Seriously in love with these boots. I’ve had them a week and they’re fast becoming my new favourite footwear!
They’re fur-lined so it feels like slippers… worn while out and about! And oh so comfortable 🙂
Here’s hoping you have a ‘favourite item’ purchase soon too, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
Today’s been big. Master15 had his Athletics Carnival, necessitating a 90 minute drive each way, and now I’m waiting outside a fitting room in one of our local shopping centres while Miss16 finds clothing suitable for a week of ‘Uni experience’ next week. We’re going to start the ‘formal wear’ hunt today too, I think.
Phew! Bring on the weekend, I say!
Hope you’re having a great end-of-week too, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
It’s just a few days to Winter Solstice, and I am SOOOOOO glad about that! The idea that the days start getting longer again is completely and utterly BRILLIANT because I find this cold weather so darn paralysing 🙁
I think I mentioned that Hubby and I bought Kiya a coat. A couple of them, actually (we’d never bought animal clothing before and had no clue what we were doing). The wrap-around, velcro-secured ‘jacket’ was a size too small, so that was an immediate donation to Mum’s 10 month old border collie Trav. The woollen-style ‘jumper’ was the correct size, but our clever gurly worked out how to get out of it… without ripping apart the ‘arms’ at the seams! So she was able to wear it for over a week before the seams came apart and it became a rag.
Fast foward to yesterday. Temperature feels like -2C with a wind chill of -957C or something. And poor Kiya with no coat. Necessitating a trip to the store, and now: a new, brown, wrap-around ‘jacket’ to match Trav’s army-green one.
And just in the nick of time. On Wednesday nights Kiya and I have a sleepever at Mum’s / Trav’s place… and check out the two of them in their snazzy coats!
(Sorry for the blurry-ness of the photos, it was dark already and we’d only just arrived and the two pups were so excited I couldn’t get them still enough!)
Still, I reckon they’re cuteness personified. And that patch of white near the bottom of Kiya’s brown coat is *not* a rip, courtesy Trav, where the stuffing is coming out. It’s actually a white, embrodiered, paw print 🙂
Here’s hoping you also get a cuteness overload today, dear Reader!
The diary food I miss most, now I’m cutting down on all non-essential diary (due to chest pains / suspected reflux,) is yoghurt. I was bemoaning this, this morning after church, when the last I was speaking with suggested the dairy-free yoghurt from ALDI. So I picked some up while shopping this afternoon.
And: SOOOOOOO yum!!! Here’s hoping I won’t be woken at 2am feeling like someone’s shoved an invisible spear through my chest (or that voodoo dolls actually *do* exist and someone has one of me) – I’ll let you know how I go!
Here’s wishing you a pain-free day and night too, dear Reader 🙂
– KRidwyn
I don’t own many shoes; I’m just not the type. (Sorry, those of you who are!) So when Hubby convinced me to join his gym several years ago, I splurged on a second pair of sports shoes, to use there. Fast forward to a few weeks back, when I looked at them and realised I should probably replace them.
So I did. Unfortunately though, the shop I went to (and didn’t have time to get to another) didn’t have any size 8 1/2 left – so I bought size 9 and decided to just deal with it. They weren’t too large anyway, I discovered, after wearing them to the gym a few times.
The following week though, school returned. And as per usual, I wore my size 8 1/2, non-gym sports shoes, on the day staff wear sport uniform.
By 3pm, I noticed not only did my shoes feel tight, my feet were really rather sore! Perhaps I’d been wrong all along, and am actually size 9 instead of 8 1/2?
So it was off shoe-shopping again yesterday. And I’ve concluded I really don’t like the current trend of sports shoes. Where have the colours gone from a few years back? Buying plain white or plain black sloes makes me feel like a school kid again. Sigh.
Have a pain-free day today yourself, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
It was a couple of years ago that I bought my first anklet. Several months later, I bought myself a toe ring. It was mid-December 2018, and the jeweller has discounted it from $80 down to $10.
How could I refuse? So I didn’t, and was exceedingly happy with my purchase… right up until it broke, 8 months later.
So I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement. Stronger, sturdier… but still a bargain.
