| Shopping! |
[Jun. 2nd, 2012 :: 12:00 pm] |
Argh! I have money burning a hole in my PayPal account. I've been trying to find a WOOL cardigan for myself, it doesn't fucking exist. If anyone knows of any sites that will take PayPal (or Visa - I could use D's card) please let me know.
Prerequisites/requirements for said cardigan:
- proper plus size (ie, it will actually button up over my breasts)
- wool or very wool rich blend (80% wool minimum) (it can be lambswool, merino, even alpaca or cashmere)
- be less than $60 AUD (and less than $20 postage - it's a fucking cardigan, not a cast iron casserole)
- have a round neck
- be "normal" length (ie, not cropped, not "boyfriend" length) with a straight hemline (no hanky/waterfall)
- have proper long sleeves (no 3/4, no ruching)
- colours are not that important, I'm open to a variety of colours
you would think this would be easy - but I can only get cheap shitty acrylic cardigans in the right size, or the perfect cardigan in a size 8, or a size 20 cardy with a waterfall front and hanky hem that will come down to my knees... I want a cardy like the one I already have, except made of wool.
The best I have found is someone on the UK ebay is selling Marks & Spencers cashmere cardigans. They are a bit pricier than I would like, but I am probably being too picky about how much I want to spend.
Any suggestions?
[update] I just bought one of the M&S cashmere ones. Redundant post is redundant. It was probably more me justifying my decision to buy it (cost about $65 all up) before I did it. HOWEVER If there is some secret hidden woolen knitwear website that you all know of but I can't find PLEASE let me know. Op shops and ebay are too hit and miss.
(I did however buy a black and white houndstooth dress on Wednesday. For $6. Smug.) |
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| Transforming (the semi-regular "look/feel/think" self-image/self-esteem schtick) |
[Jun. 1st, 2012 :: 07:54 pm] |
In 2 weeks time, my hair is going to look something like this:
(slightly different colour of course)
I have been feeling very "bleh" lately and I have been craving something more... rebellious? I guess I want something LESS conventional. Something angry. Less pleasant. At the moment I just have shoulder-blade length hair with a few layers in it. I am really bored with it. I am really tired of it too. All I can do with it is put it back in a ponytail. I can't have it any longer than this without extensive and repeated thinning, because I already break heavy-duty hair ties on what I have at the moment. There's an easier solution: just get it cut differently. I have been missing my short hair too. So I'll be in my hairdresser's hands for about an hour and a half (yes. a hair cut will take that long with my hair.) in two weeks time, and will hopefully come out looking like a fatty Lisbeth Salander.
. . .
I have just been going through some old photos (not that old - a few years back) and I am having a hard time figuring out if I have changed much apart from my hair. People say I have lost weight but I CAN'T TELL. All the clothes I was wearing in those old photos (which I am apparently smaller than now), they still fit me!
I certainly feel better than I did. I am more comfortable doing all sorts of things. I am also hairier! I have stopped shaving my armpits, possibly forever (honestly, nobody cares). But I have also not shaved my legs since about Easter. And I go swimming with my hairy legs and hairy pits. And nobody cares. And nobody says anything. And I am thankful because THIS IS HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE. I get the lifeguard/gym staff on duty to put a CD on for me (Red Fang's Murder the Mountains has been copping a flogging) and I get in the water and I forget about everything except breathing and kicking and the way the water feels and the way it buoys me up but slows me down. And I have to prepare myself to climb out after my 20+ laps (so far personal best is only 22 but I want to get to 30 one day) because the return of gravity is such a shock when you have arms and legs like wet noodles from pushing yourself so hard. |
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| Honeymoon is over. |
[May. 30th, 2012 :: 09:31 pm] |
I have developed a love-hate relationship with Diablo 3. At the moment I am very much inclined to uninstall it and forget I own it. A dozen deaths in about 3 minutes due to lag (in a single player game) has put me off, probably for another week. The automatic joining of the General chat channel (which is Blizzard's way of forcing an error workaround onto people that never got the error it was a workaround for in the first place) has put me off for another couple of days as well.
