Now thats a flying broomstick!

Love the symbolism of the broom... don't use one myself, well I've tried but i just cant get it air born!

Anyways I bought my mum this old school witches broom to put by the door, supposed to stop evil entering the house. It's been there a few years but recently some flying friends decided to make it home...

I love it and guess it's the closest I'm gonna come to a flying broomstick!

Turns out Carrie Bradshaw's mum was a librarian!!!

Finished The Carrie Diaries last night in a bit of a marathon reading run... that's the thing about cheesy chick lit, it certainly sucks you in!!!! Look I know its a totally obvious money spinner, and... oh such convenient timing what with the movie and all... Well it was an OK bit of fluff, but there are a lot of anomalies from the TV show, such as in the show, Carrie didn't really know her father but in this book her dad is raising her and two sisters after the death of her mother. But then this is Miss Bushnell's character, not the TV/Movie writers and SJP's interpretation of her. So I guess I should just stop thinking so much and enjoy it for the bit of fluff it is!!!

Prom hiking the third....

Want to really get away from it all?

May I suggest hiking down to the Lighthouse at Wilson's Promontory for a couple of nights? No Phones, No Telly, Not much noise at all really!

The boy and I went on our (seemingly) annual Wilson's Prom holiday last week (seemingly annual as we have gone down three years in a row now!) This time we hiked down to the lighthouse which you can go straight down to with a relatively easy 20 km walk, but we took the hard way via the east coast staying a Refuge cove the first night and conquering several killer hills on day two! But I have to say it was definatly worth it for the two nights staying at the gorgeous cottages at the Lighthouse. We didn't really know what to expect, thinking it might just be basic cabins with a cold toilet block... no way! We are talking bathroom to ourselves with super hot showers, full kitchen facilities, tell you what, we would have packed very differently! so I guess we'll just have to go down again!

My friend Bonnie does good radio...

The whole idea of body image is hard to ignore, even for the most sensible hippest chicks around. My friend Bonnie is a 'plus-size' model, 'plus-size'! For godsake, she's size 14, that's smaller than the average! Hear her on ABC 774 discussing body image the other day. (she doesn't get nearly enough of a say in though!)

The whole body image thing is a friggin' minefield! I also hate the term 'real-women', I have another friend who finds it incredibly difficult to put on weight, is she not 'real'?

I also have a theory, (this is completely based on my being a complete tightarse of course!) There are no size 8 women in the world!!! Go to any sale or clearance type place and thats all you'll find is size 8's, with less and less sizes as they go up. And oh, while I'm on the rant, hows about all the clothes that I like that don't come above a size 14... just because i've had a baby and am carrying a few extra's doesn't mean I don't still want to be all hip, cool and funky!

By the way I'm still trying to lose 16kg's of baby weight! But one thing I have found that helps me to feel a little better about that is finding myself some clothes that actually do fit me instead of trying to squeeze into the oldies!

So anyways, here's my philosophy; eat a wide variety of foods, don't deny yourself what you really want (because you'll just keep thinking about it until you binge on it!), drink lots of water and get out into the fresh air! Oh and don't read friggin fashion magazines!

(not) Sorry...

No I'm not going to apologise...

I have no reason to...

Even though my plan was to keep this a fairly regular blog, like at least a couple of times a week...

But that's the whole thing about blogs, there are no rules...

Look, I've been sick OK...

Not that I need or want to make excuses...

The flu can take a lot out of you...

And I have two kiddies and work and and and...

I'll be back soon...

In the meantime here is a picture of a cute little kitty to keep you occupied...

Latest Project...

I've finally gotten over my fear of double pointed needles (DPN) to knit my first pair of socks. Not sure what I was so worried about, it didn't take long to the hang of, well apart from having to unstitch a few rows and realising on the second sock that I'd missed two rows on the cuff, but made up for it with two too many rows on the heel!

I'm now onto my second pair of Socks 101 (from Knitalong: celebrating the tradition of knitting together.) I guess you know what to expect for Christmas this year!

Sublime Library Stitching!

Check out these great, um, thingi's from Sublime Stitching.

M.I.A. and my friend A...

I feel like Ive been a bit out of commission for about the last month, I'm not really sure what's been going on though I guess Family medical drama's, Faux religious holidays, 2 kids, a home, the boy and Working where I can will catch up with you eventually.

Plus still feeling like a hormonal time bomb...

Will be having the dreaded Implanon out sometime next week as long as all tests are fine to put the IUD in... bloody thorough doctors!!! Of course I am expecting to immediately;

• lose 10 kg's
• stop yelling at everyone all the time
• have a restful nights sleep every night
• be full of energy and creativity
• feel like a shag

Well one has to have high ambitions!

I received a lovely email from my friend A in Boston the other day. She has this lovely way of putting things, she said (about having kids) "It seems so intense...in a good way, but it also seems like a big identity and lifestyle shift" I couldn't have put it better, but surely 6 months on (or 3 1/4 years on!) I should have gotten over it!

