A Tale of Two Thefts

Seems I've been a little absent-minded of late...

The other night as I started to cook dinner I couldn't find the bacon. As I was checking the fridge I realised that I didn't remember unpacking it, so I checked the receipt and sure enough it wasn't on there. I figured it must have fallen out of my trolley and made dinner without it.

Late the next day when I picked up my bag to go to the grocery store again (because I'm ridiculously disorganised and tend to shop for dinner one day at a time...) it felt kind of heavy. I fished around in there to see what was weighing it down and I found one kilo of bacon. Whoops! I must have put it straight into my handbag when the lady at the deli handed it to me. I felt even worse when I realised that after almost 24 hours in my handbag it would have to go in the bin.

I went grocery shopping again today (seriously I go every day, I need to do something about that), as I wheeled the pram back to the car I noticed two things. One, Max had fallen asleep in the pram and two, he still had a kinder egg in his hot little hand.

I'd given it to him as we started shopping and said he could hold onto it until we got to the check-out. I was even high fiving myself for coming up with a plan that kept him from asking for every second thing he saw. Turns out he may have been so quiet because he was asleep...

Anyway in that moment I knew what I had to do, I turned the pram around, went back into the shop and paid for the $2 egg. Once is an honest mistake, but two times would have practically made me a career criminal!

Tell me, have you (or your kids) ever inadvertantly stolen something? Did you fess up?

2012 Highlights

Two Thousand and Twelve. It was a big year!

My beautiful Max went from being a baby to a little boy seemingly in the blink of an eye.

He is such a sweet, amazing little kid. He's clever and cheeky and has the funniest sense of humour. I am so blessed to be his mumma!

In 2012 I also fell pregnant and gave birth to my other gorgeous boy, Lincoln. He certainly is a handful, but we all love him enormously and are so happy that we get to have him as part of our family too.

Another huge highlight this year has been having my sister and her girls move to Brisbane. They lived with us for the first 6 months and now live just around the corner. Max loves spending time with his cousins and I absolutely adore being able to see my sister every couple of days.

A big achievement for me this year was opening my online store - Max and Me Homewares. It's been something I've wanted to do for years and I am so glad that I finally took the plunge and did it. Things have gotten off to a great start with some of my products featured in The Everygirl, LilSugar, an Etsy advertising special in Shop Til You Drop Magazine and an upcoming feature on The Doctor's Closet.  I have so much fun making things for my customers and it has the ultimate bonus of meaning that I can stay at home with my boys for now :).

Here on the blog it was a great year too. I got a lot done early on the year (and a little less as my tummy got bigger and bigger towards the end of the year). Later on today I'll share my top ten posts from 2012.

I hope you all had a great year too, thanks so much for dropping by and being part of this amazing online community that is the blogging world. I look forward to spending 2013 being inspired by you all!!

Creativity

Growing up I never considered myself to be creative. At school I didn't enjoy wood-work, I was terrible in art and I absolutely hated home-ec. I remember complaining to my mum that having to learn sewing at school was ridiculous and archaic, and that I could see no part of my future that involved a sewing machine. Um yeah. Times sure do change huh!

Now I relish any opportunity to crack out the power tools, visit the hardware store almost every weekend, sew things regularly and spend a good portion of each week being creative and making things.

(source)

I don't know if it was me being a typical rebellious kid or if it was something I needed to grow into, but I think creativity was always something that was going to be part of my life. Now I'm not claiming to be any kind of creative genius, far from it, but I do get so much satisfaction from making things.

I think part of where it comes from is my Mum, she has always been incredibly creative. She was always making something when I was growing up. Whether it was clothes for my sister and I when we were younger, furniture for our house, embroidery or quilts... she always had and still does have something on the go. My sister is the same, she is always creating beautiful things. In fact it was her sewing blog that first started me blogging in the first place (she doesn't blog there anymore, but has recently started a new blog here). I don't think she ever denied her creativity though (although she did study accounting and that is a sure fire way to stiffle any creative thoughts!!).

(source)

Another one of my friends was recently saying to me that she spent the first 30 years of her life feeling like she didn't have a true passion. She's recently taken up photography and is taking some of the most gorgeous and creative photos I've seen.

How about you? Do you consider yourself to be creative? Is it something you've always known you were passionate about or is it something that you've only stumbled upon recently?

Facebook - I finally got myself a page

As the title of this post suggests I finally went and made myself a facebook page. I put it off for so long because I've been bored with facebook for over a year now. The funny thing is now that I have a page and have found other pages that I like, I'm all of a sudden loving it again!

It's going to be the place that I post updates for my esty store, link to other great blogs I've found and share some of my favourite posts, pins and photos.

