week three

it takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home

Short but sweet for week three, we finally settled on our first house!  Our amazing real estate agent met us quickly late one evening to give us the keys and a bottle of wine with a lovely welcome home card. I can't wait to show you all the photos of our home, all my inspiration for decorating (now we finally don't rent and can paint walls- yay!) and to document our renovation journey.

xo

LUSH valentines collection 2017

I was super excited to receive a box of valentines goodies from the folks at LUSH this week. The timing was perfect as we're mid way through moving house, so a relaxing bath was more than overdue.

If you know me, you'll know I love LUSH more than anything, not only are they 100% cruelty free and masters of making bath time as fun as possible (pun intended), they actively try to support social causes through their products. Each valentines day the bath/body/shower gods at LUSH have done a feature on love, aiming to highlight that anyone can love anyone no matter their sex, gender, race, religion, hair colour...need I continue? this year's LUSH valentines campaign features the gorgeous Darren from LUSH Newmarket and his partner Joel.

Lush will always use any opportunity to present a broader and more realistic image of what love looks like, always using LUSH staff and real couples

And on top of a fantastic campaign about Real love, they've of course released an amazing selection of limited edition products for valentines, here's a few of my Lush valentines favourites....

You can find the full Lush valentines range here 

The kiss Lip scrub 

Packed with sugar for exfoliation, cocoa butter for softness and sicilian mandarin oil for an uplifting and refreshing scent, $9.95

The kiss lip balm

This beautiful pink lip calm is packed with fair trade shea butter, from a womens cooperative in ghana. It's also got organic jojoba oil, agave syprup and organic illipe oil to leave your lips silky smooth and shiny sweetly, $9.95

Bubble bars 

Ladybird

Packed with peppermint and geranium oil, this little ladybird crumbled under the bath tap with help you fly away from your troubles. All in one it creates enough bubbles to fill the bathroom, or if you're feeling savvy she's enough for 2/3 baths, $8.96

Love struck

Nothing says love in 2017 like the heart eyes emoji, right?! This cute yellow bubble bar is filled with refreshing citrus and geranium and leaves the bath a perfectly sunny yellow, $8.95

Bath bombs

Cupid (bottom left)

A bathtime bouquet of calming rose and bergamot. If you want subtle sweetness this valentines this fizzy pink number is for you, $6.95

Over and Over (top right)

The ultimate pick me up, this gorgeously uplifting bath bomb rocks away in the bath leaving a pink and yellow swirl behind it. It's perfect for those who don't like sweet scents, as it's packed with lime and fennel, great for lovers of the brightside bubble bar! $8.95

Rose bombshell

My absolute hero piece of the 2017 collection, perfect for lovers of Rose Jam but with a little lemony kick. It's not only a beautiful scent, this bath bomb is multilayered and fizzes away to leave beautiful petals floating in the bath...how romantic! $7.95

Loverlamp

A silky white bath with little red hearts, perfect for however your valentines plays out. Beautiful organic cocoa butter mixed with vanilla absolute and brazilian orange oil. LUSH say it's a cleansing climax guarunteed,  $7.95

You can find the entire LUSH valentines collection 2017 here

Remember they're limited edition! 

Have you tried any of these products yet? Which are your favourites?

xo

Lane Poole Reserve, Dwellingup

Around 100km from Perth ( and less than an hour and a half in the car) is Lane Poole Reserve, a 50,000 hectare park managed by Department of Parks and Wildlife. Lane Poole Reserve is a beautiful spot to camp for the weekend, or to spend a day walking through the trees and swimming in the Murray river which runs through the park.

It's a $12 entry fee (per car) to get in to the park, and well behaved dogs are welcome however need to remain on leads during their stay due to 1080 poison in the area. There are extra fees for campsite, many of which can be booked online through the Park Stay website, although we didn't stay overnight we made an effort to check out the facilities and were impressed by the spacious camp grounds and relatively new amenities in all the sites!  

We were given a map as we entered the park which covers both Marrinup Reserve & Lane Poole Reserve and also has a handy guide to Dwellingup village aswell. The maps mark all of the facilities at each site, including the best swimming spots, BBQ areas and day use only parts of the park.

Jessie the dog had the best day exploring the forests and river banks in Lane Poole Reserve, we love that DPaW allow leashed dogs in to the reserve! 

