Beach Boat Birthday - 3 of my favorite words

It is my birthday! Well technically I don't get a birthday this year, I am born on a leap year - the 29th of February. I only get a birthday once every 4 years so I am really only 7 years old! I celebrated my birthday on the weekend down the beach. We took our new (new to us) boat out for a spin around Rocky Beach, we spent hours swimming in the ocean and then we had fish chips for dinner on the sand and watched the sun sink below the horizon. It was a beautiful day.

This year I was very happy for my birthday to pass by quietly. I didn't want a birthday this year because I really did not want to turn another year older. This year I am 31. When I turned 30 last year I was a little sad that I wasn't in my twenties anymore but I was only 30 I could deal with that. It has been a much more mental shift for me to turn 31. I am now into my 30s, I feel I am getting old and I really don't want to. However I did have a fantastic year last year and it was a wonderful start to being in my 30s so I am going to try and stop dwelling on the fact that I am getting older and try and live the best life possible. Here is to another fantastic year being 30 (and 13 months).
aaa

Sunday, lovely Sunday

I love Sundays. It is church day and family fun day or sometimes it is rest day. Sunday is my favorite day of the week.
Here are some snap shots of my weekend...

We spent the whole weekend at the beach. At the moment we are staying with my hubbys folks and they live across from the beach so we chuck on our bathers and head straight across the road for a dip in the ocean. I am completely worn out but it was totally worth it. Right now my little boy is fast asleep, I think he was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
Hope your weekend was as fabulous as mine :)

I am currently obsessed with finding a new home to live it. I am constantly looking at houses as I drive along and I am always lurking on Real Estate dot com looking for new homes that have been posted to rent. I am also flipping through home decorating magazines for ideas and I am mapping out my plan of attack in the Ikea catalog. I cant sleep at night it is that bad!
Today I am excited  because I just renewed my membership for the gym. I haven't been working out because I have been overseas so I am super pumped to get back into it.
The age I am is nearly 31 eek! The age I feel is 25. I really don't want to turn 31 on Monday. I plan on being 30 for at least 5 years!
My favorite place is the beach. I love any beach but in particular I like to go to the beach where my Dads ashes are. I like to go and sit and reflect on the lovely things in my life and to think about my Dad.
Something I have been procrastinating about is learning how to sew. Every year I say that this is the year I am going to get my Mum to teach me how to sew and the year come and goes and I still haven't had any sewing lessons. Now I really wish I had chosen to take sewing in high school.
The last thing I purchased was some new clothes for my little boy. Nothing fancy just some t shirts and board shorts.
The thing I love most about my home is at the moment my home is my Mother and Father in laws house so the best thing about that is I get a lovely home cooked meal each night, round the clock baby sitting and a sleep in each morning because when the little man wakes up he goes straight upstairs to Nanny and Poppy.

If you would like to join in on filling in the blanks head on over to The Little Things We Do.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend xoxo

Things I'm Loving...

My lovely friend Stacey has a lovely blog and through reading her lovely blog I have come across some more lovely blogs. One of those lovely blogs is Paisley Jade. Kristy Drake is the author and she wrote these words which I absolutely love...

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

Kristy does a weekly feature on her blog titled Things I'm Loving and I have decided to join in with her. Here are the things I'm loving this week...

My beautiful niece Halle, she is the sweetest little thing and she makes me smile. The world is a more wonderful place now that she is in the world. She is 4 months old and I cant wait to watch her grow, learn and explore.

 My hipstamatic camera on my iphone. I finally was able to download it to my phone and I am loving it. Be prepared for the onslaught of hipstamatic pictures :) Oh and of course I am loving my darling little boy!

A new to me blog I recently came across - Dottie Angel. I love this cupboard of dottie angels. I have a similar one and when I move into my new house (which I am yet to find) I am going to get it out of storage and fit it out just like this.

I am loving free magazines with craft ideas that even I can do!

And most of all I am loving my bed. After sleeping in about a dozen hotel beds it is nice to come home and rest my weary head on the most comfortable bed ever.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people in New Zealand after the massive earthquake that has devastated their country. Kristy is from New Zealand and she has some information over at her blog on how you can help to support the victims of the earthquake.

If you would like to join in on Things I'm Loving just click here...

Treasures from a distant land...

While I was on my trip in the USA I picked up some lovely little treasures. here is a sneak peek into what I got...

 I collect glass bottles and I saw this lovely purple bottle in a little gift store in Santa Cruz and instantly fell in love with it. I found this little love birds dish in Urban Outfitters, love that store, we don't have it here in OZ

This sweet little bowl is also from UO and my darling little deer salt shakers which I picked up at an antique store in Pike Place Markets, Seattle.

I found these earrings and necklace at Forever 21. I absolutely adore the necklace and cant wait to style it up. We don't have Forever 21 here in Oz and it is a shame, they had some gorgeous clothes and accessories and all at a very reasonable price, hopefully one day it will make it to our shores.

