Hobbies

My husband and I went away for a night recently without the kids, for the first time in many year My lovely Mum and Dad took over for the night and we left the building ready to be waited on. Turns out in the town that we booked our night away in everything closes down on a Sunday night. For a town that has a lot of lovely restaurants - we had one to choose from. Lovely wait staff, but the ambiance left a little to be desired (possums had destroyed most of the chairs), and the food was reheated frozen dinners. Oh well, at least I didn't have to wash up.

The next day we headed into town to have a shop. Some of the shops were lovely and filled with the most glorious items. But it soon became apparant to us that this was a town full of Hobbiest. There were quite a few shops that you could see the owners had thought - Hmmm, everyone loves chocolate (for e.g), and I can make them - I'll open a shop. One particular shop had combined candles and bottles filled with different coloured sand. Not my cup of tea, but I must say the chocolate shops (there were many) were good.

All the power to them, and good on them for following their dream!!!!

Rope Yoga

Ever heard of Rope Yoga? It is the new fitness craze in America. No mats or blocks, just fabric hammock or ropes that suspend you above the ground where you practice yoga poses. Apparently it gives a deeper stretch and can provide extra support for positions. Of course there are the normal celebrities that "love" it like Sienna Miller and Pink, but it does sound like a bit of fun, and any sort of exercise that is fun it the way to go for me.
The most fun I have had exercising was in a Latin American aerobics class. I thought I was reasonable co-ordinated. Not the case. I could not get any of the steps and spent most of the time laughing at myself, however I still walked out of the class feeling like I had really spent some energy.
Rope Yoga is not in Australia yet, but I'm sure it won't take too long to make it's way here.

The unusual

I don't know if it is just me, but of late I have been hearing in the media a lot of negativity towards Rumer Willis, the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. Yep, she is definately unusual looking in comparison to the normal hollywood starlet, but God lets give her a break. Do we all have to fit that pre-determined mould of what movie executives deem attractive to be attractive? I personally find people with unusual feature much more attractive then your dime a dozen pin up model. For example, I have never understood the obsession with Elle McPherson. Yes, very good looking, and amazing body, but to me she just looks ordinary. There is nothing extraordinary about her feature - she is just another attractive person. People like Owen Wilson with his broken nose, and Jennifer Aniston with her longer jaw line look much more interesting to me.
Maybe I feel this way because I am past the age of comparing myself to models or actresses. There are lots of things I don't like about my body, looks, hair, teeth, etc, but I am at the age where I own those things. I may not love everything about myself, but I am comfortable in my own skin. I don't mind that "beauty spot" above my lip. I like that my breasts don't sit quite as high as they used to (mind you, I don't want them to decend anymore). I like the quirky details on other people, and I guess I am learning to like the quirky details of myself.

Skater Mum & Sons!

It never ceases to astound me how resilient and clever kids are! My two sons are 2 and 4 years old. Earlier this year we took up Roller Skating/Blading. We go to a class with toddlers/pre-school age children who are learning to skate/blade.
My 4 year old is quite shy and often unsure of himself. So, watching him emerge from not wanting to get onto the skates at all to seeing him now asking me to take him skating any spare minute we get - is fantastic. He started off on skates and this week is moving into blades. My 2 year old also gets on the skates. they just tighten the wheels and away he goes.
I see 3-4yr old children absolutely flying on their blades, its incredible. Over the easter school break, we went as family to the local skating rink. I got on blades after many years of not doing so (and I didn't fall over once, it was simply out of fear of being run over by the kids hooning around me on the rink! ha). I had the best time holding hands and skating around with my 4yr old to 80's pop songs.. Took me back quite a few years. Looking for good old fashioned fun (and fitness), go visit your local rink (or find a very smooth path)!

PJ's

I love my PJ's but I am not one to pop them on after my shower at 6pm at night. We don't often get visitors, but you never know when someone might knock on our door to tell us we have won a house!! (doesn't hurt to dream). So I have my staples that I pop on after my shower that I am comfortable in, but don't feel to daggy in. My pilates pants or yoga pants are always on rotation, along with singlets, t-shirts and a few well worn cardigans. They don't need ironing, they still look respectable and most of all they are comfortable to lounge about in.

I am a subscriber to the notion that clothes can enhance a woman's mood, so I tend to pick my "lounge" items carefully, following my rules of - no ironing, comfortable and flattering. Sticking to black, grey and white also helps (you can always through on a bright singlet or cardie if you need some colour in your life). Sometimes I have spent only $10 on an item, but most of the time I tend to spend a reasonable amount on these items, because I want the quality and I want it to last. These are items that I would wear 3-4 times a week on a regular rotation. It is funny how we women can spend hundreds of dollars on a dress that we might wear on a special occasion maybe once or twice, but we will head down to the cheapest chain store we can find when we want our staples that we will wear hundreds of times in a year? Go figure.

Mmm, lemon tart!

