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Value yourself and others

I’m in a really good place right now…

But I am mindful that it’s not always easy to focus on the positive. However, it’s important to remind yourself of your intrinsic value and self-worth. We can be so busy with the day to day minutiae of life and get caught up with problems and forget to take time out for self-care.

I really value my family and friends and always see the good within them and I know they do likewise with me.

Having meaningful connections with people is important. Valuing the people in your life is important.

We all have flaws (hopefully mine are more endearing than annoying, but that could be wishful thinking!🤷‍♀️😂)

Take the time to really listen to the people in your life. Try to understand where they are coming from, their place in life at this point in time and any joy or struggles they may be facing.

I had an acquaintance of mine message me that he does not like my blog posts. He feels they “reflect poorly” on myself! Well, ok then. I hadn’t asked for his opinion, nor do I particularly welcome his comments. However, in the spirit of seeing the good in folk, I will take the high road and assume that for whatever misguided reason, he (possibly) meant well and if not, it’s not a problem. My blog is for me and my followers and so far the feedback I have received is overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.

Love and peace y’all…

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Living my Best Life!

Weekend #1 post breakup.

Saturday

I was a bit anxious on Friday. For the last 3 ½ years I have literally spent every single weekend with my (ex) partner.

Contemplating my first solo weekend was a bit anxiety inducing and a bit sad too.

My day was usual, I don’t work Fridays. I went to the gym for a pump class at 6, then walked my dog at the park.

Then the usual Friday things, another gym session late in the morning – balance class this time, then grocery shopping, grabbing an almond milk long macchiato on the way home, lunch, read, housework, and another doggie walk.

Oh, and I had a facial too! Part of my self-care is doing all the things that make me feel good, including some pampering.

I’d already decided to go dancing, I know enough people to hang with. However, my friend Helen called in the afternoon. Mostly to check in that I was doing ok – which was thoughtful of her. I told her I was heading out dancing in the evening and invited her along.

She rocked up a bit before 8pm (I was driving from my place) and snap! We were wearing near identical dresses! Her clothing style and colour range is usually completely different to mine, but she’d gone shopping in the day to expand her range. I could have changed, but thought it was more fun to roll up twinning it.

two women in blue dresses

We got to the venue, and I ran into a couple of friends straight away and a few more once we got inside. Massive hugs all round, everyone thrilled to see me out and concerned about how I was feeling post breakup. I love my friends! Told everyone I was fine and dandy, bit of a sad day, but great to be out with familiar faces and ready for a night of dancing!

My mate John was there and I had the first couple of dances with him, he’s a great lead and very easy to dance with. The first dance or two felt strange, again I literally only ever danced with my (ex) partner over the years, and you get quite used to the one style.

Then everything was fine, I just got into the groove and started to feel relaxed and happy. I danced with lots of different guys, some friends from my classes, others I didn’t know. Some were great leads, some not so much.

In amongst all this I’ve had a few guys slip into my DMs or call me over Messenger as they’d seen or heard about my FB post re the breakup. Asking me to go out for drinks or catch up for a night out. Sigh! Calm down lads, I’m not up for dating anyone at the moment and sheesh, talk about giving a girl time to get over a breakup. That’s a hard no!

On Saturday. I woke early, feeling happy and relaxed. I walked Georgie-boy at the park, had breakfast (avo on toast and coffee). I have my first gym session at 9.45 and another one at 1pm. In between, I’m writing this blog post and chatting with my daughter over Messenger and on the phone (we’re catching up tomorrow for brunch).

First gym session was a Balance Class. That one I really love. A mix of yoga and Pilates. How can you not smile when doing Happy Warrior II pose? It makes me feel strong, powerful and lightweight in my strength. We always end with a relaxation session and a heart chakra pose. I always leave feeling blissful, flexible, and happy.

Link https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/warrior-ii-pose/

I bought my coffee and some flowers on the way home.

flowers in a vase

Little bit more housework this afternoon, wash the doggo and then I’ll head to another dance this evening. I’ll go with Helen again, but this time she’ll be driving and definitely no twinning our dresses tonight!

Sunday

Dance last night was awesome! My dance card was full, I barely left the dance floor!

Woke up happy and relaxed again this morning. Took the dog to the park, he’s loving the extra walks. Went to church to reflect and found peace.

I feel as though I have stepped back into my own life. Have you ever been with someone and felt as though you have been inserted into their life and consequently lost touch with your own? I allowed it to happen, but it is a massive relief to feel back to myself again.

My daughter came over later in the morning and we ended up going out for brunch at a café by the river. So nice to see and spend time with her, she’s amazing, kind, considerate, loving, smart and just the best daughter!

Then this afternoon my dance classes started up again for 2023. I’ve been really looking forward to them starting up. It’s a bit later this year, it’s usually mid-January, so it’s been a bit of a hiatus.

And OMG! It was brilliant! So great to see everyone and my dance teachers, lots of new students too. Two hours of classes and some line dancing afterwards. I felt a bit sad at first, then got into the swing of it all and just had fun and laughs! Nice to feel light-hearted enough to laugh!

All in all, I’d say weekend #1 was a success. Sure, there were moments of sadness and missing him. But making the effort to go out and see people, dance and socialize and have fun really helped me get through this first difficult time.

I’m going to be ok. I have so much love and support around me, I am truly blessed.

Credit for living my best life image – http://www.redbubble.com/people/ohya

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Car parking lots…

My poor shiny car!

When I downsized from my house to my unit, I bought a new car. My old one was on it’s last legs (wheels) and more than ready for a trade-in. Really, all it was worth were maybe a couple of spare parts.

And I bought a shiny red Mazda in that gorgeous “soul red crystal’ colour that I absolutely love!

