fill in the blank Friday

It is hard to keep up with things when you are traveling around the USA!
I am once again a little late with my fill in the blank Friday, but better late then never right. So here we go...

If my house was on fire and I could only grab three things they would be my computer and hard drive, my wedding album (I got married before the digital age) and my passport after all I am a world traveller and I really need it!
A smell I really like is the smell of a new baby, nothing beats it. Really I guess the smell is of fresh linens and Johnson and Johnson baby products and not smelly nappies and breast milk chuck!
Something you might not know about me is I HATE feet. I really don't like other peoples feet - I don't like looking at them and I really don't like people touching me with their feet or touching my feet. It creeps me out. 
Some of my favorite websites to potter about on are Childhood 101 which is a great website for parents it is also written by a great friend of mine and I happen to think she is awesome! I also spend a lot of time on good old Facebook.
This weekend I have driven from Santa Cruz down to Anaheim. We are here because we are going to take the boy to Disneyland!
Nothing make me happier then the sound of my little boy laughing. It brightens my day and makes me feel happy even when I am in a bad mood.
A bad habit I have is shopping (according to my husband) I happen to love it but he thinks I spend far too much time and money doing it! 

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and that you have a fantastic week ahead! 
 

It was another beautiful day in Santa Cruz today. I took a stroll into town this morning and did a little shopping. I picked up a couple of things from Crossroads Trading Company and a few little trinkets from a cute gift store. I think I need to stop shopping now as my suitcase is overflowing. I think I am definitely going to have to pay extra money to the airlines to get my bags home.

Today's outfit is not that fancy but I was just happy to be wearing one of my new scarves. We spent the afternoon at the beach again watching some sea lions playing in the water, life sure is wonderful :)

Soaking up the sun in Santa Cruz

We drove down from San Fransisco to Santa Cruz today and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. After arriving in town we went down to the beach and my little boy had the most wonderful tme playing in the surf and digging in the sand. I love santa Cruz. I love the sunshine and the warm weather, I love the vintage and op shops, I love the cafe lined streets I think I may never leave!

I have been ducking into op shops and vintage shops everywhere we go and I have picked up some very cute and very cheap items. This lovely top cost me about $3 and I have already had 2 complete strangers comment on how lovely it is. I walked past at least 2 vintage shops and 2 big op shops today so tomorrow while the boys go back down to the beach I am going to walk back into town and do a little shopping.

On the streets of San Fransisco...

We are in San Fransisco at the moment and I am loving it. It has made it onto my list of favorite cities in the world (The others being Paris, New York and Melbourne). You can read all about what we have been up to here.
So this is what I wear when I am traveling the city streets...

My travel style is all about being comfortable. The weather is a lot warmer here in California so I finally get to shed my socks and shoes and let me feet breathe in my thongs. I usually always have a scarf draped around my neck, sunglasses on, hair tied back, backpack on and a map in my hand.
we stopped of in China Town and did some shopping. I picked up these gorgeous scarves from a little store. I adore scarves and I try and buy one in every country that I visit. I love to wear them when I am back home and remember the good times that I had in that country. Some people buy magnets or key rings as souvenirs, I buy scarves!

The time I spent the night in a tree

On our way through Oregon we stopped off and spent the night in a tree house...

You can read all about our night in the tree house here. 

Fill in the blank Friday...

I know it is Saturday but I had no internet yesterday as I spent the night in a tree, yep a tree! I will tell you about the tree in another post I promise. Here are my answers to the blanks from the wonderful little blog the little things we do.

My favorite quote is... dance like no one is watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like no one is listening and live like it is heaven on earth

A bad habit I have is... eating too much junk food, once I start I just cant stop

The first time I felt like a grown up was... when the hubby and I were first married and we sent grocery shopping for the first time together. I had lived at home with my mum before I got married and had never really done the grocery shopping before. Now we could buy whatever we wanted and we did go a little overboard with the naughty food!

Weekends are... AWESOME! It is when we get to spend some time with the family doing fun things like family dinners or trips to the beach. I also get to leave the boy with the hubby and go shopping by myself. And most importantly on Sundays it is church day! Of course this all happens when we are at home in Western Australia and not gallivanting around the world.

When I was a child I wished my name was... Tiffany, I have no idea why, I just did.

I wish... world peace, no more starving children, an end to human trafficking, living a greener life, more money, longer hair, shorter legs, a slimmer waistline... my wish list is endless

A secret I have is...now if I told you it wouldn't be a secret!

I f you would like to join in on fill in the blank Friday head on over to the little things we do and sign up.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend xoxo

Calling all Harry Potter fans...

