shopping

Spring Cleaning & Retail Therapy With Photos!

4 Comments Posted on August 11, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Looking through my Google Reader, I see a few blogs I’m not feeling a connection with anymore. Yes, it’s time to clear out the reader. I’ll be working on this over the next week. It feels like a harsh thing to do. I don’t enjoy doing it however I am reading a lot of blogs now and I have a few projects I want to focus on so I will have a little less time for reading. I won’t be deleting anyone who’s linked to me, just so you know. ;)

Today we went shopping. I had a voucher for Dusk. I find either you love Dusk or you hate it. I love it. They make these great tea light candles which actually throw their scent around so it’s not like burning a candle just for the sake of burning it. I was going to buy several packets of 6, then I spotted they had a bulk bag of 50 scented tealights for just under $25. These will last me ages. w00t!

I also wanted to check out their essential oils and was surprised that they didn’t have very many of them but they DID have lemongrass which is the one I wanted. Yay! And the bottle is beautiful, that cobalt blue color.

Aussies and US people alike, keep an eye out for this Lander product. I got it at Woolworths a couple of weeks ago and I’m crazy about it. I used to use Palmers Cocoa Butter but it doesn’t absorb into the skin very well and tends to leave a residue on your keyboard. The Lander stuff absorbs fast, you only need a tiny amount and it has this scent that I’m nuts about, because it contains coconut oil. Even The Other Half likes this stuff. It’s made in the USA so I’m guessing you can get it there too.

I picked up the final season of The West Wing which was released in Australia a couple of days ago. I now have the full collection and I’m feeling pretty happy about that. ;)

Yay, we got cookies too!

Here’s all my essential oils.

aromatherapy, blog housekeeping, feed readers, health, shopping, Snoskred hearts, The West Wing

Australia : Land of hippies and flakes?

9 Comments Posted on July 9, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

One of my favorite Aromatherapy tricks involves putting a few drops of peppermint oil into the morning shower, once the hot water is hot. I buy my peppermint oil from Coles, it’s about $5AUD. My American friend Sephy had never *heard* of Aromatherapy. How is that possible, I wondered? Until I suggested to him to purchase some peppermint oil, which seems to be an almost impossible thing to get in his country. That’s bizarre. If you’re American and reading this, can you mention where you might be able to get these products other than online?

Here in Australia, you can buy pure essential oils at every supermarket I have ever been to. You can buy them in *most* chemists and health food stores. You can buy “fragrant” oils (note, not necessarily pure essential oils and there is a difference) at almost every $2 store and bargain shop. Incense you can also buy almost everywhere. We also have a lot of products on our shelves which incorporate Aromatherapy. Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotions, etc.

Some of the products I love to use in the shower that involve Aromatherapy are the Aveda products. These came to me as a surprise during a hotel stay a couple of years ago.

Aromatherapy is quite a complex and diverse field and I’ve been studying it for a few years now. I found a few great online resources if you’re interested in knowing more

– Aromaweb – Lots of great articles, worth a read.
– A world of Aromatherapy – has a good oils a-z section which gives quick info on the oils and what they do
– Essential Aura Aromatics – has a lot more detailed info on each oil.

Does the availability of Aromatherapy oils all over the place mean Australia is a land of hippies and flakes? Or does it mean that Aromatherapy is a valuable thing that works? What do you think? :)

aromatherapy, Aussie Culture, health, shopping, Snoskred hearts

What happened today..

7 Comments Posted on July 2, 2007February 27, 2015 by Snoskred

You may recall that I said we had a few tasks on the plate today. None of those tasks involved what we ended up doing. We bought ourselves a new car. *SHOCK* it’s not a Toyota Corolla. It’s a

Only not quite that color.

How did this happen? Well when Dad picked up the new car I spotted the current model XR5 in the yard, and I thought it looked cute. We’ve always liked the look of the Focus and it was one of the cars we considered buying, only The Other Half sat in it, and it just didn’t suit him. This version is completely different, the seats sit much lower and OMG they are so comfortable. When we looked at it today I fell in love with it pretty quick but then the other half took it for a drive and that was it for both of us. We did look at the Toyota but it didn’t grab us like this car did.

So a bit of retail therapy and now we’re both sitting here freaking out about it. My opinion is, we’re here for a good time not a long time. Smoke ’em while you got ’em. My Dad is going to be thrilled. ;) He’s such a Ford man..

cars, new car, shopping

Offensive Caterwauling

1 Comment Posted on May 20, 2007January 11, 2015 by Snoskred

Most female singers are ok, you can tolerate them while you’re grocery shopping, many of them don’t even intrude on your consciousness. However there is one female singer who I find extremely irritating not to mention offensive.

