Featured in Singapore Women’s Weekly Oct 2009 Thought I’d share a cool update! I’ve been featured in the Singapore Women’s Weekly, October Issue. Go check it out! The article is titled “You Don’t Have To Be Teen to Blog”. It features Malaysian biologist and conservationist blogger Chen Pelf Nyok, and myself. The article portrays us as smart, graceful, generous, serious, young woman who can run an online business, be their own boss, make money, support charities, write about the more significant world issues in life, AND have a fulfilling life. So strange to see myself in ink! I suppose being a blogger (a self-publisher), I am used to being the one writing about myself. I always find it strange to read what a journalist has written - or not written - about me. I always find myself thinking: “But wait!! I told you about all this other cool stuff as well! Why didn’t you put that in!?” Oh well, I’m a bit of a control freak! (Note: I’ll upload the whole article next month. Follow me on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll update everyone.) Making Baby 3 - Baby Feeding Ok. By popular demand and ongoing requests, here are some more pictures of my 6 month old baby, Liam. Geez, you girls can’t get enough of the baby photos! Liam is truly a cool little baby. He is just so happy, relaxed and low-maintenance! He’s eating pumpkin and apple with a mixed rice cereal. I just love the sparkle in his eyes when he smiles. Check out how much he looks like my first son, Callum at 6 months and 7 months. You’ll have to scroll to the bottom to see pics. … Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3. Daily Outfit: Fashion Festival Day 2 I LOVE SEQUINS. If I had the money, I’d have a LOT of sequins in my wardrobe - short dresses, long dresses, blazers, crop jackets, bomber jackets, pencil skirts, floaty top and sparkly shoes. I’d have them in black, silver, navy, gold and heck I’d have PINK sequins. And pants! Ohh I’d have charcoal coloured sequin pants with speckled white and silver! But of course, I would never live it down. I’d be THAT crazy sequin woman. Stuck in an era of revived, tragic fashion fads. And there’s always the risk of having a bit too much sequin on your body - and looking like a lizard. Well, the shops are full of sequins, and I found this cool dress, with a geometric sequin pattern and beading. Very cute. This is what I wore to the VIP Launch Party for the Perth Fashion Festival.  Plus leather jacket and handbag. I’m also wearing my favourite peep toe ankle booties. … Check out more of my favourite online shops in my Fashion and Shopping Directory. Morning Walks and Simple Pleasures Lately the weather has been cold, windy and overcast. We’ve found ourselves stuck indoors for the past week, and I tend to get a bit restless when I haven’t had a walk. The other day it was still quite cold, but I took advantage of the clear sky. I brought my 4 year old boy and 6 month baby to the park for a stretch. We sprawled ourselves out the grass. We watched cranes dig for snails. My 4yo and I played a game of no-rules soccer. We walked to the lake. We drew pictures in the cappuccino froth that collected at the edge of the water. We threw rocks and made leaf boats. The huge gust of wind blew Sean’s cap into the water. And we spent the next half hour trying to fish it out. In those few hours, life was so simple. It was grand. Fashion Find: Kooshi Online Sleepwear and Lingerie Kooshi is an online shop that specialises in sleepwear, slips, lingerie – that are sexy, comfortable and affordable. When they asked me if I was interested in doing a review, I thought, UHHH I am not taking pics of myself in lace underwear! Thankfully I took a peek at their website and discovered that they had quite a large selection of good-looking and tasteful sleep and lounge wear. In fact, there were quite a few nice designs, and I had a hard time choosing from such a good range. They arrived perfectly and timely! I must admit, I owned quite a few nice sets, years ago. I just love good quality undergarments. They are the kind of thing that every woman should own! But my old sets slowly wore out, and I just never got around to buying new ones. I guess, it’s very nice to know that you can buy nice undergarments online. In the photos above, I’m wearing the Stacey Slip and Kimberly Slip. As I said, Kooshi have a great range of casual designs, sexy designs, lounge-around-at-home designs, and even swimwear. Here are some others that caught my eye. Left to right, Karen Set and the Sunshine Set. Left to right, Chelsa 2 Slip and the Crystal 2 Slip. Right now, they are also having a fantastic sale, so go check it out! … Check out more of my favourite online shops in my Fashion and Shopping Directory. New York Fashion Week: Doo.Ri New York Fashion Week finished last week, and I have begun to flick through the countless online galleries and images. