Monthly Wrap Up

This month I started some new features this month pizza sunday, my happy list & 52 portraits of Romy

I also started sharing little everyday moments

I did an interview with Therese Kerr

I made my favourite sweet treat

I shared some of my favourite Australian blogs

And drank cocktails!

January was a pretty cruisy month for us. We went on picnics, spent time with my extended family, stayed up late watching the tennis, made lots of cocktails, fell in love with Ron Swanson, went for evening walks, started our days earlier & themed our dinner nights. One of my resolutions was to use my spare time more wisely, and while I still do waste time during Romy's naps I feel like I've been using my evenings more wisely and things around the house are more organised. I planned and scheduled a lot of my blog posts this month which freed up a lot of time on Luke's days off so we could spend more quality time together, and we used Luke's days off more wisely. I don't usually enjoy January as much as the rest of the year, but I definitely enjoyed this January with my little family!

10.25 am

Friday, 31 January 2014, 10.25 am

Romy had scrambled egg for breakfast which she fed herself. In our previous attempts to get her to eat different textures there have been tantrums, but today she really enjoyed picking up the egg and eating it herself. 

11.04 am

Thursday, 30 January 2014, 11.04 am

We had an appointment in Newcastle this morning so we made a super quick trip there and back. After a couple of wet days here on the coast it sure was nice to be out and about in the sun, Romy even had to bust out her shades!

An Easy Cocktail

On Monday evening we had some friends over for dinner, and while Luke was making dinner before their arrival, I made the easiest cocktail out to quench our pre-dinner thirst. In a small jug I squeezed the juice of half a ruby grapefruit, poured three shots of Pimm's, lemonade, ice and added lemon and grapefruit slices. Perfectly easy & delicious! 

My Happy List

Crossing everything off my to-do list

To-do lists make me pretty happy in themselves, but crossing the last task or goal off (especially in the same day as writing the list) makes me pretty darn happy. I know you know what I mean, I'm pretty sure the sheer elation of getting everything done is universal. Also, my 'to do' notepad from Kikki.K makes me happy, in fact, most things from that store do! 

Monthly Links

At the end of last year I finished up start your week off with.., a long running feature on TLL, so I could start a different kind of linking post in the new year. I will be sharing some links that I have enjoyed throughout the month that I hope you will enjoy too. I really enjoy these types of posts and I love sharing other sites, and especially other blogs. I have found so many of my favourite blogs through linking posts, so I hope you find that special something in one of my monthly links!

Your baby is not like other babies, and other true things about the first year of parenthood

Can't find the perfect notebook you had in mind? Just make it instead!

This real dirty thirty list that will make you think twice about your next beauty product purchases.

If you're looking for an array of money saving solutions check out these 97 Easy Ways To Save Money

A picture of a picture, from the past, in the present

Lately I've been making more of an effort to resist buying unnecessary items as Luke & I are starting to save more seriously for a new car, and this post provided a lot of extra motivation. 

Now that I am making traditions of my own with my little family, I like to see what other families come together for. I especially enjoyed this sweet family tradition.

Today is for pancakes, writing letters and cozy sweaters

Even world famous rappers have problems

I've really been enjoying Kaelah's new blog direction with The Clueless Girl's Guide, especially this post.

Over the past couple of months I have been re-watching old school Beverly Hills: 90210 and Dylan McKay and his dry, woe-is-me humour gets me every time!

4/52

"a portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2014"

These last couple of weeks have been pretty exciting for Romy, it feels as though the moment she started crawling, she hasn't stopped. Of a morning in her cot she is moving about, eagerly awaiting to get back to it. She especially loved Australia Day being outside for the afternoon with as much space as her eyes could see, and crawling on grass for the first time. 

10.28 am

Monday, 27 January 2014, 10.28 am

Last night Ash & Al stayed over and this morning we had blueberry bagels, bacon and eggs. Romy tried bacon for the first time and it didn't go down too well, but she was quite fond of scrambled eggs.

Pizza Sunday

Smoked salmon, baby capers, avocado & aioli

Tonights pizza was slapped together at 9pm after Australia Day celebrations at my aunties holiday cottage. My sister & brother-in-law stayed over and we had pizza and cocktails. 

We made two pizzas for pizza night, but I thought I needed to shake the veg fest up with some sort of meat pizza and tonight we used smoked salmon. We had mojitos and Pimm's cocktails with our pizza and they were delicious thanks to my sisters awesome cocktail mixing skills!

Australian Blogs On Australia Day!

