Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all!! 2010, my goodness.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was lovely, a proper chill out, even the dinner making went well. I had an extraordinary sense of calm for the entire proceedings seeing as I was cooking for my mum and future mother-in-law (down to the fizz perhaps?), but everything cooked and browned wonderfully and it was all on time. A combination of massive fluke and beginners luck I think!?!

(Mark's Mama's pooch, Kizzie, Letting off some steam...)

On boxing day we took a walk on the beach which is when I took the pics. The sky was so dramatic with the low sun and impending rain clouds...beautiful.

(Mark and my Papa and dramatic sky!)

New years eve was spent with friends and New Years Day hanging out at the local. Good times, but I'm always sad when the festivities are over.

2009 was quite a varied year and I wanted to do a years round up (much like THIS ONE over at Miso Funky) but alas, because I'm not the world's best diarist, instead I just have a list of significant things that made my year what it was:

• Moving into a new home. It was new years resolution number one and was completed by January 5th. I wasn't nearly so efficient for the rest of the year!

• 2009 was the end of an era pet wise. My family lost our beloved old animals Jay Jay pooch and Penny barn cat. They were so dear and are much missed.

• Qualifying Pia for my first national dressage championship. We came 2nd at the regional champs with a score of 72.97%. Unfortunately I was so nervous at the Nationals I froze and didn't ride well at all. We came about half way though, so it wasn't too embarrassing!

• In other horsey news, Lauder and I scored our first 70% (70% is kind of the Dressage score holy grail) and then managed it again a few weeks later. It's been a great year for us both and we also competed in our first Prix St Georges tests. They are so hard but I'm so pleased to have managed to be competitive at that level. It's very satisfying.

• Getting in the Grazia magazine fashion top 10! A wonderful bit of press that lead to me being a mental bracelet making machine for 2 weeks. Seriously, I was dreaming of chain and jump rings and feather charms for weeks afterwards...

•Mark and I deciding that after nearly 11 years together it was high time we got married. It is now less than 5 months to go til the big day...eek!

• Closing the BF Indie Emporium. A sad decision for me, but happily it's worked out. I'm painting and drawing and making again, hurrah!

• Seeing Marks brother who lives in Australia again for the first time in 3 1/2 years. That was lovely!

• ...and my little brother becoming the Australian F3 champion!!

Anyways...I am easing back into work and in traditional style I have a Bonbi Forest sale on! A little thank you to everyone who bought Bonbi stuff and supported my ventures in 2009. You can get 20% off your order until January 10th using the code HAPPYNEWYEAR at checkout...hurrah!

I think that's enough for now, sorry it's such a long one. One of my new years resolutions is to blog more little and often...lets see how THAT goes!