ALIA National Conference Rant

If any of you were reading my blog back in October of last year, you would have seen my post about the ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) Top End Symposium, which I had the absolute pleasure of attending. Having had such an amazing time at the "local" conference, I was super excited to read about the National Conference occurring in September of this year. That is until I saw the cost. The student concession price is $650! Plus there are additional fees to attend the dinner and breakfast workshops to the tune of $305. So if I wished to attend all of the events (and I would) it would cost a total of $955.

I'd would LOVE to be able to attend. As a student looking to enter the industry, there is simply so much for me to learn, and to be able to be at the cutting edge of what's happening in libraries is really something that should be encouraged and facilitated. Having tickets cost almost $1000 would obviously be pretty prohibitive for a lot of people, but particularly students who are typically on tight budgets. And on top of the cost of attendance, many people would have travel and accommodation costs to worry about. As a student, its simply out of reach for me. And that is most unfortunate in my opinion. Students should be at the forefront of new learning opportunities, they haven't been in the industry so long that they're jaded or daunted by change. Students coming in fresh, unafraid of bold ideas will be the innovators and groundbreakers of tomorrow. To deny them these sorts of opportunities is to potentially deny the industry invaluable perspective and infinite possibility.

I sent an email to the events team in hopes that some sponsored positions may be available, and received a reply saying there will be no sponsored positions, but I may wish to consider a single day registration "are a bit more affordable at $565 per day". To quote my best friend's reaction when I told her "genius". I'm not sure if there are any other avenues to pursue, but at this point being able to go seems out of the question, which is more than a little disappointing.

Hope you're all well!

School Struggles

I had a pretty wretched start to my week! I've been so looking forward to classes starting up on Tuesday. I've spent much of the uni break being a bit of a hermit and looking forward to being back with my friends and having a regular schedule and purpose each day. Then I found out on Monday that I can't do the diploma classes due to financial issues. I'd been expecting to be covered by HECS (which is like our Australian version of a government student loan type thing) based on the information I was given at the end of last year, only to find that my course isn't eligible! And because I didn't plan on studying elsewhere, I missed the application deadlines for all of the traditional universities so I was unable to enroll in a Bachelor degree through them. I spent the morning a bit of a mess searching online for options and making phone calls. I found a university that has the course I need and I can apply for mid-year acceptance, which I will be pursuing. In the meantime I've enrolled in Open Universities Australia to do a few units toward a Bachelor so that I'm not sitting idle for months. I already feel like I've lost my routine and discipline and its only been 8 weeks. Imagine me after 6 months! Being enrolled in an entirely external course with classmates I'll never see and lecturers I won't know isn't the same. I really enjoyed actually attending classes and had a great relationship with the people there, but at least I'm still working toward the goal! And I'm trying to see the positive side too, by going straight into a bachelor it will save me a bit of time off the total length of my education, and by studying externally it opens up my options in terms of where I live and work and all of those sorts of things. Hopefully this all turns out for the best, wish me luck!

In WAY SUPER DOOPER BETTER NEWS:

I have a kitty!!!!

Ava

She came to me as a foster kitty through a local rescue group. Honestly I had every intention of caring for her only until a permanent home could be found, but she was just far too sweet and I didn't want to let her go. Her name is Ava and she's so beautiful. She falls asleep with me at night and wakes up with me in the morning and entertains me with her crazy kitty antics throughout the day. Its lovely to have constant purry furry company and I'm so glad she's staying!

Playing Pretend

Today I woke up feeling rather terrible so I went back to sleep for another hour or two before finally dragging myself off to the library to try and be productive. I spent most of the day working on the poster to advertise the "event" I have to plan for an assessment. If we're able we can plan a real event in a library and have it assessed, but those of us who don't have that ability can just do a pretend one, as long as we do all the planning that would go into a real one. I decided to plan a "Kids' Day In" with games and stories and stuff for kiddies. I live in the tropics and it rains a lot for a few months of the year, so I thought it would be nice to get kids enthusiastic about reading on those rainy days when they're stuck indoors. The event would actually be really fun I think, I'd love to try it for real, maybe when I get a job! So the poster is done and I've also started work on the bookmarks to advertise the event, the bookmarks need to be double-sided so the front of all of them will be the same but the back will be slightly different. So I put a lot of time into that today and also worked a little on a couple of other assignments. I'm trying to get as much done as possible this week so when classes start again next week I don't have too much work to worry about and I can focus all my energy on my work placement.

