hello again! it's been awhile

So much has happened since my last post. It is hard to know where to start. Well, obviously I started with choosing some of my favourite snaps. This took a really long time and was really hard. I brought home 1500 photos, so to choose 12 images to epitomise our awesome holiday was really quite the achievement!

For now I just want to say we are back and we had a brilliant time. Totally worth all the saving and planning and taking the girl out of school. I'm planning to post more about the trip later, focussing on the individual places we stayed. And a post on our accommodation. We stayed in some really great places, a massive thank you to trip advisor for providing such a great service.

My highlights were:

1. The fabulous Spring weather, that made sightseeing so lovely
2. The simple pleasure of flying a kite on the beach in Cornwall
3. The Manchester United pre-match dinner package
4. Our Paris apartment and location
5. So much history

While we were away I also had a couple of bloggy highlights, that had me feeling a little like a 15 year old again. I have no good segue from holiday highlights to this story, but I just really want to share both. And, well, it's my blog, so I can do what I like!!

So, I was on the way to the airport about to embark on our super exciting adventure, when I received a text from my sister telling me that I my blog had just been posted on Facebook by Fox in Flats! Eeeek!! Lets just say that I felt like the cool girl at school had just asked me to sit next to her! But that's not all it actually gets better. Andrea from Fox in Flats has put together a list of her top 50 style dare bloggers and.... I'm on it!!! Sooo excited to be amongst such fabulous company. And really am having that 15 year old 'the cool girl likes me feeling'.

If that wasn't enough excitement for one jet-setting girl to cope with, I opened Instagram on holidays (not the exciting part of the story) and in my news feed Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim was following me! Just to add a bit of background for the non-Instagram users amongst you, Chantelle creates the photo-a-day challenges and her Instagram feed is full of comments from randoms calling out "follow me", "give me a shout out",  "Fat Mum Slim you're so awesome blah blah blah". So to be one of the people she has chosen to follow definitely made me feel like a geeky 15 year old who had been spoken to by the cool girl!

Isn't that weird that I am getting close to 40 and I think I have got my act together and I'm all cool and stuff, but without scratching too deeply it turns out that I am still just as insecure and dorky as I was in high school! Have you had a moment when you realised that you haven't changed much in spite of the passage of time, or are you really quite different from your teenage self? 

day 68-74 (or march photo-a-day day 8-14)

Day 74 - clouds (March day 14) 

I am starting to get very excited. We are about to head off on our first overseas holiday since our honeymoon. My husband has been living in Australia for 40 years, but still does not have an Australian passport, so today I was off to immigration to get his new re-entry visa. At the moment I was fully committed to the task, I heard thunder, and the skies opened and I was completely soaked! Of course it is Mr G's fault. I came out of the immigration office and the rain had stopped and I even saw this little bit of blue sky peeking through the clouds. 

Day 73 - sign (March day 13) 

I love the way Splash Adelaide have decorated Chesser St. I wish that it could stay as a pedestrian street forever. I especially love the tree growing out of the VW.

Day 72 - fork (March day 12) 

Not super-excited about day 12's theme. I can't even think of a story to make up about this one! 

Day 71 - someone I spoke to (March day 11) 

I love it when we get lots of time with my stepson. The fact that he has not made too many appearances in my photo-a-day pics is probably a good indication of how little time he spends hanging out at home. The condition of me using his photo was him choosing which shot I use. He chose the top one, but I really like the bottom one.  

Day 70 - loud (March day 10) 

Normally I sit and drink coffee while my daughter does her Saturday classes. But in a burst of enthusiasm I went for a run instead. I always like a change of scenery and checking out all the different houses and gardens. Normally I run with my sister or my neighbour, and chat non-stop. But I love the change of cranking up the tunes on my jogging playlist and marvelling at my musical mastery. 

Day 69 - red (March day 9) 

Day 9 was a pupil free day, I love Friday pupil free days. I don't normally work on Fridays, so when there is no school on a Friday it is such a massive win! No morning shouting, no making lunch and no rushing. This Friday was particularly good. Miss M had a friend sleep over and the two girls just get along so well. They put in a request for doing craft, so I got the craft supplies out and they let their imaginations loose. And I saw an opportunity for day 9's red theme. A little later I was trying to finish making the plans for our holiday and my computer was having a little moment. To pass the time I took some extra red photos.

