a la natural beauty products

I've been tinkering around with making my own beauty products for the last few years but had hit a hurdle with the labelling. When two of the lovely ladies from my Stitch n Bitch group asked me to put together a gift pack of my products as presents for their friends it gave me the necessary kick up the butt to get organised and sort out my labelling. I've spent the last couple of weeks sorting it out and whipping up some lovely products:

coconut lip balm
lavender body butter
light facial moisturiser
invigorating body scrub (which is actually a moisturiser and exfoliant in one - I love products that do more than one thing)
lemon myrtle/ choc berry soap






I'm very happy with the way the gift boxes turned out. There is still a bit of tweaking to do on the labelling and I want to expand my range of products but hopefully now I can start to promote my products a bit more and even try selling them at a market.

Ode to my cat - Matilda the vegosaurus

One of our beautiful kitty-cats has been getting a bit desperate for food in these cold months of winter (I assure you she gets fed plenty by her slaves as proven by this pic of her squishing into a box that is clearly one size too small for her).


The following are some of the foods she has suddenly developed a taste for:
Pistachio nuts in their shells (she hasn't quite worked out how to get them out of their shell without opposable digits so she just licks the shell)
Garlic croutons
Burnt toast
Brussel sprouts (notice how her eyes have taken on the same green as the sprouts - Brussel Sprout Power!)


Matilda has resorted to any means necessary to stop me from going to work including sitting on my bag.


However when all else fails she is forced to resort to snuggling up to her arch nemesis, the dread Moonshe! (This is the closest we have ever seen them together in 7 years!)


If anyone ever disputed the evilness and connivingness (I know that is not a word) may I present to you - Miss Bigglesworth! Excellent!

Springfield, here we come!

Check this out. This is so cool. To promote the new Simspons Movie some 7/11 in the good ole U.S. of A. have been converted into Kwik-E Marts complete with Buzz cola and the Freeze Geezer!

Our awesomest trip to Cairns!

So Eduardo and I took a trip up north to escape the winter chill of Melbourne. My brother Tony is currently posted in Cairns with the Bureau of Meterology who are lovely enough to put him up in a four and a half star resort for the duration of his tour of duty. See included photo of bathroom with TWO basins!



The resort has four swiming pools although we only swam in one plus the 'so big it is almost a pool' heated spa. On arriving at midnight I didn't expect to enjoy the warmer weather straight away but surprisingly it felt quite balmy even at that hour of night. We spent many an evening sitting out on the balcony knocking back a few beers. (Note slightly drunken squinty looks on faces)



Cairns is a very small town - feels like the size of Frankston.....possibly less bogans, although every bogan in town turned up for the Monster Truck Rally!!!! Having never been to such a high brow cultural event before I was quite excited to be in the presence of such magnificent machines. Here is a pic of one of the trucks done up to look like our favourite cartoon character Scooby Doo! The driver of this particular vehicle was the rip old age of 15! Not old enough to have a normal driver's licence but allowed to drive a monster truck. That's Queensland for you!



The whole monster truck rally was an interesting experience. We all had to stand up to sing the national anthem before the fun could begin. I haven't had to sing it since high school! There was also a medley of Australian songs during the massive fireworks display at the end of the evening including 'True Blue', "I Still Call Australia Home' and our all time favourite Johnny Farnham singing 'Your the Voice'. I tell you what it's enough to make you want to rush out and join the national armed forces. Of course Monster Trucks themselves aren't much of a show(!) so they brought out the Jet Vans. Just your average everyday courier van with a great whopping jet plane engine plonked in the back. You would have to be pretty stupid to want to drive one of those things around but it certainly made for family fun-filled entertainment.



To balance out all that high octane excitement we spent some time strolling through the botanical gardens which were conveniently located just behind the resort where we were staying. Everything is green and lush up there. It was lovely to see. There was an awesome boardwalk that ran for half a kilometre where you could appreciate all the massive trees and spiders(!) Here is a lovely shot that Ed took of some vines hanging down from the canopy.



Ed and I also managed to get out on the Reef for a day of snorkelling (getting coral cuts and trying not to throw up on the boat!). Snorkelling was great. The reef was amazing. All the colours that you see on the nature documentaries, much better than the bleached coral just off Tioman Island in Malaysia. We saw a turtle and I even got to feed it some tasty turtle food. It bit my thumb as I wasn't quick enough letting go. Luckily they don't have a vicious bite. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos because all the ones of me only had half a turtle in it plus I could barely tell that it was me behind all the snorkelling gear so no one else would even know if I put a photo of someone else in instead. Needless to say it was an awesome experience and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately Ed didn't realize when he was over the reef and managed to get some coral cuts on his thighs. Luckily they didn't get infected but they did look nasty for a few days.

