Another Pinterest project

So even though I haven't been here a lot, I have still been busy at home, and I decided this week to tackle another Pinterest project during my down time. Well I've actually tackled two, but one of them is still a work in progress so I'll just be telling you about one for today.

So I stumbled upon a website that gave instructions on how to make a bowl out of old doilies. Kind of like this one

Now this one told you to cut up old doilies then sew them or stick them together with masking tape to give it an old aged look, but given I was using brand new doilies I felt this would ruin the newness of the white doily, which wasn't what I wanted. I managed to snag myself a couple of doilies for seventy five cents each the other day while shopping with mum, so already it's been a really cheap project to complete. Add a bottle of PVA glue for $4.50 and I've got two new bowls for about $2.00 all up. 

To make a bowl out of a doily, or really any thick material, you'll need a few things.

A doily (or thick fabric of your choice)

A bottle of PVA glue

A large bowl or balloon to shape your doily around

A second bowl to mix your fabric stiffener in

Some cling film

Hot water.

Now as you can see from this photo I've placed everything on newspaper. Don't do this, as it's a bad idea, which I will explain later on. I've already covered my bowl in cling film to protect it from the glue, and make the doily easy to remove once it's dried.

Your next step is to squeeze some PVA glue into another bowl and add some hot water. It must be hot water, as cold water doesn't mix with the glue as well, and tends to make it set too quickly. Now the more water you add to your glue the thinner it is and the more times you will need to apply it to your doily later. The thicker the glue is the longer it takes to set but it makes the fabric stiff with less applications.

My glue mix

Next you put the doily into the bowl and cover it completely with the glue. You want to make sure you get the fabric as wet as possible at this stage because once you've put it on the bowl to set it becomes harder to reapply the glue. I have to apologise for the lack of photo for this step, once my hands got covered in glue I was reluctant to touch my camera again till I was cleaned up.

Your final step is to place the doily over your covered bowl, and arrange it into any shape that you want. If you can find a bowl that is larger than your fabric, then you can have a completely smooth bowl without any ruffles. If you want to add some interest to the bowl, find one that is the same size as your doily, or even slightly smaller so that you can add a lip or some ruffles to the fabric. 

Now when you place the fabric on the bowl, don't do what I did and do all of this on a piece of newspaper. Of course I forgot one fundamental element of newspaper when I was doing this, and that is that it absorbs glue wonderfully, and tears easily. So when I tried to lift my bowl up once it was dry, the newspaper came with it. Much cursing and kicking myself followed of course.

Now all you have to do is wait for your material to dry then either reapply more glue (with a brush this time) or if it is as stiff as you want it, remove it from the bowl and voila! You have a new decoration for very little money. 

TA DAAA!!!

Now you can't really see much of the leftover newspaper still stuck to my bowl in this photo, but there is a bit of it there that just won't budge no matter how much I swear at it. I'm considering painting these parts white just so they at least blend in with the rest of the bowl. Mine could probably use even more glue as it is still a little too flexible for any practical use, but given this was just a test run to see if I could get it to work I'm not too worried. 

So that is another one of my Pinterest pins crossed off the ever growing list. I'm thinking of making it a regular thing to do, just to keep the crafty urges at bay.

More illness, but still kicking

So I'm back again, I'm sure you all noticed my absence this week, and there really is no great excuse for it, I didn't get swept away on some romantic holiday on a beach somewhere, nor did the end of the world come causing all of the leaders of first world countries to beg me for my assistance. I just took a break from everything for a couple of days. Well almost everything, for some reason no one wanted to have a week long playdate with Miss K so she's been my constant companion this week. And now she has a cold. So she gets the joy of being my constant companion for a little while longer, just with more snot involved.

We actually shared a bed last night, something I haven't done in almost 12 months now, ever since she got too big to be trusted not to nose dive off the edge of my bed. And last night I remembered the best and worst things about sharing a bed with a little one. For one every single noise she made woke me up. Granted every one of those noises was usually her struggling to breathe through her blocked nose, or trying to cough up the gunk filling up her lungs, but I never knew until last night exactly how restless that little girl is. Also she decided that 4:30 this morning was the perfect time to get up and have a play, and refused to believe me when I tried to tell her that it was still night time and she needed to go back to sleep. Then she had the brainwave to try to keep me awake so I could play with her by hitting me in the face with her Elmo teddy over and over again. It was hard to be cross at her for this one however as I was too busy trying to hide my laughter every time his head came into contact with mine. She is such a character.

Today hasn't been too bad considering one of us is nursing a mucus monster inside of her and the other one is running on coffee fumes. We even went up the street, which can be a challenge at the best of times, but when Miss K is unwell it becomes a war. She wasn't impressed at having to be out and about, and she showed her displeasure by crying. The. Whole. Time. It was a relief to finally get home and bundle her into bed this afternoon. But more paracetamol, a drink and being bundled up in front of the telly seems to be keeping her happy for now so I'm just enjoying the calm before the next storm.

Well that's it for now, I really just wanted to let you guys know I'm still here and still thinking of you.

Dear Diary the bitter-sweet edition.

Well it's that time of the week again where I tell all of you my wonderful readers about everything Miss K and I have been up to over the past seven days. Well really most of it will be about this weekend, as I managed to cram more in the last two days than I did in the rest of the week. (Stupid gastro)

I am finally better thank heavens, I only really needed one day of bed rest and sulking before I was up and moving again, but my appetite and energy took a lot longer to return to me, I've only really been eating properly for about three days now, and even then my portion sizes have been smaller than normal while I get used to food again. I was determined to make up for having to cut my adults night out short on Monday, so this weekend has been full of social calls and outings, but luckily because they were all during the day time Miss K got to come with me. We crashed a Nutrimetics party yesterday, and by crashed I mean we tagged along with someone who was actually invited to the event. This is the second shopping party we've crashed in as many weeks Miss K and I, both with the same friend. Last week we went to a Tupperware party with her and both times we have been made to feel very welcome despite the fact that we knew no one there and they were all meeting us for the first time. I even decided to splash out and buy some perfume after yesterday's party, as I always feel there is no such thing as too many bottles of smelly stuff.

