Monday, January 7, 2013

flowers, always


i'm not sure i can explain why it's so important to me to have fresh flowers in our house always. we are so careful with our budget, we're so okay with so many furniture items we don't yet have, but i can't allow our first home together to be without flowers. any kind, i'll choose the cheapest for the sake of justifying the purchase.

i don't have a deep and beautifully captured few paragraphs for you on the reason for this slight obsession, but every time i cut, water and place a new batch my heart just explodes with the joy of making this such a priority. so i'll follow that.



i must have flowers always, but this is not my ground-breaking quote it seems.

here some favorite flowers, favorite quotes:

 “I must have flowers, always, and always.”
― Claude Monet

“The earth laughs in flowers.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Look at us, said the violet blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you"
-Edward Payson Rod

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and lily with the other"
-Chinese proverb


 “She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one. She spent hours on the riverbank. She smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims...”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things 
"i don't know what it is about you that closes and opens, only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses"
-ee cummings
"Find a way to make beauty necessary, find a way to make necessity beautiful"
-the fugitive pieces






Friday, January 4, 2013

friday: around here

amusement starts at home.

also, happy people are thankful people. and i'm so deeply thankful for a little apartment to play with all day long.















Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2013 let's go

i have this glorious anticipation that 2013 is going to be a year like no other. i'm all about diving right in and giving it my all. i have no clear and great plan to share yet. i have no real resolutions to sound impressive with either. what i do have is this 'to do list':

+ get the green card
(be done with paperwork for a long long time, celebrate with champagne and cake, dance and plant a tree to make up for all the paper that had to be suffered with this endless process of being with the man i love)
((sorry about that long sentence))
+a job, get one
(ideally a work from anywhere, can study at the same time, supplement the travel yearnings and desires budget, keep me from going crazy)
+learn the new language of miles, feet, inches and ounces
( i live here now, better get with it)
+run the Spokane bloomsday race and then later this year a half marathon...
(which i'm totally planning on training for once i get a hang of this whole ICE everywhere deal)
+ learn, learn and learn,
(not a resolution, just what needs to happen)
+write more
+...write better
+take more pictures
+...not just on instagram

2013 yes!

Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 in pictures

2012, you beautiful, crazy, frightful year. you've been hard and wonderful, my favorite so far, for sure.
got engaged 1st of Jan in Central Park NYC

27th bday

save the date

engagement shoot in downtown Spokane by Melissa (need to get her full name)

ferry ride from San Juan Island. March

Stagit, Washington State

spending quality time with my long distance fiance


more amazing time spent with this guy 3 months later in Glacier Park, Montana





oh hey Istanbul, one day stop over

oh hey Moma and New York City and friend, one day stop over

fiance visa interview readiness  


13 October, obviously the best day ever (ingrid marais photography)


oh cool, my favorite people. (ingrid marais photography)
honeymoon



Cape Town

newly wed, first home together, 'never thought i'd be so excited about a couch'

yay Manito Park, i like you a lot.
gorgeous Christmas morning


2013 i'm so excited about you!



Friday, December 28, 2012

skinny girl problems and the festive season

dilemmas of the sort of skinny girl...

people who have known me since school years are rolling their eyes at me... *1st problem.
seriously guys, there's a couple of winter warming, festive season, newly wed paddings around that i'm just not used to.

blissfully chomping down ice cream, in a bikini 10 YEARS AGO


i'm not fishing for sympathy here, i've tried that before, usually it ends with me getting punched in the face for complaining about my weight in, what i thought, was a safe circle of sharing.

"man these skinny jeans are sitting a little tight"
PUNCH

"turns out the small was too small so i bought a MEDIUM (sobs)"
PUNCH

"seems like i can't get away with eating an entire tub of chocolate-chip-fudge-cookie-sugar-butter-calorie ice cream with out having to run it off the next day (dramatic sigh)"
PUNCH 

"does my ass look b..
PUNCH

 i get it, having lived a mostly skinny life you're sentenced to a life of "you can do with a little more weight", "shut up you skinny moron" "i'm going to punch you in the face if you say one more fatty fat thing about your thighs"

the problem:

while trying to fit in here (no pun intended), here as in the USA i have completely (or mostly) given myself to the ways of the locals.  well not really... i honestly couldn't be bothered by the fast food, drive thru's, deep fried of the diners, so snaps for that.  it's this darn festive season you see.
in South Africa, the only problem was the actual Christmas day, where you do an epic braai (BBQ) after the gift opening. As in epic man, like 3 to 4 kinds of meat, all starches and plenty of pudding.


but here, different story,

brunch at the Davenport, cause that's how we roll, and why i now, uhm, roll. #lamejoke

it starts with Thanksgiving, which basically seduces you into forsaking all healthy consciousness till about the day or so after Christmas, and here i am... in stretch pants.

so just to be clear here ... I DON'T THINK I'M FAT, so don't send me mental face punches (people who know me).  i just can't seem to fit into my skinny jeans that well...

plan of action:

the "Christmas-New Years"  "diet", which basically means:

-you have to eat all the cookies/Christmas bread in your house.
check

-eat all the left over chocolate chips that weren't used in said cookies.
working on it
-buy more fruit, to slowly reintroduce this concept to your body
liking it

-use fruit in new smoothie maker, so slowly start feeling like a health rock star again... your body will like this feeling, making that new years resolution that much easier come the 2nd of January
-hide festive candy in bottom drawer for emergencies.

-invest hours in pinning healthy recipes and tips on your 'new me, happy me' pinterest board.
many hours invested.
-make detox water as seen on pinterest.
nailed it


-find ways to burn more calories while doing house work #newhousewife
      example:
sock on the floor, LUNGE and up and continue until all laundry is gathered.
wash the dish, BACKWARD KICK that will totally contribute to getting back into skinny jeans
 browse more Pinterest and suck in your stomach... and so forth.


i'll keep you updated on how this is working out for me. but seriously, i do like living healthy and feeling confident. it's not about a perfect body, or even body image or self esteem, it's about taking care of myself and my husband.
 be kind to yourself, don't count almonds or cut out wine, don't obsess, just cultivate a balanced healthy life, that's all. well for me, for now at least