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of STUFF there is, and at the same time I’m clapping my hands with glee. I just love looking at all the brand new creations! The Ready-to-Wear garments by Doo.Ri (by Doo-Ri Chung) made me swoon. All the latest looks that I love, wrapped up in one collection - blazers, short skirts, ruffles, folds, blues, neutrals, greys and a dash of metallics and tie-dye. Great stuff! Images from Nymag.com Rodney Olsen’s Ride for Cancer Hi everyone, meet Rod. He’s a radio announcer, and father of two kids. I’ve met him a few times at various blogging functions, and I often listen to his shows in the morning. He is also a mad keen cyclist who has organised, and ridden in, many long distance rides, including across Australia, Canada and through India. Like me, his family has been tragically touched by cancer. And like me, he has noticed that, despite the fact that about one third of us will actually get cancer, and all of us will know many people who will get it… there is so little discussion of it. Cancer remains a very difficult topic. And the problem is that if people don’t talk about a problem, they can’t make it any better. So Rod has decided to do what he can about it. He has organised a team from his radio station to ride from Perth to Albany, stopping in one town each day to do a radio show, and get people talking about their own experiences with cancer. The money they raise from sponsors will go to the Cancer Council, who use the money to actually DO STUFF - like care for those with cancer, to educate about early detection, and conduct research to find more effective cures. Rod and his team will be starting their ride on Sat 17th October. You can read Rod’s blog post about it, and you can make your own donation here. Rod reminds me that I could do more myself, and inspires me to make plans! Go Rod! Basic Pancake Recipe I printed out this recipe late one Saturday night. I stuck it on the kitchen counter top, and behold, my husband woke up and made the boys pancakes on Sunday morning. But more importantly, he let me sleep in. Bless him. Basic Pancake Recipe (adapted from the BBC Food website) 110g/4oz plain flour, sifted pinch of salt 2 eggs 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water 50g/2oz butter Method 1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour. 2. Break eggs and whisk. 3. Gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking. Whisk until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. 4. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in. 5. Pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wedge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake. 6. Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium. Pour about 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan in one go. 7. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be. 8. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate. 9. To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. … View more of my recipes here! Making Baby 3 - The 6 Month Update Liam is approaching 6 months… and he just loves curling up like a ball and rolling around the lounge room. I love how babies are so flexible! The photo above is Liam when he’s in his toe sucking mood. He has 2 teeth now. They popped up at the same time, last week. My other two babies were quite grumpy during their “teething stage”. But Liam, true to his style, cruised right through it. The only thing that happened was: he drooled a lot, and his chin got a bit red. He still sleeps 12 hours straight through the night. However, his appetite has increased phenomenally this week. I have been eating large meals, 6 times a day, pigging out on dairy and carbs, and I still can’t keep up the milk production. I don’t have enough milk! He was unusually irritable one day – grizzling and crying, I thought it was his teeth, until I realised that he was just hungry. I had no milk, so I supplemented him with a bottle of formula. Presto, he was happy as could be. I’m also