It makes me smile

Came across Poppy, Bean and Bloss, what a delightful blog, anyway she has posted what is making her smile so I thought I would join in. :)

This little guy. He's three tomorrow! My last baby is rapidly leaving toddlerhood, this kind of makes me sad, but relieved as well. He's a handful, and he lives up to his name Cadel, which means warrior spirit. He is full of spirit and already showing signs of a wicked sense of humour (and I mean wicked, he has a fondness for playing pranks already!)

Speaking of Cadel, watching Cadel Evans makes me smile. I don't follow any sport in any way, shape or form, but if an Aussie is looking like they have a chance, then I do my patriotic duty and cheer him on.

And yes, I was heavily pregnant, hormone affected, watching Tour De France, three years ago.....hence my sons name. This always makes me smile!

Oh and I found out the other day the job I went for....I got it! It's part time, with the potential of taking full time, part of which I can work from home. This definitely makes me smile.

I start a TAFE course next week, this makes me smile. And the kids go back to school, I love school holidays, but going back to a regular routine....this makes me smile.

What makes you smile?

Things (my) Kids Say

Mr soon-to-be 3: If a dinosaur comes into my room and does a poo I'm going whack him like this (demonstrates whacking).

Dinosaurs let it be said, you have been warned.

Because I'm Worth It

(also known as Operation Bunker Bay)

I am so proud of myself this week! I have done 1 aeirobics class and 4 x 1hour gym workouts this week!!

I am hating the exercising, one of those gym sessions I had to really drag myself down, force myself on the machines and plays lots of happy music on my iPod to get me going. But I made it!

I haven't got an exercise scheldule. I've come to the conclusion I may not be able to scheldule in gym sessions with any consistancy. But that is ok, as long as I'm going, it doesn't matter so much if I don't do it at a certain time on particular days.

This weeks exercise goals are

*head to the gym 5 times

*push myself a little harder in the cardio bit. At the moment I do roughly 5min x-trainer/15min treadmill/5 min bike. I would like to increase the x-trainer because I think it gives me a better workout.

Food wise is going good. It helps that money is so tight at the moment! I’m eating more fruit and vegetables and also made an effort to decrease my meat consumption. This is a financial/ethical consideration as well, but will have positive health implications as well.

My food goals this week are

*Increase water

*Make an effort to snack between midday and 3pm. I find 4pm hits and I’m so lethargic and bleh as well as ravenous.

Looking Good Feeling Good.

I’ve been having a bit of fun with Pinterest this week, pinning all sorts of pics for inspiration. Several of those pins have been hair tutorials, of which I’ve been practicing on myself and also on my daughters.

I’ve also pinned some pics of outfits I want to copy.

My Pinterest profile name is lelacass if you want to join in the fun

I live in a town that has a bad 'rep'. For years it has been labelled as boganville, low socio-economic, high crime, low prospects etc etc.

Several of these labels are actually incorrect/unfairly distorted in my opinion.

But you know what? I hope the ignorant stay ignorant.

They don't know what they are missing out on. ;)

Saving Money. Making Money

It's common sense that the key elements of finacial freedom make up a  3 pronged approach.

Reduce Debt
Make Money
Save Money

Now reducing debt is closely entwined with making and saving money, but is deserving of it's own strategy of attack.

So what am I rambling on about. Well I've been totally inspired by        Kylie Ofiu who is aspiring to be a millionaire (cash and/or assets) by 30. I would love to be finacially free, so I've started pitting some of her thoughts and ideas into practice. 

Firstly I opened a high interest bank account and set up a direct debit. It's only $5 a week, but it is a start. 

I've drawn up another budget. This time I used an Excel spreadsheet that allows me to enter a months income/expenses. The single most important money tip (from my readings and experience) is to manage you finances with a budget.
I've brainstormed some money making ideas. Some a short term, some fit in the grand plan. One idea I'm really excited lover is 'The Rusty Geranium'. I'll do a proper blog post on it later, but basically I've started raising a variety of seeds with the view of selling excess stock over spring/summer.

Another area I'm homing in on is saving money. I've disconnected the landlind (saving about $700), I'm menu planning again (this saves a fair bit, my estimate is about $200 a month gets wasted when I don't menu plan). I've devised a plan to get solar hot water installed, thus saving on my energy bills.

Allow the saved $ at the moment are going into reducing debt and only a tiny bit into savings.

I've also pencilled in reminders into my organiser to spend time on this. Time is now set aside for budget, menu and income planning.

The $100 Christmas is also part of this plan.

It all feels refreshing and empowering. I might not get to a million dollars, but I'm giving it a go.

Operation Bunker Bay

My husband and his colleagues have made the target of something or another at his work. This is great and really important I'm sure (eyes were glazed over when he was telling me the details). As a reward, the company has booked two nights away for all the supervisors (that's what he is) and their partners, including dinner on the friday and a tour of the wineries on the saturday.

When I first heard, I thought this was great, I had vaguely heard of Bunker Bay. Then I looked it up online.

Oh my. It's a 5 star get away. I'm not a 5 star getaway type person. I don't dress for 5 star getaways. I don't even dress for winery tours.

I'm worried. I have 8 weeks to get it together. Which brings me to my blog title, Operation Bunker Bay. I'm going to do an 8 week overhaul with the goal of looking and feeling confident about myself, confident enough to fit in among the other WAGS.

So if that is my overarching goal, my more specific goals are:

*Have 3 different hairstyles that I can do myself over this weekend.

*Have a make up 'look' that I can confidently apply.

*Have several different outfits that are suitable for each outing.

*Make sure my eyebrows are neat, eyelashes sparkle and maybe are fingernails gleaming.

