Monday, December 12, 2016

Holiday Gift Guide: The Bookworm

Books are one of my favourite gifts to give for Christmas and birthdays. Even just passing on books that I have truly loved to someone I think would enjoy them just as much gives me those fuzzy feel-good vibes. So I've tried my best to just pick a few favourites for this Holiday Gift Guide.


Kids Books



Soulful Books



Fiction Books



Cookbooks




Classic Books



More Holiday Gift Guides to Come...

Recent Posts:

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Holiday Gift Guide: The Kids

Today I thought I'd share some of my favourite kids gifts for the holidays. I love scouring the globe & the net for the most unique things for my wildling. In fact I even have an instagram account dedicated just to kids finds so I can personally keep track of things I find and love.

Our little guy has become kitchen obsessed since I started taking him to these amazing play sessions each week at the local TAFE and they have the BEST kitchen set up there. So we decided to get him one for Christmas. I hadn't seen this one though - boo! How cute us this vintage style kitchen? Sign up to Zanui's mailing list to get $10 off!


You know, to go with the cute kitchen above. Comes with a wooden toy mixer set and a wooden toy coffee machine set. Adorable! Spend $250 at Hip Kids and you'll get a free toy patisserie set worth $79.95.


An Aussie company creating chemical free play makeup, face paint, hair chalk, and temporary tatts. The kits come in brown kraft boxes for recycling. 



An absolute favourite in our house!



Kids love a teepee. This gorgeous one is 100% cotton.


100% organic cotton, safe inks, Australian made, sweatshop free. 


Oh this book brings back memories. My Mum's personal favourite and now it's my favourite to read to my little one. An Aussie classic.

Ha! I love this so much! All our Aussie favourites on a jigsaw puzzle. Too cute.


So excited to get these for my little guy. He's only 2 right now but I'm excited for the time when I can read him Harry Potter! Add Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to that list too.


More gift guides to come


Sunday, December 4, 2016

Holiday Gift Guide: The Soulful Mama

I've put together a Christmas Wishlist of some of my favourite gifts for the Soulful Mama. Gifts you might enjoy for a little zen-time. Gifts to fill your own cup. Gifts to hopefully light you up, beautiful Mamas.

A planning system that incorporates your soul and your to-do list, your gratitude list and your goals, your deepest desires with your day to day. I love how you can choose between a daily planner or a weekly one depending on how scheduled and organised you like to be.


These delicious Australian hand-poured soy candles each come with a hidden jewel inside - a ring, earrings, or a pendant necklace. Choose your brilliant scent (my choice is the Indian Palm Sunset), burn your lead-free cotton wick candle, hidden within will be your jewel. Free shipping on all orders and if you sign up to their newsletter you get $5 off!


Salted Caramel is my pick! Although you could always go for every flavour ;-) If you haven't had Loving Earth's raw organic chocolate before, you don't know what you're missing. Each bar is also cane sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, and vegan. Naughty ingredient free yet still wickedly decadent!


Who wouldn't want to give the gift of peace? These gift sets include a beautiful uniquely coloured, randomly selected, ornamental basket handmade with sisal fibres from agave plants and feature a tag signed by the specific artisan who made it. Through the Rwandan Peace Basket Project over 2000 women were provided work and paid a fair wage for each basket made exclusively for doTERRA. The set also includes a bottle of "Peace" essential oil blend which promotes feelings of contentment, composure, and reassurance when anxious and overwhelmed. Think vetiver, lavender, ylang ylang, frankincense, clary sage, marjoram, spearmint...


134 beautiful cards with truthbombs to use as a daily divination deck or to leave here and there as secret leave-behinds in perhaps a cafe or the subway? Printed on gorgeous thick creamy card stock with soy ink. Love!


Sooo many to choose from. I love the sound of this "womankind" blend: cranberry, rose & sweet vanilla. They have everything whether you need something to help you relax or need more of a refresher. There's chai, vanilla chai, and green chai. There's matcha and there's turmeric. A huge range of different herbal teas. Of course they also have your English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Rooibos too.  Can't choose one? They have a buy 4 get one free deal.


This is my favourite parenting book. As I began reading this I kept exclaiming "yes!" and had many an "aha!" moment. I threw out the rest of the parenting books I'd bought pre-baby, finally excited that I'd found something actually helpful and that really resonated with me.




The 108 sandalwood beads are calming and traditionally used in Buddhist malas for magnetising. Each mala includes a one-of-a-kind clear quartz - a powerful clarifying stone.


This one is on my Christmas Wishlist for sure! Simple, mindful, sustainable, wholesome meals? Yes please! I spy abundance bowls, cakes, and $2 meals. I'm in! 



Next up: Holiday Gift Guide for the little ones...


Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Our First Family Christmas Cards

Confession, I'm not the most organised person around and I love receiving Christmas cards from friends and family but never get my act together to send my own. This year I decided I would actually get my act together. We have so many family and friends living interstate and all over the world now and I thought it'd be such a nice idea to send a personalised Christmas card with pictures of our little family to our loved ones. Plus my Mum keeps complaining that we don't physically print out nice photos of her grandson for her - guilty!



I found this stunning "Peace" card on Tiny Prints. It was so beautiful and perfectly tied in with our photos. Being in Australia it's the middle of Summer at Christmas so we didn't want anything too "wintery themed" as it just wouldn't match our photos. Peace is the message of the year for us and as I've been on a huge spiritual journey inward over the past year, I couldn't think of anything better than a "Peace" card for the holidays.



I'm in love with the matching envelopes. There were all different coloured envelopes to choose from with all different inserts. Just gorgeous. Yes, yes, I chose the snowflakes for the envelopes - couldn't resist them.