offering him a small amount of solids about 3 times each day. He will hungrily chomp on anything I wave in front of him – rice, banana, apple, pumpkin. But he just swirls it around in his mouth, and it dribbles back out when he smiles at me. So he hasn’t gotten the hang of SWALLOWING yet. Every time I place him next to another baby his age, he looks so SMALL in comparison! A part of me is a teeny bit worried that he might be underweight. But like my other two kids, he is as active as can be. He’s not one of those cute pork-dumpling, sumo babies who lay about. Liam wriggles, jiggles and squirms like crazy during his mat time. In fact he’s digging his toes into the carpet, bringing his knees up and moving very quickly towards CRAWLING! … Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3. Perth Fashion Festival 2009 - WA Fashion Awards The Perth Fashion Festival finished up last week with the WA Fashion Awards. 13 winners were nominated and voted for by members of the fashion industry – so it was very exciting to see the results. The biggest award for the night, Most Innovative WA Designer, went to Alison Cotton for Joveeba (pictured left below). I was not surprised that she won, as her label has gone from strength to strength in a relatively short period of time, and each of her collections have been strong, bold and versatile. I featured some of Joveeba’s latest collection here. Designer for Tomorrow was awarded to Paper Skye by Kirsten Shadbolt, pictured centre above. And the Fine Details award went to Sophie Kyron, pictured right above. I am not very familiar with these two designers, but their stuff looks fantastic! I certainly hope to take a closer look at some of their work in the near future. I also really enjoyed the Student Categories, there were so many strong designs showing great talent and potential. These ones particularly caught my eye, and were all winners or runner-ups in their particular categories. Pictured left - Andrea Wolf.  Pictured centre and right - Ellie Meyer. Katie Bell (pictured left) won the Student Costume Couture category with lovely layers and teaming of sheer fabrics. But I must admit, in the same category, I preferred Jeromy Lin’s piece (pictured right). I could so see that coming down an international catwalk. The mood of his whole collection was communicated in that one concept piece. It’s unfortunately not quite clear from this picture, but the the green neck-piece/hood was made of raw silk with an amazingly subtle organic-look print, and it was all scrunched up. The addition of the gas-mask prop made the concept all the more stand-out. Overall, the WA Fashion Awards was a fun night out. It was great to see the industry coming together to celebrate fashion! All images by Stefan Gosatti - Official Photographer to the Festival. Check out his brand new website for a more complete and up-to-date photo coverage of all the events! Daily Outfit: Fashion Festival Day 1 Today is the end of the Perth Fashion Festival, and man, what a week! 7 days of events, launches, VIP parties, evening fashion shows, day time functions, exhibitions, lunches. It was crazy. I am so tired. As superficial as this may sound, I have to say it: Dressing up, making sure you look good, having the energy to go to events, meeting people, talking to people, being friendly and charming, taking photos - EVERY DAY AND NIGHT for 7 days straight, is really, REALLY hard work. I just want to sleep for days and DAYS. Not to mention I’ve been playing tag with my husband on the parental duties. I haven’t seen him in a week! I’ve taken lots of photos of what I wore to all the events. And I’ll scatter them over the next few weeks. Here, I’m wearing a gorgeous black, silk, ruffle-collar dress I bought at 75% off, from Live. Belt by Sportsgirl. Earrings by Alister Yiap. Shoes from Zu. Handbag - I bought at a flea market in London, 10 years ago. … Check out more of my favourite online shops in my Fashion and Shopping Directory. I Heart High-Tops I thought I’d declare a recent addition to my lust list - canvas high tops. Aren’t they so cute? Love the tie-die pattern one too. Or buy a white one and do it yourself. Go crazy with food colouring! These are from Sportsgirl’s new online shop. … Check out more of my favourite online shops in my Fashion and Shopping Directory. Once a Week Meal : PIZZA I’ve had lots of people ask me what I cook for my family, particularly when I’m in a HUGE rush. Yes, we eat home-made