:: I'm Alive! ::

Well, I survived!

I'm back home after my operation and have been spending most of my time on the couch watching the Olympics. I've been watching the diving, synchronised swimming, and track and field. My recovery has been pretty good so far. I'm not in too much pain, but I have been pretty sick with the same symptoms I had before I went in, so I'm a little worried about that. But, I'm just hoping my body will calm down over the next few weeks.

Super sexy hospital lingerie

I had two signs that everything was going to be okay before I went in - one of them was that I got to wear my favourite of the hospital gowns available (it's the small things). The second was that 'Call Me Maybe' was playing in the pre-op area - this is known as Dance Party/Anthem to my friend Alyssa and I. I get excited every time I hear that song. Mr LG is so sick of it.

White stockings are all the rage in Summer 12/13

Sooooooo drugged up

Gotta love hospital food

Love flowers!

Cat hot water bottles

Is there a female version of 'Chicks dig scars'? Ha!

:: Package Pals ::

How good are blog swaps? I love signing up for them. There's the excitement of finding out who your partner is, and the fun of putting together the perfect package to send them. A little while ago I participated in Shannah's Package Pals Swap. This swap had no theme, instead we had to read our partners blog and figure out the perfect thing to send them. And, the best part was that my partner didn't know I was sending to them, just as I didn't know who was sending to me!

:: What I Received ::

The amazing stash above was put together for me by Emily from little dancing bears. Perfect right? Green sunglasses, stationery, stickers, gift tags, bows, fingerless gloves (very handy in this chilly weather we've been having, thank you!) - oh me, oh my! I was VERY spoilt! Thank you so much, Emily!

:: What I Sent ::

I sent the above to the gorgeous Sabrina of The Year the Pumpkins Arrived Late. I spent some time scouring her blog for some ideas and I found a very helpful '101 in 1001' post. I decided to theme a few of my gifts around helping her achieve a few of the 101 things on her list - send a message in a bottle (or three!), learn to knit, and finish a colouring in book. Sabrina is also a huge Diet Coke fan, so I sent her some Coke Lip Smackers (as close to Diet Coke as I could find), and she is also a fabulous pen pal, so I sent her some pretty pens, washi tape, and stickers. I also sent her some postcards (not pictured). You can read Sabrina's post about what I sent her here!

Thank you for putting such a fun swap together, Shannah!

:: 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?