Seaside Pastels

Just wanted to share with you these amazingly dreamy photographs taken by my brother, Sam. Sam has always had a natural gift for photography and is one of the reasons I decided to buy a DSLR camera not so long ago. I have a long way to go but with someone so talented in the family hopefully my skills will only get better and better. These shots were all taken around Newcastle and its beautiful beaches and ocean baths. They make me miss the simpler lifestyle back in Newcastle and time spent counting the endless ships out at sea.

Waffle Time

My sister owns a super cute love heart shaped waffle maker so we decided to put it to good use this morning. We mixed up a basic waffle recipe (flour, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, bicarb soda and vanilla essence - sorry, I don't have the exact recipe but there are plenty on the interwebs) and topped them with fresh strawberries, blueberries, maple syrup and ice-cream. I always feel a bit naughty eating ice-cream at breakfast time but hey, YOLO, right?!

The long weekend is drawing to a close and the rain just keeps on coming down. It just took Ben and I three hours to drive up the freeway from Newcastle to Sydney - a trip that normally takes half the amount of time. The heavy rain and heavy traffic did not make for a pleasant journey. Still, I shouldn't complain as we are far better off than some people around our country at the moment. This extreme weather is a little bit frightening. I hope you all have a nice (and dry) week ahead. 

Australia Day Long Weekend

I'm currently at my sister's place in Newcastle for the long weekend. Yesterday was Australia Day and I kicked things off with a breakfast date with two good friends. The rest of the day was spent lounging about with my sister listening to the Triple J Hottest 100, as we do every year. Around mid way through there was a heavy down pour of rain that was not long followed by sunshine. We took the opportunity to take a drive by the beach accompanied by some pretty great tunes - thanks to the Australian public for your relatively good taste in music this year. Australia Day would not be complete without plenty of food and while we skipped the BBQ this year we were quite content with our cheese platter and a couple of drinks. I was quite taken by the dreamy clouds yesterday evening as the countdown came close to finishing. I'll have all you haters know that I also very much enjoyed a little living room dance when Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis came in at number one.

Today it seems most of the country, including Newcastle, is experiencing heavy rain. I'm sending lots of love to the people of Queensland who are yet again being faced with heavy flooding around the state. I'm feeling pretty blessed to be safe and dry with my cup of tea right now. Let's hope the waters subside soon. 

Eat Your Way Through NYC

It is no secret that I am absolutely obsessed with New York City. I was fortunate enough to spend around five months living there from October 2010 - March 2011 while I completed an internship. I fell head over heels in love with the city and I don't think there's been a day where I haven't thought about it since. Yep, it got me real bad. Thankfully, I was able to go back in August 2012 which sated my hunger (literally, I ate a lot) for a little while. I now have my third trip booked for May 2013 so as you can imagine I'm counting down the days (104 in case you were wondering).

Since I've spent a bit of time in NYC, I often get friends or friends of friends asking me for my recommendations for things to do or places to eat. I'm no expert but I have some favourites that I like to share. I've started compiling a Google map with many of my favourite places. Being the hungry caterpillar that I am, they're mainly restaurants, cafes and bars. I hope you enjoy my obsessively organised map and that one day you will get to try some of these places out. It truly is a magical city!

Photo by me.

Sunday Roast

It's been a quiet old weekend 'round these parts. With another impending overseas trip coming up in May, my new genius way to save money is to simply stay inside my apartment at all costs. Fool proof, right? It would be perfect if I didn't need to eat...or perhaps didn't like to eat as MUCH as I do.

My only outdoor excursion this weekend was a trip to the farmers markets and supermarket. I was slightly disappointed that the particular markets we went to were quite small and over-priced. Ben got a little bit excited and bought $15 worth of stuffed olives while I picked up some fruit and veg. Ever since getting a blender and juicer for Christmas I've been wanting to jump aboard the green smoothie train. I grabbed a bunch of kale from the markets and googled what seemed to be a fool-proof kale/berry smoothie. I excitedly set to work on my new experiment while Ben looked over my shoulder adding not-so-helpful comments such as 'Ew, that looks gross.' It did look gross, but I was determined to give it a try. I'd come so far. Unfortunately, it was terrible and I couldn't even force myself to drink it. It felt like such a waste! With some helpful advice from a friend who also received a juicer for Christmas, I decided to give it another go. This time, I juiced the kale with some apple, ginger and lemon. Apparently adding stronger flavours is the key to not being able to taste the kale! It was a success! My refreshing green gunge is pictured above. Ben's still convinced kale is the devil food and he's been making jokes about quinoa (which he actually willingly eats) and activated almonds ever since.

