I've been meaning to announce that the winner of one of my prints is Corinne of Shimmer and Glow (I'll email you shortly!). Thanks so much for all the lovely entries.
If you didn't win and you're still keen on a print, I've listed them for sale in my Etsy shop for four dollars each for this week (then the price will heavily inflate to five dollars each!). Due to postage restrictions I have printed them at A4 size instead of A3. I like the larger poster size, but do they still look nice at A4 size too.



+ Home Is Wherever I'm With You Print



+ Handkerchiefs Print


+ Snowdomes Print


+ Tree Rings Print


+ Owls On Branches Print


+ Shine On You Crazy Diamond Print

...in January.



I started the new year by trying to learn how to eat a pomegranate. I also watched the fireworks from a hill near our house and could see a dog sitting peacefully in his backyard by himself casually watching the fireworks too.



I did a bunch of drawings and actually stuck to my self imposed deadline (highly out of character).


I had some successful market and opshopping trips (and feel like I am now addicted to Gumtree and feel the need to go opshopping every two days).


I built some shelves in these old school lockers (currently on wishlist: my own cordless drill).


I flew to Newcastle and back to visit my family for a week and attend the wedding of one of my best friends from high school (and sat in Melbourne airport for way too long watching planes and eating really overpriced mi goreng).


I stayed in my sister's lovely new house while visiting Newcastle (and bought her these fabulous flowers).


I watched my niece Rose eat a macaron and wandered around the city with her and my brother and sister.


I met my fresh 4-day-old nephew Moby and got used to holding a baby (I'm sure this will come in handy shortly. I did however take a pass on changing my first dirty nappy...).


I met my sweet second cousin Mikah, whose parents have just moved back to Australia with her after almost ten years in Bermuda.


My step sister gave me a really cute brooch.


I had a delicious family lunch (my step dad is the master watermelon carver).


I had a delicious 'strawberries and cream' iced tea at Frankie's Place (Golden books as placemats, so cute!).




On my last day in Newcastle I paid a visit to the Centenary Centre. I wish I had a portal between my house in Tasmania and this gem of a vintage store (I'd be extremely poor).



We took a day trip through the countryside on the way to lunch at a raspberry farm.


I met this sweet black kitty (the other cats are slowly warming to him).


And I went into nursery decorating overdrive.

Watching... The Mindy Project (love!) & lots of Australian Open tennis games.
Listening... Sophie Hunger & Gravenhurst.
Reading... The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Up The Duff  & (I just started) Bossypants by Tina Fey and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling.
Visiting... Family and friends in NSW.
Making... lots of drawings and prettying up furniture for the nursery.
Buying... baby necessities and lots of opshopped bits and pieces.
Looking forward to... another month of baby growing.

In February I'd like to:
Keep filling the nursery with fun things and make some collages to hang on the walls, cook more, ride my bike a couple of times before I get too enormous and finish a couple of books.

When I got into the airport on the last leg of my trip home, C (who had gotten his Learners licence while I was away, yay!) and his friend Chris picked me up and we went out for dinner with C's parents for his mum's birthday (last year on his mum's birthday we found a little cat on the side of the road on our way home). When we got home I opened the front door and there was a little black kitten in my hallway. A surprise little black kitten. C had secretly gone out and picked up this little guy from a place out of town called Just Cats, where cats and kittens are taken care of and fostered with families until they find their forever families.

I know C had been especially upset about losing our cat Morrissey last year and kept saying how he'd love another little black cat (not a replacement, of course, just to mend his heart).




C decided he'd wait to let me name him and I thought Atticus (I'm a big TKAMB fan) was quite fitting. He's ridiculously cuddly, very curious and has a lot of personality. I guess in the past I've found that cats just generally don't like me (or they just generally prefer C) but this one loves me! Yay! He really lifts my spirits and is a lot of fun to have around. He's so cuddly it's almost (almost!) annoying.



My round belly is one of his favourite places to sleep.



I am a little concerned that every year on C's mum's birthday another cat will mysteriously turn up. Though I imagine that by this time next year we'll have our hands too full to even consider the idea!

N.B. Believe me when I say that I do think owning four cats is a ridiculous amount. I am also aware of the potential hazards of having cats around babies and I don't personally change their kitty litter.

Today I got up earlier than usual (finding it harder and harder to sleep in) and started getting some things done that I was looking forward to. I finished painting a sideboard, rearranged furniture, bought some new supplies, made my own toasted muesli, potted some herbs, bought a pram online, watched the Australian Open mens final and the Newcastle Jets soccer game on tv, chatted to my mum on the phone and cooked cheese and Vegemite scrolls. That's a ridiculously productive day for me and they don't happen often. I wish every day was like that.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I bought a set of old school lockers and started sprucing them up. I borrowed C's dad's cordless drill and bought some new drillbits, screws and some mdf and added shelves, painted the interior and touched up the paint on the exterior (C was my lovely assistant -holding things and measuring things and finishing the painting). Doing this little project a few weeks ago has made me feel really excited about taking on more little DIY projects.




This week C and I were looking for secondhand baby items at our favourite opshop and saw a battered old sideboard/buffet (similar to the one in our kitchen) for $10. The laminate was peeling off and it looked pretty scrappy but we bought it anyway and last night after work I glued the laminate back on, sanded it, primed it and painted it and today we moved it into the baby's room. I thought it would be a good height to put a change mat on. Unfortunately I'm incredibly impatient and didn't take any 'before' photos for the lockers or the sideboard.

These little furniture DIYs have been really fun and I feel like they're something I'd really enjoy doing in the future, possibly for reselling. Later in the week we're picking up a cute cot we found on Gumtree. I'm sure I won't be able to help myself but share as the baby's room takes shape. I've been feeling undeniably nesty lately. My mum says it's good because you end up really appreciating the effort you put in before the baby was born, when you've got no time for doing anything after the baby is born. This is a space I'm probably going to spend a lot of time in, so I figure it is as much for me as it is for baby boy.





I'll eventually replace the posters blu-tacked on the wall with some framed paintings and drawings.




I found the tiered stand below for $5 at the same opshop trip mentioned above and decided it would make a nice display for some herbs at our front door. The brightly coloured containers don't have drainage holes, but I'm going to add some when I borrow C's dad's drill again. There are chives at the top, parsley in the middle and basil at the bottom. I was thinking it would be nice if my guests could take a handful of herbs when they go home after visiting.




Here are some pictures of my culinary efforts today. I eat a lot of muesli and thought I'd see if I could make my own toasted muesli with dried fruit (the picture was before I'd added the fruit). It was really easy and tastes as good (if not better) than the bought stuff - I might share my made-up recipe. I made a pretty enormous batch, so hopefully it's been economical (buying lots of nuts and dried fruit is always kind of pricey).




 I am also a huge cheese and Vegemite scroll fan but unfortunately the supermarket I work at has stopped selling them. I wimped out a bit and just used puff pastry for my attempt today but they were very delicious.



Before I sign off I wanted to show you a new little friend of mine. This little black cat is called Atticus (a name we did consider as a baby name!). I'll properly introduce you to him in a later post. He's the best cat ever.