What To Wear? What To Wear?

So - next Monday i'm off to a conference for work... in sunny Rockhampton, Queensland. I know its not going to be as glamourous or as exciting as Blogopolis ( oh yes, still harboring some jealousy here... ) but, like you ladies who were lucky enough to be able to attend in Melbourne, i need to figure out what to wear. I have a day of plan trips on Monday ( on the way up ) and Thursday ( on the way back ) and actual conference meetings and activities on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Bearing in mind that though this is technically a business conference the dress code isnt especially corporate, and taking into account what kind of weather northern Queensland is going to throw at me... what in the bloody hell am i going to wear?

The decision might be easier if i had a wardrobe like Kate Bosworths...

Methinks jeans and a comfy top are a no-brainer for the two days of travelling. I'll be buggered if i'm going to do a Lady Gaga and trip around Sydney and Brisbane domestic airports in my fanciest clothes. Nope - jeans and comfy cotton shirts, flats or possibly sandals and a slouchy satchel all the way for this little traveller.

For the conference itself - Day One i'm thinking a cute dress, black tights and boots. Khaki suede, stacked heel, ankle boots to be exact. Boots that say " Dont walk all over me, because i might just stomp back ". An outfit that shows my feminine side but that finishes off with a touch of hard-arse, i-wont-be-pushed-around attitude.

Day two , traditionally a bit more of a relaxed day - maybe slim fit dark jeans, white cotton blouse and flats. More formal and more pretty than the jeans-and-t-shirt combo, but still comfy enough to last through a day of (probably very boring ) presentations.

Yep, thats what i'm thinking. Of course, there is still the whole ritual of trying each outfit on, perusing myself in the mirror, and asking Mick what he thinks before i even consider packing my bags.... What about you? Do you pre-plan your holiday/conference outfits down to the day? Do you ponder each outfit option for weeks in advance? And do you think my boots are going to kick arse?

Each Piece Tells A Story

So - guess who's started sleeping in a big boy bed?

No, not Mick, he still has to share one with me (ha! ). No, no, at the tender age of almost-20 months we have decided the time is right to put Flynn into a " big boy bed ". No more cot, and no graduation to a toddler bed ( i cant justify the cost of a toddler bed... ) - just straight from cot into a standard sized single bed. A solid, retro style tubular bed, which has long ago been repainted blue. Why "long ago " and "repainted ", you ask? Because Flynns very funky new big boy bed used to be.... mine. Its been recycled and repurposed, thanks to the very generous donation of my parents and my sister ( who previously had it in the spare room of her old flat ).

Ignore all the spare blankets and bags of clothes stashed under the new big boy bed....

This bed started out life as a set of steel tubular style bunk beds, in a lovely, girly fairy floss pink ( as was chosen by my parents. I've never been much of a pink girl myself ). When i outgrew the novelty of bunk beds my very handy Dad decided to be thrifty, took the bunks out to the garage and, using an angle grinder and some precise measurement, sliced the bunk bed in half - resulting into two solid single beds. Not being a super fan of pink - and being a moody girl in her early teens by this time - i chose to repaint them blue. And now almost 15 years later, one of those repurposed bunk beds has ended back in my possession, and is a very reliable ( if not slightly pink flecked in places ) first big boy bed for my little man. Hows that for recycling?

A little toy corner - a mini wheely bin full of stuff, plus a book shelf of plush toys...

And hey - it may not be the coolest piece of very retro, almost vintage furniture to ever see the light of day, but at least it has a heartwarming story....

Getting All My Ducks In A Row

Alrighty - so you may have seen a few of my Tweets this past fortnight or so begging for someone to buy my house ( or to lend me a few thousand dollars ) ? Yes well, i have the itchiest of itchy feet.... our little duplex is great and all but i just want to start the next chapter of our lives NOW. However, until this week, i havent done anything to make that happen other than trying to will myself to win the lottery. Apparently, no matter how hard you wish, you cant attract absoluetly EVERYTHING into your life...

An " Edward Scissorhands " neighbourhood - that'd be nice...