Did you guess from my last post what I picked up??

A boat! My hubby and his dad went halvsies in a little runabout boat. Just a little something to go fishing on and hopefully ski biscuiting. Not sure when we are going to get the chance to take it out for a spin, hopefully some time on the weekend.

I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh what a world! Oh what a world!

All I can say is that I am so hot. I thought it a good idea to wear jeans the other night. We were going to my brother in laws party and it was at his parents place on the farm. We were going to be sitting outside so I wanted to protect my legs from mossie bites. There were no mossies and it was stinking hot so jeans were a BAD idea!

I wish I had more time to chat but the hubby is hurrying me up. We are on our way out to pick up some very exciting. All I will tell you is that it is big and shiny and hopefully goes really fast :)

If you are in WA hope you stay cool in this warm weather and if you are in New Zealand I hope you and your family are safe and have not been affected by the terrible earth quake.

back baby...

We have arrived home back in Western Australia safe and sound. It was a very long journey to get home and I am so glad to be back. The first thing my hubby and I did when we woke up in the morning after arriving home was to go to the shops and buy shorts and bathers, man alive it is hot here! It was good to get out in the sunshine but my little boy got a bit to much sunshine, he got a little sun burn :(

We have been hanging out with our family and friends, eating lots of delicious home cooked foods, enjoying the sunshine and warm weather by sitting at the park and eating ice creams and William spent the whole day on Saturday in the paddling pool.

It is back to reality tomorrow. I go back to work (I will be teaching sport to the grades one, two and three at my school one day a week), the hubby starts back in the business and we are on the hunt for a new place to live. Until we find a place to live we are bunking down with my hubby s parents. So that means all my things are still in storage and we are still living out of our suitcases. Hopefully it will not take us too long to find a new house. I miss my stuff.

Going home...

Well our trip has come to an end and I am looking forward to going home. We had planned on being away for 6 months but we are going home a little earlier then that. I really love traveling but I have grown weary after our road trip so I am looking forward to some of the comforts of home.

I cant wait to see all of my family especially the newest additions to our family. My niece Halle and my nephew Daniel. They have grown so much while we have been away and I cant wait to see what new things they can do.

I am really looking forward to hanging out with my girlfriends and their little angels. William and I have really missed our play dates with them and I cant wait to sit down with these lovely ladies and drink lots of tea and have a catch up.

I have really missed spending the summer at the beach. We have the most beautiful beaches where we live and we have missed out on an Australian summer this year. When we return it should still be warm so I plan on spending lots of time down on the beach swimming, walking, kayaking and playing.

I cant wait to find a new home. Before we left on our holiday we sold our house and put all of our things into storage so when we go home we need to find a new house to live in. I am so looking forward to having all om things around be again. I really miss my own bed, cooking in a kitchen and letting the boy run free in the backyard.

Oh, and I cant wait to get back to the rest of my clothes, shoes and bags! I have missed them very much and I am sick and tiered of wearing the same things over again. I am also looking forward to wearing some of the lovely things I have picked along my trip.

See you all again when I am back in the land of Oz!
There is no place like home :)

The things I have loved

Things I have loved about the USA and Canada...

Looong pants... I have discovered a wonderful store in Canada called Reitmans. They have extra long pants and jeans for us gals who have extra long legs. Also Target in the US have long pants as well. Come on Australia, hurry up and start catering for those of us who are over 6 foot.

Cheap clothes, shoes and accessories... the prices for clothes here in the USA are half the price of the clothes we have in Australia. It is just not fair. Consider yourself lucky Americans.

IHop... Let me just say that I love restaurants that serve a breakfast menu all day long, and I love all you can eat pancakes!

Superstores... I love having department stores that have supermarkets in them as well. Our Target stores back home are just department stores, they don't have groceries in them.

Snow... we have snow in Oz but not where I live so getting to live in the snow was a new thing for me.

Things I have not really loved about the USA and Canada...

Expensive cell phone calls and text messages... Ouch the cell phone calls are expensive here. You have to even pay when you receive a message here. It is stupid.

Serving sizes in restaurants... They are HUGE which always means I eat way too much. A regular coke from McDonald's here is the equivalent of a super size coke back home in Australia!

Big cars... Everybody seems to drive really big trucks here, they take up the road and the car parking spaces. I cant wait to get back to some normal sized cars, fuel efficient people and they are cheaper to run.

Chocolate... The chocolate here is not as nice as our chocolate back home. Ours is much more creamier and tastier. I cant wait to sink my teeth into some Cadbury's Black Forest chocolate! 

Happy LOVE day!

Happy Valentines day everybody! Today is the day to tell somebody who is special to you that you love them and appreciate them. Here are the two loves of my life, my hubby and my baby boy. They are the sunshine in my life.

