Romy's First Picnic

Today Romy went on her first picnic, and she loved it! Every week we meet up with our friends Renee & Oscar for coffee and this week we changed things up with a picnic. For the past couple of months Luke & I have been trying to take Romy on a picnic to no avail. Either the frustrating Central Coast weather is an issue, or we have grown up commitments or appointments to go to and we can never quite make it happen. So when Renee suggested a picnic to get the babies out of their prams for our next coffee date, I was a little worried my picnic curse would get in the way. But today was perfect picnic weather! Renee baked some delicious banana bread and packed some berries,  and I brought the picnic rug and brought the coffees. Romy & Oscar loved being able to interact with each other, rolling around and sharing each others toys, it was so lovely to see them enjoy themselves. Towards the end of the picnic the wind was starting to get to Romy & Oscar so we cut the morning short, but overall it was a successful morning picnic! 

Little Bear Cubs

Today Romy & I spent the day in Newcastle visiting our friends Ali & Xander. Romy hit the 8 month mark over the weekend, and Xander is 13 weeks old as of today. When we visited a few weeks back Xander was catching up on some sleep and we didn't get much face time with him, but today we got to spend much more time with him. Romy was all over Xander Panda like a hot rash, she kept wanting to grab his face and hold his hand, it was all a little too cute! I can't wait to see these two little bears play & grow up together. It's very special when someone you're close with has a baby at the same time as you, it makes the experience all the more exciting!

My Baby Shower

I never got around to posting about my fantastic baby shower because I was waiting to get the photos off my Aunty's camera as she was the 'official photographer'. And to keep me busy while I wait for the photos, Romy thought she would come early! Exactly one week after my baby shower my baby was born 5 weeks early, so it was lucky I chose that weekend and not the one after! The only photos I have from the shower are a handful of photos my sister took on my iPhone. It was such a fantastic afternoon, my Sister & Mum did an amazing job! I was especially impressed as the night before my parents threw a surprise 80th birthday party for my Granny and my they made all of the food for that and then my shower the next afternoon. My Sister made giant pom pom decorations and handed out little cards for everyone to fill out with wishes for Romy and advice for me. All of the sweet treats were miniature, and all the flowers were fresh and placed in cute jars everywhere. The cucumber + cream cheese sandwiches were cut into cute little circles and the egg sandwiches were cut into heart shapes. There were bowls of punch and a selection of T2 teas at the tea station. I got to catch up with some old friends I hadn't seen in ages, and see my family before they all set off to my cousin's wedding in Bali. Romy was absolutely spoilt with all of her presents, and we got lots of practical things too. Luke & I hadn't got around to getting every day things like towels and face washers, so we were pretty lucky to have those things gifted to us considering days later she arrived! It was such a fantastic afternoon and I can't wait for everyone to now meet her!

A Kitchen Tea, A Coffee Date & A Wedding

1. At Elisha's kitchen tea 2. Making a wedding dress out of paper

3. A coffee date with Ally 4. Mr & Mrs Ayton 

5. Me, Elisha & Abby 6. Reception

Thursday evening I attended Elisha's kitchen tea and got the chance to meet a couple of her old school friends, and members of her new family. It was a lovely evening which was spent playing a 'getting to know you game' with toilet paper, I'd never played it before, but it was a lot of fun. A roll of toilet paper was passed around and we were told to tear off as many pieces as we liked. Once everybody had, starting with Elisha, for every square of t.p you had to share a fact about yourself with everyone. It was a great way to start the evening and get into a good comfort zone amongst friendly strangers. And we got into little girl gangs for a paper dress competition where you were given a stack of newspaper and had to make a boss wedding dress out of it. The whole evening made me that much more excited for Elisha to get married on Saturday!

I left my house Saturday morning a little earlier to meet up with one of my lovely friends Alyssa for a morning coffee date at one of my old favourite cafes in Newcastle. I can positively say that I frequented this cafe at least twice a week, not including take away coffees! After raisin toast and coffee, I dropped her home so I could meet her new ferrets. I'm still a little freaked out by them, so I'll have to visit a couple of more times while I work my way up for a full on nurse of them! They are little furry babes though. 

The wedding was on afterwards, and it was a slight 'amazing race' moment trying to get there on time! The ceremony was in a lovely, sunny park/hill reserve and the weather was perfect! Elisha looked beyond stunning in her wedding dress with bright yellow heels. It was exactly how I imagined it! The ceremony was short and sweet, and afterwards Abby & I made a quick stop off to buy shoes before going to the reception so she could ease her high heel regret. The reception was on the waterfront at Newcastle and it was just a casual drinks and canapés type function, which was great. I love laid back, easy weddings.

