DEATH OF A BLOG

Well folks, enough blogging from me. Thanks to those who listened to what I had to say. Thanks to all those out there who shared their ideas and thoughts. It's been an interesting experience and I've had fun. But the fact is, in cyberspace no-one can hear you scream or laugh or see a smile and I found blogging a little lonely for my tastes. I don't have time to spend visiting loads of blogs and leaving my tracks to follow. Life in the real world calls more loudly right now and thats where I'm off too. People to meet in person, dirt to be dug, my local community to be involved in. Fun to be had.
Seeya!!!

Natalie

THINGS TO DO IN OCTOBER

• Consider taking an art or craft class. Theres a million and one fun ways out there to express yourself. You could try pottery, sculpture, mosaic, card making, quilling or even take a life drawing class, if for no other reason that to realise other people have saggy bits too.



• Sandal time! Treat yourself to a pedicure. If you can't afford the salon variety, there are beauty colleges that offer low rates for you to be a guinea pig and what's wrong with blue toe-nail polish really? Or even buy the products yourself and lock yourself in the bathroom for the evening. This is only a bad idea if the bathroom contains the only toilet in the house!



• Experiment with some incense. There are some delicious fragrences although they have yet to release 'pancakes with maple syrup'. I'll be first in line when they do. Some unfortunately smell like trough-lollies so give the pack a good sniff before you purchase or you may have a queue of workman at your door. The smoke cleanses the chi of your home and hides the smell of the insinkerator.



• Make a wish collage. Write a list of all the things you'd like or like to do with your life. Then go through magazines and brochures to find images to represent those wishes. Cut them out and paste them onto carboard, collage style. If you like, get the crayons, textas and glitter out and decorate. These can also be used to scribble over the woman holding the man you've stuck down.



• Tell everyone important to you that you love them. You'll make the postmans day.

October Edition

Frivolity, yes - that's October for you. Whack on a bib and let the creative juices flow. Some people have tried to tell me that they don't have a creative bone in their body. Tush. Not possible! Even plucking eyebrows or serving up baked beans on toast can be creativity. People tend to think that only art and craft is creative. But we've all been the the local Rotary club fete and seen that all craft is not good craft. You are a creative being. The way you get your bikini wax to look like Blinky Bill in profile is pretty darn creative. And nobody could even crochet that if they tried.
So maybe people say your art is bad. Well, you simply did not hit them hard enough the first time. Theres no such thing as bad art. It's simply expression. If you're having a bad week, you're not going to paint fluffy kittens and babies-breath. No girl, you gonna paint whatcha feelin.......Sorry, started channelling Oprah but it's OK I found the remote. What I mean is find some way of expressing yourself, whether it be redecorating the garden shed on shaving Celtic knotwork onto the dog; it doesn't matter how. Spring is all about creating something and Spring is telling me right now to bake some chocolate brownies. I am not afraid to go with my gut feelings on this one.

