In an effort to take more photos of every day life, I thought I'd bring my camera along on our Saturday morning ritual of walking into town and going to the markets. Here are some pictures from our walk.




Above is Albert Hall which is one of my favourite Launceston buildings. Once a friend of mine, who worked in the building, took me up on top of the roof and the view was awesome.


Just about every Saturday we walk into town (about 2kms) and go to the Harvest Farmers Markets.
Harvest sells some incredible Tasmanian produce - my personal favourite stalls are Garden of Vegan and Wanderlust.



Wanderlust sell the most incredible gluten free pies.



Theodore likes people watching.




There's always a line up for Manu Bread.


I entered a drawing I did into a drawing competition they were hosting and I came second and won this Keep Cup and granola bars. I'll show you my entry in another post.


I also bought a big punnet of raspberries.



We often buy our fresh produce from the market.


These guys looked happy.




This week one of my uni lecturers had organised a group show at Sawtooth Artist Run Initiative / Gallery, so we popped in to see some of the works.





Then we took a walk through town.





When in Brisbane Street I have to remember to look up a the beautiful facades.

After we go to Harvest we often go by Mojo, which is a record store, cafe and hairdressers in one. We're more interested in the record store part. We like to buy some albums on vinyl - it is nice to listen to our favourite albums that way - I like the ritual of it and the way they sound.






Later on in the evening, we went to Holly's house for her 1970s themed party. I made a cob filled with homemade dip and chocolate fondue. Theo was extremely well behaved and slept in his pram for most of the night while we chatted and laughed loudly nearby until 11pm!



Holly is so cute!


Isis looked fabulous.






We finished off the night by playing back to back games of something called Skip-Bo and decorating rocks with pom poms and googly eyes.



Today I'm supposed to be doing lots of uni work but procrastinating just comes too naturally to me!
How was your weekend?

...late again!


We bought a new door mat this month! (from the Oxfam Shop). C and I keep arguing about which way around it should go though. I think it's feet should run along the doorway, but C thinks that it should be facing out for our visitors. Hmpf!


I bought these stray playing cards when I was in Deloraine with Isis and Holly. Holly bought me the cute umbrella one.


New bike in a box!


We got home from a walk and saw these two on our bed through the window.


This little boy was/is the apple of my eye.


Holly gave me this deck of Tasmanian themed playing cards. They're gorgeous.


I have started riding my bike to and from work again and this was the sun setting over the North Esk river as I rode across Black Bridge to work. It is pretty damn cold at midnight when I ride home twice a week (and sometimes I ride past some unsavoury looking people and it makes me uncomfortable) but for the most part I'm really enjoying it.


I added a page to Theo's book.


The story behind this sign is that I share my studio space with some lovely people and a lady from our class left Easter eggs on our desks the day before we all went on break. I came into uni several times during the break and, having long since devoured my egg, I saw the egg of one of my studio-mates still on her desk. Despite wanting to eat it a couple of times when I was at uni late and hungry, it sat there until the evening of the last day of the break. The next morning, when we all got into uni, the egg was gone! And it wasn't me! And the girl who sits at that desk had no idea where it had gone. So, there is a thief in our midst! So, I put up a sign outside our studio to make that thief feel guilty. I know it's a bit silly, but it is pretty shifty of someone to come into our space and steal something! Baddies.


Do you see what I see?! HAIR! It is so fair, he basically still looks totally bald, but I see it! It would be nice if he grew a bit more because it would keep his little head warm (he refuses to keep hats on).


I sat at my kitchen table and watched the rain.


Sometimes when I get home after midnight this little boy wakes up and wants to play.


I painted a little picture for my nephew Xavier's jungle themed nursery (who should be born next week!).


I listened to Kimbra's album on vinyl. Does anyone out there have any recommendations for good quality, new record players? Ours is old and plays terribly.


Theo and I went on some walks together (all rugged up). That hat stayed on for 5 seconds flat. AND while I'm mentioning this hat, it was left on my doorstep not long after Theo was born, by a blog reader, but I don't know who. Put your hand up if it was you! I love it!