After Elisha's wedding, I came back to the coast to help out at another wedding my family was catering for, and had dinner at my parents house & then came home to a cup of tea with Luke & an episode of Daria before bed. It was a pretty lovely Saturday!

Aunty Dean Came To Visit

Today was a pretty lovely day.

I used my birthday tea cup for the first time, & tried a green tea + cranberry blend.

My lovely husband gave me his Cotton On voucher to buy a new dress that I clearly needed.

I finally uploaded my copy of CS5 on my new Mac.

 And worked on a new custom illustration.

I watched those Shit Fashion Girls Say videos.

And my lovely little friend Dean came to visit me. 

I hadn't seen Dean since last year when Luke & I went to Newtown for the weekend for our anniversary. So it was super lovely getting to spend the afternoon with him catching up with coffees, cupcakes & youtube. We flipped our hurr to One Direction. And broke in my photo booth - which is so much more awesome than my antique macbook photo booth!

Train Ride From Hell

1. On the train, 2. Pizza for lunch at Twelve in Newtown

3. At the T2 store in Newtown, 4. City dwelling

5. Baby deer button I bought at Beehive Gallery in Newtown

6. Cappuccino's & fries at The Newtown Cafe

7. Playing dress ups in Sportsgirl at the QVB

On Thursday Lara & I ventured to Newtown in Sydney for coffees and last minute Christmas present hunting. I didn't think I would get to see Lara again until the new year, so our little city date was perfect! We looked at so so many stores, I bought some T2 for my friend Holly, and a little baby deer button. I don't normally where pin buttons, but it was way too cute and I think it will go perfectly with a lot of my day dresses.

After spending the majority of the day browsing Newtown's finest, we had cappuccino's and fries at Lara's favorite cafe in Newtown and then made our way to the Queen Victoria Building. We looked around there for a while & I bought some big green circle earring studs from Sportsgirl. We left QVB and headed to Central, only to find we had missed a train by minutes and had to wait around for an hour or so for the next. 

Oh how I wish we had of made that train though.

When we first got on the train it was fine, nobody seemed to be hectic and there were transit officers on the train. After about an hour two men boarded the train and seemed to be quite inebriated. They sat in the carriage upstairs, closest to us so we could hear them having drunken quarrels and being generally disruptive. They were escorted by the transit officers to a non seating area of the train to be spoken to, were let off with a warning, and the next stop the transit officers got off. After they got off, the two men were being exceptionally disruptive, which I was fine to listen to as it wasn't directed towards me. However things started to get a little bad when a man, who seemed to be homeless, sat behind Lara & I. Immediately I could smell him, and probably a month's worth of wear on his skin. It was rancid. We stayed put for as long as we could take it and then moved without a fuss. 

We had been sitting in an empty carriage for maybe ten minutes before the two men upstairs started to get really loud, it was at this point that Lara contacted the emergency number on the train to have a transit officer ready at the the next big stop. The next minute we heard a super loud thud and we looked around and one of the men had fallen down the stairs flat on his face. And he didn't move afterwards. We kept our distance and watched to see if he was going to get up, and the train came to a stop and other passengers pushed him aside with their feet to get pass. Nobody asked if he was okay, or even showed their concern. His 'friend' came down to try and make him get up, proceeded to kick him square in the face, and then left him laying there. The next big stop was the one I had to get off at, and I saw the transit officers give the train a quick once over and heard them saying it was all good to go. I went over and asked them to go back on the train because I felt so horrible my friend was still on there alone. We went back into the carriage where the unconscious person was still laying flat, and they picked him up and plonked him on the foot path. While this was going on, his 'friend' had got off the train and was standing next to the train yelling at the transit officers. He boarded the train again, walked straight up to Lara and yelled in her face to not mention what she had seen to anybody, and then got off again. And then the train left. And that was it, nothing was done about the apparently hurt man, drunk or not, he is still a person and deserves to be treated like so.

 I am truly disgusted nobody did anything, and even more appalled that people pushed him aside with their feet to get through the walk way. What happened to human spirit?

A Weekend Post On A Wednesday

I’ve been a little busy this week and haven’t had the chance to post about my weekend that has just passed. It was one of those weekends that I didn’t have a spare second to really do anything. 

Saturday I worked all day, and finished a little later than usual. 

When I got home I had to get ready to drive to Newcastle, which is about an hours drive from my house, to go to my best friends dinner party. As I was getting ready, I was picking stuff up around my house to take, and my camera had been playing up and I turned it on to see if it was feeling well enough to go out for the evening and it was officially broken. I was a little flustered and annoyed so I drove to the shops, ran in to Dick Smith, picked up another digital camera similar to the one I had (but purple!), paid for it and ran back to my car. 

