Playtime.

Good morning girls and boys.


The weekend whizzed by, once again... but thankfully I'm still on holidays so Mondayitis hasn't kicked in. Phew.

We started the weekend with a trip to the markets, some chatting with horses and finished with pizza in the late afternoon on Sunday at Ga's house. Lacey has taken to calling my Ma Ga {as in grandma}. We think Ma is the new Lady Ga Ga.

*Oh, darn it. I just realised that the date didn't go in there. It's meant to say 16th. Oh well.

Here is my contribution to Point + Shoot. I managed to sort out Lacey's toys, finally. I have no idea how she managed to accumulate so many toys in her short little life. I feel like we have some order now... or until she decides to act like a whirlwind and throw them about, everywhere. I can't wait until I can yell: Clean up your room, and don't come out until it's done!

How was your weekend, my friend?

Insatiable.

Word on the street is that a good handful of you aren't feeling particularly satisfied with just flowers on your Friday and a fond farewell from me. It seems you might be craving something a tad more substantial to leave you lingering over the weekend. I learnt this from my little survey. {If you still want to participate, you can here: Have your say}.

Today I'm not organised enough to offer you anything... but these flowers are super lovely, and I did throw in some shoes for good measure.

And I would love it so if you played Point + Shoot with me. Just take a photo of any {Saturday or Sunday} part of your weekend and come back and show me on Monday. It's that easy.
Over the weekend I plan on:

♥ buying fresh flowers
♥ doing a dash of cleaning
♥ trying out a little experiment
♥ sorting through Lacey's toys {they're taking over our house}
♥ listening to my music on my zen {i just found it after 5 years, loving the old music}
♥ lunching with the ladies
♥ cooking ricotta hotcakes
♥ eating ricotta hotcakes
♥ exercising off the ricotta hotcakes

What have you got planned for the weekend?

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A Girl Loves To Dream...

Often whilst I'm searching on Etsy for the elusive perfect black dress {which I haven't found just yet} I'll stumble across the most perfect black wedding dress. I see it every few months {I'm sure I saved it to favourites but I can't find it again now}. And it has me dreaming almost immediately.

I dream of a wedding in a beautiful sun-filled field. The sun's not too hot, it's late afternoon and we're all comfortable, without a bead of sweat on our brows. There are handmade patchwork quilts laid out with love on the lawns, and personalised picnic baskets for our wedding guests. They're filled with teeny little sandwiches in the shape of love hearts made with the softest white bread one could ever find. Fairy lights are strung in the beautiful, aged trees. They soft light will illuminate the sky as we dance into the night.

The women sip pink champagne from mismatched antique glasses, and the boys stand around and laugh together, beers in hand. The kids run around in the grass. The girls in teeny vintage frocks and the boys in little shirts teamed with dirty converse. There are cupcakes, and laughter, flowers in our hair and love fills the air.

And I'll look up at Hubby and start to say, If we get married again...

And he looks at me as if I've completely lost my marbles, Babe, we got married. You only have one wedding. Ours was perfect.

And I know it was. I wouldn't change a thing. But a girl loves to dream...


Print is my all time favourite which I have framed at home from Abby Try Again.

Bridezilla.

When I was planning our wedding I guess I was a little non-traditional in a way. I wasn't excited about the dress. Not one bit.


The thought of trekking from Bridal store to Bridal store just seemed like a chore to me, and wasn't something I looked forward to. I didn't want a traditional gown, and definitely not white.

We were to get married in October, so when July rolled around I thought I had better at least start looking. My Ma and I headed into the City to look at dresses in 'normal' shops to see if I could find anything that I liked.

The first shop we walked into was Lisa Ho. I looked at a few dresses... and then picked one from the rack. It was latte in colour and in a style that I felt would suit me. A girl emerged from the change room in a white version. She was skinny and beautiful. I sighed and entered, undressed and tried my dress on.

I felt awkward. I didn't want to come out, especially with Miss Perfect next door wearing the same dress. I called Ma in and asked for her opinion. She loved it. There were no tears, magic moment or feelings of it being the dress.

It fit me though, and I felt that was a miracle in itself. I asked the lady behind the counter to keep it aside and we'd have lunch and think about it. We looked around a little longer and eventually stumbled across Alex Perry's store. Alex Perry makes the most amazing dresses. He was in the store himself, vacuuming the floor as they were about to close for lunch.

