Glazed and confused

I love food. I pretty much organise my days around what I can eat.  So, being the greedy girl I am, I decided to check out the winner of the Quest Dining award.

Donut King

They are conveniently located in the award winning precinct of Kippa Ring Peninsula fair. This is a lucky stretch indeed.

 I do love a good donut. It melted in my mouth and was gone in seconds.

 But I can't help but think that if I comes in a paper bag or is eaten in a food court it isn't really dining.

PS: I think the owners of Donut King are running a lovely, neat business. They are professional and provide excellent service but I personally don't think donuts in a food court is dining.

PS: I am joining up for Wordless Wednesday at My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the eye

Bootcamp + gale force winds = :(

At 6.30am every Sunday we arrive blurry eyed, fizzy haired and coffee breathed at family bootcamp. It's a great way to start the day, spend some quality time with the girls and get a workout.

Usually, it looks a lot like this...

But this Sunday it was blowing a gale. To protect our delicate constitutions, it was safe to assume bootcamp would be in the still comfort of the gym.

Immediately, the trainer politely asked us to separate into teams of two and get a football to share. My husband and I became a team. Just like in life. It was so romantic. Then we were told to jog to the beach. Umm, I guess he didn't realise the weather wasn't suitable for outside bootcamp. Still, I pulled up my big girl socks and started running. We had to toss the ball back and forth as we ran. My husband insists that I was aiming for his head and only when he was looking away. Well, a girl needs to find little pieces of sunshine in an otherwise dreary day.

With each step, we were blown back two.

Once we arrived at our destination, we had various activities to do. What I realised about working out in this weather is:

1. When doing push ups, plank holds, etc. the wind blow your sports skirt and top up over your head and your hands aren't free to pull them back down.

2. Whenever you open your mouth to gasp for breath, the wind whips in and then whips saliva all over your face. Once again, your hands are rarely free to fix this either.

3. Towels, balls and hair are at the mercy of the wind.

4. Trainers and children don't notice the wind. Dimitri, the trainer, even commented on the nice breeze.

The run back was awesome. The wind was behind me, pushing me to run at a super human speed. I am fairly certain anyone that saw me was left speechless with amazement.

It may not have been ideal, but I sure felt awesome afterwards.

Monday's Motivating Playlist

As you know, I love a great workout playlist and I really enjoyed my playlist last week. I'm fairly certain I can credit at least 5 extra kilometres just to the music. I wanted to finish listening to certain songs and I don't allow myself to finish mid-song. I have way too many rules.

This week I am listening to:

Skinny love by Birdy. Usually I like to pick something a little happier to start but this sad, little depressing song was pretty enough to make my list this week.
Never let me go by Florence and the Machine - The arms of the ocean are carrying me. I love listening to these lyrics as I run beside the water. Somehow pretending the ocean is giving me a special power.
Candy by Robbie Williams. Excellent, excellent beat. I dare you to listen to this and not want move.
Primadoona by Marina and The Diamonds. Poor kid, all she ever wanted was the world
Carry On by Fun. I love Fun. I must sing every song loud and passionately as I run. Fun for me, pretty shitty for every other person in hearing distance.
I cry by Flo Rida. He is always has a great beat. I can only sing along to the chorus. The rest could be Russian for all I know. I can't keep up.
I never liked you by Rogue Traders. Just angry enough to keep me running.
Me and my Imagination by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. I love her dancy beats.
Hey Ya by Outkast. Starting to slow down
Last Request by Paolo Nutini. He loves so much.

How often do you update your playlists?

If you love playlists you may also be interested in:
10 Running tracks
Toe shoes, running songs and 10 running necessities
Run, run, run

I heart my body...

Today is 'I heart my body' day. I wasn't going to participate or write a post. I didn't even think I would be interested in reading other people's 'I heart my body' posts.

It all seemed so touchy feely and boring. I didn't expect to spend the afternoon wrapped up and involved in all these gorgeous, honest, heartwarming posts. Shit.

So here I sit, thinking about my body. It's has never let me down and it's perfectly fine but I still have a problem with it.

I was raised to feel self conscious and imperfect by a self conscious and vain mother. So, I have managed to spend my whole life trying to hide and disguise my body. I am not fat, I am not thin. My butt might jiggle, my boobs may be small, my thighs are soft and my tummy round...

...but...

