Category: Life Posts

Three Things Thursday – Family Beach Holidays

Anna BratchfordLeave a comment

There is something so beautiful about beach holidays, and as an Aussie you would think that I would get sick of beaches, sand, the sun, heat, the salt water and more sand. I don’t though, I love it! So the three things for this week:

Sand! I marvel at how sand can get literally everywhere, and no matter what I do I am still finding it everywhere in my very much inland home. A rather sandy incident occurred, however the photos we got from it were worth it!

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She was throwing the sand at me – so I got a sand shower! I thought she’d throw the sand skyward!

I’m in the middle of a really good book at the moment, The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon. It’s nice to be able to lie on the beach and read, or even sit back at the house and read. I’m loving it!

Last but not least – swimming! The beaches here are gorgeous, and one is pretty flat so you can just float around on the calm waves. It’s beautiful! Plus there are a couple of waves every so often so you can catch them if you want!

What are three favourites for you this week? I hope yours has been just as good as mine!

Thanks for reading!
Anna

Three Things Thursday – More Festiveness, and also the Grinch!

Anna BratchfordLeave a comment

Okay so first things first. (Though technically it’s tomorrows news) One of my best friends is getting back from her eleven month gap year trip, and I am probably far too excited, but there you go. I missed her heaps!! I’m waking up early early to meet her at the airport, then my friends and I are having a dinner that night with her where we will possibly hand out our Secret Santa presents. We started it a few years ago and it’s a lot of fun.We put a lot of effort into our choices, plus the presents are never really too serious which is great!

So last night I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the first time with my dad, sister and stepsisters – I absolutely loved it! It was hilarious and Jim Carrey as the Grinch could somehow be creepy and funny at the same time. I think it definitely tops as one of my favourite Christmas movies along with Love Actually and The Holiday! I’ll chuck a trailer in here because why not and I love it…plus it’s nearly Christmas!

So at number two this week: I spent the whole of yesterday clearing out my room! And boy in really needed it – for some reason I seem to hoard rubbish and also clothes which no longer fit me. Plus I’m sorta moving out next year, so the less I have to move the better. My room, the insides of my chest of draws Eugene, plus the small wardrobe which before was a messy sight, are all cleared and organised so I can actually find things. Yay!

What’s the third thing you ask? More smile worthy coffee art! Yes, we found Casper in my coffee, well I say ‘found’, dad has fun making faces and it just turned out to be Casper! How awesome is that!!?

Casper!!

 

What’s made your week great and smile worthy!?
One week til Christmas!!
Anna x

Three Things Thursday – Festive Edition!

Anna BratchfordLeave a comment

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy* ~Nerd in the Brain

Sooo, December again! That festive time of year with snow woolly jumpers, beanies and scarves wrapped around your neck so many times it doesn’t look like you have any neck at all. Well, unless you live in Australia! For us it’s all pools, fans, sunburn and as little clothing as possible without being nude… anywho, one thing though that we have in common – Christmas tree’s!!

So basically as we are so close to Christmas my three things are trees, tree things and one not so tree thing…but it made me smile!

So first our Christmas tree 🙂 Doing my sisters and I spent the night doing this and we were all really happy with it! It’s a little miss-matched and we couldn’t find the lights but we love it! 🙂

 

Okay  so one of my sisters and I went into town to do some Christmas shopping and we absolutely fell in love with some decorations. Me, I couldn’t keep a straight face when I found ‘Grumpy Owl’. To me he looks to be a cross between completely done, grumpy and kinda sad. I couldn’t not add him to the collection! 🙂 (From left to right: ‘Grumpy Owl’, me, my sister Ev! [you should go check out her blog by the way!])

My dad made me this coffee this morning! With the words “Your coffee is smiling! Smile!” And it definitely did make me smile, yummm, it was a beautiful coffee too!

What made you smile this week!?
Thank you for reading, and have a good week!
Anna x

Throwback Thursday (well sort of) – Nowhere Boy

Anna BratchfordLeave a comment

As I usually do when I find a new actor or actress I like I usually try and find some other films they’ve been in, and after recently (or not so recently really) seeing The Maze Runner I have a new found obsession with watching films with Thomas Brodie-Sangster in. I first saw him in Nanny McPhee a rather long time ago, I loved that film when I was a kid, and still do! Then in Love Actually which is now one of my favourite films, and one which I watch quite regularly. His character in that was adorable, and I think his story within the film is one of my favourites along with the one with Colin Firth. I first watched these way before my real love of movies came about so I didn’t really think about the connection until much later. Now though, I rewatched both recently and couldn’t help ending up in a mix of tears and laughter as Nanny McPhee brought back some hilarious childhood memories, and Love Actually…well that always makes me cry!

Then last night I watched Nowhere Boy, a film about the teen years of John Lennon and his relationship with his mother and his aunt, and the formation of his first band. I absolutely loved it, Thomas Brodie-Sangster played the part of Paul McCartney. He only came in about a third of the way through, and what screen time he had I loved. The film as a whole is amazing! Truely! Before watching this I didn’t have much of an idea at all about John Lennon or the Beatles, though I love the band and their music.

I will definitely be watching this again! And have been recommending it to a lot of people – my sister at least twice much to her frustration! There is just something about movies based on real life events which I really love. This is a great film for The Beatles lovers and non Beatles lovers a like!

Thanks for reading!
Anna x

 

Throwback Thursday – 90’s ABC Kids Shows

Anna BratchfordLeave a comment

A friend of mine shared this video on Facebook the other day and it almost brought me to tears with how many fun and loved memories came back to me. Though I was still rather young when these were playing, I remember them very well.These cartoons and shows my sister and I looked forward to these and used to watch them endlessly.

A lot of these, just from the first note of music I knew exactly what it was, such as the ABC Kids intro, Arthur and Bananas in Pajamas. Others I didn’t even know I knew them but somehow I can hum along to the tune and recognised them immediately, this goes for Funnybones and Magic Mountain. I recall absolutely loving these shows, and after seeing little snippets of them now it is incredible how much I really remember.

It really goes to show how much the mind can retain even though the thoughts and memories aren’t being visited and used every day. All it took was a tiny section or the theme of a show to bring back such happy memories I couldn’t remember I even had. This is Throwback Thursday at it’s very best, and it proves that you never truly forget the little things like that which made you happy when you were younger.

Which of those do you remember and are there any you’d like to add? I know I’d definitely add Play School, Pingu, Bear in the Big Blue House, Sesame Street and even though this one didn’t air in the 90’s The Upside Down Show!
Thanks for reading,
Anna x