If Music be the Food of Love...

I have an iPod (it's really old, but it's fantastic, and has all my old music on it) that I use for running and yoga - and that's about it. When you have a child, you can't really listen to music on the train/ bus, etc. It's not often that I get to listen to grown up music - my life has a nursery rhyme soundtrack, most days, punctuated by a million and one toddler questions and stories (not that I am complaining, I love it that he talks a lot).

My husband bought me an iPad for my birthday last year, because I am a Facebook addict and I am permanently watching movies, downloading apps to make my life easier, downloading games to entertain my son on the bus/ train and I love looking up recipes and craft ideas. I have always loved music, but don't actually have any music on my iPad (I know, the HORROR!!), because iTunes wouldn't download onto my PC.

However, yesterday (by some bizarre twist of fate) I managed to download iTunes, update my iPad to iOS6, etc etc etc... While I was updating everything I was listening to all the music on my PC, but somehow forgot to sync music onto the iPad.

So while I was getting ready to exercise yesterday, I downloaded a music app, and last night I was compiling my 'exercise playlist'. I was playing some of my favourite modern dance music, and getting quite involved. My husband turned to look at me, with a rather shocked look on his face.

I know my singing voice isn't fantastic; and when I am dancing, I probably look more like an injured animal; but I didn't think it warranted SUCH a look. Turns out, we have been together for over 5 years, that he didn't know I liked dance music. He likes it, but thought I only liked indie-type bands.

I had to reassure him that my taste in music hadn't changed... Not that he is a huge fan of my 'gypsy music' - as he calls it - anyway. :)

Love Kalli x

Superhero Surprise Party

On Saturday, it was my husband's 30th birthday - so I decided, as he was being a party grinch, that I would throw him a surprise party (throwing a surprise party for your partner is the hardest thing in the world).

I had so many fantastic ideas - but alas, could not pull them all off, what with me having to hide everything around the house, so that he was not suspicious. I decided a 'snacks and cake' party was the best idea, as I wouldn't need to prepare too much food before the party started.

So here was what I did...

My husband is a comic man - he loves his superheroes. So I decided on a vintage 'pop art' comic book party. And was really lucky when I found all the bits and pieces on the Party Pieces website. 

I got napkins, popcorn boxes and photo booth signs (which were a huge hit with our friends). I cut out buildings from black card, and cut little windows out of double sided tape. 

I used red felt and cut mini capes, for the beer bottles. And had ordered test tube shooter glasses from Amazon. I wanted to do signs for the snacks, and just do everything better, but was very restricted for time. (I had 30mins to put all the food and decorations out, between my husband going out to the shop, and everyone arriving). 

I am lucky that my son will no doubt have a superhero party at some stage, and I will be able to pull out all my superhero inspiration for that party. 

I got inspiration for my Batman cake from Rose Bakes. She made a stunning Superman Explosion Cake - that I attempted. Thankfully - it was just close friends and family, who were not too judgemental of my horrible fondant skills. :) 

It tasted good though, so I was not too perturbed. I made a moist chocolate sponge, and chocolate butter cream. And to be fair, I don't even like the taste of fondant, so ended up just eating the chocolate cake and butter cream.

The last thing I wanted to do was to make superhero capes (likes the ones at Sew Scrumptious) and masks for all the kids, who came with their parents. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was not playing nice - so I hand-sewed one cape, and decided that the other fabric will have to be used for the next superhero party. 

All in all, even though I am quite devastated that I had so many great ideas and not enough time or sneakiness to achieve them all, the party was a huge success. The birthday boy was surprised and he had a very special 30th!

Cheers, Kalli x

Move Guides Blog Post: Keeping Positive in a New Environment

So, I have meant to blog all of December, and have a great number of blog posts in my head. But unfortunately December, and the festive season proved to be WAY more hectic than I had expected. Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. We had a fantastic Christmas day, with just the three of us (which was surprisingly rather nice, and not as stressful as a normal Christmas day). We did have guests from the 27th - 8th January though. And just after the first guests left, I got so sick, and am still not 100%. The joys of Winter.

I have however written a blog post for Move Guides, that was published at the beginning of January, about being positive in a new environment. Hope you enjoy it.

http://blog.moveguides.com/keeping-positive-in-a-new-environment-after-a-move-abroad/

On another note - I have just applied for our residence cards, got the final documents from South Africa in December. And we have applied for our son to start school - eeek! Fingers crossed that we get our documents back soon, and that our son gets into our first choice school.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic 2013!

Love Kalli x