Yes, I'm terrible at accepting blog awards

I always love getting some blog love in the form of these awards but I must confess, I'm terrible at the whole accepting and passing them on thing.

I don't like choosing people to give it to unless certain bloggers clearly spring to mind.

And I can't really think about things to say that you don't already know - is my life not an open book?

Also, I don't have a system (!) so I forget until I make the rounds and see the other people "accepting" their awards and then I remember.

Oy!


Anyway, here goes:

I got this trendy award from Rebecca in *blush* January, nearly two months ago.



And then a stylish blogger award from Mandy just last week :)



Thank you so much for the blog love - it's like virtual hugs on the internet.

So, let's see... 7 more things about me...at work

1. My cupboards at work are filled with kitchen things - mugs, tea, coffee, sweetener, biscuits (Salticrax for my low blood pressure) and cup-a-soup (tomato flavour if you're interested) - and not a single box of staples or officey thing.
2. I'm a pen snob. I only write with my beloved Pilot 0.7 gel pens. Try them and see...
3. I regularly talk to myself and tell myself how well I'm doing, like this. "M, you worked SO well today." First time a new guy heard me he thought I was crazy. My response? "If I don't tell myself nice things, who will?" Yip, made my point. Do you tell yourself nice things too?
4. Sometimes I'm amazed I actually function in corporate. I really don't like taking orders from anyone and I hate chasing up people to do their darn jobs. Still, this is why I'm employed (let's call it my tenacity... :)) and most people don't mind it. I personally would hate people badgering me but hey.
5. Most days I do love my job... and when I don't want to do something, I force myself to do it and then reward myself with a mug of tea and some blog reading.
6. They (my team) all use the word "awesomeness" because of me. Ha! I regularly say things to them like, "oh, that is SO part of your awesomeness". I suggested that we have "live your awesomeness" as one of our team values and they went for it. It tickles me pink :)
7. I honestly work with a fantastic bunch of people. We can all be brutally honest with one another and we never have that horrible tension going on. Well, there was one incident with the new person but she and the other guy sorted it out and we are all a happy family again.
   

So... it's late and I'm only giving this to 7 people. With quick intros.

Sarah from Bio Girl. Sarah was the first IF/ IVF blog I followed and Sweet Henry was born
Louisa from 123 myself (that's how I found her - I was checking URLs before buying this domain) with adorable daughter, Nicola.
Heather is a gorgeous, clever IT manager person (that's about as technical as I get) with the most gorgeous little boys and a beautiful daughter. Heather and I are both ESTJ :)
Lynette whose word of the year is breathe - I love her word and her beautiful spirit. She's also a scrapbooker who lives in the city where I was born.
Hayley who is the epitome of stylish. We keep threatening to meet up because she actually lives near me (near by Jhb standards)
Cat who is actually crafty (yes, I'm jealous). Had a beautiful party for her little girl recently (it's me that keeps pointing people to that party post!) and the most fabulously stylish but low key birthday for her twin boys.
Kendra - started following her blog recently from crafty blog hops- go look at her office redo - GORGEOUS


How are you with these award things?

Are you on top of them? Or a slacker like me?


P.S. Coming up - biting, discipline and pics of those darn tins. Also I now have a "crafty things to do" list - yes, you can laugh.

Still, a good weekend

Yesterday we had lunch with v. good friends of ours - we've known each other for 11 years. In fact, we were their pastors (Deanna, remind me to talk about the pastoring thing some time :)) back in the day.

Anyway, we got V in so things would be easier.

My friend is such a giver and ALWAYS brings food even if they're coming to us. At first I used to get cross (in a joking way) but then I realised this is just who she is, and these days (with the babies) it's just very helpful.

I did salad, rolls and dessert and she brought a delicious pasta dish. Yum. I've put some away for lunch :)

So we had a lovely time - they were amazed at how big the babies are now (in just a few months).

