Life Lately: A Seal Encounter at Taronga Zoo

Why hello there! You might have noticed that I didn't put up my usual Monday blog post yesterday.

Why? Because, you see, I was off making a new friend.

December is a crazy month for us - as it probably is for you too. We're busily trying to finish up work for the year - whilst also trying to fit in all of the fun social things too. Every weekend has been full of events (from birthdays and Christmas celebrations to weddings and family events) and weeks have been full of work which has left me with little time to blog.

So yesterday, when I had to race out of the house early to get to the zoo in time to meet my new friend Mali, I didn't get a chance to put together a post!

But don't worry - a recipe is coming!

But first, I thought I'd share some of our trip to the zoo with you - and tell you about my new friend Mali! 

So let me share it with you! >> 

Random Ramblings: Snapshots of Life Lately

Hello there! Remember me? 

I took a little unplanned hiatus from the blog after the Easter long weekend as I was feeling positively woeful with the flu that didn't actually turn into the flu (it's just this weird lingering pre-flu-ness) but nevertheless, I AM BACK!

You probably didn't miss me, but I missed you so I thought I'd catch you up on what's been happening over the weekend. I thought I'd do this week's random ramblings a little bit differently by sharing some snapshots and stories of life lately. 

So let me share these photos and stories with you! >> 

Random Ramblings: Tangible Friends and Cry Babies

You guyyyyssss. I have been so busy with work lately that any time I'm not working, my brain is just mush. 

I get to the end of the day and there's just radio silence up there in my noggin because my brain has totally called it quits. I mean, it probably has a right too... it's quite overworked at the moment - but I like to think of myself as a generous brain boss and it's not exactly underpaid as I feed it plenty of food and chocolate and good stuff. 

But with my brain being all mushy, I thought we could keep things simple with today's post and do things survey style. That way, you can pick a few things and ramble along with me. 

So let's get rambling >>

Random Ramblings: Why Saving the Best For Last is Actually a Cover Up

I'm currently writing to you with rain pouring down outside my window and I can hear the raindrops falling into puddles. The sky is grey and dark and gloomy and I have a whole day of meetings in the city. Wonderful. 

I'm fine with rain, in bed, when I'm snuggled up in bed getting ready to sleep. But during the day? Rain turns me into a hermit crab. 

I hear it and I feel soggy. Instantly my mind remembers the last time I got soaked and I can feel my soggy socks inside my shoes, my shirt sticking to my stomach and that weird heavy feeling from the raindrops on my jeans. 

Sure, rain does wonderful things - but I think it's a bit gross when I have places to go, people to see and they probably don't want to see my looking like a drowned rat. 

But I digress....

I had a really great epiphany over the weekend. 

Jesse and I were in the car driving home from the shops when Jesse said "save the best for last!"... and then it hit me. 

Save the best for last was totally a phrase invented by a husband who forgot to mention his wife. 

He was all "I love beer, football, tacos, sleep oh and Jennifer...... save the best for last!" 

Internally he was like "YAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSS! BEST SAVE EVER!" and his friends were all "HE IS A GENIUS!" and his wife, Jennifer, was all "ha! Isn't that cute" (actually let's be real, his wife probably knew that it was a desperate effort to dig himself out of the hole he was digging). 

Yep, I think I got it in one. 

But tell me, what's the last epiphany you had? 

And what kind of weather do you hate the most? 

And I want to say "all weather is lovely because it all has a positive side" but let's be real here people, I hope there's no miserable, overcast, rainy days in heaven.... unless there's also netflix and nothing else to do but binge watch supernatural over and over again 😜

And, whilst we're at it, what would your ideal day in heaven look like for you?

I said ideal so that doesn't have to mean realistic, friends 😉

    

   

Random Ramblings: When Donuts are a Health Food

No cartoons today because things are ALL sorts of crazy this week and I'm just about to rush off for a day of meetings - but luckily for you, busy weeks aren't without random ramblings or crazy moments so let's jump into it!

Here's what has been on my mind lately >>

Random Ramblings: Where NOT To Do Yoga

Well hey, you! 

Today I thought I'd skip the projects and, you know, productive stuff and share what's been on my mind lately. If you're new around here, you might have never seen one of these random ramblings posts before - and boy oh boy are you in for a treat 😉

Not really... or maybe really, I don't know. But nevertheless, welcome to the inside of my brain... complete with my random cartoons!

Here's what I've been thinking about lately >> 

Random Ramblings #12

So here I am sitting here with my sketch book (it literally says "sketch book" on it... I tell no lies, friends) ready to scribble away and share all the random things on my mind with you...

Only there's now only one thing on my mind... 

How weird many normal things actually are....

Let me explain. Yesterday I was watching TV with my Mum and Dad (Jesse was out at the movies on a man date) and they were watching The X Factor (I think? shows how much attention I was paying...) and the judges started clapping. 

That's when I realised... clapping is really freaking weird. 

You're essentially saying "oh wow, I am so happy/excited/proud/joyful/appreciative that I am going to slap my hands together repeatedly". 

Ummmmm. Who decided clapping was a thing? 

Now the thought process in my brain is "why the heck did you write about clapping, Kristy?! Now you've got to draw clapping hands and you're really terrible at hands"... forgive me, friends.

Moving on.... 

You know what else we realised is weird? Pineapples. 

I was cutting a pineapple yesterday when Jesse came over (and seemingly saw the weird spiky bits flying everywhere and the huge mess I was making) and said "um... who was the person who decided pineapples were for eating? Like really, who looks at this rock-looking-spiky-thing and says I think I'm going to eat this". 

