It’s times like these past few weeks that I totally don’t mind being super busy. Even though I feel constantly tired, I couldn’t be happier about it. Valentine’s day was the last time I checked in here, but I didn’t actually mention anything of it. Valentines, for the record, is one of my favourite holidays. Forget the candy and the expensive gifts, for my family it’s always been about, well, family. And showing appreciation for each other. This year, I really appreciated having Luke’s amazing family to celebrate with (yep that’s them right up there!). They’ve been so lovely and great surrogates for my own fam back in Canada, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to be surrounded by all the way across the world. I was also pretty dang grateful for the dinner and drinks we had out on their boat for love-day, because a family picnic with sunsets like that is just beyond anybody’s expectations. That top photo is straight out of my camera, and I’m completely obsessed with it. It’s so easy to be a great photographer when you have the most beautiful subject matter ever.
I have been doing tons of baking lately as well, as per normal. Somehow I’m not yet 200 lbs. I had some old bananas laying around the kitchen and decided that instead of making banana bread, I’d try banana… cupcakes. Surprise! Yes, they were delish, and yes I did justify eating them for breakfast because they had fruit in them. Tell me you wouldn’t do that too.
On another of our spare days Luke and I took a day to drive out into the eastern suburbs, stopping at a little lavender farm along the way. It smelled divine, and I wish I could have bought all of the little scented candles and oils they were selling so that my house would smell like that all the time. If only.
Finally, last weekend we celebrated Lukey’s birthday. We had a super Aussie day of lawn bowls, friends, and sunshine (it was about 40 degrees), and I finally got the chance to bake him a checkerboard cake! I’d seen it on Raspberri Cupcakes ages ago and been plotting the day I’d bust it out with his favourite colours. My methodology is essentially taken from here, if you were wondering. The photo isn’t too stellar because we were a few drinks in and quite frankly the cake was being devoured faster than I could snap the lens on my camera. But nonetheless, I have evidence, and the hard work paid off when I had 20 drunk people gushing over how cool my creation was. Total pride boost. I hope you’re all having a wonderful week!
