I'm ba-ack!

Phew, school holidays are finally over! I have four whole hours to myself this morning. Don't get me wrong, having the kids home has been quite nice, but a girl's gotta breathe sometime. For the first time in history I have covered all the kid's books before school started. Rhys (15) decided he'd rather wash up and bring me cups of coffee than do his books himself lol.... who can blame him, I would have preferred something stronger than coffee lol.... darn contact! So I now have time to blog and catch up on some craft projects. The doll-house is tidied and ready to go. I wouldn't be blogging at all if the computer shop hadn't loaned me a computer. Yep, my new laptop has kicked the bucket! It is officially brain-dead. No signs of life at all. What is it with me and computers? I have had 4 computers in 3 years! Anyway, I'm here now so it's time to catch up........

Tag - you're it!

Thanks Robby for tagging me to tell five things you may not know about me. I have been very slack getting around to doing this post. The main reason is that everyone else sounds so fascinating! I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something worthy of writing about. Here's what I came up with.

1. I have panic attacks. They usually occur when I am in a group of people I don't know well..... I get very, very nervous. I am useless at small talk and I never know what to say. This could have been aggravated by the fact I grew up on a National Park an hour from the nearest town (Hillston - pop about 1000) and regularly cut off by flood waters. We were so isolated we did school by correspondence and got flown to Royal Far West each year so we could be assessed for health needs and to give us some respite from the dry outback. I guess it gave our parents some much needed respite too. The rest of the year it was just our family and the occasional visitor. I also got panic attacks when going to places more hilly than a tabletop. That's what growing up in the outback will do to a girl.

2. I collect walking sticks. I have over thirty of them, all different sorts. I just love the history and functionality of them.

3. I've been engaged three times. The first to a guy I went out with for five years when I was a teenager. He decided to sow his wild oats somewhere else, in fact in lots of other places. The second time was to my ex-husband who also had some planting to do. Finally my gorgeous man who is only interested in the sort of ploughing and planting done by his draught horses popped the question. Actually he popped it 2 weeks after we met. (The question that is, oh and a few champagne corks lol....) I made him wait for a while though, twice bitten = very wary!

4. I am the world's worst housekeeper. Honestly.

5. I love animals. Ok you knew that, but you didn't know I have sat in a creek skinning a rabbit and plucking a duck whilst camping with fiance number one. Not doing that again, nup, no way! No wonder it didn't last. I do love camping, haven't been for years, but when I do I'll take my own food so I don't have to gut anything!

Ok, now I have to tag 5 others.... will have to get back to you on that one, baby budgie wants a feed!

Changin' chairs....

Ok this is what I have now, six 1920's high back oak chairs. They are nice, but way too curvaceous for my taste. I bought them about 12 years ago along with a great old wind-out table. The chairs were positively dangerous they were so rickety! So in my wisdom I had them restored. Over-restored. The guy who did them was highly recommended to me, however since then I have learnt a bit more about antiques. For instance he should have "filled" the timber before staining. And that bright yellow stain is just not authentic at all. Then he put a high gloss finish on them. Would have been much nicer with a warm wax finish. And let's just say the seats were a disaster! He actually measured new seats for them but when they were upholstered the guy upholstered the wrong side. Now anyone who knows old furniture should know that hand made stuff just ain't symmetrical. So none of the seats fit properly. Anyway I don't like the fabric now. So they have to go.
I had a chat to my local antiques lady and she suggested I go visit her "source". Bushy has a huge shed full of chairs and is willing to do a swap. He just happens to be in need of six oak chairs to match a table he has restored. So his shed is my playground.... I get to pick whichever chairs I want and he will do them up for me! I haven't actually been there, but Toddy went and took some pics..... no drooling please.......

Another sleep snatcher.....

This little guy kept me awake last night too..... well my concerns that the cats might decide to make a midnight snack of him did anyway. Mumma budgie decided that two babies was one too many and this one had to go. So she booted him out of the nesting box, onto the aviary floor about 4 feet below. Twice. It was way too hot to risk him being dehydrated, so in goes Ranger Mon to rescue the baby budgie.... So into the cage he went to be hand reared inside.... He is in there, honest..... look closely....

Ok try this one......

Pretty cute hey?

Awwww........ he had a feed (baby bird instant cereal stuff), and then a stretch......

Then like all babies, it's back to bed.......

Adventures of an insomniac......

