No Limits update!

No Limits has started! 6.30 pm Monday nights in Australian capital cities.

It is truly a privilege to be a cast member/writer on the show. I have made brilliant friends. I just feel like I fit in with these people. Everytime I see them it's so much fun.

And the messages we put out there are very important. When I see the credits, tears well up - I am so proud to be a part of No Limits.

You can view the website.

And the bio page.

Watch past episodes here.

Here is Phin's arm, me, Louis and Elvira on set.

 Promo shot!

This is a sketch I wrote and acted in. Kate Erin Miller is the other actor. It's based on an actual event.


No Limits. Get it into ya!

(Pictures by Steven Pam from No Limits website)

Also, remember I said there was filming at my place? Well here is the finished product:

Muse concert - a visual review

Muse
Rod Laver Arena Melbourne
15 December 2010

Muse are amazing live. I didn't realise this when I saw them at the Big Day Out in 2004.

Bold, flamboyant, colourful, dramatic, orchestral, falsetto, loud, rocking, fast, loud, blinding, egotistical.

Podiums topped with revolving stages and light shows spectacular. I thought the stage and lighshow was more appealing than U2's claw.

A silver glitter suit was worn by Matt Bellamy, reflecting all colours of the lights. He played guitars, a keytar and a glass topped neon keyed piano.

Giant bouncing (eye) balls were thrown into the crowd. Representations of the corporation were lit up on the sides of the podiums, resembling buildings. Laser lights projected at all angles into the crowd. And the front man threw his guitar.

The crowd was energetic and dedicated. Moshing, air punching and singing in every song. Being at the concert was like being in a whirring, flashing machine. It was so amazing.

I can't write about music well enough to do Muse's show justice. There are plenty of other reviews of their Tuesday night Melbourne gig:
And Pluck Your Strings
Undercover
The Age/SMH
Herald Sun


And of the gig I saw:
Take 40

Here is the setlist.

And here is a short video I took of Time is Running Out.

Enjoy my photos. It was such a brilliant concert.

Happy blogiversary - let's talk about me for a minute

Warning: self indulgence ahead!

(source)

Today Tune into Radio Carly celebrates its first birthday! A blogiversary! Hurrah! I started it on 16 December 2009. Not a lot was happening in my life back then. I had a good, rewarding job. I had good friends. I was studying. I volunteered. These things are still happening for me. But there is so much more in my life. And it's mostly because of my blog!

• My blog is a creative outlet. It also enables me to hone my writing and research skills.
• It allows me to vent through the hard times, and gain support from strangers and friends. I will always be thankful of the support I received from you all when my dogs passed away, when I've been unwell, and when that woman in the store abused me.
• I have commenced two freelance writing opportunities - DiVine earlier in the year, and now the ABC's Ramp Up. I've always wanted to be a writer! And now I am!
• I won an award for my writing! A very proud moment for me and those who know me.
• I became a TV presenter! Who would have thought?? It is so much fun, and I've made awesome friends through filming.
• I have been invited to speak on the radio, three times - twice because of my blog!
• I have met many new friends through blogging too. Blog readers and writers - some I've met in person, others I can't wait to meet.
• Blog readers have recognised me in the street!

It's been a brilliant journey. I've opened up a lot, and also been myself. It's documented a journey. Everything you've read here is the real me.

When I started writing this blog, I wondered whether I had enough content to maintain it. I feared I'd have to do things to blog about. But then I saw that there was a story in everything. All I needed was a notebook and pen, a camera, or my iPhone and a good sense of observation, and I was set to record my stories for my blog. My Dad often asks me why I have to photograph everything. It's potential content. I sort of do have to participate in things to blog about - the blog has made me get out more.

