little joys.

One of my favourite things to do when I have Friday off fortnightly is to go out for coffee with morgan. The best cafe in our area is only open monday to friday, so if you want some good stuff, you have to make an effort during the week to get there. When I was at uni I used to drink about 3 coffees and 2 energy drinks a day. That was not a very good time in my life. Now I am a lot healthier with coffee, I only have a cup about once a week, and only if I know it will be good.

The last 3 weeks have been pretty hectic with lots going on at work, lots of sowing pillow case dresses, and unfortunately we have both had the flu. I had not had the time to go and get a coffee from my cafe in over 2 weeks. Yesterday, however, I did something I have never done before. On my 30min lunch break, I jumped on my scooter, rode 10mins to go an have a quiet little coffee all by my self at my favourite little cafe. It did me wonders. It was so lovely just to escape the office, even just for a short moment, and feel the cold winter breeze on my face and sit and enjoy my existence.
- kim


Last year I worked in 2 schools, one in the beautiful hinterland hills and the other in a low social economic suburbia. The school in the mountains was about a 15 minute drive further than the suburbia school. I found that the scenic drive would always relax me and give me a fresh start to the beginning and the end of my days. When driving to the suburbia school I would always still have home in the back of my mind coming to work, or work in the back of my mind coming home.

This 10-15 minutes of a mountain drive was enough to change my whole perspective on the rest of the day. In moments like these sometimes I decide to drive the 'long' way, just to enjoy the scenery or maybe the music I'm listening to in the car. I'm not endorsing extra fuel consumption, but taking time to do something and actually enjoying it is something I struggle with. I am a time management freak. So, my challenge to you and myself is, take time to do something just for you, dont worry about the clock or what anyone thinks. Soak in the little joys.
- morgan

ps. Diana wrote a lovely blog about taking care of yourself which you should definatley read.

tattoo tuesday.

Guess what! Morgan's tattoos have been featured on Dani's Tattoo Tuesday series on her blog Sometimes Sweet.



You can read all about morgan's amazing tattoos and my one too here. Enjoy
-kim

what to do in melbourne....

ok. So this last trip we did to melbourne was maybe the best trip I have ever done. We had such a great time and saw so many new things.

I know many people who visit melbourne, or who are thinking about it, so I wanted to share a few of our favourite places you may want to check out. Here are all our answers to a few of our favourite things.


1. Favourite cup of coffee
SARAH: St Ali, we went their for breakfast and I ordered a double shot soy latte and they made it with BONSOY. the best darn coffee i had the whole time although there were a few that were close to being as good! Also you have to try the breakfast My Mexican Cousin, its amazing.
DEREK: St Ali - Flat White - it was just delicious.
KIM: I love Three Bags Full. Its so consistent, and they make such lovely coffee. The food is really good as well.
MORGAN: My favourite was St Ali, but to share something different, and if you are in the area for the Camberwell Sunday markets then Collective Espresso is a great spot to stop.


2. Favourite Dinner
SARAH: This would be either Beatbox burgers- with Mushroom and beef patty.. the best burger i have ever tasted.. OR. that Japanese bento box place in China Town in the City. I ordered the chicken teriaki box and loved it cause it was a little bit different.
DEREK: Beatbox burgers - sammy dooblaye. best burger i've had all year.
KIM: One place I really loved was Bimbo's. It could have just been the vibe and the company, but I loved the Pizza. We got a few and shared them, I loved the Il Greco (Halloumi, Green Olives, Lemon, Oregano yum)
MORGAN: Beatbox burgers - the secrecy and mystery alone will draw you in. Such a great idea for a traveling Burger Van, the fact that they have perfected a burger recipe is just an added bonus.


3. Favourite place to visit
SARAH: Rooftop bar. It was freezing cold but your right in the middle of the city amongst the high rises. I ordered some scrumptious mulled wine which made the location even better.
DEREK: The Rooftop bar was pretty dope. best view of the city.
KIM:My old favourite place to visit is the Sofitel toilets. Now I know this sounds silly, but if you take the lift in the Sofitel toilets on Collins street to the 42 floor, and head into the toilets you have an amazing view of the city. The photo above is take from the out the glass window wall. Its a beautiful site, and a great way to take in the city.
MORGAN: The National Rhododendron Gardens were beautiful. It is so nice to see the seasons change.


4. Favourite thing we did
SARAH: Looking at the street art in the back streets of the city. Our day trip up to the Dandenongs- such a beautiful area and we got some good finds at the opshops up there.
DEREK: Drink Coffee amazing coffee everyday. I love coffee and Melbourne has taken it to that to the next level
KIM: I loved playing in all the fallen leaves. Autumn is such a beautiful season.
MORGAN: Eat, Eat, Eat. All the food and coffee we had was amazing. The differences in cultures and the vast amounts of creativity makes for a perfect combination.

we hope this help you find some fun things to do if you make it to melbourne some time soon.
- enjoy

ps. photos 1, 2 and 6 taken by the talented mr derek ellens

seize life!

