In two weeks time the smallest Pickle and I will be in Sydney for the Aussie Bloggers Conference!

I can’t believe it is has come around so quickly. I’m counting the days with a mixture of excitement and trepidation!

On one hand, a weekend away to do nothing but meet great people and talk about blogging, it’s just what I need right now. On the other hand, meeting all these new people, that’s kind of scary for this social stunted girl. Not to mention seeing some of my design work printed up and hung around everyone’s necks!

Still, I am sucking it up, and taking some of my own advice… I’m going places, I’m enjoying today and I’m being brave!

There are so many fabulous bloggers that I can’t wait to meet in person.
Are you going?
If you read my blog and are going to the conference let me know, I’ll save you a picklebums sticker!

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Ausse Bloggers Conference, Here We Come! is a post from: picklebums.com

I’ve been the recipient of the Versatile Blogger Award, not once, but twice recently! Thanks to the lovely Life with a Fussy Eater and Blooming Lovely for passing this award my way.

Now with this award I am supposed to tell you seven things about myself, but I doubt there are seven things I haven’t already blogged about myself, so I’m going to skip that bit and just list seven blogs I am enjoying at the moment….

Yay For Home – Shae may be one of my bestest friends, and I may have designed her blog, but I am not totally biased, her blog is still a great ready!

Garden Mama – beautiful pictures, lots of lovely activities and crafts, and just lots of lovely.

Stuff With Thing – There is so much good stuff here… just go have a read!

Two Little Banshees – If you are into crafty sewing goodness with some recipes and other fab stuff thrown in, this blog is for you!

Lightening Online – I’ve been reading Lightening for a long time, and she always has something interesting to say!

Edible Urban Garden - Garden envy anyone?

Habit – There is something so enchanting about this photo blog

And for extra bonus points… I’m falling in love with Tumblr Blogs at the moment, all that photey goodness! Here are a couple that I adore..
Glue Stick Girl, Playing House Dandelions Are Pretty and {This Pretty Space}.

And if you are reading this I am sending the award your way… go forth and be versatile.

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Versatile Bloggers is a post from: picklebums.com

My blog got a little mention in The Age Melbourne Magazine today, and I was rather chuffed to see the word ‘Picklebums’ in print, in a ‘serious’ newspaper, especially along side some other really fabulous Melbourne bloggers.

Now I’ve known about this article for a while now, and I was planning on writing a super fabulous blog post today. A truly awesome post that would knock the socks off anyone who just might happen to drop by after reading the article.

I’ve been stressing about it all week. I’ve been tossing ideas and I’ve even written a few drafts. I’ve asked for suggestions from friends, family and fabulous bloggers alike, and written a few more drafts, but nothing I’ve written is right.

Sure, you’d probably all like to read a highly amusing tale about our viciously amorous ducks, or about how the line “studies show…” makes my brain explode, or some new ways to play with play dough, but none of those posts are The One.

That one post that will convince you all that my blog is worthy of being on that little list in The Age. That one post that will make you all subscribe to my feed, or like me on facebook or come back to read my blog again and again. None of those posts were totally, utterly, 100% perfect, and it was driving my insane!

So I did what any reasonable person would do.

I took my kids to the beach.

Because the sun was shining and life is too short to waste it worrying about the perfect blog post.

So if you happen to be an Age reader popping by for the first time, you’ll just have to imagine this is an incredibly insightful and witty post about something endearing, important or controversial. On second thoughts, scrap that idea… I don’t want to set you up to be disappointed if you decide to check out some of my other posts or if you come back and visit some time when I really do have something to say.

Instead why don’t you go and enter my Rubbermaid Reveal Mop giveaway? Entries close midnight tomorrow!

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Gone Swimming. is a post from: picklebums.com

Christmas is coming, and really there is nothing I need or want… well almost nothing.

You see Nuffnang is running this little Christmas bloggers competition and the prize just happens to be a shiny new ipad. I don’t need an ipad, I’m still feeling very grateful to have my shiny new iphone…. but I did have a brief play with my brother-in-law’s ipad the other day and oooooh it is shiny and fun and I probably wouldn’t be lusting after a lap top if I had one of those gadgets!

So all Nuffnang asks is that I pick my favourite blog post for 2010. That sounds easy enough…. in theory…. but I confess, I am finding it quite hard.

I quite like this one – Born – Quatro’s Story. Though that is probably because it tells the stories of the birth of all four of my children, especially my last little bundle so it makes me all soppy and lovey dovey.

This one still makes me chuckle and roll my eyes at the same time (that’s a very impressive skill you know) – I Have Man Flu

This post – Little Manipulator – still rings in my ears long after it was written.

