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Reflecting & believing over 2015 that it will be "A Year to Remember" ... full of favour, dreams fulfilled, laughter, more memories, new friendships, love, health, kindness and grace. 

Here's to you, 2015! 

Christmas Twenty Fourteen

For the first time, in a long time we gathered to take a few family snaps this year. 

It was such a special day, celebrating with the family and remembering the reason for the season. 

I also made a little Nativity Set this year... I think it's pretty cute!

| MERRY CHRISTMAS |

x x

My Little Abode

  ◆●     ma demeure peu  ●◆

{cuisine}

{dentelles françaises}

{bocaux}

{fleurs}

{salle de bain}

{lit}

{salle de séjour}

SEPTEMBER! {when did THAT happen???}

Hello!

It's September in a few days, I CANNOT believe it.

My adventure here in Sydney is nearly over! :( The other night I lay in bed, reflecting, thinking, dreaming {counting sheep} on this year.

At the beginning of the year I had only one question: "God, why Sydney? Why did you send me here?"

It's only now that I have a resolve to that question. He wanted me to die to myself, lay aside EVERYTHING so that once I was completely "broken" He could put me back to together again, whole... complete... refreshed.

BOY, has this year been the best and the worst of my life. There have been moment of raw that I have NEVER in my life experienced till now. Moments where I could only but rely in Him, His promises, love and protection. Then there has also been incredible mountain top experience. Through it all I {liked He promised} have been stretched, prodded and changed.

I am SO SOOOOO grateful for this season, so grateful that He would love me enough to want me to be better, stronger and different.

Ps Julia A'Bell has a mantra that she frequently speaks over her life "Die, Julia... Die!" {in the context of dying to self} This has fast become my new mantra. When we die to ourselves we can truly, honestly allow Him to move.

I cannot describe in words this year, I just can't. I can't even begin to describe in adequate detail what has happened this year, all I now is that my life is better for it all, ALL of it!

"What is uttered from the heart alone,
Will win the hearts of others to your own."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Community

Everyone wants to belong/ Find their place/ Be loved

The picture above is the sight that I see every Monday night as I walk to family dinner at my cousins house.

It overwhelms me to see a group of old gentleman, just hanging out. Doing life together. I hear them sternly speak in Italian to one another and watch in awe as I wait for the traffic light to change.

com•mu•ni•ty : a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership.

I love how the dictionary puts it, "practising common ownership".

Could it be that we are to share each other's burdens, joys, loves passions, desires,

heartache, hurt, temptations or struggles?

The bible says: Prov 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron,so one person sharpens another."

Just some thoughts...

One Month

I just realised that I have been in Sydney for a whole month already.

So... HAPPY ONE MONTH to me!

Feeling settled, meeting some awesome new friends and having a bunch of fun!

Pics of lil abode soon... Just a few more tweaks and it should be ready!

xx

College// First Days

It’s Wednesday 5pm, I am sitting in my little pad as the rain patters on my roof. You would think it was Winter here. I hear that it’s SO hot in Perth. YUCK!

That is as far as I got last night writing this post.

Let’s start again... It’s Thursday morning. Australia Day! HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! Boy I wish I was home celebrating with family & friends. Anyway... let me fill you in on the last few days...

First day was information overload, people everywhere... hustling & bustling. I felt SO overwhelmed. Where was I? I didn’t know anyone? Where is the toilet? As I began to smile at people, sit next to them... meet them in the corridors I felt somewhat at peace with the fact that this crazy adventure was exactly what God wanted to me do.

My heart is still {getting there everyday} coming to terms with this being where I need to be, where I have been called to, my post for this year. I really have no idea why, sounds strange... but, I REALLY don’t know.

As I sat in Chapel, I felt familiar. Why did I travel all the way over to Sydney, leaving everything to be in a church just like mine at home, to do what I was doing back home? Why am I here? I could have stayed in Perth. This isn’t what I expected, wait... I don’t know what I expected. This is dumb. God, why have you sent me here?

On a practical level, we had Chapel yesterday and it was like being at Colour or a Hillsong Conference. Everything that you would expect. It was a-may-zing! We have the rest of this week off. Next week is an intensive week {only 4 days} and then we are into the swing of things.

