What I Did 365 - Day 13

Today is a gorgeous, semi-lazy Sunday! This morning Chris and I (along with friends from our Church community, Paradox) headed over to Mount Pleasant Baptist Church to drop in on their morning service. The moment we pulled into the car park, I realised that I've been missing that place soooo much. I miss the big-ness of the service, I miss the people, and I missssssss working there. So much. Anyway. After the service, and catching up with some amazing friends, we headed home but decided to make a quick stop at a local strawberry farm. I see their sign every day when I head home from work, but we've never checked it out... AMAZING strawberries! They sell the strawberries and some miscellaneous vegetables out of this random little shed, surrounded by fields of strawberry plants. The whole place smelt of sweet, sweet strawberries. Yum! We picked up a massive punnet and headed home for a gorgeous lunch of strawberry smoothies and grilled tomato and cheese and sat under our freshly-cleaned patio. Total bliss.

What I Did 365 - Day 12

WHAT A DAY!!!! Today was a blur of cleaning, lunch at my parents' place, my Aunt's wedding, Grill'd for dinner, Junior Master Chef with my Mum and sister Steph, and a late night super-quick catch-up with the besties! Crikey! After having seen so many people today, I sort of feel guilty for presenting a simple picture of food.. but seriously, the burgers at Grill'd are superb!!! I got a super amazing surprise when we pulled in at Grill'd - Kat's car was two spaces down from ours! As my suspicions confirmed, we found her... along with the other bestie, Hatti... about to chow down on burgers at - where else? - Grill'd!! Wooop! Mum, Steph and I pulled up a table next to them and we got to eat together before heading our separate ways. Great day :)

PS For the record, I got the Field of Dreams burger... Mushroom-tastic!!

What I Did 365 - Day 11

Date night!!!! Happy Friday! Chris and I, after a busy week of lovin' loads of people, decided to be totally exclusive tonight. It was SO FUN. We started our date at Bunnings, where we excitedly purchased a saw and a stack of flowers (snap dragons! Ronunculus! Oh my heart!) Next stop was Pasta Cup (the photo above is our 'waiting for pasta' faces) and then movie-watching at home with the dogs. It pretty much sounds like the lamest old married couple date ever, right??? Well, it was FANTASTIC. I love our little life together, and the sweet little family that we make. Happy sigh. Best way to end a loooong week!!

What i Did 365 - Day 10

So, like, droooool. Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate are such a luxury to me! Today I haven't really looked for excitement. I slept in (which is a luxury in itself I guess, but not something I can convey well via photo!!) I watched an episode of Glee while I ate a fairly plain breakfast. And then I scrambled off to work. My day was FLAT OUT - just one of those days where everybody in the universe is calling to ask questions! All I could think about was the strawberries and chocolate mousse I'd stowed away in the fridge!! Finally after a particularly stressful bout of phone calls, I stood boldly and raced down to the kitchen to prepare my dessert-style snack, thinking "I soooo deserve this!" Always healthy to reward yourself with food, right? It was delicious, and at 2.5 Weight Watchers points... entirely guilt free! Yay me!

What I Did 365 - Day 9

This morning before work I met Aimee for coffee at the local McCafe. We had planned to hit the foreshore, but the forecast here is for stormy showers, so we decided to play it safe! We read a Psalm together and had a really uplifting morning of praying together. When I got home, I found our massive cat Ebony rolling around in the weeds outside, so I played with her for a while before heading inside! She is so cute, I love her! She's like a big furry bear, but somehow still so elegant and graceful!

4 Stories "Childhood Games"

For info check out Freckled Nest!

1. The Promise
When I was maybe 5 years old, my little sister Hannah and I were playing with a couple of little tubs of play-dough. I started getting bored with what we were doing, so decided to change things up by playing 'catch' with the dough-filled tubs. Hannah readily agreed, so I said "The only rule is we have to promise not to throw it at each other's heads". She responded with a trusting "I promise!" I am pretty sure it was only out of curiosity, but I immediately launched the thing straight at her head. She cried. I was an evil big sister.

