Nice to meet you Newfoundland

The Western Book Pond Boat tour was fantastic. Couldn't have asked for a better day. 

Newfoundland greeted me with amazing scenery and weather. Dave suggested that we take the "shorter" ferry crossing to the West Coast and see Gros Morne and I am so glad we did. After a bit of a ferry fiasco our time was cut a little short but we were still able to do the Western Brook Pond tour. What an introduction to Newfoundland. 

Postcard perfect Norris Point. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

I have always really liked this piece. Makes me think that it would be fun to illustrate a cookbook.

I did this piece a few years ago and rediscovered it again while, still, going through all of my art work. I immediately wanted chocolate chip cookies. I came across this quick and easy recipe and the cookies were delicious! Had to share. 

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 cup butter, softened          1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar            2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

ENJOY!

The Scenery is a bit different here

It's time to start sharing some photos of the place I now call home. 

This photo was taken at Neddie's Harbour Inn at Norris Point in Gros Morne Newfoundland. 

Happy Birthday Sesame Street

Vera Wang and Abby Cadabby, Oscar De Larenta and Oscar the Grouch

The September issue of Harper's Bazaar celebrates Sesame Street's 40th Birthday by introducing the colourful gang to some of the worlds top designers. Location: Sesame Street. 

Make sure to check out HB's website for behind the scenes video of the shoot and a Q&A on fashion with the Sesame Street Characters.

Cookie Monster gives his opinion on clothing essentials.

Lizards Eat Apples

Because of my big move, I have been going through all of my old art work and finding lots of fun surprises. I am in the process of putting together an illustration portfolio and this particular piece is definitely going to be a part of it. 

Coming to an end

A view from the hike, shoreline of Long Island, very Jungle like forests, arriving on the island, passing other islands on the ferry, a very cute wallaby ventured onto the  beach.

We spent one of our last days down under at Long Island. As a day visitor to the island you are able to use all the facilities of the Long Island Resort. After a great hike which included a very close run in with a Huntsmen spider [thank you Megan], and a sea turtle spotting we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach.

Sunset at Meridian Marina in Airlie Beach.

We had 3 days left after our long island adventure. We all agreed that Horseshoe Bay and Dingo Beach were worth repeat visits and on the very last day Mum and Miss Megan ventured out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and Scuba Dive. 

Real Living Magazine

The styling in all the articles is fantastic and they have a lot of fun with Typography treatments

As most of you know I love magazines. I came across Real Living Australia in a small magazine shop and was instantly hooked. It has really great d.i.y home projects, the interiors they highlight are the perfect mix of modern and funky and their recipe section goes above and beyond drool worthy. Because it was the "dead of winter" while we were in Australia all the recipes are comfort foods for those "cold australia winter days". We got quite a kick out of this as we sat in the sun and read about how to beat the winter blahs. 

   

Deborah Bibby is the editor of Real Living and her blog is now a daily read of mine. She gives great sneak peaks of the upcoming issues as well as behind the scenes shots of photo shoots, styling etc. More than enough to satisfy my Real Living mag fix.

Photo shoot with a Kookaburra

The Laughing Kookaburra become one of my favourite birds. This guy greeted us at the end of our hike through the tropical rainforest at the Finch Hatton Gorge in Eungella National Park. 

Bowen, Home of the Hunky Aussie Beef

Photos from various spots around Bowen, top left and bottom right are taken at Horseshoe bay. 

After arriving in Airlie Beach, Bowen was high on our list of places to go. This is the little town that the movie Australia was filmed in. Here we discovered Jochheims Bakery, a little cafe that while the movie was being filmed became the hangout spot for the cast and crew. The walls are covered with photos and thank you notes from Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. I made two attempts to get the Hunky Aussie Beef Pie [yes names after Hugh] but it was sold out on both visits. It is also the home of Horseshoe Bay. This beach is as high on our favourites list as Dingo Beach. 

Hike, Eat, Beach

A hike to the wheel of fire, picturesque Montey's, a fairy lizard basking in the sunshine, 

mumsie at Montey's, Megs and Mum at Dingo Beach.

