Last year the girls and I was lucky enough to be sent some skincare products to review from Sebamed.
Sebamed is a German company founded in 1967 that provides skin care products for all ages. You can read more about their amazing range here.
My pack contained a hand and nail balm which was perfectly timed as I had just become a Jamberry consultant and was wearing nail wraps for extended periods of time and finding that my nails needed a bit of hydration in between nail wraps. The balm was lightly fragranced and non oily. It is great to use daily to moisturise your hands and strengthen your nails.
My pack also contained and healing and protective ointment for use on grazes, cuts, blisters and minor burns. Again this product came in handy when I received a burn on my finger from moving trays in the hot oven....in fact I often burn myself in the process of cooking dinner. Again this product was lightly fragranced and provided instant relief from the burn. I continued to apply it for the next day or two and then thankfully no more treatment was required.
I also received an everyday shampoo.....and even though I know you shouldn't I do wash my hair everyday.....I just can't help it!!! The shampoo had a nice fragrance. I felt I had to use a little bit extra to get it as soapy as I like but overall it left my hair feeling really nice and clean.
I found the liquid face and body wash that was included in the pack to be a great product to use at night before going to bed. I'm not always good at removing makeup and skin care routines so I liked the ease of this wash and again it was lightly fragranced. My face felt clean and fresh after using it at night.
My last product in the pack was a body lotion which I used each morning after showering. It was non oily and lightly fragranced and left my skin feeling moisturised which is quite essential with the hot summer days we've been getting here in Sydney this summer.
I've got to say that for someone who usually spends no time on themselves with skincare products it was truly like being pampered trying all of these goodies!
I'd like to thank Sebamed for the chance to try them all, they will indeed be incorporated into my daily routine from now on.
If you would like to know more about their products you can check out Sebameds website, facebook page and instagram.
The girls also blogged about their products on their blog....you can read about what goodies they got and what they thought about them on their blog here.
Okay so I know that we're only 12 days in to 2016 but you know what, so far it's going all right!
By comparison 12 days in to 2015 and we had a flea infested house with a refrigerator that wouldn't work and a lawn mower that died.
Hubby has work, the school holidays are going along pretty smoothly, I've lost half a kilo this past week simply by reducing sugar....it's all good!
We have been chilling at home most days and I have been getting my domestic goddess on! Seriously I have been blitzing up fruit juices, making our own iceblocks, creating edible dinners every single night!!
On top of all that l won a pair of FRANKiE4 footwear shoes.....OMG I am sooo excited!! Cannot wait til they arrive!!
And maybe the best part to date....thanks to our finances being totally crap last year my tax return was better than usual and I have used half the money to pay off some huge bills that we had and I am using the other half for a little family holiday to celebrate hubby's 50th in March....well our little holiday will be in April to coincide with school holidays.....and it's a total surprise....and it is killing me to keep it a surprise!!!!
So here's to a great start to the year! I hope 2016 is treating you well so far!
Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT
Welcome to the first 10 on 10 Photography Circle for 2016
Just to recap, the 10 on 10 Photography Circle is when a group of fab bloggers post 10 photos on the 10th of each month and we link to each other so that you can follow the links around the circle to see some talented photographers!
My 10 photos for January were taken the day that we cut down our Christmas tree last year....just next to the Christmas tree farm was this amazing old Church so after cutting down the tree and putting it in the trailer we popped in to take some pics. These were taken on my iPhone and edited in Be Funky.
I'd love to go back there with my big girl camera one day!
Be sure to pop over to check out Ellen's amazing photos of her family day out in Sovereign Hill here and keep following the circle til you get back to me! Enjoy!!
A month or so before Christmas hubby and I saw some pics on a friends Facebook update of a beach that looked like a great place to take the girls to.
Upon enquiry we discovered that it was at Bundeena.
Neither hubby nor I had been there before. Turns out it' s about an hour and a half from us so on 27th December, having survived Christmas Day and Boxing Day, we decided a road trip was in order so we went to check it out.
We really had no idea where we were going to just typed Bundeena into the sat nav and let it do the hard work for us.
We now know that Bundeena has four beaches....Bonnie Vale Beach which is in the Royal National Park, Gunyah Beach which is a small sand and rock beach, Jibbon Beach which is a secluded sandy beach favoured by the locals and Horderns Beach located near the ferry wharf with shops and facilities.
