General - Nightwolf's Den

Kiss & Make up

Happy Valentine’s Day!

1 in 79 Australian women will develop Ovarian Cancer by the age of 85. Although the average age of diagnosis is 64, women of all ages have been diagnosed. The youngest I know of is 3!

So after sharing that with you I thought today is the perfect day to share with you a great new app. K.I.S.S and Makeup, available for free in the iTunes store.

Know the Important Signs and Symptoms: this Valentine’s Day Ovarian Cancer Australia is asking everyone in Australia to K.I.S.S. their loved ones to make sure they know the important signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer. With the click of a button you can share a K.I.S.S. and help your friends know the important signs and symptoms. Developed thanks to generous funding from the Victorian Department of Health, the app informs women about the symptoms and risks of ovarian cancer and enables them to share this information with family and friends. The symptom diary allows users to easily track the type and severity of their symptoms each day for four weeks. This information can be converted into a report for women to present to their doctor should they have any concerns.

What are the important signs & symptoms?

Abdominal or pelvic pain
Increased abdominal size or persistent bloating
Needing to urinate often or urgently
Feeling full after eating a small amount

If you have these symptoms (& they are new or unusual) and experience them most days over 2-4 week period, please see your doctor. Ovarian cancer is relatively uncommon and most women with these symptoms won’t have Ovarian Cancer but it is better to be safe and get it checked. Pap smears don’t detect Ovarian Cancer and there is no early detection test.

This great little app also has some great make up tips from Miranda Kerr’s Australian makeup artist, Allyson Boyle.

Grab it now in the App Store and KISS all your female friends and relatives this Valentine’s Day

Ovarian Cancer Awareness

This month (February) is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I’m turning my blog, Twitter and Facebook teal for the month to show my support for those currently battling Ovarian Cancer and for the families who have lost a loved one.

Ovarian Cancer is a disease where some of the cells in one or both ovaries start to grow abnormally and develop into cancer. There currently is no screening test for Ovarian Cancer. If your doctor suspects ovarian cancer, there are a number of tests they can perform to help decide whether your symptoms are due to ovarian cancer or other causes. Of these tests, it is strongly recommended that both the CA125 blood test and the transvaginal ultrasound are performed. If these tests strongly suggest ovarian cancer, then your doctor will recommend an operation, which is the only definite way to diagnose ovarian cancer.

Every woman needs to know what the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer. Make sure you do.
Women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer report four types of symptoms most frequently:

Abdominal or pelvic pain.
Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.
Needing to urinate often or urgently.
Feeling full after eating a small amount.

Most women who experience these symptoms don’t have Ovarian Cancer but if you experience these symptoms regularly over a four week period, please discuss your symptoms with a doctor and if other reasons don’t rule out your symptoms ask to be tested for Ovarian Cancer

Events during February to raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer include

WNBL Teal Ribbon Round (Feb 1st to Feb 3rd)
Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake – Melbourne, Vic (see starttofinish.com.au for more details)
Contours 6 Week Challenge – see Contours website for more info
K.I.S.S. on Valentine’s Day (I’ll be sharing more about this on Feb 14)
GO Festival
Afternoon Teal – Mum & I will be hosting ours later this month
Teal Ribbon Day. Wednesday 29th Feb. Teal Ribbon Day is a way to show your support for Ovarian
Cancer awareness, support and research and recognise those affected.

The majority of the information in this post comes from Ovarian Cancer Australia. Support this organisation – they do an amazing job! Follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook. I am in no way associated with this organisation. I am blogging about this cause because it is close to my heart.

Work wear for under $100? Challenge accepted

Disclaimer: I was given a Target gift card to purchase work wear and accessories. All opinions and wording is my own, unless otherwise noted.

When you work from home there is often the tendency to wear what ever you lay your hands on first thing of a morning. Be a work-from-home mum and the tendency to wear something comfy & that hides a multitude of stains is more so. I’ve had quiet a few days when I can still be found in my pjs at midday.

When I was offered the chance to shop at Target and see if I could get something stylish yet practical for under $100 I thought challenge accepted!

Now our nearest Target is about 40 minutes away BUT thanks to the wonders of the internet & online shopping I was able to browse the City Dressing range of women’s wear in the comfort of my own home. I selected a few pieces, wrote down the names & then a couple of days later headed into Launceston to go check out my wish list

First on the list was some new underwear, cause your underwear is the foundation of any outfit looking great! I really love how the underwear at Target is so affordable and in a great range of styles and sizes. I mean you can get a new bra for as little as $7.50 and new undies from as little as $5 a pair! So undergarments sorted. No I’m not sharing what I bought but you can check out the styles of bras and undies online. Next stop tops & trousers.