I met A under interesting circumstances... The first time I was working at Camp Becket I stayed on for family camp for a little extra cash (think the place they stay at in Dirty Dancing, but rougher and without the dancing part!) Anyways A was there with these two kids of family friends, story goes that they were booked to go to the camp but some overseas trip came up for the parents but they didn't want the kids to miss out so they paid A sort of like a Nanny to take them to the camp. She didn't really fit in with any of the campers who were all family's (surprise, it being family camp!) so she hung out with the staff and we got to know each other, found we had very similar interests and tastes in books and music (the important stuff in life!) Caught up again when I visited Boston a few weeks later. Kept in sort of vague contact, then when I visited Boston a few weeks later I ended up sleeping on her floor, and had such a lovely time with her I went back again a few months later!

She's hot too... reminds me of Alyssa Millano at her spunkiest!

She's really into female singers (I introduced her to Missy Higgins while I was there) and so I put a CD together of cool Aussie chicks as a (very late) Christmas present.

A's CD of cool Aussie chicks;

• Pictures - Sneaky Sound System
• My delirium - Ladyhawke
• One word - Baby Animals
• Ordinary Angels - Frente
• Always worth it - Sarah Blasko
• Divorce by 23 - Claire Bowditch
• Last day on earth - Kate Miller-Heidke
• Weir - Killing Heidi
• Island Home - Christine Anu
• Even when I'm Sleeping - Leonardo's Bride
• Buses and Trains - Bachelor Girl
• Breath in Now - George
• Standing Strong - Wendy Matthews
• Dirty Jeans - Magic Dirt
• Way of all things - Rebecca's Empire
• Coma - Max Sharam
• Cant touch it - Rikki Lee
• Voodoo Child - Rouge Traders
• Hook me up - The Veronica's
• There she goes - Sweet Painted Ladies

A bit too much embarrassing pop trash and really shows that the mid-late 90's really where my music glory days!!! I am currently working on another so any suggestions you can offer? I'm quite out of it these days when it comes to new music!

I am not looking forward to having two teenage girls...

For I remember what it was like to be a teenage girl!

I had an intriguing facebook friend request the other day from a girl who I treated very badly in high school. My so-called-best-friend-though-she-too-dropped-me-not-long-after-this-incident (I promise I'm not a bad person, just seem to pick bad best-friends!) and myself decided we didn't want this girl to hang around with us. It's a hurtful and painful experience, believe me I know as only the year before I was told by a group of girls "we don't want you hanging around with us anymore" and being totally psychologically scarred, distraught, lonely etc. etc. but then I go and do it to someone else!

All I have to say is...

TEENAGE GIRLS ARE HORRIBLE CREATURES!

With seemingly very short memories!!

So I accepted this girls friend request but I still feel awful about an incident that happened about 18 years ago!! Maybe I have grown a conscience with my (so-called) maturity. Or maybe I just need to move on and remember I am defiantly not 17 anymore!!

P.S. I suspect this is all going to come back to me again in about 13 or 14 years... I am defiantly not looking forward to having teenage girls!!

White Whales and Black Rabbits...

I think Ive talked about the boys hunting adventures here before, he's a 'traditional bowhunter' which means he uses the old 'Robin hood' style bow to catch goats, deer, rabbits, foxes and the like. Which you can imagine makes the hunting pretty difficult, you have to get really close to your prey and be a very accurate shot with old style equipment. Anyways, he was pretty happy the other day after catching a black rabbit he has seen many times up behind my parents house, it must be, or the decedent of, someones pet rabbit they let go at some stage and he has been after it for months!

Well done my boy... it tasted pretty good too!

Now thats a library I'd like to visit!!

Keith Richards wants to be a Librarian!!!

My hormones and me have never really gotten along...

I suspect my latest attempt at controlling my fertility is playing havoc with me, about 4 months ago I had the Implanon implant put into my arm, and now I just feel like crap ALL the time, I either have bad insomnia or I am getting 10 hours sleep and still cant drag myself out of bed in the morning (not great when you have two kids!). I have been having bad hot flashes... I'm only 34 so definitely not ready for Menopause... Grumpy and crabby, dizzy spells and NO sex drive whatsoever! All of these things are listed on various discussion forums and other sites as common side effects... so if its on the Internet it must be true! (just like if it's in the Herald/Sun or on A current Affair it must be true too!) but of course not listed in the 'official' literature which plays down any side effects at all.

I gave the Implanon a go on the advise of my obstetrician who doesn't like IUD's (the only contraceptive I have ever actually been happy with!) and reckons it's great for people who cant take the pill (that would be me! try having All the PMT symptoms ALL month long!) Ive also tried the Depro Povera injections but that made me totally blow up, played havoc with my skin and meant I didn't have a period for two years which sounds great but doesn't feel very natural to me at all!

I'm gonna go see my GP next week and see about getting the Non-hormonal IUD back in, I just cant keep going the way I am at the moment... my blog is suffering!!!!

Whippin' it

Finally got to watch Whip it, totally cool and inspiring... made me get the skates out of the cupboard and do a couple of laps of the kitchen before getting back to the drudgery of the housework!

Stick it up your arse!

