Even Rosie is loving the cold weather. Especially out on the sandstone blocks – they warm up quite a bit during the day when the sun is on them and I’m sure in kitty language, that is just heaven! They also make a handy scratching surface it seems. This is probably the first time she has been outside unharnessed and unleashed yet not inside a cat park. She is easier to catch though and she doesn’t jump six feet in a single bound so I am happy to let her out when I have time to watch her like a hawk. Unfortunately Mojo has proved conclusively time and time again that he cannot be trusted – so he had to enjoy his time in the sun wearing his harness. I’m sure if he could, he would complain about the unfairness of it all.

PS – Yes this does mean we haven’t done anything with the cat park yet. That would require us to not procrastinate and actually do something about putting it up. I’m sure the cats have lost hope that it will ever be put up.

Winter is probably my favourite time of year, despite the coughs and colds that go around. It certainly helps when there is less rain than during the warmer months. I guess there’s something dreary about the day when it is cold and wet but when the sun comes out, it really is a beautiful time of the year.  Last weekend I spent an hour or two watching the kite surfers making the best of the gusty weather. Despite the wind, plenty of people were having a BBQ, walking their dogs or just enjoying the sunshine. I don’t usually shoot directly into the sun but I thought that my NSW friends might appreciate it. Yes it’s still in the sky – I hope the rain eases up soon for you and you get to enjoy some pleasant sunny winter days yourself.

And for some not noice….

I remember people telling me when I got my indoor pot plants that it probably wouldn’t be long before the cats started having a crack at them. Well it seems that they must have thought they were fake for around six months because for at least that long, they remained unscathed. The last few weeks they have finally realised that they are real and very very tasty. We spent about a week cleaning up puddles of greenery infused cat yak before enough was enough. They are now on our outdoor table and look just as nice out there – not before the cats did a little bit of damage to the foliage though.

Without intending to, we ended up at Wivenhoe Dam. The last time I’d been there was as a child and my memories of that visit were tarnished by a heap of damn bees that just didn’t want to leave me alone. They chased me incessantly and a few even ended up in my can of Pasito. That is how much the day traumatised me – I can remember that I was drinking a can of Pasito when I cannot remember even how old I was at the time I was there.

For the longest time, it didn’t matter that Wivenhoe was the camp of the pesky bee because I had no desire to go there anyway – given the distinct lack of water in the dam. But now that we have had so much rain, it is a beautiful place to visit once again. And even more noice? No bees to be seen.

As part of the Noice-ities theme week, Leigh and Laura are asking about your favourite winter recipe. Generally speaking, I tend to eat the same foods in winter that I would in summer. This is probably because I lack any kind of repertoire which extends to seasonal cooking as much as it has to do with a lack of a proper winter like they have down south. I have about 10-20 things that I can cook with any degree of success and fortunately, none of them seem to be any less edible in winter than they do in summer. So this makes it a bit challenging for me to pick a favourite that is more wintry than the rest. Not to mention, Rah already stole corned beef – my all time favourite comfort food that I can actually make.

So, inspired by my dinner for tonight and that it could probably suffice as a winter recipe – I vote for Chilli Con Carne. I didn’t come up with the recipe myself – it was sent to me by email and was vouched as being tried and tested many times. An email which I have stored somewhere on my computer. For reasons unknown to me, I can’t find it right now so I’ll have to make do with what’s in my memory and hope that it is right. I hope it’s right – it’s that particular memory which I’m using to make tonight’s dinner.

Cherie’s Chilli Con Carne

Once you start saving just a little bit, it becomes easier. And it doesn’t have to be a huge noticeable amount coming out of your income. I started off my “rainy day” account with spare change collected over a year and now I just maintain regular contributions each fortnight. We put just that little bit extra into our mortgage each week. And even though I’m now 30yo, I still have a piggy bank which doubles as a swear jar. I’m not sure I should be proud of my $50 per month saving habit from that particular source or mildly mortified.

