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I used to make things. I used to photograph things that I had made and blog about them. Now? I have good intentions and bad self-discipline. I am working nearly full time now and life is a lot fuller, pushing out time for crafting and making and photographing and blogging. I still write blog posts in my head sometimes, not nearly as often as I used to. I don’t read my bloglines nearly as often as I used to and I don’t read magazines nearly as often as I used to. I have good intentions with a TV-and-blankie-on-the-couch habit.

I will get back to it. It’s me. It’s what I do and what I think of me as doing. It’s who I think I am. It’s who you think I am. It is me, and that me will come out to play again. I have the best jam-packed studio with fabric and patterns and art materials by the bucketload. I have a huge stack of magazines on my bedside table and lots of crafty podcasts loaded onto my player.

I have a dusty old blog and a head full of good intentions. I have this blog post. There will be more.

Jeepers! I just realised I have not updated this since 1999… You would not believe how insane my life has become. Truly!

I am flat out with work, soaking in the tub, just generally being the life of the party to society in general, my day is full to overflowing from the moment my children manage to unlock my bedroom door and use me as a jumping castle to 11pm at which point I fall asleep on the couch. I am totally loving it, dudes. but who cares.

I won’t promise anything to you but I will write something that makes sense soon. Well, I’ll try. What do you mean you don’t believe me?

This post written by monkeys with typewriters… well, actually The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator, more info here.

It’s the first of May!  I had to send a text message to my very best friend ever, Yvie to tell her:   “OMG!  You are getting married THIS month!”  I can’t wait to see her and Dan get married in Sydney in a few short weeks.  I’m sure it will be a lovely wedding and a great party afterwards.  Paul and I are having the kids minded and we’re going to stay at a posh hotel in Double Bay for the night.  Can’t wait!

Also happening in May - the lovely girls at the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog are doing a Women’s Clothing Month all through May.  I am very excited to say that I am keeping company with some inspiring women as I will be providing an article for them!   Mind you, I still have to write the article.   I have been percolating ideas in my head though so when I sit down to write it (maybe this weekend?) I will know where the article will be going.

It’s been three weeks now and I’m still really enjoying my new job and getting a lot out of it.  I have even done a crazy thing in the name of bonding -  I’ve signed up along with two of my workmates for one of those crack-of-dawn boot camp things!  Starting next week I will be getting up bright and early (or at least early) and being hounded and pounded for an hour from 6.15am, twice a week.  Am I crazy?  I think so.  I would still like to lose 10 kilos so this is a good way to keep motivated and do something a bit different.  Sharing it with two women from work will make it fun and we can all complain together.

It turns out that my boss is the star attraction at her gym - even appearing in their posters and giving motivational talks. She went from 150 kg (330 lbs) to 85 kg (187 lbs) in 12 months.  She is tall and so 85 kilos makes her very slim and trim.  A huge transformation and it should keep me on track with my weight loss goals - she even has one of the gym posters up at work with all the before, during and after shots.  I am always shocked at how much people’s faces change with all that extra weight.  I have been finding it hard to get to the gym since starting work so the boot camp is a good way to keep things going.  It’s just a pity I hate early mornings!

I’ve just watched Sam win on Biggest Loser and didn’t they all look AMAZING!  I was really hoping Allison would win and of course Kirsten too.  I like Kirsten but Allison was the won I wanted to win - since losing the weight and gaining confidence Allison had this wonderful child-like joy just shining out of her eyes.  By the way, I’m not saying I particularly agree with their idea of losing huge amounts of weight in just 3 months but it does make for a good show.  It’s the first year I have watched it and it was good to see the real results and of course,  The Journey.   

Hello!

Apologies for not posting an entry in so long but I was busy having kittens because of a mystery WordPress glitch that rendered my site unreachable and generally mucked things up. It is SO frustrating when you don’t have a clue what is happening with your site. It’s one thing to miss a week or so because you have lost your blogging mojo or you’re just plain tired - it’s another thing entirely when you have things to say and no way to say them!

Anyway it looks like I have cracked the mystery and sorted out the problem, so here I am. Now I’m cold and tired and it’s late so a proper post will have to wait.

I will share one piece of exciting news though - recently I added this little image to my sidebar as I like what this site is doing for crafty Aussies and… sure, they were running a competition too. All you had to do was register on their site and add their banner to your site - easy enough and I didn’t think any more about it.

And then I got an email that I had won one of six advertising packages on the site - valued at $5000! I nearly fell off my chair! They said that I generated the most links to their site during March which was also great to hear! It turns out that the $5000 package gets me a total of ONE ad on the site for a month. That’s one pricey advertisement so imagine the hits I could get from it. I will direct the ad towards my site at www.redinstead.com.au and see how that goes. Wow. Still can’t quite believe it.