:: Fruit Pregnancy Photos ::

There seems to be a growing trend to document the growth of your pregnant belly week by week. My sister-in-law and I have decided to do this on a monthly basis, because having some spare time every weekend is rare these days! One super cute trend I have seen is to show the size of your growing baby in comparison to fruit. How amazing to think your baby is the size of a lime, then a lemon, and then an orange!

These photos of my sister-in-law were taken a few weeks ago. We actually find out if we're getting another niece or nephew in two weeks time! I am so excited! I can't wait for another baby to spoil. I think she's going to have a boy, but the rest of the family is pretty much split down the middle - half on team girl and half on team boy!

I'm not sure how I'll document my future pregnancies. To all the Mummas out there - did you document your growing bellies? If so, did you have a particular theme? I've seen photos of ladies wearing the same clothes, standing against the same backdrop each week, and photos of ladies standing in front of a blackboard full of information about their baby. So many cute ideas!

Thank you for all your surgery well wishes! Not long now!

:: Scrapbook and Paper Craft Fair ::

A few weekends ago I went to a scrapbook and paper craft fair with my Mum and two of my sisters. The fair started around 9am, so we decided to arrive around 8:30am because from past experiences we knew the line up could be quite big! When we arrived the line up was huge! There was probably already 150-200 people there before us! And boy oh boy, some lovely little old ladies can be quite vicious when it comes to scrapbooking! The elbows were out in full force!

Okay, not really, but there was some surprising pushing and shoving ... all for some stamps and glitter glue! Never get in the way of a lady and her craft, haha. Our main objective was to find my sister some stuff to use in the album/journal she is making her little one. And, obviously, I couldn't resist buying myself some stuff ...

I am in love with my new washi tape. My washi tape addiction is seriously getting out of hand, but it's just so versatile! I can't wait to show you the washi tape thank you notes I made for my sister's Baby Shower and my future sister-in-law's Kitchen Tea. They're so cute and seriously so simple.

PS. For those of you who are wondering the outcome of all my tests a little while ago - my surgery is booked for the 6th of August. I have to have part of my small intestine removed. I will be in hospital for anywhere from three days to a week, depending on my recovery. From there I won't be able to drive for at least a month, I won't be able to do anything strenuous for another six weeks (no gym etc), and it will take around three months to be able to start eating normally again. But I'm actually really excited about the surgery, because I'm looking forward to not feeling sick all the time!

:: Future Niece Update and a Giveaway Winner! ::

Hello lovelies!

It would seem I am overdue for a blog post! Life has been crazy busy lately with the painting of our house well underway. I cannot wait to show you before and after photos! The house is nowhere near finished yet, but the difference is already enormous! It's amazing how much difference a clean coat of paint can do! Our lovely red trims are still in place at the moment, and I cannot wait to see them go!

As you all my know my little sister is pregnant, and let me tell you she is HUGE! She is currently bigger than every other pregnant lady on our floor (we work for the same company), but they are all due before her. Girls in our family carry quite large, so I can't wait to see how big I'm going to be one day as I am the shortest!

Here she is at almost 27 weeks.

Massive, right? She is a lot bigger now! I can't wait to show you just how big she gets by the time she's full term!

And, exciting news! My sister-in-law is also pregnant! She is due three days after my birthday (early January!). It's definitely baby season in our family. I will share some photos of my sister-in-law very soon.

And now for my giveaway winner - congratulations Rachael! I'll contact you for your postal address soon.

Thanks to everyone who entered :)

:: 100 Followers Give Away! ::

Give away time! Yay!

A little while ago I hit 100 followers and I promised you a giveaway as a way of saying thank you, and here it is!

The lucky winner will receive some fun coloured fine tipped pens, a cute pair of earrings, a floaty coral flower hair pin, some confetti from Papered Thoughts, a cute sticker pack from Joey Design, some fun envelopes, a card pack so kindly donated from my gorgeous blog friend over at Lucent Imagery, a Napoleon Perdis compact (with three eyeshadows and two lip glosses inside), and a conversation hearts pencil case!

♥ The giveaway will end Friday 29th of June, 2012
♥ The giveaway is open internationally
♥ I will be selecting the winner using a random number generator

Mandatory Entry:
♥ Follow my blog and leave me a comment to let me know what your favourite piece of stationery is (I love stickers and washi tape!)

Extra Entry:
♥ Blog about this giveaway and leave me a separate comment with the link.

And that's it! Simple, right?

Good luck!

:: Snail Mail ::

Happy Diamond Jubilee everyone!

Down here in Australia we don't celebrate the Queen's birthday on or near her actual birthday, we celebrate it at different times of the year in different states. In Queensland it has always been celebrated around this time of the year, but as of this year that is changing. We have used this public holiday to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and in October we will celebrate her birthday with another public holiday. Next year, the public holiday will be in October and we will pretend the June public holiday never existed.

