Happiness in a Weekend

Sometimes, I can have weeks on end of 'couch weekends' - you know, the weeks d where you don't venture out and only do the basic errands, but have no major events. Life has been like that for me for the past few months - and by no means isn't a bad thing to have that time to chill.
This weekend just gone however, was mahoosive (yep, new word alert!). It started off for me with Thursday night dinner at a Mexican sans child (woo hoo!) followed by the Tea Party gig. I was transported back to 1995 and loved every minute of it.




Jeff Martin from The Tea Party

Friday, I had a 'me' day. TBone looked after Master Z and I was able to have my hair done and spend the day shopping in Claremont - and I had a coffee and dessert that I got to finish to the end!

 

Saturday I had a birthday party for one of my beautiful mother's group friends followed by an engagement party for one of TBOne's friends from school. Sunday was then spent catching up with work friends in Freo.


But the HIGHLIGHT, was Friday night's Christmas in July for W.O.M.B.A.T. (that's 'Website, Online Media, Bloggers and Tweeps' for the uninitiated!) at Black Tom's. I was bricking it and very close to pulling out at the last minute. I was heading to an event with 25 other Perth bloggers, whom I had never met and only chatted to on a few occasions and I was petrified!


I had previously tweeted that I would most likely spend the night in the toilet - my go to place when I am uncomfortable - but I needn't have worried. The first person I met was Yvette from Delightfully Tacky Lil Squirts, who I speak to every Tuesday as a fellow #IBOT team member. She was lovely, bubbly and her conversation, mixed with some champers went a long way to helping me relax.

Yvette, Glow and Karen

There were several bloggers there that I have read from my first discovery of blogging and it was pretty intimidating and awesome at the same time to meet them. I was stoked to meet Glow from Where's My Glow?, who is as warm and funny as her blog and the beautifully serene Sarah from Dear Baby G, who has the most beautiful energy about her and is exactly how I imagined her from reading her words.

Georgia, Lani, Sarah, Catherine, Taryn

It was also lovely to meet Georgia, from Parental Parody, Taryn from This is Taryn, Feli from My Life in Mono, Kim - @RealJiveTurkey and Lani from Me & Boo - all blogs in my reader and I devour their words every morning.

Glow and Taryn

I met some other bloggers that I had not come across before, the gorgeous Karen from Yellow Dandy Dreams, Rhonda from Silly Mummy, and Cie from Pathetic to Pin Up - blogs I journeyed through on Saturday to catch up.
As with anything that involves a bit of wine, there were shinanegans, and I may have ended up in Leederville - where I was id checked for the second night in a row - woo hoo! Thank you to my two partners in crime - I had an awesome time getting to know you - and the random people we followed there because they showed an interest in our boxes.

Kim and Glow

Thank you so much to Colin from Superparents and the others who organized the event and the sponsor, Koo from Bubblerdeals for the beautiful Tiffany blue boxes full of goodies that were the envy of many other Black Tom's punters - particularly the guy below who we decided looked like David Brent in his music video.

David Brent?

I had a blast meeting everyone, some people I didn't get to, so will have to catch up next time and I can't wait to do it again!

My happiness cup was well and truly filled to the brim on the weekend!

Linking up today with Jess at Diary of a SAHM as its Tuesday!

Self Portrait

Linking up today with Jess from Diary of a SAHM for IBOT.

Last week, Jess put a call out for people to help read and comment on the posts that link each week. I put my hand up, as this is the one linky that I regularly follow and although I don't comment on every post, I do read all the posts. By being part of Team IBOT, I will be able to comment on all the wonderful posts that are linked up each week.


Jess asked the 6 of us to answer a few questions about ourselves and also to post a photo. I neglected to send a photo as I am not very good at reading instructions, and Jess used my blog picture - which to be honest, I would have sent anyway.

This is the picture I use on my blog, for twitter and commenting etc. I think this is a representation of how I want the world to see me - doesn't she look relaxed and without a care in the world?! I used a cartoon, not for anonymity, but as I just don't have any photos of myself. I have been looking through our photos, and since Master Z was born, I am only in a handful of ones we have taken. I put on a huge amount of weight when I was pregnant and have only lost half of this. I think this has a lot to do with why I don't 'do' photos, but I realise I have missed so many opportunities to be in photos with my little boy and I think this has been quite selfish of me. I tend to be the photo takerer (so a word!) and shy away from being in group photos. I am one of those annoying people that 'untags' myself from photos on Facebook and I usually demand to veto any photos people take of me if I think I look really crap.

I have decided that this would change as of today. I won't hide behind a drawing and I am going to lay myself bare. What better way to get it all out there (don't worry, I mean figuratively) than to put it on my blog. I am including a few of the photos I have of myself from the last few years and once I press 'publish' I am going to have to get over my insecurities.

