Hope

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul

and sings the tune without the words 

and never stops… at all.

~ Emily Dickinson

Sadly I only managed to produce one entrant for Februarys

In The Picture project...

I think I lost my mojo somewhere down the line.

Maybe I peaked too early?
Maybe I got a little lost along the way… 

I had so many visions of where I wanted to take this months theme but lost faith in myself and my ability to express what I was imagining.

Decided to hang onto the hope that faith would find me instead.

Having faith in general is something I've been struggling with of late… 

Never mind, I won't give up - Tomorrow's a brand new day.

There's always time to try again.

xox

Du Bist Wunderbar

Every morning I awake to see my Blackberry's little red notification light blinking furiously by my bedside, desperately trying to get my attention.

Usually these notifications are simply junk mail, various special offers that I signed up for a million years ago (that I'm now starting to regret since I receive at least 10 of them a day) or endless Pinterest likes and repins (which reminds me, I must go and change all of these these settings at once!)

But one morning, on a day much like any other, I noticed this happy little treasure nestled in amongst a few others in response to my post from the night before.

PolkaDot Lighthouse has left a new comment on your post "Secret Garden": 

Hi Katerina, gorgeous song, had never heard of this group before so thank you for sharing. We have given you and your lovely blog a Liebster Award...come and read all about it! http://polkadotlighthouseuk.blogspot.com/2012/02/feeling-love.html.

To say I was surprised is an understatement!

I never thought my blog was kicking any particular goals let alone capable of winning an award…  A massive "Thank You" to Carla and Olga for seriously making my day/week/month.

I'm chuffed - with a capital CHUFF!

The Liebster Blog Award : This award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers and passed from Blogger to Blogger, each hand picked by the previous recipient. This award is not given lightly and takes much thought as to who will receive it. There is a history to the Liebster Blog Award- it originated in Germany and means dearest or beloved, as Liebe is the German word for love. 

When one accepts the award they agree to:

Thank the person who gave them the award and link back to their blog

Copy and paste the award to their blog 

Reveal the next 5 blogs they have chosen to receive the award, commenting on their blog to break the happy news!

And lastly, hope the artists nominated will do the above and keep the award going by accepting and awarding “The Liebster Blog Award” to 5 special bloggers that they too would like to honour.

After a bit more research I came to the following conclusion and would like point this part out in particular to those I'm about to award:
You're not actually obligated to accept the award or to even pay it forward.
The value behind this award is for us to get to know other bloggers who might not be well known, yet have a lot to share. And we see that.
This is not about growing your list of followers (believe me, it won't happen), but of building a community and of sharing some appreciation for all those chugging along on the blogospheric highway.

So without further ado I bring to you, my top 5 most beloved little blogs:

(boy was this number hard to stick to! Wish it could be my top 50)

Cosrard & PenPen

A Pastiche

Hemenway Street

Kirsty Helen

The Lady Waits

There could easily have been so many others mentioned here (my reading list exceeds 50 blogs) but I thought I should stop before the list and this post grows as long as my arm (which by now it almost is).

You are all truly Wunderbar in my eyes!

xoxox

Sea of Love

A great big thank you firstly to the sweet and talented Catherine Denton for both featuring my humble little bloggy on her Much Love Monday post a little while ago and for exposing me to some wonderful shiny new blogs and readers that I may never have stumbled upon otherwise.

One of which is this gem of a woman The Lady Waits, without whom I would never have found out about the abundant talent of this posts featured Sea Oleena. I instantly fell in love with both her albums and bought the crap out of them immediately!

The best part is her prices are negotiable - you pay whatever you can afford - her love of sharing her gift is that great.
She stole my heart right then and there, how could I refuse to be anything but generous right back?

Now click that play button and take a listen…
Aah..., can you feel the love? Oh yea…

Thank you ladies xox

❤ Linking my Praise Party with
Thea @ Do I Really Wanna Blog
as well as Anna's Much Love page.
'Cos lets face face it, I have a lot of love to give ❤

In The Twilight

I've noticed how void of photography my blog has been lately and clearly my subconscious isn't happy.

The last 3 nights have featured dreams in which I'm taking photos and being directed at how to take better shots. Maybe this is my minds way of clearing a creative block…

I guess this means it's time to get back into it. 

Right. Noted.

Here I go...

Secret Garden

Loving all the exceptional raw talent New Zealand seems to harbour.
Had it not been for an NZ native client of mine I would never have heard of these particular lovelies.
So very grateful that she shared this little insiders secret with me.