When they left, we did baths (V did their supper and then left) and put them to bed and then I went straight to our bedroom and read for about 3 and a half hours, non-stop.

Both the reading and the book were fantastic - 4 stars :) I finished "the brightest star in the sky" by Marian Keyes.

It was heavenly to read for such a huge chunk of time and I really must do that more often.

Today of course I got that email but then we went to church which was surprisingly good (heard and received about 80%)... we've decided that we'll take them to children's church next week. Eek!

And guess what? this afternoon two minor miracles happened - the children napped and I got my crafty self on.

Those empty formula cans have been piling up (I can't bring myself to throw away perfectly good and barely-used cans) so I googled "how to repurpose formula cans", found some ideas and I've been at it.

Again, I'm lazy to take pics and download but D says they look cute :)

The good thing about doing 6 tins is that my "technique" (I use that word VERY loosely) was refined as I worked and I even now have "templates". Hahahaha

My desk is strewn with card, paper, a pair of scissors, two types of glue, a ruler and two types of ribbons.

If I ever run out of things to say, I may even do a tutorial. Okay, that's a joke :) Clearly I am tired and need to go sleep.

I'm trying to read the 5 love languages today and tomorrow night to make my 5 books per month :)

Where are you on the crafty scale? I'm a 2 or 3.

Making life just a little bit pretty

So those of you who were reading last year remember the offer we put in on a house which didn't work out.

We then started painting and fixing things, as you do, and suddenly I realised that we should live in a nice house all the time, not just when we want to sell.

So we started painting and doing things around the house, just for us.

The strange thing is... because we looked around a bit, I suddenly love my house much more than before :)

I also love my really low bond balance and I shared before, this bond will be paid off this year.

How? I don't know but I'm not letting the details worry me.

Anyway, back to the pretty.

I am HUGELY affected by my environment which is why I keep raving about the gorgeous view outside my office window - when I am inspired and the environment is good, I'm happier and more productive.

And so, I love what a fresh coat of paint does for my soul.

Almost everything in this house has received a new coat of paint over the last year and I've just decided that my whole open-plan entrance hall/ lounge/ sunroom area is going grey.

If you did that thing with your mouth, trust me, it's going to be gorgeous - I saw a lovely grey on a blog. I'm too lazy to look it up and link to it but I have a mental image stored. (Am I the only one who makes mental notes and stores mental images?)

Small touches around the house that are currently done include:

• getting the canvases printed
• putting pictures in the gazillion frames I keep buying
• buying and displaying 3 of those wooden word things (from Home Etc) - family, friends, dream
• getting free prints on the internet printed in colour, framed and up on my walls
  

All this stuff is a mindset shift for me. I'm usually about the quick and easy but I decided that I need to honour my goals and dreams, and my workspace.

I usually type out my monthly goals on a template I designed and stick them up on my wall in front of my desk with a piece of prestik so I am focussed the entire month.

For Feb, I printed in A4, reduced the size to 51% and put it in a beautiful and happy photo frame right on my desk.

Still in my face but just prettier. It literally took about 2 minutes to copy and cut, and put in the frame.

Of course, my love affair with Etsy helps my new prettier mindset very easily.

I'm trying not to spend too much but unfortunately I don't have the crafty/ repurpose and make pretty gene so have to pay for pretty.

I'll take some pics one of these days and post them but tonight I had to prepare a talk that I'm giving tomorrow (can't wait!) so no time.


Do you have regular plans to pretty your environment, or do you generally live pretty? Or don't you really care? And if you have a favourite blog that inspires you, please share in the comments.


P.S. Today is my beautiful friend, Suzanne's birthday. Suzanne is a blog friend from Arizona (now a real friend) who met up with D & me in Scotland. It was as fantastic as it sounds - ice-cold and beautiful with a good friend - what more can you ask for? Anyway, Suzanne used to joke (I think?) and call herself the Goddess of All Things Beautiful so this post is inspired by her!