But I think this one is my favourite (so far, who knows I might write something brilliant in the last few insane weeks before the end of the year) – Choices.

It’s not a master piece as far as writing goes. It doesn’t share a dark secret or impart divine knowledge on any useful subject. It didn’t get lots of comments or tweets or stumbles. But it did define me in a way that I’d never quite been able to put my finger on before. I suddenly realised that I was pretty much ok with who I am, and that’s a pretty big deal for a little blog post.

So there you have it… come hither you shiny fancy lovely ipad.

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Christmas is coming… is a post from: picklebums.com

We have a winner!!!

The lovely Marita from Stuff With Thing (fabulous blog, go check it out) is the winner of the $50 ozsale voucher!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and joined in!

I’ve not really done many of these types of review pots or give aways in the past but I am being contacted more and more these days with similar offers. I would like to be able to make a little money from this blog, and while I don’t want to fill up my blog with ads or reviews or even give away posts, you may see more of these kinds of things here in the future.

I am not interested in taking on advertising reviews or give aways that are not relevant to my blog and I will always give my honest opinion as well as disclose whether I am being paid (either by way of money or product). I hope to be able to support small businesses (if you are a WAHM or other small business and would be interested in advertising on my blog please feel free to contact me), offer my readers interesting information and give aways as well as making a little money for my family… lets hope it is a win win situation for us all!

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Ozsale Winner! is a post from: picklebums.com

Did you miss me? Did you? Did you?

Oh how I missed you my lovely blog and my extra lovely bloggy readers.

Apologies to anyone who has tried to contact me or visit my blog this week. My web host had a little bit of a problem and everything was down for more than three days. Yes, three days without being able to blog or access my picklebums.com email. It nearly killed me I can tell you!

I was all zen on the first day – you know, these things happen, it’ll be back soon…. By the second day I was beginning to get jittery and strung out. By day three I could barely sit still and I was cranky at the world.

Ahem… do you think I might be just a little addicted to my blog???

Anyway I’m back now, and hopefully things will stay that way, fingers toes and ears crossed.

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Back! Back! Back! is a post from: picklebums.com

My blog post is over here today…. in a special little spot reserved for reviews and give aways only.

I’ve only just ventured into the world of review posts and give aways and I’m not planning to do many of them, just the odd one or two that really appeal to me and hopefully to some of you too. If you look to the far right of my blog (if you are reading in a feed reader you’ll have to come actually visit!), under the eco toy’s ad you’ll see a new little link list which will show the latest review and give away posts as I do them.

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Today’s Post…. is a post from: picklebums.com

Sorry, I had to pop in a little extra post today because….

Picklebums has been nominated as a finalist in the Business Mums Network Blog Awards! What a nice surprise!

If you have a spare moment, do pop over and vote for me, or one of the other awesome blogs in each category. If you enter your contact details when you vote, you go into a draw for weekly prizes and will be added to their email list so you will be notified who the winners are. Choose carefully as you can only vote once.

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I’m a finalist! is a post from: picklebums.com

I’ve just discovered a terrible, horrible, annoying thing.

If you have a blogger blog, and if you use the embedded comment form, then I can’t comment on your blog.

I think I am leaving a comment on your blog, it looks like I am leaving a comment on your blog, but it never appears. It disappears into the bloggy universe never to be seen again!

I can happily leave comments on blogger blogs who have a separate comment page (either a full page or pop-up comment page). It’s just the comment forms that are embedded at the bottom of your post and include the drop down menus, those ones don’t work.

If you’ve ever left a comment on this blog and I have never returned the favour and come and commented on your blog, that is probably why. I’m not being rude and ignoring you, my comments just never make it. You may also be missing comments from others – it seems anyone using firefox is affected.

From the small amount of digging I’ve done, this is not a new problem, but I’ve not found any information from blogger or anyone else who can tell me why it happens or how to fix it. As far as I can tell the only thing you can do is to not have embedded comments – which is a bit of a poop because they are rather nice really.

Does anyone know why this happens? Or better yet how to fix it??

I’m feeling all sad that all these comments I’ve been leaving for months and months have never been read by the bloggers they were intended for!

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Burning Questions – Disappearing Comments. is a post from: picklebums.com

Apologies to all those who visited over the last few days and found my blog all broken and showing posts from last year. It was just some pesky server issues and it is all fixed and back to normal now (I hope!).

Thanks to everyone on Twitter who put up with my midnight freak out when I initially thought I’d been hacked. What a lovely bunch of tweeters and bloggers you all are to come rushing to my rescue. The advice, support and offers of help were most appreciated!

Right now I am still drowning in a HUGE design job for a client… but things will be back to normal around here tomorrow!

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Apologies for that Broken Bit. is a post from: picklebums.com