Sweet Dreams

Sleeping has to be one of my favourite things ever. Like ever. Really. Ask anyone. Especially Husband. Eight hours sounds short to me. Ten to twelve is preferable. Teehee.

Look at these fun and interesting facts about sleep.

Early Mornings

Saturday morning wake up. My body is sore and tired from a heavy event catering shift, and a subsequent 2.30am bedtime the night before. 

I feel I had bad dreams as well, complex and riddled, but already forgotten. They niggle at my brain though - the way someone's name annoyingly escapes you - just out of reach, but maybe gone forever in the cavities of your brain. 

I have to get up. Sigh. I have another full day of work, and another tomorrow. My weekends are always the busiest, with increased work and increased social pressure to see friends. 

Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just tired this morning. 

It's been a wonderful week after all - filled with long days at home, getting multitudes of work and admin done, and then a few easy evenings at the store. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

Now, to shower. To start. To commence. To welcome in another day, no matter how much I don't want to drag my tired body from this bed, I must. 

Our Harshest Critic.

It would be really wonderful to be able to see ourselves the way others do - without the glare of our insecurities, the knowledge of our own low self-esteems, and dwindling confidence in ageing features. This video shows the giant difference between our own perception of self, and others' perception.

It would be nice to ease up a bit, and stop being our own harshest critics.

Follow Me Away

I just stumbled upon this great photographer - Murad Osmann, a Russian, who, with his girlfriend, is exploring the world, and documenting it in a beautiful and unique way. In each shot we see the back of the girl, hand extended, leading the photographer into inspiring landscapes and places.

I love how it also documents her clothing and hair styles. This would make an amazing coffee table book one day.

Follow Murad Osmann on Instagram. I certainly have.

A Windy Lake

I've been a bad little blogger. Too busy living life to record it all here. Maybe the odd weekly Instagram update is all you get now. And the odd pre-planned post about someone else's fabulous apartment, blog or style.

But here I am, perfectly sunny Wednesday afternoon, camped out behind the counter of one of the boutiques I work in, watching the summer breeze pull and tug at the bunting in the newly sprung leafy tree outside the window. It pulls at my insides too. There's a lot happening you see, a lot of building, a lot of anticipation. I find myself amazed at how much our lives have changed in this strange new world, how each day is challenging, interesting and different from the one before. I love waking up early enough in the morning, to climb on the couch with my bowl of berry-topped porridge, listening to the world awakening, giving myself the chance to rouse myself before Husband does, in a sneaked quiet half hour, or sometimes more. That's when I start to work - emails are piling up, invoices need to be sent, plans need to be made. Within a few, it's time to go to work, and it's good to sneak in my own admin before having to run someone else's business for the rest of the day.

I'm looking forward to the next few months - summer creeps in faster and faster these days - we've got hoardes of overseas visitors headed our way until at least September - and our big trip home in June speeds towards me at an alarming rate. I have presents to buy, wedding outfits to plan, and a serious bag to pack - see, we're going home to winter, and then will be spending a week in the heat of Mozambique. It means packing for two seasons in one go. And, leaving enough space to bring back a whole 'nother pile of treasures of home.

And life here, it ticks along. A very fast tick. Days disappear in blinks. Friends become plentiful, opportunities beckon. In some way, as excited as I am for the month long visit to South Africa, I'm just as excited to come back, and really sink my teeth in, no distractions, no stop-starts, just glorious summer days, and lots and lots of dreams to turn into hard-fast-rock-solid-plans.

California has certainly brought out the dreamer in me. But I'm not one to dream for long, not when there's money to be made and life to be lived.

An Adventurer

Tuesday {Past Explorations}

Remember Barcelona? I certainly do. Three days of magic. And three days was definitely not enough.

Here are a few of my favourite posts from this amazing city: just as we arrived, the colours of the city, in review, by the night and the street art of Barcelona.

I can't wait to go back. This magical world definitely deserves a revisit. Hopefully even more than one.

Tips For The Kitchen Enthusiast

Recently, I've posted a couple of my forays into the kitchen. And even more recently, I stumbled upon this great little article - the Kitchen Cheat Sheet on Basic Cooking Techniques. Packed with great ideas, ideas and wonderfully designed and illustrated cheats, this is one you may just want to print out.

See a few examples below, or click on the link to see the rest of the article.

Tuesday {Past Explorations}

Central Park is a city unto itself. As you wind along the footpaths, every section has some new world - there's turtle ponds, baseball pitches, hobos, performers and artisans. And a fair amount of underwear-clad sunbathers. Hmmmm.

Anyways, just over six months ago now, we spent five weeks in New York, staying with our good friend Kimon (pictured below), and one sunny day decided that a bit of a Whole Foods picnic in the park was required. It went oh so well.

This post is part of a series of Tuesday {Past Explorations} that I'm doing to catch up on a few missed events and occasions that 'got lost' in the blogosphere because there never is quite enough time to blog everything ever. But at least now I'm getting close.

Wanna leave a comment but don't know how? I wrote a whole blog post about this very subject! Click here.