January

Hello! Here we are, at the end of the first month of the year. January’s a funny one isn’t it? At times, it feels like both the longest and shortest month of year. A mix of long, languid summer days and the chaos that is getting back into the work/school/daycare routine once again.

In 2022 I’ll be doing things a little differently on the blog. I’ve used my break to have a really long think about how I want this space to look, feel and sound, so there’ll be a few changes moving forward…

NEW YEAR, NEW BLOG (SORT OF)

The biggest change will be a move from weekly to monthly posts. This blog has evolved widely from where it started as back in 2016. My life looks vastly different to what it did then, so it feels right that this space should reflect this new era My aim is post on the last Monday of each month. A mix of you’ve come to expect from this corner of the internet – reflections on everyday life, moments that have made me smile, things that I’m loving, recipes that I’ve tried and enjoyed, places I’ve visited and been inspired by. I’m a huge fan of watching the seasons change and noting the subtle changes that occur as each few weeks passes, so moving to a monthly retrospective feels just right.

SUMMER HOLIDAY

Adam, Paul and I spent two weeks in Queensland over Christmas and New Year, hanging out with my parents and brother. We had a mixture of picture perfect blue sky days, as well as a few of those overcast, humid-as-hell drizzly days that the sunshine state is famous for at this time of the year. We played on the beach, in the pool and at the local water park; went sight-seeing around Central Queensland; squeezed in quite a few ‘mum and dad’ dates; ate too much, napped too often and just enjoyed being together an an extended family – which felt like such a blessing after the last few years. During those hazy few weeks we discovered a fantastic French bakery and delicatessen, Adam fell in love with a supermarket sausage that reminded him of England, and I found a really lovely (albeit expensive) body sunscreen that felt like silk to apply.

HOUSE BUILD

We have a slab. And a roof. And windows. And electrical wiring. Our new house has come along in leaps and bounds over the last month or so. It actually looks like a house! Adam and I really only have a few decisions left – interior colour scheme, narrowing down which shade of a certain colour we’d like the exterior of our house to be and shelving configurations in certain storage areas. We’ve even started working on designing the garden. There will be half a dozen or so distinct ‘garden zones’ at the new place, so we really want to put a lot of time and thought in making them beautiful, functional spaces. Paul loves visiting the ‘bock’. He digs in the dirt and likes collecting screws and nails that’ve been discarded. Every time we visit we make sure we point out which room will be his new bedroom (with a big boy bed!) but I don’t quite think he’s cottoned on to the fact that he’ll live there in a few months time.

It’s really nice to be back in this space again and I’m looking forward to sharing this year with you. Here’s to new beginnings.

Have a wonderful few weeks, I’ll catch you next month.

M. x