Homemade 6th Birthday Present

Last week my niece Kaia had her 6th birthday. Normally I have a plan well ahead of time of what I want to do for peoples birthday presents but since we bought the house I've been a bit stuck coming up with ideas.

I love making presents but what can you make a 6 year old and have them get the enjoyment out of it as they would any other birthday present.

Over the years I've made LOT'S of presents: Scrapbooks, art, figurines, jewelry, food etc but this birthday was hard.

And then it came to me.... I knew exactly what to make her and have her love it.

I made Kaia her own personalised game of Memory.

Kaia LOVES playing Memory and I knew this would be a hit. 

I picked out 12 photos of her - Fun memories like our family trip to the zoo, her weekend with George (the class teddy bear), Cooking with BJ, her first day of school and Meeting Santa.

I designed a cute little back for the cards and laminated them all so they last.

Packaged them all in a cute box I've been holding on to for years and with some alphabet stickers 'Kaia's Memory Game' was complete.

She liked them soo much that i plan to make her two more sets - One for at Aunty Megan's house and one for at Nana's so she'll always have them on hand to play. (Oh and just so you know that's not ALL that i gave her for the big 6).

Coming soon... Homemade party decorations

xx

Smorgy

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Duck Face

"A term used to describe the face made if you push your lips together in a combination of a pout and a pucker, giving the impression you have larger cheekbones and bigger lips."

I'm SO over seeing the 'duck face' every time I check my Facebook or Instagram. I seriously don't know what is wrong with people. Pulling that face for photos does NOT make you look more attractive. It makes you look fucking stupid. I swear, I've never even seen some of these people smile. It's like they think if they ever posted a nice, natural photo taken of themselves on the Internet it would be the end of the world.

So Instead, they always make sure that in every photo of them, their lips are pressed so they look as if someones shoved something in the wrong place that caused them to clench up.

Is this another thing that Celebrities started and everyone wants to do because they want to be just like them?

I blame Marilyn Monroe. She started this!!!

I'm sick of having my feeds filled with these shit faces. Can you all just become those people that only post photos of their pets?

If you really feel the need to pull that face for every photo, maybe you should save up for some Botox injections and then you'd never have to force a 'duck face' because you'll look like a duck 24/7. But then expect me to 'Quack' at you every time I see you.

I know too many people who do this face and think it's OK.... It's NOT!!
The only time I will accept any form of 'duckface' is if it's captioned with 'Blue Steel'

If you don't see enough 'duck face; on your social networking sites then you can go to  http://antiduckface.com/ and enjoy the 'sexy' photos these disgusting people post online.

(Do they not realise that once it's on the Internet, it's there for life???)

xx
Smorgy
PS: Just wait till i do my vent about Instagram and the people who are always attempting to be 'artistic' when they post photos of SOMEONE ELSE'S ART... What the fuck people?!

QUACK!!

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Recap on 2011

Top 5 Popular Posts for 2011:

5 The Slackers, The Assholes and The Vent -  Massive vent about money and life
4 When 10 years still only feels like a day - The hardest blog I've ever had to write
3 Tattoo Sunday - BJ and I got matching tattoos
2 Pretty Damn Proud - A blog about my struggle with weight loss
1 We Love Colors Review - I reviewed some awesome tights


Top 5 Popular Fork This episodes for 2011:

5 Ikea - 5,744 downloads

Fork This 26 - Ikea. from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

4 Forken Homeowners - 6,306 downloads

Fork This 25 - Forken Homeowners from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

3 A Midweek Purchase - 6,824 downloads

Fork This 22 - A Midweek Purchase from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

2 A Halloween Nightmare - 7,022 downloads

Fork This 23 - A Halloween Nightmare from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

1 Beggers - 7,807 downloads

Fork This 24 - Beggars from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

My Personal Highlights of 2011:

- BJ and I celebrated 6 years together
- I finally managed to loss weight
- We bought a house
- Say goodbye to all that was wrong in 2011
- Embracing how awesome 2012 is going to be

5 Favourite Instagram Photos for 2011:

(Not best as it's too hard, I post so many. But these are some I really love)

Goals for 2012:

- Continue to loss weight and be healthy
- Enjoy the changes in my life
- Build a lovely home together with BJ
- Grow more in my work
- Build new friendships
- Spend more time with others
- Set myself craft tasks regularly
- Re-build my love of cooking
- Not get tied down with money, worries, stresses
- Smile and love life


xx
Smorgy Pin It

Made my day

Today is my friend Katherine's birthday and so naturally i wrote on her facebook wall wishing her an awesome day.

The response i got from her is something i've never really had anyone say to me before.


'Thank you Megan! Would just like you say that you have been pretty inspirational lately and you have inspired me to make a few changes! So thank you!'

Awwww... Made my heart feel full as soon as i read it.

It's such a nice thing to hear from someone.
Especially with all the high's and low's i've dealt with this year. To have someone else notice that i've changed and feel inspired by what i've done just made me soo happy i could cry.


