Brenda

Things I have learned – The year in review edition

December 31, 2011 By Brenda 19 Comments

I was gonna do a video montage. But then decided…NAH. Couldn’t be arsed. Plus. Editing is a bitch. So NAH.

But YOU get the next best thing. You get the bulletised (is totally a legit word) version. You can thank me later.

SO with much pom pom shaking, I give you the bullet points of the crazy ride that was 2011. I am NOT going to cry. Promise I won’t.

I have learned that turning 38 is not as scary as I thought it would be. I still look hot. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
I have learned that putting together a blogging conference is a LOT of hard work. BUT the pay-off is totally worth it. Hence the reason why I am putting together another one next year. And it’s going to be amazing. Promise.
I have learned that Nicole aka The Planning Queen is like THE most organised person ever. I wanna be just like her when I grow up. Love you, Nic.
I have learned that I am bulletproof. I wish.
I have learned that the “water off the duck’s back” saying sucks. Sometimes.
I have learned that being an online community manager is hard work BUT I kinda like it. So I shall continue doing it.
I have learned that blogging will take you places. Like you know. San Diego, USA.
I have learned that you will feel a tad lonely in a sea of 3000 bloggers. And it’s totally okay to admit that.
I have learned that raising a teenager is super fun. Yeah right.
I have learned that finding a best friend on the internet is actually possible.
I have learned that I need to listen to my husband more. Dude is like always spot on when it comes to suss things. It actually borders on freakyness.
I have learned that I need to trust my intuition more. Full stop.
I have learned that I need to let go of some things. Full stop.
I have learned that I kick ass at some things. And suck at some things. But I am still hot.
I have learned that being a SWAHM is NOT easy. At all.
I have learned that I really really suck at bookkeeping. Hence the reason why I have decided to outsource it. Best decision ever.
I have learned that finding work-life balance is like finding that holy grail. There has to be a dummy book for this one already. Surely.
I have learned that Everything looks better with instagram filters.
I have learned that nits nits and more nits on my children’s hair will drive me batshitcrazy.
I have learned that nits on MY hair will drive ME batshitcrazier.
I have learned that eczema sucks. Lots.
I have learned that the power and passion of the blogging community is freaking AWESOME.
I have learned that it’s okay to step away from blogging when you feel the need to.
But most of all I have learned that blogging is supposed to be first and foremost be fun for me. Otherwise what’s the point.

I was aiming for 50 lessons but I am kinda pressed for time seeing that it’s New Year’s Eve today and I have to cook 50 million spring rolls.

See you all in 2012 my lovely and ever loyal readers. Be safe today. Mwahs.

Filed Under: Inspirational Stuff...Kinda, mummy blogging, What's in my brain right now, Why I blog?, Year in Review

From our fam to yours…

December 22, 2011 By Brenda 7 Comments

Filed Under: Happy Holidays, my kids

The one where you say to yourself again “where has the time gone”?

December 6, 2011 By Brenda 10 Comments

This is Mr Teenager when he still had his baby hair and baby teeth.

This is him an hour ago about to go to his Year 10 Formal.

I made that. Can you believe? I shall now quietly bask in my awesomeness.

Filed Under: motherhood, Mr Teenager, mummy blogging, my kids

Speak Out

November 18, 2011 By Brenda 7 Comments

I am supporting Kristin of Wanderlust and her Speak Out Campaign. Go and visit her site.