I also finally got to eat my cupcakes yesterday as Miss K and I managed to get our choc banana cupcakes baked in the afternoon while my brother and sister were visiting. Of course Miss K's help only went as far as licking the spoons once I was finished with them, but she was happy to be my dishwasher for the day. I was quite proud of the cakes as they tasted delicious and they didn't look too bad either. It was my first attempt at piping frosting on cupcakes and while it doesn't look completely professional, it wasn't a bad first attempt. I took some photos before I ate them all, so that I could share them all with you.

Tell me one more time they look like poo cupcakes and I will hurt you.

Sadly my photography skills are still lacking, but my cooking skills are pure awesome

Today I took mum and Miss K to the Sunday Market in the next town over. Miss K's dad and I actually used to run a stall at this market before Miss K was born, and it was sad to see it as a shell of its former bustling self, but I'm hoping it was just the horrible weather that was keeping everyone away. I remember spending most of our Sunday there every week for a few months the year we met, and we made friends with some of the other wonderful stall holders, but they have all moved on to other markets now days and I was sad to see I didn't recognise any of the stall holders when I went today. There was such a sense of family with the stall holders there, you would pass each other's stalls and wave hello or stop in and chat if you were close, and they were all so helpful when we first started there, telling us which stall holders to avoid selling to as they always resold your stock at ridiculously up-marked prices.

After we were finished at the market we went and visited with my big sister for a coffee, and Miss K sat with her uncle and had a cheese sandwich. For some reason he was able to get her to take small lady-like bites, which is something I can never get from her, and she sat very straight and proper on his lap the whole time without squirming or reaching around for things out of her reach. I can't help but laugh at how flirty my little miss gets, even with her own uncles. After lunch and a nap we went to visit with some old friends that we met co-incidentally through the markets. We bumped into them at the market and I was saddened to discover they are moving closer to the city tomorrow to find their fortunes in the big smoke. So it was decided I had to go over to their place for one more coffee before they left. The house was sadly empty of furniture when we got there as everything has been packed up and stored in anticipation of their huge shift tomorrow, so we sat on the floor in the kitchen chatting and drinking coffee, and Miss K played with the family's son and daughter who quickly became her biggest fans. The son, who is almost 2 is such a lady killer, he sat with his arm around Miss K, feeding her dry wheat bix and kissing her occasionally. Miss K of course is never one to refuse food so she loved all the special attention she was receiving.

They also have a large dog there, a labrador cross and it is huge. I mean huge. It could probably stick its head on my desk as I typed were it here right now. Luckily despite its size it is the gentlest dog you could meet, and he is fabulous with children, having been around them since he was a puppy so he wasn't too concerned when Miss K decided to crawl over his tail suddenly, nor when she decided to pull herself up on him. I was more surprised of Miss K's reaction to the dog, especially as she hasn't had much to do with dogs in her short 17 months, but she adored him and kept rushing to him to give him pats and hugs, and she didn't even mind when he licked her. The dogs owner was of course around at all times to make sure he didn't trod on any of the babies, as the oldest child in the house is not yet four, but he is such a well trained dog there really was never any concern anyone would get hurt. It was actually such a sad moment when I realised it was past our dinner time and we needed to get home and ready for bed, I had to keep the good byes brief so that I didn't lose it and start crying in front of them, but I have promised as soon as they are all settled in to their new home, Miss K and I will be up for a visit.

As for Miss K, she is cruising along nicely. We realised this week that she has been saying da da a lot lately, and that when she says it, she actually means Grandma. I'd never thought of it much as when she was younger Grandma was bumma, but lately whenever mum leaves the room, or if she's in her cot and she sees mum making coffee in the kitchen she starts yelling da da da da at the top of her lungs and we finally clicked the other day she's calling for her Grandma. She also learned how to say Grandpa this week, (ba pa) and she's learnt my niece Eliza's name (zee zee). Apart from that most of her chat is still unintelligible babble, but it certainly is plentiful, she is rarely quiet these days and if I can't hear her it's usually a pretty good sign she's up to no good and I need to find her NOW. She is still not taking more than a couple steps unassisted, no matter how much we encourage her, unfortunately there is little I can do besides keep encouraging her and making sure she isn't given the excuse to keep slacking off which means I have to stop carrying her everywhere. My back will thank me for this.

Well that's another week summed up nicely, as you can tell there was very little organising done this week thanks to the gastro, but hopefully I'll be able to get back into it this week and keep fighting the good fight. Well until next time, stay awesome readers and of course don't forget to like my Facebook page for regular updates and much more. Unless you are one of the wonderful people who have already, in which case you are welcome to go about your business as normal.

I can speak HTML

So for any of my loyal followers who have been with me for a while now, or anyone new for who is just popping in for their first visit, you will notice a shiny new button to the right of your screen. That's right I finally figured out how to add a new button to my page. It only took me a whole week of screaming at my computer and goodness knows how many websites designed to explain computer code for dummies before I finally nutted it out. And of course once I knew what I was doing, it was ridiculously easy, and I even managed to edit the code even further than the tutorial told me to, because I wanted it to say something that didn't come with the normal template.

But the point of all of this is LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK!!!!! The button is right there now, you don't have to keep trawling through my posts to find the one where I spoke about having a Facebook page, you can just look to your right and there it is. So go on people, I know you all love me, and I know that you all have Facebook accounts, because come on, who doesn't have a Facebook account these days? So go ahead and click that little button and gain access to all of this and so much more.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and do a happy dance to celebrate being able to vaguely understand HTML code

Eye candy for us mums

Would you like to know the real reason I let Miss K watch television?

 

The gorgeous actors on the shows she loves of course. Let me give you an example. 

Yumm!

This attractive lad is Gavin Stenhouse. He plays Nate on the Iconicles, a show which combines computer generated animation with real live action for an audience of snot nosed brats and their mums. The kids will never appreciate that smile quite like the mums can, which I think is why they cast him. But he isn't the only good looking guy on our screen these days, oh no, there are more...

This is Phil Gallagher, or if you have children, Mister Maker. He presents an art show for kids similar to Art Attack which is what I watched when I was a kid. He reminds me a bit of my first boyfriend unfortunately, especially given he acts as if he's constantly in a beach side pantomime, which gets a bit much after a while, but he's still nice to look at.