I think about whether things are bloggable. Most things are. I think I can successfully make the mundane interesting. (Remember the Asian Snack Challenge? SO. MUCH. FUN. Both doing it and writing about it.) There are many things I don't tell you though. I have shared more than I'd ever imagined, which may have drawn you in and encouraged you to return, but I have kept some things off limits. I don't blog about 9-5 job. I don't blog explicitly about sex. I don't name people I am angry at, or in love with (unless they are celebrities). I always ask people if they want to be in my blog or whether I can mention them/what we did - that is only fair.

I sincerely thank you for taking interest in my life, and also showing you care.

I've told you a lot about my skin condition, ichthyosis form erythroderma. You have all been so very compassionate, empathetic and positively curious. Most of you had never heard of ichthyosis. Some of you have ichthyosis, or have family members with the condition, and come to me for advice about it. I hope I've been helpful. Sometimes it's been challenging - I'm not sure if just living with the condition makes me the one to give suitable advice to people.

As I've showcased in my Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute guest blog series this past week, I am inspired by other bloggers. Thanks Christine, Lanelle, Cheryl, Hayley, Kendi, Bern and Sydney Shop Girl. The theme of the series, which I did not initially mention, was how has blogging changed your life? As you have read, blogging changed all of my guest bloggers' lives. And mine too.

I've formed so many friendships - online and then continuing into real life. Blogging makes a brilliant community, showcasing huge talent. It creates discussion, piques ideas and facilitates passions for topics and events. Each day I read blogs and am thankful for people sharing their lives with the world. It's so much more interesting reading about real people and not celebrities.

Here are (more than just) a few of my favourite blog entries. They remind me of the defining moments of my year:
The Marie Claire/Jennifer Hawkins debate
10 years ago
Perfection versus excellence
When my face is this sore I find it hard to look in the mirror
Miss you love
There's something I need to tell myself
Someone will come along one day
Celebrity sighting - Callan Mulvey
My face may have ruined her clothes (for the supportive comments received)
Note from Callan Mulvey!
Get that sausage - Asian Snack Challenge
The power of one - a public thank you
From Earth to table
Sausage making
Season three Rush premiere
I did a forward roll to prove I can do one
How do I deal?
Filming the sketches - best day ever!
You've already won me over
What I wore for filming
My feature on Mia Freedman's website
That I would be good
Power shopping with Sydney Shop Girl
Words from another blogger - not being able to blend into a crowd
Hello, my name is Carly and I'm a shopaholic
What would Rebecca Twigley do? The bra shopping adventure
2010 ARIA Awards. Wow. What a trainwreck.
Everything and nothing to say
Yooralla Media Award and another announcement
Bob Evans at the Tote
This one's for you, Steve Tucker

I hope that my blog makes a difference to you. I hope it makes you laugh, think, find new music, inspires you to cook, and sometimes cry. I hope that you can share it with those you know. I hope you keep leaving comments and continuing the discussion that I start, perhaps on your own blog.

Thank you for reading Tune into Radio Carly. Stay tuned for more!

Don't forget to enter the birthday giveaway! Entries close at 11.59 pm Australian EDT tonight!

Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute: Sydney Shop Girl

Welcome to the Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute series on my blog. It's to celebrate my birthday and blogiversary week. Each day until and including 15 December I will feature a guest blogger who I admire. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I did collating it.


It is the final day of my Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute guest blogging series. It has been fun. I hope you found some great new blogs to read if you weren't reading them already. 

Sydney Shop Girl is a blogger I knew I'd click with. She's smart, funny, stylish and a great writer.


We both love shopping. We both love food. We both like to take photos. She also uses Hipstamatic. And we both blog. So when we met, it went just like our virtual worlds went: we shopped, we ate, we took photos and we blogged about it! But unlike our virtual worlds, this time we did these things together! She is as nice in person as she is on her blog. And she can shop. We should form a duo in the shopping Olympics. 

I have been reading her blog since she started it. It's a regular stop for me. And I love how she writes almost every day about the things I enjoy. 

