Missed milestones & a giveaway

Skirt & top: Valleygirl // necklace: Betty Johnson // shoes: forever new //

October saw two big milestones of this blog come and go. I happened to miss both of them, which makes me a little sad but I thought its better to celebrate late than never. On the 11th October my blog turned two! Which is just crazy because I am generally the kind of person who starts a new hobby and never finishes it. Somehow though blogging has really hooked me, I think its mainly due to the amazing people that I have meet from all over the world. 


When it comes to blogging it is easy to get carried away with how many followers you have or to publish posts that you think will be popular. I have learnt over my two years that you really need to just write about what you love otherwise blogging can get tiresome very quickly. 


I had wanted to do outfit posts for ages before I actually started doing them I was scared that I couldn’t add anything to the already huge range of fashion blogs and I am not saying that I do add anything but I have so much fun doing it that it doesn’t really matter. Write about what you love to the best of your ability! 


To celebrate these two milestones I have a tiny giveaway for readers! This purse and headscarf both from ASOS will go to one lucky winner.
♥ To enter you must be a follower of this blog (you can start following now) and you must leave a comment telling me your favourite posts to read on blogs i.e. travel, fashion, DIY etc ♥  For additional entries you can tweet about the giveaway (remember to include @timeaftertea) or blog about the giveaway. You must leave a seperate comment for each entry for them to be included. 
♥  The giveaway is open internationally and is open until 14/11/11 at 5pm.


Virtual cupcakes and lolly bags for all xx

Motivate me

Bag: thrifted // necklace: thrifted // skirt: target // top: forever 21 // shoes: sportsgirl

The weekend, oh dear, every weekend is coming around quicker and quicker. Soon it will be time to start thinking about christmas presents and summer holidays.This outfit is not very reflective of the Spring weather we should be having, the whole week has been overcast and chilly, I had the heater on last night it got so cold.

Tonight I have had a lazy Friday night in after dropping Brendan at the bus stop this morning at 5.30am - the things we do for love, right? Wine, pizza and a movie seems like a good start to the weekend.

Lately I have completely fallen out of the healthy habits (note the pizza and wine above) I had gotten into during the year so this weekend I am going to get back into exercising and going to go grocery shopping and try and stock up on fruit and veggies. Its amazing how it can take months to get into good habits but only a few weeks to fall out of them and you have to start all over again. Augh remotivate me, please!!

Have a great weekend!

Things to love about Spring

Summer is my favourite season of all. I am one of those crazy kids who loves sweltering heat, not many people do. However as Spring is the lead up to Summer I quite like it too.  So I thought I would share my top things to do in Spring and maybe you can share yours too.

Eat lots of seasonal fruit, mangoes, strawberries, cherries, grapes, passion fruits yummy! I eat way to many mangoes in Spring, I cant get enough.

Go on long bike rides, Autumn and Spring are the perfect bike riding seasons, Summer can get a bit too hot so I am going to try and squeeze in lots of rides now.

Stop and smell the flowers, literally! Unless you have crazy hayfever, than maybe stop and look at them. My neighbours have this crazy wisteria that smells so gorgeous for a couple of weeks every Spring.

Have Sunday naps with the blinds and window open, there is nothing better than napping with a fresh breeze coming in, plus it means you wont oversleep if you keep the blinds open.

Experiment with pastels and other fun Spring colours. I want to wear lots of pretty pink lipsticks and maybe give orange a whirl.

Make lots of yummy beverages; cocktails, ice tea, smoothies now is the season to get creative.

I put in a post last week how much I love just throwing on a dress in Spring and being able to run out the door. I am always attracted to floral patterns at this time of the year.

And finally a new tradition I want to start is going on a picnic with Brendan,with my laptop and a new movie downloaded and watching a movie under a big shady tree.

What do you love about Spring? Do you have any Spring traditions?

Los Angeles twice around

We spent two nights in Los Angeles, one at the start of our trip and one at the end. Our first night was a bit of a disaster unfortunately and I couldn't help thinking that we had started our trip off on the wrong foot. We arrived at the airport just as customs computer system went down which left us standing in the cue for two hours. When we got out we made our way to our hotel which we found was practically in the middle of no where. We quickly had a shower and got changed as we had baseball tickets for that night. 

We ran down and asked the quickest way to get to the Angels stadium which was apparently taxi. $100 later we got to the stadium, I nearly died handing over the money but it was our own fault for not researching better. The baseball was really fun and I loved getting to experience the atmosphere, my favourite part was the kissing cam. We then made our way back to our hotel (yes in our taxi) and got up the next morning at 5am to head to Vegas.

LA Take two....

We headed back to LA the day before we flew back to Australia and this time we were determined to do it right. We stayed at the Luxe on Rodeo Drive which was quite possibly the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in. We sat at the restaurant on Rodeo Drive and ate delicious Caesar Salads and drank wine and people watched. We than went and had mani/ pedis and got Sprinkles cupcakes, yum! I think I liked them better than Magnolia Bakery. Before dinner we went on a big walk around Beverly Hills admiring all the gorgeous houses.

