Signs - Various & blog anniversary

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog. 

Paper serviette at a coffee shop where I met up with work colleagues last week.

Sign at Coffee shop in Mount Lawley, seen when I went to photograph the murals I've been posting.

Old Tram that takes tourists to the most iconic spots in Fremantle.

Rooibos Tea anyone?  We like Rooibos tea, a South African herbal tea, but somehow I bought one with vanilla flavour and we weren't fans of it. So I gave it away on the Buy Nothing group and it was quickly snapped up :)

I've just celebrated my 11th year in the blogging world on the 18th June.

It's not always easy to blog regularly when working (part-time), but sometimes my job can be quite stressful... home life, upcycling furniture, researching my family tree, and many other pastimes I still keep up with. 

I have found it very interesting to connect to so many people around the world, get to know how others live, virtually visit many places in the world I have not and may not ever get to visit...

I have personally met a few people of my blogging community here and overseas and hope to meet many people in the future.

Cheers and happy blogging!

Signs - Time & 9th blog anniversary

Two time related signs. 

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

Today 17th June marks Colourfulworld's 9th blogging anniversary.

Including today's post, I've written 866 posts, and the blog has been visited by people from 159 different countries, with 39% coming from the United States, 20% from Australia, about 20% from various European countries and the final 21% is shared in very small percentages for the rest of the world.

And as the next sign indicates "let's raise a glass" and toast this anniversary.

6th Blogging Anniversary

Can't believe it's been that long...
On the 18th June 2011 my first post went live, and I was so excited when I noticed my first reader coming through from Germany.
Well from that first reader I've now had 1,336,690 views, 102 followers, visitors from 158 countries and this is my 498th post!

Looking back, my first post was mainly about my craft interests, and you can read it by following this link. 

Some of my art and crafts

Unfortunately and sadly for me as I enjoyed it, the lack of a craft group that kept me focused, my job, writing, house renovations, etc, means I haven't done much painting or crafts.
I have instead done a few makeovers to clothes and furniture, and that fuels my artist vein.

Bloggers: One of the bloggers that first commented on my blog was dear Mariette from "Back to Basics" and you will be pleased to know she still comments on my blog and I on hers.

Another of my first followers who helped divulge my blog was Carole from "Piglet in Portugal". Carole and I met up in 2012 in the Algarve on one of my visits to Portugal.
She wrote about our meeting here and I wrote about the Algarve and our meeting here.

I've met a few other bloggers, such as Grace from Perth Daily , Wendy from Wendy Barret's Paintings and Writings, and Iris, who lives in Braunschweig, the German town where we lived for 6 years and where my kids were born, and she blogs at Double-half or One Ten without Ham.

My world has become a lot richer through friendships across the world, getting to know how other people live, their likes and dislikes, and virtually travelling to other countries through the various blogs I visit.

Most popular posts: In 2012 I participated in a A-Z meme with posts about Australia, and two of my most read posts were: 
A-Z of Australia - Q is for Queens Garden  with over 202,286  hits, and the second one was  A-Z of Australia - I is for Islands (part III) with 178,600 hits.

The United States readers are ahead in the readership with over 671 thousand of you making up 32% of my readers, France is second with just over 200 thousand readers and Australia comes third with close to 51 thousand readers making up 28,2% of my total readers, followed closely by Germany with 48 thousand readers. (A while back all my Australian readers stats disappeared, and then a few days later, they started from 0 again, no wonder they come 2nd).

I've mainly blogged about my travels in Australia and overseas, decor and renovations, and on Mondays I now team up with Oakland Daily Blog and other worldwide bloggers to post a photo of a mural. These are quite popular posts and my mural posts now stand at 109!
And of course I often post about Perth my adopted  hometown where I love to live.

Perth

Travel: Lisbon, Portugal and Amsterdam, Holland

Murals in Perth and Portugal

I hope to be here in another 6 years and to be able to still enjoy blogging about what I blog about and to still have all of you dear readers interested in reading my posts.

Cheers!

