Keeping Up With Sandy

 My Paintings I have always been interested in art. I can't draw to save myself but I can paint (still haven't figured out how that works but it does!) I was going through a hard time and needed some extra money. With having 3 young kids to look after my options were limited. A friend of mine suggested I take up painting and try selling them on  Trade Me . I could paint out my frustrations and make some money on the side. And that is exactly what I did! I tried an abstract painting first. By doing that it didn't have to necessary look like anything in particular. And to my surprise... it sold! I was shocked. But excited and before long I was pumping out as many paintings as I could fit on my tables, benches and any other surface I could find. My house became a gallery with walls full of paintings and in my first year I sold over 400 paintings. Some for cheap as chips and others that blew me away with the price they sold for. All paintings were sold at $1 reserve...

  There's so many pins on  Pinterest  about the same thing that you could literally read through hundreds of them before you find one that actually works. And this little DIY project was no different! Thank goodness the cups were cheap from  The Warehouse  at $1 each. You could also get them from  Kmart . If you want to practice before you start drawing on your new cups I would recommend getting them from a thrift store or op shop for a quarter of the price and practicing on them first.  TIP #1: ALWAYS GO FOR A CUP THAT HAS AS LITTLE GLAZE ON IT AS POSSIBLE. No matter which pin I've read and experimented with, they have all said the same thing. It is  best to get cheap cups    (which is faaaantastic cos I'm all about being on a budget) as they don't have as much glaze on them like a more expensive cup would have. The glaze causes cracking and bubbling in the design!! Not handy!!! 😳 I wanted the cups to be  dishwasher proof ...

 Omg! I am horrified!!! While my body is aging my mind isn't. And I'm kinda like Peter Pan and I never want to grow up!  The hair is starting to go grey round the edges.....  and in the middle and on the sides and the skin is well, it's not where it should be. And what's up with this under eye bag BS???  Shall we have a wee complain about the middle region? Anyone got a puncture and need a spare tyre? Anyone?? I got one above the hips and below the boobs you can have! *sighs* How bout them thighs, and that booty? More dimples than a goofball! Gravity  has taken over!  I knowwww the struggles!!! Now what do we do about it? Well we have 2 choices. We can either accept ourselves the way we are and be happy or we can exercise, diet and do healthy things... And be happy. I hesitated because I'm lazy and the very thought of breaking a sweat makes me break into a sweat. However I hear exercising releases endorphins and creates a feel good feeling! I'll let you kno...

  DIY Jeans with LACE INSERTS After sewing a pair of jeans that were too small for me with  denim square inserts  I decided to go through the pile of jeans I got for free to see if there was another pair I could tickle up with a bit of fancy decoration. And of course there was! My dear friend gave me a box full of bits n bobs and in amoungst it all were some net curtains with a pretty pattern and a scalloped edge. One side was embossed and the other side had a netting layer and was no where near as impressive.  This is how I made them without a measuring tape or any knowledge of what I'm even doing!!!  How to Make Lace Insert Jeans.... As Instructed From An Absolute Dummy! 1. Unpick the outside edges of the jeans. I unpicked the wrong side, had to sew it up and start again on the right side. 2. Cut net curtain to size. As I had no measuring tape I simply cut a full scallop size piece. From the 2 highest points of the blippy bit and straight up lol I'm so sorry I...

  Even if you have no land or no soil you can still grow plants to eat in a cup of water! I know right! Whaaaat??? You say. Yep, it really is as simply as put some water in a cup, jar or tray and grow your own veges. What's even better is that you can regrow them from your vegetable scraps! Ideally rain water is best or if you don't have access to that then water from the tap that has been left to sit overnight is ok to use. The chemicals in the chlorinated water are not very plant tissue friendly.  Another thing to be mindful of is that roots from the soil are different from the roots that grow in water so a transition from soil to water may not be possible. But hey, I' an open minded person and believe anything is possible. Sometimes even growing soil rooted plants in water! So far I've only had luck with vegetable scraps and cuttings. The roots also like to grow away from light so consider a coloured jar or bottle or you could wrap a piece of paper around it to darke...

   Once you've had the best out of your vegetable, let it go to seed! A good idea once your plants have done their dash is to let them go to seed and harvest the seed when it's ready. Or you can just leave them be and let them self seed on their own and replant the new seedlings in their designated area. The start of spring has fallen upon us here in New Zealand and while there are no old plants in my garden for me to harvest any seeds or seedlings, I can still use the seeds I get in my fruit and veges from the supermarket.  How To Do's... PUMPKINS This was easy peasy to do. After scooping the seeds out of the center of the pumpkin I put them in a container and placed them on the windowsill to dry out for a few days. Once completely dry I rubbed the flakey layer off so they were nice and smooth and popped them in an envelope for later use. Germinating Pumpkin Seeds... Pre soak your pumpkin seeds in a cup of warm water for no less than 6 hours. Put your Easi Grow Pellets i...