Once Were Bloggers

If this post were a song from the sixties, it might go,

"Where have all the Bloggers gone... gone to Instagram every one..."

Ha ha. It's true though. So many bloggers I "know" have stopped blogging for one reason or another, but where I thought I'd lost them forever when they abandoned shop, I found that they were alive and kicking it over on Instagram.

On Friday night when we were up in Whangarei for our Cake Escape, we finished off a great day with a "Bloggers Dinner" at a Middle Eastern restaurant (with complimentary Belly Dancer, he he).

At one point someone asked the question, "Hey who here is still actually blogging?".
Giggling, silence, a couple of hands raised.

Then the comments started. "Haha I haven't blogged in forever..." "I gave it up, Instagram is so much easier..." "Yeah people talk to you on Instagram..." "When I was blogging I would get comments from the same four faithful people..."

The funny thing is that these girls - who Once Were Bloggers - had formed such tight connections while blogging that even though most of them had abandoned their blogs long ago, they still see each other as a group. And all you have to say is "Bloggy dinner"! and they're there.

That's one of the things I love most about Blogging - the connections I've made. The real, hearty, online friendships. I have to admit that I MISS SO MANY OF YOU who have stopped blogging.

I understand that blogging is not for everyone. Sometimes you do it for a season. Sometimes you dip your toe in the water, write a few posts, and decide it's not for you after all. Sometimes life and circumstances, new jobs, family drama and general busyness all conspire to put blogging in the too-hard basket.

It becomes just One More Thing on the endless to-do list, and something's gotta give.

I know. I get it. But I still Miss you, my once-were-blog-friends.

I miss Widge, Mon, Rebecca, Weza, Anya, FaerySarah. Gail and Penny I get to see in real life, but I still miss your blog posts. Jackie, Tania, Lyns, Neetz, Rachel, Emma, Vix - some have officially stopped, others just have tumbleweeds rolling through their blogs.

If I look on my blog list at so many of my blog faves it reads: "Last update 1 year ago..." "...4 months ago..." "8 months ago..."
Sigh.

I live in hope that some of my faves will pick it up again once life calms down and I console myself with the fact that I can still connect with my faves on Instagram. Yay for Instagram with it's quick and easy pictorial awesomeness - but it's not really the same.

There's something about a blog. It's a glimpse into someone's world in a way that IG just can't compete with. It's the difference between a snack and a meal.

Bloggers are good peeps. I've never met a blogger (whose blog I love) that I didn't love in Real Life.

I'm glad there are still enough of us old-timers still hangin' on in Blogland.

PaisleyJade, Deb, Miriam, Meghan and Sammy are still here... and a bunch of newbies are churning out posts like there's no tomorrow. (I hope they can keep up the pace).

Whatever happens, I plan on being here for a while yet.
I love blogging, and bloggers and writing stories and having this little window on my world, which I hope you, my lovely readers, find an encouraging place to be.
I hope you'll stick around too.

..........................

PHOTOS THIS POST: From our "Bloggers" dinner on Friday night, where I got to meet one of my all-time faves Neetz in real life. Oh man, she is so awesome! Everyone who knows her told me how lovely she is, but meeting her was even better than I'd imagined. Wish she lived next door; she's a beautiful soul. And so FUNNY! 

Now to the Belly Dancer - he he. That was so AWKWARD! We all didn't know where to look, but her brassiere was impressive - aye Jackie?? (Nothing moved, even with all the shimmying and shaking). 

And then I completely embarrassed myself when I blanked on the name of my blog-friend Tracy, at whose home we Auckland gals had spent the entire afternoon. Someone said "Tracy blah blah blah..." and I had a blank moment where the name rang NO BELLS and I blurted out, "Who's Tracy?"
Oh man. Duh. Sorry Tracy, erm, Janice, uh, Margaret... Lucy?
Yeah, sometimes my brain just blanks and the result is a bit embarrassing. Anyone else ever blank out like that?

• FOR STRUGGLING BLOGGERS: If you've lost your Blogging Mojo Read this

Are you a Once-Were-Blogger? What made you stop? Are you a long-time blogger? What keeps you going?

The Cake Escape - with Bloggers & KiwiCakes

A few months ago I got cupcake envy, when I saw one of my friends posting pics on Instagram of her rosette cupcakes, which she declared "easy". For all my love of parties I am very much an amateur cake decorator, making do with frosting squirters and tips from the $2 Shop and trying to be as clever as I can with my limited skills.

But after seeing those "easy" rosettes on my friend's IG feed, I felt inspired to up my game. I wanted to be able to make rosette cupcakes too, dammit! And I knew just the lady to help me.

