Summer (winter) blogathon wrap up

Biannual Blogathon Bash

And just like that another Blogathon comes to an end. I managed to get a fair bit done this weekend even getting a little sidetracked by the mini challenges lol

I managed to get quite a few blog posts written up and scheduled (go me lol) and I’ve brainstormed some ideas for future blog posts. I backed up my blog (something I need to do more regularly). Emptied my inbox. Set up two blogging apps on my iPad*. My blog & social media branding is a lot more consistent now. I even worked out how to add a Pin it button to my posts (after not being able to find the bookmark)

I did start my blog planner but well didn’t do much of it. Same with tidying up my Pinterest boards. The one thing I didn’t do was get my Project Life slideshows done.

*Iā€™m still not sure if Iā€™ll use the WordPress app or the BlogPress app. What do you use? Iā€™d love to hear others thoughts

100 things in 2013 *update

Here we are. Half way through 2013 already!

Updating my Goddess Workbook list of 100 things to do in 2013!!
Things in bold are started, strike thru is finished

  1. Work out a decent filing system
  2. Double my twitter followers (currently 519. As at 23 June – 609)
  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 (just need to paint)
  14. Paint lounge & dining room
  15. Hang photos of Kara & 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 (it’s coming soon – yay!)
  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 – I am so excited for what I have planned this year
  47. Read more books – gotta love iBooksĀ 
  48. Drink more water
  49. Have a massage (thanks to hubby)
  50. Have a facial
  51. Have a manicure
  52. Create a book of advice for K
  53. Finish our wedding album – redoing in Project Life format (much easier & quicker)
  54. Go see Amanda Palmer in concert
  55. Get my L’sĀ – got the book just need to book my test
  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 (current count 5/20)
  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 (you can see my photos here)
  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 – thanks to FB I’ve been catching up with a close friends lots
  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 – thanks to Cake Decorating mag
  81. Photograph a lightning storm
  82. Take more photos of the moon – super moon tonight!!
  83. Create a mini Goddess altar
  84. Watch all the James Bond movies
  85. Write/finish a piece of fan fiction – writing a Doctor Who fan fic
  86. See more of Tassie
  87. Celebrate the seasons
  88. Finish our work website – just our portfolio to go
  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 – was sick this year šŸ™
  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!!

Next post will be at the end of the year

June 2013 Blogathon Mini challenges

Each blogathon there is a list of mini challenges which are totally optional. Iā€™m creating this post to keep a tally of what Iā€™ve completed. If youā€™ve signed up for the blogathon check out the mini challenges ā€“ they are always lots of fun & you learn useful stuff for your blog šŸ™‚

  1. Make your own blog buttonĀ ā€“ updated mine and now you can grab my blog button.
  2. SEO Basics: The Perfect About Page – updated my About page
  3. Branding Basic – a great list of ideas
  4. Writing a Series or Theme On Your Blog – yes I’m working on a little something…
  5. Understanding Blog Policies – updated my PR/Disclosure page
  6. A Professional Cover Photo for your Facebook Page – matches my blog again
  7. Creating a Blogging Notebook (Revised)
  8. Understanding Google PageRank, Alexa and Klout
  9. The Social Media of It All
  10. 13 Things Your Blog Should Have
  11. Create a Pinnable Image for Pinterest

Summer (or winter here in Oz) blogathon

Biannual Blogathon Bash

Well here it is, my mid-year bloggy to do list. Some things from last time and a few new things.

  • Write up some blog posts and schedule them.
  • Brainstorm ideas for blog.
  • Backup my blog
  • Create my own blog planner
  • Clean up and sort emails
  • Re-set up blogging app on ipad
  • Make sure my blog & sm branding is consistent
  • Add a Pinterest mouse over button to my blog
  • Tidy up my Pinterest boards (not really a bloggy thing but well itā€™s a social media thing attached to my blog)
  • Do some of the Blogathon mini challenges (my update list)
  • Project Life slideshows
  • ??? sure Iā€™ll think of something else over the weekend šŸ˜‰

Look Good…Feel Better

You may have this ad on tv

Itā€™s Kerri-Anne Kennerley talking about the Look Goodā€¦Feel Better workshops that are held around Australia.

The Look Goodā€¦Feel Better workshops are a free community service program for people undergoing cancer treatments to learn about ways to help manage appearance-related side-effects that may be caused by their treatment. Their mission is ā€œto help improve the wellbeing and confidence of people undergoing treatment for any sort of cancer.
We do this by providing free Look Goodā€¦Feel Better workshops for women, men and teens to help manage the appearance-related side effects caused by cancer.ā€

I was lucky enough to get to attend one of these amazing workshops with my Mum, as her plus one, earlier this week at the local Cancer Centre. The workshop was run by a lovely group of volunteers who have all worked in the beauty industry. Workshop participants were walked through some basic skin care techniques and make up techniques to a) help manage the appearance-related changes caused by cancer treatment and b) make them feel better ā€“ cause we all know when we look good, we seem to feel a little better šŸ™‚ Headwear (like scarves, hats, turbans and beanies) and wigs was also discussed and demonstrated.

