New Kid on the Blog: SquiggleMum

Today's new kid on the blog is... (drumroll please)...

the very lovely Cath from Squiggle Mum! I enjoy reading Cath's blog regularly. It's one place where I find inspirational parenting stories and advice, without the mother-guilt. It's also refreshing to have a mum putting her ideas out there, confident enough and humble enough to do it beautifully. Cath's ideas and tips are always practical and fun. I absolutely love her site design too - it's a really good looking site! Anyway, enough of my blabbing. Let me introduce you to Cath.

Why do you blog?
I don't think you choose to be a writer. If you are one, you just are. Words choose you. I figured I might as well be doing something productive with all my words so started blogging in November last year!

Please introduce your blog.
I blog at SquiggleMum (http://squigglemum.com) sharing ideas and inspiration for other mums. I write about indoor and outdoor crafts and activities for young kids, literacy, faith and parenting. I also share useful resources like my Tantrum Tracker. My background in primary education comes in very handy when blogging! I'm not a perfect mum (not even close) but I do try to have a positive outlook on parenting, and I hope my readers feel like they're having a conversation with a friend when they're at SquiggleMum.

What is your favourite blog?
Oh so hard to choose only one. My friend Christie (who I haven't actually met in real life... yet) just won Best Parenting Blog at the Nuffnang Awards in Singapore. Her blog Childhood101 is fabulous (http://childhood101.blogspot.com) and packed with information about the early years.

If you had a factory, what would it do?
Dip perfectly ripe strawberries into chocolate for me and remove the stalks. 24-7.

If you could jump into a massive pool or anything, what would you choose?
sparkling bubbly mineral water in the middle of a rainforest. Heavenly. Any chance my choc-strawberry factory could be nearby...?!

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I'm with you on that one Cath - rainforest, strawberries, chocolate, it's all sounding way too good to be true! Congratulations to Christie - what an amazing achievement! I'm on my way over to check her site out right now.

If you'd like to be a part of 'Let's Meet the New Kid on the Blog', please email me at joni.leimgruber@gmail.com

Cheers xox

Thanks cranium.com for your quirky question ideas :o)

Squiggle image thanks to http://www.sbevisdesigns.com

New Kid on the Blog: Kristalee

How exciting! The first New Kid on the Blog miniview! I blogged my idea yesterday, half expecting to be met by a deafening silence (aka empty inbox) but I was pleasantly surprised to hear from two lovely ladies, Kristalee of Lola Constance Evelyn and Number Chic from Your Number is Up!

Today we're meeting Kristalee (tune in for Number Chic's miniview next Friday). Kristalee's blog, Lola Constance Evelyn, is really something special.

Let me introduce you to Kristalee:

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Joni: Why do you blog?

Kristalee: I started my blog initially as somewhere to write the birth story of my daughter who was stillborn at 41 weeks gestation. I wrote it on a blog as I thought it was somewhere I could link people to so they can decide yes I want to read it or no I don't, without it being in their face.
As it happened I found that I needed an outlet about the journey I am now on and so it continues as an account of a mother finding her way through the loss of her baby girl.

Joni: Please introduce us to your blog.

Kristalee: It is called 'Lola Constance Evelyn' named after my daughter. I would describe it as 'sometimes happy, sometimes sad and mostly a reminder of how lucky we are to have the little people in our worlds and to appreciate every moment.'

Joni: What is your favourite blog?

Kristalee: My favourite blog is 'Meet Me at Mikes'. The author is so cute as is everything about the blog.

Joni: Do you remember the last dream you had?

Kristalee: No. I have crazy, vivid dreams every night and am amazed at what has happened in my mind while sleeping and then promptly forget within seconds! My husband was talking in his sleep last night quoting the law! He is doing his Detective Training course next week and has been studying hard. He must be having fascinating dreams at the moment!

Joni: What colour is your toothbrush?

Kristalee: I have a green toothbrush at the moment.

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Thanks Kristalee for sharing your story with us - what a wonderful way to get your feelings out and also to leave a lasting tribute to your beautiful little girl. May the next six months be so much better than the last. xo

PS: I must thank Cath over at Squiggle Mum for inspiring this post with her monthly Real Aussie Mum posts.

PPS: Thanks also to enoma.org for giving me some question ideas :o)

PPS: If you want to be 'gotten to know' shoot me an email or just comment below... enjoy your weekend!

Volunteers, Anyone?

I've been a really slack blogger lately but let me tell you that there are many and varied reasons why. First, school holidays. That's reason enough all by itself! Secondly, we went away for a week and third, sometimes it's just great to have a break. But I'm back on the www's now and hopefully will have my lovely new site up and running sometime in the next month (or so!)

Knitting is going well. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, my five year old daughter wanted to start knitting so she could make a Trauma Teddy for sick kids. We approached it as a school holiday project but I now see that it's going to take a little longer than that... The current practise piece is very cute but, well, it's a practise piece. Not sure that the Trauma Teddy is going to happen for a while... but maybe we'll make a couple of little gifts for school friends along the way. Will keep you posted.

I've been meaning to say: Welcome to all the new followers! It's always very exciting to have a spurt in followers (even though my spurt means that I now have 16 followers. Instead of five. Everyone say woo hoo for me!) I'd love to start a new weekly activity to celebrate (I'm loving all these great blogging ideas floating around and I want to give a few a go) entitled: Let's Go Meet the New Kid on the Blog. So, the whole aim of the game is that I want to get to know the lovely people who follow my blog (and give their blog a little bit of love) - just like I love getting to know the wonderful bloggers I follow. If you want to be my very first New Kid on the Blog (and all of you would qualify for that!) and you want to answer a few short, snappy and (maybe) strange questions, flick me a quick email or comment below - whatever tickles your fancy. I look forward to hearing from you all! Don't bombard me now. I already have too much fan mail to get through as it is!

PS: I REALLY love the That Vintage earrings being given away on The Red Deer (that's them up above) so this is my little plug. The earrings are gorgous, so go take a peek - you won't regret it!

PPS: I don't really get fan mail. That was a joke. I really do want your emails. Promise! Do I sound desperate? Okay it's getting lame now.