So I emailed my lovely Party Partner, Sandra from KiwiCakes in Whangarei, and said, hey I need to learn how to do this stuff better, could I come to a workshop - or would you be interested in hosting a workshop for me and some other bloggers? Sandra was keen, gave me a date, I started a Facebook thread for those I thought might be keen, and the The Great Cake Escape was born.

[Our Intrepid cupcake decorators. L-R: Tracy, Lisa,  Jackie,  Lisa, Kristy and me]

We ended up with a group of six bloggers - three of us who made the trek in my people mover from Auckland, and three blog pals from Whangarei.

All of us were amateurs and cupcake novices, keen to absorb as much as we could from our very clever cake guru who assured us that we would be able to create cool cupcakes by the end of the day (some of us were not so sure - just look at Jackie's face!)

We brought with us a batch of "nude" cupcakes (some of them sunburnt, hehe Lisa!), and spent the afternoon learning a whole lot of cake decorating skills. Man it was fun! My idea of awesome, hanging out with lovely blog-pals while creating edible works of art...

Here's a few of my humble creations:

I was by no means a natural. in fact I am pretty kack-handed, holding the piping bag wrong and wasting loads of buttercream while trying to perfect my rosettes. I will have to keep practising I think!

[The Paris-themed cupcakes are practise for Miss fab's next Party = Paris; the brick wall is an idea for our TMNT Party coming up]

Sandra was awesome - she put us at ease and gave us her best tips and tricks. Turns out the $2 Shop gear I've been using just doesn't cut it. If I want to do awesome cakes I need the right gear. So I got Sandra to put together an Essentials pack for me, so I could take what I've learned and do it at home.

A few things I learnt:

Piping bags - use disposable ones. You can make perfect two-toned frosting by putting two separate colours inside two separate small piping bags and then putting them both inside a large one... and out will come two-toned buttercream frosting.
Crisco - this is the secret ingredient to having buttercream that (a) holds it's shape and (b) is nice and white. Where your recipe calls for butter, use half Crisco.
Tylo Powder - When you're making fondant shapes and toppers for cupcakes, work a little Tylo powder into your fondant and it will harden nicely to give nice non-floppy cut-outs and molds that hold their shape and stand up stiff.
Cornflour: Dust your fondant with cornflour before pressing it into molds so it pops out nice and easy
Equipment: Use the proper equipment to get a proper result. No more $2 Shop gear, if I invest in the basics the job will be so much easier and the result, so much better...

1. Large Coupler for fixing tips to piping bags
2. Closed Tip for piping swirls (start on the outside and work your way in)
3. Open tip for piping rosettes (start on the inside and work your way out)
4. Squiggle tip for piping grass, fur etc
5. Standard Coupler
6. Edible Glue for fixing on decorations 
7. Tylo powder for hardening fondant decorations (work a small amount into a lump of fondant before using

The two-toned frosting applied (by Sandra) using different tips:

[Top left: closed tip; top right open tip for making a rosette]

And here's the awesome squiggle tip which makes such cute "grass" (of course we use gel colours not the liquid supermarket ones - but you already know THAT aye?)...

[Me and Sandra - finally got to meet in person after years of party partnering]

We can't thank Sandra enough for giving up a whole afternoon to patiently teach us novices! I know one thing - my cupcakes will never be the same.

SOME OTHER CAKE ESCAPEES' TAKE ON OUR CUPCAKE ADVENTURE:

• Kristy from PaisleyJade: The Cupcake Escape
• Lisa from All in the Daze: The Secret to Great Cupcakes
• Lisa from Life Blooming: How to Ice Cupcakes Like a Pro When you're Not One

You can check out our creations on Instagram: #thecakeescapenz

Weekend Rewind: Linking up with Maxabella & Co Right Here!

Yay, Friday, my favourite day of the week. This Friday is even more awesome than usual because (among other things) tonight I'm a guest host on Maxabella Loves' most excellent linky Weekend Rewind!

Weekend Rewind is one of the very few linkies that seem to be still alive and kicking these days (and the only one I still link up with), so when my favourite blogger and fellow-party-nut Maxabella emailed, inviting me to be a guest host, I was like, I am there.

Actually, thing is, at the moment I am not actually there (or should I say here?)
I'm having to let auto-post do its magic because right now as you read this I am actually up North in Whangarei, eating dinner with some fellow bloggers, after spending all day learning how to decorate cupcakes FANCY (at a workshop with my lovely party partner, Sandra, from KiwiCakes). Just one more reason this Friday is even awesomer than usual.

