July 2026

Hi friends, it’s great to be back linking up with Andrea and Erika to share some weekly favourites from the first week of my winter school holidays. Thanks so much for stopping by! Well, well, well… the first week has certainly gone fast. I’m for sure not a fan of how quickly school holidays seem to disappear, but I’m very grateful that I get to enjoy these breaks. They are something I look forward to so much, and I’ve been making the most of this first week of fun outings, as well as lazy days. Lunch Out First up this week was a lovely lunch out with my fun friend. Ooooh, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy a daytime catch-up during the school holidays, so this was the perfect way to start the term break. We both had the crab ravioli in a little Italian restaurant in the city. It was so cozy inside, perfect on a cold, rainy day. A Sweet Treat After lunch, we browsed inside some of the shops and then had a sweet treat to end the day. My friend shared this delicious pistachio layered cake from Stitch Coffee in the QVB with me. Soccer I think I spent most of Tuesday in front of the TV watching the World Cup soccer. The game was on at 10 am Sydney time. It was so good not having to get up in the early hours like we did to watch the Socceroos play. Steve and I did a lot of excited yelling every time Belgium scored. Woohoo! I couldn’t have been happier to see them secure their place in the quarter-finals. Go Belgium!! Then we watched the replay of the Norway vs Brazil game. Oh my goodness, what a great game! I’m excited for their next match against England in the quarter-finals. A New App Last weekend I discovered the Stylebook app. Since then I’ve been adding my wardrobe and playing around with different outfit ideas. It’s been so good seeing all the possibilities with the clothes I already have. I’ll share more about this in another post because I’ve been having so much fun with it. Swedish Fika I enjoy watching a lot of lifestyle videos about Swedish living on YouTube. Did you know they have a daily tradition called fika, where they enjoy coffee and something sweet? According to my Ancestry DNA results, I’m 1% Swedish (my husband cracks up every time I remind him of this). Anyway, I’m embracing my teeny tiny Swedish connection and enjoying this lovely tradition during the winter school holidays! Hehe. Dinner Out Thursday night, Steve and I went to Marrickville Tennis Club, where our Prime Minister plays tennis. Steve told me this, and I thought he was pulling my leg, so I had to fact-check it. Turns out he was right! How funny is that? Anyway, we didn’t go to play tennis, nope, we went to try the Portuguese food they serve there. I had to take a photo of the stage because the decor was so old school. It reminded me of the movie Strictly Ballroom. I’d never had Portuguese food before, but the flavours were delicious and very similar to how my mum used to cook. I felt like I was back in the 70s and 80s on Thursday night. I’m excited to go back again soon. Winter Sunshine Having a mid-morning coffee and seeing the sun come in through the windows and brighten up the winter days has been the best feeling. It’s the simple things! Yep, it sure was a lovely first week of the school holidays. It looks like I’ll be spending a lot of this weekend watching the World Cup soccer. We’ve stocked up on snacks and meat pies. Meat pies for breakfast because of the early match times… that should be interesting! Happy Friday 😊

Hi friends, it’s great to be back to share some favourites from the week. How The Week Started My week started off a bit meh with a wet, rainy start that didn’t help my mood. My brain already felt all jumbled up with dreading an upcoming appointment, and I was also trying to figure out some work and weekend plans at the same time. Then, during the last part of the week, things turned around, and everything that had been cluttering my brain started to settle. I could feel my usual feel-good feelings coming back. Yay! I guess most of my favourite moments from the week happened after Wednesday, so let’s just forget Monday and Tuesday and jump into Wednesday. Wednesday Win I was majorly excited to receive my discounted winter offer box of natural cleaning products from Marlow and Peach. Can anyone else relate to this? This brand kept popping up in my newsfeed with promises of making my home smell clean and fresh, just like a hotel. And if there’s one thing that will get my attention, it’s the promise of that fresh hotel smell. The winter starter kit came with a few seasonal scent concentrates, along with a free glass spray bottle and microfibre cloth. All you do is fill the bottle with the natural cleaning mix and water. Then you can use it on pretty much every surface in the house. Bingo! While I’m not sure the scent lasts quite as long as I’d like, the microfibre cloth is really good and leaves everything looking shiny. I also love the pretty glass spray bottle. Thursday was a Good One On Thursday, the sun was shining and the skies turned a brilliant blue. It was such a welcome sight after only seeing grey skies for days. In the morning, I ducked out of work for my doctor’s appointment, and hooray, I got the all-clear on my results. I also don’t have to see Dr Tina for five years, yeehaa, amazing! With the sun finally out and the appointment out of the way, I think Thursday might have just been my favourite day of the week. Last Day of Term Two And today was the last day of Term Two! Oh my goodness, for the first time in a while it was an 11-week term and boy did it feel loooong. I shouldn’t even be complaining as I started in week 2 after we got back from Japan. But even so, it still felt extra long for everyone — the staff, the children, and the parents. Well… maybe not the parents. I think they probably see the upcoming two-week holidays as the really long part! End of Term Clean-Up Today we spent every available minute cleaning like we were possessed by the cleaning fairy, scrubbing, wiping, and sorting as fast as we could. It felt really good to see the classrooms looking so fresh again, and there’s something about everyone getting stuck into it together as a team. It’s almost like team building, haha. Hello School Holidays So now I’m on term break, except I have to go in to work for three hours on Monday to do a first aid course. But that’s okay, as we don’t usually have to go in once the term break starts. I’m feeling very excited for the next two weeks of school holidays. After the clunky start to the week, it feels so good to end on a high. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by! Linking up with Andrea and Erika