Horderns Beach won with the mention of facilities and shops, especially as it was about lunch time when we got there.
We can vouch for the fish and chip shop being good!! We sampled their chips, fish cocktails, seafood sticks, calamari and chicken nuggets.
We sat in the park to each our lunch. The park is popular with families barbecuing and having family gatherings. The park also has some play equipment.
After lunch it was time to hit the beach. Hubby and I praised ourselves for remembering to pack fold up chairs for ourselves! Even though it wasn't a really hot day the girls went in and then spent time building sand castles.
There were no waves to worry about and even though there were quite a few people there it didn't feel crowded at all.
After a few hours we packed up and headed to the facilities to get changed. Given that it was the day after Christmas and Boxing Day that might explain the poor maintenance of the ladies room...hopefully next time we go there we will find it to be better maintained.
When we arrived we were also lucky to find a parking spot both close to the fish and chip shop and the park and from there it was only a minute or two walk to the beach. Parking could be a problem due to the number of families there for the day but then that is pretty typical in beach areas.
Overall I'd say Horderns Beach is a good place for younger children and a good place for a relaxing day. Next time we visit we plan to head to Bonnie Vale Beach to see what that is like, I believe you can hire kayaks from there and there are picnic areas etc...
And you know the crazy thing.....the same day that we went their for the first time ever a Mum Of Five Girls facebook reader (and hopefully blog reader too!!) also went there for their first time ever and recognised it from a photo that I posted....crazy hey! Then when I got home my niece had commented on my instagram photo and asked where we were and when I told her she asked what it was like coz she was heading there for the first time ever later that week....totally cray cray!!!
So tell me, have you been to Bundeena before.....have you know about this little gem all along...are we just a bit late to the party lol !!
By the way it was only a day or so ago that I decided to do a review of Bundeena....I would have taken better pics when we were there had I thought about it beforehand...sorry!
Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT
This morning I stumbled upon an eBook....Your Best Year Ever by Kelly Exeter.
Given that it is 1st January, a brand new year full of hope and possibility then the timing seemed perfect.
I downloaded the book onto my iPhone and read it whilst the girls were playing nicely together....which is indication in itself that it is a quick and easy read!
From the beginning of the book it was just like chatting with a friend. The book is personal and Kelly touches on her own experiences of depression, of being overwhelmed with family and business, of trying to change bad habits etc..
The book features 7 chapters which outline 7 ways/steps to change your thinking.
There were quite a few a-ha moments when reading the book with a few of my favourite quotes being these...
"The people who achieve the most aren't the ones with the most time of their hands, but the ones who waste the least of the time available to them"
"...something that enables us to be happy no matter what situation we find ourselves in"
"The beautiful thing about habits is once you create them, they're easy to maintain"
"Tried it. Didn't work. What's next?"
For the low cost of $3.99 and for the fact that it is quick and easy to read I would definitely recommend Your Best Year Ever.....and the timing is perfect if you want a positive start to the new year with simple and sound advice that you can act upon straight away.
2016 could well just be my best year ever....and yours too!!
2015....
Wow where do I start.....you sucked....big time!
From the day that we returned home from our relaxing Christmas holiday in January you decided to bite us on the arse with a flea infested house and a fridge that did not work.
And you didn't stop there....there was the lawn mower that died, the shower head that broke, the microwave oven that started to send out sparks, hubby's car broke down, the hot water service sprung a leak, the kettle gave up the ghost, my car needed a new water pump....a week later it needed a new radiator....hubby's car needed a new battery....and that's not even the half of it.
Add to all of the above the fact that work was scarce and hubby had to spend a lot of time working away from home just to get some turnover.
The money worries that 2015 brought made me quite literally feel sick to my stomach. There were days when I did not know what we were going to be able to eat for dinner. Days where I didn't know where the next mortgage payment was going to come from.
There was stress, there was worry, there were tears.
Suck as you may have 2015 you couldn't keep us down. There have still been some good times, there have still been some laughs and there has still been a lot of love.
There were even times throughout the year that I believed in miracles. When hubby would be away and I would literally be down to my last few dollars there must have been someone watching over us. Sometimes it would be some money arriving in the mail from my in-laws, other times it was something that had been listed on eBay for months finally selling. A random act of kindness from a Facebook follower just before Christmas really touched my heart and it was moments like these that kept me going.
