242/365 Old Dogs Are The Best Dogs

Boston Bosley.

Doing his favourite thing ever. Which is pretty much just doing whatever we want to do :) As long as it involves going somewhere. Or food. Or love.

Have you read the love letter I wrote for him yet? Yeah, I write love letters to my dog. Don't you?! ;)

Bossy will be fourteen next month. And we will be partying. Well, we WILL be party-ing but it will be a day late. I just realised that we'll actually be away on his actual birthday { Oct 2 } #whoops so shhhhhhh, don't tell him the date ;) But fourteen is a great age for this old fellow and he deserves to be spoilt.

Are you an animal person? 
Amber. XO

Girl-date!

I'm just a little bit excited.

Because it's FINALLY almost THIS weekend. And this weekend - my bestie Claire and I are off on a girrrrls getaway!! 

Claire turned 40 in February [ I, of course, blogged about it! You can see all the festivities here ] and her super-lovely husband thought that the perfect gift would be *drum roll* a weekend away in Byron with me. Hahaha. 

Umm, YEAH!

We're staying at Byron at Byron. One of my favourite places in Byron to relax and hang out [ T booked me in for a surprise spa massage on mother's day just last month so I feel a bit crazy-spoilt going back again already ] but I haven't actually stayed in a couple of years and I'm looking forward to soaking it all up. 

Especially as the last few months since we got back from our big trip have been quite the emotional roller-coaster for me as the boys settled into school and I adjusted to my new creative life. Meanwhile, Claire has been intensively working on her new business: The Shabby Chick [ I tell you, the woman is seriously entrepreneurial ], chasing after her own THREE boys, generally getting covered in paint, and training her new puppy not to chew on paintbrushes, or her bras. Unsuccessfully.

We haven't seen each other in four months.  So... 

Beach-Walking,

Cocktail-drinking,

Dog-reuniting-aside we have a hit list:

1. Pedicures.

2. Eyebrow waxing [ okay, that's just me ].

3. Buying new sunglasses.

Yay!

I'm also prettttty sure we'll be getting dressed up, talking about dogs and blogs and furniture, listening to lots of music, going to the movies [ Has anyone seen The Fault in Our Stars - recommend?? ] , eating too much chocolate, and taking photos.

Including, ummm, the occasional selfie :)

Stay tuned - and let's see if I manage to post anything else before Monday or not. Now, I had better go get some beauty sleep *damn you gorgeous bestie!!*

Amber. XO

150/365 Twenty Four Years

T and I started dating as baby-faced 15 year olds. 

And we just celebrated our 24th anniversary. 

Yes, I'm starting to feel old ;)

He had been away all week and we were very happy to have him home. Buster was at a sleep-over so it was just us... and and 8 year old. Hee Hee. #romantic. What to do?  Thai takeaway, good champagne and movies in bed. 

Happy days. 

p.s. I have a new facebook like button at the bottom of each post! 

Can you see it's lil' blue self there? Please click on it and share the love :) 

Merci beaucoup! xx

Spa Days | Byron at Byron

Rest. 

Rejuvenation. 

And a kick-ass massage. 

Isn't that what all of us need a little more of? ;) Umm, yeah!!

My surprise Mother's Day gift was exactly that. But to start, there I was happy hanging out with my munchkins and the dawg in the sunshine on the deck at home, reading the papers - and my new-love: Renegade Collective magazine - drinking good coffee that my 10 year old brewed up (I tell you that kid knows how to make a good coffee!) and eating french toast (again; courtesy of Buster B.) while T carefully deconstructed our bedroom* when out-of-the-blue I was told to pack my swimmers, brush my hair and jump in the car because we were headed into Byron for coffee.

**  Having invested in new soft-box lights and a backdrop for our many creative projects we now realise we don't have enough space for them! Our bedroom would be a great space for a studio - if we didn't need a bedroom that is ;) We took the bed out to have a look, but it's all back to normal in there now. Kinda phew! and kinda unfortunately!! Need. Studio. Space. 

Anyway, I don't say no to coffee. Or Byron. Or swimming. So there was little protesting from me :)

What I didn't know was that we were heading to the beautiful Byron at Byron resort and spa. And that I had a 12 o'clock appointment with the spa. #Ooooo. I love my boys!