Taking a dip in the Murray river to cool off

We decided to follow the main roads through the park and explored all of the swimming holes (which are usefully marked on the map!). Despite it being the middle of the school holidays, and a weekend, when we visited there was still plenty of room on the edges of the more popular swimming spots- I would highly recommend Island Pool particularly if you want to spend the day playing on your kayak or floating on a super trendy inflatable swan (BYO). For those who prefer to stay dry there's 100's of km of 4 wheel drive track and plenty of walking trails, including a stretch of the Bibbulman track. 

All three of us can't wait to go back for a long weekend camping, swimming and exploring- and can't stop telling all of our friends about Lane Poole Reserve! It honestly is the perfect spot for a quick escape from the city. 

You can find out more information to help you plan your adventure at Lane Poole Reserve here. 

Have you been to Lane Poole Reserve before?

xo

week two

week two

The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. work is the key to success, and hard work can help you accomplish anything.

This week I enrolled in to my masters in nursing, I worked 6 days straight and still managed to work out three times, including an hour and a half paddle up the Swan River. On Saturday we planned to drive to Collie, 2.5 hours south of Perth but were both so tired from the week that we ended up sleeping in until long past 10am. Instead we drove to Dwellingup and got lost amongst the endless forests. We cooled off in rivers and lakes and Jessie swam after a duck. That evening we drove in to Mandurah to see Dan's family and bought sweet potato fries and burgers from Grill'd. On Sunday we went for a look around bunnings to find inspiration for our new home which we move in to in just a few weeks time.

This photo is from our trip to Dwellingup, whilst we were lost in the forest some 4 wheel drivers came speeding past and created a huge dust cloud. We pulled over and I managed to grab my camera out of my bag just in time to capture the dust floating in the sunlight.

How was your week?xo

week one

Week one, 2017

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that

I really wanted a photo to sum up my week and when I was photographing some candles I recently bought from a handmade market, I saw this through the viewfinder and knew it was the photo to sum up my first week of 2017. The candle is from Possum & Blossom, a Perth based business who sell a beautiful array of candles and body products.

This week I made a devout effort to start the year right, I set my alarm for before 7am, I've flood my body with clean, organic fruit and veggies (you know the wonderful type that come still covered in dirt) and made an active effort to stay active. I've signed back up for a volunteer first aider role and enrolled in yoga classes to restore some inner balance and peace. I've spent extra time working on being mindful and trying to balance my thinking, and taking extra time before getting fiesty with people at work. On my mornings off work I've spent time at the beach, just me and jessie dog running in the waves to cool off and having cuddles with all the new puppies. Dan and I are trying to spend more time connecting, less time on social media (hence this post being late) and work phones.

How was your start to 2017?

xo

swellbound blog // 2017 blogging goals

I literally cannot believe we're 5 days into 2017 already! 

Last year seemed to jump from April to December and everything went by in a total blur, I worked so hard at work that my personal life took a serious backseat and sadly blogging went with it. So this year I've decided to prep and plan to make sure that I get a balance of me time, work time and blog time, I figured writing out my blogging goals as my first post of the year would be a great place to start.

001. Re-brand! I'm not sure if you've arrived here expecting We are Dannah or Swellbound either way welcome and thank you for stopping by. When I first moved to Australia I wanted to focus my blog on Dan and I, to use it as a bit of diary as we emigrated and settled in, however I quickly outgrew it and wanted to be able to just publish photos stories and share with my readers. So mid-2016 I decided, with some encouragement from my blogger pals old and new, to re-brand in 2017 to something more true to me, which I'm hoping is exactly what swellbound will become. 

002. Complete a project 52. Last year I attempted project 366, taking a photo every day for a year, it was a great idea and I'm sure that if I checked my phone I probably did take a day a photo a year however I realised after a few weeks that it was a little ambitious. This year I aim to post a diary / round up type post, filled with pretty photos or backgrounds I've made (like the picture above). 

003. Draw inspiration from bloggers I love. I've always adored bloggers who post photo stories, travel diaries and wonderfully honest personal reflections (check out the list of bloggers in my side bar for some inspiration) and want my blog to reflect these things a lot more.

004. Support the little / local guys. I've worked with some incredible companies during my time blogging, but some of my favourites have been little start ups who I feel I'm really helping. I want Swellbound to be a place that really supports little and local business.

005. Post more! Super simple and I'm not going to set a number because I don't want to not hit it. Like I said before, 2016 put my blog on a serious back seat and I really missed it, so this year I want to really put some effort in to my blog and to re-ignite my passion for blogging. The best thing is, I have such an awesome list of things to look forward to this year and I can't wait to share with you all. 

So here's to a 2017 filled with regular posts, flooding your feed with sunshine, sand and salt water

♥

What are your 2017 blogging goals?

xo