One fine day

What do you do when it's 25 degrees, there's not a cloud in the sky, and you've got the day off? We headed to the beach, where we ate fish & chips, chased seagulls and dipped our toes in the water. Sydney winters really don't come much better than this...

xxx from Watsons Bay

Bondi baby

Spring is in the air! Well, technically it’s still a month off, but with the sun out and the mercury on it’s way up, it feels just like summer is around the corner. 

With temperatures in the early twenties, we headed down to Bondi for some quality beach time. Here are some pics, taken on my iPhone and edited with a free app I love called Photo Editor. 

And the best part about it? We had the beach all to ourselves... Winter isn’t so bad after all :) 

First birthday celebrations

It’s been a little quiet on the blogging front, but all for a good reason. For the past few weeks, I’ve spent every free moment of my time planning a Very Important Party… That’s right, this week, our little girl turned one!


Picking a location to celebrate this joyous occasion was the easy part – after having spent the best part of the past year in Centennial Park, this was simply a matter of deciding which of all the beautiful locations would be our favourite.  In the end, we decided on Pascale's tree – yep, this tree actually has a name - a beautiful spot with plenty of trees to provide much needed shade and a backdrop for our festive home-made bunting.

For the cakes, I resorted to Nigella’s guide to a domestic goddess, a treasured birthday gift from Pienkel that’s inspired me to try my hand at home-baked delights. In this case – it being typical Aussie summers’ day – I went for plain cakes (including a lemon loaf cake, an almond cake, an orange poppyseed cake and a big stack of vanilla cupcakes) that could withstand the 30 degree plus temperatures. Thanks to my lovely friends, without whom we definitely wouldn’t have been able to pull all this off, we also served delicious chocolate caramel brownies, Dutch apple pie, zucchini slices and a cheese platter.

To celebrate the past year – and relive those beautiful moments that have just flown by – we also added some “real” baby bunting, in the form of a photo for every month of the year. Glued onto patterned cardboard and pegged to a piece of string with some festive heart-shaped pegs, it added a festive touch to the party, and reminded us all of those beautiful moments in our little girl’s life.

All in all, it was a beautiful “end” to a beautiful first year, and a brilliant start of her life as a one year old. Here's to many more!

xxx

I love summer

Need I say more...?

And just like that, I've entered the last week of my maternity leave. A strange feeling, to think that in a week's time I'll be swapping the beach for the office, but also an exciting prospect. I love being at home with our daughter, but I also love my job, and going back part time will (hopefully) allow me to have the best of both worlds. Quite how it will work out in practice remains to be seen, but if anyone has any tips on how best to manage a home/office life, I would love to hear about it!

xxx

Beautiful Bundeena

There's no two ways about this, Bundeena has got to be one of my favourite places on earth. A little town on the edge of Sydney's Royal National Park, it offers truly stunning beaches and water views, all within a stone's throw from Sydney. So when my mum came out to visit, I couldn’t think of a better place to spend some quality family time.


San Remo on the Beach, our home for the week, was the perfect place to kick back and enjoy the beach life Australia is famous for. This is definitely a place we'll be visiting again, and hopefully sooner rather than later... 

But being back in Sydney for the holidays isn't too bad either. Here's the view from Milk beach, another personal favourite, of the harbour bridge and opera house, a prime spot if you're still thinking of places to celebrate New Year's Eve.

xxx

All the pretty things #11

This week our dry spell finally came to an end. That's not a bad thing — I actually can't remember the last time it rained and some wet weather was clearly needed.  But it also made me realise that when it rains, there's very little you can do in Sydney, except hole up indoors and wait for it all to pass. This is a city that is geared to outdoor life and indoor activities are few and far between. So with more showers ahead for the weekend, it was extra important to make the most of the sunshine today, which we did with a little trip to the South Head.

As one of two headlands marking the entrance to Sydney harbour, the South Head provides stunning views both out to sea and towards the city. There's a 450m heritage trail looping around the Hornby lighthouse that's an easy stroll, provided you're okay with several flights of stairs. This is not a pram-friendly outing, but it's perfectly do-able with a baby carrier.

And when you're done, Doyles on the wharf is just around the corner with the best seafood in town.

xxx

All the pretty things #10

This week, there's a distinct purple haze covering Sydney and no, it's not just the smoke from bush fires... It's that time of year when blossoming jacaranda trees give Sydney's streets that violet coloured touch, a beautiful sight, albeit a rather sticky one. Whatever you do, don't park your car underneath one of these trees... This is what our street currently looks like...

This week, we also spent a (rather smoky, yep the fires are still around) Saturday morning at the Bondi farmers market which, as the name suggests, provides a wide selection of fresh produce straight from local farms. A lovely place to do your weekly shopping, or just grab a coffee, hang out and listen to reggae music...

And if you're up for the stronger stuff, there's also some seriously tasty Batlow premium cider, straight from an orchard near the Snowy Mountains...

And finally, we spent an afternoon in the park, where we spotted this little kookaburra...