Silent Sunday

Day 11: Elbow
Leah giving little James the 'elbow' out of the way!

"A day without laughter is a day wasted"

My husband LOVES a good pun. So when I was sourcing my 3 jokes I made sure to have three good (and funny) puns in there. What was good about this is that it made the jokes ridiculously easy to remember. 

Q. What do you call a cow with no legs?

A. Ground beef.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.

Two aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married.  The ceremony was rubbish - but the reception was brilliant.  

PS:  I tried these out on my class (11, 12 and 13 year olds) and got some laughs... I think they were sympathy laughs but what do you expect with jokes like this! I giggled anyway!

Things I'm loving

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

Loving the warm fuzzies you get from creating someone you love a present <3

Loving 'The Oatmeal'...such good content, for such a long time. Especially love this new comic.

Love being able to get out in the sun this week to have a bit of a play outside. Leah loves the outdoors. More so now that she's walking running up a storm. Unfortunately, Excited Rottweiler + nipple ball =.....

LOVE getting things crossed off my 101 list. I haven't blogged about this yet but I finally made my reusable scrapbooking frame. I probably won't even put it up in this house, but I LOVE IT!

Not loving the fact that I keep writing loBe instead of love in this post. Silly fingers!

What are you loving this week?

Make your own carpet powder

Cool huh? And so easy. Plus you can make it any fragrance you want, not just rely on the shop bought ones. What's even better is that the oils are from my mind, body, spirit series which covers some of this...

Find out how here.

Silent Sunday

Day 10: Toes

No complaints!

I'm quite a positive person as it is but doing this has made me really conscious of what I'm thinking and saying :)

Paper Mario And the Thousand-Year Door

I have been working on this for a past couple of months on and off...

I love gaming and anything Nintendo I really love as I think it's unique and often branches out from what the other main gaming producers are making, for example the wii was the first on the market to have a movement controller.

It is because of this that my main two gaming loves stem from Nintendo. The 'Pikmin' series is a great little story with very unique game play. I'm very excited for the third installment's release in November!

But today I will talk about my main love - Mario. <3
The mario series of games is a well known franchise, and rightly so - it's great! Loved by children and nostalgic gamers alike, everyone knows that little plumber with the red get up.

Paper Mario is a mini series from the main Super Mario Stroyline which originally came out on the Nintendo 64 console. The sequel to this, "Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door" is the game that I chose to complete challenge #19 of my 101 challenges.

The game is CUTE which I love. It follows Mario on an adventure to rescue his beloved Princess Peach who has been kidnapped (AGAIN! When will she ever learn?) Mario travels through a variety of different worlds combining problem solving and strategy battles with enemies. The main objective of the game is to collect crystal stars and then finally beat the enemy who is holding Peach Captor.

He has many friends who help him along the way, who all have special moves and skills. Here are some of my faves.

And after what the console tells me is 40 hours of game play I have clocked it once again. Thanks for coming Mario. Always a pleasure.

Things I'm Loving

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

A few of the things I'm loving this week...

I love the little lady who, despite her sickness, had fun fun fun in the sun with mummy.

Loving new traditions <3 Little things I've started to do (and will keep doing) on Leah's birthdays. The monthly photos are all complete but I'll be doing a age one every birthday, writer her a letter every birthday and taking a photo of her 'in' my wedding dress (yet to be shot).

Loving the opportunity to photograph this gorgeous little girl.

Love that these overalls now fit!

Geez, lots of babies this week!

What are you loving?

Yummy Carrot Cake

...and another 101 challenge complete.

You can find the recipe I used here.

Things I'm loving

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

I've been missing out on 'Things I'm loving' for a few weeks as I was busy busy organising a first birthday party, not to mention being sick as a dog - again!  Such bad bugs this year. Anywho, I'm back! Here are the things I'm loving this week...

1. A successful first birthday party. Man was it incredible or what? So totally overwhelmed with the amount of love both Mr. Man and I felt on that day, not to mention our beautiful little lady who's now one. Cannot believe it. Her 365 is also complete and I'm getting through the 'tradition' photos that I want to do. Phew, told you I've been busy busy!

2. I wrote about writing letters to people who inspire me here. This week I got a letter back from one of them - my Year 10 english teacher. Very cool.

3. Seeing that Leah is a 'Stuck on You' VIP!

4. Walking!

5. Loving that my best friend has moved WAY closer so we'll be able to see more of her and her wonderful family. Yay!

Thai Chicken Meatballs

500g minced chicken
2T finely chopped chives
2T finely chopped parsley
1T Thai Seasoning 
1t breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
1T cornflour
2T peanut oil
1t sesame oil
2T finely chopped corriander

1. Combine all ingredients except the cornflour and oils. Form the mixture into mini meatballs.

2. Coat with cornflour and fry in a small amount of peanut oil with a splash of sesame oil, until cooked through.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

How easy is that?  They were tasty as and super easy to make.

