Nightwolf's Den

October 2011 Round Up

(The idea & questions for my round up come from Katie the Scrapbook Lady.)

What books and/or magazines did I read this month? Read a sample of the Steve Jobs autobiography. Must buy to read the rest.
What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
Tv – Castle, Doctor Who
What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
Took Miss K to the Launceston show with Mum. Watched the Hawthorn Best & Fairest. Had a BBQ for Bathurst 1000.
What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Late Father’s day gifts (finally arrived).
What special or unusual purchases did I make?
Bought an iPad 2, a new iPhone 4s, a ticket to the Digital Parents conference in Melbourne next March. Bought hosting for blog. Photos for Xmas.
What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
Miss K’s teething again. Big molars coming through
What were my accomplishments this month?
Getting two sponsors for the Digital Parents Conference (FollowMeStickers & Belkin)
What were my disappointments this month?
Haven’t managed much scrapping.
How did I do on my goals for the month?
Journal every day Check
Do some scrapping & art journaling Check
Exercise at least 3 times a week. Um no
Try and keep the house a bit cleaner Um, still no
Organise at least one scrapping day with mum nope
Anything else noteworthy to include?
Steve Jobs died. Got our side fence done & gate started. Finally finishing off JYC from last year

Back up all digital pictures. DONE
Format memory cards. DONE
All photos off phone. DONE
Sort all September photos into 2011 folder. DONE
Make a backup copy of the photos onto my desktop computer and EHD. DONE
Backup any other documents or files as needed. DONE
Backup my blogs. DONE
Clean off my work area, empty my inbox, and clean up my computer files. DONE
Update LYM Logbook from Momento app DONE
Print November pages for LYM Logbook DONE

Goals for November
Journal every day.
Do some scrapping & art journaling
Exercise at least 3 times a week.
Try and keep the house a bit cleaner – start Habit Hacker again
Organise at least one scrapping day with mum
Blog at least once a week.
Continue Christmas Countdown and get Home Binder started

What I’ve been up to

I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the online world (well apart from checking out twitter on my phone & checking my email only twice a day.) Where have I been I hear you ask? Well I’m glad you did.

It’s been glorious weather here for the last few days so Miss K & I have been out gardening (while hubby & the FIL have been building us a new gate)

We started off with with the garden near the mailbox.

This is what it looked like just after we moved in and we weeded and redid the whole garden. Then it kinda got left and got overtaken with weeds *sigh* This is what it looks like now (I’ve added another 2 plants since this was taken)

Then there is the little side garden which was going to be a rose garden but I decided the other day to turn it into a succulent garden for all my little cacti that needed repotting.

The before:	The after:

and I also ended up doing the garden beside the driveway. So I’ve been a busy little garden bug.

And then yesterday it poured!

Hopefully this weekend it will be nice again so I can do a bit more. Gotta love the warmer weather, so you can get outside and do things. Miss K is loving it!

Belkin Play Max N600 HD Wireless N Dual-Band Router

I’m a bit of a tech geek. I’ll try a brand and if it performs well and the company gives great customer service I’m a fan for life. Up until recently we have been a D-Link family. Our modems, routers & switches have all been D-Link. Twelve months ago we bought a Belkin modem (for a customer of our IT business). Cut a long story short we ended up with the modem. No complaints about it.

Fast forward a month and we bought a colour laser printer. Our router had the ability to connect to the printer so we could print from any computer in the house. Fast forward another 3 months and the printer started dropping out randomly Sad smile At first we thought it was the printer. Upgraded it to the latest firmware and software. Worked ok for a day or two then the drop outs started again. And then it started dropping our wireless randomly.

Fast forward about a month and the wireless network drop outs were more frequent. Came home from a day out and the drop outs were every 5 minutes! The poor iPhone got a work out to see if we could find out what could be the problem. Seems it is a problem with the router, and the router had been discontinued.

After some research (& a call out on Twitter) we decided to go with a Belkin Play Max N600 HD Wireless N Dual-Band Router Modem.

Set up, according to hubby, was a breeze. Security settings – simple. Connecting to our network printer – so much easier – no requesting the printer each time you want to print something.

A couple of months in and I have no real complaints. The drop outs are limited to very rarely (and are mainly internet drop outs). The only thing I find slightly frustrating is whenever I start up my computer, the Belkin Set up box pops up (any Belkin techs reading this, is there a solution to stop this??).

I LOVE the apps the router comes with. Attach an external hard drive to this baby and you can do sooo much. Play your music collection wirelessly, priotise your data streams (be it online gaming, VoIP, videos), back up valuable documents (like photos) and the “SELF-HEALING App automatically detects and resolves network problems and runs routine maintenance scans to give you the clearest wireless channel”.

Welcome to my new blog – updated

Well, welcome to my new blog home. Many thanks to Little Hero Hosting for getting me up and running so quickly 🙂

I’d like to start off at my new blog home by saying thank you and welcoming my first 2 sponsors for the Digital Parents Conference – Belkin and Follow Me Sticker. I’ll be posting about both these great companies within the next week.

So I’d love it if you update your bookmarks/rss reader and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and like me on Facebook.

Sunday Sessions

Linking up with the Sunday Sessions with Thea. I just found this today and thought I’d join in. Cause I loves my music. So I’m sharing a couple of songs that are on my playlist right now. It’s pretty eclectic Winking smile

What’s on your playlist at the moment?