I have met some beautiful people. Had a BBQ on the first night at one of the Pastor’s houses. Met some more Aussies. Being an International College people come from ALL over the world. Just to give you an idea, there are maybe 400 students at the city campus {all ranging from 1st-3rd year} and there are only about 20 Aussies. So, the Australians really stick together, and get REALLY excited when they meet another Aussie.

So, as I step out in faith I know that he will catch me. I have no idea what I am doing. I am so far out of my depth...stretching, stretching, stretching! I guess that is where he needs me to be so that HE can do the work. HE can make a way. HE can use me. HE can mould me. Less of me, more of HIM.

I am positive that this is going to be a life changing year. One that I will look back on in years to come and be able to say confidently with HUGE conviction that my God is faithful and he did an amazing work in me. It’s all part of the journey.

...Only 3 weeks till my parents arrive! Yippee!

Sydney// The beginning...

Well, I arrived 8:30pm Monday night 16th January 2012. Just a scared, nervous, excited girl from Perth... Two giant boxes and a suitcase holding pretty much everything I will need for my new adventure. Boy, was I in for a shock.

Up until this point I had been feeling ok...I must say I was very brave at the airport. THere was a bit of tearing up saying goodbye to friends and loved ones. Knowing that this next adventure would be one that, to quote my friend “would get worse before it got better.” And worse it got...

I was met at the airport by a lovely gal named Ange who helped me get all my luggage together and kindly let me stay the night at her house {and Alice}. In the morning I was excited to head to the Real Estate agent where I would pick up my keys to my new pad. YAY! I did that and another lovely lass, Liz was so kind as to drive me there. I arrived, eagerly awaiting to see if what I had dreamed about in my head was actually going to be the reality before my eyes and...

Nope! It was a dingy, old, smelly terrace with cockroaches everywhere. Oh my was I in for a rude awakening. We cautiously climbed the stairs and there it was a big brown door number 3, my new place... Oh my! What would be on the other side? I opened the door and, yes, it was not the place that I had pictured in my head, dreamt about it was far from it.

Liz left saying “It will be ok... it’s got sunlight and with a bit of a spruce and some cleaning you can make it your own. Are you going to cry as soon as I leave?” To which I replied, trying to be a brave, brave girl. “No, i’ll be ok.”

HA! Yeah right. Who was I fooling. I wasn’t brave, I am not tough... I miss my Mommy! I bet you know what is coming, right?

I fell to the floor, clutching my phone, crying my eyes out and called my Mum. I SO desperately wanted to head back to Perth. Anywhere, just not here!

Mum re-assured me that it would be ok. That, unfortunately, unless you have a tone of money, that is the “norm” in Sydney. It’s old and busy and people are just so desperate for housing that they just don’t care.

I felt numb. What had I gotten myself into? Was this really what God wanted for me? Had had called me to Sydney? I felt alone. That night, I slept on the floor. Praying that it was all a dream. Praying that God would say... “Ok, you can go back to Perth now.”

Boy did I try everything to get out. I argued with God. Wrestled with him, pleading! PLEASE,PLEEEEEEEASE... this is HORRIBLE!

After some reassuring from my Mum, best friends and the peace of God, the peace that surpasses all understanding {I know now, not just know but I REALLY know now what that feels like} I strangely felt, ok. Like, this was all going to be ok.

I headed down to the local IGA, bought the strongest bleach I could find, came back home and cleaned and sobbed till those tiles sparkled white again. That night I ate a pre-packed frozen meal, cooked in my oven with plastic cutlery. I didn’t even have my oven mitts with me so I had to use a scarf to get it out. The things you do...

Let’s just say, it didn’t get any easier. From that moment, it got harder. After a TERRIBLE night’s sleep on the floor I was comforted by the fact that the furniture guys were delivering my furniture. At least I will have a bed! YAY!

I need to interject here and explain something: My wonderful friend Jenny B, had been running around like crazy trying to secure me somewhere to live. She had been to a few properties, looking and asking questions. After I had missed out on a place, after putting down a deposit and everything... we quickly realized that the rental/housing market in Sydney is very VERY different to Perth. It’s a “dog eat dog world”... for lack of better words. She had been trying to get my a place before she, herself, made the big move to Melbourne. So, she had been a huge, HUGE blessing. Whilst she was finishing her time working for a place that looked after a bunch of Op Shops she managed to arrange for some furniture to be delivered for me. Such a HUGE blessing. The furniture was free, the delivery just needed to be paid.

