:: Finders Keepers Markets ::

Late last year Gracie and I went to the Finders Keepers markets together. I love these markets - they're basically etsy in real life! I always set myself a budget (with cash in hand) so that I don't go overboard and buy one of everything. Every year I'm amazed at how creative people are. I'm pretty sure I walk around repeating the phrases, "Oh, that's clever!", "I love that!", "Look! How do people come up with this?", "I wish I could do that." And yeah, you get the idea.

:: A House Update & A Giveaway Winner! ::

A fair bit has been going on in our little cottage since I last time talked about it. The last time I posted photos of our house it was when I was on a huge cleaning mission in an attempt to make this house feel a little prettier. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the colour scheme the previous owners used on our house. The outside colours are a yellow-cream, dark red, and dark green. This is a lovely heritage colour scheme when done properly, but it hasn't worked so well on our house. On the inside we had a lovely mish-mash of colours - yellow, red, blue, dark teal, brown - so pretty!

In the last six months we've slowly made some changes around here - one of those being new paint inside! We've also finished grassing our backyard, our new roof is almost complete, and our bathroom renovation starts in a few weeks! Exciting times in the Lavender household! I suppose it will come as no surprise that the colour we chose for our interior is green. I'm kind of predictable. But, it's a lovely grey-based green and is actually the same colour my parents have in their house. Their house has been that colour since before they bought it back in 1993 and the colour hasn't dated yet which is a great sign that it is a perfect for colour for houses as old as ours (95 years old!).

See the lovely red trims? (The walls in the before photo were actually a yellow-cream colour)

The house feels so much bigger now - cleaner too! I can't wait to show you bathroom before and afters in a few months.

I also have a giveaway winner to announce - congratulations to the lovely Felicia!

PS. The colours we used were Pale Vellum (the green) and Clotted Cream (the trims/doors).

:: Sparklingflora - Etsy Giveaway! ::

Apart from Pinterest, it's pretty safe to say that my favourite website is etsy. I love buying unique things for myself and as gifts. Knowing that my money is going to someone who is doing what they love is awesome - and I get something cool in return!

And now I'd like to give YOU something awesome from etsy! My gorgeous pen pal Astrid has a super cute little etsy store called Sparklingflora. Astrid sells cute homemade journals and jewellery. Astrid has so kindly offered three of her gorgeous journals and a necklace to give to one of my lucky followers!

Love the fun colours inside!

Super cute, right? I love the rainbow journal. I own this cloud necklace from Astrid's store and I love it. I also love her bunting journal!

"How do I enter?" I hear you ask. Well, all you need to do is go to Astrid's store and then come back here and tell me in the comments what your favourite item is. Don't forget to leave your email address so I have a way of getting in contact with you. The winner will be drawn on the first weekend of March, so you have two weeks!

Bonus entry: Favourite Astrid's store on etsy and come back and tell me in a separate comment.

Good luck! (And may the odds be ever in your favour!)

:: Fruit Pregnancy Photos ::

Some of you might remember when I announced that my sister-in-law was pregnant by showing you some photos of her at 11 weeks. It still blows my mind to think that a baby is the same size, weight or length of a piece of fruit. It kind of puts things into perspective.

Since I posted those photos back in July, my gorgeous little niece has been born. I have some super cute photos of my niece to share, but I thought I would share these photos from November, when my sister-in-law was 31 weeks (and my niece was the size of a pineapple!) first.

This photo was a take on the pregnancy photos you see of the male holding his stomach like he's pregnant.

I adore this photo. It was completely unposed, I just happened to have the camera up to my eye when this happened.

My brother and sister-in-law had their wedding photos taken in these same spots, so we plan to take all pregnancy and family shots here so they can create an awesome montage of photos showing their progression as a family. I love that idea!

:: Wedding Photography ::

In November I had my first paid wedding job as the primary photographer, I was so excited when Amanda and Gary decided to use me as their wedding photographer. Amanda and I used to work together and she asked me to be their photographer as soon as Gary proposed to her. Gary surprised me on the day - on the outside he's a tall, manly man ... that was, until he saw Amanda. Tears, so many tears. It was beautiful.

Isn't Amanda stunning? Seriously such a beautiful bride.

I adore weddings. I could seriously spend all day looking at wedding photos!

:: Etsy Love - Papered Thoughts ::

Back in March this year I was looking through my etsy activity and one of my friends had 'favourited' a super adorable packet of confetti that was labelled as a perfect pen pal gift. Well, colour me interested! I love things I can send my pen pals! I clicked through to the etsy store and that is where my obsession with Papered Thoughts began.

Papered Thoughts is the gorgeous etsy store run by Rin from the blog of the same name: Papered Thoughts. Rin is a creative genius and is always dreaming up the most adorable hand made items: from hand drawn stickers, to paint chip letter seals and confetti tape (it's just as awesome as it sounds).

I am in love with her hand-drawn stickers. I'm forever having an internal battle with myself: to use or not to use. I love them, but I didn't buy them to sit in my sticker box and feel unloved! Such a dilemma.

Papered Thoughts is a great place to go for creative, homemade items - including mail art envelopes! Rin's envelopes are amazing and she's selling some on her etsy store. My favourite is the Confetti Monster Envelope.

I think 2013 should be the year of the snail mail revolution! I urge you to sit down and put pen to paper and send something pretty to someone you love - maybe it's a postcard, maybe it's a thank you note. You never know what will come of it. Who doesn't love opening up their letter box and finding something gorgeous inside?