Over the past week or so, aware my 300th post was looming, I’ve been building a list. A list of 300 things that I like/love/can’t live without/wish for/hope for/dream of. Other than alphabetical, they’re in no particular order.

Are you ready?

acceptance; advocates for the voiceless; american stores at christmas; antique french amoire; antique white usa paint colour; apartment therapy; asscher cut diamonds; audrey hepburn; aunties and uncles (either relations or just friends who are known as)

babble which will soon become conversation; bachelor/bachelorette (tragic, i know – but a good brain break); bargain shopping; barker (my fuzzy nephew); bassa & the tall person; bay window seats; beary; beautifully set table; being a mumma; being brave; being organised; being silly; believing in myself; bella; bella’s ears; black & white check bathroom tile; black & white photographs; bloggers (some of whom are mentioned here, but many i love and look forward to reading every day!); blogging; blue sky; bombshell hair & eyeliner (1960s); bongo (the dog); breakfast at tiffany’s; bubba; bubba giving loves to the dogs; bubba pats; bubba, well let’s face it, bubba everything; bubba’s kisses; bubba’s perfect feet … and eyebrows; bubba’s wardrobe (i am a little envious!); building forts/camping indoors using furniture/sheets/blankets; bumpyroadtobubba; bunk beds; buttons (vintage fabric ones especially!)

candles; cartwheels; celebrations; champagne; chandelier lamp shades; cheese; chocolate; christmas; cocktails; coffee; collies & chuck; coloured pencils – a new set; cooking; cooking for my bubba; costume jewellery; craft/sewing room; creativity; crocheted dress with a suntan (fake tan of course!); cuddles; cupcake (the dog!); cupcakes (the sugary ones)

dancing; dark timber floorboards; date night (hint hint universe); dining al fresco; disneyland; DIY; dog ears; dog heads cocked to the side as if to ask you what or why?; dogdaz; dogs; dogs and bubbas; doing not just dreaming; doing something about chasing my creativity dreams; dreaming; dresses; dressing bubba up in her amazing array of gorgeous clothes (and wishing some of them fit me!)

easter egg chocolate; encouraging bubba; enormous mirrors; extra wide ovens

fabric and fabric stores; fairy bread; fairy godfather; fairy godmother; fairy lights in trees; falling in love; family; farm fresh eggs; farmers markets; flannelette sheets in winter; floating in the ocean (in the shallow part where no sharks are allowed to go); floor lighting not overhead lighting; for the love of my dogs; forehead kisses; frangipani; french provincial furniture; fresh bread (or toast) with danish butter; fresh flowers; fresh flowers in the bathroom; fresh teatowels; freshly laundered towels; friends; furry friends; friendships that last forever where time between contact is irrelevant; frozen margaritas in bryant park in the summer; furniture and design stores; furry ears (on the 4 legged friends, not people – eeeeiiiwww)

gardenia flowers; generosity (of spirit as well as person); getting caught in a new york summer storm with my sister; getting into bed the day i put fresh sheets on; getting lost in a good book; getting lost in a good movie; gift wrap themes; giggling; gorgeous big blue eyes (bubba) and brown ones (bella & beary); gorgeous new underwear; grace kelly; grandma – knowing bubba has the best one; great saying: there’s a lot of room under my skirt for …; grosgrain ribbon; guess how much i love you; gumboots; guncles (gay uncles – lucky bubba!)

hair clips; hair ribbons; hammocks; hand written post; handbags; harry potter; hats; having a crush; having a sister; having friends all over the world; having my hair done; having the best little sister in the world; heat packs; heroes; high heels; hot boys (just checking if you’re still reading!); hot chips/french fries with mayonnaise & ketchup (my naughty treat)

inspiration; inspirational quotes in kids rooms brightly framed or canvassed; interesting bedheads; interior design; italy (when i finally get there)

jump dancing; jumping on the bed; jumping on the trampoline

kindness of strangers; kissing; kitchen island bench big enough for everyone to be at; kitchen pantry super organised; knee high boots; knowing the good i’ll be able to do (particularly for death row dogs) if i ever win the lotto

laughter; laundry room (i wish!); laying on the ground looking up at the sky (day or night); learning; learning how to give bubba enough room to grow; life; lip gloss; lists; little brothers (even if technically he’s little brother in law); long hair (oh, how i miss mine); lots of bangles in summer; loving; lower case letters

making dog treats; making new from old; making recipes up as i go along; maps of manhattan; marc jacobs original marc jacobs for women (smells like gardenia); mason jars as candle holders hanging from trees; melbourne (even though i’m a sydney girl!); memories; menu preparation; molly (if poppy ever had a sister, this would be her name); money box: saving for holidays; mortar & pestle; music; my bed; my mumma

nail polish; new york; notes on lunch bags

ocean; online shopping; organic food & vegetables (except mushrooms – yuk, and i’m allergic!)

paper lanterns hanging from trees; pastis (new york) – for the food and the décor; paws; pearls; pedicures; peonies in full bloom; photographers; photographs; picnics in the sunshine; picnics under the stars; picture rails; pig tails (bubba’s); pinot; pinterest; planet friendly cleaning products; planning & styling; polka dots; pony tails (50s inspired for mumma); pressed metal (ceilings or walls)

rainbows; random acts of kindness; readers who share our story; reading; reading to bubba; really good hot chocolate; rescue dogs; retro caravan as a cubby house for bubba; road trips; rooms with a view; rumpy dog

sage (the puppy, not the herb – although i quite like the latter too, particularly in burnt butter sauce); salted caramel anything; sand between my toes; scent and the way it can immediately transport you to somewhere else; sea otters (they are the puppy dogs of the sea); seeing the glass half full; shoes; silliness; singing daggy songs really loud; sisterly love; sky; sleeping in (which i vaguely remember); smell of cooking; smell of toast; snouts; soap: a fresh new bar; sparkly party dresses; spices & herbs; spooning my dogs; stars; stationery; street furniture (as in one person’s trash may be my treasure); subway tiles; summer; summer holidays; sunglasses; sunshine; super high ceilings; super high thread count cotton sheets in summer; surprises; swings (hanging from trees)

teaching bubba optimism; teaching bubba she can do anything; teen fiction; that part in a relationship where it’s still new, but you’re over the initial uncertainty of whether it’s going to last; the anticipation just before a holiday; the container store; the smell of fresh washing – i do a load a day (at least); the smell of freshly mown lawn; the smell of new babies; the smell of rain in summer; the swish swish swish of beary’s magnificent tail; the thump thump thump of bella’s tail as it wags against the other side of the door when i arrive home; the timelessness of being on holidays; the unexpected; the way we were (robert redford/barbara streisand); throw rugs and blankets; tiffany’s; tolerance; tongue and groove timber; travel; trench coats; tuesdays with morrie; twilight

ugg boots; union square markets

vintage; vintage caravans; vintage fabric; vintage kitchen pieces; vintage typewriter font

wagging tails; walking brooklyn bridge when it was minus 7f; walking on the beach; watching bubba grow; watching bubba’s firsts; watching my 3 kids interact; water (and not taking it for granted); wearing a red or cream winter coat to stand out in the sea of black; when puppies scratch their noses with their paws; when the weather gets warm enough for a sundress and flip flops; whiskers (on dogs!); white ceramic jugs; wide timber floorboards; window shopping for inspiration; wonderbutt & family; writing; writing with a pink pen

ziplock bags

If you’re still reading, thank you. Thank you for continuing to share our story – 300 posts and counting!

(ps – now 301 as I forgot jump dancing … thanks for the reminder fairy godmother xx)