iBlog Friday - Our weekly roundup of Aussie Bloggers

At iVillage we’re passionate about supporting Australian bloggers. That’s why we’ve created iBlog Friday.

It's a chance for bloggers introduce their favourite post of the week to iVillage readers and for our community to read what Aussie writers are up to.

Here are the bloggers who have sent their submissions this week to [email protected]. Happy reading!

Stephanie Rogers of She Said What? shares a special family moment remembering a lost loved one and her encounter with haunted vodka in her post, Excuse me, there's a ghost in my vodka.

We were looking through the cupboard where alcohol is kept. All the shiny new bottles at the front were wine and Jim Beam and various other not-vodka items. We moved all these aside and found a few very old, very dusty bottles. We blew off the dust, sneezed and coughed, and then examined our find. It was two bottles of my late grandfather’s home brew vodka. At least 10 years old. We had no idea what was in it. One bottle contained strange fermented orange bits, perhaps orange peels? Perhaps some kind of 10 year old fermented mould?

Read the rest of Stephanie's post here.

Erin Patel of Coffee talk with Erin: Bookgirloz talks about moments of sadness in an otherwise happy life and how she deals with them in her post Life can be sad..it's how you deal with it that counts.

It can be hard as a mum. Do you let your children see you feeling sad?

It is my belief that it is important to let your children see how you deal with all of the emotions, including sadness in limited quantities. I would like for them to see that sadness or being down is normal and that they are entitled to those feelings. I would like for them to see how I deal with being sad. That I will feel better soon.

Read the rest of Erin's post here.

Katrina Wood of The (mildly) Opinionated Manager explains her top 5 motivators to succeed in her post Top 5 Professional Influences.

I’ve been challenged to think of a Top Five, and whilst the initial brief was more along the lines of personal favourites, in keeping with the theme of this blog I have chosen to reflect on my professional life, and in particular the big influences on my behaviour as a leader and a manager.  And if you are more interested in the fave songs/movies types of lists, scroll to the bottom of the post as I couldn’t really resist the chance to share just a little bit more of the not-at-work me!

Read the rest of Katrina's post here.

Joanna Hill of Love, Life & Beauty Therapy explains what's standing between you and good skin in her post The top 3 skincare mistakes we all make.

Professional skin care ranges often don’t have the same exposure as the products that come from department stores or chemists but they are developed by smaller skin care companies who have a real passion for what they do. These companies prefer to spend the money on the best quality ingredients and scientific research rather than on the fancy packaging or marketing campaigns. In other words, when it comes to skincare you want to date the science geek NOT the handsome liar!

Read the rest of Joanna's post here.

Caylie Jeffery of Distractions of a busy mother describes confronting but necessary conversations she has with her elderly parents in her post Shall we listen to the Walrus…

In truth, we haven't extended the house for our children. Nor have we done it for ourselves, directly. We made a decision to pave the way for our parents to come and live with us when they can no longer care for themselves. When we worked on the plans for the bathroom, we made it accessible for a wheelchair. When we put the kitchen and living area downstairs, we made sure the 'spare bedroom' was right nearby, so we could keep a close eye on its future occupants.

Read the rest of Caylie's post here.