Goodbye Summer

Jeans - BDG Denim from Urban Outfitters, shirt - Urban Outfitters and jumper - Sportsgirl.

Well folks, Mother Nature is certainly doing a great job of reminding us that Summer is officially over and the days of t-shirts and shorts are well behind us. Many parts of Australia are experiencing heavy rain at the moment, including Sydney. My good friend self-timer and I decided to take a few snaps on my freshly made bed this morning.

Here I am with my favourite Hungry Caterpillar mug and my plush Miffy dolly. Yes, I am 25, what of it? I'm wearing a pair of my comfiest jeans and my cosiest jumper and drinking some delicious Turkish Apple and Cinnamon tea. We're waiting for Ben's brother and his girlfriend to arrive as they'll be staying with us for the night. Then next week I have Mum and Dad staying for about five nights. I love having visitors here as it is very rare!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. By the way, head on over to The Cottage Diaries and enter the sponsor giveaway where you could win a free ad space on my blog :) xo

Quiet Days

After a big week of work last week I've managed to come down with a rotten cold. As a result, I spent most of my weekend inside, except for a brief breakfast outing with Ben yesterday morning. I'm never too sick for breakfast.

Here are a couple of snaps from around the apartment. Our chilli plant is thriving which I'm quite excited about, seeing as though we managed to kill all our other plants. I found a new place to hang my bunting (and also left my bed unmade for a whole week). I dug up some of my instax photos, including this favourite shot of Ben and I. I also loved the bokkeh effect the sunlight through the leaves was making on our balcony. But apart from that, I've spent most of my time between bed and my couch, keeping up the fluids, popping cold and flu tablets, eating toast and watching back to back episodes of Parks and Recreation. Let's hope I can shake this thing soon. The next few weeks (months, years?) are going to be busy!

A Quiet Weekend

Apart from checking out that little street festival yesterday, Ben and I really didn't get up to a whole lot this weekend. It was nice to lay low and enjoy some home-cooked meals, do a bit of Spring cleaning and catch up on episodes of The Walking Dead. I'm a bit late to that bandwagon that's for sure! I've seen most of the first season but not in order, so I've gone back to the start. It's such a distressing show, but so addictive.

In our normal style, we ate ourselves into food comas at every possible occasion this weekend. Last night Ben cooked up some delicious ricotta and spinach cannelloni and today I ate two breakfasts. The first was my homemade granola, thanks to Elsie and Emma's recipe over at A Beautiful Mess. The second were my take on Heuvos Rancheros. Well, it was all I could manage from the ingredients we had at home! Not bad I say. Next time I'll try and have some tortillas handy. Not pictured is the massive burrito and soft serve ice-cream I just ate. Please excuse me while I unbutton my pants. Just as well Ben and I have started the Couch to 5k program. We're onto our second week tomorrow!

Aside from the eating and sitting on my butt, I also found a temporary home for the prinstagram photos I ordered from my trip to America. I'd like to find a suitable frame or some clever way to display them, but they can live in our bedroom for now. I'm so happy with how they turned out - I think I'll have to order some more! I also had fun sifting through my special suitcase of random cards, photos, stationary and other sentimental bits and pieces that I can't manage to part with.

I hope you had a smashing weekend wherever you may be. xoxo

Home Bodies

My boyfriend and I recently moved into our own (rented) apartment after years of living in share-houses. Don't get me wrong, sharing was great and we got to meet lots of different people and made great friends that way but I was definitely ready to have my own space and a place to put all my nice things. We now have our own two-bedroom apartment and while it's not perfect, I've loved being able to decorate and slowly make it my own. We were lucky to be given various bits and pieces and I like the fact that each different piece of furniture has its own story. Now if only we could hang pictures. Might have to butter-up the real estate agent and convince them to let us! Sorry about the grainy photos as they were all taken on my phone again.

1. My favourite chair ever. Was given to me by the owner of a vintage homewares/retro clothing shop I used to work at in Newcastle.

2. Our TV cabinet. Was also given to me, by my boss. It used to live at our office and he was going to throw it out. It was given to him by an ex-girlfriend so it has traveled a long to way and now happily lives in our lounge-room. It is a proper old serving 'buffet' and has a draw inside for cutlery. I love it so much!

3. One of Ben's contributions to our apartment is his beloved Naruto figurine.

4. Ben and I fight over who gets to sit in this arm-chair. It's part of our lounge suite which was given to Ben by his Grandpa. It is so comfortable and I love the arms of the chair as I can put things on there such as my coffee mug. It also gets the afternoon sun which is great!

5. My vintage Thermos set snapped up from the Vinnies near my office. Haven't used them yet but I think I need to start taking soup to work on these chilly winter days.

6. My teacup collection lives inside one of the cupboards in our TV cabinet. Hopefully one day I will have a nice open display cabinet so I can show them off more.

7. Bookshelf display number one including half of my Frankie collection. The other half is stacked up on the floor for now as I haven't found anywhere to put them. Need another bookshelf!

8. Bookshelf display number two featuring an old photo of Ben and I taken in Year 12 by one of my best friends. She was studying Photography at Tafe and this was one of her practice pics. She thinks it's funny that I still have it because it's not the best quality but I think it has a good story and I love how young and innocent we look. That teapot is a tea-for-one set - the head is the cup!

9. Our bedspread is quite girly. I'm thinking about getting something a bit more gender-neutral when I can afford it. I like these ones from Urban-Outfitters. My plush Miffy doll is there too :)

10. Our chest of drawers also given to Ben by his Grandpa. On top is giant teacup which I sometimes use for eating soup but for now it's holding various trinkets that I don't have anywhere else to put. Part of my book collection is kept safe on this....I don't know what to call it...portable book shelf? Anyway, one of Ben's old housemates left it behind when he moved out so I claimed it!

Home

I'm currently spending the long weekend in my home town, Tamworth, in rural NSW. It's so nice to be home with my Mum, Dad and big brother Sam (we're missing Sophie!). It's funny how much more I appreciate Tamworth now that I've been away for six years or so.

The weekend didn't start off too well. Friday was a very sad day as we said goodbye to our beautiful dog Oliver. Ollie was 13 years old and unfortunately suffered heart failure. He was such a precious pet and he loved us just as much as we loved him. He was the most gentle dog; I don't think we ever even heard him bark his whole life. It's amazing how much emptier the house feels without him around, trotting about to see where you are and popping his little head into the room to say hello. And yes, my blog is called nellie and oliver after our first dog Nellie and of course Oliver. I'm glad they can both be remembered this way and am sure they are having a good time reunited in puppy heaven.

Friday actually turned out to be quite an emotional, strange day as on Friday night at about 9.30pm we experienced two Earth Tremors as a result of a 4.2 magnitude Earthquake about 60km from Tamworth. It was really bizarre. We have never experienced anything like that up here. I was lying in bed watching Happy Endings on my laptop when I heard a rumbling noise. At first, I thought it was a low flying jet and actually wasn't going to bother getting up. I was quite sleepy. But then I realised that the walls and windows were actually shaking so I quickly jumped up. The first thing we did was open the front door and found all our neighbours doing the same thing and sure enough they had felt it too. The next thing I did was jump on Facebook and everyone in Tamworth was talking about it. Thankfully no damage was caused. It was truly a strange day.

The rest of the weekend has been spent keeping warm by the heater, drinking tea, eating lots of goodies that Mum has cooked and catching up with a few school friends last night at an engagement party. I am really enjoying the slower pace and rest this weekend is bringing. I hope wherever you are you are enjoying your weekend, especially those on the East Coast of Australia who get the extra long one like me.