Favourites?.
xx Deb
a fifo wife {fifo life: how to: get cut flowers every week}
I love cut flowers in the house. For awhile I would spend a fortune each week on them then I had kids and well the rest of that is history until I remember the words my husbands grandmother said to me.
I had only been here a few weeks it was winter it was wet, cold and gloomy. The house as glorious as it was needed something, I needed to get outside to get some Vitamin D and I needed to find something to do. So walking around the garden in the drizzling rain I started putting together a posy of flowers and foliage out of the garden. It wasnt the most stunning posy in fact I remember it was made up of orange, browns and greens but looking at it made me content and happy and so the love of cut flowers came to me.
Walking into the house and presenting them to her my husbands Nan said to me ‘that’s so beautiful. I never would have thought that was in my garden’.
I arranged them into a white jug and placed them on the table all the while watching her smile at them as she smoked her Benson and Hedges at the end of the table. I then listened to her as she told each of her visitors that day that I had found them in the garden and she would never have thought such prettiness was amongst the weeds.
Three kids later I’m not able to afford the money I once spent each week on flowers {although every now and then I splurge at the local rose farm} and so I started bringing foliage in from the garden. Sometimes I score flowers others times I don’t. Sometimes I get neither and it’s just the branch off the fruit tree with a few buds. I have even arranged the herbs in the garden into a vase. Right now I love the mix of foliage and the occasional native flower in the bunch but mostly its foliage that I use and still it makes me happy. I will go all out and do a big bushy voluptuous bunch or a single flower will go in a glass.
So how to on putting together an arrangement but really there are no hard fast rules its flowers in water after all and its to make you smile and nothing else.
Putting something together for me is relaxing from the cutting of the foliage to placing it in the vase. Much like the pleasure my children get when they pick me flowers or weeds and see them displayed in a vase on the window sill for me and the world to see.
1. Choose a vessel. I use a lot of jugs, old tins with a smaller vase inside and glasses of different styles.
2. Choose your flowers or foliage. Use a mix of leaf shapes, leaf texture, foliage colours and heights. Grab what ever is in your garden and experiment from some palm tree fronds and lily, the bushiness of the Lillypilly with some Grevillea to a single Daisy flower. You don’t need store brought flowers or foliage to create something wonderful just your imagination. Using your own garden means you can have an arrangement every week and you can have one for every room {my favourite a single Gardenia for the toilet best room freshener ever} if thats your desire. You dont need flowers for something beautiful.
3. Cut the end of the stems if having brought from a store. Cut on an angle and cut them under running water or in a shallow bath of lukewarm water.
4. I ‘harden’ my flowers by plunging into some boiling water for a few seconds before pulling out and letting them sit in a cool spot. You are advised to leave your flowers in a cool spot for several hours however I leave for as long as it takes me to gather my vessel and materials; I dont have time for waiting. Hardening is meant to increase the stems ability to soak up water. Soft stem flowers and foliage require only warm water and less time.
5. Strip as much of the foliage off the stems that is in the water.
6. Arrange the pieces as you like. Keeping height or shortening where needed.
{You can build from the biggest to the smallest pieces of foliage adding flowers or alternating colour were needed.} I don’t think anyone can tell you what to do here as your like and eye is different to mine. Arrange to make your heart sing each time you look at it.
7. Place arrangement where you can see it and enjoy.
After care.
I replace the water every two days and trim the stems as needed. You can try all the methods to extend the life of the flowers ie vinegar, aspirin, bleach etc but I think it comes down to keeping the water changed and the vessel clean from bacteria.
xx Deb
a fifo wife {fifo life: a few things}
I finished work today for good it was a short three months. Heavy hearted I’m disappointed; seriously. I know just an avo farm but I really enjoyed it but as a wise reader said sacrifice. And they are so right. Darn it sacrifice however when met with B1’s comment of oh yeah we can finally go back to normal it places everything in perspective. Damn it. Needless to say I am sulking with a great big glass of Red and it’s not even 5pm. Its 5pm somewhere I’m sure. In fact Sydney siders I bet your bottoms up already.
So how was your weekend ours was sensational. We; I the family celebrated Easter and a sixth birthday and it was awesome. Family came in friends came around and it was a good weekend all round. The Easter bunny was exceptionally generous but he has learnt his lesson in the chocolate buying budget department in the past and was much restrained this year using the rule of thumb quality over quantity however the rule still doesn’t apply to three boys where food is just fuel. The sixth birthday has I mentioned before how I hate them? Not the sixth birthday but every birthday its like a wee stab to my heart that they are one year less
1. The Iconic and I have become friends and so they are offering 15% off full priced items (excluding Converse, G-star raw, Nike, Sass&Bide, Tony Bianco and Jets) Min. spend $79. Just ensure to type in the code COMFAC15AW at check out here. So excited !!!!!!!!
2. There is a cyclone making its way to the East Coast. Nathan is his name. I went to school with a Nathan…scared me shiteless he did and so did his dad. Sign?
3. Over heard at the shopping center :
Blonde 1. I’m not sure what the problem is. Why I can’t have what I want for the wedding? After all he works at the mines.
Blonde 2. Yeah he is loaded.
