Author: admin

Nourish my soul–week 1

The amazing Denyse started a year long photography meme thing on the 1st of January sharing ways you nourish your soul everyday. You can post daily on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/whatever social network you use photos/quotes/whatever of ways you are nourishing your soul in 2013

I’m Instagram/EyeEm/blogging/Pinning my journey so you can follow along on any of those platforms – search for the hashtag #nourishmysoul2daybydw. I’ll be blogging my photos once a week.

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1. An oracle card reading 2. Photographing flowers (& a bonus bumble bee) 3. Cooking cupcakes 4. Promising to make the most of summer 5. Kitty cuddles in bed 6. Working on Project Life 7. 2013 Affirmations in my Incredible Year workbook

My week according to Instagram

I’m still not 100% sure what I think of all the proposed changes at Instagram but I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt for now and keep using them. I did end up deleting a heap of photos though. I’ve started using EyeEm to see what they are like & am posting stuff on Flickr again too. If you want to keep up to date with my photos I’m taking for Fat Mum Slim’s Photo-A-Day I’m posting them all at ShutterCal. If you’re using any of these I’d love for you to link me up so I can follow you 🙂

Anywho, onto my week according to Instagram

30th dec c 31st dec a 31st dec31st dec b 31st dec c 1 jan c 3rd jan c 2nd jan b 2nd jan c   4th jan a 4th jan 4th jan c 5th Jan 5th jan c 5th Jan b

New Doona #HelloKitty | Photo-A-Day December 2012 | Playing in her new dolls house | Finally asleep just before midnight | NYE celebrations @ home | First sunset on 2013 | Strawberry cupcakes | Bumblebee | And another bumblebee | Hottest day in 125 years in Hobart (& the start of horrific bushfires) |  Staying inside to stay cool. Revamping my blog. | Hazy sunset |  Another bumblebee | Hazy sunset again. | Bedtime companion

New look

Well Christmas & New Year are over for another year. Time for a blog makeover.

I’m planning on doing a lot of simplifying in 2013 and have started here on my blog. A new, clean and simple theme. Cutting down the number of blog categories (but upping the blog post tags).

Would love to hear what you think.

100 things to do in 2013

Hello 2013!

Part of the Goddess Workbook I shared with you all the other day is a list of 100 things you would like to achieve in a year. It can be a list of anything at all. And for a bit of fun I thought I’d share my list with all of you. So here goes (& yes a lot of these are on my 101 things list to do in 1001 days)

  1. Work out a decent filing system
  2. Double my twitter followers (currently 519)
  3. Go to ProBlogger event (or get digital pass)
  4. Book ticket for DPCON 2014
  5. Blogger meet up in Tassie
  6. Blog everyday for 1 month
  7. Organise our office
  8. Set up a veggie garden
  9. Get a shed
  10. Set up a composting system
  11. Do Habithacker – Nest
  12. Find an inspirational quote & make it into a piece of artwork
  13. Get the laundry finished
  14. Paint lounge & dining room
  15. Hang photos of K & family
  16. Get curtains for kitchen
  17. Start bathroom reno
  18. Get front yard done
  19. Have parents over for dinner more
  20. Spend a day at the beach
  21. Go on a picnic
  22. Have a regular ‘date night’
  23. Buy a Thermomix
  24. Do a recipe book cull
  25. Create a custom recipe book
  26. Have more TV free time
  27. Get K into daycare 1 day a week
  28. Learn to make sour dough bread/rolls
  29. Make our own bread
  30. Have a candlelit dinner
  31. Do something for our wedding anniversary
  32. Write a letter to K to open on her 18th
  33. Start putting $$ into K’s bank account
  34. Open a Christmas Club account
  35. Get a new tattoo.
  36. Buy J a tattoo
  37. make/buy Christmas presents through the year
  38. Get our wills written
  39. Finish JYC from 2011 AND 2012!
  40. Swim more
  41. Exercise more
  42. Organise digital scrapbooking stuff
  43. Scrapbook with Mum at least once a month
  44. Scrap with others
  45. Organise a scrapbook event
  46. Do Frocktober again
  47. Read more books
  48. Drink more water
  49. Have a massage
  50. Have a facia
  51. Have a manicure
  52. Create a book of advice for K
  53. Finish our wedding album
  54. Go see Amanda Palmer in concert
  55. Get my L’s
  56. Take a burlesque class
  57. Spend a rainy day in PJs watching TV
  58. Banish bad memores
  59. Create a playlist of meditations
  60. Create a playlist of my favourite songs
  61. Watch 20 movies in our new movies folder
  62. Rewatch all 6 Star Wars movies
  63. Rewatch all 3 Lord of the Rings movies
  64. Go to bed before midnight
  65. Do every Fat Mum Slim Photo-a-day in 2013
  66. Go out for High Tea
  67. Buy mum something special
  68. Organise our MP3 collection
  69. Write J random love notes
  70. Complete a cross stitch
  71. Do 1 art journal page a week
  72. Catch up with friends more often
  73. Go watch an A League game live
  74. Go to Melbourne
  75. Xbox more
  76. Finally organise our bedroom
  77. Learn to play the guitar
  78. Go visit the snow
  79. Go camping
  80. Improve my cake decorating
  81. Photograph a lightning storm
  82. Take more photos of the moon
  83. Create a mini Goddess altar
  84. Watch all the James Bond movies
  85. Write/finish a piece of fan fiction
  86. See more of Tassie
  87. Celebrate the seasons
  88. Finish our work website
  89. Work on family tree
  90. Do Fox in Flat dares
  91. Go fishing
  92. Go watch the cricket live
  93. Take K to the footy at the MCG
  94. Go to the dawn service
  95. Go to the Botanical Gardens
  96. Buy K some guinea pigs
  97. Visit QVMAG
  98. Check out MONA
  99. Rejoin the Goddess Circle
  100. Enjoy life!!

