Daily Planner.

So I haven't really had much time to be overly crafty lately. One project I am working on, however is a 2015 daily planner. I have spent a lot of time searching the Internet for the best way to set out my planner. What would be best to suit my needs and the closest one I found was the Erin Condrin Life Planner. Now I could have just ordered one of them (if I had a spare $50 - $70)..or I could do what I always do and just DIY it. 

I set out the planner to have the week spread out over two pages, laying flat. Each day is in columns and broken into three sections: Morning, Afternoon and Evening. I have a section for a WEEKLY TO DO list and Saturday and Sunday are halved into the one column.. to give me a bit more width for weekdays. I printed out these pages on nice Strathmore cream drawing paper and bound the seven signatures (Groups of four pages) with dental floss. (dental floss for the waxed coating and it wont break. I bound all seven signatures together and then covered the loose book with a nice thick patterned card stock. 

As for the cover I have gone for a hand made leather slip cover. I decided to make it a slip cover in case I wanted to make the same planner for the year after. It's a simple design. One long piece of leather, slightly higher than the book and then folded over and sewn to form the slip bits the book is held into place by.  

I haven't done the cover yet, but I am quite pleased how the actual planner has turned out. It's very sturdy and firm, meaning I bound it well. My book binding has gotten a lot better since I last tried it. Yes I will post pics when it is all done. 

Oh.. one thing I did work on a few months ago was this drawing. It's done with different black ink pens on the Strathmore Drawing paper... 

It's pretty detailed and took me quite a few days to do. That colour is not true.. it's actually on cream paper. 

And this is Moby unsuccessfully trying to be a sausage roll.

Sue the Subaru

I'm writing this while listening to my Husband and son bash away at a piece of our car. To clarify it's a car we bought from the wreckers and are trying to get it back to road worthy. It's not a bad little car. A Subaru Outback. When we bought it, it had a smoking engine and bald tires, rusty muffler and the driver's side guard has a sizable dent in it....which is what they are bashing at now..in the back yard. 

It was destined for the scrap yard. To be honest I have every confidence in my husband to getting this car back into shape, even the dent. He has done up a lot of cars in the past. So this one was no different. The engine was completely torn down and put back together. ....

So I just had to go outside and inspect their panel beating. They have done a pretty good job. This car project serves a duel purpose. Hubby is using it as a bonding experience with the son. They have had a few issues since son has hit that terrible teenage milestone and they both need to work on their relationship. They have good days and bad. Mostly when hubby gets frustrated a job takes twice as long to do and son storms off in a huff. Or son had plans to sit on his electronics and doesn't want to be under the bonnet of a car... It's a slow process but they are trying.

Another good thing that has come out of this is that Hubby now knows a Subaru engine back to front and is finally going to get me the one I actually wanted.. the 4x4 Forester. YAY!

A Cause close to my heart

I don't know how many of you have heard of Endometriosis, but it is a debilitating disease that 1 in 10 women in Australia and New Zealand suffer from. There is no cure and current treatments are downing various pain meds, radical surgery or hormone treatment.  The pain meds are shocking. You have to swallow tonnes of pills just to mask most of the pain only to feel like a walking zombie. The surgery is painful and is not a guarantee of a fix as the Endo grows back. Hormone treatment is totally out of the question for those who want to have children. 

Every month you wait with nervous tension as your period due date draws closer. Then suddenly..BAM! you are curled up in bed crying with the excruciating pain. You can't go to work, you can't look after your kids, keep up the housework, catch up with friends, even your partner sleeping next to you is too painful to bear. You swallow pain meds and lay there just waiting for the pain to subside so you can catch just a little bit of sleep.  Sometimes it lasts the entire period, sometimes just the first day. Sometimes it may even stop then start up again, getting a second wind, so to speak. In any case every 28 days, once a month this disease has you by the neck. 

You are constantly on edge, you feel like a failure, you feel like no-one understands what you are going through. All this is happening while you are expected to just carry on and accept it. 

How do I know? Because I have Endometriosis. My little sister has it to. 

The two of us, along with hundreds of other very brave Australian women are campaigning to get a drug company called Bayer to import a drug that they have developed long ago to specifically treat Endometriosis. The drug is called Visanne and it has actually been approved by the Government to be used in Australia back in 2010. Bayer just don't see it as "Viable". They don't think that 1 in 10 women is enough to give us a choice on how we treat this disease. 

They give a man Viagra to cure a limp penis but help hundreds of thousands of women deal with agony every month? A disease that rules our entire lives and that of out families! Bayer doesn't think we are worth it. 

There has been a petition created to hand over to the drug company and it currently has over 73000 signatures, but we need 100000! It's not that far away and we can do it if we keep trying and keep up the fight. Please help me in signing this petition. Your contribution will help thousands of women like my sister and I take our lives back into our own hands and not live like animals. 

PLEASE SIGN HERE!  


Thank you 

Whale Watching

Apart from my wedding day and the birth of my son, the day myself and my son and Mum went whale watching was one of the best days of my life. We headed out after lunch and the skies were grey and threatening. Going out into the bay we did get a bit of rain as we searched for whales. 

Our first wildlife encounter though was a couple of playful dolphins who sped along the boat and then jumped the bow waves. Before anyone could get over the excitement of that encounter we heard the call "Whales!" Over to the right was a group of two. Our boat and the dolphins went to investigate. While our boat kept a respectful distance, the dolphins however decided that the whales needed to be teased. We were pretty far away though and soon the whales dived. 

Throughout the day we encountered many small pods of whales. Most of them just lolling about on the surface until they dove again for deeper water. One whale in particular spent a good twenty minutes slapping his pectoral fin on the surface of the ocean. 

The highlight of the day was when a group of three grew inquisitive and decided to surround our boat, sliding underneath and down the sides, eyeing us all as we cheered from the decks. I don't think I said "Oh my god" more than that day. It was one of the most thrilling things to see. These beautiful, majestic animals. I am getting all choked up now just writing about it. As one Italian tourist aptly put it; "F**k YEAH!" 

I didn't get many good photos. It was just too exciting and I didn't want to be stuck behind a camera lens. I did get some really good videos which I can't post here. At the end of the day with the sun setting and the rain pelting down... I stood at the back of the boat looking out to sea. I was freezing cold and wet, but I didn't care. I was still riding that euphoric high having fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams to see the whales.  It is something I will never forget.

This morning I found.....

..... ET in my cereal. Go home ET...Go hoome.