A few weeks ago, I stopped into a City Beach store on the Gold Coast. And lo and behold: not just one toe-ring but three! For $9.99! Yeh, yeh. Not the ‘real thing’ – but who cares!
I bought them and was the proud wearer of a toe ring again… and when the inevitable happened (even before its first outing, I’m sad to report) it wasn’t as devastating a loss as previously. It’s the pretty ‘loveheart’ ring at the bottom of the photo 🙁
So, that’s my story for the week. How about you, dear Reader? Have a jewelry story to share?
And have a fantastic week!
– KRidwyn
I lost my wallet yesterday.
The cherubs and I were at the ALDI checkout, a couple of dozen grocery items jolting along the conveyor belt toward the cashier when I looked at my hands and realised both were sans wallet. As were all my pockets – both jacket and pants.
Assuming I’d left my wallet in the car, I sent Cherubs 1 and 2 with the keys, to retrieve it. While they were gone, I made it to the front of the queue and Cherub3 helped me bag the items as each was scanned.
The lovely check-out guy rang up the total… then Cherub 1 arrived back with the bad news. They couldn’t find the wallet; Cherub 2 had remained in the car and was still searching, and where did I think they should look next?
Apologising profusely to both the lovely check-out guy and the man waiting in line behind me, I left Cherubs 1 and 3 in the store with our groceries; the check-out guy suspended the sale, and I raced out to join Cherub 2 in what was to be a thorough but fruitless rampage through the car.
No wallet.
If you know me, you’d know just how much panic would normally be ensuing at this point in time.
And yet – it wasn’t.
Reason being? It was 4pm after my most-full-on day at work. The day where I start at 7am and literally don’t get a minute to myself until 2.50pm- and yesterday, even that minute didn’t happen. I therefore found myself in the middle of a missing-wallet-dilemma, and all I could think about was how soon I’d be able to extricate myself and find a ladies room.
Man, oh man, was I ever regretting the whole ‘drink plenty of water, it’ll cleanse out your system’ regimen I’d decided to try!
So there I was, turning my car as inside-out as is physically possible, and although the back of my mind was trying to tell me that ‘Losing my wallet was a Very Serious Situation that I’d need to deal with, pronto’, my bodily urges were saying, ‘Nuh-uh! My problem trumps yours, bucko!’ And the bodily urges were winning.
Long story short, I was back at the checkout with Cherub1 – Cherubs 2 and 3 safely ensconced in the back seat of the car, groceries paid for with the generous assistance of an old friend who God had just-so-happened to have take out the right amount of money and shop there at that particular time – when the lovely check-out guy (who’d taken my name and number when I’d scoured every aisle, looking) called me over and told me a wallet had been handed in.
Yes, it was mine. So I could pay back my friend, pack the groceries and Cherub1 into the car, and make it to a ladies room in time.
Relief all ’round!
Moral of the story? Not entirely sure. It’s good to know that God’s in control, maybe? And does every story even need to have a moral? Who knows. Perhaps what every reader gets out of a story is different, anyway…?
Anyway, just thought I’d share that with you this morning.
Here’s wishing you a wonderful week, dear reader!
— KRidwyn
As most of my readers would know by now, I’m a mum with three young children. And as the type of person who always thinks long-term – well, when my eldest was just a few months old, I decided to go down the “rechargeable battery” journey.
So I splurged on a good quality recharger and a number of packets of green ‘Varta’ batteries, AA and AAA size.
Fast forward several years, and I’m still buying packets of rechargeable batteries whenever I see them on special while grocery shopping. I use them for everything; and now that we’ve finally joined the ranks of being Wii owners, we’re using batteries more than ever! Which is fine.
I was pretty stoked last week. I scored not one but two packets of 4 AA batteries (silver cases, not the green ones which I prefer) for only $4 each! I was a little bummed though, that when I got home and tried charging them, they wouldn’t charge. Hence my trip to BatteryWorld this week. And this is what I learned:
Varta batteries are made in both Germany and Malaysia. BatteryWorld don’t stock them anymore, because they couldn’t get the German-made ones.
The AA batteries I had bought last week should have held about a 1.2 charge. They were holding a charge of around 0.6 – which is pretty crappy, really. No wonder they weren’t charging!
