Author: Snoskred

Anxiety Level: High

9 Comments Posted on June 27, 2015June 27, 2015 by Snoskred

I have just taken my first Valium in nearly a year.

I think the last time was around the 16th of July 2014, for work related reasons. Since I left work I really have not had much to stress me, until today.

When it comes to medication for anxiety, I feel much the same as Abbey Bartlet from The West Wing –

Do you know what this lifestyle does to the body? The minute your system senses stress it releases a hormone that constricts the blood vessels, contracts the heart muscles, stimulates the adrenal gland.

You stay in this state for not a hundredth of the time that you and I have existed like this and the vessels begin to shred. The heart permanently constricts. The intestines, the immune system, shut down. Relieving those conditions is the one responsible course of action I can take.

One of my biggest fears in life is The Other Half using power tools. Some of them I’m good with, like cordless drills. But anything that involves the potential for terrible injury, I am very fearful of those things.

There are good reasons to be fearful of these powerful items. The immediate story that comes to my mind is that of Gayle Shann which was on Australian Story – they just did an update on it in the last few weeks.. She survived but was terribly injured, losing one arm and the arm that was left has not regained any movement at all.

We’re going to have some concrete laid in weeks ahead, between the house and the “man cave” and to cover the gravel driveway. But before that can be done, The Other Half needs to dig a few trenches, one for the power to the shed, and a couple of drainage trenches.

So, until the ditch digger is returned, I will be under some stress. Fortunately for me, the Valium is starting to kick in, and rather than sit here curled in a stressed ball all day, I think I can get up and do the vacuuming and some other indoor jobs I have planned.

And that is a good thing – both for my mind, and my body. :)

A small technical note – the blog might go down for an hour or so later today, hopefully not, but the servers are in the man cave and the power will need to be turned off and reconnected.

fears, Home

Improbable Kitty

14 Comments Posted on June 26, 2015June 15, 2015 by Snoskred

Whenever I am working in the kitchen these days, I have a kitty supervisor. Happy the little kitty jumps up and sits on the bar stool on the opposite side of the kitchen counter. She closely watches what I am doing, in case I might be making her a snack. 99% of the time, I am *not* making her a snack!

In recent times, she has begun to display the most hilarious expression while sitting there. There is a combination of doubt and disbelief in her eyes.

It is almost as if she is mentally asking me..

What on earth do you think are you doing now?

I like to call this particular expression “Improbable Kitty”. As in, what you are doing presently is “unexpected and apparently inauthentic” plus, “not likely to be true or to happen”.

Alternatively, she is transmitting the thought – it is totally unbelievable to me that you are not making me a snack right now.

So the other night I was making dinner while The Other Half sat on the barstool watching me. I had just placed my chicken into a bowl with lime and lemon juice, added some white wine, and went back to add in some more lime and lemon.

I looked up, and he had this bizarre expression on his face. It made me say “What? I’m just marinading my chicken?”…

and he replied.. “I’m Improbable Kitty”. And I lost it and laughed for many, many minutes..

You can tell from my reply, he got that improbable kitty impression 100% correct.

Happy has been such a wonderful addition to our household. She makes us laugh every single day.

Happy doing Improbable Kitty while Grumpy lurks in the background

Improbable Kitty is not her only talent. At night, she impersonates a sandbag on the bed most effectively. This is slightly less funny to The Other Half, who gets woken up when he can’t turn over because there is a sandbag in his way.

kitties

Carter & Happy – WW

12 Comments Posted on June 24, 2015June 19, 2015 by Snoskred

Carter has new headgear and a lap rug

Carter, Home, kitties, Wordless Wednesday

Art Time Travel

10 Comments Posted on June 22, 2015June 15, 2015 by Snoskred

Back in 2008 I had an art project which did not work out – I had tried sticking sequins to a canvas with glue which dulled the sparkly sequins. Rather than lose the canvas, and because I had already drawn the stencil onto it, I used modelling paste to build up a texture of my Denkyem stencil.

I was not sure what I was going to do with this or whether it would work out in the end. I thought maybe I would paint it one colour and then dry brush in some gold or silver over the top.

The last thing I posted about it, that is how the canvas looked. And then I got distracted by other things and/or forgot to post any further updates. I wasn’t sure myself what had happened with it, until I was cleaning up my art room and found the completed work in a box.

Now, it looks like this –

I think it turned out pretty well in the end. :) You certainly cannot tell there are sequins under there, and the texture is really nice. The silver metallic paint helps it to jump out of the canvas. If I were to do it again, I might do a matt black underneath the silver and allow some of the black to show through in the lower areas, just to make the texture pop a little more.