Hanna  /  Bianca  /  Peta  /  Felicity

Today I wanted to share with you all some of my favourite Australian bloggers, it is Australia Day after all! Blogging isn't as big of a deal here as it seems to be in other parts of the world, so I get really excited when I come across other neat Australian blogs. And Hanna, Bianca, Peta & Felicity are amongst some of my favourite ones. 

Also..
Her Library Adventures, Malt Memories, The Girl Has Sparke, The Beetle Shack, Sweet Harvest Moon, and Kitty & Buck 

Pin Of The Week

[ here ]

I am quite fond of the storage-as-decor trend at the moment. Most of the time I find myself with more things than I do ways of storing/keeping/displaying them, so appealing storage solutions like bright wire baskets would be a perfect. Not to mention, how cute something like this would be in a boring laundry space.

2.47 pm

Saturday, 25 January 2014, 2.47 pm

When the wind dies down later on I am going to be annoyed with myself that I didn't hang my washing out earlier.

Tastes Like Mars Bar Slice

Today I wanted to share one of my favourite sweet things to make - mars bar slice. This slice is just about one of the easiest sweet treats to make, and you can whip one up in about ten minutes (minus the setting time) it is that simple!

You will need a tray, 90g butter, 200g cooking chocolate (milk or dark), 3 cups of rice bubbles & a bag of fun size mars bars (alternatively you can use 3 large mars bars). 

First things first, line a tray with some grease proof paper so you're all ready to go. Then melt your mars bars with the butter in a saucepan constantly stirring over low heat.

Once the mars bars and butter have melted down smoothly, pour the mixture into a bowl and add three cups of rice bubbles. Stir through evenly.

Pour slice mixture into your tray evenly, pressing firmly and refrigerate. 

Melt the cooking chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and spread the melted chocolate over the slice and refrigerate until set. 

 Simple, huh?

Currently

Reading:  I haven't started any new books this year unfortunately, which I will have to get onto asap. 

Watching: So many things, maybe too many things considering I planned on watching less & reading more this year. Now that Pretty Little Liars has returned I've been streaming that every Thursday, I wish I had the self control to just let the episodes build up so I can watch a couple at a time but *spoiler* now that Ali has give the liars some face time, shit is getting real. Luke & I struck a deal, if I watch Game Of Thrones he'll watch Pretty Little Liars with me so I started watching GOT, and it isn't as bad as I thought it was when I originally started to watch it last year. I have a short attention span so I do need Luke to talk me through all the characters and their back stories (and he loves it!). I also watch an episode of old school Beverly Hills: 90210 every day when I'm feeding & settling Romy in the evening, and I am currently up to season 6.

Listening to: 'Trouble Will Find Me'  The National. I bought this when it was released last year but it didn't really appeal to me at first. When I was tidying up our cd book shelf I made a stack of cds to listen to during the week, which is something I used to do when I was younger. And Trouble Will Find Me was on the top of the stack and I've been listening to it for a week straight in the car, and I am most definitely loving it this time around, particularly I Should Live In Salt, Pink Rabbits & Graceless. Also on my stack was Brian Wilson 'I just wasn't made for these times', Marilyn Manson 'Mechanical Animals', Belle & Sebastian 'Write About Love', Sparklehorse (not my favourite artist, but definitely my favourite name for an artist) 'Dreamt for light years in the belly of a mountain', Beastie Boys 'Solid Gold Hits, Tom Waits 'Bad as me', British India 'Thieves', and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Ballad of the broken seas'.

Thinking about: What the New Year will bring. Luke & I don't have any major plans for the year other than moving house in March, so at this point whatever happens will be a total surprise! Last week I started to keep a gratitude journal to drown out some of the negative thoughts and negative energy from my neighbours, and it has been a great daily exercise that has definitely made me feel happier. So my thoughts this last week have been a lot more positive and pleasant! 

Working on: This week Luke & I gave our tv cabinet a make over, we started the project on Monday morning & finished it Tuesday evening as we were only able to get it done during Romy's nap time. The makeover will be complete when the new drawer handles arrive hopefully next week. I've also been working on a gift illustration for my Granny, which I cannot wait to send to her and share on here. 

Loving: Jacob's Creek 'Cool Harvest' sauvignon blanc. I wouldn't normally opt for a JC wine, but this one in particular has been advertised a lot during the Australian Open, which I am also LOVING, so I thought I would see what all the fuss was about. I am no wine connoisseur, but I do love how crisp and light it is on the palate. 

