:: Gym vs Biscuits ::

About three weeks ago I joined a gym. It was probably the most spontaneous decision I have ever made. I was having a discussion about weight with a girl I work with, and she mentioned we get a discount to a gym in the city because of where we work. Within about 10 minutes I had emailed the gym and had a consultation booked for the next day!

I am not a big fan of exercise and every afternoon I have to practically drag myself to the gym, but I am slowly finding that once I am there I quite enjoy myself. I like the fact that for an hour each afternoon I can switch off and simply concentrate on the sound of my own breathing. I am terrible at cardio, so while I am on the rower/bike/cross-trainer my breathing sounds a bit like this: "*Supressed groan*, *puff puff*, *long exhaled breath with big puffy cheeks*, *wheeze* [insert the sonds of taking my asthma puffer here]" and well, you get the point! I love doing weights though, so I change up my sessions a little to add in some things I don't like with some things that I do. If only my gym had a pool!

The snap decision to join a gym was partly because of my wedding and partly because of how I have been feeling lately. In the past few weeks I have had a lot more energy and I feel a lot better about myself. I have decided not to stare at the number on the scales and instead focus on how I feel and also how my clothes feel. And let me tell you, already my clothes and I are starting to feel great!

Now I need to focus on what I put in my mouth. I have been teaching myself new recipes so I am not so repetitive in the kitchen when I move in with Mr LG. The problem is, the biscuits taste so good! The more I learn to cook/bake, the more I want to eat them!

What's your favourite form of exercise? Mine is swimming, but it's still a little too chilly here to brave the water! What's your food weakness? Mine is potato. I could eat it all day, every day!

:: Flower Inspiration ::

Last Friday marked six months 'til Mr LG and I get married! In my free time this week I have been scouring my wedding magazine collection for checklists to make sure we are on-track and that there is nothing we are missing. From what I can see, we are up-to-date. Phew!

I took a day off work today (yay!) and went to visit a florist. Now, I do not pretend to know a lot about flowers. In fact, I know very little. That's not because I don't like flowers - I do! Flowers just aren't my forte. When I emailed this particular florist last week I asked for some basic quotes. She replied asking what kinds of flowers I was after. I sent her some pictures in response, because I didn't know the names of them!  Anyway, daftness aside, she is wonderful and I have booked her in for the big day. Hooray!

I would like to source these pictures, but I can't remember where I found them! If any of you know, please let me know so I can properly credit them.

I think the softness of these flowers will work well with the hairstyles and dress inspiration I have for my beautiful bridesmaids (no hints as to what I will be wearing or how my hair will sit, as Mr LG reads this blog). My next venture is to figure out how to decorate the reception tables. We will be having rectangular tables with 8-10 people per table. We do not want the centrepieces to block people's view, so our choices are very low or very high.

To all you married ladies out there, what did you have for table centrepieces? And to all you non-married ladies, do you have any suggestions for me? Any help is greatly appreciated, I can assure you!

Much love.

:: Memories ::

I'm back from my unplanned hiatus. I'm not quite sure where the time went, and I can't quite tell you what I did - it seems that making a living got in the way of having a life!

My family has been away all week. Mr LG finishes work later than I do (he stayed over to keep me company), and it was quite unusual to come home to an empty house. I come from a large family (6 kids), so I'm used to some sort of noise at all times. I'm not saying I don't like the quiet or time to myself - I do! It's just funny how you can get used to something that someone else might find irritating.

One of the biggest noise makers in my house is my 6 (and a half) year old sister. I'm always amazed at how much energy she has and I love seeing the world through her eyes. She is quite creative and spends a lot of time at her little table creating some sort of masterpiece. My favourite creation of hers was her name, cut out of paper and glued together. That may not sound like anything too special, but I was sitting next to her while she was making it and I watched as she used sticky tape to stick random shapes together in, what looked to me, a haphazard way. I asked her what it was (because honestly, it looked like a mess!) and she told me it was her name and proceeded to flip the creation over to reveal she'd spelt her name out. She created her name, back-to-front and spelt backwards, so that when she flipped it over it spelt her name correctly. It was pretty cool to watch.