You can read the original posts here – Work In Progress – and here – Short Update plus you can see another work I did with the Denkyem stencil here – Opinions Needed

About Snoskred, family, looking back, Snoskred Art, yay

Sunday Selections Week 25

7 Comments Posted on June 21, 2015June 19, 2015 by Snoskred

This week, a couple of photos from 2003 photo folders. The photo above is from the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide. I love the contrast between the dark area and the extra sunny area. When you visit most botanic gardens you will find a spot like this.

This shot was taken from our townhouse which was on Tapleys Hill Road – a major road back in Adelaide. The Other Half was playing around with shutter speeds and time lapse from the upstairs bedroom window, which resulted in this photo of a road train.

Would you like to join in? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.

Weekly Wrap Up –

Here at Snoskredland, we’ve had a nasty cold this week. We’ve been trying to keep warm, I’ve made a couple of batches of Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup which is my go-to chicken soup, and there was some more cleaning and tidying. Whenever I get a cold, I have this overwhelming urge to clean things.

Posts Snoskred Enjoyed –

Royally Played: Trooping The Colour 2015 – Did you see Prince George at Trooping the Colour? If not, you MUST, he was gorgeous! But wait, there’s more! Royally Played: Polo in the Park With George – And even more! And Still More!

I’m not into the concept of having kids of my own but Prince George could convince me otherwise. He is just so goshdarn cute!

Who Lives Where? Migrants Settling in Australian Cities – This post is completely fascinating. This is a must read for Aussies, and people thinking of becoming Aussies.

Queen Victoria’s Crown Ruby Brooch – My favourite colour on the Queen is pink, followed by aqua/teal. The photo of the Queen in this post is gorgeous! And some more pics here – Royal Ascot, Day 1 and Audience at Windsor Castle

The Best And Worst Airlines, Airports And Flights, Summer 2015 Update – An interesting look at US airports and airlines

Relentlessly Christian person objects to relentlessly gay front yard – I suspect this anonymous letter writer has begun a new trend as a surprise to themselves. Relentlessly gay yards will be popping up as a surprise all over the place. If you would like to donate to Julie Baker to assist her in creating a Relentlessly Gay abode and help to give a large, rainbow covered, middle finger to this anon letter writer, you can do so via this Go Fund Me – Relentlessly Gay.

Arnold Schwarzenegger freaks out Hollywood tourists – this was by far one of the funniest videos I watched this week on the interwebs. Celebrities should do this more often. Classic!

Cakes to make on Rainy Days – The Peanut Butter cupcakes sound great to me.

Finally this week, your two doses of super cute – Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppies – Ella and Lily – how gorgeous are these little doggies?

MINI HIPPO! Baby Pygmy Hippo Makes A Splash

Here On The Blog –

We kicked off the week with Sunday Selections Week 24 – then I showed you – How to – Schedule Posts In Blogger & WordPress. We took a closer look at my second collectibles cabinet in Cabinetry Take Two, and I told you about an often used phrase in our household – There Was An Incident.. – Then, we put some mandarin in soda water for Sodastream Saturday #2.

Past Snoskred –

My Favourite Space – A look back at my office room from August 2006 – this was my seventh ever post on the blog.

Coming Up –

This week, you’ll see posts about art, and kitties. Sodastream Saturday will be taking a week off, it will be back in July.

Linkage, Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up

SodaStream Saturday #2

5 Comments Posted on June 20, 2015June 19, 2015 by Snoskred

What fruit do you think that is, in my soda water?

It is definitely citrus, but what kind of citrus? Drumroll please..

It is an Imperial Mandarin. Imperials tend to have less seeds – in fact this particular one had no seeds at all. I’ve cut them up two different ways to put them into my soda water.

With a mandarin there is a little more pith than with an orange and most people are cool with eating the pith, so I did not bother to trim it all off like I would with an orange, though you certainly could do that if you wanted it to look more pretty.

One mandarin will provide you with 190% of your daily vitamin C, according to the Aussie Mandarins website. Mandarins are in season from April to October.

So the next time you are making a soda water or mineral water drink, and you happen to have a couple of mandarins lying around, why not combine the two to make a new kind of awesomeness? :)

SodaStream

There Was An Incident..

12 Comments Posted on June 19, 2015June 18, 2015 by Snoskred

There was an incident is a phrase heard regularly in our household. In fact it is somewhat of a normal occurance for The Other Half to arrive home from work and say “How was your day” to be met with.. “well, there was an incident..”

An incident in our household could be anything, from spilling sugar or dripping tea onto the counter from a non-cooperative tea bag.. right up to me walking into something and leaving a massive bruise, or somehow damaging myself in some way. Whatever the incident, when this phrase is spoken, the listener knows that the full story of the incident will be coming to them as a surprise.

The term originates from my being an aviation nerd and the FAA and NTSB have this thing about definitions of accidents VS incidents.

