Birthdays and Bloggers Brunch

Another Friday, another busy week over (gawd that went fast!), another glass of wine. And another FYBF with Grace!

I've got so many things I need to blog about and yes, I made a list in my notebook.  I'm in the middle of two reviews which I need to talk about and so many lovely things I've come across lately that I'd like to show you.

On the family front, my little Nugget entered the double digits last week and we had a little party at the local bowling/lasertag venue along with 6 of his friends and his big sister (she was surprisingly tolerant).  Seeing I had spent the day at the Kids Business Blogging Brunch and was more in the mood for putting my feet up and sipping a nice white, the event was manageable, besides the fact that a torrential downpour an hour before had flooded the lasertag room where they were supposed to be having two games.  Luckily the few staff there didn't want to disappoint a 10 year old boy so after one game of ten pin, they said they were ready for them to kill each other with laser guns.  Lovely.

While we watched them collect those hundreds of tickets in the games room (I think you can get a rubber ball for 475 tickets), the phone calls from the parents started coming in.  They would not be able to collect them (we had picked everyone up from school) because of the tropical storm which had flooded Parramatta Rd and caused untold pile ups.  So we took them all home.

We finally got home at 7.30pm and I could finally look at all the lovely stuff I got from the Bloggers Brunch.

As this was my first Bloggers Brunch and an opportunity to meet some of the brands that were willing to work with Bloggers, I tried my best to sell myself.  Not sure how I went (no phone ringing, no emails binging yet .... anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), but I quite enjoyed sampling all the products and getting to know the people.

My first stop was at Rust-Oleum where I found out my peeling white kitchen cabinets and drawers could be spruced up without the huge cost and hassle of visiting Ikea (though I do love that place).

I passed by the Spotlight stand even though I'm a VIP member and I can spend ages wandering around that store wishing I was crafty, but the onslaught of the Christmassy red and green frightened me off.

Next was Dyson which I hung around for awhile listening about how wonderful the new cordless vacuum cleaner which could almost inspire me to clean the house!  They also gave us a cute little one for the kids to use which my little niece is going to love for Christmas.

Another very popular stand was for Kambrook (could have been the food on offer) who are an old favourite of mine so I was very glad to take home to my little baker the Cake Pop Maker.  Kambrook gave me some great ideas for more pressies (check out the Little Chefs range).  The ladies there were lovely and very interested in what I was all about too (they even took notes!).

I spent the most time at Brown Sugar because as I was sitting and listening to some inspiring chicks (Toni Powell, 30 Day Gratitude; Rosemary Lee of Stars with Hearts; and Ellen Briggs who was hilarious and talking about her town which I know well, Mullimbimby), I was eyeing off a beautiful maxi (on their home page) that my mate Rachel from The Kids Are All Right ended up buying because it looked so much better on her (along with half a dozen other pieces which also were perfect for her). It's like she was made to wear absolutely anything!).  Kimbalikes picked up some great stuff too which suited her style perfectly.  I did end up buying this which I have already christened at the P&F Social Night this week and felt very spiffy.   I even recruited a new fan for them at work. She has already bought 3 tops from them (you're an online shopping queen, Yaz!). I'll be sure to be buying more pretty stuff from Brown Sugar (and I just love that their name is one of my favourite Stones tracks). Maybe I should have sold myself a bit more there, could have supplied me in a few more pieces?

I even got my eyebrows shaped with the Nad's ladies!  Anyone that knows me would have a laugh at this as they know I'm not big on the girly, beauty procedures.

Which might change in the future.  Because as I get older I realise I need to work harder to even resemble a woman (what's with the jowls and chin-hair appearances?? WTF???).  Of course I do the necessary hedge trimming but I've never waxed in my life (well except for the eyebrows last Friday).  I only got my ears pierced when I turned 40 because I don't like the idea of pain for beauty, but seeing the eyebrow waxing did not hurt one bit I might be tempted to take the wax a bit 'lower'.  I better stop talking now, eh?

Surprisingly, I'm also investigating a product which could be an alternative for me to having anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers, which I most probably will never do.  But first I wanted to ask your opinion on them.  The brand also has a new website which has a great before and after page where you can draw the bar across the faces to see the difference (I had lots of fun with this).  Please have a look at it here and let me know what your impressions are, what do you think needs improvement on the site and what you think of these type of procedures yourself.

Busy little bees

Almost 12 years ago Mr Moneymaker and I were sitting in a beer garden on our last day of our wedding/honeymoon in Fiji watching our then 2 year old daughter run about happy and carefree and promises ourselves that we would slow down our busy lives and stop to smell the gardenias (I prefer their scent to roses any old day).  We were both working busy jobs at the time, trying to pay off a mortgage and trying to not have the little Chicken spend too much time in childcare.

I don't know what happened but the moment we landed back in Sydney, we somehow forgot our promise.

Now, after a few moves, job changes, an additional little Nugget joining us, we are even busier.

We have become so flat out, we have to coordinate our diaries regularly, write up the week's activities on our kitchen blackboard and send each other email appointments so we can make sure that we know who is picking up which child.  I don't even realise when a couple of weeks have passed and I haven't written a thing on this blog!

Today will be no different as even though I'm not working, I am working on my other job at the Kids' Business Bloggers Brunch and this has unfortunately fallen on the same day as our Nugget's 10th birthday party where we are picking up 8 boys after school and taking them to laser tag.  This means Mr Moneymaker is leaving work early, picking up Chicken from school early, picking me up after the Bloggers Brunch.  We then have to pick up the birthday cake, come back home so I can pick up my car and then off to the Nugget's school immediately.  God I hope it all goes to plan!

This is just an example of our usually chaotic life. At least the weekends have calmed down since netball and soccer season has paused.  But there's still the parties (mostly kids') and visiting family and friends.

I'm lucky I work in a job (albeit five days a week) where I can have the school holiday break.  Even though that's usually full of sports camps and visitors staying.

We do count ourselves lucky we are able to have this life and I often admire families who cope with real problems on top of the norm.  In fact I didn't set out to whinge about it in this post and just wanted to say I would love us to slow down a bit before it all rushes past us.