Brought to you in partnership with HomeAway.
It’s hard for me to even believe, but over ten years ago I sat down at my laptop, newborn Lacey beside me, and started a blog. It wasn’t strategic, and I definitely didn’t have any grand plans for it, it was simply somewhere for me to put down all my thoughts. I had intended it to be private, a private weightloss blog to be more specific, but it changed and evolved and took on a life of it’s own.
I am not great at celebrating my successes in life, and I had thought that I’d let the anniversary of my blog just pass by quietly, without much acknowledgement. I almost did, with the anniversary happening in July, but come August I thought I should do something… so I chose something that I love most of all, a weekend away with family and friends.
Since my very early twenties, one of my favourite things to do has been renting a house with a group of people and having a weekend away. Some weekends it would just be my girlfriends and I chilling out for a few days in a small house by the beach, other times it would be the whole family, and even for my Hen’s Party celebration, I opted out of a pub crawl and instead had my besties stay at a mansion on the beach at Killcare. I love scrolling through all the houses on HomeAway {back in my twenties it was called Stayz}, choosing a house, and then arriving to explore a home and pretending I’m a fancy home-owner for a few days.
We headed just a little bit away from home, to beautiful Federal in the Byron Hinterland. The house that we chose looked amazing in the pictures, but the house was even more perfect in person.
I like to choose somewhere that has enough space that the kids can explore, but also make enough noise that we don’t have to worry about bothering the neighbours. There were so many little areas for the kids to play in, and also a pool for them to swim in {despite the water being super chilly!}.
We were only twenty minutes from The Farm at Byron Bay, so we popped over to grab some of their beautiful sourdough bread {I LOVE sourdough bread, it’s the best!} and some coffee. And to hang out with the animals.
As you know, I love cooking, so that was my favourite thing about the weekend… being able to put on a bit of a feast for everyone, whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. On the Friday night of our stay, we sent the kids away with Hubby and invited some girlfriends over for the night, hired a caterer and celebrated my blog being the grand old age of ten.
I made a custom chocolate with ChocoLab for each guest, and we had a whole heap of share meals. The house we stayed at had lots of beautiful seating areas, we started with drinks by the pool, then came inside to have a yummy dinner. {I wanted to be present for the celebration so I put down my camera and did just that, which means I don’t have photos… just memories. Sorry guys!}.
My lovely friend Jenna, from Love Bites Cookies, put together the number 10 cookie cake for me. Isn’t it pretty?
My friend Rebel, her husband and kids stayed with us for the rest of the weekend. We ate too much, drank a little and laughed, while the kids had a blast together.
And we totally relaxed…
Although I may have done a few loads of washing so I didn’t have to do it when I got home {cos I’m weird like that, and because I could staying at a house instead of a hotel}.
Lulu and I both felt so sad when we left {what is wrong with us, emotional gals! Ha!} because it was so special. It was one of those weekends that you hope never has to end, it was just that magic, and relaxing and fun. I’m glad that I stopped to celebrate the milestone of a decade in the blogging world. A lot has happened and I’ll be sure to write about that. Most of all though, thank you for being here. Whether this is the first time you’ve visited my blog, or if you’ve been here the whole ten years! Thank you!
Do you stop and celebrate the good things that you’ve done? Or let them pass by like I usually do?
