What I have learnt so far.

There are a few things that I have come to love and call essentials during my early days as a baby making oven. The criteria to make it on this list is simple - you must require little or no effort and easily be followed by sleep. Simple. Just the way I like things these days. 

 1. L'Occitane Shea Butter - This product kept coming up as a good fighter of stretch marks. So being prone I decided to splurge and give it a go. So far, so good. Not that my belly has grown much. Even if it doesn't prevent those nasty marks it feels amazing on skin. From someone that rarely splurges on beauty products this one is worth it. 

2. A Water Bottle - Before being pregnant I didn't drink a lot of water. Since falling I have to share my time between drinking water and sleeping. I always have a water bottle with me now. 

3. Up The Duff - I love this book. It is a light hearted but informative read. 

4. Garnier De Tangler - Who knew your hair didn't fall out when you are pregnant? Probably everyone except me! This mixed with my already thick hair causes all kinds of tangle in my hair. This product is a lifesaver, day and night.   

Ultimately all I need is a bed. I could sleep all day and all night and not need a single thing.  Even still, I am loving my pregnancy so far. I am so thankful for it every second. 

My Favourite Post Ever.

Life over the last few weeks have changed dramatically for us. I am so excited to tell you that Daniel and I are having a baby. Our little tale of three will soon be a tale of four. We are so happy and can not wait for this little person to join us.

I started this blog so that one day my babes could scroll through the months and months of entries and see what life was like before they became such an important part of our family. To think that that little person I had in mind is now growing inside my belly is just a crazy feeling. By crazy I mean amazing.

We have our first ultrsound in a week and a half and even though this baby of ours will only look like a peanut we can not wait to see him/her. We will eventually be finding out what we are having as I am far too impatient to wait the whole pregnancy.

I have been lucky so far with no real symptoms, other then a growing bust which I am more then happy to accomodate!

I am so excited to share this journey with you!

xxxxx

Bangs.

I love reading other peoples blogs! Love them, they inspire me, wow me and remind me how good life is. I was inspired by the Daybook Blog when Sydney did a post about fake bangs. I was instantly excited, I have never heard about these fake bangs. For months I have been saying I want to cut my fringe but I never seemed to find the guts to do it. 

Last weekend I find them and gave them a go. what do you think? I am in love. I wore them out to a girlfriends birthday dinner and no one guessed they were fake. I am so impressed with my new purchase. I am sure you will now see my fake bangs popping up all over the blog. 

I purchased the Jessica Simpson brand and I am super happy with them. Its real hair so you can use hair product, wash etc. They can go to the side or forward. 

This is LOVE.

Let Them Eat

Yesterday we decided to head to a local 'Food Fair' that was being trialled by CRAVE.  We love food and especially anything home grown and organic so we jumped at this event.  Plus with my vegetable garden being in between crops I am missing the freshness so I was excited about this.

The fresh fruit and veges were amazing!! We stocked up on as many as we thought we could eat and then we got the all important part of filling our tummies full of as much of the yummy food as we could.

It was actually a really good time. Hanging out with Daniel is one of my favourite things and these days it hard to find the time for time for just us so it was even more of a bonus.

Life has been so busy lately with a lot of change so moments like this remind me that we are still just us and I love that.

Summer Love.

I am so glad summer is on the horizon. Spring even feels like summer with 34 degree days. Its my heaven. I am by no means an expert in fashion but I am loving the gorgeous bright colours that are spreading themselves across the stores. I am so looking forward to everything being bright especially my wardrobe. Daniel and I just booked a tropical trip overseas in February and it is getting me even more excited for weekends by the pool and my all time favourite - beach hair!

This is what I am excited about...

26.

 

This week I celebrated my 26th birthday. I use the word celebrated now but in the months leading up to my birthday I was not sure I would be celebrating it. Normally I am a birthday maniac. I count the days down for months in advance and remind Daniel daily in the lead up. Lets not forget the many emails I send people with ideas for gifts and so on. Like I said, birthday maniac.

This year something was different. My birthday scared me. I would break down in tears every time I thought about it. The strangest part was that I had no idea why I was feeling like this.

Something did change though in the week leading up to the big day. I don't know if it was seeing Daniel excited about it or if I just realised getting older isn't such a bad thing. I might not have done anything special this year but I have so much to be thankful for. I had everything I needed already and I think turning 26 for me was about appreciating what I already have.

It ended up being one of my favourite birthdays. I am so excited for the next year to come and I just know that things will be so different this time in one year. That excites me beyond words.