Watching | Girls, Orphan Black, Game of Thrones & Call The Midwife. We're about to start watching Girls Season 3 and I'm so glad we've been pacing ourselves. I usually race through shows when I don't have to wait each week for episodes, but this one I've let myself mull over.
Listening | 'I'll Try Anything Once' - The Strokes and 'Joyful Girl' - Ani Difranco. Two great songs that get stuck in my head a lot.
Reading | The Secret History - Donna Tartt (really enjoying it, but finding no time for reading lately. It is kind of nice to pace myself through a book I'm really enjoying. So many books I've devoured in a couple of days and I wish I'd let myself mull things over more and given the characters more time to develop in my head). I also read Claire's very sweet little zine Around Town.
Making | At the moment at uni I am making a set of memory game cards with images from my childhood on them. I've also been drawing from photographs I took when I was in Stockton early in April and turning them into postcards (part of a series I tentatively call 'Souvenirs from places you wouldn't want souvenirs from'). Other than that, I've been writing little notes to my niece and nephew, painting a picture for a little competition and making myself a proper planner book because I don't have one and really need one and the ones from the shops are never quite right for me.
Visiting | I returned from my quick trip to NSW early in the month, we went to Evandale Markets (and a cat show!), visited The Great Western Tiers with Theo, C and C's dad on a little day trip and took Holly and Isis on a day trip to Deloraine to go to the markets, I hope to do that again soon!
Consuming | Coffee and bagels. Lots of bagels. I learned how to make them this past month because C is obsessed with them and the one cafe in town that sold them took them off their menu recently and he was devastated. My first batch was amazing, my second was great and my third, I tried to make a couple of batches as once with half wholemeal flour, and they were total duds. I tried making them with gluten free flour as well (gluten and me have a difficult relationship) and they were inedible. Anyway, back to the awesome bagels I made - I used this recipe and I added sesame seeds to the top of mine. Boiling the dough is my favourite part. Next time I might add in some blueberries!
Purchasing | Fancy new pots and pans (everything tastes better cooked in them!), purple shoes, a nice second hand hallway stand, Kimbra's album on vinyl and a new bike! I'll share pictures of it soon! I've also been going on some great opshopping trips. I've started trying to go to every opshop in Launceston in one day and I try to do that once a fortnight, or at least twice a month. Today was one of those days!
Coveting | A new wedding ring! I was at work and my beautiful wedding ring fell off, presumably into someone's shopping bag as I was packing because I looked everywhere and could not find it. Misery. I have bookmarked a couple of lovely rings since, but it might be quite some time before we can afford to replace it. I'm also coveting an old chest for a coffee table, keeping my eyes peeled!
Looking forward to | More mild Autumnal weather, Saturday mornings at Harvest Market eating Wanderlust pies, going to Holly's 70s themed party on the weekend, printing out photos and attempting to catch up on my Project Life photo album for Theo and possibly maybe starting another little side project blog!

This month I've spent a lot of time at uni, but my productivity has been a bit low. I love being there but I get distracted easily. The director of the gallery at uni installed some lights above my desk so now I can stay a little later (the sun starts setting so early in Winter in Tasmania, it's ridiculous). In May I need to manage my time better and spend more quality time with my boys.

This month I also removed anything from my sidebar that shows how many followers this blog has. I just wanted to, I don't know why. I guess it just became another thing to measure my self worth by. Not that it was really low, the number itself wasn't the issue and I am so grateful to have so many people stop by this space (thank you!). I think I just didn't need to have it there any more.