One afternoon we headed north past Palm Cove and spent some time at the beach. Ed was mad keen to get some fishing in after lugging his fishing gear up from Melbourne. He caught two fish, both Tailerfish, one which he threw back because it was too small, the other which we cooked up for lunch and was delicious! Here is the happy boy after his triumphant catch.



On our last full day in Cairns we headed out of Cairns down to the Tully River about two hours drive south to do something I hadn't done since Year 10 of high school which was about 14 years ago! White water rafting. It was wicked fun. I was provided with a piece of string to tie my perscription sunglasses to my head so that they would not be lost to the rapids. It worked surprisingly well. In all of the photos of our rafting Ed has his eyes closed which is totally understandable as he is right at the front of the raft and thus receiving the full brunt of the white water. I meanwhile (because of the glasses I'm sure of it. You can't see the fear in my eyes!) look like Jackie Onassis going on a cruise. I couldn't get over how composed I look. I certainly didn't feel it!



Throughout our week or so hanging with my brother in Cairns we managed to drink our way through two slabs of Coronas not to mention the Jagerbombs (a shot of Jagermeister in a glass of Redbull energy drink) we were drinking out at the clubs. I was in need of some serious detox on arrival back in Melbourne!



So our trip to Cairns was great fun and a much need break from Iceland (as Melbourne is now dubbed).

Mother's Day 2007

My brother, the Pony was down from Cairns the week prior to official Mother's Day so we decided to cheat and celebrate early with a day trip to Luna Park. Yay! We all had a lot of fun. Especially Mum who rode on the Spider (which is also known as the Octopus) three times! Here is a pic of Mum and me psyching ourselves up for the ride ahead. It turned out to be a very spinny ride as we obviously had the right weight ratio to make our little arm pod spin continuously.

And here is a pic of us mid-ride spinning madly.

My sister enjoyed showing off her horse riding skills on the carousel. Here she is busting some Jackie Chan moves.

And here is the Pony being his wacky self, although top marks for going on all the rides after a big night drinking with the boyz.

Here is my sister and I riding on the 'G-Force', which tuned out to be really boring, so we had a conversation through the whole ride.

And finally here is a pic of all three kids whacking the crap out of cute little animals in the games tent. Poor things, they never had a chance!

And a great day was had by all!

What is in a name?

So my mum is changing back to her maiden name - Hudson. Recently she asked me if I wouldn't mind if she did so. I think that it is a great thing for her to do seeing as how she and my father have not been together in about ten years now - why should she hang on to his name? It's possibly the first overtly feminist thing my mum has ever done, although I know she's always been a feminist, just a quiet one. You know the sort. She just does things her way instead of talking about it all the time. It was only later, on reflection, that I realised it would mean that my mother would not have the same last name as myself or my siblings. As someone who doesn't plan to change my name (even if hell freezes over and I do end up getting married) I think retaining the name you were born with is a good way to go. Of course this is generally your father's name anyway and pays no respect to your mother's side of the family which isn't particularly fair. When mum told me about changing her name, I briefly thought about taking my mother's maiden name, as why should I keep my father's name when he is only half of who created me but then I wouldn't be appreciating his side of the family. The only way to get around this dilly of a pickle is to hyphenate but where does it end? If I was a hyphenation of my parents' last names my last name would be Hudson-Auden, then if I were to have children I would use both my name and my partner's name which would make the poor little tacker's last name Hudson-Auden-Cowper-Yates. Phew. What a mouthful. Clearly that idea isn't going to work for very long. So in conclusion, naming sucks and is never a true representation of who you are and where you came from, but does it really matter anyway?

Watch out for those obese babies!

Whilst travelling home from work last night on the train I was reading a very intellectual and stimulating journal, not sure if you've head of it - it's called MX (free tabloid from the people that give us the excellent Herald-Scum). So as I was devouring the cutting edge journalism found within, I came across an article that was discussing how a link has been found between levels of Leptin (a protein hormone) and obesity. It seems that the more Leptin you have, the less obese you will be. Now scientists have found that there is a certain level of Leptin that babies receive from breastmilk but of course this isn't enough to combat all the obese babies we have running around, so other scientists (working for big evil food corporations that produce baby formula) have decided that babies should be getting more Leptin than nature provides and have upped the level of Leptin that babies receive in baby formula. Thank god! Now there will be no more excuses for having fat babies! Come on! Talk about starting early on getting a complex!