This is James Rees otherwise known as Jimmy Giggle. (The blue owl next to him is Hoot the Owl). Now I have it on good authority from my little brother that James is a lot more arrogant than his alter ego as my brother has performed with his parents in an amateur production of Oklahoma last year, so I don't really harbour any fantasies of him bumping into us one day and falling in love with both me and Miss K so much that he gives up his television career to live in the sticks with us. But still, isn't he pretty??? 

One more picture?? Oh alright then

Now this gentleman isn't so much to look at in the facial area as the other gentlemen were, but that's not what I look at when I'm watching Lazy Town. This is Magnus Scheving from Iceland. He's an Olympic gymnast, as well as being the creator of the show Lazy Town. So brains and brawn all in the one tidy little package. Plus he can leap about like he weighs absolutely nothing. Yummy! 

So there you have it. The real reason I let my daughter rot her brain with television, because it gets mine fired right up. 

Breast is best for some

Here we go, I have another bee in my bonnet today, and I'm fit to explode if I don't share it with you guys. For any gentleman readers, you may want to skip to another entry at this point because things are about to get very female if you understand me.

So I have just been stalking reading another lovely bloggers latest entry this afternoon, and in it she happened to mention that she is struggling to supply enough breast milk to keep her 6 week old son happy. She made one of the biggest errors I have ever found you can make around breast feeding fanatics young and old, she admitted that she is supplementing his feeds with formula. Once I saw this I skipped down to the bottom of the page to check her comments section, and sure enough snuggled amongst the congratulations and well wishes of other kind readers, there was one woman who had decided to take it upon herself to lecture this poor woman about the dangers of mixing formula milk with breast milk. Now given that this blogger is up to her fifth child, I'm sure she's perfectly aware that there are supposed risks associated with mixing milks, and doesn't need anyone, no matter how kind their intentions are to point this out to her.

I had a similar problem when Miss K was a baby. I discovered when we were rushed to hospital when she was 2 weeks old that along with the myriad of health problems she had accumulated over the past fortnight, she was also very dehydrated, and there was a problem with our feeding somewhere along the line. We had had problems with feeding from the get go. Because I have been "blessed" with a very ample chest, I always ran the risk of suffocating Miss K whenever I tried to feed her, and she also had problems latching on. Then with all the stress of my mother and my daughter both trying to die on the same day and spending the subsequent three weeks in hospital my milk supply started to dry up. In a desperate attempt to try and get the most milk for her that I could I started expressing the milk straight into a bottle so I could know exactly how much she was eating every day. We quickly found out that she was getting approximately 80ml less every feed than what she should be.

So finally after three very long and frustrating weeks of solely relying on my own milk, I finally bit the bullet and asked one of the nurses to bring me some formula. Well you would think that I had just announced I was going to let Miss K go off and live by herself in the wild for a month and see how she liked it. The nurse was so unimpressed with me she bought in an army of experts to try and dissuade me from supplementing her feeds with formula milk. Luckily for me, every staff member she bought in to see me took one look at my situation and realised I wasn't happy with having to make the decision, but I was doing it to keep my daughter alive, and told me to go ahead and supplement her feeds. I was glad to have all of the medical staff off my back, but it didn't stop the guilt that I wasn't able to feed my daughter the way you're meant to.

And that's the thing. Most first time mothers will start their pregnancies knowing that they will be breastfeeding their children. Everyone tells you how difficult it is going to be, but you never believe them. This is natural, this is how we are meant to feed our children, how can it be difficult? But it is difficult. Especially when you have two inexperienced people trying to figure out how to work these bloody milk bags, and one of those people can't do much else besides poop, sleep and make sucking motions with their mouth. You've had these giant pillows sitting in front of you for twenty odd years now, you've never really put much thought into their real purpose before you fell pregnant, and all of a sudden they become these huge unwieldy leaking weapons you can't control. And so on the horrible day where you realise you can't do this all on your own, you're not the perfect earth mother you always envisioned yourself to be when you dreamed about being a mum, and you've asked for the dreaded f word (formula you filthy minded people), the last thing you need is a lecture from someone about how you are going to give your baby nipple confusion.

So the next time you see a woman feeding her baby with a bottle, before you cluck your tongues in disapproval, milk Nazis, just think, it may not have been her first choice. Plus the baby is getting food so what else matters?

Curse you stomach bug!

So if anyone has noticed I've been absent the last few days, it is because I have been laid up in bed with gastro since Monday night. I don't get sick very often, in fact this is the first bug I've caught all year so you can imagine how horrible I feel when I do finally get sick.

The worst part of being sick was not the horrible stomach cramps, or the fever, or the vomiting. It was the fact that I couldn't take care of Miss K for 24 hours. We actually sent her off to my sister's place for the day yesterday for several reasons. The first being I didn't want her being around me while I was that sick, as the last thing we need in this house is a baby with gastro. And the second reason was so that I could get a day of proper rest to hopefully knock the bug out as quickly as possible, and it worked. I'm not completely better today, but the worst of the symptoms are long gone, all I have now is the sore muscles and a complete lack of energy.

I was quite worried about how Miss K would cope being away from me for the whole day, as I usually make sure we don't get separated for more than an hour or two at a time, but for the most part she was OK with not having me around, but my sister did say that by the afternoon she was ready to see mum again. But that's OK because despite the fact that I couldn't have held her even if I wanted to yesterday afternoon, I was missing her like crazy too. My daughter drives me crazy a lot of the time, and she pushes my buttons like no one else can, but I hate being separated from her, even when it's for sensible reasons like illness. Even when she had Meningitis as a baby I stayed with her in the hospital for the full 3 weeks so this is something I'm not used to.

I was so frustrated on Monday evening when I realised that I was sick, because I was actually out visiting my big sister for a movie night at the time. I'd gone over there to watch The Hunger Games with her and my younger sister, and I had to cut the night short so I could go home and hug the toilet bowl. It was the first night out I've had on my own in 3 months too which just seemed to make me feel even worse. I was also supposed to be going to a cupcake fundraising day for the RSPCA today, but given that I'm still not completely well I decided it was best if I stayed away from large crowds for another few days, and I still have no appetite so it's not like I would have eaten any cupcakes either.

