The dishes R and I made were: 

Lamb and asparagus salad

Chilli and turmeric baked potatoes

Roast turkey with lemon, parsley and garlic

Fruit Salad

Garden Salad

Bacon and chives potato salad

Best lasagna in the whole wide world

Lemon berry tart

Chocolate caramel brownies

They're all pictured above (except for the baked potatoes) and I've linked them to the recipes we've used in case anyone is interested. Promise they're all super easy and tasty (even the turkey!). Can't quite bear to link the brownie recipe I use though since I've made them at least 5 times and they are too delicious and thus dangerous to be shared :P

Overall, Christmas was a success!! R and I cooked dinner for his family and mine and there were no major dramas. No-one was hospitalised from food-poisoning, both parental parties approved and the most major fight we had was who got to use the only sharp knife in the house. Success! Other than when his mom told me off for 'cutting the oranges the wrong way', anyway. The days following Christmas were much the same; spending time with family, giving and receiving presents and generally bludging around.

I can't quite believe tomorrow is the last day of the year and can't help thinking it's come too soon and that I'm not ready for the new year. Which is ridiculous because it's not like anything changes at all. I mean we all know how well those resolutions are kept... Anyhow I'm excited to go and see the fireworks in Sydney harbour (hopefully) and welcome a whole new year where I will be smarter, stronger, better and go after the things which I've been too scared to go after before. See you next year :)

Merry Christmas all! It's about an hour into Boxing Day here in Sydney and I'm about to hop into bed but the past 3 days have all been about family, laughing and FOOD. The way it should be. Photos soon!

On Monday evening, the sky outside looked strangely beautiful and otherworldly. Here are photos of the view from my bedroom window taken over 6 minutes. Nature is my medicine.

 8:03pm

 8:04pm

 8:06pm

 8:07pm

 8:08pm

8:09pm


Besides resizing for this post, these are unedited. The powerful but serene beauty of nature will never stop taking my breath away I tell you.

Also, today was the last day of work for the year! This means I will finally be able to stalk all of you who have left lovely comments despite my half-arsed, lazy inactivity. See you soon and stay safe :)

Quite possibly the most random combination of photos, but this is what I got up to these past weekends.

1. Loitering

2. Eating pizza

3. WW birthday

4. More pizza

5. Most amazing lamb ribs, eaten on a special day

6. Restaurant where said lamb ribs were consumed

7. Friend's 21st birthday

8. Boys writing 21st speeches

9. Overpriced gnocchi with pumpkin and pine nuts

10. Admiring pointy stars on Xmas trees

11. Dancing in a garage

On top of this, I've done some mandatory Xmas shopping, visited relatives, slept a lot and stared wistfully at my camera sitting on my desk not doing anything when I come home from work. But i'm trying to get out of this rut, helped along that R and I are going to cook big Christmas dinners for both our families, on consecutive days (i'm just praying no-one gets food poisoning and his family doesn't hate me :() and New Years is looming. We did finally book our little holiday in the Gold Coast and Hunter Valley for February so I am quite excited for that! 

Hope your holidays have also been super :)

Ash and I trekked (literally, too cheap to pay for bus) to Glebe Markets yesterday on what was supposed to kick off our Amazing Thrifting Adventure. We were too lazy to head to Newtown afterwards as planned so we spent the day at the markets. For the first time ever visiting, it was pretty good!

| Glebe markets entrance | Beaded dangle things | Trinkets | Tribal masks | Carved wood | Ash's face | Beautiful boxes and books | Weird things | Speedy fingers | Blowing bubbles | Girl with a cool blouse | Selling drums | Bellydancing gear | Dude strolling through market |

The weather was great, I had the best kebab I'd tasted in my life, the live music was fantastic (Ash and I contemplated hiring the guitarist for our respective weddings...) and the vibe was perfectly chilled and hipster-ish. There was even a dude with dreads down to his ankles blowing bubbles in the middle of the grassy area. Typical.

We ended up buying some stuff, the main purchase of the day being some random floor length red cape thing that was at the bottom of some $5 pile. I tried it on and we decided it was too weird and fantastic to pass up...surely there will be some occasion in the future where I can wear it, right? And I couldn't pass up buying some angry birds of course. 

| Angry birds | Said cape thing | Man all in white | Wine bottles outside a restaurant | Glebe Pt Road |