Life Lately// Taking Stock

My study buddy napping on my lap

I've been a crappy blog reader lately, and for that I apologise! I must admit, I hit "mark all as read" *gasp* after about 10 posts today because it is simply too hot to be bothered with reading ANYTHING and I have plenty of uni stuff to read when it cools down this evening (will it ever?) and don't need to be distracted. The posts I have read, I have been pretty slack at commenting on too, and again I apologise! I just don't have the patience to type in this heat AND IT'S ONLY OCTOBER, GOD HELP ME!

SO, that is why I am bringing you a sorta lazy blog post today that I found on Laura's blog. Although I did actually really enjoy reading hers, as I hope you do mine!

Making: Bunting for my friend's wedding
Cooking: Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Choloclate Fudge Brownies *drool* 
Drinking: WATER! Seriously too easy to dehydrate in this heat. Plus, it cools you down for about 0.05 seconds.
Reading:The Night Circus for Sam's online book club!
Wanting: Spare time to go to the beach. And money, please!
Looking: For inspiration for my blog, and life in general, and motivation for uni and my business ventures.
Playing: The Kim Kardashian game. FML. 
Deciding: On putting my heart and soul into my business ventures. I'm a pretty half-arses kinda person, so this is tough for me, even though it will pay off.
Wishing: The weather would be a bit cooler while I'm getting uni work done.
Enjoying: Days at the beach and time spent with Jake
Waiting: For my pay to go in
Liking: The jacaranda trees in full bloom.
Wondering: Whether I have what it takes.
Loving: Jake.
Pondering: My life choices.
Considering: Giving up some things and taking on some more
Watching: New season New Girl and Bones, season 9 of Criminal Minds
Hoping:I pass all my subjects this semester
Marvelling: At how our bodies work.
Needing: Money.
Smelling: Like strawberry essential oil
Wearing: As little clothing as possible.
Following: my nose
Noticing: all the little things I love about my hometown
Knowing: How to classify epithelial tissue (how useful)
Thinking: About the future
Admiring: Amy
Sorting: Out my finances.
Buying: Arbonne. All the Arbonne. Oh, and a new bikini hopefully!
Getting: fitter. I joined touch football and am learning to surf and doing yoga!
Bookmarking: nothing much.
Disliking: wearing a lab coat in sweltering heat.
Opening: textbooks
Giggling: so much this morning that the water I was drinking came out my nose
Feeling: uncertain and unconfident
Snacking: On frozen berries.
Coveting: A complete make up kit and a new car.
Helping: My cousin build her business.
Hearing: Anatomy and Physiology podcasts, mingled in with jack Johnson and Sticky Fingers.

What have you been ding lately?
Thanks for reading along xx

Weekend Fun// Sticky Fingers at The Northern

Ever since my sister turned 18 in August, I've been excited over the prospect of going to a gig at our local venue, The Northern with her. Yeah, we went clubbing on her 18th, have been to all ages events before, and have had drinks together elsewhere since then, but nothing compared to my excitement of finally going to a licensed, over 18 gig with my little sister at my favourite venue, and the chance to do this finally came on the weekend!

I had umm'ed and ahh'ed about buying tickets to Sticky Fingers for weeks before Shoni brought it up. The show sold out. Then the second show sold out. There, that was it, I thought. No tickets, no go! Until Shoni saw that one of her friends was selling two tickets to the Saturday night gig, that is!

When Saturday night rolled around, we were pretty damn excited. We ate dinner nice and early, and got ready together with Sticky Fingers blasting in the background while we sang along. I drove to the gig, again with Sticky Fingers blasting in the background and we got some drinks at the bar upon arrival, waiting for the doors to The Backroom to open. Being a sold out show and Rugby Union grand final night, the crowd at The Northern was huge. We met some real characters before the doors opened, and were totally surprised that we managed to make it to the front of the stage when they finally started admitting people to The Backroom, even with another stop at the bar along the way. Shoni was elated. The Northern is a pretty small venue that hosts some pretty big names sometimes and for some reason or another, it's the only venue left in our area that doesn't put up a dicky barricade a metre or so back from the stage.

