July 2015Life Love and Hiccups: July 2015
Life Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and Hiccups

Friday 31 July 2015

Shifting Gears and Weekend Rewind is Back!

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One more sleep.

Just one more night of attempted shut eye and when we wake all the hard work, all the stress, all the long sleepless nights will be worth it.

Tomorrow the Crossroading Hub opens and we can finally open the doors and welcome friends and family and friends to be to come in and be a part of the workshops, retail store, Uberkate's new home and the Crossroading Studio.

Tomorrow Kate, Tessa and I will sigh one hellava big breath and then sit back and try and soak it all up knowing that every single piece in this new place of ours, every nook and cranny has been created and curated together with an infinite amount of love and passion.

It's going to be strange for a while.

For the past two months we have been moving at lightening speed working day and night seven days a week to get this place ready.

Our normal lives have been put on hold, and I know that I for one haven't seen much of anyone else other than our three families.

The blog was allocated to the back seat for a while and everything was just a blur of to do lists and adrenaline fueled highs and lows.

But now we are done and everything is ready and from here on in we will shift into a new gear.

Granted it will be a faster gear than the one we were cruising in a few months back. I mean how can it not be when we have these new businesses to nurture, but I am looking forward to picking up where I left off and spending some precious time with my family and friends and getting back into writing here regularly.

I've missed writing here.

I've also missed reading what everyone else has been up to in the blogosphere and spending time chatting to everyone on Facebook and I have missed our Weekend Rewind and all the gorgeous bloggers that link up each week.

Speaking of gorgeous bloggers - I am absolutely honoured to be featured over at Sammie's blog today. Sam from The Annoyed Thyroid is one of the most genuinely beautiful souls I have had the pleasure of meeting since I have been blogging.

She is honest and funny and as real as you can get and if you haven't yet had the pleasure of getting to know Sam then get your ass over to her blog and indulge yourself in some reading and connecting with one of the most awesome bloggers you will ever come across.



Whilst I am on the topic of awesome bloggers - WEEKEND REWIND is BACK and although Bron, Kell and I have been off being busy doing all sorts of stuff, we are all so happy for today to roll around and the weekly linky to recommence.

Joining us as our guest host this week is the divine Lauren from The Thud.

Now this fabulous woman - Lauren - is so freaking funny that I have to practically cross my legs when I am reading her hilarious blog and I love that she is someone who not only admits to her various parenting screw ups but laughs at them and herself as much as I do. (laugh at myself I mean, not you Lauren, I am laughing with you babe not at you! ;)




To play along simply link up your favourite post from the past week and then if you get a chance, pop around and say hello to some of the other lovely linkers. The Weekend Rewind blog hopping party starts every Friday night at 8pm and links will close on Sunday night at midnight. Link up here or over on Bron's blog (Maxabella Loves) or Kelly's (at A Life Less Frantic ). It does not matter where you link as your link will show up in all 4 places.

One last thing before you run off on your blog hopping adventures - I'd like to extend an open invitation to anyone who happens to be on the Northern Beaches tomorrow, to come and say hello to us at the warehouse. 


We are open from 10am - 4pm and we are at 17 Carter Road Brookvale .... but be warned, I may be a little enthusiastic and bowl you over in an over zealous hug. 

What can I say? I'm a clutzy hugger.

Just don't say you weren't warned.

Have a fabulous weekend you guys.







Wednesday 29 July 2015

I'm Just a Big Old Fraud

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Do you ever feel like a fraud when it comes to being an adult?

I do!

In many ways (although my body would have me believe otherwise) I still feel like I am a clumsy teenager fumbling my way into the world of grown ups, and much like the little girl getting busted for massacring her mum's good lippy and breaking the heels off her favourite shoes - I half expect someone to grab me by the collar and scold me for pretending to be a grown up ... you know, trying to fool everyone in to believing I am older than I really am and all that.

The thing is, I don't really feel any older on the inside.

I'm still afraid of being on my own at night, I still refuse to eat my Brussels sprouts and I wouldn't for even one minute think that when someone says something like "ask the lady" that they are actually referring to me!.

Bloody hell no!

One of my boys asked me what it's like to be an adult when we were in the car on the way to school the other day and I was all "I dunno, why dontcha ask an adult".

He looked at me like I was bonkers and I'm sure he couldn't decide whether I had hit my head and lost my marbles or I was just completely full of shit.

Whilst it's been a long time since I was asked for id (like a looooong time), and you could totally be excused for thinking an eight year old did my makeup on some days, and not to mention that I still cannot for the life of me walk in high heels - I AM a grown up.