Day 68 - window (March day 8) 

I was back in Chesser St again on day 8 and on my may to get my morning coffee. I looked up and thought old windows plus new windows. The sun reflection is luck not good judgement, but I do really like the way it looks!

Hopefully I can work out how to post from my iPad, so I can keep updating you on our trip, I'm still going to keep taking the photo-a-day pics while we are away, so if I can't work it out there may just be an epic post when we get home!

Hope you have been having a fabulous week!

day 48-60 (february photo-a-day day 16-29) or how did I get so far behind?!?

It doesn't take much for the house of cards to come tumbling down does it? Even when it is something you love doing it can still fall to pieces. A couple of school evening commitments, a busy week at work followed by a work trip away and next thing you know I am 13 days behind in sharing my Fat Mum Slim February photo-a-day pics with you. For some of these days I had planned a bit more of a story to go with them but as things have turned out I think that would be a little excessive, so I will save those stories and extra pics for a different day and for now I apologise for taking so long and giving you so many pics to look at in one go...

Day 60 (february day 29) - something I'm listening to

It's raining it's pouring, the old man is snoring. Well not really, but it is wet and windy and I am feeling annoyed about it. I have just gotten home from five fabulous days in Sydney, where we (Intrinsic) were exhibiting at the Home and Giving Trade Fair. I ate and drank way too much and am now feeling very podgy! I arrived home late last night and have the day off today. After sleeping a little too late this morning I optioned up on one of Andrea at Fox-in-flats' tips for the school run and threw on my gym gear. I did actually plan to go for a run, but I had a princess moment and the rain put me off. Instead I am sitting here on the computer listening to the rain and hoping it will ease off enough for me to actually run.

Day 59 (february day 28) - money

Money... or lack thereof (it's been a big weekend!)

Day 58 (february day 27) - something I ate

What and amazing Lebanese feast at El-Phoenician restaurant in Parramatta! The food was so good, the waiting staff were super friendly and the company was perfect. The only down side was the contribution this made to my current podgy feeling!! (But I still say totally worth it!)

Day 57 (february day 26) - night

Not sure that I nailed this one! It is the view from my lovely hotel room at the Pullman Hotel in Olympic Park with the room reflected in the window. Hmmm.

Day 56 (february day 25) - green

First day of the fair and when I sat down to have some lunch and flick through Instagram I realised that the theme was green and my spinach quiche and spinach and cous cous salad seemed like it would be my best option for the day. 

Day 55 (february day 24) - inside your bathroom cabinet

I left home for the airport at 5:30am so the last thing on my mind was taking photos. By the time I was thinking about the photo-a-day challenge my bathroom cabinet was inside my daggy old toilet bag that I have had for getting close to 20 years!

Day 54 (february day 23) - shoes

I do love shoes, but continuing my time poor theme of the last week, there was no time for staging some gorgeous shot. Instead these are one of my favourite pairs of shoes and are perfect for powering my ride to work.

Day 53 (february day 22) - where I work

My paid work is at the most gorgeous Intrinsic. We create beautiful greeting cards, gifts and stationery to inspire the world. The Intrinsic studios are located off the charming vine covered Chesser Street in Adelaide.

Day 52 (february day 21) - a fave photo of me

A photo of a photo, I want to say how very post-modern. But I know that just dates me as being old enough to remember a world where photos existed only in albums or in frames. And to get a copy meant taking the negative to the photo processing shop. Anyway this is one of my favourite photos of Miss M and me. It was taken by my lovely sister at Pt Vincent, my favourite place. I did have a couple of runners up for fave photo, but I asked Miss M to help me choose, so of course she chose the one of her looking super cute.

