First of all – I am going to miss these guys when we leave next week. I got this shot of them chilling out in the sun the other day. Gobbolino (the black + white one) is notoriously camera-shy. I swear, the moment I point my phone at him he pulls a face or snubs me, just like he did in the above photo. However, I did manage to thwart him the other night when I got this shot:

Mwahaa – caught unawares! He’s been snuggling under the blankets (but not the sheets, this cat-allergic girl has to draw a line somewhere) with us for the last few weeks since the weather finally turned cold. I’ll miss my little living hot water bottle while we’re away, but he’s got it sussed – he’ll just go next door and hop in bed with grandma and grandpa like he does most mornings.

Poor little Tedster, however, I am worried about – he makes himself a little nest on the floor, and is yet to work out his territorial issues with my parent’s cat, so he’ll be stuck in our place all alone. Hopefully it will prompt him and my parent’s cat to get over their issues, or he’ll have to settle for daily pats when Mum comes over to visit him.

In other news, we had a fab night on Saturday with all our friends (and saw them for the last time before heading off on our trip!). Our mates who live in the city finally had their house-warming party… which had a Bond theme.

Nick dressed up as a henchman, and I just went for Generic Bond Girl… what do you think?

I tell you what – despite the fact I love making jewellery, I’m not a particularly girly girl. I don’t normally wear makeup, paint my toes or nails (those babies would just get DESTROYED every day when I got to work at my bench), or do my hair apart from wash-and-brush… so it took me a long, long time to get myself put together for this! I was happy with the result though – especially because it forced me to pull this dress out of the box I packed it in when we moved back in 2010!!!

I found so many lovely clothes I totally forgot I had in that box. Now the question is – where on earth do I put them? I think a bit of a closet re-organise and clean-out is in order when we return…

Sunday morning was a fun awakening… we stayed over at our friends’ apartment after the party. On the 58th floor. And were woken at 8am by the building-wide fire alarm.

We traipsed down about 39 flights of stairs before the alarm was cancelled… then took a lift the rest of the way and just went out for breakfast. I had that lovely plate of pancakes, marscapone, figs, and honey with a side of bacon at the River Bar. I VERY rarely have pancakes (the whole eating-mostly-paleo-thing) but I gave into the craving. I’m glad I did, because the combo of honey, marscapone and fig was delish – definitely something I’d try again at home with some paleo pancakes.

Kirsten and I then went for a wander around the Valley – including a browse at the Valley Markets.

I got myself this new leather wallet – my old one was falling apart, and I figured it was a good investment to make pre-trip. I also got a phone case in a similar style at one of the discount shops in the Valley – which was an awesome find because my new phone is a cheap, non-standard Motorola and I couldn’t find a specialist case for it – and didn’t have time to order one from a fellow maker before we leave.

Today I also ticked off another task on our holiday-prep to-do list… to make myself a Holiday Band.

A Holiday Band is just a replacement wedding band to wear when you go travelling. I like to wear one when we travel outside of Australia because I always wear both my wedding and engagement rings, and they aren’t insured when we travel outside of Australia – not to mention I just hate the thought of them getting stolen or falling off during some outdoorsy activity.

So, they’re staying back here, safe and sound, and I made this one to wear instead. It’s a simple 2mm high-shine band. The nicest part about this ring? Both Nick and I made it 🙂

I did the initial cut and solder, and I hammered and sized it. Nick then took it and did the filing, sanding, and final polish. So it’s something we made together to symbolise our marriage (I made him put it on me, too).

I make SO many wedding bands these days, it was kinda lovely to make one for myself, even if it is just a stand-in. But now, if this one goes AWOL, it won’t be so bad… we can always make another!

Also, I finally finished ALL my customer orders today – hooray! If you bought something recently, keep an eye out for it.

The rest of this week will be finishing a wholesale order, getting all the Earring-of-the-Month Club pieces made and packed ready to go out when we’re away, and getting more stuff organised for our trip.

We’ll be spending most of June in Victoria, Canada… which has summer temperatures that are very similar to our winter temps here in Brissie. By the end of the trip we’ll be in Southern California in August, which I’m imagining will be much like summer is here, too. So I have to put together one big backpack worth of clothes that will run the gamut of my version of winter through to hot summer.

I’m thinking lots of layering-type clothes! Summer dresses that I can wear tights under and cardis over, as well as jeans and shirts and singlet tops. If you have any clever packing tips, do share – I’m usually a terrible one for over-packing, but I’m determined not to do that this time. My favourite tried-and-tested trick is to always roll my clothing, rather than folding it – do you do that, too?