I'm a proper bonafide adult and yet I still feel like a big old fraud when I find myself doing grown up things.

Take for example, the other day I was sitting in an accountants office signing a whole load of businessy paperwork for a whole load of businessy stuff and despite the fact that I knew I had a good ten years on the guy I was dealing with, I kept waiting for him to ask me to get a grown up to sign for me.

I felt like I should be looking around for someone to step in for me, like an adult perhaps? Or at least someone who is more adultier than me. But there wasn't anyone to step in for me, because there wasn't anyone any more adulty in that room than me.

Now that's a sobering thought.

Being the oldest in a room.

Holy shitballs!

I was the baby of the family. I was the one who begged everyone to NOT treat me like the baby.

What the hell happened?

One minute I'm this timid little ten year old who thought that anyone over 25 was practically geriatric and then suddenly... BAM... I have adult stamped all over my face in the form of crows feet and laugh lines, my bones are staring to creak and I have these little people who look at me like they expect I should have a half a clue about being in charge of stuff.

I swear we somehow skipped a decade or two.

I don't think people actually lie about their age.

Nup, I think they are so damn shellshocked with the speed at which they aged that they simply lost track of the years... or at least that's what I'm going with from here on in.

Do you feel like a fair dinkum proper grown up? Does it scare you?
Or do you still feel at least 10 years behind what the age on your passport says?



Wednesday 22 July 2015

I Was The Victim of a Rip and Run Attack

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I was the victim of a RIP and RUN on the weekend and my assailant was none other than my sweet 8 year old boy.

If you are unfamiliar with the rip and run, please, let me enlighten you by sharing what happened.

I'll set the scene for you because you really needed to be there to appreciate the full mortification value.

I am standing in the container aisle of my local Kmart checking out some gorgeous paint dipped baskets. My two smallest muchkins and my hubby are with me and despite our snotty noses and red rimmed eyes we are the picture of family bliss....

Ahhh OK maybe not so fast huh Sonia!

The hubby who is eyes rolling in the back of the head kind of bored by now with my commentary of the pros and cons of wire baskets versus cane baskets, wandered off to browse the far more titillating battery aisle, the ten year old spied a friend from school and didn't want to be caught dead shopping for baskets with his mum and therefore bolted for the lolly section and I was left with a particularly miserable and flemmy eight year old.

He too soon grew tired of me and my basket gushing and meandered off somewhere else ... but not before he dropped a bomb of atomic magnitude.

As he made his stage left exit the most horrific insidious odour crept up and literally smacked me in nose and left me gasping for air.

He had let one rip.

A really ROTTEN one.

Like a turn your toes up kind of rotten one and then the little bugger left me with the carnage.

A well dressed mum and her fabulously hip looking teenage daughter entered the basket aisle and the poor things walked smack bang into me AND the stench.

Now how does one even try to begin to explain to a complete stranger that the vomit inducing fart smell did not actually come from me... the one and only person standing in an empty aisle?

Well I did what any mortified person would do... I shouted at the top of my voice "FLYNNNNNN DO YOU NEED TO GO TO THE TOILET? YOUR FART REALLY SMELLS BAD HONEY".

And then I shrugged at the mum and daughter with my best 'throw me a bone, I am a victim of a rip and run' and left them on their own to drown in the rotten smell that came from my sweet child's bum.

I found Flynn with his dad comparing the pros and cons of Duracell versus Everyready and one look at their faces told me that they knew EXACTLY what they had just put me through.

Revenge shall be mine... as soon as I figure out something worthy.

Now if you will excuse me I must go and sniff a rose garden or something because the mere memory of that smell is making my eyes water.

Have you ever been a victim of a RIP and RUN?

Monday 20 July 2015

I Was A Mother's Group Drop Out!

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I didn't join a mother's group when my kids were babies. The health nurse at our local baby clinic somehow convinced me to go along to the first meeting, but I had pretty much determined within the first 15 minutes that the women who were there that day, weren't really my cup of tea.

Kai and most of the gummy munchkins were less than three weeks old and I think the oldest baby was six weeks.  But apparently six weeks was a whole lot older than our babies and so the very confident mum of the six week old appointed herself as the leader of the pack and the expert in all things mother and baby related.

Quite frankly - within ten minutes I found myself with an irresistible urge to punch her.

You'll be relieved to hear that I didn't.. punch her that is. I mean I had enough trouble carrying myself and my stitched up broken bits without the added stress of assaulting anyone. But once the comparing of what each other's babies were doing and who was sleeping for how long and feeding like a pro and yada yada set in, I legged it out of there and never went back.