5 year blogging anniversary

I can hardly believe that 5 years have gone past since I first posted my first blog post!
I haven't remembered to celebrated the milestone every year, but being the 5th year I thought I would mention it.

I've gone from 0 to over 1,2 million views, have viewers from 157 countries, and 96 registered followers.
Not bad at all. On my 1 month blog anniversary I only had 500 views...

All I wanted to achieve was to register my experiences for the future, they are a powerful reminder of our good and bad times, although I only seem to register the good times, which is probably because I'm a a very upbeat and positive person.

I've made blogging friends, some virtual, others I've actually met, have learned a bit more about other bloggers,  have learned a lot more about blogging, and still learning... it's important to never stop learning!

To all those that read my blog, I hope that you find my stories interesting and a big thank you to those that regularly comment my posts. It's much appreciated.

From left to bottom to right - all about my blog -  Perth, my family (our son, me, our daughter and my husband), my art, my cats, murals and travel (Amsterdam).

A blogger´s gift

I took part in the "Grow your blog challenge" back in January this year, and added a few blogs to my list of must reads and also added a few new followers to my blog roll.

Some of the bloggers were offering gifts to be given to random bloggers who left a comment.
I was lucky to receive a gift from Karin at  http://ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.

Karin is a very talented artist who makes wonderful jewellery pieces, and this is the necklace I received from her a few days ago.  (the picture isn´t that good as it was taken with my mobile)

I´m still on holidays in Portugal (where Karin posted the gift to me) and will return to Australia in just over 1 week when I´ll eventually start updating my blog with my travel posts.

Grow your Blog challenge 2015

For the  third year, Vicky is hosting a "Grow your blog" party, Check out her blog at - 2 Bags full blog, helping us all to get more followers and enabling us to follow other blogs that could be to our liking.

For my new readers I will start by introducing myself:

On the 8th of January, it was 8 years since my husband,  our son and I moved from Portugal to Perth, Australia, where we love to live.

I was born in the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, and have since lived in South Africa, Germany and Portugal. 

I work part-time as a Practice Manager in a Medical clinic with 4 other receptionists, and I love my job, although it can be quite intense and stressful at times!

Perth

 I started blogging in June 2011, because I enjoy writing, and as a way to record my travels, crafts, recipes...and also to meet with other bloggers.

I have been gluten intolerant for about 4 years, and try to eat the "Paleo" way, which explains why I follow a few Grain free bloggers.

I am on a quest to be more aware of the environment, use less chemicals on my body and house, so I make my own washing liquid for the washing machine, and use vinegar, baking soda and lemon for cleaning around the house, as well as making my own lovely soap. 

Try these recipes, they are easy, don't take long and you will feel so proud of yourself .

I enjoy crafts although I must say I am a bit of a procrastinator and haven't done much in way of crafting or painting for a while. 

My other interests are travel - we have our tickets booked for less than a month's time to go to Amsterdam where my daughter and her partner live, and Lisbon where my parents, sister and other extended family live.  We will be having a big 30th celebration for our daughter, with our family and friends in Portugal.

I also enjoy stamp collecting, postcard collecting (I joined Postcrossing last year) and I like to research my family tree.

Postcard collection box

I have 4 cats now, my eldest cat "Mommy" died just under a year ago, and a few weeks ago her daughter "Baby" was diagnosed with cancer, and I'm trying all sorts of natural therapies to see if it she can recover.      

Here she is in this photo sitting inside a small box when she was a bit bigger, she has recently lost half her weight... 

I enjoy doing arts and crafts and a bit of sewing, but unfortunately I have been far too undisciplined to do anything in the last year or so...

At the moment I have 72 followers, some lovely virtual and not so virtual friends spread around the world, but it would be nice to increase my regular readers.

I thank Vicki for her efforts, and you can now hop along to 2Bagsfull -  with about 400 bloggers having registered you will for sure find a couple of blogs to your liking.

And of course I hope you "follow me" too and enjoy reading my blog.

