What’s Hot + What’s Not
Jeepers – this is quickly turning into a Wednesday only, what’s hot + What’s not blog. Nanowrimo is really not leaving much time for blogging. Never mind! Here’s the spiel if you want to play along:
It’s as easy as writing up your own hot/not list on your blog and then linking back to me here at loobylu.com and then adding your url to the widget below.
Here’s mine:
Hot
Days – the days are hot. I am not a fan of Summer (at least not of the Antipodean kind – Summer in Canada was really very pleasant) and it’s not even officially Summer yet and still we are sweltering. Climate change, will you be the cause of a mass family migration to cooler climes? Perhaps.
Frosty fruits. Oh yeah – a basic necessity.
NaNoWriMo – I am getting words down. Not very good words, but words none-the-less. almost 21,000 at last count. Chris Baty’s advice to get as many down in the first few days was very good advice indeed. I need to keep up the momentum however, because I feel myself getting bogged down with the second week blues. Startling questions like “What is this book actually about?” are starting to flare up at the most inconvenient times – like all the time. It’s making me a bit grumpy actually. I think that I should save the rest of this for the Not column.
The house is tidy and I still don’t quite believe it. Most nights we even manage to get the clean laundry foldedand put away in drawers. This is previously unheard of! The home organisation system I mentioned last week isn’t exactly easy – and I have to say the novelty wears thin very quickly – but I have managed to keep things under control around here despite the 21,000 words. If I manage to keep it for another fortnight I promise to let you in on all the secrets.
New artwork (top photo). We have been very, very bad in our No Spend Year and bought some artwork. It’s number 8 in our yearly wedding anniversary artwork buying – and it’s a goodie. We found it Byron Bay, but it’s by Melbourne artist Timba. Love it.
Not
Chadstone Shopping Centre – I went on a little Chrissy shopping reconnaissance trip yesterday and I got LOST – inside the mall! I have been going out to Chadstone a couple of times a year (at the very least) for the last 20 or so years. I have seen it go from a dinky little shopping mall to an out of control temple to the gods of consumerism… and I feel like I know the place quite well… but honestly, it is so big and only getting bigger. I got lost somewhere down in the bowels of the place and in a state of confusion ended up buying a bath mat and a packet of flavoured lip gloss – neither of which I needed.
Grumpiness and disgruntlement due to my lack of plot focus (see Nanowrimo notes above). I am projecting my NaNoWriAnxMo (anx is for “anxiety”) onto other things, like what to get people for christmas, and why isn’t the playroom clean? and what am I doing with my life? and do I really need to bake for the school fair?
Not baking for the school fair. I did huge amounts last year – gingerbread and biscuits and so on… this year I left it until 7pm Friday night and then had a “argh, stuff it” moment. Not hot. I did, however, serve sno-cones and ice creams to the overheated crowds on Saturday afternoon. The sno-cone stall was one of the best to be assigned to as we were down underground in the very shady equipment storage area, and the medieval sno-cone machine tended to shower bits of ice all over us as it crushed lumps into “sno”. Did you know that people will pay $2 for a tiny scoop of crushed ice in a paper cone with a little bit of highly coloured and flavoured syrup squirted on top? They really do! Some even paid $2 for a tiny scoop of ice with NO syrup! I was stunned, but our stall made the most money of the day – and all for a good cause. Amazing.
Hot weather. Hot is not hot. I think I already mentioned that.
See you at your place, hotters and notters. xx
oh man, i wish i lived down in your hemisphere, cause here the days will only get colder! please send the sun and heat over our way, okay?! i dig your new art 😉 gigi
Actually, I thoroughly enjoy your hotters and notters and I never knew that about sno cones.
LOVE the timba piece. what a great anniversary pressie.
count me in. yes, i’m with you on hot weather! and please tell us your home organisation secrets. does it come down to motivation and hard work…? love your new artwork too.
oh yeah the days are definately HOT!Hey since u hv a blog. Hehe. U might wanna check http://www.ozbloggers.com. It’s new & expanding 🙂 connects via Twitter
We’ve always fancied emigrating to Canada, my husband can get citizenship but hasn’t had chance to apply yet!! just keep eating the frosty friuts & snow cones! The artworks are wonderful! well worth the investment!
sorry spelt fruits wrong….it’s late!:)
Oohhh! HOt weather!!!!!!!! Have so totally forgotten what that’s like!! It is dark here in the mornings and at the moment is wet, and cold!!! x
Smock dresses from Japan, its all you need to take the terror out of summer. That and a really big air conditioner in the home ; )
Count me in! I will post my Hot&Not tmrrw:)Thanks
Hi Claire, it’s weird today I’m quite in sinc with you, my house is still tidy ( not a usual thing), finding the heat a bit too much and totally agree with you about Chadstone. Do you know they design them these days so you get lost so you know you might spend more money. Evil.x
I second Pinry’s request – how does the home organisation system work with all those lovely index cards? Would love to know more. Cheers!
