Winter Days and Winter Nights

Winter is so different here and I am really enjoying it.
At night time we started using the little gas heater, we are burning candles, cooking soups, sleeping with hot water bottles and staying in much more, sometimes watching a movie.
The cold green smoothies for breakfast have been replace with warm porridge in the morning.
It feels very good this Sydney winter.
During the day it's very mild no need for heavy coats, boots or gloves. It's crisp. Plenty of blue skies and bright days. I even enjoy the darker grey days though, they remind me of London and also help to stay productive.
After my computer died recently I am still organizing files in a new and better way and just generally finding a good time to review and improve things. Sorting, tidying, decluttering and getting ready for a brand new Spring time soon.

My apologies for the iPhone only photos at this time. Dave took off to a business trip in Arizona and he took the camera, including all photos we have snapped over the last weeks: Ooops.
So here just a little sneek peak from the phone and more very soon.

We have been exploring more of the Inner West and Redfern lately, including the great light installation at Carriageworks.

Dave left this morning and I am missing him already. The upside is that I am excited for him to travel in his new job and he is also going to bring lot's of wonderful makeup for my professional kit back for me. While I was updating all my client files and doing some admin tonight, I went through quite some photos of us during the last years and it feels like we have done a lot.

We haven't even been here in Australia for a year, but so much new and exciting has happened already.
I am feeling incredibly grateful about how my career is progressing and how many fabulous opportunities keep popping up. 
Oh and in case you have enjoyed my previous skin guest posts for White magazine, check out the other parts here too.
I will update you all with more about us as soon as Dave returns!
What do you like to do in Winter? Or if there is Summer where you are, how do you adjust your routines with the seasons?

A Vivid Sunday In Syndey

Getting up early going for a run, going for the best breakfast we have had over here and afterwards just walking- all day long, stopping at several book stores, flicking through pages and pages of inspiration for upcoming projects, and then walking further, into the night, watching the lights at the great Vivid Festival.
With the bright full moon and all the wonderful light projections the city looked even better than usual. That was our Sunday! And so we fell in love once again, with Sydney.
This is such a special place and I am so happy and grateful to call it my home.
Thanks Sydney for being such an awesome City.

 P.S. The best Breakfast was at Tuk Tuk, in Paddington, we will sure be back!
PPS: I received some really beautiful flowers this week which I then photographed for my
Exercise For Glowing Skin post, here at WHITE magazine. Go over and check it out too, if you like!

Antique Shopping + A Winter Wedding in the Country

This was my first trip to the Southern Highlands, a gorgeous country region 1.5 h drive from Sydney.
As I had a wedding in Bowral very early on Saturday morning Dave decided to bring the camera and join me on the trip, so that we were able to spent the day out there together.
This guy is full of great ideas! And such a good photographer too.
Can you tell how knackered I am from getting up at 4am that morning and just having done 4 makeups and hair for a wedding? It was great fun, the bride was just the loveliest and I love my job so much, but I can see it in my face how exhausted I was afterwards.
I was very very crisp and cold out there, I didn't even know Australia can get that cold.
At the same time I was very exited being able to wear my coat and boots.
Dressing for Autumn is so much fun.
The venue, Milton House, was so beautiful everything looked like in a fairy tale, I think I will be back to check out their spa.
Dave snapped some great pics that day of all the wonderful colourful Autumn trees.
We had a tasty, slightly too big lunch and we bought an amazing antique couch table.
Now we just need to wait for our couch to arrive...
Bowral seems like THE most amazing place for furniture and antique shopping that I have come across, ever! Who would have thought. If you ever go, make sure to have some extra room in your car. You can thank me later ; )
The Sunday we spent with some running, which we really needed and strolling around in our neighborhood. Uhm...why oh why are the Australian food portions so big? We are expanding and in need of a fitness regime!
Other news of the last week:
I have been writing for the fab White Magazine blog, a feature on "How To Get The Glow", check it out and follow up the next parts too if you like!
I have also had some bridal editorial work published in their latest print Issue 20, as well as a feature about my must have makeup products: Happy Happy Days!
I am incredibly grateful for this great collaboration. Happy change of season you all!

Hanging out and being silly

Hooray for public holidays, no matter what the actual reason is.
The other week Thursday was a public holiday which meant, Dave had a day off during the week,
which is so exciting, as I am almost always working weekends.
And well, I like to hang out with this man. I just always have the best time, when spending it with him. Thanks Sydney for such a great sunny day.
And the fabulous breakfast at the book kitchen.
We have been living here for six months, but I am still discovering new little places everywhere.
We were just strolling around, looking through shops and taking pictures, just being silly.
I love you Dave!

Living Down Under + Upside Down: Our 6 Months Review

Living here has recently felt a little upside down.
It's been six months, a good time frame for a little review.

Time has been flying in lightspeed, I don't think it really hit me yet, that we are living here now
permanently, possibly forever.
So how about my expectations vs. my experiences.
Well, I don't quite know exactly what I have imagined, but I some how thought that life
will feel slower paced down here, I thought I will have plenty of time for blogging and walking around just being creative. I thought I might get bored from time to time.
I set goals for myself, high goals, and I am really on a good roll of achieving them step by step.
In fact I am on a pretty good roll in getting there, actually, but that really cut into the time for blogging. Especially when I get a last minute call at 8am in the morning, if I can be at a shoot in the city 10min later. Freelance work is hard to plan or predict. I have learned to be super flexible and somehow always prepared.

As you might noticed we have been blogging less than in London since we got here.
Are we now some lazy slow people that just lay at the beach the whole time?
That's what I would think if I were you.
But no- we somehow hit the ground running and haven't really slowed down at all.
I am busier than I could have ever imagined. I am working weekends and long hours during the week.
Blogging got pushed to the side, and I feel I have to reorganize my whole schedule.
I need to fit blogging time and fitness time in. Oh and time to actually do my nails and do the laundry and clean up the house. It's all gotten a little messy lately. And Yoga time. And time to hang out maybe too.
Not cool. I love blogging and am hoping that our routines will adjust soon.

To sum it up:

Life isn't slow down under, if you love your work, you will be just as busy as anywhere.
( or busier? Maybe there is a natural law here, that makes time spin faster and it simply hasn't been discovered yet???) 
The coffee is the greatest
And the food, so good that we have put on a bit of weight 
Yes the weather is amazing!
And the beaches.
Living by the water makes me beyond excited
The food is incredible
It's somehow the goodlife- it really is.

Do we miss London? Well, yes. We miss our friends and our little routines.
I miss the style and the awkward beauty of Britishness.
I miss how international it is and it's diversity.
It shows me how much I am a city dweller. I love the energy of the big big international hubs.
Would I go back? Probably not. Sydney has been good to us.
Very good. Now we only need time.

Exciting recent stuff:

1. I have finally created a Facebook page for my makeup artistry, come over and "like" if you like! (it's the proof that I haven't been lazy, but actually been working a lot!)
2. Gaby from This Little Port got a makeup lesson from me and I have done her makeup for this gorgeous photoshoot.
3. I won an absolutely stunning giveaway by the uber stylish and talented Nora from Nora Finds, which totally made my week.
4. We bought a couch! But got told after we paid that it will be delivered it in 8 weeks

I hope you guys are hanging in there and still checking out our little space here from time to time!?
We are still around and happy!