The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Dear Mom, you are so talented!  Between knitting and sewing, you can whip up anything.  I look forward to having children, simply so you can make them cool stuff.  This hat you made for Jules? Amazing!

Dear Friends, I had so much fun with my Homebarrassment & Aussie Apartment Tour posts this week.  I hope you got a good laugh--because I know I did!

Dear Person Who Decorated This Room, thank you for being so awesomely creepy.  Your teddy bear collection, shiny window valence, and overstuffed furniture provided the perfect backdrop for my prank.  P.S. Do you live in Michigan? 

Dear Stephen Chbosky, thank you for writing such a great book!  I'm a total sucker for stream of consciousness writing.  I loved Charlie so much--I celebrated his 'highs' and wallowed in his 'lows'.  If I got a raw look into other people's lives the same way I got to see Charlie's, I know I would be a more compassionate person.  Thanks again...I'm a big fan.

Dear Katie, thanks for recommending said book.  You had me hooked when you said it was like Catcher in the Rye...and you were right :)

Dear Readers, you can also find me over at Clare's blog, C Squared W, sharing my tips for travel planning.  I'm currently planning our "big aventure", aka seven weeks of travel once we leave Australia, so I'm knee deep in travel planning at the minute.  Enjoy :)

Linking up with Adventures of Newlyweds for Friday's Letters

&

Heather from Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday

Aussie Apartment Tour

Thank you all so much for your comments

on my Homebarrassment post!

So many of you expressed your excitement for the home tour.

Before I begin, let's recap the sneak peek photo.

I have a little confession to make.

That's actually not our apartment.

I'm rarely a prankster, but I just couldn't resist the opportunity.

I hope you all got as good a laugh out of it as I did.

Because I've been cracking myself up,

laughing until I'm crying,

reading your comments,

and imagining myself living in a room full of teddy bears.

I mean, that's gotta be the creepiest thing ever, right?

Then a realization hit me,

that it might be a big let down to see our actual apartment now.

I mean, if I was you, I'd totally rather see the rest of the creepy house.

But alas, google images has no more photos to share.

So, like it or not, you get to see our real apartment now.

I'm not kidding about the lumpiness of this couch.

It's probably compounded by the fact that we put a cover on the couch,

that was not specifically sized for it.

Nevertheless, you sit on the couch and immediately 

get dumped into a crack between the cushions.

Let me just tell you how amazing it is to have a separate hot and cold tap.

And by amazing, I mean not convenient at all.

In reality, it means we cannot use the hot water tap, 

because we do not enjoy getting scalded.

Yes, in addition to having the world's smallest shower,

something about the air flow in our bathroom

makes the shower curtain want to blow straight into the shower.

Hence, the shower curtain meets the rock.

I hope we're not the only ones with random corners of junk.

Something about living in a place temporarily,

is that you don't care as much about finding a place for everything.

And there you have it--our apartment.

Clearly, it's an improvement over Grandma's teddy bear collection,

shiny valence, doll collection, and overstuffed arm chairs.

However, it's not exactly our style.

It'll be great to get back to SoCal and move into our old place.

And it'll be especially good to get home to the white furry thing in our place ;)

Homebarrassment

A funny thing happened to me a couple months ago.

My friend, Claire, made an impromptu visit to our apartment.

I welcomed her at the door, showed her inside,

and that's when it happened.

I started apologizing for our apartment.

Now, I'm not talking about "I'm sorry it's messy in here" apologies.

I'm talking thoughts of how can I remind her this isn't our style.

And it hit me: I was embarrassed of our place.

I'm actually really happy with our apartment here, given our options.

You see, Sydney has a massive housing shortage.

Oftentimes people start their housing search months in advance, to secure the best places.

However, we had one week to find an apartment,

a limited budget,

and we needed it furnished.

We searched, and searched, and searched.

Many apartments were too tiny.

Most were far too expensive.

And some were just downright gross.

We saw places with only a mini-fridge,

places with no parking spots for miles,

a place hubby claims was haunted,

a place with moldy blinds,

a place with wicker furniture {indoors},

and a place with a puddle in the middle of the living room.

By the time we found our apartment,

I think hubby would have signed on the dotted line to live under a bridge.

We weren't in love, but the place was the best option we'd found.

It was a 2-bedroom for the same price as many studios we'd looked at.

And although the furniture wasn't our style,

and least it was reasonable quality.

Yup, it would work.

And it has worked.

It's met all of our needs.

But as soon as my friend came over,

I felt like maybe I would be judged by our furniture,

and our artwork, and other decorations.

Why?

Because I think we learn a lot about a person

from the way they decorate their home.

And I certainly don't want to be judged based on this place.