I'll tell you all about our adventure next week - and I promise pictures, lots of pictures. I am REALLY looking forward to learning how to do those fancy icing techniques - I do my best but I'm no pro. And I really want to know how to do those roses!
I'm also very excited to get to hang out with a bunch of lovely blog pals and I'll FINALLY get to meet my blog-friend Neetz in person. I bet there will be some hugging.

[Cross Country is a very serious race, obviously]

In the meantime, I've got pictures from today's fun episode of The School Cross Country. This event has always (in the past) provided ample blog-fodder. There have been stories about running while injured, coming in first (and second) place unexpectedly, and stories about what you do when you fall down (um, you get up and keep running, in theory).

[See? Serious.]

But this year? Well it was a bit of a story washout.
Miss Fab (Ten Year Old Girls) made a pact with her pals to jog round the route and try their best to avoid getting a place and therefore having to run again at InterSchool Champs (last year's torture).
So no drama there.

[One of the youngest in the group, sure, but still one of the tallest]

Meanwhile Scrag (who is still six) had to run with the Seven Year Old Boys, and while meeting with no disaster, and finishing a respectable 15th out of 50, was also unhelpful anecdotally.

So I'll just leave you with the pictures, and a round up of my latest posts and an admonishment to drag out you best post of the week and come link up on the awesome linky as soon as it opens (just scroll past the pictures of the little children running...)

IF YOU'RE VISITING FROM THE LINKY (Hello! and Welcome!): You can find out more about me on my About Me Page OR you might wanna go straight for the good stuff...

• Parties: All my ideas and tips (including Parties for No Reason and Theme Dinners)
• Printables: All my free party printables in one place. How convenient!
• Recipes: For people who like things simple, easy and delicious
• Blog Tips: Tips and freebies for beginners, code-phobes and bloggers of all kinds
• Parenting: Confessions of a lazy mother and other gems...

FROM THIS WEEK:

• The Power of One (plus One plus One): My thoughts on the XFactor NZ bullying debacle. Obviously everyone was fed up hearing/talking about it by the time I posted; the comments didn't exactly flood in!
• Ninja Turtle Party Printables: I shared the Free Printables I've designed for Scrag's upcoming TMNT party. No-one ever comments on those posts. It's OK. I'm used to it. (It would probably help if my comment system was mobile friendly, but there ya go)

And if you haven't met Maxabella yet, you should. Go there right now and say hi from me, OK?

While you're at it the other Linky co-hosts are also pretty Awesome: Life Love & Hiccups (looks like my kind of blogger); Sonia Styling (if style is your thing) and Kelly Exeter (has written a book about living Life Less Frantic).

OK HERE COMES THE LINKY...

(***WARNING: I am a bit crap at figuring out time zones and/or following instructions, so it's highly likely that this post will go up before the linky opens. Don't worry, just roll your eyes at my daftness and check back in an hour or two...)

A Beautiful Brunch (with a Blog Buddy) *and recipes*

Such a glorious combination: good friends + good food.
There's nothing I like better than hosting a friend (or two), whether it's for coffee, dinner... or brunch.

This weekend a lovely blog friend of mine, Deb (she of the magical hug-giving quilts) made a pilgrimage to Auckland to escape the -2oC temperatures of Christchurch. (We northern softies have been shivering in our ugg boots at our frosty 11oC mornings, but Deb felt her spine un-thaw for the first time in months, when she landed here, apparently).

[Photo by Deb]

Anyhoo, she was here, she had a free morning and she wanted to meet up.
Problem.
I am on my own with three kids while hubby gads about in TinselTown. I could only imagine the stress of dragging that noisy lot to a civilised cafe and asking them to "sssssshhhhh!!" for long enough so we could have a meaningful conversation. Pigs might sooner fly.

So I did the only thing I could do: I invited her here for brunch, to my at-home cafe.
(There was a thought - briefly - of the kids playing barrista/waiter/waitress but I realised the potential for mess and mayhem in enough time to ditch that plan).

Isn't it nice to be able to welcome friends onto your own space? Show them another slice of who you are? Turn the blog-photos into a 3D animated live set?

(Give yourself motivation to vacuum...?)

I made Deb a two-course brunch. The table looked pretty set with my mix-n-match china plates, a pretty vintage tablecloth, and some blooms from a flowering tree in a little milk bottle. Deb arrived just as I was writing the "menu" on the blackboard...

Omelette with ham and cheese followed by waffles with berries and maple syrup. Plus orange juice and real (nespresso) coffee. Better than any cafe, I reckon.

