Goals for 2013

At the end of 2012 I was thinking about what goals i wanted to set for 2013.

I've decided I'm not going to make a list of massive goals that i might not achieve and then will feel miserable that i haven't. Right now I'm really happy with life and even though there are a few things i would like to change, if they didn't, I'd still be happy.

The obvious goal i have is still to lose weight and get fit... I'm doing this slowly but now with the wedding ahead of us i have motivation there to work harder to achieve this.


The other goals i have are: 

To manage our money even better then we have this first year in our house... We have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for and i want to make sure that we are still saving well and keeping our redraw account full.

To paint the rest of the house. We have all the paint but in the last 12 months have only completed a room and 1/2. I'd like to have completed the rest of the house by 2014.

To be more creative. Weather it's with food or craft i don't mind but i've slacked off a fair bit last year and was only creative when there was a birthday or occasion for it. Not this year. (At least with the wedding i know there will be plenty of creativity.)


BJ and I have set a couple of challenges for ourselves already this year:

We have decided that January, February and March are going to be take away free. We've added a clause that pizza isn't included because normally we'd be lucky to have pizza once in 3 months anyway. (And because one of our traditions we are starting is that on the anniversary of the day we moved into our house, we are going to reenact that night and walk up to get pizza and watch a movie together.

We've also decided to do 'Meat-less March' which i think will be an easy challenge for BJ but a difficult one for me.

And on top of these goals and challenges, we've both decided to re-do 365. After two years back I thought it would be a fun little challenge. A self portrait every day for 365 days. We are both members of the DnD 365 group on Flickr which is full of our friends from all over the world and we are excited that soo many of them have decided to do the 365 this year as well.

Usually it's BJ who pulls the faces

Let the awesomeness of 2013 commence.

xx
Smorgy

PS: I tried on a (dream) wedding dress this week and I was soo nerve racking and exciting.

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When 10 years still only feels like a day

I've tried to make my blogging, tweeting and facebooking more positive lately. And I will try to make this blog as positive as i can.


For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.

Beanca's 1st Birthday

10 years ago my 18 month old niece Beanca was murdered by her mother. Beanca and her brother Chris were taken by there mother one day while my brother was at work and 6 months went without us know where they were until we recieved a call with terrible news.

My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.

Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.

Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.

Chris - Back in Melbourne with us

This women got to leave prison, then straight away, got pregnant and god only knows what's happening to that poor child.

Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.

And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.

At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.

Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.

Warrandyte Cemetery

Yesterday my family had to stay strong and get through the hardest day we've ever had to live, and continue to be reminded about on the 30th of July every year.
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.

The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.


We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.

My rock - BJ

I don't know why but I felt I needed to go back that and it's a place I wanted to share with BJ. He's been there for me the past 7 years. Holding my hand and supporting me through it all.

I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.

I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.


The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.


I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.

Chris and I - 2011

I'm happy to talk about it with anyone who wants to, or answer questions if you have them.
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.

So there is an insight to my world.

xx
Smorgy

Fly free with the Butterflies Beanca xo

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Broni Album Launch

Last night i got to get see my mate Broni launch his new album 'To Get Her  Together'.
It was an awesome night at The Wesley Ann in Northcote. The night started off with Broni great friend Gimp making a surprise appearance. He has been traveling overseas for some time now and flew back just for the gig.

The opening act was SheBlondeSwede and it was brillant. He got the crowd singing along and warmed up for when Broni went on stage.

It was a nice intimate venue and was a night enjoyed by all.

The reason i bring up this gig is (not only because of how awesome the album is) because i made some new merch for Broni. Keyrings, Zipper Pulls and magnets. And while i was creating these i decided to make some Broni earrings to wear to the special occasion.

The earrings came out awesomely adorable but with my little ears and oddly shaped head they didn't really suit me so i didn't end up wearing them on the night. BUT i wanted you (all two of you) to see them.

Modeling them...

 

And they even suit the guys...

 Let me know what you think. Oh and please go check out Broni's album. At the moment you can choose your own price to get the digital download and i tell you it's worth every cent you can spent. So get it now!

xx
Smorgy Pin It