As of this morning's weigh in I've lost a total of 7 kilos. It isn't very much considering how overweight I am, but I'm glad that I'm consistently losing weight at least, as long as I keep doing that I'll get there eventually! I've also noticed a difference in how some of my clothes fit, a dress that was quite tight around the waist is now a comfortable fit, and a belt that I previously couldn't do up can now be fastened on the second hole. I'm not sure if I look any different but at least something is happening! Its all progress!

Back to Busy!

First week back at school and I've already got three assignments due next week! Hopefully they won't be too bad once I get stuck into them, but it does look like this is going to be a pretty hectic term. All of the units seem pretty packed with content so I don't think I'll have the luxury of easy weeks with not much to do like I did last term. I should also be doing my work placement at some point which is going to leave me even tighter for time. But it will all be worth it once I'm finished!

Speaking of work placement... I've applied for a job. I think I briefly mentioned in a previous post that I was planning to but I've actually done it now. The automated email I received in response said they aim to get back to everyone within 6 to 12 weeks or something like that so it sounds like there's no huge rush to fill the position. I'll be honest, I know my chances of getting it are slim and I'm really trying not to get my hopes up, but that's easier said than done because I really want the job. We'll see how it goes though. Depending on when they actually do get back to me I may be pretty close to finishing my course which may make me a more attractive applicant.

So being back at school means getting out of my pajamas and into proper clothing and heading off to classes and the library and whatnot. I ordered some new dresses from Lindybop which I'm ABSOLUTELY LOVING. I posted a picture of the blue spotty one the other day which is definitely one of my favourites. This is my other favourite:

Its a nice light fabric, perfect for the hot weather. I love the colour and the pattern, its so very pretty, and its also a perfect length. You can't see it very well in the photo but it has a matching belt too. I've been really happy with all the Lindybop dresses I bought. They're awesome dresses and priced really well. I think next time I can afford it I'll order more of these dresses. They're all beautiful to wear, they make me feel like a princess and they're super comfy.

I'm having a bad hair life at the moment. I really need a hair cut but I always put them off for ages, and I decided it should be a reward for weight loss so I don't feel so terrible about spending the money on it. My hair looks fine when its curled, but when its straight the ends look really dry. I couldn't be bothered curling it before bed last night but I also didn't like how it looked when I was getting ready this morning so I had to do something to get it out of sight and out of mind. I pinned it up with a bunch of bobby pins and used these cute little decorative flower hair pins I got on sale a couple of weeks ago to make something actually rather pretty. I really just held my hair where I wanted it and threw in some pins not really knowing what it looked like so I was pleasantly surprised when it looked passable lol! The flower pins also matched nicely with the dress I think :)

Hope everyone is well!

Sick! *cough cough*

I've been pretty sick this week. I've had a cold which has mostly been congestion and head/muscle aches but today progressed to coughing and loss of ability to make proper sounds from my throat beyond airy squeaks and honks. I was meant to donate blood tomorrow but had to call up and cancel the appointment and the poor lady who answered my call had a hard time hearing me. Anyway despite the coughing today my muscle aches seem to have gone and my throat isn't as sore as it has been other days, so hopefully I'm on the road to recovery.

I finished up the two business units I had to take and emailed off the assignments for each of them yesterday. Hopefully they're to the lecturer's satisfaction and I can cross them off my list! I'm also still waiting for the grades to be uploaded for 3 other units I've done this term. I'm sure they're all fine and I've passed, but I really need to SEE it there to be satisfied. I'm very much a list person and being able to see the list of things I need to complete get smaller and smaller gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

<3

Birthdays and Business Attire

Yesterday was my birthday. I tend to prefer quiet birthdays to big celebrations, so all I did was take the day off from studying and ordered chinese food for dinner. The real fun comes tomorrow! It looks like my Modcloth order arrived today, no one was home for the courier though so I'll go pick it up tomorrow. Yay for dresses!

I had my mock job interview today for class. I know it was all just pretend but I couldn't help but be terribly nervous. It all went well though! So now I've finished all of my work for those units. I have a couple of assignments for the business units I attended last week, but I've also added an extra unit on. I spoke with my course coordinator and realised that by the end of next term I'll only be missing one business unit and an IT unit in order to finish my certificate. I really don't want to have to carry over into next year if I don't have to, so I got in touch with the lecturer of the business units and she sent me the course material to complete it externally. So I now have a bit over a week to complete those three assignments. Shouldn't be too bad though, I made some decent progress today so each assignment should only take me a day or two of solid work.