Yesterday I visited the Seattle Science Museum to go and view the Harry Potter Exhibit. They had on display costumes and props from all of the Harry Potter films and  must say it was AWESOME!. As you walked through the displays they had the HP theme music playing and it was all dark and even smokey in places. The staff were dressed as witches and wizards and they even sorted some of us with the sorting hat as we entered the exhibit hall. They had lots to see, some of the displays that were featured were The Gryffindor Common Room and the boys dormitory, there were classroom displays, Quidditch, Hagrids Hut, the Dark Arts and many many more. If you happen to be in the Seattle area and you love HP I recommend you go and see it :) Unfortunately there was no photography allowed so I couldn't take any pictures of the displays. So here are a few pictures from the exhibition book I bought...

We had another awesome day in Seattle. You can check out my day here. We have one more day here and then we are back on the road again and heading south towards San Fransisco. We are going to stop along the way as we don't want to drive the whole way to San Fran as it will be too long a drive (remember we have a 2 year old with us). Cant wait to go to SF, very excited!

Seattle

Today we visited the Seattle Aquarium, we flew kites at the Gas Works Park and shopped in the best EVER vintage shop, you can read all about it here. This is what I wore for today's adventures...

I shopped at Redlight a vintage shop in downtown Seattle. It would have to be the best vintage shop I have been to yet. It was spread over two levels and it was really well organized. All the clothes were hanging on labelled racks like 60s dresses, 70s dresses etc.

All the clothing was in pretty good condition and they were all reasonably priced. I walked away with this cute little knitted cardigan, I think it is from the 1960s. I really love the colour and it is going to go perfectly with my vintage dress I have at home.

New (to me) cardigan...

 

Vintage dress (they are going to make the cutest couple)...

I wish I could have spent more time in there going through all the lovely clothes but I had two boys waiting for me. I did try on a few lovely dresses they were cute but didn't suit me that well so I had to pass on them. The next shop I visit I am going to get my man to drop me of and get him to go and get coffee or something and come back for me in a few hours!

Bye Bye Canada hello USA!

We said farewell to Big White Ski Resort and we have headed off on our road trip in to the US. We are in Seattle at the moment and you can read all about what we did today here.
We went shopping at the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle and I found this cute little antique store. They had a great collection of salt and pepper shakers. I bought these cute little deer shakers. I didn't get to take a picture of them beacuse they are now wrapped up tightly in tissue paper and bubble wrap and are in my suitcase. So here is a similar picture that I found on the web.

So far it has been wet wet wet. I think it rained the whole time that we were driving from Vancouver to Seattle. However it is a lot warmer then back at the ski resort. I had to have a laugh today when a family got on to the elevator we were in. They were all dressed in jackets, beanies and gloves and we were standing there with just a light sweater on and no gloves or beanies. It felt warm to us after being in the snow!

1. I feel Happy when... I have done some exercise, it gets the happy endorphins flowing and I feel great. I feel that I have done something positive and healthy for my body, I feel better and look better and I have more energy. I love it.

2. I get silly when... I am tiered. Everything seems funny to me when I am tiered and when I start laughing I find it very hard to stop and I laugh at everything.

3. Something that makes me sad is... The flood devastation that is going on in my home country Australia at the moment. People are losing their homes, their possessions and even their lives.

4. Something that makes me annoyed is... When strangers stand too close to me when I am waiting in line (like at the ATM or post office). I like my personal space and it really annoys me when people get to close to me. I try to move away but then the think I am moving up in the line and they move as well, it drives me crazy.

5. A time that I have been truly suprised is... When me and my hubby where on our trip around the world 3 years ago. We were in Barcelona and we were due to fly out the next day for Italy but my hubby surprised me with cruise tickets instead of plane tickets. He had booked us on a 12 night Mediterranean Cruise. It was a lovely surprise but I actually hate surprises. I would have rather he had told me before hand so that I could be prepared because I had no clothes that were appropriate for a cruise. We couldn't eat in the main dinning room because we didn't have any appropriate clothes to wear (we were backpacking at the tine) 

6. I am so thankful for... My friends and family. They are always there to support me and they love me despite all my faults and failures.

7. I feel loved when ... My little boy wraps his arms tightly around my neck and refuses to let go. I feel loved when somebody is happy to see me. I feel loved when somebody does something for me, it could be as little as making me a cup of tea, bringing me a meal or babysitting the boy.

If you would like to join in on Fill in the blank Friday head on over to the lovely blog The Little Things We Do and link up.

Today I am stuffing the last of our things into our suitcases and cleaning the apartment as tomorrow we head out from Big White to go on our road trip. I am so excited to be back traveling again.
Hope you all have a fantastic weekend xoxo

Thrifty Treasures

I promised myself that before I left the town of Kelowna I would go back to the huge thrift store Value Village. I went back a few days ago and hunted through the racks (and there were a lot) and I came away with lots of goodies. I actually had to put some stuff back beacuse I had a lot of things and I only have a little bit of suitcase space left. Here are the lovely things I have added to my wardrobe...