GROW YOUR BLOG challenge 2014

For the second year, Vicky is hosting a "Grow your blog" party, Check out her blog at - 2 Bags full blog.

This is a campaign to get more people to read a wider variety of blogs, variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes...

For my new readers I will start by introducing myself:

Hi, my name is Sami, I have been living in Perth, Australia for the past 7 years.
I was born in the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, then moved to South Africa when I was 14 years old. 
I met and married my husband in Johannesburg, and shortly after I accompanied him to Braunschweig in Germany, where he was going to work on a project. We stayed for 6 years and both our children were born in Germany.  
In the early 90's we moved back to South Africa for a short while, then another move to Portugal, where we lived for 12 years.
My husband was then offered a good job in Perth, and another move was on the cards!
I hope we are done with moving for many many years now, as I love living here!!

I work part-time as a Practice Manager in a Medical clinic with 4 Doctors and 5 other receptionists, and I love my job, although it can be quite intense and stressful at times!

Perth city, seen from Kings Park Botanic gardens

I started my blog in June 2011, as a way to record my travels, crafts, recipes...and also to meet with other likewise bloggers.

I have been gluten intolerant for about 3 years, and recently started to follow the "Paleo" way, to help my husband lose weight and get rid of his newly diagnosed diabetes. The diet worked and we both try to eat this way now, although I am more disciplined than he is. This explains the fact that I now follow a few "Paleo" blogs.

I am on a quest to be more aware of the environment, use less chemicals on my body and house, so I make my own washing liquid for the washing machine, and use vinegar, baking soda and lemon for cleaning around the house, as well as making my own lovely soap. 
Try these recipes, they are easy, don't take long and you will feel so proud of yourself .

I enjoy crafts although I must say I am a bit of a procrastinator and haven't done much in way of crafting or painting for a while. 
My other interests are stamp collecting, postcard collecting (I joined Postcrossing a few months ago) and I also enjoy Genealogy.

I love to watch lifestyle shows, renovating shows, etc., which drives my husband crazy!!  
60 Minute makeovers?? No wonder I get cranky when the bathroom renovation takes 3 months!! I'm proud to say that in the last 5 years we have renovated our whole house, with hardly any help from respective handymen - a lot learned on the job!!!

I have 5 cats, only 2 of them are friendly and love to keep me company, the others are bit wild and scared of visitors. But I still love them to bits.

Twiggy

Fluffy

Baby

Shelley & Mommy

At the moment I have 56 followers, some lovely virtual and not so virtual friends spread around the world, but it would be nice to increase my regular readers.

I have actually met a few of my followers and/or bloggers that I follow, such as the lovely Carole from Piglet in Portugal, who was one of my first followers outside my family and who helped boost my readership, and who I met on a visit to Portugal last year.
Then there is Monica who also lives in Perth and blogs in Portuguese about her Perth experiences, Grace, has a daily blog about Perth, and Iris, who by coincidence lives in one of our former towns - Braunschweig - and who I met recently on her visit to Perth.
Celeste, also from Portugal, is a self published author, who also writes in Portuguese, posting poetry, articles about herbs and their benefits to your health, and she is an enthusiastic writer with over 500 posts in about 2 years.

One thing I find, is that although I have many people that read my posts every day, very few people apart from the regular 5 or 6 commentators leave comments. I don't know if the procedure is difficult or if people just can't be bothered. 
I miss that people comment and I always try to leave a comment if I visit a new blog, there is always a post that is interesting, has nice photos, is funny....
So make an effort and leave some kindness.

So hop along to 2Bagsfull -  with over 500 bloggers having registered you will for sure find one or two to your liking.

And of course I hope you "follow me" too and enjoy reading my blog.

Two year blog anniversary

I have been busy at work and home, as we have our son's wedding this Saturday.
It will be a small wedding with just 25 people, but we don't have any family in Australia and the bride only has a couple of uncles, aunts and cousins...
I didn't have much to organize apart from buying my dress, shoes and bag for the event, a tie for my husband to match my dress, have my nails and hair done....usual stuff a lady needs to look good on a special day!

