My Christmas

Decorating the house

Our tree went up a little early this year as 1 December fell mid-week. As always we put up the tree with Christmas carols playing, namely Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby.

Master P put up the lights, while Miss P and myself assembled the tree and dressed it with baubles. Mr P made himself invisible whilst all of this was going on lol.

The highlight this year was to put on the new baubles purchased in Canada and in the US.

When finally complete with all the presents wrapped, the tree was a thing of beauty.

Christmas shopping

Miss P and I knocked off the Christmas shopping early this year thanks to a Myer shopping night in early November. Yeeha!!!

Christmas Newsletter

We have been sending out a Christmas newsletter for 14 years. The idea was planted out of frustration of writing numerous Christmas cards by hand. Yuk! Now we compile all the events and include a smattering of photos from the past year. This year was especially easy with our US and Canadian trip to write about and the fabulous photos that were taken.

Christmas Eve

The night before Christmas is customarily about wrapping presents and watching the Christmas Carols on TV. Sometimes we are still making brownies or rolling rum balls but either way it's a night that we all, as a family, enjoy being together and looking forward to the day ahead. Sacrilege to some but we open our presents on Christmas Eve to avoid the mad rush on Christmas morning.

Christmas Day

I found this gorgeous dress from Forever New especially for Christmas Day.  I love it!

We spent Christmas Day with my niece, nephew and their beautiful family. They have a 2 and a half year old boy which made Christmas so joyous and special. I prepared a baked ham (to our family recipe) and a large potato bake along with lots of baked goodies.

As you can see below the food was out of this world.  Turducken salad, filo rolls, baked lamb and vegetables, caesar salad, pumpkin salad, fried rice.

And then came dessert, my favourite! Mini pavlovas, plum pudding, fruit, trifle, pumpkin pie, Greek sweets, brownies, rum balls, cookies, shortbread.

Christmas in Brisbane

King George Square was decorated with a large Christmas tree and City Hall was lit in red and green.

The Queen Street Mall was decked out in decorations and Myer Queen Street had Christmas-themed windows.

It’s customary for hot, increasingly humid weather and plenty of thunderstorms to roll through during the months of October, November and December. A few weeks ago this beauty came through.

The traffic lightens as children go on holidays and schools close down for two months over the Christmas holidays. Shopping Centres and their car parks get crazy busy and people get especially frazzled as Christmas approaches (another reason why I like to get my shopping over with as quickly as possible).

A small break

I’m taking some time off work over the Christmas period – two weeks and two days to be precise. I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family, catching up with my parents and brother's family and getting some extra sleep. I will also try and schedule some tidying up/decluttering so I feel as though I’ve made the most of the time off.

New Year’s resolutions

I’m not one for making bold resolutions and trying to change the world but I do like to look back at the year past and see what improvements I can make or what changes might make the following year more meaningful and positive. Once again I will no doubt stay focussed on us remaining healthy, active and eating well. We may need to get a bit more active to work off our Christmas indulgences.

Best wishes to you all for a blessed 2016.
xx

My Wardrobe

Me and my categories

I have always been obsessed with organising. A place for everything and everything in its place became my life motto, as much as it may be annoying to my children. Whether its organising things by colour, type, use or for pure aesthetics.  And my wardrobe is no different to other parts of my life.

My Mum recalls that I used to label things when I was younger. In my bedroom I would label drawers and cupboards with their contents. Again it was all about categorising.

My wardrobe is split into different categories:

• formal dresses
• work dresses
• casual dresses
• coats
• jackets
• long sleeved shirts
• short sleeved shirts
• shorts
• trousers
• jeans
• skirts
• shoes

Within those categories I then organise by colour.

Why these categories work for me

• I can clearly see what I’ve got and that helps ensure that my wardrobe is somewhat balanced
• I can tell what’s missing i.e. in the washing or the ironing or at the dry cleaner
• I can mix up my outfits with ease by tryng to pick something from each different category. I like to mix up my work outfits by wearing skirts one day, a dress the next and pants another day
• Aesthetically I find the colour coordination very pleasing, just like when I shop for clothes, I generally love the stores that are sorted by colour and/or theme

Culling

I do a clothing change-over winter-to-spring and again spring-to-autumn (fall). At that time I normally take a good hard look at my wardrobe and anything not worn during the last two seasons is to go i.e. I make exceptions for formal dresses of course. Same goes for shoes when they are starting to look ratty and not really repairable, off they go. I donate all of my culled items to charity.