I mention this because our past weekend contained a number of incidents, some of which were quite scary. There was the Wine Bottle Incident, when I got out of my awesome Volkswagen Polo holding two birthday presents in those cute little bags you can buy in stores, only the wine bottle bag broke and somehow the wine bottle dropped onto brick pavers and still it managed to survive! Had it broken, that would have been considered an accident. :)

There was the mildly terrifying incident of The Spider In The Shower which I kept to myself because thankfully it was only a Daddy Long Legs which decided the ceiling was getting too hot and steamy and now would be a good time to drop on a web through my shower space. The Other Half was in the Man Cave at the time, thus he did not hear my spider scream. I know this to be a fact because anytime he hears that spider scream he arrives ready to dead the creature.

There was also the incident of burned fruit toast, which cost me two slices of gorgeous cafe raisin toast which I got on special at Coles last week. I tried my best, really and truly I did, but I was not born with the Toastmaster gene.

I usually consider myself banned from making toast due to That Terrifying Incident With A Fruit Muffin Where I Took Out All Phones And Computers In The Call Centre, For Two Hours In The Middle Of A Work Day, Thus Rendering The Call Centre Completely Inoperable.

That incident did scare me away from toasting for a long time, because the toaster made sparks and jumped into the air when I tried to use the high lift. It might have involved me using the toaster but I was NOT the one who bought a cheap $15 toaster from Kmart, nor was I the person who wired the kitchen safety switch into all the other safety switches thus any kitchen incident would have deaded the entire switchboard.

But that fruit toast was plump, gorgeous, and it smelled exactly like hot cross buns. It tempted me into toasting, and as usual, I failed quite spectacularly. I suppose we were lucky that nothing caught fire.

Then there was the incident of my lolly bag breaking in an unexpected place, spilling these cute little white dusted toffee apple almonds out of their safe little home – they kept landing on my lap rug.

To begin with, I could not work out how they were escaping the packet! When more of the chocolate coated nuts were eaten, I finally figured out that there was a hole in the side of the packet..

Those little nut friends originated from Coles where there is a range of items from Naked Truth and every one I have tried has been very tasty indeed. These little nuts are my favourite because of the crunchy coating on the nuts. I am very well behaved and only eat two of these every few days, so one packet lasts quite a long time with me.

About Snoskred, Home, The Other Half

Cabinetry Take Two

10 Comments Posted on June 17, 2015June 16, 2015 by Snoskred

Let us take a closer look at the second glass cabinet of keepsakes.

The top shelf is quite full so I’m breaking it down into two parts.

Lots to see here – various ceramic figures two of which I made myself right next to each other on the right hand side, the silver haired lady in the purple glitter gown, and the red haired lady in the green glitter outfit. Multiple fairies of various versions. Plus a Halloween snow globe which I believe Sephy sent to me.

Here we have another Fairy friend, a moonstone Dolphin which I got in Hawaii, another dragon, and a pink sparkly cat which came from a Korean friend of mine.. There is also another Fairy friend hiding at the back there.

This large doll came from the same Korean friend. :)

This large doll I found somewhere in a shop. My parents had a bunch of these dolls which came from Japan and I am trying to start my own collection.

The middle shelf – a couple of glass tealight holders at the very ends of the shelf – an elephant sits next to my very own DeLorean time machine. On the other side is a garden gnome I made myself. In the middle is a somewhat battered but extremely special to me keepsake – a ceramic dog ashtray that belonged to my Grandfather.

The bottom shelf – my Hawaii Domo sits in some glass desk units which belonged to The Other Half’s Mother. The two ceramic cats are from Sephyroth – the ones which were hidden in my new shoes! – a ceramic keepsake holder which has some glitter inside and a special mother of pearl jewellery case.

In future Wednesdays here on the blog, I intend to take a closer look at some of the keepsakes on Wednesdays.

Happy Snoskred, Home, things to remember

How to – Schedule Posts In Blogger & WordPress

5 Comments Posted on June 15, 2015June 11, 2015 by Snoskred

It has been a while since I did a how to schedule posts in WordPress post, so long in fact, that the old post is pretty much useless now. WordPress looks nothing like it did back then. I thought it is high time for an updated post on this topic, but I thought I would make sure to include Blogger as well. :)

If you use Typepad, this post is for you – How To Change Post Date & Time.

Why Schedule?

There are a lot of reasons why bloggers might want to schedule posts ahead of time. Going on holidays is probably the number one reason people would use this feature.

I work on a Mon-Wed-Fri posting schedule here on the blog. The main reason I schedule posts is because when I am inspired to write, I am REALLY inspired to write, and I might write 5-10 posts in the space of an afternoon. Obviously I do not want to *post* 5-10 posts all at once. It would be overwhelming to my readers, and it would mean I have no posts available the next time I am not inspired to write.