I had to dress a little more conservatively for my interview today. My "professional" wardrobe is very limited at the moment, because when I initially came to Darwin it was only meant to be short-term and I wasn't planning on working so all my business attire stayed in Sydney. I'm trying to build up a decent range of work-appropriate clothing now though. I want to look professional and sensible, but I also want to still be myself and have my own style. I'm hoping that isn't unreasonable or unrealistic! I suppose it depends on where I end up getting a job.

I ended up wearing a lot of black for my mock interview today

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with my dear bestie, and hopefully in the course of our travels we'll be able to make it out to pick up my dresses from the courier! I hope the all fit. I feel so nervous buying clothes online if I'm not familiar with the brand. One dress in particular I'm concerned about because I am rather large and despite being a plus sized dress it seems like it may run on the small side. We'll see though.
Wish me luck!

Books and Birdies

I took the day off of studying yesterday and sat in bed watching Gossip Girl all day. I stopped watching back in early season 4 and haven't watched again since, so now I'm playing catch up because I'm sick of avoiding spoilers and not knowing how everything turned out. I admit, I watch the show with equal parts interest and frustration. I get so annoyed at the characters when they completely fail to talk things out in situations where just explaining themselves would solve everything. USE YOUR WORDS, PEOPLE! But I can't resist finding out what happens. Stupid Chuck and Blair suck me in every time!

So today I was back at it bright and early, went to the library and spent most of the day working on stuff. Unfortunately due to lack of sleep I wasn't very focused and didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. But I'll go back Monday and try to be more productive. I've really only got the two new assignments from the business units to deal with. They seem pretty straight forward, so hopefully they won't be too much work.

Today while at the library I took a walk to the vending machine to grab a drink and made a new friend. This little butcher bird hopped right up to me, only about a meter away and kept tilting his head from side to side inquisitively, waiting for me to feed him something. I didn't give him any food, although he was super adorable and I was very tempted! But I did take a couple of pictures of him being cute. Sorry they're a little blurry! I was using my phone and it obviously wasn't focusing too well.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello!

So the past few days have been full of cafeteria food, windy weather and getting very well acquainted with the computer desks at my library. I've finished all but one assessment from my current units, but I also have to start two business units tomorrow which will both require assignments, so I'm sure I'll be feeling snowed under again soon! In my spare time I've been trying to read as much as I can because I've been taking forever to finish this damn novel. Normally it really only takes me a few days, but I've only bee committing little bits of time here and there and it has made it impossible to get through a book.

In much more exciting news, I placed another order for some dresses from Modcloth. I'm super eager for them to get here but I know it will take awhile. I think it took about 4 weeks last time. I'm hoping it might be a little quicker this time as I have a 2 day conference I'll be attending in early October and I really want the dresses here for that! I'm also equally worried about the dresses fitting as I was last time because I still haven't figured out my size. Last time I ordered 2 dresses in a 3X and one in a 2X. The 2X fit perfectly and so did one 3X, and the other 3X was slightly large... so I'm still not sure! But even if I was "sure", they're all different brands and cuts anyway, so it doesn't mean that I could order a dress and be certain it would fit. So I've just done my best to order based on reviews and whatnot and hope everything works out! I tried to make sure I ordered dresses that would take me from work to play easily, because I need to start thinking about looking professional. Hopefully the ones I've ordered all fit well!

Last Dress from Modcloth

So this is the final dress from the little lot that I bought from Modcloth. This one is also from Mikarose and its lovely. The fabric is quite sheer and I need to wear a slip under it, but that's alright. The seafoam green overlay is sooooo soft and extremely floaty. It was meant to come with a little sash, but it was forgotten, but it goes fine with the belt from my other dress anyway, so its all good!

I spent the day at the library today again. AGAIN I got given more assignments when I thought I was done! So cue extension of busy beaver mode. Was really hoping to relax a bit this week, but alas! I did get another assignment completed today though, so at least I'm getting through them. Today my bestest buddy accompanied me to the library, so there was plenty of shenanigans in between bouts of productivity.