I simply couldn't wait till Sunday to link this beautiful tune to my usual Sunday Sessions so I'm sharing my love for it instead with Anna over at her Much Love Mondays, (even though I'm a day late - oh all over the place, I am.)


Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I do. xx

Much Love Monday

The Valentine Special…

via...

I've never really jumped on the Valentine's Bandwagon before, in fact the only Valentine's Day hubby and I have ever celebrated in all our 11 years together was our very first one.
It was so sweet and simple; A rose, a picnic at The Alexandra Gardens, carving our names into one of it's trees (how I wish I could remember where to find that tree), and finally sitting by the Yarra River watching the world pass us by…
While I do consider Valentines day a bit of a Hallmark Holiday these days (I know, I can be so un-romantic), I can still appreciate the specialness of it's origins.

So seeing as tomorrow will also be a first of sorts (our first one as a 'married couple' - squee!) I am planning on celebrating it.

This Valentines Eve I'm Much Love-ing…
❥ This beautiful blog.
I only wish I had been introduced to the world of blogs and Pinterest when I was getting married - I would have had so much more inspiration… oh the possibilities!
❥ This gorgeously bittersweet song:

I know I already featured it during my Sunday Session but, truly, I have an obsession with it.
Loving the repeat button also...
❥And finally my attempt at making this cake for me my love:
photos to come upon completion…
(that is if I don't throw the cake and all it's frosting halfway across the room in frustration and give up.)
Wish me luck ;o)

Oh, and happy Valentines Day to all you lovelies out there.

Be sure to treat yourselves extra special tomorrow.

xox

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
- Buddha

“Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.”
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

❤

Like A Little Cup of Comfort

A couple of sleepy sounds bringing me some comfort this weekend.

Sharing my tunes over @ Do I Really Wanna Blog.

Baby Boom

I promised myself I wouldn't continue on the boo hoo train this year.
This year there would be no more moping about not falling pregnant yet… but (and it's a BIG butt) today marks the eighth pregnancy announcement I have personally encountered this year so far - And we're not even half way through February yet!
So please excuse me while I go ahead and have a minor moment here with you.

At first of coarse I was genuinely happy for them while, understandably, also feeling the slightest twang of jealousy. Then somewhere between the 3rd and 6th announcements I stopped feeling the usual elation and noticed things were going horribly wrong in my head…
throwing yourself on the bed in a pool of tears isn't the usual reaction by any chance is it?
No? Damn!

Half of these reactions have been to women who, like me, have been struggling down the TTC path for many years, most only after partaking in the arduous journey through IVF.
The rest have been bitterly accidental.
Complete and utter whoops-a-daisies.
Absolute surprises resulting in total freak outs before the inevitable conclusion of acceptance.

That's not to say one half deserve this blessing more than the other. Trust me, I've been equally envious of both groups and feeling more and more like a horrible person for it every time I might add.


Today though, while waxing a client I've known for at least 6 years, I felt the news of her pregnancy (yes, announcement # 8 in less than 6 weeks) wash right over me.
Oddly enough I didn't feel the pang. I didn't even flinch.
I could understand her struggle, had prayed alongside her that 'this year' (whichever year it happened to be) would be our year.
Somewhere deep inside my soul a little voice called out to my heart -
"you see? don't fear, this will be your year."

With so many babies coming into this world already surely there are more to come.
And surely one of these precious little souls making it's way into the world will find it's way to me.
Maybe there really is baby dust in the air.
Maybe this will be my year after all…

For The Love of Pie

I love having the time to bake my man a pie.

My darling loves this recipe, even though he's a vegie-phobe!

(the trick is to shred them super fine - yea, like you would for a 5yr old.)

But because I also love my carbs, my variation includes puff pastry,

and so the finished result is this fine lookin' thang;

 Trust me it tastes every bit as good as it looks.

Wishing you a very tasty Much Love Monday ❤

Covers

Love when I find a cover that I enjoy even more than the original.

Sharing some old faves over at Thea's Sunday Session. 

Birds Of a Feather

Do I Really Wanna Know?

Apparently I do… 

and now I wish I didn't.

Oh well, they say acceptance is the first step but I refuse to accept that I'm 12kgs heavier than I was this time last year.

Sucks to be me right now.

How could I be so blind?
I think I must suffer from a rare form of body dysmorphia -
you know, the kind where I think I look like Kate Moss when in fact I'm more like a beached whale…

Oh dear me, back on the horse she goes.