I am strong and can lift heavy things, I can run and run and run, I can cuddle my girls with both arms (and legs if I want) for however long I like and I can laugh loud often.

At this moment...

I HEART MY BODY

It must be true, it's in writing...

Yesterday, my 8 year old daughter logged onto her computer, wrote and printed out this letter. I still haven't worked out what she is after but I will.

I have a few observations:

1. She is correct, I would never have guessed that she loves me 18974639234811475398.. etc.. out of ten. What would be the odds of me guessing that figure?
2. I can cook while I'm on the phone. Yes it's true, but I can't watch children as well. Something has to miss out
3. I make popcorn without burning myself. Interesting, I don't remember ever making her popcorn and I burn my self on EVERYTHING! So, this can not possibly be true. I will make her popcorn on the weekend and see how I go. I hope I don't disappoint her
4. I cook her rice. Yes, this is her favourite food on the planet. I use the cheat microwave brown rice and can serve it up in 40 seconds 
5. I love her. Derr, that's my job :)
6. I take care of her. I see she has written this twice. It must be because it's so important or she has a really short memory 

It appears that it doesn't take much to be 'The best' mum. I am not sure if she meant the best in Redcliffe, Australia or the world but I am going with the universe. Why sell myself short!

Lucky she is pretty friggin' awesome too. They both are.


PS: I am keeping this and everything else she writes to remind her when she is a teenager.

Things that make smile everyday

Coffee!! This makes me smile every morning. It makes me smile three times in a row.

 My girls. They are funny, clever and don't mind the camera. I'm fairly certain they got the first two traits from me and the last one from their dad. 

 Anything with this symbol on it. I am an Apple tart.

 This Apple makes me smile the most.

PS: I am joining up for Wordless Wednesday at My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the eye

Statistics, ranking, pageviews, blah, blah, etc

I am quite obsessive by nature. Once I start something, I want to do it as best as I can. As a blogger, I want to be the best blogger I can be. Fortunately and unfortunately there are figures everywhere that you can watch and judge yourself.

I attach my personal worth to these numbers. I don't compare myself to others, but I compare myself to me, yesterday or last week.

As they go up, my heart soars and I am all smiles and good times. Like James Cameron "I am the king of the woooooooorld". As they go down, so does my mood. "Nobody loves me, I'll think I'll go eat worms" (children's rhyme).

Last week it was the first blog anniversary of my blog. One year had passed and I had some goals I had set that I was hoping to achieve. This caused me to watch these figures even closer. It was very exciting because I was getting pretty close.

Then Blogger had a brain fart and all my statistics were reset. I was back to 0 page views. After 1 year of blogging, I was back to the beginning. At first I felt sick and anxious. All my hard work and nothing to show for it. Then, I went away, had a run and considered my options. If the past was erased, then I could start all over with a clean slate. Scary, but doable.

Then my figures reappeared.

It made me realise what is important to me and it's not the figures. It's the journey.

I think the best thing we can do for ourselves and our readers is to remember what is important. Content! Never forget the wise words of Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams "If you Build it, he will come".  I think he was referring to readers and your blog too. Have good content, engage your readers, give them something and they will come.

AND...have fun.

I'd like to say that I won't watch statistics anymore. But this is a lie, I know me. I am going to try not to obsess on them anymore.

Do you watch the statistics too?

PS: On Tuesdays, I link up with Jess from SAHM for IBOT

Monday's Motivating Playlist

I love my workout music. I find that if I update my playlist regularly it helps motivate me to workout. Every Monday I organise I new playlist and I get excited about the songs and the order I have put them in. Then when I workout, I know how many songs, how many I have listened to and how many I have to go. It helps me to get through the pain of the workout or run.

 My playlist this week is:

1. Battle Scars by Guy Sebastian. Nice solid warm up beat
2. Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys. I love the marching beat
3. We'll be coming back by Calvin Harris. Picking up the pace
4. Gangnam Style - You know it has to make an appearance
5. One more night by Maroon 5. I have a weird crush on Adam Levine. I think he is smarmy and I don't like him but I can't help it.
6. Bom Bom by Sam and the Womp. This always makes me smile. It's kind of ridiculous.
7. Just like a Pill - P!nk. Because EVERY playlist needs P!nk. I think this is one of my favourite running songs ever. I love to bolt on the chorus
8. She's so mean - Matchbox Twenty
9. Wild Things - San Cisco
10. Spotlight - Jennifer Hudson - Nice warm down (nice easy jog)

Looking for music to add to your playlist? Me too. Feel free to share your lists too.

