Painting a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall in your home

This post is sponsored by Masters 

I have spent much of this year looking for a place to move to. Just weeks ago, I found the place. Or it found me. It doesn't really matter which. The answer was, like usual RIGHT HERE.

So simple, but it took me the good part of a year to work out I don't really want to move. Instead, what I want to do is make some changes at home. Plant the trees I should have planted three years ago and do a few jobs around the house to make what I have already, the place I want to be.

The team from Masters sent me an email asking if I had any jobs around the house I was thinking of writing about, and, well, yes - YES I DO.

I have so many that I didn't really know where to start. We logged in online for about 3 seconds and then just jumped in the car, Mr H and the girls already frequent Masters quite often, the girls knew the trolley they wanted and the park area AND the Macca's item they would beg for.

I got side tracked by so many things. When I start looking I get ideas for nearly every room of our house. But I decided to start with something simple, something that didn't need too much planning, just a free weekend.

Our craft wall has been getting more and more wrecked. It is splattered with paint and texta and crayon.  The table is totally trashed and scribbled all over in permanent markers and pens and the artwork wire is sagging from too many pictures that MUST be kept.

I have been wanting to clean up this area for weeks.

I decided that it would be excellent to turn the wall into a giant magnetic chalkboard wall. This way I can use magnets to put up the artwork and also use the wall to write in if I need to - or let the girls write on it and then easily clean it off.

If you want the super fast way to see what I did, then here is a little photo log, I even added music because Popps showed me how, (it's  my first ever vimeo, be kind).

MAGNETIC CHALKBOARD PAINT from Clairey Hewitt on Vimeo.


All you have to do is paint on the magnet paint (three coats are recommended) and then paint on the chalkboard paint. DONE.

Of course any little DIY project is a little harder than that, because Better Homes and Gardens have fooled us all and nothing is really that easy.

But, lets go back to the start:

You can buy the magnetic paint from Masters and the staff there will tell you exactly the amount that you need for the size that you are painting.  We used this one.

Pick the chalkboard colour that you like. We chose from the Wattyl range, but there are others there too. Wattyl had these colours and I thought I said the green but both Mr H and Popps both swear that I said I wanted Mantra, so that is what they got me when they returned to Masters to get everything we needed.

Back at home. I was clearing away the junk craft and preparing the space, ready to paint.

These are the things we got from Masters for this job:

After the wall was given a good clean I got busy with the green frog tape, this is decent tape for painting, and I used it to stick the drop cloth to the floor too, plus some of the gorilla tape just for good luck. It must have worked as my drop cloth didn't budge and my floors are safe.

Me very happy with my green frog tape.

Next I got started with the magnetic paint. This paint is not like normal paint. I tried to give it a stir and couldn't even get the stick through the paint. It is like a very heavy sandy sludge and takes a fair bit of elbow grease to get this mixed. I am not all that strong, so it took me around 20 minutes to get this paint mixed. Mr H helped me with the next tins and was much faster.

Apparently before he left Mr H told me to use the foam roller. Which I misheard as don't use the foam roller. If you don't use a foam roller you will find that the sludge flicks everywhere. All over your house and in your hair and on your face and on the ceiling.

Tip 1: Use the foam roller.

Magnetic paint is really messy. Once you have the foam roller you will still find that bits of sludgey dirt specks are rolled on to the wall.

Tip 2: Be prepared for magnetic paint to roll on quite roughly. It doesn't give a smooth finish.

I followed the tips on the tin and did three coats of this paint.

Tip 3: More coats are better, make them thinner rather than big thick coats of paint.

The following day, after giving the magnetic paint over 24 hours to dry and checking that the magnets stuck I started on the chalkboard paint.

IT STICKS! A magnet on our plasterboard wall.

The chalkboard paint is just like normal paint.

You can stir it very easily and one can of paint goes a lot further. According to the size of the wall we only needed the one can, but I found the roller (normal not foam) soaked up the paint quickly and I would have liked more paint.

We painted this wall together and we were really happy with the final result.

While we were waiting for it to dry Mr H and the girls were also busy sanding and painting our craft table. We used things we already had in the shed for this and did not make any purchases. (The sander thingo and sanding triangle bizzos we had).

After two coats of the chalkboard paint were finished and dry we were really keen to test out our new wall. The magnets were sticking and we really wanted to get it finished for the day.

Before you use a chalkboard you need to chalk the board.

