Car Boot Sale Saturday

Have you ever realised just how much crap you actually own? I mean really, who needs things like DVDs when we download everything (legally of course), or clothes that don't fit and will never fit, shoes you've never worn but bought because they were on sale?

Not us, that's who! Over the past month, we've been cleaning and sorting out all of our 'things' to see what we don't use, and what would be better off with someone else. Our lounge room became a bit of a stock room, but Saturday we finally packed everything in our cars, and went off to the local car boot sale.

Now, if you know me, you'll know I can be freakishly organised. Well, this was one of those situations. I had printed out price signs and had them laminated, made everyone name tags, and had everything ready to go, to make set up easier on Saturday morning.

I had written lists on what things I wanted to sell, and what categories I thought they would go in. 
I had even written a timeline for the month beforehand, so I knew when things needed to be done by.

We were up bright and early that morning. Actually, everyone but Justin was up early, his royal sleepyhead went back to sleep after my morning wake up call. But anyway, I picked up Annie before the sun was even up, and we were back at my house having breakfast at before 6:30am. After breakfast, we finished packing the cars, and were on our way to the local Salvation Army church to set up for our first ever car boot sale.

Annie and I went in my car, and we arrived at about 7:15am, to start setting up. Our only issue? Justin and Georgia had the tables. But never dispair, we unpacked anyway, and started organising how and where everything would go.

A short time later Justin arrived with a table, and we were able to start setting up our media section. DVDs, CDs, videos, boardgames and a few random electronic gadgets.

The actual sale started at 8am, but that didn't stop pesky people hassling us to buy things we hadn't even set up set. People were rummaging through bags and looking in boxes that weren't open, and expected us to have all the answers to their annoying questions. 

If you are ever one of these people. Don't do it. It just makes the seller hate you even more. 

Well, it did for me. 

Georgia arrived a little while later in her big black van, and after unloading and setting up, we were ready to go! We had hired two spots, which totalled 3 car parks, so we had plenty of room to spread out, and make everything easy to access. Mind you, it took us a little while to get into the swing of things,working out where this goes, should this be on the table, comparing different positions of the tables and goods. But, after we worked it out, everything went like clockwork.

Organised chaos!

We probably looked like lost lambs to the regular sellers there!

 Georgia had mountains of kids things to sell, and did really well with her tables, organising them and making them look appealing and easy to work out how much each item was. In fact, she made a killing selling her kids toys, she has one whole table dedicated to toys, and deemed the entire table was $1 per item. Soon after setting it up, her table was half empty!

Having the larger toys set up on the blanket was also a great idea, because they were at the kids level, and easy for them to touch and play with. 

Also, have you ever noticed how bright and colourful kids toys are? I guess not having kids myself, I've never really noticed. But damn, it was like a rainbow exploded!

We didn't have a spot in mind for the kids clothes, so we mixed them together with the books. Not really the best move, but we didn't really know how else to do it at the time.

We did pretty well selling a lot of our DVD's and CD's, and even some of our board games went too, which I was sort of surprised about. We had a few electronic things with this table as well, like a record player, fondue machine, and popcorn machine. Justin sold the record player, admittedly for a lot less than I would have liked, but I guess at least that is money that we wouldn't have had other wise.

The start of our media table.

We hall had a bit of a wander around the sale and even bought a few things for ourselves as well. I found some ace books to add to my collection, Georgia found some books and toys for her daughter, and Annie bought a cute little toy pram and cot for her daughter. Here is the rest of the sale:

By the end of the morning (the sale was 8-12) we were all pooped, but really enjoyed the day. It was so much fun meeting all of the locals, and learning more about selling, as well as the actual selling. In total, Justin and I made just over $150, which is pretty good, and we're booked in to do another stall over Easter. 

So if you're in the area, pop down and say hi, you might even find a bargain or two!

Much love,

J xx

50 Shades Of Grey - My Review

Okay, so most of you by now will have heard the hype about the newly released 50 Shades Of Grey movie, and if you haven't, where have you been? It grossed $81.7 million in the first 3 days of release and topped last years romantic comedy 'Valentines Day'. I went on Saturday, which just happened to be Valentines day, with one of my best girl friends Annie, and we were pleasantly surprised.

50 Shades of Grey is the movie adaptation of the book by the same name, written by E.L. James. It follows English Lit student Anastasia Steele, who crosses paths with dark and mysterious CEO Christian Grey, and their often turbulent yet passionate 'love' story.

Now look, I could be all prim and proper about this and use fancy shmancy words, but in reality, the book is mummy porn, and the movie is pretty much the same. Not to say I didn't like it, because I did. 

