Personal reflections, life updates, and thoughtful posts from Nightwolf’s Den, sharing stories, insights, and moments that don’t fit neatly elsewhere.
I borrowed Dad’s DSLR over the weekend to take some snaps for a client and while at the footy. It’s made me realise I really need my own DSLR cause there’s some things where the iPhone camera (& my point & shoot) just doesn’t cut it. So camera people – come at me with your suggestions. I’m looking for something that I can shoot fast moving sports with (think car racing, footy, wrestling), macro and your standard everyday photos.
Anyways, here’s some of the shots I took over the weekend.
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
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
For the Scrapbooker
For the tea/coffee drinker
For the geek mum
For the tech mum
For the photographer mum
Other (only cause I couldn’t think of a suitable heading – yeah I’m lazy :p)
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).
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:
Disclaimer – I received some Me Books books to try for free and I am part of the Me Books review team in Australia. All opinions and wording (unless noted) are my own.
I can’t remember the first book I read but I can remember always having hundreds of books around. One room of our house growing up had a wall of books – that room ended up being my bedroom, sadly minus the wall of bookshelves. Mum & Dad read to both my brother & I from a young age. Tilly and Tessa was apparently a favourite as was the Miffy books and the Mog books. My brother’s favourite was Grug. I remember reading Shakespeare when I was young – Midsummer Nights Dream is still a favourite of mine.
We’ve tried to install this love of books in Miss K. We’ve read to her since she was really little. Birthdays and Christmas are always a time to give new books. She’s inherited some of my books – big surprise Tilly & Tessa is one of those books (she loves it as much as I did) and we’ve downloaded some books for her on the iPad, mainly interactive ones but we’ve found she’s not as interested in them after the first or second read. When offered to take a look at the Me Books app, I jumped at the chance. Mainly because their library include favourites from my childhood – Ladybird books! I had a heap of these books when I was young, some which had been handed down from cousins and other family. Well read and well worn. And the Beatrix Potter collection. There’s also more modern reads based on favourite TV shows like Peppa Pig and Charlie & Lola.
Me Books offers children a great range of books that are interactive. Kids can read along; have the story read to them by well known personalities (like Sir David Jason, Rik Mayall and Richard E Grant); touch the pages for interactive sound effects; record the story themselves (or by a parent/grandparent/carer etc)
When you download the app from the App Store you’ll be given the following screen with your free book, Little Red Riding Hood.
To create a Me Books account, to access other books, click on the Shop button then click Account. Click Create Account, enter your email and a password and your done. When you create an account, you will also get the following three Me Books – Shopping with Mother, Talk about School and Sleeping Beauty.
So far Miss K has devoured them. Peppa Meets the Queen has been read and played numerous times, as has Talkabout starting school.
Me Books have also dropped the price of their The Land of Me book apps. They are now 99c each. “In this BAFTA nominated early learning adventure for 2 – 6 year olds, children encounter an enchanting cast of loveable characters. Join Eric the raccoon, Buddy Boo the bear and Willow the owl on an epic journey through your child’s imagination.”
I’d never heard of The Land of Me but after checking out their website I’ve decided they are very cute (and I think they should have plushies of the main characters – I would buy them all.)
The apps included in the super sale are:
The Land of Me – Shape, Size and Colour
The Land of Me – Making Things
The Land of Me – Songs and Rhymes
These have quickly become favourites too with The Land of Me – Songs & Rhymes on high rotation. And the good thing is, they aren’t annoying like some other apps aimed at kids.
The Me Books app is free to download, you get Little Red Riding Hood for free AND when you join the Me Books store you get another 3 books (Shopping with Mother, Talk about School and Sleeping Beauty) free as well. Books in the Me Books store range from 99c to $2.99 (most are $2.99). Books in the Modern section include Charlie & Lola and Peppa Pig. Classics include Beatrix Potter and lots of Ladybird Books.
Miss K started day care at the local Early Learning Centre a month ago and we’re getting quite a pile of artwork.
I’ve been putting some of her art pre day care into a binder because it has all been A4 or smaller. Now she’s at day care we’re getting larger pieces and stuff that clearly won’t fit in a binder.
Now the question for you, dear readers, is what can I use to store all these bits of art?
I’ve been taking photos and archiving them using a great app called Artkive.
Artkive allows you to take a photo of your children’s artwork and tag it with the child’s name, grade and date.
You can create a Share Circle so you can share, via email, your Artkive with family and friends – a great way to share artwork with Grandparents (or anyone else you like)!
If you live in the US or Canada you can get books printed of your children’s artwork too. Hopefully that will be available worldwide soon. But if you would like to get a book you can email them.
Sunday Mum & I held our second Afternoon Teal fundraising event. This year our event was called Crop Teal You Drop as we’d planned a day with a scrapbooking theme. Due to a few unforseen circumstances we ended having to shorten the day to just the Afternoon Tea part of the event.
