Author: admin
Can I quote you?
I love collecting quotes. I have a Pinterest board just for quotes. The one that really sticks out to me at the moment is this:
“We met for a reason, either you are a blessing or a lesson”
The blessings (so far) – my hubby, my besties, my bloggy friends
The lessons (and some hard ones) – my ex’s (especially 1 and that 8 years was a difficult lesson), people who are no longer friends 🙁
(and yes, I know I missed days 2 & 3. I’m still thinking about something I’m good at and things that make me uncomfortable.)
My life in 250 words
Born. Adopted. Baby Brother. Growing up. Trips to Melbourne. Primary School. Live in Melbourne. Back to Tassie. High School. Teenager. First boyfriend. Arguments with parents. Start smoking. Move out of home. More boyfriends. Drugs. Alcohol. Dark times. Death of a boyfriend on his 18th. Back home. Meet someone new. Move back out. Meet BFF. Get back into watching pro wrestling. Parties. Lots of drinking. Give up drugs. Violence. More drinking. Take up drugs again. Violence. Give up drugs again. Even more drinking. More violence. Start Uni. Meet future husband. Lots of parties. Holiday in Western Australia with Mum. First live game of AFL in Tas. Leave violent relationship. Holiday in Sydney. Get first tattoo. Drop out of Uni. Move in with future husband. Start blogging. Do small business course. Start business. Start scrapbooking. Move house. Get 2 kitties. Work. Work. Get engaged. Brother gets married. Give up smoking. Work. Get sick. Get married. Go to Qld on honeymoon. Work. Get diagnosed with PTSD. Start scrapbooking business. Do some volunteering. Get sick. Work out I’m pregnant. Spend first three months with morning sickness. Gestational diabetes. Enjoy most of the rest of pregnancy. Baby shower. Induced. Give birth to a gorgeous baby girl. Spend a few months still not believing I’m a mum. Mum & Dad go on holiday to Crete, UK & Canada. Mum gets sick. Little girl growing up so fast. By a house. DPCON. Still blogging. Love life. Worry about mum. Renovations. Who knows what the future will bring?
Blogging everyday in May
There’s a new challenge going around, started over at Story of My Life, but I found it via Life as we know it. Blog everyday in May. I really want to see if I can do it. I’ve done NaBloPoMo before.
The rules:
1. There really aren’t any rules. If you miss a day, you can make it up or skip it. The blog police will not come knocking.
2. There will be a linkup option at the bottom of each post by the Story of my Life blog, so you are welcome to leave your links there for others to peruse as well.
3. You can still post other things every day, too.
4. There’s a “blog every day in May” button (here) you can put either on your sidebar or at the end of your posts. The blog police will not come knocking if you don’t. The main goal here is to get us all back to the basics of blogging, not to gain a million new readers (that would be nice though).
5. Share using the hashtag #BlogEveryDayInMay
Here are the topics. You can be as creative and awesome or as boring and bland as you like with these. Take ’em and run with it. Use creative post titles. Interpret each “prompt” however you like. There’s no wrong way to do it. Have fun.
Day 1, Wednesday: The story of your life in 250 words or less (or one paragraph… no one will be counting your words… probably)
Day 2, Thursday: Educate us on something you know alot about or are good at. Take any approach you’d like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic)
Day 3, Friday: Things that make you uncomfortable
Day 4, Saturday: Favorite quote (from a person, from a book, etc) and why you love it
Day 5, Sunday: Publicly profess your love and devotion for one of your blogger friends. What makes them great? Why do you love them? If you don’t have blogger friends, talk about a real-life friend or even a family member
Day 6, Monday: If you couldn’t answer with your job, how would you answer the question, ‘what do you do’?
Day 7, Tuesday: The thing(s) you’re most afraid of
Day 8, Wednesday: A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all.
Day 9, Thursday: A moment in your day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)
Day 10, Friday: Most embarrassing moment (s). Spill.
Day 11, Saturday: Sell yourself in 10 words or less
Day 12, Sunday: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life…)
Day 13, Monday: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny or as serious or as creative as you want it to be.
Day 14, Tuesday: Ten things that make you really happy
Day 15, Wednesday: A Day in the life (include photos from throughout your typical day – this could be “a photo an hour” if you’d like)
Day 16, Thursday: Something difficult about your “lot in life” and how you’re working to overcome it
Day 17, Friday: A favorite photo of yourself and why
Day 18, Saturday: Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt.
Day 19, Sunday: Five of your favorite blogs and what you love about them
Day 20, Monday: Get real. Share something you’re struggling with right now.
Day 21, Tuesday: A list of links to your favorite posts in your archives
Day 22, Wednesday: Rant about something. Get up on your soapbox and tell us how you really feel. (a pet peeve, a current event, a controversial topic, something your husband or roommate or neighbor or boss does that really ticks you off)
Day 23, Thursday: Things you’ve learned that school won’t teach you
Day 24, Friday: Your top 3 worst traits
Day 25, Saturday: Something someone told you about yourself that you’ll never forget (good or bad)
Day 26, Sunday: Something you read online. Leave a link and discuss, if you’d like.
Day 27, Monday: A letter to your readers
Day 28, Tuesday: Only pictures
Day 29, Wednesday: Five songs or pieces of music that speak to you or bring back memories. Use Grooveshark or YouTube to include them in the post
Day 30, Thursday: React to this term: Letting Go
Day 31, Friday: A vivid memory
Doing some tidying
I’ve decided to spend this week doing a little housework on my blog. You’ll notice a few changes the main two being – I’m now accepting adverts on my blog (they are super cheap if you want to advertise 😉 ) and I’m reducing my categories & tags in the hope it’ll make it easier for you all to find things 🙂
Our House
in the middle of our street.
