I love it!!

I'm sure you're all surprised to see me writing right now. Especially given that lately the only time I hit this old blog up is when summoned by the great Karen at Baking in a Tornado to write for one of her awesome series.  Well it's almost 11 o'clock at night, and I'm the only one still out of bed, and I've suddenly been hit with the urge to write to you guys. So firstly sorry for my neglect, and thank you for your patience. I hope tonight's inspiration is not short lived and that I can get back into the swing of things. Especially since I feel so good right now. It's been a long time in the making but I can honestly say I love life right now. It feels amazing to finally say that I am happy. This doesn't mean I spend my days singing from the roof tops, or even that I smile 24 hours a day. I still have bad moods, I still get tired, and I have a chest cold right now, so even at my absolute best things aren't perfect, but they are still pretty damned good.

So just because I am such a giving and thoughtful person, I thought I'd share the love with you guys, and let you know what the go is around here, and why I'm so darn happy now.  So the first bit of good news is I finally finished my studies. I have no idea whether or not I've passed yet, I won't get the results from the final exam until next month, but I've submitted my application to graduate next year with the rest of the class, and all I can do now is sit and wait for some kind of confirmation.  The final exam was nothing short of a shambles, first off I missed the exam date because of a screw up with messages from the school, and I had to organise with my tutor to "re-sit" the exam. Then on the day I had the exam booked the servers at the TAFE all crashed, so I couldn't access the system to actually take the exam.  The joys of being totally reliant on modern technology.  I was offered the choice of coming back another day, or going somewhere with free wi-fi and a borrowed laptop and going ahead with the exam on the day. Given I was already two weeks late to sit, I decided against trying again another day and my tutor and I headed of to McDonalds and I took my exam accompanied by the smell of fry oil and pre-schoolers enjoying a trip out with mum and dad.  I can't say it was my easiest exam to get through, but it certainly was the most memorable. I'm sure I'll spend my twilight years regaling my grandchildren with stories of the day grandma took her final exam next to the play equipment at Maccas. Then we will all sit back and laugh at my wild antics as a youngin'.

Now I'm sure you're all thinking I decided to sit back and enjoy all the free time that not being a student affords me. That would be true except for two things. Firstly I never actually studied until the eleventh hour the whole year, so there hasn't actually been an increase in free time for me, and secondly, I have gone completely insane and decided to fill in the non-existent free time by opening up a business.  I am now an independent Kaszazz consultant, which means that I get paid to make scrap book layouts and beautiful cards, and then sell the products that I used to make my art.  It's still early days at the moment, but I've already held one workshop which was open to general public, and started regular private workshops for a select few people (read my big sister and sister in law.)  Once I'm more confident in the stock I'm actually meant to be selling and the skills I need to hold the workshops, I'll start expanding and actually hold more public workshops and hopefully make more sales.  It has been a huge learning experience already, and it can only go up from here. Except for my bank account, that will definitely keep shrinking because I can't help but keep buying every thing I see in the catalog.

I'm still also employed part time at the law firm, and despite it being as depressing as you could imagine spending your days facilitating other people's divorces and custody battles, I am loving being so busy eight hours a day. I start running the minute I get in the door at 8:45 and I don't stop until 5:30 some nights. It's hectic, stressful and some times confronting, but at the end of the day I walk out the door knowing that I've done a good day's work and earned my wage for the day. And the screams and cuddles I get from Miss K when I go to pick her up are always the best part of the day. And all of the worrying I did before I started that she wouldn't adjust, or that it would make life difficult for her were all for nothing. She is of course in the best hands possible being left in the care of mum and Sam, and I usually spend the first five minutes at my sister's house being shown the latest art project they did together, or hearing the new words she learned today. She's always so proud to show off to me, and it's great to see her getting to try things that she'd never get to do with me.

The rest of life with Miss K is pretty peachy too right now.  Of course she's a typical 2 year old, which means she pushes her luck every chance she gets, trying to learn her boundaries and expand them when she can.  We're still learning every day what it means to be a mum and daughter, and our relationship is constantly evolving, and of course I have to do a lot of mean things as her mum, like make sure she eats vegetables on a semi-regular basis, and pick her nose when she has a cold, and enforce rules, even when I don't feel like being the bad cop today, and there are days where it takes a lot of chanting "it's for her own good" to myself to get through another temper tantrum, but we always come out the end of it happy.

I am so proud of the person Miss K is becoming, she is so fearless and she charges through life head first at all times. She loves meeting new people and charms the pants off everyone the moment she speaks to them.  She actually met her Nonno for the first time a month ago, Ady finally having reconciled with his father and they are speaking again for the first time in years. I'd never met his father the whole time we dated, and I wasn't even sure if he was aware when Miss K was born, so we're making up for a lot of lost time at the moment, and in December Miss K and I have been summoned to meet the rest of his family at their annual family reunion. So far Nonno seems to be a doting grandfather, and there are always presents for Miss K whenever we visit, and mysteriously they are always perfectly suited to her. We went down this weekend and there were colouring pencils and Little People figurines waiting in Nonno's kitchen for her.  I have no idea how he knows exactly what to get her, but Miss K certainly always appreciates the gifts and I appreciate the effort and thought.

Things with Ady are going smoothly at the moment, and we've managed to navigate our way through several issues without everything dissolving into screaming matches and name calling lately. I can't say that everything there is perfect, because there are still all the reasons why we never survived as a couple staring us in the face, which does sometimes make it hard to get along, but we're trying to work together for Miss K's sake and so far it's going ok. We're now starting to talk about Miss K staying with her dad by herself, and we're aiming for starting the visits after Miss K turns 3, so I've now given myself something new to stress about. Yay!

