#HAPPYGIVING - Christmas Reader Giveaway from Westfield

My favourite time of the year is Christmas. 

Have I told you that about 708 times now? Probably. 

And my favourite part of Christmas is giving. 

Yes, yes, it's lovely to be given a beautiful gift, but there is nothing that can swell my heart more than giving someone a gift. It makes me insanely happy. 

This man was born to give. 

To celebrate #HAPPYGIVING I am totally happy to collaborate with Westfield to give you the opportunity to win a $100 Westfield voucher. 

Now wouldn't that be awesome this Christmas?! 

Just leave a comment below and tell me how you're going to share the gift of giving this Christmas.

Terms & Conditions:

Open to Australian readers only

Open from Monday 25th November at 7am. Closes Friday 29th November at 11:59pm.

Only one entry per person.

Please ensure you leave contact details for me. Sadly I am not psychic and can not dedicate my life to tracking down winners. As much as I'd really love to.

Three Is A Magic Number

The competition is over - the winner is drawn, and it's true what they say - three IS indeed a magic number.

Lucky Brenda from Mira Narnie takes the showcase and will enjoy three seasons of Offspring - plus the soundtrack. And she might even develop a crush on soulful and skittish Jimmy with the sparkly eyes. Anything is possible.

Congratulations Brenda - and thank you to every single one of you who entered and made it such a fun competition.

You ladies are so fickle.

Poor Dr Chris Havel never stood a chance.

Now My Dad Is The Deputy Editor

Since Sunday things have happened at PottyMouthMama. For one thing, I've appointed my Dad as Deputy Editor. Welcome aboard Dad!


Last night on his list of jobs as PottyMouthGrandpapa he had to judge the four winners of the LEGO competition. So without further ado, here are the winners, as hand-selected by my Dad. With Mum's help of course:


Christina Lowry:
I love LEGO. It's like a school lesson for my son without him noticing. Math, architecture, atoms, colours, shapes etc. It's all there in the humble LEGO block.


Cindy:
I love LEGO because age doesn't matter and no one can be wrong.


Dancing In the Rain:
Inheritance! My girls love playing with hubby's childhood LEGO?!? The love of 'Barbie' combined with the love of LEGO - head spinning with excitement!!


Carolyn Booty (I have some booty to send you):
I love how LEGO inspires imagination. 
I love it's interchangeability and timelessness. 
I love the priceless memories it provides and provokes from generation to generation.


Thank you to everyone for entering the LEGO competition! 


image via Green Diary - Dad did not get to choose the accompanying image for this post. Sorry Dad. 

Caught In The Rain

Weekends. Ah weekends. How I love you!

Yesterday we went to the beach, hung out on the sand, enjoyed some time just the three of us. Bliss.

Today we went to see my MIL for her birthday. Then came home. Did a frenzied "tidy" of the house - and when I say "tidy" the term is very, very loose - but you can now see we have floor. We went walking in the afternoon - a brave move, the Doctor on his bike, everyone else walking. And of course, on our return trip, it bucketed down. Thunder cracked. Sheet lightning. The works. Tiny cried. I carried Tiny under the umbrella, like a koala. The Doctor kept riding his bike. Matt was soaked. We all were soaked. But it was fun. And funny.

And this weekend we kicked off a new family tradition. I've been feeling out of the loop on family life for a while now. Struggling to get involved. Exhausted by my four days of work, sad that I'm missing out, desperate to still be in touch with my smalls.

So I picked up my copy of Amanda Soule's 'The Creative Family'. I'm no Soulemama, but when I need some inspiration - who am I gonna call? And it ain't the Ghostbusters.

Our new family tradition is one that was picked up with gusto and the Doctor has already asked to do it every single night. Halleluljah! We sat and did family drawing for 45 minutes. So. Much. Fun. I can't wait to reprise this as often as possible.

WINNERS::

These peeps should email me (lexipmm (at) gmail (dot) com) ASAP to receive their tickets to the Powerhouse Discovery Centre. Hope to see you there!

- Permanently Twenty Three

- Aneets: Meandering Through Motherhood

- Lisa Tilse: The Red Thread

- Sarah at The Super Whites

- Sarah at ChoccyBangles

Me. Medina. You.

After much deliberation, and seriously - this was hard work trying to figure out who the winners should be - I roped in Matt and we came up with three winners after much hmphing and pmphing.

