April in Pictures

Where on earth is the year going? It seems to be flying by so quickly!

Here's a look at a few things I've been up to in April:

It's been a pretty cool month, with Tom and I getting settled into our new place. We haven't quite got everything sorted yet, but things are slowly coming together.

The only part of the apartment that is completely done is the kitchen and we've been having fun cooking a little more instead of going out to eat like we usually do. I've particularly been enjoying using my new "Nutri Ninja" and have been going a bit crazy making smoothies! (Recipes will be making their way to the blog soon I'm sure!)

Long walks through King's Park, by the river and around UWA have also become part of our weekend routine. It's such a great way to start off the day and the weather's been pretty perfect for it (nice job Perth!)

With two long weekends this month I had a great excuse to finally sit down and enjoy a lazy afternoon reading a book. We still don't have internet yet which has been a little annoying (and is the reason why it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front this month), but it has been a great way to force me back into the habit of reading. Not that I need much forcing, but it's taken away the distraction of Instagram/email/youtube etc and helped me get back into something that I love but just don't do enough of!

Oh and I also dressed up as Princess Leia for a Star Wars themed party! (On that note - anyone else excited for the new Star Wars movie coming out soon? I can't wait!)

I hope April's been great for you! 

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx  

(a very belated) March in Pictures

Well... April has been a rather dismal month blog wise but actually a very exciting one in terms of life events - which is why this post is so late! I couldn't skip this one though because March was such an exciting time for Tom and myself and I wanted to have this little collage of pictures here on the blog to look back on! 

If you've read my previous blog post you'll know that in March we got the keys to our very own apartment! As you can imagine we were pretty excited about this and most of the month was spent organising all things home related.

We currently have very little furniture, but a rather large and overflowing collection of mugs!

We do actually have a dining table now but it was fun having picnics on the floor the first few nights! That picture above was taken on the first night we spent there - watching Gilmore Girls and eating pizza ;)

Other fun things in March included catching up with friends over a delicious brunch, strolling around Fremantle and stumbling upon a second-hand book sale one weekend morning. 

A pretty awesome month really :)

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

February in Pictures

February has been a strange month - in some ways it seems to have flown by and I can't believe we're into March already, but in others it feels like it's been a very long 28 days!

A lot has happened, in particular one very large, exciting and life changing thing (which you'll hear about soon), and as always I've recorded all the little things  (as well as big things - in the case of The Giants that were here for the Perth International Arts Festival) that made me smile. 

As usual there's lots of food photos, from delicious Nutella pancakes at a new favourite breakfast place called Lucioli, to my family's Chinese New Year feast. Low key Valentine's day celebrations dressed up in a heart printed shirt (cute but a little cheesy), and of course photos of my beautiful little sister all dressed up for her Year 12 Ball. 

It's been a very memorable month, and there's going to be lots of exciting things coming up in March too!

I hope you've had a fabulous February!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

January in Pictures

  Time for another round up of all the best bits of January, some of which included; 

Bonding time with Osgood (my sister's love bird) while the rest of the family was away, catching up with some of my best friends, keeping cool in the heat by eating way to much ice-cream and taking a fun trip down south. 

Yup - it was a good month, and looking back at these photos makes me feel so lucky :)

I hope you had a fabulous January and that February is even better!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

December in Pictures

Here we are again with my little monthly round up.

There were (as there usually are) good and bad parts of December, but as I've said many times before - the thing I love about Instagram is how it allows us to capture the good times so that looking back can bring a smile to your face :) 

I hope you had a fabulous December and a great start to 2015!

Lauren

xxx

November in Pictures

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month...

December is upon us, and I have to say I'm very excited about it. I love this time of year (as I've probably said a million times already), with the lovely warmer weather and excitement of holidays and Christmas on the way. 

November has been a pretty good month - there've been ups and downs, but here's a few photos of some of the fun things I got up to :)

I was contemplating doing a kind of "Blogmas" - like "Vlogmas" on youtube where people vlog everyday up to Christmas, but instead trying to have a new post up everyday. I've decided though that might be pushing it a little bit, but I do have some fun plans for a few festive posts - including one on baking gingerbread (yum!) 

I hope you've had a great Monday and first day of December!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

October in Pictures

October was one of those months that just seemed to fly by, but at the same time, looking back it seems like a long time ago...

The month started off with a fun day at the Perth Royal Show, where Tom and I spent most of the day walking around sampling food (aka stuffing our faces) and looking at all the displays - one of my favourites being the amazingly decorated cakes (how cute is that Yoda cake?!)

We also finally went to Jamie's Italian which has been on my list of places to try for ages. We had trouble choosing from the wide selection of antipasti so ended up just having a selection of those (we'll have to go back and try the main courses next time!) I highly recommend the "World's best olives on ice" which were absolutely delicious!

 As usual there were other yummy food adventures too (Going out for breakfast on the weekend is just kinda "our thing" ... can you tell we love our food?)

I also had fun dressing up as Nemo for an Under the Sea themed party, and helping my littlest sister dress up as a bat for halloween :)

Putting together home-made costumes is so much fun and something I don't get to do as much now that I'm not at uni anymore!

All in all, a pretty good month, I hope yours was great too!

Lauren

xxx

September in Pictures

Well... this is probably a little late considering we're almost at the end of October, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to put together another little collage of my Instagram pics. So heres my round-up of some of the fun things I got up to in September (it included yummy breakfasts, plenty of walks to make the most of the gorgeous spring weather, my little sister's concerto night, my other little sister's 21st, and a wedding thrown into the mix too!)

