Monday Giggles

This is what happens when goods are made in China, and they don't have anyone in Quality Checking that knows how to speak english, OR knows their Sesame Street characters. Sigh.

Enjoy!



*hugs*

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!!!

Happy Australia Day dear blog friends!

Historically, 26 January marks the day when Captain Arthur Phillip and entourage first stepped onto Australian soil in 1788. These days, along with celebrating that "first landing", we also celebrate what it means to be Australian, to be an Aussie!

There are lots of things that signify "being Australian", but here are the characteristics that I consider make ME essentially Aussie (in no particular order):

• I have freedom.
• I am multicultural.
• I am eager to help those in need.
• I am friendly.
• I have a dry sense of humour, and can laugh at (or make fun of) anything.
• I am ready to take on anything life throws at me.
• Friendships or "mateships" are important to me.

And now, for a bit of fun, here are some things that I'm kind of lacking with respect to being a true blue Aussie:

• I don't like beer. Or vegemite for that matter.
• Thongs (or flip-flops to you Northern Hemisphere readers!) are not my ideal choice of footwear.
• I can handle not going to a beach every weekend.
• Sports do not particularly interest me, especially cricket or rugby (oh shock horror!!)
• I don't drive a ute. Or a Holden. Or Ford.

To all my Aussie friends, have an absolutely fantastic Australia Day!! Try not to melt in today's heat! LOL

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

Bit late with the Monday Giggles today, sorry about that. But at least it's still Monday here in Aus!!

I love a good pun and here are some gems from So Much Pun.

Enjoy!!




Throwing caution to the wind if you don't get it. :D







*hugs*

Positive goodness!

Last week when I mentioned I was going to use Positive as my One Little Word for this year, a wonderful lady from the US whipped up a little present for me.

Monika Wright (of Write.Click.Scrapbook fame, amongst others) creates some awesome subway art posters and print-outs that she sells in her Etsy shop. She was awesome enough to create the above one for me for free. How cool is that?

The frame is sitting on a side table right opposite the recliner where I spend 90% of my time, so now I have a permanent reminder of my OLW. :D

Thanks Monica! Love ya heaps! :D

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

How is success measured? It's a very subjective topic isn't it? Well, let's see if you agree with this definition . . .

Enjoy!

At age 4, success is… not peeing in your pants.
At age 12, success is… having friends
At age 18, success is… having a driver's license
At age 20, success is… having sex
At age 35, success is… having money
At age 50, success is… having money
At age 60, success is… having sex
At age 70, success is… having a driver’s license
At age 75, success is… having friends
At age 80, success is… not peeing in your pants.

*hugs*

Spare a Thought . . .

... for the Queensland flood victims.

I've been watching the television coverage of the floods over the past two nights and it's been heartbreaking. I lived in quite a few different areas of Queensland for part of my childhood and know and even lived in some of the towns affected by the floods. I have relatives and family friends living in Queensland and thankfully they're all safe and unaffected by the floods, although some of them came quite close!

It will take a while for the floodwaters to subside, and even longer for so many people to get their lives back together again. I cried when I saw that somebody's ENTIRE house had been swept off its foundations and was being carried along on the floodwaters. To find your house full of water and mud is one thing. To find your entire house three towns down river would be even more devastating!

The one encouraging thing about Australians is their incredible courage and strength in the face of disasters such as these. We are not a country immune to natural tragedies, but the way we face the aftermath and the caring and support of the rest of the country unaffected by the disaster is really uplifting.

To this end, some wonderfully creative and crafty people have set up an Etsy shop in order to help raise funds for those in need. Check it out here. There are some lovely pieces of jewellery, some great looking handmade clothes and other wonderful bits and pieces that would all love to find a home.

An alternative to buying something handmade is to make something yourself and forward it on. Sharryn Thompson has started the Rising Waters Flood Appeal blog and is asking for people to contribute a scrapbook layout (without photos of course so the recipient can add their own), or a card or some other hand made gift. I remember something similar was done for the Victorian Bushfire victims and it was very well received.

At the very least, will you join me in sending some prayers to God for all those affected by the floods? Thank you.

*hugs*

One Little Word . . .

As some of you know (and are already participating in!), Ali Edwards runs her One Little Word project every year. This year she's even running a full scale online course on Big Picture Classes.

I wasn't going to participate as I had already decided NOT to get involved with any classes or year long projects due to a) impending baby (self-explanatory) and b) never completing any of them anyway (the amount of unfinished layouts/projects/online classes/courses I have lying around would shock you!).

However, last night whilst trying to drop off to sleep, God whispered a single word to to me through the deafening noise of the rain/crickets/frogs outside and even through the fog of my pregnantly ill brain.

Positive

Wha...?!? Huh?!? Positive?

"Positive what?!?", my pained brain thought. "Oh, do you mean BE POSITIVE?"

Silence.

Oh. Must be what He meant. Zzzzzzz...

* * * * *

Throughout all of today, my brain has been pondering this one little word. Positive.

Nope. Definitely not me. I'm as negative as they come.

All the more reason for you to take ownership of the word, spoke the Voice of Reason in my head.

Sometimes I really hate that voice . . .

See! Negativity again. Embrace the word, go on!

Okay, fine! I'm POSITIVE I'm the most negative person in the world, AND the world's worst pessimist. There.

...

* * * * *

As the arguments in my head continued back and forth throughout the day, I was eventually talked around and made to see the positives (ha!) of adopting this one little word. What harm could it do, really?!? And if I don't actually get around to completing any craft projects related to it, at least it will be at the forefront of my mind, right?

