252/365 Spring is Officially Here When My Garden Is Full of Jasmine

How I love the smell of Jasmine drifting through the warm air! Spring is here.
La-la-la-la-love it. Makes me so happy.

Which flowers make you the happiest? 
Amber. XO

Time to DETOX | Part 1 of my Forest Detox Adventures!

So, in case you didn't know - I like food :)

I like coffee.
And wine.
And chocolate.

I also LOVE fruit and vegetables, nuts, crazy raw sprouted living things and green smoothies; I LOVE healthy food. But yeah, sometimes the coffee / wine / chocolate bit gets the BEST of me. And toast? Evil, evil toast; the busy/lazy person’s solution to breakfast-lunch-dinner. Eeeeeek. Are you with me here?? { Btw, you can tell a persons eating patterns from their instagram I find - hahaha - sneak a peak here to see if I'm falling on the good or the bad side today! }

Yes, sometimes we let things slip, and then they slide and then, we’re finding ourselves needing these ‘crutches’ just to get through the day. This has been me the past few months.

And I knew I wanted to make some changes.

But habits are funny things aren’t they? They grip on; they whisper sweet nothings in our ears. Sometimes you have to stand up and walk away from them. Even if just for a day. And somehow that little break; that little break is all the difference you need.

So, here I was, filling my weeks with 'busy'. Having two large coffees a day { that’s four, sometimes five shots FFS }. And my energy was a bit flat, I was putting on weight { eeek! } and feeling disappointed in my willpower - when a wonderful invitation drifted my way…

Somehow through an act of sweet serendipity I had connected with Sahar at Organic Miracles. Firstly, at the Creative Business Women’s High Tea and then through the post I wrote when I read about the Forest Detox’s that she had been dreaming of holding on her property in the hinterland outside of Byron Bay! Sahar read the post and reached out - she was holding a trial detox day; with some of her closest  friends. Would I like to join them? Ummmm, I didn’t have to think long about that one ;) YES! Yes, please. I need that in my life!

So on the very last day of the school holidays, when I was most in need of a some self-love, I dragged myself out of my warm bed, refused the toast and the coffee, drank a cup of hot water and lemon juice as prescribed and headed out into the hills…

Ready to detox.

The day lived up to every expectation; in fact, it surpassed my expectations. I connected with a new group of beautiful, smart, compassionate women. I stretched my body; I was cleansed and blessed. I scrubbed away those lingering habits and reconnected with my own needs and wants. I also acknowledged that I don’t want to do a full detox right now { I do a big detox about once a year } but that I needed to bring more consciousness to my eating patterns and clarity to my meal preparation. Time. Focus. Yes, slow down and breathe. Ha! Isn’t that ALWAYS the lesson?! It is for me.

I also took a lot of photos.

I took so many, in fact that I think I’m going to present them across a few different posts :) This will be Part One: From our arrival to the smudge stick cleaning and blessing we all received, and our first green juice.

Part Two will be yoga, kombucha, our spa/sauna/body scrub, flower petal creations and final juices. And if it’s okay with Sahar, I will do another post showing you her house. Because, she really has created a magical life for herself and her beautiful family. Are you ready to see?

Arriving. 

The morning was icy in the shadows, but the house was beautifully warm. We were nine, including Sahar, her mother and sister, Rosa, Shayna, Elke, Margarita, Madeleine and myself. Our introductions made we headed out into the sunshine.

Freshly picked Lemon Myrtle Leaves were added to our welcome tea. 

Dragon Fruit broke our fast. 

Our gracious host, Sahar.

Our first round of smoothies { ready and waiting for a shake! } in the sunshine. 

Green Glowing Smoothie; Moringa powder, Wilsons Creek spring water, lemon, kale, apple, pear and banana.

Yum.

Our chatty sunshine-energy earthed itself; our busy minds slowed and centered themselves, as Sahar first cleansed each of us with the smoke from a home-bound smudge-stick and followed through with a guided meditation.

Amazing. I do love a guided meditation. I did lots while I was pregnant but not so many in recent years... something I might have to reintroduce into my life. Revitalised and refocused we gathered ourselves, our yoga mats, and got ready to soar!

What habits you need to clear and shift in your life? What habits do you need to reintroduce? Let's talk.  Amber. XO

p.s. Part Two is now on the blog! You can read it here :)x

DETOX

Tune in next week for my detox posts! #comingsoon

My Week on Instagram - Starfruit, Daisies and More

My week has been looking kind of like this :) 

I love the visual personal diary that is instagram. Yay. 

Are you on instagram? Come say hello!

Amber. XO

188/365 The Busy Bee

Lavender.
Bees.
Blue sky needs.
Nestled below the teddy bear tree.
A world of neighbourhood pleasures. 

175/365 Weeds and Wildflowers

Creating a beautiful life is about being present, open, grateful. It's in the sweet little details.

You don't need extravagance.
Sometimes you just need weeds and wildflowers.

Yes?

How to: Hold A Lazy Afternoon Tea

Glimpses of Sunday-just-gone's lazy afternoon tea with friends { I may or may not have only gotten out of bed about an hour before I took these photos ;) }.

