Photo A Day: January Days 1 - 16

Back in October last year I joined in with Fat Mum Slim for the first time and took a photo every day of the month following the daily word prompts. Well I've decided to play along again, this time with FMS January Photo A Day challenge and have been sharing my photos each day on my Facebook and Instagram ... and I'm doing a round up of them here.

 

Speaking of Instagram I don't know why I didn't join sooner it's so much fun to edit and use the filters on photos. Not to mention the inspiration I get from looking at everyone's photos, there's so many talented people out there and Instagram is a great way to find them!

 

 

Here are my first 16 photos from the January word prompts above ...

 

1. My favourite lazy weekend lunch at home eggs benedict

2. A trip to the Ikea sales

3. Driving through my home town

4. My word to live by is LIVE

 

5. Found the hooks to hang my bird cage

6. Happens everyday my man brings me coffee in bed

 

7. Upside Down baby you turn me Inside Out (magazine!)

8. My lucky number is 16 the day after my Birthday

 

9. The natural beauty of the botanic gardens in Wellington, New Zealand

10. The man made limestone and brick walls of our newly built courtyard

11. Looking down at my freshly painted toe nails and new sandals

12. My Sunday afternoon chocolate fix looks rather colourful

 

13. My lovable fur baby Lexi can always make me smile

14. 3 Things that are motivating me to walk to/from work each day

15. Black + White my new Ikea star lamp

16. This DIY canvass I made for the bedroom with it's sweet quote
"the sun couldn't rise without you, darling"

 

You can read all about how to play Photo A Day on FMS blog here.

 

Is anyone else playing along with FMS January Photo A Day?
 

Let me know so I can follow along with you!

 

 

[1st image FMS, All other images my own]

 

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Photo A Day: October Days 26 - 31

Well I did it! I played the October Photo A Day challenge run by Fat Mum Slim and shared a photo every single day for the whole month of October right here on the blog and on my Facebook page.

 

I don't see myself as a great photographer, pretty average really, I don't even edit my photos before publishing them I'm that slack so this was a pretty big challenge for me. I took all my photos using my smart phone and I admit it does have a pretty great camera which helps.

I found myself looking around for my daily word prompts all the time it kept me on my toes with my eyes open and camera at the ready! It also meant I was sharing more of my personal life and happenings instead of just the latest renovation or DIY project which I really liked and hope you did too!

You can see photos from my October days 1 - 9 here and 10 - 18 here and 19 - 25 here

 

 

These are Days 26 - 31 of photos from the prompts above ...

26 Depth of field my nuts are in focus and the background is not;
27 Peaceful view from deck overlooking winery on my girls weekend away;
 28 Just for me we converted our hallway cupboard into my very own shoe cupboard;

29; My Friday night date hair worn ala natural with a hint of cheeky auburn shining through
30; My bar themed fish tank has an all round wet theme
31; Treat using my funky fluro pink tea cup for the first time

 

That was my first FMS Photo A Day monthly challenge but it definitely won't be my last!

 

Although I'm not playing the November list as it's going to be a crazy busy month for me ... I'll join in again soon.

 

[1st Image via Fat Mum Slim all other images my own]
 

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Hollywood Dress Up Party: Audrey Hepburn + James Dean

I went to a Murder Mystery Hollywood themed party the other weekend and dressed up as Audrey Hepburn and Mr P went as James Dean.

I'm a big fan of creating my own outfits for fancy dress, a trip to the op shop and some accessory shops and a hunt around my wardrobe and I can usually come up with something pretty good.

I went for Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's look and found a long black halter dress from the op shop for $6, the first one I tried on and it fit perfectly! 

The diamonte collar was from Diva $35 that I bought recently to go with a wedding outfit and the diamonte and pearl hair clip was a great find at Temt $3. 

The satin gloves, pearl bracelet, diamonte studs and suede heels I already had.

For my hair and makeup I used my hair accessory that pulls my hair into a tight bun and then clipped the diamonte and pearl clip around and unleashed the hair spray to tame the fly aways.

Audrey was a fan of natural make up so I used nude eyeshadow, lightly smoked black eyeliner, lashings of black mascara and rose toned lipstick.

