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Hi Friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday. I've been quite productive today, washing, dishes, doctors, birthday present for brother in law...and getting my tax done...slowly!

I have a question for you, and a thank you! I love all your comments. I get so excited when people say a little hello at the end of my posts, it's wonderful! but I like to return the favour and especially if there is a question I like to answer it.

How does it work for you? Do you just add another comment to the end of the comments and hope your lovely commenters come back and have a look...or do you subscribe to get an email on any comments after yours? OR do you go say hello at their blog on their last post?

I'd love your feedback!

Hope you have a wonderful day x

our little winter holiday

We got there in one piece...and decided to do a ceremonial photo by the welcome sign...

I thought I had a bit of a double chin in this one...so took another

I

Jek thought that was pretty hilarious... 

 We stocked up...and yes there are some vegetables in there somewhere under all the treats!

the sun was out so we enjoyed lunch on our little outdoor setting before starting a GG marathon...only stopping for winners and losers on Tuesday and Op shopping and Offspring on Wednesday...oh and sleep of course! knitting and crocheting while we watched!

 We ate lots of delicious food!

including pancakes and berry sauce...YUM

 and perhaps a couple of cheeky pieces of almond chocolate on the top...

I kid you not...a sign in the newsagents window!

 The bathroom had some pretty choice tiles...

 As I said we did a spot of op shopping...sharing what I got deserves a whole other post...I'll be back 

tomorrow to share! :)

We had an excellent time. So much so we'll definitely be doing it again and perhaps for an extra night...who knows perhaps it will become an annual thing! let's hope so!

If I could be a back up singer for anyone...

How cool would it be to be one of those sophisticated looking ladies in the back singing with none other than Jonny Farnham. Thanks to Rach for the inspiration! Totally turned the frown upside down!

we're all going on a...winter holiday

Image credit

My sisters and I are heading down to Goolwa for a couple of nights for our first (possible annual?...we'll see how well or not well this one goes!) sister trip! If you are familiar with South Australia it's down South near Victor Harbour, which is also close to Hindmarsh Island where cute little fairy penguins live!

We've got plenty of DVD's, knitting needles...and wool, crochet hooks, frankie, the toasty maker and plenty of fruit and chocolate packed. We've sussed out where all the op shops are in Goolwa and the surrounding towns. 

I'm rather excited!

see you in a few days!

great postcard swap

It was around this time last year I had a crack at my first sewn postcard...it was fun...and I'm doing it again!...I've missed a couple in between but have some cracking ideas for this theme! Might involved some crochet fun! It'll also help me out with my 27 @ 27 challenge!

head over here if you'd like to join in the swap!

grateful for skype!

skype is the bomb! 

it means I can talk to my beloved friend who lives in the UK for free...we don't do it nearly enough and even if the internet is deciding to be crap and cuts in and out...it's still great to hear her voice and catch up with what is going on in her part of the world!

So I'm grateful for the genius who invented skype!

for more grateful action head over to the lovely maxabella loves...she's got a cracking list this week!

mend...and make do

 This is what happens when we wear the same 2 pairs of jeans for 6 whole weeks walking around Europe... 

bugger...the holes are worth it cause we had a great trip...but the budget is pretty tight since coming back so I gotta make do and mend, and if they last til the end of the winter I will be stoked!

So mum had some iron on hole fixer stuff...it has a name, you know what I mean! I just put it on... then read the instructions...WHOOPS! I pretty much did everything wrong, it said to wash the garment before, didn't do that, round the corners didn't do that...ha oh well. It's not so pretty but it's on the inside and as I said if they last for the winter I'll be happy and can start over next winter!

Is there anything you've had to mend and make do with lately?

JEK

the little bubba in this photo...is my sister...I'm the one in the middle.

today is her birthday...

she is 25 

 I went on a bit of a baking frenzy this morning for afternoon tea. I invited some of her lady friends to join us...there was enough food for about 30...but I we were about a third of that! :)

 There she is on the right enjoying one of her favourite pass times...drinking tea!

She is such a blessing to me. She knows me... sometimes too well and loves me and I love her right back. We have had our moments over the years...there was a rough patch during high school where we said very little to each other. But as we grow older we appreciate each other more, that and the fact we don't have to live with each other any more! ;) So today I am very grateful for this beautiful woman and proud to say she is my little sister

get your grateful fix over here at Maxabellas!

sweet felix

I've spoken about my friend Kara here a couple of times...she was the friend with the baby shower a few weeks ago...

She gave birth to this little bundle of joy yesterday...what a cool day to be born :)

Welcome to this world Felix Jakobi, it was wonderful to meet you tonight and I hope we get to see you again soon, you are very cute and handsome. Seriously his nose SO sweet...