It has been hard not to forget valentines day this year. Love stuff has been everywhere here in Canada and the USA. It has been all over the radio and TV and the stores are littered with red and pink and loads of valentines presents. To tell the you the truth me and the hubby don't do anything special for valentines day, terrible I know right, we are an old married couple!

I have loved reading my gal pal Stacey's blog Blogs, Tea and me. She has gone all out this year for valentines day and you should definitely head on over to her blog and see the lovely things she has done. Thanks for sharing Stacey you are truly an inspiration.
It might be a bit late for this year but head on over to the lovely blog WhipperBerry and check out all the lovely valentines day ideas people have shared.

Happy LOVE day xoxo

Vancouver

Today we went down to Granville Island. It is a collection of old warehouses that have been converted into shops, cafes and a public market. I love going to markets and I think I have been to a market in every city I have visited. The two best markets I have been to were in Paris and one in Hong Kong. I love to go to markets because you can always find wonderful and interesting things there. I love to taste the foods that are on offer. Today I sampled some delicious nutty caramel fudge. I also love to look for handmade stuff to buy. I was out of luck today nothing took my fancy which is lucky because I have no more space left in the case I had to go out and buy another carry on bag to take on the plane so I can bring all of my stuff home. To see more pictures and read about what we did today click here. 

I heart green

I am really loving the colour green at the moment. On our drive through Washington and Vancouver all around me was beautiful green. Green in the leaves on the trees, green rolling hills and plains of grass, green moss covered trees and logs and best of all a little green cutie sitting on the back seat!

I got my haircut the other day and I absolutely love the way the stylist did it for me. She was an older lady and she had a French accent so I found it really hard to understand what she was saying but I trusted her and she did a wonderful job. It has been at least 6 months since my last hair cut and eyebrow wax so I was in desperate need of some grooming!

Friday sure does roll around quickly, time please slow down. We are still in Vancouver and we have spent the last couple of days chillin at our hotel after our long drive up from LA. I have been reunited with the rest of my luggage, yeah! Now my hotel room is littered with clothes, toys and souvenirs. I am sorting through everything and trying to pack it into our three bags to see if we can take it all home. Some things have not made the cut and they will find their way to the thrift store before we leave.

Here is this weeks fill in the blanks...

The TV show/website that I watch/read that I would be embarrassed to tell anyone about is... ummmm, thinking thinking thinking... actually there is nothing I am embarrassed about. My favorite TV shows are Seinfeld, Friends and Amazing race nothing embarrassing about them.

 

An item of clothing that is worn and torn but that I love far to much to throw away is a black cardigan. Every time it gets a hole in it I just sew it up and keep on wearing it. A black cardigan you say, there are a million black cardigans around I know but this one fits me perfectly and I love it.

 

My grocery store impulse buy is chocolate and magazines. Chocolate is definitely not supposed to be in my diet and magazines are not supposed to be in my budget but they are just there and they are whispering my name! I have absolutely no self control. 

 

Something I do at work to pass time that I wouldn't want my co-workers to know about is that I always check my Facebook page. The server at work dose not allow you onto Facebook but my iphone dose! I am a relief teacher so I often find myself supervising a class that are quietly working and I have nothing to do so I surf the net :)

 

One thing in my life that I could give up, but never will is tea, I love a good cup of tea black and with sugar, in fact 2 sugars I like it sweet. Probably shouldnt have so much sugar but I love it.

  

A little indulgence that I have is handbags, I want them, I need them and I have lots of them. I think I need to start featuring them in my outfit posts when I get back home

The junk drawer/area in my house is it used to be a basket on top of my fridge (I say used to because I currently don't have a house and I go rid of the basket when we moved!) everything used to get chucked in there and it was so full and so heavy that the handle broke off of it when I pulled it down last.

We are heading out for a night on the town tonight with some friends that are here from Australia.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Introducing...

We have arrived back in Vancouver the finish line to our road trip. We have 7 days here until we fly out back home.  I cant wait to be back in the land of Oz to the lovely warm weather and endless sunshine (hopefully some sunshine they have been having some strange weather back home lately) so I thought I would introduce you to an Aussie blogger that I love, this is Jen from Pretty Little Pictures.

Well actually I think she is originally from New Zealand and now she is living in Sydney. I like to read blogs for Australia simply because they are in the same season as I am and I can draw outfit inspiration form them and check out the same stores/places that they shop in.

I love Jens blog not only because she has an amazing sense of style but she also features her lovely sewing projects on her blog . Sewing in one thing that is on my bucket list. I would love to be able to sew my own clothes and I really must get my mum to teach me to sew one of these days.

Jen wears the most lovely vintage dresses and also has the cutest shoes, oh how I love this girl and her style :)

 If you love vintage and you love sewing head on over to Pretty Little Pictures and you will be delighted.