The first supporting act was a two piece band who's name I forget, but who really made a great impression! They knew how to get a crowd going and the sound of the electric guitar and drums was sweet! We were right in front of the drummer and Shoni managed to catch his drumstick at the end of their set. The second supporting act was a one man band who cracked Shoni and I up with his hilarious tippy-toe dancing, but he was pretty good too.

By the time Sticky Fingers hit the stage, we were well and truly ready to get dancing! Their set was so full of energy, and we danced like crazy ladies, singing along to the words we knew and making things up for those we didn't! They played all our favourite songs, and Dylan even stage dived at one point, which was awesome! At the end of the night, Shoni and I trudged back to the car tired, but still buzzing from the music. Paddy's guitar pick in my hand (I complimented his awesome mullet and I like to think we struck up a friendship of sorts after spending an hour dancing at his feet!), and the first band's drum stick in Shoni's. 

If you've never heard of Sticky Fingers before, you should definitely check them out! They describe their sound as "a melting pot of reggae, psych, pop and bourbon. Hypnotising you into a swaying trance, then punching you in the face for dancing like a hippy." I'll leave a couple of youtube clips below for you to enjoy! 

Book Review// Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent

It's been a few weeks now since I read this book, and it since has been borrowed by a friend, but the passionate stories within have imprinted on my mind as if put there by a branding iron! Peggy Vincent's captivating storytelling combines with a seemingly never-ending supply of interesting life experiences to make this book a quick and pleasant read - one that I finished in a single afternoon on account of walking around with it glued to my nose, unable to put it down. 

You may have guessed by the title that Peggy Vincent is a midwife, but she is not just any midwife - she is one of the pioneering midwives of America's recent natural birthing movement, and this book is a series of short stories which capture beautifully her career. It talks not just of beautiful home births, but also the challenges that faced midwives in the early days, battles against obstetricians and hospital policy, the challenges of setting up a birth centre, legal problems and birth complications, all done in a captivating way. 

It is a book that has reinvigorated the passion within me for natural childbirth. It has lifted my spirits in a time of struggling with university, despairing my choice to switch degrees into midwifery, and restored my faith that being a midwife is my calling. It awakened me to the stark differences between Australian and American birthing practices, and it left me swelling with pride for the profession that I have chosen to enter into. Having said all this, I do not think this book's magic is reserved for midwives or midwives-to-be. I think that anyone who loves a bit of riveting adventure would love this book, especially if you happen to enjoy non-fiction and be even just slightly partial to medical dramas (who isn't, amiright?). 

All-in-all, it is a compelling light read and I cannot sing it's praises enough. Amidst all the heavy medical textbooks and terminology I'm forced into reading for university, I really enjoyed this little reminder of what midwifery is all about and the magic of childbirth! 

From Student to Midwife: Part 2 - Reflection on my First Semester

So, last week was a little quiet on the blog because I had exams. Incredibly hard exams. My first exams for my midwifery degree. In the above picture, I am procrastinating on the day before my physiology exam, with a terrible head cold and wearing a smile to mask the cold lump of fear in the pit of my stomach. As I've mentioned before, I've found this semester quite difficult. Going from an Arts degree to a Health degree is a huge transition, and so I'm a little out of practice with exams, having spent the past year and a half writing essays instead.

I found out last week that I have passed one of my subjects, however our marks aren't officially released for another couple of weeks yet. I'm fairly confident that I also passed nutrition, and fairly convinced that I failed physiology and will have to repeat it next year.

Right now, I have a few blissful weeks off before starting Summer Semester, which I opted to do this year to speed up my degree a little. It starts on the 20th of October, and I'll be doing Anatomy, Research and Evidence Based Practice and Pharmacology, the last of my generic health units before I start my midwifery units in February next year. Apparently Anatomy involves some viewing of cadavers, which both repulses me on one level and has my inner freaky, science nerd screaming "COOL!"