Well that's all from me for now, I should probably get to bed too given I need to be up in 7 hours to get ready for work again, the daily grind continues.  I hope to be back again soon, but until then, stay awesome.

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. 

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

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.

Too many projects, not enough babysitters

I'm being very naughty right now, I'm meant to be doing the dishes and tidying up the house, but I have come down with a case of the Cant Be Bothereds so housework can wait. I have a lovely quiet house all to myself at the moment, as Miss K is down having her nap and mum is babysitting my nephew today, so I am enjoying the peace, and the ability to hear my own thoughts.

I have actually been a bit lost the last few days, now that Miss K's bedroom is all but finished I haven't had anything to do with my hands at night once she's in bed, and that always makes me sad. I have really enjoyed doing up her bedroom, and even the boring bits like trying to figure out where each piece of furniture and decoration would go has been a heap of fun. I wouldn't say I'm ready to go out and become an interior decorator, but I'm super pleased with the results.

So now I am on the hunt for a new project to undertake, which sounds like fun but really isn't. There are so many little areas around the house that could do with a once over, and thinking of them all together in a giant group just serves to make me tired. I want to get into my bedroom soon and give that some colour and give me something pretty to look at when I'm in there, and I've already got some ideas of what I can do. I follow another lovely blog here called A Small Bite of Mondocherry and they do some beautiful things with paper and fabrics, and they have given me some wonderful inspiration for things I can put on my walls. I also want to start putting pictures of Miss K up, as I have a lot of them in scrapbooks, but very little of them actually out on display. I also need to get into our family room and empty it out so that it can become my second lounge room and also a play room for Miss K. I have removed almost all of her toys out of our real lounge room as they have become a real tripping hazard for anyone who tries to walk in to the room, and it was getting too frustrating having to clean all of them up.

I also want to start a vegetable patch with mum this year, and we need to get our garden bed weeded and cleaned up in the next few weeks if we hope to have anything planted in time for summer. I love home grown tomatoes, and I really want to try to grow my own strawberry plant as well. I love strawberries straight off the vine, there is nothing better. We have also talked about turning one part of our back yard into an entertainment area where we can go and have drinks during summer, and possibly Christmas lunch if it's at our house this year.

The only problem with all of these projects is that they are very difficult to accomplish when your shadow is two feet tall and likes putting foreign objects into her mouth. I have already discovered while trying to stick a picture border up in Miss K's room that she is unimpressed with how little attention she gets when I am busy with a big project, so I don't know how successful I am going to be with the next one I take on.

But given that I have all the free time in the world on my hands right now given that Miss K is currently in bed asleep, I really should try to get something accomplished instead of just sitting here talking about it to you guys. So I'm off to get some work done.

Mark Zuckerberg

So tonight I have the urge to blog, but no inspiration. I have sat here staring at my blank page for about five minutes without anything popping to mind as interesting enough to write about. I even got desperate enough to try a random topic generator to try and inspire me, but it wasn't much help. It told me to write a blog about the magazine that is easiest to digest, and while I find that I can eat a whole issue of Women's Weekly faster than an issue of Time Magazine, I don't think that's interesting enough to turn into an entire blog.

I'd tell you about my day, but that would be so boring, I'd fall asleep while writing it. The most exciting part of today was I saw a huge rainbow out my lounge room window, and rushed to grab the camera so I could take a photo of it. Don't ask me why I needed to take a photo of it, I guess it was either take a photo or go back to staring at the wall blankly. And right now instead of thinking up witty topics to write about, I'm having a Facebook war with my little sister. Here's a great way to annoy all of your friends and family, if you type @[4:0] anywhere that you can comment on Facebook, it will change it to Mark Zuckerburg. In a rare moment of genius, I have flooded my sister's statuses and photos with this, and she of course had to reciprocate. I have succeeded in waking everyone up in the house with my laughter, but have achieved very little in finding inspiration. And so I have decided to try and find inspiration in my photo files and I think I've found a winner. Check out this little gem 

Attractive right?

For anyone who hasn't run from the room screaming in absolute terror after viewing this atrosity, this is a photo of myself eating breakfast, it was taken about 3 years ago, and edited by my lovely little sister, the same one I just won my Facebook war against. If you can't read the caption at the top, it says I eat Fat Chicks For Breakfast! and is titled thus because shortly before my sister edited this photo, we were in Melbourne together to go see a Gwen Stefani concert with our littlest sister. On our way from the train station to the stadium we stopped off at Hungry Jacks for some dinner, and as we all walked out of Hungry Jacks loaded up with our carbs and sugars, a young guy ran past us screaming I EAT FAT CHICKS FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!! Of course both of my sisters assumed he was screaming it at me, given that at the time I was the heaviest one in our group, but I'm unconvinced that he wasn't referring to either of them or in fact all three of us, but we still had a good laugh about it as we carried on. Of course little did I realise that it was something that I would be reliving every time I looked through my photo album, but I can't help but laugh every time I see this photo. Not just because I look so miserable to be eating my Rice Bubbles with cream and sugar which can't be true because it's my favourite breakfast. It used to be my favourite dinner before I had Miss K, but now I have to eat like an adult and not a 6 year old so I had to give it up.

And there you have it, that's how to get past writers block. Humiliate yourself in front of total strangers by showing unflattering photos of yourself in your dressing gown. And I still have that dressing gown, and it is still my favourite piece of leisure wear for around the house. I hope I have entertained you all with my quest to write tonight, until we meet again, stay awesome.