Life in Mono...

The Rain...

Its been raining quite a lot for the past few weeks. We have 2 days of sunshine and then it pours. This Saturday, they are predicting that there is going to be HAIL. Yes. Hail. Then Frost on Monday and Tuesday. My poor plants. They are going to have a difficult time.

I am frantically trying to google up on how to frost prove your plants. What about my worm farm? Are my worms going to be cold? Or will they be ok under all that gook?

Winter also means hibernation for most. This includes me. I have to admit that I have not been active with my Project 365 and also crafting. I entered Made on the Left this month and I have nothing new to show or sell. I will have to dig up my old stock from the Craft Fair that I did in Subiaco last year. I know. I am a shocker.

I have no new photos to show of my house because the lighting is not right. Well actually, there is not enough natural light for me to take. We still have boxes that we have not opened and maybe this weekend seeing that it will be raining and hailing, I will take the initiative to opening them up and sorting them out.

Getting Back...

Jeezzz.... why is it so hard to get back on the saddle? Its so hard for me to get back in to the routine of blogging, taking photos, work and regular exercise. GAH...

Anyway, I am slowly trying to get my social life back. I went to the opening of Clothes Peg 2 at Lala Orange last night. I even got dressed up for it. The exhibition was brilliant the only thing that irks me is that the shop was so tiny that it was hard to stop and appreciate all the artwork that was on display. I did meet up with Ali J and Miss Minnie. It was so good to catch up.

Speaking of which, I am selling my wares at Made on the Left Markets in July. I am so excited. For those of you in Perth, I hope to see you there in July.

As for fitness and exercise, I am slowly getting started again. I went to the gym on Monday and Tuesday. I am actually still sore from Tuesday's workout. OUCH. Anyway I found this on The Happiness Project and thought I might share it with you guys. 11 tips for sticking to a schedule of regular exercise.

1. Always exercise on Monday. This sets the psychological pattern for the week. Along the same lines…

2. If at all possible, exercise first thing in the morning. As the day wears on, you’ll find more excuses to skip exercising. Get it checked off your list, first thing.

3. Never skip exercising for two days in a row. You can skip a day, but the next day, you must exercise, no matter how inconvenient.

4. Give yourself credit for the smallest effort. My father always said that all he had to do was put on his running shoes and close the door behind him. Many times, by promising myself I could quit ten minues after I’d started, I got myself to start – and then found that I didn’t want to quit, after all.

5. Think about context. I thought I disliked weight-training, but in fact, I disliked the guys who hung out in the weight-training area. Are you distressed about the grubby showers in your gym? Do you try to run in the mornings, but recoil from going out in the cold? Examine the factors that might be discouraging you from exercising.

6. Exercise several times a week. If your idea of exercise is to join games of pick-up basketball, you should be playing practically every day. Twice a month isn’t enough.

7. If you don’t have time both to exercise and take a shower, find a way to exercise that doesn’t require you to shower afterward. Twice a week, I have a very challenging weight-training session, but the format I follow doesn’t make me sweat. (Some of you are saying, “It can’t be challenging if you don’t sweat!” Oh yes, believe me, it is.)

8. Look for affordable ways to make exercising more pleasant or satisfying. Could you upgrade to a nicer or more convenient gym? Buy yourself a new iPod? Work with a trainer? Get a pedometer to keep track of your walking distances? Exercise is a high life priority, so this a worthwhile place to spend some money if that helps.

9. Think of exercise as part of your essential preparation for times you want to be in especially fine form -- whether in performance (to be sharp for an important presentation) or appearance (to look good for a wedding) or mood (to deal with a stressful situation). Studies show that exercise does help.

10. Remember one of my favorite Secrets of Adulthood, courtesy of Voltaire: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don’t decide it’s only worth exercising if you can run five miles or if you can bike for an hour. I have a friend who scorns exercise unless she’s training for a marathon -- so she never exercises. Even going for a ten-minute walk is worthwhile. Do what you can.

11. Don’t kid yourself. Belonging to a gym doesn’t mean you go to the gym. Having been in shape in high school or college doesn’t mean you’re in shape now. Saying that you don’t have time to exercise doesn’t make it true.