I has a happy

So today was a bit of a *squee* day

First we had to buy new tyres for the car (not so much a *squee* moment as a *grrr $$$$* moment) then hubby bought me this

and then we went to find out if they could fix hubby’s phone and we ended up getting upgraded to these (and on a cheaper plan)

and then this happened

AND

I bought my own domain name. I’ll be moving soon. I hope you’ll follow me Smile

Zhu Zhu Pets

We have recently had a new addition to our family. And quite a cute little thing she is too. Her name is Rori (& *squee* she’s purple – my favourite colour).

When Rori arrived I think I had more fun playing with her than Miss K, but she has slowly taken a shine to her new ‘pet’ and Rori has been out and about with us a couple of times now. Zhu Zhu Pets are recommended for ages 4 & up but Miss K is only 18 months and is quite happy to play with Rori, supervised of course. She wasn’t keen to pick her up to start with but now carries her Zhu’s around most of the day and find various play spaces for them. The kitchen is the favourite at the moment and it’s nothing unusual to see our three Zhu’s scooting around the kitchen. Oh yeah, I should warn you – Zhu Zhu’s are addictive, since Rori came to live with us we’ve acquired Kacee & Harlow.

We share our house with a couple of cats (or more they share their house with us) and they have both taken an interest in Rori and the other bhns with one even coming up to give Rori a lick when she’s not running round the kitchen.

Here’s two of the Zhu Zhus doing what they do best, running round the kitchen being chased by Miss K (please ignore the mess. And the high pitch squealing from Miss K)

Zhu Zhu Pets a video by Nightwolf_Designs on Flickr.

Zhu Zhu Pets are the cutest little plush robotic hamster toys. They can be put in either of two play modes: “nurturing mode,” in which they coo and purr, or “adventure mode,” in which they explore their habitat and respond to various stimuli.

Things I like:
* Runs well on a variety of surfaces
* Keeps Miss K amused for awhile
* Is cute and a good replacement pet if you can’t have real pets
* Not overly expensive
* The website – The Zhu-niverse – is a great place for both parents & children to learn about the Zhus and play games in a safe online area. And create a list of what Zhus and accessories you own or want to own.

Things I’m not to keep on:
* The noise. It’s cute but after awhile can get a little annoying
* No off switch. You have to let your pet go to ‘sleep’ and ours seem to chat for ages after we press the buttons.

Hubby has decided there should be one called Harvey. Hmm yup, a Weird Al fan.

Update: I can see more Zhu Zhu Pets and accessories will be on the wish list for Christmas this year. So much so we bought the Burger Overpass set. And I’m sure I’ll find another couple of Zhu related things for the stocking Winking smile

Disclaimer: I was given a Zhu Zhu Pet and accessory pack for Miss K to have a play with. All opinions are my own.

10 on the 10th

Taking part in 10 on the 10th over at Shimelle’s

This month I’ve been pinning heaps of Christmas ideas. Here are 10 of my favourite so far….


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You can check out all my Christmas pins here

Do you have a Christmas board on Pinterest? Feel free to link me up Smile

Thank You

I was heading to town today to take Miss K to show when I heard the news. Steve Jobs lost his battle with Pancreatic Cancer. Apple has this tribute.

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Love or hate Apple, you have to admit Steve Jobs was an inspiration. I read a quote from Jobs online today and I want to share it with you.

"Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

~ Steve Jobs

I started my computer geekery (is it even a word lol) with an Apple and I love my iPhone. The world is a different place because of Jobs and others like him. Visionaries.

So Thank You Mr Jobs. You will be missed. The computer world has lost a creative genius.

Seeking sponsorship

Well the Australian mummy bloggersphere is abuzz with the news. The Digital Parents Conference 2012 is happening! In March next year! In Melbourne! *Squee* (Early bird tickets sold out in less than a day!!)

I’m looking forward to going and finally getting to me so many amazing bloggers. Women I’ve stalked followed and admired from afar. Women like Kelley, Liz, Tina, Lori, Louisa and many others. And that’s not including the Tassie bloggers like Kel, Veronica, and Kim.

Then there is the amazing program of learning, networking, more learning, more networking and some giggles (if past blogger meet ups are anything to go by – Twitter was abuzz during the Australian Bloggers Conference). Did I mention THE ProBlogger is one of the speakers?

I’m seeking sponsorship. Going to blog conferences isn’t cheap and there is so much to organise – travel, accommodation, clothing, business cards….. and I’d love to get some business’ on board to help me out. Cause it’s all about the sharing, yes?

Why sponsor me? I’ve been blogging since 2005 and seen so many changes in the blogging world. I love writing about stuff and I’m hoping that by going to the conference I can get better at writing about stuff on my blog & all the social media stuffs.
This little blog is primarily a personal blog that touches on parenting, family, photography and crafting (mainly scrapbooking and art journaling). I love chatting away on Twitter, not so much on Facebook anymore but I still pop in to say hi. I love sharing Smile

What am I offering?

* a dedicated blog post about your company and the product/service you offer;
* a review of the product/service (if applicable);
* mentioned in posts regarding Digital Parents Conference 2012 (before, during and after the conference);
* your logo on the back of my business cards (which will be handed out during the conference);
* sidebar advertising for the period leading up to the conference and for three (3) months after;
* mention on both Twitter and Facebook fan page as my sponsor for the conference

All blog posts that mention your company will also include a link to your website

Does this sound like something you’d like to help me with? Or do you know someone who might be interested in helping me out? Email me. Cause it’s all about the love and learning (& networking & meeting ProBlogger & more networking & more learning & meeting awesome bloggers).