See you later 2013, its been a blast!

2013 has been incredible, and has gone incredibly fast. Even though this is the last day of the year, I still have this unsettling feeling about it coming to an end because it still feels as though the year is lingering around the April/May/June part. It most certainly does not feel like the 31st of December. When people told me that having a baby makes the time go by faster I didn't quite understand how that could be, especially when some weeks during my pregnancy seemed to go by at a snails pace. But now I am ending the year with an 8 month old baby and that alone is quite overwhelming. This year was big for Luke & I, we started the year off with a dinner picnic in the park talking about how much things were going to change for us in 2013, but we had no idea just how much they would. We both kept busy working and on the odd day off together we would rush around trying to get things organised. We  bought a new car, applied for and paid off our very first bank loan, we moved house at the last minute, and welcomed our beautiful daughter Romy into the world a month early.

Romy's early arrival was one of the biggest challenges Luke & I have had so far, firstly because we had barely unpacked our things in our new house, and secondly I did not prepare myself for a caesarean, or the recovery process. I kept my mind occupied with working and making lists of all the things I had to get organised before hand that I never actually read any of the material I was given at my midwife appointments. I started to read a little bit about the birthing process and got really overwhelmed, and that was that, I had read enough. Even though my hospital experience was awful, in hindsight I can't help but think that everything happened exactly the way it was suppose to. And although the start was a bit rocky, this motherhood thing has been one of the best experiences of my life. Luke & I didn't plan to have a baby, but the universe gave us Romy at exactly the right time. It is sometimes even hard to believe we never had her! Before Romy, I had next to no experience with children, so much so I changed my first nappy in hospital. I didn't know how to bath or burp a baby, or the importance of being organised because I've never had to organise anyone else except for myself. And I can sometimes get a little too laid back with things. So 2013 has been a big learning curve for me. 

When the end of the year comes around I start to panic about finishing off books, projects, drawings and crossing the last thing off one of my lists. And this year is no different, only I am just as excited about the new year ticking over as I am panicked. So many wonderful things will be happening in the New Year, for one we will be moving and will no longer be living amongst some of the most unreasonable people I have encountered in all my renting years. Which will take a huge pressure off, as these neighbours create a drama on a weekly basis. Even as I type this my neighbour is watching my house with the creepiest smile I have ever seen. Luke will be changing jobs so he no longer will be working for an employer who has little family values. I will be able to see more of my best friend who has recently had a baby herself, so that will be wonderful seeing our babies play and grow together. And I will be changing some things up on my blog in the New Year. There is so much to look forward to, and I am looking forward to sharing it all here! See you next year!

Three Out Of Four Isn't So Bad

Early November I set myself four simple goals to work on during the last part of the year inspired by Elsie's goals from A Beautiful Mess. I wanted to spend more of my spare time making things, cross a couple of things off Romy's 'firsts' list, be more creative at meal times and step outside my comfort zone. I didn't quite get all four crossed off, so working on creative meals will have to go on the 2014 agenda!

Although I didn't accomplish all four of my goals, I happily crossed off 'spend time making things' first and was very impressed with myself with this one. I find that I have so many ideas for creative projects, and little time/motivation for them. I can't remember where I read this, but recently I came across a really helpful bit of advice that really motivated me with this particular goal, 'you will never find the time to do anything unless you make the time'. So one night after Romy was well and truly asleep I got out my craft box and made a felt Christmas decoration, and after one I was really inspired to make more. Luke & I decided to only put up a small tree this year because we all wouldn't be together for Christmas, so I only made four decorations for our tree and another one for a friend. I really enjoyed making these and will definitely be whipping up a few more for next years tree!

One of the most important firsts for Romy for me was going on her first picnic, and picnic she did! The end of November and early December went by so fast I didn't get to do as much as I would have liked in regards to Romy. She did however get her first tooth, start rocking back and forth on all fours, put her pacifier in her mouth on her own, started to dance to music on her own accord, and can say 'mum' & 'dad' (just not to us on purpose!). 

Setting the goal of stepping outside my comfort zone made me think about just how much I hold back in doing things. I posted earlier in the month about stepping outside my comfort zone with some different dress choices, and for my designated Christmas outfit I made the conscious effort to pick something I normal wouldn't. I have almost next to nothing bright and colourful in my closet, so while I was waiting for my Mum to finish work before we left for our road trip last week I quickly bought a bright pink & orange dress from a local boutique to wear on Christmas day. I also went to a mothers group baby craft day, which is something I wouldn't normally do. And it was even more out of my comfort zone as I only knew one of the mothers there, and it was in Sydney. I have never driven in Sydney so that was a whole other accomplishment in itself! 