So thank you Katherine because you truly made my day!


I can't wipe this smile off my face and i feel more motivated to try and continue to inspire people in the future.


xx
Smorgy


PS: I've FINALLY upgraded my OS to Lion and it's AWESOME... I also upgraded my iPhoto and iMovie which i'm currently having a play around with while i edit this week's Fork This episode.

But of course the first thing everyone should do when they get a mac or update there OS is play with Photobooth. 
BJ and i have millions of stupid photos like this one and we were in tears of laughter while we were taking them :)

Our kids are going to be soo beautiful

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My Goals - September

July's goals dragged over to August and i successfully ticked off most of them by the end of the month.

This month I'm starting some new goals.


1/ Resin, Resin, Resin!! - About a month ago BJ and I got out the resin and had a play and i was soo happy. I finally made something that was worth sharing with someone (Which I'm going to blog about soon). SO I want to get it out again and see what else i can create.

2/ Take more photos - Lately we've been taking my SLR out with us and I love that. I want to go on adventures and take photos of what i see.

3/ Purchase something for our future home - BJ and I are saving for a house and I want to try and pick up small things that we will need to prepare ourselves for when we are ready to purchase.


4/ Make a new piece of Jewelry - When in the States last year i bought back heaps of awesome crafty bits and have barely touched any of it. I want to break it out and make something awesome this month.

5/ Get re-measured - Since I've been losing weight of course my boobs have shrunk and the expensive/correctly fitted bra's i purchased last year don't fit me anymore. The discomfort isn't nice.

6/ Wear something different - I've been trying to step out of the box a little lately. Wearing dresses, tights, girly things. And i want to try and do it more regularly. Sometimes I feel like i need and occasion to wear these kinds of things, but really i can wear them just because i want to.


7/ More Garage Sales - BJ and I went Garage Saling this weekend and had soo much fun. I want to try and do it one Saturday a month and see what we can find. It's a great way to tick off number 3 as well.


So they are my goals for September and i intend to tick them all off THIS month.
Wish me luck.

xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 8

In this episode of Fork This, BJ and I show you a strange and amazing places we visited in Madison, Wisconsin last year. 

Fork This - 008 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.

It was called Dead Pals of Sam Sanfillippo (We have a little bit of trouble remembering the correct name on the video.)

You can read a bit about this interesting place here.

It didn't have any set open hours. You would have to call each day to find out if there were any 'surprise' funeral's and if they had nothing booked you could just show up and a weird guy will direct you to the basement. 

It was a strange place. Having these rooms downstairs filled with dead, taxidermy animals propped and posed all over the place. But it was amazing.

Check out the photos we took by going to my Flickr set.

The best part about this place was that most of it was out in the open, Not behind glass... So you could really get up close and see the detail.

xx
Smorgy  Pin It

Memories from 2010

So 2010 was an exciting year. A lot happened and here is a short list of some of the more excited things.

January

Was mostly spent working on my website and try to get it to a point that I was happy to upload it for the world. (Note: it is now in desperate need of an update)

February

I had my first attempt at working with resin and loved it. Even though I haven’t perfected it yet, I still enjoy getting it out and making a mess.

March

BJ and I went to the Mary and Max exhibition in the city. Had a visit from one of our USA friends Chappy. BJ and I also got to experience Tapas and Korean BBQ for the first time… Delicious!

April

I met Rich Fulcher!!! We appeared in our friend Broni’s music video and took my niece to the zoo for the first time.

May

BJ’s car decided to break down in the middle of a major road and the police had to push him out of the way. 

 June

Their was my niece’s 4^th birthday (not to mention a heap of other birthdays). I started re-organising my room and our good friend Kelly came to visit us from Canada (via Canberra).

July

Was BJ’s birthday where he got the AWESOME Freaks and Geeks yearbook box set. I bought a new massive tv for myself, got a little crafty for a friend and got out our box of souvenirs from our last trip to get us excited for the next.

August

Had me crafting some more before the trip. We saw Stephen Lynch Live. BJ and I celebrated our 5^th anniversary together. Then we headed back to the States for a month of travelling and catching up with great friends (Oh and had many trips to Disneyland)

September

We continued our time in the states. We got to go to Nashville and visit the honkey tonks, we spent a weekend having a massive barn party. But the biggest highlight of all… we calved our first pumpkin J

October

I bought a new car!!! We saw Mariachi El Bronx live and up close. Went to the Tim Burton Exhibition. Oh and it’s was my birthday

November

Saw me spending time with the people I love with a trip to the Miniature Trains and I clicked over the 600 kmh mark in my car. (Slow month)

December

I got a little creative again. My niece and I made a gingerbread house for Christmas. BJ and I had our first paint balling experience. I got my old car ready to sell and we bought in the new year with some good friends and fun.

Good times, Good times... Looking forward to move fun in 2011. 

xx

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