pizza once a week. My kids love it. And I LOVE IT that they gobble it all up. Fast. The kids have tomato, ham and cheese pizzas, opting for the fresh salad on the side. I’ll eat two of these without batting an eyelid. The one above is a vegetarian - I just love warm mushroom and avocado! At the moment I use bought pita breads as the base. One day I’ll get around to making my own pizza bases! Perth Fashion Festival 2009 - Collection 1 Highlights The Perth Fashion Festival is currently well under way, and I have been quite busy, to say the least. One of the biggest shows for the week, showcasing some of the hottest names in Perth fashion, was the WA Designer Collections Event. Collection #1 featured Perth’s established designers - Ae’lkemi, Antipodium, Empire Rose, Flannel, Joveeba, Liz Davenport, Love in Tokyo, Megan Salmon, One Fell Swoop, Panache & 33 Poets, S2, Sophie Kyron, STAND International, Story by Tang and United Construction. With second row VIP seats, I spotted some of these great stand-out designs. I previously featured some of Aelkemi’s latest S/S 09/10 womens collection. And when I saw his mens collection come down the runway, I perked up with great interest. They were great - fun, cheeky, yet polished and stylish. I loved the colour palatte! Sophi Kyron’s collection was definitely a head turner. With beautiful embellishments and fine textures and details, all her pieces were blooming with edgy romance. I WANT! Antipodium has always been a favourite label of mine. However my admiration was always based on their design concepts (strong, bold, contemporary and edgy) and an aesthetic appreciation of their strong branding and style. But with this collection, I actually thought WOW, I might like to try wearing some of that! It was all SO COOL! All images by Stefan Gosatti - Official Photographer to the Festival. Check out his brand new website for a more complete and up-to-date photo coverage of all the events! Garden Treasure From The Weekend My 6yo and 4yo boys love making garden potions. With the recent downpour of rain, we’ve collected lots of water in manky, outdoor buckets. So when we throw the kids outside, they spend HOURS occupying themselves with all things muddy. Of course, I discovered these much later when I was tidying up the backyard. It was like stumbling across Aladdin’s cave of secret treasures. Just magical. Making Baby 3 - Baby Lovin’ My bub is heavenly at the moment. He’s just so chilled and happy all the time. And super cute! I call this one the airplane. Every time we plonk him on the floor, he flips over and does this sky diving thing. He might prop himself up on his elbows, and try again and again. But most times we’ll find him frozen in this position. Extra cute when he kicks his little feet and waggles his hands. And serious cuteness overload when my OTHER two boys join him on the floor, like 3 little turtles out of water. Look at his hair in this light! And his eye brows! It looks ginger! Oh and he finally fits this What A Hoot Romper from Baby’s Got Style. Too cute. … Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3. An Invitation To Join Me Over Here (and There) Just a bit of online housekeeping for today. I’ve been a lot more active on Facebook and Twitter these days. So now that I’ve gotten the hang of updating in three places a day, I’d love to invite all of you, my wonderful readers, to join me over here: . . . . Do say hi! And tell me what city you’re from! (Or you can tell me what you ate for dinner last night.) Perth Fashion Festival: Joveeba by Alison Cotton A label making a big noise in Australian fashion right now is Joveeba, by Alison Cotton. This label is one of my personal favourites in terms of overall style and consistency, season after season. I was really looking forward to chatting to the woman behind the brand! Alison had so much drive and determination that she didn’t even wait to finish her fashion degree course before launching her label in 2003. She worked hard to get her clothes out there, and soon they were being snapped up faster than she could make them. Now, with a demand for her garments from high-profile celebrities and loyal fans, she has stockists all over the globe, pictures published in countless fashion magazines and Joveeba is turning heads at major Australian fashion festivals. Joveeba can be best described as fun, bold shapes with flirty details, and relaxed, effortless style. The latest Spring/Summer 09/10 collection