Monday, January 30, 2012

Goals - February

I gave up on setting goals last year when things just got a bit crazy in my life.
This year I'm going to try hard to set at least 5 goals each months to complete. It doesn't matter how big or small the goals are. They all count.

So here is my goals list for Feb:

1/ Garden tidy up - The garden at our house is in need of a nice cut back and clean up. We plan to get some people over to help us and try to finish it all in a day.

2/ Finish making place mats and coasters - I started these before Christmas but ran into a few hiccups which caused me to push them to the side. But this month I'm going to finish them.

3/ Get Cooper more comfortable with staying home alone - He doesn't like to be alone and at mums he never really had to be so now i need to teach him that it's ok to be alone.. I will probably involve a LOT of treats.

4/ Organise and host our housewarming - We've picked a date but now i need to do the rest. Lot's of little things to do.

5/ More some time into organising my craft room - It's not going to be done in a hurry but i need to lodge some time in there often to get it sorted.

So there is my list for February. I will keep you posted on how I'm going with my list.
Fingers crossed I get them all completed

xx
Smorgy

PS: Tonight BJ and I are having a date night. We are going to see Mariachi El Bronx play at Billboards. I'm super excited as they are a great live band and I get to see them with my man.

Date Night Outfit

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fork This 35 - Moving Day

This episode of Fork This was recorded during moving day.

The day started with BJ and I enjoying our first breakfast in our new house. BJ then went with the truck at his parents house while i was organizing and unpack at our house. We had a few trips to make in the truck and the plan was to film quiet a bit of us loading and un-loading, moving, unpacking etc... But that didn't really happen and in this is all the footage we got from that day.

Fork This 35 - Gettin' On In from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


I will do another blog soon with some stories from this day.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

We Got The Keys!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Settlement day was very long and dragged out. There were some issues that were out of our control and we didn't get our keys until 2 hours after we were ment to. We we did finally get them we showed up to the property and the previous owner was STILL moving stuff out so we had to sit and wait in our car on the street until they'd finished.

The quote of the afternoon was 'They are ruining my memories!!'

When they FINALLY left, we drove in OUR drive, walked up to OUR door and unlocked it. The smell of bleach filled our nostrils. Don't be fooled though, they didn't really clean anything they just ran a mop over the floorboards and overpowered the house with the smell of chemicals so it seemed like they'd cleaned.




My plan for when we got our keys was to go to the house and have our moment together. Jump... scream.. hug... And just take it all in, before anyone else arrived.
This didn't go to plan as we lots 3 hours of the time we'd counted on having. So the Fork This episode we filmed of us entering the house was literally the only time we had in there before we unloaded my car (which was filled to the brim) and made the calls to let family know they can come over.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was a bit of a blur. My plan was to take lots of photos and honestly, i have none. Everyone came over and started helping us clean and unpack more car loads. I started to feel really hungry and couldn't figure out why. Then everyone left, i looked at my phone and it was after 8pm. That would explain the hunger. At this point there was a moving truck blocking our driving (long story short, we are on a subdivided block and the people in the house in front were also moving out that day) so we decided we'd walk up the road and get some pizza for dinner. We got back to the house with our dinner, sat on the floor (as we had no chairs) and stuffed our faces.


After dinner we decided to unpack the kitchen items as they had arrived in the car loads and all the furniture wasn't coming till the next day. We worked on the kitchen till sometime after 11.30pm and decided we'd better go to bed as the next day was going to be a LONG one.

Cooper didn't come to visit the house till after we've moved all the furniture in. He loved exploring his backyard and barking at every noise he heard.

He decided to munch on some grass and i got these hilarious photos of him.

 Then he wondered off into the bushs and came out covered in flowers and stuff off the plants and BJ had to clean him off.
 
I think he likes his backyard. We got a doggy door installed so he can freely go where he wants.... At least until he barks at the neighbours. Then he gets yelled at and does the walk of shame back inside.

xx
Smorgy

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Fork This 34 - We're In

Sadly, Fork This is running a bit behind at the moment and so is my blog.

The reason... No Internet!!!

We've moved into our house and have been in almost 2 weeks and it has been such a hassle to get the internet sorted. We are HOPING to have it sorted by the end of this week... Cross your fingers.

We have only had our iPhones and a iPad (on loan) to help us keep up with the world. I did try to blog from the iPad but it really doesn't like Blogger so that was frustrating.

