There was something about 2014, it was the year over light speed.
Here is a little round up in pictures about what we got up to in the last week of the year.
Loving Summer and the outdoors we explored, walked had plenty of lovely food and coffees.
We were cuddling little Dalston whenever possible and tried our best to catch up on sleep.
Plenty of Christmas parties, dinners and catching up with family nights later, we are still going strong.
Everything happened so quickly and we didn't feel we had the chance to take it all in.
It was a great year! We got engaged, saw puppy Dalston grow into adulthood and had many fantastic
work opportunities. We finally found a comfortable spacious and bright new home by the water
and somehow survived the year in good health.
Our goal for 2015 is therefore Balance. Keeping our work up, yet focus on collaboration, friends
and our personal life as well. When you are creative I don't think you can separate work time from
times off, it's always a blurred line and sometimes you get your best ideas when walking the dog or lying on the beach. That's why I am not aiming for work life balance, I don't believe this exist, but rather staying in balance ourselves while working.
The year ended with a bang. I was even having a makeup job on NYE.
Afterwards we celebrated at home with the most delicious antipasti platter and prosecco, before
venturing out to the beach to watch the fireworks.
They were absolutely stunning and had unbelievable colours and shapes.
I really enjoyed the night and the fact we haven't had to plan or book anything, it was perfect.
Just us. The chance to take it all in, reflect and just be.

Here is to a wonderful 2015!
What did you get up to?

(P.S: November & December just vanished, and while we were keeping up with taking photos,
we missed the chance to share them here on our much loved little blog space, I will follow up with our adventures of the last months shortly!)

Happy Birthday Husband To Be!

I haven't quite gotten used to calling Dave, finacé yet.
Every day I am grateful that we met and I am so excited about staying together forever.
This man constantly inspires me to be the best version of myself and with him I feel complete.
Thank you Dave, for everything.

Instead of the usual traditional birthday apple pie, we made pizza at home, by popular request of the birthday boy himself.

After unwrapping his wooden box filled with beard grooming goodies and breakkie at home we went for a long bush walk with Dalston. We even encountered a massive snake!
The first one I ever did see in the wild. I had a glimpse and ran...
An evening of pizza baking and watching movies finished of the perfect little day together.

With the engagement and rough wedding ideas planning we went through all of our old pictures, which was so much fun.  I am so glad we started this little blog way back when we met, and documented everything. So much has happened, and we look sooooo young in our first posts.
Life has been good to us. And we are very very happy.

Currently we are in the process of moving, unfortunately we have to move out of our little apartment.
We got so used to it, although it's tiny and dark, we love the location and the lovely area so much.
Hoping to find something really near by has proven to be trickier than we thought, and many apartments won't allow Dalston.
Being main wedding season, it's not the best timing for me to juggle the house hunt and move, but hey... it will all work out in the end. It's certainly not the first move.
Fingers crossed we find a new lovely space soon.

Right now with Summer on it's way I feel like running away from the city and living in a big beach house with ocean views instead.  I am also really craving to creating a home more long term.
I am REALLY over moving around. I crave my own space that we can call our home for year and years.

But for now we will enjoy this wonderful time of being freshly engaged and enjoy the Summer.

P.S: The dress is by a local Australian Designer, Briony Marsh, I love her stuff!

Unplugging completely, catching up on much needed sleep in front of a crackling fireplace and to spent some time with each other away from the hustle and bustle was the idea.
Safe to say: We nailed it!

We stayed in the most magical little off grit cabin in the blue mountains, collecting firewood, learning how to make a good fire and keep it going, showering outdoors in the woods, and cooking warming meals, that powerful gas oven made the best vegetable roasts.
The highlights were that I was able to read a whole book and got the chance for plenty of naps. And the part I was scared about the most turned out to be the very best:
The outdoor shower! Nothing compares. Standing in the cold but sunny forrest, having hot water running over you, while watching birds. Our bathroom at home feels so boring now.
The place was simple and well designed. All the old and collected items made it very homey.
And the view was stunning. We played cards and we played Jenga. We drank prosecco and nibbled on cheese. It was the best getaway ever.

I always enjoy browsing through Leura, the beautiful little town full of cute shops and delicious cafes. Our favourites are Leura Garage (coffee & any food is delicious, David loves their pizza), and The Red Door (my favourite: chestnut&rosemary slice & really good coffee !)although we also discovered a very special place that was puppy friendly and had possibly the best breakfast we had in our lives: Lily's Pad Cafe.
Highly recommended!

We loved the time up there so much that we started to talk about creating our own little cabin somewhere. We even browsed a book on the worlds coolest sheds, and the idea of having this little escape is very intriguing. For now, I am sure we will happily return to this hut, whenever we get the chance. We left a little sad, as we could have easily stayed a few days longer, but full of new ideas and energy. Dalston had an absolute blast, as he was with us the whole time and had so much attention and playtime, he was also very good in helping to collect the twigs for the fire.

Our neighborhood had just gotten even better!
You probably know already that I love healthy fresh food and since leaving NYC I have always missed the fantastic & gigantic Wholefoods on East Houston Street, if you have ever been, you will know what I am talking about. Well all my wishes have been heard and we just got a beautiful BIG About Life wholefoods supermarket complete with buffet, cafe and all.
The light is beautiful and it smells sooo good, I could spend a whole day in there.
We discovered it completely by surprise the other night, while heading out to our usual grocery store.
I was so happy and couldn't stop smiling walking through the isles, stocking up on delicious healthy treats.Dave had to document on his phone, as we didn't bring our camera with us.
The next morning, we grabbed Dalston and ordered coffee and take away breakfast at the Cafe and had a Winter breakfast picnic in the Park. So much fun.
As a professional makeup artist in Sydney it's not always easy to eat healthy and fresh food, as there is usually catering provided on photo shoots and the options can be small at times, so I try and have breakfast and dinner at home whenever I can.
Now home cooking is so much more fun too, with being able to get everything just around the corner.
I have even been baking this week, possily for the first time since landing in Australia.
Lately it's been about food over here, while Winter really arrived and the nights are cold calling for nourishing yummy hot food, teas, soups and baked goodness.
Little Dalston is a happy chap as ususal and of course only gets the freshest organic food too :)
He still hasn't had a hair cut and his hair has just grown super long for now, we will see how much longer we can bare the long intense brushing sessions before we will give in and see a groomer.

What's new with you?