The birds are chirping in the early evening warmth, the sounds from the city streets are oddly muted. I'm alone in the flat, I have nice music on and am sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee. The bunnies are contentedly munching on hay.
It's an eerie calm-before-the-storm-feeling.
In an hour Finn will come home and my second producer will show up and so will my brand new assistant director. And we will hold our production meeting and get some last minute stuff done because tomorrow is our first shoot day.
In one hour this place will be loud and crazy and wonderful and exciting. But for now it's just me and a cup of coffee and a long-overdue blog post. For now it's a peaceful quietness in my heart, with traces of nervousness infused.
Tomorrow I start shooting my very first film. Tomorrow.
Today I get to have coffee and music on the couch. If only for one hour.
Showing posts with label home sweet home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home sweet home. Show all posts
Dreaming of houses, gardens, bees, and a healthier simpler life
I've been experiencing this back to the basics/back to the roots/DIY/health sentiment lately. This isn't the first time I've attempted to simplify my life so I'm beginning to think that this is exactly what I should be doing. Or why else would it show up in my life again and again?
Health
Don't worry, I'm not going full on vegan-digging-for-roots on you. I just want to be healthy and get rid of my chronic issues. It's not much but it's enough to bug me on a day-to-day basis. First off, I recently learned that although I don't have diabetes my blood sugar is quite a bit too high and that I should cut down on the sugars, if not cut them out entirely of my everyday diet. That way I can ensure that I will always be able to enjoy that wonderfully luscious piece of cake or a refreshing cone of ice cream once in a while. But it is proving to be a bit hard. It usually takes us about two weeks to get ourselves off the sugar. And then one of us gets her period, and then the other one, and we go all sugar-crazy. And then it usually takes us about a month to notice that we've been stuffing ourselves with cake and cookies and chocolate. Cue beginning of vicious cycle. All the while I'm thinking it's ridiculous! I don't even like sweet stuff that much. And once I stay off the refined sugary treats I'm perfectly happy with an agave syrup lemonade or a fruity, unsweetened yoghurt. I've known for a while that my body doesn't really like sugar all that much. In fact I never ate this many sweets before I met my wife (who grew up with an abundance of sugary treats), we rarely had dessert when I lived with my parents. So before that I had no idea sugar was a problem because I never had that much of it. But now I've known for quite a while that my IBS flares up like a motherfucker when I eat sugar. I should know better and just stay off it already. So that's one thing I'm trying. Bye bye sugar, whether it's hidden or not. We eat whole grain bread only most of the time, I love my veggies, I've even found ways to trick myself into eating fruit (it hides well in a coconut water drink or buttermilk). I drink mostly water or tea. If I sweeten it I use agave syrup. I usually don't put sugar in my coffee anymore. We buy whole grain pasta and vary a lot with other whole grains (bulgur, cous cous, quinoa, khorasan wheat etc.). When we can we buy our vegetables directly from a farmer in Lower Austria.
I cut down on my meat consumption and upped my tofu intake when I realised most of my PMS issues stemmed from too much meat. It worked within the first month/cycle. Less cramps, no breast-pain (oh get it together, smirkers, this is a perfectly normal topic for grown-ups ;), less acne, less mood "issues" (= the crankmonster).
I run.
I hydrate more (water! tea!)
I try to get a decent amount of sleep when my insomnia lets me (and recently it has *fingers crossed*).
I'm losing the (over)weight.
Back to the roots
My friend and sister from another mother (although our mothers are pretty much exactly the same behaviour wise) A. had been on this trip for a while now and when she told me about Ghassoul (or Rhassoul) clay recently I decided to join her. I mean, I've been buying my shampoos at Lush for years but I knew they didn't exactly count as natural. But I liked them, I still do. But unfortunately my skin and hair likes clay a lot more. In the middle of winter I usually get a very slight neurodermatitis which basically means my skin gets super dry and reddens and itches like fucking crazy. I've tried a lot. Lotions don't really work because a) I hate the extra effort of using body lotion after a shower (seriously, who bothers with that?) and b) most body lotions do squat for my skin anyway. Now for the first time I have hopes that I might actually make my skin stay on me next winter. Rhassoul clay + argan oil = miracles. Bye bye enlarged pores, bye bye flaky skin, bye bye oily skin, bye bye zits. It has even to some degree repaired my hair which was pretty pissed off from all the blond hair dye I've been using. My hair stays clean much much longer, it is stronger and my waves are more easily convinced to look like curls - without product, just with water. Yes, I'm telling the truth, I swear.
There are a couple of things I won't stop using, for instance the lush perfume I love so much and that face scrub and the Neutrogena body lotion when I can be arsed. Hand cream. And when coming home from a dance lesson I'll probably grab that bottle of shampoo instead of mixing up a batch of clay. It's just easier.
