End of Year Resolution Round Up

2012 has been absolutely wonderful, and I wouldn't change it one bit. I have been happy, I have been healthy and I feel that moving to Australia to be with James was definitely a much better choice than studying an extra year in the UK.

Even though my year has been wonderful I can't say I did a whole lot on my Resolution list. I think making lists like this is an art form, you really need to understand what is achievable. Many of these goals I still have, but they are now just general life goals, achieving them in a specific year seems silly. :) So, how did I go?

1. Learn more about Photography
Yeah, I didn't really actively do anything towards this. But does anyone else look through their photos from a year or so ago and feel like they have improved their skills? I do. So I am thinking that maybe encouraging myself to take more photos will help me learn in a more enjoyable way. Maybe another 365 Project? It definitely encouraged me to photograph and blog more!

2. Lose at least 5kg
In February, I said James and I were not actively working towards this goal. I don't know why I thought trying to eat healthy and exercise was not working towards this goal, because it has most certainly helped. We don't drink any soft drinks when we're in Sydney; we've tried to add more vegetables to our meals; we've cut out unnecessary fatty foods; we bought even bigger water bottles and drink at least 2 bottles a day; we went running for about a month; we walk almost everywhere; and since August I've had a job which is a 50min walk away from us, and I've been walking it, everyday. Even though most of these things are small, and we still have the odd day of tea, cookies and ice-cream, it has all added up and I've lost 8kg. I also feel a lot more awake, and like I have a lot more energy, which makes me feel like it's been a positive change to our lives. Next year we'll be living on the 6th floor, so will have even more stairs to climb, I still have my job to walk to, and James has a gym membership, so I think 2013 will be just as healthy! This is the one resolution I am super happy about!

3. Cook something new and healthy every week for a year
Ha! We did try quite a few recipes off of my Pin bored (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), most of which were delicious, some needing tweaks, but thats the joy of cooking! If you think the fig pizza (3) sounds nice, I would recommend some changes. We found it WAY too sweet, so tried another one with a creme fraiche base, with brie, blobs of fig jam, and prosciutto on top. It was yum! The Stuffed Peppers (5) has become a favourite of ours, and the crescent rolls (6) are just too easy to make! The Sweet Potato pancake (8) is also a must try just for how much it blows your mind!
Ok, so now I feel like we did quite a good job on this one! 13/52 isn't THAT bad!

4. Bake something once a week for a year
Yeah, much more of a fail here. With only a microwave oven baking was not going to happen this year. Maybe I'll save this one for when I'm a mum, and I can bake with the kids once a week, sounds more fun already!

5. Create Moustache Notebooks
Nope. Did nothing, don't feel bad about it either.

6. Create Art Portfolio
Eventually! This will go on my "Things to do when I'm bored" list, so I can slowly work on it!

7. Learn about Aboriginal Art
I had a book just for this, which I used to doodling. It is still something I'd love to do, not just the Art either, the whole history. I'll do it in time. :)

8. Use my 365 Book somehow
Eeek! I started using it, and HATED what I was doing in it, so now it's got 10 pages filled out and the rest left blank. I'll figure something out!

9. Try to Achieve at least 1 of my 101 Dreams
SCORE!
Dream 40 - Walk More. I think 50mins every morning and afternoon counts as walking more! :D
Dream 42 - Be Happy. I am totally a much happier person, and I'm loving it!
Dream 43 - Live with James in a Cool Apartment. Now, when we first moved into our tiny studio, I wasn't the most thrilled about it. I felt it was small, and could be better, but I have grown to love it and it has become our cool little apartment. Plus, we're now moving up in the world...to a 1 bedroom apartment! Oh the excitement! We can't wait!
Dream 52 - Have an awesome Disney collection. James and I both decided a few years ago that when we have children they shall be raised on Disney movies, and not just the new ones, all the classic ones we loved! Last Christmas we began our collection and it's been slowly growing. We have yet to get the Jungle Book (one of James' favourites) and the Little Mermaid as they is currently 'in the vault', but we are patiently waiting. We have got Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, my two faves! So I'm happy! :D
4 Dreams is not bad for a years work!

And there you have it, my Resolution Round Up. I don't think I did the most terrible job, but it could have been better. I'm going to try and make better Resolutions for 2013, and I am most definitely going to enjoy 2013! :)
How did you all do with your resolutions?