But now the worst of everything is over, and I now have heaps of housework to catch up on (yay). I can't believe how quickly things pile up when you take one day off.

Dear Diary the eventful week edition

Well it's that time of the week again, and what a week it has been. There have been some major changes this week for both me and Miss K and I am bursting at the seams to share them all with you.

So today I'm going to start with Miss K for a change, and it has definitely been a big week for her. We are currently trying to encourage her to start walking by herself. At the moment she is happy enough to walk as long as someone is holding her hand. My sister and I sit on the floor with her and we can manage to get her to walk several steps between us, as long as there is chocolate involved. But once the chocolate is all gone her motivation to walk disappears and she resumes crawling everywhere. She shows signs that she is ready to walk, but she just hasn't gained the confidence yet. But tonight was a big night for her, she managed to stand all by herself for a full 20 seconds before she realised that she was standing unsupported and freaked out. Then she dropped onto her bottom like a tonne of bricks. So that was a pretty exciting moment for me. It was also the first time I managed to contain my excitement when she stands up alone, as I usually start making noises which just brings her attention to it and makes her fall down. So a huge step forward for both of us. Another big development for Miss K is that she has finally discovered the word no. Now at bed time or when we share a shower she starts shaking her head madly and yelling no. It's very cute and fun to watch, but with all the jiggling, it is getting just that little bit harder to hold her. She has also started saying grandpa this weekend, but coming from her mouth it sounds like ba pa. Again very cute and I get her to say it as much as possible.

As for me, this week has also been a big week. As mentioned earlier in the week I'm starting a 30 day challenge to see if I can't get better organised and on top of my housework. I won't go into everything on this post because it is big enough to deserve a post of its own, but needless to say this week has been a huge learning curve for me, but I haven't given up yet and I feel that I may be on my way to being a better organised and tidier person. That's not to say I haven't hit any stumbling blocks along the way, for one Miss K is spending more time in her bedroom at the moment, just because most of her toys have been moved in there, but the extra time in her room has come with extra cleaning for me as every time she goes in there she absolutely trashes the joint. And just in case you think I'm being over dramatic when I say she trashes the joint, I actually took pictures of it the other day as evidence.

See? Trashed.

So from being a room that I had to give a small tidy and dust to once a week it has now become a daily job. Occasionally I get Miss K to come and help put her toys away for me, and once I even managed to tidy it up while she was fast asleep in the cot. But I am beginning to feel this is a losing battle, and I'm at my wits end as to how to stop her upturning every single box in the room. It's all good for her as she can't fold yet so I can't get her to help tidy up the bibs and body suits. But I'm now beginning to regret buying so many of them as I have to re-fold each and every one of them every night. 

On the family front my little sister is settling into her new home nicely, I think she's loving living so close to work as she can now be on call for whenever they need her, instead of needing at least an hours notice to start work so she could figure out how to get there. She has actually moved into a flat very close to where I was living before I moved back to mums house, and apparently my old neighbours in the block of flats next to mine were having a party last night that was so loud she could hear them even though they are several blocks of land away from her. Glad to see some things never change. I've told her if she hears a really loud television set being played it would be my old next door neighbour who is as deaf as a post and used to have her telly blaring all day. I never had to watch telly when I lived there because I could hear hers perfectly, even with all my doors and windows closed.

Well that's me done for another week, my little brother is coming down tonight for a quick visit, and I'm waiting to hear from him as he'll probably be wanting a lift from the train station. It just means I can't get into my pyjamas until they get here. The things I do for my family.

Just a quick reminder as well, you can now find me on Facebook here so come on over and like my page, you'll get updates as soon as I've posted another wonderful blog for you to read, I also get to update on what is happening with both me and Miss K more regularly there so you get to see more of us. Don't miss out.

100 things I want my daughter to know

So while browsing through Pinterest this evening I stumbled upon a lovely and heartfelt blog called lisajobaker.com, and in particular, a list she wrote called 100 things I want to teach my daughter. Her list is beautiful, and includes some things that I think are important for every girl to know, but as I sat there and read it, I realised there were a lot of things not on the list that I would like Miss K to know before I let her out in the big bad world all on her own. So tonight it is my turn to create a list of 100 things I want my daughter to know.