I cut together this episode of Fork This and we uploaded it at a family dinner last week. We filmed ourselves going to the house for the first time after getting our keys and you get to see it :)

There will be lot's more house videos to follow


Fork This 34 - And We're In from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

1 more sleep

I've had two terrible nights sleep. I'm sure it's just stress and worry about Thursday. But now, There's only one sleep left and I think I'll actually sleep well.

It's a strange feeling... Moving out of home for the first time and last night is when it really hit us both hard... Really hard!

We've both never lived out of home before and BJ has actually never moved house (not even rooms) before. This is VERY new to us and obviously it is a BIG deal.

We will now be responsible for everything. Paying bills. Buying food. Cooking meals. Maintaining the yard.

The bigness of it all, i don't think will truly hit us for a few weeks. Once we've actually stopped unpacking and people aren't coming by so often to help us... Then it'll hit us.

We will actually be adults!

I've cried most of last night and I can't really tell you why... I don't really know.
I think it's just an array of emotions; happiness, sadness, worried, stressed. All built up to the brim and needing to escape.

I'm soo excited to be moving out. Having my own place. Most importantly I'm just excited that finally i'll be with BJ every day. That's been the hardest part of our relationship. Not seeing each other as often as we'd like. After traveling for 6 months and spending every day together and relying on each other it was hard to go back to our separate homes. It's been 3 years since then... A long time.

But next to the excitement I'm feeling very anxious about everything that's about to happen. Worrying about what COULD go wrong. What IF this happens.

I mean BJ knows of my craziness... But living with me 24/7 is a whole new percolator of fish and I just don't know that he's truly ready for that level of craziness.

I'm currently lying on my bed which is a mattress on the floor. My room has been gutted and very little remains in here.

Today my list of things to do was a mile long. I had to finish packing, do running around for settlement, sort our the plans for Thursday... And soo much more.

I actually have to go into work tomorrow (Thursday) morning for about an hour to do a couple of important jobs... One's I hope I don't fuck up because my brain will not 100% there.
At 2.30pm we will recieve a call and then... We can go get OUR keys!

And with that, I'm going to try and get some sleep. Right this minute it's 15 hours and 7 minutes till settlement.. Till it's ours!!

xx
Smorgy

*I started this blog last night which is why when you see it it might be labeled '2 more sleeps'. Tonight i re-wrote it and of course forgot the change the heading... Well done Smorgy Pin It

Monday, January 9, 2012

Fork This 33 - Spider Attack!!!

On Saturday whilst out driving a huntsman (A Large UGLY spider) appeared on the windscreen.

During my freak out I filmed what happened because I'll do anything for our viewers... I HATE spiders and did not handle the situation very well as you can tell by my shrieking.

Here's the episode:
Fork This 33 - Spider Attack! from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


BJ had to get out and search the outside of the car before I'd even think about opening my door. And when i finally decided to get out, It was a sprint out the door.

When he searched it he found nothing and we assumed it had blown/fallen off the car... That however was not the case.

Today I was unloading my car which was full of boxes of BJ's stuff ready for the move. I finished emptying the boot and was about to close the door when there it was!
That hairy fucker was hiding behind the boot lift mechanism and he crawled out, spread his legs and stared at me... I called for my sisters assistance in killed the bastard.

My sister grabbed a broom because my strict rule was 'Dont hurt my car... Don't splat guts everywhere!'

As she went for it, he run up on the roof, down the side of the car and underneath... I've never seen a spider move that fast. FUCK!

So I decided the only way I was going to get in my car the next day for work was if i got out the high pressured hose and sprayed the shit out of my car... I kept telling myself 'I WILL spray it away and everything will be fine.'




My sister kept and eye out for it and continued to inform me she hadn't seen it. I reminded her 'It's GONE!! I've washed it away!' I had to believe it.

Once I'd gone over the whole car (Twice) I don't know why but i decided to open the boot again... And guess who was in there... That's fast 'Speedy Gonzales' fucker must have run right around the whole car to get back in there. And this time, I was not letting him get away.

My sister flicked him off the car and onto the driveway and then I sprayed the bastard... And I continued to spray him. To the point they he blew away.



Some people may think this is cruel but after the day I'd had, Finding that spider in my car was the cherry on top. And getting him out of my car... Well that me throwing the cherry in the bin and eating the big bowl of ice cream. (I hate cherries too).