But, for the sake of memories and laughs,

tomorrow, lovely friends, you're getting a tour of our place!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with sneak peek.

My Celebrity Twin

There's one celebrity I get compared to quite a lot.
Naturally, she's a more beautiful, better groomed version of myself.
So when Raven decided to host a doppelganger link-up, I happily agreed to participate.

However, I decided to do a little research to see if there were any other celebs that might be my true twin.  

Imagine my surprise when this is what MyHeritage thought:

And how creepy is that video!?!??!
So, I went a step further and checked out my "Top 8." Surely they would contain some better matches.

Seriously, My Heritage?!?!?  Lance Bass.  Lance freakin' Bass.  Oh no you di'nt.
I promise, peeps, I do not look like a gay boy band member in real life.

Okay, maybe I needed to try another site.
Here are my results from celebrity.picadilo.com:

What.The.Eff?!?!
Do I seriously look like a man?
And not even a hot man like Ryan Gosling or something.
Oh no, apparently I look like Robert Duvall or John Malkovich.
Greaaaaaaaaaaat.
I'm starting to develop a complex here...haha.

In all seriousness though....
I do have a legit celebrity doppelganger.
Even if these cracked out websites don't see it.
Would you like to know who people think I look like????

Yup, that's right, I look like Anne Hathaway, minus the bright lipstick and eyebrow tint.
I'm pretty sure our resemblance has to do with the big, toothy smile.

Funny enough, I actually stood next to Anne in a bathroom line for {no joke} 20 minutes at a small music bar in Los Angeles.  We were there to see She&Him, so obviously Anne has excellent taste in music.

From that experience, I can say with precision that I'm exactly 8 feet taller than Anne Hathaway.  And that my hips are the size of her shoulders.  But aside from those minor differences...we do, in fact, bear a resemblance.






 Is there anyone else who should be my doppelganger?


Tell me yours :)

Perfect Love

Jeff and I had a very love filled weekend.  

You see, we had a wedding to attend!

Don't you just love weddings :)

I know I do!

In the spirit of not buying anything new that will add to the shizz we have to take back to the USA,

I scoured my closet and came up with this outfit for the wedding.

{If I had my full USA closet, I would have selected different footwear!}

Luckily, the weather was beautiful and summery!

The venue was the Mahratta School of Philosophy in Wahroonga.

It was a lovely, old brick building,

with an art deco interior.

And the grounds were beautiful :)

However, I'm not writing to talk about what I wore,

or how lovely the venue was.

I'm writing to talk about true love,

about love in it's most perfect sense.

You see, the wedding was for my dear friend Michael.

Four years ago, Michael was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease.

{This is what Stephen Hawking has.}

It's a degenerative disease with no cure.

Your mind stays perfectly in tact, 

but your brain & nerves in your body quit communicating.

First it's your hands.  Then you can't walk quite right.

Pretty soon you cannot use your limbs.

From there, the numbness moves up the body,

until you cannot chew or swallow well.

You'll have to get a feeding tube.

Before long, your speech will be significantly impaired.

The course of the disease is different for everyone.

However, there is no cure.

Patients often die when they lose diaphragm control 

and therefore stop breathing.

The handsome groom

So when I think about Joanna and Michael,

who met each other after Michael had been diagnosed,

I think about love in it's most pure sense.

The kind of love that grows 

in friendship,

in respect,

in pure soul admiration.

You see, Michael & Joanna don't know how long they'll have together.

They'll never know the intimacy most marriages enjoy.

They'll never communicate their love in the same words as the rest of us.

Michael can hardly speak anymore.

But their love is deeper than that.

Deeper than the skin.

Deeper than common interests.

Deeper than talking late into the night.

Deeper than spoken I love you's.

It's the kind of love that must be felt.

The kind that must be known somewhere deep in the soul.

It's a perfect, pure love.

We should all be so lucky as to know that kind of love.

As if that weren't enough love for one weekend,

my girlfriend Steph and I had a girl's night

where we watched The Notebook.

I'd never seen The Notebook before.

{I'll pause while you gasp in shock and horror.}

And while I'm not one for chick flicks,

I must admit, it was a beautiful love story.

The story of a love that withstood the test of time.

We should all be so lucky 

as to know that kind of love.

Spiritual Sunday

"I was kneeling in prayer in the chapel--I was thinking of something that was coming into my life that filled me with apprehension.  I knew it was not the will of God that I should be saved from the experience.  Even at that moment it was moving toward me.  Suddenly God told me the prayer He would listen to, and I said quickly: "Change no circumstance of my life.  Change me."

-Sri Gyanamata, God Alone: The Life and Letters of a Saint