Two Mummy Ducks Adventuring with the Bard

I don't think that will take off as a book based on title alone!

Have we mentioned that one of the things we love to do together is go to the theatre? We have a group of friends that go reasonably often. Generally it is amateur theatre. There are some companies in sleepy little Perth that do some very professional stuff.



However ... (drum roll please) .... I am pleased to announce that Two Mummy Ducks has just booked tickets to what will be our first official outing! This time it is just Lela and me going to see "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Unabridged)". I have read facebook comments that it is very funny and I am very much looking forward to it! The fact is is some form of Shakespeare feels very appropriate for our TMD outing and the theatre is always fun to dress up for ;)

Stay tuned for our post after the event.

Cath xxx

Monday Musing - Never Say Never

And may I just say I am a little annoyed with Justin Beiber for tainting that phrase? This is pretty much irrelevant except I have always loved the saying and now everyone laughs at me when I use it! Or it could be I hang around with too many people under the age of 25.

Anyway, my musing for this Monday is short, but I want to say I am excited we are excited. This said, I know that when our mission gets more public, which it will, we will come across some negativity. Sadly this is life. I am not expecting this from any of you out in blogland, but more from people I know we both have in our lives. Sucky, but true. So the phrase I am musing on today is:



And all I am going to say is this is the attitude we are going to stick with. See? Short and sweet :) I am supposed to be doing other stuff ;)

Feel free to share any other words of inspiration with us though!

Cath xxx

Tally up Tuesday

Image

Bank account opened. Check.
Automated Direct Deposit set up. Check.
Silver Shrapnel collection started. Check.

So lets get this party started.

Ok that might be a little over the top! It's Tuesday and it's time to tally up and report in our savings.

Direct Deposits: nil. Huh, I hear you say. Our pay days are next week, so these kick in from next week.

EBay earnings: $19

Shrap Jar: $5.50

Total: $24.50

Total to Date: $24.50

Only $19 975.50 to go!

Money Making Idea

5c coin

I was listening to 720 radio the other day and they posed the question, "Would you pick up 5c coin?"

Now, I would pick up 5c. Not because it's money but because I could chant

"Find a penny,

pick it up.

Make a wish,

it'll bring good luck"

But it got me thinking, 5c and even 10c coins, on their own are not really worth much. But collectively, they can be worth quite a bit. And this idea was confirmed when a sweet lady called the radio station and told us listeners how her church has been collecting 5c pieces for the building fund. I can't remember how much she said the balance is now at, but I believe it is in the tens of thousands.

So I've decided to start a 5c jar. I won't exclude 10c or even 20c, I'm not the sort to discriminate. ;) But every few days I'll clean out my purse and my 'shrap' box in the car and pop these worthy silver coins in my 5c jar.

And if I find a penny on the street, I think you can guess what I'll be wishing for. (and after I put it in my pocket, it'll be going in the 5c jar).

We have a bank account!

Cute Pig Image found here

Woop Woop!

We are on the way to achieving our goal!

Today, thanks to modern technology, we applied online, about 30km apart, and opened an online savers account.

We decided to go with UBank mostly because it rates highly by Money Magazine and Choice and because of its ease of applying. It also has an attractive interest rate, always a bonus when saving money.

At this stage we are aiming for a joint deposit of $80 a month, plus earnings (more on that in a minute). To get to our target of $20 000 it will take 13.25 years by only depositing $80 per month.

This is ok. But we have a plan.

On top of this we are going to have a bit of fun and start selling things on ebay. So far I have made about $50 (excluding ebay fees) selling 1 book, 1 scrapbooking trolly and an assortment of scrapbooking items. This was via my personal ebay/paypal account. Because of ebay/paypal fees the total made will be not quite $50, but once it all clears, I will be depositing this into our Ubank account.

Very exciting stuff.

We also have a few other fun money making ideas in the pipeline, mostly for our own amusement, but if it gets us a few $'s closer to our goal......

In the next few days, I'll see about setting up our ebay account and linking it on the blog.

xxLela

Walking Wednesday

Yep I realise it is Friday. But better late than never. Right.

Wed:1534

Thur:8947

Fri:6380

Sat:3156

Sun:9682

Mon:11297

Tues:9007

Total: 50 003

or about 40km

Well short of my 70 000 step goal (10 000 steps a day), but 40 virtual km closer to London.

A Story Worth Telling

There two stories which were part of my inspiration for blogging this story. Not that I am expecting book deals or really anyone to follow this journey other then ourselves and maybe our children one day, but I love that fact that people can put their stories out there for others to read if they are interested and I love that you can cheer random strangers along in their journeys. Whether it be life in general for for a specific task.

The first time I came across this was when I found a random book in a second-hand booksale. 'Save Karyn' tells the story of how one girl blogged her way to clearing her debts. You can check out her website at http://www.prettyinthecity.com/save-karyn/.