Capsule wardrobe

I couldn’t describe my wardrobe as a capsule wardrobe but I do like to adhere to the principals of functionality and mix and match.  That can be challenging because I love two things that make capsule wardrobing tricky – colours and patterns.  When purchasing clothing I take my time to try the item on, consider carefully how the item will blend in with my wardrobe and the mix and match options I can achieve with it.  For this reason I find shopping arduous, frustrating and time-consuming.

Gok Wan and Trinny and Susannah

I’m a big fan of Gok Wan and Trinny and Susannah.  

In case you haven't yet heard of them they are UK fashion stylists and TV presenters with a love of style and dressing well.  Gok's show "How to Look Good Naked" taught me to stop wearing black all the time and get into different colours and patterns. From Trinny and Susannah's show "What Not to Wear" and their books, I  learnt about dressing for my shape and not following trends too much but rather trying to choose classic styles that are flattering to my body shape.

I have lots of bright colours in my wardrobe and at first I felt nervous introducing them to my fellow workers when they were used to me in my black, white and grey wardrobe.  But now if I do wear black or beige tones people will often say to me ‘where’s the colour?’.

Gok also taught me to hold colours up against my skin to work out whether they suit my toning or not.  I know that bright/warm colours seems to work best with my cool/pale skin tone and blonde hair.

Winter clothing

Every year, for me, my struggle is winter clothing. Somehow shops seem to suck the life out of me when it comes to colours.  It’s not my favourite time of the year as it is, let along clothing being devoid of colour. Ugh! Do you find that too?

The rest of the household adhere to the same wardrobe concept. The most diligent is Miss P. Her wardrobe is her pride and joy and she does a fabulous job of organsing her clothes and shoes in a tight space. Master P is great as well. Mr P keeps categories together but the whole colour thing is way too OCD for him but he does like the way things look when one of us has been sorting his items.

Our wardrobes have been like this for so long now keep up with the system is a piece of cake.

Enjoy xx

My Diet

Good genes

I am lucky, as I was one of those kids who was skinny as a child and teenager, so much so that I was teased about it and at the time it wasn't the appealing type of skinny, rather it was the gawky type. Whilst I hated that when I was young, during my 20s and 30s I realised how lucky I was to start from that place.

Up until my early to mid-30s I could pretty much eat whatever I liked with no impact. But by about 35 I started to notice a gradual increase in weight to where I moved up a couple of clothes sizes.  I was in denial.

The Epiphany

Following an overseas trip and playing back the many hours of video Mr P had captured, I realised very clearly that I really didn't like what I could see of myself from the rear end.  Sometime you look at yourself without really seeing. I was really pretty unhealthy.

From that day I cut out the crap from my diet. No cake, no chocolate, no soft drinks, no dessert and in 6 months I had dropped 8 kilos and felt amazing.  It was surprising how much a little tidy up of the diet could achieve. But I hit a plateau and that stopped working. I didn't have much more to lose but those last few kilos are tricky.

Getting serious about it

I read 'Losing the Last Five Kilos' by Michelle Bridges and learnt so much:

• You have to be committed or it won't work
• You have to be prepared to do the work
• Understanding the sheer amount of exercise required to burn excess calories (you can't out-train a poor diet)
• You need to eat less and move more
• My then lifestyle supported weight gain (I wasn't doing the right things)
• As we age we generally consume more calories while our bodies burn less and therefore we gradually gain weight
• Willpower is a muscle that needs to be exercised - the more you challenge it the stronger it gets (a work colleague exercises her willpower by giving up something each year - last year it was chocolate, this year it's cake and next year it's lollies)
• I needed to create new (healthy) habits to replace the unhealthy ones

Falling off the wagon

I let eating well slip during our recent trip to the USA and Canada because, well, we were on holidays and we only do a 'big trip' once every 5 years.  I was keen to sample as many different types of foods as I could and I can't possibly deny myself a canolli if they're available. And did I mention I was on holidays.

