sweet compulsion

Posted on Feb 22, 2012 in Stuffs | 3 comments

There was a special on the Tupperware modular mates sets this month that was too good to ignore.  It took very little convincing to get mum to agree that yes, we did need to maximise the space in our pantry and yes, it did seem a good offer.

Well it arrived today! And after finishing a particularly gruelling typing job, I rewarded myself by reordering the pantry. I know, to most people, this would not be a reward. But it pleases me so greatly to see everything all neat and boxed up like that.

Ahh. Much more space. Plus I cleared out a whole other set of drawers that had pasta and rice in it. Order! The illusion of control! Four different kinds of flour and four different kinds of sugar!

I love it.

detritus

Posted on Feb 16, 2012 in Stuffs | 1 comment

As I go through the boxes in the garage of stuff I had carefully stored there for the past four and a half years, and lugged around with me from rental place to rental place for years before that, I wonder…why?

It’s kind of a grim process, sifting through the material remnants of my life and finding I don’t want to keep any of it.

If I ever become a famous author, I’m sure future archivists will weep at the thought of all the juvenilia I’ve just thrown in the recycling, but I can’t even bear to re-read it. Out it goes.

I open a box of CDs. CDs! (will the current generation have less stuff to cart around because more of it is digitally stored, I wonder?) Each album reminds me of a time or a person…many of them I don’t even care to recall, and yet I have carried these CDs with me. I don’t want them anymore but I don’t want to get rid of them…and yet if someone came and took them all away, I would be none the less for it.

Boxes of scripts from university plays. T-shirts and programmes from those shows. My old year 12 shirt, signed and scribbled and defaced by my classmates.

Much of it is in the bin. Some stuff will go to Vinnies. Some will be spread out on our driveway on Saturday at our garage sale, hoping to find another home.

And none of it will be coming with us.

home

Posted on Feb 8, 2012 in Stuffs | 4 comments

It’s been an insane week. Mum and I have bought a house.

Our new home

My wonderfully generous father and his wife told me mid last year they wanted to help me and my brother buy property so we weren’t paying rent anymore. They proposed we find something big enough for me, Nick and mum to live together. It was a somewhat daunting proposition. I was only earning a minimum through my graphic design business while juggling almost full time study. Much as I love my brother, I didn’t really think we’d be able to live together. Much as he loves me, my brother didn’t want to live anywhere I was looking, and only wanted the inner city. We certainly couldn’t afford anything there that would be big enough for the three of us.

I had a few half-hearted looks at things that were way out of our price range and felt quite defeated by the whole thing. I still didn’t (and don’t) have a steady job, so what bank would give me a mortgage? I kept praying about it, knowing that God would provide somewhere if he wanted this to happen.

We decided that Nick would look for his own place, and mum and I would look for something together. Dad suggested mum and I get a joint loan, which immediately made the whole prospect more viable for me, as she has a steady income and it would mean that she was getting an asset too.

We have friends who live in the St George region (Bexley, Wolli Creek, Bardwell Park). It seemed a world away to me, just because I’m not familiar with the area, but it really isn’t any further away than the inner west or even other parts of the Eastern suburbs. So I started looking there, and almost immediately found a semi in South Hurstville that was at an unbelievable price. I realised it was on a very busy main road, next to a petrol station. I didn’t hope for much, but the pictures looked nice, so I went to see it.

And now we’re buying it. I never, ever, ever thought I would be in this position. When I thought about the future, it never included me owning property. Ever.

A prettyish sort of wilderness - I hope to build a writing studio here one day

We prayed hard throughout the whole process, for wisdom and patience and trust. We can certainly see God’s providence in this! It was just so unbelievably smooth. There were no other people looking at it when I went to see it, because the weather had been bad and people weren’t really out and about, so we had no competition for it. We offered less than the asking price and got it. The bank approved our loan with no problems. Even tiny things have had excellent timing like the scheduled council clean up is around the time we move, and our rent is due to increase in April (after we move out).

