:: 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.

:: I'm Going To Be An Aunty Again ::

Exciting news! My younger sister is pregnant! SO exciting! This time two years ago we were celebrating my other little sister's pregnancy, and now I am all excited to become an Aunty again. My sister is due a few days before my nephew's birthday, so my nephew could get a baby cousin for his second birthday!

And here's the best bit ... they're having a ...

Little girl!!!

Look at those little ballet shoes! Couldn't you just die? My sister is obsessed with ballet. Obsessed. She has been dancing since she was 12 and has spent most of her time either dancing or working at her ballet school. Needless to say, she's over the moon to be having a little ballerina.

They decided to have a cupcake gender reveal party to tell all the siblings what they were having. Such a cute idea!

I love all the creative ways to let people know if you're having a boy or a girl! I first saw the cupcake/cake gender reveal party idea on Pinterest. There are so many creative people out there!

Would you find out? How would you let everyone know? I'd definitely find out. I take my hat off to people who decide to wait 'til their baby is born - I couldn't stand the suspense!

:: All That Glitters ::

A few weeks ago Mr LG and I took off to the beach. We decided we needed to get away for a weekend and just relax. I love going to the beach. I think that, one day, I'd like to live closer to the ocean. But for now I'm happy to be a little over an hour away.

I love the way the sun glitters off the water. You've got to wonder if that's where the original creators of glitter came up with the idea.

Sunrise is my favourite time of day. It's so calm and serene. I'm lucky because on the East Coast, the sun rises over the ocean. Two of my favourite things rolled into one!

Yesterday was my blog's second birthday! Stay tuned for a combined birthday 100-followers give away!