its the most wonderful time of the year

Oh I love Christmas! I hope you all had the most wonderful Christmas! I certainly did, spent with my family all day long! It was magical. Having children in the family really make it so much more special. One of my favourite things about christmas is Giving presents! I received some amazing ones but today I'm going to share some special ones i gifted!

I gave this Jen Booth Necklace to my sister in law, i'd really like one for myself

These aren't the exact Blackmilk tights I got my little sister but they are similar I got some too I LOVE them

My mum gave me some catbird stacker rings and I got these gems for my friend casey 

I got a thief and bandit dresses for my three nieces, they are beautifully handprinted and super cute on

and how could i not get this mug for my friend stacey 

I'm sad its all over for another year, but super grateful for how special it was!

Have a safe and happy new years xoxox

Wedding Wednesday- Bridesmaids

After finally deciding on a venue I thought it was definitely time to ask my bridesmaids. I wanted to wait so that I could give them an idea of when and where the wedding would take place and what sort of wedding it would be. I've known since we got engaged (and really before that) who I would like to have but just wanted it to be right when I asked them. I think this put a little pressure on me as I was trying to think of a creative way to ask them and I had come across the most beautiful way over at Rinse repeat where Bethany made little boxes for her bridesmaids filling them with lovely things (go and look). I decided not to copy (i did look for boxes though haha) ad created these myself.

Photo taken by Jessica

I purchased some vintage style handkerchiefs from ebay at christmas time and I was tossing up with printing on them or what I ended up doing was wrapping a printed note around them that said "will you be my bridesmaid". Since I had to post 3 I didn't want them to just be pulled out of an ugly envelope so I decided to wrap them in pink Tissue and print a verse on some paper that was an intro to the Hanky, which said "I need something old, new, borrowed, blue and you". I would have loved to have them over for a morning tea and ask them all but as three live away it wasn't going to work. So I posted three and asked the other four individually. Yep thats right seven! :)


They all said yes and here's a little bit about each


Kadi, Matron of honour: my older sister, someone I've always looked up to, shared so much with and has given with me the most wonderful gift, beautiful nieces. 
Hayley: My oldest best friend, an adopted sister. We've had so many adventures together, between a car washing business, creating future houses, sharing tears and many a dessert.
Jessica: a ten year friendship that has blossomed into a strong sisterly bond. A fashionista, so generous and a lovely person. Oh and Toby's sister and Willow Bebe's mum.
Stacey: one of my best friends who I luckily get to see the most! We've shared lots of trips and events over the years, too many drinks, not enough sleep but a whole lot of fun!
Peta: so many special memories. The keeper of all my secrets, a beautiful soul that I couldn't live without. She always knows what to say and make me feel better.
Rebecca: first a colleague, now a wonderful friend. Someone I've always admired, works hard, knows how to have an awesome time and has the greatest taste in music!
Ellise: my baby sister, an honest soul in her prime. Brave, kind and gorgeous!


I'm so lucky to have such amazing women in my life and I'm so excited to share our special day with each of them! Now it's toby's turn to ask his boys! I don't think he will be giving hankies, i'd say it'll be over a beer haha

Jessica's 30th

Yesterday was a great Day! We went to Lovedale Long lunch to celebrate my SIL Jessica's 30th birthday. I've been going to Lovedale for quite a few years and as always it was a superb day. Lovedale is an area in the hunter valley vineyards which puts on a long (progressive) lunch between 7 wineries. Yesterday we went to 3 Saltire, Sandalyn and my favourite Tatler's. Not only is there great food and wine they have amazing entertainment. Its always the 3rd weekend in May.

And the best part of the day was the company! 

 Dancing with this little poppet was fun too!

head to LLL site for details about the weekend

The last 2 weeks.....

Wow I'm officailly an incredibly slack blogger! I've been meaning to blog since Easter! Pathetic I know. Life has just been super super busy! Toby has had the school holidays off with me so on good Friday I came home from visiting our wedding venue (more on that later) to find that he had been peeking under the carpet in our hallway and it looked pretty bad how he had placed the carpet back down so I suggested that maybe we rip it up...... which started a whole week and a half worth of work ripping up carpet, moving everything into our shed, cleaning, sanding and varnishing floor boards, we are officially moved back in now, thanks to my mum for putting us up fpor a few days. We have completed everything but still need to varnish our back hallway and laundry which is ready to go we just need to leave the house for a bit for it to dry. We were unsure whether to do it before we get our house re piered in a few months but we just got sick of doing nothing! It was a massive massive job but im so so so pleased with the results.

While we were out of the house for a few dayes we got to spend some quality time with these to beautiful babes! they were such good girls for us. We had one beautiful day and one rainy day!

I hope you all had a wonderful Eatser surrounded by loved ones!

and I'll leave you with an Easter pic of toby and the Eatser bunny (aka Willow Bebe)

One year Old

I missed the blogs birthday (because I was too busy enjoying my own birthday) I can't believe it's been a year! It has flown. I have been quite slack these last couple of months as i've been busy with work but I have a goal to get on here more regularly. I celebrated my birthday with family after work (on my actual birthday) Toby took me to a lovely restaurant, Muse last night in the hunter valley and today I had lunch with friends at Merewether's surf house which was also nice. I've been spoilt.