So i've decided i'm going to be proactive about this whole " lets buy a house" thing. I've gone to an open home for a house that would be in our price range, and i've had a chat to the real estate agent there about the market, how much we could expect to sell the duplex for, and how long it might take.

I've made an appointment with our bank ( which bank? ) to see the home loan specialist, so we can figure out how much we might need to sell for to cover the existing mortage, plus commission/solicitor/etc blah blah blah, but also so that we can (hopefully) be pre-approved for a new loan. That way, Mick and I can have a realistic expectation of what we might be able to afford to spend on a new property.

I plan on making an appointment with a mortgage broker when i'm done at the bank. Mick isnt too keen ( he thinks we stand a better chance at the bank because we're existing customers ) but i want to know exactly whats available to us. I dont want to find "the" house, get a loan with our existing bank and then find out we sold ourselves short.

After all that, our plan is to list the duplex when we get back from our honeymoon, and begin looking for a new house right away. If everything fell into place ( which, lets face it - these things rarely do ) we would be able to sell the duplex and find a new house within a few weeks of each other, and move out of one and into the other before the 6 week settlement period was up. If we cant find and move into a house in that 6 week period... well, then it looks like we'd move in with my parents for a while. " Argh, no, dont do it! " i hear some of you shouting ( Holly is probably behind her screen screaming at me right now... )... but thats the only workable solution. If we did have that period in between selling and buying and we didnt move in with my parents we'd be homeless. And as frusturating as it may be to live in a household that would contain 5 adults ( including my sister ) and one toddler well... its gotta be better than having nowhere at all to live.

So - bring on November i say. Wedding, honeymoon, Wiggles concert ( i know - excited much!?! ) and listing a house.... you know, if my stress doesnt kill me first!

Polly Dolly - Ladylike Lingerie

Thursday has rolled around already and that means its time for Polly Dolly, as brought to you by the fabulous Dani over at Danimezza. This week Dani is being a bit saucy and wants to see Polly in her....

This is exactly the type of thing i'd love to have with me on my upcoming honeymoon - a silk chemise in a beautiful colour, matched with some lacy ( yet comfy! ) knickers. A spray of flirty perfume to help me feel super sexy, some candles and a glass of champagne to set the mood and.... bom-chika-wow-wow! Let the honeymoon baby-making begin! Some rocky road and strawberries to share afterwards ensure a sweet end to the evening... and maybe some  energy for round 2 (wink wink, nudge, nudge )...

Adventures in Picnicking, Old School Style

Oh in the summertime, when the weather is high.... ok, so its not summer yet. Nor spring for that matter. However, over the past weekend we did have some lovely weather here in Dubvegas so we got together with my parents, my neices ( who were staying at Grandma and Poppys for the day ) and my younger sister to go on a proper, old-fashioned picnic. We packed ourselves some lunches, i made some delicious cheesecake brownies for dessert, and we took all the kids ( big and little ) out the park/play area at Taronga Western Plains Zoo ( our favourite playground in town! ). Unfortunately we missed out on a picnic table because when we got there every table was taken up by birthday parties - from what i could tell there was 3 seperate birthday parties going on....

 But no matter because there is lots of open space to run around in ( and a fence around the perimeter so little people cant run into the car park );

There is the great jungle gym/tree house. Flynn can climb up the ramp by himself and giggle his guts out when he goes down the slippery dip. The bigger kids climb right up the top and yell out at the top of their lungs " Hey Grandma! Hey Aunty Amy! Hey, i'm up here! "...

There were Daddies enjoying the sunshine on their picnic rugs ( looking good baby! )....

...and Poppies pushing little people on the swings. Flynn loves the swings and at the age of almost 20 months that the appropriate noise to make whilst swinging is " wheeeeeeeeeeee ! "

 There were also beautiful neices galore! The very cute MissB on the wobbly bridge....

 And the just as pretty, if not slightly more adventurous MissH at the end of her flying fox run.