We Were Treated Well

We had a lovely Christmas this year. This whole last week has been pretty fab, I can't believe this only just the end of my first week on holiday!
Christmas day was lovely and relaxed. We got up around 10, made some coffee and opened presents. I love watching people open presents you have put thought into, and am happy to say all our presents went down a treat. :D We got some wonderful gifts too. I felt like James spoilt me this year, getting me a back pack (because I walk to work with a backpack, and he thought I might like a pretty one), Lilo and Stitch (to add to our growing Disney collection), a Happiness box from Kikki.K, two lovely necklaces and a Dr. Hooves Hoodie (combining my love for Dr. Who and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic). I loved it all. I got him some rum he's been wanting for ages, an amazing looking cook book (he's my little chef, loves cooking) and a wall calendar. My gifts sound so lame in comparison. :P
From his family we got all things apartment related. As I mentioned earlier, we have got a new apartment. It is not furnished, and does not come with a fridge. So we have a pretty long list of things we need to get. We also don't have a massive amount of money to get things with, so we were really appreciative of the gifts. James' parents have given us a budget for a fridge and a wonderful set of cutting knives, James' youngest brother got us some steak knives, one of his aunts and uncles got us a 16 piece set of crockery and a 24 piece set of cutlery, and another of his uncles gave us money to put towards the apartment. We are very well looked after. :)

James' mum's side came round for Christmas dinner around 4:30-5. We had some yummy snack foods and champagne, then a delicious dinner. I may have piled my plate up a little too much because I struggled to finish, but it was too good not to! :P Around 8 I skyped my family. We had a lovely chat. Miss you guys!

On Boxing Day we went back to Sydney to watch a T20 match, as part of our Christmas present to James' youngest brother. I also got to pick up my new glasses. :D I know my mum wanted presents, so voila! I don't think they are much of a change from what I used to have, but why change too much when you've found a style you like?

I hope you were all treated well this Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody! :D

The above are photos taken on Xmas 2008, but I love them so much, and I miss my family a lot around this time of the year, that I felt they were very appropriate for my Christmas wishes. Plus, there is no snow in sight, so it could be totally believable that they were taken in Australia and not France!

Christmas has only just started so I can't say if it's been great or not yet, but it's feeling awesome so far. We had a lovely sleep in, then we got dressed all Christmassy. James is wearing red shorts and a green polo shirt; I'm wearing my 'Santa's Helper' T-shirt and Santa hat. We're listening to Christmassy music and generally feeling happy. :)

Wishing you all the most wonderful of Christmases!

Christmas Wrapping

This morning I did our Christmas present wrapping. I LOVE wrapping present and making them looking pretty. It really put me in a good mood. To make my morning even better I got a text to say my new glasses are ready to be picked up, so on Boxing Day I shall be getting myself some lovely new glasses!

All that is left on my 'To do' list for today is to make some scrummy Salmon Pate. Mmmm!

Christmas Goodies Breakfast

One of the perks of working in Child Care is that you get a whole bunch of goodies at Christmas. This years goodies all came in the form of unhealthy foods. That's not to say they weren't all absolutely delicious. We ate a few as a scrummy breakfast this morning. (We didn't eat all that is displayed. We shared the gingerbread man and had a cupcake each.)

A Little Life Update

This past week has felt quite grown up.

Saturday we did some more apartment hunting. This time we looked at places closer to our current place, and found three apartments we would be happy to live in.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we hosted James' younger brother.

Monday we handed in our applications for the three apartments we liked. I asked the Director at the centre I've been working at if there was a possibility of me working with them next year, she got busy sorting that out. We got a call from one of the apartments saying we could have. We also got a call from another apartment wanting to understand our money situation a little better, but it wasn't needed since we'd accepted the other place. So, we'll have a new apartment in January. Yays!

Tuesday I found out I would definitely be getting some kind of contract at the centre I've been working at. Yay! We also got a call from the third apartment saying we could have it. We have started to think we either apply for places no-one else wants, or we're just super awesome people that others want to let to.

Today I've had to sort out Visa stuff and fill in stuff for work to finalise for getting my new job. I've also been able to start telling parents I'll still be at the centre next year. The Director at the centre has also helped me find options for studying for a Certificate III next year.

It's been feeling like an exciting grown up week. I've been stressing myself out a little with the little things like paper work, and affording the study, etc. But we're happy, we're excited.

Cricket Christmas Present

James and I got ourselves a 'Friends with Benefits' membership with the Sydney Sixers (T20 cricket team), which made James' youngest brother a little jealous. The membership lets us go to two home games, excluding local derby's. Since James' youngest brother thought it sounded super awesome, and is on his summer holidays now, we decided to get him a membership too. This weekend we went to our first game.