On thursday (My birthday) i came home to find a lovely surprise. Toby had baked me a chocolate cheesecake from scratch. I couldn't believe it. He's never baked for me! This is what I found in the fridge.

On my birthday night my nieces got to know each other a little better Millie amd Blair (my sisters girls) were completely smitten with Willow (toby's sister's baby girl) 

Here's Blair and Willow about to smooch.

and here's on of me and Millie! I love how her eyes go when she's really really happy!

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday great! 26 is turning out to be a good year so far

Matt Blatt

Yesterday my friend Mel and I went to furniture shop heaven, Matt Blatt. Mel had purchased some replica Xavier Pauchard Tolix stools and a chair and had to pic them up and of course I had to tag along as I'm always admiring the Matt Blatt advertisements in Real Living magazine. Here's a picture of when you first walk in the door

The showroom still has a sort of warehouse feel to it, but is set out so you can wander around and take a seat. The furniture is so amazing! Matt Blatt imports the replicas "From the factories directly to you so there are no middle men involved. Hence the low prices and exceptional quality" (straight from there website). Mel likes this couch below, i do to it reminds me of Madmen.

I fell inlove with tis below however Toby thinks it too "70's" 

  

Here's Mel taking a chair for a spin

How did you spend your Monday?

We also went to the new Ikea at Tempe..... talk about ginormous!!!! 

Life lately according to instagram

I'm getting a little bit sad I have to go back to school next week (on Friday but it's still next week) I've really enjoyed my Holidays this year although I haven't done a great deal. Somehow they've disappeared fast. I have been participating in FatMumSlims january photo challenge on instagram which has been fun (not all of these are from it) but you'll get the drift of what I've been up to.  

 

As you can see I've been Sleeping in, Spending some quality time with the puppies, i attempted running once (lots of walking though), a few arty trips, hanging with the nieces, a minibreak in Canberra (where I had a cocktail in a noodle box and had my first white wine sangria Im inlove and visited the tastiest place on earth Koko black, and most importantly got to meet baby Elsie and spend time with my favourite GF's), received some lovely mail and I've been doing lots of schoolwork in preparation for the year ahead.

Life lately through instagrams

 

The last week has been pretty busy, varying from Ring-a-ring-a-rosy on my sisters trampoline, to homebake in Sydney where we got to see some great Aussie (and kiwi) bands (and catch up with a few friends), to xmas decorating and card making, to chilling out under our Apple tree. Life has been busy busy. I haven't worked the last two days as school is starting to wind down so I have tried to get into some Christmas crafts. I think December is busy for everyone but that's one of the reasons I love it so. 

Outpost

You HAVE to go and see the Outpost Project! It is a must do before December 11 (when it closes) I was absolutely blown away by the amazing works that were on Cockatoo island! 

heres a sneak peek at a few of the works but honestly they do not do it justice.

The size of some of the works blew me away! especially Vexta's (the girl diving/swimming) i walked away feeling so inspired and amazed by the whole thing. The bus was being sprayed while we were there so it started blank and turned out amazing, its very interactive watching works being created. There is an exhibition from a private collection held in the event as well with numerous Banksy works which were great to get up close to! There was also lots of activities for little ones so I think its very kid friendly (minus the swearing above) and the best bit about the day was that I got to spend it with my dear uni friends who are also art teachers and were equally amazed. We headed to the opening of the Picasso exhibition on at the Art gallery of NSW soon after. It was impressive, lots of works through different periods of his life, he was a very versatile artist. Exhausting day but well worth the trip to sydney! DO IT! 

Exhausted

It's Sunday afternoon and I've just woken up from a much needed afternoon nap! This weekend has been go go go! It started with a quick trip to Olive tree markets to buy gifts for the weekends events (and some jam for myself) then I was straight off to a baby shower where I smelled nappies filled with different flavours of chocolate. I then went to a 40th at a Beer festival and it was crazy hot so I didn't last long, then time to get ready for Jen and Mark's engagement, so off to newcastle we went for a sneaky bbq beforehand then the party began.

The very happy couple :)

it was such a wonderful night, catching up with the best of friends and some old friends that we hadn't seen in quite some time

This morning we woke up early with blurry heads and headed home before bookclub and a christening. It was the busiest weekend I can remember, and i'm honestly pooped out! 

Did anyone else have a super busy weekend? we are busy now right up to xmas luckily not this busy though. I think i'll be in bed early tonight.

My weekend in instagrams

I just had the biggest whirlwind of a weekend I thought instagrams would describe it best.

A day at the races, breakfast with friends, a new hair do, lunch and cardigan shopping with my boy, opening engagements cards (and early gifts) rugby union with chocolate spiders and Willow. It was a great weekend. How was your weekend?