I’ll post again mid year with an update on how I’m going.

2012 – this is the year that was

So on this last day of 2012 I thought I’d do a bit of a retrospective of the year

January saw me make a heap of resolutions. I kept a few (journal every day) and didn’t keep others (like do Habit Hacker). I finally joined the Goddess Circle and think it’s one of the best investments I’ve made. Mum & Dad lost the second of their 2 dogs to cancer. Started doing a Project Life album for Miss K. Mum & Dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. We bought a house! Admittedly it’s the house we were renting from my parents but still….

In February I did lots of planning for our upcoming trip to Melbourne. We started cleaning the garage. Miss K was a hit with the footy players at the Hawks season launch in Tassie. Miss K turned 2! Where has my baby gone? Mum held an Afternoon Teal raising funds for Ovarian Cancer awareness. Cake decorating is turning out to be a bit of a thing for me lol Getting a bit addicted to Chef’s Toolbox cookware.

March – a pretty quiet month. AFL player Jim Stynes passed away. Went to Hobart to visit bro b4 his big trip OS. Left for Melbourne: DPCON12 here I come! DPCON – OMG what an amazing day. Learnt so much. Wentto my first Bloggers BBQ

April – still in Melbourne for a few days after DPCON. Caught up with some family. Made choc chip hot cross buns for the first time. I got a tweet on screen during Q&A (sad I know lol). Miss K moved to a single bed. Helped run a quiz night for Tassie Hawks Supporter Group. My 6 year blogoversary.

May – I opened my Instacanv.as gallery. Checked out the Harvest Market in Launceston for the first time. My Grandmother (on Dad’s side) passed away. Dungeons & Dragons playtest. Started painting the kitchen

June – Started a new blog. Went away for a few days to Shearwater. Got food poisoning. Never want that again! Our kitchen got tiled. Nearly finished – just need new flooring & curtains. Miss K got to see her first real frost. Played with Windows 8 preview. Qld won rugby State of Origin. Buddy Franklin kicked his 500th goal.

July was super quiet. Lots of footy watching, staying warm and then catching a cold.

August saw us get an addition to our cat run, ordered a heat pump and bought new iPads. One of the rellies visited from New Zealand.

September and I started The Organised Housewife’s 20 days to organised challenge. Got the new Amanda Palmer album. We got our heat pump installed. Started to wean Miss K. Jobe Watson won the Brownlow. Hawks made the finals and lost to Sydney by 10 points. Gutted!

