And ode to those who came before us

My family history is steeped with people who served for this country. They proudly took their place like their father's before them. Most times against the wishes of their families, who knew full well what they were to experience. Who didn't want their sons going through the same hell they went through.

Most saw active service, some, like my Grandmother, did not. She dismisses her role as being insignificant. Once when I had made a comment about it on here, she messaged me and said "Just so you know, I never left Australia" like it made all the difference. Her support role behind the scenes, like so many other Australian women is what held this country together while the men were away.

My grandfather was in active service. His story has never really been told. It's one he holds close and only in the last few years has really made reference to it. As a teenager I convinced him to allow me to question him about WW2 for a school assignment. Even at my young age, I couldn't mistake his angst at some of the memories. At the time I recorded our conversations as I didn't want to miss anything important. What I wouldn't give to still be in possession of those tapes. If only my 14 year old self had known how important they would be to family history. I'm hoping he'll let me sit down and have those same conversations now.

So to my forebearers and to all those who fought with them and supported them, I thank you. I thank you for the country we live in today. I thank you for the freedom we have today. I thank you for the life you have created not only for me but for generations to come. 

Picture courtesy of The Australian War Memorial

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Oh darling cause you'll always be my baby

My baby is five. FIVE!! Where did the time go? *sob

I still remember carrying around that monster belly like it was just yesterday. I still only remember bits and pieces of your birth story like it's a blur.

I still remember the chubbiest, reddest little face squinting out at me from behind those puffy cheeks. All 10lbs of puffiness right there in those cheeks I think.
I can't believe that was 5 years ago.



My gorgeous girl. I find it so hard to remember what life was like before you joined us. You changed our lives so much for the better. You coming along made us re-evaluate what we wanted from life and how we wanted to live. Every day you give us joy (and you give me more grey hair) but I wouldn't change a single thing about you. My favorite little girl, I love you to the moon, the stars and the unicorns. Love forever, your favorite big girl, Mummy xx

Miss 4 becomes almost Miss 5

The fancy lanterns that I threw up a the last minute

Well Miss 4 is only a few days out now from being Miss 5 and to celebrate we had a handful of her little friends over to celebrate with her on the weekend. In typical Kylee style, I had so many fancy things planned. It was going to be a My Little Pony Spectacular. Then one stupid sandwich at a cafe threw a spanner in the works by giving me a ripper case of food poisoning. So from Wednesday right up until the morning of the party I was still really sick. So all those important preparations, out the window :(

Ok, not at impressive as Pinterest, but it'll do

The day before the party I was seriously thinking about just cancelling the whole thing but Miss 4 had been counting down the days for weeks and would be heartbroken so I pushed on.

Luckily I had a boost of energy on the morning and I also had an awesome best friend who pulled out all stops at the last minute we managed to pull off a day that Miss 4 just loved. Maybe not the My Little Pony Spectacular I had in my mind, but spectacular in Miss 4's eyes all the same.

Sick or not, there was still time for these

And of course since I seem to be jinxed, I was handed another curveball when I whipped out my phone to find that the focus was no longer working on the camera. I could take close ups, but that was it. So I grabbed the trusty old bulky camera. Trying to run a party and take pics with a bulky camera around your neck means that something's goning to give and really, I'd much rather Miss 4 enjoy the day than me worry about photos. So there are very few and they were quick shots and unfortunately they're not that great. But hey, at least we have some to look back on.

The kids moved that quick, I couldn't even get an unspoilt shot

Everyone loves a chocolate crackle

The "smile" you get when you ask for a "proper" smile

With her BFF

The terrible trio

Supposedly you get a better shot of the t-shirt if you poke your stomach out like so

 

Oh and that wonderful polka dot cake I was bragging all over the place about. Yeah, too sick to attempt it. So ice cream it was. After all, who doesn't love ice cream.

All in for a photo

In editing mode

Hey Peeps,
Ignore the Plain Jane looking blog today. Today's upgrade day so please bear with me while a play around.

