Today, after a particularly frantic day at work, Tim and I picked up the keys to our new house.

We ducked home to pick up a car-load of stuff to take over there, and of course we packed the puppy dog too. It was pretty wonderful to watch him explore the place and investigate all the delicious new smells.

Our little home is lovely and I can’t wait to have all our things into place. It will be a long process though, as we’re going to need to buy a whole bunch of storage furniture that was built-in in our current place.

Patience isn’t my forte.

Tonight we set up our little coffee table in the dining room, covered it with butchers paper that had been used to wrap our glasses, and put fancy-folded paper napkins on top of our disposable plastic plates. Then we ordered pizza and talked about where all our furniture will go.

This next chapter feels good.

It was time to move on.

This week’s Smiley Sunday comes from Louise, author of Scottiemonster. She is obsessed in all things Scottie dog (is anybody looking for a puppy? She has three who need a home!) and also begin a 101 Things in 1001 Days list at the same time as me!

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH SCOTTIEMONSTER!

Seven things that make me smile;

1. watching the puppies find something new
2. listening to people watch fire works
3. riding my motorcycle, anywhere other than my commute to work and back
4. finally working something out that has been a battle (this is usually a computer software based problem)
5. watching Neil sleep
6. hmmm chocolate
7. Ask me not to… I smile every time!

A memory I keep on file;

I have found this one hard, looks like I don’t look back on memory’s that much. Here are some mini ones:

- Pretending to swim around the school yard with my friends
- The bushwalk I got together with Neil on
- Happy dinners with friends at our house
- Road trips with friends or family
- Going to get my first dog

Three blogs that never go out of style;

Melbourne Today
Forever Amber
Scottish Terrier and Dog News

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

No one is perfect, just some people are better at pretending than others.

Thanks for sending in your answers Louise!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

]]> http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/24/smiley-sunday-with-scottiemonster/feed/ 1 http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/24/team-coco/ http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/24/team-coco/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:37:56 +0000 Elizabeth http://scarletwords.com/?p=2739 “Leno” is a dirty word in this household, after the events of the past couple of weeks. If you’ve been following the messy tale of the NBC late-night talk show lineup you’ll know what I’m talking about. If not, Pee-wee Herman explained it briefly a few nights ago on The Tonight Show with [...]]]>

“Leno” is a dirty word in this household, after the events of the past couple of weeks. If you’ve been following the messy tale of the NBC late-night talk show lineup you’ll know what I’m talking about.

If not, Pee-wee Herman explained it briefly a few nights ago on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien – a show which ended on Friday.

Tim and I have been downloading his shows like crazy since it all blew up a couple of weeks ago. It has been almost exactly 3 years since we both sat in the audience for his “Late Night” show in New York City, and last night we took a break from packing boxes to watch his last ever show on NBC.

Is this not the classiest man in show business? Who’d have thought that he could somehow wrap up the whole situation with such grace.

I won’t attempt a deep autopsy of this situation, especially as most Australians are largely unaware of Conan and the long history with NBC that ended last week. But if you do happen to know his show, you really need to see this clip from 1998.

Sad, right?

I can’t wait to see him back on the air a year from now, kicking NBC’s butt from another network the way that Letterman did…

STEP ONE: Put the dog in the box

STEP TWO: Close the lid of the box

STEP THREE: Let him out of the box…

… it’s my dog in a box!

Ahh, procrastination. Is there anything you can’t do?

So, we’re moving house.

We are really excited about our new place and can’t wait to fill it with our stuff when we get the keys on Monday. However, before this can happen we need to stash it all into cardboard boxes and label it and pick it up and carry it places without tripping over other stuff and then watch as strangers load it into a dirty bumpy truck and hope that nothing smashes on the way.

So no pressure, then.

There are many words to describe the challenging stylistic direction we have chosen for our home this week. I won’t give it all away, but I can reveal that it centres mostly around one particular textile.

Cardboard.

Perhaps Martha Stewart could make something of this, but here at Casa Scarlet the decor is missing that certain “something”. Which of the following images do you think most resembles our lovely little home right now?

Is it “A”…

(With thanks to the very fancy definatalie)

Or “B”

(moving is FUN if you’re a modern prairie girl!)

Or perhaps “C”?

(Hint: way too fun to be the correct answer)

If you guessed “D – None of the above” you’d be correct! The correct answer was this:

Especially if you added lots of dust, laundry, a very concerned dog and maybe a few extra boxes.

So we’re going to go right ahead and clean up this mess rather than checking into the site for a few days. Please talk amongst yourselves, and enjoy your fabulous weekend!

(If you hear crying, just turn up your TV. It’ll be over soon.)

