Yep, so I popped into the blog on the last day of 2017, announced that I was back and then promptly went AWOL again.
Well that was a great comeback huh?!
I guess there was no way of us for-seeing that my dad would be carted off to hospital in a red and white limo and that we could be preparing to face the New Year without him.
He was not a well man, at all, but the thing about my pop is that he is a hellava fighter and thankfully a stubborn bugger to boot and so it shouldn't have been a surprise that he made his own miraculous comeback and is here to give 2018 a red hot go.
For that I am SO grateful, but enough of the scares already thanks dad!
In other news, the hubby and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary last week.
I know, I KNOW... you are reading this and thinking - "she must have been like 8 or something when she was married because she is wayyyy to young to be celebrating THAT many anniversaries."
Bless your cotton socks, that is far too kind of you.
Oh okay then, just humour me and let me think you were thinking that alright because I do wonder how the hell I got old enough to have been married for 22 years, let alone be the mother of these glorious humans.
Yup, those lovely faces there would be our baby boys.
Our exceptionally BIG baby boys.
Holy Shitballs, they grew up suddenly and with their big feet come big appetites.
Those kids can flipping eat!
The bigger they get, the more horrendous our grocery bill gets and I truly pity the poor checkout assistants that have to listen to me wail every week at the size of the grocery bill... and I only have 3 of them.
How on earth do you bigger families cope with the shock of the weekly food bill?
I reckon someone should invent a grocery savings plan thingymajig to prepare you for when your baby humans become bigger humans that like to eat... a lot.
You know, kind of like those school savings accounts that you put money into when your bubs are born so that you can be financially prepared for the costs of school fees and such, except this plan is designed to prepare you for the food bills that will inevitably come given the amount of tucker those little babes will one day eat.
I remember how I used to worry about them NOT eating all their dinner.
Now I worry about them not eating EVERYONE'S dinner if someone dares to turn their back for a second.
It's been so nice to spend time with them these holidays though.
I'm totally making the most of every precious moment they want to spend with us because I am well aware that given the speed at which time is passing, it won't be long before they are all grown up and off being busy living their own lives.
I can just see it... Carl and I will be happily forking out the big bucks at the grocery store and bribing them with roast dinners just to get them back home again, if only for a few hours.
I am kind of sad the school holidays are coming to an end... but excited to get back in the studio again and get stuck into all the plans I have for Little Lane Workshops this year.
I was hoping we would manage to get away somewhere these holidays... I even had big plans of surprising the hubby and kids with a trip up to Byron in a Winnebago. I found us the 'Bago to hire but then I totally left it too late to book anywhere to park it and so instead, we've been mooching around our local area and holidaying at home.
Good one Sonia!
It's been nice to mooch around for a few weeks though, and it's been a welcome relief from all the hecticness of last year. (is hecticness even a word or did I just make that up because spell check wants me to change it to say heftiness).
Hectic... hefty... whatever you call it... 2017 was a BIG year for us at the workshops. We've been busy growing and planning, and branching out and working on some awesome collabs which I'm excited to share with you as they unfold. We were also stoked to be able to buy the studio that is home to our business late last year.
I KNOW right... how terrifyingly grown up of us kids.
The truth is, as scary as it was (because being commercial property owners never even entered our minds before), buying our studio has given us a huge amount of security and peace of mind that the workshops have a permanent home, something that any business owner will agree, sure helps you to sleep at night.
Having had to of move the business once already just over a year ago because we couldn't get a long term lease, I am relieved that Daydream St is now our permanent address.
Ha has, Yup for real... we are on Daydream St. Can you think of a better street name to run your dream business from?
I still pinch myself pretty much every single day that I am living my daydream of owning my own business and doing something that makes every bit of my soul happy.
All I am going to say is this - keep on dreaming big you guys, because there is absolutely no reason that those big hairy dreams of yours can become your reality if you truly believe in them.
So that's been us lately... in a nutshell.
What have you been up to?
Got any exciting plans for 2018?