Calico & Co's Big Birthday Swap!

Take a look at the lovely goodies I received in the mail today from Jane, as part of the Calico & Co. big birthday swap. There's two gorgeous fabric hair ties, 6 magnets with vintage type prints on them, 4 Robot magnets (the boy has claimed these!), a mirror key ring with a funky print on the back and an awesome bookmark. Thanks Jane, its all fabulous.

You can all find Jane over at her madeit store twinkietwink where you can find lots gorgeous and very well made goodies. Jane's blog is also worth a look :).

The Age of the Shuffle

I can't remember the last time I actually listened to a song in full. The shuffle button on my iPod certainly gets a fair workout when I get a chance to listen to some music. I don't get much of a chance to listen to music that doesn't consist of pointing your finger and doing the twist, so when I do, I find myself listening to a bit of a song and then flipping through to the next in the hope that I will get through heaps of songs in a short period and feel that my music craving has been satisfied until the next time.

But its not, it is leaving much to be desired. In an effort to complete my 25 before 25, today I have packed the iPod away and reverted to an old school form of music equipment... cd's and cd players... did you know that these things are still around??? That and adding a new cd to my collection (I haven't bought I 'physical  cd' in years, I normally purchase them on iTunes) and am going to spend the afternoon emerged in some music. So on the sampler today is Mumford & Sons, which consists of four West-London boys, who apparently by their Bio, 'create a gutsy, old-time sound that marries the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the might of Kings Of Leon, and their incredible energy draws us in quickly to their circle of songs, to the warmth of their stories, and to their magical community of misty-eyed men'. You might remember them from there song 'Little Lion Man' which was the number 1 song on 2009 JJJ hottest 100 countdown. I love this song, but have never bothered to listen to any more of their music until today. Here's hoping it lives up to the same platform that I put little lion man on to.

The Art of Friendship

(Image from We(heart)it)

Have you ever come to a brick wall in what was once an ever lasting friendship. I mean, I've had many friends come and go through out my life, but I have met a couple that I thought would endure the test of time walking along side me.

The best of friends can go long stretches without seeing each other, and when you meet up its like you have never been apart.

But there are somethings, that a best friend just should be there for.

I don't have many 'friends' (I more so have a lot of people that I know), but those people that I do class as my friends, I treat them as an extension of my family. I can't count how many times I have dropped everything to be by their sides. I can't count how many times they have dropped everything to be by my side.

Except one.

I always thought that we would grow old together, not apart. 

I thought that I would miss her, but the reality is that my friend of long ago, has been gone for a long time. I miss what we were, but I have come to the realisation today that I no longer miss her, even though she is still the same person I have grown up and now know and feel the love of some friendships that are not one way streets.

(Image from We(heart)it)

My Place & Yours: Whats in your Handbag

Oh I cringed when I read this weeks theme... not because I don't like it, but because I was thinking it going to make near a weeks worth of cleaning up once I have emptied it.  (Ok, probably not quite a week, but certainly a long time!)


But I was pleasantly surprised when I emptied this...

And only found these items...

(Photo is a tad on the dark side but my battery went flat on my camera)

Fabric Shopping Bag

Pink Nappy for the girl

Change of Clothes (tights, long tshirt, 2x jumpers) for the girl

Beanie for the girl,

Pkt f Tissues

Kinder surprise wrapper + container toy came in

20 cents

Phone

Wallet

9 1950-70's golden books I bought about a week ago... that are still in there

2 x Cotton reels (Red & brown)

Ball of pink wool

My camera was also in there,

as was a whole pile of lego bits and pieces but the boy seen me emptying my bag and came and claimed them.

Hehe, I can't believe all that 'junk' fits in there, its not really a big bag. The lego came in handy today with a visit to spotlight... While I went through all the fabric the boy sat on the floor and staged out the battles of all battles.

Now I have just gone and stuffed it all back in there and will be wondering on my next trip into town why my bag is so heavy, of course it wouldn't have anything to do with a pile of golden books that have been in there for almost a month.

For more My Place and Yours, head on over to Danielle at Hello Owl.

This is exactly how we are all feeling after a long and tiresome weekend. Today was spent trawling the local Penguin Market with my mum and Ava (Charlie had the weekend with his dad). How cute is that beanie? I bought it today for only $12 at the market, I told the older lady that was selling them about ETSY, and how something similar sells for around $30+, she couldn't believe it, but I think I have her hooked on ETSY as she was going home to have a look.

Saturday was spent visiting Ava's name sake, my grandmother for her birthday, visiting a friend and of course taking the girl to her first ever voting day (where the offical in charge could of just eaten her up)... and that vote lead to an extremely late night, and other than saying I am extremely worried the outcome I will leave talking about it for the moment.

Instead, I will leave you with a few pictures of the cutest girl I know, who's nana (aka my mum) is trying to turn her into a die-hard hawthorn fan...

