Got my frock on!

And as week 3 comes to a close I am so really enjoying frocking up. I’m looking forward to summer and wearing dresses more often. Another THANK YOU for the donations – I’m at $300 of my $1000 goal.

So, we kicked it up a little this week and hubby played photographer for me (except for the 19th when I had a little fun). More dress recycling this week too.


Day 15 Dress by Ripe	Day 16 Dress by Rivers Shirt by Millers	Day 17 Dress by Rivers Tshirt by Hess

Day 18 Tshirt by Urban Skirt by Grace Hill Cardi by Capture	Day 19 Dress by Enchantress	Day 20 Dress by Rivers tshirt by mavi Cardi by Sportsgirl

	Day 21 Dress by Mia Rose Top by Vuios

You can keep up to date with my daily frock on Photobucket.
You can sponsor me here

According to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF), “one woman dies every ten hours from ovarian cancer in Australia.” For many women with ovarian cancer, the disease is already well advanced when they are first diagnosed. Unfortunately, there is currently no screening test for ovarian cancer.

Frocktober aims to help improve the outlook for women with ovarian cancer by supporting the quest for a suitable early detection test through fundraising for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.*

Keep up to date with my month of frocks and photos.

Donate

*information from Frocktober.org

Still frocking

Week 2 of Frocktober is coming to a close and week 3 is starting. So far you’ve donated $175 toward my $1000 goal. THANK YOU!

This week I was a little lazy and recycled a few frocks from week 1. Like the dress by Luca & Marc, it’s paid for the whole $8 I paid for it at the local Vinnie’s (I seriously love this dress so you’ll probably see it a few more times before the end of the month).

Next week I’ll be doing something apart from selfies, just for a little variety 😉


Day 8 Dress by Millers Cardi by ?	Day 9 Dress by Rivers Cardi by Myer Direct Leggings by Target	Day 10 Dress by Mia Rose Cardi by Sportsgirl

Day 11 Dress by Luca & Marc Shirt by Millers	Day 12 Dress by Rivers Tshirt by Hess	Day 13 Dress by Luca & Marc (photo bomb by Miss K)

	Day 14 Skirt by Millers Tshirt by Mavi

You can keep up to date with my daily frock on Photobucket.
You can sponsor me here

Frocking it up–week 1

So here we are the end of week 1 of Frocktober. Didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I have but the weather has been reasonably kind (except for yesterday which was rather chilly).

I’d love it if you’d sponsor me (which you can do here) and every little bit helps. All funds raised go to Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF). At present ovarian cancer is commonly diagnosed at advanced stage with only 20-30% of women surviving beyond five years, compared to more that 90% when the disease is detected and treated early.

Early stage ovarian cancer may not have obvious symptoms but the following may occur:
* Vague abdominal pain or pressure
* Feeling of abdominal fullness, gas, nausea, indigestion – different to your normal sensations
* Sudden abdominal swelling, weight gain or bloating
* Persistent changes in bowel or bladder patterns
* Low backache or cramps
* Abnormal vaginal bleeding
* Pain during intercourse
* Unexplained weight loss
The majority of women who experience one or two of these early symptoms do not have cancer. However, it is important that you seek medical advice if the symptoms are unusual or persist. For further information, visit www.ocrf.com.au or call 1300 OVARIAN.

Now onto the dresses


Day 1 Dress by Ripe Leggings by Kmart	Day 2 Dress by Mia Rose Shirt by Millers	Day 3 Dress by Rivers Tshirt by Hess

Day 4 Dress by Millers Cardi by Katies	Day 5 Dress by Mia Rose Shirt by Kmart	Day 6 Dress by Luca & Marc Tshirt by Hess Cardi by Sportsgirl

	Day 7 Skirt by Millers Top by Target Cardi by Katies

You can keep up to date with my daily frock on Photobucket.
You can sponsor me here

It’s nearly summer

and that means it’s nearly warm enough to stock up the freezer with yummy ice cream treats.

We make our own ice cream but I am very partial to a Drumstick (has to be peppermint), Eskimo Pies and when I really want to spoil myself, a Magnum. And now can spoil myself with the new Limited Edition Magnum Strawberry White Crumble.

OMG talk about delish. The white chocolate and biscuit coating is crunchy and rather yum. The strawberry ice cream inside – where do I start. It tastes like real strawberries, not fake pink ice cream like some strawberry ice creams. It’s creamy and smooth. It’s YUM! and it’s helping a good cause.

