♥ Loving Halloween

I used to scoff at Halloween and dismiss it as an American Hallmark tradition. What's it all about anyway? Kids dressing up and wandering about scaring each other, laughing madly, meeting their neighbours and getting lots of hyperactivity-inducing sweeties... hang on a minute... what have I been missing out on all these years?

Where we live now, Halloween is getting bigger and bigger. Maxi-Taxi participated last year when he was at his first ever sleepover at a mate's place. The mate's mum slapped a sheet on their backs, drew on teeth, called them vampires and took them out. Maxi-Taxi got scared out of his wits, loved it enormously at the time and then called us at around 10pm saying (and I quote) "I don't think this sleepover thing is working for me".

First ever sleepover + Halloween = not very good timing.

This year, the Tsunamis were kitted out in '$2 Shop With Mum Modifications' outfits. The 'buy and modify' approach to homemade is what it's all about here in Maxabellaland. Cappers was a Warty Witch, Maxi-Taxi a Debonair Vampire and The Badoo was a Scary Dummy-Sucking Bat.

After much preening we made it out the door and had the best time harassing the neighbours (well, those with a gold ribbon on their mailboxes* anyway), racing around like mad things with 15 other kids from the neighbourhood. 

"Just because we're scary vampires and witches and bats and goblins and skeltetons and zombies and dead pirates, doesn't mean we should forget our manners... say thank you!" I called over the general din.  The pumpkin buckets filled with sweets and then... buckets and buckets of rain. We got drenched in a massive thunderstorm and, of course, Maxi-Taxi went nuts with anxiety when the thunder came. Talk about a Halloween fright night!

All in all, my first Halloween experience was the best kind of fun. Wherever the 'tradition' came from or what the actual point of the whole exercise was, I cannot tell you. And don't ask me what I'm going to do with three pumpkin buckets full of lollies. But I do know that family togetherness is the key and I'll take that where ever I find it.

What was Halloween like at your place?

* Some clever mum sent out a note with a piece of gold-curling ribbon attached earlier in the week. If you wanted to participate, put the ribbon on your mailbox. It worked so well!

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My ♥ Loving posts are always linked to ♥Much Love♥ Mondays... thanks Anna.

And if I manage to post something that's happening 'At My House' on Mondays, I always link up with my lovely friend Lou over at Buttons By Lou Lou.

Happy day to you all!

This Saturday I'm grateful for... rest

So, my blark isn't quite back, but my everyday spark is bigger and brighter than ever right now. I feel grateful and greatful.  Enjoy your Saturday!


This Saturday I'm grateful for...


1. Rest - taking time to be easy is so important to me.


2. Change - it shakes things up and reminds you of all the possibilities of life.


3. Space - I spent many years living in an inner-city tunnel and now I relish the joy of wide, open spaces surrounding my home.

Thank you to all the lovely blogs that link up for yummy bloggy visits each Grateful Saturday. 

[Image by Kitty Gallannaugh]

Is blogging a winter sport?

Not sure about you, but now that the weather is heating up around here (well sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't! What a weird Spring we're having!) I find myself with less and less time to blog.

Is it that I'd rather be outside?
Is it that work is busier this time of year?
Is it that I'm tired as we gear up for the silly season?

It's a little bit of all of that.  To be honest, I think I've just lost my blogging spark (my blark) a little bit. Then, this week, someone dear to me has had what can only be called a blogging disaster and I just feel like taking a mini-blogcation out of support for her.

It's very mini. I'll be back for Grateful Saturday ('cos, let's face it, I can't miss my gratefuls - won't you join me?)... enjoy yourself until then. x

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Ms Nosybella: How do you...?

Hello my lovelies

Summer's coming, it's just down the hill parading its beaches and pools and flimsy, floaty garments. I see oodles of orange, dimpled flesh about to spill forth like a wishful offering to the sun. Shudder.

I don't do the fake tan business. I'd rather be ghost-like than splotchy brown with that strange orange glow radiating just under the surface. The stinky goop and unctions necessary to prep the skin, the time commitment involved to maintain it all. One of my most freaky beauty therapist moments was the nude fake tan, up against a white wall while she brandished the air gun like an AK-47. Meet the Firing Squad Moment there.

