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

Mar 3

A Few Pretty Cupcakes to Share…or Simply Admire!

One of my wonderful birthday presents was a cupcake decorating class at Delaneys Cakes Wollongong, which I got to go to with Matt’s sister, Nicole (also wonderful gift-giver).

To start of the class we were treated to a delightful cup of tea and buttercream cupcake. You definitely can not expect to spend 4 hours making cupcakes staring at sugar, cream and icing on an empty stomach!

So we started the class learning some basic cut-outs. I must admit I am in love with this style of decoration, it is so simple but classy!

I know they say don’t try this at home but I intend to!

Next we learnt how to create these cute little creatures! While I went for the traditional dainty bird, Nikki turned hers into a punk birdy complete with a mini-Mohawk. Sorry I don’t have a picture to share, so you will have to take my word on its awesomeness.

But here’s a snap of my finished result. Really resembles Chomper chilling out on his cage, don’t you think?

We also learnt a few other cool techniques, including icing stencils, fondant flowers (these ones ARE as complicated as they look!) and fondant pattern mats.

I think I’m too scared to eat this one!

We also learnt the sweet cupcake bow. I love this as it is a cute way to say happy birthday without a tacky birthday simple. You’ve got the gift wrapping a half sorted! (And maybe one gift wrapped for the chef…)

Too good to give away, don’t you think?

So hope you enjoyed my eyeing off my creations half as much as I enjoyed making them! I cannot wait to get more involved in cupcake decorating, so my cupcakes look as good as they taste! I picked up a few tools of the trade so I can get baking! And a big thank you goes out to Nikki & Matt (her boyfriend, not her brother) for the cool present, Matt (the boyfriend this time!) for spoiling me in the cupcake gift shop, and to Danielle and the team at Delaneys for a fun and hands-on approach to teaching cupcake Exec orating! I would definitely recommend Delaneys as a great place to learn baking and will be returning.

Got myself a little cupcake starter kit to get creating!

The end result, I’m pretty proud of my first attempts!

Feb 22

Jelly for my belly

So I’ve been itching to food-stagram my delicious creations for a while now so here is something I whipped up overnight!

Since leaving school my diet has changed drastically from a breakfast of mars bars, lunch of chicken and corn rolls and cheeseburger afternoon snacks, to include a lot more fruit, cous cous and coffee.

But I can’t resist mixing my daily dose of fruit with a bit of sugary deliciousness.

Hope you are inspired!

Xx Rach

Note: no chocolate was harmed in the making of this post.

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.