You'll find many scathing reviews out there, from people of all walks of life saying things like:

• "The blame begins with James' artless, witless source material, which began its literary life as a work of Twilight fan fiction. That explains the story's Northwest setting, Seattle, and the maddening way its adult characters behave like dopey teenagers. Grey, a vaguely defined "businessman," is an unconvincing mix of Regency aristocrat and high-school hunk, while Anastasia is another Bella Swan (Twilight), though with even bigger daddy issues." – Rafer Guzmán, Newsday

• A 1.5 star movie review of “Fifty Shades of Grey”: The adaptation of the erotic best-seller by E.L. James at least has a better-than-expected performance from Dakota Johnson." - Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

To me, they're a little harsh, but each to their own. It's been said that the movie depicts abuse, both physical and mental, misogyny, and a false representation of the BDSM community. 

Seriously?!?!?! It's fiction! If people didn't buy the book, it wouldn't be popular. If people didn't talk about the book, it wouldn't be popular. If people didn't post about it on social media, it wouldn't be popular. It was only a matter of time until a movie was made, because the book gained such popularity. Really, you can blame the author for writing things you don't agree with (and writing them terribly), or you can blame society for enjoying fiction. 

And again, the majority of the people who are claiming the book and the movie depict these terrible things, haven't even read the book, and generally refuse to see the movie. I have. I've read all 3 books, and now seen the movie. 

Throughout the whole series, Christian, who is a controlling, obsessive and sometimes stalkery Dominant cares so passionately for Anna, the sometimes dippy naive college student. But he always states very clearly that she can leave whenever she wants, they'll stop whenever she wants, he gives her clear safe words to use after he explains what it is he enjoys sexually. 

If anything Anna is the one who pushes Christian without his consent. She's constantly asking him why he doesn't like being touched, why he won't let her in etc etc. He answers her, but apparently our little Anna just isn't satisfied with his answers. Rude. 

Either way, you can like it or lump it really.

Anyway now that I've had my little rant, onto my actual review of the movie.

I'll be honest, I wouldn't pay to see if again, but that's because I'm a cheap skate (it costs me $20 as an adult movie goer) and would rather sit in the comfort of my own home and watch it (I have issues with my lower back and struggle to sit for long periods of time).

It starts of almost exactly like the book, showing us Anna going into Christians building, and walking into his office. Or should I say, not so gracefully falling into his office. Anna is dressed like a dowdy middle aged mother, it just makes me uncomfortable. Moving on... They sit down and the barrage of awkward questions begins. Anna, played by Dakota Johnson, stumbles, this time gracefully over questions like 'Are you gay?' with ease and Christian, (Jamie Dornan) responds effortlessly. 

I was hoping to see some sort of chemistry here, but so far none I can see. C'mon, it'll happen soon! Mind you, I'm kind of enjoying the look of Jamie, didn't think he would suit the role, but he seems to pull it off.

As the movie goes on, the tension, both sexual and just plain confusing is evident. Dakota and Jamie seem to fall into a groove and I'm now actually enjoying the movie. Waiting oh so patiently for the sex scenes, mind you.

Dakota still kind of annoys me, but I can see her feeling out the role, and almost enjoying being Anna. 

Some of the lines in the film adaptation, are just as awkward as the book, and literally had me squirming in my seat. 'Laters baby'? Really? What grown man who owns and runs his own empire actually says that? A line from Anna 'Are we going to make love now?', no, no we're not. You sound too young to even know what that means. But I guess, if it hadn't been put in the script, die hard fans would have been up in arms. 

The rest of the characters in the movie are very much sidelined, as the story follows Christian and Anna. There are a few awkward moments, or scenes that don't match to the book, but it's an adaptation, not an exact film copy. The staging and sets on the movie are stunning, and pretty much exactly as I had imagined them, when I was reading the book. I will say though, the boathouse is wrong. All wrong!



I loved the soundtrack, and will be acquiring it when I can. Beyonce's haunting rendition of her hit song Crazy In Love is just sublime, and I felt as though the music fit almost perfectly to the mood of the scenes, and the overall movie. Other contributing artists include The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Annie Lennox and The Weeknd. There was one slightly off putting music selection, but it obviously wasn't overly special, because I can't remember it. 

Now onto the juicy part you've all skipped to, the sex scenes. Really, I should be calling them 'sexy scenes'. If you can feel the sexual tension between Johnson and Dornan, then you might find yourself a little hot under the collar, but really, you don't see much. 

I myself am a little lost as to why people are saying this movie is just soft core porn. The only traditionally sexual area of a woman's body you'll actually see, is a little bit of bush, and breasts. You catch a glimpse of Dornans soft behind, but otherwise, it's all implied sexual intercourse. 