We started the afternoon off with a quick group shot and while we printed out our image had a quick game of Scattergories, that was a great laugh and a good way to start the afternoon off.
Most of the ladies who attended are not scrapbookers and I think weren’t sure what to expect when we announced we had a scrapbook challenge. The pages all turned out different and I think everyone had a good time. This is a small selection of the pages created.
and then there was all the food!
We had a raffle and a silent auction with some amazing prizes from amazing sponsors Kim Foale, Inner B, Rabbit Hole Tea and Vitality Brands.
Prizes clockwise from top left: cups by Kim Foale; Beauty & the Bees gift pack; Rabbit Hole Tea teapot & selection of teas; Cancer Council pack from Vitality Brands; Mum Organiser and Wellbeing pad from Inner B. A HUGE thank you to all who donated prizes.
I’m amazed at how much there is for Ovarian Cancer Awareness month this year. Two of the ladies from Ovarian Cancer Australia will be on The Morning Show tomorrow (Feb 27th,) around 10.15. Tomorrow is also Teal Ribbon day. Buy your Teal Ribbon today from Chemmart Pharmacies, Harvey Norman, My Size, Brazilian Butterfly and Contours.
I’ll be wearing my teal ribbon tomorrow along with this gorgeous necklace from the amazing Art in the Round on Etsy.
She makes some gorgeous awareness ribbon pendants as well as other gorgeous pendants (and now she sells matching earrings!)
Disclosure: I was given product or vouchers to trial the following products. All opinions are my own.
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a From the Den post. We’ve been trying a few new things lately so I thought I’d share 🙂 cause I’m nice like that hehe
PONG mobile cases. I’m usually a bit sceptical when it comes to mobile phones and the whole radiation thing so when I was offered the chance to try a mobile case that claims to cut radiation as well as improve signal & battery life I thought well it can’t hurt to try it out. Pong cases claim to reduces exposure to cellular radiation by up to 94% below international safety limits, by redirecting mobile phone radiation away from your head and body as well as improve signal strength by up to 30%. Efficient antenna performance is meant to increase talk-time battery life.
After having a case with a flip over cover for so long, it was a little strange at first to go to the slip on design. The rubber side grips are comfy and it comes in a range of colours. Can’t say anything about the radiation but I did notice an improvement in battery life and signal strength.
If radiation from mobiles is a worry for you this would be a great case – the extended battery life is a bonus! PONG make cases for the iPhone 3 up to the iPhone 5, iPad (1 through 4 and the mini), some Android phones & some Blackberry phones. You can buy PONG phones online. Prices range from $49.99 for the Motorola Droid X/X2 case to $129.99 for an iPad case
Coles GRILL products. Thanks to VIBE Village I had the opportunity to try out the new Coles GRILL range. We tried the Pepper & Chilli Beef, Honey Soy Chicken Skewers, Tasmanian Salmon Teriyaki and Southern Style Chicken Shanks. We had 2 friends round for a BBQ and we were surprised to have leftovers. The beef was moist and full of flavour and not too spicy like we thought it would be. The salmon was delish. The chicken skewers were quite yum (I only got half of one, Miss K scarfed the rest – she loves her chicken) but probably could have done with more marinade. Didn’t try the chicken shanks but hubby assured me they were yum. Love the fact these are just open and cook. Would be great if you had to take something to a BBQ and wanted to grab something on the way or to stash in the freezer for a quick meal option.
Fing’rs nail makeup. I love wearing nail polish but it really doesn’t like me. I put it on and within an hour it’s all chipped. Doesn’t matter if I get my nails done professionally either – still chipped within a couple of hours. Makes me sad. And I’m not coordinated enough to do all the fancy nail art I keep pinning on Pinterest. So when I got the chance to try the new range of Fing’rs Nail Makeup I thought awesome! There are 8 designs in the new L.A. range. I tried Hollywood first, it’s pink with silver dots. Application is really easy – just choose your nail size, peel from the backing, stick to your nail then fold the end and file to your nail shape. The packaging says they will last for up to 7 days. Mine lasted through a kids party & all the prep for that, a swim, general housework. We’re on day 6 and they are only starting to look a little shabby at the ends. I’m debating about trying a layer of clear nail polish over the top next time to give them a bit more protection. Fing’rs nail make up is available at selected Coles & Kmart stores for $9.99
And now the exciting part. I’ve got a full set of the new Fing’rs LA range to give to one reader. That’s 8 different designs for you to try.
To enter, use the Rafflecopter form below, help me choose which Nail Makeup I should try next.
Entry is for Australian residents only.
And the winner is Jody. Congratulations. Thanks to all who commented and the winning choice will be revealed on Twitter & Instagram later today 😉 It was very close