is called “Chasing The Sun” and is full of hyper-colour fun, fluid ruffles and pool-side worthy prints. Alison will be showcasing more of her latest collection at the upcoming WA Designer Collections Event at the Perth Fashion Festival. The blue dress on the left was so comfy and light. With a silver zip up front and girly ruffles everywhere, I really felt this was an anywhere summer dress – whether off to a daytime picnic with a big hat and straw bag, or summer evening party with white blazer and strappy pumps. Right, I’m wearing Zig Zag Opening Night dress. I absolutely adore the pattern! I also love the sheer ruffled shoulders and silver front zip. Again the dress is light weight, feels fabulous and looks so versatile. Great by itself for daytime. Then for the evening, pop a jacket on, hide the shoulders and give it a completely different look. The black and white dress on the left was gorgeous to wear. With a vintage lace detail, mixed up with a VERY pretty print, layers and ruffles – again a very versatile dress. Tie-die used to be a big no-go for me. But I found myself seduced by this dress on the right. Something about it made it feel so uber-cool. The cut was great. It was very airy and once again you could wear it as a poolside daytime dress with swimmers underneath, or a night time party dress with a belt, jacket and fierce shoes. Joveeba has a great website with lots of pics of their stuff and a list of Australian stockists. They also have an online store, with international shipping. It’s a great place to pick up Joveeba sale items! This is my last pre-view of fashion labels before the Perth Fashion Festival starts this weekend. It’s been a real experience trying on so much excellent clothing! In case you want to look at them all again, the others are: Perth Fashion Festival: Ruth Tarvydas Perth Fashion Festival: Morrison Perth Fashion Festival: Ashe by Kelsey Ashe Perth Fashion Festival: Ae’lkemi by Alvin Fernandez Perth Fashion Festival: Melanie Greensmith and Wheels & DollBaby Photos in a Hurry - Eggplant and Pumpkin Curry Last night I wanted to spend a bit of time practising my food photography. These last few weeks, my husband and I have had really busy schedules – so I have been making very hurried meals for dinner. But yesterday I had a bit of time up my sleeve, and I made vegetarian, slow-stewed eggplant and pumpkin curry. It made my house smell incredible – and it was sooooo yummy. I plated the food up nicely, and as my kids watched on from the other end of the table, I snapped away with my big camera. As I was doing this, my husband came home from work, and he dished up his own serve of dinner. I looked over at his plate and I thought it was a very amusing contrast. So I took a photo of his plate too, and wondered which actually looked yummier. My Organic Garden - Weekend Jobs On the weekend we spent a few hours in our garden. My husband hopped onto the roof and cleaned the gutters. My baby sat in his pram and stared up at the swaying silhouette of trees. My two boys constructed some kind of bomb shelter out of old wooden planks, and made magic potions with muddy rain water. While I weeded my vegetable patch, harvested my broccoli, and distributed a mass of mixed lettuce I grew from seed. I always feel like such an odd-ball when I publish photos of my vegetables – but hey, it makes me happy like you won’t believe. Perth Fashion Festival: Ruth Tarvydas With the Perth Fashion Festival just a week away, I have the pleasure of presenting the work of one of the most prominent and glamorous West Australian fashion labels, Ruth Tarvydas, an absolute legend of Australian fashion. Ruth started her career in the 1960s, and is thought of as a pioneer in exporting Australian fashion to the world. Her garments are available internationally, and her flagship store is in King Street, Perth. On the left, I’m wearing one of Ruth Tarvydas’ signature styles – all over sequins or beading. This particular one is called “Metallica” and is covered with metal sequins. It’s deliciously special, and I make a lovely, soft jingle as I walk. It’s definitely a LOOK AT ME DRESS! On the right is “Leaves”, an exclusive limited edition dress. It fits so well and it feels great. I love the combination of details - petals, tassles and sheer rouching. The best word to describe a Tarvydas dress is - Glamour! The label is all about sexy feminine looks, bold attitude, sparkly and shimmery textures, modern yet