A letter to my neice on her birthday

Dear Miss Lils,

Today you turn two years old. It seems a cliche to say that time has flown but my gosh it certainly has! One year ago we were all in Darwin celebrating your monumental first birthday and the year before that I was absolutely itching to meet you, waiting the four weeks until my visit was almost unbearable. Two year's so far we've been blessed with your unbelievably fantastic personality and I've got to say, our entire family is better for having your input, my little sweet.

But what I really want to say to our little rainbow cherub on her birthday is how important it is for you to always be that outgoing colourful version of yourself that you are. Your outrageousness nature, your creative expression and your individuality may be stifled over time - some people call that 'becoming an adult' but if you can, try to hold on to the wonder you welcome the world with every day right now. Try to continue to find the fun in every situation. Right now there is no peice of furniture, no toy car, no set of stairs, no gym equipment you can't climb and boy do you love to do so. You get to the top and pride beams across your face. Pride and cheekiness. Keep doing that. Keep viewing the world as something you can conquer, something you can experience and appreciate from great heights.

I also want to say to our little rainbow babe, that this week, the week of your turning two, one of our country's greatest allies celebrated an achievement of basic human rights. Gay marriage was finally legalised across America and the world wore a rainbow of colours - just the way you do. I can only hope that by the time you're old enough to understand love and all it's colours, you'll be able to love whomever you want and know that all of your friends and family have the same right to do so in your home country as well. That love of any kind will be the normal expression that it is and not having this right will seem as crazy as women not being allowed to vote. 

Keep showing those colour my darling, always be whatever you want to be and the very best you can and we'll all be here to support you every step of the way.

Until then - just enjoy being your fabulous two year old self and hope you love your new blue suede shoes and the jeans and hoddie Aunty Elle and Uncle Mark picked out for you.

So much love to you, you crazy, fabulous, little human!
xoxo

The last of the sunny days

Winter is slowly creeping up on us over in Perth, we seem to have cold days, rainy days and sunny days all mixed in at the moment. But as June bustles along, it's clear we're heading for the last of the sunny days.

The last weekend in May I took the opportunity to head down to my favourite WA destination with some writing friends for a little R&R. Man was it worth it! The perfect way to farewell autumn and welcome winter with great company, good books, blissful surrounds, tasty food, quality wine, beach appreciation, explorations, realisations, hilarity and silliness and ofcourse a spot of writing.

Lately it's been a mix of creativity, socialising and burying myself under the doona with my favourite Grey (Earl of course) in one hand and a good book in the other - all of which have been an absolute tonic for my soul.

As the darkness of winter mornings make it increasingly more difficult to get out of bed at a productive hour, I'm taking on a training regime for the City to Surf in August to burn off all the extra 'layering' I've done in the lead up to winter. Urrgghhh is all I have to say about that at the moment.

But the thing I love most about the change in seasons isn't just that I can bring out all my favourite cardigans (I am a cardi-lover for sure!) but that it awakens my creative home-body self with writing, knitting, sewing, cooking and other crafty projects all in the works to accompany many a quality glass of winter friendly red wine.

How will you be spending your winter?

Random acts of kindness

This morning I got out of my car in the carpark near my work. It was a normal autumn day in Perth. The sun was shining and there was a chilly morning wind and pulled my jacket tighter around myself, thinking maybe it is time to dig out the tights. I walked to the parking meter and as I got closer I saw something taped to the front of it.

The 'something' was this sweet random act of kindness.

The pouch contained $5.00 - enough for a full day's parking in Osborne Park for an office worker like me. I didn't take it, though, I decided to leave it for someone else who maybe needed it more than I did, but I did stop and say outloud to myself 'that's so nice' and it made me smile. It made me smile all morning infact.
 
And so I looked into it.

Happy Fun Joy Treasures has been doing random acts of kindness and placing them all over the city over the last couple of months. Each random act of kindness includes a card. Once you accept an act of kindness, you email Happy Fun Joy Treasures and share your experience including the card number on the back of you card.  And why wouldn't you? You'd be so tickled pink, your day will be completely made and you'll want to tell someone about it.
 
Then your mission if you choose to accept it, is to do a random act of kindness for someone else and give them your card. As the card and the kindness gets passed along, you can track the stories of the lives the card touches through the blog.
 
Isn't that just an unbelievably cheerful idea?!   

There are five types of kindness cards from Happy Fun Joy Treasures - happy cards, fun cards, joy cards and gold cards. All inspired to make someone's day with an act of kindness between strangers. I mean, is there a better kind?  
 
Want to take part?
If you love the idea as much as I do and don't want to sit around waiting for a random act of kindness to jump up infront of you, you can order a random act of kindness to your door by emailing happyfunjoytreasures@hotmail.com and start spreading the joy!
 
As I mentioned, I didn't take this random act of kindness today - its near a school and I figured, I'd already been touched by the concept, someone else - maybe parking to take their kids to school or pick them up can benefit from the $5.00. But I will be contacting Happy Fun Joy Treasures to order a card and think of my own unique way to share a random act of kindness and see how that card can hopefully make it's way into many other people's hands to make their day too, like this one made mine today.
 
Stay tuned!
 
Has your day been brightened by Happy Fun Joy Treasures? I'd love to hear from you. Put a link to your post if it was shared on their website.

Thirty before 30: two down

A couple of months ago I started a Thirty before 30 list - a count down to my 30th birthday by achieving a few fun things I've thought about over the last 10 or so years.