The Good Life

'The Good Life'- as a TV show I loved it, as an idea I adored it and I still do. Being self-sufficient and self-reliant. I didn't know however, that the original television show was inspired by a true life story which began in 1932 in New York City in the middle of the Great Depression. In this year, Scott and Helen Nearing abandoned their city life for the green mountains of Vermont. They were socialists and pacifists and vegetarians. They were also inventive visionaries detirmined to create a completely self-suffient lifesyle that was solely dependant on their wits, hard work and perseverence.
The Nearings went in search of the good life; "simplicity, freedom from anxiety...an opportunity to be useful and live harmoniously."Two decades later they had succeeded and wrote a homesteading handbook entitled: 'Living the Good Life:How to live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World'. This book barely caused a ripple when it was published in 1954; those were the affluent post-war years when a television in every living room, a BBQ in every back yard and a station-wagon in every driveway was considered the good life. But in 1970 when the book was published as a paperback, it became a best-seller and the bible of alienated barefoot baby-boomers in search of flower power, peace, love and communal nirvana. The Nearings grueling saga, which included wresting utopia from the earth twice ( they moved to Maine in their later life as the neighbouring property to theirs was to become a ski resort) , is mythological in scope. they built a stone house by hand, they drank only water, juices and herbal teas and consumed little more than raw fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds "that have finished their life cycle" and copious amounts of pop-corn. There was no coffee, tea, salt, sugar, dairy products or eggs and naturally they did not smoke or drink. Honey was only used occasionally because it "exploited the bees"and maple syrup which they tapped and sold for cash or bartered, was swallowed with a smidgeon of guilt because it "sucked the life-blood of the mighty maple trees."
This probably explains why scott lived to be 100 and helen was still alive in her 90's when I read this article. Perhaps the secrets of the good life are revealed in the Nearings suggestions for living life less stressfully, which I have put down at the end of this piece.
I know that a simpler life is waiting for me, and every day I get a little bit closer to disentangling myself from this very complicated modern life that we get caught up in. Do you also feel strangled by your obligations and responsibilities? Whe you focus on your life properly, you can make a snip here, a chop there and even a whopping hack over thar. It's your life. Make it look more like the life you want to be leading.
ARTICLE ON THE GOOD LIFE FROM 'SIMPLE ABUNDANCE'BY SARAH BAN BREATHNACH

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THE GOOD LIFE

DO THE BEST YOU CAN WHATEVER ARISES

BE AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF

FIND A JOB YOU ENJOY

LIVE IN SIMPLE CONDITIONS; HOUSING, FOOD, CLOTHING- GET RID OF CLUTTER

CONTACT NATURE EVERY DAY; FEEL THE EARTH UNDER YOUR FEET

TAKE PHYSICAL EXERCISE THROUGH HARD WORK; THROUGH GARDENING OR WALKING

DON'T WORRY; LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME

SHARE SOMETHING EVERY DAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE; IF YOU LIVE ALONE, WRITE TO SOMEONE; GIVE SOMETHING AWAY; HELP SOMEONE SOMEHOW

TAKE TIME TO WONDER AT LIFE AND THE WORLD; SEE HUMOUR IN LIFE WHEREVER YOU CAN

OBSERVE THE ONE LIFE IN ALL THINGS

BE KIND TO THE CREATURES

I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker

" Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker, with flowers in my hair..." I do love that song, it makes me happy hearing it. And it would make you happy not hearing me sing it in my car. But it's the only thing that saved me from a shopping centre experience today. I went in feeling a bit off and was spat out the other end a few hours later feeling dreadful. How do people shop for entertainment? And the fashions are a shocker at the moment. The styles looked bad in the eighties when I saw them the first time. What twit brought them back? I shall have to imagine an imaginary emergency fashion meeting in Paris with all the fashion big-wigs having been summoned. And then the cold shocking announcement- "Dahhhhhlings, I have dreadful news for the new seasons style ( deathly quiet ) ,we have run out of ideas and we have decided to re-do the early eighties."
Shocked silence and then the unanamous response- "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
"Yes darlings, even your dog would not wear it, but we must convince people that looking shite and moronic is hot, hot, hot. Just do your best."
And that's pretty much what I think must have happened. And I tell you my reaction is not old age. All the twenty somethings were looking very put out too.
I do hate shopping malls though. I enter very bravely, clutching my calico shopping bag and crushed little shopping list and then several hours later, I find myself outside and dazed, blinking in the sunlight, holding several shiny plastic bags containing nothing I really wanted. What really happened in there? It's like those missing hours that alien abductees experience. But at least the aliens found what they wanted.

Growing Up in Australia

Someone sent me this years ago andI don't know where it came from but I thought I'd reproduce it for the smile factor. People who grew up elsewhere, I'm sure you can still relate.

I'm talking about hide and seek in the park. The corner milk bar, hopscotch, billy-carts, cricket in front of the garbage bin, skipping, handstands, footy on the best lawn in the street.

