Squeak Like the Wind

pre event jitters

I rarely sleep well the night before an event.

My friend Luke and I are running in an adventure race tomorrow, and I'm way too wired to sleep. I've run the City to Surf (14k) on about 3 hours of broken sleep and I tend to be fine - the adrenalin and fun of it pulls you through on the day.

The race will consist of running, mountain biking and kayaking... and a lot of running round with a map looking for flags. It was an incredible amount of fun last year, so I can't imagine it'll be any different this year. Difference will be that it won't be my local area which I'm somewhat familiar with - it'll be out in an entirely new spot. Eeee!

So. Got just about all my stuff sorted for tomorrow. Only thing now is to wait til I fall asleep.

Had a great evening in tonight: Don't worry, it's light champers! After my shenanigans of the Canberra Times 10k, I've vowed never to run an event hung over again. Ugh.

Early night

Big day yesterday, followed by mostly disappointing day today, redeemed only by a LOVELY dinner with friends at my fav local Chinese restaurant tonight. I know it's Blogtober and all but... *snorrre*

*nnnnggghhh*

...that's the sound that I make every time I see ANOTHER thing I just wantwantwant. Yeesh.

The idea of accruing desired purchases to the end of the month and *then* deciding what I'm going to get really does have some merit.

So, the latest thing I'm dying to spend my money on continue to use my credit card on is:

http://www.craftsy.com/class/design-and-sew-an-a-line-skirt/136;jsessionid=1C541AC937D757C982B11ABCB015176E.gnr

 

another thing for the list

Damn you, Buy Nothing New Month! *shakes tiny fist in rage*

http://curlypops.bigcartel.com/product/you-sew-girl-beauty-case-pattern

Nicole Mallalieu's latest awesome baggy pattern is up for pre order.

Guess I won't be pre ordering it.

Which is probably just as well, since I still haven't made the last 2 patterns I bought of hers, since I'm still struggling away at the pocket rocket handbag (I think my rocket ran out of fuel!)

At this point today is all about:

• not being at work
• riding a bike (and getting it serviced)
• sewing a handbag
• going to yoga
• not being at work
• drinking nice coffee
• not being at work
• not being at work

Can you guess I *reallyreallyreally* needed a day off? ;)

Buy Nothing New Month is actually more about recycling and using what you have. For me, it's become about controlling my spending in general as well, especially since I do have a house full of stuff to play with, but I tend to rush out and buy more playthings (eg fabric, patterns, bike bits, etc) before I consider what I already have. I'm trying very hard to pay off my credit card, which is somewhat difficult with things like a car needing a year of rego as well as a $1,300 repair, a tax bill (miscalculated - my first full year of my own ABN) and Christmas looming. Urgh. It's not that I don't have money, and I'm well paid - I think it's that I've just become very complacent in the way that I budget (or not) and control my money realistically and sensibly. *sigh*.

What I find the most difficult is that half of my work is self-employment, so I'm struggling with the fact that I don't get a set amount of money per fortnight - it comes in when I'm busy, and if I'm not busy, it just doesn't. It's difficult to plan ahead and budget, and most of the time I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. I've managed money the best when I set myself a strict budget and stick to it: But that's a tough call when you don't know how much you have to budget.

Buy Nothing New Month, day 17: Success so far

Hats! :D

Actually forgot to post pictures of the fantastic hat workshop I attended at Addicted to Fabric a couple of weekends ago...

Here's a picture of me looking dorky. No one else wanted their photo taken. *Sigh!*

 

 

This is it in action when I went kayaking with mum on the weekend :D

 

 

 

 

 

Big day at work today. Definitely didn't spend anything!

Also, discovered previously forgotten stash of pear cider in the garage when I went out to grab some other stuff. SCORE! :D Just one tonight, and off to bed a little early. You know you're tired when your clients point it out when they walk in the door. LOL

Buy Nothing New Month, Day 16: Success!

Baggy happenings!

It's happening!!! :D

Slowly but surely the bag is coming together. It's literally taken me weeks - as a pattern tester I should have had it done within three weeks, and I'm now officially over time. Guess I owe the lovely Chris for her pattern. Well it's a win win situation because it's certainly worth paying for, despite it being ever so slightly beyond my current skills.

Also... birdy cuddles. Not so bad with David away after all, finally they're paying me a bit of attention! :"D

Buy Nothing New Month, day 15: asifIhadtimetospendmoneytodayanyways (success!)

Floatin' round

With my mum visiting for the weekend, and she being recently introduced to kayaking by her partner, we decided to give single kayaking a go. Her partner is a large, tall man, so when my tiny 5' mumsy was in the kayak with him, it was tough going, and she ended up just kicking back while he paddled, since her paddles hardly reached the water. Lol. So, an opportunity to actually have a go sounded like fun. We zoomed round a part of thd lake and had a peaceful little float out on the water, enjoying the still, clear day.

And I'm continuing to wrestle with the handbag. I'm so late on it that the pattern has already been released *shame* but I'm accumulating decent experience here for myself, and hopefully some useful data for the pattern writer (who, after doing this handbag, I'm quite in awe of!)

I spent some money today, but unsure whether to count it, as it's craft stuff I'm using for my suitcase rummage goodies. I'm beginning to see why my budgets don't work these days - I dont count craft stuff in my head when I do my tally!

Buy Nothing New Month: oops! ($50, Pellon, threads and a dinosaur panel to replace the one I used)

"We don't know what you've washed that in..."

Today we went to Floriade and had coffee at one of the marquee cafes there.

Despite Floriade's claim to "Environmental Care" (see more here http://www.floriadeaustralia.com/about-floriade/environmental-care), I was told that my Keep Cup was not able to hold the coffee that I had ordered and paid for. When I asked why, I was told it was an "O H and S issue, since we don't know what you've washed that in". I asked for their manager's name to give feedback and they refused, saying she was already aware of this, and that the problem wasn't management's decision, but rather a Health Inspection issue. They stated that they had recently made a coffee for another patron in a Keep Cup and had been told not to by the health inspector. They told me they could make a coffee in one of their paper cups "which are biodegradable and which we recycle" and then pour it into my cup, which kind of baked my brain a little, since surely the whole point is to reduce the impact on the environment?

At this point I should probably have backed off. I very politely pointed out that Starbucks are happy to do it and even refund you 40cents for your green living choice. The two staff members nodded, smiled, and ignored my Keep Cup.

On the up side, by this point I'd paid for the coffee so it was too late to just walk away, and the coffee was rather nice. I wasn't so sure about the macaron (or "macaroooon" as the young man who served me called it), I haven't had many of them so I'm still not sure what exactly makes a good one.

I took a photo of some flowers. Apparently this is what you do at Floriade. ;)

Buy Nothing New Month: Success! (how many lovely market stalls did I walk past???? eeee!)

A few of my favourite things ;-)

Bikes. Pink helmets. Bookshops. Newtown. Late afternoon. A day well spent learning useful interesting stuff. Looking forward to dinner with mum and a friend I haven't seen in ages. Not bad for one day :-)

And, despite numerous temptations in Newtown, bought nothing new. Though I do have that dinner planned. Lucky food doesn't count in Buy Nothing New Month, right?

Rainy days and pandaren

It's buy nothing new month, and although we are only 10 days on, I've lapsed twice. (I feel like I'm at confession! Lol)

Since I did lapse, though, I thought I should at least show off my purchases. This is what I bought with this first lapse: an imaginary panda bear. With a stick. :-) cute, isn't she? I'm about level 25 by now and have reconnected with quite a few old WoW buddies.

On the upside, day 10 was a SUCCESS, with no new purchases. Yey!