*Restart my exercise and eating regime and loose 6 kgs in 8 weeks. This is perhaps a little ambitious, if I don't reach this, but I'm following healthy eating/exercising, I'll be happy.

After 8 weeks I don't want to stop. Because 4 weeks later, my sister is hoping on getting married and I'm one of her bridesmaids (although I have a feeling she might reschedule), then 4 weeks after that, it is my birthday and I would love to buy myself a great dress and look hot, then 4 weeks later is christmas and again, I wouldn't mind looking hot over the christmas festivities. ;)

So this is my plan of action:

*Youtube. Lots of great people have posted hair and makeup tutorials, my plan is to have a play and experiment with different looks. In 4 weeks I would like to book in for a hair cut (long overdue, my last cut was about 18months ago)

*Collect ideas from fashion blogs and from watching Offspring (tragic, but I love Nina's style). Disect the outfits then recreate out of things I own/can get hold of. Some pieces I can make too.

*I'm already booked in for a beauty treatment because I bought a cheap voucher from scoupon. That is next month. When I'm there I'll book in for another session about a week or so before THE weekend.

*Exercise program has started. I've started Burlesque dance classes (this is more of a reward, they are so much fun, if I grit my teeth and just attend the gym, then my reward is Burlesque classes).

I want to restart the 'Because I'm Worth It' weekly posting, because although my first deadline is Bunker Bay, I want this to be longer term. So stay tuned!

Holiday Wish List

It's school holidays for the kids in WA. Yay!

This is our wish list of things we want to do. We probably won't make it through all of it, but even if we do half, it'll be fun.

1. Dinosaur exhibit at Perth Museum My youngest son is really into dinosaurs at the moment.

2. Telling Tales Story Telling Festival. This is more for the older two to enjoy. It's only $5 per child and the program looks great.

3. Picnic at Golden Valley Tree Park. The kids are all looking forward to this. The park has walk trails and lots of space to run and wander in.

4. Pinnochio, the play. My daughter has a classmate who has a role in this play. I thought it would be nice to go along and support her. :)

5. Movies.

Plus trips to the library, visit the scitech thing at the shops, spend time with cousins, some cooking (got some chocolate brownie slice in my near future) and a trip or two to the beach for some winter beach combing.

Xmas Planning

Each year a small part of the christmas gift list is made up of handmade or cheap/2nd hand gifts for my kids and to a lesser extent, my children. This year I want to make it a bigger part, but more importantly, I want to rein in the spending and make it a more financially responsible time.

Now this $100 is everything. Kids, family, friends and the food. Sounds pretty impossible hey. I don't think I'll be able to keep it under $100, but I do have some advantages to help. I'm not hosting christmas lunch this year, so I'll only have to contribute a plate of something. Also my kids are happy with second hand/thrifted stuff and appreciate cool and unique things. They do like big ticket items, but they are also happy with the small things in life. As for family, I do have 5 nephews and 1 niece, but I only have to buy for 4 adults, as we only exchange gifts with the adults on my in-laws side of the family. Another advantage is my extensive fabric collection. If I can make it from fabric, chances are, I can make it cheap/free.

I know from experience that it takes a lot more planning and effort to do these sort of things so I'm making up a list with links and ideas to help me along the way.

My Kids

Dylan aged 10

Lego. Can be obtained second hand.

DS cover and game holder.

Cadel aged 3

Cool little belts, this would be good for the girls too.

Bike. Thinking gumtree or ebay for a cheap but good condition bike. If I can get one this bike basket would be cool.

Lilian aged 8

Zoe aged 5

Nephews and a Niece

Rhylie aged 6

Art caddy/tote I have a binding machine and lots of scrapbooking papers. I can make him some sketchbooks. I can also sharpen up the kids leftover pencils (we always end up with hundreds) from the end of the school year and put these in the caddy.

Evelyn aged 2

Dolls clothes. I'm pretty sure she has a baby born, and I have patterns for baby born doll clothes.

Cooper aged 4

Lochie aged 2

Dragon Slippers

Angus aged 1

Michael aged nearly 1

In Laws

MIL Water bottle holder

FIL

SIL Water bottle holder and Cute Scarf

BIL I'm thinking coffee cup cozy? with a good quality thermos cup as well?

Home Decor

Tree, we already have a base for a 'once was alive' tree. The tree we get erm ahh.... free from my kind brother in law....in an undercover mission to the pine plantation.......well not really the pine plantation itself, my BIL relocates a tree from the side of the road... a tree that has sprouted from seed or something.....he assures me it is not from the plantation....and it is so scrawny and bent, I believe him.

Tree decorations are ones we have accumulated over the years.

Would love to add a christmas tree bunting and some table runners to my home decor

Last year we did a advent calender with each day a challenge to give. We got ideas from 25 days of giving but more ideas here I want to expand on this and make an improved calender system. Perhaps something like these felt pockets

Phew, that's enough brainstorming for now.

My Creative Space

I love the style of the character of Nina Proudman (Offspring, channel ten). Very much in love. I was very suprised to find that most of her clothes cost a fortune. Considering her style looks like op shop/market finds, it took me by suprise that one of the skirts she wears is around $199.

So my creative space this week is dominated by 'what would Nina wear' sort of wonderings. Nina wears a lot of tiered and circle skirts, matched with funky belts. I picked up this cotton fabric at Spotlight for $4 per metre, and aimed with my Sew What! Skirts book I'm aiming for a Nina type skirt.

I'm not sure if I've chosen the right fabric print to pull off the look, but it's a pretty print anyway.

You can see more creative spaces or add your link here.