Lauren

xxx

August in Pictures

Another little recap of the fun things I got up to in August, which included;

*Getting a little overexcited about Zara opening in Perth (and doing a tad too much shopping!)

*Finishing up a short Makeup Artist course for beginners (which was great fun!)

*Weekend walks with my favourite person, making the most of the perfect sunny weather we've been having lately

(...it's funny though because as I'm writing this it's bucketing down with rain and there's a "severe weather warning"...)

I hope you had a great month!

Lauren

xxx

July In Pictures

So we're basically halfway through August already, but I love these little recaps and looking back at the month's highlights.

So here's a little summary in picture form of the best bits from July

:)

From a lovely relaxing weekend in Margaret River, to receiving beautiful flowers from a very sweet patient, fun nights spent with friends at Koko Black and various other chocolate-y places, weekend adventures with Tom and spending time with my Grandma learning guitar ... it was a pretty awesome month :p 

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

June in Pictures

Another roundup of all the good bits of June.

Winter walks along the beach with friends, experimenting in the kitchen,  brunching with my Grandma, playing makeup artist for my little sister and her friend for a costume party, and (as always) a lot of shots of food and tea!

I hope you had a great month. I can't believe we're already halfway through the year!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

May in Pictures

The thing I love about Instagram is the way it allows me to capture and really just take notice of all those little moments of happiness, whether it be something as simple as enjoying a nice cup of tea or just appreciating the fact that the sun is shining.

It's great compiling these collages at the end of every month, looking back and remembering all those nice moments :)

Having said that though, it's so easy to get caught up looking though photos and thinking someone has this "perfect life", when in reality that may not be the case. 

While there were a lot of fun times this month (the highlight being my birthday), there were also some not so great moments. Obviously, those aren't the kind of things I can (or want) to photograph and record, but I just don't want to give the impression that everything is "rainbows and butterflies" all the time.

I just choose to take notice of all the good things, and when you take the time to do that and be grateful for that, it really is incredible how it can change your outlook on life and the way you react to things.

I've only really started to fully see what a difference this (being actively grateful) can make, but it's huge!

Anyway, that's enough cheesy rambling for a while!

Happy Wednesday!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

April in Pictures

Although we're now well into May, I still wanted to share some of my Instagram pics for the month of April. Looking back, it was a really fun month :)

The highlights included going to Michael Buble's concert (he was seriously so amazing!) and the morning spent with my Nonna and Nonno making authentic Italian tomato sauce.

I hadn't had the chance to join them for quite a few years so it was fun being able to help out (as well as a good way to learn all the tips and tricks!)

Some other things I did this month included -  enjoying many lovely walks around the neighbourhood (the weather in April is just so beautiful), trying out some new recipes such as these "healthy" crepes (I eliminated the healthiness by smothering them in maple syrup), drinking a lot of tea, and eating far too much chocolate! 

Anyway, I hope you had a good month of April and are looking forward to (what remains of) May! I definitely am :)

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

March in Pictures

I can't believe how quickly this year has been flying by, and March was no exception! I just wanted to do a little mash up of some of my Instagram photos from this month. I'm not sure anyone is really interested in these posts (seeing as they are usually just filled with food), but I like seeing my photos in a nice little collage... so I'm just going to roll with it. :)

My Aunty actually commented on one of my Instagram pics asking why all my photos are of food. My response was that "eating is one of my hobbies".

Tom and I love nothing more than heading out for a meal (particularly breakfast) on the weekend and trying out new places. Some of the places we've loved this month have been Fortysevenkirwanstreet, The Naked Fig, and Koko Black. We also went for a bit of a drive down to the Swan Valley and discovered the Cottage Tea Rooms which I mentioned previously in this post. There's just something so fun about discovering a new spot (or revisiting an old favourite) for a delicious breakfast or cozy afternoon tea. 

 Having said that though, I think this next month we're going to have to try and do a little more cooking and a little less eating out, because although it's fun, eating out so much is probably not so good health-wise (and definitely not great for the bank balance!) Ah well... :p

Anyway, I hope you've had a great March! Here's to an amazing April!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

Summer in Pictures

I've always loved the beautiful, bright Instagram collages that I've seen on so many of my favourite blogs, and aside from being lovely to look at, I think they also bring a nice little personal touch.

I'll admit that I do have a bit of an Instagram addiction. It's such a great way to record the little things in life that have made me smile, and it's great being able to look back through my photos and remember happy moments. Particularly on a Monday morning when I'm feeling a little bit "blah" - I scroll through my pics and look through at the fun I've had and think "Hey - life is actually pretty great!"

It was only the other day though, that I finally sat down and decided I would figure out how these collages were made. Turns out it was extremely simple - take a look at this site if you'd like to know how it's done. I thought it was going to be a long, arduous, time consuming task but it was actually super easy!

So now I've gone a little crazy compiling my instagram pics into collages, I thought I would share a couple here. Looking through them, it's a lovely recap of just a few snippets of the fun things I got up to this summer. 

The above photos were all taken during my week down in Margaret River - mornings spend having a delicious breakfast at the Margaret River Bakery, and walks along the beach were the major highlights :) How cute are their tea pots?!

For Valentines day this year I was very lucky and surprised to receive these stunning pink roses and the cutest card and block of chocolate from Kikki.K (Tom knows me well).

This amazing, giant strawberry and rose water macaroon is seriously the best dessert I've ever had. It was from Bistro Guillame where I went with a bunch of friends for a special treat. If you're after somewhere really special to go for a meal, I'd definitely recommend it! 

So that's it for now :)

Lots of Love

Lauren 

xxx