DIY
I've never had a hobby. Now I do. Again, something A. got me into :) I started to make jewelry. Which is funny, since I myself never used to wear jewelry. Now I know I didn't because I just didn't like what was out there. I like wearing my own stuff, and also the things A. and E. make. We have similar styles but not quite the same. E. does very romantic stuff in brass, A. does mostly silver colored ear dangles, and both of them have a steampunk edge to their art. I haven't quite settled on something yet but have developed a strong liking for gunmetal and am beginning to dabble in celtic designs. But I also have silver and brass materials. I also make necklaces with feather pendants. But details aside: It is making me incredibly happy. It's wonderful to do something with my hands. It relaxes me, connects separated parts in my brain and my heart and my body. I've an inkling that this might very well be part of my therapy, that it restores something within me and taps into the creative well where my writing can't quite go yet because there's too much of a blockage of things not said yet.
And within this back to the simple things movement going on in my life I'm dreaming of living even more simply. Of getting out. Of moving into a big old house with Finn and the bunnies where there's enough room for all of us plus a border collie. Next to all the standard rooms houses come with it would have a room for the bunnies, a room for making art, an editing room, an office, a gaming room, a music room, a no-distractions writing room and a garage for all the messy DIY things. We would have a vegetable garden and fruit trees and keep bees. After a morning of writing I would stand in a big wonderful kitchen and can jars and jars of veggies and fruits that we grew. We would spend evenings sitting on the porch with a good book, go for runs and walks in the woods. And when it rains, which it would often, we would sit in the kitchen eating homemade soup and stare at the rain.
Health
Don't worry, I'm not going full on vegan-digging-for-roots on you. I just want to be healthy and get rid of my chronic issues. It's not much but it's enough to bug me on a day-to-day basis. First off, I recently learned that although I don't have diabetes my blood sugar is quite a bit too high and that I should cut down on the sugars, if not cut them out entirely of my everyday diet. That way I can ensure that I will always be able to enjoy that wonderfully luscious piece of cake or a refreshing cone of ice cream once in a while. But it is proving to be a bit hard. It usually takes us about two weeks to get ourselves off the sugar. And then one of us gets her period, and then the other one, and we go all sugar-crazy. And then it usually takes us about a month to notice that we've been stuffing ourselves with cake and cookies and chocolate. Cue beginning of vicious cycle. All the while I'm thinking it's ridiculous! I don't even like sweet stuff that much. And once I stay off the refined sugary treats I'm perfectly happy with an agave syrup lemonade or a fruity, unsweetened yoghurt. I've known for a while that my body doesn't really like sugar all that much. In fact I never ate this many sweets before I met my wife (who grew up with an abundance of sugary treats), we rarely had dessert when I lived with my parents. So before that I had no idea sugar was a problem because I never had that much of it. But now I've known for quite a while that my IBS flares up like a motherfucker when I eat sugar. I should know better and just stay off it already. So that's one thing I'm trying. Bye bye sugar, whether it's hidden or not. We eat whole grain bread only most of the time, I love my veggies, I've even found ways to trick myself into eating fruit (it hides well in a coconut water drink or buttermilk). I drink mostly water or tea. If I sweeten it I use agave syrup. I usually don't put sugar in my coffee anymore. We buy whole grain pasta and vary a lot with other whole grains (bulgur, cous cous, quinoa, khorasan wheat etc.). When we can we buy our vegetables directly from a farmer in Lower Austria.
I cut down on my meat consumption and upped my tofu intake when I realised most of my PMS issues stemmed from too much meat. It worked within the first month/cycle. Less cramps, no breast-pain (oh get it together, smirkers, this is a perfectly normal topic for grown-ups ;), less acne, less mood "issues" (= the crankmonster).
I run.
I hydrate more (water! tea!)
I try to get a decent amount of sleep when my insomnia lets me (and recently it has *fingers crossed*).
I'm losing the (over)weight.
Back to the roots
My friend and sister from another mother (although our mothers are pretty much exactly the same behaviour wise) A. had been on this trip for a while now and when she told me about Ghassoul (or Rhassoul) clay recently I decided to join her. I mean, I've been buying my shampoos at Lush for years but I knew they didn't exactly count as natural. But I liked them, I still do. But unfortunately my skin and hair likes clay a lot more. In the middle of winter I usually get a very slight neurodermatitis which basically means my skin gets super dry and reddens and itches like fucking crazy. I've tried a lot. Lotions don't really work because a) I hate the extra effort of using body lotion after a shower (seriously, who bothers with that?) and b) most body lotions do squat for my skin anyway. Now for the first time I have hopes that I might actually make my skin stay on me next winter. Rhassoul clay + argan oil = miracles. Bye bye enlarged pores, bye bye flaky skin, bye bye oily skin, bye bye zits. It has even to some degree repaired my hair which was pretty pissed off from all the blond hair dye I've been using. My hair stays clean much much longer, it is stronger and my waves are more easily convinced to look like curls - without product, just with water. Yes, I'm telling the truth, I swear.
There are a couple of things I won't stop using, for instance the lush perfume I love so much and that face scrub and the Neutrogena body lotion when I can be arsed. Hand cream. And when coming home from a dance lesson I'll probably grab that bottle of shampoo instead of mixing up a batch of clay. It's just easier.
