Not My Real Friends

I have been hanging out with the wrong friends for far too long.

They were lots of fun at first. They offered comfort, diversion and delicious companionship. But they weren't my real friends...

I started following The Dukan Diet on the 1st of February. I have lived without wheat and flour and sugar and alcohol in my life for 29 days. If you'd told me that I was going to do this in January, I would have said: "IMPOSSIBLE!" But there you go. I have done it and survived.

Can you see that little number on my scale? 5kg (11 pounds)
That's how much I had lost a week ago.

I have missed some of my old friends but I have been really enjoying myself without them too. 
And now, day 29, I have lost 6.2kg (13.6 pounds). 


21.8kg (48 pounds to go)  Woohoo me!


Y Cate

Playing around...

You may notice every time you visit my blog that it looks a little different. I have been playing around, trying to find a look that I like. www.bluebirdinternetmarketing.com is responsible for the gorgeous photo montage  above. She is a website creator and fixer-upper extraordinaire. She's playing with me too.

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Madge a Librarian?

 http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/13/article-0-0B2BC7AA000005DC-894_468x521.jpg

Now you may have gotten the impression that there are absolutely no uses for Librarians. I'm sorry if I implied that. Librarians are very useful. For instance, they are useful if you are fishing for sharks and need some bait. They're also useful for throwing out windows to test the effects of concrete impact on horn-rimmed glasses. If you have enough Librarians, you can build bridges out of them. (Just like witches.) And, unfortunately, they are also useful for organizing things. 

Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

  
*sigh* Another day of work down. 
Books organised? check
  
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A little Turkish romance....

A thousand years ago [feels like it] a boy liked a girl - a dewy faced, idealistic girl of twenty five [me]. In an attempt to seduce her with his coolness he drove her 1000km to his home town which abounded in many multicultural delights to which she was unaccustomed. They dined in a Turkish restaurant and sipped Salep - an enchanting sweet milky concoction made from powdered mountain orchid and cinnamon. He succeeded: she was in love.


So I did marry that very cool guy sometime after that and thirteen years later I'm still in love: with him and with all things Turkish!

I have just finished knitting a necklace-scarf using a gorgeous pink Turkish yarn. It is a soft wool with brilliant jewel colours throughout. I edged it in a crocheted picot trim of kitchen string.

I finished my little Turkish scarf off with an oval shaped polished ruby and some kitchen string scallops. I do like the contrast of the luxurious wool and ruby and the simple, almost raw, material of the string. Some Turkish love to keep my heart cosy.

Y Cate

The Sweetest of Medicine: pink felt fabric flower

This is what I made yesterday..... A layered flower made from fabric and felt, sewn together with a pretty button on top. A group of women gathered around the table: talking, sharing, creating - that's what I call beauty therapy.

I had so much fun that I want to do it again... today. So I'll remember that a little bit of medicine goes a long way and yesterday's dose of creating and socialising will sweeten  the housework, office work, grocery shopping and caring for loved ones  that is on the menu today.

Sending out my wish that you can get a little beauty therapy in this week. ☻/ღ˚ •。* ♥ ˚ ˚✰˚

Y Cate 

Valium Monday

Down in the national news section, there's an article on a new pill, the 'Valium' they're calling it, 'to help women cope with everyday challenges.' God, I could use about ten of those little pills right now. ― Kathryn Stockett, The Help

I have just finished reading The Help and loved it. You can find many great book reviews for it both negative and positive: but I found it moving and inspiring and I'm calling it the "To Kill a Mockingbird" of our times. Big call.
             
Monday's not my favourite day - I know, hardly original - but no Valium for me today. I engaged in some beauty therapy instead. I met with some beautiful friends and created something beautiful. Will post a picture tomorrow. 
        
My dog looks like he's having a Valium Monday! He's our totally loopy, adorable, chocolate Field Spaniel called Fox.

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Sense-of-Humour Suit

“Don't mark up the Library's copy, you fool! Librarians are Un-prankable. They'll track you down! They have skills!”   Charles Ogden

Off to work I go this bright and sunshiny Saturday - wearing my sense-of-humour suit. Just going to shake things up a little and kick that cranky un-prankable librarian clichéd image right out my library door. Watch me smile all day!


Hmm, now if I owned that Christian Dior suit and that body I could just go for that sense-of-humour hair .....


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Granny Square Love

A little while ago our family moved to a small town on the Darling Downs and I suffered extreme homesickness for the friends and community I had left behind. I also didn't find my new town very friendly. Oh well, give it some time I thought. Fast forward 9 months and I went to visit the local drapery where the local craft group meet. I had shopped there on numerous occasions.

Me: Hello, I'd really like to join your quilting group.
Lady: No we're closed.
Me: Urm, the shop is closed?
Lady: No our group is closed, we have enough members.

I make it to my car before I start crying.

Oh well, not the end of the world: but *ouch* that stung a little.
A week later I took Little Bear to his special class in Warwick, a much larger country town half an hour away. To occupy myself whilst waiting for Bear's class to finish I decided to visit a beautiful quilt shop on the main street. My browsing was interrupted by a pleasant, obligatory; "Can I help you with anything?"

Me: No thanks, I'm just looking. [pause] Actually I'd really like to find someone who could give me a crochet lesson.
Lady: [pauses, looks at me for 2 seconds & then] Come with me.

I follow her into the room behind the shop where other women are busily crafting away. I am warmly introduced, given a lovely crochet lesson and included in conversation. I don't just leave with a gorgeous red & turquoise granny square. I walk away feeling like I have been wrapped in a warm blanket, I feel loved.I make it to my car before I start crying.

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