How to:

+ Invite your neighbours and new family friends around to have afternoon tea at 4 on Sunday.
+ Make sure you're out of your pyjamas by at least 3pm.
+ Send husband { and eight year old } to the shops half an hour before guests arrive.
+ Ask ten year old to set the table { he picks flowers = bonus points! }.
+ Get out the pretty glasses and bowls.
+ Make pink milk and serve in cute juice jars with stripy straws for the kids.
+ Pop snacks on table { dispensing crackers from their packaging is optional }.

Voila! One very-lazy afternoon tea: ready. 
Ummm, minus the tea. Yeah, we ignored that bit ;) Champagne anyone?

Do you have any of  your own lazy entertaining secrets?
Please share! XO

172/365 Happy Sunday

154/365 Byron Bay in Vivid Colour

Some days I don't want to have to choose just one image for #photoaday2014... 

So - seeing that I make the rules here ;) hahaha - today, there are two :)

I took the first one at Clarkes Beach in Byron about 9am this morning. The second, in the park by Main Beach about 3pm. 

Which would you have chosen if you had to choose just one?

Amber. XO

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

149/365 Looking on The Bright Side

Looking on the bright side...

The rain may makes things muddy but it also makes things beautiful :)

#BangalowLife

147/365 Summer's Late Echo

This weather is making it a bit too easy to ignore that we're only a few days off Winter here...

139/365 Creamy-Dreamy Free-lens Love

I've been a bit addicted to free-lensing these past few weeks... 

It's so easy to get lost in this creamy dreamy-ness. Plus, you can shoot beautiful things when the light is fading which is just perfect for a busy day. Luckily these roses grow in our front garden with no care from me. And provide their heavenly selves for my photographic needs. So thoughtful ;) 

Calligraphy with Sabine Pick

Pssst, Wanna see how I spent my morning?

The last few weeks have been some of the strangest in my adult life - transitioning out of homeschooling mama to full-time creative mama. In many ways it's been easier than I thought it would be [ helped greatly by the fact that both boys have been amazing and have settled in so well and so happily ] although I was lonesome at the beginning. But having time - having time to work on my own projects without interruption? Well, that's been almost 11 years in the waiting. 

So it's actually been pretty fun!

It's also been confronting in lots of ways - I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone. Try new things. Push myself creatively. Get out there and meet interesting people. Eeeek!

And that's the short long version of how I came to sign up for a workshop at Splash.

Splash | A weekend of workshops and creative conversations 

Splash promises to be a Splash of colour, a Splash of inspiration, a Splash of creativity and a weekend of fun.  Hosted by Paper Runway in The Lodge at Atlantic Byron Bay.  This will be the first of its kind to be held at Atlantic.

I've always dabbled in calligraphy - dabbled ;) - but not PROPERLY very often. Properly meaning: like, with ink. Lol. But I use my handwriting all the time. And I am ready to get inky. Join me!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Atlantic Byron Bay is a gorrrrgeous place for a workshop! 

Or to stay. 

Or to stay and do a workshop! I wasn't staying, obviously, but I absolutely should have / could have!! and I recommend you do ;)

A table set with girl-porn. Paper, letter guides, cute clipboards, ink, graphite pencils and mahogany Japanese-nibbed calligraphy pens. Drool.

Ingrid and Sabine.

Oh, and it was catered. Which is a word that every busy hungry woman loves to hear. 

Juniper from The Unexpected Guest [ hello Bangalow ] served us her super-yummy Freestyle Granüesli - loving that name. And your Pelican, Juniper! - with organic yoghurt and possibly the best stewed pears ever. 

Note to self: We have pears that need using up!!!! Stew pears for breakfast tomorrow morning.

We all got to know each other on the deck a little bit before the class started.
Unsuprisingly - this is Byron! - it was raining. As it does.

Admiring Sabine's beautiful work and inspiration. 

And then it got serious.

New nibs have a coating that needs to be burnt off before you can start. Here we go!

I couldn't help doing a little free-lensing ;)

When actually what I needed to do was learn to slow down. 

Press on the downstroke. 

Soften on the upstroke.

Find the right angle. 

Breathe. 

Let it be meditation. 

Show and tell. I wish these were my flourishes!

Fortune favours the brave.  

[ I do hope so! ]

I'm organising a Byron Bay Instagrammers #meetup and, in between trying to perfect our up/down strokes, we all swapped instagram names. 

The last half an hour was slightly torturous as Marvell Street Roasters set up a coffee tasting area on the deck behind us. 

Hello Rwanda! Delicious.

And then, far too quickly, [ yes it's true. Time does fly when you're having fun. Doesn't that suck? ] it was time to go home. To soften the blow, we were bundled up with a Splash gift bag full of fab treats and our special calligraphy booty. 

Okay, happy again :)

Details:

+ Congratulations to Nikki at Paper Runway for hosting such a cool event. 

+ Splash | A weekend of workshops and creative conversations

+ Sabine Pick | Hand Lettering and Letterpress

+ Atlantic Byron Bay Guesthouse

+ Breakfast by The Unexpected Guest

+ Coffee by Marvell Street Coffee Roasters

+ Flowers by Twig & Grace

If you live in Byron [ or surrounds ] and you would like an invitation to the Byron Bay Instagrammers meet-up just follow me on instagram and say hello!

Amber. XO