Getting reddy. For Daniel

Awareness is key to making changes.







Out of sight out of mind is too often the case.







So today we are wearing red. To remember Daniel Morcombe and the too many other children that are abused.







Because the more people who show that as a community we won't tolerate those who abuse children, the closer we come to saving another child.



Support the foundation if you can.

Www.danielmorcombe.com.au


And link up with www.stylingyou.com.au if you are a blogger and joining in.





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Little towns and a little history.

Can you imagine what people will read about us in 100 years time?

Will they pick up the Herald Sun newspaper, read Andrew Bolt and think his were the views of our era? Will they look at the stats of A
Current Affair and think we all watched and believed it?

Who knows.

I really like history, especially Australian history.

When we went to Walhalla the town had recently tidied up the war memorial from the first world war and our guide gave us the history of it.

Take a look?

Notice anything?

Start with the American spelling of Honor.

That there is not a single name on the memorial, a mining town full of young men, yet no names of any lost in the war.

And the dates. Wrong again.

The mines in Walhalla started closing in 1911, people left, the train finally arrived, the war started, the people kept leaving, the money ran out, the men went to war.

Those that remained in this isolated area wanted a memorial for the towns fallen. But they had no idea what was going on, and they were all planning on leaving town too.

So they guessed.

They just guessed how long the war might go for and it is presumed they were still to know the names of any men (boys really) that were not to return.

So they did what they could to honour the lives of our ANZACS. And made a shrine a little the same, but different to all the other towns around the country. So often we just walk straight by them without really taking a look.

Do you like history? Do these little things interest you when you visit a town?

Dancing along

We have some dancing issues going on.









Popps started the year a keen dancer, but her overly stressful outlook is making it hard for her to attend. She has now set strict guidelines around her attendance.
1) some weeks she will dance and some she will not
2) no one, not parents, other children or grandparents are to watch her, if anyone enters the dance room she sits down or leaves the room
3) she will not be performing in the concert at the end of the year but would still like me to purchase the fancy costume and book tickets to the event, just in case she changes her mind.
4) she agrees it is really fun and she has a good time. That the other girls are all really funny and nice and 'her friends' and she likes being invited to their birthday parties.
5) if she does complete a full class, she needs a reward.

Mr H and I decided she needs to finish the year out, after begging for jazz shoes, tap shoes etc and the fact that she really does enjoy it when she is there. We would also like her to see that her fears, whatever they may be, are not so big after all, and maybe, just maybe, if she does manage to take part in the concert, the achievement will be wonderful for her.

Then we have Immy.








She is attending a class at the same time, it is for the 3 and 4 year olds, but as we are already there I asked if she could just join in and flap about. They agreed and we pulled together a costume from the dress up box and some hand me downs.

Six months in and at 2 1/2 she is addicted. She dances her little feet off, sings and skips about. She seems to believe she is Angelina Ballerina. She dances all week to the point we have downloaded the songs from class for her so she can practice her moves.

What started as just filling in time for Immy while waiting for Popps has turned around.

I don't know how Immy will go on concert night, how many two-year olds really do cope on stage? But I can't see how I am going to keep her away.

What do you do when your kids change their minds about activities?




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Do you know you eat with your eyes?

I was going through a stash of items that have arrived here in recent weeks to see what I could pass on to some of my friends, readers, Facebook friends etc.

I was flicking through a book wondering who might like it when I realized I had now read the first 40 pages and actually I might keep this one for myself.

There is nothing ground breaking in it but it talks about the effects of marketing on all of us.

It was a reminder to me how we all eat with our eyes. Wine makers spend lots on making sure the label will convince us the wine tastes great, put the same thing in a clean skin bottle and our eyes and minds devalue the wine instantly.

Research on kids shows that if you put the Maccas they love in plain packaging that they don't actually like it and that it only takes one viewing of a commercial for a toddler to become aware of and then desire a product.

It could be a can of tomatoes or a loaf of bread but there are certain things as consumers we choose because of packaging, not taste, we usually don't even know it.

This book gave me tips on getting control back of the eating habits for our household. A little reminder that I will choose what my children need to eat, not food marketers and certainly not the two year old.

What foods do you taste with your eyes?






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Why I went to Walhalla: part 1

Heading off Saturday morning to a destination I knew little about was rather fun. I knew two things about Walhalla, it was a bit of a drive and it was likely to be pretty cold.

The drive actually wasn't too bad, just straight down the freeway to Moe turn left and follow the signs, as the road gets windy you know you are getting closer and as the road narrows to pretty much single lane you hit the quaint town of Walhalla.