So, to continue...

I was waiting for the guys to come with my furniture. They arrived and the furniture wouldn't fit up the stairs. Oh my! I thought I had hit rock bottom before... No! THIS was rock bottom. The guys at least got a fridge and a microwave up the stairs, but, as for my bed and table... No can do.

After waving the guys off, trying to keep it together I couldn’t help myself and yet again, found myself crying on the phone to my Mommy. Gee, I am really painting a picture of being a HUGE Mommy’s girl. Stuff it! I admit it! I TOTALLY am! haha

Not in love with the fact that I would be once again, in a house that I wasn’t fond of, with no bed and no one to talk to something needed to be done.

Thank the Lord that my cousins live in Sydney and they are SO generous and Julie has a WONDERFUL sister, Nicole. Unfortunately my cousins are traveling in QLD so because they haven’t been around it has made this transition a lot harder than I had expected. After a call to Dave & Jules they sent Nicole on her way to come and pick me up and drop me at their house so that I could be somewhere relatively familiar, cockroach free and have a comfy couch to sleep on. WOW! Did I need that. I was so emotionally wrecked and so disgusted with Sydney that I just needed some time out.

Nicole and her beautiful family invited me around for tea, that at least kept my mind of missing home for a night.

The next day after some encouragement from my Mum and good pal, Jeanie. I ventured out into the big city. Trying to be a tourist. Just forgetting momentarily all that seemed to face me, smack bang, right in my face! Trying to fall in love with the Sydney that I told people I fondly loved {after making short trips here over the years}. After some Retail Therapy and sight seeing, I met my new friend, Renee’...a beautiful young woman of God who was SO encouraging. We had a delightful dinner at Darling Harbour. God has just set up opportunity after opportunity for me to talk to people, whether they are randoms I have met in a coffee shop or on the bus, family and friends on the phone or friends of friend’s back home {Thank you, beautiful Holly} there has been someone to vent, cry or talk to. It definitely makes the whole journey a lot easier.

I think, I know that I still love Sydney as a place to visit, stay a while. Perhaps, not live. Unless I meet a billionaire who has money for us to live out in the burbs in a beautiful house. I aint staying here to, one day raise a family. No siree!

The only way I can really describe the housing situation, that most people face is... It’s like State Housing {Homes West] back home. It’s a real eye opener. Even on my trips abroad, Japan, Thailand, Singapore I have experienced NOTHING quite like this. There is such a shortage of properties that Landlords don’t really care what the state of the house is in, condition etc... they just want money, money, MONEY!

It might have a lot to do with the fact that I am SO blessed, I have a wonderful family, I have grown up in a GORGEOUS house, that was HOME! That this is just SUCH a huge extreme that it was just such a shock to the system. Maybe I am a bit of a princess but... gee! When people have prayed over me, prophesied over me leafing up to my trip and they have said “This will stretch you...” They were SO right.

Like my incredible Pastor, Sarah said when I spoke to her today, she said... “If this is the worst it’s going to get like, imagine how much better it can be?” SO true!

I am convinced that God, though it seems like he is far away... he is right here! I am convinced that I am in the will of God and that I am doing just as he said and I am TOTALLY convinced that it is all going to be ok.

Sarah, spoke over my life on my last day at church... “This is just an interruption...” An interruption by nature isn’t supposed to be pleasant. It isn’t suppose to feel amazing. Yet, I know that it will be an interruption that changes my life. An interruption for the better.

After being so distressed on the phone to Mum, she got into her prayer closet and fought for me. Praying and breaking things in Jesus name! I have an incredible, Godly Mom who is SO passionate about God she is truly an inspiration. I am SO blessed! She received a vision from God that this year was going to alter my destiny, change my course and be incredible.

So, as I am pressed down on every side I will NOT be discouraged or deterred. I will not give into an enemy who would just love it if I packed my bags and went home. I will see out this year, praising my God for he is good. He is in control. He knows what he is doing.

I am SO excited to go to College, meet new people. Get into a groove!

life lately, according to instagram.

wearing my fav top to church/makes me look angelic

taco thursday/new tradition with friends

milkshake in vintage bottle/how cute

sky on a sunday

macaroons with my beautiful pal/Vee & her gorgeous babe Scarlett

ranunculus/fav/detour to The Boastshed

beach days

new iphone/siri/hilarious

birthday eve shenanigans for a friend

drumroll please...