British bulldog 1-2-3, go home stay home, slip'n'slide, the trampoline with water on it, hula hoops, pogo sticks, stepping in enormous puddles, mud pies and building dams in the gutter.

The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass, 'Big bubbles, no troubles'with Hubba Bubba bubble gum. A choc-top Mr Whippy cone on a warm summer night after you've chased him 'round the block. When 20 cents worth of lollies was a meal and smoking ''Fags' was really cool.

Wait... Watching Saturday morning cartoons... short commercials, The Thunderbirds (if you got up reeeeeally early) the Smurfs, Astroboy, He-Man, Captain Caveman, Archie and heeeey, heeeeey, heeeeeeeey it's faaaaaaat albert. Or staying up late and watching a special family movie- The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins...

When around the corner seemed far away, and going into town seemed liked going somewhere. A million mozzie bites and bee stings.

Sticky fingers. Cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, riding bikes and catching tadpoles. Marco Polo in the neighbours pool ("fish outta water?""Noooo!") drawing all over the pavement with chalk.

Climbing trees and building cubbies out of every sheet your mother had in the cupboard. Walking to school no matter what the weather.

Running till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for the giggles.

Being tired from playing....Remember that???? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. Cricket cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.......eating raw jelly, making home-made lemonade and sucking on a 'Funny face'or red Freeza. Remember when there were only two types of sneakers- boys and girls. Dunlop volleys with the Green'n'gold or blue and the only time you wore them at school was for 'sports day'.

You knew everyone in your street- and so did your parents! It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best friends'. You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve. When nobody owned a pure bred dog. When 50 cents was decent pocket money. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for 5 cents.
When nearly everyones mum was at home when the kids got back from school. It was magic when dad would 'remove' his thumb. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant with your parents.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed her or use him to carry groceries in and nobody, not even a kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the principals office was nothing compared to what you got at home when your parents heard about it. Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! Some of us are still afraid of them!!!

Didn't that feel good? Just go back and say, yeah, I remember that! Remember when... Decisions were made by saying "Eeeny-meeeny-miney-mo"or scissors, paper, rock. "Race issue"meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handles by whoever was the banker in 'Monopoly'. The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was boy/girl germs, and the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one. Having a weapon in school was being caught with a home-made slingshot.

No-one was prettier than your Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable vitamin C's. Icecream was considered a basic food group. Going to beach and catching a wave was a dream come true. Hot vinyl seats in the car, stifling heat in summer, Air-conditioning was opening a window. Abilities were discovered because of a 'double dare'. Older siblings were the worst tormentors but also the fiercest protectors.

Summers holidays stretched on forever.

GODDESS IN THE MIRROR

There are a million things in this world that say very loudly that we are unhappy with the way we are. And the huge majority of them are made for women. We, by using them agree. You don't like your hair colour? Dye it, perm it, straighten it, spray it, control it. You don't like your skin? OK, we can bleach it, shave it, tan it, fake tan it, operate on it, put cosmetics on it, inject it, hide it.
There are a billion products out there to hide the original you. And they all suggest that the original you is not good enough. Many of us have fragile egos and we end up agreeing that by adding this or using this we may look better, more regular or better than. But by whose standards are we measuring ourselves? Large corporations and marketing firms who prey on our insecurities.
Flowers come in a million varieties, yet each is uniquely beautiful and perfect. Why should we see ourselves any differently?
It is no cliche' to say that love makes a woman beautiful. This starts with yourself. And good health is an example of self love making us beautiful.
As for what you see on the mirror, start with a smile and celebrate freckles, moles, frizzy hair; in fact anything not on a barbie doll, as your authentic, original, impossible to duplicate, beautiful and perfect self. And as they say, anyone who tells you otherwise is either jealous or trying to sell you something.

