sunday's activities

hello!

is it really sunday already? 

i'm at home in noosa at the moment, about to

have some porridge for breakfast, love you mumsey!

what else might be on for today...

tennis

lawn bowls

home made soup

coffee 

walk

budgeting

goal writing

ice cream

cleaning my car

movies

early evening drinks

...and who knows what else!

turning things around

the weekend that was

this weekend was...

sipping a little too much champagne, wine and cosmopolitans which resulted in talking rubbish, playing with traffic cones, conducting solo strength contests and other such good old fashioned nonsense. 

sleeping in, then sleeping some more, then lazing about while beth went cleaning crazy. 

trying out a new cafe i recently spotted in my local area (relatively local!) called vintage kitchen. 

going on a date with my married friends ash and john to the movies and then to sushi. 

surrounding myself with what felt like a million dogs at the rspca million paws walk.

smiling at the sight of so many hilarious looking ones, from the hard to fathom huge to the teeny tiny.

birthday present shopping for my baby sister and finding the perfect gift at a perfect price.

drinking tea and sampling some delicious baked goods at naomi's oxfam fundraising afternoon tea. 

having a long overdue coffee catch up with my primary school bestie phillipa (now a mumma of two!)

plus... reading, sun baking, eating fresh sandwiches, walking, not blogging, errand running, car washing avoiding (successful by the way), texting new friends, texting old friends, baking biscuits, reorganising my wardrobe, vacuuming, contemplating rejoining the world of facebook, washing, driving, radio listening (up loud!), soaking up the good weather, phone calls with my mum and dad, watching sixty minutes, feeling grateful for beth, feeling excited about the future and lots, lots more! 

this weekend was... wonderful!

closing time

'every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end...'

being happy

dear me

i like this

'the only way to get through it, is to get through it.'

now... less talk more action jessica!

for mum

today mum unwrapped these wooden heart shaped coasters, a glasshouse fragrances gardenia scented miniature candle, a box of ferrero rocher chocolates and this simple kikki.k card from her firstborn... me! 

the weekend that was

feeling very relaxed and happy tonight. i think i can thank a weekend of family time and good old fashioned r and r for this. friday night was spent drinking champagne and making new friends in the city with some lovely ladies. saturday morning was spent pottering around at home doing washing, cleaning and organising followed by a walk to the shops and back to buy some mothers day pressies. then rach and the three monkey's (a name they lived up to this weekend!) picked me up and we made our way to the gold coast where we had a three bedroom ocean view apartment awaiting our arrival. after checking in we left the kiddies poolside with alyce so rach and i could do a grocery shop. we bought ingredients to make a delicious thai curry ready for when mum and dad arrived later that night and some fresh fruit, croissants and yummy spreads for a specials mothers day breakfast the next day. after dinner i felt ready to fall asleep standing up, but dad coaxed me into playing tennis. it's been about six months since i've played so i wasn't a very enthusiastic participant to begin with but it turned out to be lots of fun, especially because elliot and i smashed mum and alyce. today was spent watching the sun rise (this photo was taken right before it appeared and i didn't even see the seagull at the time!), going for a walk along the beach, picking flowers for the breakfast table, indulging in croissants with nutella  and jam and cream, drinking multiple cups of tea, watching mum unwrap her mothers day gifts, reading the adorable hand made cards jade and lewis had made, swimming in the icy cold pool and warming up again in the hot spa, hitting the shops at harbour town, eating too much sushi, knitting in the car, helping jade with her maths homework (and learning a thing or two myself!), stopping in for a cuppa and chat with the wonderful nic and just generally enjoying life and the company of my family. so that's it! you are officially filled in on my weekend. now i'm watching sixty minutes (the great smacking debate... something we were talking about today funnily enough), have two baskets of washing to fold and am about to have organic baked beans on toast for dinner followed by more knitting, a peppermint tea and some letter writing later. sunday nights in my mid twenties are far too exciting! i hope everyone had a lovely day and that you too feel happy and relaxed, as we all deserve to be.

moon and back

happy mothers day to my beautiful mumma. 

i loved spending the weekend with you and some other

very special mums in our lives. i love you to the moon and back.

thinking of mums and sons and daughters everywhere. 

never let me go

yet another florence and the machine song that i can't stop listening to.

the big smoke

i'm having a holiday from facebook at the moment so i am missing being able to share photos of my beautiful friends with the world. i also realised it's been a long time since i've had any personal photos on my blog! so here we are today. we were all at an adma (australian direct marketing association) data day and we spent our lunch outside in the sun. it was lots of fun doing something different (albeit long and tiring) and pretending to be city kids. our office feels miles away from the cbd so it was an excursion for us! 

left to right... cam, anna, our new friend maggie, myself and mj.

getting my knit on

on the weekend i learnt how to knit!

and tonight i bought myself some wool and knitting needles.

now i just need to consult youtube for some casting on tutorials!

i will be sporting a sexy scarf in no time. 

good morning!

my early nights seem to be working!

