“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”

Day #7: Your five pet peeves.

Now I know, I know... I skipped day 6. BUT, I've written about that exact thing before AND it's a moot point in my opinion.

So today I entertain you with my pet peeves.

#1: Using every single tool in the kitchen and every lid or container open as you go when cooking a meal. Now, I can go full Gordon Ramsey on this one at times as I'm veeeery much a 'clean as you go' kinda gal. My husband on the other hand, is the former. We have a rule in the house that (usually) if one person cooks the other cleans up (having a baby has changed this somehow but it's a good rule none the less) and this was so unfair. Hubby might have to clean a pan and put away the dishes we ate on. I, on the other hand need to take an industrial approach to cleaning - open cans and containers left strewn across the bench, dirty utensils left where they were last used and nothing even close to tidy. How hard is it to put a lid on when you're done?

#2: Basic grammatical errors. Yes, I know what you're going to say, and I don't care. If you are an adult and you're using facebook or other social media where you're having to type your thoughts coherently, please do so using correct grammar at least most of the time. I admit, I don't always have things exactly right (but I'm pretty f***kin' close!), but I at least have the basics right - your/you're, two/to/too, their/there etc. It's not rocket science people. Learn it!

#3: Over manscaping. I like my dudes to be dudes. Now, again, don't get me wrong...I like a guy who looks after himself. You gotta smell good and not look as though you've been living in a trash can for the past few years, but other than that - Be a man! Grow hair! Have stubble! Be clean, but be manly.

#4: Using the word 'gay' to describe something other than homosexuality or happy. This poster pretty much sums up my feelings here. It makes you look dumb... when (most likely) you aren't.

#5:Facebookers that write mysterious statuses (stati... statee.... *insert plural of 'status' here) so that people will ask them questions. You know the ones 'Oh this is hopeless....', 'You're not going to get me down!' etc etc. I get it, you want some attention. Surely though there are better ways of getting it. Post a funny saying, a cute video, a provocative news story - SOMETHING ELSE!

And I'm probably guilty of all of these. Whoops! I try not to, I promise. I also try not to judge so please take the list in the nature it was intended. To make you laugh. We all have stuff that grinds our gears, it's how we react to it that makes us who we are.

xox

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. 

Better late than never! Just sneaking in one day late here and it's been a busy week (or two).

I'm loving that the way my workplace chooses to get us back into school mode is to send us to beautiful places like this and give us time to work together as a whole staff and as teams. Great retreat this year ladies <3

I then loved spending the rest of the week getting my classroom sorted. It's not quite ready yet but it's a lot closer than it was 2 days ago. I love getting my classroom sorted at the beginning of the year. I sat down at my laptop to do some planing a couple of weeks ago and was completely at a loss. Now I've had the time to think and potter around the room I'm rearing to go!

Loved having some mummy and Leah time last Saturday seeing the new Dinosaur display at Butterfly Creek. This little girl is SUCH an independent explorer (I can say this now it's a week after the trip... it was very trying on poor mummy's patience, lol. Head strong... wonder where she gets that from?).

I was very excited to both find this next piece of information out and then to share it with my nearest and dearest on facebook in this way. Oh pinterest, you provide all my good ideas. Cute photo though. Trust me, you don't want to see the blooper reel. 

Oh and I loved catching this quick shot of somebody practising to be a big sister.

Linking up over at MNMs.

What are you loving this week?

Words for an ex

It is post #5 - Things you want to say to an ex.

I've heard stories about girls gone crazy after breaking up with someone  - drawing a penis in vivid marker on the wind shield of their car or scratching a giant dent down the side of the car with keys, putting something putrid in their mailbox or sabotaging new relationships. I was never one for this kind of behaviour. Oh I wanted to, I dreamed about doing something to really piss them off, but I'm not the kind of person who would ever go through with that. I was emotional. I cried, I felt sorry for myself, I was down in the dumps... for a bit at least.

But, as I posted a week or so back for my Fat Mum Slim Photo a Day Challenge photo for "words to live by"...

So, things I'd wanna say to an ex? Absolutely nothing... except maybe, have you seen my beautiful house? My gorgeous child and my lovely husband? Seen how happy I am? And possibly, thanks. Thanks for becomming an ex, cuz my ending turned out grrrreat :)

Another day in the life of me....

