My weekend was great, how was yours?

What a great weekend - Pilates, two swims, a big walk on St Kilda pier, packing boxes, looking at seaweed, painting with my Johnny & Leah (ok, supervision Johnny and Leah painting), yummy thai food, low-booze booze (low alcohol wine), peeking through the fence at my new apartment, lunch with Milla (and Hamish via teleconference), Bunnings mayhem, new pot plants, lots of yummy cooking and 5 blocks of chocolate!

Did I mention I shared the spa at my gym with Ben Cousins? Yuuuuuum! Great incentive to train harder!

 

I may have gotten a little scared that a big pink blob-monster was coming to get me while taking this photo, but it turned out to be my finger - looks like I might need some photography training.

Appliance Love!

Ok, so I'm not usually in awe of appliances, but this one is possibly the best invention ever. It makes toast and googie eggs - awesome work Tefal!

From: http://www.tefal.com.au/All+Products/Breakfast/Toasters/Products/Toast+n+Egg+2-slice+Toaster/Toast+n+Egg+2-slice+Toaster.htm

My Happiness Project

I love having a few projects on the go, and what better project than one designed to make me happy? I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's site The Happiness Project (here) and I like the idea. Gretchen has another site, The Happiness Project Toolbox (here) which has some great tools for planning your own 'Happiness Project'.

Last year I decided that May was 'Me Month' and spent the whole month doing things to make me happy, which was great, but why stop at one month? For me this isn't about crazy resolutions I won't keep, it's about small adjustments and habits I'd like to form over time...except the shark diving, I'm hoping that doesn't become a habit. I've got a few projects currently on the go, and will keep updating with new ones as I progress.

A few of the things I'm working on for my Happiness Project:

Healthy Heather
I've been working on being healthier by doing pilates and personal training once a week and eating a lot better than usual. From here I'd like to get to:

• PT & Pilates once a week each
• 2 extra gym sessions (even if one of them is just floating around the hydrotherapy pool)
• Eating healthier all the time
• Drinking lots more water, and lots less wine (during the week)

Happy Heather
Who would have guessed that someone who hated writing would enjoy writing a blog so much? I want to keep up the blogging, and as mentioned in last week's post, I'd like to clean out my wardrobe - nice tidy spaces make me happy. I'd like to spend more time with friends who make me happy, and less time worrying about the ones that stress me out.

Handy Heather
I haven't really been cooking much over the last few years, so I'm working on learning at least one new recipe a week...I'm yet to poison anyone so far.

Harmonious Heather
I've been loving attending my weekly meditation group, so my aim is to keep this up, and to remember to take a few moments to 'chill out' every once in a while.

Heroic Heather
Um, how does diving with Great White Sharks sound?

Hidden Heather
I'd like to be more of a 'hidden Heather', unfortunately my habit of over-sharing seems to prevent that...sometimes it's not necessary to tell everyone, everything...I'd like to work on sharing a little less. I'd also like to start making eye contact with people again, not quite sure when I stopped doing this, but it must make me look really shifty - next time we talk make sure I'm making eye contact.

Hopeful Heather
I'd really like to make and stick to a budget...how hard can it be right? I'll post a little more about this on Friday (pay day!)...may as well start fresh with some money in the account!



Do you have any Happiness Projects on the go or any suggestions for projects to try?

Domestic Goddess - the hunt continues

On Sunday morning I had another crack at embroidery...it turns out lack of practise hadn't improved my skills, I'm still no good. I decided I'd have to do something else 'domestic goddessy' to repair my damaged self image...surely cooking couldn't be that hard, right?

I checked out a few recipes and decided on Jamie Oliver's Chilli Con Carne and the Central Cookbooks Banana loaf, which I decided to turn into muffins 'cos I've lost my loaf tin.

My poor housemate was extremely concerned that seeing as I'm vegetarian (kind of), she might have to eat all the chilli....I considered stringing her along, but as you already know I'm a really bad liar.

It was at this point I realised that to cook stuff, you need ingredients and seeing as mice had raided our cupboard the night before this meant a trip to the supermarket - yay, a chance to show off my awesome man-repelling pants in public (see below)!

After a very confusing trip to the supermarket (who knew there were so many different types of mince!) it was time to get cooking...hmmm. Seeing as it was nowhere near dinner time, I decided to make the muffins first. This went surprisingly well...there were a few splatters of orange zest on the walls and a bit of flour on the floor, but not too bad for a first effort.

The muffins lulled me into a false sense of security. I chopped away at the ingredients for the chilli con carne (i.e. lots of chilli) like a masterchef, then went in to brag to Luci about how well it was going whilst rubbing my eye with my chilli laden fingers....ouch. Ok, so cooking isn't for the faint of heart...or skin (NB. there are no photos from here on in because I don't want you to laugh at me).  After that I kind of lost interest in the whole cooking thing, which turned out ok 'cos all that was left to do was put it in a pot and wait for ages...and a bit of stirring.

In the end the Chilli was actually pretty good, I managed to eat a whole bowl of it. This is the second time in living memory that I've eaten cow, so an awesome effort on my part. I couldn't believe how much energy I had the next day - I guess people do the whole eating meat thing for a reason.

Next week I'm going to try bolognaise!

Things my grandma can do

Last night I sat on a friends couch and attempted embroidery. I've seen a fair bit of embroidery in my time and didn't imagine it could be too difficult. As it turns out, I may have overestimated my craft skills, much like the time I stuck my hand to the bench with a gluegun. Embroidery is hard. This revelation got me thinking about that much loved topic - things my nanna can do that I can't. The list as it currently stands is:

• Embroidery
• Sewing
• Write thankyou notes in a timely fashion
• Bake
• Cook well in general
• Throw dinner parties (see above)
• Play cards
• Make beds with hospital corners
• Make small children love her
• Chastise above children and still remain loved
• Magically fix any illness with jelly
• Coordinate her shoes with her outfit
• Make a bonza cup of tea
• Know the right action for any situation
• Remember the names of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren
  
• Make my pathetic attempts at any of the above seem succesful

But then, she's had a lot more practise than me...