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!

Just wait one moment, November!

Romy & I kept ourselves busy throughout November, and without even having time to plan a 'what we did this month' type post, November closed up shop until next year. Time really does fly by when you're having fun! I started this month off with my first night away from Romy when I visited my cousin in Sydney for the night. It was hard being away from my little darling, but it was also a delightful evening catching up with my cousin. While I was in Sydney we had Indian for dinner and my cousin Jay doesn't eat rice with his so I tried it out too and I can't even believe I've been wasting so many good Indian meals mixing it with rice! Luke & I only get to eat dinner three nights a week together and we like to plan our weekly meals to make things easier, and Tuesday was our only night that we hadn't designated a dish. After this, we made Tuesday evenings our 'Indian nights'.

Romy had her first plane ride this month when we went to the Gold Coast to visit some of my family for my cousin's baby's first birthday and we all had a family Christmas dinner as we all won't be together this year. It was really lovely, and Romy LOVED being around so many people. I have an incredibly lovely family, and when we are all together so much is happening that we sometimes forget to stop and take pictures of the lovely moments we share together. That is why we are so lucky to have such a beautiful lady in our family Rikki, who takes the most delicately splendid photographs. She shared our weekend over on her business blog. Late last year I drew a custom illustration for her logo, you should check it out! And speaking of illustrations, last week I drew a custom illustration of a sweet little dachshund for Felicity's blog & website design business. 

Also this month my oldest friend Lara came to visit us to meet Romy for the first time, which was super duper exciting! Lara & I grew up in Gunnedah together, and rekindled our friendship when we randomly crossed paths in Newcastle a few years ago. Lara took some really sweet snaps of Romy & I on her fancy camera and it really got me thinking that I really really need to invest in a good camera and stop relying on my iPhone as the photos can be really grainy. When I visited my friend Ali & her baby boy Xander during the week we took a couple of iPhone snaps of us all together and they were really grainy unfortunately which only made me want/need an actual camera that much more, so that is one of the first things I need to save for in the New Year. 

During the month I also posted about four simple goals that I wanted to work on for the remaining weeks of the year and one of the priorities on the list was doing a couple of Romy's Firsts, which we did during November. The main 'first' I was focused on though was taking Romy on her first picnic, and this week we broke her picnic seal with our friends Renee & her baby boy Oscar. And they loved being out of their prams on the ground rolling around with each other. It was the only really nice day this week & so I'm glad we were able to spend it outside. I also made a start on a couple of my other 'simple goals' but I'm going to share those in the next week or so. So many lovely things happened in November, I can't wait to get stuck into a couple of our December projects and get into Christmas mode, starting with putting our first Christmas tree up!

So Long, September

This month Luke & I got a lot of things done. We kept busy with dinner dates, we went out for the first time together in ages and saw our friends band for the first time. Now that the weather has started to warm up we made our first batch of ice tea, and made more of an effort to cook all components of our meals like stocks and sauces. And we made a cheese burger inspired pizza and discovered it is our favourite pizza topping, it is best served with grown up ginger beer! Lots of changes happened on the Romy front, she hit the 5 month mark which completely happened without us noticing. She grew out of her infant car seat + carrier and started using her first car seat - that she loves. We're pretty lucky to have  a baby that doesn't mind travelling in the car. Romy also started solids this month, we started her on a mixture of blueberries, banana, avocado and grapes. Our next step is vegetables, hopefully that is an even smoother transition into this food business for her. Not only was Romy babysat for the first time by our friend Sarah, but she was babysat for an entire day by my sister so I could do a fill in shift at my old work. It was really weird being away from her for an extended period of time, I missed her for the first time!

This month we went to the markets almost every weekend, which was fantastic as going to the markets on a weekend morning is my ideal way of spending the weekend. I've previously always, always worked Saturday mornings for as long as I can remember, and now that I am in the stay at home club, Saturday mornings are my oyster! One of our market trips was at the farmers market in Newcastle with my sister Ashleigh, and bro-in-law Allan. And another was spent with my friend Ally, who I studied design with. It was especially fun going to the markets with Ally because she appreciates good design too and likes to talk about it in length. Luke can only talk about throw cushions for so long! Something else we did this month was finally getting around to sanding back our antique tea cart, fixing the broken shelf and painting that bad boy a dark blue. It has been on our 'project nest' list for the past six months, so we're both pretty excited to not only have it fixed and snazzed up, but it serves a practical purpose as our record player stand. I drank a lot of late afternoon coffees and found myself getting a lot done around the house. I feel as though both Luke & I got a lot done this month and put some positive changes in place. See you next year September!

