The Stray Cat

No title picture this time, if I wanted to I'd be posting photos of a dirty, skinny little Siamese cat sleeping belly-up in my front yard today. But alas, I haven't won his trust yet.

I noticed him a couple of months ago constantly sunning himself (assuming it's a he) in our front yard, I put it down as new neighbors and let him enjoy the sunlight. But over the last two months I've been keeping an eye on him and he's just been wasting away. I've been a little hesitant to feed him as he might be one of my neighbors cats, the last thing I want to do is to practically steal someones pet! But at this point, it's I start feeding the poor thing or it might die.

Three nights ago we just got home from the shops and seeing him in our yard I instantly took the opportunity and tore off a heap of cooked chicken for him. He wouldn't come near me (usually runs away when I get about ten steps near it) so I just put it on the ground and walked off. I came back outside 5 minutes later to find the chicken gone so I put some more down, he must have gone through at least a quarter of the chicken.

Since then I've brought a box of dry cat food and keep it topped up for him, along with a water dish. I've also been in contact with a wonderful women named Stef from Lucky Little Paws Rescue and Adoption (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucky-Little-Paws-Rescue-and-Adoption/119586878156744) who suggested getting a trap and trapping him. I'm not sure if I could do that and he seems to be more than happy to eat the food I'm putting out for him! He doesn't run away from me now until I get maybe five steps away then he'll just slink under a car and just watch me. I actually can't wait until it trusts me so I can brush his fur, it's so mattered!

I'm seriously hoping this will turn out for the best. 

Happy Garden Snaps

Close up of a Sunviopapu flower I took a photo of this morning.

I'm loving spring so far, all my flowers are blooming so beautifully and my strawberries and peppers are fruiting. My tomato plant is yet to fruit, mum brought it for me last week and even though it was dying, I successfully revived it. I should invest in some Marigold's, as they are perfect companion plants for tomatoes as pest deterrent's.

I finally got my camera working today, so I went out almost immediately to take some photos. Here are a few happy snaps, I've also been playing around with my editing skills (no, not just the boarders) so enjoy! ^__^

I now own 9 strawberry plants, 5-6 different types. Obsessive? Not really, their for my upside down plant hanger I brought a while ago. I figured I'd get at least one of each type I could get my hands on to figure out what I like, what fruits longest, whats the hardiest and what's the weakest. I'll be planting them soon, I just ran out of potting mix!

Mel xx

My many talents..

With a Mooshroom here, a Mooshroom there..

E-I-E-I-O!

It took me a couple of hours to find these babies and A LOT longer to lug them home, they made my laptop lag hardcore to the point the game crashed at least twice. But was it worth it? Yes, their adorable and inspired me to make some Mooshroom magnets up for myself. I'll post some photo's up when I get around to making them.


Setting Minecraft aside as the nicer weather is approaching I've been working on other hobbies to get up and running. One of them being gardening, nothing to extreme of course just getting some strawberries and some tomatoes up and running to begin with. I'd eventually like to grow veggies but I'd prefer to put a little more research into it first. I'm also in the midst of starting up my own herb section! I'll also be graphing some french lavender from my mum's lavender bushes.


I'm also ordering my first cold-process soap kit today! I decided on buying a kit because I'm a complete novice and even though I gave it a lot of research I just could not find a good recipe to stick with, I'll have a follow up blog on my first soap batch.

Til then!
xx

H'Suan Wen Hua! (Dupe)

Difficulty: Easie peasie 

The title may have been a little, teeny tiny exaggeration. This is not an exact dupe of Lush's "H'Suan Wen Hua", however it has a few of the main ingredients. But don't close the page yet, this is a pretty nifty hair smoothie I've put together!

The idea came to me after I had eaten a bad 'gassed' banana (shops freeze-gas bananas to preserve them) and it just didn't taste right. I put it down to my taste-buds being out of action because I was sick, a couple of hours later I had the worst stomach pains. The next morning I was pretty annoyed, there were a bunch of bananas that I brought just the day before and we couldn't even eat them. I had two choices, return them to the shops to swap for others which would have also been gassed or throw them away. Being brought up not to waste food and I wasn't game on digesting anymore, I looked for another usage. Before this happened I was reading the ingredients of H'Suan Wen Hua (since they claim their stuff is handmade, so it would be pretty easy to dupe, yes?) and hey look at that, it has bananas in it. 

After a little bit of researching on other edible products that are good for your hair, I came up with this:

1 banana
1 avocado
1 egg
3 tablespoons of olive oil (You may also want to use jojoba oil if you can get your hands on it.)
1 tablespoon of yogurt
1 tablespoon of honey
Handful of oats (optional, however they do make hair super shiny!)


My main objective to this recipe was to make a hair mask (calling it a smoothie, since it sounds like you could just drink it!) was to make it from things that are in your fridge/pantry. I cheated a little and brought an avocado and some oats. Thankfully I brought a blender earlier this year, because for this recipe you'll need one or a fantastic skill and blending by hand. 

The method is really simple, just blend all ingredients together until smooth. My first attempt I tried without the blender out of laziness but it didn't come together the way I liked, using a blender is 100% easier. I blended the oats separately and used them as a thickener once I finished, however you can just add them in with everything when blending just make sure they are pre-blended into powder before adding to the mixture. 