Top: Bored... draw orks!
Left: My bestie takes only the sexiest photos of me; Right: bathroom selfies ftw

This morning when I took my rollers out my fringe was doing a nice little barrel roll thing. Anytime I've intentionally tried to roll my fringe it has failed miserably, so I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth ad just went with it. I put two bobby pins underneath to hold it and sprayed it with a generous amount of hairspray. It stayed in for the most part, but I did feel very self-conscious about it and had the urge to fuss with it all day. But hey, my hair was willing to let me almost do a faux fringe (bangs, whatever you want to call them) so we'll call it a win.

I've also decided I no longer like my glasses! I got them probably almost 2 years ago and at the time I wanted the biggest frames I could get. Now I feel like these just don't suit my face at all and I need something smaller and more feminine. But glasses are so damn expensive, so I doubt it will be something I can do in the immediate future. We'll see how things go though.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines (Buy Pretty Things)

I don't feel as though I was as productive today as I have been other days. I'm kind of down to all the nasty annoying bits of assignments that have been continually put off because I didn't want to deal with them. Who knew leaving all the worst bits until the last minute would be a bad idea!

CURSE YOU, PAST AMBERRRRR!!! 

So I put in like a ten hour day or something stupid at the library. I was working so slowly though, and getting progressively more frustrated with each passing hour that didn't yield the results I wanted. I did finish one assignment though and made some progress on the others. Three left to go now! I swear I've been down to three twice already and then been given another assignment, but I'm pretty sure I've now been given all the assignments I'm meant to do for this term and now its just powering through and completing them. It shouldn't be too bad. Two of the assignments I have left are probably 80-90% completed, so the bulk of my work is going to be on my report comparing two different types of libraries. I feel like I need to go back to the first one I visited because at that stage we hadn't been given the assessment criteria for the assignment so a lot of my notes are pretty useless. I think another visit would help a lot.

So onto things that hopefully won't bore you to tears! I wore the second of my Modcloth dresses today. This one is by a brand called Maitai and I'm having trouble finding a website for them. I did find one but the font of the name is different than on the tag of my dress and it doesn't have any dresses I recognise from Modcloth on there to confirm I'm looking at the right label. So unfortunately due to my lack of ace detective skills I can't link you to the website of the brand.
I know you're probably sick of hearing me say the words "I love this dress", but I love this dress! I know I say that a lot lately but hey, I wouldn't be buying them if I didn't really like them and there's always that worry that an item purchased online might not quite meet your expectations. This dress actually exceeded them. It was described as being made of lycra on the Modcloth page, so I was expecting something similar to my other skater dresses which are fairly cheap and the sort of fabric you might expect bike shorts to be made of. The fabric on this dress is much thicker, and doesn't have that super matte quality to it where you know after a few washes it will have faded considerably. It really is great for me as with all my lumps and bumps a thicker fabric is more flattering. The cut is amazing, it hugs around my bust and waist and then flares out, skimming my hips and bum. It was super comfy for another long day of squirming around on a super uncomfy desk chair. The colour is gorgeous, the pink has kind of a whisper of lavender to it. Maybe that's just my crazy eyes, but while it definitely is a soft musky pink, it has a hint of being a touch purpley. I love the pattern, yes I've been very into florals lately and I feel very fortunate they they along with polka dots are so in right now. I need to stock up before something else becomes more fashionable and the plethora of gorgeous prints fizzles out.

I'll shut up now and show you pictures! :)

And can we all please just take a moment to appreciate these adorable little hair clips I found while on my lunch break yesterday! They match the dress so well, I couldn't resist buying them.

Perfect Dress for a Day at the Library

Another full day spent at the library. Managed to knock out one assignment and get most of the way through another before calling it quits for the day. I have four assignments left to submit, but I'm pretty sure three of them are at least half done so hopefully I won't have too much trouble getting the rest completed by the end of next week.

After a number of new acquisitions over the past month or two my closet is finally starting to morph into something I like to look at. I opened it this morning to grab a dress and saw the assortment of colours and fabrics and patterns and it just looked so pretty. After months of wearing the same handful of things its really awesome to have some options again!

Mish mash of prettiness!

I wore one of my new dresses today. I really do love it. Its the slightly too big one and I'm thinking I will need to get it taken in, but I've decided I want to try and shift some of my excess weight first. In the meantime its a little baggy, but there are worse things, like being slightly too tight! So this is the first of my purchases from Modcloth. Its by a brand called Mikarose  and its really lovely. It has hidden pockets too which makes me ever so happy!

