out there had become a dumping site - so got rid of all the guff, now I can actually use it.  The rest of my organisers arrived along with my new American Crafts albums (yes the green ones *lol*) - so spent some time finishing off the organisation of the new shelving.   

It is coming together.. finally!

well hi ho hi ho its off to the cleaning jobs I go... if I am mega efficient I may get it all done this morning and then this afternoon I can get on to the long overdue bookeeping that is covering my desk!

ps.. I don't think I will get any knitting done.. but I think I can stretch to some cooking later

..sweet sixteen

where did my little baby go.  Caitlin turned 16 today.   Does not really seem like 16 years have gone by.

A lot has happened in that time.   She was born in Wellington, we moved to Auckland when she was 2 and then to the US when she was 6.   So in a short space of time - she had travelled more than most adults.

Of course now she probably sounds more yankee than kiwi - as more of her life has been lived here!

She is somewhat miffed as she had to go to summer school this morning - and did say if I really loved her and really wanted her to have a happy birthday then I would let her off today.  I would have loved to - but you are only allowed to miss so many days - and she is over that amount already.

When she gets home we will do the pressies, and the croissants and later on she has chosen to go to La Fondue for dinner with us and her friends for a fondue feast!

Happy Birthday Caity Kay - we love you!

craaaaazy

the reason behind my blog name... adore the song - just makes me feel good - and the video is incredibly clever!

Crazy .  ( Gnarls Barckley. )  by flycodes.com

picton harbour, new zealand

is this not a perfect photo!   

My brother wrote to me yesterday - he had been for a trip around the top of the South Island of New Zealand and thought I might like this shot of Picton Harbour.   

Magic!
I love it!

Makes me want to go home for a vacation and take the ferry from the North Island to the South Island so I can see all this again for myself.   I go home to NZ quite often but it has been 6 years since I took the ferry!    When we lived in Wellington - back in the 80's/90's - we would take the ferry often and then just drive on to Christchurch.

Looking at this makes me want to scrap!     So today I shall scrap!! 

so much to do...................... so few people to do it for me

having no power certainly put me behind on a lot of things.  You just don't realise how much you depend on electricity until you have none.

Everytime I turned around and thought oh well I will do this.. I would be struck down by lackofelectricityitis.   The housework would have to wait.   My neighbour Carmen and I were talking about this and we laughed and said - well we could sweep instead of vacuum - once we got over the hilarity of that - and the fact we would have died of heatstroke doing it - we decided housework would have to wait.

So I have power now.   
And I have a lot of catching up to do.   
And there are chores
And I need to get the rest of Cait's birthday present
And I have 2 newsletters to get out which are way overdue
and
and
and
Note to self - buy a generator

power on... power off.... power on .... power off

that has been our story the last few days.   Like the rest of California, and a lot of the US - we have had 40+C degree (100+F) since last week.    It has been suffocating.

Power on
- I was complaining - it was too hot... we were suffering.    In reality I had nothing to complain about - while we had electricity!

Power off
- That all ended on Sunday afternoon when our street went out.    Within minutes the house had become a sauna... we had no way of even keeping a fan on to move the sluggish air.    Monday morning came and still no power so I scouted around and finally found a generator to hire.   Thank god I did because the freezer and the fridge freezer were pretty much giving up on keeping anything cold/frozen.

Power on
- We finally got power back on Monday afternoon - but as I had already paid for a day - I decided to keep it - THANK GOD I DID

Power off
- Monday night we lost it again - just as I was about to make dinner.   Thank god for takeout and even better a place that delivers!!

Power on
- sometime in the night we got it back again - we know this cos Cait had left her bedroom light on and when the power went on - it woke her up!

Power still on
- I hestitatingly returned the generator - but so far so good.   I think when this little heatwave, and all the problems it has brought clear up - we might buy a generator - handy thing to have - just in case!

lackadaisical

lackadaisical \lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl\, /adjective/:
Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.

this word is just not used often enough -and it so perfectly describes how I was yesterday.    I had one of those days where I just could not get out of my own way.     I have a huge TO DO list along with a MUST GET DONE list, not even counting the SHOULD DO list!

I am not sure if it is the heat we have been having (with even higher temps to come!!) or just the fact I seem to have piles and piles of stuff to finish and it all seems a little overwhelming right now!

Yesterday I was just a big waste of space.

I did the BARE minimum of chores, then headed out and lacka'd my way around the supermarket and then I daisical'd through Big Lots to get some conditioner (at the rate Cait uses it - I refuse to pay more than 99c a bottle!) - then picked Cait up from summer school - and pretty much there ended my usefulness for the day.

I sat
I watched some TV
I sat
I muddled through lunch
I checked email
I tried to do some dig scrapbooking but the creatives fairies were somewhere else
I got in the pool to cool off - and halfheartedly scooped up leaves etc

Today I hope to be better.   I feel a little better.    It is not as hot.   

Maybe today I can be lackadaisical's ANTONYM!

they lied... hard work has killed lots of people

well that's how i feel today anyway. 

I worked like a little soldier yesterday - tidying, washing floors, vaccahoovering (as my nephew Alex used to say), laundry, dishes, taxi service, painting, tidying, organising, tidying... the list seemed endless and by the end of the day i was just a tad buggered!

Funny though as much as much as I am enjoying organising my new scrap space - yesterday I just seemed to run out of steam.

And despite all my organising last night - I am not sure anything looks any better right now.

course, i can't put the last lot of shelving in place until Mick replaces the piece of sheetrock - yet to be bought - he did the first one and I did get that cleaned up and painted and unit in place - ...but

it is not coming together... just yet...
i know it will...
maybe today is the day!

.... too hot to handle

ok don't get me wrong - I love the heat - but oh just lately!!    I know the whole US is suffering -  I am just glad we do not have the humidity to go with it!!

i wouldn't mind so much if I could just laze away these hot days in the pool - but oh no - i decided in the weekend to rip out shelving... and put up new stuff...I blame the heat for the moment of insanity

so far.. so good.. shelving out.. 2 walls repaired from nail holes and the like.. new shelves put together.. one back wall painted, another one about to be - yes it's green - not sure why you would even ask me that question! - and then I can put the new shelving in - use all my fun new storage containers, and arrange and rearrange and artistically create my new scrap space!

oh.. did i mention all this working in the heat - is helping the diet *lol*...  sweatin' off the lbs!

this makes me laugh!!

Oh by the way I am the second road sign and keeping left although I can be tempted by a macchiato now and then.

I adore Ephemera Inc - their stuff makes me laugh.  I have a whole bunch of it, magnets, calendar, glasses, coffee cups - including my absolute favorite - my little spiral bound book of quotes/retro pics (think 50's pulp fiction books) that my friend Jude gave me a couple of Xmas's ago

- 'you say i'm a bitch like its a bad thing'

Each day I flip it open - and wheresoever it falls - is the theme for the day - Really this book works! .. it just seems to know where to open up!   In case you are wondering today's theme is:

i understand the concept of cooking and cleaning just not as it applies to me

Seriously - I have far more fun things to do today - like opening up all the boxes we bought at Ikea yesterday and putting together my new shelving units - to replace the silly built in ones that just do not work for scrap supplies!

time to get dressed... and then unpack the built in - find new homes for some of it - and then we will have a SMASHING time ripping out the old shelving!