In October I gave Frocktober a go. A dress everyday is a big thing for me (I hardly wear dresses). All for a great cause. Watched the Peter Crimmins medal stream. Gee Josh Gibson looks good in a suit. Got new laptops. Connected to the NBN

November – loving playing with full version of Windows 8. Obama elected to second term in office in US election. Worked out how to make Scottish tablet in microwave. Mum got a thermomix,  would so love one. Got vinyl in kitchen, laundry & sunroom. Caught up with an old friend I haven’t seen in years. Took Miss K to Launceston Christmas parade. Loved it & got a cuddle from Santa.

December – Lots of prep for hosting Christmas lunch here. Started potty training K (again). Going well so far. Went to a Thermomix demo party. Really want one now. Started the Tassie Bloggers List. Closed the blog I started in June. Miss K had a Santa photo at Myer. Christmas celebrations. Miss K got a summer cold. Bringing in the New Year at home. Hubby and mates playing Doctor Who RPG. Me most likely on Twitter.

Hope your 2012 was great and that 2013 will be awesome!!

Planning for 2013

Can you believe we’re nearly at the end of 2012? The year has just flown by!

I’m hoping to make 2013 more organised for our family and for me in general.

Starting out with my Inner B organiser. This is my second year using this diary and I’ve got to admit I love it. In 2013 I’m taking a bit of a cue from the lovely Tina and using some of her ideas in my organiser.

I’ve added a section for my 2013 Goddess Workbook, my blog and a section for Christmas. I even got a bit creative in Photoshop & made my own dividers. I’ve also culled some of the pages I probably won’t use in my diary but have added them to my home notebook (that’s a whole other post in itself).

Before the year starts I like to go through and add birthdays, anniversaries, Hawks events in Tassie and any other events I already know the dates of.

I love how the Inner B diary pages have four sections under the daily page and birthdays. I’ve assigned these for work, bloggy stuff I don’t want to forget (like sponsored posts, giveaway ending dates and the like), our menu plan for the week and Fat Mum Slim’s photo-a-day prompts (I’m hoping to do all 365 prompts in 2013)

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First is one of my favourite sections – Leonie Dawson’s Goddess Workbook. I could seriously give this section it’s own post! If you are interested in reading a bit more about the workbook you can check out my post about the 2012 workbook. I’m on my third workbook now but this is the first year I’ve printed it out and added it to my organiser. I’m hoping that works for me better.

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Each year you are given prompts to help ‘close’ the previous year before planning the year ahead. For 2013 I’ve actually managed to write a list of 100 things I’d like to do during the year (I’ll be sharing that list in early 2013). And there’s still many pages to fill in and my oracle reading for 2013. I’ll be doing this on New Year’s Eve – a good way to close the year of 2012

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Then we get into the section dedicated to my blog. (If you notice in the above photos it’s not in there yet. I stuffed up when I printed it so have to reprint it all) I used Organised Housewife Blog Planner for 2012. For 2013 I’ve printed a selection of pages I know I’ll use from the planner and left out things I know I won’t use (like the conference section cause there’s no conferences in sight for me in 2013 *sad face* but that is cool cause it means I can do awesome stuff closer to home). I’m going to try out the Confessions of a home schooler blog planner in 2013 to plan my blog post, giveaways and the like. She has a 2 free printables to choose from: a calendar style layout and a lined format post planner (I’ve gone with the lined format)

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I seriously have some big plans for my little blog in 2013 but you’ll have to wait til the new year to find out *wink* one I can announce is I will be starting an email newsletter. Not 100% on what it will include but I’ll let you know when it goes live 🙂

Finally I have a section just for Christmas. In 2012 I used the Organised Housewife Christmas Planner. Helped make everything much more organised & I plan to use it again for 2013. I’ve even started my gift idea list for 2013!!

So that’s my start to getting organised in 2013. Have you started your planning for 2013?

Christmas – Pinterest Style

Ah Pinterest, what did we used to do before it? Oh that’s right – lots of things.

Seriously though, Pinterest is a great tool for keeping things we find on the net all in one spot that we can access anywhere we have a net connection. Throughout the year I’ve been Pinning various bits and pieces I’ve found that I may use at Christmas time. Ideas for food…

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Decorating …

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Scrapbooking & card making

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Elf on the Shelf

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and so much more! I’ve got a Christmas Ideas board, a Christmas Food board and a Christmas Scrapbooking board

Do you Pinterest? What great Christmas Pins have you found?