Why I don't read books anymore

 I used to be a pretty avid novel reader. In my childhood I think I read almost every Enid Blyton and R.L Stine Goosebumps book that existed at the time. I was a big fan of the Babysitters Club as well and then in my early teen years I read a lot of Thriller and Horror novels which were pretty popular at the time, with names like Beach House, and The Cheerleader.  That phase seems weird now that I think back to that. I can't even watch horror movies, how on earth did I cope with these creepy books. 

Lately not much book reading has been happening. There is a good reason for that. I become a hermit and a recluse when I get stuck into a good book. In fact I have a hard time not reading or thinking about the book and the plot. This isn't a great attribute as a wife or mother. So I deliberately have been avoiding novels, until this week. I was having a bit of a lazy sick day and I remembered that I had bought "The Lucky One" on my IPad Kindle months ago. I have wanted to read it for a while. Big mistake. I got hooked, and the danger of having the Kindle app means that I have the book with me everywhere, on my phone and IPad. I couldn't stop.

I read in the car while Joel was driving and trying to talk to me, I read when Ezra was napping, and didn't do any thing around the house that needed to be done, I read instead of doing my study for uni, basically I ignored the world around me and was just engrossed in the lives of these characters. It took me about a day and a half, I stayed up late one night to finish off the last chapter. Basically every spare minute I had, I was reading.

The next morning I woke up thinking, Whoops. Then I spent the day catching up on all the things I had ignored, which still aren't completely caught up on. This is why I don't read books. Although I love to read, I love how books enable you to become so engrossed in another world and experience life from another perspective. I think I need to go on holidays, so I can get engrossed without feeling guilty!

I really did enjoy The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks, if you are looking for a good easy enjoyable read, you will probably enjoy this.

I would love if you would go and give me a quick vote too!!


Karen xx

Sustainability on Sunday at Hulbert Street

Yesterday we headed down to the Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta in South Fremantle. The Fiesta is all about sustainable living, they have a couple of open houses that you can walk through and see the changes they have made, they have a  guerilla garden for the street  packed full of awesome veggies. There were loads of food stalls and lots of other stalls full of sustainability ideas. The street was jam packed with people.

We were bad Freo-ites though, we drove our car there, and it is so close to our house. I had the guilts as soon as I saw the valet bike parking, next time we are definitely riding. I love how many people ride around our area, I just need to make the conscious decision to do it more often. I also forgot my eco bag, man, not representing sustainability well here. I did get an ego boost walking past the solar panel stand and thought to myself, Yep, got that. Then finding the cloth nappy stands, I could happily think, Yep I do that too. Plus they had a stock of my favourite washing detergent for cloth nappies (Rockin Green) and I was on my last scoops of my bag. 

One of the sustainable houses open for inspection. 

I love things like this though because they give me inspiration to make positive changes, and seeing how easy and affordable a lot of it is makes me wonder why I wasn't doing it before. I guess I figure that if I can do what I can to make my impact on the Earth less and the amount of chemicals we have around us and that we consume less, then that has to bee a good thing right?

I also love the idea of a street being a community as well, how often now do we not know who our neighbours are and those who live around us. I think community ventures like this are such a positive thing! 

Instead of throwaway cups all the vendors used reusable mugs or cups that you were required to wash yourself. 

Hard to get through with a pram. 

Love these shirts! Also they had Valet parking for bike riders and a red carpet welcome. 

These bikes are pretty commonplace around Freo these days

The guerrilla garden. 

Recycled decorations

So much good food, we had Quesadillas! Delish

We picked up some seedlings for our veggie garden. 

Amazing sand sculpter on the way in.

Trying hard to stop the kid from falling asleep on the five minute drive home.

And if you are the voting type, I would love a click!!



Karen xx

Dealing With The Unexpected

Sometimes in life unexpected things happen. This week was one of those weeks, when everything is just going along as normal, we were comfortable, just going with the flow and then something happened, and that all changed. This was the type of something that threw us for a loop. The kind of thing that has forced us to ask the hard questions,  'did that actually just happen' and 'so what now?'

