Flashback Friday - Something Different

Right now I feel cooler than cool and not just because I am snuggled up still in bed in air conditioned bliss. Well ok that is some of it. The rest of my coolness is attributed to all the lovely things I have been doing on my iPhone while chilling in the air con. I still can't believe that there was a point in time where I thought little of the electronic fruit that has pretty much shaped technology as we know it.

For while I am in my iPhone DD3 is playing on the iPad and when I finally manage to drag myself away from the comfort that is still being in bed at 9.30 I will go and finish this post on my beloved Mac. Yes, I heart Apple. A lot.

Though this is not meant to be a post dedicated to my love of apple. Instead I wanted to just take some time out and write. I have worked hard all week on being organized and writing regularly, actually daily, which has been a lovely start to the year but the posts have all been linking up ones which I feel at times limits what I write. Well maybe limits is a bit strong bit it does create a bit of extra pressure.

You see when I link up I know that those post will be read. When I just do a random little installment that has the sole purpose of meeting my egoistical needs of feeling like a writer I generally publish it at a rather obscure hour which is likely to not be seen by anyone.  Yep I know when the blogging witching hour is to ensure posts never get read.  My first two years of blogging are testament to that.

However today that is different.  Today I am linking up with the recently discovered

and her

As I discovered last night on Twitter my Thankful Thursday post from yesterday was featured in the Chasing Joy Daily  So you can only imagine my excitement when I find out there is a flashback link up.  I was only whinging yesterday to Diary of a SAHM how I had so many unread posts that in my honest opinion were awesome.  Thanks to Joy, problem solved.
So after much rereading and old post scouring I finally decided what I would share.  It is something from the deepest darkest depths of my vaults.  Should you take the time to click on the link you could very well be the first person to ever read those words (aside from myself of course) because according to stats counter that page has never before been viewed!

Inspiring Interview Number One

Now I have been going on and on about this for ages.  Trying to build some sort of mystery and interest in it.  Personally though I would not blame you for thinking I was never actually going to get around to posting it.  After all it was nearly a week ago that I went and met with my first inspirational woman.

For those who have not yet worked out who this talented lady, is I would like to introduce Anna from mangolime  Anna creates gorgeous children's clothes and modern cloth nappies (MCN) right here in little old Darwin.  I have always used cloth nappies.  The thought of using those awful plastic alternative has made me cringe.  

I have at times been slightly envious of the no wet patch advantage that disposables have, but it is still not enough to make me use them.  Actually that is not true I used them when DD3 was about 6 weeks old for my brother's wedding and then when we went camping with overseas visitors.  I had massive issues out there using them.  We were surrounded by this beautiful bushland yet my poor little darling was expected to be covered with those awful plastic things.  Needless to say there was a bit of nappy free time.  Everyone else on the trip convinced me there was neither the space nor ability to store and wash cloth nappies.  It turned out they were wrong on both counts, but by the time I realised that, it was too late. Back to the inspirational Anna though.

What is it that I find so inspirational?

Well basically she had a problem and found an awesome solution to it.  One that she could sell to others and help save the precious environment one nappy at a time.  How could that not be inspirational?  Especially since the beautiful nappies she makes are not only reusable but also free from wet patches.  For a simple terry towel user like myself she is a dream come true.

In case you are still wondering what it is I am talking about here are a few pics.

mangolime nappy in action

mangolime dress (has a matching nappy)

one of the first mangolime nappies I got

I know that this has not exactly been much of an interview as such but some things just can't be helped.  When we met last week we were both short on time and me being me, took a little while to feel comfortable.  Don't get me wrong Anna is as warm and welcoming as her wonderful creations are.  Everything that held me back was all in my pretty little head and slowly I am working around it all.

Anyway if you would like to see more of Anna's beautiful work she is currently a guest WAHM on the FireFly Collective otherwise check mangolime for more details.  Anna and I will be meeting again in the near future as she is kindly making DD2 a bit of a birthday skirt, (but shhh don't tell her) So maybe I will try the whole interview thing again then.

Thanks for stopping by and may in every way this be a special day x

Good times

So today has been rather exciting for me.  Though the excitement is probably oIy something that other newbie bloggers would understand.  As I have already mentioned today saw me accepted into Top Mommy Blogs Directory.  Hopefully that will help more readers come across me.  So far I have already jumped by about 300 places.  I started this morning at 699 and am currently sitting at 318 so a huge thanks to all that have voted.  Remember you can vote once every 24 hours.

Adding to my excitement I am slowly making ground in working out some formatting and technology issues.  I have just managed to create a blog button for the site.

Granted not the most advanced button but for now it will do the job.  I still want to find out how to create a link so that I can share the button on other pages but at least for now this can be used as a banner at TMB

I think I may also have managed to change the date and time stamp for my posting.  I find it incredibly annoying that posts are stamped some 14 hours behind when I actually wrote them.  Another pleasing achievement for me today was putting a voting banner on all my future posts (yay me!)

Well for now that it all.  I should be doing dinner and a whole heap of mummy type things.....

If you haven't already today don't forget to stop by and vote :)

Increase Traffic

One of the ways in which I help drive traffic to my site is through LinkReferral and their new sister site LinkReviewer. Basically it means I go and spend time looking at other people's sites and then the same will happen to mine. There is also the option to write reviews which is supposed to increase the traffic to your site as well.

All in all it is not a bad system. Sure visiting other people's sites each day takes away from my own precious writing time but it really does drive some traffic in my direction. Plus the review side of thing makes you feel all warm and fuzzzy. To date I have only had really positive reviews, which is great as they encourage me to plod along. Which is not always easy. I am not a plodder. I am a sprinter. I want results NOW or better yet 5 minutes ago.

