Put your nail biting habit to sleep for good

For most unconscious habits such as nail biting, hypnosis is often the best, cheapest and environmentally friendly cure for nail biting. No drugs, no chemicals and usable by any member of the family providing they are receptive to hypnosis. Some people cannot be hypnotised but they are very few and far between. A single personal session might be all that is needed, but there are some very good programs available in various formats for home use. Worth a go!

You can heal your life - and your nails!

A book by Louise Hay helped me to put an end to 45 long years of nail biting! According to her book, 'You Can Heal Your Life', biting your nails may represent 'frustration, eating away at oneself, or spite of a parent.' It wasn't until I made the conscious connection to my unresolved feelings and nail biting that I stopped. What I found really helped me was downloading some free meditations from YouTube. These cost absolutely nothing to help relax and unwind. I also repeated some daily affirmations such as 'I enjoy having beautiful, long and strong nails'. I have also used homeopathic remedies such as Brauer's Nerve Tonic, which in my opinion is the best thing since sliced bread to calm a stressed nervous system!

Home made bath bombs

These bath bombs are great to give as gifts or to pamper yourself with! This recipe should give you at least four to five good sized 'bombs' and cost as little as $1.00 to make. All you need are the following:

1 1/2 cups bicarb soda

1/2 cup citric acid

Scent or fragrance of your choice (you can use essential oils if you have them)

Food colouring of your choice

Sweet almond oil or any cooking type oil

Flower petals if desired

NOTE: Make sure everything is dry. Even the smallest hint of moisture will make the ingredients fizz.

Sift the bicarb and citric acid into a large bowl, add petals if desired then divide mix into four separate batches.

In another bowl, mix one tablespoon of oil, enough fragrance to suit you and enough food colouring to get the desired colour. Mix well. This mix is enough for one of your small batches of dry mix.

Add the colour and fragrance mix to a batch of dry mix and mix in with fingers very quickly, making sure that it does not fizz. Mix well to make sure the colour and fragrance are distributed evenly.

Press firmly into lightly oiled moulds. You can use just about anything as a mould. Try using the plastic lid from a can of hairspray or jelly moulds if you have some. You can buy bath bomb moulds from some craft shops. Make sure that you press the mix firmly into the mould, otherwise it will crumble.

Leave in a dry spot for about 24 hours, then gently press them out and enjoy!

Garage sales changed my life

We are retirees. We eat well, dress well, and live in a modern house, with an interesting flower and vegetable garden. Our income would probably be classed as poverty level, but we live like kings, because we have one shared vice. We are garage sale fanatics. Little in the house has been bought new. Older furniture has been restored, as my husband has clever hands. Once a year he sells the surplus at a huge garage sale, and it usually pays for a holiday.

We buy books, linen, furniture, new clothing, garden plants, sewing material and cottons, timber for building toy boxes and hall stands at garage sales. Our kitchen TV cost $25. The little one in the bedroom is 25 years old, so I bought a video recorder for $5.00 and can now get all the channels through the video. My three telephones and the answering machine are all from garage sales, as are my kitchen crockery, blankets and the beautiful satin embroidered bedspread that cost $5.00.

I am like a centipede with shoes as I buy good brands that have been tried on in the shop and are as new. It is the only place I can find the good comfortable shoes I favour. Likewise, many of my clothes are top brands. I bought a $168 pant suit for $10 because the lady's husband didn't like the colour.

The deep freeze, the two coolers, bed lights, beautiful big mats are all from our Saturday morning treks. We list the sales and use a street map to plan a route to save petrol.

Sometimes tinned food or home-made sauces are available, and if the vendors have fruit trees they sometimes sell the fruit by the plastic bag - picked yourself.

Nothing is sacred at garage sales, and provided you need the items there are some real bargains.

How about our home security system for $2.00, because the seller couldn't work it? A little investigation on the Net yielded full instructions.

My computer came from a government auction at one-third of the price quoted for a second-hand model at our local shop. Needed a bit of study to set it up, but I love puzzles, and so had it running with the Windows 98 program I bought for $10. I also keep the grandkids in Playstation games, and my daughter has been married for 20 years and has never bought any linen as I have kept her supplied with good quality buys.

My hobby started after my divorce when I found myself with an old 50's house to renovate and little furniture. So I started to buy 50's vintage furniture as well as renovating materials - paint, wallpaper, timber, doors, curtains.

Along the way I met a widower with the same ideas, so garage sales have provided a lot of rewards - a good life, enough money to enjoy ourselves, and a multitude of associated hobbies and friends.