The initial rush has worn off, too. The loot is lacklustre (that's being polite) on-level; and having random landscape rare mobs that are harder to kill than the final bosses in each act is kind of stupid. The game is called Diablo, because he (she) is the big fucking kahuna. It's not called Fuckface the Vomiter [Arcane Frozen Plagued Extra Health]. The random stats on items seem to be a little too random. Like a demon hunter bow with strength and intelligence. Don't they focus on dexterity? Or a mighty belt with intelligence. I don't know how many rare items I have fed into the blacksmith woodchipper because they were shithouse.
I am still having trouble with actually staying alive because my gear is so shit. I have broken that many items that were shit, and the best of what I found is still terrible. Fortunately for me I have friends playing who have hit 60 already and pop in sometimes to just empty their bags at me and give me huge upgrades in the process, but if I didn't, I'd be grinding for days to get a gazillion gold to try and buy something off the auction house, because the completely fucking ludicrous WoW economy has found its way into Diablo 3. Random blue pieces of shit, only 300,000 gold! No. I am not having anything to do with that. And the one with real money? So Blizzard can skim off the top of that? Not with a 50 foot barge pole.
What I want is Diablo 3 that I can play with my friends if I want to, but I have to specifically say I want to play with my friends before it pushes me online. I want to be able to play single player AS A SINGLE PLAYER. I am not interested in the chat logs of strangers. I am not playing this game to make money. I am not playing this game to buy my characters gear so I can pay to win. In the end, all these things will just end up with me not playing this game fullstop.
I am glad I still have Diablo 2 installed on my computer. I think I will end up going back and playing that when I feel the need for some frantic and frenetic mass slaughter of demonic hordes. In the meantime I will stick with LoTRO, which requires me to be online for a GOOD reason, and doesn't kill me because I happen to live in a region of the world whose connections are given lower preference on some game companies' servers.
. . .
For now, I am going to pack my swimming gear, pick out some clothes for tomorrow, and watch some Wind in the Willows with D. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2012 :: 12:08 pm] |
Had a quiet one last night. I left it very late, and only told/invited people on Friday. I was going to go out for dinner but it got to about 5.30 and the prospect of getting into (cold) dressy clothes and actually giving a shit about my appearance was not very appealing. So I called it off. L came over for a few hours, and we were expecting Frog to show up but he didn't until after 10, by then I was on the couch in nanna mode. I think I was just so tired of being not-warm (there is a difference between being cold and just not being warm) and the heater inside had finally started to work again that it caught up with me.
And now I am looking through my etsy favourites to see if I can buy myself something as a present :) I cut down the list a few weeks ago, it was up to 7 pages and just getting stupid. I think some nice spiky black fake gauge earrings might hit the spot, I've been eyeing off a couple of pairs for a while now.
. . .
I don't know what is going on but the exchange rate on Etsy is nowhere near accurate. $22 USD is about $22.40 AUD, not $23!! I'll shop in USD (this is the trick you use on Asos too - shop in GBP because the already-converted AUD prices on the site are inflated a little bit more than they need to be - and yes it works, I have bought stuff both ways on Asos), the rate is so close that I don't need it worked out for me anyway.
Time for a leisurely brunch/lunch and a cuppa I think.
I'm staying home tomorrow :D
. . .
[Update] http://www.etsy.com/listing/91922585/fake-gauges-black-horn-spade-spirals These ones!! Something about them is very Mandelbrot, which I like. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 26th, 2012 :: 05:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bjork - Virus | ] |
Nice day with Mum and Brother Dear - roasted a chook for lunch and had baked potatoes with bacon and blue cheese dressing on them. Om nom nom! I didn't realise how easy blue cheese dressing was. The recipe I used was very easy:
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
80 gm blue cheese
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
and then blitz it all with a mixer/food processor.
