Cathy's 50s Housewife Friday... I Want Candy

Happy 50s Housewife Friday!

First track of the day: Everything She Wants - Wham! (extended 12" mix)

Aah, whoops, I mean...Sidewalking - Jesus and Mary Chain, yeah, cool man. Um...rock on.

By the way, I haven't been into Wham since 1987, but before George Michael became the creepiest, park lurking, public toilet hopping-est guy in the music industry, he was a young teenage virgin's dreamboat.

And it's not like me to be completely attracted to dodgy sleazebags is it???...hmmm...hang on...

Anyhoo, back to the day at hand...

Sooo busy today and all weekend! Am currently baking strawberry shortcake for pink and white Cake Pops adorned with sugar flowers and chocolate fudge cupcakes.

My friend and I are doing a photoshoot in my backyard tomorrow for our party stylist business 'I Want Candy' ft 'Sweetpea Floral Design'. I do the party stuff and she provides gorgeous floral displays to match and enhance any party table.

We spent the morning at Spotlight sourcing the perfect accessories to glam up our shoot and I think we had a pretty successful spree...the most excited about all this are our children and our friends' children who get to have a party tomorrow for absolutely no reason, while we photograph them stuffing their faces and looking adorable.

While all this creative insanity is taking place in the 50s Housewife domain, our beloved and devoted husbands will be building the Fort that I have been yelling for since we moved into this house. That's right, my constant nagging has once again paid off! (I will expect the swear jar to be filled by tomorrow eve...)

Once it's been constructed I will be officially opening my Family Daycare once again and then the insanity will really begin.

And just when I begin questioning my juggling ability of all this mayhem, 'I Want Candy' ft 'Sweatpea' has just scored the much coveted honour of styling a Byron Bay Wedding for a beautiful young couple next year. My cup is definitely running over (and this time I'm not just talking about my D cup...).

Third track of the day: Kylie - Confide in Me

Stinkin gorgeous mid 90s Kylie!!! Damn her and her little perky boobs!!

Have an awesome Friday y'all, I hope u all have a great week!

Cathy xx

Cathy wears many hats. Wife, mother of two sons, CEO of Little Monsters Pty Ltd and Cake Pop Queen just to name a few. She subscribes to the theory that Cathiness is next to Godliness. And on Fridays she behaves like a 50s housewife by sedating herself and cooking, baking and ironing, and being nice to her husband. Any other day is a crapshoot.

Things that annoy me. Today's edition.

• 'This is my family' car stickers. I don't know where this fad started but I'm ending it. Now. I personally don't give a crap that you have two parents, three kids, a dog, 6 tropical fish, a teacup pig** and a partridge in a pear tree. Is this supposed to make me consider driving more carefully and NOT crash your car? Because it's making me feel like hitting the accelerator. Sorry. Not really. THIS is what you look like.

** I might consider not crashing into you if you have a teacup pig. That is all.

• The local Zaraffas who can't tell the difference between a cappuccino and a latte. When I say Grande Skinny Cappuccino, it generally means I want a Grande Skinny Cappuccino, not some asinine milky tasteless brew without the sacred chocolate powder. Funnily enough. It ain't rocket science people. Surely in your chosen profession you encounter enough cranky, caffeine deprived people to want to add another?
• Real estates that take up to 7 days to process my rent and then send me repeated texts threatening to 'breach' me for non-payment. Their solution? To pay 7 days ahead so there won't be an issue. Maybe I can get my work to pay me 7 days ahead to make your life easier? Sorry, if the money comes out of my account instantly, I've PAID, OK?
• Socks left in laundry sinks = flooded laundry. Fun times. Enough said

This is not a complete list.

xx

Privacy and the Internet. An oxymoron?

Privacy and the Internet are kinda an oxymoron, yeah?

It's a fine line to walk when doing pretty much anything on the 'net, from buying something online through to blogging or writing on Facebook.

It's pretty well known these days that most HR people will go straight to FB and check you out before you even get an interview. If there's something there that turns them off...well buh bye Mr Job for you...

When I walked into my new workplace a few people confessed that they already felt like they knew me because as good employees would, they googled me when I got offered the job and stumbled on my blog. 

Ooops.

Clearly whatever I write here isn't too offputting as they didn't rescind the offer (obviously that's BEFORE I posted about man flu...that's probably a career-limiting post for a male-dominated industry right there).

But it does raise the question of what should you or should you not be putting out there in blog-land, or indeed anywhere on the 'net?

