The Benfits of Doing Things Out of Your Comfort Zone

The other day I had this amazing idea, what if I created a series where I tell you about my life? What would people think of that? It could be weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly, depending on what you'd like. But would you like to hear about me?

 The other day, me and Carmen, a crazy friend of mine, decided we were going to go busking. So in case you didn't know, I don't sing very well, yet the plan was to go sing and play the guitar. Properly not the best idea.

 

"It'll be fun," is Carmen's way of making me agree to anything and for some reason it always works on me.

 

So there we were, heading into town on a hot summers day with our guitars and music. I must admit I was shaking in my sandals. I've never busked before or even sung and played in public, so I didn't know what to expect.

 

I was lucky though, because if there is one thing Carmen beats me in, it's preforming (she beats me in a lot of other places as well though).

 

Carmen's mum, waved us off as she left us to our music making. She, properly fearing that noise we'd create, had decided to go do a bit of shopping while waiting for us.

 

Together, we set ourselves up and opened our music. Terrified out of my wits I opened my mouth to sing and let me tell you, it wasn't half as scary as I thought it would be and it's taught me something.

 

I've learnt that always challenge yourself, even though it scares you, do it. Don't let your fears get the better of you. Because if you do, you'll miss out on so many great things!

 

To be honest, I'm glad I went busking with Cameron. I had a great time. Most likely I didn't sound any good, but I was with my friend, we were laughing and doing what we enjoy. That was all that matters. And I'll tell you another thing, I'm going to do it again. I've found out I enjoy busking and singing for people.

 

So that's the moral of this story. Just enjoy yourself and have fun!

 

What have you done that's scared you recently? Do you like doing things that aren't in your comfort zone?

 

-Kat

I'm Screaming My Head Off With Excitement

Well, time has flown. Gosh! Where is everything going? Ok, so I haven't been blogging for a few days. I seem to have developed a terrible tummy bug, so sorry. Just as I think it's clearing up it seems to come back.

I haven't been in the mood to write or even do anything other than lye in bed and dye. To make it worse it's really muggy at the moment.

But anyway, I don't want to fill this whole post up with moaning as I normally do, so I'll leave at this. I have another post coming up with some more about this (oh brilliant).

Actually, I've forced myself to the computer to say thank you to everyone who has followed my blog and read my posts!

Just this morning I found out that I passed 80 followers! Wow, that's huge. I know this isn't normally one of the big celebrated goals, but to me, 80 is massive.

When I started my blog, I never thought I'd even have one reader and now I'm here with 80 followers.  Gosh I'm so amazed. I've had the best time on this blog. I've learnt so much, made so many friends and blogging is now a huge part of my life.

Thank you for giving me all this and more!

Hopefully I'll be better soon and can write a proper post, not this boring old thing. Sorry about how short this is.

-Kat 

What I Believe Living Life to It's Full Really Means

Sometimes we worry too much about what other people will think of us. We're afraid to be ourselves because other are watching, but hey! That's all wrong, this is your life, live it to the full.

Quite a lot of people have the feeling that living your life to the full means doing something every second of the day. Running around 24/7, doing the most that you can, but the truth is, that's all wrong!

For me, living your life to it's full is all about smiling at everything that comes your way, enjoying everything you do, being yourself. It's about taking risks and benefiting from those risks.

Living life to it's full isn't about doing more, but doing what we do with strong faith, with a better attitude, with more fun.

You don't have to run around to live life properly, you can have slow days and you can have busy days, but that doesn't mean either is better. You lean from both.

If you're going to be busy, busy, busy, you must have those peaceful days to relax from all that. How can you enjoy something if you're bone weary?
I personally believe that living life to it's full is about doing what God wants, listening to what others have to say, practising my hobbies, enjoying life.

How I got into this post, I have no idea. It just sort of happened. I saw I quote on Goodreads and it sparked something in me, then I just wrote. This is what came out!

If you haven't seen my survey, please pop on over at take a look. I'd love to see your answers!

 -Kat

Welcome 2015 | A Glimps Into What We Do

Welcome new year, welcome new goals, welcome a new chance to get it right!

For me, January is all about trying again, starting over, wiping the slate clean and starting over again. Yes I made plenty of mistakes in 2014, but it's time to move on and try again. Start again!

Today I decided that I'd share a few of me and my family's New Year traditions.

Going to confession on New Year's eve. As you properly know, I'm a Catholic, so for me it's seems only fitting to go and confess my sins on the eve of the new so I can start the new year with a clean soul!

Going to Mass of New Year's day. This is another thing that's religion related. For me there is nothing better than getting up early New Year's morning and heading off to Mass to start the new year.

Having a feast! What's better than a day full of eating. In our house New Year's day is a huge celebration. So we make sure to spend the day relaxing and eat dinner together in the evening.

Sharing a movie together. I don't know when we started this habit, but for as many years as I can remember, we've bought a movie to watch together in the evening of New Year's day. There isn't really a theme to what we watch, it just has to be something we've never seen before.

Those are just as few of our traditions, what are yours? Do you do any of these things?

