the royal wedding

The royal wedding. Yes, I got sucked in, big time. I will happily admit that I watched every minute of coverage, fell head over heels in love with her dress and at one stage even got a bit teary.  Lame, but true.  

After work on Friday, we headed over to Paddington to stop by the My Heart Wanders book launch at Ariel Books.  I love this bookstore and it was great to catch up with a few people but time was a ticking as I needed to be firmly planted near a television, champagne in hand, to watch the wedding hoopla.  In keeping with the theme I thought it would be appropriate to head to the London Tavern to watch the ceremony. It was perfect, made me want to develop a posh accent, sip Pimms, travel to London and befriend Pippa and Harry.

Well my time at the tavern meant that the royal wedding turned into a royal hangover the next day but I didn't mind, it gave me another chance to watch even more wedding coverage, including about 4 million replays of 'the kiss'...gotta love it.

rockin bangs

oops I did it again.  Yes, my friends I've subjected myself to yet another horrendous fringe trim and now resemble (yet again) Jim Carey from Dumb & Dumber. Perhaps I'm just a glutton for punishment or more likely it's because I'm just too cheap to go to a decent salon but despite what this looks like, it wasn't a 5 year old that cut my hair.  Believe it or not, the stylist was in fact rockin some really cool bangs. I was hoping to get a similar result but instead ended up with what appears to be a very poor attempt to capture the 'Amelie' look.  I've tried to convince myself that it looks a bit French but who am I kidding, it just looks plain ridiculous!  So lesson learned, next time I'll treat myself to a decent cut but let's face it, its only hair. Until it grows out, at least we can all have a few laughs at my expense.

The Art of Laziness...

My lazy streak continued over the rest of the holiday weekend and the cloudy, rainy weather did nothing to motivate me otherwise.  This year I traded two-up for my PJ's and a stack of books and happily lounged in bed, watching movies and enjoyed the fact that I had absolutely nothing to do.  Tuesday was more of the same - breakfast in bed followed by tea and lots of catching up with my favourite magazines.  There was laundry to be done and taxes that were finally, finally completed!  The sun came out briefly so I stepped out for some fresh air and snapped a few photos, there is nothing like being by the ocean on a crisp fall day.  I'm slowly preparing myself to head back to work tomorrow, which is always tough after a long weekend but I'm feeling content, happy and ready for the weeks ahead.

palm beach & the basin

 

It seems strange that after living in Sydney for almost 4 years, there are parts of the city that still remain unseen.  Even after living most of that time on the Northern Beaches, I still had not ventured into this part of the world until now.  Taking advantage of the Easter long weekend, we got up early on Friday morning and headed up towards Palm Beach with 10 of our closest friends.  From there we loaded all our camping gear onto the ferry and headed over to an area called The Basin. What I really mean by 'basin' is a little slice of heaven, just outside of Sydney that allows to feel like you're a million miles away.  Tucked away in a little cove is a gem that allows you to camp, fish, swim and basically perfect the art of laziness which is exactly what I've done for the past three days.

We lucked out on Friday when the sun was shining and laid out in the sun, caught fish for dinner, took afternoon naps, enjoyed cold wine and created a mock campfire with tea lights. It was brilliant and since I love to camp I found myself wondering how I haven't discovered this place sooner. On Saturday, the weather took a turn for the worse and it pretty much rained most of the day but we survived and managed to stay (mostly) dry.  Luckily on Sunday the sun was shining and we were able to spend our last day eating Easter chocolate, watching cricket games, swimming and a bit more fishing before catching the ferry back to Palm Beach. I came home rested, relaxed and head over heals in love with this newly discovery piece of paradise. I'll be back for sure...

happy easter...

Happy Easter!  We just got back from our camping trip to the Basin, more pics to follow but first we've got Easter chocolate to eat...x

social butterfly....

I've been trying to simplify my life. The key word being trying. Despite my best efforts my subconscious self seems to rebel.  Instead of cutting back I've been signing up for workshops, taking classes, saying 'yes' to events that I've never even considered before - you get the picture. Then to top it all off I've even signed up to Twitter and Facebook. Yup, that's right, this little blog is surfing the social media wave.  At first I didn't get it, I couldn't possibly understand what kind of person had enough time in their life to waste it 'tweeting' away. Well apparently I am that kind of person.  I love Twitter, I think I even used the word 'adore' when describing my feelings for it - so embarrassing.  So if you aren't already on Twitter, I highly suggest you try it (and feel free to 'follow' me while you're at it) just don't say I didn't warn you.

ladies night

I'm not a phone person. I never have been. This wouldn't be that big of a problem except for the fact that I live half way around the world from most of my family and friends.  Throw into the mix a time difference that I can never seem to figure out and you realise that keeping in touch is not one of my strong points.  I do try my best but always seem to end up being that annoying person on the bus,  talking too loudly about personal things while catching up with my best friend during the morning commute. awkward.  

Fast forward to my current life in Sydney and I find weeks go by so fast that I barely get to keep in touch with some of my girlfriends.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels like this.  So in an effort not to be sucked into the daily grind of work and life in general, we decided to plan a girls night or shall i call it 'ladies night' because that sounds way more fun and to be honest reminds me of that Lil Kim song I used to love in high school.  Anyway back to the point - we tried out Jah Bar in Manly and had tapas, wine and talked about ridiculous things that only girls do when they get together. It was great, it didn't involve a million phone calls (maybe a million emails) and was a great excuse to get everyone together.

a bit of real living

I found myself up early on Saturday and considering this is two weekends in a row of early wake up calls, I think I might have turned over a new leaf. Well, maybe. A Sunday sleep-in is calling my name..

Anyways the reason for the early start was that I wanted to check out the 30 Days of Home, Food & Wine happening at the Hordern Pavilion.  Deb Bibby and her Real Living team had paired up with Freedom to show how to style rooms from beginning to end.  It was actually interesting but probably something I couldn't create again if you paid me, but was nevertheless entertaining.  They were giving out good advice especially when you could bring your own floor plans and have the team give one on one advice about styling your home.  This would have been invaluable had I actually owned my own home or even rented our own place but no such luck, not right now at least. Guess I'll just have to bottle up that inspiration for somewhere down the road...

a week in pictures...

I've been missing around these parts lately.  Mainly it's because I've been busy trying to get settled in our new space but we've also had Internet issues and no wireless (the horror!)  To be honest it has been kind of nice to have a bit of a break - but fear not I am back.  This week I finally signed up for not one but two classes to fill up my winter days - first is my dressmaking class which I attempted last year with no success, hopefully the second time is a charm.  I also am going to attempt to knit, which should be equally as hilarious as trying to watch me sew.  J and I managed to check out the Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the MCA before it closed which was well worth the wait and spent the rest of the week working, commuting on the bus for countless hours, eating dangerous amounts of sushi, checking out some book sales, farmers market and generally enjoying autumn around these parts.