I will say though, one of my major annoyances with the film is that the entire book and 90% of the series is written from Annas perspective. It's all about how she feels, and Anna is in control (to an extent). During the sex scenes in the book, Anna describes in great, yet awkward detail, her orgasms. How she sees fireworks, and feels everything from the tips of her toes, to the top of her head, more than she ever imagined she could. Anna talks about her 'inner goddess', and how empowered she feels knowing how she makes Christian feel. We see/read Christian from Anna's point of view (POV), and we get a feel of how she sees him, and how his presence makes her feel.

Do you think we see any of that in the film? Nope. The sexy scenes are shot from Christians point of view, as it is done in Hollywood it would seem. I was hoping that for once, we would be able to view things from a womans POV, to feel her pleasure. But no, the producer and director appear to have been afraid of breaking with tradition.  

Now, if you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of the BDSM community, then don't watch the movie. It's all wrong. Yeah there is use of bondage depicted in the film, but the feel and culture of the BDSM community is completely different. Feel free to get your kicks out of it just the same. 

All in all, I actually enjoyed this movie a lot more than I ever expected to. Granted I did go in with really low expectations. I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Have a different opinion? Let me know in the comments below.

Love,

J xx

Hot Little Lady Date

Saturday 14th February, Valentines Day. Singles dread it, women in couples love it, men in couple despise it. For me, it's just a Saturday. If I happen to be gifted with an 'I Love You' card, then that's awesome, if not, a simple kiss from my boyfriend is fine.

This year, we planned a nice lunch together and did a little bit of shopping in the hills (We live almost at the foot of the Dandenongs. If you haven't been, please do yourself a favour, and make a day of it). 

However, Justin had to work at 6pm, so I made plans with one of my best girlfriends Annie, to go out on a hot lady date. I'll admit, I probably went a little overboard, but Annie is special, and I hardly get to see her, so I wanted to make it count!

I organised a red rose corsage, and bought her a card (it was awesome), and a couple of blocks of her favourite chocolate, picked her up and off we went! 

I had booked our dinner reservation for 6:15pm, and we arrived a little early, so we went to Timezone and took some hilarious photobooth photos.

 

 

They're great, right? 

We had dinner at Hogs Breath, and sat and chatted for what felt like hours, until it was movie time. We mosey'd over to Village Cinemas, found our seats, and sat down ready for 50 Shade Of Grey. I know what you're thinking, but it was better than I expected!

All in all, it was an awesome night out, with an amazing friend. 

Annie, I love you, Be My Valentine?

(P.S. I love you in a friend kinda way, let's not ruin the mood and make things all weird, like my drunk aunty does at family affairs.)

Love,

J xx

Friends In Need

We all know that moving house can be a tortuous affair, but it can be made slightly more tolerable with helping hands. Sunday, we were the helping hands!

Good friends of ours Ben and Leah, we finally moving from their tiny run down house in Springvale, to a beautiful new family friendly home in FTG. They had already packed so many things in to boxes, their house was almost unrecognisable! 

Ben's mum and two brothers came to help out, as did our friends Tom, Rach, Shaun, Sam & Jack, so between all of us, we managed to pack almost everything into the van and the cars. With some amazing Tetris skills from yours truly, we only had to do two trips. Granted we left a couple of things behind, but still, I was pretty impressed!

By the end of the day we were all pooped, and celebrated with some fish and chips! 

I can't wait till Justin and I move house. What, you guys didn't know we wanted to move? Awkward... Anyway, we want a smaller house, as there is only the two of us there now, and our house is just too big. I don't want to leave, but we need a fresh start.

We've already started cleaning out the spare rooms, and packing things into boxes, so hopefully when it comes time for us to move, it will be as easy and smooth and Ben and Leah's transition!

I actually remembered to take a few happy snaps on the day, and with Bens permission, here they are!

 

 

How many people does it take to pack a mattress into a van? 5, it took 5 of them!

 

I'm so happy they finally have a house they can call home!

Fingers crossed we find something nice too!

Jayde xx

Not So Lazy Saturday

Hello my lovelies!

I've been quite busy the last few weeks, and finally have a chance to share things with you guys!

So anyway, last Saturday I had a great day out, and it all started out in a car park in Glen Waverley... At a Car Boot Sale!

I saw the massive yellow banner in front of the Salvation Army church on my travels the night before, and thought to myself, this could be a bit of fun. I woke up nice and early, 8am for your info, which on a Saturday morning is early, and off I went. 

The place was already packed when I arrived, so I had to park down the road and walk up to the actual sale. There were people everywhere! Mums, dads, kids, dogs, it was amazing to see how many people could fit into that small carpark. 

The stalls were selling all sorts of things, such as:
 - baby clothes
 - ladies clothes
 - kids toys
 - potted plants
 - electronic goods
 - books and comics
 - knick knacks

They had a sausage sizzle (of course), and everyone there was so nice!
I can home with a small haul of things, and only spent $40, which I was pretty impressed with. I bought, 12 Mr Men books, 20 Little Golden Books, a couple of random kids books, I also bought 8 Spiderman comics for Justin, and a few things for my friend Georgia's daughter including an awesome Fairy book in mint condition (for $1!!!), a super cute denim overalls dress, a super cute pink adjustable hat, and a bag full of kids hair accessories.