Is it just me, or is New Year's Day one of the most magical days of the year? It seems to spell out new hope and good luck. I can't wait to see what this new year of blogging will bring!

-Kat

Let's Go Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

Everything I've written about Christmas so far seems to be me complaining about things being so busy and not having enough time, but the thing is, Christmas is much more than that! It's special, it's Jesus's birth, and sometime it's too easy to forget this.

Today, I've decided to help myself remember this by posting seven way to get into the Christmas mood!

1. Turn on that music! There is nothing like a bit of Christmas music to get yourself in 'the mood'. For me, classic carols normally does the trick. There is nothing like those old pieces like 'Away in a Manger'.

Even if you don't have any CDs, you can always call upon the trusty old internet to give you something to listen to. Some great places to go are Grooveshark and YouTube.

And if you don't know any good musicians, here are a few who I love: Peter Hollens, Taylor Davis and Piano Guys.

2. Pull out those crafty supplies. Try some Christmas craft. Make some presents, decorations, anything. There is nothing like a bit of Christmas craft to get you excited for Christmas, trust me.

My favourite Christmas crafts involve, making angel Christmas tree decorations out of tissues (yes, very sophisticated, I know), salt dough Christmas trees (anyone else done this?) and painted boxes (to be filled with chocolates as a present).

3. Put on your baker's hat. Everyone likes Christmas food, but not all of it has to be bought. Why not try making some of your own this year?

I love going online and finding new recipes. Just one thing though, has anyone ever had success with ginger bread? Is it just me is there no way to cook it without it going really hard or being under cooked? Why do I try to make this every year?

4. Go shopping. Yes, I'm encouraging you to go shopping and spend money! But, remember, those presents have to be bought sometime or another. Why not now?

I don't normally like shopping to tell the truth, but with Christmas presents, it's another matter. There's something nice about walking around those isles, trying to find the perfect present for someone.

Not being very crafty, I end up buying most of my presents, but I do like to try and make them really cool and something they'd really enjoy. Most of all, something different!

5. Wrap those presents. Once you've got all your presents, there's nothing to stop you from wrapping them up. Getting it out of the way earlier rather than later makes sure you're not doing on Christmas Eve like me.

If you want to be really adventurous (and crafty), why don't you even try to make your own wrapping paper. This gives you two things to do in one!

6. Decorate the house. Every house needs some kind of decoration. Why don't you put that tree up? Is that wreath just dying to be on the door? Come on, put some effort into how your house looks at Christmas.

I'm not normally very good at this. I don't have the eye for this sort of this, but it's lot's of fun to do, so long as you don't leave it till the last moment (yes, I'm always doing that).

7. Sing those carols. Let's start and finish with music. If you are a brilliant singer, or plain horrible, get those carol books out and start singing. This is sure to make you SMILE.

And if you're really brave, why don't you even try a little bit of busking? Busking is a great way of getting a few extra dollars to spend on Christmas.

But better than that, it's so much fun and it's really Christmassy!

There you have it, my seven ways to get in the Christmas spirit. I hope you try at least a few of these out.

Also, I'm looking for guest bloggers over the Christmas holidays. So if you'd be interested, or would like a little bit of free advertising, then please email me: almostcompletelymad@gmail.com. I'd also be willing to guest post back on your blog. So just give me an email!

-Kat 

I Might Just Have Joined Another Social Media...

 

Has anyone noticed the new gadget in my sidebar? No one? Really, typical that no one looks when I do something exciting.

Go LOOK IN MY SIDEBAR NOW!!! Do you see it? NO? Really no one has any idea what's in my sidebar, do they? They pay no attention to what I do!

Well let me just tell you what you should be noticing, but obviously aren't. I'M ON TWITTER!!! Yes that's right, I'm on Twitter!

I'm really excited (which you've probably noticed from all the shouting). I've been thinking about this for ages and finally I've decided it's worth it. *thanks Cait for helping me decide*.

So, if you're on Twitter, please follow me. I would love to have a few friends on there. It's pretty lonely at the moment *hint hint*

For those of you who missed the news a long while ago, I'm also on Facebook, but that's more for my blog than my personal life.

If you want to find out what I do in my spare time, follow me on Twitter. If you want to find cool links and photos of random things, Like my Facebook page!

Well sorry about being over the top and crazy and everything in this post. I guess I just need to go let off a bit of steam.

Anyhoo, I'm signing off so I can go take a nap. For some reason I'm really tired. On another note though, a tutorial on how to make a blog Facebook page is coming soon, so look out for that!

Kat | Twitter | Facebook

The Side Effects of Living in a Family of Men

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Living with mainly men in my family may have had some side effects on me. Some of those side effects include not being at all interested in make up, loving to play football and supercars.

Yesterday, Bathurst was on and so that meant that Dad, the boys and I were glued to the sofa, watching. And let me just say, it did not disappoint what with TEN safety cars, plenty of crashes and having to STOP the race to fix up the road! I couldn't believe all the excitement.

I have been watching Bathurst for years and never had a seen a Bathurst like this one. I couldn't believe everything that had happened.

Ok, this was a really, really random post, but I had to write it. I may be a bit weird in like racing so much, but that doesn't matter.

-Kat