We escaping Melbourne winter (briefly)

Yay! So I've just booked tickets to go visit my brother Tony in Cairns where he is stationed for six months whilst working for the Bereau of Meterology. It's tough, really. He has to rough it in a four and a half star resort for the whole time which work pays for! So Eduardo and I are going for a visit at the end of June to escape Melbourne's winter which we will have endure for a month at that time. Although it's already getting a little chilly around here. It's gonna be great. Maybe we'll go sky diving or white water rafting or scubaing, like my brother did this week and met Wally the giant mauri wrasse! See pic below.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Hello out there. Let me start by saying a big sorry for not posting in, like, forever. I know, I suck big time. It's just that I've had a mountain of paperwork (or should that be labwork) to do. Blah, blah, blah, get on with it! So Eduardo and I went to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival last Thursday night and we saw two shows. First up was Tim Minchin, who we had never seen before but he'd won heaps of awards so I figured he couldn't be all bad. Turns out he's f*#@ing excellent! He's not just your regular stand-up comedian. He is an accomplised pianist (yes, I said pianist) and singer/songwriter to boot! So his show is entertaining musically as well as being hilarious. Perhaps part of why I enjoyed his show so much is that at the age of 32 he is going through a very similar stage of life to myself. All the references and anecdotes I found strangely relevant (except perhaps the one about how he worries about whether he could perform sexually with another partner after so long with one partner, if for some reason his wife died or got a degenrative disease). Hmmmm not sure about that one. So any way his show gets a big 5 thumbs up from me.

So after that Ed and I were concerned that the next show wouldn't be as good and would leave us feeling disappointed. Not to fear, Ross Noble is here! This man is uber crazy. He said it himself when he said "If I ever get Alzheimers no one would notice". Ross's show went for over two hours with him talking non-stop about anything and everything in a very haphazard way. It's hard to describe his style, it's a bit like Billy Connelly on speed perhaps. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. I laughed until I was crying. I laughed until I felt weak. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to live with him. I'm sure with him there is no on/off switch. I think I would probably kill him after five minutes. But for a two hour show it was awesome. I also give him five thumbs up.

I know it seems like I'm a bit easy when it comes to reviewing shows but most of the people that know me know that I am quite critical, especially with films. I have an ongoing debate with a friend about Daredevil the movie (the one with Ben Affleck) and how it is possibly the worst movie ever! He maintains that it is actually a very good film and he (supposedly) should know as he studied film at the Victorian College of the Arts. B'ah what does he know? The kid playing the young Daredevil (or whatever his name is) before he grows up and becomes Ben Affleck is much more convincing as a blind person than Ben Affleck will ever be. On reflection, perhaps it is Ben Affleck that I just can't stand. So anyway, where was I? A friend asked me which comedian was funnier and I found that Ross Noble made me laugh more (although a lot of the time it's because he is just so bizarre - I was just speaking to my brother who went with me to see Ross at the Festival a couple of years ago and the only thing that either of us can remember about it was something to do with facial meatflaps - hmmmm, don't ask me) but that I preferred Tim because with him you get to watch a music concert as well as laugh (I apologise for the length of that last sentence, if it was in an academic essay it would have to be ripped to shreds, but this is my blog so I'll do what I want, of course I realise that this whole rant thingy is making it even longer, oops again!). So, anyway the festival has been awesome and I highly recommend going to see either of those shows.

The joy of ebay

Ed and I have recently discovered the joy of selling stuff on ebay. It's so much fun and a great way to get rid of the usless stuff you have lying around your home. For instance, Ed was given an incredibly tacky ashtray that has a carving of a naked woman on it which he doesn't need anymore (when do you ever need an ashtray with a naked chick on it?) so he has put it up on ebay to hopefully offload it onto someone who thinks that that sort of thing is classy. After he had posted it up for $2, I was checking that I would be able to find it by searching for 'woman ashtray' and found another ashtray with a naked woman on it in a slightly different position to Ed's but otherwise identical. This ashtray sold for $80! There were 12 bidders! Who would have thought? Hopefully now the unsuccessful bidders from that ashtray will begin a bidding war for our ashtray. Fingers crossed!

Can I just say to the woman who pushed in front of me in the line at Cafe Kaz this morning

'Rude!'

Where have all the manners gone?

Give me the simple life

Recently my boyfriend/partner (i've never liked either of those words and don't think that they accurately represent our relationship but I am yet to think of something better) and I decided to get new mobile phones. We decided to go with Optus because we already had our home phone through them and we wanted to organise Broadband for our home computer aswell and thought that we might be able to get a decent deal if we packaged the lot. As it was during the post-xmas mobile phone rush the handset model that we chose was not in stock, so we were given our SIM cards and sent on our merry way. Of course we gave them our home phone number so that they could contact us when our handsets arrived. We were told that they should arrive within the week. One week later I call up and am told that they are still waiting for them and that I should never fear because I will definately be contacted when they arrive into the store. Another week passes. I call up again and am told that the handsets had already arrived a couple of days ago and didn't I get the message on my voicemail???? How could I when I didn't have the handset to put my SIM card into to receive the voicemail message about picking up the handset? It's mindboggling! When I enquired at the store whilst picking up said handsets why they had left a voicemail message and not called the home phone like we had requested I received no reply and no apology. It seems they really do have people living the simple life working at Optus.