I saw the group a little while later when I was at a local park. I spied the boss mum leading the bugaboo pack through the playground and I desperately avoided eye contact whilst I sat like a Nigel nobody drinking my cold decaf coffee and watched my baby sleeping in his pram. 

I remember feeling really lonely and wishing I had maybe persevered with the group or at least made more of an effort to find myself some fellow mums that I related to and that I could share stories with and ask the awkward questions I was too embarrassed to ask a proper qualified person about.

I didn't go back to mothers group when my second and third babies were born either, but by then most of my girlfriends were also having kids and so I am happy to say I had friends to sit at the park with.

The online world has changed the dynamics and created a whole new playground when it comes to being a mum these days. 

There are forums and Facebook groups and a whole host of fellow mums and friends and experts that you can talk to and have immediate access to tips and advice and virtual shoulders to sob on when needed.

Mums Helping Mums is a platform created by Baby Bumkins  - a brand developed to support us mums dad, and families on our journeys through parenthood. It is a place where you can ask those questions and share your stories and have a little laugh or cry without fear of judgement or comparison.

I am thrilled to be a part of the Mums Helping Mums along with my fellow bloggers Kelly from Be a Fun Mum and Sarah from Move Fuel Love

If you are a mum or a mum to be, head on over and join in the conversation. You can also connect with the Mum's Helping Mums community & Baby Bumkins on Facebook here.

Did you belong to a Mother's Group
Did you have a good experience or did you luck out like I did?

Thursday 16 July 2015

How To Slow Down Time

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Do you feel like time is moving extra fast at the moment? As far as I am concerned it's like it has taken a bit old snort of psuedoephedrine and it's moving ten times faster than usual.

Excuse me whilst I adopt an old cronies voice and say "I remember back in the old days when hours felt like days and days felt like weeks'.

It's true though.

Once upon a time I was moaning how it was soooo long until my birthday, how school went for like forEVER and the kettle takes the longest time in the world to boil.

These days I'm all 'holy shitballs, it's school pick up time already?'

I can't seem to go to the toilet, put a load of washing on and answer an email before the kettle is screaming at me like a wild banshee and as for birthdays... well those darn things come around far too quickly!

I have come to the conclusion that either I'm the one snorting the pseudoephedrine or time really is moving quickly. Given the fact I am anti chemical consumption, I can only assume the latter.

Yesterday I was looking through some of my old photos on instagram and I stumbled upon one with my desk clock in it. I glanced at the very same clock on my desk and surprisingly noticed that the time on the clock was exactly the same time as it was in the photo.



A totally freaky coincidence?

Nope.

The batteries had clearly stopped in my clock at least two months ago and I hadn't even noticed.

Time had stood still... literally,  for the past two months anyway and yet here I am moaning about how fast it seems to be going.

Now obviously we can't go around taking the batteries out of all of the clocks in our life and pretending like time doesnt exist... can we? No, and I am sort of sane enough to realise that I am the one in a hurry these days and it got me to thinking about how I could possibly make time at least seem like it is slowing down a little.

A couple of hours of reading later (I lost track of time bada boom) I had devised a list of ways I can focus on mentally slow down time.


1. Do less.
The most obvious reason for the illusion of time speeding up is because we tend to cram so much into every day.

So many of us are always rushing from A to B and so is it any wonder we feel like we have no time?

When you sit and watch whilst you wait for the kettle to boil, it takes forever right? So there lies the answer, do less and spend more time focusing on the empty gaps between.

Heck, sit and actually wait for the kettle boil every once in a while because it is one sure fire way to make seconds feel like eternity.


2. Limit the multitasking.
Now this actually goes against everything I have trained myself into believing since I became a mum; the more things I can do at once, the more productive I am.

It's a useful tool for us busy parents who have lists to get through, but how much are we missing from every moment because we are too busy juggling stuff?

One day a week, just one cause ... well you know we have to start gently and all that, make a promise to ourselves that we will focus on one thing at a time. Just one job at a time with full attention and if we find ourselves waiting for an appointment or at sport or school pick up - we need to suck it up and just wait and do nothing whilst we are waiting other than breathe.

3. Change the routine
Doing things differently forces us to focus more and the more focussed we are then the more we take notice of each minute as it ticks by.

Routine by nature is designed to help us engage our autopilot mode and autopilot is the worst possible mindset to be in if we want to take more notice of what is going on around us.

Have you ever driven home from somewhere and then when you arrive home you kind of go "I don't remember actually driving here"?

I have and usually it's because I have been focussed on what I need to do when I get home and what to cook for dinner and yada yada and apart from being a scary thing cause helloooo I was DRIVING, it is also a shame that I didn't even notice the time as it passed.