Aussie Curves : Mesmerising Maxis

Ahh the Maxi dress. How I love thee, let me count the ways:

1. Most of you have an empire line cut which accents the good and hides the bumpy
2. I don't have to have that "Groan, do I REALLY need to shave my legs" discussion with myself whilst in the shower if I'm going to wear one
3. The material is usually light and breezy, just perfect for summer

I could do on, but I don't want to bore anyone to death. Let's just say I heart a good maxi.

And now, since we're finally blown over into Autumn weather here in good ol' Melbourne, I got smart and grabbed out the camera (well in actuality I got Miss 4 to get snap happy) when we had a last run of stinking hot days. So I bring you the last rays of Melb summer with the Maxi.

Voguing it for the camera. Miss 4 even suggests poses now. LOL

If you look really closely you can see Miss 4's outstretched little arm in my sunnies Nawww

 All decked out on Target today

Sunnies : Target

Necklace : From another Moda by Target top

Maxi Dress : Moda by Target

Shoes : Target

Bangles : Surprise, surprise...Diva :)

And the princess herself, who had to be in at least one shot.

Wanna see more marvelous maxis? Click the links below. You know you wanna.

Getting my Susie on : Polka dot cake almost fail

As per my usual "go overboard, do all the things" party planning, I've left it to the last minute to trial out the cake for Miss 4's party. The plan was to make one of those gorgeous polka dot cakes that's all the rage. 

So being time poor, the trial went with one color and I didn't bother icing it. I just wanted to make sure it'd work and that the polka dots were still moist. Win and winning, well sorta. So here's what it's meant to look like. 

Source: easybake.net

 The beginning of cake balls

Yes, I will admit to being slightly alarmed as to how they looked

 Okay, so it rose a bit too much. Oops.

But overall I'm happy with the final result. Nothing that a few tweaks won't fix. 

Stay turned for the real thing on Sunday.

Aussie Curves : Apathetic Androgyny

Argh. I had this awesome outfit all planned out in my head, but there is a great divide between what looks great in fantasy land and what looks great on. I'm all for body confidence and stuff but this was just blerk. So I bring you my tie.

Salvo Store $2 - Bargain

That's about as androgynous as I'm getting this week. I'm tired and my hearts just not in it. Some of the other curvy chicks had the most awesome outfits and make up though (seriously head on over to Fashion Adjacent and check out Omega, she's fabulous), so ignore me and click on through to them, and their awesomeness.

Random : 10 things about me

In an attempt to get to know the Aussie Curvers a little better, Katie from The Adventures of SpijkerKat came up with the brilliant idea of:

I have a tendancy to whore my whole life all over facebook and in the past my blog as well, so finding 10 things that people don't know about me hasn't been the easiest thing. Here goes nothing:

1. I am obsessive about being organised. Labelling things, having things in the right spot, magazine like but in reality I'm a hoarder. I have a piles of just stuff (which the husband calls caves) in most rooms in the house. It drives him insane as he's a neat freak.
2. I cannot leave any food on my plate. Stems back from childhood I think. Might need to see someone about that eh.
3. I have a weird ass phobia thingy with hair. Especially wet hair. No shit, it makes me gag. Just last weekend I bent down in the shower to pick up what I thought was a clear piece of plastic in the shower which turned out to be a small clump of hair. I gagged good and proper. Enough for two of my kids to come running and point and laugh. (Before anyone says WTF how did I mistake that, I wear glasses but obviously not in the shower).
4. I almost died giving birth to my youngest child. Luckily for me I was semi conscious and don't remember a lot of it but I'm pretty sure my husband (and my best friend for that matter) will be traumatised for life. 
5. I make my kids play a game in the car called "Car Karoke" only because I like to sing really loud in the car.
6. I LOVE brussels sprouts. They are my all time favorite vegetable.
7. I was on the radio this morning complaining about my husband's marriage proposal under duress (Matt & Jo on Fox FM for the Melbournites). 
8. My husbands nickname for me is Puta Nerd as he thinks I spend way too much time on the computer. He's been calling me this for years now.
9. My two oldest children are Irish twins. Their birthdays are 3 days short of 12 months apart. And to answer the questions everyone asks, yes it was hard and yes we had a tv. *rolls eyes*
10. I worked in fast food for 19 years before finally throwing in the towel.

