A LITTLE BIT OF CHRISTMAS LOVE x

I meant to do a little "bon voyage!" post over the weekend-- but arghhh this last week has been so very busy! As I mentioned, I had quite a few last-minute things to tidy up and Christmas dinner with my family last night (which meant lots of last minute present shopping...) = busy, busy, busy!

On another note, we were actually supposed to be landing in the Philippines right about now, but the downside of staff flight tickets (AKA standby tickets) and a very full plane means that-- after some frantic rearranging of our itinerary-- we are now flying out tomorrow night instead. The plus side is I get a little extra time to pack...I haven't started!

ANYWAY-- so we are leaving tomorrow! While we're away, I will definitely try to post bits and pieces whenever I can. But for now, I wanted to take this chance to wish everyone the happiest christmas, the loveliest new years and an amazing holiday break (if you're lucky enough to get one!). May your christmas be filled with too much food; platefuls of pavlova/christmas cake/trifle (or whatever your sweet tooth desires); at least one or two sleep-in's; maybe even a couple of nice little presents. But most of all, I hope it's filled with memories that make you smile and so much love.

And remember--

“Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.”-- Elbert Hubbard.

I love being a part of such an awesome blogger community! Catch you all on the flip side xx

SEVEN DAYS.

The countdown is one until we leave for our trip-- this time next week, we'll be in Sydney, boarding our flight! It still doesn't actually feel like we're going anywhere because there's still a lot to do this week-- design jobs to finish up, last-minute purchases to make and errands to run, a to-do list to get through and suitcases to be packed! But I'm pretty sure that this time, in one week, I'll be excited :)

I've been overseas a bunch of times before, but if you have any travel tips that will make a long flight any easier, please feel free to share because I'd be so grateful to hear them :)

Happy Monday-- less than two weeks til Christmas! x

sources: one. two.

RAINY DAY, DREAM AWAY.

Due to the fact that I'm still permanent-job hunting, the last few weeks I have been doing a bit of freelance from home. It has been such an awkward time of year to be looking for a new job-- what with christmas coming up, and us going overseas during the holidays (a week and half to go-- yay!). I guess the timing just isn't right yet.

Anyway, this week has been perfect work-at-home weather and it has been kind of nice not to have to drive in rainy peak-hour traffic or make the mad dash from car to office in the rain. The first day of summer here, it started raining and we haven't really seen those sunny, clear, hot days since. But I'm really hoping we're not going to have a repeat of last year's extremely wet (flooded!) summer-- I have to get a few more beach days in yet!

THE ART OF BEING HAPPY.

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”-- Henry Ward Beecher

Hope you have the happiest weekend! x