This week’s Smiley Sunday comes from Lulu, author of Cherry Blossom Adventures.  Ex-Brisbane girls are pretty great, as a rule, and Lulu is no exception!

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH LULU

Seven things that make me smile;

1. My son Noah – he has only been in my life (in the outside world) for a couple of weeks but already I can see him becoming the light of my life.
2. Getting flowers- nothing better than getting flowers from a lover or a friend.
3. Cherry blossom season in Japan
4. Starting a good book
5.Hearing my husband say cute things in English like “work was bored” when he means boring or “I love you mostest” in my response to “I love you more”
6. Receiving parcels in the mail- living overseas means I miss out on a lot of things from home but my family and friends are constantly sending things in the mail especially in recent months for the baby! The same goes for phone calls from home- they always make me smile!
7. Christmas decorations- Japan is not a Christian country but they still do great christmas decorations and it makes the holiday seem just that little bit better!

A memory I keep on file;

A photo from when I first met Shumpei, my husband. This was taken on one of our last dates before I returned to Australia for a year. We took it ourselves on a ferris wheel in Odaiba- while we had fallen madly in love neither of us were sure if long distance would work but we made it work and now, 5 years later we are married with a baby.

Three blogs that never go out of style;

For me, reading blogs by others living in Japan helps keep me sane, and here are three of my favourites.

http://gaijinwife.blogspot.com
http://riceprincess.wordpress.com
http://alwaysleavingthingsunfinishe.blogspot.com

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

My mother told me constantly when I was younger “Treat people the way you want to be treated” and this has worked for me my whole life.

Thanks for sending in your answers Lulu!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

]]> http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/17/smiley-sunday-with-lulu/feed/ 1 http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/14/this-week/ http://scarletwords.com/2010/01/14/this-week/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:26:32 +0000 Elizabeth http://scarletwords.com/?p=2699 So far, this week I… + Reorganised my office, and prepared a stack of new material for the coming year. + Bought two lovely dresses from Leona Edmiston (who is having a killer sale, by the way…) + Packed a bag for a quick interstate jaunt + Sent the pup to the groomer for the day, with hilarious results + [...]]]>

So far, this week I…

+ Reorganised my office, and prepared a stack of new material for the coming year.
+ Bought two lovely dresses from Leona Edmiston (who is having a killer sale, by the way…)
+ Packed a bag for a quick interstate jaunt
+ Sent the pup to the groomer for the day, with hilarious results
+ Finished my 60th task in 101 Things in 1001 Days
+ Fell in love with a boy (the same one as before)
+ Found our next home, in a part of Melbourne that is new to us
+ Found an agent who is in love with our dog, meaning that we don’t have to hide him anymore

- Two evil 40C+ days
- An evil eBay sniper won my third Leona dress (boo!)
- Moving house is evil
- Saying goodbye to lovely memories is sad (but, also a little exciting.)

How’s yours?

I didn’t think it was fair to keep this to myself when it was emailed to me this morning.

Please raise your hand if you relate!

Twas the month after Christmas,
And all through the house,
Nothing would fit me,
Not even a blouse.

The cookies I’d nibbled,
The chocolate I’d taste
At the holiday parties
Had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales
There arose such a number!
When I walked to the store
(less a walk than a lumber),

I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I’d never said, “No thank you, please.”

As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt…
I said to myself, as I only can,
“You can’t spend a winter, disguised as a man!”

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip.
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won’t have a cookie, not even a lick.
I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie.
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore…
But isn’t that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet.

Perhaps I should go for a run.

It’s the middle of the week, and two weeks into the new year the holiday euphoria has well and truly worn off. You don’t want to read anything deep and meaningful on a day like this, right?

So, here is a post full of funny pictures.

Brought to you by my mum, and the “forward” button in her hotmail inbox.

How cute are these? I love that we’re still making discoveries like this.

A marine biologist has discovered a startling new crab species that resembles a large strawberry.

The unusual crustacean was found off the coast of southern Taiwan. It has a dramatic bright red shell covered with small white bumps.

Professor Ho Ping-ho from the National Taiwan Ocean University said the crab resembles a species called Neoliomera Pubescens, that lives in the areas around Hawaii, Polynesia and Mauritius.

However it has a clam-shaped shell about 1 inch wide, which makes it distinct.

Crabs are omnivores feeding primarily on algae. There are more than 5,000 known species in the world.

Professor Ho said his team found two female crabs of the new species last June off the coast of Kenting National Park, known for its rich marine life.

The crabs died shortly afterwards, possibly because the water in the area was polluted by a cargo ship that ran aground.

Taiwanese crab specialist Wang Chia-hsiang confirmed Professor Ho’s finding.

Article from dailymail.co.uk