Helpful organisations:

National Services

Police or ambulance or fire - 000 (Australia only)

Violence Against Women, Australian Says No(Specialises in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault counseling and referrals) – 1800 200 526

Relationships Australia - 1300 364 277

Mensline Australia - 1300 78 99 78

VIC

Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria, formerly Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre (information and referral to local services, lending library and training)
Address: 292 Wellington Street, Collingwood 3066
Phone: (03) 9486 9866 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm or TTY (03) 9417 2155
Email: dvrcv@dvrcv.org.au

WIRE – Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (Information, support and referral for women)

Ph: 9654-6844 (Mon-Fri 9am – 7pm) OR 1300 134 130 (country callers)

email: inforequests@wire.org.au

Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (24 hr Crisis support, information, referral to safe accommodation (refuge) for women experiencing abuse in their relationships)
Ph: 03 9322-3555 OR 1800 015 188 (toll free for country users)

Centre Against Sexual Assault Crisis (support, counselling, information for people who have been sexually assaulted)
Ph: 03 9344 2000 (daytime) OR 03 9349-1766 (After Hours Telephone Service) OR 1800 806 292 (Country)

Immigrant Women’s Domestic Violence Service (For immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence)
Ph: 03 8413 6800 (public line) 1 800 755 988 (free) (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

NSW

Domestic Violence Line (24hr telephone support)
Ph: 1800 656 463 OR 1800 671 442 (TTY)

Rape Crisis Centre – (02) 9819-6565 OR 1800-424-017 (Country Toll Free)

Immigrant Women’s Speakout (Association For migrant & refugee women who are victims of violence, counselling, bilingual workers)
Ph: (02) 9635-8022 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

Victims of Crime Support Line (Twenty Four (24) hour telephone information, support and referral for victims of crime)
Ph: (02) 9374 3000 (metro) OR 1800 633 063 (toll free) OR (02) 9374 3175 (TTY)

ACT

Domestic Violence Crisis Service (24hr telephone counselling, referral)
Ph: (02) 6280 0900 OR (02) 6228 1852 (TTY)

Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (24 hr) – 6247-2525

NT

Domestic Violence Crisis Service, Darwin
Ph: (08) 8945-6200 (9-5 Mon-Fri)

Crisis Line (General crisis counseling – 24hr service) – 1800 019 116

Sexual Assault Referral Centre Counselling (support, information, & 24hr crisis care for recent sexual assault)
Darwin – (08) 8922-7156
Alice Springs – (08) 8951-5880

QLD

Brisbane Rape & Incest Crisis Centre – (07) 3391 0004

Immigrant Women’s Support Service (Support for immigrant or refugee women victims of domestic violence, bilingual workers – Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)
Domestic Violence (07) 3846-3490
Sexual Assault (07) 3846 5400

SA

Domestic Violence Outreach Service (Telephone and face to face counselling, referral to safe accommodation – 24 hour service 7 days a week) – 1300 782 200

Crisis Care (After hours crisis support for violence and abuse, suicide, child protection etc, 4pm-9am plus weekends & public.hols) – 08 13 1611

Women’s Information Service of South Australia – (08) 8303-0590 OR 1800 188 158 OR 0401 989 860 (SMS)

TAS

Domestic Violence Crisis Service (Mon-Fri 9am-Midnight, weekends 4pm-midnight) – (03) 6233 2529 OR 1800 633 937 OR 1800 608 122 (Statewide)

Sexual Assault Support Services (Telephone and face to face counseling) – 03 6231 1811

WA

Women’s Refuge Group Telephone (support, referral to safe accommodation, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) – (08) 9420 7264

Crisis Care Unit (24hr crisis support for violence, child protection, suicide, etc) – (08) 9325-1111 or 1800 199-008 or (08) 9325-1232 (TTY)

Sexual Assault & Referral Centre (24 hr Telephone and face to face counselling, female doctors) – (08) 93401828 or 9340 18 20 or 1800 199-888 (Country callers)

Women’s Refuge & Multicultural Service (Outreach support for immigrant women who are victims/ survivors of domestic violence) – (08) 9325-7716

Filed Under: Domestic Violence, Speak Out, Wanderlust

There are rules for being human? Who knew?

November 12, 2011 By Brenda 11 Comments

Saturdays are *usually* my clean-up-the-house days. The process usually involves some vacuuming, some mopping and some spraying and wiping. That whole thing about cleanliness being next to Godliness. That one doesn’t really apply in my house anymore. And my God is totally cool with that. She’s super open minded like that. Love her.

Anyway.

