The pace of things

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of appointments in your schedule? Not just work appointments but social appointments too?

I never used to be bothered by a fast paced, hectic life. I was the original busy bee. I loved having a million catch ups scheduled for every moment of the foreseeable future. I buzzed around, seeing and doing as many things as possible with as many people as I could. I took on every possible work project and involved myself in as many working groups as I could.

I don’t know what changed, I think I just got tired. I think I realised that I was getting quantity not quality. Now, when I look forward and see my diary cluttered with appointments I’m filled with nothing but stress and dread.

Right now, I feel tired and I feel slightly overwhelmed by life. I’m exhausted by activities from the past few weeks and I’m exhausted at the thought of the activity to come.

I’m a reformed busy bee is what.

I want time by myself. I want time with E. I want time to be able to spontaneously call friends and ask what they are up to that day. Then I just want the freedom to be able to catch up. Then and there.

But just because one is weary does not a pity party justify. I know I’m lucky to have a full life. I just need to find balance.  Any tips?

Polk that dot!

I’ve always been a big fan of stripes. But lately, I’ve been getting a bit dotty.

Do you like polka dots? Do you ever do the hokey pokey?

Super easy, gluten free, quinoa cookies

I made these cookies a few weeks ago. Actually I’ve made them a few times in the last few weeks. People keep asking for the recipe so please find below. They’re gluten free for those who need them to be!

You’ll need: 

1/3 cup honey (but I used date syrup)
1/3 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1 tsp baking powder

Method:
Preheat oven at 175 degrees C. Beat honey, sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until creamy. Combine flour, quinoa and baking soda in a small bowl. Add to honey mixture, and beat well until blended  Drop round teaspoon sized portions about 2 inches apart onto a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool for 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet. 

Serve with milk if you have a husband like mine….

Pretties

There is no purpose to this post, other than to share some pretty pictures.

Images: All photos are from here except for the lovely illustrations which are from here. Oh and the ‘beat the blues’ DIY bath oil is from here. If you’d like to make some for me, I would happily accept it.

 

These are a few of my favourite things

How do you like to spend your time? What makes you happy?

For me, it’s doing any of the following:

Baking
Cooking
Crafting
Doing nice things for people
Eating fish and chips on the beach
Going away for a weekend
Going on day trips to interesting places
Going on nice, scenic walks
Going to festivals
Visiting galleries
Visiting museums
Checking out the islands in Sydney Harbour
Beaching
Watching movies
Having BBQs
Having people over for dinner
Pampering myself with a massage, facial or mani/pedi
Going on a picnic
Planning holidays
Playing board games
Reading
Trying new cafes and restaurants
Trying random cuisines
Seeing plays
Watching dance performances, live music, or musicals
Spending time cleaning & sorting & organising
Watching documentaries
Watching dvds
Going to live sport
Watching new TV shows

A bunch of things

I’m happy to report that I’ve been commenting on more blogs recently. That was one of my new year’s resolutions.

What it means though is that I have less time to read blogs. Three times now I have gone into Google Reader, been overwhelmed by the number of unread posts and just marked everything as read. Each time I did that it felt liberating but now I’m beginning to wonder what I’ve missed.

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There are so many different birds in my garden. My Mumzy-in-law has been helping me identify them all by their song. She also gave me a bird watching book. I used to think that people who were interested in birds were a bit weird but it turns out that I’m into them too. Although maybe you think I’m weird (hey now!)

Speaking of birds, I love these three pink beauties.

Sharon Montrose takes the most amazing photos – she’s like the Anne Geddes of the animal world. I also really love Rachel Hale’s animal photography.

Alissa has some really pretty flamingo cushions and they’ve set me off on a bit of a flamingo obsession. As a kid I was nuts about flamingos and now I’m loving them all over again.

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I’ve decided that I need to get a pouf to go with my reading chair. It’ll be tricky to find one to match. I think maybe every reading chair needs a pouf. I think maybe everyone needs a sleigh rocking chair too. Or maybe that’s just me.

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I also think my house needs an injection of colour. As part of my ongoing 2013 photo sort out, I found some pictures of my Pyrmont flat. It was so bright! I was lumped with grey carpet and grey walls so I always made a big effort to have pops of colour around the place. It was also a very sunny little flat. I think my home now is walking too much on the muted side. Plus I read Décor 8 every day and my place quite literally pales in comparison with the homes on that site.

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I’m really sick of the media. This isn’t new. Apart from all the dishonesty, I also dislike how negative it is. Seldom is anything happy reported. If it bleeds, it leads I guess. Gah!

