A new look

As part of Shimelle’s Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers class we were asked to take a look at our current blog design. Then look at what surrounded each post. So I have spent a few days redesigning my little piece of the blogosphere and this is the result. I think it looks a bit more clean and streamlined and hopefully it’s easier for you to find what you are looking for.

I thought I’d give you a quick run down on what you’ll find in the new design.

To get back to the main page at anytime, just click on my header.

Over to the left you will find:

AboutTakes you to my About Me page. Find out a little about me & my blog.

 

follow

How you can contact me, subscribe to my blog or find me on Facebook & Twitter.

Resume

My scrapbooking resume. You know, in case anyone wants me to do some scrapbooking for them. Or is interested in offering me a Design Team spot.

layouts

A link to my gallery. Here you will find a selection of my scrapbook pages, art journals, digital pages, cards and off the page creations. Oh yeah, I love comments so feel free to leave me some love 😉

products

Pretty self explanatory. Just links to stuff I love. Most are affiliate links – just so you know.

On the right you’ll find:

Search – looking for something I posted  and can’t find it. Search my blog.

Categories

My blogging categories. Making things easier for you to find.

 

random

Just random blinkies and stuff that interests me. Ranges from sites I frequent to lists I’m on, to causes I support and copyright info.

So that’s it. Hope you like the new look and it’s a bit easier for you to find things Smile

Who loves doing washing?

Not me. Unless it’s watching hubby do it but that rarely happens. So anything to make my life a little easier is always a good thing.

Since Miss K arrived and more so since she started eating solids (and isn’t that fun) I’ve been doing at least one load a day and sometime that also includes a load of washing to soak – you know the usual stains that don’t just come out in the wash. So when I was given the opportunity to try Biozet Attack Ecosmart washing liquid I thought ‘Why not?’

I’m a huge believer in using laundry liquid since Miss K came along. I find it easier to use and it doesn’t leave a powdery residue even if I used the suggested dose. Also I wash with warm water. Yeah I know washing with cold water is better but until we can afford to redo all the plumbing in the bathroom & laundry – warm water it is.

Anywho back to the laundry liquid. One of my biggest gripes with laundry liquid is you always seem to use a fair bit. For example, the current brand I use suggests 1 1/2 to 2 caps per full load. I use one & it seems to wash fine. With Biozet Attack Ecosmart you only need one 19ml ‘shot’ per wash. And you know what? That tiny amount cleans a full load of washing. And my white towels actually seem to come out whiter. I also noted that it gets out stains that my other liquids haven’t. Pretty cool.

It is smaller than other liquids but gives about the same amount of washes. And the bottle is refillable. And it is about the same price as the current liquid I use.

So would I buy it again? Yup for sure.

Disclaimer – I was provided a full bottle of Biozet Attack Ecosmart and refill for the purpose of review. All opinions above are my own.

April 2011 Roundup

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

What books and/or magazines did I read this month? I haven’t read anything this month

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
TV – Bones, Holmes Inspection, Glee, Time Team, Raw, Smackdown, AFL, Camelot, Doctor Who

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends? played on our new Xbox 360

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Gave – xbox game & RPG book to hubby

What special or unusual purchases did I make? Xbox 360 & Kinect & games

What illnesses or health concerns did I have? Got a head cold

What were my accomplishments this month? finished the projects for Mouse, Paper, Scissors

What were my disappointments this month? Family illness

How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals) still journaling everyday. Managed to get some scrapbooking done. Still taking a photo-a-day of Miss K

Anything else noteworthy to include? Mum feeling much better. Miss K still sleeping in her bed.

Tasks to do

  1. Back up all digital pictures. Format memory cards. Sort all April photos into 2011 folder. Make a backup copy of the photos onto my desktop computer and EHD. Burn onto 2011 DVD. DONE
  2. Backup any other documents or files as needed. DONE
  3. Backup my blogs. DONE
  4. Clean off my work area, empty my inbox, and clean up my computer files.  DONE
  5. Update LYM Logbook from Momento

Goals for May
Journal every day. Note to self – Print out LYM 2011 logbook pages for May
Do some scrapping & art journaling
Exercise at least 3 times a week.
Try and keep the house a bit cleaner

A Royal Wedding

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image courtesy of The Royal Wedding

Tonight (Australian time) many world wide will be watching Prince William & Kate Middleton get married in ‘the wedding of the year’. I am one of the few who won’t be watching. I’ve got nothing against weddings and nothing against the Royals (I loved Diana & Charles’ wedding) but there is AFL on and this house tends to go a bit AFL made over winter… well hubby does anyways. So I will be over at Three Little Princesses taking part in the Royal Wedding Pyjama Party and finishing off the pressies I’m making for Mother’s Day.