Love that song, it’s such a classic. Anywho, that’s a slight distraction from what I actually want to write about today. When we bought our house about 5years ago we bought it as a renovation project. A very slow renovation project. But that’s ok. I thought about starting a new blog to record what we did but we all know I struggle with keeping more than one blog 😉 so I’ll be sharing our reno here under the category of Our House.
When we moved in we painted what was to become our temporary office/computer room and that was pretty much it. Everything else needed lots of work.
This was what our ‘office’ was for the first few weeks, where we survived on dial up internet waiting for our ADSL to be hooked back up
Our first semi major project was to rip this out.
We thought it was going to be difficult but it was all held in with a couple of screws. Easy – yup I did it at 9 months pregnant!
Next up was our kitchen cause the kitchen we had wasn’t great for a little person….
Lest We Forget
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
For the fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)
Thank you to all who have serve, or are serving. Lest we forget
Mother’s Day 2013
Disclaimer: I created and received 2 prints courtesy of PasterCandy. I’d share my poster but they are gifts 🙂 Unless noted, all wording and opinions are my own.
Mother’s Day is coming up soon (May 12 in Oz) and to help you out if you have a mother to buy for or just want to give you kids some ideas I’ve compiled a bit of a list. Hubby, if you are reading this – I’ll print this list and circle what I want 😉
For the Gardener
- Digger’s Club membership
- plants
- gardening tools
- Pre-pay for professional garden services e.g. gardening or lawnmowing
For the Scrapbooker
- Project Life Mini albums
- Project Life
- scrapbooking tools – maybe something she’s had her eye on for awhile (like a Silhouette maybe)
For the tea/coffee drinker
- Goodies from Rabbit Hole Tea or T2 or Art of Tea
- A nice mug or cup & saucer
- a delicious (maybe homemade) snack to go with their cuppa
For the geek mum
- Beads from Think Geek
- Soft Kitty anything (I have a hat & socks – want the hoody)
- Doctor Who anything (or change Doctor Who for your Mum’s favourite show)
- heck anything from Think Geek
For the tech mum
- a tablet (iPad or Android or Windows equivalent)
- cover for phone or tablet
- iPod
- portable speakers or new headphones
For the photographer mum
- new camera equipment
- photo printing vouchers
- new SD cards
Other (only cause I couldn’t think of a suitable heading – yeah I’m lazy :p)
- Pandora anything. I love the new beads (like this for example)
- Scented soy candles
- Dream Man Arm Pillow (?!)
- a good book
- an afternoon out
- something handmade – by yourself or the kids
- something handmade by a local artist (like the amazing ceramics by Kim Foale)
If you want something super special for your mum this Mother’s Day and you use Instagram I can recommend PosterCandy. They offer posters of your Instagram images. Sizes range from 30cm x 40cm (12, 20, 35 or 48 images) up to 70cm x 100cm (70, 117, 140 or 176 images) and prices range from $19.99 to $49.95) Currently they only ship to Australia and New Zealand. All posters fit into standard IKEA frames. If you don’t have an IKEA nearby (like us in Tasmania) you’ll have to shop around for a frame to fit. The quality is amazing too.
Creating your poster is easy. You select your poster size
The site then logins into your Instagram account (after asking for your permission) and you’re taken to the Poster Maker
From here you can change how many photos per print, print orientation, Background colour and how many posters you want to order. All your photos from your Instagram account are show in the middle and you just drag your photo to where you want it. There is also an option to create a totally random selection of your photos. You can also filter your photos by # tag. Once ordered, your poster can take between 3-5 days to arrive.
One lucky reader has the chance to win themselves a PosterCandy for their mum (or themselves).
Vale Chrissy Amphlett
Hello Kitty!
No secret I’m a bit of a Hello Kitty fan and there is soooo much Hello Kitty merch out there. Some of it I’d never be caught dead with – like the Hello Kitty water dispenser. Or you can transform yourself into Hello Kitty, then you could always weigh yourself on some Hello Kitty bathroom scales. Hello Kitty walking stick anyone?
and then there’s the stranger….
(and if you can’t figure our what some of them are… a gun(!), a condom holder (um wtf?), a urinal target, a chainsaw, a corset (actually that’s kind of pretty), a vibrator 
, contact lenses, sanitary products and finally a Hello Kitty house – the whole thing is totally Hello Kitty
Now we’ve seen some of the strange, how about the cute….
earrings, necklaces, rings, phone covers, doona covers and the multitude of soft toys
and to make you smell sweet – Hello Kitty Perfumed Body Mists (Bubblegum, Strawberries & Cream, Melon, Musk Sticks)
New to the Hello Kitty body mist scene is Vanilla Ice Cream (it’s the yellow bottle). I’m a huge fan of all things vanilla and remember buying lots of vanilla scented body sprays when I was younger. The Hello Kitty spray isn’t sickly sweet and leaves a nice lingering smell. Recommended retail price is $4.99
To win yourself a set of 2 Hello Kitty body mists leave a comment telling me your favourite scent and why?
Terms:
- Entry is open to Australian residents only.
- This is a game of chance.
- Winner will receive one Hello Kitty Vanilla Ice Cream body mist & one other Hello Kitty body mist.
- Once contacted winner has 1 week to get back in contact or the winner will be redrawn
- Good luck!