Having a sister so much younger than me has allowed me to revisit memories of my childhood. Things we used to do all the time, but now we're 'too busy' or 'too tired' ... always 'too [something]' to stop and enjoy. I think that's what happened to me these past few weeks, I was 'too busy' doing nothing of great importance that I forgot to stop and do the things I actually enjoy. I've found a few pictures of things I used to love doing as a child, but don't do nearly enough of anymore.

:: Feed the ducks at the park ::

:: Play Totem Tennis ::

:: Fly a kite ::

:: Ride a bike with no hands ::

(Gotta love my Dad's bright pink boardies!)

:: Bake cupcakes ::

:: Go to the park with friends ::

:: Sing and dance while you're walking ::

And on that note, I'm going to go make myself an 'irresponsible' dinner of hot chips (with lots of chicken salt and tomato sauce, naturally), and then spend the rest of my night doing things I want to do rather than doing the things I 'need' to do.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend filled with things you love.

:: Posers ::

I was given my first digital camera for Christmas in 2004. Little did my parents know that by giving me a camera they would create some sort of a photography monster. From that day on every second became a photo opportunity and every moment was captured. In the beginning many of my friends and family members would (ever so kindly) give me the finger or cover their face, but as the years went by they have all become used to having a camera shoved in their face every time we get together (I would like to say they have grown fond of it, but I think that may be pushing it a little).

Many of us now have signature poses and facial expressions we pull whenever we know there is a camera around. Some of these include:

The 'Peace Sign':

As you can see, the peace sign even made it into my sister's wedding photos. It is now a tradition to do this with every wedding we're a part of. We posed like this for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding and we will be doing it for mine :)

The photo of my Dad and his friends in the bottom right-hand corner cracks me up.

The PhotoShopped 'Self-Portrait':

Extra bonus points for this one it you incorporate some sort of Olsen-esque pout, an eyebrow raise or pretend you don't know the photo is being taken ... even though you took it yourself, ha!

'MySpace':

Much like the self-portrait, this style of photo includes documenting everything that you do. But, you have to make sure you're in every photo - even if it means risking the safety of your eyes while posing with a cranky emu (the kangeroo wasn't as cranky, luckily! He just didn't want his photo taken).

The 'Pout'/Raised Eyebrow(s)/Mirror Shots/Emo Fringes:

These are the photos we get paid out for the most by our parents.

Posing with statues:
I have been going through all my old photos lately, and so many of them bought back great memories (the most recent photo from the ones above was taken at the end of last year). The one downside of digital cameras is that people rarely print out photos for photo albums anymore. My photo album stops around the end of 2004. If I want to show anyone a photo from after then, I have to bring out my computer. That said, I have purchased some new photo albums and I will be updating mine soon.

Do you have any signature poses? Are they as lame as ours? :)

:: Melbourne ::

I'm back! We had such a fantastic time in Melbourne. We made sure we packed as many sites (and shops!) into our days as possible. After some initial spending hesitation I happily spent my saved money on some fabulous finds! Isn't it funny how you can get into such a saving frame of mind that even when the event you've been saving for comes around you can still rationalise that you should really still save instead of spend?

I was delighted to discover that Melbourne is filled with amazing stationery stores. I was in stationery Heaven all weekend! I found so many things that I have never seen in Brisbane, and of course, the stores are only in Melbourne - but, this is all the more reason for me to go back soon! Everyone I talk to raves about the food and shopping in Melbourne, and I definitely agree! But, I have to say my favourite part of Melbourne is the architecture.

I'm fascinated by old buildings, and whenever I visit somewhere you can guarantee that the majority of my photos will be of buildings. We don't have a lot of old buildings in Brisbane, thanks to a company called Deen Brothers. The story I've been told is that they were employed to demolish old historical buildings during the night to make way for 'new' buildings (Their company motto is, "All we leave behind are the memories" which is pretty sad if you ask me). Melbourne, on the other hand, is full of old buildings and tiny laneways full of incredible cafes and grafitti art.

