Day to Day

Nuffnang Talent Program Blogger

Rewind to six years ago and you would have found me tapping my fingers on the keyboard to start this little blogging space.  Back then I blogged about family life, making things with my two sweets (just 10 & 5 years old at the time), scrapbooking and my posts were pretty few and far between.  

{James & Bella :: circa 2006}

The years have slowly rolled on by and here I am, still blogging away.  James and Bella are much bigger now and our home life has a different (more grown up) routine.  We still love spending time together - camping, board games, movies, road trips and just hanging out at home.  Instead of play dough and painting, we're crocheting, sewing and making trampoline bikes in the backyard.  

My blog posts are a lot more regular these days and I have this gorgeous community of readers (that's you....yes, you!!) that read along each day and continue to inspire, encourage and support this space of mine.  There have been just over 3.3 million page views, 22000 comments and I've met some of the most beautiful people that also happen to be readers here.

 

{Hong Kong Disneyland - Mr Goodsell was taking the photograph}

This blog of mine has given me (and my family) the most amazing experiences, for which I am so incredibly grateful for.  Visiting Hong Kong Disneyland in March 2011 on a fully sponsored trip was an adventure that we will never forget.  We talk about that trip so much at home and still pinch ourselves that we were fortunate enough to have such an opportunity.

In September 2011 I was selected as the Kidspot Top Blogger and became a Ford Territory Ambassador for the year, which meant driving around in a lovely new Territory and receiving some really nice prize money.  We used the prize money to fund a dream trip - one that we had been talking about for so, so many years but just never quite had the spare funds to do it.  For 18 days we drove from Hobart to Adelaide and back and created some of our best family memories.

{Road tripping from Hobart to Adelaide & home again}

I've been able to work with some other pretty cool brands, including Air Asia who were kind enough to sponsor me (+ some other lovely bloggers) to visit Kuala Lumpur for the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific blog awards.  It was December 2011 and Kuala Lumpur was a sea of shiny, sparkly Christmas trees, adorning every inch of the shopping centres there.  A far cry from the teeny tiny displays that we have in Hobart during the festive season.

{Kuala Lumpur :: hanging out with some rocking bloggers & the Nuffnang team}

There have been lots of other opportunities thrown into the mix too - magazine and newspaper articles, trips to the mainland, lovely products in my mail box to enjoy and a really nice extra income that I've been able to earn through working with a variety of brands and sponsors on my blog.

Today I'm really excited to announce that I've been selected to be part of the Nuffnang Talent Program Bloggers team, which means sitting alongside an amazing group of Australian bloggers and being able to continue to do all the things that I love - hanging out with my family, creating & blogging - while the Nuffnang team handle the business side of things for me.  

Thank you to everyone for continuing to read along with my stories, crafting and day to day snippets.  Here's to another six years of blogging and many more!

P.S.  If you have time, pop over and visit the other eleven Talent Program Bloggers.  They're a really lovely bunch! 

• Sesame Ellis
• Childhood 101
• Inside Out Style
• My Poppet
• Super Kawaii Mama
• Chaigyaru
• Tina Gray {dot} Me
• Planning With Kids
• Samelia's Mum
• Picklebums
• The Organised Housewife

La Zuppa give away winner

Thank you for entering the La Zuppa give away!  The lucky winner of the La Zuppa prize pack and $50 Coles voucher is:

Monica said...

Love the addition of potatoe to soup (any soup flavour loves it!).once you mash or puree the soup, the potatoe adds a lovely thickness to it!

Have liked the La Zuppa facebook page

Monica, please pop through your mailing address to me (onecraftymumma@internode.on.net) so I can organise to have your prize pack mailed out.

La Zuppa - What's your flavour? + giveaway

Hello! Do you have an all time favourite soup recipe that you find yourself cooking at home, over and over again?  Yes??  Well, today I'm here to tell you about the fabulous What's Your Flavour? soup competition that La Zuppa are running at the moment.  

La Zuppa are calling on soup lovers throughout Australia to submit an original soup flavour to become part of their new range.  Very cool, hey!

