Goals for the Year

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Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Mine were both relaxed.

We've had some house guests which is why I'm only getting back into the swing of things. I have a ton of washing and so much organising to do. But I love the beginning of a new year because it gives me the opportunity to start afresh. That is just how I feel anyway.

I don't normally write resolutions because I know that I will never keep them going longer than a month but I do have certain goals and expectations and improvements that I want to work towards throughout the year.

♥ Be more organised - This is always a big one and I don't expect to become a superwoman at it but I want to try and organise my time management skills better.

♥ To capture more moments and memories

♥ To help make a change in this world

♥ Work on my creativity

♥ To gain more confidence in me! And to stop comparing myself with other people (Jason says I'm too hard on myself)

♥ To increase my faith

♥ To stop with just dreaming and do

♥ Write my thoughts out more regularly

♥ Give more of my time to the people who are important to me

♥ Write more letters

♥ Get a new job

♥ Be more aware of my health and fitness

♥ Stop wasting time by worrying

♥ Something I'm too embarrassed to mention here :)

They are just some of the goals and other things I want to work towards this year. I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't achieve them but I would love to end this year feeling satisfied that I have at least tried.

Oh I do have to mention that for Christmas Jason did get me a Fuji Instax Camera :) Plus the Harry Potter books box set. And he got me this wonderful pampering package (1 hr massage, hair treatment, facial, pedicure). I bought him an iPad which made him very happy. Though it was partially a birthday present too. 

Hope you have a wonderful rest of week and fantastic New Year!

Have a beautiful New Year

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I hope you have wonderful New Year full of new opportunity, beauty and wonder.

I'm having a quiet night in with Jason and some family. I will need to do a proper catch up post next time. And best part of my year was my wedding in January (24th) :)

Have a truly fantastic and blessed New Year!

Little red nose says Merry Christmas

My little red nose reindeer wants to wish everyone a wonderful and beautiful Christmas!

♥ We have dinner at Jason's mum's tonight

♥ On Christmas day we are going to the Sunshine Coast to have lunch at my brother's house with my family. Hope it doesn't rain. I really want to go to the beach. 

♥ After Christmas I have a 40+ work week and 6 days in a row :(

♥ Oh well I'm celebrating Christ's birth and I'm alive!

Have an absolutely fantastic and blessed Christmas!

The time I saw the filming of the Dawn Treader

My Narnia pop up book on the Dawn Treader page

I know this is a bit late because I saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a few weeks ago when it came out here in Aus. We saw it a week earlier than most people. As I've mentioned before, they filmed the majority of the film here in Australia. Mainly in my state of Queensland and even better, a lot of the filming took place in Cleveland which is only about 20 minutes away from where I used to live.

I enjoyed the movie. It still held the wonder I had for the books when I first read them. They changed the story by adding a few things and changed the order of the events in the book, but it worked well.

Plus I was absolutely delighted to see the scenes in the movie that Jason and I saw being filmed. We went there about twice and each time was utterly fascinating. 

What I was proud of was that so many of the extras are Aussie. Drinian who is Caspian's captain of the ship is Gary Sweet an Aussie actor. I got to see him and Georgie Henley (Lucy). Unfortunately I never got to see Ben Barnes, though I know he was there often.

Since I don't remember if I ever shared some photos from set, here they are.

I kind of like that you can see the cranes and other bit of equipment. I really felt like I was on set. 

The guys who played the minotaurs and one of the dwarfs. They came and talked to people through the fence. 

Gary Sweet talking. 

You can just make out Lucy :) 

A horrid pic of me. I worn a strapless dress because last time I tanned fast and was left with strap marks :p

A bit of a close up.

The guy in the hat is Douglas Gresham, who is CS Lewis' step son. I love that he's always involved with the film. 

 

One of my fave pics. 

I had a whole lot more photos and some video footage too but this is probably enough for now. It was definitely a great experience. These photos were from our second trip out there and we brought a fancy camera that belonged to Jason's brother Brodie. This is why we had better close up pics. 

Anyway, I have to work until midnight tomorrow (bleh). And the lovely Illy is having a giveaway for $25 credit for my shop on her blog. Check out this post :) I have answered some interview questions too!

Enjoy!

Brown paper packages

Thank you for all your comments about the ornament swap. It was truly a wonderful experience.

Last night I want to our church Christmas carols. It was amazing! But it was also pouring down with rain. It's a good thing we had ours indoors. I had a few videos but they aren't playing on my comp for some reason. There was another random video I wanted to share but not working :(

Anyway, most of my gifts are wrapped and it's pretty much all wrapped with brown paper. I really love the look of it. So here's a few photos.

The gifts under the tree. The one in front with red string is one of my gifts from Jason. I have an inkling of what it is :p (and finally some beautiful sunlight!)

A bit of a close up. The one on the left in the front is from my lovely Laura. 

My packaging for the gifts for some of my girls. 

And I just had to add this YouTube video.

These guys are from my church and they won a competition to open for Bon Jovi at the Brisbane concert a few days ago. This song is awesome! Definitely take the time to listen to them, The Smart. (I hate that YouTube videos always get cut off on my blog). 

Have a wonderful week! The countdown to Christmas begins :) 

Ornament Swap

Hello hello! I participated in Micaela's ornament swap. I love getting involved because you make some really great friends!

This is the ornament I sent...

An aqua blue/teal/turquoise chandelier. I think the colour was definitely Bethany. I also added a Frankie 2011 diary and one of my heart headbands. 

This is what I received from Bethany! Some beautiful vintage baubles. She said she hopes that I enjoy the romance of ornaments that have hung on trees for years. And it's true! It's hard not to think of the background story of who owned them and whether they were given as gifts or bought for the prettiness.

It was such a great swap and I know that I will be participating in next year's one!

Oh and I got this ornament made with Snapfish. Just something I wanted for fun. I do like how it turned out. 

Well it's the last weekend before Christmas and there is so much to do. Lots of cleaning, finishing up with gift wrapping (thank God I've pretty much finished buying all my gifts - but still waiting for some to arrive from overseas, slightly panicking now!!) 

We have Jason's brother's uni graduation tonight. Well he's graduating his Honours year (Wow I was at his highschool graduation too! Time flies). And Sunday night is our church Christmas carols which is always fun.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Baby Pearl Bracelet

Hello lovelies! It seems as though you all love pretty sparkly/glittery shoes. So I'm definitely keeping them in mind. I will see if I can even get those glitter TOMS here. 

I received my gift for baby Layla-Rose in the mail yesterday. It is utterly adorable! 

Her first pearl bracelet. It's tiny because she has a teeny wrist. (I measured it!) I bought this from Dutchpearl etsy shop. 

To show how small it is! I can't wait for her to wear it. 

My nephews Caeleb and Isaiah with their baby sister Layla-Rose. (In case you're wondering my oldest brother is divorced, hence why I don't call Layla my niece. And it's a bit too complicated to really get into all the family changes)

And just to show my friendship bracelet progress for the Friendship Bracelet project. Those four on the bottom were the first ones I made and decided to venture into using three colours. I'm really getting into it :)