But I didn't want to miss the fact that my blog is also celebrating it's second anniversary, with my first post having gone to air on the 18th June 2011.
So I wanted to thank all my readers and blog friends for their support. I have enjoyed these two years, and have learned a lot through having to research for the A-Z of Australia series. I have also got to know some lovely bloggers across the world and have learned new things from their blog posts.

I hope I can celebrate many more blogging years and count on your support and friendship.

Thanks for being my friends! See you soon.

Some of my interests - cats, cooking, gardening, crafts, painting

Grow your blog challenge 2013

On reading Africanaussie blog she had an interesting post about a "Grow your blog" party, started by Vicky at 2 Bags full blog.

This is a campaign to get more people to read a wider variety of blogs, variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes...

We could all do with a few more friends, bloggers or readers, a few more followers, a few more commentators...So I joined in, hoping to earn a few more readers and hoping to find some new blogs to follow.

For my new readers I will start by introducing myself:

Hi, my name is Sami, I live in Perth, Australia.
I was born in Mozambique, then moved to South Africa when I was 14 years old. Shortly after I got married I accompanied my husband to Germany, where he was going to work on a project.
From the originally planned 1 year we stayed almost 6, and both our children were born there. We moved back to South Africa for a short while, then another move to Portugal, and then 6 years ago, yet again another move to Australia!
I hope we are done with moving for many many years!!

I work part-time as a Practice Manager in a Medical clinic with 3 doctors and 5 other receptionists, and I love my job, although it can be quite intense and stressful at times!

Perth city, seen from Kings Park Botanic gardens

I started my blog in June 2011, as a way to record my travels, crafts, recipes...and also to link with other likewise bloggers.

Although I blog in English, I am also thinking of starting to write all my posts in duplicate with a Portuguese version as well, at the suggestion of some of my Portuguese followers... I just need more hours in the day if that is possible!!

Slowly I realized I had to follow other bloggers and through some of my first followers I started clicking on some of the blogs they followed, and from there I started following a few more blogs that were to my liking.

I have noticed most of the blogs I follow are actually related to either travel or expat bloggers.
So this will be an opportunity to make an effort and visit different types of blogs.
You can learn so much too by visiting other blogs, you see how they structure their blog, how they "beautify" it. You also learn about how other people live in other parts of the world, you learn little tips about gardening, sewing, cooking...

I have been gluten intolerant for about 2 years and I'm always on the lookout for new recipes that don't take too long to cook. I enjoy cooking as long as it's nothing too complicated or takes hours...

I am on a quest to be more aware of the environment, use less chemicals on my body and also save money, and now make my own washing liquid for the washing machine, and use vinegar, baking soda and lemon for cleaning around the house, as well as making my own lovely soap. 
Try these recipes, they are easy, don't take long and you will feel so proud of yourself .


I enjoy crafts although I must say I am a bit of a procrastinator and haven't done much in way of crafting or painting for a while. Maybe I should follow a couple of crafting blogs so I get inspired and start painting again.

One of my paintings

I love decorating and renovations - we have renovated almost our whole house and garden by ourselves (me, hubby and son). I love to watch lifestyle shows, renovating shows, etc., which drives my husband crazy!!  
60 Minute makeovers?? No wonder I then get cranky when the bathroom renovation takes 3 months!! I have threatened to call in some of these "quick renovators" or to enroll in some of these shows, but my husband would not hear of it!!

I started an A-Z challenge a few months ago with other bloggers around the world and I am almost at the end of it, having started with an A is for for Australia and the last post in the series was T is for The Three Sisters.
You can read all my posts under the A-Z by clicking under the Australian flag button at the right.
If you would like to find other bloggers doing this challenge follow this link.

Oh, and I have 5 cats, only 2 of them are friendly and love to keep me company, the others are bit wild and scared of visitors. But I still love them to bits.