I am so excited to start wearing my new duds. And did you see I picked up a Zara dress, my first "Brand" of clothing. I also received some Christmas presents from my Mother in law and Sister in law back in Australia.

My sister in law sent me this beautiful necklace. It is by a local Fremantle designer (a town near my home town in Oz) and it is the sweetest thing, cant wait to start wearing it.

Road Trip

We are embarking on the next leg of our world tour. We are finishing up our jobs here at Big White in Canada and we are heading on a road trip. We are driving from Kelowna to Vancouver and then we are going to go down into the US and drive down the West Coast on Highway One all the way down to LA. I am so excited about this trip so stay tuned to hear all about our adventure...

1.   Winter is  awesome! I love winter time. I love dressing in layers and wearing boots, watching thunderstorms, listening to the rain on my roof at night time, cuddling in front of the fire, drinking tea and eating banana bread. I don't mind being cold actually I would rather be cold then hot.

2.  Summer is  also awesome! And I also love summer time. I love going down the beach and watching William play in the waves, eating fish and chips at the foreshore with my family, BBQs, daylight savings, camping, Christmas time, warm summer evenings on the deck drinking wine and playing board games with my friends ahhh summer time how I have missed you.

3.  If it were summer instead of winter right now I'd  go down to the beach in the evening for a swim in the cool ocean and eat fish and chips and watch the sunset with my family (I am missing them very much)

4.  My favorite thing to do in winter is to watch the thunderstorms. I love a good storm as long as I am safe at home!

5.  My favorite thing to do in summer is spend time at the beach - swimming, kayaking, eating, relaxing and generally just hanging around 

6.  The ideal outfit for a sunny summer day is  a sun dress, flip flops and sunnies

7.  The ideal outfit for a frigid winter day is jeans, boots and a lots of layers and of course my favorite thing - a scarf

I cant believe it is the weekend again. January is flying by (I think I say that every year). I have no big plans this weekend. I am working tomorrow and on Sunday I will be catching up with boring house stuff but I think I will take the boy out to play in the snow and go tubing.

Hope you all have a much more exciting weekend then I have planned!

back to the land of the living

These photos were taken before the dreaded flu had taken hold of me and held me captured for about 5 days. I have now joined the land of the living even though I still feel half zombie. Last time I wore this dress I had on normal tights and my legs froze a little. This time I wore my thermals instead. They are a little chunkier then my tights and much much warmer. I love this necklace, it is from Australia but I cannot remember for the life of me where I brought it from.
Greg cut my fringe (or bangs as they call them here) for me can you tell? He did an alright job, they have grown out a bit now so they look much better. I think it has been about five months since I have had my hair cut at a salon. It is growing pretty well and is in good condition which is good. I cant afford a hair cut on my measly wages, well more the point that I would rather spend my money on other stuff. British Columbia you pay your workers very poorly and you tax them waaay to much :(

I would just like to take the time to thank all of my readers who check in each week and who leave such sweet comments. It is nice to know there are lovely people out there in blog land. I would also like to welcome any new readers, it is great to have you on board :) If you would like to know a little bit more about me and my story check out my All About Me page and my Journey Across the World page.

I hope everybody is having a wonderful start to the new year. Mine has not been so great because I have been and still am really sick. I have had the flu since New Years Eve. I have had a fever, chills, body aches and pains, a massive continuous headache, stuffed nose, horrible cough and a pretty grumpy disposition. I am starting to pick up a bit now and hopefully will be able to return to work soon.

The hubby and I are in the middle of planning the next stage of our adventure, we are pretty excited and I will let you know what we are up to as soon as we know!

sick...

I have the flu and I feel terrible. I have not been out of the house in three days and I am starting to get cabin fever but I am still too unwell to go out.  I have been laying in front of the TV on the sofa bed in the living room and my hubby and the boy have been looking after me. Hopefully they don't get sick. 

The year that was 2010...

In January William had an accident and nearly lost the top of his pinky finger. He went to the children's hospital and had surgery to fix it...

I met some wonderful women who instantly became some of my closest friends...

 

In February I turned 30...

We started renovating our house...

In April my cute little nephew Daniel was born...

We spent Easter camping in Busselton on the beach...

May was Mothers Day, my second Mothers Day...

In June William turned 2...

Greg and I had a weekend away in Melboune...

In July Greg turned 30...

Greg's Nanna passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer disease...

In September we celebrated Fathers day, my first Fathers day with out my wonderful father who passed away in 2009...

In October my beautiful niece Halle was born...

We sold our home...

In November we moved from Australia to Canada...

It has been an amazing year and I cant wait to see what 2011 has in stall for us.

Happy New Year everybody!