Confidence

I don't know about you but I was not a confident teenager.  I grew fast and it took a long time to be comfortable with my height.  I had massive glasses, braces, no idea how to deal with my waist length hair or how to dress.  I wasn't a shrinking violet, but I wasn't about to make myself standout in a crowd.

Over my 20's I slowly developed more of a sense of style and more importantly a sense of self.  I have come to feel very comfortable and confident in my own skin.

So tonight I'm attending a charity dance event clad only in a corset and tiny, tiny skirt, fishnet stockings and my super cheap long black gloves.  Those who have seen the outfit say it looks great and I have to say I feel super sexy and fantastic in it.  It is the kind of thing that as a teenager I could never have imagined myself wearing, so while others may think it just looks good, to me it represents just how far I've come in feeling comfortable with myself.

Working from home

There was no blog entry yesterday because blogger was down.  Which also meant that unpublished comments disappeared!

If there was a blog post it would have been about how great it is to work somewhere that gives me the freedom to work from home.

Yesterday I was feeling, well crap.  I have a cold, not bad enough to warrant not working, but certainly that made me want to stay at home in trackies and my ugg boots.  Thanks to a fantastic flexible workplace, I was able to do that, connecting via the internet and phone when I needed to and I actually had a really productive day.

Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Soup

With the sudden and fierce onset of Winter I am craving all those wonderful warming goodies that are so enjoyable in the cold weather.  Roasts, stews, casseroles and of course soup.

On Tuesday, I read a fantastic recipe for a Moroccan carrot and chickpea soup on one of my favourite blogs "Apples Under My Bed".  Its golden, spicy warmth looked perfect for this miserable weather, so last night I whipped up a batch.

It was perfect.  So hearty and warming, just what my body was craving.  I had some leftover pumpkin and corriander in my fridge so I threw those in and used up some baby spinach instead of silverbeet (the added greenery is genius, it really makes the soup).   It is quite spicy, for those who don't like things hot, you should probably leave out or cut down on the chilli but I thought it was brilliant.  In fact the only change I will make next time is to cook twice as much so I can freeze it for lunches!

On the inside looking out

Well yesterday may have been glorious but today has been freeeeeezing.  Icy cold wind, sago snow in places, sleet in others.  There was black ice on the road this morning and thick low clouds have hung around throughout the day.

Certainly NOT the day for a walk around the lake - however exactly the kind of day for catching up with a friend over chocolate cake and orange pekoe tea!  One of my last friends from high school still residing in the nations capital is abandoning this miserable cold weather and is moving to Perth, so we made sure we had one final afternoon tea together.

It is slightly surreal saying goodbye.  I will definitely see her again and thanks to the wonder of technology will be just as in touch as when we lived in the same city, but it is a goodbye none-the-less.  So we enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea and mused about what is to come.  And outside the dried Autumn leaves rushed past on arctic blasts while we sipped and gossiped and were warm.

A glorious day for a walk

It is a glorious day in the nation's capital.  The sky is a deep clear blue, the sun is shining, there is a slight chill of winter to the breeze but that just makes the autumn leaves flutter all the more beautifully.

And what better way to enjoy this stunning day than a stroll around the lake with a girlfriend?  Ok, with only an hour for a lunch break it was more of a power walk, particularly for A who had baby S to push. But we got to enjoy the beauty while catching up on both exercise and gossip.  Along the way we reflected on how lucky we are to live somewhere so glorious, where in the middle of our city we can enjoy such lovely surroundings.

We weren't the only ones out.  There were people running, riding bikes, doing bootcamp and plenty more pushing babies.  It was great to see and certainly was a much better way to spend my lunch break than the usual eating at my desk while I read the news.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me, so I couldn't capture the beautiful day, but here is a shot of the lake from last winter to give you a bit of an idea about how lovely it is.

Bargain Hunt

I do love a bargain and today I scored an excellent one.

I'm going to an event in costume this coming Saturday and decided at the last minute that what I really need to finish it off is elbow length black gloves.  However as I'm hardly likely to wear them frequently I didn't want to spend a lot on them.

Elbow length gloves aren't the most common item around, but DJ's stock them.  Still I wasn't really pleased about the idea of shelling out a lot of cash for them, so I high-tailed over to Hot Dollar to see what I could find.  Sure enough, for literally a 10th of the price of DJ's, I found a great pair in a stretchy fabric that actually fits my long fingers!  I was thrilled.

Now just to find a red rose for my hair, and I will be looking smokin'!

Mother's Day

I've said it before and I will no doubt say it again and again - I have the best Mum.

Mother's day is always a tad challenging.  In reality we know that Mum will love whatever we do and whatever we get her.  But every year my sister and I want to come up with something even better than the year before.  There are some elements that have to be included - the first being spending time together.  There is nothing more important to all of us than our family, so being together is the most important thing.

The next element is usually food.  We are all foodies, so good food is a must.

Finally a present.  Mum has long said she doesn't want "stuff:".  She has a house full of things, and doesn't need more.

This year I think we hit a winner.  The get together was brunch - food and family in one.  We included my brother-in-law's family because the more the merrier and had a wide array of breakfast delicacies from museli with rhubarb compote and a beautiful vanilla yogurt to the traditional cooked breakfast.  It was held at my sister's house so that the puppies could be involved too.

Family and food out of the way, it was on to the present.  Mum loves to read, so books were an obvious choice.  However her favourite book "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett has just been made into a mini-series that isn't even available in Australia yet.  Thanks to the wonder of the internet, we were able to source it for her.

All in all it made for a lovely mother's day.

So Mum, I hope you enjoyed it, because we love you and you deserve it!