{5 things} I loved about my week

I’ve had a bit of a tiring week. So much has happened in the last seven days: my husband and I bought a house, I co-ran a youth camp with a few other adults for what seemed like a million teens (only 70 though) and managed to survive on barely any sleep, then said teens threw us a surprise party straight afterwards to say thank you (which was nice, but only added to the exhaustion). I also got my manuscript back from its first round of editing, got sick (I have a recurring sinus problem and have bookmarked this BUSY year for surgery) but spent time that I should have been resting doing a whole bunch of other things, including visiting my grandma in the hospital, organising a trip for my parents, and making calls to sort out some issue or other with my car. But, despite the various stressors, I still found a lot to love in my full and blessed life. Here are the top five from the past week.

{File ($19.95) and manilla folders ($6.95), both from Typo. I wish I could run away to Paris & live on love and macarons.}

{These were gifted to me soon after the everyday lustre post went live. I’d been eyeing them for a while, they’re so casual, but the patent shine adds a chic element. Will be rocking them with denim, collared shirts and statement necklaces. Windsor Smith Penny, on sale for $49.90 at Styletread}

{I made a few adaptations to this classic recipe: adding some brown onion, garlic, carrot, green beans and celery to up my vegetable intake, and boiling the broth with half a lemon in there for an extra flavour kick. It was delicious.} {Image Credit}

{I used this recipe to make these badly shaped cookies. It was my first time using a cookie cutter and royal icing – I mostly make choc-chip or oat-and-something cookies – so they didn’t look great. And they took so long}

{This is our new house. There’s so much shrubbery around the front that I want to get rid of, it needs painting and I’ll probably knock out a wall to make the living area more adaptable to modern living, but it’s a great project. We’re going to stay in our apartment and rent it out for a year first, although my dad is trying to convince to build a duplex there, so the plans might change.}

What have you loved about your week?