While I haven't enjoyed this semester quite as much as I was hoping, I have learned a lot and I'm one step closer to achieving my goal of becoming a midwife. I'm looking forward to a few weeks break and getting through a little more of my extracurricular reading about midwifery in the meantime. One semester down, seven more to go!

Bright Bedroom Wishlist & Moving Home*

Bright Bedroom by sunae-reilly featuring a hooked rug

Those of you who follow me on various social media platforms will probably already know that I moved back in with my parents this weekend. There were a variety of reasons for this - the main one being my health and I've realised that it's definitely the right option for me at this time in my life. I won't be moving out again in a hurry, and for the first time in a long time, I'm finally going to have the money to decorate a little!

The above colour scheme was inspired by that awesome, lime green bean bag which is from Bean Bag Boss, and the brightly coloured floral duvet cover which is from K-mart and is currently on special for just $29! Moving back into mum and dads means that a lot of my stuff is having to go into storage, and I'll be back to a single bedroom again, so I like the idea of the bean bag so I have somewhere to sit and read, away from the rest of the crazy house, and can just tuck it out the way under the bed or in a corner when I'm done.

This is a slightly brighter take on the pastels that I usually go for, but I love that all I'd have to do is switch out the duvet cover to return to that softer look if I wanted to. I'm currently working on a bright/pastel granny square blanket to fit a double bed and think the pops of colour in this little collage would go really well with the yarn I've chosen. Any guesses what my favourite colour is? Hint: it's everywhere in the above picture! Follow the links below the collage to find out where everything is from! What do you think of this colour scheme? Anything in particular that you love from this collage?

Casual Spring Outfit

Lately I have been thinking a lot more about how I dress and what style clothes I want to be wearing. Style is a funny old thing, and I find that unlike some people, I'm not attracted to any one particular style of dressing, but rather like to adapt my style to my mood, the weather and where I'll be going that day. As is begins to warm up here in Australia, I'm finding myself particularly attracted to clean, crisp colours, small details on colour blocked outfits and chiffon. The other direction I find myself dressing in is a floaty, bohemian style which very much suits the leisurely lifestyle in my beachy hometown, and then of course there is my perpetual love of vintage silhouettes and florals.

This outfit very much fits in with the clean, crisp look that I've been adopting lately, aside from the crystal around my neck, which I bought using a $50 voucher I recently won in Christina Lowry Designs' Facebook competition. These white shorts are probably my most worn piece of clothing at the moment, as I am willing the summer weather to really set in. I had my first beach day on the last day of September, and you may notice in these photos, I'm a little bit sunburnt on the front, and bright red (and in tonnes of pain) on the back of my legs. It makes a great (albeit unwanted) contrast with the white shorts, but hopefully it will turn to tan soon. 

Details:

Top: Temt

Shorts: Valleygirl

Shoes: Big W

Bag: Custom made leather in Bali (thanks mum)

Necklace: Christina Lowry Designs Nature's Play Pendant

All Other Jewellery: My regular, every day stuff, gifted

I've been wanting to share outfit photos on here for as long as I've been blogging, and I'm incredibly glad I've finally done it, even if I've just used iPhone photos and it's only a casual outfit. As my style (or styles) develop, I want to document that on the blog, become more confident in the way I dress, and share comfortable, everyday outfits that are easy and cheap to recreate, because as much as I love fashion blogs, there is nothing more depressing than not being able to afford the clothes that the people who write them are wearing. I wore this outfit today to meet a friend for coffee in my hometown and I felt incredibly put together despite only being in casual clothes. We had a great chat, talking wedding stuff (hers is coming up in April) and planning ways to convince Jake to move to Evans Head with me and join the rugby club with her fiancé. Our partners have been good friends since before we met and I am really keen for him to get more involved socially in things in Evans Head, because as much as I love Lennox it's just way too out of our price range and Evans Head will always be home. What do you think of this casual style? Are you a one style kinda gal, or like me, do you match your style to your mood?