So, all in all, my summer preps are reasonably modest. I shave my legs more often than once a winter. After 20 years of waxing, I shaved when preggers with Maxi-Taxi as the waxing was waaaaay too painful and... it was so easy, so convenient, so exactly the same result as waxing but without the pain factor that I never went back. I go back to regular pedicures for sweet toes. I exfoliate more than once every month. That's it.

You'll note that the word Brazillian did not come up, not even once. I have never and will never go there. I'm not interested in looking like a pre-pubescent (and really, the idea that LOML would like such a thing turns me right off instantly) or a strange little barbie doll*. I do a bikini line tidy up whenever things begin to get ursine, but no landing strips for this herbal diva. No freaking way.

What about you? Do you fake tan it? Do you wax or shave? 

Do you take it aaaaaall off?

* With respect to those who indulge. It's a personal thing, you understand. x

'Til next time,

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Everything's just so uncomfortable

I'm often uncomfortable. Not in pain exactly, but annoying, niggling, buzzing, don't forget I'm here uncomfortableness. And sometimes pain.

We all have our Achilles and my back has never been particularly good. I was diagnosed with a mild scoliosis in my teens which was bizarrely taken back and claimed to be 'one leg shorter than the other'. Yes, that was the medical diagnosis. Regardless, I'm crooked.

After having babies, well, things went rapidly downhill. Some mornings I feel like I'm pushing eighty and Eighty's heavy. Most days, though, I just get on with things and ignore the tension, the tightness, the soreness. Like a tightening noose, it gets more frantic as the day goes on. My shoulders ache, my lower back stiffens, my whole body tenses. Particularly busy days will make even my eyelashes feel tight.

As I stood at my kitchen counter at 3am last Sunday night preparing Mermaid cakes, I started thinking about how lovely it would be to be pain free and 'straight' for just a day or two. How nice it would be to not have to consider my back every time I picked up my children. To be able to skip out of bed rather than creak. To just be in the moment.

Pain makes everything just a little bit less enjoyable. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with 'real' pain 24/7. My heart goes out to people in that situation.

Have you experienced chronic pain or know someone who does? How do you cope with something that constantly makes you feel bad? How do you manage?

[Image by Hilde]

Busting out of the Comfort Zone

The V8 Supercars. Surprise. I had a fantastic time in the pits during practice, talking to the drivers and crew and learning all sorts of interesting facts about cars, cars, cars. The smells, the sounds, the sights, I kind of 'got it'. I can't say I'm car racing's newest fan, but I will say that I'm not knocking anything I don't know about in future.

It's good to break this habit. I have a bad tendency to turn my nose up at things I consider... 'not me'. It really switches you off from experiencing things that are a bit out of your usual comfort zone but are great fun nonetheless. It's good to hang out with people you ordinarily wouldn't meet and talk about things you ordinarily wouldn't consider. Good for sparking creative inspiration and good for the soul.

I'm challenging myself to embrace new experiences from now on. I'm going to drag my little family along to something new whenever I can. You just never know what the Tsunamis are going to be into so it's up to LOML and I to introduce them to as many different things as we can. And you never know, I just might find a new passion of my own along the way.

Do you shake things up regularly? What do you to do get yourself out of your comfort zone?

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♥ Loving Snippet and Ink

We went to Roger and Duana's wedding yesterday and it was a beooooutiful affair. I don't know how Duana would feel about me publishing images of her wedding before she's even back from honeymoon, so instead I've decided to share highlights of a few of the inspirational weddings featured on Snippet and Ink. If you adore romance, photography, details, styling, design, stationery, creativity, festivities and love, love so much love, pop over to Kathryn's amazing blog dedicated to all things wedding.


Liz and Chris

Hannah and Ian

Stef and Johnnie

Kristin and Mark

Crystal and Robert

Lauren and Adam

Don't you just lovey-dove a wedding?

As ever, my ♥ Loving post is part of Anna's Much Love Mondays...

