by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 3, 2013 | Freebies & Giveaways, Stuff! |
Our refrigerator is not magnetic–the front is a piece of slate, which is great for leaving chalk notes to each other on and creating a shopping list, but it does leave something to be desired in the “stick a receipt here til you need it” or “grab the restaurant menu” department.
And then, courtesy of The Grommet, I discovered Siconi silicone mats and animals. I love em (though I use the sticky pad with an animal to hold paper on fridge)! You will too! So I am giving away a gray mat and three black kitties. Perfect for all your sticking needs. These can be shipped worldwide, so enter at will!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 1, 2013 | Freebies & Giveaways, Stuff! |
November’s a busy month in any year. Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, getting ready for the December craziness… and this year I have a book release as well. So as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve decided that every single day in November I will be giving something away. I feel very lucky this year, so I want other people to have some joy, too.
I’ll be posting toys, books, gadgets for readers and writers, pens, paper, and jewelry. The rules will always be simple: comment, become a newsletter subscriber (or already be a newsletter subscriber), tell your friends… the thing that will change is where I will send the prizes. Some will be US only, others will be available world-wide.
To start, I’m giving away the ultimate conference accessory, extra power! This Duracell battery backup takes a standard USB, so you can plug in your tablet, eReader, or phone using a USB power cable. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 29, 2013 | Stuff! |
November 1 begins my massive month of giveaways. I will be giving something away on the blog every single day. But right now I am asking you to do something…even if it’s just commenting on this post at A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet. See, Limecello, who runs that blog, is raising money for Love 146, an organization that focuses on preventing human trafficking and also provides aftercare for rescued victims.
It’s possible you can’t donate. But Lime is donating for every comment up to $600, and I’m tossing in an extra $100 the minute she reaches 100 comments. So you don’t have to spend your own money (though of course it’s even better if you have a couple of dollars to give to the cause). All the information (and it’s truly frightening and depressing) is on her blog, including a link to the donation page should you want to give thanks this year by donating a little something. But if you can’t just comment and say you would if you could. That’s enough. Others are also kicking in money depending on how many comments there are, so pass the word to friends, too.
And don’t forget to come back in November to see what I’ve got for you!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 11, 2013 | Books, Crafts, Freebies & Giveaways, Romance, Stuff!, Writing |
I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving lately. Not just because I have a lot to be thankful for (which I do) but because my book comes out November 19 (which is one of the things I have to be thankful for). So I’ve decided that this year, I’m going to give something away on the blog every single day for the month of November to celebrate. Books—mine, my friends’, my favorite authors’—in both e and physical copies, handmade jewelry, Donors Choose gift certificates (which I give away almost every year), and who knows what else?
I’ll also be having guests. Normally, I don’t do the guest blogger thing, but I know I won’t be able to blog every day by myself, so expect a few other voices in this space next month. If you have suggestions, or want to volunteer, let me know!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 10, 2013 | Dogs, Stuff! |
After we left Melbourne, we flew into Brisbane and then drove out to an area called Surfers Paradise. Now, let me say first that the beach itself was absolutely lovely, but my other impressions of Surfers Paradise were not as positive. In fact, I can best describe it as what might happen if you picked up Las Vegas and dumped it in south Florida (and then replaced all the Latino influences in FL with Asian ones). Kitesurfing seemed to be huge–we saw it on all the beaches we visited, possibly because no matter how hot the day, a stiff wind always gave the surfers plenty of lift!
As we usually do on vacation, however, we didn’t stay put. We usually pick a direction and drive off in search of cool stuff, which is exactly what we did from our home base of Surfer’s Paradise.
The first day, with no idea where we were going, we drove off and stopped to eat breakfast on the road at an antiques shop and café. I got the warm fuzzies having breakfast being watched over by this Dalek.
Then we drove from town to town, stopping to do things like peer across a field at a bunch of kangaroos hanging out under a tree. Even though we were a good 150 feet away when we spotted them, they all perked right up and got ready to run. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Fields and hills and what they call “creeks” that we’d call the mighty Mississippi.