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We went to the cricket on Friday. I always have so much fun there! While I was watching I painted my nails white. I wonder if I’m the only person to ever have painted my nails at the cricket? We also ate a whole bag of red grapes. Have you noticed that all the wonderful summer fruit is starting to disappear from the shops? I don’t feel like I ate enough cherries this summer and now they’re all gone :(

I tasted durian today. Have you tried it before? It’s certainly not the most sexy smelling fruit. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it smells like death! I’m in no hurry to eat it again.
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I tidied up my Pinterest boards. Do you ever look through your boards and realise you’ve pinned the same thing multiple times?

I have a lot of pictures of swings. I didn’t even know that I loved swings so much until I reviewed my boards.

I also have lots of pictures of cakes. Aren’t these gorgeous?

They certainly aren’t stark little cakes are they?

A couple of years ago, Sheela made this tall cake. I think I’ve shown you before. 

Between four of us girlies (plus Husband) we could only manage a sliver of it. It was insanely sweet but oh so pretty! Colour layering is my favourite.

While we’re talking about cake, I feel that this slinky chocolate number deserves a look in. Made by Katie Quinn Davies.

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That’s all I got today folks. Over and out.

7 highlights from the last 7 days

Man I’m exhausted. It’s been a busy week at work and a busy week of social activity. I’ve had a dirty rotten cold too so have been a bit off my game. But here they are, my 7 highlights from the last 7 days.

1) Yum cha
We farewelled our lovely graduate with a team yum cha. Dumplings for me are the epitome of happiness. It was a good lunch!

Prawn har gow

2) First dinner club of the year!
Yay! We hadn’t seen Team Williams since Byron so this was a nice catch up. We went to Love Fish in Rozelle and just happened to be seated right near Michelle Bridges. It was cool to run into her again but also completely disconcerting to be eating polenta chips with her at the next table.

But in total juxtaposition, the main highlight of the night was dessert. Mel and I first decided to share a meringue with rhubarb coulis. It had potential but was a bit dry and flavourless so didn’t thrill either of us. What did thrill us was the second dessert that we spontaneously ordered once we’d seen Ian’s turn up at the table.

Dessert number one

This next photo does the Love Fish banoffee pie no justice whatsoever. However it looked amazing in real life! Watching Ian eat his pie, while waiting for ours to arrive almost killed me. But when it finally came, it was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. Mel and I both died a little bit inside.

Dessert number two

3) The Legend of Zelda, performed by Sydney Symphony
Ian used to love playing this game on the Wii so I snapped up tickets to the live show. The thing I’ve learnt over the years about the whole gaming industry is that the music is usually epic. And Sydney Symphony can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.

I was a bit confuzzled about what happening on the screen as I really don’t know anything about the Zelda game. But watching and listening to the live orchestra made for a jolly good night.

Always love going to Sydney Symphony!

4) An afternoon with Lis
Lis and I spent Saturday afternoon curled up on her couch, out of the rain. We talked, talked, talked – it was good for the soul! And there may have been some chocolate coconut slice involved which made the afternoon just that extra bit sweeter….

5) Danielle’s Bollywood Hens Night! 
My gorgeous friend Claire organised our just-as-gorgeous-friend’s hens night. It had all the pomp and ceremony one would expect from a bollywood event. All of us girls looked resplendent in our saris and the dance class part of the night was so much fun! I also have to say that Darbar in Glebe never lets you down as far as food is concerned. I really do think that they consistently serve some of the best Indian in Sydney.

Left to right – Clairey getting her bollywood on; Danielle making her entrance; Bollywood teachers

Bollywood dancing

6) A river walk & brunch
This morning, E and I did the 8km walk around the Penrith/Emu Plains section of the Nepean River. It really is so lovely down there. About 6km of the walk is right on the water but for a couple of kms you have to cross bridges and walk down suburban streets. I didn’t really like those bits. Overall though, it was a lovely date.

We had brunch afterwards at the Nepean Coffee Club. I find it bizarre that in essentially the middle of nowhere, there’s this random franchise, always pumping with people! The coffee was so-so but the food was good.

Next time I’m down by the river, I want to go on the paddle steamer!

Big breakfast for E, burger for me.

7) Rocco’s back!
Our neighbour’s doggy has been away on holidays. He’s back and bossing it up around the place. We had some good pats yesterday.

Rocco!

Tell me 7 things you’ve done in the last week. Go!

Friday, I’m happy to see you!