Quickly came home, got the rest of my things and drove to Newcastle. I hadn’t been able to see Lara in a couple of weeks, but it was so lovely getting to see her before Christmas, firstly so we could exchange awesome gifts, and also because the dinner party had a Hanukkah theme to it! It was such a beautiful evening, she had gone to so so much preparation. She cooked a three course meal for like 15 people! I struggle to make to the right portions for Luke & I!

Lara bought me the most amazing birthday/Christmas present, because I hadn’t seen her since my birthday the gift got rolled into one. I was lucky enough to be gifted with a Maxwell & Williams ‘Kimono’ series tea cup that I’ve been wanting for ages, and she picked me out the most perfect one!, babushka measuring spoons, a Playboy cover to cover collection from the 50’s, a copy of Samson & Delilah (so I’ll get into Heaven after catching up on a decade of Playboy), the cutest printed tea towels, hand wipes because I’m addicted to any sort of wet wipe, and some antique souvenir travel tea spoons. It was a bit of a monster gift!

I left Newcastle just before midnight as I had to work the following day. I’m so glad I got home just in time to get enough sleep, because we were so super busy for most of the day, which was good because it made the time just fly by. Sunday evening was our work Christmas party, which was such a great night! We were able to bring along partners, so Luke was my date. My boss is such a lovely lady, she made all of this lovely food, and her girlfriend made killer cocktails throughout the evening. I didn’t take photos at all which I’m now a little team sad about. But I did get one photo, and it’s awesome enough to make up for the fact that I didn’t take any more! 

Afternoon Tea

My babefox friend Holly came over on Friday afternoon to visit my new flat, and to have cups of tea and much needed catch ups! Holly is one of those effortlessly fashionable ladies. We used to work together at the start of the year & every day her outfits were always perfect, neat & girly. Her boyfriend just lives around the corner as well, so hopefully that means we'll get to see each other more now!  I made cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, fresh cherries, and had some biscuits to go with a pot of Russian Caravan tea, and a pot of French Earl Grey. I was also the lucky receiver of these wonderful treats as a Christmas present - a sweet pea & gardenia fragrant candle, hand stitched Rifle Paper Co. floral notebooks & the cutest damn little coin purse I've ever seen! I can't wait to put my pennies in that and take it with me on my travels! Holly is the biggest sweetheart, and I can't wait to have more cups of tea with her in the new year!

Ally McBeal Tuesday

I had quite an eventful day yesterday. I drove to Newcastle super early to pick Lara up for a 9 am morning adventure that was much like the premise of an Ally Mcbeal episode. It was an interesting way to spend a Tuesday morning. Afterwards we went out for lunch along Darby Street & had risotto balls + salad. I walked Lara back to her house like a gentleman & then went to visit my very talented friend Ally whom I hadn't seen for a couple of months. She answered the door with her ferret Taco, in hand. I have never met a pet ferret or actually seen one in person, so it was interesting! I was a little (a lot) scared to pat Taco, he had these cute little claws and had a hectic mouth full of teeth. They are the strangest little creatures, they're almost like little possum cats or something. I met her other ferret Nougat, and her boyfriend's new pomeranian Keba, and then we went for coffee and had a quick look through an antique store. After I dropped her back to her house I made my way back to the coast, and my mum & I went to visit my aunty & uncle at their holiday house they have on the coast. They were stopping through for the evening in between business trips, so we went over and had some drinks on their deck. It was a lovely way to finish off an eventful day!

Also yesterday I had some post spotlight over on Only A Flight Away's blog, Melina is such a babe so if you haven't already checked her blog out do it now! And while you're feeling adventurous, pop over to AdamAlexMommy and enter her amazing Chanel giveaway . Jas the blogger behind AdamAlexMommy is one stylish lady!

Tomorrow Luke & I get the keys to our new place, we're pretty excited! I went to the shops today to get some last minute things like a broom, drinking glasses, Beverly Hills 90210 season 2 & an orange juicer. I'm working tomorrow so Luke is going to be doing most of the last minute packing. Aside from living in a new place with lots of new things, I'm really excited about getting fast internet! So for the next couple of weeks I won't be blogging as much because I'll be watching Beverly Hills 90210 without internet.

Elisa & Jono Illustration

I've been wanting to post this for a while now, but it was part of a birthday present for my friend Elisa. She has been known to stop by my blog, so I didn't want her to see it! 

Elisa had a 'crazy photo booth' at her wedding, and this illustration is based on a photo from the booth. This is my first ever attempt at a male illustration. When Jono (Mr. Elisa) saw it, he didn't complain, so hopefully that was a silent nod of approval! When I gave it to her on the weekend it looked a little different. It had a victorian style background pattern, and was in a frame. I thought it looked pretty neat on its own though.