timeless styles. On the left, the grey dress was just so cute! For a strapless dress holding a large amount of fabric, it felt very secure. I loved the layers and the ruffles. And on the right, I’m wearing a blue dress which features another of Tarvydas’ signature styles – the plunging, jewelled back line. The front of the dress has some jewels on its shoulder, and a lovely simple, cowl neckline. The back! OMG it’s so glamorous! I love it! Tarvydas also has an excellent website, with gorgeous photos of all the dresses, and an online store! Definitely worth a look! Tarvydas Flagship Store 32 King Street Perth, WA 6000 Australia Tel: +618 9322 7004 You can find more information on international stockists at the Tarvydas website. Ruth Tarvydas will be showcasing her Spring Summer 09/10 collection at the upcoming Perth Fashion Festival, with her own feature show at Fashion Paramount on Wednesday, 9th September. Tickets are on sale now. Ankle Booties for Winter 2009 Ankle booties are one of my favourite items from the recent winter trends - particularly because they are so versatile. Can you have enough winter booties? I’m looking at these, and thinking, why just stop at black? I’d love grey ones, blue ones, purples ones and tan ones. Wear them with black or patterned leggings. Or just with bootleg straight jeans, so they look like normal boots. Top Row: Mollini, Tony Bianco Bottom Row: Nude Footwear, Zu … Check out more of my favourite online shops in my Fashion and Shopping Directory. Making Baby 3 - He Rolls! Babies are just so darn cute. Some people prefer to look at pictures of kittens or puppies. But not me. I love babies. Babies eating yoghurt. Babies with funny hats. Babies with raincoats. Babies dressed up like bumble bees. So if you’re a bit like me, here’s today’s baby fix for you. Liam is 5 months, and he rolls over. Ok, I know, I’ve already seen this with my other two kids. But it still amazes me. Babies seem to work things out and learn so quickly. Scrunch up knees. Tuck arms in. Roll to the side. Force top shoulder forward. Land on the belly and pull arm out. In front of your eyes, you’re watching all the neural pathways connecting and being formed in his brain. Then the next day they’ll do something different, progressing on what they learnt. Like one of those super-intelligent, learning robots. Cool. But freaky. Next they’ll take over the world. I just love the way he rocks back and forth, playing with the movement of his body. And I especially love his little laugh right at the end. He still can’t seem to keep his head up and smile at the same time. We call it his Chuckle Head Splat. … Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3. And a Cup of Tea I love my husband. Every morning our alarm clock buzzes at 6am. My husband will bounce out of bed, and start making breakfast for our two boys. I will thump the SNOOZE button hoping to get 5 minutes extra sleep. After three 5 minute SNOOZES, I drag myself out of bed, to tend to my newborn. After feeding, burping, cleaning, changing the nappy and clothes of my baby, it’s about 7am. I plod sleepily into the kitchen to see both my boys munching away at their breakfast, and this is what I find at my place at the table: Love. And I am convinced that, for me, there is no place greener than my side of the fence. Perth Fashion Festival: Morrison With the Perth Fashion Festival only a week or so away, I thought it was high time I did a review of one of the most prominent fashion labels in Western Australia. So last week, I had an absolutely lovely time chatting to Kylie Radford, head designer at Morrison. Praised as one of the most “naturally beautiful designer collections in Australia”, Morrison has won quite a few design and business awards since it’s launch in 2002 - including WA Designer of the Year 2007, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008, Australian Fashion Retailer of the Year 2008. It’s an impressive record. I also don’t think there are too many fashion labels named after a dog, but Morrison is. Kylie had a beloved dog named Morrison for many years, who has now sadly passed away. When she set out to create comfortable clothes for real women, she was determined to capture Morrison’s spirit of loyalty and trusted friendship in the heart of her brand. The Morrison style is best described as effortless, relaxed, organic tones, flowing lines and classic simplicity. These clothes feel and look like they would work in