Source: flickr.com via morgan & kim on Pinterest

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don't skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you're most certainly headed.
The Bible - Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (The Message)

24 things before i'm 25

So yesterday was my 24th birthday.. woo hoo. haha. So in the good old blogging fashion, here are my 24 things to do before my 25th Birthday.


1. Although I am already in the process of this, I want to try and help make 50 dresses to send to Haiti. - DONE
2. I want to go surfing and actually stand up.
3. I want to be confident in speaking french.
4. I want to cook something new each week.
5. I want see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
6. I want to make a snow man, snow angels and go tobogganing. - DONE
7. ... and to make this possible, I want to see snow. - DONE
8. I want to make more clothes for morgan.
9. I want to get another tattoo.
10. I want to grow my hair. - DONE but didn't photograph
11. I want make a home movie.
12. I want to cross off a few more of the wandering travellers experiences with morgan
13. I want to ride a horse.
14. I want to have more guest posts on our blog. (contact us if you wanna do one..) - DONE
15. I want to get a hair cut in Iceland. - DONE
16. I want to try live more sustainably
17. I want to read more books.
18. I want to get a job that uses my degree and makes a difference.
19. I want to live like a french girl - DONE
21. I want to experience life having a grandma
22. I want to be better at showing morgan how much i love him
23. I want to paint more with water colours
24. I want to be thankful every morning for all the amazing things in my life....

lets see if I can do it..
-kim

365 grateful

365grateful.com from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

We hope your week is kicking off to a great start and you are having a lovely day. I just wanted to share a great little project some locals near us are doing which is so inspiring and excited. Watch this video and get prepared to smile and have a lovely day.
- kim

ghostpatrol

Look who made it onto Ghostpatrol's blog, my handsome husband morgan!



morgan got his tattoo of a ghostpatrol design done at Chapel Tattoo on our trip to Melbourne in February earlier this year. The Tattoo Artist was Sento Puros, an amazingly talented guy from Spain who was touring the world and happened to be in Melbourne when we were down.

If you are ever in Spain and want to get a tattoo, definitely try and track Sento down. I'm gonna try get a piece done by him one day. Just gotta decide what.... Maybe I could get a piece by ghostpatrol too??
-kim

dresses for haiti

This story all began about a month ago when Rachel at Smile and Wave post a story about how she was making some dresses she was making some dresses to send with a friend of hers to take to give to little girls in Haiti. I was instantly excited about what she was doing and planned to make some myself to send along. But as it always does, life happened and after a series of strange events I missed the deadline to post the dresses to make the trip to Haiti. I was super bummed I missed my chance to send some dresses but that same day I found out my lovely friend Dani is heading over to Haiti in early July to help renovate an Orphanage and make it more sustainable. Woah! Isn't that awesome, so I have a new plan, and this one you can get involved in too.

So here it goes...
I'm gonna be collecting handmade pillow case dresses for Dani to take in a months time. I'm putting this out there to see if you can help me and Dani make enough dresses so each little girl can have a pretty new dress.




There are tons of great tutorials around to get you started here, here, here, and here. If you wanna get involved, flick me an email [kimberley [dot] tm [at] gmail [dot] com] and I will give you my postal address to send them. Its probably best if you live in Australia, but if you really wanna get involved feel free to get involved where ever you are.

This dress I made cost me only 1 dollar and about 30mins of my time. At this rate we can all afford to get involved and share some joy in Haiti. Please share this around so we can get as many dresses made as possible.

I'm also gonna be sharing how to make these dresses at the next Sunshine Coast Brown Owls Meet Up. If your living on the Sunshine Coast you should definitely come along and check out this new group my friend Talia has started.
Thanks heaps.
-kim

3 days, 3 cameras pt. 3

Finally we have the Sprocket Rocket, this baby is very cool. You can take great panoramic shots, expose multiple amounts of time, wind back and forth through your film and expose onto the sprocket holes. I had to scan with the sprocket holes covered but I look forward to playing with this one more in the future.



















We hope you enjoyed the last three days, hopefully we will have more shots coming up soon.
hope you had a lovely weekend.

-morgan

3 days, 3 cameras pt. 2

Todays camera is the Robot Action Cam. We bought this one about 8 months ago and it has stayed in kims bag most of the time, I love the shots that come out of it and it puts a fun twist on a simple shot. It's light and easy and heaps of fun!











I think this is kims favourite camera. Come back tomorrow for the final of the three, the Sprocket Rocket.

-morgan

3 days, 3 cameras pt.1

The next three days we will post a collection of recently developed film from three types of cameras. The Pentax K100, the Robot Action Cam and the newest edition, the Sprocket Rocket. all photos are a collection of shots from our recent trip to Melbourne, a few picnics, a wedding and our general life. Enjoy

The Pentax:

























This is my favourite camera, I love the clean shots it takes and I have an unhealthy obsession with mastering double exposures. I have taken all of these in camera and not edited any, hope you like. Tune in tomorrow for the robot shots.

-morgan