Two months down and I've achieved two things off the list!

29. Learn to reverse park
Last month I took the leap (and my time, might I add) to reverse park a corporate car in the work carpark. I didn't have a choice really, there wasn't another easy way into the car space. With a little gentle encouragement from a colleague - I did it! And then a few days later, I did it again!

It's still not my favourite thing to do, I don't think I'll be making a habit of it :/ But none the less, ticked off the list. I'll turn 30 finally knowing how to reverse park. You know, if I have to.

18. Visit Tasmania
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Hobart for a work conference. Now to be fair, I was only there two days and mostly saw the inside of an office, but I did get to experience some fine Tasmanian wine, some exquisite Tasmanian food and some fun Tasmanian hospitality and entertainment. Hopefully I'll get to see a bit more of it later in the year.



AMAZING food at Frank Restaurant, Hobart.

So that's two down, 28 to go! It's a bit of a slow start but I'm out of the gates and running! 

You can check out the full Thirty before 30 list here.

Is your 30th birthday fast approaching? Start your own Thirty before 30 list and join in the fun! 

Turning 17

Today, my baby brother turns 17. This is too weird. I'm 12 years older than he is (yes easy math, I know) and while 17 probably should seem like so long ago... it really doesn't. 17 years ago should feel like a long time ago too - but that also doesn't. I remember being there the day he was born. He came out with a squished nose and a blue tinge, but it didn't take long for him to be the cutest little thing ever with two teenage sisters to completely dote on him, which we did. From there, it seems it didn't take long for him to become this amazing young man of 17.

But today it made me think. What was I like at 17? What was happening in my life then. In the world (apart from it all revolving around high school dramas).

When I was 17:
I was in year 12 at Kent Street Senior High School.
I played the lead in my high school musical Little Shop of Horrors (bit sad, haven't performed since) - and I remember my brother, the only 5 years old bursting into tears in the audience when I got eaten by the plant. I had to leave straight after to go and calm him down!
I worked at my local supermarket as a check out chick for $6 something an hour.
I had a boyfriend I'd met working at the local supermarket.
I'd just discovered parties.
I wore halter tops and flared jeans.
I didn't have my licence, that took another year.
I lived in Forrestfield.
It was all about the Year 12 Ball. All we could talk about were our ball dresses,
I had lost my virginity (well it wasn't lost, I knew where it went - scandalous!).
I listened to Eminem - The Eminem Show, Milincolin - Pennybridge Pioneers, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By the Way on high rotation.
I was watching Australian Idol and Sex in the City.
I weighed in at about 50kg... and did no exercise apart from walking to the bus and to work - wish it was that easy now!
I had a Nokia 3330 that you could only play Snake on, text and call.
I was doing 4 subjects at school Maths, English Literature, Drama and History studying for my TEE.
I dreamed of being a writer/actress.
I had a great bunch of loopy friends, a select few I've managed to retain and they are still my most favourite people and it's a joy to be growing up with them... even if some things were more fun at 17! 

Happy birthday little bro!

One of my fave photos of us - circa 2010.

What were you doing when you were 17?

Ten by six DIY: Mini succulent garden

Succulents are some of my favourite plants. It helps that they're hardy and hard to kill which is certainly helpful at certain times of the year when my garden gets a bit neglected. 

But the thing I love about succulents is how floral and colourful they can be. How you can just cut a piece off, plant it and grow another. For some time I've been growing succulents in small pots and old jars which is a look I love. But I've been meaning to do a mini succulent garden with a mixture of those from my garden for quite some time and a couple of weeks ago, I finally did!

It's now sitting pride of place by my front door, brightening my day every time I leave and welcoming me home as I return.

What you'll need for a mini succulent garden:
Making your own mini succulent garden is super easy!

• Variety of succulent cuttings from your garden
• A pot 
• Potting mix
• Gardening gloves

Simply arrange to your liking, make sure everything is securely planted and give it a little water once a week. It's the perfect, low maintenance, all-year-round floral arrangement!

 

 

What do you think?

Long weekend love - this weekend's pearls

I love long weekends! And the four day Easter weekend is the ultimate long weekend on the calendar. It might be a week ago now, but I'm still buzzing from my long weekend and what may have been the last few days of sunshine, it this week's weather is anything to go by.

I decided to abstain from the Easter themed baking pressure this year and instead focussed on a few things that truely made my weekend.

Loading all of my CDs onto my computer (because iTunes deleted everything when I got my new phone dammit!). It was so fun to go through all of my music, I've got a pretty random mix from 90s, through the norties up to last year really. Great reminiscing material that's for sure and can't wait to make up a few new play lists and revisit old favourites.

Baking banana bread. I love banana bread and MR loves it too so it's a cute thing I like to do... baking it for him. (Ofcourse getting to eat it is a welcome outcome.) Add loads of walnuts and blueberries - yummy weekend treat!

Family and friendly gatherings. Oh so many! That's the thing about long weekends, everyone wants to see everyone (and drink loads - eekk!) Lots of fun and laughter certainly had. 

15 minutes of us. Ok so it was more like an hour over breakfast, but in a weekend full of gatherings it was nice to take a short moment to have a wee breakfast out, on a windy day by the beach.

Harvesting and planting. Ok so I didn't do anything too strenuous but I loved getting this tiny chilli haul from our plants in the courtyard and planting a few other things around to bring our garden to life more this Autum.  
 

What did you get up to on your long weekend?