I picked up the most beautiful, sparkling blue dress from the rack and eyed it up and down. It most definitely had wow factor.

Do you have this in size 14, maybe even 16? I asked Alex.

He looked up from his vacuuming and quickly replied, No.

I looked at the size 10 dress in my hands and then ambitiously asked, Do you think I could try it on and leave the zip undone?

No, Alex responded.

And that was that. I promptly placed the dress back on the rack and headed out for lunch with my Ma. We'd looked at about 4 stores, and I'd had enough. We contemplated the dress from Lisa Ho. We called my Big Sis and asked what she thought. I can't even recall what she said, but we went back and got the dress.

Two weeks before the wedding I had a bridezilla moment. I regretted not trying on more gowns. Perhaps I wanted a traditional gown. Perhaps just a full length gown. What was I going to do?

I was going to email Lisa Ho, that's what. I emailed Lisa Ho and asked if she could alter my dress and make it full length. Back then, that seemed almost logical. I didn't batter an eyelid at how crazy that sounded. Of course she emailed me back and said that they didn't offer that service.

And so I wore the Lisa Ho shorter dress, and it was perfect. I wouldn't have changed a thing. It suited our wedding perfectly, and as every bride does, I got the most touching comments all day. I felt more beautiful than ever before. It was meant to be.


What did you wear on your wedding day? If you're not married, what do you dream of wearing?

Road Trippin' With A Toddler.

We did the unimaginable and drove all the way up the coast for a little holiday. We thought we were smart. We thought we could do it...


We had a grand plan. We always do. That's what parenting is about. Plans, hope, dreams...

It was New Year's Eve. We watched the early fireworks at 9pm and then headed off. The car was packed already {with a surf ski on the roof - one of the whole reasons for having to go by car instead of plane} and we were ready for the trip ahead. We gave Lacey a bottle and thought she'd sleep the whole way. I envisioned a quirky and almost romantic start to the new year. We'd listen to the radio as we drove along, hear the countdown and give each other that knowing glance, accompanied by a smile and wish each other a Happy New Year.

Oh no. That is not how it happened. Lacey slept until about 11:45pm. And that was it. At midnight she was screaming. Unhappy to be sleeping upright and in her car seat. I was in the back seat with my body contorted just so she could nuzzle her little hand down my shirt {which is her thing she does at the moment for comfort}. Happy New Year.

She didn't sleep from just before midnight, all the way until her weary little eyes couldn't stay open any longer at 4:30am. We watched Hi-5 DVD over and over again. My eyes couldn't stay open, as much as I tried. My body was twisted, my eyes ached for some much needed sleep {and a comfy bed}.

We got there though. Eventually. The only problem was that we eventually had to get home again.

And when we got home I wanted to kiss the dirty backpacker trodden ground of Bondi. We were home. I think that's all we said for the first hour of getting inside. Home. Home. Home. Home.


Do you have any road trippin' tales to share?

Holiday Heaven.

It was probably hard to tell, but last week I wasn't around. I went on holiday.


We drove almost ten hours up the coast to a little town near Byron Bay to spend time with hubby's family. We drove. The whole ten hours. With a child that we don't usually take anywhere that requires being in the car for more than half an hour. The furthest we've ever been is Ikea... so Byron was huge. More on that tomorrow though.

We had the best time. I honestly haven't felt this relaxed since before having Lacey. I feel good. We ate the most delicious food. We watched the sun set. We slept through the sun rising {perfect}. I walked along the beach {okay, I only managed to do that once - I was in holiday mode}. I bought out my inner nerd and played Nintendo DS and managed to complete two whole games {Professor Layton and Super Mario Bros - Dork, anyone?} We visited good friends. Lacey ate truckloads of mango. A whole heap of avocado. She danced each night as the sun went down {as you can see above}. We were surrounded by animals, and a river and a snake even made an appearance {get your mind out of the gutter}. Ick.

I've never seen Lacey so happy. There was even a day when she didn't cry even once. Do you know how much of a miracle that is with a toddler? It's their main form of communication, you know? We had the best time ever.


So what have you been up to my friend? How was your weekend?

A huge thank you to those that have responded to my survey. If you haven't you can do so here.