Refund on life coaster ticket please?

Hello blogoshpere!

It has been so long since I posted that I had forgotten what my password and email combo were. How daft right?I have now got them written safely down so they can't be forgotten.
At least until I forgot where I have left my note, which I hid so that it's safe from prying eyes, and ends up being so bloody safe I lose it myself.

The reason for my very long absence, and essentially giving up on my 365 day Telethon Challenge is due a hideously bad break up. My partner and I had been together for nearly 3 years and unfortunately "partner" is a bit generous as that would imply things were somewhat equal. However this was not the case.

He lost his job and we lost a couple of mutual friends at the same time in a tangled, complicated mess. A year after this he still didn't have work and so things which had already been strained between us was made worse by arguments about money (or lack there of) and talk of loans.
My low income barely scraped us through with rent, both our phone bills, groceries and savings. He would hide phone bills from me and then expect for me to take care of them. One of these bills was over $1000 which I will never see again despite the fact that it would be very helpful to me right now in putting together a bond deposit, or for driving lessons and savings for a car.

Finally I had enough and broke up with him. For the first week or so things were awkward between us but he was behaving respectfully- or so I thought. Turned out he had been exchanging dirty picture messages with a "best friend" of mine who he and I had been living with at the time. He may or may not have also slept with this woman's sister in law. But because the three of them were all lying to me about it I felt like I could't trust any of them.

I was in a really dark place. After the breakup I was isolated from my friends as he and I had been in the same circle of friends as well as two volunteer groups. He spread lies to our friends about me and things that I had said and tried to turn them against me. And for a while it worked. That is until he became too cocky for his own good and got himself caught up in two different lies about one event and where he was living to two different friends, who then started comparing thoughts and notes and started asking me questions. Luckily they had enough faith to do that and I was able to have a chance to straighten things out with them both.

Before this happened however I had decided that I would go to Soundwave on my own (this was two weeks after the break up and having my friends ignore my messages in this time) which was an extremely bad idea for the mind set that I was in. Everything that seemed to go wrong did so gleefully. I got lost for hours at a time, late at night, alone in the back streets of Melbourne for both nights I was there. The only great thing about Soundwave itself is that I got to meet and get my picture taken with Ariel and Shawn from Icon For Hire and that I got some henna tattoos that I really liked. I had seriously considered just jumping off the bridge next to Flinders Street Station and being done with it all, ending the pain but I had a friend say how he couldn't let me do that and talked me down. At the time I was frustrated and pissed off at him for making me promise to get sleep, get up, have food and not harm myself.

Now a few months later and being able to look back on it I can recognise that I went through my own personal hell at the start of this year. I let go of things that I hadn't even realised were holding me back. I lost friends and worse I found that in that toxic relationship I had lost myself, who I was and what I stood for. That journey back to loving myself as who I am and working out what it is that I stand for will take a while but I am enjoying the process. Most importantly I know I am not alone. I have loving family and true friends around me and I have my new found strength in myself.

New challenge!!

Hello world!!! Yes I'm still alive and haven't been buried and crushed under piles of fabric or been eaten by a mutant sewing needle with teeth... Although I've sure stabbed myself enough... But anyway I've been extremely busy lately and keep forgetting to post.. And eat lunch... And sleep...

This post may be a bit long as I will write about my challenge, copy and paste my links... I will create another post on Saturday with all the pictures of the items I have created so far for my first week!

So I started my challenge on November 1st 2014 and am finishing it on November 1st 2015 and my challenge is to create something new, every day for 365 days- #CreateChallenge365

My challenge rules are below:

 - I must create something new every day, for 365 days, from November 1st 2014 to November 1st 2015

- As proof if creation I must take a picture of the item and upload it to this page (and other associated pages) before 11:59pm Perth time on the same day of creation

- For each missed day I will donate an extra $50 on top of the final total

 With this challenge I hope to change that because I will be making myself take time out of my day for me so that I can create for my challenge.

At this stage I don't have any ideas of what to do with my collection of items that I will create over the course of the year...

I was thinking of perhaps having an auction to sell off the collection, either piece by piece, or a whole and donate the proceeds of the auction also to Telethon.