We have been talking a lot lately about going on an overseas holiday and while we aren’t ready to go now, there’s no better time to start saving for it. So I got myself a SmartyPig after hearing about it on All For Women – a very big thank you to Leigh for bringing this nifty savings account to my attention. It’s a dedicated bank account for my savings with this particular goal in mind. I put in my end date, how much I’m prepared to start the account with and then the SmartyPig calculated how much needs to be saved each month to meet my savings goal. It was really easy to set up and at a glance, I can see how I am progressing towards my goal. And the great thing about SmartyPig is that you can have multiple savings objectives (holiday, wedding, new lounge suite just to name a few examples) all within the same SmartyPig account.

If you’re looking for more information on FebuSave, head on over to the Be Money Confident FebuSave website. While you’re at it, why not get yourself a SmartyPig – it’s even better than a piggy bank and just as easy to use.

The cats have settled in well at our new home – we have moved to a peri-urban area. So it’s close enough to convenience but far enough away not to be bothered by it. There are cut-outs in the walls throughout the house to facilitate natural light and air flow and the cats are enjoying using them as short-cuts between areas. We got some new furniture when we moved in and the moggies didn’t miss out either – they got a new scratching tower which blissfully does not look like the leaning tower of Pisa. It even has hidey holes in it – not exactly a Funky Hollow but they like it all the same.

Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows how much I really do hate the colour pink. It stems from spending 21 years of my life in a delightfully girlishly pink room – despite the fact that I prefer blue tones.

In any case, I am going to try and add a little pink to my blog over the coming month (albeit temporarily) for the Go Pink for October cause to raise awareness of breast cancer and get people talking about it.

This is something which is very close to my heart, especially since late last year when my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately she received very prompt treatment and the prognosis so far is good. Although you never really know when you’re free and clear when it comes to breast cancer. We only hope that it does not rear its ugly head again.

Please talk to your friends and family about breast cancer and breast screening. If you don’t currently self-examine your breasts, please start now. If you’re eligible for free breast screening, take advantage of it. By all means, don’t live your life in fear of it but be aware of your own body and get any changes investigated. It is something that won’t just affect you but your whole family.

If you have a website or blog yourself, please consider Going Pink for October, even if it’s just the smallest little bit.

Porn star name (first pet, first street where you lived): Sambo Fenlon (yeah that’s ultra smexy!)

Rock star name (favourite pet, current car): Rosie Corolla

Gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Rum ‘n’ Raison Sneakers

Native American name (hair color, favourite animal, favourite hobby): Chestnut Horse Travelling

Soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Maree Rockhampton

Star Wars name (first 3 letters of last name & first 2 of first name, last 3 letters of middle name): Neb Karee

Stripper name (favourite perfume, favorite candy): Hypnotic Poison Clinkers

TV Newsreader name (grandparents first name, any town that starts with the same letter): Gladys Gilmore

Spy name (favourite season, favourite flower): Winter Frangipani

Cartoon name (favourite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing now): Banana Threadless

Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, favourite tree): Crumpet Eucalyptus

Over much of the past year, I’ve had another idea for a blog in my head and while it sounded pretty good in theory, I never got around to putting it into practice. It got shelved along with a few other hopes and dreams which turned out to be not to practical when I thought about implementing them. All the while though, it has been mulling around in the back of my head.

The new tax year arrived and with it, a desire to actually start this new blog which I delved into the planning stages of with a lot of gusto. That is, until the ATO took forever to process my ABN registration because for some bizarre reason, you really need one for a .com.au domain. It got shelved again in the back of my mind for the month or so they took to process my application. But it’s finally happening. I bought the domain last week, it’s now registered. I have hosting for it (thank you again Leigh!), WordPress is loaded and I have a really good theme to use.

And get this, it’s fully customisable! OH NO! I can hear you shrieking from here after the last misadventure down that road. But this time, it’s all hunky dory….that is once I was duly chastised for failing to remove spaces in my header image names. Despite all the headaches involved with getting it up and running, I’m really starting to enjoy the whole thing. Like giving myself a panic attack when I thought I’d deleted the whole server directory. Or swearing at my PC for hours on end because I could not get the headers to display in Firefox yet they were happy to do so in Internet Explorer. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t bring myself to type “this webpage is best viewed in IE 7.0 or above” – the very thought of it makes bile rise in my throat because I really hate IE. Thankfully the problem has been rectified and I’m on the right track at last. At least I can laugh at my own stupidity, put it all down to a learning experience and keep moving forward.

My other half has asked me to set up his own blog on our local server. Do you think he knows what he’s in for?