Photography » The Best Nest

Dave synced our photo stream today so I have pics of his travels to share! I have no idea where any of these shots are, but I’m guessing Barcelona, Lyon and Geneva?

The holidays are over! Time is barreling on these days, this year is fast disappearing in a series of major life events, all good so far but blink and you can skip a whole month. I think that is why I like participating in Things I’m loving; it breaks off a week-sized piece of life and allows a little reflection of that every day stuff that so easily gets lost…

I’m loving father and son time. Dave’s job has gotten progressively more stressful as he takes on more and more responsibility but I think little boys and lego make an exceptional distraction and stress reliever!

I’m loving learning how to knot these cute bracelets and using unworn rings as the accent! Once I have found the perfect thread I may make a DIY tutorial to pop up. These look great in multiples and combined with a big’ol bangle party on your wrist.

I adore the end of term when we actually get to see some of the art work E produces in the classroom. This Ted Harrison replica painting is definitely my favorite piece of Kid Art EVER!

Finding these flag pillows at Briscoes cemented the theme of Ethan’s room in my head. Embracing both sides of his family is so important to both him and Dave and I, I love these little reminders of his mixed heritage and the two countries he can call home {if only I had my wits about me and thought to match his linen with the roman blind fabric! Decorating blunder # 93}.

Loving my manicure this week, like anything, the more you practice the better you get. OPI Bubble Bath and Orly Tiara.

Both Dave and E love to cook, this week they whipped up a southern favorite {so I’m told!}, Sloppy Joes aka Manwiches. This exotic(?) dish was met with rave reviews! Love guys that take charge in the kitchen x

PLUS….Loving hosting giveaways! Don’t forget to enter the Milo Sports Pack Giveaway here and the Peaceful Baby Sleep Book Giveaway here

Things I’m Loving is hosted by Meghan at MNM’s

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for..no matter how simple it is.

After living through the dusty hell of having every wall in our house re-plastered and finished, I can hopefully be forgiven for being a tiny bit precious about putting holes in my new walls. The difficulty I have with hanging stuff on the walls is further compounded by the fact that the walls are all concrete, I can’t actually go buck-wild with a hammer, it’s just not possible. Decorating this house requires planning {and Dave and his drill}.

I realized yesterday that things were looking a little sterile, and there was one little project that had been on my to-do list once I had my very own house…..

Much better! There’s personality now and and a great heaping dose of JACK-ness. All of the items I used have meaning to us and make our new house feel like our home, something that’s hard to achieve without little reminders here and there of what makes us a family.

Planning

Tips:

I would highly recommend measuring the wall space you are going to use and masking it out on the floor. This will help you work out your arrangement and space requirements
Don’t start until you have finished your collection of art, pics and curios for the project
Have a range of removable sticky hooks on hand so you can minimize the holes in the wall
DON’T use a tape measure!
Do use different mediums
Don’t rush. This project took me HOURS, and I rearranged things multiple times

What I used & what they mean to us

My Mum and Dad’s personalized plate, Dad had this on his truck for years x
Water color of Moonlight Beach, Encinitas CA. This was painted by a family friend, is where we lived in San Diego, where Ethan was born and where we began our life as a family
Tile from Portugal, gifted from our old neighbor Fred for looking after his dog
Tile gifted from Abby for looking after her Rabbit
Snapper ink print, purchased with Tara during our 2012 summer holiday
Wavemasters Surfing Trophy – My Florida family
Old Timex clock from our first apartment in San Diego – this has been in every house we have lived in together!
Family portrait in Northland Kauri Forest, pic by Tara
Paua from a wedding I shot
Dave’s last Florida license plate – I have moaned at Dave 100′s of times about this dirty old thing, but now I’m glad he kept it ; )
oops forgot 11
Ethan’s one and only Dave-supervised kindy photo. Wet hair. Sigh
Wavemasters Service trophy
Water color of the Auckland skyline – gift from my Aunty and Uncle as I was preparing to leave New Zealand 12 years ago

This morning was freezing. My truck was wearing the thickest coat of ice ever! So it was literally breathtakingly beautiful because it hurt to breathe.
No filters – too pretty

My god there are some brilliant, creative peeps out there? Are you one of them? I am envious of you marvelously talented creative types that can spew art and craft from your little toes ::::::sigh::::::blog:::::::

Here is some gorgeousness I found whilst getting lost online;

Digital Origami Animals by Jeremy Kool

Amazeballs. Yes I know. See the other animals that will feature in Kool’s digital book here

Portraits of Ladies in Cardboard Outfits by Christan Tagliavini

How odd, very Alison in Wonderland-esque don’t you think?

Michael Wolf: Architecture of Density

These photographs will make you pause and really appreciate you 1/4 acre in New Zealand after your mind has been blown.

Waimea, Feb 2012

Soap Bubbles. Seriously. Macro is amazing.

Bokeh Macro Photography – By Lee Peiling.

Who knew insects had this much personality?

See you later little nerdlings x

Yay Sunday night and the best part is there is another Sunday night tomorrow night! {sort of. Queens Jubilee weekend yus}.

Every second of every day I AM LOVING making this house our home. E is loving it too,but he has this paranoia that the previous owner is going to ask for his house back! The only way we can reassure him that the house is ours is to tell him IT’S THE LAW. So I let him write on the walls in his bedroom before we painted it. It was nice that he literally carved his message into the wall. So you could see it even after undercoat and two layers of paint.

Our back yard is a veritable autumn bonanza of leaves. Falling/fallen leaves.

This is real Saturday mornings {without rugby}. Unbrushed hair, unwashed faces, bacon, omelets and mini-pancakes. Boys in jammies……FAMILY. Love.

Doesn’t every mummy blog have a macaron fail? Surely. Here is mine. They were crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and they tasted divine. However they had no legs, they had peaky tops and my white chocolate ganache did not set. Epic fail.

Our new office is north facing and HOT {LOVE}. I actually have to wear sunnies in the afternoon, you know, because of the problem of the window coverings……I flip flopped on this actually. I had booked roman blinds, but took ages to pick the fabric,paid the deposit than realized i’m not really a roman blind kind of girl. To be continued.