away with the family

So the past few days I have been in truly relax mode with family over in Perth. This has involved lazy mornings, mid-day naps and just generally being pampered by the parents, and my doting younger brother.

As I am sure the rest of you are busy preparing for tomorrow, or enjoying christmas eve festivities, so I will be succinct with just a few photos from the past days:

enjoying the beautiful beaches, which I miss greatly in Melbourne

having fun in the pool with my brother and my new underwater camera

enjoying a board game with the family

delicious breakfast near the coast

playing with my friends new kitten!

We are currently just finishing off the final preparations for our lunch tomorrow. We try to get as much done before hand to keep the kitchen stress to a minimum. I will try to capture as much as possible tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

Until then – hope you all have a fabulous Christmas – make sure you eat plenty and be merry!

a pinch and a punch…

…first day of the month,  and the first day of summer. To try to get into the summer cheery mood I decided to list what there is to look forward to in the coming months – hopefully focusing on these will be getting me out my current blah slump.

1. Christmas. Now I get into Christmas in a big way, it is by far my favourite holiday; mostly due to the fact that involves a whole lot of food and seeing my family. My mum and I start planning quite early what we will be included in our lunch feast, and we have nearly got it finalised (I will post our lunch menu once finished if any of you would like to see). I also love planning, buying and wrapping all my presents – and am happy to say I have officially finished my Christmas shopping – yay!
2. Back to uni. I just got my offer accepted to study next year, so I will be hitting the books again for the first time in three years. The course is via distance education so I will be keeping my day job – but that does mean I am going to have to be highly self motivated and learn how to properly manage my time between work, study and social activities.
3. Thailand holiday. After being back at work for two weeks after Christmas I will be jet setting off again to Singapore and Thailand for a two-week summer holiday. I am really looking forward to some time away, as I haven’t been on a proper holiday (taking out trips back to Perth) for nearly two years. I am not the sit on the beach and relax for two weeks type (my pale skin makes it impossible for me to do so) so I am planning lots of activities to keep me entertained (kayak adventures, cooking courses and flying foxes – yay!)
4. A new start in fitness. I have been going to Boot Camp now for over 18 weeks and I am still really enjoying it. I am likely to continue next year (after I am back from holidays) but if I want to run a half marathon by October and I am going to have to step it up. Thankfully a new gym is opening in January close to home that is also on my way to and from work. The days that I am not boot camping I hope to head to the gym and work on my long distance running, and maybe join in on a few of the boxing classes also.
5. New floors. If you have been a long time follower you will know that quite a while back I had a water leakage issue in my laundry that caused water damage to my floor boards that extended quite far into my entire downstairs area. I have had the laundry fixed, and replaced the floorboards with tiles to prevent future issues, but all the damaged floorboards in the living, dining and kitchen area have remained whilst working through insurance processes and tradesmen quotes. I am hoping to finally have them fixed in the coming months, which will mean I can put doors back on my laundry (the damaged floorboards prevent them from being on), for the first time in two years!

 What are you looking forward to this summer? Any holidays planned?

cute christmas stamps

As a part of my #16 in my 25 before 25, I wanted to make  edible gifts for my workmates and friends. To do so I envisaged ribbons with hand written tags, and a cute little stamp in the corner. To find said stamp I headed to etsy, the home of crafty cuteness – there were soo many stamps to choose from, but I ended up purchasing these two from MemiTheRainbow‘s shop.

Can’t wait to receive them in the mail and get stamping all my gifts – the cuteness is almost too much for me!

the end of 2010

The past two weeks of my holiday have gone by so quickly. After 8 wonderful days of Christmas and family back in Perth, I have been home starting on all the jobs I hope to complete before heading back to work in a week.

Whilst in Perth, mum, my brother and I headed to the Golf Club for a scrumptious breakfast.

I had my usual eggs Benedict

Mum had poached eggs with bacon

James had pancakes with miniature hash browns (yum!)

We had also planned a black/white/silver christmas theme this year, so Mum and I made a tablecloth to match:

Actual Christmas day was a scorcher! So we had to move lunch indoors – our menu however worked well in the heat, with all cold meats and lots of salads! I was too busy eating Christmas lunch however to remember to take a photo – sorry! It was however all delicious! Especially the Ham with pears and the rolled beef with salsa verde – yum!! I was quite upset that I headed back to Melbourne the next day so I wasn’t able to enjoy all the leftover yummyness.

Back at home now I have been trying to finish off some odd jobs around the home – I managed to head to Ikea and buy frames for my photos I had printed a few weeks ago, and they are now hanging on the wall on the stairs.

(excuse the bad lighting)

That brings us to last night – new years eve. Phil and I had planned to go to Little Creatures dining hall for new years eve – however we missed the line which said you needed to book a spot on their faux grass lawn – we gave them a ring early in the day, however they were fully booked out. So after some brainstorming we came to the conclusion that we’d do dinner and then drinks back at home – to avoid excessive money spending and crowds. We headed to dinner at Kanda in Ivanhoe and indulged in:

Tokyo nuggets – seafood and potato

Spicy salmon sushi – raw salmon with avocado, cucumber and spicy mayo

Tonkatsu – yum!

So it was a quiet, but definitely enjoyable beginning to 2011. Hope you all had fantastic nights and good luck for the new  year!!

away on holiday!

hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas - be back after I return from visiting the family!

christmas wishlist

I can’t believe it’s nearly December, Christmas has come around so quickly this year. I was going to do a post on the presents I am going to buy for others, but a few of my family members read this blog, so I’d hate to ruin the surprise. So instead what do I want for christmas?

kikki k photo journal (in black)- to document my Japan trip from earlier this year

Moleskine 2011 Weekly Notebook Diary – Large - Need to try and use a diary next year – and this one includes a page each week for notes, perfect for my incessant list taking.

Some general sports attire - since starting boot camp a few weeks ago, and enjoying it, I realise I need some proper exercise clothes, no longer can I pass my $10 Kmart leggings as proper exercise gear!

A cute brooch – The above brooches are all from etsy seller tigerandhare, but I’m sure similar ones could be found elsewhere.

Bunnings giftcard – I’d love a toolbox to hold my expanding array of handygirl things, however having to bring it back on the plane with me isn’t feasible so the gift card would be great!

Nothing else springs to mind at the moment – but whatever the presents are, I am going to enjoy a fabulous day of family and food! 3 weeks and counting until I am back in Perth!