Pin Of The Week

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The house that Luke, Romy & I currently live in has a psychotic oven, I'm talking can bake a lasagne in  ten minutes kind of psycho. So this means that we are very limited with what actually goes in there, and baking the likes of breads and cookies is completely out of the question. So I like to spend a great deal of time thinking about all of the amazing treats I will (learn to) bake when our lease ends up in March and we move. And when I do begin my baking adventures I will be sure to invest in the sweetest little cookie stamp I can find!

Romy's First Christmas (in a nutshell)

Monday afternoon we drove to Gunnedah

Romy woke up to different bed buddies

We visited Kristal & Elsie for morning tea

Romy helped out making rum balls on Christmas Eve

A family dinner & cocktails out at my cousins super cute farm house. Lots of cocktails.

Christmas morning opening presents with Uncle Al & Aunty Ash

I received this amazing mermaid brooch

Almost everyone in my family has a pair of Salt Water Sandals 

Christmas selfies

Christmas part 2 with Luke (he had to stay back & work on Christmas day #boo)

Romy Bear with her new Care Bears

Romy's first Christmas was wonderful! We went back to Gunnedah, a small country town where I was born and grew up. Most of my family still live there, and the cousins that have moved away were home for Christmas. So I got to spend the day with most of my family, which was just the best! We arrived in Gunnedah Monday night & I spent the evening talking to my Granny. Tuesday morning Romy & I visited an old high school friend and her super cute daughter and we had cups of tea and drooled over all of her lovely things. After our visit we went back to my Granny's house to make rum balls, and then we had a family dinner with my family that live a little bit out of town in this really amazing farm house. They have the most impressive bar cart you have ever seen, and we had lots of cocktails. We also spilled lots of cocktails! I woke up on Christmas morning feeling slightly unwell, but watching Romy enjoy her first Christmas morning opening presents distracted me until my teeny tiny hangover passed. We did the Christmas visiting rounds before we went to my Aunty's for our family Christmas dinner. After a few days away I'm generally keen to get back to my routine and own space, but I was a little sad to leave Gunnedah and my family this time around because we had such a wonderful time together!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas you guys!

Currently

Reading:  To be completely honest I haven't been reading a lot of anything the last couple of weeks. I'm finishing up the last part of 'The Happiness Project' by Getchen Rubin and not really wanting it to end I've enjoyed it so much. 

Watching: Re-watching season 1 of The Mindy Project. I love Danny Costellano so much, and I really can't wait to see when Mindy see's it too! I'm also loving Morgan's character a lot more the third time around, he initially was my least favourite, but I totally love his over the top in a controlled kind of crazy. I've also been re-watching Modern Family and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, picking episodes at random to watch while I'm having cups of tea during nap time. 

Listening to: late 90's & early 00's RnB. I got stuck on youtube one night watching a Beyonce clip and the youtube rabbit hole got me with their recommendations. And that was that! A song that Luke & I reference quite a lot and sing randomly is 'Return of The Mack', so that has been on high rotation and now I can't get it out of my head!

Thinking about: All the fun Romy & I are going to be having while we're back home for a couple of days over Christmas. We'll be going to a family dinner out at my Aunty & Uncles awesome country house, making Christmas treats with my Granny, catching up with some old friends, and spending lots of time with my family. Romy loves being around people, so she is going to love it!

Working on: my new blog design and a menu. I wanted to make a couple of changes to my blog overall in the New Year and the design was the first thing I started making changes to. I can't wait to see it up and running! Also, this week a friend opened up a pizza cafe with his partner and I designed their table menu the night before they needed to be printed. It was a very last minute job, and will be doing some more work on it in a few weeks.

Loving: Kikki.K stationery. With my store birthday voucher I bought a '3 am Notebook' which has super cute designs and inspirational quotes on every page. I almost don't want to write in it because the pages are so pretty. I've also been eyeing off some of their stamps sets and will be snapping them up next time I'm at the shops. 

