I was going through some of my recent Instagrams and thought it would be fun to share what I’ve been up to when not chained to my keyboard…

Visiting the Turner from the Tate exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Out and about in the city.

The very cool cellar door of Alpha Box & Dice on a wine tour with friends.

My new business cards.

Product photo shoot with Jen Sando.

I got the bag I wanted for my birthday, yay!

My stall backdrop at Bowerbird Bazaar.

Floral arrangements at Bowerbird Bazaar.

Sweet little vignette at home.

Shopping at Freedom.

Making my first pumpkin pie.

You can follow me on Instagram for more!

+++

I’m a little bit bummed that I’m not attending the Kidspot Voices of 2013 Launch Party this weekend as it’s in another state. So I think I should do something fun to cheer myself up.

What are your fave activities for a fun weekend at home?

I’m currently packing my gear to head off to set up my stall at Bowerbird Bazaar for another year.

It’s a really awesome market full of handmade and designer wares by indie artists. So if  you’re in Adelaide and are looking for quality homewares, art, stationery, fashion or Mother’s Day gifts, come on over to the Wayville Showgrounds this weekend!

There’s also lots of yummy food and entertainment so it’s a great day out. It’s open tonight 4-9pm and Saturday & Sunday 10am-5pm.

The Akimbo stall will be along the back wall and it will be bursting with never-before-seen products which I’m crazy excited about. I LOVE meeting readers in person so make sure you come and say hello!

P.S. Follow me on Instagram for behind the scenes snaps during the market.

Yowza, well that was an EPIC series. That took me long enough and I still have to put together our album – eek!

Here’s a quick summary of the links:

Day 1 & 2: San Francisco

Day 3: San Francisco

Day 4: San Francisco

Day 5: San Francisco

Day 6: Napa Valley

Day 7: Napa Valley

Day 8 & 9: San Francisco

Day 10: San Francisco & surrounds

Day 11: San Francisco

Day 12: San Francisco

Day 14: London

Day 15: London

Day 16: London

Day 17 & 18: Berlin

Day 19: Berlin

Day 20 & 21: Dresden

Day 21 & 22: Prague

Day 23 & 24: Prague & Pilsen

Day 25: Cesky Krumlov

Day 26 & 27: Vienna

Day 28: Vienna

Day 29: Wels

Day 29: Salzburg

Day 30: Salzburg

Day 31: Innsbruck

Day 32 & 33: Dachau & Neuschwanstein

Day 34 & 35: Heidelberg

Day 36: Munich

Thanks so much for indulging me over the past few weeks. I’ve enjoyed sharing our travels with you but I’m looking forward to getting back into my regular content this afternoon.

I’ve got lots of fun things lined up for you, including new columns, themed months and easy projects. *Rubs hands together in glee* Can’t wait!

Our final day! Sniff sniff.

We had a walking tour (there’s a surprise) with a lovely post-grad student.

An unexpected shrine to Michael Jackson.

I reeeally loved the contemporary glass and steel reconstruction of the bombed wings of this government building.

The beautiful Englischer Garten (English Garden) in the city centre.

Our good friends, who had visited Munich last summer, told us about the surfers in the river that runs through the Gardens. I couldn’t believe there were guys doing it in freezing January weather!

A subtle reminder of the Nazi history of this public building.

Our guide was mortified that there was a vocal group of protesters against the erection of an Islamic mosque. There was a huge police presence.

How great is the architecture of this stunning contemporary synagogue?

Well, FINE THEN, Munich.

Alas, it was time to farewell Europe and begin the looong journey home. We had an amazing time and it didn’t feel like it went to quickly as so often happens.

Phew, well this is the final day but tomorrow morning I will post one more quick wrap-up post that lists all the trip posts in one place for easy reference if you are travelling to some of the same places we did.

Til then, enjoy the rest of your day!

We left The Man’s family and took off to the beautiful university town of Heidelberg. Most of these photos are of the semi-ruined castle.

Can you believe this is a model?!

There was a small museum on the history of pharmacy, including this fabulous turn-of-the-century shop fitout.

We had our last dinner at a restaurant that served 100 different types of schnitzel!

After our time in Austria and Czech it was time to head back into Germany, this time in the south.

After a homecooked lunch and catch up with The Man’s uncle (who lives in a town outside Munich) we made our way to Dachau, the location of one of the Holocaust’s most horrific death camps.

We walked there from the train – not realising how far it was and that there was a bus – but it actually made the deepened the experience as we followed the journey of the prisoners’ arrival.

“Work sets you free.”

The bitter cold and bleak sky seemed appropriate for this awful place.

(I have to admit I was tempted to brighten up these photos so they looked nicer but it was actually nearing dusk while we were there so I kept them realistic.)

Words cannot describe the chilling experience of visiting the crematorium.

After our gut-wrenching sightseeing, we relaxed with another lovely homecooked meal, this time joined by The Man’s uncle’s niece and her husband (who all live in the house above). The niece and husband have excellent English, the uncle only a little, while The Man has good German and I have zilch. But we got by with a lot of bilingual talking and a lot of hand gestures.

The Man hadn’t seen his uncle since he was a boy and neither of us had met the niece, but they were so warm and friendly and their hospitality was embarrassingly good.

They were kind enough to drive us out to Neuschwanstein Castle a couple of hours away. I had been there as a kid (in summer) and it was just as magical.