>>I also started using Twitter more, 

read my tweets here!

See You Next Year August!

August has been and gone, and winter is officially over until next year. July & August are generally my favourite months of the year. I love winter clothes so much better, and I especially would prefer the colder months over our hot summers. This years winter was pretty much a cold summer, there was only really a weeks worth of really cold weather. The hot heat won't settle in for a couple of months yet, so I intend on making the most out of spring. I had every intention of doing an all day spring clean, but Luke & I decided to go for a little day trip to buy cupcakes. And our spring clean sort of got put on hold. So this week I am going to get stuck into sorting things out and getting things done. 

This month we booked a photography session when we went to the monthly markets yesterday. This is something we have been meaning to do for the past couple of months. I am glad we waited though, now that Romy is a little bigger and has grown into her features and she looks more distinguished. She also has been practicing her smiles this past month and showing them off like its nobodies business! Which will be nice to see in her upcoming photo session. Another thing I finally got to cross off my to-do-list was set up my Kindle! You guys, I received this as a birthday present last December! So it was about time I put this into action. I will always prefer to read the printed word, however I don't like carting around an abundance of books each move and having a library on an awesome device like the Kindle is far more practical. I also now no longer need to leave my house to buy a book! 

We kept ourselves quite busy this month with dinner dates, spending time with our family, visits from friends & morning market dates. This month Romy hit the four month mark and had her four month needles. It is a little crazy to think her next monthly milestone will be five months! Around the time we first bought her home, one of my friend's babies was teething, and I remember thinking how far away that was for us & Romy and feeling like the newborn sleepless nights were going to go on forever. But they have passed and Romy is now teething, and doing so many other new things. Now that she is more active and awake longer during the day, I've planned my days differently so that I spend all my day focusing on her, and spending my evenings catching up on things around the house and doing things for myself. We made a lot of positive changes this month, and I'm looking forward to making more in September. And am definitely looking forward to the spring season!

Monthly Recap / July

July is always my favourite time of the year, and today was the last day of it. This month was pleasantly busy and I used my time productively. At the beginning of the month I mentioned how I wanted to take my blog in a slightly different direction, making more personalised posts and giving my blog in general more thought. And I think I achieved my goal, or at least got really close. 

This July marked mine & Luke's fourth wedding anniversary. We kept it low key this year and went out for dinner and drinks as the next day was our first little family road trip with Romy. Romy also hit the three month mark, it is crazy how fast time is going. I barely have had time these last few days to think about what I'd like to achieve for next month. This month Luke & I were able to cross a good couple of things off of our to-do-list and we made a lot of really neat plans for our home, and what we would like to do in the coming months. I also made a decision that I wanted to open my own Etsy store, which is something that has been on my own to-do-list for quite some time. And I've been really inspired all month to get the ball rolling on my new project, which I cannot wait to tell you all about it.

Another thing I wanted to try out this month was scheduling and planning my blog posts. At the end of June I sat down and made a blog plan for July. Once I got planning, I had so many great ideas for some upcoming posts and features. I've made in the past rough monthly blog plans but never really committed to them and would end up not posting a lot of content. I wanted to stick to my plan this time and I found it to be really successful! Out of the thirty-one days this month, I blogged about twenty-seven of them, and for me that is excellent! I loved sitting at my computer and looking at my plan and having my post subject ready to go. I was also able to have a good couple of days where I didn't even sit at my computer because I scheduled posts. I don't know why I haven't already adopted this system! It is definitely something I am going to continue with next month.

Adiós May!

When the new year clicked over I was so excited for the first half of the year to just fly by so I could meet my daughter. Not only did she arrive a month early, but as of this weekend she'll be 6 weeks old! This year really has flown by for me, it is almost hard to believe that tomorrow it will be June & the first day of Winter. May for me was spent watching a lot of Desperate Housewives & eating breakfast for lunch as I get used to my stay at home routine with a newborn. This past week I've been feeling well enough to go to the shops and look at all the pretty things I've been cut off from for months. While I was pregnant I didn't buy any new dresses, so the day I ended my dress drought was a very happy one!  I also went to my first mothers group, parked in the parents with prams section, went out for dinner for the first time in ages while my Mum babysat & I have made a couple of trips to the shops by myself with Romy. May started out quite low key, but the last half of it was filled with house visits and lots of firsts for my little family! I'm looking forward to feeling 100% in the following weeks and taking Romy out to do more exciting things!