That is when you use the side of a piece of chalk and go all over the board to prep it for future use.

This is a very messy process and you should NOT remove your drop sheet before you do this, which is what I did.

Tip 4: LEAVE YOUR DROP SHEET IN PLACE UNTIL THE VERY END.

Use the biggest chalk that you can find, the type used on the footpath is best, we had this really colourful stuff already.

Then you need to dust it off as good as you can, give it a good rub all over.

Tip 5: Have lots of clean rags handy when doing this project.

It took me quite awhile to clean up this wall and once I did, it wasn't looking as flash as it was before we did this. I got googling and read the brochure from Wattyl which suggests you wait 48 hours for the paint to dry BEFORE you chalk the board.

Tip 6: Wait 48 hours for the paint to dry before you chalk the board!

Due to the magnetic paint being quite rough underneath, our chalkboard wall is also quite rough. Mr H tested it with a very light sand but the magnet paint comes through very quickly.

We are happy with the look of the wall, but we will most likely give it an extra coat of chalkboard paint in a few months. We will just live with it for a bit to see how we like the new colour, how we use the wall and how hard it is to clean.






This area is located in an open room, that is both our kitchen and living area so we look at it all the time. The end result is a much more colourful, brighter and more useful area.

If you would like to keep up with anything else from Masters, you can catch them on facebook or twitter or if you prefer more visual, give Youtube a go.

ImmyTime

It is only minutes away until I will have both the girls at school. 

Ok, not really, it is a few months, or a full term and the summer holidays, but still this is really just a number of weeks. 

Once that happens I won't have any little people to share a drink with at a cafe, there will be no little legs swinging from the child seat in my shopping trolley. 

At the moment there are only two days a week that Immy and I have together alone once work and kindergarten are attended too, so when we can we head out to a place and have a hot chocolate or a drink and do some people watching and have a chat. 

Last week Mr H tagged along too and we took him to Koko Black, this is Immy's favourite because the babycinos here are not just provided with a marshmallow, but an entire chocolate teddy bear on a stick. 

She sticks that teddy chocolate stick in the warm milk and watches his face melt off before biting off his head. 

We make jokes about being a bear with a sore head. They never get old. Even funnier is when you tell her she just ate a bum. 

With one term to go I am going to enjoy every last babycino and headless bear joke I can get and hopefully drop in to a few new cafes along the way.

Made with Bricks

Over 150 years ago some people built some stables.

Big ones.

And they made them double brick - the bricks were also hand made.

Over the decades it was used as a place for the Cobb and Co to stop overnight, many horses rested in here on long journeys while their people rested in all sorts of camps and accommodation.

These stables have lived through a massive gold rush, federation, world wars, droughts, floods and the introduction of more inventions than those builders ever dreamed of.

With no more horses, no more carriages and no more travellers passing through the stables slowly started to have no purpose, other than just looking really lovely and acting as a bit of a bike shed or a place to store stuff that no one wanted anymore.

One big storm a few weeks ago was all they could take and when a few bricks fell from the walls there was only one option left.

The old stables had to come down.

And just like it went up by hand over 150 years ago, it pretty much came down the same way.

A team of my family got together yesterday, we chipped and cleaned bricks, we threw bricks (not at each other) we wheeled them to piles and we threw the old ones to use for clean landfill. We sat in the dirt and dust (and even one very dried out dead rat) and knocked the ol girl to the ground.


It is so true what they say. Many hands make light work - but, a brick is still a brick and frigging heavy when you are moving thousands of them in one day.

The wood that could be salvaged has gone to those that know what they are doing and will be recycled and turned into a brand new design. The tin roof has gone to live out its days in the house next door where it will have an entirely new life.

Today there are sore muscles aching and dirty clothes to be washed and a little sadness of the end of a building. But there is also the excitement of seeing the space planted out with flowers and fruit trees and lawn, a space that might become a haven for people to sit, relax and enjoy the space for maybe another 150 years.

Frock it.

I am no fashion queen.

I love looking at what other people wear, I enjoy looking at fashion sites, I just struggle to keep up with the latest looks and tend to dress much more for comfort than anything else. Mainly, I just don't like being cold.

I am also fussy with fabrics - I don't like any of those synthetics that make me stinky.

Immy is Queen of the Dresses and I am happy to allow her a daily dose of dress wearing. I know all too well that this phase shall pass and the time will come soon enough when the little frocks of bows and smocking will be abandoned.