I’ve had my new car for a year now and it just had it’s first service a week ago. It’s a great car, super reliable, easy to drive, has 360 degree cameras and really economical with petrol (gas).

Then on Friday morning I went to the gym, parked my car well within the parking lines (check the pic above! And I just realized you can see a reflection of my legs and feet in the car! It sure is shiny!🤣). When I got back to my car I found that someone had opened their door with some force and left a dent and white paint on my passenger door 😞

They did not leave a note, so I have no idea who it was. Which means I either claim the damage on my car insurance and lose my “no claim bonus” and my insurance premiums will go up for making a claim. That’s because without the other parties details I can’t claim against their insurance (assuming they had any and hey maybe they can’t afford insurance, so I can’t get too grudgey!) Thus the default position is that it’s my fault for claiming. Insurance rules sure are interesting!

The other option is to go to a panel beater, get a quote and then pay for the repair out of my pocket and not bother with my insurance company. Likely that is what I will do, even though it’s not an expense I need in my budget. The damage is noticeable enough and worth getting fixed.

I was briefly a bit steamed about it, but really there is nothing I can do. Once I realized there was no note, I shrugged and thought “oh well” such is life!

 

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Christmas Day 2022

Christmas Day was fairly relaxed and chill. We spent the day with my partner’s family and my daughter 🥰

We all got there around midday, however the in-laws on the other side got stuck in a freeway jam for a couple of hours which was unfortunate as they were bringing a lot of the main lunch food! We had all the desserts and salads.

In the meantime because we were all getting a bit hungry, we snacked on cookies my daughter brought and had a few glasses of champagne! By the time the rest of the party arrived (flustered and hot), we were all a wee bit merry! We got them to have a glass of champagne, sit down and relax whilst we organized plates, food and serving utensils.

After lunch and endless desserts (Christmas cake, pavlova, trifle, chocolates & more cookies) everyone played a hectic game. I had never heard of it before I met my partner. It’s got a few names including “Christmas gift stealing”, “white elephant”, “stealing Santa” and Google tells me it’s a version of “Yankee Swap”. Here’s a link that explains how the game is played. However, the version we play is a roll of the dice game – get a 6 and grab a gift from the centre pile. At the end of 5 minutes, you keep rolling the dice and if you get a 6, you can grab a gift from someone else’s pile. Everyone ends up in fits of laughter. Then at the end we unwrap the gifts and we usually end up swapping them with each other!

After that my partner and I throw on some Rock & Roll tunes and have a dance around (and yes, we were wearing matching Christmas vests!). It was a good way to work off all that food!

 

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Happy Christmas!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND WISHING YOU A FABULOUS 2023!

It’s Christmas Eve and sweltering hot in my neck of the woods! I’ve just turned on the air con as I’m starting to melt. I usually leave it as late in the day as possible and generally prefer the ceiling fan.

It’s not as hot this year as the last few Christmases have been, but still it’s mid summer and toasty!

Not sure what your plans are this year, but I hope you have a delightful and happy Christmas whatever you choose to do. And if you are alone this Christmas, my thoughts are with you and sending you love and hugs…

It can be a beautiful time of year and a challenging time of year and I’ve had both types over the years. So I understand if it’s your happiest day with family or your saddest day with no close family to spend the day with you.

I’ll start my Christmas Day with a 5km run, nice and early to beat the heat. It’s my way of settling myself for the day. A reminder that I am fortunate to have a body that functions well and allows me to get up and run. It’s a mindfulness and gratitude setting time, whereby I run and recall all the good things in my life, enjoy the beauty of the morning, listen to the birds and greet the odd person who also gets out early on a Christmas morn.

My sister is recovering well from her kidney cancer operation. She lives on the other side of the country, so I won’t see her for Christmas, but she is surrounded by her children and grandchildren and her Christmas day will be filled with joy.

My daughter and I will be going to my partner’s family for Christmas this year. There’ll be lots of food, wine, laughter and games to play with the kids. My favourite Christmas treat is Christmas cake or pudding – dark, rich and fruity! It is literally the one thing I anticipate on the day (foodwise) and it’s always a delight!

We all bring something to share, so that no-one is burdened with all the preparation and cooking. We each have a Secret Santa gift for another person and then share in the cleaning up at the end of the day.

Then it’s a wrap for another year!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

 

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Playing around with images…

Having fun with digital art and images

First up, this is not an advertisement and I am not suggesting you use the website I am talking about. I use Canva at work and home to develop digital images. I have a bit of fun playing around with it, but I am by no means an expert nor do I have a particularly good artistic eye.

I use the free version and find that I can generally find either a free template or adapt one of my photos to play around with and hopefully improve.

I got an email from Canva this week (and like pretty much every website, I get daily updates all the time and most I just delete). This one caught my attention. It was a new option to change text to images. Basically you type in text and then Canva gives you a selection of four images based on the words you have entered. The feature image of this post was one of “butterflies in a field”. Not exactly a super creative idea, but the image is sweet and pretty.

I found this intriguing and kind of fun. I think it’s still in the testing phase and I guess eventually they will charge for it. I jumped onto the site and spent a creative (wasteful) half an hour creating images from sentences. Like a “golden fluffy dog in a magical forest” This is one of the four images suggested:

fluffy dog in a magical forest

You can get the images in various formats for social media posting. I opted for blogpost images for obvious reasons! 😅

I tried to get a bit more creative and put in “Beautiful Australian wildflowers” as I have a fondness for the flora of my country. What I got was certainly pretty, but not exactly specific to our wildflowers. Nonetheless, I did have a lot of fun playing around with this new part of Canva. Like I said, this is not an endorsement or an advertisement, just me having fun, playing around with something different and new!

flowers

 

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