It's day 4! I always wonder why these challenges have a task that asks you to bullet your whole day... as surely it's boring? I've done this before when I was home with a small baby. But today I'm on holiday so really on the whole it's pretty boring stuff. Oh well, here goes!

• Woke up listening to Leah playing in her room over the monitor.
• Put weetbix in Leah's bag ready for Daycare and sent her off with Daddy while I went back to bed to read a few chapters of my current read, "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult.
• Put a photo of Jake snuggling on instagram - the real important stuff.
• Got up and had something to eat. 
• Began work on moving photo files around on the computer. We stated off with things looking like this...

 

• Tidied up around the place, put washing away, put a new load on, cleaned up the kitchen etc.
• Restarted the computer because it had a spaz and began moving files again (I set up a move then go away from the computer to do a few things).
• Swept up bark and rocks and bits and pieces outside.
• Walked around the garden with Damien and talked about what we want to do with the place.
• Rang mum and talked plants and garden with her for a bit.
• Began more photo files moving.
• Updated humourous facebook status update.
• Made strawberry muffins - in wicked cool pirate casings!

• Had lunch with lovely husband.
• Began more photo files moving.
• Cleaned up Leah's room which included a very thorough organising of her clip frame.

Before:

After:

• Cleaned up the kitchen
• Moved more photo files.
• Damien showed me around outside at all the work he's been doing. Pretty clever husband I have.
• Moved yet again more files and began to write this post.

The day went a bit wayward then and I can't really remember in what order I did things, but there was picking up Leah from daycare, making dinner, bathtime, watching big brother and then reading book before bed.

And for the record, my hard drive now looks like this...so I made almost 25gb worth of progress. Still going! And seeing I started earlier in the week with only close to 11gb free I'm pretty happy.

Jeez! Nerd, OUT!

 

Silent S....Monday

I don't know about you but I've been forgetting what day it is over the holidays, hence the title!

Here are some photos from our fin visit to The Waterworks in Coromandel yesterday. Great place.

I love books!

I wrote about my favourite book series here, so I will not do so again.

At the beginning of 2013 I started a book club. You can see our blog here. We have a little group of die hard book nerds and I love it. I haven't loved every book we've read but it has opened up my eyes to different genres and has definitely made my love of books flourish. There's nothing like spending a good couple of hours each month being a book geek.

Last month I added to my favourite books list when I read 'The fault in our stars' by John Green. It was recommended to me by an online friend and I can't thank them enough. It was great.I loved the main character. I really liked all the characters actually. They were great. And even thought the storyline was somewhat predictable I enjoyed the story. I've heard there's a movie based on it coming out later this year so I'm sure I'll be disappointed by that at some stage lol.

Things I'm loving - The Return!

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. 

First of all... I'm happy for the return of 'Things I'm Loving!' It had been a staple here at Following Moonshadows almost from the start and I was sad to give it up for a bit. Welcome back TIL!

I'm loving being an Aunty again to this gorgeous little girl. My sister gave birth to her 4th child on the 31st to this cute as little bundle...and look how alert she is! Cutest little gremlin I've seen in a long time! Welcome to the world Kaley. 

I loved taking some time to dedicate to a favourite past time last night, travelling up the Awhitu Peninsula to get some sunset shots. Here's my fave and a cute little church we saw on the way. My lord New Zealand is a beautiful place.

I'm loving my iPhone. I don't know how I did without a smartphone for so long. There are so many things I was missing out on that really, for me being the tech nerd that I am, I should have! Especially loving the panoramic function in the camera yesterday. Beautiful shots this phone takes. In love!

And on the note of buying stupidly expensive toys... I also love my new camera. It was time for a new one (as the rubber grip has plain fallen off the other one... and I lost it). It also goes beautifully with my new cambag (see Friday photo dump for pic of bag).

I luuuuurve my new hello kitty hispter glasses with no lenses. I feel like a badass when I wear them around the house. Everyone's had a go!

I'm loving our local library... and so is my little friend by the looks of things....

And here's a dump of some of my favourite pics from throughout the week, some made it to instagram, some did not.

I feel strongly about...nothing.

I think I do come across as quite an opinionated person, but the reality is, there are few things that I would go and stand at a picket line for. And actually, there's probably nothing that I feel THAT passionate about.

Moan? Heck yes I will. And I'll definitely pipe up in a discussion in the staff room at lunch time, but generally speaking I'm a pretty laid back dude and it surely does take a lot to get me riled up.