1. Love your body no matter what. It is the only one you will get and you must carry it with you for the rest of your life
2. Take care of your teeth, for the love of God, please take care of your teeth
3. Laugh lots. Laugh as much as you can, it is a better medicine than Valium
4. Never let anyone make you think you are worthless
5. Telling the truth is ALWAYS easier than lying, no matter what the consequences may be
6. Chocolate fixes everything
7. Don't let yourself become a man's late night booty call, you are worth much more than that
8. Lessons on life and love don't come from the movies, they come from the people around you
9. I am always just a phone call away
10. Try new things, even if they terrify you
11. Always make sure your house is clean enough that if guests arrive unannounced, you're not ashamed to let them in the door
12. Treat yourself the way you want others to treat you
13. Never regret your decisions, if you hadn't made them you wouldn't be the person you are now
14. Everything happens for a reason
15. Eating sensibly is only boring if you don't want to live to old age
16. You are never too old to go down the slide, but you get to a certain age where you can't go on the swings without feeling sick
17. Always remember your manners. Nothing impresses a person more than someone who says please and thankyou
18. If you can almost see your nipples and your crotch at the same time, your dress is too small
19. Don't be afraid to tell me anything. I've usually seen it, done it or wrote the book on it
20. Sex can ALWAYS wait. Trust me, the first time is always terrible so why rush it?
21. NEVER change yourself just to please someone else, if they can't like you for who you are then they aren't worth your time
22. If a guy doesn't call you, he's either not interested or playing hard to get. Either way don't waste your time waiting for him
23. Make sure you marry a guy who can make you laugh. If he doesn't understand your sense of humour he will never truly know you
24. You will never understand true pain until you have gone through childbirth. Then you will lose all sympathy for the Man Flu
25. Don't fall in love with a guy because he is wounded and needs healing. You are not Florence Nightingale, you have better things to do with your life than to prop up a man
26. Don't be afraid to go shopping or to the movies by yourself. Sometimes that's the best company to go with
27. If your boyfriends don't treat you the way you deserve to be treated, I'm going to hate them. Be warned
28. Life is not a race. There is always time to stop and appreciate the little things
29. Make time for your family no matter what. They've seen you at your worst and still love you to bits
30. Everything I have ever done to you and for you, I did with your best interests at heart, even if it didn't seem like it at the time
31. One day you are going to have children of your own. And I am going to sit back and laugh my ass off
32. Make up and pretty clothes are not just for special occasions
33. You can never appreciate everything your parents do for you until you have children of your own
34. Marry someone who you can scream and yell at yet still be unable to imagine your life without them
35. Laugh at yourself before anyone else has a chance to
36. You cannot stop people talking about you behind your back. But you can take their power away if you refuse to let their words hurt you
37. Punctuality is an important skill to learn
38. You can cover yourself in tattoos and I will still love you, but just remember these things are permanent so make sure it is something you will still love in sixty years time
39. Learn every short cut you can to make life easier
40. The roads are full of arseholes. That does not give you permission to drive like one
41. Spontaneous road trips are sometimes the most fun ones
42. Don't be afraid to cry. It doesn't mean you are weak, it means that you have been strong for too long
43. If you don't like something about your life, then it is up to you to change it
44. The sexiest thing you can ever wear is a smile
45. Even when you are a grown woman, I will always be here to hold you when you cry
46. Never be afraid to stand up for what you believe in
47. Don't be in a hurry to grow up. You're an adult for a very long time so what's the rush?
48. NEVER give in to peer pressure. If a person will only like you if you drink, smoke or do anything else that you don't feel comfortable about, then they aren't real friends
49. Always trust your instincts, you have them for a reason
50. I don't just tell you that you're beautiful because I'm your mum, I tell you that you are beautiful because you are, both inside and out
51. Girls can do everything that boys can do, but that doesn't mean they should. So always sit down when you use the toilet
52. You only fail if you never try
53. Learn to cook something more than two minute noodles
54. You may bug the hell out of me sometimes, and we will most likely have a lot of fights, but if anyone else tries to hurt you, I will rip them apart with my bare hands
55. You will possibly be diagnosed with depression at some stage in your life. This is nothing to be ashamed of. And because you come from a long line of nutters, you will always have someone around who you can talk to about this
56. Pets are a lot of work. Don't get one unless you're prepared to put in the effort to keep them alive. Trust me it is harder than it looks
57. Don't listen to the people who spend their live telling people about all the things in this world that can kill you. We are all mortals and we will all die eventually. Why this is still a shock to some people I will never know
58. Never dumb yourself down to make other people feel smart. Be proud of your own intelligence
59. Treat others the way you would like to be treated
60. Always respect your elders. They have had to do a lot of learning to get to where they are today
61. Don't let anyone else's mood affect your own
62. Work to live, don't live to work. There is more to life than your job
63. Always get at least seven hours of sleep a night
64. You may think I don't understand what it is like to have your life, but trust me, I know more than you realise
65. A good book is the best escape
66. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the rewards at the end of hard work
67. Don't be afraid to admit that you were wrong
68. The best way to find out about something is to ask
69. Some of the best fun in life can be had in a crowded elevator
70. Once you have children, time seems to speed up. Enjoy every moment you can with your child because they can't last forever
71. $3,000 is too much to pay for a handbag
72. Get your eyebrows done by a professional. It saves having to explain to people why you look so confused all the time
73. No matter what the magazines may tell you, you do NOT need plastic surgery
74. Make sure your bra and your shoes are fitted properly. It saves a lot of unnecessary pain
75. I don't care how they make it look in the movies, dancing in the rain isn't romantic, it's cold, wet and uncomfortable
76. Good friends are hard to find, treat them properly
77. Learn first aid. If your aunty hadn't done a course in CPR, you might not have made it past your first two weeks
78. Just because a person looks or acts differently, doesn't mean you shouldn't treat them the same as everyone else
79. The best way to end an argument is to start laughing
80. You were fearless as a baby, stay fearless as an adult
81. Try to learn at least one instrument. Music is one of the most beautiful things you can create
82. You will never be perfect. Accept this fact and move on
83. Learn to accept constructive criticism
84. Always accept compliments, but never expect them
85. We all have ugly days. The best way to fix them is put a smile on your face and just keep going
86. There are going to be times when life just feels too hard. You will get through it, and your family will always be here help you
87. Don't be afraid of being alone
88. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Always make sure you learn something from them though
89. You can't change other people, no matter how hard you try
90. There is a huge difference between a need and a want. Learn them well
91. Don't be afraid to dance as if no one is watching. Even if you are in the middle of a supermarket
92. Love is like a fart. If you have to force it, it's probably crap
93. Don't be afraid to shake hands like a man. There is nothing worse than someone with a weak, wobbly handshake
94. You are going to hate the fact that when you are a teenager I'm going to refuse to be your taxi service, maid and general dogsbody. But when you get out into the real world and realise that these services aren't free, and it's cheaper knowing how to do things by yourself, then you will thank me for this
95. You can do or be anything that you want to, as long as you are prepared to do the dirty work 
96. Never do something just to get attention. You will always get the unwanted kind if you do this
97. Learn to be sensible with your money. It can buy a lot of things, but not if you don't have any
98. Sometimes being a woman bites the big one. But the rest of the time you should be proud of being female and of everything that that means
99. One of the hardest things you will ever have to deal with is loss. It hurts and it sucks. But surround yourself with people who love you and care for you and everything will be OK in the end. 

And the last thing I want my daughter to know:

100. No matter what happens, you will always be my baby girl and I love you to bits and pieces

IT'S OVER 1000!!!

Hello readers, look to your right, now back to me, now back to your right, now back to me. Gotta love old spice man. Now really, look to the right of this page. Up the very top of the page is a hit counter, and it is telling me that I have finally received over 1000 hits on my website. I have been checking this every single day, just so that I didn't miss the magical moment, and I wasn't disappointed when it finally came. Of course there were no balloons descending from the sky, and the marching band didn't appear out of thin air, but it was still exciting.

