For Margi and Em

I've been very fortunate to have a lot of female role models throughout my life. My friend Emily who is battling with Lymphoma, is most definitely one of those people; another is my sister. My intelligent, beautiful, kind, funny, hardworking, fun loving, wise, cutie pie, little big sister. She may be three years older than me, but she's a good 10cm shorter than me too. I can't remember exactly at what age I overtook her, but I've been taller than her for quite some time now. I tell my sister that I love her all the time. There is, and always will be so much truth in those words when I say them to her. And even when she's miles away at work or anywhere else that's not right here next to me, the love is and always will be there. 

My sister and I don't argue. That's not strange to me. But apparently to other people, it's weird not to argue with your sister (so I've heard). We may have argued a lot when we were between the age of new born to age 10, but after that I don't ever recall us arguing. Seriously. The last argument I remember we had was when I ripped her favourite stuffed bunny open with my bare teeth. How vicious of me! Tisk tisk. 

I'm not sure why we don't argue, but it might have something to do with something that happened between a friend and I back in primary school. I think I was in year five or six. My best friend at the time and I had gotten in an argument and when we reconciled she said to me "let's just not fight again". I'm sure there was more to it then just that, but her words really had a profound effect on me. From that point on, I just didn't see any point in arguing with friends. I think that must have rubbed off on my relationship with my sister because I then and even now I don't like the idea of fighting with her. Don't get me wrong, no relationship is perfect and so an argument here and there is healthy, but when it comes to my sister, I don't want any of that. I'm sure there are a thousand psychologists out there who would tell me other wise, but that's just the way we are.

My sister told me that she'd be coming to visit today and so I decided to dedicate my 'something new' to her. I pulled out an old photo album that Emily had put together for us. It was filled with photos of us from when we were young. I scanned the photos and uploaded them onto a digital photo frame. I found a pretty decent digital frame which also played music in the background so I uploaded songs that reminded me of us and of our childhood. Lots of Disney songs and songs from musicals we've watched together like Phantom of the Opera. Since my sister started renting her own place, I've yet to get her a house warming gift. I hope this makes up for that.

My sister made my childhood so great. We played paper dolls, dress ups, computer games (I remember we played a PC game called Might and Magic), Nintendo 64, watched hours of cartoons and Video Hits...and those were just some of the things we did indoors. Outside was a whole different adventure. 

If it wasn't for Emily, none of these photos would have been taken. She captured my childhood and my relationship with my amazing big sister in these photographs. 
Help give Emily the opportunity to not only capture more memories of her young 5 year-old son Luke, but also give her the opportunity to live long enough to show those photos to Luke when he's a grown man. 
Emily needs donor stem cells. You could be a match for her. Please please please register your name on the Bone Marrow Registry and become a stem cell donor.

Hand painted mug

Friends are amazing creatures. The type of friends I'm referring to are the ones that really know me. Not the ones that are there for the good times alone, but for the really challenging times too. The ones who see the worst and the best of me but choose to stick around anyways. 

My friend Cindy is exactly that type of friend. We were in pretty much every class together throughout our undergrad degree and she really helped me get through all the tough times. She was also my partner in crime for many many good memories too, and although we are doing different degrees now and don't see each other as often as we like, we're the kind of friends who can pick up right where we left off. That's a good friendship for you.

I like showing and telling people how important they are to me every chance I get. However, sometimes you have to make those chances happen. I'll be catching up with Cindz in the next couple of days. It'll be the first time I've seen her since last year and so I've decided to make this an opportunity to not just catch up, but do something nice for her too.

I came across this Mug Makeover craft kit in Bunnings. For all those people not from Australia, Bunnings is a giant home, garden and hardware store. When you walk in, the ratio of males to females is about 10:1. This place is any handy man's heaven. 

I've painted some of my favourite memories we've shared together onto one of the mugs from the craft kit. If you want to make your day a great day, try this at home! I couldn't stop smiling as I was writing all of the memories. There were times when I would laugh to myself so hard that my hands shook and I had to take a break to steady my hand before I could continue painting. 

Great friends are hard to come by, so please make sure they know how much they mean to you!

Yes, I'm aware that this is meant for kids...but that doesn't matter, it's good for all ages I reckon :)