Okay, here's what you need to do:

• Pop over to the La Zuppa Facebook page and become a fan
• Follow the prompts to submit your entry, telling them what flavour you would like to see in the La Zuppa range.  By entering you could go into the running to win a trip to Italy, plus, weekly cash prizes! 
• Once your entry has been uploaded to the La Zuppa facebook page, share your entry with friends and family to collect reviews.

Now, just in case you're wondering what my personal favourite soup is - it's roast vegetable!  In my opinion there is nothing more enjoyable than the flavours that come out when you roast a heap of veggies in the oven and turn them into soup. 

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

• Vegetables of your choice - I like to use pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato or potato, capsicum, onions, cauliflower etc...
• A carton of cream - the quantity will depend on how big your pot of soup is
• Chicken stock
• Garlic - 4 or 5 big cloves
• Curry Powder 
• Olive oil
• Seasoning (pepper, salt, dried basil leaves etc..)

How to:

Peel and chop your veggies, drizzle with a little olive oil and season generously with salt/pepper and dried herbs - basil leaves are my favourite.  

Also add 4 or 5 garlic cloves, but don't peel the skins off them, just throw the cloves on top of the vegetables.  

Bake in the oven on a moderate temperature for a couple of hours until the veggies are nice and soft. 

When the vegetables are cooked put everything into a big dish to puree up, but remember to squeeze the garlic out of their skins first and then throw out the skins!

Once everything is all nice and smooth add a couple of cups of chicken stock - or more/less depending on how thick you like your soup.  Add some curry powder - I usually put in a rounded dessert spoon full, but again the quantity depends on how big your mix is and how spicy you want it to be.  

Stir through a carton of cream and serve.  Delicious!

Now, for some extra fun!  I have a La Zuppa prize pack and a $50 Coles voucher to give away to one of my Australian readers.  Just leave a comment below telling me what your favourite soup ingredient is.  I'll close off entries this Sunday (22nd July 2012) and announce the winner on Monday.

For a second entry in the giveaway, head on over and 'like' the La Zuppa Facebook page - leave a comment here letting me know that you have done this and I'll pop two entries in the hat for you!  Good luck.

Ice Magic giveaway winners

Happy Friday!

Just popping in quickly to announce the lovely Ice Magic giveaway winners who are going to be receiving two bottles of caramel Ice Magic + a $50 Coles voucher each.  Hooray!!

The lucky winners (selected by the Ice Magic team) are:

Magdalena: I love ice magic. I have grown up with
it too, but didn\'t know about the caramel
flavour. Yummo.
I would like to create a 3D house out of ice
magic. Kind of like the sweet house out of Hansel
and Gretel. Can you imagine! It would be so much
fun!

Heidi T: Hi Mel! Love what your hubby made - what
a creative family you are! I think, with Easter
approaching, an ice cream Easter Egg (made in an
Easter egg chocolate mould), then decorated with
all sorts of patterns and dots in the many
delicious flavours - it would be the Easter Egg to
rival all Easter eggs! Yummo....

Congratulations Magdalena and Heidi.  Please pop me through your mailing details (onecraftymumma@internode.on.net) so your prize pack can be mailed out.

Don't forget to enter the Ice Magic competition over on their Facebook page to win a trip to New Zealand to go skiing.  There are just THREE DAYS left to enter.

Ice Magic - win a trip to New Zealand + giveaway

{sponsored by Nuffnang}

I have something wonderful to tell you about today - Ice Magic are running a competition over on their Facebook page and you can win a trip to New Zealand to go skiing.  Yes!

I'm an Ice Magic fan from way back - my Dad used to always have a bottle in the cupboard and we would pour it over our ice cream and sprinkle it with crushed nuts, so good.  We often have a bottle of chocolate Ice Magic in our cupboard too, and it was only recently that we added a bottle of caramel gold to the pantry...mmm, delicious.

Now, apart from being a super fun competition to enter, it's also an easy peasy one to do.  All you need to do is grab a couple of bottles of Ice Magic, create a masterpiece, take a photograph and then upload it over HERE onto Facebook.  For some super inspiration, take a peek at this amazing giant art piece that was created especially for the campaign:

 

I know, it's very clever.  It was filmed in Dandenong and the artist used 100 bottles of Ice Magic plus a canvas made out of 150 litres of ice-cream - wow!!