So the three lucky ladies heading to the Medina of their choice are:

- the blogless Kym S

- Chunky Chooky

- 2

All winners have now been notified.

If I had it my way, all 49 of us would be heading to a night at the Medina. How fun would that be? We could read mags together, hang out, chat, drink a bottle or 12 of wine, and sleep a blissful sleep. That would be amazing. Medina, you hear that? What do we want? A sleepover! When do we want it? Now!

AND if you are interested in checking out Medina's Cracking Easter deals, click here.

Dreams can come true. Gabrielle sang it. It must be true.

Thanks to everyone for entering - a very rad competition. LOVE!

Why Hello There!

I never reported back and told you that the Doctor was accepted into the out-of-area school we applied for. Yep. I had an interview with the principal. It was, to me, more nerve-wracking than a job interview. Tomorrow we go for Kindergarten Orientation, which is both exciting and a little sad. It's a bittersweet symphony.

Today is a jolly good day folks. Not only is it my sisters birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA! but one of my best, and long-time friends gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

Me, being crazy like a fox, commenced sewing just a few short hours after I learnt this awesome and exciting news. I'll show some pics when I have got more than a couple of pieces sewn together, but oh baby, it's PINKalicious.

Winners (courtesy of the Random Number Generator) of the Lego DUPLO are:

- 9 - Two Tuesdays

- 5 - Spectacular Fairy Wren

- 18 - Jovana

I tried to do a screen grab but of course Blogger won't come to the party.

Please email me with your name, address, and mobile number! Thanks to everyone for entering.

PottyLittlePinwheel of Fortune

Like I said the other day I've been eating Cherry Ripes.

A lot of Cherry Ripes.

However, it's not just this. When I wrote the other day about Cherry Ripes, it in turn inspired Little Pinwheel to eat Cherry Ripes and try her luck too.

And basically now what we have here is a downward spiral. We're both eating Cherry Ripes. And we're winning! Thank you Cadbury!

Just tonight I tottered up to the supermarket with my two Cherry Ripe and one lone Crunchie wrappers to swap them for new bars. NEW BARS! The woman who swapped them was a humourless wench, but that aside, I gotta golden ticket peeps!

This is where it gets REALLY interesting. The bars say 1 in 5 wins, well in my experience, I've not bought 5 bars - and by the sounds of things, Little Pinwheel is winning more than she's losing too (however we are gaining - both weight and FREE CHOCOLATE BARS!).

And now this is where we go really Willy Wonka on you.

Together we've renamed them Cheery Ripes. Because you really can't be sad when:

a) you're eating a Cheery Ripe

and

b) you win another after unravelling said chocolate bar

We've decided to start the PottyLittlePinwheel of Fortune. You take a spin on the PottyLittlePinwheel by buying a chocolate bar. If you win, you continue playing. It's that simple.

It's like Cheery Ripe Roulette. It's win-win. Soon we will open our very own casino that's run purely on chocolate. We'll have chocolate fountains, and meter-maids dressed in Cheery Ripe wrapper bikinis to top up your chocolate meters.

You like the sound of this, don't you? I know you do. You want in on our chocolate casino caper, right? RIGHT??

Won't you play along too? Spin the wheel? Report back? Share your luck. Little Pinwheel and I want to know what WINNAHS we've sporned.

ridiculously awesome image by Little Pinwheel

Basil and Babies

The Doctor's been taking photos of our garden. This one is a little blurry, yes, but it does show how our basil, under the gentle guidance of the Doctor/Horticulturalist (try typing that ten times fast) is beginning to grow quite quickly. And see those small yellow flowers? Yes well they are our tomatoes. They're already fruiting up beautifully. We are getting super excited!

Winners of the Sooki Baby giveaway are:

- 15: Amy Paul at Life With Soul
- 4: Yoo hoooooo Ellieboo
- 1. Suzy at Floating World

Woot Woot! Email me your deets and I'll get your prizes sent out. Thanks to everyone who entered. You're all top sheilas.

Bits & Bobs

A little while ago I went flea-ing and found some unloved button boxes going begging. I bought the two of them for the sweet song of $4. Ah hello friends. Four measly dollars and for so much delight.

The Doctor and I sorted them into colours. Then pretty-ness. Then Tiny had a hissy fit and threw a large pearly white one on the ground. Clearly it is missing from this picture because of Tiny's hissy fit.