I was totally blown away by the cosmetics and skin care that is so generously donated for these workshops, companies include Chanel, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder and many more (current sponsors can be viewed on the LGFB website). Each workshop participant takes home an amazing Confidence kit containing an instruction booklet as well as the skincare and cosmetics used during the workshop.

After the workshop I saw the women who attended smiling, laughing and talking together. No one really discussed their cancer as the day was not about cancer but about looking good and feeling better. Iā€™d say the women who attended looked good and many of them, Iā€™m sure, felt better.

If youā€™d like to read more about the Look Goodā€¦Feel Better workshops have a look at the LGFB website, spread the word about this great service and maybe donate

Itā€™s that time againā€¦..

Biannual Blogathon Bash

Yup, time for the Biannual Blogathon Bash. I really enjoyed myself last time and got a fair bit done so Iā€™m going to give it a go again next weekend.

What is the Blogathon?
ā€You know all those items on your Blogging To Do list? Those things youā€™ve been meaning to get to but havenā€™t had a chance? Nowā€™s your chance to get a large amount of them done!ā€ Itā€™s a chance to spend time, over a weekend, to do some (or all) of the things on your to do list. Read the About the Blogothon page for more info.

My to do list from January & the update. Iā€™m currently working on my to do list for this time around.

Will you be joining in? Would love to see some more Aussie faces šŸ˜‰

It’s harder if you care.

(Handing my blog over to the lovely Fiona today to share with you a little of what itā€™s like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). May is BPD Awareness Month. Help eliminate the stigma and raise awareness of this serious condition by educating yourself and others.)

It’s harder if you care.

It causes me to drive you away. Please. I’m not worth it. Not worth your affection. All I’m going to do it hurt you and frankly fuck up your life, so get out now while you still can.

Fatal Attraction. Mad Love. Girl, Interrupted. Prozac Nation. 

Choose your film. 

Girls with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) are messed up, and are going to screw up your life.

At least that’s the media’s angle.

We’re way more likely to screw up our own.

What did this mean for me?

30 years old. My partner is my high school sweetheart. I’m a Speech Pathologist. I  just got my masters in Inclusive education. I work with kids with disabilities in a specialist autism school. 

And yet, I’m suicidal.

Regularly self harming. Cutting and drinking.

Sleeping around. Lies. 

Trying to get my partner to break it off. Desperately. 

And yet he won’t. He still loves me. Sees the good in me. Wants to help me.

We set boundaries.  Well, he sets them , I agree. 

And  then break them.

He doesn’t know I’ve resumed my Bulimic behaviours. Enough to get a dual diagnosis.

That there’s more than he ever knew. 

I ran away.

It was all I knew how to do.

I needed an out. 

He broke it off. And he took me to hospital. 

And got me help.

They diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder.

    1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behaviour covered in (5).
    2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. This is called “splitting.”
    3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
    4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behaviour covered in (5).
    5. Recurrent suicidal behaviour, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behaviour. 
    6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days). 
    7. Chronic feelings of emptiness. 
    8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights). 
    9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

I fit this well.

Impulsive. Suicidal. Self harming. Bulimia. Not knowing who I am.

I have a long history of needing to be perfect. To not upset others. To be what someone else wants me to be. No matter what that is.

I play to the role. I can be whoever you want me to be, I just wish I knew who I wanted to be.

Not sustainable in the long run.

Today I am in twice weekly therapy through the centre for psychotherapy in Newcastle. Not all health systems have such a service, but you should look.

We’re working on me accepting me as a valid person.  As having feelings, and THAT IS OKAY. Knowing where they come from. And knowing how I respond. In an aim to respond less extremely next time.

Accepting. And growing.

Technically I’m a functional adult.

I work. I study. I date. I’m a great friend and family member.

I just still melt down occasionally.  All too much…

Borderline Personality Disorder can be managed. We can learn to accept and love ourselves.

It just takes time

And patience.

From me

And you.

—-

Read more about BPD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder

http://www.sane.org/information/factsheets-podcasts/160-borderline-personality-disorder

http://www.spectrumbpd.com.au/pages/about-borderline-personality-disorder-bpd.php

Whereā€™s Ya Noms at

(taking a quick break from the Blog Every Day in May posts to bring you another post in my Our House series)

I *heart* me some Drunk Kitchen. Google it hehe (Thanks to the lovely Fiona for first sharing it with me). See there I go getting distracted with music again. Where were we? Ah yes the kitchen. This is what we got when we bought the house

026027

Now I donā€™t know about you but wood paneling in a kitchen, really isnā€™t my thing. Itā€™s a total pain in the real to clean. That lovely stove in the corner ā€“ broken so our first step was a new stove. Then we decided the island thing was blocking a lot of light so it went. Then Miss K came along and it really wasnā€™t suitable so new kitchen was to be had. And didnā€™t we take great delight in helping rip out the cupboards & wood paneling. And our new kitchen slowly took shape over a couple of days (plus the time later to get tiling done and new flooring)

IMG_3499IMG_3503IMG_0379IMG_3520IMG_0382

And I got a new glass hotplate and wall oven *squee* and our dishwasher got put in.

(I’ll edit this post later with a picture of the kitchen when it’s clean – at the moment it’s a tad messy)

Love my kitchen now.