In the midst of mayhem. Time for bullet points (peow peow)
(Disclaimer: Please don't judge me on the fusion nature of the meal I cooked).
So, for dinner we had gurnard, quinoa, fennel bulbs, jajick, and yams. Master Two (see, I've gone all Women's Weekly on your bad arses) was enjoying his food, and especially the 'sauce' -what is it with kids and sauce? - I digress.
Poking his yams, he asked if he could have "a little more thauth for his pennithes". Do your best lisp, and think of what yams look most like...
Clever chap.
I tells ya, everyone should do school cert French. It annihilates any chance of comfortably hazarding French spelling, because you know you only have a 64% chance of getting it right.
One great weekend over and done with. We had a christening yesterday (my first!), and the entire congregation/audience/spectators (desperately searching in my head for churchy words) were made god parents. Sue quite rightly asked what religious education I could offer, but I pointed out that I am in charge of spiritual guidance, so when the time comes I'll be able to teach little Jacob everything he needs to know about vodka.
The after match function was a sea of champagne, excellent company, fabulous pate, crayfish, ham, sweets... it was a veritable cornucopia of life as I believe it should be lived. In addition to all this bodily indulgence was perhaps the most lovely speech I have ever heard about the joy of being a parent.
In fact, I had a somewhat spiritual awakening, and am going to endeavour to spend a lot more time and money on good wine and food.
Hallelujah!
This is my favourite country song.
He yabbers on a bit at the beginning, but it is well worth the wait.
Malo and I continue our series of hot dates around town. Today we went to *cough* the mall *cough*, and the kid had a scone with jam and cream.
I feel I'm doing a bloody good job as a parent when I think about my boy enjoying lots of scones and shopping. Poor child.
Damn beds, or more specifically mattresses. Seems you can't buy a mattress on its own, well, you can, but it is the same price as buying a base. Don't other people have proper beds?
And so my rock and roll existence continues...
For some reason today has been very busy in the Babylicious world. The website has had a record day in terms of the number of customers, and I've got a fabulous new retailer on board.
It is all terrific, and really unexpected. Quite often you can sense these things coming, and sometimes they just appear from left field. I'm not complaining, bring it on. I find I'm MUCH happier when I've got lots of work to do.
Back to it.
It hardly seemed fair to only have a female poll.
So, here we go, balancing the genders.
Time for a poll, since L Lo is in the news for something naughty, or something. It is almost so boring I can't be bothered looking it up.
For the record I think Linds is a hottie. I also think Paris is hot, after a friend said she looks like Aphrodite, and she really does.
To span the generations I'll try and make this relevant to everyone. And they won't all be teens, but you can guarantee they were at some stage.
I've been thinking a lot about my business plan for the Cable Car Challenge. Not so much actual doing or writing the plan, but lots of thinking.
The thing about these plans is at what point do you stop? I'm all up for owning the New Zealand market, and while I'm at it I may as well nail Asia/Australasia, and what about Europe, well, why the hell not? And a helicopter (for a jet wouldn't get you to all the isolated places the rich enjoy). Why not a manservant, and a building?
You see my problem.
The fabulous Ms Oy Vey is coming to our fair country in January.
Natch, I want to show her the best time possible (fingers crossed January is pretty weather-wise). What do you think are the must see things here?
I'm anticipating a day in the Wairarapa checking out its finest vinted product, and a trip down the South Island. Anyfink else?
And any hot tips for guide books welcome too, so that she can start getting all excited.
Time to up the ante on this blog of mine, whatever that means.
If you have linked to me, and I haven't linked to you, please tell me. Mainly I'm slack, and don't pay my blogroll enough attention.
What else? I've done something with Feedburner. I've no idea what. Tell me if something looks a bit wonky. Does anyone really understand computers?
That is all. Over and out.
(This post in itself is an experiment to see what my settings are doing...)
What a day! Splendiferous. Excellmunto. Muntedscrabulous.
The sun is out, the sky is blue, there's not a cloud to spoil the view, but it's raining, raining in my heart.
