Travel anxiety

This time next week it will be three years since the day I married my best friend and I'll be two sleeps away from heading off to Bali.

We are spending a week with a whole bunch of friends and attending a wedding at a beautiful villa in Seminyak before meeting up with three others who will be joining us for two weeks of adventure and exploration.

The boys talk alot about surfing and I have kindly been told I will be designated photographer... but I have other plans...

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I have a feeling that as soon as they witness those waves face to face, and realise they are competing with crowds and locals for barrels, my plans of white water rafting or cooking school may seem quite appealing. I'm sure their other halves will appreciate them returning home with expert culinary skills... as opposed to stories about the wave that got away.

At the risk of becoming a drill sergeant, I have decided not to create an itinerary. The boys can breathe a sigh of relief here. Instead, I am compiling a list of activities, accommodations and sights that appeal to me, and depending on where we are, what the weather is like (what the surf is like) I can wake up in the morning and select the most attractive activity for the day. Some days the activity may be simply to lie on the beach and read a book. Bliss. Other days may be slightly more energetic activities.

It usually will depend on the activities the night before, as we discovered in Thailand. Booking an elephant trek the day before seemed like a great idea, but the next morning, after some buckets the previous night... riding an elephant was hard going.

I just remembered, the title of my blog was Travel Anxiety, which really has nothing to do with the ramblings above. How do I do that?

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The travel anxiety dreams have started... turning up to the airport realising I've left my new bikini at home, haven't packed any underwear, or the dress I want to wear to the wedding. Then I wake up (in my dream) and go whew! and proceed to dream the exact same thing again... forgetting other various items. I woke up exhausted! I guess as long as I remember to collect our tickets and find our passports, the rest isn't so important. The other element of travel anxiety is pulling myself away from work for three weeks and delegating tasks for others to take care of for me. I have a book about successful delegation at home on the coffee table. I should probably read it.

Summer photo shoot opportunities

Summer is getting closer by the day... I can feel it in the air and it's getting me excited about outdoor photo shoots!

I have wanted to do a staged outdoor picnic shoot for so long... so I'm hoping some friends come forward and self nominate to be my models. If this is something you want to do get in contact with me through my facebook page (link on the side of the blog). Photo shoots are always limited because I love my weekends and need my downtime!

Inspiration...

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any takers?

Let me introduce you to...

Milan. (3 months)

As devout followers may have noticed, most of the babies I photograph are female... so I was looking forward to being able to capture a few pics of a baby boy!  He was an absolute treat to photograph, he gave me so many expressions and poses without any encouragement.... a total model in the making.

Usually I would remove shirt dribble stains...by the time I noticed, I decided I kinda liked it... so the dribble stayed.  

 bath time...

Thanks Yelena & Hamilton for letting me share the pics x

refrigerated bribery

A few posts back I mentioned my new found ability to refrigerate things.

There has been a long standing joke around the office about a particular recipe for a refrigerated cake. I found a recipe and printed it and asked my colleague (nicely) to please make it for us and kindly placed the copy of the recipe on her desk.

A few months later, no cake had arrived for morning tea... we had many muffins and treats... but no cake. Probably because everyone had been working so hard to meet budget...

Being the little red hen that I am, I took it upon myself to make attempt it, after all it is a refrigeration only cake... right up my alley... to thank everyone for working so hard.

So this is the outcome.

The berries are still frozen as I threw them on right before I ran out of the door to work... and in my scattered morning brain I somehow reasoned that the frozen berries would keep the cake chilled during the 30 minute drive. I was a wee bit worried about the cake getting warm and loosing it's shape.

It was yummer than it looks I think.

A little window of happiness

It can come in handy when you have a house guest who builds things for a living. I casually mentioned how I would like to breathe new life into the window seat downstairs so we can lie on it in the summer and read books and he said OK.

It is the best sun trap in summer for cat naps and reading and lazing about...totally untapped potential.

So now that I am posting about it here he actually has to do it. Not that I'm pushy... but basically now he knows my readers want to see the before and after shots of this project... so the pressure is on!

The materials are set and my weekend is free from photo shoots and errands (apart from one) I need to find the perfect fabric fro covering the window seat... I have already sourced some inspiration.

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I have some wall painting to do.. and a few things to rearrange and buy to complete the room which doubles as Mr D's workspace, my soon to be workspace (so we can work alongside each other and I can annoy him) and houses the fold out couch/extra guest room come summer.

Inspired here by the contrasting front (white) with moulding detail.. too much?

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Needless to say it could be referred to as the Multipurpose Room. It is one of the largest rooms in the house and most under utilised. All of that is set to change.

The curtains go over the window area, so this is something I could do in this room - would need longer draping curtains... $$$

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Do you think it's completely pushing it if I asked to have storage under the bench seat? you can be honest... just for maybe some spare blankets for when guests stay? The window area is old and partial to a bit of rot/dampness, so I would have to make sure it is pretty dry in there to prevent musty blankets. yuk.

*Update : after some discussions the other night we are now debating relocating the slider doors from upstairs into the downstairs room and then install some nice bi fold/stacker glass doors across the front of the house and maximise those panoramic west coast sea views....

So now we have to decide/measure/cost these options and weigh it all up... boring.... But I think it is important to explore all options before rushing on in there.

Watch this space...