She influenced my fashion purchases. After I saw the wonder of her Fauxpard Jacklet from Target, I bought one myself. And I also bought the Cotton On grey heart knit top after she did. I would say Sydney Shop Girl has influenced my fashion purchases just as much as my favourite magalogues InStyle and Shop Til You Drop have this year (and they are her two fave magalogues too). I invented the phrase 'fauxpard jacklet' and it is now in her blogcabulary. We influence each other. 


I love our friendship.

Guest blog by Sydney Shop Girl:

I’d like to thank Carly for the privilege of being a guest on her blog. Tune Into Radio Carly turns one this month and I hope it buys itself something special and has chocolate cake for breakfast all December. Actually, that sounds like great advice for all of us, birthday or not. December is such a frantic month but its also full of joy, love and families. Just remember to take some ‘me time’ and to breathe somewhere in its 31 days.

Sydney Shop Girl is the first blog I’ve ever had. I was never a diary or journal keeper so I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to keep going for as long as I have. 

 

I started blogging basically because I was on facebook an awful lot writing status updates that ran into paragraphs. Friends ‘liked’ and ‘commented’ and this made me feel ‘connected’ and ‘related to’. However, it got to the point when I thought that perhaps there are things that I update about that don’t really belong on facebook. I think the hourly status updates were starting to wear my friends down too….

Why not take it to blogger instead?

That way any interested parties could just find my blog and read whichever parts of it took their fancy at a time convenient to them. 

 

It was time to for my life to set forth for the blogosphere.

So, in January 2010, Sydney Shop Girl was born. Sydney because this is my adopted city. Shop because I do. Girl as reference to the childhood that started my love of reading, writing, imagining and laughter.

There were a few teething problems.

It took me a few weeks to find my writing style. At first I tried the tumblr format but I just couldn’t take to the short and sharp style of using different media. I got obsessed with trying to find a ‘focus’ for my blog, resolute that it had to ‘be about …. something’.

I would sit and think for hours about what I should write about, whether anyone would read it, whether I should write about my feelings, whether to ‘leave faces in photos’. The usual novice blogger issues.

Then it just happened. 

An OMG moment. I would keep it simple. Write, take pictures, write about pictures I’d taken and take an active interest in the world around me.

For me, writing Sydney Shop Girl has been an amazingly rewarding experience.

There were the obvious (to me) benefits:

1. my blog is a pretty permanent record of my thoughts and photographs
2. it has helped improve my general knowledge (and spelling), the number of times I have had to google and wiki things….
3. it has been a wonderful creative outlet – I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing and also how interesting it is to learn how to use a DSLR camera
4. ‘For the blog’ has been the reason for many an interesting adventure this past year
5. I like reading me live feed, how things I write about end up in other people’s google searches on the opposite side of the world
6. most importantly, the friends I have made.

What lies ahead?

 I hope to keep writing as Sydney Shop Girl for as long as I can.

It is a great gift to be able to freely publish ones photos and words in a medium that is immediate and allows potentially any other individual to wonder over and have a gander.

Thank you for the opportunity, Carly and everyone else who kindly reads this.

(All photos from Sculpture by the Sea, 2010 at Bondi Beach.)

http://sydneyshopgirl.blogspot.com 

Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute: So Now What?

Welcome to the Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute series on my blog. It's to celebrate my birthday and blogiversary week. Each day until and including 15 December I will feature a guest blogger who I admire. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I did collating it.

Bern Morley from So Now What? has a talent. She's successfully drawn me in to her blog which is part of a genre that I have little interest in. The Mummy Blog.

She writes her blog with such wit, intelligence, honesty and compassion that I can't help but love her blog. Even though I don't have children, I can relate to her so well.

Bern likes Savage Garden and is not afraid to blog about it - big tick! Bern tells funny and sometimes poo-filled stories about her kids. And heartfelt ones. She made me cry with the story of her mother's decline in health. And this blog entry about her father is one of the most moving pieces of writing I've ever read.

I've come to know her through Facebook and Twitter, and will be meeting her next March. She's beautiful inside and out. And I know she'd fight me for Callan Mulvey. Game on, Bern. But let everyone read your guest blog before we have the showdown!

