SEVEN

Seven
I have been tagged by Katy of BeeKaty
The Rules:
1. List these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tell 7 unspectacular quirks about you.
4. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
5.Link the person who tagged you.
6.Leave a comment for each blogger.
It could be nice if you post a personal photo with this post.



So here goes!



7 Facts about me:

1. I love tennis

2. Travel is my passion and without a valid passport always on hand I think I might self destruct

3. I am about to turn 35. When I ask you did I become middle aged?!!

4. I have two boys- one aged almost 5 and one 11 weeks.

5. I have lived in the following cities: Brisbane (years..), Augusta Georgia USA (4.5yrs) Wolfeboro, New Hampshire USA (2 months every year for 5 years), Melbourne (1 year) and Hobart (9 months).

6. My many careers over the years have included teaching, corporate trainer, restaurant manager, Cinema Projectionist, International travel consultant, recruitment consultant and tennis coach.

7. I have one sister- Britt, who incidentally has the same name as my one of my closest friends.



7 Unspectacular Facts about Me:



1. I am scared of clowns

2. I can't sit with my back to a door (I think I was Mafia in a past life...)

3. I am in the middle of a post pregnancy diet and have lost 1.75kgs so far with another 4 to go!

4. I despise Bindi Irwin and any child or adult performer who 'over acts'

5. I have never watched a Star Wars movie

6. I haven't eaten popcorn since I worked at Hoyts Cinemas back in 1999

7. I love Country music



7 People I have tagged:



1. Megan from Skinny Megs : http://skinnymegs.blogspot.com/

2. Liss from Frills in the Hills: http://frillsinthehills.blogspot.com/

3. Chantelle from Fat. Mum. Slim. http://fatmumslim.blogspot.com/

4. Skye from Skylark and Son http://skylarkandson.blogspot.com/

5. Bec from Beck Bakes Cakes http://becbakescakes.blogspot.com/

6. Greer from Mefe Art http://mefeart.blogspot.com/

7. Katy from BeeKaty http://beekaty.blogspot.com/



A Recent Photo of Me:






This was taken last Saturday before the Races and I am using it as my diet 'before' pic!

Shhhh... it's a shopping secret!!

No... not hiding the receipts and the credit card bill. Not even stashing your sale booty in the car and bringing it in piece by piece.. I am talking about finding out about those super sample sales and other 'secret' sales events!

My friend Lesley put me onto a real winner the other day: Mums Grapevine. Mum's Grapevine (http://www.mumsgrapevine.com.au/) will send you a weekly newsletter dedicated to giving mums in the know the inside scoop on where the best sales are for baby clothing, kids clothing and even maternity clothes.

If kids clothes aren't your thing but designer rags are for you, then log onto Missy Confidential. http://www.missyconfidential.com.au/ Missy is particularly good if you are interested in sample sales and other warehouse/outlet sales that are not advertised to the general public. Missy also lists all the current online sales in all shopping categories: Women's, men's, Kids and housewares.


Destination Style (http://www.destinationstyle.com.au/) aims to bring designer clothes to all women at high street fashion prices.

http://www.strawberrynet.com/ is the one stop online shop for all discounted cosmetics. Once you have shopped at strawberrynet once, you will boycott the department stores charging full retail price for your skincare, make up, cosmetics and perfumes !

Frockshop is another favourite for online bargain hunters. http://www.frockshop.com.au/ Frockshop stock discounted stock from designers such as Josh Goot, Juli Grbac, Nicola Finetti, Zimmerman and True Religion. Whilst not exactly 'bargain prices' for most folk, they do have a great range of local and overseas designers in the one place.

I will add my disclaimer now: I will not be held responsible for increased credit card bills, increased online shopping nor the complaints from the little dude driving the white van delivering packages to your home every day.

Happy Shopping!

Beer, Bucking Broncos & Bikes

Last weekend we went out to Oakey. For the uninitiated Oakey is about 2 and a bit hours West of Brisbane yet a whole world away! Oakey has 3 pubs, one post office, an IGA supermarket and a Chinese restaurant called Henry's Chinese (quite possibly not his birth name!) Speaking of name origins, Oakey was named, rather unimaginatively, after the river oaks on the nearby creek.


The reason for our journey you may ask? The Oakey Two Day Criterium Bike Race. This was to be Alex's debut bike race- a little bit of a departure for a triathlete but one he was keen to trial.



Basically, a Criterium is a 40 lap bike race where all the action happens in the last 2 laps. From what I can gather from a spectators point of view, the first 40 laps are merely for optimum positioning for those final 2 laps. Just to keep things interesting for the spectators and cyclists alike, there are also several "Primes" which are random one lap races with prize money throughout the initial 40 laps. Alex thought he'd give one of these a go (well why not!) and came 2nd which is not a bad effort for a cycling newbie! (Alas no prize money for 2nd place!) With the overall race, Alex finished in the middle of the pack- very respectable!