It's a hard question and one I navigate every day. Because I value my job and the people I work with I have been pretty careful from day one about not writing about where I work or a lot of things that happen day-to-day, despite some days providing such bloody EXCELLENT material (let me tell you). Put a bunch of smart, funny people in a room and then be responsible for recording the minutes of said meeting, and believe you me, I could have enough fodder to populate my blog for years to come.

But I don't because my position is one of enormous trust, and it would be a massive breach of confidentiality. And I'd quite like to have a job tomorrow, thanks!

I am also careful about what I write about E. One day anything I say here might come back to bite him on the ass and I would be horrified to be responsible for something that could jeopardise friendships, careers or relationships for someone else, particularly my son!

It's a fine line to walk and one that some days is really difficult. The thing I love about blogging is the freedom from 'rules' and the ability to say and think anything I want to put out there. However due to my sense of, and need for privacy, it can set limitations and inhibit me from saying things that are on my mind.

It's a balancing act for sure, to be authentic and truly ME without stepping over the boundaries. Particularly when such awesome things happen at work or at home that I would LOVE to write about (ie. a 'commando incident' at home that I am forbidden to mention. Ever). 

Having said that, I feel compelled to write and hence this blog in the first place. I must admit my own sense of privacy does make me want to not necessarily censor myself but be selective with what I share and what I don't. Now that I've been writing this for a couple of months I am getting more comfortable with my own boundaries and a sense of what people find bat-shit boring or interesting etc.

So there you are. I think I'm still being true to me, but this blog is probably just a small slice of what makes up the life of Bec. Luckily for me I have the ability to go on and on for paragraphs whilst essentially saying squat. 

We all have a skill.

So happy Monday all! Hope your week is shaping up to be a great one!

xx

Why I'm happy to have an arrogant child.

Maybe it's a side effect of being sick but I have been really contemplative lately. Perhaps it's the blog, perhaps it's the big changes I've made in my life lately or maybe I've just had too much time on my hands but I've been doing a lot of thinking about many random things, both important and unimportant.

A few weeks back I visited Brisbane for the first time to see my friends (who, without meaning to sound too wanky, filled my soul) and whilst I loved every single minute of catching up with my nearest and dearest, I really couldn't wait to get 'home'.

It's been such a short time in the scheme of things, just a few months, but Toowoomba really IS home now and I couldn't be happier. My health has been shot to shit, my house a comedy of errors and work has been insane but ultimately I have built a really happy and fulfilling life here. 

It all came full circle this weekend when I enjoyed a visit from my dad and my stepmother as well as my stepsister and her gorgeous kids. They were here to celebrate my stepmother's best friend's son's birthday (whew, did you follow that mouthful?) who also lives in Toowoomba (yes the one they've been trying to get me to meet).

It was really exciting to show them through my cute little cottage for the first time and to see the kids playing happily in the backyard. My stepsister has gone through a bit of a tree-change herself, moving recently from the Sunshine Coast to join my dad and her mum in Tenterfield. She's loving the simpler life and quite honestly, so am I.

So last night we went to the BBQ to celebrate Dan's birthday and I was caught up in conversation with a few people about how I was finding life in Toowoomba. I really wish I'd been in great health as there was a lot of drinking and laughter and all-around good times to be had, however unfortunately I flagged and bailed pretty early in the piece due to after-effects of sickness/medication.

While I was there though, it was so nice to talk to others who'd made the 'change' to Toowoomba and haven't looked back. 

Is it rare to feel so at home so quickly in a new town? I don't know what it is but we really just hit the ground running.

People often comment that I must be enjoying discovering new places up here and I promised myself I would do that...however since we got here we've pretty much established a really 'normal' life...you know, work, pottering around the house, becoming a 'regular' at the local coffee shop, enjoying the sunshine...blah blah. Clearly not the most exciting lifestyle you could imagine, but it is absolutely perfect for us.

I realised how perfect when my father and stepmother commented on a few things E had said to them in the car on the way to lunch yesterday. Basically the little brat spent the ride there bragging his ass off about his athletic prowess, his academic excellence and basically how fabulous and unparalleled he is at, well, everything.

Now to put this in context, E's first few years at school were pretty troubled. He was picked on, was considered anti-social and weird and had lots of social issues. I have worked pretty hard with him over the years to try to build his self-esteem and knew we'd made enormous headway. But it wasn't until dad told me the only ego issues he had these days were...well...a degree of ARROGANCE that I realised how far we'd come!

And it is so true. It has happened so gradually that I didn't really see it coming but standing before me now is a self-confident, assured young man who can laugh at himself, isn't mean or a bully and still dances to the beat of his own drum and doesn't give a rats what anyone says about it. What a win. My awesome little weirdo.