How you ask? The new limited edition ice cream was developed to mark Magnum’s partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation (Australia) (NBCF) and New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation(NZBCF), and its support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October. Unilever, Streets’ parent company, have long been a supporter of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and have contributed around $700 000 to NBCF and NZBCF over its 7 year association with the campaign. Through the extension of support from Streets’ Magnum and Blue Ribbon brands, Unilever hopes to bring total contributions to the cause to $1 million in 2012.

Strawberry White Crumble joins the Magnum range as a limited edition from August 2012 –
March 2013, and will be available in both single serve and multi-packs.

Disclaimer: I received a voucher to purchase some Magnums. All opinions are my own.

20 Days–week 3

I’ll be honest. I slacked off a fair bit this week. And OMG you can tell! I spent Friday and Saturday catching up with this week’s challenges. There’s also a lack of pics cause I was too busy cleaning 😉

Day 11’s challenge was to clean our washing machine and organise our linen cupboard.
We now have a clean washing machine again.
The linen cupboard wasn’t too bad as I’d gone through our sheets & towels not too long ago, it just needed a tidy up.

Day 12 was the dishwasher’s turn to get clean. I love this way of cleaning my dishwasher now, no more chemical cleaners. Miss K got in on the action too.

I also decluttered and organised our bathroom cupboards

Before

and after

Day 13 was cornice cleaning and sorting artwork. Miss K has recently gotten into drawing and painting so I’m getting this system in place now.

Day 14 was the office. Since I’m being honest, I’ll let you know I skipped this room. It is currently the dumping ground while our garage is being cleaned (our office is off the garage). I’ve filed all the notes away for when we get stuck into it (which will hopefully be soon)

Day 15 was cleaning outdoor areas. I cleaned the area around our front door, did a bit of weeding and planted some potted colour.

Onto Week 3…..

20 days–week 2

And here we are at the end of week 2. I am feeling so much more organised and the house is actually managing to stay clean!
We’re still nutting out our morning and evening routine but we’re slowly finding what work and what doesn’t.

Day 6 was the bathroom. Now I hate my bathroom, with a serious passion. I don’t mind that it’s small and I do like the fact the toilet is a separate room, it’s the fact that it’s wood panelled – the whole room! It’s vile. It’s starting to rot around the bath. Yuck. and probably a health hazard too. Can you guess which room we’re renovating next.

Before

After

Day 7 I cleaned and reorganised our fridge.

I’m surprised at how much stuff was out of date. I loved the idea of pre-cutting all our veg (you’ll have to scroll down the page a bit) so I’m going to invest in some new containers so we can do that here.

Day 8 was the spare room so I cleaned our sunroom. It houses our drier (until we finish doing up the laundry) and some of Miss K’s toys and her little table and chairs. I also decluttered all of Miss K’s toys. Some are being stored and others we’ll be giving away.

Day 9 – cleaning fans. Easy – don’t have any. We had the reverse cycle put in today so checking the filters will be a new monthly job. I decluttered our junk drawer into a box. I sat down Saturday and sorted it, threw away and put things in better places. Junk drawer organised.

Also organised my dairy for the rest of 2012. I’ve added all the birthdays, public holidays and events I know about now.

Day 10 was cleaning the oven, not one of my favourite jobs. Thanks to this challenge I’ve now found a super easy way to clean my oven. Love it!

Looking forward to starting week 3. I can’t believe we’re half way through.

Frocktober 2012

Yup, I’m going to take part in Frocktober this year.

For those who don’t know, wikifashion defines Frocktober as:

“Frocktober is a festive fundraising initiative aiming to raise funds for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF).Through fun – and sometimes quirky – measures, Frocktober is all about:

* Increasing the public’s awareness of ovarian cancer.
* Promoting women’s health and wellbeing.
* 2Celebrating the great diversity of shapes, sizes and colours women come in.

Essentially, Frocktober puts forward a challenge to girls, women and interested men far and wide:

To don a frock for a day, week, fortnight or a full month during October, and get sponsored for it!

So, be it borrowed, second-hand, vintage, home-made, your granny’s or that great dress you’ve just never had the right occasion to wear… get creative, get it on and get frocking with your sponsorships, all of which will be donated to the OCRF.“

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not much of a dress/skirt wearer. I would have worn trousers to my wedding if I was allowed to (glad I didn’t cause I got to buy the most gorgeous Jeannie Nitro dress to wear).

