SNAP! 2013 // great fun & great people

It's been a couple of weeks since SNAP! 2013,

& I am so glad that got to attend this year.

I was nervous before I left; first time traveling all by myself,

meeting lots of new people (I can be kinda shy!),

not knowing what to expect during the whole thing...

but everything worked out fine.

And having to meet new people really pushed me out of

my comfort zone, which was good for me. :)

The theme for this year's conference was:

I love that! Such a wonderful reminder for everyday life.

I think my very favorite part of SNAP! was the people.

I met so many amazing, beautiful ladies while I was there!

Even though we had never met in real life before SNAP!,

I think my roommates & I got along really well.

We went to a lot of the same classes, got to hang out together,

and went to bed early when everyone else was partying. ;)

Jessica of OhSoAntsy // Albion Gould

And then a bunch of other awesome ladies...

Diana // Elise // Jessica

Courtney // Caroline + Alissa // Meagan

Skye + Alissa // Morgan // Carrie

They had a super fun photo booth at the closing party,

hurray! It was really fun! :)

Danielle + Beth // Alyson + Karri + Amy + Elizabeth

So happy to meet ALL of them

(& even more I didn't get pictures with)

& already planning my trip to SNAP! 2014.

more to come soon...

petunia travels // Caversham Wildlife Park

previously in the {petunia travels} series...

Singapore // Perth + King's Park

{just a note: all of our pictures are from our iPhones,

and I didn't edit any of them beyond resizing them for the blog}

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if you don't want to see lots of pictures of cool Australian animals,

you may as well skip right over this post. ;)

if I had to choose a "favorite thing" from our trip to Australia,

I think it would have to be Caversham Wildlife Park.

we spent most of the day there, and it was so neat to be able

to get "up close & personal" with some awesome animals.

{koalas! we got to pet them & everything!}

oh, and the kangaroos. totally amazing.

they had a huge enclosure where you could go in & walk around;

all the kangaroos were chilling out in the shade,

you could go right up & pet them.

I might have been freaking out a little about how cool it was! ;)

we saw quite a few beautiful birds...

a wombat {such a strange animal!}, funky lizards, dingo...

oh, and finally... a couple of baby kangaroos, about 6/7 months old!

seriously, they were just the most adorable little things;

I wanted to sneak one home in my suitcase. :D

do you have a favorite Aussie animal?

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I'll be sharing at least one more post about Australia,

but I want to share some SNAP! posts first...

so this edition of {petunia travels} will be continued a little later.

thanks for reading!

petunia travels // Perth + King's Park

to see the first part of our trip, Singapore, click here.

I'm so excited to be sharing these pictures from our time in Australia with you!

We visited Perth, West Australia, and it was so beautiful there.

Even the weather was perfect for walking everywhere we went!

{just a note: all of our pictures are from our iPhones,

and I didn't edit any of them beyond resizing them for the blog}

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our plane landed in Australia pretty late & we were exhausted,

so we slept in and headed out for "breakfast" at lunch time. ;)

coffee is always a priority for us, so we went to a cafe-style restaurant

called Dome - it ended up being our favorite place for food while we were there!

pretty much every restaurant in Perth had "famous" fish & chips,

so the hubby decided to have some for lunch - I think he ended up having it

(at different restaurants) like 5 times while we were there!

{first kangaroo sighting, ha!}

after breakfast/lunch, we went off into the city to do a little exploring.

I had heard that King's Park was beautiful, so we started that way first.

there was a kind of a short cut through to the park called Jacob's Ladder,

and we figured the stairs couldn't be *that* bad...

well, there were about 1300 stairs.

we were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the top!

the view was gorgeous, but we ended up just laying in the grass

for a while to recover before walking through King's Park. ;)

{the grass in Perth was gorgeous; almost like a golf course!}

{views of the city}

we really enjoyed the park & seeing the whole city spread out below us.

I feel like it was a good start to getting acquainted with Perth.

to be continued...

hello.

hello Monday >> after being away at SNAP! all weekend, I believe today is going to require at least 2 cups of coffee...

hello home & husband >> SNAP! was amazing & I'm so thankful I got to be there, but my home is always my favorite place to be.

hello laundry >> not my favorite chore, but it needs to be done. first load is in now!

hello inspiration >> as soon as I got on the plane yesterday, I had to pull out my notebook & start scribbling down ideas. feeling refreshed & inspired as far as blogging goes, so keep an eye out for some upcoming posts. ;)

hello priorities // I'm realizing that I struggle with prioritizing & time management... not good. making an effort to put the truly important first & not sweat the small stuff, but also to (hopefully) not waste as much time in the course of a day.

hello Australia >> I haven't forgotten about sharing pictures from our trip! we just took SO many, I have to pare it down to the best ones. (you can see the first part of our travels here)

hello winner >> Katy P won this pretty scarf! congrats!

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I'm linking up with Lisa Leonard today.
hope you all had wonderful weekends!

washi swapping

it's no secret that I looove washi tape {my hubby likes to tease me about it} so when I saw that Torrie was hosting a swap, I knew I had to join in. :) I was paired with the lovely Ashley from A Fox & A Wolf, and I just love the tape she sent!

I had to dig in as soon as I got the package,

and I happened to see this cute idea

on Torrie's instagram:

now my phone cord is much happier,

and I can't wait to put the rest of my new washi to good use.

thank you SO much, Ashley!

& thanks to Torrie for hosting, so fun!

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don't forget to stop by & enter to win

a pretty spring scarf!

petunia travels // singapore

this is the first of a little series I'm doing about our recent travels;

hope you enjoy!

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my husband & I recently traveled far around the world,

first to Singapore & then to Perth, Australia.

this was a business trip for him, but I got to go along,

& we did have time to do some fun things. :)

this was my first time traveling internationally,

really the first time I've flown anywhere,

& it was an adventure!

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Singapore was a really neat city,

very clean, very modern and very HOT.

(think 90* with 90% humidity!)

we stayed at the Marina Bay Sands

(which is where the hubby's convention was),

which was very neat. very fancy, which isn't really my thing,

but a cool place.

in our free time,

we tried all sorts of Asian foods, hung out at the pool,

visited the Art of the Brick exhibit at the ArtsScience museum,

and explored the hotel/mall.

unfortunately, something we ate made me sick,

so I ended up in bed most of the time we were in Singapore. :(

otherwise we would have gone out into the city to explore more.

it was still enjoyable, doing the things we did do.

after our time in Singapore, 

we headed off to Australia!

to be continued...

for fun // a giveaway

just because I love pretty Spring flowers

& I've been obsessed with scarves lately...

I'm giving away this lovely infinity scarf from the Eclectic Joy shop!

I'm keeping it simple today;

all you have to do is leave a comment!

(along with your email address

so I can contact the winner)

I'll randomly choose a winner

when I get back from SNAP.

Happy Spring!

**this is not a sponsored post, just me sharing some love with you.**

there & back

hello, friends!

oh my, life has been busy, busy, busy these days.

we were actually out of the country for the past 2 weeks

(my first international trip, eek!)

travelling to Singapore & Perth, Australia.

it was quite the trip, and I'm so thankful we got to go.

I'll be sharing some highlights & pictures over the next couple weeks!

in the meantime, hope you all are doing well.

this month is sure to be a very busy one,

but my goal is to check in here more often.

happy Monday & hello to a new week!