So there you have it.

Positive.

Image by skele_kitty from DeviantArt.

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

There's nothing like a bit of origami to get the crafting mojo's happening. Even if it is dog origami. LOL

Enjoy!!





*hugs*

Ramp Up Your Knitting Skills!

I'm not much of a knitter. Either I can't get the tension in the wool right, or my hands cramp up before I've even done two rows! So I do admire and envy those of you who can knit.

I'm especially in awe of a lady called Agata Olek who "yarn-bombed" the now-even-more-famous Wall Street Bull over Christmas:



Isn't that awesome!?!? I think it looks so much better, don't you?!? LOL

(To see a video of how she did it, click here.)

Time to ramp up your knitting skills, don't you think?!? LOL

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

Yay! Monday Giggles is back again as promised!

It's a brand new year, and what does that mean? NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS!!

Well, not for me. My resolution is not to make resolutions as I never keep them anyway, and tend to forget all about them by about March. LOL

If you are in the habit of making resolutions, why not try some of these ones!

Enjoy!

Amusing New Year Resolutions

• Just for today, I will not sit in my living room all day in my nightdress. Instead, I will move my computer into the bedroom.
  
  
• I will no longer waste my time relieving the past, instead I will spend it worrying about the future.
  
  
• I will not bore my boss by with the same excuse for taking leave. I will think of some more excuses.
  
  
• I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.
  
  
• I will avoid taking a bath whenever possible and conserve more water.
  
  
• I will give up chocolates totally. 100%. Completely. Honestly....
  
  
• I will try to figure out why I *really* need nine e-mail addresses.
  
  
• I will stop sending e-mails to my other half.
  
  
• I resolve to work with neglected children -- my own.
  
  
• I will stop sending e-mail, ICQ, Instant Messages and be on the phone at the same time with the same person.
  
  
• I will spend less than one hour a day on the Internet. This, of course, will be hard to estimate since I'm not a clock watcher.
  
  
• I will read the manual... just as soon as I can find it.
  
  
• I will think of a password other than "password."
  
  
• I will not tell the same story at every get together.
  
  
• I won't worry so much.
  

*hugs*

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!!

Okay, okay, you're all probably dying to hear of this news I've been going on about for a while now. Nothing like being kept on the edge of your seat, huh? LOL

Well, for some of you, it might not seem momentous, but it's certainly life-changing for me. You see, around about the middle of this year, there's going to be a mini-WinGus running around. Well, not exactly running around. More like lying around sleeping and crying and generally keeping me on my toes!

Yes folks, that's right, I'm going to have a baby! I'm currently at 13 weeks and feeling pretty awful. "Morning" sickness has morphed into 24/7 sickness, although thankfully I'm only feeling nauseous and not actually throwing up. Doesn't make me feel any better though! I'm also feeling excessively tired and just generally sick. Hence all the sickness and absence from the blog world at the end of last year.

I'm still in a bit of shock. It all happened so quickly! Both Gus and I were under the impression that it would take about a year for my body to return to normal after coming off the contraception, and thus a year to prepare ourselves for it all. What we weren't prepared for was me becoming pregnant within 36 hours of having the contraception removed!!! :o God obviously had other ideas, throwing us into the deep end with no time for preparation or procrastination! I suppose stranger things have happened!

So there you go. That's my big news. I will admit that I am not ecstatic about this whole thing, but I won't go into the details of that. It's certainly going to be a very challenging and interesting year!

*hugs*

A New Year and a New Look!

Happy New Year dear blog friends!! I pray that your year will be full of love and blessings and many pleasant surprises!

How do you like the new blog look (if you're reading this in a Reader, come on over and have a peek!)? I have been working on it for a while now, from about September last year, before I got sick and couldn't do much at all. The header up there I created from graphics designed by the wonderful Crystal Wilkerson. I love her designs for Echo Park and was thrilled when she converted her paper ranges to digi. For those who are familiar with Echo Park, you'll recognise the patterns and embellishments come from Sweet Summertime - possibly my favourite Echo Park range. The colours and patterns are just so fresh and playful! Oh, and if you want to check out Crystal's digi stuff, her shop can be found at Jessica Sprague. I also found this great grid background from DeviantArt. If you haven't been to DeviantArt before, go check it out, it's totally mind blowing!!!

Now, apart from the new graphics and having moved a few things around, you may have noticed some page tabs up there ^^^ underneath the header picture. They're mostly straight forward, but let me guide you around a bit:

• About Me - no explanation needed really! Just go and have a read. :D
  
  
• Tumbler - this is a link to what will be a repository of craft goodies that I find during my travels around the web. It's currently empty as I haven't had a chance yet to add anything, but I will be going back to add some wonderful finds in the next few weeks.
  
  
• Guestbook - this is a great new feature I've added. If you want to make a general comment rather than one in relation to a post, please feel free to pop it in here. I look forward to hearing from you! :D
  
  
• Blog Awards - The few awards I've been graciously given all have a home in the one spot now!
  

And that's it! Well, for the pages anyway. Go and have a play and see what you can find. :D

Monday Giggles will be back this year, starting from Monday, 3 January 2011. How exciting! Have you missed these as much as I have?!? I certainly could have done with a few laughs at the end of last year.

As for other posts, I can't promise I'll be posting much more this year, but hopefully if I'm not flat on my back and have a modicum of energy, I will be able to tell you more about what's going on around here and what I've been up to. Don't worry, you haven't missed out on much so far! But more about that later.

Right, well, that's pretty much it for the new blog. Come back tomorrow for some exciting news! :D  

*hugs*