With this in mind I have signed Immy and I up as a team to do Frocktober. That means we are accepting the challenge to wear a dress every day in October to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer.

I am not asking for donations for Frocktober, Immy and I will make our own donation to the cause but hopefully I will be able to share some important health messages or the stories of other people, plus also have some fashion fun along the way with everyone.

While Immy has her wardrobe of 40,000 dresses (thank you Granny) I have a wardrobe of about 4 dresses and this is really going to be a big challenge for me. I am not even sure if I will make it 31 days wearing a dress. I am also not sure how I will go blogging for 31 days of me wearing a dress so I am putting out the HELP WANTED sign.

Would you like to be a guest here on my blog? It could be you wearing your favourite dress, it could be doing something about Frocktober, maybe you have a personal story relating to ovarian cancer that you would like to share.

Or, are you a brand that sells dresses that you would like to have shown off? If you want me to give your dress a try, I am happy to give it a whirl for the day - and return the samples in the post for you. Maybe you sell children's dresses and would like Immy to give it a whirl - I can't promise she will keep it clean and appropriate for returns though, in fact I can probably confirm it will have glitter glue on it within 2 hours.

What do you think? Wanna play Frocktober with me? Just email me at claireyhewitt AT gmail dot com and we can get it all sorted.

Edited:
As mentioned, I am not asking for donations, however some kindly folk has indicated they would like to make a donation. This is my fundraising account for
those.
https://frocktober.everydayhero.com/au/claireyhewitt

Bombed out.

When I was little I can remember the thrill of getting my first Essendon Bombers football scarf.

I remember it because my Aunty Lynette had already given me a pair of Collingwood leg warmers. It was the late 70s and I loved those leg warmers. They were given as a gift and gifts were not as regular as they are these days so I knew they were very special.

When I received my bombers scarf, I was told I was receiving a very special gift for doing such a good job starting school and being so well behaved. The scarf was considered something only the really lucky kids got. From this I equated the bombers with being the best and though I loved the legwarmers, the decision was made.

I would support the bombers. FOREVER.

Just like my Dad and my brother.

It is natural for children to follow in their parents steps for supporting football teams and I expected we would be just the same. At her first football day I dressed Popps in a black and red dress and had my Mum knit her a bombers beanie in time for the day. She wore it proudly and was a keen bombers fan.

Then something changed.

Probably the Bombers kept losing and the Cats kept winning and with Mr H cheering so loudly it was hard not to hear. And her older cousin passed down a footy jumper he had grown out of and then pussy cats are much nicer to think about than bombing jets I guess.

Then there is the fact that the Essendon merchandise person manages to choose THE ugliest stuff ever made. For Example:

By age 5 no amount of discussion could get Popps to barrack for the bombers and I turned to two year old Immy. It was only fair that if Popps was supporting Mr H with the Cats, Immy and I would be together as bomber fans.

Only Immy is so enthralled with everything her big cousin Emma does that she has also decided to barrack for the Western Bulldogs, just like her. I can't believe it.

Next Friday is Footy Day at Kinder and Immy is refusing to wear anything we already have, no bombers or cats stuff for her, she is a dogs supporter and there is no changing it.

I may not be an avid fan or interested in watching footy too often, but I did think at least one of the girls would be wearing the red and black each year at footy dress up day.

Perhaps I should try one last time to convert them, with a snazzy pair of leg warmers.

What does a fox say?

We are celebrating musical theatre here this week, it is school concert week! I have counted out a few hundred killer python lolly snakes and helped bag a few hundred bags of mixed lollies to sell at the refreshment stand. In honour of decent musical theatre and great songs I give you this.

Watch it.

Laugh.

Sing Loudly.
 What's your favourite line? Mine is definitely: Would you communicate by m-o-o-orse.

I've Canva gone mad - Free Online Design Tools.

I love free online tools.

My first love was picmonkey but that has now been replaced with Canva.

At the conference I attended I even met the brains behind the Canva website and told them how much I loved this new product.

What is Canva? It's a graphic design tool that is online. It's free to use and EASY to use.

Right now they are still rolling out the features and the accounts. Sign up to get one and it won't be long until you do, they just don't want to have the whole thing crumble with too many people going design crazy all at once.

I have my account and have been playing about for a few weeks, I also used it to do the Hello image over there on the top right hand side.

One of the tools that follow bloggers or small business owners might like to use is the facebook cover page template.