Anticipating: Australia Day, or what we like to call it in my family, 'Shazza's Day' as it is my Aunty Sharon's birthday on Australia Day. This year she is having a big family sleepover at her holiday cottage which is conveniently only a 25 minute drive from my house. So it will be a pretty eventful day celebrating Romy's first Australia Day, Shazza's Day, catching up with various members of my family that will be visiting for the occasion, and one of my cousins who has been travelling abroad for a few years will be back also. 

My Happy List

House Projects With Luke

This week Luke & I painted our wooden tv cabinet a dark teal colour so we can start bringing more colour into our living room. Even though we both would like to ideally replace the cabinet altogether, there is nothing wrong with it and we're trying not to make unnecessary bigger purchases while we're saving for our new car. So it actually turned out to be a fun little house project that we did together during Romy's nap time. We spent Monday & Tuesday on the project and this morning we brought it inside. I haven't stopped drooling over it all day, and now I can't wait to take on our dining room set project. 

3/52

"a portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2014"

As of today Romy is officially 9 months old! I remember in those first few months when she was still very little thinking, 'I wonder what she will be like when she is 9 months old'. And now that she is 9 months old, it is almost hard to remember what she was like at 3 months. The time just passes by so quickly, yet those early days seem so far in the past. I am most definitely loving this age the most so far because she is a lot more responsive and now that she can crawl and sit up on her own she seems more content.

11.43 am

Tuesday, 21 January 2014, 11.43 am

Today Luke, Romy & I met up with our friends Renee, Simon & their baby Oscar for breakfast. Oscar & Romy are sticky beaks and couldn't take their eyes off another customers baby.

Today

We started our morning off with bagels 

Made a morning trip to Bunnings for some supplies

We set up shop in our garage for a day of sanding back and painting our tv cabinet

We spent the afternoon outside with Romy while she splashed around in her pool  

When Romy went to bed we had hamburgers for dinner outside and spent our evening painting before finishing our day off with episodes of Parks & Recreation. I hope you had a good day too!

Pizza Sunday

Asparagus, bocconcini & sun-dried tomatoes

When Luke & I are thinking of our Sunday pizza topping I like to pick one ingredient and match it up with other things. This week I wanted to put asparagus on our pizza, which is a vegetable we don't normally use when we're making our meals. I initially thought of putting mushroom with it, but as Luke likes to point out, "you can't put mushroom on everything".

My sister was visiting on Saturday and she saw our pizza topping ideas chalk board (yes, we take pizza seriously) and suggested a different type of mushroom to go with the asparagus rather than the sun-dried tomato. I did agree with her, but I had already committed to not inviting mushroom to this weeks pizza party, and if it didn't turn out then we could try a different variation next time with asparagus. 

And it ended up tasting pretty delicious, and not the usual taste you would expect with asparagus. 

12.42 pm

Sunday, 19 January 2014, 12.42 pm

I am so excited that today is Sunday, because tomorrow Luke & I will be starting one of our little nest projects - giving our tv cabinet a makeover. It has been on our list of things to do for a little bit now and tomorrow we will be able to finally get stuck into it. 

Pin Of The Week

[ pin it like its hot ]

This is exactly how I like to spend the first ten minutes of Romy's midday nap time - sitting at my kitchen table with a vase of fresh flowers, reading a magazine with a cup of coffee and my lunch. 

11.17 am

Friday, 18 January 2014, 11.17 am

This morning Romy helped me unpack the groceries, and she found it particularly hard to hand over the broccoli. Gone are the days where I can put her down in the living room to play with her toys, this little bear can crawl now and gets into everything. 

Cabinet Handle Love

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

A couple of months ago Luke & I gave our antique tea cart a make over & shortly afterwards were eyeing off our furniture to see what we could do next together. We both really would ideally like to replace our small tv cabinet, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and because we're moving in a couple of months our possible new purchase might not fit our future space. So until then we decided to sand back our current wooden one and spruce it up with some paint and new cabinet handles. We picked out the colour easily enough, but are still a little undecided with the handles. I'm leaning more towards the third option. 

5 Minutes With Therese Kerr

Today's blog post is an interview I did not too long ago with Therese Kerr. Therese is a proud mother, business owner, author, speaker & an active health advocate for holistic family health. With one recipe ibook, Lunchbox Solutions, under her belt and another on the way, Therese is a wealth of knowledge for living a certified organic lifestyle. Today she is sharing some tips on time management, healthy alternatives and why 'certified organic' is the right choice.