So glad I actually got in early this year and ordered these. Now I'm all set to send them out so they arrive to our overseas friends and fam before Christmas. Mum will be happy to have a physical photo of her favourite little guy. Think I'll be extra organised and pop in a few printed pics of him. She'll be shocked!

Do you send out holiday cards? Or are you as disorganised as me?

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Have Baby Will Travel : Sunshine Coast, QLD #2

Our second Sunny Coast holiday this year we got to stay with friends who had just moved up there from Sydney. This was great, we got to explore areas we'd never seen before. Our little Master C was now 20 months old. He slept the entire plane trip up and back again, thankfully. 



We stayed in Peregian Beach however my sister, my mum, and my sister's friends stayed in Noosa so we split our time between the two areas. My sister's wedding dress designer is based in Noosa and she was heading up there for a dress fitting. When we all saw some cheap flights, we decided to all head up and make a little wedding party holiday out of it. 




We really loved staying in Peregian Beach. The beach itself was gorgeous and there was a great playground for our little one there. Across the road from the beach and playground were some great cafes, restaurants, and plenty of trendy little shops. The picture directly above is beautiful Noosa taken from the rooftop of the apartment my sister, mum, and friends were staying. There was a rooftop spa which we enjoyed with some champers and this delightful view!



Here were our top picks on the Sunny Coast this holiday....

Eat


Skal Coffee is right on Peregian Beach. Great coffee and I hear they possibly have the best brewed chai on the Sunny Coast too. I was in gluten free, refined sugar free, dessert heaven! They even have a great little juice bar inside. Perfect place to grab a coffee & cake and then head over to the beach or the playground.




Zachary's is well known for its pizza on the Sunshine Coast. They have a few different locations. We went to the Peregian Beach one for a late lunch of pizza and cocktails. They definitely lived up to the hype and I happily devoured a gluten free pizza while the rest of our party had regular dough.





We love Blended for quick take away coffees and acai bowls on the go. So much to see there's not always time for a long brekkie. So Blended is the place we like to go to grab something nutritious and delicious on the run. Turns out my almond acai bowl was a hit with Master C ;-)



Here are other great restaurants which the rest of our party enjoyed but we decided were a bit hard with our energetic little guy who never sits still...




Shop



Very rad mum wear, baby wear, and home wear store. Wanted to buy everything!




His & Hers store in Peregian Beach. Definitely worth a visit.




Ooooh the most gorgeous global homewares and treasures you ever did see. They also have a Sydney store.


See


Last Sunny Coast trip we did lots of sightseeing like Eumundi Markets and Montville. This time we relaxed a lot more and spent time at the beach. 





As I mentioned before, Peregian Beach is gorgeous and there's a great little playground right there for the kids. Plus great coffee, shops, and restaurants right there. Above you can see our friend Katie, who we stayed with, taking our wild one off to the playground.



Can't come to the Sunny Coast and not visit Noosa's main beach. It's so beautiful.





Noosaville

Perfect paddle spot on the river for the tots and also for a bit of stand up paddle boarding.




Next up, our recent trip to Byron Bay...


See our previous Sunshine Coast trip here.



Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Chakra 7 - Crown Chakra

pinterest



Crown Chakra | 7th Chakra | Sahasrara


Chakra 7 or your Crown Chakra is all about surrendering to the divine. A sense of being one with all there is. This chakra is located at the top of the head. The colour for chakra 7 is Violet.

~

My favourite ways to connect with my crown chakra and allow the divine to express itself through me are:


* lots of meditation and stillness

* surrounding myself with the colour violet and noticing it around me everywhere I go

* concentrating on the top of my head and imagining breathing violet light up into it

* doing anything where I can really get creative

* reading as much as I can about deeply spiritual beings, saints, yogis...

* eating and juicing pure organic foods. Drinking plenty of water. Keeping away from highly processed foods.

* really connect with my crown. Try to think about this area as I do day to day activities. This is also a great tip for mindfulness as it anchors you into your body and gives your mind a task.

* As I mentioned in my previous posts on chakra one, two, three, four, five, and six, I love to wear an organic essential perfume oil that resonates with each chakra. I personally use Lemon Canary's chakra range of perfume oils or mix my own using doTERRA certified therapeutic grade essential oils. For chakra seven think notes of lime, bergamot, lavender, cedarwood, orange sweet, frankincense, geranium, ylang ylang, and rose.




After a yoga pose to support your crown chakra? Sirsasana or Head Stand is perfect for activating the crown.


You can find more on yoga poses to support each chakra here. 




Every time I'm chakra cleansing and I get to chakra 7, this is where I always am. Walking in a lavender field, breathing in a vibrant purple lavender mist. Something I've recently been seeing in my other Shaman Journeying meditations, but more on that another time. 



Above is my little guy on our recent visit to Crystal Castle & Shambhala Gardens in Byron Bay. How amazing are these towering amethyst caves?

For a much more in-depth course on your chakras and learning how to cleanse and balance them along with becoming more intuitive, soul aligned, and mindful, and also learning to work with the white light, I highly recommend Belinda Davidson's School of the Modern Mystic. However enrolment is over for this year and you will have to register for next year's intake in late 2017.




Now that we've finished our little intro to the 7 chakras I have more travel posts to share: another Sunny Coast trip and our very recent Byron Bay trip. Also my sister just had the most perfect wedding last week so I'd love to share some pics. I'll have to get back to my #wallartwednesday posts too.




Recent Posts:





Note: I am not an affiliate for Lemon Canary but just personally love her chakra range of oils and have found them to be a wonderful support for my daily chakra work. I am however an ambassador for Belinda Davidson's School of the Modern Mystic. It has radically changed my energy, changed my life, and I am a huge advocate for how daily chakra cleansing, daily white light work, and practising mindfulness can radically raise your vibe and change your life.