Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lessons I'm Learning - Online Shopping

Recently I've started doing more of my shopping online. I've tried out buying various clothes, groceries and gifts online, with varying degrees of success.

When it comes to buying for myself, I tend to get caught up in the frenzied feeling of the word "SALE"! This innocent word has been known to make me purchase all manner of items I would otherwise disregard, in the name of getting a bargain.

I think I may have stumbled on an antidote: as I begin to feel excited trawling through yet another online sale site, adding various items of interest to my shopping basket, I ask myself a few key questions which assist me in weeding out the perceived bargains from the genuinely useful clothes, accessories, etc. that scream "Buy!" at me:

1. If this item was not on sale, would I be attracted to it? (colour, shape, pattern, style, etc.)
2. Is this item something I've previously identified as a need?

I've found these two questions filter my purchases very well, and my latest shipment of clothes has delighted me, rather than disappointing me.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Time for me

Well it's been quite a while since I've managed to add to the blogosphere, but here I am again... A recent wake-up call to spend a little more time on me has helped me to prioritise this little outlet again. I've been convinced that taking a little time for myself regularly will both energise me and allow me to give back to others a lot more.

After my kids tag-teamed being awake last night for a total of 4 1/2 hours, today is a quiet down-time day out of necessity. I'm not even going to dress the kids, they can play in their pyjamas today. We're not leaving the house on this cold windy day, so no-one will know, right?

Stay tuned for a run of posts on my all-time favourite topic at the moment, styling, clothes, and fashion in general. I've been educating myself in this area and I'm loving getting my outfits right more often as a result.

Monday, January 4, 2010

I'm back














After a long spell of no posts, I'm back! Happy New Year to you and yours!

In the last few months, the nearlySuper family have sold and bought property and moved home to a much better place, and we've been through the Christmas rush and enjoyed a week of pottering around quietly making our new house a home. Also it's only 6 weeks until the next nearlySuper baby is due to join our family!

I thought you might enjoy my craft for Christmas 2009 - felt tree ornaments. Big thanks to my Mum who helped me get these done in time for hubby's staff Christmas party!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Mini-break!

Last week nearlySuperDad's work took him interstate for 4 days, so I decided to take Mr 1 for a mini-break at my in-laws place. Mr 1's grandparents live only 1 hour away in my old stomping grounds, but it was a pleasant break from the humdrum of everyday life.

We packed the car early Monday morning and dropped nearlySuperDad and his work colleague at the airport, then headed off for our holiday. What fun it was not to have to do (much) housework and to share Mr 1's routine with his grandparents for a few days.

I got to catch up with family and friends and go shopping, sometimes with my son and sometimes without! Mr 1 got the chance to explore a new home and garden for a few days and his grandparents enjoyed having him around immensely.

It was a lot of fun and I can thoroughly recommend a local mini-break to any Mum who needs a little time-out from the home routine.

Have you taken a similar mini-break? I'd love to hear your experiences...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Getting crafty - another apron

I'm excited to share my latest crafty creation with you. I decided a while ago that I would teach myself to sew by making different styles of aprons. I found a great inspirational book, "A is for Apron - 25 Fresh and Flirty Designs" by Nathalie Mornu, and I've been slowly working my way through the different designs, learning new techniques as I go.

This is my latest apron, a birthday present for my MIL. The project was actually a little more ambitious than I had realised at the outset, but my mother - an excellent sewer - assisted me in achieving a lovely final product.

Care to share your latest crafty exploits? Go ahead...

Monday, August 24, 2009

Hot in the City!

We have been experiencing a glorious mini-heatwave! It is still winter here but the mercury has soared and today in my town it reached a whopping 36 degrees! Woo hoo!

To put my excitement into perspective, this is the first winter my family has experienced since we moved to our new town last spring. We expected it might be a little colder here, but soon realised we had underestimated the chill. On top of the colder weather, we also had a quite a few weeks of bad health and I had morning sickness - altogether a winter I'd rather forget!

You can imagine my absolute delight when the weather forecasters predicted this break from the cold, and I certainly was not disappointed. In fact 36 degrees feels very hot after months of maximum temperatures at least 10 degrees lower and minimums in single digits.

I noticed Mr 1 was not handling the heat as he became quite irritable and drank heaps of water, so we stayed inside and turned on the airconditioning to keep our cool. We spent half an hour outside at 4.30pm this afternoon, where it was still a steamy 29 degrees.

There's a few more hot days predicted in the next week, then it's back to the reality of cooler days, at least for a few weeks. Bring on Spring!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Home hunting

We have our current home on the market. We are looking for a new home which is a little bigger and feels a more like the warm family hub I'm after... We've been searching for a few months and we've come up with a few good options along the way, but which for various reasons have turned out not to be 'the one'.

It is really tricky searching for a new home! First you have to like the property you are looking at: the land shape, size, contour, the location of the house, proximity of the block to services, major roads, neighbours and schools... Then you have to step inside the house and weigh up if it has all or most of the requirements your family needs. And if all or at least most of these seem to line up with your ideal property list and the property fits in your budget, you then have to imagine if your family could feel like this is their home, the place they like returning to and where they feel really comfortable.

It sounds a little academic, but going through this process with every property you have an interest in can be quite exhausting! We are working on this process at the moment and we have had some frustration but we are persevering. I know it will be worth it when we finally get to move into our new home!

What are your experiences with property hunting?