2. Animal Games
I had a massive burning desire to be an animal of some sort when I was a kid. I'm pretty convinced that's a normal kid thing. Hannah was always ready to humour me in my endeavours by pretending to be my owner. Then our littlest sister Steph started joining in, and Hannah had quite the menagerie! Generally I was a horse called Fleur, and Steph was a puppy called Fluffball. Sometimes I wanted to be a numbat though.

3. Team Jacob!
In primary school, my best friend Fiona was obsessed with wolves. She was always drawing them, making stories about them, finding pictures of them... she loved them. We used to play on the school oval and pretend to be wolves. We also had wolf powers, like we could control the weather and stuff. Her wolf name was Skipper, but I can't remember what mine was. We would howl at the edge of the oval and run around like we were chasing prey. It started getting less fun though when she started biting me as discipline for not fulfilling all my duties as a wolf.

4. For one of my birthdays, Hannah decided to give me a little paper dog that she had made and stuffed with cotton wool balls. She told me the dog's name was Tinka and the breed of dog was called a 'colour pup'. This started a collection of epic proportions! Every special occasion, and sometimes just for fun, Hannah gifted me with more and more colour pups, and we'd spend hours playing with them. Their designs became more advanced too. We had so much fun. I still have Tinka in a box somewhere! I wish I knew what happened to the rest of them.

What I Did 365 - Day 8

Today I've been feeling a little crummy, and soooo tired. I allowed myself the luxury of a sleep-in before racing to eat breakfast, get my uniform on, feed the dogs and pack lunch. I was able to grab a few minutes outside to have a peek at some adorable Christmas crafts though!! I'm Christmas's biggest fan and when I spotted this book on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, I went nuts! To my utter delight, it arrived yesterday - 5 weeks ahead of the estimated arrival time!! Woop! It was so nice to sit out in the yard in my flannel PJs, trying to pick which project I would make first! So happy!

What I Did 365 - Day 7

Another starfish photo!! This morning before work, I met with my beautiful friend Aimee at the foreshore. It was so cold, but she had the cleverness to bring a blanket! It was a really lovely time of sharing, reading and praying together. Another wonderful way to start the day, in fact we've decided to do it again Wednesday! After Aimee headed off for work, I squeezed in a 20-minute walk. Once again, the beach was littered with little starfish - I even picked one up, assuming it was dead, only to find it waving its little tentacles at me! The starfish pictured above though is the biggest I've ever seen in my life! I wonder how old it was before it washed up on the shore?

What I Did 365 - Day 6

Happy Sunday!! Today I enjoyed a picnic lunch at the beach with my besties, Kat and Hatti. Best girls to spend a Sunday afternoon with! We 'tanned', ate pineapple and even braved the water for a few minutes (soooo cold!) before deciding that the wind was just too much, and retiring to The Merchant for Pepsi Max. I've pretty much been the biggest, laziest blob since the afternoon... something about lying in the sun I think! Sigh.

What I Did 365 - Day 5

Today was an amazing, busy Saturday - just the way I like it! Chris and I decided to start the day at the foreshore - after a half-hour walk/jog, we stopped at Y2K for breakfast. I got the bircher muesli with loads of fruit and yoghurt... isn't it beautiful??? We also visited the import candy store, gazed at property listings (not moving! Just dreaming!), browsed the thrift store, AND bumped into Kat and Andrew! Yay! It was such a perfect morning. I feel a new Saturday morning tradition coming on....

What I Did 365 - Day 4

If Chris looks tired in this picture (which he does!) it's because I forced him out of bed at 6.15am this morning so he could join me at the foreshore for a tasty McDonalds breakfast! Chris normally leaves for work super early, so we don't really get mornings together. But today he's taken the day off, so I thought I'd make the most of it before I headed to the office for the day! He's so good to me...!!