You can totally make your own or you can use some of the Canva images to do it. Some images are free, but others will cost you - but don't stress they are mainly just $1 so they will be within the tightest of oily rag budgets.

I put these pretty basic options together in just a few minutes.

Once you load up the photos that you want to use you can really do anything that you like. There are brochures and invitations, flyers and posters for any marketing or personal use you want them for.

Not since clip art arrived in power point have I been so excited about online design tools.*

Canva is at https://www.canva.com/




P.S. Just one week to go until I Shine a Light for Hope and do my walk for Leukaemia. Join in if you can.

Five tips for getting the most out of your conference experience

I love conferences. Sometimes they can be a bit of a junket and there is not much learning going on, but my latest trip to the Gold Coast filled my head with all sorts of ideas.

Pages of notes were scribbled and endless to do lists were jotted down. I have returned with so many things that I just really can't wait to action and feel really thankful that I got to attend.







The content I learnt was not really useful for people who are not interested in marketing and social media issues, but there were still plenty of things I learnt about attending a conference and getting the most out of it.

Here are five of my tips for getting the most out of your conference.

One: 
When it comes to packing remember this:

There are no prizes for having the smallest bag. 

At first I tried to pack for the four days in my overnight bag. Thankfully Mrs CeeeCeee made me see the error in my ways and told me to take the biggest bag I had.

I unpacked and repacked with everything I really needed.

The kind people at Virgin didn't even make me pay extra when I was just a little bit over my 20kg limit and just added a bend your knees tag to my luggage.

Two:

You can not pack too many shoes.

Let's say that again.  You can not pack too many shoes.

Three:

The sessions that are for 'inspiration' are an excellent time to grab a lemonade from the stand and take off out the front door and go for a walk on the beach. Even if the Queensland sun is not shining.

Four: 

Your children will love the gift you get them from the airport gift shop. Do not waste time shopping elsewhere.

Five:

Stay away from green smoothies. They taste just as bad in Queensland as they do at home. Unless of course it looks like this...Welcome back into my life Midori and Lemonade.


Do you have any tips for attending conferences?

Good reads for girls in junior primary

Popps is now 7 years old and in at least one thing in her life, she takes after me!

We both really love to read.

I have constantly found sourcing new books for her to be a challenge. Some classics are written in a language she doesn't understand or can not handle at this stage, modern books can be too simplistic for the 6 - 9 age group. Popps has made her way through close to 100 Enid Blyton books in the last year,  gee could Enid write! I googled to see exactly how many books she did write and it was 1802 books with 11,125 short stories! The lady could sure spin a tale.

But finding something more than Billy B Brown and not as full on as Little Women is hard for the junior primary girl. It could be for the boys too, but I don't have a boy and I have no idea what little boys like.

The things being re read here this term have included:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel

This is the 7th book in the series of Wimpy Kids. To be honest I don't get these books. But as a 7 year old Popps thinks these are extremely funny. She read the entire 217 pages on Monday night after I bought her this book as a reward for an excellent report from the dentist. She has marked some of her favourite pages - which is pretty much the whole book.

Next we have something more 'girly'.

 Bridget Lucy wants needs a pet
by Leonie Norrington

The highlight of this book is that the illustrations have colour, which is of course rare in chapter books, but really it is a shame that more don't have them. Young children's books have such beautiful illustrations at times and then all of a sudden as chapter books become the norm you start to miss out on the artwork. Note to authors of kids fiction - don't skimp on the artwork for your story.

This is the third book in the set of Bridget Lucy books. The font is a good size, the words that need emphasis are often highlighted with a different font, for children that need to improve their reading out loud or reading with expression this can be a useful reader.


More diaries...

Dear Dumb Diary

These books are all about coping with the dynamics of school. I have found so far that the politics of the playground can be much more distressing than any other part of daily school life. Dear Dumb Diary is funny. Really really funny if you are in grade one. Popps also likes this book because the characters are older than her, it is a bit like reading a book about the big kids at school. These books are not literary classics, this is not The Secret Garden, but if you are happy for your children to read for enjoyment, give Dear Dumb Diary a go.

Last for today is

Truly Tan by Jen Storer 

 

Tan is a female character that I like, she is smart, she is funny, she is adventurous and she is very interesting. The writing in Truly Tan is much more complex than in the other books I have mentioned today. I would suggest this book is for more advanced readers in junior primary, the website suggests it is designed for children aged 9 and above, I would expect that boys would also like reading Truly Tan, I am half way through it myself!  Truly Tan has some small illustrations scattered through it for those readers who are still keen for the text to be broken up. There is a second Truly Tan book called Jinxed.