Sure the waffles are from a packet in the freezer and the juice isn't hand-squeezed, but I made the berry sauce myself and whipped up the omelette while Deb and I chatted. (It's so easy; recipe below)

Deb is a very special person who I have got to know through blogging. This is only the third time I've met her in real life (and the first time we barely exchanged three words) but her kindness has touched my life on a number of occasions. Her generosity of spirit and the words of wisdom she has shared with me have made such a difference; probably far more than she knows. We share a number of similar parenting challenges but she's a little further down the road than I am. I glean so much from talking with her - practical advice, but also that rarest of treasures: hope.

So it was a privilege to sit with my friend in my windowseat, to host her in my home and to serve her up a yummy brunch. Way better than going to a cafe, IMHO. (Plus nobody asked us to leave when the kids started wrestling, which is always a bonus).

Deb blogs at Works in Progress and writes beautifully and honestly, as well as always having amazing quilts and crafty projects on the go and being a full time student (She is well known for her amazing "quilt hugs" - one of which is residing in my lounge, after I received it when I was in hospital last year).

Easy Peasy Whip-it-up-in-a-jiffy Omelette

INGREDIENTS
6 eggs
a splash of low-fat milk
grated mozzarella cheese
shaved diced ham
garlic butter/margarine
salt and pepper to taste
chopped mushrooms (optional)

• Preheat the oven on "grill"
• Whisk the eggs together with the milk, salt and pepper
• In a large frypan, melt the garlic butter on high until sizzling, then reduce heat to medium and pour in eggs
• Sprinkle over diced ham (mushrooms if you have them) and grated cheese
• Allow to cook through until beginning to set then move the frypan under the grill to cook the top
• When golden and bubbling on top remove from the oven and serve on toast with chutney on the side

SERVES 4-5*

*(if you are happy to generously share some with your kids because you know there are also waffles on the menu and that way they will not complain and will leave you in peace to talk to your friend)

Berry Topping for Waffles

INGREDS
approximately a cup of frozen mixed berries
the juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of sugar
a dash of water

Put all ingredients in a small saucepan on a low-medium heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until softened and combined. Serve on waffles - the frozen kind are just fine.

FOR PERFECT FROZEN WAFFLES (that would cost heaps in a Cafe):
Toast your frozen waffles on number 2. Any more than that they will be too dark, bitter and burnt.
When popped, drizzle over maple syrup, then top with berries and a puff of squirty cream.

Yum Yum Yum.
Enjoy!

[Photo by Deb]

More of my favourite easy peasy recipes HERE

Around the Web We Go...

The lurgy is abating round here, thank goodness, and I am back online.
Although, with the help of my delightful smartphone, it's as if I never left.
While I languished on the couch I was able to keep abreast of online conversations and controversy, and even find a few internet gems.

First up and forefront in my mind is this strangely contradictory story about posting kids pics to Facebook. My blog friend Lisa at All in a Daze alerted us to this story and it kinda got me thinking. Not that I agree with the author at all. No. She is extreme and paranoid, refusing to post even a single picture of her daughter on her facebook account in case face recognition should one day come back to haunt her, yet (paradoxically) actually chose her daughter's name via Google - based on whether there was a domain and gmail account available. AND she illustrated the post with a picture of a small child in the bath (obviously not her own child, but I wonder whose?)
Go figure.
It's an interesting discussion don't you think?
How much is too much? How much caution verges into paranoia? How much photo sharing invades our kids' privacy? And as bloggers, where is the line between over-sharing and keeping it real?

For myself, I am trying to walk the path of common sense.
I gave my kids aliases on my blog, right from the start. I tell stories and keep it real, but don't do it in a way that will embarrass my kids. I don't share the parts of their stories that aren't mine to tell.
On FaceBook, I only accept friends on my personal page that I actually know, or have a meaningful connection to, I set my privacy to "friends only", and I never turn on geolocation on Instagram or anywhere else. I figure that's enough? Without being paranoid?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all... How much is too much? And how much is enough? Where do you draw the line?
(Meanwhile another blog friend, Monique from Mogslee & Tiger wrote this response)

[source]

On a similar vein, in another part of the blogosphere, some fine writing managed to stir up controversy without even trying to....
A friend shared the link on FB, to a post by "Mrs Hall", an open letter post to teenage girls called "FYI: If you're a Teenage Girl..." about putting sexualised images of themselves online and how as a family they would filter those girls out. I loved the post... but then came the comments. Mrs Hall had posted some photos of her sons at the beach... and oh the backlash. The accusations of double standards was vicious and overwhelming!