any place, at any time. These are a few samples of Morrison’s newest Spring/Summer 2009 range. On the left I’m wearing a very flowing silk slip, and harem peg leg pants – which were amazingly comfortable! On the right, I’m wearing a beautiful, ruffle-edged dress. So simple, breezy and pretty, with ties for the waist and to tie up the shoulder straps On the left I’m wearing a silk shirt dress with raw edges, and my own silk belt. The shrug was so so pretty, also featuring raw silk edges. I loved the natural raw colour. Lastly, the black dress had this gorgeous, raw silk ruffle detail down the length of the garment. The whole thing was floaty and just felt beautiful! Entering a Morrison store is also an experience, and the interior design matches the collections perfectly. Everything from the wooden floorboards to the curves of the racks and the natural colour pallette made me feel like I had stumbled across a treasure-filled secret hide-away in a forest. Morrison will be showcasing their Spring Summer 09/10 collection at the upcoming Perth Fashion Festival, with their own show at Fashion Paramount on Monday, 7 September. Tickets are on sale now for $55. Perth Fremantle 47 Market St Tel: +61 8 9336 1701 Claremont Shop 3/20 St Quentin Ave Tel: +61 8 9385 2001 Garden City Shop 184/125 Riseley St Tel: +61 8 9315 1135 Sydney 468 Oxford St Tel: +61 2 9380 6004 Melbourne Chadstone Shop 412/1341 Dandenong Rd Tel: +61 3 9568 3700 Check out the Morrison website for more details. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory When I was a kid, I absolutely LOVED the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. For me, reliving my own childhood pleasures with my children, is one of the best parts of parenting. So a few weeks ago, I borrowed the book from the library. It was the 40th Anniversary Edition of the story, in large, hard cover format size. I sat on the couch, with my two boys snuggled next to me, the book was spread across my knees and I launched myself back into the zany and delicious imaginary world of Roald Dahl. Rainbow drops, suck them and you can spit in six different colours! Candy-coated pencils for sucking! Cows that give chocolate milk! Eatable marshmallow pillows! Fizzy lemonade swimming pools! Hot ice creams for cold days! Invisible chocolate bars for eating in class! Lickable wallpaper for nursery walls! Luminous lollies for eating in bed at night! Magic hand-fudge, when you hold it in your hand, you taste it in your mouth! Mint jujubes for the boy next door, they’ll give him green teeth for a month! Strawberry juice water pistols! Wriggle-sweets that wriggle delightfully in your tummy after swallowing! My boys were bowled over with awe. I could see their minds exploding with wonder and excitement. They absolutely loved the story, and I had a great time reading it to them. I guess it certainly made my list of eternal classic for kids. Run For Hope - Cancer Research Fund Raising I have just heard about the Run For Hope in Singapore in November! It is a big community based, non-competitive, fund-raising fun-run for cancer research. Raising awareness of cancer has become a big interest of mine, due to several experiences I have had. Most recently, the plight of four year old Singaporean Charmaine Lim (thanks to those of you who donated!) has made me realise that her treatment would be much, much easier and affordable now if more research had been done years before she was even born. And one of the most amazing things about my husband’s own struggle with a recurrence of cancer five years ago was that there had been practically no advancement in the treatment of his cancer since the first time he had had it - 14 years before that! When I met cycling champion Lance Armstrong in January this year to learn about his own efforts to raise money for cancer research, I found out that it is important to ask for help, and to get people to realise that they can make a difference over time. So anything that can get people together to raise the cash needed to do the research to find the cures is very, very excellent. This event makes it fun as well! Even if you don’t actually run or walk the 4 or 10km track through Singapore, you can still make a donation! Check it out! Crazy Waffles From Monday to Friday, our mornings are stressful, busy and incredibly rushed. It’s like trying to run a military operation – 6AM GET OUT OF BED EAT YOUR BREAKFAST BRUSH YOUR TEETH GET YOUR CLOTHES ON – where