Sunday morning James and I got ourselves some Gloria Jeans before I went and got my eyes tested. They are only marginally worse than they were 2 years ago, yay! I have bought new glasses and sunglasses, but here it takes 1-2 weeks for them to get sorted. Poo. We then picked up James' brother from the bus depot, got ourselves some Thai food and sat in front of the TV to watch the Test Cricket.

We then headed to the SCG. It was a fairly entertaining game. The Sixers batted first, which we knew wasn't good because the chasing team seems to always win. It was a very bad start, they were losing a wicket every 5 minutes. After 10 overs they had lost 6 wickets and scored 30 runs. It got better, and then the Scorchers started batting and it was boring, until the last 5 overs...but I won't go into it all, because I have tried to tell the story before and I know I can't do it interestingly. :P

Anyhoo, we get pretty awesome seats with the membership, i.e. right behind the Sixers bench. As soon as the players started coming out a whole swarm of kids went running forward with pens and things to sign. I thought it was pretty cute. :)

There were also fireworks between the innings, they were very unexpected and made me jump, but were still pretty cool.

The rest of the evening was spent sorting out documents for apartment applications. It was a late night. But an awesome day.

Scrummy Breakfast

Yesterday my shift didn't start until 11:30, so on Thursday night I decided this meant I could make James and I a scrummy breakfast to enjoy. I got some grapefruit to infuse in water (not so great on it's own, think I may have to do some more experimenting with that one), some pancake mix, nutella, strawberries and bananas. It was a super yum start to the day, and sent me off to work in a happy and relaxed mood.

In other news, today's apartment hunting went much better. We saw 3 places we like, so fingers crossed. :)

Christmas Present Wrapping

There are many things I love about Christmas, wrapping presents is high up that list. For as long as I can remember I have LOVED wrapping presents. I really enjoy making things look pretty and being creative with ribbons, tissue paper and decorations. I like making the wrapping look so good that people don't necessarily want to open it. My recent present wrapping love consists of that plain brown wrapping paper and awesome glitzy accessories. I was hoping to wrap my Secret Santa gift like that, but had trouble finding the plain brown wrapping paper (seriously, all year round I see it everywhere, Christmas hits and it's gone!) so I settled for some plain gold paper instead, and lots of awesome bows in different sizes. 

Here are the results. :) I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to write the recipient of the gifts name to the left so it ends near the big green bow. :D 

'Clock' is Not an Easy Word to Say

I haven't shared a work story for quite some time (unless you count the occasional complaining, but I don't), so I thought it was time for a little work story.

Yesterday I discovered 'Clock' has an unfortunate mispronunciation if a child has difficulty pronouncing the 'cl' sound. One of the little boys was sitting with me during the afternoon and noticed my watch to which he very excitedly announced "Cock!". I wasn't quite sure I heard him right, but he then quickly began to proclaim "Katie's cock! Katie's cock!", and I assume his Mum has a watch too because he also added "Mummy's cock!" whilst pointing at the door. I tried my best to keep a straight face and get him to say 'cl' or 'watch', but he was very insistent on using the word 'clock'. Children are so sweet and innocent.

In work related news, my beautiful reindeer head from earlier collapsed yesterday. The cardboard wasn't strong enough to stay rigid. I have since cut the antlers in half and created two reindeer profiles on the wall. :)

Christmas Nails

I got myself some festive nail varnish, and I'm loving it! I painted my left ring finger and right thumb nail green and the rest of them a beautiful red. The colours are wonderfully festive and I feel happy whenever I see them. :)

I have also added a deep pink Santa hat to the top of my hat for work. I feel awesome in it! :D

Getting Ready for Christmas

So, I decided to go for it and spend a little money every month so I can share photos. Yay. I am happy with the decision. I've been missing being able to post things here, plus I have plans, small plans, to slowly start making my blog feel more 'me'.

If you didn't already know, it's December. In my world that means only one thing: CHRISTMAS! I am a HUGE fan of Christmas, I don't know if I've made that at all clear the last couple of years, but it's my season, it's my holiday. I love it. It is happiness. So, naturally I have been Christmas-ing it up at work. I have been told a couple of times by the room leader to pack away my the Christmas craft I was doing with kids so that they can eat, or have so staff can do some serious tidying before the holidays...but Christmas activities are way more important in my book. I've tried to cram in as much Christmas crafting as possible into the last two weeks so that our room can look super awesome and festive, and it turns out to have been a good idea because I have been told 'no more crafts'. Lame. Anyhoo, this week we made my favourite craft: A Christmas Reindeer Head. The template is from here, and the result is awesome. I cut out the cardboard and let the kids go to town with some coloured paper, stars and feathers. I am in love with the outcome. Our little reindeer head has since been given a tinsel scarf and some the wall has been decorated with festive words. It's a wonderful little corner.

