What I Wore

Dress: Target

Brooch: Made By White

Bag: Jag

Shoes: Salt Water Sandals

I bought this dress a couple of days before Christmas when Target was having their Winter stock clearance. I have trouble finding dresses with t-shirt sleeves that I like, so I figured the next best thing to do was to buy a long sleeved dress and take it over to my Mum's and give her something fun to do! She cut the sleeves off and sewed them over in five minutes and then boom! I had a lovely new summer dress long enough to wear without stockings or tights! This dress has become a fast favourite, and I've worn this outfit for two out of the three days I've had free this year. 

Start Your Week Off With..

DIY Scalloped Photobooth Backdrop by Poppytalk

Just For Fun, Hanging Tea Cups by Her Library Adventures

4 Fun Ways To Use Your Instagram Photos by The Glue Gun Girl

Nail Photos From My Phone by LoveElycia

To Let Things Go

A creative lady I know posted this on Facebook late last year and it has been on my mind ever since. I'm not normally one for these sayings and to post them, but this is something in particular I've been working on about myself - letting things go. For as long as I can remember I've been one to hold ridiculous grudges over things that simply just do not matter. I've lived in houses with people and not spoken to them for months on end because forgiving them and letting it go just wasn't something that I could previously consider at the time. I also let it bother me for kilometres afterwards when cars cut me off at roundabouts. Even though I've accidentally cut cars off in the exact same circumstance. 

Learning to let go of those completely unnecessary bouts of anger and annoyance has freed up so much of my energy that can be invested in the things that do matter. I still get hung up on silly things like customers at my work, but it is a matter of being able to remove your self from the situation and learn to not be so sensitive about everything. A lady I work with told me I was a little too sensitive about other peoples reactions and just having that said to me was as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Such a simple observation really made me think about why things bothered me & if they were truly worth worrying about.

The area I live in has a roundabout almost everywhere you turn, so being cut off is a regular occurrence. While Luke & I were out and about last week I was cut off quite close and rather than let it bother me and trigger a bout of road rage I was able to center myself and focus on just how easy it is to make such a mistake and it wasn't as if the other driver wanted to cause an accident. And by the time the thought unfurled I was off the roundabout and Luke & I had already started talking about something else. Being able to stop myself and question the situation has helped me to not take anything unnecessary on board. And evaluate the things I need to let go of. 

(If you know the source of this image, please leave me a comment so I can link it correctly)

Start Your Week Off With..

5 Uses For Going Bad Apples by A Royal Daughter

Travel Bag Necessities by Maiedae

These Days by The Charley Girl

Pop Of Colour by Boringspice

My first 'start your week off with..' post for the year! I cannot tell you how exciting it is to actually have internet access again! It is almost as exciting as coming home from work with crossed fingers and finding a problem fixed on its own! On Friday my Mac either endured a power outage or was having a mood swing. When I sat down to it to work on my cousin's wedding invitations, it was upon opening Illustrator to my horror that all my fonts were gone. I tried re-installing all the font files to no avail and gave up trying to fix the problem and went to bed. After work on Saturday I came home to try and get it all sorted, but my Mac had sorted itself out and things were once again fine and dandy! Problems that fix themselves are the best kind. 

Have a lovely little week!

How Has Your Year Been So Far?

It feels like forever that I've been actually able to use my computer! I mentioned in my previous post that my internet connection was down for almost a month, but as of today it has all been sorted so I'm back in business. Which means that this post is a little late.

I've been trying to work as much as I can before the last month or so of my pregnancy approaches when I might not be able to do as much. So lately I've been working six days a week, and it has really been the best thing for me. During my first trimester I was working around four to five days a week and I found on my days off I would just sleep and eat unnecessarily. I had a conversation with my sister Ash one afternoon where I was telling her how hungry I was and how I had been eating more often and she quickly snapped some sense into me that I wasn't in fact eating for two and I was eating unnecessarily. And I had noticed that I had put on a little bit of weight quite quickly, so even though I thought it was a little snappy initially it was one of the best things she could have said to me. After that I planned my meals more carefully and found that I haven't put on much weight at all. And as of next Friday I'll be six months pregnant, and my baby belly is starting to show now! Keeping busy has definitely made these six months just fly by.

Since the Christmas period I've only had a couple of days off, one being New Years Day in which I got to spend it with Luke. We went out for breakfast, spent a couple of hours with my parents and went on an evening picnic in the park to have our dinner. Dinner picnics are by far my favourite kind of picnic. Luke made a salad, some bruschetta with sour dough toast, he packed some deli delights for himself and I cut up some fruit. The park near our house backs onto the beach so it was nice to eat dinner on a picnic rug by the water. It was especially nice to see families on holidays with their children having dinner picnics, and to think how next summer we'll be able to take our baby on dinner picnics with us. 

The only other day I've had free this year was last Friday where Luke & I ventured to Sydney for his birthday. It was a bit of a disastrous day, but for the lovely part of the day we had a nice breakfast together, I bought some cute shoes, and we went to the Francis Bacon retrospective exhibition at the art gallery. Even though a chunk of his paintings he destroyed, he left behind such a great body of work. I haven't always been a fan of his work, but after seeing it all together it made sense and flowed intrinsically. If you're in Sydney while its still exhibiting I would definitely recommend paying it a visit. 

So that is what I've been up to so far this year. I'm looking forward to having an afternoon where I can catch up on all your lovely blogs. Leave me a comment if you've found new blogs, stumbled upon old ones or would like me to visit yours. I'll need somewhere to start when I have a spare afternoon later in the week!

Happy New Year

2012 just flew by for me. I got into a pattern of working a lot more than I anticipated, which left me with less time to work on my 2012 goal I had set for myself - which was to draw more. I wanted to work on a cute children's story and start a little comic, both of which I didn't make the time for. When I first started working at the cafe I saw the benefits of it not being full time so I could spend the other half of my week developing my illustrative skills, working on prints I could sell in an Etsy store I planned to start during the year and do commissioned illustrations. I was lucky enough to be commissioned to do a dozen or so custom illustrations and found it to be a rather rewarding hobby. I can't wait to do more in the new year, and when the holiday period is over I'd like to do a custom portrait giveaway on my blog.

My blog grew a lot during the year, and even though in the last few months things have been a little quiet around, I've still received so much love from all of you. I've been thinking a lot the past couple of days about some new things I'd like to do on here and post more regularly. And just as my blogging inspiration has returned, my internet has slowed down to a sleeping tortoises pace. The lovely suburb I live in has a lot of holiday goers visiting at the moment, making connecting to the internet basically impossible. So when everyone starts to clear out and work starts to quieten down, things will be back on track!

While I didn't complete my drawing goals for 2012 because of my work commitments, I did however achieve my other goal - which was to save more money than I spent. Luke & I established a saving system & a budget that worked for us better than we expected. And just in time, because towards the end of 2012 our direction changed entirely when we found out we were having a baby! We both couldn't be more excited about meeting our little baby, and I can't wait to share more about he/she with you all. The few times I have been able to get online I've enjoyed reading about your 2012 recaps and new years resolutions. Because the end of the year snuck up on me, I didn't really have much time to think about what my 2013 resolutions would be. So I'm going to settle for working on my time management skills. And making the time for things that matter to me. I've been so busy with work lately I didn't even realise New Years Eve was happening until the day prior when an elderly lady asked me what my plans were! I spent the evening drinking tea and watching season two of Pretty Little Liars, and it was exactly how I wanted to end the year! 

Happy New Year!