The Pig Of Happiness...or...
It's School Holidays In The Springtime!

It's school holidays in my corner of the world which means lots of fun at the beach, super-duper salad sandwiches when we get home, movies, baking, sleep-overs, tennis, star-gazing, clothes shopping and hot chocolates, sleep-ins and so much more so that we are little 'Pigs of Happiness' in our home.

To share the 'love' I thought that you might like to watch a little movie by Edward Monkton.
To view you can click on this link or 'The Pig Of Happiness' button on my sidebar.

Today I'm participating in Maxabella's 'I'm Grateful For' bloghop.
It will be an ongoing event every Saturday and I will be tagging my posts with this gorgeous image of five little 'Gifts of Serendipity' resting in the Robin's nest.

Gift 1 - I'm grateful for a helping hand from a stranger who has become a friend

This week I have finally resolved the problem with my RSS feed and centred my sidebar images.
To do this on my own there would have been MUCH hair-tearing and more than a few choice words.
But with the help of lovely people like Maxabella herself, I'm as hirsute as I would like and the kids haven't picked up any 'surplus lingo'...thank you.

Gift 2 - The recommendation of a great read from my local bookstore

Are you looking for a great read, something that is truly 'unputdownable'?

I have just finished 'Ape House' by Sara Gruen and can highly recommend it.
Sara is the bestselling author of 'Water For Elephants' which is another wonderful read.

So, not wanting to give too much away here's a bit of the blurb:

Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani and Makena are no ordinary apes.

Capable of reason and carrying on deep relationships, they, unlike most

bonobos, also know American Sign Language.

Isabel Duncan, a scientist as the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn't understand people, but animals she gets, especially the bonobos.  Isabel feels more comfortable in their world than she's ever felt among humans...until she meets John Thigpen, a down-on-his-luck reporter who braves the ever-present animal rights protestors outside the lab to see what's really going on inside.

When an explosion tears apart the lab, severely injuring Isabel and 'liberating' the apes to an unknown destination, John's human interest piece turns into the story of a lifetime, one he'll risk his career and his marriage to follow.

Ape House is a riveting, funny, compassionate and deeply moving novel in which a family of apes teaches us what it means to be human.

Thank you Lucinda for your recommendation.
If you, dear friend, do end up reading it, I'd love to hear what  you think.

Gift 3 - Winning a giveaway!

The wonderful Amanda at Calico & Co. hosts the most generous giveaways.

I read last night that I have won some sensational art from Wallspank and am over-the-moon happy and grateful too....thank you Amanda.

Gift 4 - Going on a date with Captain Valentine

On went my LBD, the big earrings & the heels and off we went to enjoy a new dining experience at The Waterfront, Noosaville.
It was a special night and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal of grilled snapper with potato cake, stuffed tomato and green beans.
Surprisingly there aren't a huge number of dining establishments right on the water but this one is a keeper.
Thank you to my gorgeous man for being a romantic, you truly live up to your name!

Gift 5 - The joy of blogging

Having only started my blog a couple of months ago I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of fun I derive from it. 
I love connecting with clever, funny and like-minded people whether it be through reading their blogs or receiving comments on my own.
This week my blog received it's 100th friend which was very exciting.
I'm looking forward to sharing a giveaway soon to celebrate.

To read more about what people are grateful for, skip over to Maxabella's place and join in!

It's been too long since I've shared some 'jewels of serendipity' with you.
To remedy this, today's post features a few samples of the work of Emma Alison Designs.
I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do....

...they were a serendipitous find as I read the latest post by another talented jeweller Jess, of 'Epheriell Designs' fame.

I'd encourage you to explore both of their sites for a little bit of loveliness to possibly help to get you through to the end of the week.

Now if I could find a way to lure Captain V. into my study to accidentally read this post....hmmm....

As you may know I live at Noosa which is a very special part of Australia's coastline.
We are very fortunate to have the best of both rural and beach lifestyles as we live on an acreage property only fifteen minutes from our beautiful Main Beach.

Over the last three years I have been guilty of not maximising the amount of time spent by the water, focusing instead upon things 'closer to home'.
During this time, the 'beach bod' has disappeared beneath a doona of flubber and it is with great resolve that I am beginning to rectify this.

To inspire me in my pursuit of the healthier me, I have whipped up a little montage of beachy items.
Some of these I already have, others like the gorgeous Missoni towel are for the 'Lotto List'*.

I envisage myself sitting beneath the umbrella, ipod playing something along the lines of Jack Johnson.
Having just done a lap of the bay [ocean swimming is a favourite here as we have a very calm stretch of water facing our Main Beach], I've refreshed with some lime-infused water from my chilled bottle and am scribbling in my little notebook something lovely that I've just witnessed by the shoreline which I will share with you in my next posting.