I also got some of the most fabulous presents from the most fabulous people. Thank you!

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Friday to you.

60 Years Of Love.

We are off to celebrate these two (Daniel's Grandparents) this weekend for their 60 year wedding anniversary. This photo was taken on their honeymoon and I just LOVE it.

So we get to spend the weekend by the seaside with Daniel's family and I am really looking forward to it. We are meant to get a lot of sunshine and I am looking forward to spending time with my hubby.

I have to be honest I am slightly disappointed as I ordered some new clothes online for the weekend and I just found out they won't be here in time. So I have had a secret silly cry. Vain moment over.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope your weekend is Sunny!

Life Lately, according to my Iphone.

Life has been so busy this last few weeks. I am sure you can tell by my lack of attendance here. Things will get better real soon, I promise. I have been so busy I haven't even snapped photos but here are a few that I have managed to scrape in.

A bit of food mixed with life.

As you know I have been one sick lady. I think I am through the worst of it but I tell you come 9pm at night I am not a good person to be around. It comes for me and it thrashes me around until I can finally beat it and fall asleep. The positive of this illness having a time frame is that I can work around it. So last night I made a really yummy Mushroom and Spinach Quiche. I got the recipe (and photo) from the one and only pinterest. I only share the good recipes with you so here it is...

Crust
250ml flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
50g cold butter (cut into small cubes)
1tsp salt
1/3 tsp pepper
Pinch of Nutmeg
200ml cream cheese
1-2 tbs milk

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and pepper. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles the breadcrumbs (better to pulse in a food processor). Add the cream cheese and milk to bring mixture together.

Knead lightly to form dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch round tart pan (or spring form pan), pressing dough into corners. Transfer to freezer to chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Filling
350 g chopped mushrooms (I used Shitake and Button)
3 tbsp butter
1 small onion (chopped)
300g fresh spinach (chopped)
150 ml cheese (shredded)
2 eggs
150 ml milk
Salt, ground black pepper to taste

In a medium fry pan melt butter. Stirring occasionally, sauté onion until translucent, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and continue to cook stirring frequently, until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add spinach, season with salt, nutmeg and pepper and cook, stirring a couple of times, for another 2 minutes. Take off from the heat and set aside.

Take off the quiche crust from the freezer. In a small bowl whisk together milk and eggs. Sprinkle half of grated cheese on the bottom of the crust. Spread filling mixture over the cheese and then top with remaining cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the filling. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until set. Cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This Happened.

I have so much to tell you. But I can't. Because right now I can barely move or do any of the minimum essentials to get me through one day. I am on struggle street friends, and there is a long road ahead.

For now I am focussing my energy on eating an ice pole to give my body some type of will to live. Once I am at the end of this road I will be back.

Wish me luck.

A Happy Moment.

On Friday Daniel surprised me with something I have been wanting for a very long time - a Costco membership. I have been begging him to take me since the first store opened in Australia (luckily only 20 minutes from us) and that was months ago.

So when I got the surprise envelope I was one happy lady. We made the trip there on Saturday and it was everything I imagined. We spent far too much money. I knew this when the checkout guy said to us when taking payment "this is your first time here, isn't it?". Oooopps.

I now have enough toilet paper to last us months. This makes me very happy. What doesn't is the fact that I actually can't even remember half the things we purchased now. However I am sure they were all very useful things.

The only negative was being rammed by a lady on a mission with a trolly and accidentally loosing my cool for a few moments. It did feel good though especially when I had a Rocky moment as my fellow shoppers cheered me on. I will keep those moments to a minimum though.

I just want to let you know that the warm weather is slowly starting to sneak in. Yay. The mornings are getting brighter and the nights seem to be lasting slightly longer. I swear it is summer letting us know it is coming so I can start the trek out of my hole.

Cheers to Costco.

Food Suggestion...

Have you ever tried a Deep Fried Onion? No, well neither had I. In fact, just for the record, I generally dislike onions. There are certain exceptions to this dislike.

Daniel and I had a dinner so we decided to go early and have a drink and a snack. Which turned out to be the Deep Fried Onion. Oh my goodness it was amazing. Seriously. Please go find one in your area and eat it STAT. We found ours at Outback Steakhouse. The onion and drinks were delicious but I can't vouch for the meals.

I also have to say I had lots of fun going earlier with Daniel and just winding down together. It was almost like a spontaneous date and those I like.

I didn't get a great shot of the onion but trust me the taste is what counts. Oh and a shout out to my drink that was yummo.

A Weekend Of Sunshine.