For some further inspiration (cough, cough)....behold our incredibly awesome Ice Magic art, created here in our Tasmanian home with 2 bottles of Ice Magic and half a tub of ice-cream.  The artist was Mr Goodsell...

An audience started to gather:

Ta-da!  Meet our ice magic doggie:

Now...quick sticks! Go and create some Ice Magic art and upload your entry over HERE.

But, before you go - I am giving away 2 Ice Magic prize packs for you to enjoy.  To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me something that would be really cool to create for this competition.

I will close off entries on 23rd March and the winners will be announced shortly after.  *Sorry, but entry is only open to my Australian readers* Good luck.

Chocolate hearts

 

Good morning lovelies.  

I'll be back a little bit later in the day, but I'm just popping in for now to announce who'll be receiving some chocolate heart goodness in their mailbox.

I enjoyed reading every one of your Pap test comments and some of them had me in fits of laughter.  There were a couple of naughty people (you know who you are!) that have been dodging the Pap test commitment, but it was lovely to read that you're onto it now.

So, since this was just a very tiny give away for fun, I chose the first 5 comments for chocolate:

• Tamar
• Nicky
• Jaki
• Michelle
• Christeen (Hooray for having your Pap test the day before my blog post)

Pop me through your mailing details girls (onecraftymumma@internode.on.net) and some mini hearts will be heading your way.  I'll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that your chocolate doesn't melt along the way!

*More information on Pap tests can be found on the ACCF website here, and facebook.*

Do something important on Valentine's Day

{sponsored by Nuffnang}

Valentine's Day. It's a celebration of love; traditionally, romantic love... This year on the tail of a recent Newspoll survey, the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation (ACCF) is urging Australian women to remember themselves with a caring gesture to their most feminine parts on Valentine‟s Day, by committing to make a date with their doctor for a Pap test.

I had my first Pap test in my early twenties, and have been having regular two year tests ever since.  I'm sometimes a little surprised when I hear that my friends or family members aren't having regular Pap tests themselves.  It's very naughty and also scary, especially when you read the facts: 

...and this one:

Did you know?

Something else really interesting from the January survey, is that two popular occasions for personal grooming are Valentine's Day and Pap tests.  Yes!  It seems very sensible to combine the two and kill two birds with the one stone....

If you don't shave or wax, never fear...I have a different formula for you:

So, this Valentine's Day, do you something important for yourself and book in for a Pap smear.  It could save your life! 

To share the Valentine's Day Pap test love, I just popped down to the shop and bought fifteen mini chocolate hearts for you!  Leave a comment on this post about your own Pap test story (naughty people confessions also allowed) and I'll choose five Aussie girls this Friday to post out 3 mini hearts to each.  It's just a fun teensy give away :) 

Everyone needs chocolate hearts and Pap smears xox

More information can also be found on the ACCF website here, and facebook. 

Australasian Dirt Bike magazine

{sponsored by Nuffnang}

My long term readers would know that Mr Goodsell has been a dirt bike fan/rider/crasher and extraordinaire for quite some time.  Actually, he has been riding dirt bikes since grade four and has been reading Australasian Dirt Bike magazine since 1982!  

Can you believe that he has never had a subscription in all of those years?  Every single month he potters into the newsagency and buys a copy, and I do mean every single month.  Can you imagine the money that we would have saved with a subscription??  Can you also believe that I only just figured that out now, after 29 years of buying?  Granted that we've only been married for 17 years out of the 29, but still!!

One of his biggest regrets is having a clear out several years ago and pretty much taking every issue to the tip.  His shed was getting crazy out of control with piles upon piles of Australasian Dirt Bike magazines and he decided to part with them.  Just a couple made it into the 'keep' pile, including this little gem from 1985 - yes, the cover is missing:

There have been quite a few dirt bike injuries over the years - broken foot, punctured lung, broken ribs, broken jaw in four places, numerous concussions and a whole heap of torn muscles, cuts, bruises, etc...  But, the most recent injury was a torn anterior cruciate ligament and medial meniscus, just a few weeks before a planned 40th birthday 7 day dirt bike ride with Otway Off-Road Motorcycle Tours and several friends.