I decided to go with trousers just cause I’m not really a skirt person. I wear jean a lot, and even though the IT industry can be pretty laid back as far as work wear goes, I decided to get something a little more professional. I have quite a few pairs of long length trousers so checked out the 3/4 lengths and capris. I also wanted something not black as 90% of the trousers I already own are black. Ended up picking the City Dressing Linen Crop Pants
OMG these pants are super comfy. Great for work, chasing that super active toddler AND even heading out to a spring/summer bbq/party/drinks with mates/blogger event. AND they only set me back $24.88
If you prefer longer work pants, the City Dressing range has lots of great options and prices start from a cheap $20

The selection of tops in the City Dressing range varies from shirts to tops that will take you from work to after work. I could have spent hours trying on tops. In the end I selected 3 – the City Dressing Striped Short Sleeve Shirt; the City Dressing Ruffle Top With Necklace; and a black & white spotted sleeveless
I ended up picking the City Dressing Ruffle Top With Necklace. Casual yet dressy enough to meet with clients.

Now accessories, since the top came with a necklace I didn’t worry about getting another. I looked at a few things but what I was looking for wasn’t available in my local Target so I decided to accessory shop online. I picked up a new phone wallet and a new belt. And cause I really like it I added a new ring.

So my outfit for under $100

City Dressing Linen Crop Pants – $24.88

City Dressing Ruffle Top With Necklace – $39

Phone wallet – $15

Belt – $15

(underwear & ring purchased separately)

Shoes are my own

So there you go. Can you get a work outfit – that will work if your a mum of an active toddler and/or take you out after work – for under $100? At Target, the answer is yes you can!

Happy Australia Day!

Today is our national day. A day to celebrate Aussie pride. To have BBQs and cold beer and maybe even listen to Triple J’s Hottest 100. Oh and to watch the cricket if there is any on. Maybe even a game of backyard cricket. To give thanks to that British mob who came here years ago. To celebrate we live in a pretty free place where we can say and do pretty much what we want (within reason of course). To some it is a day of mourning and loss, not a day of celebration.

We’re celebrating Australia Day this year pretty much as a normal weekend (except maybe for the little bit of planning for my birthday on Monday & it’s a public holiday woot!). We’ll have snags for tea. Hubby has his mate coming round to play the Doctor Who RPG and I’ll be playing round on the internet 😉

I did try out a couple of new recipes I’d found on Pinterest – No Knead Cheese & Onion Beer Bread by Not Quite Nigella; and homemade butter in the food processor.

First was Not Quiet Nigella’s beer bread. This was the first time I’d seen her site and will be going back to check out some more of her recipes.

(note the great Tassie beer)

Chuck it all in the bowl and mix is pretty much all there is to this recipe. Put it in a loaf tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Serve warm with butter

I thought this was the perfect chance to try out another recipe – homemade butter in the food processor. Can’t credit myself for this recipe but I did Australianise it a bit (we don’t have heavy cream here – I used Thickened cream and it worked fine)

2 cups thickened (or pure) cream. Has to be full fat cream – the more fat the better apparently
pinch or two of salt, optional
Pour your cream into the food processor. Put it on high. Check it after 2 minutes. If it has started to separate all good, if not give it another couple of minutes (mine took about 3 1/2 minutes). It should look like this

If it looks like that, pour off the liquid – this is your buttermilk: keep it, you can use it to make pancakes and other stuff. Add about 1/8 cup cold water. Replace lid, pulse 4 times. Pour off the liquid. Repeat.

Place your butter in a strainer and allow any excess liquid to drain. There are heaps of suggestions to drain your butter online – squeezing it between butter paddles, putting your butter on a marble board and squeezing the liquid out with a spoon – I lined a colander with a clean Chux cloth over a bowl and let it drain in the fridge.

Put it in a bowl and stir in your salt if desired. And there you go – homemade butter! Should last about 3 days

I was going to make lamingtons but realised we didn’t have enough flour. So lamingtons will have to wait 🙁

Nourish My Soul – Week 3

I’ve been terrible at uploading my pictures this week but have been taking them.

My week according to Instagram

Didn’t share much in IG this week but we have been super busy

13th January – 20th January

Fox in Flats #HairDare

Last year I was pretty crap at keeping up with the amazing Fox in Flats Style Dares. I’d occasionally do one and then last 2-3 days then stop. This year one of my goals was to do more of the Style Dares & do all 7 days.

The first dare was “Wear your hair in a different style every day for 7 days in a row”

I usually wear my down mainly cause I can’t be bothered doing anything with it, unless we’re going out somewhere special so this was lots of fun.

Looking forward to the next style dare.

Nourish My Soul – Week 2

8. A little Project Life & a little Iron Maiden 9. a clean(ish) kitchen and fresh bread baking 10. Today’s oracle card reading 11. new cookbook to check out 12. Dessert. Fresh strawberries. Dusted with icing sugar. Drizzled with Cointreau. 13. A little Zen wisdom 14. Marilyn Monroe – a true beautiful woman!

My week according to Instagram

6th January – 13th January

Peppa Pig and folding washing #myafternoon | Organising my Project Life digi supplies | writing my 2013 affirmations in @leonie_dawson Workbook | Our visitor #catsofinstagram needless 2 say our 2 r not happy cats emoji | a clean(ish) kitchen and fresh bread baking | Crossing another thing off my list of 100 things for 2013. Make bread. | Updating my media kit. | Going for a swim. | Dessert. Fresh strawberries. Dusted with icing sugar. Drizzled with Cointreau. | Checking out a new cookbook | Blowing bubbles with cousins | “tractor” rides with Pa and cousins

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.

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