2014 highlights

What a year 2014 turned out to be: a year of drastic change, growth, excitement and new beginnings!  It was our first year in Austin, a city we've come to love deeply and confidently call home. A city seemingly made just for us and filled with all our favourite things, like good food, great music, nature and many eclectic nooks to explore.  What's more, throughout the year, as complete newbies knowing no one, Will and I repeatedly became astonished at how easy it's been to make friends.  Like-minded, hardworking and paradoxically carefree, wonderful friends!  Yep, 2014 was the year Will and I found our corner of the world.

It was also the year I became an aunty three... 3... yes, THREE more times! With two lovely new nieces and one amazing new nephew joining my ever expanding family.  Even if I had somehow mustered the strength, in the past, to casually walk by Babies R Us, now I have almost double the kids to spoil and no self control left whatever.

Here I am with my niece, Landry Mae,
who was born on the 20th Dec!

I became a gardener... or should that be pot-planter since I don't actually have a garden & all my plants are in pots? Whatever, I am officially a plant-lady who loves all her plants, gives them names and studies plant psychology in her spare time to better understand what they need.

My newest addition: Celestia, the violet.
Featuring Feebee, the Fiddle Leaf fig, in background 

I also became a chef (well, beginner maybe) as Will & I experimented more and more with ingredients and utensils alike, adding new gadgets to our kitchen collection and becoming addicted to cooking shows!  Having a spectacular kitchen in our new apartment greatly helps.  No more shitty, old, smokey oven or linoleum counter tops, yay!

Encountered more American wildlife than any other year: and managed to snap some pretty good photos, especially of deer!  Here is one of my faves:

Some more highlights include the trips we've taken, like those day trips to nearby towns like Wimberley,  Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, Surfside Beach, Bastrop, Fort Worth and several trips to San Antonio and Dallas.

And those mini-breaks we've taken to South Padre Island, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and three visits back to Atlanta.  Not to mention the visits we had from loved ones overseas, like my cousin, aunty and (let's say) uncle from KAZ

or some of my Aussie family members:

We've certainly been blessed beyond measure in 2014 and a part of me is sad to see such a marvelous year end, but I am anxious to see what 2015 has in store!  I look forward to a little more structure, now that we're settled and the busy season is finished.  My main goal is to get back into frequent blogging; resume weekly tip segments/ celebrate life every Friday/ actually document those monthly day trips/ current crazes and all that fun stuff  :)

I also hope to connect with you more.  I appreciate you sharing my highlights with me and wonder what some of yours are?