Something New To Love... Holli

I've discovered a lovely little shop called Holli and have decided it needs to be shared immediately!! I'm smitten with the illustrations and feel some of these NEED to be on my walls soon!!

Love them, so very much. With almost 150 items, this is a shop I can see myself spending lots of time browsing in...

What I Did 365 - Day 3

Two garden pictures in a row! I'm dreaming of having a gorgeous, flower-filled garden and as part 1 of this MASSIVE project, I've been sloooowly developing a patch of garden along a wall in our weed-infested yard. This morning before work I laid down some soil improver in a new spot and planted some flowers that have been waiting in their nursery pots for way too long! This guy's looking a bit scraggly, but I'm hoping he'll forgive me...

What I Did 365 - Day 2

This morning was a crazy blur of cooking in preparation for serving my friends some dinner tonight. Not too exciting. But over the weekend, I had moved my little table-top herb garden to a new spot in my yard, visible from the kitchen. It sounds lame, but looking at these plants that have grown from seeds and seedlings in my care is so rewarding - even more so when I use them in my cooking! The morning was very over-cast, so the plants just looked so vibrant - as I washed dishes and chopped vegetables, I definitely enjoyed the view from my kitchen window :)

I also went overboard with the editing of this picture, but I loved the vibrance from over-editing so I decided to keep it that way!

New Daily Feature: What I Did 365... Day 1

I've decided that I need to take more photos. Also, I've decided that my blog needs something new breathed into it. I'm super familiar with 365 projects, but if you're not - traditionally, it's a project where you take a photo of yourself every day for a year. I've always enjoyed spin-off versions (my friendy-friend Kat did one where she took a photo of something related to her life every day. Really fun!!) so I've decided to invent one of my own. It's a What I Did 365 - basically a way for me to document something that I've done each day. How easy is it to fall into the trap of working your 9-5, cooking dinner, sitting in front of the TV, and going to bed? With this project, I'm hoping to be inspired to do at least one thing outside of that norm. It's the little things in life that keep our hearts happy. And for fun, I'm presenting my photos as fake little polaroids. Yay!

So without further ado, I present day 1...

This morning before work I squeezed in a trip to the beach. I live 12 minutes away from the most beautiful beach in the world, and yet until about a week ago my interest in this fact has been nil. Crazy me.
While walking along the beach, I came across a little starfish.

The end!

My Weekend Was...

Tapas. Beach. The Other Guys. Coffee. Groceries. Lunch. Beach. Coffee. British lolly shop. Cajun meatloaf. How I Met Your Mother. Big Bang Theory. Church. Cajun Meatloaf left-overs. Laundry. Gardening. Apricot stuffed chicken. Perfect!!

The end.

Do You Even Realise How Beautiful You Are????

Sigh. I'm fairly certain that this dress is the loveliest I have seen in a very, very long time.
Oh, to be a size 2... and have an odd $900 laying around...

This Fine Spring Day...

- I wore a dress and a big yellow flower in my hair
- I enjoyed a McDonalds breakfast with my boy
- I met up with my friends for some good Church
- I took part in a BBQ on the side-walk
- I shopped and coffee'd with the besties
- I went to the park with my boys (husband & dogs alike)
- I played frisbee and had silly races against Chris :)
- I made mushroom burgers
- I had my first taste of August's limoncello
- I watched Chris and the boys snooze on the couch at the ripe hour of 9pm

Sadly, tomorrow is Monday. This has been a super sweet weekend!

A Happy Day!

Today was one of those amazing days where everything is right. You make healthy food choices with ease. You go shopping for Summer shoes, and find not 1, not 2, but 3 amazing pairs. You meet your besties for lunch and end up finally saying goodbye at 6pm. You have a night of Glee re-runs and delicious stuffed chicken to look forward to. Happy sigh. As my brief description suggests, that's exactly how my Saturday panned out today. Just look at these pretties I put on layby (eeeee!):

from Betts

It was a super duper day!