Wedding Quilt

Let's face, I already knew my mum was a creative genius, especially after making my wedding dress for me last year. But check out our AMAZING christmas present! A quilt made from the bunting we had at our wedding! What better way to use 250 metres worth of left over bunting and have a lovely colourful reminder of a wonderful day :)

And this is what is embroidered all over green fabric on the back... perfect :)

BLESSED! Thanks Mumma!

Things to be thankful for...

It has been aaages I know, am going to try getting back into the swing of things with being thankful - as usual there is so much to be thankful for...

• A beautiful weekend with family and friends celebrating my little sister Sarah's 18th birthday! A very sunny weekend involving the biggest chinese takeaway you've ever seen for 18 people, an amazingly funny video we all put together for Sarah, Mike experiencing more of my crazy family, wedding talk (can't avoid that these days :P) and lots of fun!

(P.S. My husband-to-be is gorgeous!! :D)

• Spring/summer is most definitely here! We don't really get much of a distinction these days (silly global warming!) and it seems to go straight from freezing winter to blazingly hot summer (well... blazingly hot for England anyway, I know we don't match up to you aussies :P).
• I love summer evenings and blossom and it being warm enough to not wear a jumper. Lovely jubbly!
• Small and large financial blessings - like unexpected free bus journeys, creative contributions to wedding preperations, constantly finding more in bank accounts that you thought would be there! :)
• Finding out my Auntie Rachel is coming all the way from OZ to be at our wedding and represent the Aussie Bunch! Amazing! :)
• The 250 metres of colourful bunting my sister has made for our decorations.
• Potentially huge job opportunities coming my way soon!
• 2 months and 4 days till our marriage begins!!
• Mike being more and more amazing, and supportive and lovely and understanding every day!
• Finally feeling a lot better after 3 weeks of on and off illness and feeling rubbishly low!
• Music and it's power to help me feel emotions I knew were bubbling away in there somewhere!
• My internet stumbling put out to share on my new Pinterest Account :)
• The awesomeness of creation - check out this stunning video...

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Beautiful Wagga and Beautiful Family

Some of my favourite snaps in and around Wagga, cousins Tim and Soph, Auntie Rachel and Uncle Dubs, at the Wagga house, along the river, out on farmland, messing around with beautiful evening light - happy times :)

 

Yarrangobilly Caves and the Australian Alps

Went on a beautiful day trip today with Rachel and Dubs. About 2 hours drive up into the Australian Alps and to Yorrangobilly, where there are some stunning caves to tour, a lovely riverside mountain walk and a hot spring swimming pool! All in all very lovely day complete with picnic, ice-cream and swimming (oh and walking up very steep hills in blazing heat! I'll sleep well tonight!).

Have a few piccies :)

So my time in Wagga Wagga has come to an end, I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to Sydney on the train. I have lots of lovely photos to share with you from the last few days, I will try and fit in sharing them over the next few days before I go to New Zealand next week!!! Thanks for being patient with me :)

An Australian Christmas!

 

So I know I'm being a bit late and blogging this on Boxing Day but it's still Christmas in England right!? :P

So my Australian Christmas consisted of 15+ Australians, 6 dogs, hot HOT weather, an afternoon storm, water-volleyball in the dark, swimming, unexpected presents, pool competition (I lost miserably!), marjong, lovely family, wonderful company, amazing vegie/meat christmas dinner, blissful air-conditioning, skype conversations with my boy and the family in England :) :) :) and lots of fun!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! :)

Travelling Plans and Lessons Learned.

29th July, in 3 weeks time, is the date that I was originally going to be leaving on my epic year of working/travelling. As you may have gathered I am now not doing this... I couldn't really be more relieved to be honest!
It definitely wasn't the right thing for me to be doing. I have never felt more peace about a decision ever than the moment I decided to change all my plans. All I have ever really wanted to do is travel and explore the stunningly beautiful New Zealand, and visit my lovely Ozzie family and hang there for a little while. The real reason I turned this into an epic year or two long working holiday trip is because...

A) I was sort of running away. Finishing my degree, having had a rough couple of years dealing with all sorts of stuff in my life I now realise I got a bit scared! Scared of not having a plan, of not knowing what I was going to do, of being stuck in a job that I had no passion or love for, for life! I turned my desire to see a bit of the world and have a little adventure into something epic that (in my mind) had the potential to change my life by it's sheer length of time and epic-ness!
I still have no idea of a precise plan for life, or no idea of how it's all going to work out but I am unbelievably ok with that. After all I am not in control and I may not have a plan but I know the one who know's it all has has good plans for my life (Thank You God!).
B) I was in a bit of a rush and started to worry about money I figured the only way I was going to be able to afford to do all I wanted to do and not have to wait and save up for years before doing it was to turn it into a working holiday. This was never really what I wanted to do! Turns out with my new plans I am going to have more than enough by saving a 3rd of what I was originally trying to save every month - awesome!

'SO WHAT'S THE NEW PLAN?' I hear you say.

Well.... On the 9th of December I leave England for 2 months, yes only 2 months - full of all the things that I really wanted to do in the first place!

• 3 and a half weeks in Australia - a week in sydney with the lovely cousins Tim and Sophie, a long weekend exploring Melbourne, Christmas with Uncle Dubs and Auntie Rachel, Tim, Sophie and Ned in Wagga Wagga, back to Sydney for New Year (AWESOME!!!), then flying to Auckland on the 2nd january.

• 5 and a half weeks exploring both Islands of New Zealand on a Kiwi Explorer Bus Pass. Sailing, kyaking, sky-diving, mountain walking, sunrise/sunset watching etc etc

• Returning home to England on February the 8th!  Home.... home to Mike, home to Bath, home to Freedom. I am going to have an amazing time, I am very excited but after 2 months I am coming home, home to here where I am meant to be :)

Lessons I have learned...

• Having extreme peace about a decision is pretty much a sign you are probably making the right one.
• Life should not be governed by worrying about money. I will always have enough, my God is my provider :)
• I want to go away to explore and have a long holiday, to see beautiful places and visit beautiful family. But right now I am supposed to be here and I simply can't leave it for as long as I was going to.
• Not having your life planned out or knowing how it's going to work is ok.... actually it's quite freeing to realise this :)
• I love my life!

I definitely do not wish that I hadn't planned that epic trip, I don't wish that I hadn't lost a bit of money in the process of changing my plans, I don't wish that I hadn't gone through this process. I have grown so much in these last few months, I wouldn't change that for the world.

So here's to looking forward to December the 9th but also here's to enjoying every moment of my life before and after this trip. :)