I'm not sure why we're doing this, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that almost all of our public holidays are around the same time of the year and then we have a dry spell with no holidays from early June through to Christmas (except the royal show holiday - but only Brisbane gets that day off, not everyone in Queensland). With the new holiday in October, the year will be broken up a bit more - and this year we got lucky with an extra day off!

I have spent my long weekend at a craft fair (wait til you see what I got!), the movies, and in front of the heater dying quietly from the cold. I have also written a few postcards for Postcrossing. And speaking of snail mail ...

:: INCOMING ::

Glitter and spots from Alyssa

Pretty flowers from Ezgi

From a brand new penpal - Maria!

This colourful letter came with lots of gorgeous bits and pieces - stickers, pencils, etc - from Denise

A postcard from her holiday in Italy, from Astrid

Awesome 90s paper, from Jenn

An awesome 'Team Nana' tea bag embroidery hoop from Alyssa. Love!

:: OUTGOING ::

Some postcards for Maria

For Alyssa

For Ezgi

For Denise (notice how I like to match my pen colours to my paper?)

Decorating an envelope with washi tape, for Maria

More washi tape decorating - for Alyssa

Earlier today I was searching through Pinterest for stationery inspiration and I came across this blog - Mysterious Letters - have you heard of it? Basically, Lenka and Michael have decided to send a letter to everyone ... in the world. Check out the blog, it's awesome! I hope I receive a letter soon!

Have you ever sent a letter to a random address? If so, did they write back?

:: A Life Update ::

Hello lovelies!

My blogging has fallen by the wayside as of late, which I hate. Okay, so I was never going to win an award for the most frequent and entertaining blogger, but you get what I mean. I have so many things to share with you all - like my semi-clean spare room and the upcoming renovations that have stopped me from cleaning it completely (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, ha!), my giveaway (just you wait, it will be amazeballs), so many photos from our beach escape, our professional wedding photos ... the list is huge.

In an effort to keep things real, I'll let you in on what's been going on in my life that's kept me away from the computer. I'd like to say it was something fantastically exciting, but really it's just plain old sickness. I'm pretty sure I whinged on here about being sick sometime last October ... and well, I haven't been well ever since.

Those who know me outside of this blog will know that I'm one of those sick kids - you know the type - allergic to everything, asthmatic, blah, blah, blah. But finally, finally (!) they've figured out the source of my pain for the past few years. I've had a bunch of tests and it would seem my small intestine has rolled up on itself kind of like if you roll a sock down your leg. It's called intussusception ... so it's like an intestine within an intestine! Bad joke. Sorry. I'll probably need surgery to have the rolled up part removed but I am so excited to finally have an answer!

And now for a hospital gown fashion parade ...

Here we see Jasmine wearing a lovely insipid yellow number. The pale colour is so wonderfully complimented by the brown floral pattern. It really brings out her eyes ...

Here our model wears a lovely open-backed pink number. She is wearing her own Mary-Janes and stockings to finish off the outfit ...

The buttons down the front really bring out the sexiness of this striped number, don't you agree?

Our model wears a lovely mix of accessories in this photo. The glasses are really set off by the nose tube - this year's hottest accessory.

Don't get me wrong, my life is still amazing, this is but a mere bump in the road. After they removed my sexy nose tube I headed straight to the NKOTBSB concert and had the best time. I was eight last time NKOTB was in Australia so I was SO excited to finally be able to see them. And it's no secret that I'm a huge Backstreet Boys fan. I am a child of the 90s, after all.

Camera's were banned from the venue, so I relied on my phone. This is Jordan singing 'Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)'.

The weather has slowly been cooling down here, the heaters have been fired into action and I've been enjoying lovely hot cups of tea - is there anything better than a nice, soothing cup of tea? Why yes, there is! Tea in a pretty mug!

How do you like your tea? I love mine with honey and almond milk - yum!

:: Snail Mail ::

The other day I opened our mail box and something wasn't quite right. There was a postcard nestled amongst the bills and advertising, but ... it wasn't addressed to me. Mr LG received his first real postcard in years and he was stoked! It was from a friend who moved interstate a while ago. I think he understood a little more why I love writing letters so much after that.

:: INCOMING::

Pretty shimmery letter from Alyssa.

Rainbow love from Felicia.

Pretty smellies from Alyssa (we wondered if perfume sprayed on paper would smell gross once it reached the recipient - verdict: it still smells nice!)

:: OUTGOING::

Glitter for Alyssa.

I've forgotten who this letter was for :-/

A pretty package for Claire.

Cute little owls for Felicia.

Awesome 90s paper for Jenn.

Pretty hearts for Astrid.

Love these little bird stickers - for Alicia.

The first letter to a new penpal - Denise.

Thanks to my penpals my local post office owner/worker knows me quite well! He's always excited to see where I'm sending my letters and postcards.