Day 51 (february day 20) - handwriting

My hand-writing on top and I think my Nanna's hand-writing on the bottom. I found the recipe tucked inside a very old edition of the Green & Gold Cookbook. I'm glad that I do have some handwritten recipes. I hope that my grandchildren enjoy reading them, like I enjoy reading old family recipes. I'm pretty sure they won't be pouring through my collection of pins on Pinterest, or looking through my bookmarks on my computer filled with nostalgia. There really is something about handwriting that evokes the presence of that person. 

Day 50 (february day 19) - something I hate to do

I hate tidying. This is the dumping ground that is my office. When we have people coming round I do an emergency surfaces tidy and everything lands in the office. I spent day 19 sucking it up and tidying this disaster zone. By the end it was looking pretty good. Not perfect, but a really good start.

Day 49 (february day 18) - drink

It looks like I spend a lot of time sitting around drinking coffee. And maybe I do! Day 18 saw me back in my favourite Saturday spot with a cafe latte and about to make a very late jump onto The Slap bandwagon.

Day 48 (february day 17) - time

It was time to clear this c**p out of my life. I was inspired by Sarah at A Beach Cottage to just get stuck in and do it. She issued a de-clutter challenge and I put up my virtual hand and said I'm in. Unfortunately, my good intentions were also derailed by my busy week. And I am a beach cottage de-clutter fail whale. But that's okay. I did make a good start and got rid of some stuff that had been hanging around for ages. And I even got $16 for the bottles! What I did do on day 17 that was awesome and I am going to continue was to set the timer for one hour and put as much as I could fit in the car boot and then took it straight to the Salvos. And that felt fantastic.

Phew! That was long. Well done and thank you if you're still reading! How has your February? Did you have good intentions de-railed by other commitments?   

stuff I've been loving this summer

Today has been such a beautiful day. The sun was out, the sky was blue and somehow that just made everything just feel good. I started the day going for a run with my sister, which is always a good thing. We had our usual coffee and chat post run (more ticks in the awesomeness column.) I got home from my run and my fabulous hubby had tidied up the debris from having friends round for dinner the night before - yay! And the memory of the really great dinner and even better catch up with friends we have not seen enough of lately was still fresh in my brain. And I got a phone call from my stepson to say that he was going to be home for dinner (we haven't seen much of him lately, which had made me feel a little cross, so that was exciting news indeed! It's weird how I get cross at him, but the only reason I am cross is because I miss him so much)

Soccer pre-season has started, so the girl and I had the house to ourselves this afternoon. I wanted to practice my photography skills in my newly discovered bathroom photo booth. (There is a chance that she spent too much time on screens today while I was distracted - the only negative in an otherwise win of a day) Summer happiness was in my head, so here is my summer happiness compilation!

1. Bargain dress from Jay Jays (I think it was only about $15 or $20)
2 Country Road hat, not such a bargain, but I did have a DJs gift card, and I have worn it heaps!
3 My own personal vintage Ray-bans (can I still call it vintage when its something I have had in the back of the cupboard since the early 90's?!?)
4 Pink beach bag from Milloe by AD designs (not sure who stocks them, I got it at the trade fair) I love the flamingo lining (stay tuned for a future flamingo feature)
5 Made by Cheeky sandals, I have loved these so much (as you can see from the dirty footprints on them!)
6 Intrinsic goals journal - I loved being on summer holidays staring out to sea, dreaming my dreams and writing in my journal
7 Ministry of Sound Chillout Sessions XIV great relaxed compilation

To top off the day my beautiful boy even bought me flowers to say sorry for making me feel sad! Isn't he lovely? How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? What was the weather like in your part of the world?

day 39 - sun (or feb day 8)

February has been doing some very poor work weather wise. And I will preface this by saying that I am so grateful to not be sweltering through the usual +35ºC heatwave that normally kicks in as school goes back, but it would be nice to see a little sunshine.

Today's photo challenge was sun and I did not see any sun on this day *sad face* so, I decided to make my own sun! While Miss M was doing her homework, I found some joss paper that we'd bought for an old craft project and I cut and pasted my own sun. Of course my girl was inspired by this and had to get in on the act too. It finished up being a pretty fun to do. And a good reminder that I should get the craft stuff out more often.

Have you had something that seemed bad turn out to be good?