The Gold Coast, with a side of breakfast and Beth

Over the Easter long weekend, Jake and I went for a little weekend getaway to the Gold Coast to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We did some shopping, drank some coffees and cruised on along the coast singing and laughing the entire trip home; it was lovely... I did get to also squeeze in a beautiful little Easter breakfast date with Bethy, and it was delish!

* This Easter breakfast was delicious with a capital D

** The company was pretty schmick too

Diggin' Dispatchwork

German Artist, Jan Vormann has taken his childhood hobbie and turned it into a work of art.  By filling in gaps and holes in walls, public buildings and private houses using plastic bricks (Lego), he's slowly rebuilding damaged structures from World War II for his Berlin series of 'Dispatchwork'.

The series, sees artists around the world doing lego repairs in their cities, hometowns and private houses. 

The original character of the old building's, are transformed into something new, with the modern lego bricks literally patching up a repair, in a quick jiffy.

Artists in Sydney are even jumping on the bandwagon!

Grab your old Lego pieces and your tool man belt and play handyman for the day. 

Scoot to it!

Let's hear it for the boys!

I had such a nostalgic few days over the weekend – doing and seeing things that reminded me of being young at heart again.

During our holiday at the Gold Coast we drove past the neighbourhood my Great Grandma used to live in, and I was reminded of the house that we used to visit as youngsters, rollerblading around the block, having snail-races in the garden and crossing the bridge to go shopping in Surfer’s Paradise, with our Velcro wallets filled with Dollar mite account savings. It was a lovely few days spent re-living old memories.

When we got home I stepped back into the shoes of what it felt like to be a six year old again, as my nephews came to stay. Oskar and Archie slept over, and we spent the evening playing our old board games that my sisters and I grew up with. We rolled the dice in Snakes & Ladders, and wacked the cards in Monster Snap, with a side of pizza and a slight squeel or two.

After an early night, we then woke to a game of play dough, where we sat downstairs on our old chairs and table, and rolled out pink and green to make cookies, houses and pizza. While kneading the dough, I was reminded of the bright blue play dough mum used to make on the stove, which she had to add extra salt to so we wouldn’t feel tempted to eat the make believe pizza dough we dreamt up.

We had a real hoot making things, and then as I visited my sister that afternoon, I was contemplating a rather expensive Tuesday afternoon purchase of a bicycle. My sister, Sarah has a really cool vintage set of wheels, and I’d love to have a bike with a basket that I could ride to the shops and to visit people instead of driving everywhere.

So, I hit the street to test our her vintage Townie and as the breeze blew through my hair, I felt like I was 9 again, riding my bike up the street with the gang, streamers flapping around my wrists, beads clinking on my wheels and ringing my bell, like it was the good ol’ 90’s again. Wrap that bike up to go, I want this carefree feeling every day.

*I think the play-dough pizza I made was the best creation of the day!

Happy Easter. Eggs for all!

I write this post, as I munch on the ears of a Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny.  I have an excuse though - it's nearly Easter and everyone at work is very generous.  It is only 9 o'clock  in the morning though, but that is one of the many things I enjoy about this lovely Easter break - you can eat chocolate at 7 o'clock in the morning and blame it on the celebration of the Easter Bunny without looking like a sad, chocaholic. (Which I am). 

We took over Oskar, Archie and Henry's Easter gifts yesterday, and straight away they popped the carton's and started unwrapping the eggcellent delights.  Celebrations were all 'round!

As another celebration of this holiday (and the many Public Holidays) Jake and I are off on a little break to the Gold Coast over the weekend.  Not only are we going to bring in the Easter festivities, we will also be celebrating our 5 year anniversary!

We're very excited to spend the weekend relaxing on the coast, as we (or mostly, I) shop up a storm, drink many chai lattes and drive around looking at all the spectacular scenery on the way home. 

Happy Easter everyone, and have a safe and happy weekend.  Crack those bunnies ears, and munch all weekend!

No More Home Births?

While in my last semester at University, I wrote an article on Home Births.  Anna Rummey kindly gave up some of her time to answer a few questions I had on the topic, and I put together a piece for my final assignment on feature writing. 

So here is the link, please let me know your thoughts. I've also included the story below.

Would you ever decide to have a Home Birth?
Do you think they are unsafe?
Or, do you sit on the fence?


No More Home Births?

While private practice midwives have been covered by government-supported professional indemnity insurance since June last year, homebirth services remain uninsured.

A midwife cannot be registered unless she has insurance under the draft Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. This state of affairs pains Sydney couple Anna and Chris Rummey, whose midwife guided the delivery of their baby Rosemary in their own home.

“The choice that women and their partners have for how they bring their child into the world is no longer available to them,” Ms Rummey said.

“If a healthy woman can choose to have abdominal surgery to birth her child, why can’t she choose to have a safe, attended natural birth in her own home?”

Rummey said the days leading up to Rosemary’s birth included regular antenatal care appointments with their midwife in their own home, calls to query any cramps or movement she was experiencing and relaxing dinners with friends to celebrate the near arrival of baby Rosemary.

On the day Rosemary was born, Anna and her husband visited their favourite cafe and, while inside, made the call to their midwife to let her know Anna’s labour was beginning. Hours later their midwife had arrived and facilitated an experience described by Ms Rummey as “a blessing that she let us labour by ourselves for as long as we needed, calling her with updates”.

After checking the baby’s heart rate and focusing on Ms Rummey, their midwife soothed her and guided the expectant mother through the contractions that finally brought Rosemary into her arms in a birth she says was “as close to mother nature as you could be”.

Having had such a positive experience with their midwife-assisted home birth, the Rummeys are concerned government restrictions on homebirths are taking away this option for others.

“Hospital births may be right for some people and that’s their choice, but this is ours,” they said.

“I wanted to have a natural birth and for me the best possible chance of doing that was at home, If that couldn’t happen and I had to go to the hospital for any intervention, then at least I knew it was really because I had to, not just because I was bullied into it.”

Homebirth Australia secretary Justine Caines said the fact private midwives are not covered by the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme is taking the choice of having a midwife-assisted home birth away from couples like the Rummeys.


“Women who choose homebirth are the only health consumers without the protection of indemnity insurance

“Homebirth midwives have consistently been denied premium support. As a developed country Australia is out of step with other nations such as Canada, UK, New Zealand and The Netherlands, which offer public funded homebirth.”

The midwifery philosophy of JCU, according to lecturer for the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition Adele Baldwin, is to support women with their individual choice of type of maternity care.

“We recognise pregnancy as a wellness state,” said Ms Baldwin.

“Our philosophy is to support the woman to birth safely in whichever environment she chooses, rather than dictate the environment based on subjective data.

“Our courses prepare midwives to provide midwifery care across the continuum in any setting including home, community and hospital.”

* For more information, visit http://www.midwives.org.au/

Marc Johns appreciates a good Mo

Canadian artist, Marc Johns does bloody marvellous prints recognising the extreme appealing qualities of nothing other than a fine moustache.   He also puts pen to paper and creates other fabulous works of art, so check that bad boy out here.

I however, love his original mo' prints.  Why are moustaches so funny? Why do I love them so much? These questions, I cannot answer, and I think not even a trained professional in that area could find the reason behind my moustache love, but beards are just funny, and Marc Johns does funny well.

So mo' along and bedazzle your eyes with these prints that pack a punch of dry, hilarious humour.

Question to you though, Marc - Why would a moustache run away? What a devilish mo.