i woke up this morning fifteen minutes before my alarm

and don't feel all that tired. i know blogging about it probably

isn't the best use of this time but i couldn't resist sharing the good news!

supermoon

tonight is the closest the moon will be to earth all year.

it's called a supermoon and it's much brighter than a normal full moon. 

make sure you take a peek outside at it!

night owl no longer

one of my small lifestyle changes... early nights. 

say goodbye and good night to this night owl!

pick me up

ok, enough about heartbreak and high expectations.

let's talk about... wine and cheese! on thursday night 

everyone in my team decided they were in dire need of

a drink. so off we all went to claret house for some shiraz

(yes, you heard correctly, more red wine drinking! really 

enjoying it now!) and cheese. the cheese was amazing.  

it instantly made me feel good and i think i should eat

it more often. it was made especially delicious thanks

to quince paste, dried fruit and fresh slices of apple. 

i can see myself enjoying a few more nights like this!

three learnings...

don't make decisions when you're angry,
don't make promises when you're happy. 

words hurt, but 

silence pierces my soul. 

sometimes we expect more from others because 

we would be willing to do that much for them.

not the end

time now to

expectation is the root of all heartache. 

 - william shakespeare

so much for not having high expectations this year! i did not follow this advice what so ever.

i'm fast learning that disappointment = expectation / reality. i have felt disappointed a lot lately. either my expectations are too high or i'm just not in touch with reality. maybe it's a little bit of both.

either way, it's time now to... forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. 

inspiration is everywhere

inspiration is everywhere and it was no surprise to find these beautiful and simple words on the fridge of a truly inspiring person in my life.

promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

 - christian d. larson

thank goodness

thank goodness for family, friends and cats...

tired night owl

good night world! i need an early night tonight. so exhausted. 

almost the weekend though, only two more days until freedom.

simple is best

oh so simple!

love!

spot on

these words are from my blog! i created this word 'cloud' here.

not surprisingly, some of my most commonly used words are:

love

life

feel

friends

think

happy

beautiful

baking

chocolate

and cat

spot on. 

♥

the downfalls of multitasking

speaking of domestic duties and not being very good at them, i just walked in to the laundry to find the pair of jeans i had started hand washing yesterday. my beautiful navy nobody jeans, the most comfortable and complimenting pair of jeans i have ever owned, had been sitting there for more than twenty four hours! so much blue dye came out, i hope they are going to be ok! i clearly just completely forgot about them. sometimes i can multitask too much. i know at the time i was baking the aforementioned biscuits, hanging out washing, cleaning out the fridge, emptying all the bins in the house, wheeling the wheelie bins up the drive and checking the mail. i have ruined endless items of gorgeous clothing with my haste or forgetfulness or stupidity. i've turned white things pink and pink things grey. i've had to wash multiple loads of washing twice thanks to it sitting outside in the rain for two days (this might also have to happen to the stuff i have out there now). i ruined a dress of my sisters that she hadn't even worn yet! she trusted me with a beautiful summery dress and i returned it to her as a top, sorry baby sis. as awful as i feel, i just think back to all the things she has ruined of mine. almost everything i lent her would somehow end up with an chocolate ice cream stain on it. clearly most things were lent during the summer holidays! this doesn't include non laundry related disasters, such as make up mishaps and cake batter splatter (foundation and chocolate cake mix do not come out fyi). so in addition to improving my cooking, let's hope i get better at doing the laundry too, and fingers crossed my beloved jeans aren't ruined.

i like to bake

on monday i had the day off work. i spent the morning hiking mount cootha with naomi (hard!), the afternoon dropping kahli and alex to the airport (sad!) and the evening baking and cooking (yum!). i made a batch of choc chip biscuits which i have been planning on doing for a while and took them into work today. they went down a treat! everyone loved them and i felt happy that i could brighten everyone's morning. sadly, many of my work friends and colleagues were made redundant yesterday. i think this may have been why the offer of baked goods was taken up much quicker than normal. i was going to bake another batch tonight, but then i got distracted by writing this post and looking at pictures of bicci's, so i think i've left it too late. instead i'll get up nice and early and do them then instead. i've promised too many people who missed out today that i would so can't show up empty handed! i made them so huge last time that there wasn't a great deal to go around. when i said i would make them smaller next time though, everyone said 'no!' so i think that's a good sign they were well liked. here is the recipe i used (absolutely love taste.com.au by the way, i use it for everything, it's like google but for recipes!) only i used whole milk chocolate melts instead of dark and milk chocolate bits. that means you get huge bits of chocolate with each bite. trust me, this deviation from the recipe was intentional! i really love baking, although i rarely attempt anything too difficult. i just wished i enjoyed cooking meals as much as i did baking cakes and biscuits. a) i would probably eat more nutritious dinners b) i would be getting better for when i have a family to cook for and c) it would be better for everyones figure! well, it's my bedtime now, i need some rest before my early start and biscuit baking session! they'll still be warm by the time i reach work!