We are living through dark times. There are a lot of moments where I feel like we are going backwards, and that all the struggle is for nothing. That being said, I felt such a sense of solidarity, joy and optimism seeing women come together to make their voices heard over the weekend. It was such a beautiful thing to see the many women’s marches around the world totally eclipse the inauguration – this weekend, love undoubtedly trumped hate.
Today is a special day – it is two months since Sirius Black became part of our family (our kitten, not the falsely convicted mass murderer and Azkaban-escapee). In honour of this joyous occasion, I thought I would share some of my hard-earned wisdom on the subject of kitten raising (my family has had our fair share of kittens). Meow!
News flash: kittens grow up. Really, really fast. They are only adorable balls of kitten fluff for a few short months before they enter their awkward ‘rebellious teenager’ phase. Cats can live for over 20 years, so realistically they are only kittens for like 1/60 of their life. So if you only like cats when they’re kittens – don’t get a kitten. Go and play with some kittens at a shelter maybe, or become a foster carer. Continue reading
Hellooooooo! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all of that <3.
I have just gone back to work after a few weeks of cherished relaxation, and I’m looking forward to sharing what I got up to with you guys now that the craziness of Christmas is over.
But before we get into the swing of 2016 too much, I wanted to take a moment to say a huge THANK YOU to you guys, my wonderful, inspiring, encouraging readers, for making 2015 my BEST year of blogging. Knowing that so many of you, from all over the world, enjoy reading about my escapades brings me so much joy. Like, don’t get me wrong, I might still be blogging even if no one was reading, but it would be super depressing. Thank you for making this blog one of my favourite things in the world, and for making me feel like I make a difference <3. Continue reading
My cat Lara died last night. She was almost 15 years old.
Lara was born in England, and we picked her up as an eight-week old kitten, along with her identical twin brother, Indiana. Getting them was a great idea by my parents, who wanted to help us get used to living in a new country so far from home. Continue reading
My dearest, most loyal and lovely blog readers, I am so sorry that I have somewhat abandoned you over the last month. I have had a very full plate – work has been more intense than ever, wedding planning has had top billing, and there have been one or two personal dramas as icing on the cake! But never to fear, we’ve come out the other side now, and I couldn’t be more ready to share all the things I’ve been up to lately! Just a warning, things might be a little wedding-centric around here for the next few months! I hope you don’t mind. :)
As a way of saying thank you for sticking with me even though I’ve been a bit AWOL, I thought I would share some of the engagement photos that we had has taken by the wonderfully talented Alan Moyle almost a year ago now. Alan took the photos at a gorgeous heritage shopping village that is just a few minutes walk from our house, Maling Rd, as well as in the nearby Canterbury Gardens. It was really special because not only do we go there every weekend for breakfast or a coffee, Mario also had my engagement ring made there by Peter at Individual Jewellery, as well as our wedding rings.
You may recognise a couple of the photos as ones that I put in my home-made wooden frames a few months ago, and also from the home tour that I did for Emory of Hello, Scarlet Blog.
I hope you enjoy them! :)
Friday night is just a few short hours away, and to spread around the Friday love, I want to share with you a few awesome reasons why this Friday has my undying love.
1. It was announced this morning that the new novel by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling) is being published on October 20 (just a week or so before my wedding! Great present J.K.!) and is called Career of Evil. What a great thing to wake up to on a Friday morning!!
You guys, it’s my house on the internet!!
Amazing Emory from Hello, Scarlett Blog has featured my very own home as part of her monthly Home series!! Emory is incredible – she posts about D.I.Y., life, cooking, style and a whole range of other things every few days, runs her own store, Potomac Trading Post, has just finished building her dream home, and loves Audrey Hepburn. So basically she’s my muse… *blogger crush*!
If you would like to step on over and check out my house on the internet, please do – and make sure you stay for a look around at all the awesome D.I.Y. and prairie-inspired loveliness at Hello, Scarlett!
With six months to go until my wedding, I have a bit of wedding fever! And I have been giving a lot of thought to something that concerns me – how to evade some of the unsavoury traditions and customs associated with weddings. As I’m sure many people know, weddings historically operated in the context of women being passed – as property – from their fathers to their new husbands, and a lot of weddings customs reflect this – walking down the aisle, promising to obey, etc.
Now, it is often assumed that feminists and weddings don’t really go together. I consider myself a fairly stalwart feminist, but I am also incredibly excited to join together with my fiancé in marriage and share our lives together (as we already do). Nevertheless, the patriarchal traditions and continuing exclusion of the LGBTIQ community from marriage in Australia mean that there are definitely aspects of this institution that are problematic for those who consider themselves feminists and, well, decent people. Continue reading
As those of you who live in Melbourne have most likely heard (and those of you in the rest of the world may not have), a 17 year old school girl, Masa Vukotic, was murdered on Tuesday night at around 6.50pm in her local park. It was still light out. Masa was in her final year of high school, and it has been reported that she enjoyed taking walks in the evening to relax.
I get that. I’ve been there. In highschool, I was out in my neighbourhood almost every night, either walking with my mum, or friends, or (fairly often) alone. If I was alone, I wore headphones. Why? Because I was obsessed with music, as many teenagers are, and because it’s fairly boring to walk alone in silence. Plus, it helps you relax.
And you know what? There is nothing wrong with that. Let me repeat: there is nothing wrong with a young woman walking ALONE wearing headphones. Continue reading
So you’ve decluttered your entire house, and want to donate your old clothes, homewares and knick-knacks. Sounds easy, right? Turns out, it can be a little more complicated than you might expect.
There is a complex and troubling discussion that surrounds the ethics of donating used goods. Questions such as ‘Why do you think poor people/homeless people/people in developing countries would want your cast offs when you don’t want them yourself?‘ and ‘Wouldn’t it be better to buy less and save your money so that you can give financial aid – arguably a much more useful contribution – instead of your old crap?‘ can leave you wondering whether you are really intending to donate your old goods because you want to help others, or because you want a guilt-free way to offload your stuff without it going in the garbage bin. Continue reading
I can do that! 