The other good thing about these programs are that at times I have come across some really great sites. These give me ideas about where I can take my own little web space to and areas I should work on improving. Naturally there are some that show what not to do as well.

Today however as I am dutifully clicking and reading away all I seem to come across are Christian sites. Now on the whole I guess I am somewhat of a christian. I mean I believe that there is a God out there (at least for the most part) however the Bible is not exactly part of my regular reading. I respect the fact that people align themselves to a belief system or religion and can dedicate their life to following that but it is just not for me. Personally for me I like to shop around, take all the best bits and just make up my own.

Anyway I guess I should get back to it, I am sure DD3 will probably not be sleeping for too much longer. I am thinking of going and joining her so that generally means she will interpret that as being time to wake up.

My Place and Yours

Today I am going to play along in a little game hosted over at hello owl (one of the wonderful blogs I have stumbled on lately and just fallen in love with).

Each Tuesday Danielle posts a themed photo and asks readers to do the same. This week the theme is W which I thought gave me the perfect opportunity to share the wonderful Water feature that clever hubs made.

I have had problems finding a photo that really does it justice so this one will have to do, the best of a bad bunch if you will. At night it is a truly magical little corner of the garden as it is surrounded with some solar powered lights that create a beautiful glow.

Tidying Up

Something I constantly need to do much more than I actually do. Though I am fairly certain that I am not the only person to suffer from such a problem.

Anyways, one of the things I thought I might start to tidy up is the unfinished blog posts I have slowly been accumulating. Looking at the list of posts I decided to start at the bottom and tackle the subjects that had been on the list the longest.

Dated the 18th December last year it read as follows

I can't believe that this time next Christmas will be done and dusted. There are still so many things I had hoped to do. Fingers crossed that I managed to find the required desires to to get on with it.

One thing I have been meaning to do for a while now is links to a few of my favourite pages on this big wide web. To start with they will be sites that belong to people I personally know. Feel free to add your own suggestions and I strongly suggest that you check them out.

The first of these is....

And that was as far as I got. I am guessing that the link I would have been put up would have gone to either Nicole at Highlights to Housework, a fellow SAHM blogger trying to get the best for her kids, or Anna who is behind the brilliant mastermind behind the gorgeous mangolime I am just in love with her beautifully made MCN's. They provide lil T with a very stylish behind. In fact today's photo is a close up of one of the first ones I ever purchased. I am looking forward to her next growth spurt just so I can justify getting some more. I really should put on my to do list asking Shannon from Sparkels Photography for a photo shoot of DD3 in some of her funky underdaks.

Well I think that this will just about do it for now. No need to ramble on too much when there are still some nine posts still awaiting completion

Still no recipe

For the past two days I have been thinking about how I would do up a recipe post of the most amazing dinner I cooked on Sunday night. Part of me wishes I had of been aware of how great the meal would be, so I could have preempted the possible blog post and taken a photo. But alas my psychic skills were apparently on hold that night.

Anyway right now I have much great things to worry about than the lack of a photo to include with the recipe post. I fear that I may actually have forgotten what I did that made the dish so very yummy.

You see it was not a very well planned out meal. It was thrown together on a whim, based on what was readily available. Here are few of the ingredients that easily come to mind; lemon, chicken, onion, rice, red capsicum, mushrooms, butter, ok so maybe I remember more than I realised...baby spinach leaves...hmmm

I think a recreation is going to be called for. That way I can overcome the photo issue as well...

In the meantime here are you my captive audience and I am struggling to think of how to end this post. Perhaps you should go and read some of my work over at Helium

Feeling Obliged

That is why I am here right now. I feel obliged to. I had actually sat down to put some music on but then that turned to checking mail which in turn led to ducking into FB for a quick squiz. Socialising in the flesh might not be something I relish but when it comes to an online community I like to check it all out. I guess it is the invisibility that I find appealing. Or at least the perceived invisibility...

Ok well that didn't last long. DD3 decided that she was actually not going to have a sleep now after all. The phone ringing twice probably has something to do with that. As it turned out the phone was little more than a waste of time. The person trying to call me had a very poor connection which dropped out as soon as I answered. So all in all my tranquil writing conducive conditions are now well and truly dispersed. Grrrrr....

Even if I was only here because I was feeling obliged to I did have some really good stuff to share, well at least I think I did. Perhaps it will come back to me. In the meantime you should check out this blog I aspire to this level (though obviously without the drawings as I know that is not something in my artistic repertoire) I have heard that this author actually now makes her living out of new writing and that is what I would love to do as well

You want me?

Earlier today I received a very flattering email. It has made me smile everytime I think of it.

Wanna know what it said?? Keep on reading

Well my dear friend and fellow mummy blogger Nicole over at Highlights to Housework has asked me to do a guest post on her blog.

Given the recent disasters to hit the eastern coast of Australia, she thought it might be nice if she got a few women to share what they were grateful for. My post can be found here

Referrals

A dear friend of mine (I say dear because we have known each other for some 15 years) has a fantastic blog called from Highlights to Housework, it is still only in the early days but has some great posts. The latest of these is about female body image with special concern to mothers.

As a mother of three I am not actually a supermodel. But then I never really thought I was... well not super... I certainly had some sort of model qualities about me in my younger years, not perfection but everything in all the right places if you know what I mean. Which at the end of the day counts for a fair bit.

Since the birth of my third little angel though it has been brought to my attention that I am in actually fact far from the model qualities of my younger years...unless of course there is a new modeling look that resembles a beached whale. This is all rather concerning for me and since it is a relatively new awareness I am not really sure how to deal with it.

Apparently there are a couple of fads going around called diet and exercise perhaps I should give them a go...in the meantime I will just remain in my little bubble of years ago