Weekend thrifting

My mum once told me the key to enjoying your weekends instead of spending your whole time bogged down in housework was to go and do something nice for yourself on Saturday morning. First thing. Don't wash up. Don't put a load of laundry on. Just go out.

This morning I took her advice, and armed with Evernote and a list of garage sales in my area, I hit four places in quick sucession. The only good one was the last, a lady who was selling TONS of Christmas stuff - I'm assuming she was one of those obsessive Christmas lights people because she had so many items. But she also had a nice array of bric-a-brac and the most enormous glass jug I've ever seen. I bought it on the spot plus a nice little mini syrup jug.

Teacup for scale purposes

I then ran a few errands at the local mall (ugh! detestable place!) before dropping in on my favourite op shop on the way home. Bingo! Some lovely Johnson of Australia teacups, saucers, side plates and dinner plates. I didn't take the whole lot as some of it was crazed, also wanted to leave some for other folk. I also picked up a lovely little glazed Japanese coffee mug for 10c. 

Then I came home, washed up all my finds and sat down to do some stock photography for my shop! I'm getting better at taking photos, sharing my fave of the day with you below.

  Have you been thrifting this weekend? Any good finds?

Numbers and data and statistics, oh my!

Have you heard? The 2011 Census data is out!

This is the data that will be used for every important decision made by a huge variety of governments, organisations and businesses over the next 5 years. Everything from budgeting future infrastructure projects to planning the needs of daycare or services for the elderly uses census data. Major policy decisions of all political parties will rely on its accuracy and at the end of the day, everyday joes like you and me will be affected down the line.

I'm a numbers nerd anyway but what really interests me is where I fit in, compared to the rest of the country. Let's take a look shall we?

• Women rule! Well, we outnumber the guys. I'm below the median age for the country.
• Unfortunately my wage is below the national median - sad face.
• Married rates are the same since the last census. I would have been single at the time of the census though, so I have contributed to the data for the next one! However, I am not one of the 45% who describe themselves as a couple with children.
• My home of Brisbane recorded the greatest increase in people living in a government area - I contributed by moving here 5 years ago!
• I'm also one of those who recorded 'no religion' - this year that figure jumped by 18.7% to overtake Anglican as a religious affiliation.
• You certainly didn't need data to tell me that the increases in the cost of housing have not been met by a matching increase in income! But nice to have my opinion backed up by a competent authority.

What did you think of the trends revealed in the census? The mining boom, same-sex marriage, migration, languages spoken at home, ageing population - the list goes on.

There's also the mystery of the missing 300,000 people from previous population estimates!


Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-21/census-stats-reveal-australian-population-growing-strongly/4084130
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/key-facts-from-the-2011-census/story-fn59niix-1226404283130
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/snapshot-of-a-state--what-the-census-says-about-queensland-20120621-20pz5.html
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/australians-vanish-in-census-mystery-20120620-20oh5.html

Errand day - supported by modern tech

Yesterday I had a rostered day off. This meant I was keen to get a lot of stuff done that needs to be taken care of in business hours. I'm not sure if you get this from my online presence - but I'm a pretty disorganised person. I struggle to do things like pay bills on time, get the right groceries or know what is for dinner.

I've been combating this general lack of organisational savvy in recent years one problem at a time. I've set up regular bill payments and direct debited as much as I can. I order groceries online, and yes actually use a LIST, and use a weekly meal plan.

One thing I didn't anticipate was that my iphone would also help. In between apps like Google maps, my bank, Reminders, Notes and Evernote I have no excuse for forgetting things any more. That is, if I remember to put it in there...

So yesterday I used Evernote to keep a list of the things I needed to get done.

No, I'm not commenting on why I needed to go to the gunsmith! I then set reminders in my Calendar to have alerts pop up when it was time for my appointments. In Evernote you can do this just by clicking the link in the time!

I even had a list ready for the library - since seeing a segment on Sunrise about "chook lit" I've been interested in sampling the genre.

After going to the doctors, I had to go to Pathology to have a whooping cough test (joy). Used Google maps to find the place.

And lastly, on a whim I cancelled my haircut and allowed the hubby to whisk me away to the movies - using Safari to check the times first as I didn't have an app for that particular chain.

Knowing that I had a list of absolutely everything, and even reminders buzzing to let me know when I had to be someplace was extremely comforting. Even though I had a day full of errands, I was more relaxed.

Here is a great post on how to get more out of Evernote from crashtestmummy. I really want to use it more dynamically in future. I especially have to get used to tagging notes.

Here is the link to the Sunrise segment on chook lit that I saw with Fiona Palmer.

What apps or organisational tools are making your life easier lately?

Sunday Selections

I spent this weekend at the farm - hubby had some car-type business to take care of up there so I went along for the ride. Mum and I pottered about - I installed all her digital scrapbooking gear, started my wedding thank-you cards, read. It was ace.

This morning we went to the markets, some great stuff there this time, though the cold wind was enough to put one off lingering at some stalls!

Here are a few recent snaps from my camera, as opposed to my iphone camera roll. Linking up with frogpondsrock for Sunday Selections.

Tablescape, my wedding

North Queensland

Lake Perseverance

Perseverence Dam bushlands

Story Bridge from the Jade Buddha

Sunday Selections

Linking up with Frogpondsrock  this week. Because I'm unwell and still in bed and feel like sharing some photos!

ETA: Came back and edited this post on my PC to add the link, as originally I posted this from the Blogger App. If anyone knows how to embed a link in the App, please let me know!

1. Creepy foggy forest near Esk
2. Pyrex Cinderella mixing bowl found thrifting yesterday.
3. Silver candy dish I polished up for my Etsy shop
4. Driving to the farm

Going away to camp

Last weekend I attended my third scrapbooking camp. (2010 and 2011 blogs here). I think I've written enough previously about how I refuse to feel ashamed/embarrassed that it's my hobby. Everybody needs a hobby. Mine involves putting memories on a page in a pleasing manner!

Camp this year was mercifully not as freezing as last time. I did still use my electric blanket though! I worked on three different projects: a wedding album (using a "quick kit", it was amazing, took me only 3.5hrs to complete), my everyday album and an album for my New Zealand trip photos from 2005. This last album is a really meaningful one for me, as it contains photos I thought were lost forever in a hard drive crash 5 years ago. A friend was recently able to retrieve them (would you believe hubby held onto the hard drive all this time? What an angel!) and I had an absolute ball starting to scrap them. So many memories came flooding back!

Here are some pics of layouts I did.

 And below is one my mum did - she is putting together a gorgeous album of our wedding of her own.

Needless to say, after 2 1/2 days of solid scrapbooking, I will not be doing any more for a little while!