Hello Melbourne Aussie Curvers

Yesterday after traipsing my ass all over my beautiful city, (here's the proof, not only of the city but the amount of bloody walking I did --> ) 
I finally found my way to the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in the Botanical Gardens for a catch up with the Melbourne contingent of Aussie Curves.

These gardens are absolutely stunning. I'd flash around some photos but I won't do them justice. Instead I'll leave that to Jeanie over on her blog since she's the photographer extraordinaire. They're surrounded by a hedge with a gorgeous grotto in the middle, have lush lawns and beautiful garden edges. I really don't think we could have found a more serene spot if we tried, probably could have found a dryer spot (hello wet bums) but it was worth it.

Melbourne turned on spectacular weather for us and we all sat in the shade with a warm breeze and talked and talked. It was wonderful to meet Jeanie, Omega, Kerry and Ally. In the past I used to be quite anxious about meeting new people, especially from anything online, but I felt really calm about the whole thing. The conversation flowed quite naturally and it was a shame when I had to leave.

Hope you all enjoyed the catch up as much as I did and I'll so be in on a cocktail bar for the next one.

P.S. Here are the offending Ritz crackers sitting happily on my front seat. I gave them stink eye the whole way home.

Aussie Curves : Buckleishious Belts

After doing swimwear and body con, who would have thought that belts would be a problem? Seriously, what is up with that?? But yes, belts were and are a problem. I'm just not a belt person. I hadn't worn a belt for years before joining Aussie Curves, but after seeing how awesome some of the other women looked I hightailed it into the shops of grabbed a few to try. #FAIL

I don't know why. Well I do, I think it's more bodyshape. Considering my size, I do have a small waist, but accenting that doesn't make me look like an hour glass it moreso makes me look like a balloon that you squeeze in the middle and it's going to burst.

I have a few belts that came with dresses that look okay and a City Chic one that I've worn for a challenge before. Oh and one more that I love the detailing of, but alas it's too small. One day. So since I can't bring you a new outfit post, rocking the belts, I'll bring you the belts. Ta da!

From top to bottom:

Yellow belt (from a dress) : City Chic

Black studded belt : City Chic

Black love heart belt : City Chic

Brown belt (from a dress) : Rockmans Be Me

Click through the links below and check out the rest of the Curvy Chicks totally rocking their belts.

Lighting it up Blue : So proud of what we achieved

Thank You

If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that I've been banging on about Light it up Blue for a while now and all of that harping has now come to fruition. What I hadn't made a big deal about was the work that my fellow employees had put into Autism Awareness Day. 

Now firstly let me begin by saying that I'm not posting this to get pats on the back, my role in this was but small. It was the people that got behind the cause that have inspired me to write this thank you.

In the lead up to Autism Awareness day, I had put a proposal through to my employers asking that we could do some type of fundraising to highlight the day. Now my initial ideas were quite basic and after a bit of talking blew into something quite extravagant and we researched what we could do in such a small time frame (which was only two weeks). Turns out that two weeks isn't a lot of time to put together a big fundraising campaign that's trans pacific. So the big extravagant ideas have been put on the back burner...for 12 months. If you think I spruiked Light it up Blue this year, bring on 2014 when we are taking it to a huge level. 

But anyway, back to 2013. This year we ran with all the stores in Victoria Lighting it up Blue by wearing blue and making gold coin donations. While it only sound like something small, in the time frame this was organised I cannot believe how many wonderful people got behind this cause not only by donning the blue and explaining why but financially. As the donations start coming in from stores, I'm very humbled by the amount some stores have collected. All monies collected are being donated to Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect). 

Here are some pics of the wonderful people who lit it up blue:

 Thank you PP Northland

 Thank you PP Broadmeadows and Charlie and Me Highpoint

 Thank you PP Mildura and PP Northland

 Thank you PP Point Cook and PP Geelong

 

To my team at Werribee, thank you for getting behind me with everything.

And lastly, thank you to the powers that be at Pumpkin Patch for allowing this little venture to go ahead. Bring on a bigger and better Light it up Blue in 2014.