Since the world has gone a little mad for weddings, today I thought I’d share the story of my wedding day. warning there are a few images

I can’t find the photo but I spent all morning of my wedding day going between Mum & Dad’s couch & the toilet. I had been sick for the past three months with gastro. Yup I planned my entire wedding while I had gastro & was working. Anyways, after a quick trip to the doctors and a shot to quell the queasiness I was off to the hairdresser with my best friend & bridesmaid to get our hair done then out to the gorgeous Historic property of Brickendon to get prepared.

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This gorgeous cottage was where we got our makeup done and did some pre-wedding photos with our amazing photographer Philip Kuruvita. I He’s not intrusive & the photos and our wedding album are gorgeous!!

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We wrote most of the ceremony ourselves and included quite a few pagan bits and pieces in (but not enough to offend any of my Christian rellies) and lit 5 candles (2 for those who couldn’t be with us, namely those who had passed on, 2 family candles and 1 unity candle symbolising the joining of 2 families lit from the family candles)

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That’s my bff & bridemaid. I owe her so much. Thanks Lisa, you have no idea how much u mean to me Smile

Our reception was held in the barn at Brickendon and was a lovely buffet meal, not that I ate much as I was starting to feel a bit ill again.

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We cut our cake (a yummy mud cake cooked by Mum and decorated by a friend)

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and of course there were speeches (& lots of tears) and signing our engagement photos which had been framed (another Kuruvita shoot)

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oh and we had a crockenbush for desert (I ate some of that, yum)

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and lots of pressies.

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After which we took off for our first night as a married couple, staying in this gorgeous little cottage.

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then off to Queensland for a week for our honeymoon. So that’s our wedding story. I can’t believe it’ll have been 5 years in November.

 

Sharing – 15 steps to building a mummy blog

(Well any blog really)

I’m a fan of threelilprincesses.com (after all she is a fellow Tasmanian blogger but seriously, she is awesome) and her post about building a blog is great, even if you aren’t a ‘mummy blogger’. I even picked up a few tips.

What would I add?

Research your hosting. I do agree with a lot of what she says, especially the self hosting bit. Ask other people for their recommendations. I’ve heard lots of horror stories about web hosts, including a host who went down and lost all their clients information & had no backup.

We currently go through WebCity for both our domains and hosting after trying a few other hosts. We’ve been with WebCity for about 6 years now and we find they have very little down time and very reasonable domain hosting prices/packages.

Learn how to back up your blog/site that isn’t on your hosts server (see above horror story). Back up at least once a month. Know what to do if all your information is lost by your host.

Find a theme that suits your site. There are some great free themes out there. If you can’t find one you like or want something custom, ask around, someone may build a theme for you. (I am currently learning how to build WordPress themes and will be offering to do these & Blogger themes for a small fee within the next few months)

I also recommend checking out ProBlogger.net – awesome site for bloggers. You can also get a copy of Darren’s book 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. (I also follow Darren on Twitter – always find something useful)

If you a scrapbooker I can highly recommend purchasing Shimelle’s two blogging classes: Blogging for Scrapbookers and Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers. I’m learning lots and it’s great for networking with other scrap bloggers.

Ok I’m off to actually do some housework or something a bit more constructive Winking smile

Working on a little something

but I can’t share it yet Winking smile

on the upside I’ll have a something to share tomorrow.

Loving Shimelle’s latest class Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers. Thanks to those who commented and took part in my poll the other day Smile

Anyways, I’m heading off for the night, getting in some sleep before the little one wakes up. We’ve all got a nasty cold atm and sleep is a rare thing.

Before I head, what awesome stuff are you currently working on? Always looking for a little inspiration Smile

RIP Elisabeth Sladen

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Doctor Who fans worldwide were saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Elisabeth Sladen (better know as the companion to the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith) this morning. She first appeared in 1973 alongside the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee and appeared with other Doctors including David Tennant.

BBC has put up a page for Sladen and I’m sure many other Who related sites will also do their tributes.

Farewell Lis, the Whovian Universe will miss you.

 

DorkTower942

Getting to know you

Today is the first day of Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers over at Shimelle.com and we’ve been encouraged to get to know our readers.

Over the next three weeks I’m going to be taking this class with the hope of improving my blog and I’d love you to say g’day. Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know how you found me and I’d also love it if you let me know what type of posts you are interested in reading.

I’ve been busy

So I spent the day Wednesday baking biscuits, cause, well, I can. And I felt like baking. After we’d been grocery shopping. As you do.
So fast forward to batch 3 (choc chip cookies) and I turn around to see Miss K playing with some of the groceries I hadn’t got around to putting away. Not a real problem. Nothing she can get into and do any harm with. Or so I thought. Fast forward 5 minutes and I hear a soft giggle and the sounds of something being done. Turn round to this

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Miss K ‘washing’ her hair. With Dettol body wash. As you do. She’d worked out how to unscrew the lid & had poured the body wash onto the picnic rug (a play toy from earlier in the afternoon) and was rubbing her hands into the suds & then rubbing her hair *sigh* so off to the shower to rinse her off while hubby put the remaining body wash away. Lesson learnt.
Will b back later with some food pics. Just had to blog this so I can scrapbook it later.