I hope you will grow nice and strong and learn lots from your mumma and pappa

two years

It's been a fun, enjoyable, challenging, sometimes down right hard, crazy, changing, adventurous, at times frustrating, stable and unstable at the same time, a time for learning, exciting and rewarding 2 years. Probably a couple of the best and most challenging years of my life so far. 

And he's the only one I could do it with.

I love you my beloved, Happy Anniversary...I hope we have many more years of learning, growing and fun a head of us!

Thanks for stopping by this week to join in the fun of wedding week and for your sweet comments! It has been fun to look back and enjoy photos and reminiscing on our wedding day. I hope you have enjoyed the fun too! Hope you all have a wonderful week! xx

The photos

 We had a lovely lady called Sonya take our photos for our wedding. Most of the photos used for all these wedding week posts have been by her (except for a few like my shoes and the teapots and truffles). Sonya is a graphic designer and when she shot out wedding she was working full time in that profession and doing wedding photography on the side.

 
(some photos of the handsome men...they have mainly been of the girls so far!)

 
 I had met Sonya a few times and her lovely younger sister pointed me her way when we were planning our wedding. It was wonderful to work with someone who was professional, took beautiful photos and a heck of fun to be around!

 
 
 

You can check out more of Sonya's beautiful work...here! She is in the process of setting up a new business for wedding photography and invites so that is very exciting and we wish her well with that. There is no doubt she will do a fantastic job. She's a talented lovely lady.

wedding week- the bridesmaids

 I'm blessed with 3 younger sisters...so it was pretty easy to work out who my bridesmaids were going to be. I have been bridesmaid for a couple of my close friends but they helped out in other special ways for the day.

They spoilt me with a wonderful hens night. Including a body shop party at my parents place, delicious dinner...where pretty much everyone bought mini quiche! ha so funny...
B and C sang a beautiful song in our ceremony as we signed the register and J said a beautiful speech at the reception. It was wonderful and I had fun having them be beside me on my big day. The girls that know me better than I know myself sometimes.
They also told me later...that I turned into a bridezilla which I think is a bit untrue....they tend to over exaggerate sometimes!! ;)

grateful in the midst of struggle

This week has been a bit of a struggle.  Last week my mum lost her dad and so this week my immediate family, Mumma bear, Papa Bear and myself and 3 sisters all made our way over to Western Australia from South Australia, some by plane some by car. It  has been a really emotionally draining week. It was almost impossible to get out of bed this morning because I was so physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted and my brain was not kicking into gear...and I also don't drink coffee. So I didn't get up...until 8.3am a whole hour after my alarm went off...I am grateful that my job allows me to do that! But I digress. It was very special that I was able to go to the funeral and be with Mum and Nana. It was a nice funeral, lots of people turned up to pay their respects to Pop.Some very good family friends travelled 400kms to come and support us. Man  that was incredible. There was a slide show and he was honored as someone who fought for our country in WWII. I felt proud to be his grand daughter. But you know taking 3 days out of work is hard...work doesn't stop so I came back today to a fairly long to do list, one major thing for Tuesday....which nearly tipped me over the edge....but then I played the chocolate game at youth and it was good to laugh with the youngins I work with! But I am glad and grateful in fact to have those days to greive, to attend a funeral and that it's Friday so I only had to do it one day!

So even though life kicked me in the shins a few times this week I am graeful for

Being able to get reasonable prices flights to Perth

That we finally were able to get flights and the ash cloud stayed away

credit cards to pay for said flights

I got to hang out with my cousins and see what they are up to even though the reason we came together was sad...AND this is probably the thing I am MOST GRATEFUL for this week!

That we were able to say goodbye to Pop in a special way...

For friends who travel 400km to come and support my mum and dad at a funeral, the friends who know you so well (probably because you have known them for 25 years!)

Thanks for reading...it was quite cathartic to type that...I am seriously tired so I might come back tomorrow and re read it and think gosh waffle! BUT there are lots of gratefuls in the midst of struggles!

check out more grateful souls over at the lovely Maxabella loves...check out her giveaway too! It's a real winner! :)

honeymoon

We went to Tasmania for our honeymoon! It was fantastic! We saw snow, ate LOTS of really yummy food. Stayed in some really nice places...it was great. staying in doors a fair bit too! ;0...The only down side was that Tim was really sick! :(

We threw snow balls at each other on the top of Mt Wellington

Enjoyed Hobart and the Salamaca Markets

We took a chair lift in the Botanical Gardens...I nearly lost a shoe!

The morning we went to Dove lake (at Cradle Mountain) it was -2...there was ice all over the place! Tim had fun picking it up and smashing it! HA

We had a relaxing time and did a bit of driving and enjoyed seeing the beautiful state that is Tasmania. We hope to go back there some day!