My life lately.

Bought this bee sting cake for Ben to thank him for cleaning the apartment.
It wasn't the yummiest bee sting in the world, but it was a nice treat. :)

Made Ben these rainbow buttermilk pancakes, just because. :)
Not that you can even see the 'rainbow' part of the pancakes.

Made myself sick on a tub of vanilla caramel ice cream! :P
Don't worry though, I've just started my 7 day free pass at the local gym!

Got my Mum to snap this photo of Joey passed out on the footrest of
the arm chair, exhausted from begging me for my maltesers. :D

Such a sweet doggy isn't he? Joey turned 1 year old on August 15th! :)

Advertise on Pursuit of Felicity!

Hey guys,

Just letting you all know that Pursuit of Felicity is now offering affordable advertisement for your blog, shop or website. I have a bunch of spots still available at the moment, and they are all cheap as chips! For full details about the ad sizes, prices and perks you can head over to my advertise page or just check out the details below. I am also still accepting sponsor swaps (see the 'small ad - sponsor swap' info below) so if you're interested in swapping buttons please do so! :)

Thankful Tuesdays.

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Happy Birthday Dad!

I can't believe you're 48 years old today! It feels like just yesterday that you were pushing me around in a wheelbarrow, building sandcastles with me on the beach, making me a cubby house, teaching me how to ride a bike.. geez, where has all the time gone?

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day that is stress free and full of cake (just watch your blood sugar!). I'm looking forward to visiting you this weekend. It seems like forever since we last saw each other!

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you. :)

Yeah, so.. apparently I'm a screamer.

Hey guys!

I really enjoyed sharing my little story totally obsessive thoughts on baby names with you the other day. You were all very supportive and no one made me feel crazy for spilling my guts, which was quite therapeutic for me. :) So since I know I can trust you guys to not make me feel like a dork, I thought I'd fess up about a little "screaming" incident that took place in my bedroom the other night (don't worry, it's not what you're thinking!). :P

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K, so the other night Ben and I were pretty exhausted and went to bed fairly early. We don't normally go to bed early unless we've had a really long day, but when we do I often tend to have what I've been informed are "lucid dreams". Now, if you've never had a lucid dream before you may find this hard to understand.. but a lucid dream is basically when you have a dream that is so vivid and so life like that it can be very difficult to realise that you're actually having a dream, and then when you do realise you're dreaming it can seem almost impossible to wake yourself up from the dream.. so much so that you may actually think that you've woken up, however you are actually only dreaming that you have woken up. A dream within a dream so to speak. The movie 'Inception' is a great interpretation of the concept of lucid dreaming.

I've been having lucid dreams for as long as I can remember, and as far as I know I always realise that I'm having these dreams fairly quickly. Once I've realised I'm dreaming I usually spend the next 30 minutes to an hour (in real time) trying to wake myself up from the dream(s). The most "dreams within dreams" that I've ever had has been five. That's right.. I'm talking a dream within a dream, within a dream, within a dream, within a dream! And even though I've had so many over the years, these "lucid dreams" still terrify the crap out of me each and every time.. It almost feels as though I am being buried alive, and I am struggling and struggling to dig my way out. :( 

I've read that some people actually enjoy lucid dreaming because it means that they can control what happens in the dream (e.g. make themselves fly or start climbing the walls), but I just automatically want out of the dream because deep down I know that I'm not really in control. Fortunately for me, after years of attempting to wake myself up from lucid dreams, I managed to find a wake up method that seems to do the trick every time. This method is to close my eyes and scream at the top of my lungs. Of course, I'm not actually screaming for real, and when I do finally wake up I'm usually just lying there perfectly still in the same position that I first went to sleep in.

Anyway, back to the point.. after falling asleep exhausted the other night I found myself having what I honestly thought was just another lucid dream. I'd "woken up" in my bed, my body feeling heavy, with a strange dialogue going on in my head. I figured that I was dreaming, and as I didn't appear to be having a nightmare, I just continued along with the flow of my dream and "got up" from the bed to go and do something.. only I wasn't really asleep at all, I was actually awake and moving around my bedroom! I must have been sleepwalking!.. So anyway, as I was getting out of bed in what I thought was a dream, Ben who was laying down beside me in reality reached out and grabbed my arm to pull me back under the covers! As far as I was concerned though, Ben wasn't supposed to be lying down beside me in my dream, and so I thought my dream had turned into a nightmare where some strange man was attacking me in my bed! 