After a few days on foot in Airlie beach our Nav. team [Dad and Meg] were anxious to get back behind the wheel and discover uncharted territory. And thats exactly what we did. We discovered Dingo Beach, a small little beach town where one building houses the gas station, hotel, grocery store and pub. After driving down a dirt road to the point where we all agreed we should probably turn around we discovered one of Australia's most hidden gems, Montey's Beach Resort. A picturesque beach lined with cabins as well as a restaurant. We couldn't help but enjoy a cold draft on the patio. 

Someone pinch me

The boardwalk of Airlie Beach, Harbour Sunset, Dad on the water, sinking our feet 

into Whitehaven beach, WH beach from look off. 

The Griswolds spent the last two weeks of their adventure in the North of Australia. The tropical Whitsunday's to be exact. We flew into Hamilton Island. One of the many islands that make up the Whitsunday's. Then hopped onto a ferry and headed for Airlie Beach on the mainland. We spent the first few days here exploring our new surroundings on foot. Airlie Beach is a hot spot for young travelers and surfers so it is quite commercial. A highlight of these first few days was a rafting tour which took us snorkeling and then to the infamous whitehaven beach. 

Sow and Piglets

You couldn't seem to take enough photos. 

The 12 apostles, as breathtaking as it gets. This was our last stop on the Great Ocean Drive. The large rock stacks are made of limestone and are created due to erosion.  The site was originally called The Sow and Piglets but changed to The Twelve Apostles to attract more tourists. 

The Great Ocean Drive

The Gold Coast, photo from Teddy's Point in Lorne overlooking The Great Ocean Drive, 

Can you spot the Koala?, Flat white's at Koala Cove. 

From Melbourne we rented a car and decided to do a little over night trip along the Great Ocean Drive. As the name suggests, it is great. It reminded all of us of the Cabot Trail. It was at a mandatory flat white pit stop that we had our first [and only] koala sighting. We ended the first day in a very cute little surfing town called Lorne.

Stationary Heaven!

Me with my new and favourite pencils.

I have to fill you in on Smiggle, a great little store that Megan and I came across while wandering around Melbourne. If you are, like myself, someone who loves crafty/stationary knick knacks this little shop is heaven. From funky notebooks to pig erasers it was hard to focus. My big purchase was a collection of bright pink pencils with zoo creatures as erasers. 

Smiggle's website is really fun to browse and also has a "fun stuff" section that includes free desktop wallpapers!

smiggle.com.au

Fell in Love with Melbourne

A collection of photos from Melbourne.

Melbourne is a beautiful city, we spent 2 nights here in a hostel that was smack dab in the middle of downtown, although we nicknamed the rooms cell block 110 & 111 [due to the bunkbeds and no windows] it was a very clean place and we couldn't have asked for a better location. Cafe's and shops galore we were easily entertained for 3 days walking around and exploring the different areas of the city.

Winter in Eildon

The scenery was breathtaking. From top left; magpies were everywhere, 

the picturesque farmlands, the gang at the top of blowhard peak, 

kangaroos were everywhere but never got old. 

The first half of our adventures were spent in the South of Australia, we arrived in Melbourne and then travelled about 2 hours to a little town called Eildon, this is where Miss Megs has been working for just over a year. It was the dead of winter when we arrived [it felt like those crisp days in October] so our fleecy's came in handy. The scenery here is breathtaking, from the lush jungle like forests to the farmlands that look like they are perfect dioramas carved out of styrofoam. 

A Whirlwind Summer

The Griswold's hiking in the dried up lake bed of Lake Eildon in South Australia. 

The past 3 months have been amazing. Being a very organized/routine oriented person I stepped outside of my comfort zone and made some big decisions which were to change my life drastically! I left my job as a designer in an ad agency in Toronto and within 4 days packed up all my belongings and shipped them to Newfoundland [I will get to that adventure at a later post] while I got onto a plane and travelled across the world to Australia for the trip of a lifetime. I was not alone on this adventure. It was a family trip to remember, with my younger sister [Miss Megs] and my Dad [the shhhexshy rippah] as the Driving/Navigation Team, and my Mum and myself as the always helpful back-seat drivers we concurred a lot of ground over 4 weeks.