Guest blog by Bern Morley:

WHY I BLOG

If you had asked me if I blog eighteen months ago, I would have thought you were enquiring as to my toileting habits. To be quite honest, you could have spoken Norwegian to me and made more sense, such was my ignorance.

Around that time though, I started using Twitter. I had tried Twitter before that, and it just hadn’t stuck. It was like I was sending little 140 character statements off into the ether and I guess I felt like a bit of dick. But this third time, more than likely because I was bored, I followed some local people and they answered me back. And then I got Retweeted for something witty I had said and BAM, I got it. Like Whitney to a crack pipe, twitter was my new addiction.

It wasn’t long before I noticed people tweeting about their blogs and I clicked their links to discover what in the hell they were talking about. I was and still am, an avid reader, so to think I may have missed out on all of this diverse information for so long kind of bummed me out. Imagine if these had been accessible to me when I couldn’t get my son to sleep all those years ago? Or when my 2 year old daughter at the time, started having night terrors? I especially wish I had been aware when our son was first diagnosed with Aspergers. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have felt so alone and ashamed of myself. Shared experiences count for so much more than any kind of information pamphlet a doctor can hand out.

I am a pretty bog standard working mother of three in the two thousand and tens. I am not crafty or incredibly talented in any one area. I have one child with Aspergers, one on the cusp of leaving her innocence and naivety behind, and one who is a natural disaster on legs. My husband, a plumber, just comes along for the ride in this theme park of a life and for the most part, does not complain.

I guess that doesn’t really explain why I blog.

To be completely l honest, I started blogging because I thought I had a book inside of me. Some years before, I had woken up one morning and seemingly out of nowhere, penned two chapters of a book. Then that was it. It was left to fester in the wasteland that is my overworked hard drive. So, probably more than likely trying to avoid an assignment one night, I signed myself up to blogger and then I posted those two chapters as my first blog post. And then I ran and hid in the toilet and held my breath.

Eventually I came back to face the music. And to my surprise and delight, not only were there comments but there were lovely comments. Encouraging. Almost instantly, I was addicted. Addicted to the positive (and sometimes negative) responses to something I, Bernadette Morley, wrote with my own hands and mind.

The funny thing is, I’ve gone back and read those two chapters and they are complete shit, but I do have them to thank for getting me started and keeping me there.

Thanks Carly. You are one of the other reasons I blog. Because you are inspirational, funny and quite possibly are one of the most unique individuals I have ever met without actually meeting. Oh, and you have the best freaking dress sense in the world. Thanks for having me. xxoo

http://bernmorley.blogspot.com/

Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute: Kendi Everyday

Welcome to the Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute series on my blog. It's to celebrate my birthday and blogiversary week. Each day until and including 15 December I will feature a guest blogger who I admire. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I did collating it.

Kendi is the kind of fashion blogger you you yearn to be friends with. She's from Kendi Everyday. As her blog name suggests, she documents her outfits everyday. 

She hails from Texas, and I found her through a recommendation on the Vogue Forums. 

Kendi does fashion AND funny. She's clever. Really clever. One reason is because of her talent of and complexion that lends itself to wearing mustard well. Let's face it. Not many people can wear mustard well.

And I wish I could wear shorts as well as Kendi. And if I ever went to her house, she'd have to lock away this dress because I love it and pretty much want to marry it.

Kendi does a fashion remix thing where she takes 30 items from her wardrobe and mixes them with accessories over 30 days, creating a different outfit every day. This is my favourite remix from her previous 30 by 30.

Kendi's like a quirky and beautiful Zooey Deschanel character, but she happens to exist in real life. 

Thanks for writing from across the seas, Kendi. 

Guest blog by Kendi Lea:

How has blogging changed my life? The only answer to this question is indefinitely. 