Had a very different experience yesterday where I got to wake up and see the inside of my own bowels, not your everyday occurrence. Yours truly had a gastroscopy and colonoscopy to check out the state of the insides, fine by the way which should be considered good news that there ain't nothing wrong, but a little part of me was hoping something entirely fixable would be found that might explain why I feel like shit all the time... hey, feel like shit, thats kind of appropriate after all the preparations that go into it!

Anyways, they only give you a mild anesthetic and I woke up halfway through part two. I made some comment about this looking very different to my bedroom, then joined in the conversation about their kids going to schoolies (at least that was the conversation I took part in, they may have been talking about something completely different!) so that was my day, that and many trashy waiting room magazines and Days of our lives on the telly, man i never realised how much yelling goes on in that show, so wonder I couldn't concentrate on my book!

Mama Mia...

I love it when the readings catalogue arrives in my mail box at the start of every month, it always adds at least 10 books to my “books to check out” book. And that's where I read about Mama Mia by Mia Freedman.



I think I was attracted to the memoir from her history as a magazine editor. Magazines being a field I wanted to work in as a teenager, but growing up in country Victoria was a long way from the ACP offices in Sydney and I never quite made it there! But I found this memoir surprisingly engaging on so many other levels. There were many shared experiences I related to (the emotionally abusive Ex, losing a baby mid term etc.) But its also at times really really funny funny, especially the chapter where she describes the birth of her daughter Coco. She is also very down to earth and gives some very realistic insights into the joys and struggles of motherhood, I especially enjoyed the Smug and Crap lists in the last chapter, given that I had just added to the Smug list earlier that day (see last post) I just couldn't think of a name for it! (by the way, the home made Play Doh was crap and I'm NEVER making it again!)

well I made my own Play Doh...

I bloody hate those superior type Mummies with their "he/she's very advanced" or their "I never give him/her anything that's not organic" or "you have to stick to this routine" or "if you don't do this this and this while this music is playing your child will be a moron!" blah blah blah... making me feel guilty for daring to live in the real world!

Well I've done one of those superior mummy things now... now I get to say "well we made our own Play Doh..." and I can make the next mummy feel guilty!

2 cups bi-carb soda
1 cup cornflour
1 cup water
1 tbsp veg oil
A bit of food colouring

Put it all in a saucepan and stir over low heat for about 15 mins or until it looks right.
put mix on a plate with a wet towel over the top (I forgot about the wet towel bit!) and cool for about an hour.
Sprinkle with cornflour and kneed till it feels right.

By the way it was a bit of a pain in the arse to make and I think the bought stuff is still better!!!

Insomnia...

Although insomnia is nothing new or unusual for me, I am on my forth night in a row of it and I am seriously NOT HAPPY! Last night I got a grand total of 3 hours, I am grumpy and irritable and really not very nice to be around. And I wish I could blame the kiddies, but it’s not even them, just my stupid body!!! Ive tried all number of over the counter and prescription methods and tonight I’ve gone down the hippie herbal route with a double dose of Valerian but still no joy! Even the spare bed ain’t working for me this time... bloody mother... jkn;kljjjjj;;l/mm lhoujnnlk... ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Altona North...

The fabulous Altona North Community Library opened yesterday! Come check it out, not just for the great collection and gorgeous staff but also for the Innovative building design. The building is designed to work with the environment, the windows are arranged to catch the morning and evening sun while avoiding the strong midday rays. The courtyard doubles as an internal light well, the thermal mass wall acts as an insulator and the round ‘Swiss cheese’ window design matches up to the google earth image of the nearby petrol refineries... seriously!

I finally got yo watch the Hollywood Librarian (now available at HBL if anyones interested!) It was OK, the first half was entertaining and the second got a bit political and all a bit serious for me (there are libraries outside of the states don't you know!)

I enjoyed the representations of libraries and librarians on film but was disappointed no to see my favourite scene from Ghostbusters! I want to try and track down a copy of the movie The Desk Set with Katherine Hepburn (whose sister is a librarian by the way!) which explores (in 1957!) the impact computers are going to have on the workplace including the reference library.

babies and evil books...

Have I told you I have the perfect baby? She sleeps all night, only cries when she's hungry and is totally cute! Now I'm not saying this to gloat... believe me if I knew what i was doing right I would share it with you, write a book and make a million dollars! But boy, those books can be evil, full of contradictory information and advice and making their money out of making women question their own abilities and intuition. I read one recently that was so rigid in it's routines it would have stressed me out so much if tried to follow it I would be an absolute mess! You must do this and that at this time and not a minute before or later, I'm sorry but that's just not real life! Sure I know that routines can have their place and maybe I'm lucky that both my babies have fallen into their own routines (were allowed to fall into their own routines maybe?). Early on I read and article that said that it was a good idea to not have too strict a routine so your kid doesn't freak out if your out somewhere and am running late or whatever. It also advised that you sometimes give their bottles at different temperatures so that if you couldn't heat it when you were out and about they wouldn't freak out too. I have followed that one!

My advice... find what suits you and then don't read anymore of those books! and follow your instincts and intuition!