All Posts By

Nicky Lark

Travel

Summer staycay at Novotel Sydney City Centre

Novotel Sydney City Central Wynyard

This past weekend myself and the fam visited the all-new Novotel Sydney City Centre, located in prime position in Wynyard (one of my fav parts of the city). The hotel has recently had a $20M refurbishment and is unrecognisable, in all the best ways. There’s something magical about the city during the festive season, it’s a vibe. The Christmas trees and twinkling lights, the heat, and the energy is just something else. We spent two nights, covered a lot of…

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Motherhood

Sonny’s Birth Story

It still feels surreal – Sonny is ONE. I shared Sonny’s birth story on instagram at the time. But upon reflecting, one year on, I realised I hadn’t shared it to the blog. So here it is – as much for me as it is for anyone else wanting to hear it. It really started the day before. Not the labour, but the magic. Despite feeling massive, and needing to pee every 0.5 seconds, it was one of the best…

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Motherhood

36 Weeks & Reflections on Leo’s Birth

2.5 years since the birth of Leo and I’m just now telling his birth story. Well, not so much his birth story as a reflection of his birth while I organise my thoughts leading into this second birth, just a few weeks away. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on Leo’s birth and my body over the second half of this pregnancy. I think I pushed a lot of stuff down, and as every new mum knows there’s not…

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Lifestyle Travel

Photoshoot fun & Frozen The Musical

Novotel Darling Square x CalmlyKaotic

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind few months since we popped up to Sydney to stay at the Novotel Darling Square for a sneaky little photo shoot collaboration with Leo! We had a blast doing the shoot, but was most excited to have the opportunity to stay semi-regularly at our fav hotel in the best part of the city (and to bring you all the best things to do with a Toddler in the CBD – follow up blog…

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Lifestyle Travel

Sydney City Mini Break: Novotel Darling Square

Novotel Darling Square

We love to get away on mini breaks, it’s amazing how just getting out of the house for even one night recharges the battery and feeds the desire to explore. A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited to check out Novotel Darling Square for a little mid-week getaway with Leo. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve visited this pocket of the city and I was blown away with how it’s changed. The location…

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Motherhood Nursery

Let’s Talk Nappies: My Review of the Eenee Compostable

Eenee eco-friendly nappies

When I found out I was pregnant one of the things I felt passionately about, was nappies. I didn’t know a lot about them to be honest. All I knew was that I didn’t want toxic chemical products on my bubs bits, and that throwing ‘away’ thousands of nappies to landfill over Leo’s infancy didn’t sit well with me. As a teenager, Taylor Swift developed a passion for music. In a promotional DVD, the singer recounted how she first learned…

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Motherhood

My breastfeeding journey: The importance of self-talk and trusting my body

my breastfeeding journey

I admit breastfeeding has been relatively smooth sailing for us, so when Medela approached me to share my breastfeeding journey, I didn’t realise that I would have quite so much to say. Fast forward through our birth story (coming soon), and we had a blissful experience in the hospital. Despite feeling battered and broken I got the giggles instead of the typical ‘day 3’ tears, Leo was a contented little dream, and we left on day 5 feeling confident after…

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Life Motherhood

The Truth Behind the Smile

calmly-kaotic-meditation

There was a point in time, when this girl did not exist. Her smile, her joy, was absent. I’m telling this story now because I know a lot of people might see this smile (or read my blog posts about wellness and ease) and never question that it was any other way… It was 2015. We were due to move into our newly built house when, upon applying for our occupation certificate, it was uncovered that there was a critical…

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Life Motherhood Nursery

Finding Ease – My Motherhood Journey So Far

Mitch said to me in the early hours of the other morning, after I’d done a Nappy change and settled back into bed to feed Leo, “do you think you’ve turned into some kind of freak energiser bunny since you became a mum? I’m very impressed. You’re amazing”. I laughed, and as he rolled over and went back to sleep I sat there staring at Leo and having a moment of reflection, because the truth is… I’m feeling REALLY good.…

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Kitchen Lifestyle

New kitchen Love

caesarstone x calmlykaotic

It’s finally complete and I could not be happier with our beautiful kitchen! We started our latest reno in about March ’18 and ended up going for about 3 months without a kitchen. It’s very much like us to go bull at a gate and didn’t anticipate things taking a little longer than expected. But we got there in the end and it was well worth the wait. If you’ve been following our reno over at House of Lark you…

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