kreativ blogger award.

Thank you to Ash of mmisforme for my Kreativ Blogger Award, my first award in the blog world.

As part of the award, I'm to reveal 7 things about myself that people don't know ....

1. I was born in England, lived in South Africa as a child and emigrated to Australia with my parents when I was six.

2. My favourite colour is purple (is this an obvious one?)

3. I'm a Leo but seldom roar.

4. My favourite item of clothing is my True Religion jeans.

5.  I'm addicted to chocolate.

6. I love Ben Stiller and Will Ferrel movies - all of them!

7.  I can ride a horse.

I would like to nominate the following blog for a Kreativ Blogger Award....

Nicole at So they say ... for the inspiration to start my own blog.

an unexpected gift

Archangel Chamuel - spiritual love

Today I received a beautiful and unexpected gift from a girl I've never met in person. We've become friends through our mutual love of blogging and have shared our frustrations, confusions, thoughts and more recently, joy!

This thoughtful gift, Archangel Chamuel, is small in size but powerful in its ability to shift my mindset to one of positivity and faith.

If you've never heard of Archangel Chamuel, he is one who manifests love, compassion, mercy, creativity and forgiveness. This lovely token is also represented by the stone Unakite, offering balance, perspective, self-worth, vision and fertility.

They say it's the kindness of strangers that restores our faith in people and has the power to knock us for six - now I understand why.

Thank-you Ash. x

oh, blogther!

I've tried and failed. This grateful thing was great until I realised I wasn't always grateful about things that were interesting reading fodder.

Case in point.
Today I was grateful that my favourite woolen cardigan wasn't in the dirty laundry because it was cold, wet and windy.

Let's be honest, no-one wants to read about my favourite woolen cardigan, no matter how much I love it.

I've also got a couple of other excuses for my lack of grateful blogs:

1. My husband's been on holiday for the past week. Translation: I do nothing when he's around.
2. My daughter's been sick. Translation: she's had a temperature for a day and a half.

So, that's it for tonight.

handmade gifts.

I met a friend for coffee this morning and she gave me the most thoughtful birthday gift - handmade fridge magnets with the word grateful written across them.

They're made out of beer bottle tops filled with some glue, glitter and small alphabet dice. The magnet is then glued to the back of the tops and stuck onto a piece of cardboard with a ribbon tied around it.

The idea is so clever and cute that I'm inspired to make some myself, time permitting.

That's the thing these days, we're so run off our feet trying to meet deadlines, be a good mum, keep the house tidy, catch up with our friends ... that often the most simple and rewarding activities go by the wayside.

This friend, who I'll refer to as Bec :), is the creative type so she finds inspiration everywhere. This was particularly lovely of her because she knows I'm blogging about being grateful and with these pretty reminders stuck on the fridge I've got no excuse to forget!

Thanks Bec!

Has anyone ever had a friend make a thoughtful gift? I'd love to hear your stories!

feeling a bit ungrateful today!

I'm struggling today (and yesterday, as can be seen by the absent blog) because it's been one thing after another...rude people, traffic jams, lost children...anyway, I'm hoping to post every other day now. Is this failing? I hope not!

I hope not because I do enjoy blogging about being grateful..some days are just harder than others!

Today I'm grateful for:

Good friends
New Farm Park (except for the miserable man serving coffee who couldn't spare a plastic spoon to feed my daughter...even after I bought a coffee!)
Great books....I've started reading Jodi Picoult's House Rules. She's an inspiring author!

I hope this makes up for my efforts (or lack thereof) over the past couple of days!

'Smile and the world smiles with you,' so they say! :)