Will be back tomorrow with hopefully a little more excitement injected back into my posts :)

A Catch Up...

So unbelievably tired. Did you know that you can never 'catch up' on sleep, once you miss it, its gone unless you have access to some fantastic time machine that you have forgotten to tell me about. The only thing you can do is to get more in the future, which if your anything like me then you wake up after your extra sleep in a some what 'hung' over daze.

Miss Ava's reflux is slowly improving, but there have been sacrifices along the way... I've slowly taken gluten and dairy out of my diet as well as tomato's and any citrus fruits. Ok, I semi-lied, I am still having a whole two cups of tea a day, but that is just to keep me sane. Last night she had a good sleep, two five hour stretches (she is still sleeping now, see above), and I woke up feeling like crap, two much sleep apparently. We are on some medication to help her reflux, and I gave in and have her in bed with me. It's s much easier rather than waking up every two hours and having to go and get her from the cot. At least this way I still stay in a semi-sleep state and it doesn't take me the whole two hours she sleeps for to fall back asleep. The most annoying thing is that she wants to sleep. The poor thing is so tired, but I'm guessing the constant bring up milk and then swallowing it is waking her up because its painful. Hopefully we are on the road to going back to good nights sleeps.

Me, I'm feeling rather drab lately. When I had Charlie I was one of those women who you secretly want to punch say wow, you look amazing after having a baby. The weight just fell off and was back to my normal self in two weeks. This time however, its hanging around. I know that I am not fat on any measure, but I feel like it. And I know that there are no 'instant' fixes. Oh well, at least chocolate is out of the picture until the reflux has vacated the building.

Blog This: About ME

About ME. You'd think that I should know where to start, but I'm not really sure that I fully know who that is yet.

So to start simply, I'm Keshia. Known to my close family and friends as Keesh, known to my singing tutor as 'Quiche Lorraine', known by two little people as Mama.

I'm 24, but it seems so young actually writing that down. I've always felt like an older soul, even when I was a child so mostly I try and stay 'ageless'.

I'm the eldest of 'eight' children... and before you go whoaaa, no, I don't come from a family of parents that don't believe in contraception. My mum and dad broke up when I was a baby. Then they both went on to marry again, Mum having two children, Amy (19) & Daniel (17), Dad having the same, Mia (19, almost 20), Freya (almost 18). My step-dad left my mum and went on to have three more children, Kade (16), Holly (14) and Tayla (8). So, I'm the only one of 'me'. I don't think of any of my siblings as half or step siblings, to me, they are just my brothers and sisters. (did you get all of that, its a bit of a mouth full!!)

A strange fact about me, I'm one of those people that have never gotten over being scarred of the dark. I go all Ku-Foo Ninja like if I hear a bump in the night.

I've known my best friend for the same amount of years that I have been alive (minus a few hours). She has her butt planted over in Coventry in the United Kingdom at the moment and has been abroad with her mother since we were 14. I miss her terribly each and every day, so much that my body aches. The last time I seen her was July last year... and we ran a muck in our capital city. Ah sob, even good memories hurt sometimes.

I am a peoples person, I love finding out about people and what their stories are. Thats why in essence I started reading blogs. My blog, well its just a brain dump. I don't try to make it anything, just what ever comes out of my brain and through my fingers at that particular moment in time.

If I could defy one thing that has shaped me into the person that I am today, it would be the day I found out I was pregnant with my son. I was 19, and had been with my partner for two and a half months (we had been friends for much longer), initially, we thought that I would of been about 4-8 weeks pregnant and had both decided that we were going to terminate the pregnancy. We were both totally not ready to be parents. I had been sick for months on end leading up to the fateful day, and had actually had a pregnancy test done some months or so before hand 'just in-case'. It was a shock as well because I had been taking the contraceptive needle since I was 17.

My best friend took me up to the emergency ward one day, as I became really ill. The nurse there took one look at me and said I think your pregnant. I laughed.

I was.

Jase and I scheduled an ultra-sound for the following day. He picked me up from Uni, we went and sat in this gloomy waiting room. When my name was called I froze, once the ultra-sound was underway, I can remember starring at the screen thinking, why does this baby have fingers, it shouldn't have fingers. Then the words that the technician mouthed will for ever stay in my mind.

"From the measurements, it looks like your about 28 weeks, would you like to know what it is?"

I had one word circling my head, and it wasn't a nice one.

Turns out that that doctor had given me the wrong test results all those months earlier.

So from then I entered robot mode. I had 12 weeks to get ready for a baby. Heck, I didn't even have a stomach let alone trying to come to terms that there was a baby in there. That it was my baby was in there.

So it happened, I had a baby 14 weeks later. He became my baby and I his mother three days after that. (but that's a story for another time.) A baby that I now love with every ounce of my body and every inch of my soul.

So in essence, thats me. And a few things that have made and continue to make me, me.