Little Man :: 17 Months

Oh my goodness! Time is just flying by me. I cannot believe that my Little Man is 17 months old! Almost one and a half. I just love being his mama and I think I appreciate our time together so much more now that I am at work. Our Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are loads of fun, action packed and crazy busy, but I also make a conscious effort to have down time, play at the park and just hang out with my little dude.

He is making changes everyday and learning new words all the time. He has just started stringing three words together and can say 'More please mummy' and 'help me please' which is so good.

Words:: mummy, daddy, baby, home, car, Dec, Steph, Buddah, Gaz, Nan, Pop, Granma, Granpa, Linda, Izzy, Bob, please, ta, ball, truck, digger, pram, trolley, truck.... I could go on but there are just so many now! He understands pretty much everything he is asked too, but doesn't always go along with what we are asking (like all toddlers). We have certainly seen some "acts of difiance" but no real tantrums (yet!).

Food :: everyting! Espeically what Mummy is eating (or other people, even randoms in the street....)

Loves :: diggers, trucks, cranes, kicking the ball around the park/garden, climbing on EVERYTHING! Walking independently and not wanting to hold hands.

So Little Man, you are growing so super fast and developing more everyday. You have a very happy, cheeky and independent personality and we love you for every part of it. Your cuddles are super sweet and sometimes you just want to have mummy and daddy and you cling on like a little bear. I keep telling people how much I am loving this stage, but honestly I have loved every stage. You are the apple of our eyes, and you are so so loved!

In other baby news...

This is my ridiculously gorgeous, super cute and divine baby niece! She is just perfect and arrived on Wednesday night. She and her mama are both doing really well and our whole family is so in love.

Cousins!

Little Man (left) @20 hours old and his sweet little cousin @16 hours old! 

Yes, there is a super strong family resemblance but she really looks like a little lady (as opposed to my big boy there on the left.. he sure had a heap of hair and still does!).

So so so beautiful! I am an auntie!

xx

Gathering inspiration...

I've been gathering inspiration for our new house. Over on Pinterest and various fabulous blogs I am quickly developing a portfolio for my 'Casual but elegant, beach house vibe'. Well at least I know what I mean and more importantly, Hubby likes it!

I found these recently on House of Turquoise and LOVE everything about the styling of these houses. House of Turquoise is one of my favourite, favourite blogs and I check it every day, and I think you should too.

Enjoy! (sources listed beneath pictures)

These first photos are from the 2008 Coastal Living Idea Cottage, I could certainly live in this sweet house!

It would be a great (and easy) idea to make a family sign just like this one with craft shop letters.

Just gorgeous.

This striped table is absolutely gorgeous. I would love to have a 'breakfast nook' and to have a round table mostly white with light turquoise stripes. 

Whale hooks? Yes please!

All sourced from HERE

Tybee Island looks like somewhere I would dream to holiday. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

Love this idea, DIY coming up!

Oh couldn't I sit here and sip my tea and while away the hours...

All pictures and full post found HERE

xx Tess

Pottery Barn, PBK, West Elm & Williams-Sonoma coming to Bondi Junction in MAY!

Dear Australia, we have been missing out.

Big time. 

Our state-side friends have had homewares giant Pottery Barn all to themselves for years. Years I tell you!

Not for long! Come May the home design, food, interior specialist is opening it's very first international store right here in Sydney. More importantly, right here in the Eastern Suburbs. Less than 5km from my (current) doorstep.

I am beyond excited for this opening. Whilst there are fantastic, well reputed Australian furniture and homewares retailers (like Freedom and ... and...) we are seriously lacking in the element of mid-level, well made home retail giants. The small retailers are amazing and you can find the most exquisite pieces. But more often than not these pieces are not made for kidlets, they are pricey (i.e. way out of my budget) and just overall not a good fit. Pottery Barn and West Elm provide home fittings and furniture that are not only made really well, they mesh together with ease, they have a variety of styles and features and they provide the 'whole look' if that is so what you need. You can do a sectional, side table, rug, throw pillows, vases, books, plates, lamps and nibbles (from Williams-Sonoma) that work with perfect synchronicity.

With our impending finding and buying of our new home, Hubby and I have spent a great deal of time collaborating on the 'look' for our new home. Whilst the actual house we buy MAY impact a little on this style, we know what we like. We are not fussy people. We like comfort and sensible style. We are a little on the preppy style (taking the 'clean cut' element) and a lot on the beach side style. It may not make a huge amount of sense to read but our pinterest boards sum it up pretty well! 

Here are a few shots and items I simply love from this homewares giant - these are from West Elm.

Oh my goodness! How beautiful is this wall?

This is pretty much my IDEAL sectional. Space wise, colour wise, comfy-corner wise and arm style wise!

I have a rather enormous love for chevron patterns.

Immediately I love this lighting feature for above the dining table

This gorgeous rug is an outdoor feature rug - would have been perfect in the Little House!

Actually, I'll take the entire room thanks!

A cluster of these vases on my mantel please!

This gorgeous bedding..

My goodness these are just a few. I could seriously post pics all day!

Now, how to wrangle an invite to the opening night...

Check out these other posts about the opening of Pottery Barn, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma!

Interiors Addict

Vogue Living

And here is the Pottery Barn Australia Facebook page

Pottery Barn Australia

I. Am. So. EXCITED!

xx Tess

Old Navy Holiday Essentials

So techinically this is three days late, I'll blame it on the packing! We are getting there and soon our downstairs part of our house will be fully packed! Yipee!

Back to the goods, these are the things I snagged from Old Navy for our upcoming holidays! Yes I am aware I have a bit of a problem with stripes but who doesn't love stripes?

xx T

DIY Jewellery Pinboard

Normally I am pretty 'safe' when it comes to accessorising outfits. Boring even. But lately I am loving adding bright, statement jewellery to complete my outfit. I picked up a 6 pieces at chain retailers Equip, Diva and Collette Accessories for a grand total of $32! I have surprised myself by how easily they can be added to a simple outfit.

