SUMMER 2014 || FEBRUARY... I'VE DONE IT

OH, this little blogging space. If there was someone who could break all the unwritten, and possibly written, laws of blogging, it would ...

katiecrackernuts.blogspot.com || cable knit mug warmer

OH, this little blogging space. If there was someone who could break all the unwritten, and possibly written, laws of blogging, it would be me. What's a month, or so, between friends? Here, I'll put the kettle on and we can catch up.

My poor excuse for not being online is that I've been busy enjoying time offline. The Festival of 40 reached its zenith this past week and I was determined to squeeze in as many memorable moments with friends and family as possible - and it was worth it. I am one truly lucky 40-year-old woman, with glorious, generous, funny, zany, wonderfully wise people in my life, as noted against all I did this past month.

I READ: A friend and work colleague share books we like and think should be read more widely, including her most recent selection for me: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The main character, the young Francie, is hard to leave on each reading, even more so as she drifts from her own plain-speaking, all-seeing early 20th Century childhood into adult life and a changing world.

I WENT TO: Sydney. I know. I'm there every day for work, right? But this time, instead of commuting back up to the Central Coast on the Friday evening, I stayed for a weekend and spent time shopping and eating and catching up with some of my favourite people. I splurged and booked into the Grace Hotel, spent a day shopping with a girlfriend in Paddington, met my partner in the afternoon and pottered around in the city before jumping on a train out to Newtown for an early feed at our favourite Greek restaurant, Steki Taverna. The next day, we met a bunch of friends for lunch and a Sunday afternoon of lounging about in the back of Paddington Inn. A perfect 'stay-cation'.

I LISTENED TO: I am listening to The Book Thief as an audio book. Maybe I've been spoiled by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (see above) but I am just not feeling the love everyone else has felt for this book. No spoilers, I'm halfway through.

I ATE: God, what won't I eat at the moment. If I don't stop soon, the two dresses I bought myself as a 40th birthday present ain't gunna fit.

Anyhoot, expanding waistline aside, the salt and pepper squid at La Buvette, in Potts Point, was declared one of the best I'd tasted. More so, my dining companion concurred and for her this is a big call; she's a connoisseur of all the best dining spots in Sydney.

A day later in Paddington we were refuelling at Micky's Café after a girly morning of shopping and felt a similar passion for the polenta chips with gorgonzola.

Now, please don't judge me, but the very same day I backed up with a chocolate selection from Kakawa, in Gaffa Gallery, choosing a peanut praline and strawberry jelly bar to share and a single strawberry cream of pureed strawberry and white chocolate. It's true, if I don't stop now, nothing in my wardrobe will fit.

I SAW: Does my ridiculous obsession with the BBC's Sherlock count? Hmm, probably not. What about the return of the Dr Blake Mysteries? No. Hmm. Downton Abbey? Away from the idiot box, I saw a lot of my friends and family. There were birthdays - we have a run of them in February and March - lunch and dinner dates, coffee dates, play dates, even real-life romantic dates (and they're as rare as hen's teeth).

I MADE: There's nothing to boast of here but I did manage to pull apart a cupboard of craft supplies and purge a lot of broken down, and just plain broken, bits and pieces. That's something, right?

Cable-knit mug warmer, pictured // A beautiful gift from Miss Poppet Hill

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