VICTORY!!!
(I may have squirted water up in the air as if i was firing a gun in excitement)


 It's a story to tell the kids.

xx
Smorgy

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Recap on 2011

Top 5 Popular Posts for 2011:

5 The Slackers, The Assholes and The Vent -  Massive vent about money and life
4 When 10 years still only feels like a day - The hardest blog I've ever had to write
3 Tattoo Sunday - BJ and I got matching tattoos
2 Pretty Damn Proud - A blog about my struggle with weight loss
1 We Love Colors Review - I reviewed some awesome tights


Top 5 Popular Fork This episodes for 2011:

5 Ikea - 5,744 downloads
Fork This 26 - Ikea. from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


4 Forken Homeowners - 6,306 downloads
Fork This 25 - Forken Homeowners from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


3 A Midweek Purchase - 6,824 downloads
Fork This 22 - A Midweek Purchase from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

2 A Halloween Nightmare - 7,022 downloads
Fork This 23 - A Halloween Nightmare from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


1 Beggers - 7,807 downloads
Fork This 24 - Beggars from BJ Carter on Vimeo.



My Personal Highlights of 2011:

- BJ and I celebrated 6 years together
- I finally managed to loss weight
- We bought a house
- Say goodbye to all that was wrong in 2011
- Embracing how awesome 2012 is going to be


5 Favourite Instagram Photos for 2011:
(Not best as it's too hard, I post so many. But these are some I really love)




Goals for 2012:

- Continue to loss weight and be healthy
- Enjoy the changes in my life
- Build a lovely home together with BJ
- Grow more in my work
- Build new friendships
- Spend more time with others
- Set myself craft tasks regularly
- Re-build my love of cooking
- Not get tied down with money, worries, stresses
- Smile and love life


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Homemade Christmas Hampers

Because BJ and I have just purchased a house we did Christmas on the cheap side and decided to make all our siblings homemade hampers with lot's of tasty treats inside.

We decided to make lollipops (Which we didn't burn this time), coloured popcorn, coconut balls (With coloured coconut), gingerbread (Snails, squirrels, hedgehogs - You know, the usual thing) and candy cane meringues... plus we included an invited to dinner at our house and a heap of chocolates.

Coloured Coconut
Mustache Lollipops
Coloured Popcorn

As a lot of the stuff we decided to make doesn't really have a long shelf live we were literally cooking our arses off Christmas Eve to get it all finished... AND then i still had to put the hampers together and make them all look pretty.

I had this little cardboard boxes in amongst my craft supplies which i used, lined them with some of the brown packing paper we used to wrap our other presents, stamped them to look all pretty and then filled the box with the goodies.

Of course we did post a Fork This episode about this which you can watch here.

Here are some close up photos of the finished hampers


 xx
Smorgy

PS: I love this photo



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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Homemade Wrapping

This year BJ and I decided to save money we'd make a lot of our own gifts (Blog about that coming soon) and we made our own wrapping paper and gift tags also.

I had a roll of brown packing paper and an idea. I carved some awesome stamps of Christmas trees and holly and BJ designed some beautiful gift tags with a very 50's feel to them.


We stamped the hell out of the paper, tied them up with some twine and attached the tag. They looked fantastic. I'm soo happy with how they all turned out and I will continue to use this style of wrapping, Making different tags and stamps to suit the theme of the gift.

Here are some photos of the gifts.. Let me know what you think



xx
Smorgy Pin It

Wild Bore Xmas

Soon after BJ and I start our podcast Fork This BJ and our mates Pat and Speds started an audio podcast called Wild Bore. (I recommend you all listen to it as it's very entertaining.)

Not longer after they started the podcast BJ and I went garage saling and I found a chocolate mold of bore heads.... That's right!!

I decided right then that i would spend the 50cents and buy that chocolate mold and make the members of Wild Bore a christmas present they'll never forget.

Now i know i've already blogged a little bit about this as we did a Fork This episode of us creating these presents but i thought i'd show you some more photos of the finished products and also the faces of the recipients.

If you missed the episode of Fork This here it is ...And this is the final product



 

Speds
Pat
BJ
 
I didn't noticed till just now that none of them look happy about their gift in their photos hahaha.

I'm soo happy with how these turned out. A couple of issues i had were that the mold was difficult to release the chocolate without it breaking (I had a chocolate bore graveyard by the end of the day.) I was also planning to 'mount' the bore head to a cookie but had a few issues making that work. I think the shield with the Wild Bore logo turned out awesome.
Also, they were a BITCH to wrap.


I plan to make lot's of bore heads in the future. Think i'll try and do a resin bore for something.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fork This - Episode 32

Cheesy clip show to wrap up 2011

Fork This 32 - 2011: Some Extras from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

xx
Smorgy Pin It