It makes my heart proud. Just effing fabulous. And what a contrast to the withdrawn, sad little man he was just a few years ago.

I always think that building self-esteem is the most important gift you can give your child. I had none as a kid and never want fear and uncertainty to hold E back the way it held me back. If a kid is strong and confident, then hopefully it will give him the backbone to hold his head high and make the right choices as a teenager.

Here's hoping...

xx

Look it up in the effing dictionary.

So this past week has been effing crappy! I was diagnosed with a chest infection last Monday and given some really heavy duty sulphur antibiotics. If I didn't feel comatose from the flu, I was feeling nauseous and/or about to pass out from the drugs.

Thankfully Mr Nice Doctor also gave me a prescription for Panadeine Forte - two of these little babies took my cares away for a good few hours at a pop. Lying in bed staring at nothing and realising several hours had gone by was slightly surreal but at it certainly beat the unbearable coughing/sneezing/blowing nose/lightheaded/nauseous combo I had been experiencing prior.

We also had a huge event Thursday which I was in charge of so was desperately trying to hold it together, at least administratively, which thankfully I was able to do from home. The event went without a hitch (thank God) although I was dead on my feet trying to look like I wasn't about to keel over.

So I've had a bit of time to read miscellaneous pieces of crap from home and I stumbled upon the new words added to the 2012 version of the dictionary.

And I'm happy to say that the title of my blog post is grammatically correct.

Yes, effing has now been added to the dictionary.

It is in such illustrious company, joining words such as 'vajazzle', 'photobomb' and 'mwahahahaha'. Yes really. Also 'soul patch', which I believe should probably never occur in real life, let alone in writing. But there you are.

So eff away, people, it's now part of the vernacular.

Hoping that 'farking' will get the impetus required to join its counterparts in 2013. Let's see what we can farking do, shall we?

xx

Karma and the man flu.

So, likely in retribution of my recent Man Flu post, I have been struck down with a chest infection resulting from...you guessed it...flu.

Well played, karma.

Well played.

So I have been at home trying to organise an event on Thursday whilst trying to breathe, not cough and not blow my nose. Not successfully.

A 1.5 hour wait at the doctors has at least resulted in some antibiotics and some industrial strength painkillers which I'm looking forward to taking shortly so I can sleep through the night. As this will be the highlight of my day it truly shows what a sad existence today was.

Off to medicate myself...OMG I sound like 50s Housewife Cathy!!!

xx

Confessions of a serial TV freak.

OK it's confession time.

I will preface this by giving my defence up front. Not your usual way of doing things but it might ensure that you actually do read on and not just click off the page in disgust.

Defence, part 1:
I am sick. I have spent the weekend pretty much either: a) lying in bed; b) reclining in an outdoor lounger in the sun and c) lying on the couch. Accompanied by continual barking coughs, sniffles...I'm a delight.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...screw you flu and the horse you rode in on.

(or as my mate Ade would say...I take that back. I have nothing against the horse you rode in on)

Defence, part 2:
So what's a girl to do but trawl the laptop looking for shows not yet watched? Problem is, there isn't much I'm not 100% caught up on in my usual de rigeur television viewing. A lot of US shows are on their summer break so there's a bit of a gap in the programming.

So I'm sick right? And I've watched everything I want to watch, right?

Got that?

So when (out of sheer curiosity, seriously) I clicked on The Shire, I almost slapped myself. But after hearing about this latest batch of media whores genuinely REAL Shire residents doing a reality show and all the cringeworthy accompanying moments, I thought...

God I'm bored...so why not?

Best. Comedy. Show. EVER.

Where do I start?

1. Sophia and Vernessa honey (I can't tell you apart): if I walked into a so-called beauty salon and saw the malformed, overinflated Cher lookalikes that you've succeeded in becoming, I'd run for the first time in a decade. Seriously, lay off the fillers. Can you say trout pout?
2. Quote of the day from Beckah (and who seriously calls themselves that???) to her DAD and her plastic surgeon: 'It's awesome that I get to be awake during my boob job so I can tweet about it'. She seriously said that. Completely without guile. And who takes their daddy to their plastic surgeon appointment? Even if he is paying for it???
3. Second quote of the day (paraphrased), also from Beckah: 'there's no such thing as natural beauty, I'll just get my plastic surgeon to make me however I want'

Where do they find these people?

Defence, part 3:

I also tried to watch Big Brother but didn't quite make it through the first 'daily show'. Does that cancel out the 5 back to back 'Shire' eps I consumed like so much junk food????

So now I'm going to climb back in my sick miserable hole and continue my pity party, fortunately without The Shire. The fact that I've watched all available episodes is beside the point.

xx