5 Ways We Will Stop the Haiti Cholera Outbreak...TOGETHER

After  the devasting earthquakquake 9 months ago I started to follow some guys who have gotten in on action for Haiti. One of these human beings is @ShaunKing, a 31 year old husband, father, pastor, and grad student (in that order) in downtown Atlanta.  He is the Lead Pastor of The Courageous Church - a  new, diverse, exciting church in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Shaun  has been shot at, robbed, beaten within an inch of his life, and nearly killed in car crash, but just won’t die.  He has taken this as a sign that God hasn´t finished with him and has decided to squeeze all of the potential out of life as a sign of his thankfulness to God for so many second chances. Today, after the shocking news about the Haiti Cholera Outbreak, I found the message below on Shaun´s  facebook site. 

Help to spread the good prevention around. You´ll find the links in the text below.  
Show THAT YOU CARE, tweet the news stories and demand a solution.

Thank you for reading. 
Love and God bless. 
Cassarah (from the "it´s-all-for-love-webteam")

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"I am writing this quickly, but have thought it through and talked with people on the ground in Haiti and here in the states.  I will work with anybody who wants to be a part of this solution. We have already sent money, supplies, people, and more to Central Haiti and they are there as I type.

I hope I have built up credibility with you for getting things done.  If not, I urge you to find someone you trust that is a part of this solution before thousands of people die of a preventable illness that is cheap to combat.

1. I honestly think $100,000 that is spent well would solve this entire problem.  The items that we need to stop the spread of cholera and nurse people back to health are inexpensive.  Every dollar you donate @ aHomeInHaiti.org for the next 7 days will go directly to this outbreak.  This is the quickest way to get things flowing.  If you give today we will spend it right away on antibiotics, clean water, salt, sugar, iv's, antibacterial solution, and education tools.

2. We have a company offering to give us $100,000 for our causes in Haiti. What we have to do is SUPER SIMPLE. If you go to TripAlertz.comand sign up there, they will donate $1 to our cause - up to $100,000.  Over 10,000 people have signed up already and we have 90,000 opportunities left to raise $100,000! It take less than 20 seconds, is free (no credit card needed), is not a scam, etc.  The company is like the Groupon of travel.

3. Continue to make this a BIG DEAL on Twitter & Facebook.  Do NOT spread misinformation, but tweet the news stories, demand a solution, and show the world YOU CARE!  I am 100% sure that YOU & I are able to affect the news cycle and make this a priority for the world.  This is essential.

Let's make this the TOP NEWS story on the news tonight!

4. Help spread GOOD PREVENTION information in every way you know how.

Here is a PDF on cholera prevention in English.  Here is one in Kreyol.

5. This last one is about your heart.  Commit in your heart that you will see this solution all the way through. Kids are dying because they are drinking dirty, infected water and YOU can change it.  Let's do it.

UPDATE :: I am working with a few people & organizations on the ground and I will report how you can support them directly as I get the information."

~ Shaun King

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Webteam-Addition: Some more useful links:

• Current Map of the Cholera Epidemic 
 update from 10/23/2010 at 11:10 am

• Medical Treatment: Zinc Supplementation in Cholera                                      
• Free Health Materials in Kreyòl, Spanish and English
• Health map Haiti: New safe water installations

 

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This Saturday I'm grateful for... new experiences.

Here in Maxabellaland, Saturday is traditionally a sport, shop, sort the clothes, sweep the floors, strangle the Tsunamis (insert other 's' words here - no pun intended) kinda day. But it's nice to pause to appreciate the things in your life that are positive and affirming, whatever they may be. Thank you to all the lovely blogs that link up for yummy bloggy visits each Grateful Saturday.




This Saturday, I'm grateful for...


1. New experiences - it is so easy to become a creature of habit and routine when you are raising young children. I appreciate a break from my real life every time, even if I happen to find myself in the middle of the boganvillea V8 Supercars with my eyes hurting from sponsored shirts and my ears hurting from Dire Straits.


2. Cushions - they make the decor so easy to change, but when you just need a little extra softness there, there or there, cushions really come into their own. It may interest you to know that we somehow manage to house over 40 cushions in Maxabellaland...