 

They hold the sales once a month in the warmer months of the year, and I was thinking of holding my own stall. We have so many 'things' at home that we just don't need or use, and someone else may love them more than we do. It only costs $10 for the stall, so even if I only break even, at least I will have less useless things at home!

I'm hoping I can drag a couple of friends down with me, and make a day out of it. 

What sort of things would you guys buy at a car boot sale? Do you have any tips for me? 
Leave them in a comment down below!

Much love,

Jayde xx

January Harvest

Drum roll please....




Here is the first harvest off my little potted garden! I picked 3 beautiful, crispy, fresh snow peas.

Not much, I know, but considering I only have a small selection of plants, and the cabbage moths/caterpillars are decimating everything, I'm pretty happy with it. 

We've had some wild weather over the past month, which has burnt my salad box, and the wind had destroyed one of my trellis panels (which my loving boyfriend fixed for me), as well as being hot and muggy, but barely raining. 

My tomatoes seem to be going pretty well, not flowering yet, but they will! My climbing beans are starting to flower, so they'll be producing soon too. Can't wait for my  strawberries and capsicums to flower and fruit!

It's all happening over at my house, just slower than I would like.

Much love

J xx

The Creativity Club

I'll be honest, I love craft. 

Not art, painting or drawing (because I'm rubbish at it), but cutting & pasting, making things out of clay, cooking, baking, sewing, making hats & jewellery, gardening & being all around crafty.

Sometimes I have such mental blanks I just lose all interest in doing anything remotely crafty, so my spare room (let's be truthful, it's an entire room devoted to craft) stays untouched and unloved.

Every now and then I have bursts of creativity, and come up with things like: 

Flower Crown

Frosted Windows

Home Made Jam

Outdoor Mood Lighting

So when I stumbled upon elsie marley one day, and she was talking about some kind of 2 word challenge, I thought to myself, what a great little idea! My words were shark + garland. I'll admit, my submission wasn't all that flash hot, but it was an interesting idea. 

Now Elsie has created The Creativity Club in an effort to help all of us push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and get creative.

So keep your eyes peeled for new and exciting crafty things! We are sent a challenge the 3rd Monday of each month, and we have a week to complete it. You can see everyone's submissions on Instagram (and sometimes Facebook and Twitter) using the hashtag #thecreativityclub

Wish me luck!

Lots of love,

J xx

Jadex Adventures: Christmas Gifts

Woah, guys, I've missed you! It's been so long since I've had a minute to myself, and actually had a chance to write anything down. But, fear not, I'm hear to fill you all in!

This weekend, Alex and I went adventuring, looking for Christmas presents. Now, I'm sure you all know by now, we love making hand made gifts, and this year will be no different. We wanted something that would either be tasty or useful, be quick and easy to make, and be able to be wrapped nicely (presentation counts here people!).

Sadly, I can't share the actual presents with you till after Christmas, cause, well, spoilers, duh. But I can share our shopping adventures! 

Our first stop was Food Factory Sales in Bayswater. They actually have another store in Shepparton, but that's waaaaaay to far away for my liking. The Bayswater store is pretty new, so isn't listed on their website yet.

So, in we went, full of excitement... I was mainly there to have a look at the jars, as I like to make and can my own pasta sauce and salsa. I also want to start making my own jams and chutneys, so this seemed the perfect place to look for canning goodies. They did not disappoint!

Clearly I was excited to buy ALL THE JARS. Not even kidding, I came home with probably 40 jars in different sizes. Not sure what I'm going to do with them all yet, but I will work it out!

Alex was excited by the flavour, 'Sasquatch Coconut Ice', what the hell does a sasquatch taste like, and why are you mixing it with coconut?!?!

We had a lot of run walking around looking at all of the different things. They have a lot of canned goods, pasta, jars of sauces, spices, cleaning products, and obviously jars. We went home with a small collection of things, which I was impressed with. I spent $99 in total! Granted it wasn't stuff I would normally buy, but because it was in bulk, I can store it at home, and not have to worry for a while about having to go out and buy it.

Next on our agenda was Bushy Park. We were looking for good priced fresh fruit and veg, and we were not disappointed! 

Alex was very excited by the nuts... and spaghetti quash, what ever that is!

After Bushy's, we popped part Alex's mums house so I could steal some eggs, then it was off to my house to start experimenting!

Now, as I mentioned above, I can't show you any photos, or tell you anything about our present idea, but keep your eyes peeled after Christmas for more information.

For now my sweets, have a great day!

Love

J xx