Its Thursday, so its JC day today. I have to see a new consultant today because my usual consultant retired. I have to start building a relationship with my new consultant again. Yeeesh. This means revealing things all over again. Let see how well it goes today. The consultant I had the last time was pretty "unfriendly", she was trying to get me out of the way pretty quickly. I forgot her name. That is how impressed I was with her.

 

I'm Back...

I am back. Not for long though. We are going through something big and we are very very excited. JUNE. All will be revealed  in June.

Photo was taken on my birthday. I had a small celebration at a Korean BBQ place around the corner. Its the first time that the Family took a decent photo together.

We went down to Albany again. That's three times in the span of less than six months. I can't help it. I love that place. I almost didn't want to come home to Perth. I love the farm the people and everything there. The boys got to see some action in the farm and I took time to unwind.

Will tell you more with pictures. :*) Have a great week.

On a break...

I have decided to give myself a break from blogging for a while. My cousin is coming over and I need to sort things out for a while.

Not to worry. Its nothing major. I will continue to take photos for Project 365 though and post blog them when I come back.

See ya soon.

The Low Down...

Last month I installed StatCounter after reading about it from Ali J. I decided to just try and see what brings people to my blog. I have mixed feelings about the stats... here is the low down :-

1. I got a hit from someone searching for "Fat girl in Pencil Skirts", which would bring them to my look book when I posted about pencil skirts.
2. I got a few hits from people searching for "Chunky Belts".
3. I got a hit from MALAYSIA searching for s3x stories about one of my ex housemates. Well not her specifically, just her name and it had "hot malay"  in it. GROSS you sick sick sicko.
4. I got someone from Afghanistan searching the word "P0rn" and literally spelt out p0rn with 0 in it.
5. Highest visitor count is from Australia
6. Second highest SPAIN. hmmmm Ola to you guys from Spain.
7. I have a few hits from Hong Kong for an image that I had in my look book.

I do try to google my full name from time to time and most of the time it points to my blog, my shop and also one of the page in which they have full authority to print my name because it gives links to my shop. Other than that, everything is ok. 

howdy howdy howdy...

HI!! How are ya? I am getting better thanks. Thank you for all your emails and suggestions about Urinary Tract Infection. I am looking for ways to prevent them ever happening to me ever again. Toby kept a silent watch over me when I was sick the other day. She sat on the opposite couch and watch me WHILE little Miss Missy slept ON me the whole day. Owhh.... they love me.

So...I know my blog has been all about pictures and project 365 lately but I am determined to finish this project and not do it half way. I feel guilty if I do not take a picture and share.

Anyway, I have been doing pretty ok lately. Trying to get back into that Crafty groove. I have been doing a little bit of research and I am going to see my banker tomorrow to see what I can do with the business. I had a few custom orders and also I just got my very first cheque for a wholesale lot of my moleskines. Woohooo...

I was a little upset because the Annual Bead and Gem show is cancelled in Perth. I was looking forward to it this weekend. Now what will I do with myself? I was looking forward to doing a little practice on my networking skills. Ah well... I guess I will do a little beading and study.

Ok I will leave it at that.

Must read blogs...

I found this via Swissmiss. Thought it might be interesting to share.

The world's 50 most powerful blogs.

I know I read a few of them.

10 Random things...

Ok since I can't blog at home because of the Modem (I am getting a new one next Monday), Project 365 will be on hold for a little bit. I will backdate everything on the blog, facebook and flickr once I get the new modem.

I am actually blogging from work, which is a bad thing because I have loads to do. So here is a recap of things that happened.