PS - Tix are on sale for Sydney Festival. If you're planning a trip to Sydney, may I suggest choose January? It's the time the city comes alive, it feels like holidays and the place is really a-buzzing. Laura Marling. Patrick Watson. Dirty Three. Magic. I was lucky enough to win tix so Matt and I are going to see Al Green. ACE!

What's Hot? What's Not?

What's Hot?

- This change in weather? Who likes 38 degree days? Not I, said the little red hen

- Slow days spent with my sister

- There's only one sleep 'til Glee

- The bunny love that abounds. Bun Bun is being mercilessly loved to death

What's Not?

- The rabbit biting my toes. Through my shoes.

- The smalls bickering. It's. Driving. Me. Insane.

- Colours running in the washing machine and ruining my newly thrifted linens

For more of what's hot and what's not click on over to Loobylu.

And I drew the winner of the $130 gift voucher to choose a light of their own. Lucky number 12. Megan from Somewhere Along a Winding Path is the lucky gal pal. Please email me with your postal address and deets and I can hook you up!

Sunday Rolls Around Again

I am completely shattered today. We did a lot of running around yesterday and my poor little body is definitely feeling it. Everything's sore.. Getting sick? No, not me, I'm a beefcake.

It's one of those cold Wintery days when you, by law, should be curled up on the couch watching DVDs. Jeeves - I feel like a hot chocolate. Nanny will take the kids out rugged up for a run on the grass. But it's not to be, and family life stops for no man. Or mama. Onward we shall go.

It's a little over a week 'til my birthday and I'm already feeling as though I own a 70 year old's body. I think I'll take a leaf out of this woman's book and kick-start a new me by going running. Sounds frightening. Walking is easing me into it.

I drew the winners of the Little Innoscents giveaway too:

Winner of the complete set of Little Innoscents products is lucky seven 7. Linda from Two Pink Possums.

And the five lucky ducky runners up are:
Coming of age - 18. Perempuan
Duck and dive - 25. Josephine Tale Peddler
Legs eleven - 11. Julia
Sweet sixteen - 16. Bronwyn
One little duck - 2. Mama Mogantosh

If you can email me your postal address, I can then pass it on and your prizes can be sent out. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Knit-Wit

I'm about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I'm going to learn to knit. While I do know how to knit, I don't know how to cast on (my Mum and sister have always got me started). I am a very talented knitter - I can go from starting with 30 stitches, and wind up with 61. Takes a talent, kind of like making something out of nothing, right?

So this weekend, I'm going to learn to knit. Well start to learn how to knit. Good and proper. So I can make more than a scarf (that gets thicker as the knitting continues).

And how good is this? I won a super good giveaway on Knot Sew Crafty (that Alexis sure knows how to put together a kicking fun-pack - will you marry me?) - and what should arrive as part of the goodies? Two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Delicious!

And speaking of winners, three winners have been drawn for the Georgie Love Bouncin' Birthday giveaway by the random number generator. I can't do screen grabs, but here are the lucky punters:

- JessicaNeale

- Hoppo Bumpo

- Pepper

Please email me with your addresses and I will post your prizes out ASAP! I will have the Doctor randomly draw the prizes out lucky dip stylie.

Pretty Things

A while ago (too long ago) I was lucky enough to win a giveaway over at Flossy-P. If you've never been to visit Flossy-P, go now. She's a super cool gal who creates beautiful illustrations. She's one clever cookie. If Flossy-P lived next door, I'd bake her cookies, pick her flowers, pat her cat. Instead she's hanging with her over-55 friends, and I'm hanging with my silver foxes. Makes me think of this. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you know, it'd be fun to hang with some contemporaries.

So Flossy-P bestowed on me such a cute prize. A Happy Happy Garden Card Pack (see the picture above) - five sweet cards for me to bestow on gardens around the 'hood that I deem worthy of loving (perfect for my walks, huh?). Cool idea, huh? And as a bonus, a great bookmark (which is timely, because I've been using bits of torn newspaper), and to top it all off - it was packaged up so nicely, I just didn't want to open it.

Anyway you can head over to Flossy-P's shop and get your own hit of Flossy-P goodness. Get it while it's hot, piping hot.

Merci, Flossy-P!

Lucky Dip

needle and thread

Originally uploaded by appleapplegreen

And the lucky winner is Nanette from Rummage!

I'll post it out later this week for you - something old, something new...

Thanks everyone else who entered. It was fun!

Tomorrow I will catch up with This is... Sorry I'm running so late with everything!