Anticipating: Romy's first Christmas! Luke unfortunately won't be coming back to Gunnedah with us as he has to work Christmas day, so when we get home late afternoon on Boxing Day we will be having our Christmas together then and opening our presents from each other so Luke still gets to have some sort of Christmas with Romy. And I'm definitely up for prolonging the gift giving so there is something extra exciting about getting home. 

BRB

Romy & I are just about to go pick my Mum up so we can begin our little road trip back home. We'll be picking my sister up along the way from Newcastle and then our car trip fun will begin! I'll be back after Thursday, with a couple of super low key posts scheduled. I hope you all have a safe & lovely Christmas break with your family & loved ones xoxo

Start Your Week Off With.. (feature final)

Potato stamped wrapping paper by Delightfully Tacky

Hello by The Love Cat

A happy New Year letter exchange by Sincerely, Cam

Around here by Enjoy It

This will be the final 'start your week off with..' post. I've been doing these weekly posts now for about two years and feel like it is time to move onto something different. Next year I will be making some content direction changes, and one of those changes will be doing a monthly links post. I'm looking forward to sharing the lovely things I come across throughout the month.

Today

I took five minutes out to myself during nap time before the mini-holiday stress begins

Washed every last thing possible before I go

Finallly got around to wrapping our Christmas presents. And this is almost quite possibly one of my least favourite things to do, I am so bad at it!

And spent the rest of the day with a sad, teething baby bear. Even though today sucked for Romy, she still managed to stay in relatively good spirits. 

Pin Of The Week

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These clear umbrellas always seem to be on my wish list, but never seem to be on my mind at the shops. I definitely will be needing one for next Winter. 

Our Tuesday Night Trip To The E.D

On Tuesday night Luke & I were just sitting down to have dinner when we heard an odd coughing sound coming from upstairs. We raced up to Romy's room to find her in a pool of vomit, something I hope to never see again. She was really scared and upset, but after we gave her reassuring hugs & a bath to clean her up she seemed fine. She was even checking herself out in the bathroom mirror like she usually does, and was laughing. Not long after we settled her and she fell asleep in Luke's arms was she woken up by another intense bout of spewing. We cleaned her up as quick as we could, put her in a onesie and drove to the hospital to have her checked out. Even though she seemed fine Luke & I were both really rattled by seeing her face down in her vomit, and wanted to be on the safe side of things. As soon as we got her out of the car at the hospital she was fine! Sitting in the waiting room amongst people with serious injuries, Romy decided to test out her new fake laugh. I think she was most excited to one, be around lots of new people, and two, to be having a late night adventure. When she was in the paediatrician ward under observation she was having the best time talking and laughing, and with so many other obviously sick patients around we felt like we were wasting a bed. After some electrolytes and an examination we were good to go. We had a follow up phone call the next morning to let us know that her test results didn't show anything serious and it was most likely a 24-hour viral bug that is going around in the area. All in all, it was the preferred kind of late night hospital visit, and we're extremely lucky to have a healthy child!

Lately

 My Mum & I have our birthdays two days apart so we went for birthday brunch with my sister in Newcastle

Romy & I went to a baby crafternoon with our friends Renee & Oscar in Parramatta

Romy opened some of her first Christmas presents

and got to spend some time with her friend Xander

Luke's family came to visit

and we exchanged Christmas presents

Romy has been loving the festive season with all this present opening business. She has already received so many lovely gifts, and has especially been enjoying the wrapping paper. I can't wait to go back to Gunnedah for Christmas this year so she can be around our family as she loves being around lots of people. We have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks that I only realised today just how soon Christmas actually is! I've been really excited about the end of the year, but that excitement is now starting to become end of year anxiety. I'm going to feel a lot better when we finish up the last of our shopping tomorrow.