So, here are a few photos I took to capture the laid-back beauty of what is one of my favourite Byron Bay escapes. I'm back there next month - staying for the weekend by serendipitous coincidence! - so there will be more photos to come, but for now -  enjoy. x

Do you have a favourite spa?

A Collection of Fun Easter Activities

I put together a little collection of Easter-inspired activities from the archives :)

What craftiness are you up to this Easter?
Amber. x

Sweet Easter transfers



Stuffing real eggs with Easter treats

Dying a Rainbow of Easter Eggs

While you have the dyes out... | A little science experiment

Making Easter gifts with kids (chocolate alert!)

That one time I made REAL chocolate Easter Eggs! 

* Please consider kitchen hygiene, make sure you keep them in the fridge and eat them within 24 hours if you make these.

Pretty DIY Patterned Eggs

Easter is on it's way! Easy Easter bunny craft.

And finally - some photos from Easter 2013. Now I'm wondering which box I need to unpack to find these beautiful Easter mugs!!

107/365 Snot Smoothies aka. Mucous Milkshakes

I pretty sure I've mentioned on here previously that my husband likes to request I make him batches of slime "for work purposes". Lol.

This time it was a request for Snot Smoothies (aka Mucous Milkshake). And well, I couldn't exactly refuse!! No children were harmed in the consumption of this vile delight*.

* as far as I know ;)

You can make your own Snot Smoothies too!

+ Freeze two ripe bananas
+ Add frozen banana and milk to your blender (or use a blender-stick)
+ Add green food colouring (we were disgusting and used regular ol' food dyes - but I do imagine you could use juice some Kale or other equally GREEN veggie and colour it that way :)
+ Blend until thick and creamy. Yum.

Voila! Snot-on-tap. Enjoy ;)

101/365 Easter Is On It's Way!

L was most pleased with his school Easter crafts. And chocolate eggs! He saved them to bring home and insisted on sharing them with us. Sweet kid.

The Shabby Chick Turns 40 in Style

It's not every day that your best-friend turns forty.

Mine did in February and I made sure that we were back from our travels and in Australia in time for her party :) A few techie problems have delayed this post but I'm all MacBook Pro-ed up now * squeee! * so here it finally is!

Claire is not only funny, smart and stupidly-beautiful (hashtag: goddess) she is also the genius behind her own successful online furniture business, The Shabby Chick.  

I told her she should put the (k) in brackets. She didn't listen to me. That's how we roll ;)

If you live in Sydney and like beautiful things you must follow her on facebook if you don't already. 

She has a stunning home that highlights her taste for beachy, shabby-chic with a modern edge just perfectly. Luckily for us she both held the party in her house and was happy for me to document it. Double-win.

That's her, above, with our boy Boston. She acted as foster-mama for me while we were away (Bossy came home this weekend) a role she excelled in like everything else she does. I flew into Sydney on the Friday night before the party and we celebrated quietly with Boston, Thai takeaway and Moët. As you do. 

The next day I was meant to wash the dog. I forgot ;) but we did hang fairy-lights, drink lots of coffee and before we knew it - it was time to get pretty. 

Not exactly hard when you're a #goddess. Smile.

And then the beautiful guests started arriving...

With lovely things.

Catering and bar/wait staff was provided by Art Kitchen who were fantastic. 

Nawwww. Puppy-love.

The guest of honour. Birthday-girl aside. 

Boston ended the night with fur-dreads from standing under dripping wax candles all night. He definitely  likes to be in the thick of a good party!

The staff questioned the open-plan kitchen + dog-fest to start but he quickly charmed them too.

Clairey and I.

And this is Karen, one of my oldest darling friends. Her and Claire both live on the Northern Beaches in Sydney and have got to know each other which is so cool. Love my friends becoming friends :)

Speeches!

And cake. Amen.

And that's where the night-time photos end. With the timely delivery of a cup of tea. Lol. It was a beautiful night...

... and a beautiful morning to wake up to. Piles of pretty things on pretty tables. 

My dress abandoned from the night before. 

Fab Shabby Chick cushions from Hampsons Homewares! Karen's thoughtful gift.

Dog-tired but happy. 

It was a magical night in a magical house for a magical girl. Happy birthday Claire! Let's do it all again in December when I turn 40... Eeeeeek! #39forever ;)