As I was vacuuming the dust under Mr Teenager’s table. I found this note posted on his wall:

Filed Under: Inspirational stuff, motherhood, Mr Teenager, my kids

The Girlies on a Friday Night

November 4, 2011 By Brenda 11 Comments

My girls. They are growing up so fast. It scares me sometimes. I think I am doing an okay job. Yeah, I think I do.

Filed Under: misc ramblings, motherhood, my kids

A birthday, a review and a giveaway. You’re welcome.

October 20, 2011 By Brenda 33 Comments

And the winner is….DUN DUN DUN….

BIG CONGRATS! Loving the rap, Ash!. Hehe. Email me your details at mummytime(@)gmail.com and I’ll get the Sony Ericsson peeps to organise delivery of your awesomely awesome phone!

***

The Second Boy turned 10 last week. Hitting double digits age is a huge thing. And befitting a double digit age is a grown up bike.

Wearing pink sunnies is totally hardcore, yos!

Mind you though, he doesn’t know how to ride a bike. But he’s one determined boy. And I’m proud to report that as of 2 days ago, he’s mastered it! Without my full-on assistance! A proud mama moment indeed.

And cue your gift…

Yes my dear very loyal readers. You’ll get the chance to win that baby up there! Because I am all about sharing the birthday love.

So anyway, just a bit of a backstory. I got invited to this Sony Ericsson event a few weeks ago. A big ass limo and copious amounts of alcohol were involved. Behold some photographic evidence:

And ooh look, a totally stolen pic of me modelling the unit.

Seriously though. I love this phone. Not as much as my iPhone though. I need to say that in the interest of keeping my integrity. Ahem.

It takes great pictures as it’s got an 8MP thingymajigs as compared to the iPhone 4′s 5MP something something. Now, if you wanna go all geeky on me about the specs. You’re more than welcome to check out their site.

And ooh look, more pictures…

So, wanna score the Smartphone? Of course, you do! It retails for about $500 big ones! Just leave me a comment below telling me why you think the Sony Ericsson Experia Neo rocks the shiz. Alternatively, link me up to your blog. And show me a sample of your rocking photography. Okay fine, that’s a bit much. Just link me up with some pictures that you’ve taken. I wanna see them, okay?

I’ll choose the winner and announce it here on this post 2 weeks from now. So come back and check if you’ve won the awesome prize. And oh, make sure to leave a valid emal address too.

That’s it. And let the flow of comments begin…

Disclosure: I was not paid for this post. I was loaned the phone though for about 3 weeks or so. My words are my own. Purely my own. So there.

PS. Score some extra entries by tweeting and/or FB sharing this giveaway. One tweet and /or FB share /day only. Don’t be greedy. Heh.
PPS. Open to Aussie Residents only. A thousand apologies to my overseas peeps.

Filed Under: Awesomeness, best gift ever, Birthdays, Blogging ROCKS, Giveaways, motherhood, my kids, Product Reviews Tagged With: Sony Ericsson

Digital Parents Conference 2012. Ready Set Go!

October 3, 2011 By Brenda 8 Comments

I promise I won’t squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Much.

In case you’ve missed my overly excited tweets and equally overly excited announcement on Digital Parents. The conference that is set to be bigger, better and bad-asser (so totally a word!) is happening next year. In Melbourne.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Just indulge me, okay? I haven’t had much sleep the last few days. On account of I’ve been too busy coding HTML stuff for the website. Okay maybe not. But still, I was doing loads of things behind the scenes. Just call me Ninja Brenda.

So anyway, without much further ado-dage. I present you….

Click on the image and you will be taken to the Land of Narnia. Bwahahaha. Go on. Click click click. And whilst you’re there, make sure to click this super cute button.

The early bird tickets are on sale now. So grab them while they’re hot hot hot, okay? Okay?

Oh, check out the Team of Awesome too. They’re mighty fine lookin ladies. If I may say so myself. Thanks heaps to Grace, Trae (I’ve forced her into outing herself. Ahem.) Tina, Maria and Kirrily for coming on board this year. Let’s rock this thing, y’all!