A Bit Burnt Out

Hello everyone. I've been feeling pretty exhausted lately. I've had a sick little dude at home, loads of assignments to get done and a terrible sleep schedule which has all contributed to me not writing on here as often as I originally planned. That being said, I don't want my blog to completely fall by the wayside so I'm going to increase my efforts and make sure I keep to my plan of blogging at least every other day.

All of last week my son was home from school sick. It involved a serious lack of sleep due to his being up and down all night and I had to skip my classes and couldn't get much work done from home, so this week is a lot of playing catch up. Yesterday was little guy's first day back at school and I spent the whole day at the library working on assignments. I managed to make a fair bit of progress, which felt great after spending a week being super unproductive. Today is normally my full day but one of the classes has finished for the term so I only need to attend in the afternoon. Because I missed last week I got myself mixed up and thought I was meant to be in this morning too, and I wasn't the only one, three other people showed up too. We spent the morning working on our assignments and chatting together before the afternoon class which was business as usual.

I got home and found out my package from Modcloth had arrived! I was so excited to open it and also worried that the dresses wouldn't fit. I tried them all on though and they're awesome! One of them is slightly large around the top, but its really not a big deal, just a little baggy at the back. I could probably take it in, but I think I'll just leave it as I don't think it will be noticeable once I have a cardigan on anyway. The other two fit like a glove and are absolutely perfect. Everything I hoped they'd be and you'll definitely be seeing pictures as I wear them, which I'm sure will be in the next few days because I never can wait to wear a new dress!

On the subject of dresses, I'll leave you with this. Its another vintage one I purchased from Ebay a couple of weeks ago and wore it for the first time yesterday. I really need a better belt to go with it, but I only own black or red so I went with the black and wore black shoes as well.

Playgrounds, Procrastination and Pottermore

Today I had an awesome day out with my kiddies. I woke up over an hour late and rushed to get everyone ready. We met up with my friend Paul and his three little ones and let them loose at a local play center. They ran around like crazy for a couple of hours and then we headed out to get lunch. We got fish and chips from a shop around the corner and had an impromptu picnic in the park across the road, which involved some more running and swinging and climbing before it was time to go. They had a great time and haven't shut up all afternoon/night about when we're going to do it again! I'm so glad the kids all get along. I knew they would, they're all so adorable, but seeing them all running around together having fun made me super happy.

This evening I'm trying to get some work done on an assignment. It has me tearing my hair out, I swear. I've been working on it for hours and seriously have nothing done. It sounded incredibly easy but its proving quite frustrating finding all the information I need. I'm really tired, last night was another night of little sleep, so I'm thinking I might just have to give up for today and try it again in the morning. I feel a little defeated and deflated, but hopefully I have more luck tomorrow.

I registered for Pottermore ages ago but at that stage there wasn't much going on there so I never used it and forgot my login details. A few days ago my friend said new features had been added and she'd been using it again, so I re-registered and have whittled away quite a few hours on there. Its fun and relaxing, and interesting! So on that note, I think its time for some Pottermore before bed.

Field Trip and Online Window Shopping

Hello Poppets! ...Now I want to watch Mrs Doubtfire.

Today I had my full day of classes, which always leaves me super exhausted. We had our usual class in the morning, then went on a field trip! We visited the NT Library in the city, and their back of house processing area which is on a separate site. The library smelled absolutely delicious when I walked in, rich with the crisp scent of semi-gloss paper.  I got to see a newspaper from the late 1800's, the actual real thing, not a copy. Yeah okay, that's probably boring to you, but not to me! I just find everything about libraries interesting, but particularly the lengths some libraries go to preserve old documents.

But lets move on from that before I bore you all to death! I'm currently sitting here with a few items in a cart from the City Chic website, totally torn over whether or not to buy them. The tights and belt I actually need, but I threw in a really cute dress that is on clearance for $50. I don't NEED it, but what's the fun in buying only things you need! I'll continue to mull over it and probably end up buying nothing! I'm a very predictable character that way.

I'm off to try and get some reading done now. I've been stuck on the same book for weeks where it should really only take a few days. So I'm trying to commit to reading for awhile before bed each night to help me get it done. I hate when it takes me this long to get through a book, it doesn't happen often but when it does I feel like I'm being super lazy.