I started blogging at Kendi Everyday about a year ago. Had someone told me that it would evolve into what it is and I would become the person I am today, I'm not sure if I would have even started it. I know that sounds weird, but its true. Status quo usually wins, so anything out of the norm scares me away. This blog is anything but normal for my life. My life was supposed to go this way: graduate college, get married, get a good job, start a family, raise family, go on an alaskan cruise for 30th wedding anniversary, the end. But somehow my life made a detour when I started Kendi Everyday. I've "met" so many wonderful new friends that I talk to weekly. I've been able to find my personal style and in turn save money on clothing, since I'm not wasting my money on something I'll never wear. My husband has found a true passion in photography, even though we knew the talent was there all along. Most importantly, I found a voice to write to and an audience who wants to hear it. The words aren't always there, but the voice is. For that reason alone, my life has changed and every day I am so thankful for it. 

Kendi Everyday was never supposed to happen. It was a hiccup in the life that someone else had planned for me. And it's been the best interruption so far. 

Thank you Carly for letting me guest blog today! Happy Birthday to your blog and to you!

http://kendieveryday.blogspot.com/ 

Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute: Business Chic + Bon Jovi review

This is a bit of a different Enough about me, let's talk about YOU for a minute blog entry. My friend and fashion blogger/multimedia extraordinaire, Cheryl and I went to see Bon Jovi last night (11 December at Etihad Stadium Melbourne). She has written a guest blog below. Before it though, I will tell you about our Bon Jovi experience.

Cheryl has a fantastic fashion blog called Business Chic which showcases the stylish workers on the streets of Melbourne. I've been following her blog since I read about it on the Vogue Forums, probably her third blog entry in. She is a talented writer and photographer, and provides me with lots of inspiration for dressing for work.

As Cheryl will tell you in her guest blog, I met her in person when she photographed me for Business Chic. Tonight was the second time we met - and it was lovely to catch up properly. She is such a beautiful, caring person.

It was Cheryl's childhood dream to go to a Bon Jovi concert. And tonight she wore her Bon Jovi tshirt which she has had since she was in grade five. The jumper comes with funny story - when she was in grade five, she wanted to go to Bon Jovi, and asked her Dad to take her, but he didn't want to go. So he bought her the jumper as a consolation. Recently when she told her Dad she was finally seeing Jon Bon Jovi in concert, he told her 'you know he's an old man now!'.

Our night started with two unfortunate yet funny events. The first was that the Docklands restaurants were all booked out, and we were buffeted from the buffet we wanted to eat at (despite them having many empty tables).

The second was that the fierce wind blew my tickets out of my hand, and I shrieked while Cheryl ran after them. Fortunately they blew on the ground for a few metres, and Cheryl rescued them - clutching them to her heavily beating chest until we entered the stadium!

I am so lucky to have gone with a serious Bon Jovi fan! Cheryl knew all the words to his classic songs. She sang with passion. It was very cute to see her brimming with emotion about seeing Bon Jovi in concert - at one point she said 'I have no words'. Adorable. Much of the first hour for Cheryl was spent in a state of overwhelming awe:

Bon Jovi were amazing, and it was no wonder Cheryl was in awe after being a fan for so long. Like some of the other bands I'd never thought I'd see but have done recently (U2, Crowded House, Hunters and Collectors), I was so excited to see Bon Jovi, credible leather clad power balladeers.

(source)

Bon Jovi played for two and a half hours. The band has such stamina. They were jumping and singing and breaking a sweat. Jon Bon Jovi is 48. With great teeth. And charisma. Jon Bon Jovi made a comment that he is the only one with big hair.

And the band has such an extensive catalogue of hits. Living on a Prayer. Bad Medicine, You Give Love A Bad Name, Dead Or Alive, I'll be there for You, Always, Someday I'll be Saturday Night, It's My Life, Have a Nice Day, Runaway, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Keep the Faith... The setlist is here. In the middle of Bad Medicine there was a jukebox projected on screen and Bon Jovi inserted a medley of other songs: Roadhouse Blues and Shout. And During I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the jukebox theme came back and the band sang Start Me Up.