However if you have any better ideas please drop me a line and let me know... :)

Also feel free to get involved with the challenge as well as post pictures of YOUR creations!!!

 

If you would like to donate or sponsor me please click on the link below and it will take you to my fundraising page.

https://www.mycause.com.au/page/84417/createchallenge365

 

Also please check out my pinterest challenge board and "like" and share my Facebook Challenge page amongst your friends, family and work mates!

 

www.facebook.com/createchallenge

http://www.pinterest.com/ocrafty1da/createchallenge365-telethon/

 Thank you and I hope you all get a laugh out of my insanity! (Yes my partner is thinking of getting me a straitjacket for Christmas! :P)

Steph, xx

 

 

Christmas Decorations

Here's another link for a great starter shopping list...

https://www.unpakt.com/blog/new-apartment-heres-your-grocery-list/


But getting off the moving obsession.  I was looking on eBay yesterday for Christmas decorations for both tree and tinsel... I was amazed at how expensive some of them were even though they looked fairly dodgy and plastic...

I have therefor decided that I will be making my own... :) I will start off making ones out of felt but there are a few other styles of decorations that I would like to try and make as well...

Below are some images I found off google by searching for "felt Christmas decorations"

I don't know how mine will turn out but I will be making enough of each to decorate our new Christmas tree this year (once we get said tree of course) because I want it to look really pretty and festive this year!

First Grocery shop

So quite literally where my partner and I have moved into there a park literally a minutes walk from the end of the driveway. The local IGA and shopping complex is 15 minutes away to the right and and to the left 20 minutes is the local shopping center with a Sanity, Woolies, Coles and a really good butchers as well as my nearest bank branch.

My mom and dad are now further away and not having my license doesn't help in that regard but we are free and quite happy... And at least now I can just walk to the main road and catch the bus straight up then get off and walk the rest of the way.

Just came back from doing the first grocery shop with a $50 note... With that I got a shower curtain, a stainless steel potato masher, liquid hand soap, sausages (about 750g), 750g gluten free bacon, gluten free crushed garlic in a jar, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a 1kg bag of frozen mixed veggies, 2x 1 liter long life milks, and 30 meters of glad wrap.

Luckily the people we moved in with already have cutlery, crockery, some cookware and things like rice, potatoes, pasta and some sauces. So we have enough now to hold us over for a few days...

A really good list I have found in my googling is the link below and I will also copy and paste the list.

http://betterthandormfood.com/2012/08/29/new-kitchen-grocery-list/

GROCERY SHOPPING LIST

Canned  and Jar Goods

• Beans (Black, pinto, garbanzo)
• Canned corn, string beans, etc
• Canned Chili
• Diced Tomatoes
• Pasta Sauce
• Salad Dressing

Dry Goods

• Pasta (various kinds)
• Rice (white and brown rice)
• Breakfast Cereal
• Crackers

Spices, Flavorings and Cooking ingredients

• Salt and Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Ground Cumin
• Curry Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Cornstarch
• Sugar
• Chicken Bouillon Cubes or powder
• Seasoning Salt (Lawry’s)
• Soy Sauce
• Canola Oil
• Vinegar ( red wine or balsamic)
• Peanut Butter and Jelly

Produce

• Garlic
• Bag of potatoes
• Onion
• Lettuce
• Your favorite fruits and veggies

Refrigerator Items

• BBQ sauce
• Butter
• Eggs
• Sauce, mustard
• Milk
• Cheese

Frozen ( or items to keep in the freezer)

• Bag of frozen skinless chicken breasts
• Flour tortillas
• Whole Grain Bread
• Frozen Fruit (for smoothies)
• Ground beef or turkey

I would also include in that list:

- Long life milk

Learning to fly

Last night and all of yesterday was completely crappy for me and my partner. In fact our weekend in general started off fairly poorly... I had cleaned the bus the same way I do at the end of every term which takes me to about 5:30 to 6pm... My partner then came and picked me up and we went home.

When we got there I had made a cup of tea and sat down for a few minutes to drink it because I was really sore and my back was aching from contortioning myself to get under the seats to sweep them properly....