1. I did not forget M's birthday this year. In fact we celebrated it with Mr Santana himself. It was his birthday gift from me to him. I did get him a briefcase for his birthday too to make up for last year.
2. Leap year. I really didn't feel like doing anything for the day. In fact, I think most of the guys at work did not do anything as well since the Big Fish went down South to meet up with a client. I think all day we chatted and did our own thing.
3. I have decided to quit the second job because it was getting too much to handle. Too many office politics and I didn't like how they treat their staff. Also it was getting too far for me to travel.
4. Went to another Etsy WA meeting. Had a fantastic time with the girls and guy. We exchanged stories and experiences. I learnt a lot from the girls. It inspired me to take things seriously and hopefully make a living off it.
5. Registered a domain name with GoDaddy.com. for my etsy store. So if you type in www.inmonodesigns.com it will take you straight to my etsy store.
6. I have been reading heaps of publications in regards to selling my designs.
7. I got a Credit on my first assignment. Which is ok. I got 4 wrong out of 20 questions. I am a little bit upset about it but I am getting over it. I will try my best in my next assignment.
8. I am currently reading Phillip Pullman " His Dark Materials" Trilogy. He was the guy who wrote the book "The G0lden C0mpas" only the original title is "Northern Lights". Its soooo exciting. I can not put it down. I saw the movie last year and it is nothing compared to the book. NOTHING I tell you but then, nothing is as good as the book anyways.
9. Someone very special is coming to visit me in May and I am taking 2 weeks off work. I am very excited with this trip because I am planning to go to places that I would never find the time to go to. For example Margaret River, Mandurah and what not.
10. I will be spending Easter with Ike, Turbo and Misty again. Woooottttt.... I can not wait. This time we will make time to explore the South Coast Region of Albany. Mrs C told me that I could make their home base camp and venture out from there.  Their place is only 40 minutes away from Denmark (yes its in Western Australia), about 40 minutes away from the Valley of the Giants.

Just thinking...

I am beginning to worry that this blog may start to be a photo blog which is fine by me but I know you guys out there want to know more about my life than just pictures right.

Actually, I really have nothing to report or tell because life has pretty much been the same. Work,gym,sleep,work,gym,sleep. Owh and throw in eating in the middle. There was no Friday Night Dinners for the last 2 weeks and I am desperate to see Tiff and Papa Nic.

I have been thinking of taking up a short course in Dressmaking and Pattern Making. I have looked around at 2 possible distance learning type thing. M has agreed to pay for half of it. Yippie. But I am still a little bit iffy about it. I don't know how it will work. Have any of you taken up something like that? Is it worth the money? I do not want to be enrolled into any University or Vocational School because this means that I will have to find time to go to the classes. I want something  that I can learn from home and with my own sweet time. Distance Learning is the best option. I have tried looking at the Burdastyle website and it does not mean anything to me. I need something more hands on than that but more relaxed than going to school for it. *sigh* I am really demanding isn't it. Anyway, any tips or ideas are much appreciated.

I have not sat down in my studio in a while and sewing and beading are in a standstill. Its to hot for anything creative at Casa Mono at the moment and I think my brain is trying to cope with trying to keep my body cool and also watching TV. So nothing is being created at the moment. Argh... I want to get out of this place soon. Somewhere where that is Insulated and with Air conditioning that cools down a whole room, not just when you sit in front of it.

On Saturday I had a Harry Potter Movie Marathon. I watched from movie one to movie 5. I can't wait for movie 6 to come out. I have been listening to Pottercast on my iPod and I have to say that I am addicted to it. Every Monday I wait for it to appear on my Podcast List and while I do my outside work, I have it on and listen to the discussion.

Also on Saturday, I worked in the Dress Fabric department at Casual Work and I loved it. I LOVE IT so much that I told my department manager, currently I work in Furnishing in which I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what to do most of the time, that I want to be transfered to Dress. He said he will speak to the big boss and we will see how things work out next week. Don't get me wrong. I love working at the Furnishing department, its just that half of the time, I have no idea what people want. I do not know what a pencil pleat is or no idea what hooks goes with what rods. Also I am not comfortable with a few members of the staff at Furnishing. Currently I am just holding back words and biting my tongue.

At Dress I am in my element, well at least I know most things. I also learn how to rip the fabrics instead of cutting them. I told the Dress Department Manager that I do not know how to cut straight, she told me very casually that I could just RIP the fabric up and its usually straighter that using a scissors to cut it anyway. At dress, the customer usually know what they want and what to do with fabric. Usually the customers are sewers themselves.

Hmmmm.... we shall see how it goes. I think if I am not moved to Dress, then I think I may have to find alternate employment. Hopefully somewhere closer to home so that I do not have to take up to more than an hour to get home.

Anyway, thats the latest goss from me. A little bit boring right? Yea. Blame the HEAT. 

I wish...

....they would all just leave his family alone in this time of mourning. I think the whole of Australia especially Perth are mourning the lost of someone this brilliant.

Have a read of what Ms Jones have to say about Heath's death. Brilliant.

Rest in peace dear Heath.