{Richard, looking happy on his dirt bike tour - photo by Otway Off-Road Motorcycle Tours}

He wasn't that sure at the time whether the tour would still be possible, and even a couple of days before they were meant to head off, there was still a whole load of limping happening around the house.  After reading an article (in the latest issue of Dirt Bike magazine) that talked about drinking low-fat milk to restore your body after a long ride, Rich decided to head off with milk in tow and try out the recommendation.  He combined the milk suggestion with a cold shower (recommended in a previous issue) and has now decided to implement these two ideas in all future rides.  Hooray!

He had a fabulous trip away too and came back injury free - so good.

Oh and the best news - if your husband (like mine!!) needs a magazine subscription for Christmas (there are 35 participating titles), you might be lucky enough to win a fabulous Hawaiian holiday - see details below!

** Be eligible to win one of 10 fabulous Hawaiian holiday packages valued at over $12,000 each with Magshop’s Christmas competition - Simply subscribe, renew or treat family and friends to any of the 35 participating titles including The Australian Women’s Weekly, Top Gear Australia, Australian House & Garden, Shop Til You Drop, UFC, Money, and many more.

 

How do you take care?

{sponsored by Nuffnang}

It's true that I like to make greener choices for our family when and where I can, to help take care and protect our planet.  Sometimes it feels a little bit daunting and I worry that I'm not doing enough, but I think baby steps are okay and I have to keep reminding myself that.

Probably the first small step that I made towards helping the environment (several years ago) was making our own washing detergent, rather than buying supermarket powder with nasty chemicals. I know there are several gentler brands that you can buy now, but I prefer this recipe.  For those that would like to whip up a batch at home, here you go:

4 cups grated laundry or homemade soap or soap flakes (Lux)
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
Mix together and store, using 2 tablespoons per wash.  

From the washing powder, I progressed to making other green choices (again, just tiny steps) such as line drying all of our clothes, washing in cold water, switching most of our light bulbs to LED, recycling and upcycling, baking from scratch using local + Australian produce (when I can) and eliminating junk mail. 

I feel one of the bigger and greener steps for me was choosing to shop for the majority of my clothes at thrift stores.  The boys in the family prefer to buy their clothes in stores and I am okay with that and I still do shop in main stream stores every so often myself, but I like to support the local op-shops when and where I can.  I love that second hand shopping is gradually (and finally) becoming cool!

{Jag brand dress for Bella & necklaces - $7 at a thrift store}

Making/buying handmade gifts and using hand knitted dishcloths for washing/cleaning are two other teeny things that I like to do.  One day I'm dreaming of solar panels for our house, but I think that might be a while off yet - they're ouchy expensive.

But, why I started this blog post was to tell you that the lovely team at Garnier are on the search for some inspiring Australians to become a Garnier Take Care Ambassador and win $1000 to support a local project. 

They are currently searching for 10 Take Care Ambassadors to inspire The Circle (Garnier's online community), share product reviews and beauty advice, plus receive support for their own community project..

Entries are open now and close on 4th January 2012. From there, the final Ambassadors will be chosen through public voting with the winners announced in February 2012.   It's a super exciting competition and such a fabulous way that you can take care of your local community!

To enter, simply pop over HERE to Garnier's Facebook page.

Good luck!

Scrabble winner!

Just popping in quickly to announce the lucky winner of the Scrabble giveaway:

Anna has left you a comment: Mel, you really have a knack for posting things/competitions and such on your blog that are soooo relevent to something current in my life. Scrabble has always been an ALL-TIME favourite in our family's games cupboard all through my childhood and even when I got married I snavelled up an old preloved Scrabble game from my old workplace at an aged care home - however, it is missing about 20 letter blocks, so adequate word making is limited. My Mum put it on the family gift list for me as we believe it is an ESSENTIAL game to have in any household. When I skype my family back in Tassie, my Mum and sister are often in the middle of a Scrabble game. I would love to win it so I can pull it out and relive my childhood memories when my Mum and sisters come to visit. As for my old set? Hmmm, I have a few nifty ideas up my sleeves...

Anna, congratulations and may you have many fun games of Scrabble in the future!  Please pop me through your address details so that I can organise your new game to be mailed out - onecraftymumma@internode.on.net