Week in Pictures

January 28-February 3

Teddy. I picked up this bear from a second hand shop and added some anatomy (stomach, brain and Kidneys in the back). He had a tag on this leg that had his name in pen. I think he was a much loved teddy.

Six Legs. Spider friend on the back veranda. I didn’t see her boyfriend until I uploaded the photograph. She’s been protecting our veranda for a few months.

Hookworms! Love these little guys. They’re looking for their forever home, will it be your intestine?

Collection of Gall Bladders, Jar and two options for the brooch. These guys are so popular at the moment. Love making them!

Just some pictures and captions

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I bought some acrylic teeth from ebay. They were only about $7. I use them in teratomas but I was also playing with them in some sculpey.

The laser cut wood brain. The first “printing” sucked. Pleased I kept on with it. These also come in earrings which are very cute, so tiny!

The Boy, AKA Charles. He always acts cute for the camera.

I’m trying to learn stop motion animation. The photos I can do (well, I need to do a lot of practicing on them but I can do them) but the video editing. NFI! I read the details and just go WTF? Makes no sense to me. Hopefully I can score some help from my partner soon to sit down and figure it all out.

Murder Tree

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There is a tree in our front yard that is a home to crows, the crows fly in and out of the tree all day. During the school term the crows steal food from the grounds, they steal yogurt containers, muesli bars, and tuck shop paper bags. All of the rubbish from the food ends up under the tree. But then something started to happen, there were dead animals under the tree every day for 5 days. A rat, another rat, a top knot pigeon, a lorikeet, another rat. I started to expect a corpse under the tree after a few days.

I buried all of the animals under the tree in among all of the litter under the tree. It’s a huge pine so there are heaps of needles and dirt underneath to bury the animals.

After that first 5 days we’ve only seen a few more dead animals under the tree. Mostly old ones, like half mummified rats and bird parts. Today I was reminded of all of the animals the showed up under the tree over that week after my partner mowed under the tree uncovering the poorly buried bodies (it’s super dry under the tree and hard to dig up).

As I have a bit of a collections of bones and body bits the corpses under the tree don’t bother me and I can easily bury them when they do show up. We don’t think the crows were actually killing the the animals but that the rats were poisoned (there were heaps of dead rats in the area at the time) and that a cat originally killed the birds and the crows stole the bodies.

Bird wing from the top knot dove

Rat skull

Oh, hello 2017, when did you get here?

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I read something a little while ago that suggested different reasons why we feel time pass faster as we get older. The one that stuck with me (well, the one I remember) was that the percentage of your life that passes in a year becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore when you are between the ages 4 and 5 that year is 20% of your life so far, making it seem like such a long time, whereas when you are 35, like me, it’s only 2.85% of your life so it goes much faster. I think it’s probably more so that when you are an adult you are always so busy doing all of the things, all at once sometimes, that time flies. When you’re a kid you’re looking forward to and counting down to everything; birthday, christmas, school holidays, moving house. I’m sure adults agree that when they are counting down to something they really want (or something they really want to be over) that time moves much slower.

And now it’s 2017, oh my! And the 12th January already, how did that happen?! I already feel like I’m wasting my time.

I’ve been doing some planning with the aid of a mind map. The mind map is a great tool to clarify your goals and I’ve got it on my clip board that is filled with paper of sketches and notes to keep looking at it. In this house any paper that is printed on one side goes into a drawer or a folder to reuse. Most of my anatomy patterns have something printed on the other side, whether we printed it or it’s junk mail. But let’s not get side tracked.

Search mind map on pinterest (there I already did it for you) to find more info on the technique.

It’s pretty weird for me to think about having goals as even 5 years ago I was like goals, fuck off, that kinda thing is for losers (like me, actually) but in the last few years and particularly the last year I’ve really found that using techniques like goal setting are helpful to keep propelling me forward. Oh, and I have motivational quotes on my wall, can you believe that!? As an adult I think it is so easy to just get lost in the motions of everyday that you forget to pursue the things you want to do and are passionate about. You forget to stand up or be present for the things that matter to you. Goals, motivational posters, all that kinda annoying stuff that other people do that used to annoy me – I’m now that person and it’s bloody working, so I’ll just keep being a goal setting, motivational poster put’er upper.