I actually used a bit less of the cheese as I am not used to it, but I crumbled about a teaspoon of it through afterwards so the dressing would have some texture. Also added another squeeze of lemon juice.
I'll be doing that again.
So I've had a nice lunch, now I am having my second cider for the evening. I was going to go out for dinner but now I can't be arsed. It's my birthday, I'll do what I want, and I want to stay home.
I have the new Sigur Ros album now too :) thanks Mum :D I will probably give it a proper listen tomorrow when I have a sore head. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 22nd, 2012 :: 04:59 pm] |
More swimming tonight, 18 laps at least (I really need a counting system) so I am perky but sore.
Uggggh when did those fugly 90's prints with baroque gold chains and "royal" swirls and shit come back in? Sorry I am just going through all the emails of websites trying to sell me (more) clothes and uggggh. I didn't like it the FIRST time it was "trendy". I will say I'm happy about the resurgence of leopard print though. I have been eyeing off a leopard print dress on Asos for a while now. One day, it shall be mine... oh yes...
Tonight's dinner is going to be a lazy white trash pasta bake using a tin of condensed soup because I CBF. This is the problem when I go swimming, I come home ravenous but uninterested in cooking. So we have trashy food. But that's okay. It still tastes okay. It's just not as honest as my proper cooking.
I picked up Saul Williams' latest album too, Volcanic Sunlight. After the Niggy Tardust album, it's a bit of a leap, but lucky for me that I like funky disco dancy sort of stuff. I haven't stopped listening to it since I got it about a week ago.
I haven't worn makeup to work so far this week, my skin is feeling a bit better for it. My eyes definitely - mascara makes my eyes so sore/tired at the end of the day. Although I probably wouldn't have that problem if I didn't wear so much. I just have really good mascara and I can't help putting on that extra coat or two because it makes my eyes look awesome.
I think the new Sigur Ros album comes out this week too. Yay. Entertainment for winter. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 15th, 2012 :: 04:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  energetic | ] |
YAY. ALL THE YAYS.
It has been an exceedingly good day for me today. I am sure that something disastrous is waiting around the corner but MEH to that, I am in a good mood.
1. All the supervisors at work are away all week, so I was actually left alone and was able to get a heap of work done today.
2. I took all the makings for baked potatoes and coleslaw to work today and had a (microwaved) baked potato with most of the trimmings (no bacon) for lunch, which made me exceedingly happy.
3. I remembered to pack my swimming gear and I did about 18 laps. I feel great.
4. I have a copy of Diablo III which will be in my hands in about 40 minutes (D is picking it up).
5. There was a new LoTRO update thing (coincidence??) and they have revamped a bit of Moria JUST in time for my burglar to head into the mines (I am enjoying playing the burglar immensely!).
6. My lovely lovely gravy boat arrived from the UK and it is lovely lovely lovely. It is perfect.
6a. The UK ebayer I bought it from packed it in a cut-down Fosters beer 10 "tinnies" box, which is amusing me to no end (the box actually says "tinnies"!).
7. I have a choice of chicken or sausages for tea tonight which are among my favourite easy things to cook that I really enjoy eating (plain sausages with mash and 3 veg ranks very highly on my Best Home Cooked Meals Ever, No Really list).
So I am clearly riding the karmic waves of goodness right now. Huzzah. Thankyou for reading and sorry for being a smarmy smug happy git. :P |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2012 :: 12:21 pm] |
Oh yeah D MADE A FUCKING PHONE CALL!!
We spoke with our draftsman last week. We will have final plans in under 3 weeks.
We are probably going to miss out on $20,000 from the first home owner's grant as it is changing, and we need to sign a build contract before June 30, but we will try and just sneak it in. If we do, we do. If we don't, well that's what we get for being so blasted lazy and procrastinating. But this is how we do things. Long periods of nothing, of putting up with it, of making do, and then short bursts of getting everything done. If we didn't need a holiday from ourselves all the time the house would be built and finished and beautiful by now.
