alone time. in the eighteen plus months since we've lived in wagga, I've never spent a night here on my own. tony's spent many, less than a month after we moved here I was sent to canberra for a week for work and then lismore for another. there have been emergency trips back home that I've made on my own and a handful of overnight stays in little towns.

tomorrow tony leaves for a week in sydney to do some interesting research for his phd. it's a portrait based exercise where he'll be drawing the same person from life for a few weeks in a row. he's been reading a lot and drawing a lot lately and I think his latest drawings are looking pretty amazing.

so this week I'll probably wrap my christmas presents (best activity ever), exercise a lot, read plenty, set up my sewing machine in the dining room, sleep diagonally and watch a few movies during the week!

I am a little bit scared that I'll get lonely, get freaked out by all of the little noises around my house and cook too much food. I've never mastered how to cook for two, let alone one.

tony's promised to come home with a box of rainbow macaroons - yipee!

I'm also planning a bit of salad experimentation. I spent the day in albury yesterday and had lunch at this super cute cafe where they had a plate of three very delicious and different salads and a slice of bread. so yummy. my oven's also broken (!) hence the switch to cold food.

a super nice weekend. I made a last minute decision not to work this weekend and it was amazing to have two days off in a row. I spent a good chunk of my weekend making short trips to my friend janine's house. I've wanted one of her dresses for a long time and she ended up custom making one for me over the course of the weekend in a beautiful cotton.

on sunday we picnicked in my favourite park with horseradish potato salad and super cute poppers I found at the supermarket. and then there was pizza.

shopping for boys. my brothers have their birthdays a month apart and dangerously close to christmas which makes shopping for presents hard.  I have to come up with two ideas instead of one and I definitely have to make sure I don't skimp on their christmas presents. I'm heading home for a quick trip next month and am really excited about seeing my family and celebrating a few birthdays with them. I love living in wagga and missing my family is one of the few things that's hard about being here.

I love these photos from my brother's wedding earlier this year. I have the same ones pinned up in my office and on my fridge at home. they were taken by anna zhu, who went to uni with my brother and his now wife.

my brother derrick was married in march and I never did get around to blogging about it because when we arrived home from the trip, our town was flooding.

the wedding was an incredible day for our family, to have seen my two little brothers standing at the end of an aisle, both trying to hold back tears broke my heart. my sister and I sat side by side and cried watching them, not at all daintily either. we were so proud of them both. it was hard to believe that derrick was getting married and that zac, who was his best man was only 15.

here's zac in his room before the wedding, which used to be my old bedroom.

maybe I like this last photo best. since most of us have left home and I've moved out of sydney, my family really cherishes anytime we get the chance to have dinner together at home. tony snapped this the night before my brother got married.

things didn’t feel so joyful this morning but by mid afternoon they seemed to have turned around. a mint hot chocolate and a free packet of hot pink star stickers definitely helped. and kitchen cabinet is on tonight!

tony’s traveling a lot next month and in preparation, I’ve ordered beci orpin’s new craft book. I can’t wait for it to arrive. I’m feeling the slightest bit anxious about his travels, it sounds silly but we’re hardly ever apart.

here are some more photos from our trip to the heide museum last month. next time I visit I hope to picnic there.

it’s monday, we have cake waiting for us (banana with caramel icing!) and are listening to a new mum cd that our friends brought back for us from iceland. I have cute new containers for my pantry and half a day off tomorrow. november seems so close and I’m contemplating buying some fruit mince pies this week, maybe this year I’ll try making them from scratch.

this afternoon after work, I wrapped up some small things to send to my friend in bega. we frequently swap favourite things on and offline. sometimes they’re stories, funny websites or inspiring podcasts. most recently she sent me a copy of the red balloon, which I’d never seen before. it was lovely, I was struck by the french streets, the little boy’s grey outfit and the stark distinction between the children and adults.


this week I’ve been trying to consume good things only. I was really disappointed by a few articles I saw in the newspaper over the weekend and am trying to spend my reading time on nourishing things. since then I’ve read an inspiring post about how to keep a happy wardrobe, read about the making of mitt romney, and a very amazing blog post about a japanese cookie decorator.

thankfully I’ve recovered from my cold, which makes me feel like everyday is a holiday! this weekend I’m planning to make homemade pizza and a banana cake with caramel icing for a dinner party. I’ve been aging some bananas for over a week just for the occasion, which tony has been very respectful of.

have a happy weekend!

sneezy times. so as it turns out, tony didn’t have hayfever the other night, he was actually coming down with a cold. and because I thought he had hayfever I gladly shared my lovely apple, cinnamon and sultana muffin with him and caught his cold.

 

it’s kind of funny actually, we’re both at home on the couch today with a tissue box between us. we’re taking turns making the tea and hope to be better soon!

thankfully we have some of sophie’s super delicious fruit cake to keep us going (it’s nearly all gone), lots of chicken soup in the fridge and plenty of reading material from our recent trips to cities.