We spent Saturday evening enjoying a feast of snacks and bruschetta for dinner and I also suggested we watch Lord of the Rings. You see, I've never actually watched any of the movies from start to finish. Blasphemy, I know! We finished the first movie last night and decided to watch the second this afternoon. Unbeknownst to me, we were watching the EXTENDED version. Why they needed to extend a movie that was already three hours long is beyond me. While I do enjoy the movies, this afternoon I had the attention span of a six year old and honestly couldn't wait for it to be over. I think I need a bit of time off before attempting the last movie.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy these snaps from around my place. I also finished reading Gaysia by Benjamin Law. I highly reccommend this book. It's heartbreaking, eye-opening and at the same time hilarious in parts. We're finishing the weekend with a Sunday roast (pretend sausages for me) as we listen to the rain falling on the balcony. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Quarter of a Century

Last weekend I turned a whopping big 25 years old. When I was younger, I always thought 25 sounded seriously old. I know in the scheme of things, I'm still pretty young, but it still felt kind of momentous. In high school I'm sure I thought I'd be married with children and earning a bucket load by this age. None of these things are true, but hey, I've managed to do some pretty cool things with my 25 years of existence (warning, bragging about to happen).

Getting my first job at age 14, graduating high school with good results, moving three hours from home at age 17, scoring and keeping my high school sweet heart for eight whole years (and many more to come), completing my Bachelor degree, living overseas for 5 months, now making (small) waves in Sydney at my first "real" job and so far going on 7 different overseas trips are just a few of the more recent achievements that make me think - hey, I'm doing alright for a 25 year old.

This year, I was fortunate enough that my birthday fell on a Sunday so I enjoyed extending the celebrations to the entire weekend and into the following week. On Saturday, my sugar-daddy (Ben) took me shopping for some new clothes. I scored the shirt I'm wearing above as well as two skater skirts and some colourful stud earrings to add to the collection. We also had burritos for lunch and stopped for afternoon tea at the T2 cafe - definitely two of my favourite things to do. That afternoon, my sister caught the train down to stay the night. We had dinner and drinks on our balcony and ended the evening by watching The Breakfast Club.

On the morning of my birthday I was spoilt with presents from Mum, Dad and my sister. Mum and Dad had given my sister my presents to bring with her as they weren't able to make it. I scored lots of really nice things for my apartment, a new magazine, the Frankie gift paper book, some rings, nail polish, smelly stuff, kitchen canisters and more. Super chuffed! We then met a few friends at a cafe nearby for brunch, spent the afternoon at the beach and that night we went to the movies. The birthday celebrations continued at work this week and I was once again spoilt with cupcakes and some Aesop skincare products and more earrings. Birthdays are the best and I am so happy that I got to spend mine with such great people. Here's to an adventurous year being a quarter of a century old!

The Silly Season in Instagram Pics

Happy new year lovely people! I hope you enjoyed the festive season and ate yourselves silly. I certainly did. Here's a few photos I snapped on my phone between Christmas and New Years. I'm back at work now which is a total drag but at least I have my birthday this weekend to spice things up again.

1. Heading inland. 2. An overflowing tree at mum and dad's. 3. I got a blender for Christmas and have been enjoying daily smoothies. 4. Siblings. 5. My love (looking a bit like siblings..awkward). 6. Pancakes for breakfast on Christmas Day. 7. Veggie Christmas lunch. 8. My brother's new puppy, Chester! 9. Scored some lovely books. 10. Curls thanks to my talented sis. 11. Chester. 12. Benny boy at the beach. 13. Made homemade sushi. 14. We went to Forster for New Years Eve. 15. Main beach at Forster. 16. Happy new year!