And that's it! This recipe made me 400g before adding the oats, remember to keep it chilled in the fridge and try to use it within the month. To use, all you need to do is add to clean hair, wrap it up in cling-wrap or a shower cap and leave in for at least an hour (I left mine in longer, got carried away in Minecraft). I also wrapped my hair in a towel, which helped the cling-wrap keep the heat in - and the smell since I'm not a huge fan on banana's! The only issue I found was when I was rinsing my hair was some of the grounded up oats were sticking to my hair (might have been because I added them separately), I have a brush in my shower and they brushed out nicely. Shampoo twice to make sure it's all out, condition your hair and blow dry when damp.

Enjoy! ;)


If you're wondering what happened to the rest of the bananas, I froze them for future use. Considering about blending a huge amount of this recipe up, putting it in small containers and freezing it to use at my on leisure. If it get's watery when defrosting I'll just add more oats!

Oats, oats, oats!!
x

Mother's Day

NASA takes some pretty photos.

For my first Mothers Day, I received a fantail pigeon.
This year I received an early present, a telescope!

...However, I am yet to receive flowers.

Having said that, I am now the proud owner of a telescope. I've been wanting one for a while, so when my partner saw it on sale, he quickly snapped it up without hesitation. It's a novice telescope, which is fantastic for me as I don't know too much about stars, but I have the interest. I can always get a bigger one / more expensive one if the interest stays.
I'm getting my mother a framed picture of my son and myself. She's been at me for a while to get one, so it fits nicely into Mothers Day, if she's lucky I'll get her a little something else as well. I'm still a little resentful after last years Mothers Day when I brought her a heap of luxuries and she didn't like any of it.

Urban Geekery is slowly becoming more popular, it's being mentioned a lot more and people are really getting into the things I make. Which is fantastic, I didn't even expect it to be popular, it was just meant to be a hobby! My other 'business', which I am yet to announce, is coming closer to existence. I'm going to put a lot of practice and play into action before making a big noise about it. I want everything to be perfect when I start it up, so there is going to be a lot of behind the scenes action going on.


Matt agreed that I can take over the spare room, I've already organised how I want everything and hopefully within the fortnight we're going to be moving everything around. I think he's agreed because our small little dinning table is starting to be consumed with all my bits and bobs. I'm also going to be rearranging the lounge room again, this will be the second time since a year ago when we moved in. In saying that, I'm eyeing off a $200 rug.. Wishful thinking!

Till next time, my geeklets.
x

anxiety attacks.. meet insomnia.

Well, on the plus, we have internet again.
Which is quite awesome really, very helpful since I am trying to put my business together.
Everything is sorted out, I'm just waiting for the money side of things to commence.

So, why the obnoxious title today?
Well in quick paragraph, Cody is sick and having a terrible time sleeping.
I'm looking after him, and in doing so I am lacking an incredible amount of sleep. Before this however, I was starting to suffer with anxiety attacks. I would get into bed, really for sleepy time when I would have this horrible and sickening sensation something was just going to grab me. I usually would just shake it off and force myself to sleep. But it was just getting worse every night, to the point where I would almost be brought to tears - not from fear, from frustration. So now that Cody is sick, I'm having, on average 4 maybe 5 hours of broken sleep. I'm totally screwed. Because of my new found nocturnal routine, I'm finding it harder and harder to fall asleep. I just lay there, trying to keep my mind blank and hopefully drift off. This usually takes about an hour, hour and a half. Then suddenly BAM the moment I actually fall asleep Cody seems to wake up needing cuddles so he can go back to sleep. So here I am, over tired and eagerly typing away on here.

Brain > Body!


Till next time, my loyal subjects.
Mel xx

testing out new camera

I love this new camera, a lot.

Hey all, haven't really posted anything in a while. Truth is, I'm super busy trying to start my own mineral makeup business ^____^
It's not all rainbows and lollipops, don't even get me started on how much this is going to cost. Its hard but I've done a lot of research, talked to a lot of people and the most important thing - stayed realistic and kept to my limits. I've only got 12 or so more thing's to do on my 'to do' list before I start and share my clearly awesome handmade business that I have done all by myself, to all of you :D
     - In saying that, I'm honestly surprised my partner Mathew hasn't gagged me and dumped me in a river with all the blabbering I've been doing.

In other news, Cody is teething again. This is his tenth tooth, he's handling it pretty good considering the last time he was teething he drove me crazy and I wanted to ship him off to his grandparents for a good week or so. Besides not eating much, being whiny and down right annoying at times, he's being good.. fingers crossed.

Matt's tax came in the other day, so we decided we'd invest in a decent camera. It's a Finepix S, I believe. Here's a couple of photo's I've just taken mucking around with some eyeshadows, trying different angles and seeing how much detail I can get. Nothing to impressive, but you might like them. 

close up with flash, didn't really capture the glitter.

There's a tone more photo's my partner and I have taken, but more so of animals/insects and the all so reliable happy snaps. :3
Anyway, this is just a short catch-up blog. A lot to say but not enough time to put it all down! 

Stay tuned :'D

xx