 Then you had Grandma's playing hide and seek with cheeky little boys ( who then got bark in his shirt and proceeded to itch and scratch... )

And little boys who just l.o.v.e sand and dirt and all things grotty.

And, at the very end, there were silly Mummies ( with no make up, freckles and all ) and crazy Aunty Pippy's ( who had run out of bubbles to blow for the kiddies... ) making silly faces. Ah, a day in the park.... hurry up spring and summer can i do that every weekend!

Music: Still Awesome Or On The Downhill Slide?

Inspired by a question posed over on the Digital Parents forums, and egged on by a segment on my local radio..... todays post is a rant about the state of todays " popular " music. Seriously - i'm no old biddy ( at the ripe old age of 27 i still consider myself a spring chicken... ) but much of todays Top40/pop really gets on my nerves. Aside from the often inane lyrcis, or the beats that have been done to death, its the "obviousness " of it that annoys me. What am I talking about - " obviousness "?


Nothing is subtle anymore, there are no tongue-in-cheek lyrics that you kind of have to be in on the joke to understand - its all so there and in your face, its like being hit in the head with a brick. Its all just panders to the lowest common denominator and assumes that we need everything spelt out to us. Case in point: a song called " Dirty Talk " by Wynter Gordon that contains the lyrics " Tight clothes, lingerie, pantyhose, foreplay ", and also talks about how she wants to get her legs up in the back of the car. First of all - TMI. Secondly, could you possibly try harder with the rhyme scheme next time? Thirdly - TMI again. Its great that you're out there embracing your sexuality and getting it on in public places, but you dont need to be so explicit about it. I dont want to know, and young, impressionable children who are exposed to the radio/tv dont NEED to know.

Or what about when a song does have great lyrics, has some subtlety and mystery to the words, but the video clip is all sex! Boobs! S&M! look how controversial i can be! Yes, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Kanye West, i'm talking to you....

I dont mind when an artist feels the need to talk about sex, or drugs, or violence or death.... sometimes those things need to be expressed and, frankly, sometimes i DO want to hear about them. I just dont want them thrown in my face lyrically or visually - i want to be able to smile at how cleverly you can talk about them without actually going the whole hog and just saying it. You know, like a lyrical game of " Taboo ".

So i enjoy a song like " Right In Time " by Lucinda Williams ( an ode to missing your partner so much you need to masturbate to the memory of them ) or " Slide " by the Goo Goo Dolls ( about abortion and alienation ) or even " Luka " by Susan Vega ( the sweetest song about domestic violence that you'll ever hear... ) because the artist has managed to twist and turn and hide those issues and ideas so that adults can guess at them, and applaud their creativity, and small children will hear nothing more than sweet melodies and kick arse guitar solos....

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Let me ask you this: what makes a good wedding?


As a bride-to-be ( in 12 weeks and counting! ) its a question i've been pondering for a while now. However, after watching this seasons first episode of the trash-tastic " Four Weddings " i started thinking - yes, its my wedding, but how much should i consider the enjoyment of others on my big day?

Mick and I are going for a laidback, casual kind of vibe with our wedding. We're having an outdoor ceremony ( on a cute little deck beside a small lake - complete with fountain! ) and our reception is being held in the private function lounge at the most " boutique " pub bar in town. We're having a cocktail reception - which means no set tables or 3 course meal, just the chance to move around, engage with everyone, and have fancy finger foods brought out for a tapas-style dinner. We're having a jukebox and a pool table, and we'd really love for it to feel like a big party with everyone in pretty clothes, as opposed to the stuffy, formal affairs that some weddings can be. I've had help from a wedding planner with decorations but have organised everything else myself.

I guess what i'm getting at is - of course the bride needs to love the big day, but how much should everyone else love it? I know no-one will be keeping score like the girls on " Four Weddings " but i'd really love for my guests to come away from my wedding saying that they really enjoyed the whole event, that its one of the best they've been to. ( You know, without sounding either too desperate or competitive... ).

What made your wedding special? Aside from the dream dress and the hair and the make-up, what was one thing that "made " the day for you? Or, as a guest, what makes for a memorable wedding experience?