Summer (or winter here in Oz) blogathon

Well here it is, my mid-year bloggy to do list. Some things from last time and a few new things.

Write up some blog posts and schedule them.
Brainstorm ideas for blog.
Backup my blog
Create my own blog planner
Clean up and sort emails
Re-set up blogging app on ipad
Make sure my blog & sm branding is consistent
Add a Pinterest mouse over button to my blog
Tidy up my Pinterest boards (not really a bloggy thing but well it’s a social media thing attached to my blog)
Do some of the Blogathon mini challenges (my update list)
Project Life slideshows
??? sure I’ll think of something else over the weekend 😉

Look Good…Feel Better

You may have this ad on tv

It’s Kerri-Anne Kennerley talking about the Look Good…Feel Better workshops that are held around Australia.

The Look Good…Feel Better workshops are a free community service program for people undergoing cancer treatments to learn about ways to help manage appearance-related side-effects that may be caused by their treatment. Their mission is “to help improve the wellbeing and confidence of people undergoing treatment for any sort of cancer.
We do this by providing free Look Good…Feel Better workshops for women, men and teens to help manage the appearance-related side effects caused by cancer.”

I was lucky enough to get to attend one of these amazing workshops with my Mum, as her plus one, earlier this week at the local Cancer Centre. The workshop was run by a lovely group of volunteers who have all worked in the beauty industry. Workshop participants were walked through some basic skin care techniques and make up techniques to a) help manage the appearance-related changes caused by cancer treatment and b) make them feel better – cause we all know when we look good, we seem to feel a little better 🙂 Headwear (like scarves, hats, turbans and beanies) and wigs was also discussed and demonstrated.

I was totally blown away by the cosmetics and skin care that is so generously donated for these workshops, companies include Chanel, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder and many more (current sponsors can be viewed on the LGFB website). Each workshop participant takes home an amazing Confidence kit containing an instruction booklet as well as the skincare and cosmetics used during the workshop.

After the workshop I saw the women who attended smiling, laughing and talking together. No one really discussed their cancer as the day was not about cancer but about looking good and feeling better. I’d say the women who attended looked good and many of them, I’m sure, felt better.

If you’d like to read more about the Look Good…Feel Better workshops have a look at the LGFB website, spread the word about this great service and maybe donate

It’s that time again…..

Yup, time for the Biannual Blogathon Bash. I really enjoyed myself last time and got a fair bit done so I’m going to give it a go again next weekend.

What is the Blogathon?
”You know all those items on your Blogging To Do list? Those things you’ve been meaning to get to but haven’t had a chance? Now’s your chance to get a large amount of them done!” It’s a chance to spend time, over a weekend, to do some (or all) of the things on your to do list. Read the About the Blogothon page for more info.

My to do list from January & the update. I’m currently working on my to do list for this time around.

Will you be joining in? Would love to see some more Aussie faces 😉

Photos

It’s harder if you care.

(Handing my blog over to the lovely Fiona today to share with you a little of what it’s like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). May is BPD Awareness Month. Help eliminate the stigma and raise awareness of this serious condition by educating yourself and others.)

It’s harder if you care.

It causes me to drive you away. Please. I’m not worth it. Not worth your affection. All I’m going to do it hurt you and frankly fuck up your life, so get out now while you still can.

Fatal Attraction. Mad Love. Girl, Interrupted. Prozac Nation.

Choose your film.

Girls with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) are messed up, and are going to screw up your life.

At least that’s the media’s angle.

We’re way more likely to screw up our own.

What did this mean for me?

30 years old. My partner is my high school sweetheart. I’m a Speech Pathologist. I just got my masters in Inclusive education. I work with kids with disabilities in a specialist autism school.

And yet, I’m suicidal.

Regularly self harming. Cutting and drinking.

Sleeping around. Lies.

Trying to get my partner to break it off. Desperately.

And yet he won’t. He still loves me. Sees the good in me. Wants to help me.

We set boundaries. Well, he sets them , I agree.

And then break them.

He doesn’t know I’ve resumed my Bulimic behaviours. Enough to get a dual diagnosis.

That there’s more than he ever knew.

I ran away.

It was all I knew how to do.

I needed an out.

He broke it off. And he took me to hospital.

And got me help.

They diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder.

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behaviour covered in (5).
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. This is called “splitting.”
Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behaviour covered in (5).
Recurrent suicidal behaviour, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behaviour.
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).
Chronic feelings of emptiness.
Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).
Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

I fit this well.

Impulsive. Suicidal. Self harming. Bulimia. Not knowing who I am.

I have a long history of needing to be perfect. To not upset others. To be what someone else wants me to be. No matter what that is.

I play to the role. I can be whoever you want me to be, I just wish I knew who I wanted to be.

Not sustainable in the long run.

Today I am in twice weekly therapy through the centre for psychotherapy in Newcastle. Not all health systems have such a service, but you should look.

We’re working on me accepting me as a valid person. As having feelings, and THAT IS OKAY. Knowing where they come from. And knowing how I respond. In an aim to respond less extremely next time.

Accepting. And growing.

Technically I’m a functional adult.

I work. I study. I date. I’m a great friend and family member.

I just still melt down occasionally. All too much…

Borderline Personality Disorder can be managed. We can learn to accept and love ourselves.

It just takes time

And patience.

From me

And you.

—-

Where’s Ya Noms at

(taking a quick break from the Blog Every Day in May posts to bring you another post in my Our House series)

I *heart* me some Drunk Kitchen. Google it hehe (Thanks to the lovely Fiona for first sharing it with me). See there I go getting distracted with music again. Where were we? Ah yes the kitchen. This is what we got when we bought the house

Now I don’t know about you but wood paneling in a kitchen, really isn’t my thing. It’s a total pain in the real to clean. That lovely stove in the corner – broken so our first step was a new stove. Then we decided the island thing was blocking a lot of light so it went. Then Miss K came along and it really wasn’t suitable so new kitchen was to be had. And didn’t we take great delight in helping rip out the cupboards & wood paneling. And our new kitchen slowly took shape over a couple of days (plus the time later to get tiling done and new flooring)

And I got a new glass hotplate and wall oven *squee* and our dishwasher got put in.

(I’ll edit this post later with a picture of the kitchen when it’s clean – at the moment it’s a tad messy)

Love my kitchen now.

Jealous. I can get really jealous, really easy.
Bad tempered. I simmer on things then snap. Not a good thing.
I can work too hard. When I’m coding web sites I tend to get lost in code and ignore everything else. This only happens after Miss K has gone to bed now so ignoring everything tends to b hubby (who does the same when he’s programing) and the clock meaning late nights and early mornings.

You won’t learn that at school

Going with some quotes for this prompt

Thanks to Pinterest for these images

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