So to celebrate hitting this milestone, I have decided to create a page for my blog on Facebook. Once I figure out how to put links on my sidebars, there will be a link on my sidebar (funnily enough). But for now, you'll just have to follow this link to see my new page, which will then lead you back to here. If you appreciate all of the hard work that goes into creating this blog, then please feel free to like my page, so you can get regular updates, and I'll even let you know every time I've posted on here so you can rush over and read me. For any of you eagle eyes out there, if you look to your right again, there is a button labelled join this site, which is another way to receive notifications that I have updated my blog. There is one lonely follower on that list right now, and I know for a fact that he hasn't come to visit here in a long time, so it would be great to see some more names on that list.

So for now I bid you adieu, and please check me out on facebook for more hillarity. https://www.facebook.com/singlemumplusone

Super mum to the rescue!

So Miss K has finally gotten to that age where she realises that mum can do anything. Toy isn't working? go see mum. Heard a scary noise? go see mum. Lost your arm in your sleeve? go see mum. While I love that I am finally getting recognition for my awesome talents at recovering hidden limbs, being able to put blocks into the correct holes in the shape sorter and protector from various scary noises, I have noticed that Miss K is learning that this means she can delegate a lot of her days work to me, in order to save herself the hassle. If she can't figure something out after a few tries, we generally get a scene of tantrums and screaming while she holds the offending object out to me to fix for her. While I am always happy to save the day for my darling daughter, I'm not sure if I am doing her any good by swooping in and fixing everything for her. The point of a shape sorter is to teach them something, (I never read the instructions) but if she isn't even bothering putting the shapes in, what is she learning? (Apart from the fact that there will always be someone you can manipulate to do your work for you.)

This is one of those horrible parenting lessons that we all have to go through and figure out on our own. And there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer to it either. You can swoop in and fix everything for them as much as you want, and it doesn't mean that they will grow up to be a useless ineffective member of society. They may learn delegation, a skill that I have found in every manager I have ever worked for. Or you could force them to learn things on their own and instead of being an independent logical thinker, they could grow up to be a bitter solitary creature who resents having had to do everything for themselves. It is one of those things you can only realise the answer to once you've finished raising them and see the results of your parenting style.

But for now, I think I'll just continue to be the hero in Miss K's life and fix things for her, and enjoy being awesome in her eyes. Because it won't be too long before she realises that mum doesn't have all the answers and is just as clueless as the rest of the world. Then she will look at me like this every time I make a suggestion.

Judging baby is judging you. Harshly

30 ways in 30 days challenge

So I apologise for not writing yesterday, I had intended on coming on last night and bragging about how good I was yesterday, but after spending the entire day being all busy and mum-like I was so exhausted I didn't even look at the computer. But I had a good night's rest last night and I've not been quite so frenzied with my cleaning today so I still have plenty of energy right now to brag.

After I wrote this post about a blog I found giving inspiration on how to get organised, I decided it was not enough to just write down all the wonderful ideas on this blog and read it every day, it was time to actually do something about the state of my life. So I am starting my own 30 day challenge based on what I read. Yesterday was the first day and so far things are going very well. I can't say that it is a success just yet because it is easy to do something for one day. Trying to keep it up permanently is something that takes determination and will power. And those are two traits that I usually lack.

But that doesn't change how proud I am of my effort yesterday. I wrote myself a huge to do list on Sunday night and made myself work till I managed to tick off everything on the list. There were some things that I didn't actually get to accomplish, but it wasn't because I got bored and wandered off. One item on my list was buy new ink cartridges for my printer, but when I got to the computer store to make my purchase I was told that my printer is an absolute dinosaur, and they don't really sell ink cartridges for it any more. I could have gotten some ordered in specially, but it would have been cheaper to buy a brand new printer, as purchasing both a black and white and colour cartridge would end up costing me around $80. So I had to scratch that one off my list unfinished unfortunately.

Today there was a new to do list  written up, and I managed to accomplish quite a few things on the list. Again I came across stumbling blocks, like a supermarket that didn't sell borax, and a calculator that refuses to show itself, but again many items got crossed off, and those that didn't can just be added to tomorrows to do list, and then any day afterwards until I get them all completed. And on and on it will go for 30 days. And hopefully by the end of the 30 days I won't need to look at my inspiration every single morning before I get going, it will just be second nature for me to get up in the morning and do my job.

I'll be posting updates here every now and again just so you my wonderful readers can know how I'm progressing, but for now I have to get off the computer, as I'm only allowing myself half an hour on the computer at a time, as this is one of my biggest distractions, and I still have lots I could be doing. Wish me luck

Clean Mama giveaway

Hands up who likes winning things?

Well for any of you who want to win something totally useful and pretty at the same time, head your wonderful selves over to A Bowl Full of Lemons, a wonderful blog run by a wonderful woman, and you can enter the draw for one of two $50 gift cards to purchase printables from Clean Mama Printables. While you're there check out some of the wonderful ideas that Toni has to offer for organising your house, your family and your whole life. Follow the links below.

A Bowl Full of Lemons competition entry
Clean Mama's blog
Clean Mama's Etsy store where she sells all of her organising printables

The competition runs until 18th August 2012 so get clicking now!

Good luck everyone and have a happy day =)

Getting organised

So in an effort to find my missing mojo, I am still looking at the wonderful blogs and pins by other sickeningly capable people, all of whom make this stuff look super easy. I have stumbled tonight on a wonderful blog called Clean and Scentsible, by one such capable woman, and she has a post called 30 ways in 30 days to get organised. For anyone who wants to read this little gem of inspiration, you can find it here. I have written down absolutely everything she has written in this list, and tomorrow once I have bought more printer ink, I will be printing these wise words out, and pinning them up somewhere that I will be able to see on a regular basis every day. I'm thinking probably next to the door in my bedroom would be a good place to stick this for now. Hopefully if I can read this list every single day I will be able to find the inspiration to get better organised. Some of the tips she gives are so blindingly obvious you would think I shouldn't need to write them down to remember them, but when your mojo is MIA, then you forget all kinds of things, like getting dressed in the morning. So fingers crossed this is a step in the right direction for me.

Dear Diary the she's leaving home edition

Hello again my wonderful readers as I return to recap another wonderful week. I'm sure I have lots to tell you, let me just sit here for a second while I try to remember something earlier than what I ate for tea tonight. It was Dim Sims in case you were wondering.