As for James Dean Mr P wore his tightest fitting jeans, a white bonds t-shirt and pack of cards that looked like cigarettes up his sleeve and he was an instant James Dean lookalike. 

Rather handsome too if I might add ;)

The Murder Mystery party had a hired host who organised us into groups, gave us each a name to play by (I was The Oscar Winner and Mr P was The Villain) and had us competing for clues to figure out who the murderer was.

It turned out the murderer was someone in my team and we won the Best Sleuth Award for guessing correctly and dobbing him in!

It was a really great night with lots of fabulous costumes and the Murder Mystery was fun to play out.

Are you a fan of fancy dress parties?

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[All images my own]

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What to pack for a work conference

 

I'm flying back to Sydney tomorrow for a couple of days for a work conference. It feels like I only unpacked my suitcase last week (maybe because I did!) but I'm taking a much smaller one this time.

 

I shared with you recently how I plan and pack for a holiday and I did the same thing for this trip, wrote my list and took myself shopping to buy some new outfts as well.

There's always a bit of confusion about the dress code for work conferences - smart casual is the way to go and I'd rather be overdressed than underdressed so I've packed clothes that I would normally wear to work for the conference, dresses for the drinks and dinner functions and blazers and jackets instead of cardis because they look smarter.

 

After checking the weather for Sydney next week, spring temps low 20s degrees with sun and possible showers this is what I'm packing for the 4 day trip:

• 3 pairs of shoes - flats for the flights, wedges for the conference and heels for the functions
• 2 dresses for the functions
• 1 skirt, 1 pair pants, 2 tops for conference days
• 2 blazers and 1 jacket
• Jeans, leggings, 2 tops and cardi for flights
• 3 bags - Large for day and Clutches for night

 

Conference Dinner outfit

Dress Miss Shop Myer, Blazer Valleygirl, Shoes Betts, Belt Portmans, Clutch Cruise 



 

Conference day outfit

Blazer Chickabooti, Skirt Temt, Top Miss Shop Myer, Flats Kmart

 

It all fits into my suitcase nicely with room for my hair straightener and toiletries and still space for some shopping if I get the chance!

 

 On the trip last year I took myself on a bit of a chocolate tour ... I wonder what will tempt me this year? Any suggestions welcome!

 

 

[Image of Sydney here, all other images my own]

 

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Holiday Planning and Packing

I'm heading off on my cruise holiday on Friday to cruise around the South Pacific islands for 10 glorious days of cocktails and sunshine and wanted to share with you my holiday planning and packing regime.

I learnt the hard way on how to pack a suitcase when I was 18 I went on a 6 month holiday and thought I could fill every last inch of space in the largest suitcase known to man BUT it meant I had to lug that thing from airport to trains and in the end it weighed half my body weight and was impossible to lift by myself.

There were things in there I only wore a few times and it was not worth me bringing them. I had to buy a trunk for all the goodies I bought on my travels to ship that home from the UK to Australia which took months to arrive.

Lessons learnt: Pack less means you can bring home more!

So after that youthful experience I now plan what I want to take from the tops and bottoms all the way down to the jewellery and shoes. I make a list of where I'll be and what I'll wear both day and night and then I can decide if the outfits I've picked are going to work together - what tops go with what bottoms, how many times I'll wear the shoes, etc so I get the most wears out of each outfit.

The idea is to take as little clothes that make a variety of outfits so I have plenty of room in my suitcase to bring home goodies. I find dresses are the best because you don't need to work out a top and bottom and you can wear them different ways by changing your shoes and accessories.

About a week before I travel I get the suitcase out and get out all my clothes on the list. I'll try things on to make sure they go and to make sure I'm going to wear them (if I never wear them at home the chances are I'm not going to wear them on holiday so they may as well go to the op shop!)

Then I scrutinise and if there's items I'll only wear once or that only go with one thing then it'll go in the ''íf there's room pile''. Once I have my outfits decided I'll put them in the suitcase and see how much space I have left - I like to have 1/3 empty space. If I have that then I'll put the "íf there's room pile'' in but if there's not I won't!