I would really love it if you would come over and like my page - www.facebook.com/maxandmehome. You will have my eternal gratitude (because that's all I can afford to give away right now!!).

Please leave me a comment (here or there) telling me about your facebook page too. Like I said I'm loving that my newsfeed is now filled with new and interesting things (not that my friends are boring or anything!).

PS - I always use brackets & exclamation marks way too much, but I seem to have outdone myself in this post!

Thanks and see you on facebook!!

The Week that Was

Last week was huge! Maybe not huge for everyone, but for pregnant, MS-y, home loving me it was BIG!

Very early Thursday morning Sean and I flew down to Sydney for my best friends wedding. I have been looking forward to this moment since I first met Erin more than ten years ago. She didn't have a traditional wedding, but what she did have was absolutely perfect.

 

Erin and Arron got married in the most gorgeous park overlooking Sydney harbour. After the ceremony we all had lunch back at Darling Harbour where we were staying. It was such a fun day and most importantly Erin and Arron were so happy to be married surrounded by their closest family and friends. Erin is absolutely stunning and I can't wait to see how her professional photos come out!

The next morning the happy couple (and their gorgeous little boy) flew out to Fiji for a honeymoon and Sean and I did some Sydney sight seeing. When we booked our flights we planned a really late flight out of Sydney so that we could spend the day being tourists, my MS was (and still is) being really shitty last week, but we still managed to have a really good day.

We walked and ate our way around Sydney the entire day. It was gorgeous. We had such a good time just being together, we were definitely feeling the love and even got asked if we were on our honeymoon.

That evening at Sydney airport we were snapped out of our loved-up and blissed-out state. I was completely exhausted by the time we got to our gate at 7pm. We arrived an hour and a half before our flight because we didn't want to risk getting stuck in Friday evening Sydney traffic. In the time we were there our gate was changed 7 times. Most of the changes were between just two different gates (that just happened to be at the opposite ends of the Virgin terminal), by the time they announced the last change I burst into tears. I was so fatigued and just wanted to get on the plane and go home. Sean kept trying to get me into a wheelchair, but there is no way I'm going down that route until I physically can not put one foot in front of the other...

Eventually (with no explanation as to the changes or half hour delay) we boarded our plane and headed home. When we got to Brisbane they landed us at the furtherest end of the terminal even though all of the other gates where empty. Jerks.

I was so glad to be home though and the second we walked in the door I had a sound asleep Max wrapped up in my arms. We were only gone for 36 hours, but I missed him like crazy!!

The next day we (Sean, Max, Sean's parents, some friends of ours and I) piled into two cars and drove up the road to Australia Zoo. The smartest thing I could have done would have been to stay in bed and recover, but there was no way I was missing out on Max's first trip to the zoo! I got to see him do all the cool things - feeding elephants, getting up close to a tiger, checking out the African animals, marveling at the crocs and feeding some very friendly kangaroos. After that I went and slept in the car while everyone else finished checking out the rest of the animals.

Max and his Nonna

Captivated by the Tiger

Loving the Elephant (the highlight of the day!)

My favourite part of the day was seeing Max feed these Kangaroos

By the time everyone came back to the car I'd been asleep for almost an hour and was definitely ready to go home. We didn't go home though. We travelled a little further up the coast to Max's great Aunties place. Max had a ball though, so it was definitely worth it!
  

 All in all, it was such a fun week. Exhausting, but filled with so many fun memories :)

3 Pinners to Follow

I spend way to much time on pinterest. The other day I thought about adding up all the hours I spend on there browsing and pinning, but then decided I would rather not know. It's so inspiring though! I step away from my computer with a million new ideas running through my head, so I can hardly call it a waste of time!

Just in case you love pinterest as much as me (and that inspired feeling that comes with it), I thought I would put together a mini list of people I love following.

I follow over a hundred people so the list is by no means complete, but these three girls are a constant source of eye candy and inspiration.

All images from Arhitektura+ pinboards. Individual links 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Sydney based blogger Arhitektura has an amazing eye for architecture, interior design and beautiful locations. Every time I log in I find myself re-pinning her images. You must check her out!!

All images from Miss Lonny's pinboards. Individual links 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Miss Lonny (who I happen to be lucky enough to know in real life) has the sweetest, quirkiest sense of style, especially when it comes to all things children. She regularly pins gorgeous children's rooms, unique toys and accessories and the most gorgeous clothes for little boys and girls. From time to time she also posts images of her own kiddie's rooms, definitely worth following!

