Friday Freebie - 100 Days of Happy

Okay so I will admit that this is kind of a weird freebie but stay with me for a sec because who doesn't want to be a little more happy?

The other day I woke up to a Facebook feed full of negativity and I seriously considered just getting rid of my personal Facebook account, I mean is it just my feed or does everybody have those people in their friends list who only ever seem to write depressing updates. I'm not talking about the odd status or a serious problem where people are requesting help from friends or family I just mean those constant attention seeking updates.

I feel like posting this to their status.

In my feed it always seems to be women!

 What I noticed, at least for myself the more time I spent on social media reading these types of updates, even just scrolling through them, the more negative and depressed I started feeling. Negativity is like a virus, and I caught it. Even on here I shared a post about how I had got into a rut I didn't seem to be able to pull myself out of. After I read the lovely comments left, I realised I had passed on the disease, unintentionally but my aim has always to make my blog a happy place.

Anyway the other day I scrolled through six of these negative updates which really were about nothing, when I came across an update about 100 happy days. My friend Leslie over at Violet Imprefection, posted a link which really inspired me, look for the happy in every day.

Basically you sign up and you look for the happiness in each day, you go out of your way to concentrate on doing something that makes you truly happy, snap a picture of it and share it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

71% of people couldn't complete the 100 days, isn't that crazy? Surely there is something we can all do, and on the cheap to make ourselves feel good. With that thought the happiness bug struck and I have decided to do the challenge.

History says I am not good at keeping things up, but have you ever noticed that goals and resolutions often start with denying ourselves something we like, even if it is bad for us, for me think everything I was giving up in Feb Fast, this is about indulging, spending time but not necessarily money, on what makes me happy.

According to the site

People successfully completing the challenge claimed to:

 - Start noticing what makes them happy every day;

 - Be in a better mood every day;

 - Start receiving more compliments from other people;

 - Realize how lucky they are to have the life they have;

 - Become more optimistic;

 - Fall in love during the challenge.

!

Come and join me and you can follow on me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram I'll be using the hashtag #Melshappy and the public one for the challenge #100happydays.

If you want sign up (It's Free!) and give it a whirl go here to 100 Happy Days for more information and leave me a comment telling me what social media platforms you're using so I can follow along with you too. I don't know about you but I would much see happy moments clogging up my social media than those vague random posts practically begging for people to ask what's going on.

Lastly I couldn't resist, my Madeleine and Max love to dance to this song and how can you not be happy listening to this!

)

What's made you happy today?

Mel xo

The One Where We Dealt With Our Ageing Issues!

Hey Guys,

If you've been a long time reader of Mellywood's Mansion you will know that I don't do perfect parties see here and the children are horrified! So this year, instead of stress out in horribly hot weather, we didn't even do a party, it was just family.

This was last year! Madeleine has had issues ageing.

However my baby girl just turned four and for the first time in her life, she happily blew out the candle, without being followed by half an hour of tears.

Here is the store bought cake which I tried to do that trick where you put a cookie cutter and use sprinkles to make a shape...yeah it didn't work great for me, that was supposed to be a crown.

She got a scooter which she thought was the best thing ever and a doll that she promptly threw aside.

Also it's now a month later and I have finally taken the cake picture off my camera.

Four, it's a great age. With it comes the attitude that says "whatever world, bring it on"

 Happy Birthday to my Princess Madeleine, I love you even more than I suck at planning birthday parties...and that's a lot!


Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

A Gift For The Quilter/Sewer- (When you don't know what to get)

My Mum is a quilter. I'm not talking about someone who has made a couple of quilts, I mean someone who lives and breathes quilts! She belongs to so many quilting groups and is out of the house sewing almost every day not including the house she spends at home.

Recently she purchased a new machine, a really fancy pants thing that looks like it could probably cook dinner as well, which would be great because Mum hates to cook with about the same amount of passion as she loves to quilt. Sadly a trait I too inherited.

Get Digging!

For those of you who saw our veggie garden  you know that it is quite a passion of ours. Once we started reading up on gardening pretty quickly we learned that there are seeds, then there are seeds! The best veggies come from the heirloom varieties.

So we decided to look into them and found an online seed place that speacalised in all the best heirlooms available here in Australia. Then we discovered that they had a club and an actual garden where you could visit and buy the seeds in person and speak to the growers.

So one sunny Winter's day we loaded up the kids and drove the hour and a half to get there.

Here's the carpark, yes that is the ocean on the horizon, The Diggers Club is situated in Dromania on the coastline of Victoria.

 Here's the entrance...so pretty!

 This is the shop from the outside the building are just gorgeous.

Pretty display inside.

Gorgeous gardens to walk around.

These are the ediable gardens, almost all the garden in this section is veggies and fruit trees.

 The kids took advantage of an old tyre swing.

 Tropical fruit trees...how they grow in Victoria (the cooler part of the mainland) I will never know!

The back of the building, honestly I was in awe this place it is just so picturesque.

We explored all the grounds.

Relaxed at the view point.

I will say it wasn't exactly pram friendly! Luckily I was off pushing duty!

Then we made a few purchases.

 Headed off to the beach for lunch.

The kids played at the park by the sea.

You can't have lunch by the beach unless it's Fish and Chips!

These two seagulls ensured we had plenty of entertainment, they're fighting over Max's doughnut.

 Then it was time for one quick play before it was time to go home.

The Diggers Club is a fantastic place to get your seeds and obviously a beautiful place to visit, if you happen to be in Victoria and interested in gardening I truly recommend it. I wasn't paid or compensated in any way for this post it was just such an awesome place to visit.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

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