For us, this isn't the first time we have had major life upheavals and new challenges. It is nice in this uncertain time to be able to look back at those other crazy times in our lives and know that everything worked out for the best, and then have faith and know that we will be OK this time too. Joel and I, I think secretly thrive on challenging times, they bring us closer together, and force us to re-evaluate our dreams and goals, as hard as it seems at the time, things get shaken up a little, and the outcome is usually more in line with the direction we want to be heading in our lives. Not that I like them all the time, but occasionally I can handle it.

Sometimes things just happen. We choose to step forward in faith and feel confident that it will work out even better than before. Yes it can be a shock to the system, yes it can cause us to have a woe is me cry session, and yes definitely it can be stressful, pretty much anything 'unknown' is stressful. But then what, we have to keep moving forward and believe that there are great things in store! So we pray, Ok.. What now? And it is a little bit scary, and a little bit exciting all at the same time.

Yes I know I am probably being annoyingly vague. I will probably expand on this later, for now, this is it. A new direction is really what it is.

Karen xx

Also if your the voting type, I would love a click!!

My Week in Instagrams

The beginning of this week was great, the end of the week, not so much. We have been house bound again because of a sick and contagious little boy. I am so glad that the weather is warming up and hopefully cold and flu season is over! I hope that you have had a lovely week! Here is a bit of a peek into ours.

The BEST cupcake ever. Our mothers group did a joint 1st Birthday Party for all the bubs, it was a blast!

Sunday afternoon Wine tasting with friends in the Swan Valley

I love my boys!

Two exhausted boys after a long walk at the beach

Taking Duckman for another beach walk!

So excited, I bought these this week on OzSale, shhhh don't tell Joel

Waiting for Joel at his favourite place, The Freo Doctor

Afternoon plans: School books and a Cup of tea

Who is walking who?

I am so happy to be finally making our back deck child safe!!

Also, Linking up with Tina  @ tinagray.me for my Week on Instagram

Old Friends and Perogies

We have had friends from the east coast (of Australia) staying with us for the last week and a bit! It it is so good to see old friends again, to catch up on the past three years since we had last seen each other and just hang out, laugh a lot and have a good time. I love having people come and stay with us, I really enjoy showing off all the cool things about my city. It just makes things sooo busy though, they are on the plane home right now, Ezra is taking a nap, and I am just typing, eating, drinking a cup of tea and relaxing. I feel pretty wiped out, but that good kind of wiped out where you know you have had such a fun time, even though it is so full on.

As last night was their last night with us, we all made Perogies together, from scratch. I for one had never had Perogies before. I don't think its a common Australian dish. But with a Canadian and American in the mix they made sure that we got them tasting pretty authentic. If you want to know how to make them you can check out my friend Jess's blog HERE for a recipe of the ones we made. These are pretty much potato, cheese, onion in a pastry and then boiled and fried in oil. Not really the healthiest meal in the world, but they sure were delicious (I should say ARE delicious, because I just am eating leftovers for lunch).

It was so much fun having these guys around, I'm going to miss them!! 

This is why things have been a little quiet around here, it was nice to have a little bit of a bloggy break I am feeling refreshed and ready to go again! 

Karen xx 

I'm not a model if you know what I mean.

Wow, he is a natural at this posing business. 

It has been a little quiet around here, that is what happens when uni catches up on me and I am struggling to catch up. We also have house guests this week, and I was busy getting the house cleaned up, which if you have a toddler you would know how much fun it is to clean when they are following behind like a human tornado.


I did pick up something fun this week though! A fun little infra-red remote for my Nikon DSLR, a staple of the fashion blogger, which I am not. But I have been having a good laugh while practicing to take pictures. I would love to do some outfit posts from time to time but I have always been super awkward at posing for photos if I try too hard- I always end up with double chins or just looking disjointed. So I am learning to relax and trying to be natural. I will keep practicing. I love the freedom this remote brings, if I want photos for my blog posts that I don't have to wait for someone to come around and then explain the random thing I am wanting to do.

Here are some of our first selfies with the remote!

What is it doing? 

He loves that the camera works on its own!

Oh yep, he is his mothers son! 

Have a great weekend!
Karen xx