I'm just being dramatic. My heart is actually sunny too. I went to the Kirks sale this morning, armed with $200 of vouchers, and left empty handed, like every Kirks sale that has gone before. Sometimes I'm not the shopper I would like to be, I seem to find it easier to buy things when they're full priced. I did try on a quite lovely Tissot watch, but frankly couldn't tell if I liked it for itself, or because it was reduced by $300. Same goes for Le Creuset casserole dishes, every year I look, and every year I think they'll be on sale next time, and I think about it.
After my failed shopping attempt I treated Malo to a bagel and fluffy at Wholly Bagels. This has become a bit of a bad habit for us. Theoretically I have a coffee and he has a bagel, in actual fact I always end up with half the bagel, and we call it lunch. Kind of a stodgy lunch.
And that is all.
Mwah.
Here is my post from the lovely Mums on Top website (totally NSFW) (that was a lie) (although now you'll be wondering) (go on, no! go on, no!) (it's okay really) (or is it?).
I began blogging in March 2005. I have 2 boys, and at that stage they were 7 months and almost 3. There comes a point in most mother's lives where they find they need something more. Some start working, some start a gym membership, some start macrame, some start gin and tonics at 2pm... I was likely to fall into the latter category if I didn't find something to occupy my time, so I gave blogging a punt and started Wanda Harland .
Being at home with the children, I missed daily contact with adult human beings, it is a big shock going from the paid workforce to the home environment.
As a mother, blogging has opened a world up for me without leaving the comfort of my lounge. I am a mummy who blogs, but try to avoid being a 'mummy blogger'. I tend to stay away from too much talk about the children, because lets face it, while I think they're amazing I don't expect the rest of the world to. There are some great Mummy bloggers, Dooce is probably the most famous, and she does it brilliantly. What blogging has given me is a bit of an escape from my day to day routine. I am a full time parent, and I am proud of this fact, but I tend to enjoy keeping the blog separate. It is my little escapist world.
In the 2 years since, my blog has opened a fabulous new world to me. Initially it was pretty slow going, when you start you have to do some serious commenting on other people's blogs to get them to read yours. This serves as an excellent way of establishing what you're interested in reading, and consequently how you want to angle your own blog. I chose to stay away from too much political commentary, because I can live without conflict in my life. I'm not shy about wearing my arty farty, liberal label on my sleeve, but utterly uninterested in debating it with the world.
Bloggers generally develop an unnatural obsession with their site statistics - how many visitors, where from, how many people link to you. I was very lucky to get a couple of links from some top notch bloggers relatively early on, and this provided a good amount of traffic.
It took a while for me to clap my eyes on a real, live blogger. He was nice, didn't bite, and was just like his online persona. I've met many since, and it is a relief to find that they're all like that. Genuine people writing with their own genuine voices. A year ago I was invited to write for The Wellingtonista, a fabulous quirky local site, proud as punch of Wellington (shh, don't tell them I live in the Hutt). The team of Wellingtonista bloggers (and one journaller) are among the best people you could meet.
I started my business Babylicious a year ago. Blogging has provided me with rich resources to learn about business, and about the first 50 customers were readers of Wanda Harland, which was a great confidence boost for my fledgling business. I've received help on so many levels, from the technical to lots of advertising questions, to sourcing stock. I've also been a co-organiser of the marvellous Craft2.0, with yet another blogger. We've really pushed the online promotion of it, since we are both healthily obsessed with the internet.
I'm now having a little love affair with Faceboook, try it, go on, but my heart is still with Wanda Harland, and realistically I can't imagine ever giving it up.
If you're a mum thinking about starting a blog I say "go ooooooooooooooooooonn", and I mean that. You don't need to tell a soul about it, give it a few weeks, get a feel for it, and most importantly LINK TO ME.
Apparently someone is doing a remake - I can't understand it - why mess with perfection?
Man, I am hungover. It follows a simply splendid night out with the glorious folks from the Wellingtonista. Jo has pictorial evidence of our exploits here. We started the night at Vintage, had loads of wine and some nibbles, then moved on to the Hawthorn Lounge, which was ace, and reminded me of upstairs at Il Casino. Stephen, Jo and I did a very convincing impression of total lushes, with all manner of pretty drinks. After that we moved on to Boulot, and had some more grog, and now I am poorly.
I am, however, a Mum on Top, a totally top site for milfs ;-)
Woo! I've made the internet society pages - and once on a site I don't even write for.
Oh, and the secret bar is Vintage. You should come and hang out.