The second story, of course, is 'Julie & Julia'. Every other person in that cinema seemed to walk out with a desire to cook, I left dying to start a blog!!! (This also says something about my undomesticatedness but that is another story). Which I did, although I still don't think I quite have the hang of finding my own niche. Needless to say I loved the movie and I have now found the book. I will post again when I have read it! The original blog is found at: http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/.



I fully admit with both these stories, that I didn't follow the blogs as they were happening. I only found out about them afterwards, but I love the idea that one of the random blogs I follow may one day be an awesome movie or a fun book. More importantly, I love the fact that I get to share these people's stories through their blogs even if they are never publised any more widely then that.

What is your story? We would love to read about your life too!

Cath xxx

Stepping stones ...

A random thought that I just had to share: "Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". So apt! Especially after Lela's initial post, I felt it was so appropriate I just had to share it.

We have taken our first step and we are baby-stepping along. Keep watching as we progress to walking, power-walking, jogging and hopefully, eventually, a full-on run. I just had to throw some more walking metaphors in there ;).

Cath xxx

Lady Grey Sew A Long

I sew. I love sewing. I run a small business that sells some of my sewing. But I don't often sew for myself. Part of this is because I don't like my size and how clothes sit on me. And mostly because I am time poor and I spend much of my sewing time on creations that bring in money.

However winter is approaching and a lady needs to have a coat for luncheon dates. Last year Gertie of Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing hosted a sew along for the Colette Lady Grey pattern.

Firstly Colette patterns. They are exquisite. When I picture a lady traveling the world and seeing the sights, I imagine a lady wearing clothes made from these patterns. And the blog is a wealth of information too.

Anyhow back to Gertie. Back when she proposed the Lady Grey sew along I remember thinking, 'ack, we are going into summer, I really don't want to be sewing a coat in the heat of summer' (I live in the southern hemisphere). So I sat back and enjoyed reading the sew along. Now the seasons have changed and I'm a lady on a mission (with a goal), I'm in need of a coat. And it is never too late to start. Right.

This is going to take a while, I may will need to allow more time than Gertie proposed in the sew along (about 5 weeks) as I still have to do my business sewing and normal raising 4 kids type stuff. However I will try my best and link to the relevant posts as I sew along at my own pace. I'll aim to have a coat fit for a lady in about 8 weeks.

So (sew!), first up will be the muslin. I will start this part on Monday and have a blog post up by Tuesday. In the meantime, I'm having a think about what fabric I want for the coat, and I'm thinking red, and something luxurious, perhaps a trip to Fabulous Fabrics with my lady friend is in order?

These boots were made for walking

Did you know there are 14481km between Perth and London.

And an average person takes about 1243 steps to walk a km.

And that equates to 17 999 883 steps if I was to walk to London (from Perth).

Cathy and I have undertaken the goal of 'walking' to London, the first stop on our world tour, to add 'in the moment' interest to our goal. I didn't quite realise how many steps that would be....18 million....thats a lot of steps......

Generally, we are encouraged to aim for 10 000 for a healthy active lifestyle. So using this as our daily aim it will take about 1800 days to walk to London. Or nearly 5 years. Hmmm that's a long time.

However, I think this will be fun. We are working on a google map to track our step tally, but I think a ticker will work well on the blog too...stay tuned for that. And so you don't get bored, we'll update our step tally as a meme, These Boots were made for Walking Wednesday.

And once we have achieved our goal, I think we'll need a reward. Not really sure what that can be, but we are open to suggestions.

xxLela

Once upon a time .....

Every story has a beginning and many have a prequel! This blog is the beginning of our 'dream with a date', but it is not the real beginning of this story.

We became friends just over ten years ago in our (very) late teens when we were both young Girl Guide leaders just out of high school although our paths had crossed before this. Since then we have had seven children between us (currently aged between 2 years and 12 years) and have run Guide units separately and together. Between us we have studied Education, Law and History, had a few business ventures, engaged in other types of work (volunteer and paid), had the fun of bridesmaid duties, supported each other through pregnancies, family and marital problems and health issues.

A trip to Europe, and in particular to the two World Centres found there not to mention the two World Centres out of Europe, has been part of our 'one day' talking for so long I think I had almost forgotten it was something we could actually do. We have finally decided to put a date to our dream and change it from merely dreaming to a goal.

A Princess Party to celebrate the Royal Wedding followed by our (almost) weekly multi-hour phone conversation, combined with a sudden coinciding motivation and we decided to set our date for 10 years time. Every journey must begin with a single step, but we know that every step towards a goal is part of the adventure .... and this is where we are now! And we are determined to make this decade a journey of a lifetime, a long time before we even think about setting foot on that plane!

To finish ... some pictures of us all princessed up to celebrate the Royal Wedding in style.



Lela



Catherine

Dream. Dream Big

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.

- Louisa May Alcott

And when you dream, dream big
As big as the ocean blue
'Cause when you dream it might come true
When you dream, dream big

--Ryan Shupe