Busy as a bee!

I’m sure I am not the only person who has noticed this – but lately, doesn’t life seem so busy? Full of birthdays, dinners, shopping, to-do lists, cleaning, family duties, and you blink & then life jumps from Monday to Sunday? You are left thinking “where did the week go?” Every day my End of Financial Year countdown clock stares me in the face and reminds me of how quickly life passes by!

In the past 12 months many of my weekends have left me feeling overwhelmed & exhausted rather than relaxed & refreshed. From much of my own doing, over-committing, pushing myself to do more, and having always considered myself as someone who likes to be busy rather and can’t spend a day without leaving the house.

Well lately that has CHANGED! More and more I am loving a lazy sunday, with a sleep-in ’til 12, a yummy home made brunch & a day reading a magazine (such as the Renegade Collective – give it a read!) & sipping teacup after teacup of chai or vanilla tea.

So having such a busy life and now wanting to take every minute spent, busy or relaxed, for granted, has made me think more about how I spend my time and what I want to get more out of on my weekends!

While I am a stickler for cleaning, I am slowly learning to relax a little, and that yes it is OK to leave dishes overnight and that I can go a day or two without doing a load of washing! Learning to relax on chores a little bit has also made me feel like there is an even divide on chores & appreciate more of what my other half does & spend less time being a nag!

This year Matt & I also invented a Thursday night ‘date night’ for us to ensure we have a minimum one night a week where we put tiredness, whinging & our busy lives aside and spend some quality time together. We ruled we don’t have to go out, that it can be an amazing home cooked meal & wine and we have had many date nights together so far! They have included chilli pasta, sushi, new restaurants & shopping! We both have so many ideas to keep us entertained that this is a lovely tradition & we are glad we have dedicated a night to each other.

We even decided to have one random week’s date night as a weekend away in the Blue Mountains after a stressful couple of weeks! This involved lots of exploring, cafe-hopping & silly tennis playing!

Our spontaneous weekend away in the Blue Mountains

So what time I have had left over, between relaxing & date nights, I have tried to make sure I am spending my time wisely with family & friends & much needed catch-ups. I have already had a couple of really fun weekends in Canberra catching up with good friends, and although it was busy I felt so relaxed & happy by Sunday evening. Cherishing every moment I spend with my brothers, having my sister over, babysitting my nephews & niece. Oh and don’t forget my monthly facials with my mum! While it is a crazy balancing act to juggle family events, catching up with friends & what little time is left relaxing, I have appreciated every minute spent this year.

What could be better than a summer Canberra pool party?

This weekend I managed to squeeze in an awesome wine tour with friends, a sleep-in, a lovely catch up with long-time girlfriends, afternoon tea with the fam & a yummy home cooked dinner with Matt. And a relaxing couple of hours to blog & paint my nails (for those who know me well – I’ve gone a whole month of not nail-biting! It’s a miracle!) – I don’t know how I did it but its been a perfectly balanced weekend!

Wine & cheese anybody?

So I am encouraging you all to look back on your weekend, think of how much you enjoyed it, and for your next weekend, spend less time on the boring stuff or committing to things you don’t want to do, and more time hanging out with friends & family you enjoy the company of and reserving a couple of hours of me time. You will be amazed how much you look forward to Monday!

And at that, its bed time!

x Rach

It's great to make time to catch up with friends!

Thanks for the lovely catch up, ladies! x

May 4

Gift Giving to New Friends

It’s been a couple of months since I got involved in a couple of Instagram creative gift swaps so I thought I would share them!

First of all, if you blossom with creativity and are not on Instagram, what are you waiting for? Instagram is full of so many amazing creative Australian & international people and it is such a creative community on there. Every like, share & comment is appreciated by the tonnes of small business owners, creative mums & youngsters making crafting cool again.

Recently I discovered the Creative Exchange, an amazing creative gift-swap created by the super cool Melbourne gal Sam Dunne. Instagrammers will know her for her amazing fabric pom poms!

The Creative Exchange is an awesome creative ‘secret santa’ where you are are given a fellow Instagrammer to Insta-stalk and put together a gift of 7 items to inspire their creativity!

There are two challenges to this exciting task – 1. don’t make it blaringly obvious that you are their Creative Exchange partner & 2. stalk them enough to gift them a box that will make them wonder where this friend has been all their lives, because you know them so well. Oh and to not stalk them so much that they need to take out an Insta-AVO.

The other creative gift swap I have partaken in is the Post-a-Parcel gift swap run by Nia Neve of Life & Co Blog. Here you are paired with a fellow creative genius from Instagram & can openly Insta-stalk each other and swap ideas. You have to gift each other 5 things to the value of $20 set to a theme. The latest one fit me perfectly – it was themed ‘Biggest Morning Tea’ to celebrate it being the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea time & participants all donated to the charity.