Which then lead me to think about all the other foods that are weird.... 

Lychees that are weird gelatinous eyeball-like things, milk (don't even get me started on milk), artichokes... the list goes on and on. I feel like people just went around sticking everything in their mouth and if someone died they were like "whoops... that was a doozy". 

Now I'm also kind of annoyed that I started drawing in a black texta versus a pen as now these drawings look dodgy - but I'm too lazy and it's too early to try and draw hands again and start all over :P 

Another thing that's really weird is sleep (I don't have anything against sleep... I just find it weird that the first person who slept wasn't concerned that they were going to be unconscious for X amount of hours and not die.... well I suppose they didn't know what death was..).

But weirder than that is the whole caterpillar > cocoon > butterfly thing. 

Wouldn't you be totally weirded out if you went to sleep and woke up as a whole different person? 

Do butterflies and caterpillars even speak the same language?! Do you just wake up from your little cocoon and all of a sudden your whole family has no idea who you are and you can't even speak to them? 

But tell me, what's something "normal" you think is really weird? 

And if you were to wake up as a new person, who would you want to be? 

I was telling Jesse last night how I kind of wish I had Ariel-red hair, so perhaps I'd like to wake up as Isla Fisher... but not married to Borat...

    

   

Kristy's Random Ramblings #11

It's that time again - time for me to spill all the random things that are floating around my brain onto the blog with my silly little sketches.

If you've hit a bit of a writer's block or feel like something different, feel free to ramble along with me on your own blog - or share your rambles with me in the comments! That way, I look a little less crazy than I actually am ;) 

This is going a little bit deep for a random ramblings post but hey, bear with me friends.. 

Lately I've realised how important it is not to make decisions out of fear. I'm not going to be vague here and leave it at that because that kind of annoys me - so let me explain. 

Jesse and I have been looking for a house for 6 or so months now (I'd say casually looking because we aren't in a huge rush and thus don't need to settle) and whilst we've officially applied for four houses, we've only been accepted for one. 

That one was one I looked at on the weekend by myself and even though I wasn't overly keen on it, I still handed an application. That day I realised it totally wasn't right for us based on a number of different reasons and low-and-behold who do I get a phone call from yesterday afternoon? The agent. 

Immediately I went from "no way, this house isn't right for us" to "well maybe we should say yes". Why? Fear, my friends.

LUCKILY, I realised it was fear driving my decision and ended up telling the agent no, however, if I had have said yes based on fear - it definitely wouldn't have been a good decision. 

Not really the greatest story in the world (sorry, friends...) but the moral of it is; DON'T MAKE DECISIONS OUT OF FEAR! In caps because it's very important... okay? 

If you're waiting for a sign not to let fear rule your life... this is it ;) 

Speaking of bear with me.... I've realised that a lot of people mistakingly write "bare with me" without realising they're essentially telling people to strip off and get naked with them.

This, my friends, is the importance of grammar. 

Definitely do not tell your Tinder match (is that what they call them? I have no clue) to "bare with you" a second whilst you do something because they may be thinking something totally different... 

I had a bit of an ephiphany earlier in the week when I was talking to my little friend who I volunteer with about how some letters are similar - like how a capital F is like a capital E with a "bite" taken out of it and that's how he gets confused. 

I was trying to comfort him and I ended up making myself realise that FAT is just EAT with a bite taken out of the E. 

I'll never look at either word the same again :P 

But tell me, have you had any epiphanies lately?

Anything you learnt this week? A life lesson? A random fact? What's floating around your head right now? 

    

   

Kristy's Random Ramblings #10

It's Wednesday and my mid-week rambles are BACK! Here's what's been floating around my mind lately... 

Disclaimer: I am NOT pregnant, promise! You'll know! This is not an "asking for a friend" situation.

I was talking to a friend who has a toddler and all of a sudden I had a dejavu moment. You see, our conversation was one we were having just two years earlier - only she was pregnant than. 

I realised that pregnancy is totally training for what's to come. Why? Take a look at our two conversations: 

Food Aversions

Whilst pregnant: "All food is disgusting. Even chocolate... I love chocolate but right now? I hate it. I hate everything. Pizza, pasta, salads, fruits - I hate it all."

With a toddler: "He hates everything. Even the foods that were his favourites last week he will not touch. All of a sudden he just wakes up and NOPE. Sorry Mum, you bought 6000000 bananas yesterday but now I hate them."

Cravings

Whilst pregnant: So I'm sitting on the couch eating yogurt with soy sauce. Judge away, growing a human makes you do weird things. 

With a toddler: "He asked for a peanut butter and vegemite sandwich and I was like "WHO WOULD EVEN DO THAT?!". You don't mix peanut butter and vegemite?!?!? Weird child."

Emotions

Whilst pregnant: Cries about everything 

With a toddler: He just cries over every little thing. EVERY little thing. That's not normal, surely? 

Ummmmmm am I right or am I right?! It's like God was like "well, I can't stop human children from being weird so I better prepare the mother whilst she grows it". 

In other news, why do we use the word gooey as a good thing. 

Gooey brownies. Gooey chocolate..... the list goes on and on but I feel like gooey is kind of one of those words like moist. It's just gross.

Am I the only one who overthinks words? 

But tell me, what's been floating around your brain lately? 

What words do you think we should STOP using? 

And if you're a Mum/Mum-to-be - what's something you've done that a toddler would probably do too?