I've also created Christmas CD's for work. I said I was Christmas-ing it up. I made both an upbeat, fun CD to play whilst the kids are having fun outside, and a sleepy CD for when the kids are napping. Even though it's summer outside it is starting to feel quite Christmasy now. :D

Continuing with the Christmas theme. I put my name in for the Secret Santa at work. I got Angela, the room leader in my room. She's very much a closed door. It's very hard to figure out what she likes, people who have worked with her for 5 years have no idea what to get her. I've been struggling to come up with something, but this Friday I noticed she kept turning off my Christmas music and seemed to enjoy having the kids sitting quietly in the book corner reading books with her, so I decided she liked quietness...so maybe she likes quiet, relaxing baths? We went the Broadway and in Target found the beauty below. I think I won the lottery with this one, we have a budget of $25-30, and this fit into it. The stuff is supposed to be valued at $107, which I may not entirely believe, but I do believe that for $30 it was a steal. I am super chuffed with it. Fingers crossed she likes it. :)

In other news we went apartment hunting this weekend. It was a bit of a failure. The one apartment we really wanted to see had been leased Friday afternoon, and the other apartments were either tiny or had no natural light. We're hoping next weekend will offer better options, and already think it might. :) We were supposed to meet an old friend for a coffee catch up after the apartment viewings, but we'd both developed some seriously bad headaches (walking in the sun with limited water, no bathrooms and no sunscreen is NOT the best idea...I felt like I was going to faint at one point), so we had to cancel and went home and slept most of the afternoon.

We're feeling much better, and now own a small portable tube of sunscreen. :) Time to make some peppermint playdough whilst listening to Christmas music! Love this time of the year.

Christmas Season

It's the 1st of December. Advent is here. I would normally have Christmas decorations up, and Christmas music playing non-stop, and a super warm feeling that Christmas is coming, but I'm still working on fitting those in with Summer. My mind is still a little confused. I love that it's getting warmer here (although, temperature's being in the 30's and it still being spring is a tad worrying!), but I am a HUGE fan of sun filled days, long days, gorgeous bright and vibrant days, days that make me want to get out and do things. It's just, to me, and I think I may go on about this a lot, aren't Christmas days yet.

I've grown up in Europe, Christmas to me is a Winter holiday. Christmas brightens the dark days of Winter. Christmas is filled with gorgeous warm lights, warm shops playing Christmas songs, the warmth of holding a pack of roasted chestnuts, sitting by a fire, hot coffees/teas/hot chocolates, snow. In the darkness of Winter Christmas keeps spirits up. It's magical.

Christmas is also about family and friends being together. Giving and being kind. Happiness and togetherness. At least I still see a lot of that here. Even with my mum, dad, brother, sister and childhood friends all the other side of the world, there is an overwhelming sense of love at Christmas. I love that, and at those times, no matter what the season, it's very hard not to feel like it's Christmas. 

Postponed

I was planning on updating about my day today. I had a lovely day meeting an old colleague for brunch and a swim at Bondi, and then a relaxed afternoon and evening with James. However, I seem to have finally hit a limit on the storage space in my Picasa file so can't upload any files over a certain size to my blog...the photos I took today are over this size. 

SO! I'm going to do some planning, decide if it's worth paying to get extra storage, and will be back as and when I've come up with a game plan on how to share photos here again. :) At the moment I'm thinking $2.49/Month for 25GB isn't too bad considering I've only just reached 1GB, and I've been blogging since 2009. But we'll see. :)

In other news, 1 month until Christmas! I'm still finding it hard to believe. I think it will definitely take a couple more years for me to get used to Christmas in Summer. 

Dumb Ways to Die

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for posting two videos in a row. Secondly, I'd like to take back that apology because this video is awesome.

I get to work early pretty much every day, I feel calmer that way, so I usually sit in the staff room and browse the news on my phone. The past week or so there has always been a little article about a cute video from Melbourne that's gone viral. Today I was listening to christmas music on Youtube when I saw a link to this and thought "That looks a lot like it'd fit the description of the cute Melbourne video.". I clicked it, and I was right, and it is adorable and catchy and funny.

You're welcome.