We like to go shopping late, once all the people are out of the way. So on Friday night we left here at 8:21 (yes I noted the time cos we were running late) and went to Woolworths which closes at 9. We got a nice $4 roast chicken – bargain! – and had almost completed our shopping. I was standing in front of the desserts cabinet contemplating a special on apple crumble when the most horrific caterwauling broke into my train of thought.

It was Anastacia and the track was the most offensive of all Anastacia songs in my opinion – it was “Paid my dues”. The other songs, I can almost tolerate but this song is one of the worst examples of female singing. Ever. About 2:45 into the song, there is an offensive barrage of very annoying shouting which I guess she calls singing.

Not even Mariah Carey and her stupid high pitched screaming can come close to this song on the scale of annoying – and Mariah rates quite high on the scale of annoying.

As far as the woman herself is concerned, good on her for battling cancer, she’s probably a really lovely person, I’m not a fan of the glasses or the singing but to each their own and if people like it they can play it in their own cars and in their own houses, that’s fine, but for Christ’s sake do not play this music in the supermarket when people are trying to shop! Especially not that song.

music, shopping

Got Cat?

2 Comments Posted on May 17, 2007January 11, 2015 by Snoskred

Sometimes when you’re on the internet you end up somewhere you never expected. I was reading my google reader and someone posted a link to a cat site, and then I clicked on the link and went on a mysterious journey of things my cats would love – and things my cats would utterly despise. The only question I have is, why haven’t I ever seen this stuff in a pet shop here in Australia?

Things they would love include –

The Pet Drinking Fountain

My cats like to drink any water they aren’t supposed to drink but their pure unreserved love is for drinking out of water features. This is like a water feature designed especially for them! Of course this means they would ignore it completely, so shh let’s pretend they’re not allowed near it.

The Stairway to Cat Heaven

My cats already have several cat towers around the house. Yes, they are spoilt, but these are my children, remember there will be no breeding of humans here! This one looks awful for humans but those kitties would love it plenty.

A new home

My cats love being up high. I think it’s a king of the castle thing. Whoever is the highest is the winner. Whoever is on the next shelf down is usually being taunted by the King with a paw swipe from above.

What my cats would HATE include –

Electronic kitty litter things which go round and round – they would be looking for the nearest cat tower to hide at the top of.

Electronic kitty litter things which have a “rake” which will “stop if it encounters a large object in the box” – though I think the other half would appreciate this one because he is the one who gets to clean the litter.

Thus ends an odd trip on the internet.

kitties, shopping

Shopping in the country.

Leave a comment Posted on May 5, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

The other half and I are now spoilt as far as shopping is concerned. But not in the way you might think.

During the day here, it is virtually impossible to go shopping. Cars arrive from all the outlying towns which are say 15km-30kms away in order to shop here, and there simply isn’t enough car parking. Plus, who wants to go in there when there is 50 zillion people all trying to get their groceries? There are long queues for checkouts. It’s pretty much a nightmare.

On Thursday we had to go shopping. We drove to the supermarket, took one look at the carpark and said no way. We’ll make do with what we have, thanks. Unfortunately what we were about to run out of was toilet paper, and that’s kind of a deal breaker. We had enough to survive until the crowds went home, and if we’d been really desperate we probably could have borrowed some from my parents up the street. The Other Half waited until about 8:30 and then he ran to the shops.

See, we have a Coles and a Woolworths. Woolworths is open till 9pm. Coles is open till midnight, and somehow we’d ended up going shopping about 10pm one night. Absolute bliss. Almost no people around, the shelves are being re-stocked so there’s staff in the way a bit but who cares, the place is virtually empty otherwise. So we were shopping at Coles once a week, always after 10pm. Then one night we went to Woolworths at 8:30pm and found they had roast chickens on extreme special. $3 when they are normally over $10. We bought one and I made the other half chicken sammiches. He was thrilled. I was happy because there were nice chicken bits in the fridge to eat. We were both happy because woolworths shopping was a lot cheaper.

But like anything, there is no perfection in this world. Woolworths do not stock some of my favourite items. Coles do not stock some things that Woolworths stock. So we generally have to go to both to get what we really want.

So the truth is, we’re spoilt for daytime shopping. I’d rather eat tinned food out of the cupboard than be forced to go when every man and his dog is there.