We ended up in a small town called Healesville where there was an animal sanctuary. So, naturally, we had to go there! That’s where we got to meet some kangaroos up close. Here’s Mike petting one:
RooPettingTime
We also hung out with a Tasmanian Devil. I love to watch Devils run. They’re so funny!
And the wombats:
The next day, we went out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. KOALAS. Many of you may know that this was the thing I was most looking forward to about the whole Australia trip.
And yes, I got to “cuddle” a kola. That’s what they call it when you hold one, even though you’re actually just pretending to be a tree and letting the koala sit on you. Koalas can be pet, but not cuddled, in NSW, but in Queensland cuddling is still legal, though koalas have specific working conditions. According to the Lone Pine site,
In Queensland, koalas can only be cuddled for less than 30 minutes per day. They must also get every third day off. This ensures that they get plenty of time to eat and sleep. At Lone Pine, we “clock on” and “clock off” our koalas when they go to the koala cuddling area.
But koalas aren’t all they have at Lone Pine. No, indeed. More kangaroos in an area where you can walk around and hang out with and feed them, free-roaming lizards, and strange birds, indeed!
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Australian Brush Turkey – check out the wattle!
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Free-roaming lizard
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Most koalas seem to sleep all the time. In random positions.
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Koala…awake.
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Kangaroo with joey in her pouch–notice how she has it stuffed in there face first, with just legs sticking out?
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Kangaroo!
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The Southern Cassowary, the oddest bird I’ve ever seen. Looks positively mythological!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 5, 2013 | Dogs, Stuff! |
For years, my husband and I have talked about going to Australia. If you’re thinking of going, here’s the first thing I’d say to you: get a credit card that gives you airline miles and use it every chance you can. (American Airlines partners with Qantas, so we were lucky that way because we already had the American card.) At the moment, an economy class ticket costs $3500, so you will want to use miles!
After about 36 hours of travel, we arrived in Melbourne. (Actual flying time, 23 hours. Plus driving, layover and airport wait time.) Melbourne is an awesomely cool city. The architecture is amazing. Check out the bridge we went through! I love the off-center, egg-shaped opening. The city is a combination of very old and very new architecture, with none of the sort of “mid-century blah” you see all over the place elsewhere. I think my favorite example of this was right across the street from our hotel, where we saw this hyper-modern apartment building (at least that’s what I think it was) wrapped around an old home. I’m not sure whether the old home was actually incorporated 
into the new–it might have become a lobby or the like–but I love the look of the rounded mirrored glass around the Victorian house.
On a side note, I’ll say that if you have Celiac or any kind of gluten intolerance, Australia in general is a great place to visit. Unlike my visit to Atlanta, every place in Australia had accommodations for gluten-free eating. At breakfast every morning I was able to get gluten-free toast, and it was really good.
On another side note, it was a bit bizarre to walk around Australia and never, not once, see a stray cat anywhere. We rarely saw dogs, either, except when we went out to the beaches. But we saw rabbits everywhere. Probably because there were no dogs or cats.
The day after we arrived, we went out to Werribee Open Range Zoo and it was fabulous. I mean fabulous.
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African Wild Dog
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Antelope (I can’t remember the type!)
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Dromedary
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Emu
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Giraffe
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On the range, where the giraffes and the antelope play…
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Growling Grass Frog (see below for the sound they make)
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Hippo love
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Wild ponies.
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A meerkat showman.
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Wild Monkey Love.
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Free-range parrot
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Rhino naptime
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Love this: Kids can be archeologists/anthropologists and uncover the skeleton of a lion
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Wetlands bird–we saw these everywhere, but I don’t know what they are.
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Zebra
The Growling Grass Frogs were all over the wetlands part of the zoo. The sound they make is really cool.
More later, when I’ll write about Brisbane and our trip to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast!