Feeling Good

Today was actually a really nice day. I woke up feeling less like a zombie than usual even though I didn't get a lot of sleep. Once I was ready and left the house the weather was sooooo nice. The temperature was in the early 20's and there was a nice breeze. Pretty close to my ideal which is around the 15-20 degree mark. It simply doesn't get cold up here, which is a bummer. I really love coats and scarves and gloves and everything wintery. I can't wait to move somewhere with real seasons again!

It was my second day of classes and the start of two more units. I got there early so I could have a leisurely coffee and read until class started. Unfortunately the coffee is rather awful, very watery and just not rich at all, but now I know for next time that my coffee will need to be acquired off-campus. I'm doing four units in total and I've now attended the first class for three of them. I'm finding it really enjoyable and the assignments sound like they'll be interesting and fun. We're going to have some visits to different libraries and the museum and stuff like that to learn bits about the trade. The classes have all been rather small so far which I think is great. Gives us all plenty of opportunity to talk and have our ideas heard and get feedback and stuff.

I went for a brief bike ride this afternoon, but my bike was making a weird grinding sound and my muscles were whinging from yesterday so I came home pretty quickly. The grinding turned out to be from the chain guard, it was bent inward slightly and was rubbing slightly on the chain, although the noise was only coming periodically so it wasn't bent enough to rub constantly. I feel a bit lame coming home so quickly, but whatever. A little exercise is better than none at all and it will help me gradually get more fit.

Back to School

So today was the first day of the new semester and I started my TAFE course. I'm studying Information and Cultural Services, which is all about libraries, museums and art galleries. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney is one of my favourite places in the world, and I have a general love of museums and libraries. It would be a bit of a dream to one day work in a museum, and I think I could also be extremely happy in a library, particularly a school library. I have a huge love of reading and I spent many hours in my schools' libraries growing up.

So my first class was today, and apparently its only myself and one other lady in the unit so we get lots of personal attention from the lecturer. I really enjoyed today, and I know my excitement will probably wain somewhat once I get into the actual assignments and whatnot, but I think overall this course is going to be interesting and fun. I have more classes tomorrow which I'm looking forward to!

I got a chance to wear my pretty peach cardigan today with an outfit that actually matched it. I wore my new birdy dress which I like ever so much. I love birds and have a few bird-print dresses now. I should start a collection. One day I will own all the birdy dresses IN THE WORLD! Okay maybe not, but I do love birds, so bird prints make me happy.

At Holiday's End

I love school holidays. I love having the kids home and having all day every day to spend together. There have been video games, shopping trips, play dates, late nights and lots of art and craft. But now its all coming to an end, and they're going back to school next week. As much as I don't want my long, lazy days with them to be over, I don't think I'll have too much time to miss them, as I'll be returning to study too. I enrolled in a Library Studies course which commences on the 22nd, and I'm really nervous!

Every other time I've tried to study, I've been working full time as well and ended up throwing in the towel because I couldn't balance work and study. This time I'm not going to be working, so I'm hoping I'll be able to manage. But I'm still very nervous and my past failures are kind of hanging about like a dark cloud over my head. I can be my own worst enemy sometimes and I find it hard to get over not meeting my own expectations. I am really looking forward to it though. Its only a short course, and to a certain extent I'm able to set my own pace. Basically I will just pick up new units as I complete old ones. I'm hoping to complete it in a year at most, but if I can manage to finish in 6 months that would be amazing. Having said all of this, I don't even know what my workload is going to be like yet so I'm not really certain how realistic either of those goals are, but they're a starting point I suppose.

One of the main reasons I bought my bike recently was so I could ride to uni once the semester starts. I still haven't been for a proper ride though! The few times I have gone out, I've had the kids with me and it makes the goings rather slow. I should really go out this weekend and ride by myself so I can get a feel for going fast again. Its been so long since I last rode properly! I just don't feel steady and comfortable on a bike anymore. I know I'll get used to it again, but for that to happen I need to get out there and start riding!

The other day I bought my kids each a craft set from Spotlight, and today my oldest daughter decided to do hers. She chose a felt set that came with everything needed to make a princess ragdoll. She needed quite a bit of assistance as she's never done any sewing before and parts were quite tricky. But she was very pleased with the end result. We drew a little mouth and put some blush on her cheeks to complete her pretty princess look. These dolls were so adorable, I would have bought the whole set if they'd had them for sale. Unfortunately they only had this one design left. I'm going to keep an eye out though to try and find more because they're really sweet and a great activity to keep my daughter occupied for the day.