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  • PHOTOS: A sprinkle of fairy dust

    PHOTOS: A sprinkle of fairy dust

    AFTER last week’s Wordless Wednesday revealed a photo of Princess Ella and a photo of me “walking the plank”, but taken 30-odd years apart, my Mum started sending through photos of herself at the same age.

    What Mum’s photos uncovered is how much we tend to take the same pictures generation after generation. To prove the point, here’s a photo of Mum and Ella dressed as fairies. We won’t reveal how many years apart these two pix were taken.

    The little poser – Fairy Princess Ella!
    Mum, looking slightly bewildered!

    Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys’ Wordless Wednesday. Click on the link to check out more photo posts.

  • BLOG: Plugging my (WordPress) plugins

    BLOG: Plugging my (WordPress) plugins

    Image credit

    WITHIN the 15 steps to building a mummy blog post, I only touched on the plugins I use here on Three Li’l Princesses. As I was uploading all my TLP plugins to the new Mum PR site, I realised I really should share the full gamut.

    So here they are:

    Akismet: This one checks to see whether your comments are spam or not. If you don’t make money from your blog, then this one is free. However, if you run advertising, then you will have to pay. Hmm, if only I was making enough money to actually pay for it.

    All In One SEO Pack; This has made all that SEO mumbo jumbo so much simpler. After completing each post, just add your post title, a few lines about your post (I usually just take the intro) and some keywords. So, for example, the keywords for this post will be: plugins, blogging, mummy blog, widgets.

    Facebook Like Box: This has been handy to allow people to like the TLP Facebook page without actually having to find me via Facebook itself. As of last night, the page has grown to 297 fans in a short few months. To think, it wasn’t that long ago my goal was simply to reach 50 fans! And by the way, feel free to help me get to 300.

    Fast Secure Contact Form: This contact form lets readers send me a quick email message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Spammers, be gone. Real people, step this way.

    ReplyMe: I love responding to comments on the blog. In the early days I’d copy and paste my answer into an email and personally email it to the reader. Yep, I’m a sucker for hard work. Now the blog has grown a little, it’s just not achievable anymore. So this plugin instantly sends my reply to the commenter’s inbox.

    Social Media Widget: I’m not sure if anyone’s ever bothered to click on my social media buttons up there in the top right hand corner, but they’re there just the same. If anything, they look pretty. And, to be honest, they’ve come in handy when I’ve needed quick access to my StumbleUpon page.

    WP-Polls: Having a poll in the sidebar has been a bit of fun. This widget is really easy to use and can be placed inside posts too.  You can have a multiple selection of answers. Feel free to click on the poll there in the sidebar. Go on. Do it.

    WP Render Blogroll Links: I tried out quite a few blogroll plugins and have to say this one looked the best. While I love how in Blogger you can see what the latest post is from your favourite bloggers, unfortunately I haven’t been able to find something similar in WordPress.

    XML Sitemap Feed: I’d love to be able to tell you about this one, but I’m not 100% sure how it works. Apparently it creates a feed that is ready for indexing by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and others. Well, that’s what it says next to the plugin name, anyway. Sounds good to me.

    What are your favourite plugins?

  • FEATURE: Are we there yet?

    FEATURE: Are we there yet?

    Cuddles with Ella in our hotel room.

    THE O’Briens took a bit of a working holiday to Hobart on the weekend, complete with an introduction to the phrase “are we there yet?’’. This is how the weekend played out:

    Friday morning: Hit the road from Devonport to Hobart. Unfortunately, what used to take us 3.5 hours, now takes nearly a whole day. What with stops to milk the cow (me) and feed the masses (Ella and Holly …. oh, and The Bloke in The Shed). Five minutes in, Ella asks: “are we there yet?’’. My first real introduction to a phrase I will now hear for the next 18 years. Strangely, Bindi the Jungle Girl got louder and louder through the CD player as the trip progressed. Memo to self: Buy car DVD player with headphones for the kids.

    Friday afternoon: Booked into The Old Woolstore Apartments (our regular haunt) and spent the arvo watching Ella jump on her big bed. The temptation of a trampoline indoors is just too much for her. This time The Bloke in The Shed and I took the King bed and Princess Ella had to settle for the Queen.

    Trying to get a decent shot of Ella is challenging!

    As you can tell…

    Friday evening: Ate at Hogs Breath, mainly because it was right across the road from the hotel. Baby Holly ate half an avocado, all my carrots and a curly fry. Yet she still woke during the night for feeds. Sheesh.

    Saturday morning: We headed further south to the “bush’’ for lunch with Barb from Suenos De Alhambra – Life in the Huon Valley and her family. Visit her newly revived blog – it’s fab. After attacking the dress up box (a lady in heels through to a robot), Ella came away with this gorgeous hat to take home.

    The tiger hat and pumpkin hat.

    Saturday evening: If you were on Facebook and Twitter, you would have read my tweet/status. It said: “ The girls are sound asleep and hubby’s at a work-related dinner. It’s just me, the laptop and lots of peace and quiet! Bliss!’’ Need I say more.