We then had to deal with one of my partner's sisters yelling from around 6:30 to about 11:30 going off about how we hadn't been doing jobs or paying rent when it had been agreed between us and his mom that we would be doing jobs in lieu of rent.

This did not occur to his sister however and she had a right go off her nut. We went to bed after she had left. This was all Friday night.... We didn't end up being able to get to sleep until about midnight. Then I woke us up at 7am so we could get an early start on our jobs and I heard the house phone going off the hook. We started cleaning and doing the quiet stuff till his mom got in the shower at which point I put the washing on and did the vacuuming... A few hours later we had his aunty come round and have a talk to us about what we were going to do... Were we going to be able to afford our place soon. That wasn't too bad... It wasn't until his other sister came around that the trouble started. We kept working away and his sister kept getting more irate and in the end she said I should pack my stuff so I started doing just that.

Took me a few hours but I got there and then I found that Nic was moving with me too which I thought was fantastic... We ended up getting back to the mates house about 10m Saturday night... But I finished unpacking what I could of the room today which was fantasic... It looks like home now... :)

Tattoo artistry, drawing

What I've learnt today: Some people can be extremely judgemental. My partners eldest niece told me tonight that she wants to be a tattoo artist and seeing some of her drawings by hand I can see why.... I mean she is a brilliant artist! Her work is clear, bold and beautiful.

And yet as she was sitting at the dining room table with me drawing designs after dinner, she had her grandma, and another of her uncles sitting at the table lecturing her in how she didn't want to be a tattoo artist, how she didn't want to poison people's body's, and the fact that tattoo artists don't earn much. They kept going with the barb that "your a smart girl. You should do something with it"....

Or the other one "I wish you spent as much time on science as you do on your drawing"

Her grandmother's argument was that her husband regretted getting his tattoos.

But that is not a good reason to discourage someone from doing something they love and are good ... No BRILLIANT at!!!

If drawing makes her happy then fantastic it should be encouraged....  Her free hand drawings off images are amazing....

Even if my partner are the only people in his entire family to encourage her then that's fine... I will happy support her choice because if she can wield a tattoo gun as well as she draws she'll have no problems owning her own parlour....

Don't EVER let anyone discourage you from your dreams if it's what you really want... Go for it! You CAN do it! You are everything that you need... :) And stop procrastinating... Just take that one small step to get started and you've tackled one of the single most hardest barriers on your way to success and that is simply getting that start!!!

Depression

What I've learnt today: Never, ever underestimate people. And by people that means yourself too!

The last week and a half I have been incredibly slack and putting off doing much crafting because I don't feel well, or I'm tired, or I can't be bothered getting things out just to put them away again a few hours later (I'm not lucky enough to have my own dedicated craft space :( Sad I know...)

Well today I made progress with myself. I stopped underestimating my own powers of weasling out of doing things and I wrote a very specific to do list. I promised myself that if I got at least 5 things (about half the list of not very big jobs) done then I could read or lounge for a bit of my day. (I work split shift)

So after some procrastinating I got stuck into my list and the funny thing is I got my 5 done and then I kept going because I was on a roll.

And one of the things on my list was to get help and call Headspace. They are a service for people aged between 12 to 25 that can give you access to mental health information, counselling, sexual health advice and specialised GP, as well as drugs and alcohol counselling and lots of other things.

I've made an appointment with them because I have a mental health barrier which stops me from having positive mental health. I reached out because I have a very bad habit of bottling problems up and "dealing" with them "later"... So not healthy.

I have mood swings, trouble getting to sleep, then once I am asleep, actually STAYING asleep. When I wake up I'm always tired, I'm easily irrated and I loose interest in things easily like sex... Which makes things worse when my partner and I argue about the lack of because then I feel worse about myself and the fact the I've lost interest and my guilt over it is crippling.

This is just the tip of the daily iceberg of issues... But I am seeking help. My appointment is in two weeks. In the mean time I will motorvaye myself to at least blog more if not actual get a tuoriak going.

Wish my luck blogospehere!
Also if there are others of you out there that feel like this or worse please comment below and let me know how your going and we can support each other.

I will finish this post with my favourite Yoda quote (of which I'm always reminding myself)

"Great power in you, there is."