So I'm back at it working my diet and fitness routine until I get to the place I want to be and then I'll return to maintenance mode.

What works for me is calorie counting, trying to reach optimal nutritional levels, exercising regularly and weighing myself daily.  I won't deny, the first few weeks back were tough, reeeeeally tough, but like anything it gets easier with time and especially when the cravings for cannoli eases.

My app of choice is My Fitness Pal.  I use it to track what I eat, the nutritional breakdown of that, how much water I consume, my weigh-ins, my steps and when I exercise.  I find the app supports me to achieve my goals and keeps me focused.

I've tried shakes and restrictive types of diets but what works best for me is a healthy balanced diet and portion control.  I don't beat myself up if I eat too much of this or that, rather I work treats into my diet plan and when we do go out for dinner I enjoy myself, but I plan ahead to allow for it.

Undeniably better nutrition and exercise not only results in gradual weight loss, it gives me more energy and overall an improved wellbeing.

When I have gained weight it occurs in my mid section, around my tummy, and as the health authorities warn that's the most dangerous place to gain it.  I use that as an incentive to try and keep it off.

Staying in shape takes effort (lots of effort) and it's certainly not down to luck any more. Like Michelle Bridges says - consistency, consistency, consistency. When I've reached my goal I take photos because I'm proud of what I've achieved and how healthy I am and feel.

But again I will reiterate that this is what works for me.  I've been eating better for 5 years now and introduced exercise 3 years ago so it's part of my everyday lifestyle. I'm also blessed to have a family who is always supportive and encouraging. Thanks FamBam❤

Until next time

xx

Cars

My love of cars

We've always been a family who likes cars.

At an off road race event in the early 1980s

My dad sold Jeep spare parts and was always working on cars for as long as I can remember. I didn't grow up with regular Australian cars, they were always of the US variety.

Me in the early to mid-1980s about to navigate with my Dad - and being helped into my helmet by my little brother

You can imagine the attention we got being dropped off at school in this - affectionately named Blu Grit

Yep it's a Jeep - Dad purchased this from the US and had it converted to right-hand drive

We even had this strange vehicle (a US army dukw - yes that's how it's spelt) parked out the front of our house until Dad found a buyer for it.

Yep it was unique to say the least

During my teenage years my Dad decided to give off road racing a go.  He would race at events around South East Queensland and mid-coast New South Wales. We did that for many years. I even gave navigating for him a go a couple of times until my brother was old enough to take the seat from me.

I fell in love with my husband partly because of this car. He really was the coolest boy at school back in the 80s.

When it was time for me to start thinking about a car of my own my Dad suggested a Rambler Hornet. But this was no ordinary car - it was a V8!

My Dad worked tirelessly (along with a bit of help from me) to turn this car into something quite powerful and unique.

Then my brother followed suit soon after. He has drag raced this car and competed in Street Series and Mopar Sunday.  He still owns it to this day.

To celebrate a wedding anniversary my parents bought themselves an AMC Javelin.  Dad competed in Historic Racing events in South East Queensland. Mum and Dad still own and drive this car today.

After settling down and beginning a family our loud and old V8s were replaced with more sensible (read boring) cars. But it worked perfectly for us at that time.

When the kids grew older I decided I wanted a small SUV. The RAV4 was cute, so easy to drive, albeit a bit gutless.

Mr P bought a beautiful silver Monaro. In my opinion, this by far is the nicest car he has had.

When the kids hit their teen years I needed something a little bit bigger so along came the BMW X5 and this time I was driving a V8 again. I loved the sound of it and the colour was spectacular.

Mr P's current vehicle is a Clubsport R8 which makes our office shake every time he drives it into the garage.  There is no way he can sneak home without the neighbourhood hearing him.

Now that the kids are out of school and driving themselves I have moved back into a sedan and this time it's a BMW 328i. Yes it is a 4 cylinder car but it has a twin turbo and of course the same gorgeous blue colour.

Cars are a special thing. We park carefully, avoid gutter rash, meticulously service them and love the sound of a beautiful V8. Okay I know I'm driving a 4 cylinder LOL!!

And my dream car - a Mercedes Benz C63 - and of course at $250K Australian dollars it will remain a dream. Me and my expensive taste...

Until next time

xx