I have felt a bit discouraged from blogging lately, because of another blogger. It's hard for me to word I guess, but I suppose it comes down to that some people take inspiration from other people a bit too literally, to the point of imitation. I feel uncomfortable saying much more detail than that about it really, but it has been a really significant factor in my not blogging with any consistency lately. It's a shame and I've just been trying not to think about it because it makes me feel bad and uncomfortable. I think that all bloggers are guilty in some small part of collecting bits and pieces of ideas from other blogs, myself included - and that's something I think I often like about blogs really - that everyone bounces off one another and relates to each other and shares ideas. Obviously, this blog has many inspirations and influences and there are bloggers whose endless creative ideas and originality put me to shame! I make no claims on being a trend setter or having boundless original ideas. I just like to be creative and share and promote being creative. And if someone takes inspiration from something I do, that is a total delight, but visiting another person's blog and having it feel uncomfortably familiar, down to the wording of phrases and minute aesthetic details made me feel sad, like someone had thieved tiny bits of my identity and sold them to other people as their own. I would be so ashamed if I were to use someone's ideas, claim them as my own and not credit my inspiration. I don't even like re-pinning things on Pinterest if they don't have sources attached. It is important to me to be authentic and genuine online (and offline too), otherwise, I just don't see the point in blogging. I don't think I could have gone on blogging without sharing the above paragraph, I'm sorry for ranting! I feel a little better now! Onwards!

The photos above are from a little Instagram project I started doing - when I see a cute bike in my city, I take a photo and hashtag it with #bikesoflaunceston. There are some cute bikes about!

Things I've seen while riding my bike lately:
+ A yellow crested galah hanging upside down by it's toe on a gate in a residential area, dead. Macabre, I know! I rode past later and it had disappeared.
+ A dog in a car with it's head out the window, who, as the car turned in front of me, shook his head slowly at me with a serious face.
+ Two bikers out the front of the supermarket, one who I heard laugh and mutter something about the flowers on my bike basket as I approached, and as I passed by he said "Good morning! You look happy", to which I said "I am happy!" and kept riding.
+ A little girl riding along a street near my house, on several occasions, and we pass by each other and smile and ring our bells.
+ Several people cut me off or drive by me in a dangerous way or not give me right of way. That sucks.
+ A man walking with headphones in, singing along quietly in monotone.
+ A man walking with headphones in, silently rap-miming along to his music.
+ Two cats in a street near my house sitting side by side, looking deep in conversation.
+ Two little girls with a lemonade stand who gave me a cup of lemonade and some loom bands for free because I didn't have any change. The lemonade was awesome and they told me their very elaborate recipe!
+ Two ladies walking along the bridge really slowly. I rode behind them for quite some time without them noticing me (my bell is loud and obnoxious) and eventually they noticed me and moved to the side and apologised and told me I should have rang my bell at them, so I told them my bike bell was really loud and obnoxious and rang it for them and they agreed and we laughed.
+ A couple canoodling in the park quite enthusiastically.
+ A man walking along the main street flicking through wads and wads of cash (like, thousands).

Can you tell it's Autumn? Tasmania puts on a big show at the change of seasons. Autumn was the season I really fell in love with Tasmania. The air is crisp, you open your front door and everything smells like woodfire smoke, it's cold but not too cold, the trees are electric reds, oranges and yellows and you can't see your lawn any more because it's covered in layers of leaves. Last week C raked up all of the leaves in our yard and the very next day, it was ten times worse than before. I laughed.



I bought these shoes last week on impulse after seeing them in a shop for half price. They have a sizeable platform on them which is pretty fun. I used to wear Converse when I first started high school. My mum had an eBay addiction and would get me cheap pairs online. They looked pretty weird in a sea of skate shoes (anyone my age remember those white Etnies with the blue or pink E's on the side that my parents never would have forked out for in a million years?). I remember girls in my year making fun of my shoes, but I really liked them. I was obsessed with Harriet the Spy when I was a kid and she had a pair. Later on, I got a couple of pairs and would wear mismatched pairs with bright shoelaces. A few years into high school those girls who made fun of my Converse were wearing them too which I liked. They're so comfy, I put them on when I get up and don't take them off until I get into bed. They're not a colour I would usually wear, but they're making me pull things out of my wardrobe I haven't worn in a while, like this dress.