In 2002 I had tumors on my spleen & thats when I really looked at what I was putting both into and on my body and what nutrition and lack of nutrition I was giving my body. So that was the real reason I started looking into health and nutrition and making sure I filled my body with nutrients. In relation to food there so much produce that is sprayed consistently & with certified organic ingredients or certified organic products theres no chemicals as such used on them. The nutrient value is much richer as well. In relation to putting certified organic products on your body, most women put on average 200 chemicals a day on their skin just in skin care alone. That doesn't include foundations and make up or perfume. And some perfumes for example can have up to 1000 chemicals in them alone. 

Yes, most definitely. We try to eat as much certified organic produce & ingredients that we can, also low GI. The only oil we use for example is coconut oil, because it is the only safe oil to use when cooking. It is a medium chain fatty acid that converts to energy in your body as opposed to converting to fat, so it is really the only oil you should use. Instead of sugar or raw sugar we use agave as an alternative, or coconut sugar. Coconut sugar is a high protein sugar, so you need about a third of what you use instead of normal sugar. In relation to other ingredients or recipes in the book, its food like quinoa which is a seed not a grain, and is high protein & can be used as an alternative to rice. I make porridge out of quinoa, but I also make porridge out of a lot of other grains but I ferment the grains first & then its like a brush for your intestines & thats why you go to the toilet regularly when you have things like that for your body!

Basically Miranda created Kora, she wanted to create a skin care that contained everything that she personally wanted in a skin care line. One of the key ingredients is noni, and noni in itself in our skin care has a 177 vitamins and minerals, and that is just one ingredient. And basically 60-70% of what you put on your skin soaks in so if you put good, high nutritious recipe formulation on your skin a lot of that will soak into your body and into to your blood stream. Most skin care contains TEAs, DEAs, glycols, ethoxylated ingredients, parabans, sulphates, synthetic everything, artificial everything, formaldehyde - people are embalmed in formaldehyde yet we put it in our skin care. All sorts of things are in skin care  and people don't realise that. Miranda wanted to create a range that didn't contain all the nasties and that also contained everything she personally wanted. And we're getting amazing results with the (Kora) skin care, and all it is when you give your body the nutrition it needs then it has the ability to heal itself. We're finding that people with eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, rosacea, acne & cystic acne are getting amazing results.

Hmm, that is a challenging one! What I do is I take time out, at morning tea Johnny & I will go out and have a cup of tea together so I'm actually getting away from the office. Or a couple of times a week we will try and go out and have lunch together. And another thing that we're planning on is once every six weeks to take the Friday & the Monday off so we have a four day break so we're actually getting away from work. Ultimately its a choice that we make, and a lot of the times we get so overwhelmed and its all about how we're being in that overwhelm as well that we can be stressed, or we can choose to be okay. I'm an O blood type, so my goal is to get absolutely everything finished and coming to the realisation that there really isn't a 'finish' has been a big challenge for me as I like to start and then I like to finish something and feel that something is completed. It has been a big lesson for me that there is always work there, every minute of every day I could work for basically a month straight and not sleep if I wanted to, and if my body could handle that. But ultimately I have to decide or I have to choose "you know what, I can't do that, I can only do what is possible", then choosing how I'm going to be around that and choosing that there has to be a balance with having time out. We always try and have a Sunday dinner with Matty, and when Miranda is home I only work when Flynn's asleep so I can spend time with them while they're here. Its all about us choosing that even though there may be overwhelm, and it seems like everything is on top of you, it is choosing how you're going to be about it and choosing to take time out.

Theres a couple, always take a spare pair of undies, thats a good one because you never know when you're going to need them! And always follow your gut instinct, very rarely is your gut wrong. When you know something and when you feel something is right, follow it. When you go against your gut ultimately you're going against what I believe is really instinctively right for you.

For more information on Therese & her holistic health check out her website theresekerr.com Searching through articles on organic lifestyles can be quite overwhelming and Therese's website provides a welcoming and supportive forum for those seeking more information from a friendly and approachable source. You can also find find her on the following:

twitter   /   instagram   /   Facebook   /   youtube   /   soundcloud   /   google+

2/52

Bright eyed and bushy-tailed after her nap this afternoon.

Home Adventures

Last week my Mum bought Romy a little blow up pool that we have had inside for a week using it as a little ball pit, which she hasn't been to interested in. And neither am I because its taking up a lot of my living room! So today we put some water in it & took it outside for its proper use as a baby pool. It was quite a sunny day and our small court yard doesn't have any shade so I put a table cloth over our clothes line to make a little DIY pool hut! When Romy saw our little set up she started squealing with excitement, and was even more impressed when we put her in the pool with some colourful balls to play with. Romy loves her morning & evening bath times, so to be in water during her play time was a bonus for her!