Any other suggestions for the junior primary school years? 

P.S. I am Lighting the Night to help raise a cure for Leukaemia. Join in if you can.

Who's Counting?

Once upon a time, 550 blog posts ago I started writing this blog.

I was so keen for people to read it that I would ring my Dad and say, quick click on my blog so I can see if the google analytics works, only to find him to be a page view, but not to increase my unique viewers as he had already checked the page when I previously rang him and asked him to do it.

550 posts later and I hardly ever check those stats. Firstly because they are boring and secondly because when would they ever be high enough - Never?

Recently I worked on a marketing campaign where I wanted to find some bloggers to advertise with. I had my marketing brief and my strategy all worked out and from there I did the research to decide which bloggers I wanted to work with. I didn't ask any of these bloggers for their 'numbers'. One of the bloggers sent an email reply which included her media kit which covered all her numbers and was very professional looking. This was useful, but I had already decided that I was happy with the content and style of the blog.

I wanted each of these bloggers and their blogs because they 'fit'. They fitted with the message I wanted to share. They fitted with the target audience that I wanted to reach. They fitted with the general culture and mission of the business wanting to advertise. The topics that they write about, the people who read their blogs, the design of their blogs, the 'feel' of the blogs, the tone of voice, the community that joined them. These were the things that I was looking for. I keep a close eye on the blogs that match my client and regularly read them and look out for others that might also be a match.

I can tell just be reading these blogs that some have a readership substantially higher than others. This was ultimately reflected in the price point. The smaller blogs quoted smaller rates, the bigger bloggers had higher rates. It then became my decision to decide if the rates were of value. The interesting part was, that the bloggers I spoke with, they all had a very accurate concept of what their blog was worth. The smaller bloggers didn't request rates that were sky high. They requested rates that I considered fair and reasonable - as did the bigger blogs.

I fully understand that marketing needs to be justified.

I will certainly measure the traffic that the advertising brings in from those blogs, I can look at my own information to see if the blogs generated any traffic. There are other things too, like brand recognition and building relationships with key industry influencers.

Everyone wants the figures, PRs need to justify the spend, campaigns need measurement etc etc.

However, my blog, these 550 posts, is a hobby. It's a place I chat away and share information and stories and photos and life.

For the last six months I have rarely provided my stats to PR companies and brands, mainly because I would have to click around and find them and I just don't have time, but also because I want brands that just simply think I am a 'fit' for their product. This has of course meant that many opportunities may have been lost. I might not have received an invite to an event and gained a swag bag of free stuff. There are less packages of goods arriving at the door. I may have missed out on being paid for a post on something.

Maybe.

You might not have noticed but many of my sponsored/review posts have dried up, but those you do see are people and businesses that have products that match me and this is what works best for me. I do provide them with stats after the post but some of these posts get excellent long term hits rather than short term, which is not always considered by a campaign manager, but I do like to (if I remember) let a brand know about any retweets or facebook shares, instagram photos, and I certainly provide them if I have agreed to work with a brand.

But it gets tricky:

Like my review on a car seat. Every day it gets hit over and over again, the hits on this post the week it went live were very small. But I know parents are searching for this information. Place the words into google and look what comes up.

Any statistics I provided at the time this was written would have been a fraction of what they became - over time it keeps getting whacked big time by parents wanting to know more about this car seat. I wrote about it (unpaid) because it was a great fit for me. Like the sheer beauty that compounding interest is to your bank account, the same seems to occur to some blog posts.

If you run your blog as a business than your numbers might be vital. If you are seeking opportunities and putting yourself out there than you will need to present yourself and your blog (and your numbers) in a  professional way to assist in your long term success. If you have/are working with a brand than share with them your numbers after a post, big or small it all helps justify the spend and the brands will LOVE you for it.

Just don't underestimate the power of your voice, your space, your feel. The people, brands, businesses and services that think they fit with you and really want to be seen on your blog, they will do so regardless.

Trees and Nests

How was your weekend?

I think I am nesting, no idea why, in case you wondered, I am certainly not pregnant. But I am feeling an urge to pretty things up a bit. Maybe it's the glorious sunny weather after months of cold grey days.

