On The Move

Luke & I are currently in the process of moving and our time is being split between three houses; moving things into the new house, cleaning our old house & staying at my parent's house. This past week has gone by in a flash, and we have been just as unorganised as ever. Hopefully some sort of normalcy will be restored later this week. Until then, have a great little week!

The Olden Days In Colour

I recently came across this link with colorised photographs from the 18-1900's. Not only are these photographs beautiful in their original state, but with a splash of colour they are totally transformed into something else. When I look at older photographs in my grandmothers photo albums its hard to imagine how things really were with the absence of colour, and they simply become 'the olden days' to me. I imagine that everything back then was matte & dull with that dusty feeling. But then you see some of the dresses from that era and they are beautiful, loud & vibrant. 

It's amazing to see what a little bit of colour can do, it makes the past actually seem relatable and not something you once saw in an encyclopaedia. 

I was only thinking a couple of weeks ago what our grandchildren are going to think when they look at our photographs from today. Will this period of time have its own look the way my mothers photographs did from the early nineties? Or my grandmothers from the thirties? Will it be known for its selfies and left to the centre positioning? It will definitely be interesting to hear Romy's take on my photographs.

Stamp Lust / Make Your Paper Look Pretty

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Rather than packing up my house in preparation for our move, I am looking at stamps on Etsy. How neat are those cute couple outline stamps?!! They would be great for something like a post wedding thank you card. And I absolutely LOVE the 'save the date' stamp, that is such a cute design for a save the date. After seeing these, I definitely need to start my stamp collection back up!

Currently

Reading:  I just finished 'Nancy Drew: The Secret Of The Old Clock', the first edition in the Nancy Drew series. I love this kind of mystery that is easy to digest and reads like an episode of a tv series. It has been quite some time since I really got into reading because I am either so tired I can barely stay awake, or the second I get settled and lost in the storyline Romy calls out. I read Nancy Drew on my Kindle and found it much easier to read than printed word because I'm not constantly focusing on how many pages I've read, or have to go. And I can chuck my Kindle in my bag and read a couple of pages on the go without the hassle of an actual book. Don't get me wrong, I love books and would prefer to read them, but the Kindle is just far more convenient - I don't even have to leave my bed to buy a book!

Watching: 'Boardwalk Empire'. Oh my goodness! I've had the first season on my computer for quite some time and only last week did Luke & I give it a go, and I'm so glad we did. It was odd at first to see Steve Buscemi in a tv series, but I can't imagine anyone else playing his role. So much happens in a short space of time in this show, I think I'm going to have to re-watch all the episodes I've seen just so it can sink in a little more because I do have the tendency to fall asleep whenever we watch a movie or a box set, and I always miss important bits & Luke can't quite convey just how dramatic a scene can when he recounts the episode.

Listening to: A lot of No Doubt. Luke & I were talking recently about what bands we've always liked and No Doubt is definitely one of mine. When 'Sunday Morning' & 'Don't Speak' hit the charts I'm pretty sure I was in second grade, and I LOVED them! Over a decade later and I still can't get sick of them.

Thinking about: So many things! Future blog posts, moving, packing, de-cluttering, baby birthday parties, what book should I read next, illustrations, Newcastle, home projects etc etc

Working on: This month I cleared my illustration list and I now have a clean slate to start on some new fun things. On top of my new list was Romy's birthday party invitations, I had a lot of fun playing around with different ideas for them. They don't really look like invitations for a one year olds birthday party, but she isn't quite old enough to boss me around with those kinds of things yet! And I'm also working on a little zine style comic for my friend Elle.

Loving: Salted caramel Tim Tams. I think these are limited edition which is a shame because they are so tasty! Luke & I have not been buying sweet treats for a few weeks but we made an exception for these when we saw them at the shops. They're especially tasty with a coffee.

Planning: Our move to Newcastle, which is happening very soon! I even made a dorky moving schedule as there are lots of things to coordinate so everything runs smoothly. Luke & I have moved once a year for the past 6 years, but this move is going to be a little more difficult with a baby to factor in. But I am actually excited about the packing process, it will give me a really good chance to de-clutter so we aren't taking anything we don't need to clutter up our new place.

11/52

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

This week Romy's top front teeth made an appearance along with her right vampire tooth that has been on its way down for a couple of weeks now. So the poor little bear has cut three teeth all at once, and has still managed to stay in a relatively good mood. Also this week Romy discovered that she is a natural stair climber and showed us how fast she could climb the entire stair case in one go without even a hint of falling. She sure is getting faster every day!

Pizza Sunday

Pumpkin + garlic puree, roasted balsamic tomatoes & silver beet 

This week's pizza topping was a last minute slap together with whatever we had in the fridge left over from the week. One of Luke's favourite things to have on a pizza is pumpkin puree, which I am not really that fond of, but the last couple of Sunday's have been my ideas so I let my pumpkin puree guard down and gave it a go. And it was actually a lot nicer than I remembered, especially with the fresh garlic through it.

I got distracted putting Romy to bed, tidying up & watching a special on tv that I completely forgot to take photos of our pizza and it still didn't cross my mind until Luke pulled the pizza out of the oven. But lucky for me Luke has been paying attention for all these weeks and took some quick photos for me!

Our pizza stayed in the oven about 30 seconds (our oven seriously cooks a pizza in 5 minutes for realz, its ridiculous) too long, and it was a bit burnt but it still tasted amazing. I will definitely be more opened to a pumpkin puree base for next time!

The Tea Cart

[ walk your cart this way ]

The tea cart is a multipurpose functioning piece of furniture that you can use as a bedside table, a book shelf, a kitchen island, a coffee cart, a bar cart and pretty much anything else you can think of. A couple of years ago I came home and found one positioned in my kitchen that Luke had found on council pick up day from one of our neighbours. I'm not going to lie, I was quite annoyed with it, it was ugly and old and I couldn't see its potential. It took a good couple of months for it to grow on me & now it is one of my favourite curb side acquisitions. 

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