3. The kindness of strangers - thank you for asking me whether I was in pain and needed help today. That's just my face, but thank you anyway. 

What's making you smile today? Join the linky and then tour the list to find a new blog to love...

[Image via weheartit.Source unknown.]

Children's Day, October 2010 - The price of the Gold

For this month's Children's Day on our blog I wanted to write something about a project that aims at bringing smiles on children's faces - but in light of a news bulletin I watched yesterday,
I had to write about something else.

This is not a fully document piece of writing and I apologize for that. you will find much more well documented reports from the sources I mentioned and on the suggested links below.
This is aimed at only bringing attention to a situation that affects a large number of people and children especially as a high risk group.



Photo : The Ecologist

Gold. It's symbolism is associated to deity and power. It's shiny aspect has been the pride and joy of many. It is a big part of the global economy.
Throughout history has been part of the rise and fall of empires and people.
For communities and individuals have been a way out of poverty but much to often this claimed too many lifes and destroyed too much of other nature's riches. Gold mining is on debate in my country so this has very close ties to 'home".



Photo : guardian.co.uk

In the past weeks news agencies have been reporting on information from UN, Doctors Without Borders and World Health Organization about an outbreak of lead toxicity in northern Nigeria, the Zamfara State.
According to WHO, The Zamfara State Ministry Of Health released data about a pattrn of childhood death and illness in at least 6 villages in the Local Government Areas of Bukkuyum and Anka.
Doctors Without Borders reports that earlier this year, cases of lead poisoning in children and adults were confirmed in 5 villages in Zamfara State and newer data show an increase of the affected population area.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted a preliminary study say that in the affected villages more people have died this year then anywhere in the world over the past 40 years.
Mining has been banned for several months in the northwestern Nigerian State

International agencies are working in an attempt to contain the pollution but 
18,000 people are affected by mining activities 
(may that be mining of the gold or processing it).

At least 400 children have died from poisoning.
(Reuters)



Photo : The Nigerian Inquirer

Further more the communities are reluctant to offer information about lead-related illnesses or deaths - gold is the mean of escaping a life of severe poverty2 hours extracting it from the ground could be the equivalent of 2 months cultivating millet.
Sacrificing children and the surrounding environment is not the grounds for sustainable development. I'm not denying the right of each individual to the pursuit of better living nor am I judging those who do.The problem should be tackled by local, national and international authorities in the sense of creating legal background and means to implementing long term development programs from which the communities will be able to profit from without compromising the future.

The Nigerian Inquirer - The Tragic Gold Mining Affair in Zamfara State
http://www.nigerianinquirer.com/2010/07/06/the-tragic-gold-mining-affair-in-zamfara-state/

Reuters - 400 Nigerian children dead from lead poisoning: MSF
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69439J20101005

Things I learned this week including that I'm happiest when I'm being creative

Happy Friyay!

As I write this I am looking out my hotel window at the sweep that is Broadbeach, Gold Coast, Queensland. Am I on holidays again, you ask? No I am not.

I am sporting a media pass and covering the V8 Supercars race for my work. Oh, the glamour.

As I race about (pun!) dodging grid girls (fun!), I had ample time to reflect on what I learned during the week that was...

1. A friend asked me on Monday, "Besides your family, what makes you happiest?" and without hesitation I responded that time stands still for me when I'm writing, making and generally being creative. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I would much rather be making something.

2. A 'flimsy' is a quilt top before the batting and backing have been added (thank you Sue at Charlotte's Cottage!)

3. Whenever you see a large group of idle teenagers, one will be plucking away at a guitar. It's best to vacate before they launch into a rendition of Stairway to Heaven because, believe me, it will happen and it will not be pretty.

4. Geocaching is a high-tech version of a scavenger hunt using GPS. There are hunts already preset that you can download here -  it really adds that extra something to a bushwalk. Check out the fabulous Geocache bag and goodies that Emily made over at her fabulous Saltwater Kids site.

5. I knew this already, but bloggers really do seem to be the nicest bunch of people on the planet. What is it about blogging that brings out the best in people? The delicious comments I received on the mermaid party post made the party even better. Generous, warm, inviting and supportive... I don't think the critics know what they're talking about!!