Ok, I'm pretty used to the tossing and turning thing now. I haven't fallen asleep before 3am since a zillion years ago. But some nights are more eventful than others. Tonight for example. Which is why I'm blogging at 2.38am. It's a hot night here, and in my current "green" wisdom the aircon has been turned off for the night. After listening to my ipod go into sleep mode, and with the music still soothing my weary mind, my peace was shattered by the bark of my dog, Angel. Reluctantly I found my slippers and the torch and headed to the door to investigate. I shone the light across the yard to discover a large horse standing near the kennel. Which would have been fine except for the fact that he was trying to drink from the bucket of water I had put there for the goat. Poor Victor had tangled his tether around a stick and had nowhere to go! And the horse (Nugget) was trying to "taste" him! Well, the goat was bellowing which set off the sheep, the dogs were barking and all five horses came over to check it out. There was nothing else for it, I went to rescue the terrified goat. In my pyjamas. At 2am. Over the wire fence I climbed, mosquitoes attacking my bare arms and legs, watched by the very amused equines. Now, trying to disentangle a panicky goat with the help of five horses is not easy. They would not shoo no matter how much I waved the torch with my free arm, making what I was doing a tad difficult, and I'm sure much more entertaining. Even less easy was lifting said (rather heavy)goat over the fence while he insisted on pulling with his full strength away from the scary horses and towards a delicious patch of grass! Lifting each front leg over the wire and pushing my shoulder into his rear end was more successful. Once he was over you would think my troubles would be too. Not so lucky I'm afraid. Never let a hungry goat near a rusty bath tub full of succulents. Straight for my Aloe Vera he went, with a glint in his eye that told me my Zygocactus were next on the menu. And here's me tugging on his chain and trying to climb the fence at the same time. In my pyjamas. At 2 am. With five horses snickering- no giggling- in the background. And did I mention the sheep bleating and the dogs barking? As I stumbled over the fence, cursing just about everything, I longed for the peacefulness of my usual insomniatic night. Finally I put Victor in his pen with Pearl the sheep and threw them a biscuit of hay. That shut 'em up. If only those horses would stop their darn laughing!

It's not always easy being green

Kermit was right, it's not always easy to be green, but as he says, it's what I wanna be....... Luckily for us there are more and more companies bringing out "greener" products, which makes it much easier. I have changed from mainstream skin and hair care products to organic/herbal/natural products and have found them to be excellent. They are readily available in health food shops and online, are comparable in price and there are many high-quality products to choose from. Best of all they don't have the nasties like SLS in them.

Dangerous Beauty
“Scientist Warn Of Harmful Ingredients in Our Shampoos and Cosmetics”
by David Lowell Kern
New health concerns are being raised over some ingredients in hair shampoos, skin creams, toothpastes, and other personal care products. According to researchers in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, these ingredients may be linked to premature baldness, cataract formation, environmental cancers, contact dermatitis, and possible eye damage in young children.

To read more click here

Ok, I'm evangelising here, nothing worse than a reformed beauty product addict lol...but seriously, why risk health concerns when alternatives are available? And those essential oils smell sooooo good......mmmmmmm off to massage my hands with some organic rose scented cream........

Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful.....

I'm surrounded by posers........ every time they see the camera they go into super-model pose! Then they start demanding smoked salmon, organic wheat grass and spring water... of course the choices depend on their particular species, but who can deny them? Not me, I'm a sucker for a pretty face.....

Great blog!

Wow, I love this blog , I am going to be spending so much time there! Here's what Ree says about herself-

"I’m Ree, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman. Welcome to my frontier!
I’m a thirty-something ranch wife, mother of four, and moderately-agoraphobic middle child who grew up on a golf course in the city. I attended college in Los Angeles and wore black pumps to work every day. I ate sushi and treated myself to pedicures on a semi-regular basis. I even kissed James Garner in an elevator once. Now I live in the middle of nowhere on a working cattle ranch. My days are spent changing diapers, chipping dried manure from boots, washing jeans, and frying calf nuts. I have no idea how I got here, but you know what? I love it. Don’t tell anyone."

Check it out, Ree is a talented writer and a brilliant photographer, and she's hillarious!

New Year, new look.......

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it is a great one for you...... as you can see I have changed the look of my blog. I also renamed the blog "Rust 'n' dust", but it is still at the same address. The banner shows some prim angels I made and the cottage on my parent's farm. Man it was hard to find a blog template that my text colour showed up on, I still haven't worked out how to change the text colour for all posts in one go and I was not going to do them one by one lol.... Anyway, the whole effect turned out pretty good and is in keeping with my resolution for a greener 2008. It's a bit easier on the eye too. I also added the cute little clock just for a bit of fun, love those widgets!