Now Oakey also had another attraction last weekend- The Oakey Rodeo. Having never been to one we thought we would have a look. Wearing our distinct city clothes (me in dress and pretty gold sandals, Alex in longish shorts and leather slides on his feet) we couldn't have broadcast that we "weren't from around here" if we took out a flashing billboard sign above our heads! Everyone was wearing the obligatory cowboy hat, blue jeans, RM Williams boots and driving their Ute. The beer flowed (in the fenced off licensed area) and stalls sold the must have items such as Confederate Flags, Rum Pig license plates and beer coolers with various alcohol brands on the side.



The whole experience was surreal- bulls, beer, cowboys hats and country folk a plenty. The winner of the day was this guy and his Ute. I think I made his day when I asked if I could take a photo of it!

The Beer Pen:

And last but not least, the actual Rodeo:

All in all, the weekend was a blast!

Some of my Favourite Online Shopping Sites

Here are a few of my favourite online stores.

Knitwish is an etsy shop owned by my very good friend Rachel. Together with her Mam in the UK, Rachel creates knitted kitsch dolls and baby items. I personally love the knitted Mary Jane shoes and the baby legs. Below is another favourite: the English Bobby

The website is: http://www.knitwish.etsy.com/

Another favourite is Mefe Art by Greer Ferguson. I recently bought a beautiful Blue Bunch Up Bracelet (pictured below) from Greer and I am constantly getting comments on it. The website for Mefe Art is: http://www.mefeart.etsy.com/

Tikiboo Kids ( website: http://www.allyouneed.com.au/ ) is the brain child of Kathryn and is made right here in Brisbane. The Tikiboo range is cute and functional and very reasonably priced. What I love about Tikiboo is that your child will certainly not be dressed the same as every other kid in the playground. Tikiboo Kids has some gorgeous and unique boys clothes in bright colours. Such a welcome change from the navy, khaki and black usually found in regular stores once your child moves out of a size 4! Below are two of my favourite Tikiboo items (note the very cute model!)

If you are in the Brisbane area, then check out Mathilda's Market for new and exciting children's clothes by local deisgners: http://www.mathildasmarket.com.au/ I also beleive they are in other capital cities in Australia.

Please feel free to add any of your favourite online stores.

Today's Online Purchases

I simply can't help but spend money on kids clothes. The fact that I have a closet (well two actually) full of clothes doesn't seem to stop me in the slightest.

Here are today's purchases for Will and Hugh. The little Guitar shirt is from Gymboree in the US for Hugh, the Giraffe organic cotton Top and Pants for Will are from Gymboree as well.

For Will I bought these gorgeous Calvin Klein onesies and matching Country Road shorts from my mothers group Buy, Sell, Swap forum. All are new with tag but I got them for an absolute song!

Thank goodness I don't have a girl or I fear we would be broke with all my impulse online shopping!!

Snnoooooozzzzzeeeeee

Is there any wonder that sleep deprivation is used as form of torture for POW's? I am quickly recalling just how hard those first few weeks of having a newborn baby can be like. The constant crying, the constant jobs that need to be done and the complete inability to simply lie down and take a nap when things get too much.

Apparently staying awake for a 24 hour period with limited sleep has the same affect on the body as having a blood alcohol level of 0.10. That is two times the legal limit! Other fabulous things that lack of sleep can cause:

Reduced alertness
Shortened attention span
Slower than normal reaction time
Poorer judgement
Reduced awareness of the environment and situation
Reduced decision-making skills

and the list goes on.... Do you reckon I can blame reduced decision making skills on my choice to eat that block of chocolate I just inhaled??

The 50 Book Challenge

This year I am part of a reading challenge. If you are a detective or simply used your powers of deduction, you will have guessed that it is a 50 Book Challenge by reading the title of this post.

I usually have no problems flying through books but have never really successfully logged what I have read within a year (or any other time frame for that matter).

The idea with the challenge is to push yourself to read more, not necessarily only read the literary classics. I other words, I take this to mean chick lit is totally fine and counts!

So here is my list of read books so far:

January:

1.Bleachers- John Grisham
2.Breathe- Tim Winton
3.Queen of Babble- Meg Cabot
4.All Because of You- Melanie ?

5.The Other Woman- Jane Green

6.To Love, Honor and Betray- Kathy Lette

7. Mommies Who Drink- Brett Paesel

8. Eucalyptus- Murray Bail

9. Secrets of Married Women- Carol Mason

February:

10. The 19th Wife- David Ebershoff reading now

11. Raising Boys- Steve Biddulph reading now... very reluctantly

On order from the library:

Beautiful people Holden, Wendy.

Rumour has it Mansell, Jill.

How to break your own heart Alderson, Maggie.

Tempted : an It girl novel Von Ziegesar, Cecily.

Wild swan De Blasis, Celeste.

Send me a lover Mason, Carol.

The slap Tsiolkas, Christos

When the Hipchicks went to war Rushby, Pamela

I dream of Magda Laszczuk, Stefan

I also belong to a book club with some girlfriends. We usually try and meet every second month or so and take turns to host and choose the book for the group. Last meet we read Eucalyptus by Murray Bail and I loved it. It was definitely not a book I would have chosen had it not been the book for the group.

I am hosting the next discussion, and have selected We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver for the girls.