You know you’re not going to make it when…

My 100 Thing Challenge is coming quickly to an end. But I have sabotaged myself by booking a flight to Darwin to visit my fiancé. This leads me to tell you a story;

While I was at university my best friend and I worked on a number of projects together, I liked to get things done over the allocated time where as my bestie preferred to leave it to the last minute. I think he liked the adrenaline rush.

It was the day before a big end of semester assignment was due and we’d been hard at it all day. I was typing, he was yelling clever sounding sentences over my shoulder. The deadline for submission was looming and I remember him standing there counting minutes on his watch as the printer was churning out the last pages, “We’re not going to make it by train, we’ll have to get a taxi!” he gasped. He was pacing the room and grabbing at pages and overall becoming pretty distressed. It was at this moment, at 20mins before our assignment was due that I thought I’d share with him my good news;

“I got us an extension!”

You can probably imagine the reaction: a dumbfounded blank nothing followed by hysterical dismay at my deceit which then turned into hysterical laughter. He was relieved that we didn’t have to sprint to campus and was slightly flattered that I knew him well enough to not have shared the extension news earlier. Sometimes you just know when you need an extension and it’s always best to ask for it well in advance.

So this leads to my news for you – I’m giving myself an extension. I realised with all the organising for a dirty weekend away I wasn’t going to have enough time to make it down to 100 things. Especially as it gets more and more challenging towards the end. I need full concentration and right now I’m more interested and painting my nails and dreaming about romantic reunion runs through airports.

So I’m substituting the week I’m away for another week doing the challenge. My new end date is: 17^th March.

BTW – perfume gone and tan pumps sold on ebay yippee.

Items: 183

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Under 200 things!

I made the most of being home with the flu by going through the storage bag of clothes I packed away a month ago. Just not using the clothes for a month made it a lot easier to decide which pieces to keep and which to part with. I only kept a white cotton blouse because it will work well in my new black&white capscule, and a pair of beige cargos which I added to my ‘gardening and working clothes box’ which is stored in the spare room.

Now I have two piles; ebay and goodwill.

I’m going to drop off the goodwill bag now on the way to the supermarket to buy some lunch.

Also out;

Wooden carved puzzle toy of my name from when I was a child.

Items: 186

Read Full Post »

200

Ps. Tomorrow I’m going to crack the 200 mark. I don’t know how, but I will!

Read Full Post »

More old hobbies bite the dust

Today I sold my swimming flippers and hopefully my goggles and swimming cap (the women is taking them home tonight for her daughter to try on).

It was awesome handing the flippers over, the girl was so appreciative and happy. I’ve never been in sales, perhaps this is why working in retail is popular?

I also sold my old computer, the one I used why I was at uni. Now a young girl will use it. Again the buyer was stoked to get a bargain she actually wrote in the email; Yippee.

Also the feeling of relief and freedom when I finally walked away from the flipper deal was huge. It was something I spent the whole challenge so far thinking about. Did I want to keep swimming, because keeping the stuff meant I had to swim. So I’ve given up swimming and will put the money towards my new hobby dancing.

Read Full Post »

Damn it, I found some extra things

I’ve noticed there a few things I’ve forgotten on my list (damn!);

iPhone – love it and use it so much its an extention of my hand, I guess this is why I didn’t notice it to put it in the list in the first place.

tin of bobbypins – it’s a cute tin and I use them almost every day

body lotion

To compensate this increase I’ve decided to make my three dressing gowns (summer, winter and slinky for travel) into one item – it’s my rules!

Items: 208

Read Full Post »

Only 3 makeup items? Is it possible??

Currently the Simple Living Forum has a thread on; “If you only had 3…” Of course many of the women have written about if they only had three make up items what they’d be. Lots of foundation, mascara and lipgloss featured.

 So I had new resolve over the weekend to see if I could decide what my 3 makeup items would be.

 I had a play around and decided that foundation would be my first item. I had kinda given up wearing foundation especially since cycling to and from work but I realised it really does give a polished look.

 Next item was mascara, I like this because it draws attention to the eyes and best of all it doesn’t need reapplying during the day.

 But the third choice was much harder. I’ve already given up my lipsticks so that wasn’t it, I love lip pencils but they aren’t very versatile, then there are eyeshadows to highlight the ‘windows of the soul’ but it ended up as a toss-up between eyeliner and lip & cheek tint.

 I went with the tint because a girl needs some glow, especially one who spends 8 hours a day in an office under fluro lighting and only one hour a week dancing. Plus this is a cheat product; I use one tint compact on lips, cheeks and eyes – awesome.