You don't go through a year like 2015 without taking a long hard look at your life and thinking of ways that you can make changes for the better.
I've been a stay at home mum since forever and whilst I don't really want that to change I had to look at the bigger picture and eventually started looking for work...I even went for a job interview...my first in a very, very, very long time!
I didn't get the job but that prompted me to think outside the square and a few months ago I decided to put myself out there as a Virtual Assistant....Virtual Veronica !!! I've completed a few jobs and now have to look to grow my business so that I can contribute financially to the household ......without leaving home. So if you, or anyone you know, needs a VA....let me know ;-)
I also signed up as a consultant with Jamberry nail wraps....love the product so thought why not! Pop over to my Come Wrap With Me page on Facebook if you want to find out more!!
It's all about not having all my eggs in the one basket!!
So as I sit here at home for Christmas and New Years and every day of the holidays because we clearly can't afford to go away.....I am counting down to the end of 2015 and I am full of hope and enthusiasm for 2016.
Wishing you all a wonderful new year!! Here's hoping that in 2016 we can kick arse !!
When you do a monthly project it really highlights how damn fast the months go!!!
Here we are at the 10th of the month again, time for our 10 on 10 photography project where a group of us share 10 pics from an hour, a day, a week...or if you're like me from pretty much whenever!!!
Those of you who follow me on Facebook would know that there's not much Christmassy happening around here at the moment as we move furniture from one room to another!
But I have not missed a single month of the 10 on 10 photography circle...and long time readers will know that I usually can't stick with anything!!! So for fear of missing out on this month I grabbed my iPhone, scrolled through the camera roll and ta-da...I present you with my November highlights!!!
Once you've checked out my chaotic life be sure to pop over to the next member of the group and then make your way around the circle!
We went to the Circus!!! And this is the only photo that I still had on my phone...the others were no doubt deleted to make way for other photos!!!
The last time we went to the circus was about 12 years ago and I have wanted to take the girls for ages but well.....expensive much !!!! So when The Great Euro Circus came to town and set up in the grounds of where my sister works and she got free tickets and gave them to us....OMG awesome!!!! It was amazing....and the tickets were for the night of Miss 7's birthday so bonus!!
Having rushed to eat dinner and get to the circus we then headed home for birthday cake at like 10pm...because you know, 7 year olds will not compromise!!!
That weekend Miss 11 went on a 2 night girl guides camp. I have no idea what she is doing in this photo!!! But she packed up her bedroll and off she went!!
Same weekend Miss 17 and I went formal dress shopping for the first time and a week out from the formal...eek!!! We did not take after photos because they would not have been pretty!!!
Same weekend, coz we love to cram everything into one action packed weekend....yep that's how we roll!! Soccer presentation for Miss 17 (it is actually the day of her birthday so from here on she will be miss 18!!), Miss 16 and Miss 14. The pic is of the coach (hubby lol !! ) giving miss 16 her trophy for being players player...woohoo!!!
Yep same day, home for dinner with the in-laws for Miss 18 and Miss 7's birthdays! And Miss 18 doesn't like cake so a cheats pavlova base purchased from Woolworths after presentation it was!
A few days later Miss 16's year 10 formal!! Quite a transformation for our jeans and batman boots wearing gal!!
And the very next freaking day!!! Miss 18's year 12 formal!! In the rain!!! But we were prepared!! By the way what she is wearing is actually a dress with a skirt over it!! Yep it's the dress in photo #6 from last months 10 on 10 photography circle and the heaviest tulle skirt ever!!
And right up there as a highlight for November I discovered that you can cook bacon in the oven....OMG this is totally revolutionary!!! Pop it on an oven tray, into a preheated oven at about 200 degrees celcius, 15 mins later crispy bacon!!
And this is not breakfast...it's actually dinner...but they should just be thankful that they got food at all!!!!
And to end November we had to drive an hour and a half to Wollongong Uni for Miss 18 to receive and award for her year 12 design and tech major work. She won overall best product runner up! Then we drove an hour and a half home again!!
I think I may have caught a glimpse of the ocean for a millisecond on the decent down Mount Ousley...or maybe I dreamt it!!
So there you have it....November!!! No wonder I was tired and broke!!!!
Be sure to pop over and see what Cathy has been up to this month....she never fails to impress me with her photos!! Just click here to see them!
And don't forget to make your way around the circle!!
