Monthly Archives: October 2012

My Giant Piano – and a Giveaway

Do you remember this?

I saw this movie on my first date! I was just a kid and I loved this movie so much and particularly this scene. I made it my ultimate goal in life to have a big piano on the floor in my future home.

I haven’t quite gotten to the full size built in piano of my dreams yet, but I did just buy a Zippy Mat Gigantic Keyboard from OO.com.au and I LOVE it.

It has ten demo songs, so you can pretend you can play realllly well to impress guests and it has eight different instrument sounds you can chose from, so you can play Fur Elise on guitar or November Rain on accordion if the mood strikes.

The only thing I don’t like is that the default volume is LOUD, so every time it turns on it’s with a burst of loud piano keys and you have to be quick footed on the volume buttons to shush it to a more acceptable level. My kids think this is hilarious.

The kids love to run the length of it on their toes, hitting every key as fast as possible. They also like to lie on it.

The lovely people at OO.com.au gave me the $50 it cost to buy it and have it shipped to me. I ordered it on a Thursday and it arrived on the Monday. Pretty good eh?

But I’m not just writing this to rub my awesome giant piano in your face, I am giving you the chance to win your own $50 to spend online with OO.com.au

Tell me in the comments below what you think is the best thing about online shopping and my favourite answer will win the $AUD50 voucher code.

OO.com.au ships to both Australia and New Zealand so this giveaway is open to both countries. Shipping to NZ may attract a higher shipping cost. The voucher will still be to the value of $50 Aussie though. I have used OO.com.au before to send gifts to the rellies. Sweet as bro.
Entries close on Wednesday 31st October. The winner will be announced on Thursday 1st November and emailed the super secret code to use at the checkout to get the $50.
One entry per person please

Disclaimer: OO.com.au gave me one $50 voucher code to use for myself and one to giveaway to one of you lovely people. All opinions are my own and I really do like the giant keyboard. I am more than happy to spruik the services of OO.com.au because I truly honestly use their services with my own money from time to time.

Like Shovelling Snow in a Snow Storm

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Above is a photo of my living room on a good day. Below is how it looks on every other day.

Oh alright, you’ve got me, the top picture is not my living room. Ever.

There are no photos of my living room in a tidy state for one, or all of the below reasons:

They are yet to invent a camera that works that fast.
The time between tidying the living room and finding my iPhone is long enough for the kids to completely destroy my efforts (12 seconds).
The last time it was photo tidy, I was not aware that it would be the last time EVER and thus, did not think to take a photo to remember it by.
After tidying my living room I am too busy to take a photo because I am guarding the entrance in an attempt to beat the previous tidy record of 12 seconds. I am as yet unsuccessful.

The title of this post is from a quote I read online awhile ago and related to quite well:

“Cleaning house while the kids are still growing is like shovelling snow while it is still snowing.” ~ Phyllis Diller

Kids’ Halloween Costumes

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So you all know that I love online shopping. Anything I can do to avoid leaving the house and parking and taking the kids and all those people at the shops and the queues and the checkout staff and the – well, everything about real world shopping annoys me really. I do a lot of shopping online but I also do a lot of window shopping online. Or browsing. For hours. It’s a harmless addiction and sometimes you stumble across some really cute stuff.

Seriously, how cute is this? I’m not a big Halloween fan, but the costumes at Littlewoods make me want to throw a kids Halloween party . The cuteness! Can you imagine? They have got HEAPS of kids costumes for the upcoming scary season. Perfect for Halloween parties or trick or treat shenanigans if you’re into that kind of thing. Although I think if a kid dressed as that clown below knocked on my door I would die of fright. Seriously. He would get all the candy in the house and the keys to my car, just don’t hurt me scary clown!

My kids love dressing up, as most kids do and I don’t think kids care what the reason is at all. Any excuse for dress up fun right? I do think Halloween needs to be about ghosts and ghouls and pumpkins and witches and scary clowns. Not any old fancy dress. Dressing up as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween is just not right, right? Halloween has a great theme, stick to it.

I am still pretty anti trick or treat though. I don’t want to encourage my kids to knock on people’s doors and threaten them into giving them candy. That would be like training them for a life of door to door electricity retailer scamming. But there’s nothing wrong with a party… especially if it’s at someone else’s house and I don’t have to clean up. Then again, my house, with its high ceilings and its cobwebs already in place looks like I’ve decorated it for the occasion.

I am gutted that Littlewoods doesn’t ship to Australia yet and I’m super jealous of the online 12 month interest free layby thing they offer. I could buy next year’s Halloween costumes now! They also sell other stuff. Heaps of great clothes for kids and the whole family as well as everything else you could find in a good department store. So if you live in the UK, Europe or Ireland you can shop online at the awesome Littlewoods and know that all the way across the other side of the world, I am seething with jealousy.

Oh look!! This has a fibre optic twinkle skirt! WANT! Do you think it comes in my size?

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post but as always, all words and opinions are my own. And I do really want that twinkle skirt.

Hot Water Burns Like Fire

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There was a campaign on TV when I was a kid. It said that hot water burns like fire. Those campaigns work. Yesterday my daughter pulled a bowl of boiling hot water on herself and as I put her in the shower under cold water and took a look at her hot red skin as it peeled away from her body, that phrase repeated in my head over and over and over. It’s still doing it.

Xanthe’s OK. Some serious bandages and lots of pain relief have helped. She’s playing and giggling like normal. The first few hours were horrible, but she’s good now.

We’ll be back at the hospital for a dressing change and assessment of the burns. We’ll be doing this for a couple of weeks. I don’t think she’ll enjoy that much.

We’ve put a baby gate at the entrance to the kitchen. This will not happen again. It could have been so much worse, I’m grateful for that at least.

This could have been avoided though, and the guilt is huge.