So the last few days our house has been full of talk about moving house. No, Miss K and I are not leaving the nest just yet, as we have it way too good here right now =D. My little sister however has finally taken a huge plunge and is moving into a flat all by herself. This isn't her first move from home however, as last year the week before Miss K was born she moved to Melbourne to live with my little brother and his partner. Then at the beginning of this year she moved back to our home town and decided to share a house with my other little brother and his wife and daughter. And now she has finally decided to live on her own for the very first time. I can only imagine how nervous she is about this, as the first time you get a house by yourself is always frightening at first. But I am surprised to find how jealous I am of her while I hear her talk about unpacking boxes and finding places to fit everything. I remember the excitement I used to feel when I moved house, every room is fresh and new, even though they have probably been lived in by dozens of people before you, and you get to decide where everything goes. So everything has already  been carted from storage into the new flat waiting for my little sister, and she finally follows it tomorrow once the gas and electricity are connected.

As for Miss K and I, we are trundling along happy as ever, my mojo hasn't fully returned yet but now that I have finished all of my overdue school work I am feeling a lot more relaxed, I even managed to tidy my bedroom to a degree yesterday. All clean clothes are folded and put away, all dirty clothes are hidden in a laundry hamper and my bookcase is tidy and free from dust and miscellaneous clutter. Who knows I may even try tackling some of the random piles of junk that have collected in the two corners not taken up by a bed and door this week. Miss K has learned a new word this week, she can now say please, and I have discovered that Miss K might have a lisp. I'm not sure if it is anything I can worry about just yet, especially as she is still learning how to form all of her sounds, but the next appointment I have with our Maternal Health Nurse I will be mentioning it, just so that it is put on her record for future reference.

Well that's it really for this week, I never did get the virus that made the rounds through the rest of the family, so I'm grateful for that, as I'm not sure how sympathetic Miss K would have been if I had gotten sick. So I'm off to watch some rhythmic gymnastics before the Olympics finally end for another four years. Stay awesome wonderful readers and I'll be back again soon I'm sure.

My lightbulb moment

So I think I have figured out why I have lost my mojo this week. I have been feeling rather guilty lately as I have been neglecting my school work in favour for redecorating Miss K's room, as well as learning how to quilt, and anything else I can find to distract me that has to be done straight away. I think that my current lack of motivation is my brain's way of forcing me to get back into studying. I haven't picked up any books since the first week of term holidays in June, so I'm very lucky that I haven't fallen behind, as we're still on the same subject we were on before term 2 ended.

My big problem is that the assignment I am supposed to be completing right now is so brain numbingly boring I can't sit still long enough to even think about writing it. I am supposed to be setting long term goals for myself, and if you haven't realised by the amount of projects I have on the go at the moment, I am very bad at setting and sticking to goals. I tend to bounce around more than a pinball in a busy arcade, which doesn't bode well if I have assignments to complete that require lots of time spent sitting down and thinking. But given how important this course is to me, that is exactly what I have to do, and hopefully once the horrible assignment is finished I'll be able to find my motivation again and get going on everything else I want to complete.

So tonight I am going to forget everything else. My bedroom is still a pigsty, the quilting is put away for now, and I am going to study. Wish me luck.

*Editors note: I have finished the stupid boring assignment and submitted it for grading. I also checked all my other assignments previously submitted and am proud to announce I received 100% for one of my units and 98% for the other one. Still waiting for the results for one more unit that I submitted several months ago but the results so far have me chomping at the bit to get the rest of my work done. I'd say that's a success.

Why I think my mum is the best person

So this is what greeted me this morning when I woke up.

Who else can say that their mum is this awesome??

Where does lost motivation go?

I certainly have lost my motivation this week. The bedroom that I posted about yesterday is just as messy today, as after all of the energy I spent writing about it for you guys, I just couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. It is just another thing on my growing to do list that is frankly starting to scare me. On top of cleaning my room I need to really sort out my family room because it has become the dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home. The pantry is another dumping ground and even though I've seen some great blogs which have some awesome ideas for how to organise all of these rooms, none of them tell you how to do it for free, and with little effort. I am online at the moment purely for the purpose of trying to find some inspiration, but looking at all of the pictures and ideas just makes me incredibly depressed that there are so many people out there for whom this isn't hard.

Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a day or two, otherwise I'm going to have to bite the bullet and hire a cleaner. And we all know how  horrible that would be.

Behind closed doors

So I considered asking Miss K to do my blog post for today, but given that she is currently mesmerised by the old show McMillan and Wife I can't get much out of her. That means it is up to me to entertain you guys by myself. And even though I have a huge job that I am avoiding building up the energy to get to, I will put it off for now just to give you guys something new to read.

So what is the big job I'm meant to be doing right now? Well instead of telling you guys I'm going to show you instead.

Nope it's not the site of a recent bomb attack, what you are looking at is my bedroom. Cosy isn't it? I'm meant to be in there right now giving it a good spring clean as I'm pretty sure it now classifies as a fire hazard. The only problem is once a room gets to this state I get too overwhelmed to be able to cope with cleaning it. A lot of the stuff is just really big and in large piles, so it shouldn't really take too long to do, but just the thought of starting is enough to make me want to take a lie down.

But sitting here writing for you guys is getting nothing accomplished, so I'm going to sign off for now and actually do something useful. Chat later.

One last post for the day

Ok just because I stumbled upon this picture, and couldn't believe that it was a real advertisment, instead of a photoshopped picture created for a laugh, I'm going to share it with you guys today for your enjoyment.

The best part of this picture besides the fact that all of those men look unnaturally happy at having to share a shower is the possibly unintentional double entendre at the beginning. I'm sure I'm not the only one who snorted with laughter when I read it.

For more wonderfully insane advertisments from the days of olde, go here.

Miss K's new room (finally)

As promised for several weeks now, here are photos of Miss K's new bedroom. For anyone who can't remember what it looked like before, check here for photos taken before the redecorating started. Now before I even upload these photos I must tell you to disregard all of the toys and crap on the floor I missed while I was cleaning up her room today. Just pretend that you don't see them, that's what I do. And also apologies for the amateur photography too, I know you're meant to take photos during the day allowing as much natural sunlight in as possible, but given that the weather here today was cloudy and miserable I just used the flash.