our troops are most unwilling and unreasonable. So our weekend mornings are very important to us. Relaxed, easy, no-fuss mornings – they are as precious as gold. This weekend, I thought I’d try something a extra special. I made a standard mix of yummy waffle batter. I turned the waffle maker ON and it was ready to go. My two big kids stood up on stools beside me at the kitchen counter, and yelled out stuff to mix into the batter. I ran around the kitchen fetching the items, and we threw them into each set of waffle being pressed at that moment. We had banana waffles! Waffles with blueberries! Strawberries! Walnuts! Jam! Chocolate! Ooohh we ate so many waffles that morning. They were soooo good and our tummies were soooo full. Pictured, the best combination we cooked up: bananas and grated coconut chocolate. Perth Fashion Festival: Ashe by Kelsey Ashe Continuing my previews of the Perth Fashion Festival, I met up with Kelsey Ashe, designer and director of textile and fashion label, Ashe. Kelsey started her label in 2002, and she is one talented and passionate young woman. She illustrates and designs all her patterns, then hand prints and dyes all her own fabrics, and she and her team create all her garments in her studio. The Ashe shop is in Fremantle, about twenty minutes by car, bus or train from the centre of Perth. Fremantle is well worth checking out for its vibrant fashion and cafe/restaurant scene. Stepping into Kelsey’s shop in Fremantle, I was instantly seduced by all the colours and fabrics. I wanted to spend a very, very long time browsing through the clothes, gazing at each dress, and drooling over each print. The style of the label is elegant, graceful, minimal beauty – with the trademark, subtle, exotic print on silks and satins. There is a strong artistic quality to her garments, high craftsmanship, and they are very wearable and comfortable. The red dress was absolutely stunning! I love the traffic-stopping, deep red! And the subtle print. The neck straps can be tied in different ways, showing off the contrasting black satin on the reverse side. The black dress, which also had a subtle print, can be worn alone, or with layers. I teamed it with one of her lovely obis. The blue dress was very sweet and comfortable. I picked it because of its amazing print. The ivory dress was made of the most heavenly duchess silk! She told me that lots of women have purchased this design as a wedding dress. All dresses can be custom made to order. Ashe also sell these gorgeous, must-have (and affordable) obis, which are reversible, each featuring black satin and subtle print on the reverse side. Ashe will be launching their latest collection at the upcoming Perth Fashion Festival 2009, in the WA Designer Collections Event (5 Sept) and The Gallery Runway Show (7 Sept), both held at the Fashion Paramount. Ashe 49 High Street, Fremantle, WA 6160 Tel: +61 8 9430 9550 Enquiries: info@ashestore.com.au Nuffnang Challenge 1000 The good folk at Nuffnang Australia (an online advertising community for bloggers) have asked me to spread the word about a fun little challenge they have on, a kind of membership drive. Nuffnang helps bloggers, big or small, to earn money from their blogs. It’s pretty simple, and a good way to help with blogging costs. Not to mention, it’s actually a fun community to be part of – they always have give-aways, movie tickets, competitions, and featured bloggers. The competition itself is also pretty simple: 1) Spread the word about the Challenge 1000 on your blog or twitter. 2) If you get a friend to sign up to Nuffnang, your friend simply enters your name into the referral box. 3) Now your name gets entered to win a $500 Red Balloon Day experience. 4) And your friend gets a goodie gift box sent to them. 5) The person with the most referrals will be the winner of the $500 Red Balloon experience. Ok, I got to test out the gift box, and how great is the Redken All-Soft Shampoo?? I don’t like to think what kind of chemicals they put in there, but omg, silky soft hair for 3 days in a row! It’s sooooo good! Totally worth a try. I also did a bit of snooping around the Red Balloon site, and discovered that it’s full of great ideas for gifts. For $500, I could have a Deluxe Massage, give my husband a V8 Australia Race Car Ride, AND a Hot Air Balloon Ride! But I decided to opt out of the competition and give someone else the chance to win. Go go go! Competition ends: Friday 11 September 2009.