(and it's just started raining in earnest, seems like I got to the market and back just in time)
I have a feeling that we may not need holidays from ourselves so much once the house is built because we will be able to take holidays WITH ourselves in the different rooms of the house, it will be that big.
I guess if we miss out on the big money home owner's grant, it won't be so bad, because in the time it's taken us to get around to doing something, we've paid off about that much on the land and I've saved up some more money to go towards... whatever. Sure, we'll be $20k better off if we get the grant, but, we can't miss what we don't have. We'll try and sneak it in before the cutoff date. That's all we can do.
Now. Anchovy turkish bread pizza stuff!! |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2012 :: 12:09 pm] |
The weather is officially BLEH already, winter comes in early here it seems. That's something I knew, and have always known since I started living here (originally as a kid with the family, 20+ years ago) but every now and then you end up in a badly insulated house with drafty floorboards and you get reminded of it very strongly.
The market is on today, I have already been. I just bought some turkish bread - I'll do anchovy, cheese and onion "pizzas" in the oven for lunch I think... I might soften the onions up in some butter first, sort of do a pissaladiere thing. There wasn't a lot on offer, if there is a veg stall there I usually come back with 2 of this and 3 of that and turn them into something delicious, but the only veg there were spuds and mushrooms, both of which I already have in ample amounts.
Someone has mistaken this house for the house next door and there are a couple of sets of bowls (lawn bowls) in cases out the back and a bag of what looks like bowls whites. Nobody's home next door so I reckon when the neighbours come back, the owner of the bowls will too, and there will be a bit of confusion but I'll go poke my head out and say "your stuff is here" when I see they're back.
I'm cold and the water in the kettle tastes funny and is spoiling my cup of milo :(
Today I am going to keep warm and do some ironing. Possibly while watching Wind in the Willows. The 1980's stop-motion animated one. We bought the whole series :D It is so lovely. Next, The Wombles.
Now I can't stop thinking about having that turkish bread... with tiny salty fish... what was I watching the other day... oh yeah it was a Rick Stein thing, he was at an anchovy factory. I didn't know they were salt-cured for almost a year! The depths of my ignorance knows no bounds. But I don't really care how long they are cured for - I just know they are delicious, and I'm going to go swamp some turkish bread with some now for lunch. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 6th, 2012 :: 01:46 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
Almost back to normal. Went to work on Friday. Have had a horrible claggy nose/throat today which is driving me batty. So far no chest infection or cough. My throat gets a bit sore when I talk a lot, so I've been oddly quiet the last couple of days (most of the time I am babbling to myself or D, or singing to music, or reading/thinking out loud) (yes really).
I'm waiting for an ebay auction to finish so I can pay straight away (if I win) so I can go to bed and not worry about it. I think I might have finally found myself a gravy boat. I have been looking for a nice one for ages. Not a new one. Not stainless steel. Something with a bit of character. I'm bidding on a nice apple-y green one with a nice rounded oblong sort of shape. A bit mid-century. I also found a little creamer jug that matches the Pontesa Castillian dinner set that I have (and love) so I've put a bid in on that too. And I've just added about 30 things to my watch list, not that I need any help in spending money.
So once I have a gravy jug, there's still a couple of things I want for the kitchen. This is not a wishlist, these are things that I want to chase down and pick out and find by myself, to build my perfect eclectic table. This is just my to-do list. To-get. Eventually.
- large heatproof serving bowl, possibly lidded (soup tureen??)
- butter dish (flat bottom, box lid vs box bottom, flat lid?)
- salad serving "claws" instead of clumsy spoons/forks
- teapot (yes still haven't got one. It's a lifelong search)
- some sort of big heatproof serving platter/tray/plate for dishing up large quantities of roasted meat
- napkin rings, at least 8 that either match or can mix-and-match together
I am always on the search for naff tablecloths too. And cloth napkins.
. . .
YESSS got me a gravy boat. Awesome. Happy with that! And paid for. Yay! Going to bed now. |
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