All images from Julia's (Kuku Couture Invitations) pinboards. Individual links 1, 2, 3, 4

Julia from Kuku Couture Invitations creates the most gorgeous wedding and special occasion invitations, so it's no surprise that her pinboards are full of divine wedding images and sweet ideas for holidays and children's birthdays. A must follow for anyone planning a wedding or thinking about throwing a party any time in the future!


I hope you check these lovely ladies out and love them as much as I do! (Oh & if you're looking for one extra person to follow, there's always me too.)

Happy pinning!

Mini Break

Here in the Max and Me household we're back from a mini-getaway that we took last week. Sean, Max and I took 5 days off and headed up to Hervey Bay to stay with Sean's parents.

It was exactly what we needed. I don't know which one of us had the best time!

Wednesday was our first full day up in the Bay and we made the absolute most of it. We bundled everyone (including Cooper) into the car and started the day out with a trip to the beach. It was a little bit chilly and overcast, but Max and Cooper didn't care. They ran and ran and ran!

After exhausting ourselves at the beach we dropped Cooper off at Sean's parents and then went out for coffee. Max had a babycino, which he thought was ok. Although he liked it much better when I added some of my chocolate milkshake to his little cup!

(I adore his chubby little toddler hands!)

After we finished our drinks we took a big walk out on Urangan Pier. This was hands down the highlight of Max's day. The pier was full of people fishing and Max would stop at each person to check if they had any fish in their bucket. Some of the people were really nice and would let Max put his hands in their buckets to touch the fish. He also got to hold a fish. Way too gross for me (I think fishing is barbaric), but Max is a boy and loves doing boy things. Who am I to deny him the pleasure of holding a stinky dead fish!

(Looking for fish under the pier)

(catching a ride on they way back)

The rest of the time we were there we had lots of family time. We took Max swimming, or I should say I took Max swimming. The pool was freezing and only Max and I were brave enough to hop in.  Max fed the ducks down at the bottom of the garden a million times. He loves those ducks so much!

Sean's parent's backyard, looking down from the back deck. Down the bottom there is a little lake past the pergola. (The yard ends on the other side of the lake). Sean and I got married down in the bottom of the garden three and a half years ago

We went shopping a few times and Max got spoilt with new toys and a few new pairs of pyjamas.

We also got Max's gorgeous haircut. It was horrific and I cried once we got back into the car. We ended up taking him to a second hairdresser to fix up the mess the first hair dresser had made. Thank goodness hair grows!

On the Friday I got myself a much needed pedicure and took Max out for another coffee after doing some more shopping. He was very unimpressed when he found marshmallows in the bottom of his little coffee cup. Max pulled each soggy marshmallow out of his drink and dumped them unceremoniously onto the table top.

Sean and I also managed to squeeze in a date. We went out to the restaurant that we had our wedding reception at. It was great to have some time just for the two of us. Although I did manage to forget that I have a newly acquired shellfish allergy. I ordered prawns and only remembered when my tongue and mouth went numb halfway through dinner. Later that night I started throwing up and was convinced that I had food poisoning... I think it was just the seafood allergy though. Completely dumb and a story for another day...

On Saturday we took Max to Neptune's Reef World. I thought it was fairly overpriced at $18 per adult, but Max loved it so it was well worth it in the end. We got to see turtles being fed, big fish and little sharks being fed and lots of little reef fish in their tank habitats. Max especially loved the sea stars!

(I forgot my camera so I took these photos from the Reef World website)

Sunday was our last day in Hervey Bay. On our drive back down to Brisbane we stopped in Maryborough and caught up with two of my favourite friends (along with their husbands and gorgeous children. My camera was flat, but luckily Cat and Nat both had their cameras and took all of the gorgeous photos below.

Max and Kate (Nat's little girl) are only 5 weeks apart and they get along so beautifully!

Adorable in their matching shoes!

Cat's little girl Georgia is one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen :)

We met at Queen's Park in Maryborough and took the kids for a ride on the steam train. Max absolutely loves trains and thought it was the best thing in the entire world. He was so cute, as we were getting on the train he was yelling out 'all aboard'!!

Loving the train whistle!

After the best train ride in the histroy of train rides we went for a walk through the park so that the girls could take a million gorgeous photos.

Georgia was not impressed with the train and wanted to go home by this stage. Poor baby girl.

Max and Kate are the cutest little baby couple when they get together. They walked around the park holding hands, hugging each other and stopping to kiss whenever we asked them to. It was way too cute!!

Have you ever seen anything cuter than this!!

The next morning when Max woke up I asked him if he had any good dreams. He said 'I go on train with Kate. I love Kate!'. Awwww.

We're back home now, getting back into the swing of things and dreaming of our next mini-getaway.