OFF THE SOAP BOX
I recently got all of my hair cut off. Number four on the clippers. I had my reasons (and it wasn't nits!) but it was something I'd always wanted to do but lacked the guts. Well finally I did it. I admit to a little hat hiding for the first two weeks. I had to listen to quite a few "Oh my God's" and "What happened to your hair" but then I got some admiring comments from people and I got used to it. Then I remembered I had to go to work! I work on-call in Pharmacy and at first, serving customers, I realised everyone was looking at my hair and I thought "OK, you can't hide it, so go with it." So I doubled my smile and had a great shift. Now maybe they thought I was going through chemo, but everyone was lovely that night!
Aside from children saying I looked like a boy, the biggest thing I notied was people asking me what my children thought about it or my husband. I did notice with dismay that my husband found it less becoming. Shouldn't be surprised you say? Well, he cut it for me!
At the end of the day, it's incredibly freeing and easy having hair this short.It's got me holding my chin up higher than I did before and I'm really proud of myself for doing it. But it does make you realise that women are still percieved by tradtional ideals and old-fashioned judgement. I recommend the experience to anyone who has ever toyed with the idea of doing it. Go on, get those clippers out! Dare ya!

THINGS TO DO FOR SEPTEMBER

Make a Treasure Box. Use a small, closable box you already have or buy one froma craft or thrift shop. Mine is about 10cm x 5cm and is wooden with a hinged lid and looks like a little sea chest. Decorate it however you like. Then write a list of all the blessings in you life ie a home, clothing, family and friends, nice climate, eyes- whatever you're lucky enough to have. Get some gold cardboard that is white on one side and cut regular circles the size of a dubloon as you imagine them to be. On the flip side you write you blessings and pop them inside the chest.Add new ones as they happen or you think of them. Whenever you're feeling down or 'scarce' you can look in your chest to remember how rich you actually are!

Buy or make yourself a Spring wreath for your front door. Silk or dried flowers last well. You can celebrate in all the seasons this way. Blossoms and new leaves for Spring, ripened grain, grapes or maybe beach themes for the Summer, Autumn leaves and ripened fruit and frosted twigs, berries etc for winter.In this way we acknowledge and celebrate the importance of the passing seasons. Think of other ways you can do this. Perhaps an annual Spring picnic, a Summer Mexican style fiesta night, an Autumn visit to an orchard, a mid-winter story-telling night. Create your own rituals and celebrate life with family and friends.

Take a walk under the huntress moon.

Visit nature in a garden or the wild and enjoy the scent of blossoms, the sound of excited birds, animals and insects (except swarms of hornets) and the sight of fresh green bursting out of the ground.

Southern Spring September Edition

Welcome to the September edition of Urban Venus and to the gorgeous season that is Spring! The flowers are blooming, the bee's are buzzing and the cockroaches doing limbo under your door. And speaking of all things busy, some people (one) have asked how on earth I manage to do this newsletter whilst simultaneously doing motherhood and holding down a part-time job. Well, dear reader, one look at the state of my house should fully answer your question. I mean it's all about prioritising isn't it? Therefore and quite naturally, the things you enjoy doing most go to the top of the list and the horriblest, if not ignorable altogether, go to the bottom. And thus part of our usual household landscape includes 'Ironing Mountains'. Actually, the truth be known my house always looked a bit that way as I make sure I always have some form of distractive fun on hand.
Speaking of housework ( blasphemy aside ) it is traditional to herald in the spring with a spot of jolly old spring-cleaning. However my own attempts at spring-cleaning, indeed all cleaning, are a bit like that of 'Mole'at the beginning of that wonderful classic 'The Wind in the Willows'where he begins (his cleaning) all hustle and business and end it by throwing down his apron and exclaiming "Bugger it, that enough" or something like that but more suitable for young readers, and heads off into the bright Spring sun to investigate the world and anything that doesn't involve housework. And to you I would suggest the same. You've spent enough time indoors over the winter. Follow you senses outdoors and let spring take you where it will...
URBAN VENUS DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS READERS REMOVING CLOTHING, SINGING LOUDLY OR DANCING/SKIPPING IN PUBLIC. OR FOR SHED-LOADS OF HALF COMPLETED HOUSEWORK.