I’ve been at home for the past week dealing with some health issues. To keep my mind off things that are going on I’ve been doing some little bits and pieces around the house.  I thought you might like to know what keeps me out of trouble, so here’s a top five list of things to do when you find yourself with some unexpected free time on your hands.

1. Craft – One of my 101 in 1001 tasks is to finish all the cross-stitch that I currently have in the house either half done or not started.  So I’ve spent the last few days working on the Antique Linen Rose Sampler from DMC.  I love this pattern as it appeals to the old fashion streak I have and I dream of it being one of those things that gets passed down the family line.  The only thing I have discovered is that counted cross-stitch probably isn’t that great a thing to do when you’re under the influence of a lot of pain medication.  Needless to say I’ve had to unpick a fair chunk of work that I did yesterday as I’d managed to get the stitching out of alignment.  Whoops!

2. Cooking – I had the biggest craving for potato bake on Thursday, so HUBBY was wonderful enough to take me to Woolworths so I could do some shopping for ingriedents.  I found a potato bake recipe on Exclusively Food.  It’s really simple, which appeals to my current state of mind and delicious which appeals to my tummy!  (Images from Exclusively Food.)

3. Reading – I picked up a copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife and I’ve been slowly knocking it over.  It’s not something I would normally pick up to read, but I’ve had a lot of people recommend it so I thought, “what they heck try something new”.  I’ll finish it, but I don’t think it will be in my top five books of all time.

4.  Movies – The obvious boredom buster – movies!  I loaded up on painkillers and met a friend to see Julie & Julia on “Family and Community Day”.  (It’s the ACT’s holiday for the Melbourne Cup.)  I had previously tried and failed to read the book.  The movie was much better than the book.  I really empathized with both characters, for surprisingly different reasons.  Of course the movie made me long for being able to cook and to live in Paris.

5.  Blogsites -  I’ve been so grateful to all the wonderful people out there on the internet that devote their time to maintaining blogs.  I’ve spent hours surfing the internet and daydreaming about all the amazing homes, places, projects and humorous things that are out there in the world.  If you’re looking for somewhere to start just check out my links on the right hand side of the site.  I highly recommend them all!