 So for the experiment, and this is a bit lame, I did up one half of my face with each ‘look’ and guess what? No real difference. And it was at this point that I had a realisation. You know when people do the grade thing? Like she’s a 10/10 or a 7/10 or maybe even a 3/10 god forbid? Well, I think I get out of bed a 6 and after showering and blow drying my hair I probably get to a 7 and then once I put on some foundation I can make it to 8/10. But I realised no amount of eyeshadow, bronzer, lipstick etc was really going to move me ‘up’ much more. I think everyone has a plateau, it’s genetics. For example, I just dyed my hair from blond (for 27 years) to brunette, I had lunch with my Mum today and she didn’t even notice. This really made me realise that you just look how you look and some extra highlighting cream or lip pencil really isn’t going to do anything!

Anyway, in the end I decided that my three things will be;

1. Liquid foundation
2. Brown mascara
3. Pink lip and cheek tint
And today I left the house without bronzer for the first time in, my god like, 9 years! And guess what, not one person exclaimed – Oh my, are you sick? You look SO pale.

Items: 209

What would your 3 make up items be? Feel free to add your list to the comments section.

Read Full Post »

Countdown: 39 days left

1st Dec – 31st Dec 09 = 31 days

1st Jan – 30th Jan 10 = 30 days

So today I have 39 days left and still 121 items to purge before I reach my goal.

I’m starting to wonder if I’ll actually make it. 100 things isn’t many in our western society, if I didn’t have to look pretty and dress well this would be so much easier! (horrifically I have over 30 beauty products!). I have tried the hippy thing in the past but for all its simplicity and wonderfulness it just wasn’t ‘me’ in the end. I like lip and cheek tint. I need deodorant. 

So today with only 39 days to go I’m feeling a bit stalemate. But this is also probably ‘the point’. This is the part where I will either drop out and this blog will become yet another abandoned site in the www. Or – I will force myself to make some serious lifestyle changes and actually achieve a lifestyle of minimal possession. But today, I don’t know which way I’ll go.

Read Full Post »

Give to children

Today I made a lot of head way on my list. I packed up a whole box of goodies for the kids of a women who works on my parent’s property. She is a single Mum and her kids have a great farm life and are very entrepreneurial; making pot plants, keeping chickens for eggs etc to make pocket-money. These kids are getting the same kind of upbringing I had, and that includes not many frivolous toys. My sister and I were mostly happy with cardboard boxes a roll and sticky tape and some space. But I also remember how much we loved getting hand-me-down toys from older kids in our neighbourhood. I hope this box of toys and things brings these kids the same joy.

The big box includes cool books (games, sas survival, animals etc), a big teddy, a barbie still in its box, bags and bags of gorgeous beads, a Russian doll, a bag of costume jewellery, a pencil tin and a bright coloured make up set which the kids can use for dress-ups, plus some other bits and bobs.

We’re going out to the property for Australia Day lunch tomorrow so I will bring it with me then. I’m also giving my step-dad my African sarong, they have a pool and he’ll get more use from it than me.

Items 237

Read Full Post »

Goal to crack 300

Today is my last day of summer holidays. I’m up earlier trying to re acclimatise to the morning starts. I pretty much had to choke down my toast as I haven’t eaten before 10am for the last month.

So today my goal is to get rid of at least two things so that I’m in the 200s. Yes, it will be 299. But that is a big deal. It’s a long way from 503 where I started. And while I haven’t honestly parted with 200 possessions, as many things became new collections, I have at least consciously dealt with 200 items and have decided their rightful place in my life.

I still haven’t worked out the maths to find out when my 100 day challenge ends. But since I started on the 1st Dec I must have roughly 55 days left. I’m still a bit behind target but I’m making progress.

Items: 301

Read Full Post »

Return borrowed things Part II

Sometimes you borrow something for so long it seems like your own. I have two books on my shelf that were from my exboyfriend’s collection. In a relationship the lines of ownership always get blurred, but the fact that these books have personal messages written to him in the inside cover confirms that, yes, they are his. And yes, I’ve borrowed them for far too long.

Once upon a time all I ever wanted was bookcases full of books; ‘the visual path of my life’. Books had character and depth to a room, and there is nothing like spotting the spine of a book to bring the story back to you. But as I said it my first post, I’ve decided to part with this dream and use the library instead. Except for useful reference books: cookbooks, gardening guides etc.

My ex however still has this dream of a house full of books and once said to me (quoting some famous person); ‘sell everything but the books’. So I thought it fitting to post The Rum Diaries and Rules of the Wild (highly recommended) back to him in South Africa.

Items: 302

Read Full Post »