This is the nappy stacker that I made the other weekend. It is so much bigger than her old one, I can actually fit in an entire box of nappies now which means no more boxes cluttering up my floors. I've actually had a friend request one of these for her nursery as she wants a Winnie the Poo themed room and can't find a nappy stacker she likes.

The sign you have already seen, but the picture border above it was the result of many hours tearing apart old books, laminating the pages and squinting at walls to see if the lines were straight. Nine times out of ten they weren't (damn my lazy eye) but in the end I managed to get it to work. As an added bonus the wall border fits the walls exactly, thanks to some creative layering in some places, and spacing in others, the book starts right behind the door on one side, and stretches perfectly around the room.

This is some more of the picture border, as well as some paintings I did from the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. I was stoked with how the canvases came out, and they were a lot brighter than the ones you can buy from speciality stores in America. The orange isn't really fluro as it looks here, that is just the result of my flash.

A close up of the canvases. I know they are crooked, Miss K keeps kicking the wall and given they are right behind the cot I have the hardest time keeping them straight. I've already surrendered and let them lie wherever they want. 

Miss K's new reading corner. There will eventually be a reading light on the bookshelf, but we are having a hard time modifying a normal table lamp so that it has a goose neck attached, but once it's finished the effect will be amazing. I'll post pictures as soon as it is finished.

As you can probably tell from the inside of these stacking baskets they used to be two different shades of pink. I realised that they didn't really fit in with the new colours in the room pretty quickly, but luckily for me I had plenty of the material used on Miss K's new quilt cover left over so an evening spent cutting and glueing and I had a new matching piece of furniture to put Miss K's body suits and bibs in.

I found lots of wonderful Dr Seuss quotes all over the internet, and I wanted to incorporate them into the bedroom. A lot of people get them turned into wall decals, but given I didn't have the budget for this I turned them into small pictures. There are three of them in total, this one says "Why fit in when you were born to stand out" and it fills the blank space left by removing the lattice on her wall. They will be framed eventually to make them stand out against the wall.

Another Dr Seuss quote

The last Dr Seuss quote. 

I made the paper by tearing red and white paper into strips and then pasting the strips together. The quotes are written with letter stickers which I luckily have in abundance with thanks to my obsession with collecting scrap booking materials.

The placement of the last two Dr Seuss quotes.

Miss K's play area with a lovely new foam jigsaw puzzle mat. I love that it brings a huge splash of colour to an otherwise boring grey carpet, and on the plus side I have something soft to sit on when I'm playing tea parties.

Miss K's cot, complete with the new quilt. The sheet is only temporary until I can find one in a colour that better compliments the quilt cover. Why is it so hard to find white sheet covers these days??

The cot from a different angle. Ignore the storage underneath. It turned out the material for the cot quilt and the nappy stacker were the most expensive purchases made for the entire room, coming to around $50 in the end. The rest of the stuff was part of my stash of crafty things, 

So there you have it. For under $100 Miss K has a completely new room that she absolutely loves. We have to go around the room and look at everything before she goes to bed every night, and I've found it also works in distracting her when she's throwing a particularly bad temper tantrum. Now that I've been bitten by the decorating bug I'm determined to turn my room into something equally as pretty.

Dear Diary The I can see clearly edition

Everybody sing now "I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN HAS GOOOOONE" Well it has stopped raining, but that's not why I can see, I finally picked up my new glasses today, and the difference in my vision is amazing. I had to clean the television this afternoon, because I could finally see the fingerprint marks Miss K left there that mum has been complaining about for weeks.

Pictured: Me in my new glasses

It is so weird not having to squint to see the pattern on my toilet floor. I'm sure these glasses have other purposes, but that in itself was enough to keep me amused this afternoon. Once I get used to them and stop going dizzy every time I move my head I'm looking forward to being able to see everything I couldn't before. And the glasses weren't my only purchase today, I also decided to splash out and buy myself a quilting kit to give me something to do at night while Miss K is in bed. I could live to regret this decision eventually, as I have never attempted to quilt anything before, but I'm willing to give it a go anyway.

We had a frustrating day today as the electricity maintenance people decided that it was the perfect time to do maintenance on the wires in the area. That meant that we were without power from 9 this morning till just before 3 this afternoon. It meant that we had to boil water for our coffees on the stove, we couldn't use our heater which was just perfect given the temperature outside was bloody cold, and the temperature inside decided to match it. I also couldn't use the computer, my portable DVD player or even the microwave. It served to remind me exactly how much we rely on technology for even the simplest things like cooking lunch, and I know if there was some kind of natural disaster which disabled the power grids, I would be well and truly screwed.

We have had a family of sick people this week, my big sister and my nephew are both unwell, and my little sister has been staying over since Saturday as she has a nasty virus, and she has been filling the house with the charming sounds of violent vomiting and throaty coughs ever since. It is tempting to break out the Hazmat suits but in the spirit of looking sympathetic I have restrained myself and merely sneak into my bedroom whenever it sounds like she's about to hack up a lung.

Miss K is as loud and boisterous as usual, she has learned how to say hi and hello recently so her conversations are peppered with greetings these days, and she loves it when someone new walks into the room because it gives her an excuse to yell hi at them. It has now been almost a week since I decided to try weaning Miss K from her night time feeds and I am proud to announce that she is officially sleeping through the night. I am absolutely gobsmacked at how quickly she took to sleeping through, and I have heard reports from mum and my little sisters that she still wakes up several times a night, but she is quite happy to entertain herself quietly until she is tired enough to go back to sleep. She did decide one night that it would be a fun game to kick the wall really loudly at 1am, and I was worried that if I went in and repositioned her I would be giving her an excuse to cry and beg to be let up, but she was happy to have me pop in, move her to the top of her bed and walk out alone. She even went back to sleep shortly afterwards. 

I mentioned earlier this week that Miss K's new bedroom is completed, and I am going to take photos of it this afternoon so they will be posted shortly. I can't wait to share the changes with you guys, and I'm sure you're all just as excited as I am.

Well that's me done for another week, I'll be back again soon with photos.