BUT as it’s helping raise funds for OCRF I’ve decided it’s a damn good cause. We’ve had Ovarian Cancer touch our family recently and anything I can do to help raise awareness about it and raise funds to help research is a good thing in my books.
SO I’m slowly collecting some dresses together – buying new ones, checking to see if old ones fit and asking around to see if anyone wants to donate a dress for me to wear.

If you’d like to donate a dress feel free to email me. I’ll have more details closer to October.

20 days to organise?

Can it be done? The Organised Housewife thinks so and during September is challenging us to follow along with the daily prompts and challenges to make our lives more organised. I’ve been reading The Organised Housewife blog for some time now and thought, Why not? And on the upside the site is Australian Winking smile

Anywho, 20 days started on Monday…. well actually it started last week with 5 pre-challenge tasks.

We created a folder to keep all our notes, printables and checklists in one place, created a cleaning kit, created a morning & evening routine and set some goals. All ready to go we started Monday in the kitchen. I have to admit, the kitchen is one area I really struggle to keep clean.
My before and after

So loving having a clean kitchen AND for the first time in ages I’m actually making an effort to keep it clean. Trying to convince hubby to help keep it clean is another matter though.

I missed doing day 2 & 3 cause I wasn’t home so day 4 was three days rolled into one.
We did the Bedroom on day 2
Before & after

The bedroom still isn’t 100% clean. My scrap stuff I’m keeping here is still unorganised but I do have a plan for that.

Day 3 – laundry
Before & after

Another room that still needs work. As soon as the plumber comes and fixes the plumbing we can add the laminex behind everything, put in the new sink, add some new shelving and give it the walls a coat of paint.

Day 4 – Lounge room
Before and After

Day 5 was cleaning floors. We vacuumed and mopped so the floors now look reasonable again. No photos cause I couldn’t b bothered LOL

Another upside to this challenge – I’m more motivated to start my household folder (control journal or whatever you call it). I’ve started a list of all the projects I want to get done room by room. Inspiration from Pinterest. Routines. Important numbers. That sort of thing.

Weekend update – The kitchen is still clean! This is it Sunday evening. We’d had guests for tea but the kitchen is still reasonable not like it would have been before – stuff everywhere

The bedroom seems to be less of a dumping ground AND I’m folding washing and putting it away when it’s dry (instead of dumping it on the bed, then back into the basket or just leaving it in the basket). Laundry is still clean. Lounge room looks like we have a toddler as Miss K loves leaving her toys everywhere but much more manageable now.

Bring on Week 2. I’m loving having a cleaner house and actually managing to keep it slightly more clean and organised.

It’s not too late to join in the 20 day challenge, you can still subscribe

Learn Something New–Week 1

I signed up for Learn Something New over at Shimelle.com last year and just followed along with the prompts & I think I may have even blogged a few. This year I’m blogging daily & posting at the end of each week. No mini album for me cause I know I’ll never finish it. Blogging it is much more doable.

So here we go for 2012

My name is Caroline and today is the first of September 2012. The last big adventure of my life would
probably be falling pregnant and giving birth to my daughter Miss K. I was so unprepared for the whole rollercoaster ride of pregnancy and parenting.

Three people who have been great teachers in my life
* My mum who taught me to be a great mother by supporting me, showing me unconditional love and being there when I need her most.
* My gran who taught me you are never to old to have fun.
* My bestie Lisa who taught me to believe in myself no matter what.

I would really like to move forward in a more organised fashion. I need to get some routines in place to make this happen. AND they have to simple otherwise I won’t follow them for long.

Come into my home and you’ll see I live with someone who can be a bit messy. You’ll also notice we LOVE books.

I’m much more a planner than spontaneous. I have learnt I need lists. I seem to get more done when I have lists. I like to have everything planned before I start a project or hold an event.

I wrote a card to someone special, for no real reason, just to say thank you.

An ‘ordinary’ day for me is up at 8, just pottering around home & playing with Miss K, checking Twitter & Facebook (probably a bit too much), taking lots of photos, surfing the net & watching TV of an evening then to bed about 10.30

So that’s week 1 of Learn Something New. Onto week 2…..