more stuff on my cat
Monday, July 31, 2006

I must link this website onto my blog. I just love stuffonmycat.com

Posted byKarma at Monday, July 31, 2006 0 comments  

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lazy sunday
Sunday, July 16, 2006

Hurrah! The first Sunday we have had off together since probably Easter. I love lazy Sundays. The weather is gorgeous, Ive just sent my hubby off to get some eggs and the paper and I am looking forward to brunch in the garden.

My life the past month (I am one of these lazy 'monthly' bloggers) has been blissfully domestic. After over 5 years in the South of England living as a lodger and being a student, I have a 5 day a week job with people I enjoy working with and products I passionately believe in, and a sweet little apartment with a garden and a kitchen all my own...

The only thing missing is a little thing to raise and nurture (aside from my spoiled husband).

Hmmmm, what shall it be, a kitten, or a child?

Posted byKarma at Sunday, July 16, 2006 1 comments  

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help with rose songs
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I am doing a presentation on roses in a few weeks and have been all over the web trying to find a few classical songs or early musical theatre/parlour songs about roses. I am not too fond of 'The Last Rose of Summer', I like the few Quilter songs I have found but am not sure if they fit. I know a couple of Schumann songs (Meine Rose), I wish I could find more in English, or an American folk song or musical song! Any ideas?

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, June 21, 2006 1 comments  

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help with rose songs

I am doing a presentation on roses in a few weeks and have been all over the web trying to find a few classical songs or early musical theatre/parlour songs about roses. I am not too fond of 'The Last Rose of Summer', I like the few Quilter songs I have found but am not sure if they fit. I know a couple of Schumann songs (Meine Rose), I wish I could find more in English, or an American folk song or musical song! Any ideas?

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, June 21, 2006 0 comments  

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moving!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

We are moving to a lovely little conversion flat with a patio and garden on June 1st. The garden is shared with the other 3 tenants but the patio is ours, and I have been obsessing about pot plants. I have never had my own garden/patio and this is my first experience (aside from a token house plant) to grow things. I checked about 6 books out of the library and so far, my favourite combination is a spiky red australian palm contrasted with the soft silver leaves of lemon liquorice and bright pink african daisies.

I will also grow some herbs, just trying to find out which are the most hardy for the english climate!

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, May 17, 2006 1 comments  

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who thinks of these things
Friday, April 21, 2006

You must check out this site. Hilarious.

Posted byKarma at Friday, April 21, 2006 0 comments  

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easter naturally
Sunday, April 16, 2006

Today we had pre-dyed easter eggs at my in-laws. How lazy is that? To not even take the time to dye the eggs, which is most of the fun (aside from the hiding, we just hid the chocolate eggs instead). But surfing around this evening, I have made plans for next easter and how to dye my eggs properly. Did you know the pre-bought dyes are carcinogenic? No surprise, really. But you do have a choice.

Check this great site out.

Posted byKarma at Sunday, April 16, 2006 0 comments  

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Mozartballs
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Imagine my surprise and excitement to find a DVD of Mozartballs when I got home last evening! My partner and I watched it straight away, and I rode a few emotional roller coasters seeing Steph and Lynette in the film, especially in the light of having visited them and spoken about the filming experience just after finishing shooting in Vienna last Autumn. Wow. My only wish was to have had the film be entirely about them! (although the other 3 people had interesting perspectives). I have only watched it once (so far...)

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, March 22, 2006 2 comments  

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movin' on up
Thursday, March 2, 2006

Yay, just got a sweet new car! Our first car (see Monday entry below) was damaged while parked, which turned out to be a blessing, because it was just too big for me to drive on the tiny UK neighborhood roads. The insurance company was thankfully completely disorganised and took ages to sort out having the Monday looked at and finally written off, but during all this time we had a free new rental car for well over a month. The rental car was a Vauxhall Corsa and I loved it, and felt much more secure driving it as it was smaller. So I found this sweet girl (it is definitely a girl) on Autotrader. She is a Sport version too, and has a spunky little growl...

Posted byKarma at Thursday, March 02, 2006 3 comments  

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eyebright update
Sunday, February 19, 2006

I have been putting drops of eyebright tea into my eyes for 3 days now, plus drinking a bit of the tea, and I wore my contact lenses for the first time today. When I first put them in this morning I felt a bit sick, like the lenses were too strong for my eyes! I have heard that eyebright can improve your vision, but in 3 days?? I seemed to get used to it after a while, and my contact lenses did not hurt at all, and have felt fine all day!

Posted byKarma at Sunday, February 19, 2006 2 comments  

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blintz heaven

Sometimes you just cook such an amazing dish that you have to brag about it. Well, there is a new organic bio live yogurt flavour - coconut, and it is greek style too, so really thick and creamy (but not full of sugar like fruit yogurts!) and I don't digest cheese and ice cream well but live yogurt is fine, so.... this morning I made blintzes. They were my favourite sweet breakfast as a child and my health conscious, moderately sweet-toothed adult palate loved my grown-up version:

  • make a dozen or so french crepes (using 200g flour, 2 eggs, rice milk, 100g melted butter and a bit of sugar)
  • fill the hot crepe with a generous dollop of coconut yogurt, st dalfour blueberry preserves (no sugar and NO evil aspartame/sugar substitute), sliced blackberries and/or sliced bananas)
  • roll/fold into your preferred shape and enjoy!

Posted byKarma at Sunday, February 19, 2006 0 comments  

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eyebright
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

My eyes have really been hurting lately. I know that I wear my contact lenses too much but they don't usually irritate this much. After about a week of real discomfort in the afternoons, it dawned on me that I could of course treat my eyes with eyebright (euphrasia) herb, as I sell it nearly every other day in the shop!