Mrs Hall, whose usual readership is "19 faithful readers" responded to the criticism with humility and grace, handling this backlash with much aplomb. She has now removed the offending photos of her sons in their board shorts...
This post again got me thinking. I admire Mrs Hall's stand and the way their family sets high standards of accountability for their kids around social media... but it also made me cringe at the nastiness and eagerness to judge and jump on a bandwagon by the hundreds of people who commented.
This is one aspect of social media which I abhor. The freedom some people seem to have to pour vitriol on others, and the way once this gains momentum, a tidalwave of abuse is heaped upon an unsuspecting writer. Kind of makes me glad none of my posts have ever gone viral - I doubt I would be able to handle such an outpouring of judgement and criticism in the way Mrs Hall did.

How about you? Have you seen this occurring in social media, where people jump on a negative bandwagon?

Now, away from all that controversy, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Meg, who has recently begun a blog to document her family's overseas adventures as they live and travel around the world. Her blog is "Awake and Dreaming" and already I love it. Meg has only been blogging for a couple of week, but she is a natural blogger; she is drawing me into her adventures with wit and humour. At the moment they are in the Phillippines and Meg's latest post is a heart wrenching one. I'd like to share that post with you today...



So there you go. A round up of what's caught my attention on the interwebs lately, good, bad and ugly.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all....!

 

Christchurch Undid Me

I confess, I've never been to Christchurch. You can call me a typical Jaffa and mock me for my Aucklandness, but in spite of the fact that I now feel the need to belong to AA (Aucklanders Anonymous) 

I love Christchurch. 

(Even more so now I've actually been there.)

[Christchurch has good coffee and great cafes - but no NZ Herald as Gail found out... Photo by Widge]

I'm going to pretend assume that you are new round here and haven't already read 1000 posts on the topic of this weekend's first-ever bloggy "conference" in the Shaky City... I want to introduce you to Christchurch through my eyes.

More than two years after the Earthquake that devastated New Zealand's third largest city, there's still plenty that's broken...

So much heritage has been lost, but sometimes there are surprising finds when a building comes down...

[old sign revealed when the building next door was demolished]

 Quake City it may be, but I was moved and inspired by the way Christchurch has embraced colour and brought life back into the city with murals, flowers and creative shopping options...

Carparking is not a problem in Christchurch (and for us Aucklanders, it's so CHEAP!) That's because everywhere that there used to be a building, there is now a car park. So many car parks...

Those of us who missed the official Tour because of early Sunday flights were given a guided tour by the lovely Tall Pipi. Cameras abounded...

Our usually chatty bunch fell silent as we moved through the city; overwhelmed with what we saw, even two years on.

Christchurch, you moved me. You got to me.

Of course it wasn't all devastation and earthquake damage. Most of the weekend was about connecting. "Bloggers Connecting" in particular.

The Christchurch girls did an AMAZING job of putting it all together. What a warm hearted generous welcoming bunch.

[Those macarons at Columbo Mall will take a lot of beating. Droooool...]

I loved every minute - the great cafes, the shopping, the company. I even survived the Panel and Workshop, in spite of excruciating nerves. I was having a blast...

...until the moment I stood in this queue waiting for breakfast at the super-awesome C1 Espresso cafe. The crowd, the new faces, the emotions all conspired to do me in and suddenly the tears were falling and I had to flee the scene.

"Complex PTSD" (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is what I've recently been re-diagnosed with. Turns out, the depression and anxiety I've battled for the past 12 years are mere symptoms of a bigger issue. Stress of any kind can trigger me and without warning my body will betray me in some way... this time it betrayed me with tears. I wasn't sad or upset, I was merely overwhelmed. Emotions leaking out my eyes. (Christchurch, you undid me.)

But in those moments of sitting outside alone, unable to stop the tears, a bloggy friend came upon me, "Nurse Jackie". She shielded me, and sat with me, told me to take deep breaths. Soon some other friends joined her... brought me coffee... I wasn't alone. I was freaking out but I was still accepted, loved and cared for.

[Love these girls and so many more... Photo by JackstaB]

The friendships I have found though blogging are some of the most special I've ever had. The support and love that gets shared around is UN.BE.LIEVABLE at times. So much kindness.

This is why I love blogging.
My wonderful, special, beloved blog-friends.
Thank you, one and all.
♥

• More stories from the weekend can be found here
• Leonie's Christchurch Yarn Bombing...
• Sophie Slim's post conference high
• Widge's Time at "Band Camp"...
• What Tall Pipi Did...
• Miriam's First Reflections
• Sammy's Weekend
• Nurse Jackie's Take on it all including me in purple PJs)
• Deb's Conference