Enjoy x

101 Challenge accepted!

Over the past little while I've been ticking some of the 101 challenges off in my head but not really on the list of blogging them....enter this post!


If I think about what the 101 challenge means to me and my purpose for doing it, it would be a few things - to fill in some time, to try out some new things, to actually make some of the things I pin on pinterest (LOL) and to give some more focussed direction to the year. If I was to make a judgement on that now I would say complete. And that makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

So, if it seems like some of the 'ticks' I share today are a little bit of a cop out, it's because rather than complete them exactly as they're written I may have skimmed around the edges a bit, and that's OK with me. :)

#1:

I've done a few things with collections actually.
I've started collecting things with Baboushka dolls on them. I love Baboushka dolls. It's a love fueled by a set of dolls I had as a child (which I think my mum sold in a car boot sale :(!). So now if there's a choice of getting something with or without Baboushka dolls on it, I will go doll! I have seen some other cool things that I would like to buy that fit into the category but alas I'm trying not to fill my house up anymore before we move.. so perhaps watch this space. But look at all the cool things we've acquired so far;

I also took an old collection of stamps that have been passed from my Grandfather to my dad to me to a dealer - nothing worth selling (Bummer, thought I might have a rare gem in my midst. Was mistaken) So although they are still sitting in the Continental chocolate box at the moment I'm planning to buh a nice album for them to display them and keep them in good condition.
Along those lines I've also been thinking of ways I can display or do something with an existing collection of Ology books, games and other parafernalia. No bright ideas yet. It might be something that comes into place in a new house if I manage to score myself a spare room.

Leah in her Baboushka doll hoodie - what a cool dude!

#2:

I think I've been doing this one really well. And more so than anything it's made me think before I purchase. I don't immediately go for black clothes anymore. I'll be honest. I like black clothes, but now I'll try and make sure I match it with something that isn't. I even bought purple pants this year. Success of challenge? I think so!

#3:

This was a really special exercise. Firstly whittling it down to 5 people and then writing the letters. I must say that I had a tear in my eye (or in a couple of cases tears rolling down my face) as I wrote the letters. I have sent all my letters last week, well, all the ones that could be sent. There were two people who I wrote to who have passed so I will hold on to those letters until the next time I go to visit them at the cemetery. The people I finally settled on to write to;

• Dad - probably the most influential person in my life. When he spoke, you wanted to listen.
• My Nana - someone I spent a lot of time with when I was little, and glad I did.
• Damien - the one that didn't get away.
• Mr Alderton - My Year 10 english teacher. The man who inspired me to be a teacher.
• Lynn - A work colleague and friend whose cheery and positive disposition inspires happiness in me.

#4:

DONE! I'm yet to put magnets on the back of these but I don't think I'm going to use them as magnets, to begin with anyway. Think I will use them as just little letters for Leah to manipulate when she's a wee bit older, they're quite small.

"We're going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever"

Our favourite little lady turns one on Monday and I really can't believe it. It sure has been quite a year - all amazing, amazing, warm fuzzy type stuff. Being a mum is AWESOME.

For the best part of the last month I've been working on this puppy;

And plan did I what. There was list upon list, many shopping excursions for party favours, cake trial runs, party food, presents. It always seemed like there was so much to do and so little time. To the point where on Friday morning (the morning 1 day before) I packed a sad and told Mr. Man through teary eyes that I couldn't do it anymore, I'd failed. Oh no no said Mr. Man. A few days of him picking up Leah, and I managed to get everything sorted, coming home without Leah on Friday afternoon and heading out to Party HQ to set up was vital. Mr. Man = THE Man.

Photo courtesy of Lynn Fothergill

And all went on without a hitch today, better than without a hitch in fact - just perfect. The sun shone down, the wind died down, Leah slept well in the morning. Just perfect!

Big one made out of photos - Party Decoration

We had a tonne of people over, family and friends, and Leah had a great time playing with all her little friends. She got spoiled rotten (I need a bigger place to house everything - kids toys are bulky!) and stayed up way past bed time playing with all her new toys - jumping from one to the other utterly excited by everything and it's newness. Yummy food and merriment was had by all. Look at my awesome cake/s! I'm so happy with the way the concept turned out. Proud mumma right here.

'Bubbles and Balloons' was our theme <3

Most of all. I'm proud of us - Mr. Man, me and Leah. We made it guys! 1 year down, tonnes more to go. I love you both so much and you two make me a better person and the bestest mum. <3 How lucky am I to know you both and have you in my life.

Enjoy the photos of our beautiful girl's amazing day. xox

Thank you to everyone who came or wished us well or helped us to make it to one. You are who makes us who we are. We love you <3