Mondays don't always suck...in fact, they can be awesome : )

Have you ever had a day that was exhausting and draining but also the best fun ever. 

I had such a nice day today. 

To start off with I treated myself to a delicious scone and homemade jam at a local bakery/cafe/bistro place in my town. It was still warm from the oven, the jam was strawberry and ginger. Was so good. Then I spent the day in a local school helping all the kids with some art projects. I am part of an amazing festival in my town every year and one of the things we do every year is get all the local schools to make an art installation from recyclable materials. This years theme is animals and holy hell, did the kids deliver.

We only have one more week to complete them so it's a bit mental at the moment. But the kids are great and their ideas are top notch.

Even though it was exhausting because you have like 40 kids shouting all at once, it's great fun.

When I got home, I spent a few hours baking, making rainbow biscuits and pinwheel cookies.

I love to bake, i find it very relaxing. And after all that, I made a simple dinner and sat down to watch some TV and catch up with the Internet. Was a really nice day and I get to do it all again on Wednesday.

Life is good

Nova xx

My Name is Nova...??

Just a little bit of history...how I got the nickname Nova. Unfortunately it is not my real name, and there was a time in my life when I was seriously considering legally changing my name to Nova but it's like a pretty involved process and ain't no 18 year old got time for that.

My real name is Michelle. Nova started in cyber land

My journey into cyber land began when I was about 16. Using the computers at school, setting up emails for learning purposes and all that jazz. We didn't get a computer at home until shortly after I turned 17 and then I was able to create my own cool email and online names.

Around this time, I was really into green day ( I know right ) amongst other super cool awesome bands. I loved the song "Give me Novacaine". I had a friend who was really into green day, way more so than me and we would listen to them all the time together. 

So when I was ready to join Bebo ( pause for that hilarity ), I knew I wanted the word Novacaine in my profile name. But when I was typing it it, I missed out on one of the N's so it was spelled Novacaie and I just loved it. I pronounce it nova-Kai. 

And it soon became my name everywhere online ( Bebo, MySpace, MSN, Facebook, blogger and all the forums and chat rooms I went on). I became confident and happy, chatting to people online, writing my profiles and sharing my thoughts and ideas.

I don't care if they were real or fake people, I enjoyed being on the Internet and broadening my mind.

I started to sign off conversations as Nova instead of Novacaie for handiness ( or laziness ) and people would refer to me as Nova. For a long time, people thought it was my real name. Then people started calling me Nova in real life and it just stuck. 

Not many call me it in my current circles in the real world but I have so much love for its history, I will always be Nova online.

I'm not two different people, I am Michelle both in the real world and cyber land. But Michelle is Nova, we are one in the same. The confidence I gained spending years online, reading and watching and learning from others has helped shape me into the person I am today.

Sometimes I am cynical or straightforward. Sometimes I am sensitive to a serious fault and sometimes I am mouthy and opinionated. 

So for all you in cyber land

I am Nova...hear me roar! Haha x

My attempt at artistic photography.

"HACK" Bullshit...Fuck!

Like any other (in)sane person awake at 5am on a Sunday morning, i am on YouTube.

Lets start with this rant...YouTube is ruining me. I know that i am an adult with my own thoughts and opinions and consequences and shit. I have responsibilities and chores and stuff.
But then there's YouTube.
Sitting over there with its shirt off and its all sweaty and sexy and inviting and my brain just says to me "Fuck sleep, you don't need it. What you need is YouTubey salty goodness.
But its ok, I'll get cranky, I'll say mean things and then YouTube will sweet talk me and I'll go back to it with open arms and about 3 days of sleep deprivation induced craziness.

I have a problem with the Internet. Well, i have a fuck ton of problems but one in particular that's really annoying me and ruining my valuable night time Interweb perusal.

HACKS!!! Life hacks, food hacks, clothes hacks, hack hacks. Fuck you and your stupid hacks.

At first I found them interesting, I will admit to having the Pinterest app on my phone and have pinned a lot of hack-y looking things, but i haven't tried any....i swear!

But now there on YouTube, my precious tomb of ridiculous videos. And at first, i was intrigued. I watched a few, thought to myself that looks pretty cool. Maybe I'll give that a go someday.

But then the food hacks kept coming at me and they are the ones I have the biggest problem with.
I watched a video the other day, chocolate based hacks. Hack your chocolate and make your life easier. What i thought i was going to watch was a cool video on how to grow your own chocolate from a pair of old tights and borax (check it out, borax is used in tooo many of these hacks) or something along the lines of, save money with these amazing life changing hacks and never worry about buying chocolate again.

But what i actually watched was a a bunch of absolute bullshit.
When you list 8 ingredients and a method of combining them,
THAT'S A RECIPE, not a hack.
Just because you cooked it in the microwave does not make it a hack.