Surrounding me is the fresh scent of coconut, sunscreen, salty air and my sun-warmed towel.
There are squeals of glee coming from little children chasing waves at the waters edge and everywhere I look there is the most brilliant colour palette azure blue, foamy white, deepest green and golden sand.

My body feels healthy and strong and within me there is a warm, peaceful feeling of contentedness.
Shortly I will be joined by Captain Valentine who has been surfing around the corner at Little Cove.
We will pack up our gear and take a short stroll up the beach to 'Bistro C' where we will enjoy some lightly fried calamari and a cold something-something before returning home for an afternoon snooze.

Did I mention that this was my inspiration board not my real life.......yet!

Of course the aforementioned day doesn't take into account the fact that there is a mighty huge amount of work to be done before my body even begins to resemble something that could launch itself into a bikini [let alone a white one!] and that the reality is more likely to be...

Cpt. V and I with three children, lugging surfboards, sandcastle gear, towels and various other paraphernalia down the beach. Without a doubt I would be applying two litres of sunscreen and zinc across fair-skinned bods, repeatedly asking "Where's your hat?" and doing surf patrol in between taking photos and doling out healthy snacks to the troops...

Anyhoo, its lovely to dream and I will be working towards having more of the former experience, even though the latter is wonderful also.


Image created by me at Polyvore

PS: This post is part of Diminishing Lucy's Fat to Fit Bloghop - go to the button on the right for more

PPS: If you're looking for some more lovely things to oggle at, skip over to Obee Designs where there is a wonderful giveaway happening...see my sidebar for a sneak peek.

*This is a wishlist of all that you would 'have' and 'do' if the Lotto Fairy one day deems you worthy of 'THE BIG ONE' - or your Great Aunt Harriet decides to bequeth you the stash of diamonds and other finery she's had hiding in the flour tin for the last quarter of a century...either way it's something to dream on.

For all of you have received multiple posts from me, I'm very sorry.

I've been trying to get the RSS feed issue sorted and so this was the result.

Fingers crossed for me to get it right soon....

 XO Boo Boo

This week saw the start of my healthy lifestyle change.

Over the past couple of years I have added a significant and really unhealthy amount of kilos to my body and know that the biggest reason has been emotional eating, due to some rather extreme life experiences.

It would be lovely to be able to just wish the weight away in one light puff as you do with dandelion seeds but we all know the reality is to put in the work.

For me this will be 'the usual'... increasing my water intake [I'm hearing some great things about green tea], reducing the amount of sugar I consume [I really never thought I was a sweet tooth but it seems this may be my achilles heel], eating less and making my meals smaller and of course gradually increasing my exercise.

Most importantly I will be taking time to invest in exploring why I resort to food to ease me through the tough times and building up my emotional resilience as part of this journey.

So this really will be a phase in my life where I 'reshape' myself from the inside out.

If you are on the same journey I wish you well and would love to hear about it.

PS This post is part of Diminishing Lucy's 'Fat to Fit' bloghop [see the apple button on the right to join in].

Image by the talented Susanne Greigerich

One of my favourite things to do in the late afternoon is to go for a walk with Captain Valentine.
We take our two hounds Luke and Buster, then hand-in-hand [dogs leaping excitedly] we head out.

You may recall that we are fortunate to live in a truly beautiful corner of the world and are doubly blessed because our home is in a neighbourhood of small acreages.

Every afternoon on our walks I somehow manage to find a little treausre that catches my eye and I have a collection of them on my desk.  Some of the most special finds are feathers from the abundant birdlife; unique stones; pressed wildflowers and my little nieces 'fant-ta-sticks' ie: twigs, long 'sticks' and small branches which she has dragged behind her little [almost 3yo] frame when she has visited.

On Thursday evening I received a truly beautiful gift of serendipity.

We were on the return leg of the walk and Captain V had just begun a discussion about something quite important, the dogs were not far behind us contentedly 'doing the sniff'.
Out of nowhere a tiny little white moth, no larger than your thumbnail flew in front of us at about waist height.
It was the most irradescent white and was flapping gently about a metre in front of us.

In itself, there is absolutely nothing remarkable about this I know. The thing is, it stayed in this position for at least twenty-five metres, keeping pace with us as if we were attached with little invisible reins.
Not being able to take my eyes off it and feeling almost as if I was attached to it, I now had a 'real-life' example for the word 'transfixed'.

Of course it flew off, [probably to feast in someones vege patch] but for the loveliest of moments it shared its beauty with us.  This is what I truly love about living here.  There is an abundance of wildlife, birds, kangaroos, other critters large and small and they are free to do their thing, interacting with us if and when they choose.