With these new aquisitions came storage problems. I didn't want to just 'put' them in a box, I wanted them on show. After seeing a few of these lovely covered pin boards on pinterest like this lovely one below from Courtney at Two Twenty One and this sweet cheveron one from Kristen at Bliss at Home, I knew that this was the way to go! 

  

source

source

Looked simple enough. I love their nailhead trim but in my impatience I just used what I had at home... and made up the process as I went! I could easily add it at a later stage.

Freebie for you: Lobster love printable

Yesterday I posted a few of my favourite fonts. Lobster was one of them so during afternoon nap time (love that projects get measured by nap times, this one was a 0.25 nap time project time) I put this print together. I'll photograph it framed next week but feel free to click on it and save it for your own personal use!

I'm going to pop this little baby next to Hubby's bedside, just so he knows he is always my lobster.

**This print has been provided free of charge by Tess Donohue and HeartSoulFamily. It is to be used only for personal use and may not be reproduced for sale or other promotion. Please link back if you use it on your blog/site/social media. Thanks!

love fonts

Admiration Pains, Fenwick, Jenna Sue, All Things Pink, 

Frosting for Breakfast, Lobster, Print Clearly

Peach sundress, Monoment, Simply Glamorous

PS Jenna Sue is a creation of the gorgeous blogger of the same name! She has an inspirational blog and her print shop is a MUST LOOK! We are ordering a Sydney Map print for our next home! Enjoy! 

Flowers, flowers, flowers...

I love having flowers in the house, they add a feminine and beautiful touch. I picked these up at the EQ markets yesterday where you can get the freshest most beautiful flowers - for a fraction of the florist shop cost!

Enjoy!

Pink or blue...

We had our 19/20 week scan this week and it was amazing seeing our bubbie again on the 'big screen'. It was a quiet little bub, playing with its hands, hiding behind its hands on the screen, holding one of its feet (happy baby pose! Yoga baby already) and just looking pretty darn cute. We are totally smitten with our little one and I didn't want to leave the scan room, I just wanted to see more and more of bub.

We decided to find out the gender of our little bub for a few reasons. The decision took a good couple of weeks to make...

We want to prepare the nursery for our baby. Their room should be really 'theirs' and gender neutral, bland shades and themes just don't encourage us at all! 

It will be a surprise at 20 weeks almost just as much as it will at 40 weeks. With the added bonus of discovering in a nice quiet way, that is just us and our invitro baby rather than a birthing suite full of people, nurses and doctors with lots of movement and hub-bub! Also, should something need to be attended to straight after the birth we will already know the gender so we won't be missing that big discovery of information whilst we will be more interested in her/him being healthy and safe!

We can sort through the hundreds of little onesies and clothes we have been given! Our very close family friends have handed down to us loads and loads of beautiful clothing for bub both girl and boy and it will be helpful to know which ones to keep and wash for use and which ones to store.

To mentally prepare for whatever we are having! Over the last few weeks my hubby and I have really geared up for a girl for whatever reason. I think the idea just got into our heads and we’ve been thinking that way. Finding out the gender would mean that we could gear our thinking towards having a boy or having a girl and have ourselves prepared.

So, this brings us back to Friday afternoon in the scan room. We gave the sonographer a cute card and envelope and asked her to avoid showing us the gender on the screen and write it on the card, seal the envelope and we would open it at or after dinner. Which she did!

We walked down to Queens Park Pizza and had a yummy, quick dinner surrounded by kids and families then wandered back home to open our card…

Here is the big news we were greeted with!

Drumroll please...

We are having a BOY! We are so thrilled and I cannot wait to meet our little man in March. A little Donohue boy. Over the moon!

I loved today...

It has been a hard week here, bub is sitting right on the left of my hip and causing my sciatic nerve to pinch whenever I bend or put weight on my left leg. Heat packs and rest are all that give me relief, thank God for school holidays and not having to be at work! I have however been most comforatble seated and today made great progress with our Blurb wedding album. I love making these books and seeing our photos come together in such order. It will be an amazing book to have for years to come.

Here is a sneak peek!

Just a quick screen shot!

I also stumbled upon a gorgeous blog today that I spent over an hour browsing and reading. It is The Macs and is compiled of the amazing, and sometimes trying, joyful and tearful details of their life. They have just this week welcomed baby Griffin home and big brother Levi is going to make a great 'big bro'. Swing on over to Jess' blog for a browse...

Enjoy.. 

x

And baby makes three...

Although I haven't even finished posting about our beautiful wedding five months ago, or our amazing trip to europe in June/July, I simply can't wait to post about our little baby! Baby D will grace us with his/her presence in March 2012 sometime around the 12th. We are beyond excited and I am loving being pregnant. I've been very lucky having very few days feeling unwell, but just this week are quite confined to home with an incredibly sore back which is bub sitting on a nerve. Early thoughts have bub pinned as a girl, but we will find out at our 20 week scan and we are simply hoping for a healthy happy baby.

 At 14.5 weeks..

 At 15.5 weeks - POP!

Bub at 12w+4 waving at Mummy and Daddy!

And here we are...

Seven and a half years ago I met my soul mate, my gorgeous man who I love with my entirety. Almost two years ago he asked me to marry him, and we had the most beautiful wedding just four months ago. It was a dream day, the most amazing day of our lives and I loved every minute. Even the pouring rain that drenched Sydney on our April day. We got the wettest April day in 10 years, but we also got love and honour and forever.
xT

Magical moments pre-wedding and at our beautiful service at St Anthony's Church, Clovelly.