Make up: Before & after and the Awards roundup

The Quest awards were last Friday night and I had my very good friend and extremely talented Rebecca Kate come over for an afternoon of makeup, giggles and champagne. Is there any better way to spend an afternoon? Errr, no.

One of the many reasons I love hanging out with Bec is because she knows all the tips and tricks about makeup and is always happy to educate me. A few months ago she shared her top 10 makeup products. You must check this list out. She has recently discovered Arbonne products and was keen to show them off. The foundation is amazing. It has great coverage and didn't feel 'makeupy'.

I wanted my makeup to be all about the eyes and soft n' pinky everywhere else. Just over an hour later with slick eyeliner, lashes of lashes and my almost 40 year old skin looking dewy and fresh. I felt amazing and ready to rock the awards.

Before and after

The Awards

Some notes from the night:

1. I didn't win. Michel's Patisserie won my category. Congratulations to them and I hope they have many happy and successful years making spinach rolls
2. Chocolate makes me almost as happy as winning
3. Don't make silly promises. I had promised to thank "Jodi and Andrea" in my speech and do the caterpillar. I am not one to back out of a promise, but I do an awesome caterpillar
4. Don't accept silly dares. I was dared by someone (my sister, Kerrin) to put a sticker on the Mayor's back. After stalking him for 15 minutes common sense took over. It was either that, or my drink was empty
5. You can't eat too much finger food
6. My great friend Toni from Beautiful You won for best Beauty Services. They really deserve the win

Rebecca lives on the Northside of Brisbane, does weddings, events, workshops, individual lessons and more. You can find her on facebook at www.facebook.com/rebecca.kate.

Summer Florals

Summer is nearly here and I have been sourcing my summer wardrobe. I have been noticing a theme in my new pieces.

Floral Jacket. I stumbled across this by accident and bought it for a photo shoot. I seemed to stay with me. This jacket is from the Grazia range in Target. It was only $49.   

 Skirt from Tree of life. I am obsessed with the light flowy clothes from there.

 Review skirt. Marked down and purchased for $28

 It think it's time to look for non-floral pieces.

PS: I am joining up for Wordless Wednesday at My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the eye

Why I love a good party

I had been blogging for a little while before I stumbled upon IBOT at SAHM. It took me a while to work out what it was and it was like finding gold on a beach. It stands for I blog on Tuesday. This is a wonderful blog that you can join your post to. I realised pretty early on that the 'price' I pay for linking up is small but important.

It's all basically good manners, write a post on the Tuesday, link it up, visit the host (comment) and then visit other links to read and comment.  It's also nice to mention in your post that you are linking up.

I have since discovered a few other awesome links. My favourites are Wordless Wednesday with My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the eye and Flog your blog Friday with With some Grace.  Make sure you read and follow their simple but important steps too.

Why I love these links are:
1. I have discovered so many wonderful blogs
2. I love the feeling of community
3. I love the gift of commenting on other blogs
4. AND I love the bump in my figures and comments

Thank you to these wonderful hosts for creating these great, little blogging communities.

PS: On Tuesdays, I link up with Jess from SAHM for IBOT

How to make Brussell Sprout taste good - Attempt 1

Brussell sprouts have had a pretty bad wrap.  I saw them in the fresh food section of Woollies, people avoiding eye contact with them, speeding up their trolley's to get past them.

 Sitting left on the shelf, like reject little cabbages. I couldn't resist their silent challenge.

To make Brussell Sprouts taste good.

Remove outside leaves, chop stem and half.

Use a little olive oil (and a little butter), place them face down. Make sure you leave them for a while. You want them to cook through.

Flip and add lemon (I used lime because that's all I had) and

a little garlic, salt and pepper.

Toast some pine nuts.

Plate up with the pine nuts and sprinkled with parmesan.

Not bad, but they were still a little bitter. I think they might need to be par cooked a little beforehand. Maybe my second attempt will be better.

How do you cook them? Can they be delicious?

Looking for some exercise mojo?

Today I am over at Katrina from the Block giving tips on how to restart your exercise mojo.

Pop over and visit and say hello.

Guest post: Restart your exercise mojo