For me it is memorable any time wild creatures choose to share some space with us and I began to wonder if you have had a gift of serendipity from Mother Nature too?

Here's to a week a serendipitous moments,



The black and white photo is by Ella and the white moth image is by Fons.

Does this image resonate with you?

What immediately struck you upon viewing it?

For me it was the colour and the stillness...
then I saw the wallaby peeking out of the shrubbery and I knew that it was the perfect picture to illustrate my life at the moment.

I'm a bit like the wallaby, you've got to look really hard to find me and I'm a little lost & looking for some guidance.

Now I'm not talking metaphorically about my life.
No, this is far more serious... it has to do with the fact that my blog is busted!

Wonderful followers are telling me that they're not receiving updates of my post on their blogroll or in their Reader and I don't appear anywhere on blogs that I've joined.  There's also a side issue about comments not appearing for some of my posts and this function is definitely enabled in my settings. I have more than a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with me doing something bad to my RSS feed [whatever that means!] and I will need some serious guidance to fix it.

I'm appealing to you dear reader, hoping that you or someone that you know may be my lighthouse and have the capacity to bring me safely back to Bloggland...
If you can help please email me at giftsofserendip@yahoo.com

But if I may just warn you, I REALLY am THE most novicey of novices when it comes to anything techy and any advice must be step-by-step BASIC.

Whoever manages to get me safely 'home' will receive a great present in the mail [as yet to be determined but it will be excellent as I'm fairly desparate to get this sorted].

Looking forward to hearing from you and having this little blog back spic-and span very soon!

If you are already a follower or thinking of joining in, please keep stopping by.
I have great hopes that the collective genius that is our blogging community will get this sorted and we'll be sharing lots of lovely thoughts and creative ideas together on a daily basis before you know it!


Image from fotocommunity

The title of this blog 'Gifts of Serendipity' was inspired by the lovely and unexpected surprises that I happened upon when I first started exploring Bloggland.
Serendipity means to 'make fortunate discoveries by accident' and it so happened that this occurred many times.
I started to learn new things, be inspired to do make or do things differently and most especially, to meet like-minded people whom I would never have bumped into in my regular life.

This last element has been the most wonderful part of blogging and it with pleasure that I read about and connect with the most gorgeous, clever, talented and warm-hearted people via this medium.

One of these people is Naomi who hosts 'My Seven Cherubs'.  If you haven't signed up to receive her gifts of wisdom, then I suggest you go for a visit and do so.
Naomi has kindly nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award {Thank You Beautiful!!!}

A requirement of this award is that I share the following tidbits about myself with you, so here goes...

I'm an educator of 20+ years experience and am

a Gifted Education specialist and consultant.

I would love to be able to sing, but I'm VERY flat

and have to limit myself to times when I'm alone...

the shower and car and garden are great venues!

I am a sucker for savoury food, especially a

great cheese platter and champagne

or a beer and fresh calamari at Bistro C, Noosa

[especially after a swim in the ocean = bliss~]

I feel most at home in a natural environment ie:

gardening in our beautiful yard, walking in the bush

behind our home, being at the beach [the image above

is from the National Park at our local beach], strolling

beside a river or being out in the countryside.

I am proud to have represented my country travelling

to Argentina on a Rotary Vocational Exchange in 1999.

I am a colour-junky.

At the moment I'm playing with pastel crayons

and water-colour pencils and am most taken

with a soft blue palette with hints of aqua which

I complement with white or soft grey.

The tradition is that I pass this award on to 7 other bloggers which I will do, but I'm going to extend this by giving the recipients a Sunshine Blog award also.

I received a Sunshine Award from Laura of My Summerhouse [last month when the laptop first died] and haven't done the right thing and passed it along yet. The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the Bloggland.
So big BIG hugs to the following gorgeous gals who I nominate for two awards 'Kreativ Blogger' and 'Sunshine', twice the bang for you blog...XX!!!

Naomi of  Seven Cherubs 
Bronwyn of  Maxabella Loves
Julie of  Its The Little Things
Kelli of  Ada & Darcy
Jules of  The Diversion Project
Jane of The Girl In The Brick House
Geninnne of  Geninne's Art Blog

To pass on the love there are a few rules and they go like this....
Please don’t feel that you have to follow, but if you choose to, I hope that you find it a bit of fun.

•Copy the award to your blog

•Insert a link to the person who nominated you

•Share seven things about yourself that you haven’t told us before

•Nominate other bloggers for the award – share the love

•Link to their blogs

•Tell the nominees about their award

This has been a long post, well done if you made it to the end, have fun exploring the wonderful blogs of these talented and very special Bloggland friends,