Fuck, i have recipe books from the 80s that are just for microwave cookery and they prided themselves on calling them recipes.
Now these bitches online are calling them "hacks". Bitch, google the words "brownie recipe" and you'll find the thing your hacking.

Microwaves are for popcorn, re heating beverages, making scrambled eggs in a bind and maybe exploding water balloons.

Cook your goddamn brownies in the oven...in a pan and make like enough for a 12 instead of one in a pissy little cup


Now, i want brownies. Damn! Didn't think this through

Nova xx

Nighttime sleepy times???

It is currently 3:55am on Friday morning and I am wide awake.

Yesterday ( Thursday) I spent the entire day with a headache that practically floored me. But this is not something new, i have suffered with bad headaches and migraines for many years now. But thats a story for another day.

So at about 5:30pm yesterday, when my boyfriend got home from work to find me and our son sitting on the couch watching Scooby Doo and me with a blanket over my head because the light from the sun shining through the window was making my head pound, he told me to go straight up to bed and lie down.
It was bliss, lying in a darkened room, in my cosy bed, with my head cushioned with soft pillows.
I only meant to rest for an hour or two, get up and eat a good dinner and be back in bed at a reasonable time and have a full night sleep.

Ha ha when does that ever happen. Me and my good sleep intentions. I slept through 2 alarms and didn't open my eyes until 11pm. By this time, it was the hunger that woke me and my headache was gone. So up i got and made myself a very late dinner and settled down to watch a little TV.

Almost 5 hours later and i am still awake. Well fuck it anyway, i am all over the place. I know i am tired but can i find the determination to go to bed...No!
I feel like sometimes it would be awesome to hibernate for 24 hours straight to let my body recover from some of the awful sleep patterns I follow.

I have an insanely busy few weeks coming up and I love keeping busy. The only problem is i am already tired going into it and during the busiest times, there will be very little chance to sleep. This weekend will be my time to rest and gear up.
I need to set aside a full day to just tidy my house but i wont even attempt it until i get the " I am awake enough to run a marathon" feeling back into my body.

Sometimes i wish someone was in charge of my sleep. Mr. Sandman, where are you? Your slacking.

Nova xx

Lets not jinx it...cross your fingers as you read this : )

The Weather.
Perfect mindless chit chat material.
Something for the elderly, the young, the married, the single, pretty much everyone can complain about.

But it was so nice today in my small Irish town. Hot, Bright and Sunny. Beautiful blue skies, people cutting grass ( one of my favorite smells) i just have to share its glory

I live in a wonderful little town that looks like a beautiful shining ball of natural awesomeness - when the weather is good.

When the weather is bad, this is a pretty depressing place to live. But its worth it, its worth the 9 or 10 months of grey sky, grey fields, grey people, Its worth it, because when the sun is high over the hills that surround the town, it becomes one huge sun trap and everything sparkles. People smile, there is music in the street, the smells of cut grass and suncream perfume the air.

So, here are a few snaps of the beauty of the place i live

I hope the sun is shining wherever you are

Nova x

Broke Monday's

Today's Monday! Uhhhh

After the levity of a weekend, spending time with my family, doing lazy weekend crap, Monday comes like a slap to the face.

Things go back to normal, my boyfriend is back at work, my son is back at playschool 5 mornings a week and I'm left on my own. This is when I lament about having fuck all in my purse.

Monday is the day I long to have money to spend, I go pretend shopping online, filling up baskets and carts with all the things I can never have. Sigh!

Like these shoes

Or the half sleeve tattoo that I had started like 7 months ago and all I have is line work and the oddest bit of colour.

But then Tuesday comes, and I've started to get used to the week. I have craft projects to attend to and meetings to go too ( aren't I cool ).

The weekend comes like a fresh breeze, maybe we'll go somewhere fun. It's great.

And then.......Monday! 

FUCK,

Nova xx

Binge watching YouTube

So at some point or another, most of us will binge watch a TV show, those of us without cars will do it more frequently and those of us without cars and who live in extremely rural areas get like a free pass to do it.

But sometimes, when there is nothing on TV ( past or present ) worthy of my valuable nighttime sleepy hours, i will binge watch YouTube.

But not by watching videos of a particular vlogger or guru. Oh no no no. I will watch the most random stuff. Either because it fascinates me or totally weirds me out. I know, The Human Condition right?!

Sooo at the moment my current watch are videos of super awesome cool Japanese vending machines and delicious delicious videos of people making street food ( particularly in Thailand )

Don't ask me why or how, but i am inclined to blame YouTube What to Watch. You know the YouTube recommended videos.

YouTube: we notice you clicked on this video like 4 years ago, we don't know if you actually wanted to watch it, if you clicked on it by accident or if you weren't sure what you were watching until like half way through but here's like 6000 videos we think you may like.

Me: Thanks YouTube. Lets see if i can stay up past 4am tonight. Whoop!

But seriously though, check this out. Japan is too cool
https://youtu.be/ZZmUuRG87sU