This is the photo I put on all my uni Master's degree unit home pages - mainly as you can't really see me and 'hey, check out Everest in the background' Pity its about 7 years old..........

This is the worst photo of me, but was taken at the happiest point of my life. He was born at 7.10am, and I had an hair appointment booked for 9.00am that day - he didn't have the decency to wait for me to get styled!

6 months after Master Z was born, at a wedding in New Zealand - not a great photo of either of us, but I like this photo as it shows my total love for that boy (chubby bubby :o))

The only photo of our family I could find. I am horrified at this and will start to change it.

The only photo we have of me by myself. In New Zealand - almost 2 years ago! I hate looking at it, but will have to get over it!

And finally, here is a photo of me, today, warts and all. No make up, minimal sleep and I haven't brushed my hair for a few days. I am going to change my twitter and blog photo to something that is my reality. This is the start of it for me and hopefully I can start to be in photos so that Master Z can know that I was actually there by his side each day.

What are you like at having your photo taken? Are you a shining light, or a wall flower?

Chantel x

Questions, Questions, Questions

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One of my single, male, 35 year old friends was lamenting the other day about how he kept getting asked by people when he was going to settle down and get a girlfriend. He was finding that this was the question that was dominating everyone's conversations with him, from his family, friends and workmates. 


I reminded him that our friends who had been together for over a year, we're always asked when they were were getting married, our newly wedded friends were being asked when they were having a baby and with Master Z turning 2, we were constantly asked when we were having our second. Hell, a friend was asked in the hospital last week, hours after giving birth to her beautiful second boy if she was going to try for a third!!!!!! Only a few hours after!!!!!! 


Many of the questions are well meaning interest or just to make conversation and finding common ground, but it can come across as seeming to be a need for people to want to know when you are going to be making the moves to fit into the 'house with a white picket fence' ideal of life. Married, 2.5 kids = happiness. If you don't fit into that box surely you can't be happy???? I am sure that is what my friend feels and he has said that he is fed up with the questions and in honesty, he doesn't want a relationship just for the sake of it. He has decided that although he has always wanted kids, he doesn't want a relationship just for that reason. He is not looking and surely that should be ok. 


I have been upset recently by the constant questions about when we are having our second baby - believe me, I am dancing as fast as I can on that one, but life doesn't always fall into place like that and not everyone strives for the house with the white picket fence. Some people look for the modern , colourbond fence, others want no fence at all. I hate being put on the spot with that question as I am sure that my friend gets uncomfortable every time he is grilled. 


I try to make an effort when talking to people, particularly those I don't know, to stay away from those presumptive questions and I hope that I have never made anyone uncomfortable with those questions in the past. I get that people are taking an interest, but they would be better placed asking me how the beautiful boy that I do have is going, or asking my newly wed friends how their new house is going, or my wonderful friend who has just given birth in the hospital how she is feeling. 


What questions do you find put you on the spot and make you uncomfortable? Am I being precious and unreasonable?


Linking up today with Jess at Diary of a SAHM - head over there to see what others have written for Tuesday

Chantel x

Oh dear

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I think I am getting cold feet. I don't know if I can make the commitment. This feeling always happens to me when I try something new that I want to do well. This is why I so often have grand ideas and then don't follow through. I don't like to do things that I am not good at, so invariably  there are situations I don't put myself in - to avoid failure.

It is for this reason that I need to just bite the bullet and do this. I need to go ahead with starting a blog. It will help to give me structure in my week and give me something to focus on for me - outside of my family, my work and uni. 

I think one of my biggest problems - and the reason I get anxious - is I have a terrible habit of wanting everything now. I want what I write to be the best it can, I want it to look the best it can, I want the topics I talk about to be the most interesting and attract readers. I then panic that things wont meet my expectations, so I give up.

Then I saw that Maxabella and Sarah have looked in on me - two of the most wonderful bloggers I have been following. That really freaked me out. It means that the words I write may actually get read. I then panicked that I wouldn't be interesting enough.

Maybe I am looking at it all wrong. I need to realise that things like this take practice. They take skill and time. I had big plans with the post I wrote to put up tomorrow - as all new things should start on Monday - but I think I need to refocus.  I need to start small and basic and most importantly, honestly. I need to not worry about what people think of me, I need to write the truth and not create "an ideal me" and just learn the skill of writing for an audience. 

So I have scrapped the post I was going to do for tomorrow, that can be used at a later time. I am instead going to go off now, write something new and start with the basics. I will start with an introduction about me, why I am doing this and what I hope to achieve. It isn't going to be 'edge of your seat' reading, but it will be a good place for me to start this journey.

Chantel x