Jikana Damaru: 10/12/11

Earballs and Eyes*

I was interested in the responses to my post yesterday that talked about how well I operated under the Stress of the Leech. I have never thought about it before, but goddamn it, if you're under pressure I reckon I would be a fine woman to be holding hands with.

Here are some of the things going on in my world right now:

I'm on deadline to get the magazine I produce for work out the door by 18 October and the printer has stuffed up the flysheets.
I'm putting together the most complicated Rainbow Party in the history of the world for Saturday afternoon and it may or may not involve (depending on whether I can pull it off) 'that Whisk Kid cake'.
It's also my husbie's birthday on Saturday and we're having 16 adults and 57** children to dinner after the Rainbow Party - haven't shopped, don't know what I'm cooking.
The school hit 'publish' on the website I'm working on for them and it's only half ready and everyone knows it's me who is working on it so I'm receiving about 5 emails a minute with the subject line 'why didn't you' and 'where's my'.
I am also co-ordinating a cast of thousands to produce the school's annual magazine and nobody has the slightest idea what they're doing.
My daughter has ripped her hand to shreds doing the monkey bars.
I need to somehow get to the post office tomorrow to collect the flat packed chicken coop that we bought on eBay and LOML is going to put together before Sunday morning.
It's hair wash night for the kids.

I don't think I'm stressed yet. The hair washes might finish me off and I also just remembered that both school kids need new shoes and I like school shoe shopping about as much as I like leeches. Sometimes it's best not to have a 'To Do' list, I think...

What's going on in your life right now?

How do you manage under pressure?

* No idea why I called this post this. I don't know what it means either.
** Surely an exaggeration. Probably more like 56.

[Image from here]

Note to self.....

its important to remember to slow down

don't worry about that massive folding pile taking over the couch

or that there is nothing for dinner and you haven't been to the gym

forget about the to-do list that is much longer than you like it to be

Sometimes its nice to change a day of running errands to just being instead.

You will remember today for the smiles of delight when she realises its ok to get wet and how many special shells were found.

Making friends with strangers because they have castle building equipment and wiping sand away from tiny little feet.

12 Fabulous Halloween Favour Ideas

I am enjoying all the Halloween goodies this year so I have created for you 12 different favour ideas for a halloween themed party or to give out to the trick or treaters that come knocking.

The gorgeous printables are by Kim from The Tomkat Studio who has three wonderful Halloween collections to choose from - I was taken with all the orange around this year so I have used her Spooky Collection - Would love to know you favourite idea from the list?

All of the bags, boxes, bottles, jars, twine and ribbon can be found in the Sweet Style Store.

The very cute hanging garland you can see in the background can be found here.

A Makeover...

I've been having a little blog makeover just for fun. Not sure I will keep it like this but for now I'm happy.

Nordal Autumn/Winter 2011

Today on label love I am sharing with you some of my favourite pics from the new Nordal catalogue. I adore the patterned drawers with the white ornate handles and the distressed white paint finish that gives them a lovely vintage feel. I am also coveting the quirky coat rack with the velvet ribbon.

Have a sweet day!

The hitchhikers

One time when I was driving on a freeway, a massive huntsman spider ran across the windscreen. Inside the car. A car going at 120km/hr* and being driven by me. To say that I went screaming down the freeway would be the quiet version of the story. Poor huntsman was so terrified it leapt across the car in a single bound and landed straight in my lap.

Sheer. bloody. terror.

I flicked it off to the floor and stomped on it many, many times. I did not break speed. I did not take my eyes off the road. I did not stop screaming.

I thought that was as bad as it could get, but I was wrong.

A little while ago I was driving over to my PIL's house a few suburbs away. I was busy yelling loudly at the
Tsunamis to get them to stop yelling loudly and my ankle was itchy. It was driving me nuts it was so itchy. Scratch, scratch went my left foot, trying to de-itch my right ankle. Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Sometimes an itch needs to be looked at. Itches feel less itchy after you look at them. So I looked.

Leech. Bloody leech.

Oh. my. god. If huntsmen give me the screaming fits, leeches just send me into catatonic shock.

We get a lot of leeches around our place. You see them with their funny little caterpillar crawl, humping along from here to there, doing whatever it is that leeches do when they are not busily sucking your blood and injecting you with their blood-letting poison. The Tsunamis yell 'Get the salt!' whenever they see one because I taught them that salt will get a leech off once upon a time and now they have to yell 'get the salt' every. single. time. That's kids for you.

'Get the salt,' I whimpered in the car that day. 'Get. the. saaaaalt.'

The Tsuanamis fortunately did not hear me over their general car yelling. Each lost in their own loud, annoying world.

'Right,' I said to myself. Right always seems like a good opener to a stern conversation with oneself. 'Right, just concentrate on the road, ignore the leech, get to PILs, get the salt.'

My eyes kept zapping down to the leech, ever growing.

I was torn between driving like a bat out of hell to the salt and driving very, very carefully like an old one. Just seeing it squirming around, a new extension to my ankle, made me want to crash the car and yell 'get it off, get it off, get it off'. But I'm a mum now. I can't go about crashing cars over leeches.

I've got to mum up and get on with the job.

I made it to the PILs. I raced screaming from the car 'get the salt, get the salt, get the salt' and burst into tears at the sight of my calm, Italian mother in law wondering what all the fuss was about. Oh, her kind eyes seemed to say, you massive, massive wimp. But she dutifully got the salt and we watched that massive leech die along with about 250mls of my precious A+.

Leeches, huh? Have you encounted one?

* For some reason, I can't drive 110km/hr. A sensible person would automatically drive 100km/hr so they were still under the legal limit. I am not sensible.

[Image via weheartit]