The next day we slept in and went on a bus tour around Los Angeles and finally spent some time in Hollywood. It is so crazy to see all these things you have seen on movies and tele in real life. We than had to hurry back to our hotel and head to the airport to come home. I was glad that we had the chance to go LA after our first little disaster, I would definitely head back as I saw lots of things on our tour that I would love to go back and do.

I only have one more place left to share from my trip, and I think I have saved the best till last, New York! Hopefully I will have it up later in the week.

Hello weekend, I am glad you're here.

Skirt: H&M // Bag: Steve Madden // Shoes: Lucky Brand // Blazer: Dotti // Shirt: Blaque// Ring: Random boutique

Happy weekend everyone, I cannot believe how quickly it has come around this week. Work has been really busy lately and I have been working long days which has meant I have been coming home exhausted. It is 9pm on a Friday night and I am planning on going to bed after I publish this post, can anyone else say grandma? I was so excited for the weekend today I ran straight out of work and forgot to look both ways on the road and was nearly hit by a car. I think the driver got more of a fright than I did.

This weekend includes catching up with a friend from Sydney, visiting the farmers markets, catching up on blogs and going to a work Ball tomorrow night. Hopefully somewhere in there I will see Brendan, we have both been crazy busy lately and barely seen each other. That should all change now as today was his last day of uni, he is officially a teacher and I am so proud of him. Were officially both grown ups now haha.

Alright who I am kidding? Squeezing in an episode of Real Housewives before bed, have a great weekend!

New: purchases from the States

~Tiffany necklace ~ Monet Earrings ~ Toms ~ New Shorts for Spring ~ Forever 21 Robot necklace ~ Starbucks cup ~ Kate Spade wallet and H&M skirt ~ Forever 21 Red Romper~

Just a fun little post to share some of my purchases from the States.


I adore my Starbucks mug, it reminds me of lazy starts to the morning eating a bagel and drinking a latte. It amazes me how Starbucks is everywhere in the US, Australia has such a different coffee culture. Everyone has their little local coffee shop that they get their morning coffee from, larger coffee franchises just don’t seem to do as well here.


My Tiffany’s necklace was an early bday gift from my mum, purchased on Fifth Avenue, of course.


The Red Romper is a bit of a diversion from my usual clothing picks but it is fun and will be good for Summer. I think I need a bit more of a tan first as my white legs are a little blinding...


Finally my favourite purchase is my Kate Spade wallet, I was due for an update and have no doubt this one will last me years.


So as you can see I am definitely due for a little shopping ban and am going to start concentrating on building up some savings and paying off the four new tyres and muffler I had to get for my car. Have you bought anything fun recently?

The Hotel California: San Francisco

This post is seriously photo heavy but I cant help it San Francisco won me over completely. The weather was beautiful (well for two out of three days), our hotel was charming (yup we literally stayed at the Hotel California) the people were friendly and the food, well the food was amazing. If people asked me what to do if they go to SF, I would tell them to eat as much as they can. I had the best sandwhich of my life from a little cafe called Mango and the best pancakes of my life from Mamas.Two 'best of my life' in three days doesn't happen very often.

Apart from the food though San Francisco was absolutely beautiful. It gave me the impression of being a big city but with small town charm. I think there would be lots of hidden gems in the city that the locals keep under wraps, but I think I will be back one day to hunt them out.

The highlights of the trip were Alcatraz which has been on my bucket list since my early teenage years and riding across the Golden Gate bridge. I haven't rode a bike that far in a long time so was pretty impressed with myself for making the 18km trip. The only downside was my hands got seriously sunburnt from holding onto the handlebars, it was a little crazy walking around with tomato red hands for the next three days.

We also visited Muir Woods to see the Redwoods and as fate would have it both of our cameras went flat just before we got there. We managed to snap a few photos on our phone but sometimes its just nice to soak in a place rather than getting carried away with capturing the moment. It was so breathtaking and I definitely felt like I was in a place of peace. It was a nice little refresher before emerging back in the city for Mexican and then spending half an hour in the grocery store buying American chocolate and lollies. Australia just doesn't have enough peanut butter related products.

The simple life

Dress: Forever 21 // Shoes: Sportsgirl // Ring: random store in SF // Bag: Steven Madden

I love the simpleness of Spring and Summer on weekends, it means being able to throw on a pretty dress and run out the door. This weekend has managed to fly by and at the end of it my house is still a mess and I still have huge load of laundry to do. I am starting to think that things like that don't matter as much when instead you have new memories of time with friends and have got plenty of sleep after a long week at work.

Highlights of this weekend include my first trip to Costco, getting bagels from the markets and reliving NYC mornings, making this pie which is really yummy, downloading the new iPhone software, borrowing a beautiful dress from a friend for a ball next weekend, going for evening walks, starting the Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 3 (love my trashy tv), avoiding shopping (apart from groceries) as I am trying to be good for a little while and getting a keep cup off a friend which I cant wait to use tomorrow.

What were your weekend highlights?