But why would I jump into a car with three woman I had only met briefly before and head to a place a few hours away?

Or is the question more about why would Destination Gippsland ask me to go away and put me up for the weekend.

This was really what the people staying at the Walhalla Inn with Toushka and me wanted to know. They had been told they would be sharing the place with some Melbourne journalists. Much laughter from us and much confusion from them about this blogging thingamig and we explained how it works.

For those of you interested, this is why it works.

We spend so much of our lives online now and ask Master Google for so many answers that blogs have become a source of information for many people.

You can look at a brochure and read a little, but will it tell you that Sheriff who runs the mine tour is really very knowledgeable, that the mine is not too tight and if you don't like cramped spaces you will still be ok to do this tour. I was a tiny bit worried that I would find it uncomfortable, but the smaller section is just pointed to and the tour only takes you along sections that have been prepared for the tour. You also wont learn from a brochure or a snippet in the paper that during Black Saturday, tourists that had remained in the town were able to be safe and secure in the mine chamber.

Destination Gippsland would like to share with more Victorian families, especially those from Melbourne more of the little hidden things on offer within the area. Naturally we couldn't visit the whole region in one weekend, but we could really experience the best of Walhalla and learn about a quaint town that really is different to any other within Victoria. By organising this weekend, Louisa, Toushka, Megan and I will be showcasing the bits we liked and the things we didn't, or the things we think may be important to our readers. As 'Mummy Bloggers' we understand what other parents might be wanting to know. For instance, the camping ground is free! But, there are no showers, so you need to be happy to really camp, not go 'glamping'.

Being sent on a weekend away does not mean we come home and write a post that says "Go to Walhalla".

We will also share with you that if having all your gadgets and gizmos is important to you, then Walhalla may be frustrating. This town is isolated.
There is no television. There is little mobile phone coverage. There is none with vodafone nor optus. The best place to get Telstra reception was in the cemetery.

Speaking of the cemetery, we were spoilt to get a guided tour by one of the ten residents of the town. (yes, only ten people live there).

I quite like checking out the history in cemeteries but having a tour guide who knew everything was a real treat. It is a pretty place to lay your head for the last time, with lots of interesting characters to hang with should you all come back for a ghostly visit. Apparently one grave is haunted, we took the risk and had our photo taken with it anyway.

Tourism is important to many areas of Gippsland and neglecting to use the influential blogging arena to get their message across would be using a marketing strategy with a piece missing. Bloggers around the country are sharing their knowledge on all sorts of things, from kitchen mops to face creams, vodkas and holidays. Not all of them are so well organised, not all of them are executed so well.

Businesses who really believe they have an excellent product should be happy to share that item with bloggers who are usually pretty happy to share that on again with their readers. Walhalla was pretty confident they could show us a nice weekend and they did deliver.

Some bloggers require payment for the posts they write about businesses, we were not paid to write any posts, we were not given a press release to write from, but I did ask many questions about what the town of Walhalla would like to see out of the weekend. No surprises that they would like more tourism, but the difference here is they are really interested in more winter and spring visitors. Which is why for August they are running a special light festival, with a nordic twist, a connection to the towns origins. Walhalla is a town with community spirit, when they want something to happen, they all take part, people volunteer and projects work. It is wonderful to see that happening and working so well.

Some people might be worried about the weather, and it is cold.

I survived very well with a polar fleece, puffy jacket and on the night train a hot water bottle was actually supplied. Love. I really loved that gesture and the fluffy cover on it. Can you tell?

I still have so much to share about what I enjoyed about Walhalla, I will save them for another post. You can also visit the blogs of my companions to read more about Walhalla and get the view points of some other journalists mummy bloggers.

This weekend was organised by Destination Gippsland, Brand Meets Blog and I attened with Louisa, Toushka and Megan.

A horsey post

There is a little niece of mine who is totally horse mad.

Since the age of three she has been riding her ponies and taking part in the rural pony club. She has collected a huge number of items relating to all things horsey over the years along with many ribbons for competing at horse events. I was keen to see what Miss Abbey thought of the new DVD Secretariat. All about a famous American horse, I expected this new Disney movie could be just the one she would love.

She was thrilled to have it arrive and promptly sat down with her Mum to watch it.

It was a bit heavy for an eight year old.

She sent me this

I didn't like the start of the movie as it was a bit boring and sad.

It was hard to follow and I had to ask mum what was going on.
I really liked the part where the horse had a foal, and all the horse racing parts.I like Big Red the horse he was very nice and very fast.