One of my favourite motivational quotes at the moment is this one “If you commit to nothing you’ll be distracted by everything.” It comes from here. I think this is the most completely solid piece of truth I’ve ever read so to try not be distracted by everything this year I chose 3 words to repeat to myself.. Those words are Focus, Learn, Do. I wanted something a bit more fancy that “do” but it’ll do (ha ha). Focus has really become something of a mantra for me already. It’s a great little word to get yourself into the zone.

But anyways, here we are in 2017. So, tell me about your focus for this year?

Here is a Uterus, just because.

$70 Challenge, Update 4.

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We’re wayyyy over in the last week! Current spending today ( Tuesday; the 4 weeks finishes up this Sunday) is -$12.80. We think we’ve got all of this weeks groceries other than bread so should only spend another $5 max. this week, unless we decide to do a fruit shop visit.

Why are we so over? Specials! And stocking up. We’ve always bought groceries from the big supermarkets when they are on significant specials, e.g half price. We’ve got yogurt sachets and Salmon within the last week. The Salmon was $15.50 at Coles for a bag of 6 frozen pieces (half price). As we enjoy Salmon occasionally we snapped up a bag. I mentioned the yogurt sachets in the last post.

Today we bought lots of meat at Aldi. 1 kg Beef Mince, approx 1 kg rump, about 800g of Casserole Beef and Beef Sausages. This is 12 meals for 2! This meat cost us approx $41 making it approx $3.40 per meal of meat ($1.70 per person). This is over 2 weeks of beef for us, so the spending today takes us well into the next week.

As I said, we’ve always stocked up on groceries when we see specials. I know for many this is simply not possible as their budget is so rigid. We also have a lot of shops close to us (most within walking distance) so we can also easily go out whenever we want something rather than having to pay more to avoid going out more (which can be costly if you are using public transport).

Where could I do better?

Planning! This is a great time of year to not spend additional money (I hate when not spending money is referred to as saving money) but a shocking time to try and implement new organisation. In fact my current organisation is a bit out the window with getting orders out and trying to wrap up work (it’s impossible!) Ideally I should be sitting down Sunday afternoon and planning the weeks meals around my schedule as well as making sure my week is nutritionally balanced.

Incorporating more beans, lentils and chickpeas etc into my meals. Nutritionally I should be doing this but I’m only really just starting to eat these foods and I’m still learning how and where I can use them. I don’t love beans so figuring out how to disguise them is what I’m working on 😉

I can’t say we buy much junk food at all. I was gifted chocolate for my Birthday which is still in the cupboard and we don’t often buy biscuits or chips. When we do it’s a good special or a special occasion. I sometimes pick up shortbread from Aldi (they’re $1.70) but as I go in to shops with a clear shopping list I don’t often vary from it and when I do it’ll be cheese or chocolate (headache makers!)

Knowing I’m doing this food challenge has really stopped me buying impulse items and I think it has really impacted both of us in so far as we’ve made changes to the quality of food we eat-FOR THE BETTER! We make sure we’re eating nutritious food as there is no point spending money on rubbish foods!

I’m keen to continue with the $70 challenge again after this 4 weeks is up but not straight away-first thing in the new year. Let’s get that pesky Xmas out of the way first.

$70 challenge, update 3

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We’ve currently got only $30.44 left for this week and quite a few items on the shopping list that we’ll probably need before the end of the week. And it’s only tuesday! The reason for the $40 spend… I was given a yogurt maker by my sister for my birthday and Woolworths had the yogurt powder sachets at 2 for $7 so we spent $14 on those yesterday. This is 4-6 weeks worth of yogurt so we’re ahead on that.