Jon Bon Jovi interacted with the audience and the band, much more than Bono did at U2's concert last week. The stadium was packed. At one point Jon compared Friday night's concert at Rod Laver Arena to the Etihad Stadium concert: 'That was like a club gig compared to this. This is going to be better'.

The band didn't need special stage effects to hook the audience. Just rock and roll, and interaction did it. The songs are timeless. The audience were so enthused. It was more vibrant than U2. The energy was electric, even in the very back row where we were. Almost everyone sang along to every song even the lesser known ones. A few verses of Wanted Dead or Alive were sung solely by the audience. Jon asked the audience whether we wanted him to sing the song.

Jon Bon Jovi got into the local spirit by wearing a Melbourne Heart soccer jersey during the encore. Apparently he is the club's number one international ticket holder. Unfortunately Melbourne Heart had lost the game against Melbourne Victory. last night. And Jon couldn't make it to the game either because he was playing a concert at the same time.

A friend of mine wrote on her Facebook 'Looking forward to ultimate 'mass karaoke' night out - the Bon Jovi Concert!'. This was so true! Cheryl and my voices were sore from singing. We punched the air like the rest of the stadium. We sang our hearts out! Here is an example of my karaoke during my favourite song of the night, Always:

Thanks for the great concert experience Cheryl! I had so much fun letting my inner bogan rock out! And thanks for writing the guest blog!

Guest blog by Cheryl Lin:

I started up my Melbourne-based streetstyle fashion blog, Business Chic on March 1^st of this year. I was about to say it hasn’t changed my life but honestly in some little ways it has…

Because of Business Chic, I now have an excuse to ask well-dressed folk about what they’re wearing and where it’s from. Like a great pair of shoes, cute skirt (Target has been popular!), great accessories or a beautifully cut suit. No more waiting for the train, staring wistfully at a great bag, tie or wondering where that gorgeous lippy is from – I go find out and in some cases have great conversations with lovely Melburnians that leave me with a spring in my step. Sometimes I even hear back from the featuree saying my compliment left them smiling too!

My blog is my portfolio and has led to me photographing and writing for a number of streetstyle fashion websites. It means I get to meet more emerging designers who I hope to one day be able to profile on BusinessChicTV or my other project – the eco-chic ThreeChicsTV. It means I get to use what I’m learning to style and photograph great projects like for the Melbourne Zoo. Did you know that the Melbourne Zoo has a program that helps families and wildlife in Northern Kenya survive drought? It’s called Beads for Wildlife – and now you know!

But most importantly, having a blog has led me to meet other bloggers which as one other blogger Poppy Get’s a Life! once said to me – “is unexpected but really so lovely.” I agree that it is indeed the cherry on top. I’d been reading Carly’s blog and was surprised when a Carly Findlay started popping up with comments on Business Chic – a lurker on Radio Carly, I’d always been too shy to actually leave a comment – and then, there she was – ON MINE!

Around that time, a designer whose work I’d featured on Business Chic (Alexi Freeman) invited me to blog from his pop-up store at the GPO. So I did and invited my readers to come visit me and felt quite cheeky when I asked Carly to come visit me so I could photograph her for Business Chic – AND THEN SHE ACTUALLY DID!

Business Chic is about individuals who put in the effort to showcase their personality within the confines of a workplace dresscode – and I was thrilled that Carly liked the photos enough to blog about them. Because there is nothing more exciting than someone you like, liking your work. Oh WAIT – YES THERE IS!

It’s when that other person is the only other person you know IN THE WORLD who will come with you and let you be a daggy bogan at the concert of your childhood hero – BON JOVI. Happy Blogiversary Radio Carly – I can hear your laughter in your gorgeous writing and it makes me happy. I hope we do some TV collab one day but in the meantime I look forward to more laughs and fun with you in the future. Xx Cheryl

http://businesschic.com.au/

www.Twitter.com/busichic