Timing Is Important

It also means you can set your posts to publish at the time of day people will be around to see them. For example here on my blog, I presently post things at 7am AEST. I am fast asleep in bed at that time, guaranteed. But posting my posts early here in Australia means I also catch the evening web surfers in the USA and the late night web surfers in the UK.

If I bumped it up to 5am, I might get the evening web surfers in the UK and super early morning surfers in Australia.. hmm, that is worth considering.

What Time Is Best?

You might get more eyes on your blog post if you change the time of day that you post it. It could be worth doing some experiments to see what times of day work best for your blog.

If you use a site counter or site stats program many of them will tell you what time of day people are visiting, of course taking into consideration they do not always show you every visit to your blog and can be unreliable. You can also consider what time people leave comments.

You could do a blog post and ask your regular readers to comment about what time of day they read your blog and whether they would prefer a different timing. Consider where your commentators live in the world and what time it is there when you post. Seasonal timing matters too – when we switch to daylight savings here, I will likely post at 6am AEST.

If you want to check what time it is in other places when you post, you can use the world clock meeting planner here.

Are you ready?

For the how to guides? :) It is quite a few screenshots, so I am using the read more feature today. Click through to see the how to guide! Continue reading →

Blogger, how to guides, wordpress

Sunday Selections Week 24

13 Comments Posted on June 14, 2015June 19, 2015 by Snoskred

River has been doing Sunday Selections for a while now, and I’ve finally decided to join in. YAY!

I have a multitude of old photo folders that need to be sorted through and named, so I thought this might be a good way to inspire me to get on with the sorting. I also have some backups of old computers with folders that need to be sorted through.

This week I have chosen to share a couple of recent photos. Last Sunday this was the sky we saw as we were walking in to do our fortnightly grocery shop.

Weekly Wrap Up –

Many years ago I used to do a weekly wrap up here on the blog. It went on holiday in November of 2007 and it must have been a very long holiday, perhaps around the world on a very slow boat! I think this could be a good time for the holiday to end. We’ll give it a try for a few weeks, anyway, see how it goes.

Posts Snoskred Enjoyed –

long-term post-wls eating: it’s complicated – Good on you Dawn – 138 pounds lost is an awesome achievement!

Stuff – Brilliant stuff, I say! :)

IT Reflections: Apple Photos, Cake Fails, Zomato, Blog Updates and Quicklinks – I love the castle cakes. :) Even the one someone considered to be a “fail” which I consider to be an epic win – if I could make a cake half that incredible, I’d be thrilled!

Judgers are gonna judge, haters are gonna hate.. Me personally, I leave the judgments to Judge Judy. She gets paid big dollars to judge. All the other people doing it are small time compared to her! When they get paid millions, that is when I’ll bother to listen to their judgments. Until then, one persons cake fail is another persons cake awesome. :)

The Beast Eats – I loved the video on this post, it is only 20 seconds long. :)

Can you fix this curtain, too? – I want me a serving of sea friends!

Your Afternoon X-Files – My human friends, this is a moment we have been waiting for – Scully and Mulder return.

My First Mosaic – Meshel made an amazing sugar skull mosaic! The border is my favourite part but I am a huge fan of gold.. ;) I really want to do this sometime. This is another kind of art you don’t need to be able to draw for. :) I might sign up for a local class with my birthday money.

a private show – Some gorgeous wildlife photos here, well worth a look. The train and the tunnel is my favourite as well! ;)

Icebergs – An excellent post from Leah, I think everyone should read it. :)

Please Pass The Mustard – I’ve never thought of making my own mustard but I just might after reading this post. ;)

And finally, baby pigs! YAY!!

Blog Spotlight –

Each week, I will link to a blog I am reading to shine a spotlight on it and tell you what I like about it. This week –

Angry people in local newspapers –

This blog highlights something you may have noticed in your local newspaper – angry people! If someone has a problem in their community and they went to the local paper about it, they might be asked to pose angrily. You can submit angry photos from your local newspaper as well. I submitted one back in April – Slasher anger.

Here On The Blog –

We had a bit of a visual feast this week – we took a look at my DVD shelves, my collectibles cabinets, the ecosystem on the roof of our chook pen, and our new fire pit in this post Long Weekending.

I went back in my memory to tell you about getting kicked out of art class in high school and showed you some of my art and my art room with this post Adult Colouring In & Art.

We took a closer look at one of my collectible cabinets with this Cabinetry post.

You got to see some of my art room wall art in this post – The Art Room.

And finally, we took a look at my new SodaStream with this post –
SodaStream Saturday #1

Past Snoskred –

Take a moment to revisit my third ever post on the blog – People You Know.

Coming Up –

This week on Monday you’ll see a how to guide, Wednesday we have cabinetry take two, Friday I’ll tell you about a phrase we use often in this household, Saturday another SodaStream Post, then on Sunday our new Sunday Selections post.

Linkage, Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up