The cost of living in Kingswood Country

Egads! I've just found out that it is going to cost me $1200 to fix the suspension in my car! And that's not fixing everything that needs to be done but in the words of my mechanic 'just making it safe to drive'! You'd probably think that I drive some swish car like a Saab or something given the cost of the repairs, but no, you would be fooled, you see I drive a 1976 Holden Kingswood and it seems it costs a lot to live in Kingswood Country. I had to think twice about whether I would even get the car fixed given that it only cost me three grand in the first place but I seem to have grown attached to my transportation device over the last eight years and am loath to give it up just yet. Oh well, my poor credit card gets another beating....

Miss Vs. Ms

I happened to mention at my Stitch n Bitch gathering this week that it bugged me how I was still addressed as a Miss through all correspondence with the Commonwealth Bank. I really should get off my behind and change it, as I have chosen to be a Ms every other time I am asked to choose a title. I think my Commonwealth Bank 'Miss' goes back to when I was about 7 or 8 and my parents set up a Dollarmite account for me to learn all about saving money (unfortunately I didn't learn very much - I've been trying to pay off my credit card for the last eight years but I don't think it helps when I spend more on it than I end up paying back into it! D'oh!) So anyways, the other lovely ladies at SnB all annouced that they have always been Misses (until they happened to get stuck with the old ball and chain that is!) and that they liked being a Miss. I was quite surprised. I've always found the title 'Miss' to seem rather young and girlish (perhaps they are trying to hang on to their youth?) and is basically used as a way of distinguishing unmarried (and thus available) women from married women, unlike the title 'Mr' which can either refer to a bachelor or a man with a better half (Can anyone say 'outdated'?). Not being the marrying kind myself, although for all intents and purposes I am, having lived with my partner (never really like that word, but boyfriend just doesn't seem to cut it) for around eight years, I do not like the way that titles are still genderly (pretty sure that's not a word but I think you get my drift) unequal. A new system of titles needs to be created! Or perhaps done away with all together. But I suppose then people wouldn't have any incentive to spend years working towards a Doctorate if at the end of it all they can't have the satisfaction of being called a doctor. So that's my little rant for today. I guess when it's all said and done I'm just surprised to find out how much of a feminist I am!

A whole new world...

Well... this is my first venture into the bloggosphere and I have to say that I'm a little nervous aswell as excited! Hello big interweb world out there. Hope y'all doing alright. Well I have just arrived home in Victoria from my surprise birthday holiday that my lovely boy planned for us both to celebrate me getting another year older. In celebration of this momentous occasion he took me to the state of his birth, Western Australia. We had never managed to get there before as we had both thought that if you're going to travel that long on a plane you may aswell go overseas to Asia, which we have done numerous times already. So anyhow back to W.A. The sunshine was beautiful and consistant (something that is definately lacking in Melbourne), the beaches were gorgeous, white sand that just goes on and on and the wildlife was plentiful. Especially in Monkey Mia which has a very misleading name as practically the only animal we didn't see there was an actual monkey! Oh, when I think of the many animals we saw. Naturally there were dolphins which is the usual reason people trek out to Monkey. We were in luck as the dolphins had just given birth to little bitty baby dolphins (which are possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen!)
Unfortunately I couldn't get the little blighters to pose for me and my crappy camera has a one second delay between when I push the button and when the image is captured but this pic came out quite nice. Plus I also had the honour of being chosen to feed one of the dolphins (apparently by the dolphin, but I think the woman in charge just liked my bright red Monkey Magic t-shirt!). Let me tell you it was pretty cool. On our trip we also saw (in no particular order) Loggerhead turtles (bigger than I thought), Dugongs (in the distance, very shy creatures), Hermit crabs (Ed and I attempted to sell a larger shell home to one who seemed to be growing too big for his shell (alas, after a half hour inspection of the premises, he declined), Blue swimmer crabs (Ed was hoping for a seafood dinner but he wasn't fast enough), emus (just passing through the resort), stingrays (via our glass-bottomed boat which was fun to putt about in but not fast enough to chase anything with!) and to top it off, the smallest, cutest shark ever (which appeased Ed in his hunt to see a shark on our trip, even if it wasn't a threat to his life). So I'm still basking in the loveliness that was our fantastic trip and I hope that this feeling will last through my first week back at work.