Help a Heart

Yesterday I was contacted by Julie from Natural Transition, asking me if I could help her out by sharing a story will you.

You might remember I wrote about her awesome stuff a while back when she sponsored me to go to Blogopolis. Don't remember? It's OK, you can read now. Ima wait right here for you.

You back? Good, let's continue. Last week Julie posted about a young mum, Jane, who needs our help. Her five year old daughter, Jasmine, needs life saving heart surgery... surgery that has been cancelled twice already and is putting extra emotional and financial stress on the family.

Heart conditions are very close to my, err, heart, so I jumped at the chance to help. My sister was born with congenital heart disease and thirty years later my Dad developed heart disease after contracting a virus. So whilst I don't know what it's like to experience heart disease, I know just how devastating it can be to live through it as a family member suffers.

If you click on the image below you can read more about Jane and Jasmine and how their good friend Rosie is trying to raise some money to support them through their journey.

If you'd like to leave a message of support, that will be printed out and sent to Jane, you can do so in the comments section on the post at Natural Transition or below.

We need your help to spread the message, so if you  have a moment, show a young mum the power of social media and share this on Twitter and Facebook.

Go on, you know you want to - you'll feel good about yourself!

How to have fun at the tennis without actually watching any tennis

Every year Perth hosts a mixed teams tennis event, the Hopman Cup. I used to go every session because I worked there... as a ball kid. Yes, I held the unpaid position that could have been done by a labrador with the promise of a liver treat.

I hadn't been in years so last week, after seeing my Twitter stream full of tennis talk, I decided to schlep my non-sporty ass back to The Dome and this was the result:

Follow @RealJiveTurkey on Twitter and check out his hilarious blog The Armory

When Tricky met Mickey - Disney Live Review

Hey Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Hey Mickey!

Now that I've successfully put that song in your head let's get on with it.

Tricky and I were lucky enough to be invited to see Mickey's Music Festival last week when it came to Perth and it was AMAZING.

I remember seeing a Disney show when I was about five. I loved every minute of it and remember that magical feeling of being so close to some of the coolest people in the world (anthropomorphic mice and ducks are people too) and really wanted Tricky to experience it. Although if I'm entirely honest I would probably still have gone if Tricky wasn't around, just because Mickey is so damn cool.

I was really excited to be taking Tricky... well excited and nervous. I was petrified he'd be "that child". You know, the one who screams for the first 15 minutes until the flustered mother picks them up under her arm and walks out? Yeah that one.

When we arrived, the crowd made him uneasy and he morphed in to Velcro Toddler. There were a few tears when the music started because it was really loud. It was even a little loud for me, but I am an oldie now, so I suppose I shall have to get used to it, turn my hearing aids down and get ready to poke someone with my walking stick.

All the gang were there, even Bullseye who managed to jump rope!

 And Ursula (my favourite Disney villain!) rocked her tentacles to steal Ariel's voice:

We were lucky enough to get a meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie after the show. In line Tricky was pointing and lunging forward to try and get closer to them... when it was our turn as soon as we stepped forward and Mickey waved to him he cried! I can't blame the kid though, a lot of things are scary up close: Mickey, Santa, barking dogs, my face, etc.

He calmed down quickly and though he didn't manage a smile (no surprises there), we did get a great photo.

 

My favourite part of the day though was seeing the other kids around me, especially my friend's son Harry, get so excited about seeing their favourite characters. Hearing Harry call out and wave to "Jethie" and Woody to get their attention and then go completely mental and shout "BUUUUZZZZZ! BUUUUUZZZZZZZZ!" as his hero walked on stage... it was brilliant. I am SUCH a sap. 

If you'd like to see the show as it tours Australia, check out their website for ticket details (careful, it has auto playing sound!).

*I was not paid to write this post. I did receive complimentary tickets to the show*

FlogYoBlog Friday: The Comic Strip Edition

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How to FlogYoBlog

1. Follow Where's My Glow?
2. Bow down at the alter of Mummy Time; Blog-goddess, all round groovy gal and creator of FYBF
3. Grab the FYBF button and post it on your sidebar or in the post you're linking up
4. Link in your favourite/best post from the week (don't just put your homepage URL)
5. Follow at least 1 linkyer/blogger then be nice and spread the comment love

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get the InLinkz code

How to completely suck at being a craft blogger

1. Find craft rather annoying
I don't do craft. Which is strange because I've always been slightly quirky and creative (read: weird). I see things and somehow know how they're put together and can recreate them... if I could be bothered. Most of the time, I have no inclination to flex my creative muscles. I see crafty things and I immediately think it's a boring, energy sapping, messy, waste of time (do not get me started on scrapbooking, I just don't understand it). Time I could spend doing much more productive things like faffing around on Twitter for example.

2. Be confused by Pinterest
I also don't do Pinterest (unless I'm trying to keep tattoo ideas in one place) and have no idea what it means to follow someone on Pinterest or how on earth I have so many followers and how people say they could get lost for hours 'pinning'. I can't even link you to my page here because I HAVE NO IDEA which page is mine.

3. Don't own any craft supplies
Because I reserve the right to completely contradict myself, the other day I looked at Pinterest, saw an image and thought I MUST DO THAT! I was so inspired by the simplicity that I was just itching to give it a whirl so I ran out and bought some high quality supplies from the Reject Shop because if I screwed it up I didn't want to be out of pocket by much.

3. Burn yourself terribly and scream so loudly the neigbours hear
I'm now the proud owner of a glue gun and some serious welts to match - who knew that what goes in the chamber leaks out when you turn it upside down, hey? Gravity, you are a bitch! Also, when you spill melted wax all over yourself there is NOTHING you can do other than wait for it to cool down. On the upside, I can now go on a crime spree without fear of repercussions because I no longer have fingerprints.

4. Forget to take photos so there is no step by step instructions
I did have my camera next to me, I promise. But having hands dripping in melted wax meant there was bugger all chance of me picking it up.

So what the hell did I make??? Well I got these:

Ran them through this:

And got this:

 And this:

So, how do you make your own drippy, waxy, fingerprint destroying rainbow canvas? Easy: a) unwrap crayons, b) shove crayon in glue chamber, c) push through with your thumb and then the nearest pokey-thing you can grab such as a chopstick, d) burn the shit out of your hand, e) splatter wax on your kitchen bench, f) marvel at how freaking cool the finished product looks and how awesome you are, g) go and pin your own images!

Are you crafty? Or is the only craft you're interested in a movie with a whiney Neve Campbell?