I have been wiping skirting boards and cleaning out cupboards. I have had Mr H move a desk that nearly went out in hard rubbish to another room and I am considering turning the space into my designated work from home spot. The current position drowns in the fadmin. The bills, the school notices, the doctors reports and to do lists. Throw my work stash into the small space and it isn't working for me.

The garden is also getting attention. Today I planted a massive bucket of bulbs, all sorts of bulbs that I stole from my Mum's garden. While I sat and dug and planted in the sunshine I tried to picture how I want the rest of the garden to look. The problem is that the area has one massive big tree that ruins all my plans. I want that tree to go, Mr H loves it. It's a landmark.

We tell everyone visiting our house - remember to look for the big ugly tree. The neighbours have also told us that they use it too, except they get to say - we are next door to those people with the big ugly tree.

The girls like to climb the big ugly tree and there are days when Popps sits at the top of the big ugly tree and looks down on the world around her. Knowing that Mr H and I can't get up that tree, that walkers by do not notice her. She can spy on all those that pass below her.

With the inside and the outside of the house needing some fresh ideas we did what we do best.

Packed some fruit and headed out.

Met some family at our favourite city park, where we played football, rode bikes, talked and tight roped.

A little stroll around some shops and a little purchase, because my wardrobe also needs a little bit of attention.

How is your nest? Do you fluff it up regularly? Are you a tree lopper  - I need a quote.

Do you know that man Goode?

Imogen has two major besties at Kindergarten, she is very jealous of them both, simply because they are both five years old, and that is just not fair.  Because they are five, they know pretty much everything.

This week she returned from a day with Anna and Sharnie and said "Mum, you know Goode?"

I said I wasn't sure I did know Goode.

Yes, you do, everyone knows Goode, he is that man.

I asked her where she met Mr Goode.

"I didn't meet him, Anna told me that Mr Goode is the dad of Jesus. She also said that Jesus came back after he was dead, but I have never seen Jesus, I don't know where he lives, but we should all say thank you to Jesus because he lets us have Christmas."

I replied that I think she was talking about God, not Goode.

No, she said, I don't think you are right, Anna knows about these things. Not like you or Sharnie. Sharnie was born in Hindu and that's why she is not allowed to eat meat, people born in Hindu are allergic to it."

And there endth my lesson from my four year old today.

One of us seems to have a lot to learn.

Parental Service Announcement

This is like a Community Service Announcement, but for parents.

Actually just for parents with kids in creche or kinder that abide by the SunSmart rules.

It's hat season!

There are a few things you need to do pronto:

1) Dig through all the drawers and bags and find the hats from last summer.

2) Try each hat on the head of your little people and turf all those that no longer fit.

3) Be totally amazed at how your child's head could grow so much since April.

4) Wash all the hats that fit. If you are inclined - give them an iron.

5) Get out your sharpie and hand write names inside the hat - in big big letters. Big enough for your kiddo to recognise their name. I have often found our hats (named with iron on labels) in the lost property box.

6) Put the hat you don't like much in the creche bag. NOW. You are now prepared for all the days that you will forget the hat.

Because believe me, they never want to wear the 'My Mum forgot my hat spare', that manky left over hat that was left behind by another Mum who kept forgetting to pack a hat, and it is no fun to have your children crying at you and chanting the no hat chant:

No Hat, No Play.

 No fun for you today.

'hat's all Folks.

Stage Fright

Tomorrow I am off to present at a conference. I will be talking about personal blogging - why would anyone write a personal blog? (I don't really know, perhaps I should just say because they are a little crazzzzzzeeeeee).

This means that a handful of people might be clicking over here for the first time, which in reality does happen sometimes -  New people click here and take a look around. But when you expect that people are going to meet you 'for real' and then come over here and take a look around, well, I think I get a little stage fright. It makes me think I need to have a great and amazing post here. Something they read and think, wow, that woman is fantastic, I can see why people read her blog!

The truth is that today, I am stuck for words. Nothing I have in my mind seems interesting enough.

Nothing seems exciting and thrilling and something worth sharing.

Usually I would share what we got up to on the weekend, how much fun we had doing a few things, how steep the hills were that Popps ran up and down and what it was like having a father's day when you don't have a father for the first time.

But the words are not cooperating.

For those of you here for a first visit, I am sorry this is all you get, maybe click back another day when I am not expecting any visitors and you will see me as I usually am - whatever that actually is. For my wonderful and most loyal regular readers, regular transmission shall resume once I have my stage fright under control.