Domestic travel usually allows you 20kg and the cruise allows 32kg. My case currently weighs 13kg ... that's 7kgs of souvenirs and gifts that I know I can fit into my case and still fly with no trouble.

So that's how I pack for a holiday a bit of pre planning and organising works for me!

Do you have any travel packing tips?

If you want to go on your own travel adventures around Australia check out the awesome deals on Travel Factory here

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[Images via Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4,]

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Holiday Fashion and Shopping Sprees

I'm about a month away from my cruise holiday and have found it a bit hard shopping for Summery outfits whilst the Winter and Spring fashion is in the shops here.

I did manage to find some cute yellow shorts from Forever New and I'm loving their new Tropical Paradise collection ... It would be a dream come true to win a shopping spree in this store!

Mainly my shopping list is for summery dresses and shorts and cute tops for the day time and cocktail dresses for the evening and I'm still on the hunt for ...

A pair of flat sparkly sandals

A hat to keep the sun off

A few more evening dresses

What is your dream store to win a shopping spree in?


[All images via Forever New]

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Fridays Letters - Dear Black Leather Boots

I'm all out of energy as Friday rolls in this week and plan to relax as much as possible this weekend (ok between renovating cleaning and cooking of course!)

I'm playing along with this weeks Friday's letters with a big thanks to the host Ashley from Adventures of Newlyweds who is still hosting this fun link up on her holidays - now Ash, go have some fun! 

I'm imagining I'm writing this weeks letters curled up in this armchair surrounded by my love of books and sipping on a fruit smoothie

Dear Black Leather Boots - With you on I can jump through puddles and still look like a lady ... will kind of! Thanks for keeping my toes warm and dry this winter.

Dear Electrician - This is the 3rd weekend you're coming to put the lights and power into the garage. I'm pretty sure you keep coming back for my cordial and chocolate slice so please just finish the job already!

Dear Olympics - Doing jumping jacks while watching the Olympics on TV has definitely pushed me to do more than I thought I could! The athletes are so fit and toned the perfect inspiration to work out too.

Dear Body - I know your getting worn out so I've upped the vitamins and owe you a full body massage and sleep in this weekend.

Dear Miss C - Sending me flowers at work this week for 'no reason' just because you are a lovely friend. Thanks so much those bright pink flowers are just what me and my office needed for some brightening up.

Dear Liebster Blog Awards - It felt so good to give a shout out to my favourite newbie blogs ... there are so many wondering bloggers out there writing their little hearts out and it's nice for them to know they are appreciated and loved!

[Image via my Pinterest]

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Ideas For Decorating The Entrance Wall

My house has a small entrance wall as you walk in the front door that really needs to be decorated and I've been putting it off as I wasn't sure what to do with it

This is the wall in question

If you turn right you walk into the Living Room

If you turn left you head down the Hallway

On the back of the entrance wall is my shoe and linen cupboards that I have wallpapered

So I was trawling through Pinterest (where else!) looking for ideas on how to decorate and I want it to make a statement when you walk in but to still blend with the other areas .... so here's what I've come up with

I was thinking about adding some metal wall art to the wall something with copper tones to match the art in the Living Room

Otherwise I was thinking of painting stripes on the wall as I absolutely love stripes to the point of being obsessed, but yet I haven't painted any yet (I have a lot of striped clothes though!). But I'm worried stripes will clash with the pretty patterned wallpaper around the corner and the bright colours in the Living Room

So then I had the brainiac idea of doing both - I could paint just one thick stripe to set off some wall art. It won't be as in your face when you walk in as a complete wall of all stripes might be and small wall art would make a statement without being dominating as you walk in the front door

I really like the thick stripe idea and would most likely use the same paint as I used on the media wall which is a deep charcoal grey

That way I'm getting my stripe obsession taken care of in one big thick go!

How is your entrance wall decorated?
Is it painted? Does it have art?

I'd love to hear about it!


[First 5 house images my own 
All other images via my Pinterest and can be found here  Metal art 1 and Metal art 2  - Multi stripe 1 and Multi stripe 2 - Stripe wall 1 and Stripe wall 2]

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