A few nights ago, I went out with a group of wonderful, vibrant women who also happen to be my fellow playgroup mums.. The food was great, but the service was very poor to say the least.. It took quite a while for the waitress to take our order. Once the food was served, we did not see the waitress again. We were not offered drinks, dessert, tea/coffee. The funniest part however, was when we asked to order the 'special' dessert for the night. It was homemade lemon tart - yum! The waitress replied that she would have to 'try to find the tart in the fridge' and given that the chefs had gone home for the night (it was 9:30pm), she would have to see if she could cut the tart herself.. We were in hysterics.. We are a group of mums, give us the damn tart and we can cut it ourselves! ha. I want to open the discussion on this one.. Share your funny restaurant stories...

Sheath Dress

Over the past few months I have gained a few unwanted kilos, which I am currently looking into different diets to lose. Weight Watchers is always a good fall back, but reasonable time consuming compared to the many diets around that use weight loss shakes to substitute meals. For me with two kids that is the easy way I think, but at the same time, I don't just want to lose weight, I want to change the way I eat for good, and I just don't think that is achievable when following a meal substitute diet. Either way, I am going to have to go back to my good habits of exercising regularly and eating lots of fruit and veges. I used to..... what happened?

In the meantime I am loving my sheath dress. It hids everything and is obscenly comfortable. With a pair of tights and high heals shoes it even does the impossible (for me at 5"2) and makes me look a little taller. I;m all about comfort these days, but comfort and style can still go hand in hand!!

Renovation Rescue

I have been looking through home decorator stores for quite a long time trying to find something for the centre of my dining table. I have looked everything - vases, bowls (filled with all sorts of fruit, balls, ornaments), runners etc and have been totally unable to make a decision on what would be right. Nothing seemed to fit. So, I started assessing my current home decorations and what I could swap around (and donate to charity stores). I have a hutch filled with all sorts of beautiful and sentimental pieces collected over the years. I came across a lovely set of candelabras which we were given as an engagement present. I moved them to my dining table and they are perfect! Simple style and even the candle colour is right! It just goes to show that a mini home makeover can be done just by re-arranging pieces! Something which can look awful in one room, can look awesome in another!

Easter Eggs

Having two kids in the house aged 4 and 2, Easter is a big deal for our family. Yes, I am one of those mums that allows the kids to have a chocolate egg with their breakfast for that one special day a year. Of course the kids were awake at some ungodly hour, and were looking for signs of the Easter Bunny at every corner. My daughter went outside immediately and was very disappointed to tell me that the Easter Bunny had NOT left them any eggs for an Easter hunt. My reply to that was that the Easter Bunny makes the eggs invisible until he sees that children have eaten their breakfast, brushed their teeth and made their beds (I love the innocence of youth). I then managed to hold off on the Easter egg hunt until after we had taken a walk and gotten the kids out into the fresh air. Whilst my husband made sure the children were strapped into their car sets to take us to our walking destination, I ducked out the back door and "hid" the eggs for the Easter egg hunt.

We had a lovely walk along the water front, and came home to find................ Easter egg wrappers everywhere around the yard. Our friendly crows (that I must confess devour our sandwich scraps most days) had decided that they would get in on the fun and have some chocolate on Easter Sunday. So, although less chocolate is a blessing in disguise, my kids were NOT impressed. The crows are currently in time out!

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a relaxing and peaceful Easter.
Whether you have gone to your favourite Easter holiday spot, or are enjoying a few days pottering about your home.. Enjoy the break.
Our Easter is one spent at home this year. A few days will be spent catching up with family with a few treasure hunts thrown in the mix for sure! Mmn.. chocolate. It takes me months to wean myself off the 'need' for chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner! ha. Our garden will also receive a little love and care this long weekend. Our neighbours are doing the same, so the street will be filled with the children running around 'helping' the Dads.. Good luck on that one!

Life's memories stored in photos..

It's a time consuming task to keep track of all those photos we take in life. If we keep up to date with filing and dating them, its all good. But lookout when it all gets out of hand! It can take hours of sorting and collating what goes where. I must admit, I love nothing better than pouring through albums, especially of the kids. They are only 2 & 4 years old and yet they have already changed so much since birth. The one thing that has made my life so much easier are places like Harvey Norman who print photos with great quality and price (and fast too!). Now we can select options such as printing passport size, as well as a range of template options. Perfect for updating the baby record books and scrapbooking pages... Check it out if you haven't already. There are great gift ideas there too, perfect for easter, new arrival notices, birthdays and christmas cards just to name a few!

Sadie the cleaning lady

Today's blog is a short and funny story.... A few days ago, I did the fun task of cleaning my bathrooms/toilets while my two young sons slept. I must admit, I have mastered cleaning my house from top to bottom in such a short time these days. I scoot from one room to another telling myself that at the end of this cleaning session, I will reward myself with a cup of black tea and some chocolate! ha. (gets me motivated everytime).
My 4yr old woke from his sleep and as we all do, went straight to the toilet. Next minute he yells out 'mum, can I use the toilet?'. I answered, 'of course', why wouldn't you be able to?'. He replied 'its so clean, I wasn't sure if you would mind me using it!'. ha. (Now, I didn't think my toilets were that bad to begin with?!) Very funny..
And my cleaning tip for the day is - ENJO.. It cleans and shines bathroom benches and shiny chrome taps with ease. The marble paste is excellent for cleaning the tiles and glass in showers. Check it out if you haven't already!