We’ve been eating a lot of salad sandwiches lately which was something we started a couple of weeks before the $70 challenge. Andrew worked out that we are eating about $1.70 worth of sandwich for each one we have (so $3.40 per day out of the $10 per day budget). We usually have wholemeal bread, although pictured here is white bread (The One by Tip Top). Our sandwiches have lettuce, carrot, sprouts (we sprout our own in a sprouter using an approx. $4 bag of mung beans, this probably makes each lot of sprouts 5 cents), beetroot (I pickle my own, here), tomato, cucumber, mushrooms, capsicum, celery, cheese and ham. Andrew prepared the salad and makes 2 days worth at a time.

I mentioned the hot chook, $8, we picked up last week which served us for 3 meals, 2 lots of sandwiches and a chicken soup. These chooks go a long way and I have to say that each serve we had was more than enough.

Chicken soup recipe
*Chicken from a hot chook, make sure the bits of chicken are chunky
*2 chicken stock cubes OR 1 chicken and 1 vegetable
*some mixed veg. I used carrot and sweet potato and frozen peas and corn
*Noodles (whatever you want, I used 2 minute style noodles)

Boil your hard veges in the stock, about 1 litre of water with the cubes. They should be tender after about 30 mins. Add the peas and corn. Add the chicken and cook for about 5-10 minutes which enough to heat it through. Add the noodles and cook til they’re done.
Super easy and damn tasty! This whole meal would have been about $4 in total.

The thing I am thinking about at the moment is that it is really essential to spend time planning meals as well as thinking about what foods you need to make sure you eat to get the correct nutritional requirements. I feel that if we were more on top of the planning part of it we’d be able to spend at least a little less.

Made in Australia Gift Guide

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It’s Christmas time! This means trying to think of what you can give people. As someone with my own little biz I find that I always leave picking things out for family too late and lets face it, they probably don’t all want a handmade brain.

Here are my picks for the perfect Christmas gifts, and they are all Aussie sellers! Oh, and there are also some quirky ones 😉

For Kids

I love this Aussie Animal Puzzle of NSW! Just $50. From handmadepuzzles on etsy

And QLD!

For Sisters

Who doesn’t need a diary?! Weekly Planner from mulberryPOPplanners, $58

Echidna hair pins. I love these echidnas from One Happy Leaf. Just $12.50

Are they a bit quirky? Bloody Murder Cushion on red Bubble by Microwave24. Oh yeah, Microwave24 is my sister… $22.00

For Boys and Men

Males are difficult to buy for!

This Huntsman Spider cushion cover by Photographic Textiles is pretty awesome! Just $26!

Or Nick Cave by Spunk Valley, only $15

For Mum

This Johnson Australia Dinner Plate from KoKo and Bear Co is perfect for mum, and only $10

This gorgeous Corella from Sheryl Cole Art, $87.95

How awsome are these Kangaroo Studs from Sweet November Jewelry, $43

For Anybody!

I really love this Doctor Ibis print, inspired by plague doctors by Rosie Lace $18. She’s also got cute dresses, tops and shorts. One stop shop!

$70 challenge, update 2

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Last week, our first week, we spent $67.41. This week we’ve spent $12.25 so far (it’s Tuesday). I will need to pick up Spinach tomorrow (for the bird) and we do need veges. This week we’ve spent $8 on a chook from Coles and $4.25 on a loaf of bread and 1l milk. The chook has fed us for 3 meals. 2 lots of chicken sandwiches and tonight I’m making chicken soup. That’s $2.66 per meal.

As we had chook for lunch yesterday we had roasted vegetables, Jaipur Vegetables and rice last night. Jaipur Vegetables are by the brand Tasty Bite and can be found in Woolworths with the Indian foods (they are in a sachet and are microwaved for 1.5mins). When they are half price they are $1.50.

We’ve definitely been eating what we normally eat but we’re paying a little more attention to what things cost and how many serves each food is, especially meat. A few weeks ago we started doing salad sandwiches for lunch. My partner doesn’t like salad sandwiches without ham so we have bought those Bertocchi ham pieces that are shrink wrapped. They last about a week and provide us both with plenty of ham across the week for sandwiches as well as we used the last piece of it in a pasta carbonara. I do think the ham is a little pricey but I’m interested in seeing how they price out across the 4 weeks.