My cup runneth over.
Time for a facelift, ideally for me, but more practically for this blog.
Some time ago I decided I was going to try and be a bit more of a dollybird. I've managed to scrub my body regularly, thanks to Jo's magic scrub (get yours at Craft2.0), and I've managed to present myself to the world without being covered in stuff rubbed off from children, or ink, so I'm pretty pleased with my efforts. Time to give a little love to this slightly neglected website of mine. This isn't about me time, this is about Wanda time.
Update, right, it is looking totally girly. I think this new look might last about 7 hours...
Babylicious seems to be getting most of my attention at the moment. Last night I spent at a Beckon VIP night, resisting the brilliant offer of dinner with the supremely ace Wellingtonista crew, in favour of going home to order some shirts (woohoo for the kiwi dollar being BIG, I know I'm not supposed to support it, but crikey, it makes sending money offshore easier).
Today has been spent chasing invoices, going to the Small Business Expo, paying invoices, trying to work out what the hell is wrong with my FTP thingymabob that is making my website all sad, and my emails rejected. Usual glamorous life.
Now I'm trying to work out what I can make for tea with the contents of the pantry. Any brilliant ideas utilising lentils, soba noodles, tinned peaches, golden syrup and pinenuts warmly invited.
The evidence wasn't looking good. I've gone and got life insurance, a sketchy 2 doored car (I'm assured it is a deathtrap), and my Real Age was 3 months older than I am. Well, the good news is, I've managed to get my real age down a couple of years. Brilliant! If I just keep eating vitamins and taking long walks on the beach, I will never die, because I'll always be 2 years younger than I am. Cheaper than a time machine, and relatively simple. Although this means I've only just started this blog, never met most of you, still breastfeeding (ewww), and apparently still thinking about booze. Everything changes, and everything stays the same.
Man, reading back through the blog, I used to write a lot more when I was drunk. Note to self, resume excessive drinking for more random bloggagenessedness.
One of those random bullet point posts today.
Buy me these boots, and I'll tell you all my tips, and have some babies for you (which is an outright lie, you'd have to give me about $800000 to get pregnant ever again, but I would go a long way for the boots).
My tip for the day is eBay for shoes and cosmetics. It is TOP baby, partly I suspect because the stuff is cheaper in America anyway, but the excellent $NZ (excellent for those of us buying from THERE, less so for those of us maybe coming HERE). Buy brand new, deal with stores, not individual traders, and you will be sweet.
I'm such a sook. Finn started school today, and last night I was bawling about it. God knows why, some kind of mothering hormone type thing which I thought I'd skipped.
I do find it quite shocking that I've been at home with kids now for 5 years. It definitely doesn't feel like that long. I suppose I've kept pretty busy, for the first couple of years I worked a bit for Te Papa, then I got really into this crazy weblog thing, then I bought a coffee cart, then I sold it (but not before I got a good taste for caffeine), then I started a business... and what next? The million dollar question. I do still have another child to raise, and the business to grow, so I'm not exactly a lady of leisure yet.
I'm thinking perhaps what is needed is a dolphin circus. Or a P addiction. Or more gin, yes, we'll start with more gin.
Get your pash on with these corkers from the 80s.
The first is the Thompson Twins. I won this tape (yes, a tape, I am in fact quite old) at a Blue Light, and it has remained dear to my heart since.
And the next is a little Nik Kershaw, because my word, he was a dreamy little number
I've finally fulfilled last years resolution to make it into the society pages. Apparently I'm in the Capital Times. Haven't seen it yet.
I know, it is boring, but WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS WEATHER.
There are only so many trips one can take to Te Papa.
This one is not from a 5 year old (yes, the boy is 5 now), but rather from a 34 year old with too much time on her brain out walking...
How fast could we move if we wore appendages on the end of our arms so that we could move like a 4 legged critter? I'm bloody keen to give some a go, I can just see myself loping along the Esplanade. I think I'd have to howl at people for a good sense of drama.
I can talk quite a bit. I'm not often lost for words, but somehow kids have a knack of asking the questions that I don't know the answers to.
Today: "What is the bounciest planet".
Anyone, anyone?
I find this quite hilarious - bandanna courtesy of my sister in Japan (where all the best dog accessories are found).
