Keeping Up With Sandy

  My Painting's Portfolio Whenever I listed my paintings on Trade Me  I would always waffle on about it and tell my story behind the painting. Today when I was having a tidy up I came across part of an old portfolio of mine that I thought I would share with you all. I've updated it a little bit to keep it current but it's practically the same as what I wrote on trade me... Peter and Paul Painting and music always go hand in hand with me. Often I will get a song stuck in my head and I will have to listen to it and then learn to play it on my guitar.  Some songs may take me hours to learn and others will take only minutes. It's the same with my paintings. As I hear each chord I start to see the painting. "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Pink Floyd was my inspiration for this painting. As you listen to this song you can almost see when the sky clouds over into this dark unknown. Softened by the Toi Toi, this really is a beautiful diptych painting. The video to this song sta...

 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...

  9 September 2020 Today isn't meant to be much of a day, weather wise, but to me it's perfect. Not too hot and not too cold - its just right. Look at me sounding like the 3 Little Bears! If it wasn't for the gale force Nor' Westers. I can barely stand up let alone my poor wee chickens hanging on for dear life! And the soil is getting blown into my eyes with each spade full that's turned over. Flag that!!! I have plenty of other jobs I can be doing instead of peeling my eyes out with windblown dirt!  Such as planting some Blackcurrent cuttings... This is cuttings I took in June. It is now 4 months later and the start of spring is upon us. The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer. Blossom is out on the plum trees and the apple and apricot trees are in bud and starting to bloom too. The new growth on these blackcurrents is pleasing and should be the start of a beautiful high yielding blackcurrent bush. I'll transfer them to big pots and make r...

  Time To Get Prepared. "My GOAL is to tame and maintain my unruly garden and turn it into a edible work of art for everyone to enjoy at next to no cost!" With all this  Coronavirus  stuff happening and the economic crisis I think now more than ever it's important to prepare ourselves for what may come. Already we're seeing the effects of lock down on households and their financial issues becoming more and more desperate. But never fear, we can all do something to help out our situations, being mentally, physically and financially or that of someone else's all by simply putting in a vegetable garden. You don't have to have a lot of ground as there are many compact gardening solutions you can easily achieve all with a simple pot or bowl, bucket or cup. Tyres in particular are excellent for growing potatoes. You can buy cheap and effective glasshouses from places like  Mitre10  or  The Warehouse  (New Zealand). And if you're anything like me and have chi...

  8 September 2020 Great day for gardening today. Spring is definitely here with the warmer days and blossom starting to bud and bloom on the fruit trees. Morning started off with a frost and sun was shining brightly by 7:45am with occasional cloud in the afternoon. Raked all the sticks and straw off the paths and threw the last of the pile of weeds into the compost. Dug a small garden for Courgettes and a new garden, possibly for herbs. Its currently growing 2 Rhubarb plants but my daughter can have them as I already have about 15 of them in my big garden. Before: Looking particularly messy if I do say so myself. After: With a lot of elbow grease and some help from my chicken friends, this area was tidied up over the course of 2 days. Red Chicken is breaking up the small garden for my Courgettes/ Peppers. I have taken to watering the garden at about 4pm when the day is nearing an end so it soaks into the ground overnight as opposed to watering in the morning and have it evaporate ...

  Mince, Mashed Potatoes and Veges Dinner for 2 with leftovers. Ready to serve in 30 minutes. A quick and easy meal that's full of tasty goodness. Ideal to warm the belly on a cold night. INGREDIENTS: 400g               Mince (Ground Beef) 2 Large          Carrots 1 Small          Onion 1 tsp                Salt 4 Grinds         Pepper 2 tsp                Cornflour, heaped 1/2 Cup          Water plus enough to cover mince 2                   Oxo Cubes  OR 2 tsp                Beef Stock, heaped 1/2                    Kumara (Sweet Potato) You can add any sort of vegetables to the min...