White Wine in the Sun

We don't get the joys of watching Children in Need down here in Oz, but the BBC does put some of the performances up on it's Youtube page. After excitedly watching the Doctor Who preview (eee! can't wait until Christmas for the new episode!) I started browsing my way through the Children in Need videos and came across this. I already love Tim Minchin. His songs are super awesome, I especially love Prejudice and his Lullaby. This one is also amazing, and sad, I almost cried listening to it, but that may be because like him, my family is the other side of the world, but maybe also because of the happy realisation that I have a new family here that will be having white wine in the sun with me this Christmas. :)

1 year in Australia

Today marks 1 year since I 'moved' to Australia. It's been a pretty wonderful year. I have absolutely LOVED being here with James, and think it was definitely the right decision to move here rather than staying in the UK to do my PGCE. I think finally getting to live together properly has brought us even closer together, and it's so nice to have him here with me rather than the other side of a computer screen. :) It's been a very happy year, and I look forward to many more!

We weren't really planning on doing much with our day, but turned it into a bit of a treat. I got my hair cut in the early afternoon, it had been about 6 months since my last one, so I thought my hair needed it. We then went down to Broadway and had a late lunch at a yum American Diner like place, even treating ourselves to a scrummy sundae. :D I then slept most of the afternoon and James had a bath. Then we tried to take some nice photos together, but we don't like our faces much (hence the lack of photos of us) so we resorted to funny photos. It was a good laugh. :D

Love this guy. :)

Floriade 2012

At the end of September James and I visited Canberra for a long weekend. Whilst there we visited the Floriade, it's a big flower park/display thing. Basically, it's lots of pretty flowers. Cameras ready?

Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy and rainy the day we went, so I didn't take as many beautiful photos as I would have had it been sunny. I am happy with the photos I took though. I love taking photos of flowers. :)

These are my favourite flowers, they look like paper flowers and are such gorgeous colours. So pretty. :) I would be very happy to have a garden full of these beauties.

This tulip was beautiful too, like a crazy fiery flower. Gorgeous!

And my favourite thing of the whole Floriade was the gnomes. Gnomes had been painted by all sorts of kids of different ages. I loved pretty much all of them, but this guy, he was my favourite. If I could have, I would have bought him and taken him home.

I think we may definitely go again next year. :)

Humidity

For what has felt like the last month my hair has been looking horrendous, well, I've felt like it's been looking horrendous. It wasn't too bad tied back...but it was frizzy and pouffy and would kink in all the places it had been tied back at. I was not liking it, and put it down to the humidity in Sydney.

We have recently been fluctuating in temperatures here in Sydney. We've had days were the temperatures have gotten up to 30 degrees centigrade, and others were the days have been as cool as 15 degrees centigrade. The humidity, however, has been happily sitting at 60% plus, some days getting as high as 85%. So it's been humid. It sucks. I can definitely say I HATE humidity. I can see no benefits of humidity. It makes things hotter and stickier and so much more uncomfortable. I shall melt away this summer...

I hadn't put my hair problems entirely down to the humidity until we went back to Canberra this weekend (which has a humidity of 40% throughout the weekend) and my hair was back to it's usual gorgeous self. I did the obligatory 'google' for hair in humidity and found that soma anti-frizz shampoo should do the trick. Sure enough, my hair is now back to its former glory! Yay!

OMG, PINK!

I LOVE these girls, and this video. They are so infectiously happy and hilarious! Oh my goodness, what I wouldn't give to look inside their world for just 5mins. I imagine it would be a very pink and sparkly world.

If you need a cheer up, this video should do it. 

All by myself

I'm home alone the next two nights. It's a little lonely. I know James and I have done proper long distance, but now that we're living together two nights feels so long and weird...

...off to my Pad Thai for one. :)

Bubble Flowers

The kids at work have been loving the bubbles we've been blowing outside. I love how excited they get when I pull them out. They have all also been super keen to try and blow the bubbles. Since we haven't done much art in the room I thought I would build on the bubble blowing to make some bubble art. I found this on pinterest, and thought I'd give it a test drive this weekend before trying it with the kids (the pin hole in the straw is a pretty nifty tip). I couldn't find any tempera paint, so I don't know how well that paint works, but ordinary washable paint didn't seem to have much affect on the bubble's colours. It is possible I needed to use more paint than I had available. However, food colouring did work. For the best effect I blew a whole bunch of bubbles and then dropped in the food colouring, it had the added bonus of looking super cool too!

I think this one may be worth trying with the kids this week. :)