This is what the weekend is bringing for us. Sunshine! I love sunshine. It is giving me the illusion that it might just feel like summer outside. I know that is just my mind playing tricks on me but I am quite happy to be tricked. 

I will be spending as much time as I can outside soaking all this bright goodness up. Oh summer I can not wait to see you again. In the mean time I plan to prepare my wardrobe for this lovely meeting. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone. I am going home to wait for my hubby. 

Working, Hump Day.

Today is Wednesday, also known as Hump Day.  I work from two different offices one in the city and one out west. The one out west is great because its only ten minutes from my house BUT the one in the city is in the city. If you know what I mean.

This is my view from the so called western office.

And this is my view from the city office.

Is it obvious which one I like better? If only it didn't involve sitting on a train for an hour and another 30 minutes of driving on top of that.

The working week is almost over as far as I am concerned the count down is on. All I will be doing this weekend is sleeping. There will probably be a lot of eating in there too. And of course cleaning.

Happy Hump Day!

The Weekend, courtesy of Instagram.

We were lucky enough to have another quiet weekend. I am really enjoying these quiet weekends together but I know its only the calm before the storm. I will be enjoying it while it lasts. A quiet weekend for us means lots of food, couch time and making plans. There is a little bit of cleaning and washing thrown in there but who wants to mention that?

I go away in 17 days. Obviously I am counting down. I am very excited but not looking forward to missing Daniel. I am more then anything looking forward to hot weather. My white body won't know what has hit it.

This week I am looking forward to the end. That is as positive as I can be about this week today. Its not my favourite week. Amongst other terrible things I have to get a needle, which is never exciting and just adds to the reason for this week to go on the negative page. I will get back to you when I can think of more positive things to report.

And now I will hand it over to Instagram.

My Husband The Surprise Master.

When I got home from work yesterday Daniel told me that we had to go and pick something up for his boss. Luckily for him I was happy to join him for the "drive". Where we were really going, however, was to Sushi and to see the new Batman movie.

I have been bugging Daniel to take me to see it since before it even came out. And everyone knows about my love affair with sushi so it was the ultimate date for me.

Also, big credit to Daniel because it is a rare occasion that anyone can get away with surprising me. I am normally onto them as soon as they think of the idea.

I love being married. Especially to my hubsta, who just FYI kind of looks like Batman would if he were real.

My weekend (shout out to the iphone for the photos).

This weekend was nice and quiet, just how I like it. With only a few commitments and lots of food. BUT because it was so quiet we got stuck into the house and Daniel started (and almost finished) the shed. He is so handy. Seriously!

Last night however, something familiar happened. I got the Christmas fever. Every year it starts a little earlier, this year its July. I still have four months to fill with preparations before I can start showing evidence of this fever. Which is fine because I love making lists.

I am very proud to say that over the weekend I crossed two things off my "To Do One Day" list. I taught myself how to fishtail braid and I also made poached pears for dessert. Yum! I know what your thinking - You have such high hopes for your life ;)

Here it is, according to my iphone.

Two(2) Hours To Kill

This weekend was a wonderful weekend because we got SO much accomplished, even though Daniel worked an 18 hour day on Saturday on top of his five day week (he is crazy and wonderful). Still we managed to get the house insanely clean. Spring clean, type clean. We switched the study and spare bedroom around which involved a lot of cleaning out closets etc. I also locked Daniel down for a wardrobe clean out. Oh yeah, it was good. While it doesn't sound very exciting and it wasn't a lot of fun at the time it feels so good this morning. Fresh.

On Saturday I had quite a few appointments to one of which I was two hours early and ended up sitting in my car waiting it out. Hence the above self shots. What else could I have done to pass the time.

Speaking of passing the time, I secretly want the next two weeks to fly past! I am really excited for August. So many good things starting and flowing through the remainder of the year. And another month closer to summer. Love.

A Post About Food (and friends).

Last night I got to play catch ups with a friend that I haven't seen in a long time. I used to see her everyday. I also got to spend extra time with another friend who I still get to see lots. Lucky, right. We went to a tapas bar and ate lots of yummy food. I am not going to put a photo up of the plate I enjoyed the most because while it tasted the best it resembled something that should not enter your mouth, ever. But didn't it taste fabulous! I love seeing old friends. I miss people that leave my life. My favourite friends are the ones you can go without seeing for months but when you finally see each other your relationship has only got better.

I can't finish this post without mentioning a shout out to the young couple who decided to make the seat behind us on the train home into their own personal bedroom. It made for an interesting train trip home. Can you say awkward....