We were at the top of the mountain waiting for our guided tour to start, when we heard our names being called out. It was a guy and a girl we went to school with! Totally bizarre.

On the way back, we stopped off at one of the couple’s favourite churches. It was very strange to see such an impressive church in what was essentially the middle of nowhere.

It was definitely a couple of days of opposites – both memorable in different ways.

We arrived in Innsbruck late at night and went straight to our hotel so we didn’t get a great sense of the city to begin with. Then we awoke to this view (above) from our hotel window. Wow!

We were on the opposite side of the river to the main town (closer to the ski slopes) but it was a beautiful walk so we didn’t mind at all.

Just for a change – ahem – we went to an Imperial Palace (we were on first name terms with Maria Theresia & co by this stage). Apart from the usual things you’d find in a royal residence, they also had a great display of the furniture through the ages and showed how they were actually constructed.

My 10am instant coffee just isn’t the same now that I’ve experienced Austrian hot drinks like this amaaaazing hot chocolate. I still have no idea how I managed to not put on any weight with how we were eating and drinking!

The Man kept threatening me with a snow fight but thankfully I always had the convenient excuse that he couldn’t throw snow at me while I was holding the camera.

Dear old men, you know they make small chess sets so you don’t have to play OUTSIDE IN THE FREEZING BLOODY COLD?

I’ve never got the whole moustache fad, but I had to admit this made me laugh.

There were plenty of galleries to choose from, but we felt we’d already covered a lot of 17th-20th century oil painting. So we ditched the idea of the fine art museum and instead went to the Volkskunst (Folk Art) Museum.

It was fascinating and well-presented. They even had entire rooms reconstructed to show how regular people would have lived (quite the contrast to the Hofburg Palace as you can imagine!).

Goodnight, Innsbruck!

I don’t know what it’s like in your part of the world right now but today’s photos might make you feel a little chilly!

Pre-school children tobogganing - cutest thing ever.

As you can tell by the volume of photos, we couldn’t get enough of the Mirabell Palace Gardens.

Our main activity of the day was a visit to the Fortress, which this guy is looking up to.

We found the entrance to the funicular (hillside cable car) but it was closed due to the snow!

It was not an easy walk, but thankfully the view was so beautiful I’m actually glad we weren’t able to take the funicular. Plus, it was probably good to work off some of the schnitzels and wine.

Sorry for the epic amount of photos – I couldn’t decide!

As well as the normal fortress exhibitions there was a also marionette museum which was quite cute.

After a more leisurely walk back down the hill, we treated ourselves to some shopping. Actually we mostly bought gifts for our family but it was still great fun.

My face lit up when I saw this shop consisting entirely of Christmas decorations!

…and this other store window featuring a giant Missoni ‘A’!

Next up, we head to Innsbruck.

I’m about to head off to a product photo shoot for some new Akimbo wedding invitations (squee!) but first I wanted to pop in with an update regarding the Decor8 Blog Boss course, since I know many of you were keen to find out more.

Firstly, it should be said that I had previously never done any online course, in-person blogging class or conference. So I had nothing to compare it to… except my own ridiculously high standards.

From the moment I logged on for the first lesson I was impressed with the professional setup and support and I continued to be blown away with each lesson. Holly’s dedication and 100% commitment particularly impressed me. All of the classes were prepared specifically for this course and often on the day of the lesson so we knew we were getting fresh and up-to-date content – so important in such a rapidly-evolving industry like blogging.

Holly’s guest teachers Irene Hoofs of Bloesem and Steffi Luxat of Ohhh Mhhh provided an excellent perspective on topics within their expertise. In particular, Steffi’s advice on thinking of your blog like a magazine set off so many light bulb moments that it felt like there was a strobe light in my head.

While the content of the lessons alone would have been worth the cost of the course, there was also some amazing value in the student forums, in the form of advice, feedback and networking.

Like all classes, you only get out of it what you put in. It didn’t take long to get through the classes, but spending time in the forums, putting effort into your homework and actually implementing what you’ve learned does require a level of commitment.

Speaking of implementing, I have done a TON of work, but most of it is behind-the-scenes and won’t be published until the upcoming relaunch. I did the moodboard above as part of week 3’s homework, then in week 4 I actually scrapped my nearly-complete site design because the branding and navigation wasn’t doing it for me. The new direction feels right and I am totally jazzed about it all – can’t wait to reveal all!

Blog Boss was a fantastic course and I will definitely be doing more of Holly’s Blogging Your Way classes in future.

If you have any questions about my experience, feel free to ask in the comments!

P.S. I did the moodboard above with only the intention of using it personally, so I didn’t note the sources as I normally would. I feel terrible about not crediting properly (in fact I hesitated in writing this post for that reason), so if you are the owner of any of the images featured in the collage, please email me and I will add the credit. Thanks for your understanding!

After our morning in Wels, we arrived in Salzburg eager to start exploring.

We were blown away by the breathtaking view from the banks of the Salzach River.

By now you probably won’t be surprised to learn that our next activity was – you guessed it – a walking tour! Our local guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, although the tour was bilingual and she spoke way longer to the German-speaking tourists so we did feel like we were missing out a bit.

After the tour concluded, we went to Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart’s Birth House) which was a small but well-curated and fascinating museum of the famous Salzburger.

We had a pleasant (and by pleasant I mean pretty but effing freezing) moonlit stroll through the palace gardens.