Taking a different route home will make us focus more on where we are going and therefore we can't help but be more in the moment.

Making something new for dinner and trying a new hobby could work too and if you are a runner or you like to walk, try taking a different path. We need to do anything and I mean anything to get us out of autopilot.

4. Do a 10 minute body scan
I have been doing this one for a while now - usually when I go to sleep at night. I focus on each of my senses, slow my breathing down and then starting from my head I concentrate on relaxing every muscle as I mentally move down my body. My eyes, my mouth, my shoulders, hands and feet. It is amazing how tense we are and we don't even realise it until we actually focus on our various body parts and realise we are tensing them.

5. Soak in the bath
The key here is to not take into the bathroom with us. No phone, no magazines or a books. Take nothing in with us and do nothing but sit in the warm water, close our eyes and just listen to the sounds around us.

6. Switch off
I don't know about you, but there have been so many times that Carl or the kids or a friend have told me something and I mustn't have heard them because I am busy looking at the computer or playing Candy Crush on my phone (yes I still play - level 863 to be precise). Then when something happens I go and get all shitty and moan "WHY didn't you tell me?" and then they get even shittier and roll their eyes into the back of their head and say "I DID".

Yep guilty.

On top of that I have lost countless hours 'just quickly checking' something on line and ending up googling things like 'how to rewire a lamp' and ending up on some page that is teaching me 'how to turn a shipping container into an outdoor cabana'.

Electronics and the internet - a guaranteed way to lose time.

7. Practice Mindfulness
This is something I have been trying to develop for some time, but truth be told I am kind of shit at it and find it hard to do on my own. I often struggle to get into the right mind frame and so I use apps like Buddhify and Head Space to help me.

OK so maybe we can't actually slow time down given it is a force of nature and something man cannot control, but we sure as hell can change our perception of time and make it appear like it is moving more slowly... and possibly even without relying on dead batteries in our desk clocks.

Do you feel like time is on speed these days?
How you do you try and slow it down?
Do you practice mindfulness? Any other apps we should know about?

Tuesday 14 July 2015

Pickle Me Pork Chops - I'm Back!

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Well pickle me pork chops, it’s been a while hasn’t it?!

How are you guys doing?

I have a lot to catch up on and lots of bloggy reading to do and even though I didn’t actually set out to take a couple of weeks off from the blog, I just kind of did and it was good - if you know what I mean.

School holidays, the warehouse refurb and new businesses, work and life just went a little nuts there for a while and if I had balls … well I am pretty sure I would have well and truly busted them in juggle to do it all. But rather than putting an ice pack on those somewhat non existent balls and moaning about them... on the contrary, the juggling has been quite the hoot.

I have come to the conclusion that a wee break from blogging every now and then is a good thing. 

Despite the fact that blogging is something we love to do, there are times where life will get a little crazy and everything I want to say just sounds all blah blah blah. 

Not that I have anything against blah blah blah, its just that I am more interested in other people's blah blah than I am my own.

When life gets all crazy blah blah like that, I think you need to make a choice - try to pretend the crazy isn't really happening, or, dive on in and actually enjoy being a part of the crazy for a while rather than attempting to direct it from the sidelines.

So the warehouse makeover is now complete and we are busy stocking the retail shop and planning the workshops. 

It has been six weeks of work, days & nights, seven days a week and all hands on deck - hubbies and kids included, but I am so proud to say that we are finally there and ready to rock and roll.



I plan on taking loads of pics of the various spaces over the next few days, and when I say various spaces I mean we are more than just the workshops we originally set out to be. 

I guess you can say our vision evolved and now we are five businesses under the one roof and all of the businesses are run by a combination of myself and / or my two partners in crime Tessa & Kate.



I’ll share those pics with you soon and the story behind how it all came to be, but in the meantime I am literally busting those pickled pork chops to let you know that the first workshop is all booked in and it is a Dreamweavers work shop where you hands on make dream catchers with none other than our gorgeous friend Jayde from Little Paper Lane.


The 1st workshop takes place on Saturday the 1st August - which also happens to be our official opening day and you can get all the info or book a ticket here.

Besides the awesome Jayde being an integral part of our creative team, we have a whole load of clever clogs lined up to host workshops that include arts & crafts, calligraphy & small business topics, health & wellbeing, interior design and mixology… all served with a champs or a coffee and a shitload of fun.

There are new workshops being loaded daily so keep your eye on the DTLL Workshops website, Facebook page or Instagram page to stay up to date.

I’d love to hear what kind of workshops you guys would be interested in doing?
I also want to hear what you have been up to?

Any exciting news? 
What’s been happening?


Spill the beans people cause I missed you!