In this post I mentioned that soon, there would be some exciting to news to share!

//:::DRUMROLL:::// {yer, that was suppose to be cool} I am off to Sydney next year... Not for a holiday or mini break but to... LIVE! For years I have said "I am not ever going to Bible College unless, God himself, comes down in the flesh and tells me to go!"

HA! Never, I mean... NEVER say something like that. I mean, God didn't come down in the flesh but he sure did reveal some things to me and sternly yet, graciously impressed on my heart not once BUT a few times {you could say that I am...stubborn ;) } that I was to go to Sydney and study at Hillsong College.

For me, that would require the BIGGEST faith step of my life. So, I am stepping out. Trusting and believing that he is going to catch me. I am leaving my family, friends,church, my job and everything that I know and love {even my Kitchen Aid...sob} everything that is sure,comfortable and known to embark on a journey that I am affectionately calling "A journey of a lifetime!"

There is something about doing things God's way. Something I have found about being in his will and follow his lead, there is a peace. I guess it's that peace that Paul writes about in Philippians ,"Peace that passes all understanding." I don't get it?! Well, my natural mind doesn't. It doesn't make any sense. How can it be that when you are in the midst of something so nerve wracking, scary and sad you can find your heart at peace? Thankful that God is Jehovah Shalom.

it's showtime...

Royalshow

Today, I went to the show with my

awesome bestie and her beautiful lil fam.

Hot corn with butter,

fairy floss, corn dogs, hot sugar donuts,

sun☀ shining, nuts, showbags, ferris wheel,

fireworks, clowns, animals, 20c machines,

free samples & ice cream.

T'was was a perfect day.

a message of Hope...

While we are on the subject of HOPE. An amazing friend of mine started his own organisation to bring HOPE to the people in his world. Taylor Armstrong and his incredible crew at Hopeful Productions are doing amazing things bringing a message of truth, love, kindness and hope. They are literally being the hands and feet of Jesus and rockin' out whilst they do it.

This is their mandate:

| We Believe |

We believe that each and every person is on a journey.

We believe that everyone has an important story that needs to be told.

We believe that there is hope for everyone, regardless of circumstances.

We believe that everyone deserves love.

We believe that we all struggle and we need to be honest about this.

We believe that God loves us each individually and unconditionally.

HELLO! How flippin' inspiring is that!!!!!!

To check out more // facebook//twitter// youtube //

something worth fighting for...

To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

At the moment these guys are in the running to win the "American Giving Award". This award will give the organisation more funding which in turn will see more people set free and HOPE restored in their lives. They need your help! Voting is simple and only takes a click of your mouse. Too easy!

{CLICK HERE TO VOTE}

Be YOU!

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." ~Judy Garland

Lack of confidence in one's self and low self esteem is a snare of the enemy and sadly so SO many women of God become victim to it. Just like a babushka doll is made up of different sized wooden dolls each with a unique shape and design, we too are meant to WAIT! we too are CALLED to be...

I just like you, I struggle with feelings of insecurities and days when you want your hair longer, hips slimmer and that dreaded pimple to BE GONE! Even times when I want to be more patient like... {insert name here}, laugh pretty like...{insert name here} or even be more confident like...{insert name here}. But if there is one thing I refuse, one thing that leaves a sour taste in my mouth is when the beautiful women in my word {even in far off places} loose who they are called to be because of fear and intimidation and stall on their journey trying to find fulfilment and a sense of purpose in position, title or even jealousy.

One thing I am convinced of more than anything is that we are all designed unique with an individual purpose for a reason, called of God to humble ourselves and be lead by his Spirit.

There are people in my world that I can reach because of who God made me to be and there are also people who I can't reach because of who God created me to be. Enter...you!

Be YOU! The beautifully hand crafted, unique YOU that you have been set apart to be. Take up your post and stay there, not looking to the left or the right {don't even listen to the thoughts that can easily entangle} but keep your gaze ahead... Knowing that you are doing EVERYTHING in this season that God wants YOU { and no-one else} to be doing...all for His glory.

Psalm 139 {Message} : 13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.14 I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration-what a creation!15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

In other news...

It's such a beautiful spring day outside, I am off to enjoy the sun. ☀