December Wishlist

Mimco Facet Bezel Spike Stud

Neon Green Small Macrame Plant Hanger

Pantone Tea Pot

Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Lotion

Mimco Victorian Satchel

Rose Quartz Point Pendant Necklace

My Neighbours Ruined My Birthday

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Last Friday it was my birthday, and even though I'm not too into my own birthday I was excited to turn 25. My day started off nice enough with morning hugs from Romy, well thought out gifts from Luke & cups of tea with my sweet friend Sarah who had stayed over the night before. I dropped Luke off to work, and Sarah home on my way to the shops so I could pick up a couple of Christmas gifts and buy myself a birthday treat from Kikki.K (which is my new favourite shop). After a semi successful trip to the shops Romy & I pottered about the house before we went out to get a coffee from the cafe I work out. On our way out of the complex as we were driving down the driveway we passed a neighbour that we have very little to do with aside from a quick hello here and there. He was walking down the middle of the driveway and in his own time moved over so I could drive past him. As I passed him it seemed a little odd that he didn't say hello, but I quickly forgot about it and kept going on my way. When I got home and parked in my garage I was getting out of my car just about to close the garage door when I saw that he was standing behind my car with steam coming out of his ears, and this was when things started to go down hill. Rather than say hello, he asked me if I knew the speed limit for the driveway and without letting me answer proceeded to tell me that I took the driveway at 50 kilometres, when the speed limit is 8 km & that I almost killed him. I told him that it was rather impossible to drive that fast, to which he said 'well you were at least driving 40 km, you tried to run me over', and that was when I realised he was drunk. My 70-something year old neighbour was blind drunk at 2 pm, abusing me on my birthday while my other neighbours were either watching from their windows, or standing out the front watching from their doors. From this point the afternoon turned into a circus.

The lady that lives directly across from me has made complaints to our real estate since the second night we have lived here. She is your typical busy body that thrives on drama, so Friday afternoon was heaven for her. It took her less than ten minutes to get on the phone (I actually heard her making these calls) to the real estate, the owner and the strata agent letting them know that I am a reckless driver and how it especially concerns her as she worries for the safety of my child. There was so much back and forth in between houses that the complex was buzzing with retiree drama, and by the end of the weekend the actual events of Friday afternoon had changed entirely. Things escalated with the neighbour who started everything and first thing on Monday morning we went to the police station to make a complaint about it. This is not something I would normally do as I really don't like all the fuss, but after telling other people about the situation and being told numerous times (by the real estate included) to alert the police, we did. On our way there we received another phone call from our real estate asking us if our door were broken because apparently we "close them too loudly". Another complaint from our nosey neighbour trying to make things worse. 

A week has almost passed and I still cannot believe how my neighbours carried on, especially considering they are all over 50. Aside from Romy crying, we are the quietest people that live in the complex yet get the most complaints because we are renters in our mid twenties. Our lease ends in March and after the weekends events it could not come soon enough!

Start Your Week Off With..

My RVA: Around Addison by A Girl Names Leney

Weekend Project: Washi Tape Cables 

Gifting For Bookworms by Bookworms In Dresses

Making Miniature Food by Nerd Burger

How To Start A Movement by Anne The Adventurer

Enjoy your week!

Four Simple Goals: Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone

(thanks for the photo Rikki)

Last month I posted about my four simple goals before 2014, and one of those goals was to step outside my comfort zone a little more. And one way in which I feel I have started to do so is with my recent dress purchases. I normally stick to knee length t-shirt style dresses with stockings and flats, but I wanted to get more wear out of my salt water sandals and the only way to do that was to ditch my stockings. So I started looking for different styles of dresses and eventually came across these long, cap sleeved smocks at a no name (literally, the shop doesn't have a sign) dress shop across from a cafe Luke & I go to, and snapped up three of them! They're ankle length sack style smock dresses that go perfectly with my sandals and are a quick and easy dress choice in the mornings. This sort of dress is something I would secretly covet, but not actually buy, so by purchasing three I think I have well and truly stepped out of my comfort zone! One goal achieved!

Monthly Agenda / December

TUNE / NEED / MEAL / READ

After I started reading 'the happiness project' last month I was so motivated to start getting organised for the New Year, and I started making tiny little changes like cleaning up my bookmarks folder and going through all the links I had saved. I deleted a lot of the links/pages/blogs I no longer read or visit and made the list short and manageable. In the process I found a couple of really neat blogs that have become fast favourites and one in particular that I am getting well acquainted with is Elise Blahah's blog Enjoy It. Another blog that I've been loving recently is 'Oh My Veggies', a vegetarian food blog where I found this delicious looking brussels sprout and apple tart with walnut pesto recipe. I can't wait for Luke to whip that up on his next day off!

Today We..

started our day a little later than usual

after nap time we went out for coffee

and sat outside in the fresh air

with lots of daddy hugs

we did the groceries

and ditched our dinner plans to have Pimms cocktails and a cheese plate for dinner at home instead.