Hello 2014! I'm a failure!

Last year I challenged myself to 52 goals to complete. I didn't complete them all. Here are my failures and my excuses (LOL!). Luckily for me I'm a firm believer in 'if you're not making mistakes you aren't learning'.

1 Choose one thing from Pinterest a week and do it.
 Now I definitely did some of this....but somewhere during 2013 pinterest didn't become as all encompassing and appealing to me as it originally did. I got on the pinterest bandwagon very early in the piece (around early 2011) and although I think it's very useful and full of great ideas, I just don't use it the way I used to...or have found other things to replace the obsession at the moment. Now don't get me wrong - I definitely did use it for baking and making ideas and love searching it for help with things, but I must confess that #1 on my list, was a fail.

2 Make an emergency binder - see 52 to 52 pinterest board.
Thought about it... and then decided F**k that! hehe

4 Make Leah a pillowcase dress 
I have bought everything I need for this and am looking forward to making it over the next couple of weeks. This was just one where there was no way I was getting it done in a very busy Term 4 when the weather was getting hot enough to wear it.

9 Use my giant pile of recipe mags somehow.
I'm actually really pissed off to have to call this one a failure, because I'm so close. I've used about 85% of my magazines and am just working through the last few now and it's done! It's been a really rewarding experience as my and the people around me and their stomachs will testify to!


12 Build up a basic wardrobe - see pinterest 'my style' board for list.
I just keep putting this off. I shouldn't, but I do. I use the excuse that I want to lose more weight before I get clothes otherwise it's a waste of money. It's a valid excuse but my wardrobe is looking very lackluster currently. Ho hum!

16 Learn more about photography using my photography tutorial pins.
Why oh why won't I do this? No time, that's why! Need to make time for this, but I am doing OK without it. OK being the operative. 

17 Watch star wars films
How easy was this one and I couldn't do it? Slap on the wrists time. Planning to over the summer.

20 Restore nana's china cabinet
I did look into this right back at the beginning of 2013. The wood at the top is fairly cheap and has an overlay on it so it wasn't as easy as sanding and varnishing, hence, no dice.

21 Learn how to use photoshop.
I am sad to say that I made no attempt to do this. I did although purchase a year's subscription to picmonkey.com aaaaaaand managed to be awarded 'Top digital image of the year' at my photo club with a photo that I enhanced on there. Not too bad for a beginner and a fairly basic editing suite! This is the photo.

25 Read/do something with all of my books. Any ones that haven't been read/used by the end of the year will be sold.
In the process of culling these books during the holidays.

26. Get a stamp book and present all my stamps nicely.

Another one I'm pissed off I couldn't cross off. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with this.

36. Create and order a necklace from Origami owl

I got one all ready to pay for and send and then thought to myself that 'this is way too overpriced for what it is... I'd rather spend my money on geek stuff on etsy'... so I did.

38. Save all my spending money for 2 pay weeks and then blow it all in one go.

I couldn't do this. How sad is that? I'd really like to be able to. I did although manage to save up over $2000 for my mixer and my phone this year so I can't really be too grumpy at myself. I'd still like to try and do this one in the future.

47. Do another drawing challenge. 

Almost done! Hoping to finish over the holidays.

So that's what? Like a 75% pass rate. I'll take it. Especially because there are a few that will still get done and I had so many great successes with the list....Like...

• I have made a real conscious effort to try new recipes this year and because of this I've found some yummy new family favourites.
• I went to the Matakana markets and made my way over to Waiheke which are both things I've been wanting to do for a long time.
• My vision board is truly rockin'.  
• I got my full driver's license. Something that was a very long time in the making.



Yes, my hello kitty glasses are greater than everything you own combined!

• I saved up for my kitchenaide AND my iPhone. Now that's financial goals making a difference right there. I love both my big purchases so much and I'm so proud of myself for making the effort to do it on my own.

 

 And there's also a bunch of other little things that I'm truly happy I've done, or have begun to do.

But alas, as much as I love my lists they will be used in a much more down scaled attempt this year (perhaps with a resurgence at the beginning of next year with a 30 things before 30 theme) with only really using the 'Weekly 10' and concentrating more on myself.

Happy new year everyone. I hope that your year is full of failures and that you learn and grow from each and everyone. They're a necessary part of life, don't dwell on them, grow from them.

xox