Last night I got a sorbet of magnificence. It is stunning. :)

There may be an art post coming up. Maybe.

country life, shopping

You’ll never guess where I’ve been..

3 Comments Posted on February 12, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Or will you? ;)

And to the victor go the spoils..

The other half did not miss out, he got to have Lone Star for lunch.

It was a lovely outing.

IKEA, shopping

The Soup Nazi

Leave a comment Posted on February 11, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

There’s a new soup available on the refrigerated shelves of my supermarket, people. I bought one a couple of weeks ago and it sat in the fridge while I ate all the other meals – it was there just as something for me to try when I ran out of other stuff. And last night was the fateful day that I ran out of other things to eat, and decided to give this soup a try.

Oh. My. God.

I was stunned by soup. I’m not kidding. It is literally that good. I was so stunned that I went back to the supermarket today and bought more – and also got several different flavours.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Seinfeld episode re the soup nazi, here you have it.

Those of you in Aus, keep an eye out for it. It’s at Coles here, and worth trying. I had the Pumpkin yesterday and today the Leek and Kumara (sweet potato).

food, shopping, Soup

West Wing Special ends!

4 Comments Posted on January 15, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

So yesterday I finished season one, and am currently leaving myself on a cliffhanger. I don’t know how long I’ll be hanging from the cliff, I do know that if I had been watching this on TV and had to wait the six months inbetween seasons that is normally left here, I would surely be going insane waiting. They left us with people shooting at the President and staff..

Lucky for me, I have season two sitting right there on the table, and so anytime I choose to stop hanging on the cliff, I can just put the DVD in. ;)

However I noted that the specials at JB Hifi for the West Wing would end on January 15th, and when I checked the price elsewhere it put a bit of panic into me – the usual price is $114.99. That’s what they sell it for everywhere else. When I checked the JB website yesterday it said there were 17 hours left on the special which didn’t quite work out right. However we thought we could go back today and get seasons 3,4 and 5 at the special price.

Then I checked the website this morning, and panic set in when I found the price had gone back to $114.99 at 2:15am! I grabbed the phone and called them right away, asked them to check the price, they still had it as $32.95 so I asked them to put those aside for me. By the time we drove there due to summer nitwit holiday traffic, the price had gone up on their system, lucky I called. She had to over-ride the price..

And now, I can watch seasons 2,3,4 and 5 in my own time, peacefully, as I like to. This is kick ass.. :)

If you can get the seasons for $32-33, I recommend you do so without delay.

I also took back the broken juice jug, so it was quite a good trip, but it took a lot longer than usual due to idiots on the road who seem to have forgotten how to drive at all.

And now we’re debating whether or not to go snorkelling. The weather looks nice, so we might just go.

shopping, television shows, The West Wing

No images

Leave a comment Posted on January 14, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Blogger is not letting me put images here, which is making me really mad. :(

While I wait for it to fix itself, let me tell you a few things that happened over the past few days. On Thursday we went shopping. We drove about 65kms to go where we wanted to go because the other half had a voucher and that was the nearest shop. We had a lovely hour or two wandering around just choosing various items that we needed, ended up spending $280 of the $300 voucher. Among many other items we bought two fridge door jugs, because I have found the best apple juice on the planet but it does come in these HUGE glass jars which I am a little scared of.

So we drive home, only to find one of them is broken, and not a fixable kind of broken. Normally I check things over before we leave the shop but this was very late in the shopping trip and we were looking for other things, and yeah, I fucked up ;) The jug was worth $10 but now I will put it aside until the next time we go back that way in the hope that I might return it. It might be a few weeks before we go back that way, though. The lesson in this for people moving from the city to the country is, you always have to make sure things are 100% intact and risky free before you leave the store.

So last night some visitors from Tamworth arrived to stay with my parents, and we went out to dinner at the Chinese. Seeing the visitors dressed in Tamworth clothes gave me that one second of home sickness, you probably know the one I mean. If I were to draw it as a painting, it would be a big red heart being squeezed hard by a hand. It’s like you just remembered that you’re missing something important.

Now it makes no sense, because I love where I live now, and I wouldn’t change it. I don’t think I would want to move back to Tamworth. I love the beaches here, and many other things about this place. But you can’t change what is, and it just is, that place will always be where my heart lives. Though I never lived there myself, for longer than two months. ;)

I’m gonna do some more painting today, and watch a little more West Wing, I guess.. :)

country life, Home, shopping