I told the guy at the counter that when I charged a newly bought, silver cased Varta battery with one of my older, green cased Varta ones, they’d charge. When I tried charging two of the silver ones together, they wouldn’t.
His advice:
– charge batteries that you buy together, together. Don’t mix and match battery charging; as in, don’t charge batteries that you bought at different times, together, because they’ll have been manufactured in different places with different metals. They’ll have different levels of charge.
– When you charge batteries, they’ll both only charge to the lowest level of charge. So if you charge a good battery with a dud one, the good battery will only be charged to the level of the dud one. You weaken the good battery; and it’s very very very difficult to get the charge up again.
I also bought a new brand of batteries, on his recommendation. Eneloop. Write it down. Because not only were they bright, sparkly and multi-coloured (yes, I’m writing this with my tongue in my cheek here) but their 8 pack of AA batteries also had the BEST packaging I’ve ever seen on batteries (and no, I’m not being silly now – as as marketer, I was impressed with how customer-friendly their product packaging was) but what had me over-the-top impressed was the 2 D-size batteries I also tried to buy.
Because I didn’t end up buying D batteries. Instead, I bought D cases. Which fit AA-sized batteries.
Yes – that’s right. How incredibly AMAZING is this idea! You buy a D sized case, and slot a AA battery inside! When it runs out, just click it out and put a new AA sized battery in. How AWESOME!!!!!
So. I’m sold. Just thought I’d let you know!
Have a great day, dear readers!!!
— Ceridwyn
Late last year, I purchased the App “Proloquo2Go”, on the recommendation of Mr 3’s Speech Therapist. It was expensive. But worth it!
It’s programmable, so you can make words (buttons) and phrases and sentences, categorise them according to high-interest activities (we have one folder for Playstation games and a separate one for Wii games, and then folders for breakfast, lunch, etc etc) and if the photo to accompany the word isn’t already in the App’s library, you can take a photo of the concept, and use that.
One downfall is that you can’t program your own voice – but that’s a pretty minor disadvantage, compared to all the positives.
Worth the $200? To hear my autistic boy move from being non-verbal to verbal?!
YES!!!!!
That’s how my life feels right now. It’s just so jam-packed… and I love it! Okay – I’m up again, on my computer, posting at 5.52 am, after settling Mr 3 at 2.48am and again at 3.52am, and then deciding to just stay up because I’ve got so much to do anyway…
So the weekend before last, Hubby and I spent Saturday together. No kids. (Yes, this is actually rare enough that it rates a mention. Sad, really…!) and we visited IKEA. We’ve been married almost 18 years, and only now am I learning that his dislike of ‘clutter’ means that he dislikes bookshelves. He prefers furniture with doors – cupboards, wardrobes, buffets, etc etc). Rather a revelation for a wife who loves books (yes, @jobeaz, the physical variety! I haven’t really warmed to the whole idea of eBooks yet!) and who has lots and lots… and lots of them.
Never mind; I’m adaptable. So I started planning how to ‘de-clutter’ (without spending too much money, of course!) and this meant that yesterday was furniture-moving day. I re-worked the girl’s bedroom (Miss 7 got the shock of her life when she got home from school!), Mr 3’s bedroom, our bedroom, the dining room, and have started on the lounge room. This Saturday will see two large pieces of lounge room furniture moved to my in-laws, to make room for the new TV/entertainment unit (not yet purchased, but it’ll be coming from IKEA) and the new lounge (again, not yet ordered, but this will be from Fantastic Furniture because I really like their ‘storage’ lounges) – oh, and the orientation of the furniture in the lounge will also change 90%. So it’ll be (eventually) like a whole new house. (And maybe that’s why it’s been over 15 years since I visited IKEA!)
So that was yesterday. On the work front, I discovered last night that a tweet I sent got retweeted by three people.
https://twitter.com/BloxhamMkting/status/224774127473541120
One of these accounts has over 19,000 followers! And a reply tweet I got form another of these people (in South Africa, by the way) said that she loved my link; and that her friends were currently sharing it around on Facebook. So how COOL is social media!!!