How about you? Did you learn anything new to share this week?

[Image by Kristine May]

Michael Jackson In His Own Words

I have taken this from Michael's Dancing the Dream. I love this book & i'm sure all of you do too it's hard to pick just one piece to post because they are all so great but here you go & I hope you enjoy it :)

That One In The Mirror

I wanted to change the world, so I got up one morning and looked in the mirror. That one looking back said, "There is not much time left. The Earth is wracked with pain. Children are starving. Nations remain divided by mistrust and hatred. Everywhere the air and water have been fouled almost beyond help. Do something!"
That one in the mirror felt very angry and desperate. Everything looked like a mess, a tragedy, a disaster. I decided he must be right. Didn't I feel terrible about these things, too, just like him? The planet was being used up and thrown away. Imagining earthly life just one generation from now made me feel panicky.
It was not hard to find the good people who wanted to solve the earth's problems. As I listened to their solutions, I thought,"There is so much good will here, so much concern." At night before going to bed, that one in the mirror looked back at me seriously. "Now we'll get somewhere," he declared. "If everybody does their part."
But everybody didn't do their part. Some did, but were they stopping the tide? Were pain, starvation, hatred, and pollution about to be solved? Wishing wouldn't make it so--I knew that. When I woke up the next morning. that one in the mirror looked confused. "Maybe it's hopeless," he whispered. Then a sly look came into his eyes, and he shrugged. "But you and I will survive. At least we are doing alright."
I felt strange when he said that. There was something very wrong here. A faint suspicion came to me, one that had never dawned on me so clearly before. What if that one in the mirror isn't me? He feels separate. He sees problems "out there" to be solved. Maybe they will be, maybe they won't. He'll get along. But I don't feel that way-- those problems aren't "out there" not really. I feel them inside me. A child crying in Ethiopia, a sea gull struggling pathetically in an oil spill, a mountain gorilla being mercilessly hunted, a teenage solider tembling with terror when he hears the planes fly over: Aren't these happening in me when I see and hear about them?
The next time I looked in the mirror, that one looking back had started to fade. It was only an image after all. It showed me a solitary person enclosed in a neat package of skin and bones. "Did I once think you were me?" I began to wonder. I am not so separate and afraid. The pain of life touches me, but the joy of life is so much stronger. And it alone will heal. Life is the healer of life, and the most I can do for the earth is to be its loving child.
That one in the mirror winced and squirmed. He hadn't thought so much about love. Seeing "problems" was much easier, because love means complete self honesty. Ouch!
"Oh, friend," I whispered to him, "do you think anything can solve problems without love?" That one in the mirror wasn't sure. Being alone for so long, not trusting others and being trusted by others, it tended to detach itself from the reality of life. " Is love more then real pain?" he asked. "I can't promise that it is. But it might be. Let's discover," I said. I touched the mirror with a grin. "Let's not be alone again. Will you be my partner? I hear a dance starting up. Come" That one in the mirror smiled slyly. He was realizing that we could be best friends. We could be more peaceful, more loving, more honest with each other every day.
Would that change the world? I think it will, because Mother Earth wants us to be happy and to love her as we tend her needs. She needs fearless people on her side, whose courage comes from being a part of her, like a baby who is brave enough to walk because Mother is holding out her arms to catch him. When that one in the mirror is full of love for me and for him, there is no room for fear. When we were afraid and panicky, we stopped loving this life of ours and this earth. We disconnected. Yet how can anybody rush to help the earth if they feel disconnected? Perhaps the earth is telling us what she wants and by not listening, we fall back on our own fear and panic.
One thing I know: I never feel alone when I am earth's child. I do not have to cling to my personal survival as long as i realize, day by day, that all of life is in me. The children and their pain; the children and their joy. The ocean swelling under the sun; the ocean weeping with black oil. The animals hunted in fear; the animals bursting with the sheer joy of being alive.
This sense of "the world in me" is how I always want to feel. That one in the mirror has his doubts sometimes. So I am tender with him. Every morning I touch the mirror and whisper. "Oh friend, I hear a dance. Will you be my partner. Come"