My husband and I and our 5 cats - Mommy, Baby, Twiggy, Fluffy (the orange male) and Shelley

At the moment I have 36 followers, some lovely virtual and not so virtual friends spread around the world, but it would be nice to increase my regular readers.

I have actually met a few of my followers and/or bloggers that I follow, such as the lovely Carole from Piglet in Portugal, who was one of my first followers outside my family and who helped boost my readership too.
Then there is Monica who also lives in Perth and blogs in Portuguese about her Perth experiences, Celeste, is a self published author, who also writes in Portuguese, posting poetry, articles about herbs and their benefits to your health, and she is an enthusiastic writer with over 500 posts in about 2 years.

One thing I find, is that although I have many people that read my posts every day, very few people apart from the regular 5 or 6 commentators leave comments. I don't know if the procedure is difficult or if people just can't be bothered. 
I miss that people comment and I always try to leave a comment if I visit a new blog, there is always a post that is interesting, has nice photos, is funny....
So make an effort and leave some kindness.

So hop along to 2Bagsfull - http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/my-grow-your-blog-party-all-bloggers.html . With over 420 bloggers having registered you will for sure find one or two to your liking.
I know I have already found a couple that I will start to follow from now on.
And of course I hope you "follow me" too and enjoy reading my blog.
     

32 years ago!

Thirty two years ago, on the 30th of November we got married in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I cannot believe time has flown so quickly.
We were both very young, but fortunately have managed to stay together through good and bad times, have travelled a lot, moved between a couple of different countries, lived in various houses and apartments, had two beautiful children who are all grown up and have flown the nest...all part of the cycle of life.

Since hubby is working in Adelaide, I´ve taken a few days off work, and after a cancelled flight on Wednesday due to stormy weather in Perth, and then a delayed flight on Thursday due to the backlog of flights, I finally arrived on the east coast late afternoon, to be able to spend our anniversary together. We will also take the opportunity to travel around and get to see some more of South Australia.
See you soon.


My interview with Expatblog went live on 27th, and you can read it here. You can leave a comment on Expat blog if you like too.

Then...

And now.

100th POST and GIVEAWAY

Well I have reached a milestone!
Not bad I think, writing 100 posts in less than 9 months! I never thought I would have so much to write about when I wrote my first post in June 2011. Sometimes I would write lists of topics, I would even lie in bed and try and compose little essays for my blog, and wonder whether what I wrote had any interest to anyone out there...
But slowly, I started getting more readers and more feedback from my posts and I started enjoying the interaction with my readers and blogging friends, and I´m having fun!!
That´s what it´s all about - fun and friendship.
At the time of posting this post, 8787 people from 90 different countries have visited! Wow, I find this amazing!
My blog is also a way to keep a sort of diary of my activities, my travels, my life...It will be fun to look back in a few years time and re-read these posts. Also, one day my "future" grandchildren will be able to read about their granny and her activities.
I´m now involved in the A-Z challenge and having great fun writing about my adoptive country - Australia.
On the right under the Australian flag, you will find a link to all 7 posts to date - A to F posts and A again!
Next week I will carry on with the G and so forth, I´m trying to do them alphabetically and have all topics mapped out.

In honour of my 100th post I would like to do a giveaway, which is open to all friends, followers or potential followers worldwide:
I will be giving two of you, a painted wooden box, decorated with the serviette technique, similar to these ones.

 Rules:
- Please leave a comment under this post with your chosen colour/colours, so I can paint one specifically to your taste. If you would like a specific theme for the serviette mention that, as I have hundreds of them, so I might have what you like: eg. flowers and colour of flowers...

- If you don´t have a blogger profile, leave your e-mail address, so that you can be rewarded if you are the winner. (to avoid spam into your account, write the e-mail address in this format:  mary at gmail dot com"

- You can also leave a comment on my facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/sami-colourfulworldblog/238817216155544?sk=wall

- The giveaway will be open for two weeks, closing on Monday 12th March. The winner will be announced a few days later and of course notified via email and on a blog post.

So, participate and good luck!