    Sunday: We headed home to Devonport. It was one of the wildest trips we’ve had in a while. Rain and wind on the outside of the car and wind in it (Ella+tummy ache=pppeeeewwwww). Boy, was I grateful to finally be back home. And not just because of the weather, but also due to one small question: “are we there yet?’’.

    Sunday evening: One of Julian’s old work shirts died to make a pirate bandana. Ella might just smell like Cap’n Jack sparrow today as part of Pirate Week at child care. True character acting.

    Arr, me hearties!

    What did you get up to on the weekend?

  • Win: Medina Apartment winner is…

    Win: Medina Apartment winner is…

    AND the winner of two nights in a one-bedroom Medina Apartment, valued at $1000, is…
    A very lucky person indeed. Oh, and did I mention the fineprint states they have to take me on their holiday too? 😉
    Having just returned from two nights in Hobart (more on that tomorrow), I’m stuck in holiday mode. Not exactly the pina colada and two-piece bikini style holidays (I have kids – and a post baby belly – after all), but just a break away from the grey winter that’s about to descend upon us. Here in Tassie, it rains for nine months of the year and drips off the trees the other three. So you need something to look forward to.

    Dodgy iPhone photo of Ella and I out to dinner in Hobart.

    We’ve whittled down our holiday plans to three locations – shopping and food in Sydney, theme parks and food on the Gold Coast or shopping and food in Melbourne. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

    Now, before I head off to make a pirate outfit for Princess Ella for child care tomorrow (oh, the joys of motherhood), the rather lucky Medina Apartment winner is…

    Hear Mum Roar.

    Congratulations! I’ll be in contact soon. Hear Mum Roar said:

    “I would choose Melbourne CBD. Never been, and want to go! Tweeted and shared on facebook.”

    Enjoy Melbourne!

    Don’t forget to head over to our inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup for more exciting giveaways, including Ugg boots, earrings, $100 vouchers, DVDs and years supply of tampons.

  • WIN: The inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup

    WIN: The inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup

    Holly in the winning Chicco high chair

    WHEN it comes to giveaways, I’m far from a lucky person. Unless you include winning a $1000 prepaid VISA card – twice, scoring a $12,000 scholarship fund for Ella and getting a $350 Chicco high chair. Although, I did have to pay for its freight to Tasmania. So that got devalued pretty quickly.

    However, my usual lack of luck doesn’t stop me entering. At one time I did really well entering every competition requiring 25 words or less by changing the words to These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things. It worked. For a while. That’s how I got the VISA cards and high chair. Then contest organisers obviously cottoned on to my little plan and all of a sudden the winnings went dry.

    So when I discovered blogging and all the giveaways that DIDN’T require me to be clever (oh, what joy for a sleep-deprived, brain-fried, caffeine-wired mama), I got more than a little excited.

    However, that’s nothing in comparison to the moment the wonderful Tina Gray from www.tinagray.me emailed to see if I’d be keen to co-host the Aussie Giveaway Linkup with her. Yes, please! All those giveaways on my site? What joy! What? Oh, right, it’s just links. I don’t actually get to have all the prizes. Bummer!

    So here we are, giveaways in hand, ready to spread the free(bie) love.

    As a reader, all you have to do is click the links that entice you and enter the giveaways. And, of course, you can enter as many as you want. Or all of them.

    If you’re a blogger wanting to take part in the Aussie Giveaway Linkup:

    1. Only link directly to the giveaway post/s and include the prize and end date in the linky tool below. Link each giveaway separately.
    2. Giveaways must be open to Australian residents. 
    3. Grab the button to add to your post.
    4. A new list is added each Sunday so bloggers need to add their links weekly. 
    5. Start entering the giveaways!

    Next Sunday, make sure you pop on over to Tina Gray {dot} me to check out the latest batch of giveaways. PS. Feel free to vote in our poll over there in the sidebar. We’d love to hear what you think.

    Aussie Giveaway Linkup



  • FEATURE: I’m grateful for manners

    FEATURE: I’m grateful for manners

    Holly's toothy grin.

    This week I’m grateful for:

    • Manners. Three-year-old Ella has the most wonderful manners. After noticing my post baby belly the other day, she was quick to point out “you’ve got a fat tummy, Mum’’. Sarcastically, I repied: “Thanks, darling’’. Her response: “You’re welcome’’. Hmmm. Three year olds do not get sarcasm.
    • Having the opportunity to work with the wonderful Tina from www.tinagray.me on the Aussie Giveaway Linkup, which starts here on the blog Sunday. Make sure you link up your giveaways and/or enter to win some prizes. But please be aware, I’m feeling rather lucky!
    • Someone finally leaving our home. I sniffed out that our guest was making the girls miserable, so I told him, quite frankly, “our relationship blows’’ and he finally went running out the door. Be gone snotty noses.

    I’m joining with Maxabella Loves to share what I’m grateful for.