I should not be allowed near YouTube.
This song takes me back to the end of the night at a party, when I'd take control of the stereo. I like cute indie British pop singers. Can't help myself.
My Dr McDreamy is my new pink coat. It is the coat that you try to find for ages, and then you give up and buy another one, and then you find it, and because it is perfect you decide that 2 coats is okay, because it is very damn cold.
I can't take a photo right now, because I'm in a comfortable place, and don't feel like moving, and also I am wearing a denim skirt that combined with fabulous coat makes me look like Exclusive Brethren, a not hot look if ever there was one.
And since, once again, we're all stream of consciousness around here today. Does Chloe Sevigny look at all hot in Big Love? She IS hot, and nekkid she is super hot (and for those people that haven't indulged in Big Love, you're missing some good nudity), but the frilly shirts and long skirts do a bloody good job of masking hotness.
And on unrelated business (and because I'm starting lots of sentences with 'and' AGAIN), I am not coping with couriers this week. My willing them to come just isn't working, and I'm beginning to suspect they're not psychic at all.
Adieu to yer and yer and yer.
Over on the Wellingtonista is an interview I did with the most excellent Taika Waititi (or Cohen).
Check it out.
It is one of those waiting days... waiting for couriers, groceries to be delivered, nurofen to kick in...
I seem to have done my back in. I know exactly why. I'm flying solo at home at the moment, which means I can sit in bed watching programmes on the Mac (which conveniently comes with a nifty little remote), and mooching on the internet with the laptop at the same time. The posture for this extravagant media explosion involves a curl to the back, and a number of pillows. The result is a nightmarish sore back the next day. Nurofen is my special friend today. Woolworths online is my special friend too, because they sent a little freebie of coffee today, which takes care of my other ache - the nasty caffeine addiction that I couldn't sate without leaving the house and missing all the couriers.
Life mate, it is seriously rock and roll. Thanks to Bacchus for the fact Woolies delivered some wine too, so I can be entertained tonight without the aid of 2 computers. Just drink myself into sweet oblivion in front of the idiot box...
I've spent a most excellent morning with my darling friend Katie - no blog! But she does hang out here. We've been boozing it up together since the dark ages, and now we both have a couple of little boys each to look after. We did the usual analysis of our lives, how we could get richer, what words we use for the kids 'privates' (I'm trying to make "pennith" a word for, well, their penniths), when we could next get drunk...
And wahoo, a date emerged. We might try and head up to Auckland in September for the Gift Fair - SANS LES ENFANT. A business trip, no less, with a healthy dose of grog on the side.
I am starting a martini fund now. Donations gratefully accepted.
We went to the Kong opening at TheNewDowse on Friday, with the divine Ms Tyler. There were several highlights, the first being a sticky label stuck to my foot that belonged to Mirek Smisek, the rather marvellous potter. I brought the sticker home to show my dad (who was babysitting), and when I pulled it out he rolled his eyes, but those very same rolling eyes lit up when he saw the name, for he is a geek like me.
Richard Tayler was a magnificent, inspiring, tall highlight. He spoke a bit about the process of creating Kong, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Which is a complete exaggeration, but it sets the mood.
AND we got photographed for the society pages for two papers. My goal last year was to get into them, and I failed miserably. We weren't in the paper today, so there is one more chance I'll make it - go the Capital Times!
This morning I received a big stash of macadamias from Mr SunnyO, who grew them himself, such talent. They're fricking hard little bastards, but dead tasty. I think they might be one of those negative calorie foods, like celery, because they're such a lot of work to open. Please don't spoil my delusion.
I've just checked my real age. Apparently it is no longer enough to go by your birthday, now you need to go by your lifestyle. On a positive note this means my birthday is 3 months sooner than I thought, since my real age turns out to be quite a lot closer (gasp) to 35 (gag) than I thought (choke).
If you were to wonder why, you might care to observe my 20s, which were full of happiness and indulgence. Indulgence shortens your life, well, that isn't strictly true if your indulgence happens to be green leafy veges and moderate aerobic exercise, but I can assure you that my indulgences were the real deal.
My goal for the rest of the year is to actually get to my true age.
Fun.
Update: Ooooh, apparently if I take more vitamins I can bring my real age down. That is the kind of simple solution I like.