I’ve been using the eatforhealth.com.au website to get nutritional info to make sure we’re getting the right foods each day. In fact since we started eating the daily salad sandwich I’ve been feeling very contentedly full most of the afternoon and usually just want something small for afternoon tea. So far my afternoon tea’s are my normal Weetbix (yes I have Weetbix for afternoon tea and I love them!)

In the next post I’ll post a bit more about our day to day eating habits.

$70 challenge update

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It’s Friday and we’ve spent $61.41. I don’t think we need to buy anything else this week. If we do it’ll be a visit to the fruit shop.

We’ve been to Aldi twice to pick up general groceries. Cheese, bread, milk, muesli, etc. We even bought a brownie mix from Aldi and I made that yesterday. Aldi brownie mix is $2.99 and is really yummy for a packet mix. Making brownies from scratch is actually quite costly as it has so much sugar, eggs and chocolate in it. We bought beef mince at Coles which for the 2 of us is 2 meals, 2 left overs. It’s $7 a pack for the 4 star stuff. I made Taco’s last night and we’re having the left over’s tonight. I chucked 75g of red lentils into the Taco mix (as well as lots of veg). Adding lentils adds protein and is also part of a serve of fruit/veg and a meat substitute. I think it’s something I’ll be doing a lot more.

For the taco meal we used an Old El Paso box, I only ever buy these when they are half price. I can’t remember the exact price but its around $3.25. This has the soft taco’s, seasoning and salsa. Of course you need mince, or a meat substitute& some veg (onions, grated carrots, grated zucchini). I made a tomato salsa mix to add to the Taco’s. We grow tomatoes so I had heaps to use. I also love picking green tomatoes for salsa.

Salsa
Tomatoes cut into little bits, mix of red and green if possible
Capsicum
Salt
Sugar
Splash of Apple cider vinegar
Pepper

We recently tried the Lyttos Greek Yog from Aldi and it’s really yummy, and cheap! We used the yogurt as a sour cream substitute as we always throw out sour cream left overs. It was pretty yummy. I think this yogurt will be really versatile for sweet and savoury meals. We don’t eat yogurt by the bowl full but usually have it in smoothies or a spoonful here and there.

Andrew, my partner, has made some notes of what we’ve eaten and thinks that between us we’re having $8-$12 of food between us a day. I’ll later do some posts telling you what kinda things we’re eating and what we’re buying. This is already long enough!

$70 a week food challenge

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This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long while, a cheap eating food challenge.

My partner and I almost always add up the cost of each of our meals to see how much $$ we’re eating. So from today, Monday 14 November, we’re doing a 4 week challenge where we can only spend $70 a week on food.

The Rules
*$70 per week for 4 weeks. If we spend over one week we have to spend under one of the other weeks.
*We will still be eating food from the freezer/pantry but we will keep tabs on what we use and what we put back in.
*Shop where we normally shop.
*If someone else buys us food that’s fine, but we’ll tell you.
*We must eat nutritious food.

My partner and I usually eat at home. I think we only eat out once a fortnight at most so we aren’t spending crazy $$ regularly just for some avocado on toast, in fact I’m allergic to avocado. Also, I have GORD so I do watch what I eat most of the time and I’m never too keep to eat out (apart from the odd visit to Hungry Jacks).

Why do this challenge? It’s personal. I want to force myself to think about food and spending more. To not waste money buying junk food as well as making sure I am well nourished by the food I am eating. I want to take these 4 weeks and learn a bit more about what a serving is & what I should be eating.

I also hope others will read this and get some value, whether from a recipe, or be inspired to think about their own eating habits.

So, today is day 1. I’ll post again in a few days about how we’re going.

Your Organ Grinder

Crafty Adventures in Handmade Anatomy

Week in Pictures

Just some pictures and captions

Murder Tree

Oh, hello 2017, when did you get here?

$70 Challenge, Update 4.

Where could I do better?

$70 challenge, update 3

Made in Australia Gift Guide

For Kids

For Sisters

For Boys and Men

For Mum

For Anybody!

$70 challenge, update 2

$70 challenge update

$70 a week food challenge