I made some weak tea with dried eyebright herb and washed my eyes with it. They felt much better straight away, and I plan to use it for a few days (and try to wear my glasses) and let you know how it goes. The dried herb looks like little black sticks, nothing like the pretty flowers in the picture! Here is some blurb on what eyebright does:

Eyebright tightens the mucous membranes of the eye and appears to relieve the inflammation of conjunctivitis and blepharitis. Its ability to counter catarrh means that it is often used for infectious and allergic conditions affecting the eyes, middle ear, sinuses and nasal passages.

The whole plant is anti-inflammatory, astringent, digestive, ophthalmic and slightly tonic. It is taken internally in the treatment of catarrh, sinusitis, hay fever, upper respiratory tract infections etc. As an ophthalmic, an infusion of the plant can be taken internally or used as an eye wash.

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, February 15, 2006 0 comments  

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plant friends
Friday, February 10, 2006

Went to Kew Gardens today with my Natural Medicine Course. It was great. I've been there two or three times and usually wander around aimlessly smelling and enjoying the colours of plants but today I really felt more connected. It is winter, so we looked at the pine and cedar trees (I have always loved pine and cedar trees), and then our guide pointed out a witch hazel tree - who would have known that witch hazel has beautiful bright yellow flowers! It was lovely to make a connection between a live tree and a product that I sell in my shop (witch haze is a skin toner, also you can put some on cotton wool and it is very cooling and soothing, try placing it over tired eyes!). I have never had an interest before in growing anything aside from a house plant but the idea of growing herbs in the garden really is starting to appeal to me. I am going to start with chamomile very soon, as I have chosen it is my plant study for this course. I absolutely love chamomile - it has such a cheeky, happy spirit!

Posted byKarma at Friday, February 10, 2006 1 comments  

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new show
Thursday, January 26, 2006

Great News! I just got the role of Julie Jordan in Carousel. My first American musical - funny, I've always done G&S or opera (or Brecht/Weil). Have a look at the West Wickham Operatic Society website. Very exciting...

Posted byKarma at Thursday, January 26, 2006 2 comments  

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happy birthday
Monday, January 2, 2006

Today for my birthday we went to tea at The Lanesborough. We had been there once before, for our first anniversary, and it was lovely as always. I much prefer it to the Ritz, because at the Ritz they only allow you one hour and here you can linger as long as you like, and the service and tea are delicious! We then went to Foyle's bookstore in Charing Cross road. I have really been struggling to find a good page turner fiction book, but could not find something I wanted! I don't really want a romance, or a book where one describes some great strife... I want something like Life of Pi, or Phillip Pullman's trilogy, or Harry Potter.... basically good prose style, a positive/uplifting story, with a positive ending... Any suggestions?

Posted byKarma at Monday, January 02, 2006 2 comments  

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post christmas
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Having a quiet evening, enjoying a bit of tea and homemade Stollen whilst checking my favourite blogs and watching my husband build Legos. We managed a fairly stressifree bit of Christmas Sale shopping, only visiting four stores (Clarks shoes, Hatchards, Fortnum and Mason and Harrods.) We went to Harrods to see the giant dinosaur made of Legos (180,000 bricks!). My husband is a little bit obsessed with legos. I don't mind. There are worse vices.

Posted byKarma at Wednesday, December 28, 2005 2 comments  

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monday
Saturday, November 12, 2005

Feeling very posh. I have lived for 6 years in England and for the first time I have my own car!! It is just a little used car, but it was generally well taken care of, and it has a sunroof. It is a Ford Mondeo.

I have been driving all around my neighborhood and the surrounding towns today and have come to the conclusion that it is much nicer to live here when you see it by car! Somehow it is not so great on the bus, or the train, but I did not need a car until 2 years ago when I moved from London to Kent, and we kept taking extravagant holidays in lieu of buying 'stuff' until recently.

Funnily, it cost twice the cost of the car to insure it for the year, and nearly £50 just to fill the gas tank (nearly $100, so be grateful, my USA friends, I know your fuel costs have risen sharply in the past few years, but you still have a way to go to catch up to the UK.)

I will still take the bus to work, because it takes 5 minutes and is so convenient, and it is nightmare to park near my work. But it will be great to visit friends and not have to rush to catch the last train (which is usually around 11pm!) and to be able to take little weekend trips and see more of England.

This country really grows on me...

Posted byKarma at Saturday, November 12, 2005 2 comments  

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a game
Monday, November 7, 2005

Guess what this sound is? Click here.

maracas





thunder









snow leopard

Posted byKarma at Monday, November 07, 2005 1 comments  

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missing california
Saturday, October 29, 2005

I went to a mexican restaurant for a friend's birthday tonight. The food was ok, not like Cali-Mex (the chips looked scary and the guacamole was brown but tasted ok) but it was so smoky in the restaurant I felt a bit ill by the end! Miss the whole 'non smoking restaurant' thing. Hope it happens soon here, but can't imagine it very soon. Would rather have been poking the giant whoopie cushion at D's Halloween party!

Posted byKarma at Saturday, October 29, 2005 2 comments  

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quick bite
Thursday, October 20, 2005

I have been catching up on the Incurable Insomniac's blog and clicking on just a couple of links, feeling absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of blogging that goes on in the world. Linking to one site led me into this world of retiree sites, fascinating. Wish I had more time (I have about an hour every few days) or made more time for this. It really puts things into perspective and helps me crawl out of my self involved cave!

Stolen (again) from the Insomniac's games:

Three things:

  1. what you like about yourself: my sense of humour
  2. what others like about you: my eyes
  3. what you don't like about yourself: my harsh self judgment

Posted byKarma at Thursday, October 20, 2005 1 comments  

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