I tried to make sure my gifts were sourced locally where possible & supported small business, as so many participants are small business owners. So of course I had to make a trip down to Berry to source some fun gifts from the Berry Tea Shop, Sew & Tell & Haven & Space. I also made a trip to the sweet hidden shop Milk Thieves in Wollongong which is filled to the brim with handmade & ethical gifts!

Online I tried to not go too Etsy-crazy, but I managed to find some lovely gifs from Hannmade With Love (cardmaker from Perth), Amelia Herbertson (artist from Orange) and lots of washi-tape goodies from online craft store Sammy & Lola.

Note cards by Amelia Herbertson

Postcard Note Cards by Hannmade with Love

I had so much fun participating in these creative gift swaps & sourcing the gifts! Check out my Instagram to see mine all packaged up and my excitement when I unwrap mine!

There are so many ways we can use mail today to brighten up someone’s day and strengthen friendships beyond social media. Can’t make someone’s birthday? Instead of posting on their FB page, why not send them a card to keep? If you hosted a party, or attended a party recently, send a thank you card! Every person should really own a set of thank you cards so they can readily post one when they need to say thanks – Kikki K have some great sets here.

I will leave you with this little nugget of truth which all of my fellow creative gift swap participants can empathise with! There is nothing more rewarding than finding a card or letter or package amongst the bills, even if it is something you ordered online!

Stay safe, healthy & happy,

Rachel x

Feb 17

The Art of a Relaxing Weekend

After the hustle and bustle of the holiday and birthday season, there is nothing more relaxing than a weekend at a slow pace with minimal commitments. Here are my tips to make the most of your weekend of tranquility.

1. Turn off the alarm!

Make sure the blinds are drawn closed, your phone is on silent, and you have no alarm to drag you out of your relaxing slumber. Get out of bed only when you feel like it!

Insiders tip – change your sheets on Friday night for that crisp ‘I feel like I’m in a vogue living magazine’ wake up feel.

2. Enjoy LOTS of warm drinks.

My beloved weakness for a calming warm tea means I generally consume several cups a day. If you want to relax, you should too. Accompany with a leisurely book or magazine for the ultimate recipe for relaxation. Hot milo is also a great alternative, or addition to, chocolate as a desert, depending on if you are on a diet. No points for guessing that I enjoyed the milo AND the chocolate.

Milo and marshmallows, courtesy of Café Matt.

3. Fit in a bit of therapeutic shopping – Happy you, Sad bank account.

Even better, with a friend. And I don’t necessarily mean shopping at the shops either. Online shopping means you can do all the hard work of deciding between the red, blue or green dress without leaving the couch, without even changing out of your pjs, and get the delivery-high on Monday when your goodies are shipped! My Saturday splurge was a dose of Bed, Bath and Table (we now have one in the Gong!) and two pairs of shoes with my lovely sister. Don’t forget to enjoy the mi goreng when you realize next week that cleaning your account means you can’t indulge in some Pad Thai.

To my sisters demise, it took me half an hour to decide between red, black or turquoise.

4. Indulge in a TV marathon.

Whether its watching that new show everyone is talking about (Breaking Bad), the show you have to watch all at once to make sense of (Gameof Thrones) or that sitcom that no matter how many times you watch is never less funny (Two and a Half Men), this is a great way to enjoy the weekend and feel like you have accomplished something.

And if you are going to settle in for the night with some chocolate, hot milo and a full season of Community, do it in style with a pillow fort. Add in some doonas for when you get up to the second-last episode of the season and fall asleep.

Hello comfy pillow fort.

5. If I could walk 500 miles…

I would die. I dont encourage walking 500 miles – it’s approx 800 kms and roughly the distance from Syd to the Gold Coast, and if you do that Google Maps thinks you are cray-cray.
However I do encourage you take a nice relaxing walk. I have the luxury of being within walking distance of the beach, meaning I can walk to the soothing lull of the waves. For you city slickers, try a walk in the park. You could even read a book or feed a duck, hipster-style.

Taylor Swift finds calamity in walking with whichever 1D guy she can find. She’ll write a song about this later.

Ryan Gosling feeding a duck. I think I just made every single girls day.

Stay tuned this week for some of my weekday adventures!

Feb 14

Some Valentines Day Fun

Warning: before you venture away from my page, this is NOT a shameless self-promotion of how I was spoilt/adorned with gifts on V-Day. Gah that frustrates me!

However I believe everyone should enjoy the happiness that is in the air on valentines day, no matter what your situation is. Use the day to take the time out with your loved ones, whether it be that special someone who will no doubt leave gift giving to the last minute, the kids you love so much you clean up their puke, your siblings who you love no matter how much they annoy you, or those caring friends who support you through every break up with ice cream and Taylor Swift.

So enjoy my snippets of Valentines Day, taken from friends, Pinterest and my other dearest Instagram!

xxx Rach

Have to credit my friend Ashlee for the next pic…for all girls with a Potter crush out here.