Dream Boobs!

I like the party plan idea. Get a bunch of your girlfriends together in a room, have some wine and shop for something someone is telling you is awesome. And I've been to a lot of party plan parties. Old school party plan like Tupperware and linen parties. Fancy parties for make-up, lingerie and perfume. New age parties for candles, jewelry making, chocolate and mosaic. Practical parties for educational games for the kids and cleaning products. And racy parties for sex toys.

I attend these parties feeling no sense of obligation, except for the obligation I put on myself. I am that person who will buy a token item it help the host get some extra credits, even when I have been invited with strict instructions to not feel any obligation to purchase. Fact is, I like shopping. And what's not to like about an afternoon of wine with girlfriends and shopping?

This post comes about because my most recent purchase from a party plan party (this time lingerie) arrived today.

I was invited to an Intimo lingerie party held a fortnight ago by the lovely Jen from Twitter. Having met Jen only a few times I was touched to be invited and also a little hesitant. You see, I'm secretly (well not so much now) quite a paranoid person. I approached Jen's party with equal measures of excitement for an afternoon out and trepidation of what I may find when I got there.
What I found when I arrived was a very welcoming house full of ladies, most whom I hadn't met before, but quickly learnt had been chatting with for ages on Twitter. The fantastic Kym was our very informative and hilarious party plan guru. She was honest, knew her stuff and didn't run a pushy party plan party. There were giggles and shocking revelations. Who knew so many people put their bra on "wrong". And who would have ever thought that out of 7 women, I was the only one who did it "right"**?! (High five mum for passing on that knowledge all those years ago). Kym made getting your gear off in the lounge room a non event and she was much friendlier than any David Jones fitting lady. Now while my cash flow required restrictions on purchases I did order a new bra and fancy cardi.

Skip forward a week to find Australia Post have left me a parcel collection card. Yep my new bra has arrived! My bra requirements were fairly simple, and my new dream bra delivers. Big time. It's true, I did wear a dress today that put more cleavage out there than I normally would, but I had to have a proper test run. And what a run! Patrick seemed to snap out of his bad mood as soon as I came out of the bedroom dressed. The guy at the grocery store was much more chatty than normal  and the guy at the servo seemed very pleased to see me.

My Facebook status today said something along the lines of "Endless possibilities for mayhem, and a new bra" well I didn't get up to any great mayhem, but my new bra sure made the day alot of fun. Shameless, sure, but you've gotta highlight your assets, right?

Thank you Jen and Kym for hosting such a friendly and relaxed afternoon. I look forward to many more get togethers in the future. And snaps to Brett who spent most of the time hiding out in the study trying not to be anywhere there was a lingerie clad woman.

** The "right" way to put on a bra is to put your arms in first, then boobs, then reach around the back and do up the clasp.
This way it won't wear out the elastic around your middle if you swivel the bra around after doing it up at the front. And after doing a hasty poll of friends I have found I'm in the minority. Who'd have thunk it?!

Do you like party plan parties? What's your favourite party plan? And if you're game, which way do you put your bra on?

iPhone Dramas v2.0

There I was, happily living off my high from being asked to guest blog on A String Of Pearls and looking forward to the girls weekend. Things were looking good. By "girls weekend" I mean that it was going to be Lily and I for a weekend while Patrick took Ava on school camp. It was exciting to have a whole weekend with just one of my children, and we were planning big things.

During the week I'd asked Lily a few times what special things she wanted to do on our mummy and Lily weekend. Her requests were simple. She wanted to go to the local shopping centre food court for a mad feed, and she wanted to go to Officeworks. It's the small things that please Lily the most. Both demands were do-able.

"But Lily, we don't need anything from Officeworks. What will we buy?"

"Doesn't matter. We can buy one piece of paper. But can I have a little trolley?"

I'm not sure if its stationary or the little shopping trolleys that please Lily the most. I'd say the trolleys but she seems to really like looking at pens too.

We threw in some extra activities (a DVD night and floor picnic - but don't tell Patrick, and a trip to the pool if the weather was good) and so our weekend was planned. We waved good bye to Patrick and Ava and smiled at each other knowing we had a whole weekend of just us.

Friday night we tried to watch a movie. Lily didn't seem into it and I was watching her play and talk to herself more than the actual movie (can someone please tell me if the cats took over the world as they planned??). We both ended up falling asleep early which is never a bad thing.

Saturday morning and disaster struck. Disaster for a few reasons actually.

1. Lily didn't let me sleep in. She climbed into my bed and started talking loudly to her doll about something or other. I pretended sleep for as long as possible but in the end gave up to wakefulness.

2. It was a grey overcast day. Not a big deal, but definitely doesn't look good for swimming.

3. And this is the biggie. My iPhone screen shattered. My lovely, just survived iOS5 update, iPhone screen shattered. I won't go into exactly how (frankly because it was early and I was still sleepy) my phone somehow left my hand and hit the bathroom tiled floor, but this became our my number one priority. I must repair my phone. I must not wait longer than a few hours to have it back. I must not have my phone swapped for a new one. All this must happen now! It was 7am.

Thankfully my phone still worked and the screen protector sticker thing kept all the glass fragments from falling out everywhere. I immediately accessed the jungle call of my lifetime, Twitter, and sought out assistance. Who knows where I can get this fixed, in the smallest amount of time. Cost (at this stage) was no object. And Twitter responded. There were heaps of suggestions all offering support and information. I followed some leads and hit google but that didn't give me the answer I was looking for. In the end I decided that we'd have to head out to the Apple store at Chermside and investigate options. There is an iPhone repair store in my local area and before making it over to Chermside I decided we'd just swing by and see if they were open.

They were! And they can replace cracked iPhone screens in about an hour ("It will probably only take 45 minutes, maybe half an hour this morning") and charged under $50.

Lily and I enjoyed a morning coffee and chat while we waited. We went for a stroll to kill a little more time and decided to head back to the store after being gone about 45 minutes. There was my phone, all shiny and new, repaired and back to better than before glory.

If you ever crack an iPhone screen let me know and I'll give you their details.

And our girls weekend? Continued without a hitch and we're loving every minute of it!