I would watch it again but it was a bit long.

 

The start includes the death of the parents and there are topics along the way that she needed to ask Mum to explain. She also found it a bit tough going to understand the story line at times as the concepts were a bit above her Grade 2 level.

Her Mum thought it was actually quite good. She enjoyed it but admitted she is a little horse mad herself and wasn't sure if non horsey people would be so enthralled. She also suggested it was for an older child to watch, or if your younger children are watching it, to certainly watch it with them to explain certain issues and concepts.

The pony club Miss Abbey attends is hosting a fundraising day to raise money for Breast Cancer Research, together with the PR firm HayStac (who supplied the DVDs) we decided to assist them with their efforts and have donated my spare copy of Secretariat to be raffled off to another horse loving person, who is bound to enjoy this movie and contribute to raising vital funds for cancer research at the same time.

Abbey and her Mum


Secretariat is available on DVD in stores this week from August 10th. It is rated G and is the true story of an amazing horse. Check it out.

Yellow Daisies

Buying flowers is one of the little things we don't spend money on.

We have a great rose garden that flowered for many months last year and allowed me to have fresh flowers in the house for a long time. The winter months have meant we have been flower free indoors for what feels like forever.

This week, I don't know what happened, but Melbourne got a burst of warmth, some sun and some warm winds. We had enough time to spend outside  to run around and pick the daisies and the daisy bushes are huge and filled with little flowers that are easy for tiny hands to pick.

I have never been a huge fan of the simple daisy before.

Now I know that some days a bunch of daisies is all the table needs to look a little sunny.

And I can feel summer approaching.

The Goodie (and the Baddie) bag

I have spent the past weekend attending the blogopolis conference and surrounding functions relating to blogging and it made me realise how many businesses accidentally waste the chance to really promote their products.

If you are a business and contemplating a marketing campaign where people (especially bloggers) are going to test your product there is one vital thing to remember.

The tiny sample size packet is no good. Besides the negative environmental impact from packaging, most of the samples just get thrown in the bin. Really, most of us are not that desperate to trial a face cream by ripping open a tiny smidge of foil and squeezing like crazy to get four drips out.

We will not decide whether we like something from one tea bag being placed into a show bag at an event.

Nor will feeling the fabric swatch of something encourage me to purchase anything.

As a marketer and a blogger I have compiled and received many goodie bags over the last 15 years. I have had to source promo items and tried to build brand awareness through giving out 'stuff'.

At my most recent blogging events it was clear those companies that do get it oh so right and those that still think I should feel privileged to be able to trial their product.

Garnier stocked me with so much product to try that I did a deliberate promo shot on twitter for them. I will also be passing some product off to some other people as there is only so much moisturiser my legs can absorb, which gets their product even more exposure.

Thanks Glowless and Mummytime for modelling

Blackmores kept asking if I had kids...than take these, and a husband try these, and don't forget to look after yourself, take these. Full sized products, not a tab of three trial pills. I stopped them at the Conceive Well products as I am not planning on ever needing to worry about my folate levels again. But I knew my brother was getting fish oil for his kids so I grabbed him a jar of those. He can try them for me (and them).

Mooo also got my tick, they included an offer of one of their products, I just need to order it online and they will send it out. I like this idea as it allows the person using it to really customise the product to be exactly what they want. If you don't want it, they have not wasted their time or yours and nothing extra is going to landfill. I can also make it a gift for someone else and make a tick on my Christmas list (hello Family Calendar for my sister!)

No need to shame those that didn't quite 'market' their wares so well, just a reminder that if you are paying to have your product displayed to a target audience, don't skimp on the most important aspect, your product.

Service providers have a much harder time at doing a giveaway or a trial offer, seriously, who ever wants to trial a lawyer just for the fun of it or hey, how about you go and see a psychologist and see if you (and they) are normal? But many still want to increase public awareness of what they offer and how they are better or different to their competitors. Again this is a tricky business and it is important to get right. But as far as I know, no one ever decided on a service provider by looking at a stress ball, a mouse pad or a pen, few people would decide on a travel destination simply because of a postcard in a bag full of marketing waffle that is usually tipped straight into the yellow wheelie bin.

So don't just empty out the marketing cupboards from old stock to fill a conference swag bag. Target the audience with something specific, show them how you are different and be available to talk with those that show an interest.

I have now received some rather bad items in swag bags and some incredibly good ones but I would love to hear some of the favourites or failures that you have received. Time to share the good, the bad and the skimpy.