OVER and OUT.

Filed Under: blogging, Digital Parents Conference, DPCON12 Tagged With: Blogging Community

Breathe Happy. You know you want to.

September 18, 2011 By Brenda 23 Comments

Alternate title: Brenda Does Ambi Pur

As in I went down on all fours! What? I was channeling my inner sniffer female dog persona. Don’t judge me.

I get a lot of PR pitches on this blog. As in like, 50 million a day. Okay fine. 49.5 mil a day. Semantics.

Most of them. I just ignore. Because dudes, I ~~am lazy~~ just don’t have the patience nor the time to tell them that my name is not “mummy blogger”. That stuff is just plain annoying. Really, if you want to pick my interest. At least address me by my first name. That’s all I’m saying.

But then sometimes, the PR pitch is just plain “OK, I AM SO GOING TO DO THIS THING”. Like this one from Rachel of Hausmann.

Now THAT is a kickass pitch!

So of course, I said yes. I’d LOVE to be a part of it. Are you kidding me? Silly old me in a TV commercial??? That’s like my life list #9856. So yeah, I totally said YES. Plus, I love Ambi Pur. Lots. In fact, I may or may not have a slight addiction to the Sweet Citrus & Zest one. I like sniffing nice things, okay?

And so I went to the top secret location and did all these secrety things. Behold the rushes…

I honestly don't know what possessed me to release my inner b*tch. Pun well and truly intended.

Just call me Brenda, Failed Method Actor Extraordinaire.

Channeling my best "Miss Universe" runner-up face here.

Dudes. I went down on all fours and smelled yucky yucky stuff in the name of our art. Feel fee to erect a statue on my behalf. I am one blogger dedicated to her craft. So you know, learn from me. Or not. Up to you.

Then finally last Friday, I got THE call from the Ad Agency peeps. I missed her call but listening to my voicemail. I knew in my mummyblogger gut that I got the gig. You just know these things, yah know. So I rang her, pretending I was all super cool about it. Who am I kidding. I totally lost my shit the minute she told me I got in. She may also have used the words “you were so funny and hilarious, we *had* to put you in”.

I will now take a moment here to bask in my awesomeness. Feel free to join me. We can sniff the Ambi Pur together.

So yeah. Yours truly is now a full fledged commercial model. Or commercial person. Again. Semantics.

This right here is the final product. I have about 5 seconds of airtime. 5 seconds! Oh, the uber hilair Emma was part of it too! See, I told you mummyblogging rocks! Big time.

Please take note though that this TVC does not air till later tonight. I think about 7PM. So you guys are like attending the advanced screening. You’re welcome.

Disclosure: I received (it’s not in my bank account yet though) a talent fee for my participation in the TVC. However, my opinions and views about my Ambi Pur experience are purely my own. Lying gives you herpes and crabs and boils. Ewwww boils. Peace out.

*FB love them here. Only if you want to.

Filed Under: AmbiPur, blogging, Blogging ROCKS, happiness, I am a proud mummy blogger, mummy bloggers, mummy blogging, ProcterGamble

Sixteen

September 16, 2011 By Brenda 11 Comments

It’s a big deal. A huge deal. But he didn’t want us to make a fuss out of it. So we went to this Japanese restaurant in Newtown. It’s a Teppanyaki one. It’s where you know, the chef throws food at you. Messy but super fun!

He’s a good kid, my Mr Teenager. And I’m proud to be his mum. He said for his birthday/early Christmas gift. He’d love to go to the Philippines. He was born there. He wants to do some sort of missionary work.

How can I say no to that.

Happy 16th, my darling boy. And promise, I won’t embarass you on Twitter anymore. Maybe. Perhaps.

*kuya means “big brother” in Filo
**his birthday was actually 3 days ago. I’m such a good motherblogger like that.
***to and too. same same. so shush it.

Filed Under: motherhood, Mr Teenager, mummy blogging