It was nice to have some real Winter days - a maximum of 14-16 degrees (Celcius). Back home we still have maximums of 25 degrees. Unfortunately, I now have a cold and sound like Marge's older sisters from the Simpsons, haha. Hot.

I will leave you with some captured memories of our trip.

Beetroot base (gluten free) pizza. Seriously delicious!

This is a Heritage listed lead pipe and shot factory tower. Melbourne Central shopping centre is built around it and a glass dome encases the tower, it's pretty cool.

I'm looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs :)

:: An Award and Travel Plans! ::

I was given this award by the lovely Jess and the amazing Gracie. Thank you both! If you haven't read their blogs before, I suggest you check them out asap!

1. What do you do when you're bored?
I generally tend to surf the Internet, read ... or complain about how bored I am.

2. Are you an autumn or spring?
I prefer Spring. I like the fact that the weather's warming up and the days seem longer because the sun goes down later. In terms of what colours I can wear though, I'm an Autumn - muted colours, neutrals, greens, browns etc.

3. Quick! Your stuck at an airport for hours and the only options are crossword puzzles or an old novel that nobody's heard of. Which one do you pick?
The old novel. Who knows, I may have stumbled across a literary gold mine!

4. Jane Austen or Emily Bronte?
Oh dear, I'm about to out myself as uncultured. I think I must be the only person to make it through a Bachelor of English Literature without reading anything by Jane Austen. I had to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte for one of my subjects but I couldn't finish it. I really should read some more of their works now that my lecturers aren't trying to force them down my throat!

5. Do you feel prepared for the five other questions coming your way?
Ready as I'll ever be.

6. Who's your hero?
My parents and my grandparents.

7. Favourite word?
I don't believe I have a favourite word.

8. Are you one of those "checklist" people or are you a "wing it and hope everything goes well" sort of person?
I am definitely a checklist kind of person. Even if I was to make a spontaneous decision to fly across the country tonight, you can bet that within 10 minutes of booking the flights I will have started a list of all the things I'll need. I'm a hopeless case!

9. What phrase has stuck with you in your life?
I don't have a particular phrase that's stuck with me through my life.

10. If you were to choose between coffee and tea, which would you go with?
Tea, definitely. Since graduating from Uni, coffee and I are no longer friends.

I pass this award (and the questions) on to:
Cat at Bride Blu

Rachael at ...It's Simple Love...
Paula at two ellie

This weekend is another long weekend! Mr LG and I are going to Melbourne (Victoria) for three days! We're so excited. Mr LG lived in Melbourne for a few years, so he is keen to show me all his favourite places. I have only been once before, around this time last year, and I love it. I'm excited to experience all the culture Melbourne has to offer, and not to mention some real cold weather! The above photo is the view of Melbourne from my hotel room during my last visit.

I'll be sure to take lots of photos to share with you all.

:: Lost! ::

Ever since the second season of Lost a few of my friends and I made a deal to watch the episodes together. Sometimes a few of us could not be there because of Uni/work commitments, or because of travel constraints but on a whole at least four of us made it every week. Needless to say we were pretty psyched for the finale! We decided to have a dress-up party to celebrate the final episode of our favourite TV show. In the end, 12 of us made it to the party and oh my gosh, the ending was amazing. I felt it wrapped the show up perfectly.

Now, I won't spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Instead I will show you some of the hilarious costumes my family and friends came up with.

Jack:

Ricardo:

Hurley (this one made us laugh because he used to have long curly hair a few years ago):Ana Lucia:
Kate:

The Black Smoke (LOL):

Charlie (AKA Mr LG):

Running from the random polar bear:

Running from the Black Smoke:

I am trying to fill my Lost void with other TV series. I have started Supernatural and Gossip Girl, both of which I really like so far!

Did any of you watch the Lost finale? What did you think? What is your favourite TV series? I'm looking for suggestions!