The back room

I know my security does not lie in worldly things, and that bricks and mortar can be taken away from you as easily as anything else. But I also know that God lovingly and lavishly provides, in his own way, in his own time. How could I ever doubt him? I pray that somehow God will be glorified by us living there, that we will use this house well for ministry, and that mum and I will thrive living there.

weasel words

Posted on Jan 17, 2012 in Stuffs | 3 comments

Part of the reason for being all up in the air at the moment is that I am both looking for a job and a place to live (Dad is helping me and my brother buy property, which is awesome, but having a decently paying job is kind of an important part of this equation. Anyway, I digress…). As a result I’ve been spending a lot of time on real estate and employment websites and am growing increasingly jaded by the emptiness of the copy that advertises houses and jobs. Some examples:

Though there was a moment of humour amongst the dross – job ad for publisher of “entertaining fiction for women”(let the reader understand), applications were to be sent to “Belinda Lusty”. It’s nominative determinism gone mad, I tell you!

red and black

Posted on Dec 28, 2011 in Stuffs | 0 comments

[feel free to hum strains of the song from Les Mis as you read*]

Christmas is over. People are away. Everything’s quietening down. So that means – time free to sew without procrastinatory guilt!

My favourite colour combo at present is a bold black and white IKEA print with a plain red for contrast (though they don’t seem to have the print I’ve used on their website anymore). I love their fabrics for bag making, as the prints appeal to me, the weight of the cotton fabric is heavy but not upholstery-fabric-heavy, and the fabric is reasonably cheap.

I’ve made two tote bags out of this combo, and two cushion covers that Karen commissioned. I had just enough left to make a camera tote bag for my new Canon 60D!

I don’t much like having to deal with zips or velcro when carrying a camera about. I like to just be able to pull the camera out at whim, shoot, and put it away with a minimum of fuss. Of course that means that the bag isn’t so great from a security perspective, but with the short straps it will always be close to my body so I’m not bothered by that so much.

I also used the padded, velcroed inserts from an old camera bag to create the partition, which can be removed if I need to use the bag for bigger things. The red lining is some old fat stripe corduroy that gives the whole thing a nice, cushiony feel.

This is probably the first successful bag I’ve made up completely out of my head. Woo hoo! Seems the skills I have learned from other bag making patterns have stuck!

It’s not the first total original I have attempted – I still have a bag for Little that’s 3/4 finished and a bag for Hendry that is pretty much done. I made both of those up, but I’m not completely satisfied with them…they’re kind of prototypes I guess, but since I don’t really do factory-line assembly I guess every bag is unique, so to call them prototypes wouldn’t be quite correct. I think it was more that both Little and Hendry commissioned me to make them, and I felt like the workmanship needed to be better than my usual efforts if money was actually going to change hands (cushion covers are a little simpler!).

But I am very happy with my camera bag. So maybe it’s time to finish these other bags and release them to their owners!

* I remember seeing this in London, and previously I had overlooked this song, much preferring the twittering of the female roles** to the militant dude songs, but on this occasion was particularly captivated by Marius’s verse: “Had you been there tonight you might know how it feels / to be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight”. I was such a romantic, swoony teenager.

** though Cosette always was a pain.

Plastic fantastic

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 in Stuffs | 0 comments

So! My Tupperware business is up and running. I had my first solo party/demonstration last week at Elsie’s place, and I think it went really well. I’m waiting for the delivery to arrive today and then I’ll be able to distribute all the lovely bits and pieces people ordered. But it’s all real and happening!

Here’s a fairly unflattering photo of me at said party, with the contents of my Quickstart kit:

(my hair may look odd, but I look cheerful!)

Tupperware is one of those funny things that goes in cycles…a lot of us had it growing up, and our mums would have gone to Tupperware parties. I know that happened a lot in the church circles I grew up in, to the point where people kind of got party overload. But now I think a lot of people in my generation and younger are starting up homes, looking to get their kitchens and households set up, and Tupperware fits neatly into that slot (so to speak).

I’m actually pretty keen on the stuff, to be honest. I guess I wouldn’t be selling it if I didn’t like it! So…if you want to have a party or even just buy some Tupperware without a party, get in touch!

One thing that has struck me, though, is the strategies we’re taught to use in selling this product are similar to how we should/could evangelise, and yet we don’t often promote the gospel this way. So at TW we have weekly sales meetings that aren’t compulsory but are recommended so you get a sense of the team and support and grow in your knowledge of TW. Those are many of the benefits of going to church each week. At TW we are encouraged to tell everyone we know what we’re doing, to carry around catalogues in case anyone wants one, to use every opportunity to talk about our business. Being a Christian, we’re also encouraged to tell everyone we know the gospel, to have literature on hand to give to interested people, to use every opportunity.

And yet…why does it seem easier to talk about a plastic box that will save your food for a few weeks, and yet so hard to talk about Jesus, who will save your life for eternity?

I’ve been convicted about this. I’m going to read Promoting the Gospel by John Dickson to give me a kick in the pants.