So what did I do? I closed my eyes and screamed at the top of my lungs, of course! and not just once either.. I screamed the most high pitched shriek of a scream over and over and over again until a very surprised, and very confused Ben managed to shake me out of it and bring me back to reality!

Once I finally realised that I was in fact awake, I couldn't speak to Ben for almost ten whole minutes because my heart was pounding away in my chest at like a hundred miles an hour, plus I was so exhausted from all the screaming that I could barely even breathe. Poor Ben had no idea what was going on. All he saw was me standing at the side of our bed, screaming out repeatedly as though I was being murdered. :\ By the time I was ready to talk I could barely get the words out because I was just so overwhelmed with confusion and tears.. It wasn't until the next morning that I was finally able to make sense of what had happened, and even then, I couldn't have been more embarrassed about it. 

So there you go.. Have any of you guys ever experienced a lucid dream before? What about sleepwalking? 

I'd be very interested to hear everyone's thoughts on these topics!

Thankful Tuesdays.

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My life lately.

Purchased these awesome lilac denim jeans from Jay Jay's. :D

Found some cute matching lilac volleys and lasting finish rimmel london nail polish.

Also bought some cute underwear for the first time in ages! :)

Had my weekly catch up with the furbabies.

Phoebe was being especially clingy, lol.

My free glasses from Firmoo arrived in the mail for me to review.

Went and saw Magic Mike with the twins and their friend Martin after they 

arrived home from China! :)

Created this lilac/glitter combo for my nails.

Started watching One Tree Hill again. :P

Purchased these black and white wooden letters for the apartment.
3 for $10 from Typo. :)

Thankful Tuesdays.

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Recent Blog Designs.

Hey everyone,

The last few weeks have flown by so quickly that I haven't had the chance to show off my latest design work. So before I get started on my next big design project, I figured I would take a moment to share some of the designs that I have been working on throughout this past month...

The pale peach and grey design pictured above was custom made for the beautiful Kayleigh of 'Couture Girl'. I only just finished installing her design this morning and yet it has already received such an awesome response. I love the sweet, girly simplicity of this design so very much and secretly wish that I could keep it for myself. ;) My favourite part of the overall design is definitely the welcome portrait!

This next design, which I think is simply adorable, was created for a brand new Mummy blogger named Lexi from 'Mummy and Matchbox Cars'. Lexi's design was so much fun to create as I basically got to start from scratch and everything just ended up working together so perfectly! My favourite part of the finished design are the custom social media icons. :)

Last but not least, I created the design above for the lovely Jackie of 'The Fashion It List'. Jackie, who was an absolute pleasure to work with, knew exactly what she wanted for her design from the very beginning. I knew that if I wanted Jackie to come away happy I would need to work my little tooshie off in order to get things just right, and fortunately that's what happened. My favourite part of the overall design is probably the header, but the welcome portrait and social media icons certainly come in at a close second. :)

Firmoo Glasses Review + Lilac Denim Outfit Post.

Hey everyone,

Today I have an awesome review of these lovely prescription glasses that I was sent out to try by Firmoo. Firmoo is an online global optical store that sells prescription and non-prescription glasses and sunglasses for about an eighth of the price that you would pay for a similar pair of glasses at your local retail outlet. They have over 300 styles of affordable and stylish frames for you to choose from, and have recently launched a program offering free glasses for first-time buyers where all you need to pay for is the shipping. You can learn more about this program by clicking here.

Because I've been wearing contact lenses on a daily basis for the last few months I originally selected these frames with the intention of only wearing them around the house, but after receiving them in the mail yesterday and getting these photos taken I will definitely be wearing them out and about when the outfit calls for it. :)

If you're anything like me you're probably wondering how you can be sure if the glasses you are purchasing online are going to suit the shape of your face and actually fit when they arrive in the mail, yes? Well fortunately for us the Firmoo website provides us with a Virtual Try-On System that allows us to upload our own photo and try their glasses on virtually.. score! In addition to this, Firmoo will send you a free, easy to use tool to adjust your glasses manually along with your order. I was very lucky as my glasses fit me perfectly upon their arrival. :D

Glasses: c/o Firmoo    Necklace: Mano Y Metal    Jumper: Ripcurl    Lilac Denim Jeans: Jay Jays