Me saying to myself: I hope he wakes up before the ring goes one the finger.
4. The kids went and saw ‘Hone’ loved it. Get a chance go have a look-see.
5. I’m meal planning again because my live in housekeeper has to go back to his day job 😉 Monday Massman Chicken, Tuesday: Takeaway {I don’t care who you are $4.95 pizzas are the best after a basketball training session} Wednesday: Corned Beef and veg, Thursday Chilli Con Carne, Friday: Nachos, Saturday breakfast dinner, Sunday TBA.
6. Tried this once ended up on my behind it was not pretty.
7. I haven’t mentioned Game of Thrones in a while but they are back in April so in saying that meet the new cast. Here.
8. This is what happens when you give up your phone for a week here.
9. This young neuro surgeon passed away this week but before he did he wrote this here.
10. Eve Mendes {aka Ryan Goslings partner} is on instagram here
xxDeb
a fifo wife {fifo life: relationships: five steps to ruining your relationships with everyone}
This month for husband and I has been hard. There was no honeymoon this month. It was just hard slog. I was working long hours and up until the few past days, I was hardly seeing the kids. Hardly seeing him, and when I did see them I was so tired that any little snigger, sneeze or whinge I leapt on it. And husband did what husband did best he followed through.
In fact, I think in the past three months we have spent two weeks together I know not as long as some but even those two weeks if I’m honest were not invested.
Because I was reminded I love to work. So being stubborn finding that feeling of me I kept going because she will be right; right? No it does not.
So this month after screaming f*ck you more than once along with I’m leaving {and it wasn’t for coffee} it dawned on me what was happening where we were going and what needed to be done.
So along with doing what needs to be done I reckon I have learnt truly learnt what kills a partnership, or a relationship be it with your husband or your kids. Or at least sets it on a mighty good course for doomsville.
And it’s so easy to get onto the path of because I never thought it would be me that started it all. And I am taking responsibility because I know when I have been an ass and will happily admit so; husband on the other hand well he is another species. So let’s just leave it there; after this is my story not his.
So here’s my five tips to quickly and easily ruining your marriage.
1. Stop taking care of yourself. Become tired run down ugly. I like to think it’s self-explanatory. If you don’t like yourself enough to take care of yourself why should anyone else.
2. Stop talking to each other. Stop planning your future, your goals, the raising of your kids; be it two legged or four. Stop planning your weekends. Stop laughing because you’re too tired. Instead grunting, telling them you’re going to bed, and a fake smile at that attempt to brighten your day will bring any sort of communication to a halt.
3. Stop appreciating each other. Instead fill yourself full of resentment of what they did and didn’t do for you because you were at work, or that they were carrying on like you never existed because your were at work.
4. Stop touching each other. Be it hugs, sex or holding hands with the kids cease it and watch the great divide; divide.
5. Stop investing time into your partnership or relationships. Use the excuse you’re too tired, the kids need you or you want to go to the pub and ‘relax’ saying you want to spend time with your mates rather than your family should do the trick.
Do all these or just some steps in any order and your relationships set for doomsville I can almost guarantee.
Recognise the pattern {and learn from me; perhaps} understand everything in life takes work and that nothing comes easy and watch it turn around quickly.
If you are there or almost there accept that you are human you are going to make mistakes and so have the guts to admit it and make the choice to change it.
Make the choice to turn every single one of those step around and your set for not only making out with your partner but holding hands with your kids.
xx Deb
a fifo wife {fifo life: health: 5 reasons to make out}
Not to brag or anything but I literally made out with the husband all day today. With the exception of lunch it was pretty much all day anywhere in the garden, in the shed, at the gym, in the bedroom and then at the pool. Now the kissing varied from a quick kiss that made my kids blush to a hands down make out session on the couch; the type that gets you all weak at the knees and lots of other places. So today was a good day the best one in a long time in fact it was so good thought I would delve into why you should do have a good tongue wrangling yourself. 1. Weight loss. Kissing might even help you lose weight, says Bryant Stamford, PhD, professor and director of the health promotion center at the University of Louisville. “During a really, really passionate kiss, you might burn two calories a minute — double your metabolic rate,” he says. (This compares to 11.2 calories per minute you burn jogging on a treadmill.) 2. Tension relief. That’s what good lovin’ brings, says Stamford. “Sex and love are probably the Rodney Dangerfield of stress management. Because of all the negative energy we take in during the day, it’s a very positive benefit.” Some may even call it meditation in brings you into the present. 3. A facelift. A serious, tongue-tangling French kiss exercises all the underlying muscles of the face — which some say could keep you looking younger, and certainly looking happier. I don’t actually have proof of that but it sounds good doesn’t it. 4. You live longer. Kissing strengthens relationships which promotes closeness and couples who kiss regularly will live 5 years longer than those that don’t. 5. Your self-esteem is boosted. One German study found that men who got a nice juicy kiss from their wives before leaving for work made more money. “If he leaves his home happy, he’s more productive at work because he’s not feeling emotionally distressed, so he’s going to make more money,” explains Demirjian. “Kissing has so much to do with your self-esteem and feeling loved and connected.” So grab your partner and pucker up its good for all involved. xx Deb
{Image from here and sources from here and here}