Haha! I, too, find myself facing those inconvenient moments of uncertainty while I’m writing, and fairly constantly facing them at that!No worries about a blogful of What’s Hot + What’s Not, since it’s one of my favorite features on your blog.
Nanowrimo keeps my Hot + Not list short. Here it is.
NOTToday Dude Craft posted and then deleted a post about URL dumpers. Definitely not hot.
HOTA last minute invitation to share a delicious home-cooked dinner with new friends. Lovely!
I think you were lucky to make it out of there with only two non-essentials! NaNoWriMo sounds exciting, good luck maintaining momentum. LOVE the idea of anniversary art!!!
Chadstone is evil! That is all I have to say! I avoid it like the plague! 🙂 x
Love your newly acquired art work from Timba, really great.In for Hot and Not again! Just! Chele x
the snowcones.. huge in japan in summer and more expensive usually than .gourmet versions also available ie: mochi, redbean paste added 🙂
I’m planning never to set foot in Chadstone again as long as I live, haven’t been in about eight years! Op-shops and Gertrude Street are much more enjoyable.
Done! Thanks for the blogging fodder tonight, I was seriously not feeling it until I found this. Genius!
$2 for a tiny scoop of ice with syrup on top eh ? Hmm, better get the kiddies up on the street corner, we could make a killing 🙂 xx
Wow! I have tidy house envy…..How do you do it?? And writing so many words. Good for you!Also love the art work, never feel bad about spending cash or swiping the credit card for something essential or beautiful, William Morris said so, or something like that…..!! x
Hot weather, definetly not hot. Chadstone and the like…we have lovely westfield in my part of the world..not good…however, free airconditioning, which I think is hot. Mum taking our 3 year old to the beach while I stay home with baby, also very nice. I like it here in your blog. Cheers rach
Written. Posted. Linked. Can’t believe that I’ve only just discovered Loobylu after so many years of blogging! As soon as I get broadband back…I’m so back here checking everything out.
I am totally with you on the guilt of not participating in a school event….I end up feeling so guilty about it..that I might as well have done the baking or buying or organizing..just to save me the guilt.It is almost winter here in this part of the world..and I love it! I am not a summer person at all!
I LOVE THE ROBIN ART! I’m in love with Batman, always have been. My psuedo-wedding ring is a batman ring. I am incredibly jealous right now 🙂
Hot weather sounds pretty good to me right now; it’s frosty and blustery here today. But I can vaguely remember the heat driving me crazy in August.And oh, I long for your tidy house, and your nanowrimo discipline, anx and all.
Finally, sometimes even the best mommies don’t bake for the school fair. There is always too much to do, and you have to let some of the little things go, especially when you are writing a novel, which is a big thing. Sounds like the sno-cones mattered more anyhow.
Yay for NaNoWriMo! Keep the words coming…but I do miss your posts 🙂
Every week I have to scramble to get a post together on Wednesday night, but I just can’t bear to miss out. I still love the Hot & Not idea.Good luck with your novel! I know all about the frustration that accompanies writing, unfortunately..
That art is RAD, Claire! I love it.Now, I misread it when you wrote you got LOST at Chadstone as “I LOST IT at Chadstone”. My heart quickened in surprise: “What! Claire losing it! At Chadstone!” I was ready to read some carpark stoush. Though battling the Christmas crowds there would try the patience of anyone.
I remember once going there for the 24 Christmas trading for a laugh, around midnight. Obviously I was young and had nothing better to do (like sleep). It was wretched.
Oh, I love your new art! And what a lovely way to mark your anniversary.And brava for keeping a tidy house. I just started an avalanche of books, which threatened to take down the whole bedroom in one dramatic Rube Goldberg swoop.
The days are awfully hot around here too. Not only that, but the weather’s been ridiculously crazy! It’s always hot, but there were lovely sunny days and now it’s been raining for two days straight! Ugh.I have no time for NaNoWriMo this year, with a ton of finals coming up, and it really bums me out. =/
We had our school fete on Sunday and I was too hot and tired to bake for the cake stall too! And our snow-cone stall was the runaway success of the day too. I was very civilised on teh Strawberries and Cream/Champagne Stall, I think I want that gig every year.
Sorry to hear the home organisation isn’t being as easy as it should be. Have you checked out the Flylady website? It’s a free site run by an American woman and although it’s a little gushy, it’s been absolutely fantastic for me (with a 7 mth old baby) in terms of setting up routines and sticking to them. The website is http://www.flylady.net
Hooray. Feel like I have achieved something – despite the fact that it’s the night BEFORE the next Hot&Not happens. Sigh. Oh well. I wondered if you were doing FlyLady as well – if you’re not, I’d love to know what plan of attack you’ve been using – I need all the help I can get!