Another new addition to my wardrobe that is worthy of a blog post are these super cute and uber comfortable lilac denim jeans that I purchased from Jay Jays over the weekend. I found them while I was out looking for a pair of lilac Converse (to be more specific, I found them after my search had ended miserably) and I just had to have them! I also ended up finding an affordable pair of lilac Volleys and some cute lilac nail polish a couple of days later, but I think I'll save that for an outfit post another day. :)

If you're interested in purchasing your own pair of lilac or other coloured denim at a bargain price, the Jay Jays website is currently offering 2 pairs for $50! Sadly I had no idea that this deal was coming up and missed out on this deal by like a day.. A DAY! Please don't make the same mistake I did and get in on this deal while you can. I'm pretty sure their website provides international shipping, so there's no reason you can't have some lilac denim for yourself. ;)

If you could choose one pair of coloured denim, which colour would you pick?

I hope you all enjoyed this post as much I enjoying putting it together..
This was my first official outfit post, so I hope I haven't done too bad a job. :P

Let me know what you think and have a lovely week!

Thankful Tuesdays.

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30 questions for my 30-year-old self.

So this morning I was watching this funny little video and as a result decided to create a list of questions for my future, 30 year old, seven years from now self.. I contemplated doing this in video form but couldn't be bothered getting out of my pajamas and making myself look presentable enough to do so (fingers crossed that I'm not this lazy in 7 years time). Anyway, here's the questions..

1. Did I end up finishing Uni? How did it all pan out? Did I get the GPA I wanted?

2. Did I manage to find a teaching job? If so, am I still teaching? What grade(s) did I end up teaching?

3. Are Ben and I still together? engaged? married? parents? :D

4. If we are married, tell me about the wedding! 

5. If we are parents, tell me about our kid(s)! 

6. How is Mum? Is she 10 years cancer free now? I really hope that she is happy and doing well. :) Did she end up meeting Mr Right?

7. How is Dad? Still alive I hope. Has he had another heart attack since his last one in 2011? Is he still with Judi? How are the girls?

8. How is Mitchell? Is my little brother all grown up now? Has he moved out? Found a nice girl? Provided me with some lovely nieces and nephews?

9. How are the furbabies? Is Phoebe still just as crazy as ever? Is Joey still just as fragile? What about Holly (Ben's family dog)? Is she still alive?

10. How is Ben's Dad, brothers and extended family? All doing great I hope. :)

11. What about Nana, Pa, and Grandad Nielsen? I really do need to visit them more often. :(

12. What about the rest of the extended family? Did the Marxson boys ever settle down and start a family? Did the Lewis boys become professional athletes like we all thought they would be? Did my favourite blonde female cousins end up finding true happiness? Did I ever end up forming some kind of relationship with the cousins I haven't already mentioned? What about all of my Aunt's and Uncle's? How is everybody doing?

13. Did I end up getting that long haired English cream miniature dachshund that I've been wanting for the last 10 years? Did I end up calling him Riley, or did he turn out to be a she?

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14. How was my first overseas holiday? If I haven't been on one yet then I am extremely disappointed in myself!

15. Did we manage to score, or are we in the process of building, my dream house that I've been dreaming of since forever?

16. Do we still live around the Gold Coast area?

17. How long did Celeste (my little '93 Holden Barina) manage to hold up for? What car did I end up getting next?

18. Did I end up travelling around Australia? What states have I been to now?

19. Did I do any of that sky diving, bungee jumping crap that I put on my '30 before Thirty' to-do list?

20. How did my little design business end up doing?

21. Was I ever fortunate enough to get laser eye surgery done? If not, is it still a possibility, or are my eyes too messed up?

22. How is my health in general? Did my narcolepsy ever end up magically disappearing? Did my TMJ problem get fixed/go away? What about the constant headaches and muscle aches?

23. Was I ever brave enough to get a tattoo? If I haven't had kids yet this question is probably irrelevant.

24. Did I ever end up reaching my goal weight mass (haha! the things I learned in Science class) of 51kg? If not, am I at least somewhat as toned as I was back when the picture below was taken?

25. Did I end up growing my hair out past my boobs like I promised myself I would?

26. Have I volunteered somewhere, donated blood, or done anything remotely selfless at all in the past seven years?

27. Did I learn to knit, sew, crochet or anything else along those lines?

28. Which friends do I still keep in contact with? How are they going?

29. What about the friends I lost contact with? Did we have a falling out, or did life just lead us down different paths?

30. Did I ever end up sharing this blog with my real life friends and family?