DIY
I've never had a hobby. Now I do. Again, something A. got me into :) I started to make jewelry. Which is funny, since I myself never used to wear jewelry. Now I know I didn't because I just didn't like what was out there. I like wearing my own stuff, and also the things A. and E. make. We have similar styles but not quite the same. E. does very romantic stuff in brass, A. does mostly silver colored ear dangles, and both of them have a steampunk edge to their art. I haven't quite settled on something yet but have developed a strong liking for gunmetal and am beginning to dabble in celtic designs. But I also have silver and brass materials. I also make necklaces with feather pendants. But details aside: It is making me incredibly happy. It's wonderful to do something with my hands. It relaxes me, connects separated parts in my brain and my heart and my body. I've an inkling that this might very well be part of my therapy, that it restores something within me and taps into the creative well where my writing can't quite go yet because there's too much of a blockage of things not said yet.
And within this back to the simple things movement going on in my life I'm dreaming of living even more simply. Of getting out. Of moving into a big old house with Finn and the bunnies where there's enough room for all of us plus a border collie. Next to all the standard rooms houses come with it would have a room for the bunnies, a room for making art, an editing room, an office, a gaming room, a music room, a no-distractions writing room and a garage for all the messy DIY things. We would have a vegetable garden and fruit trees and keep bees. After a morning of writing I would stand in a big wonderful kitchen and can jars and jars of veggies and fruits that we grew. We would spend evenings sitting on the porch with a good book, go for runs and walks in the woods. And when it rains, which it would often, we would sit in the kitchen eating homemade soup and stare at the rain.
I do do stuff
Contrary to my own opinion I do get things done. For example today I did about 30 minutes of yoga. I did half a pull-up, which is one more than I could do four days ago when we got the bar and put it up in the door to our office. = success! I ate a Vegemite cheese sandwich and watched Brothers & Sisters. I cleaned the loo. I researched video cameras and may have found the one. And I gave myself a haircut.
No blood was shed! I am very happy about my decision to use scissors this time. When I use razor blades I always manage to cut my hair-holding-hand with them which is very annoying since
a) I'm not a cutter so this doesn't get me anywhere and
b) I always end up looking like I tried to sacrifice a virgin for a good haircut. (It is hard to come by those. Good haircuts, I mean. But probably also virgins.)
Eventful day, huh? And it's not even 2 pm yet. The really exciting stuff is still ahead of me. Skype date with a good friend. Tap dancing. Lunch!
No blood was shed! I am very happy about my decision to use scissors this time. When I use razor blades I always manage to cut my hair-holding-hand with them which is very annoying since
a) I'm not a cutter so this doesn't get me anywhere and
b) I always end up looking like I tried to sacrifice a virgin for a good haircut. (It is hard to come by those. Good haircuts, I mean. But probably also virgins.)
Eventful day, huh? And it's not even 2 pm yet. The really exciting stuff is still ahead of me. Skype date with a good friend. Tap dancing. Lunch!
move along home, common cold
I've been wanting to blog, but I've been sick as a dog for about a week now. I've now spent 6 days watching movies I've long wanted to see, and then movies I didn't particularly want to see, and now I've gone over to watching old Ally McBeal episodes. I am going stir crazy! There is so much to do, so much that has to get done. But let's back up a bit.
Finn's employers invited their employees for a luxurious spa weekend as this year's christmas present - spouses welcome to my delight. We hastily asked Finn's mum to take in our bunnies and fortunately she had time so off we went. I was a bit nervous beforehand about meeting her bosses and coworkers, given all my social insecurities... but it all turned out really well. I was pretty much instantaneously relaxed when we arrived there and all the pampering we received helped further that even more. We were wined and dined on Friday evening, drinking, talking and laughing until late at night. We spent a lovely day swimming and at the spa on Saturday followed by another 4-course-dinner and wine. On Sunday morning I even went for a swim and a steam in the sauna before breakfast. Yes, I know, totally not me, but I woke up so refreshed at 8 a.m. I thought "What else should I do until breakfast?" (the wife was still sleepy ;)
Unfortunately we were so relaxed that we both fell ill. Finn before me and not as badly; it seems that weathering it while going to work was the right choice. I put myself to bed like a good girl and that's pretty much where I've been since. I thought I was going to be okay going to IKEA on Friday since there basically was no other possible day to do that on, and I probably would have if the weather hadn't been so crappy. We had to shovel our car out of the snow twice! almost didn't make it out of the parking spot... and on Saturday I went to work for three hours. So that set me back about half a week; since than I've been in bed again. I've boiled jujubes (chinese dates) and drank the liquid (the vilest thing I ever drank) which is supposed to help, I've drank tons of fresh orange-grapefruit juice, I've tried taking Aspirin C, Aspirin Complex, Neocitran, I've used Wick Vapo Rub and eaten a ridiculous amount of satsumas, I'm drinking litres of hot water with lemon juice, honey and ginger and eating broth.
I AM NOT GETTING BETTER.
not really. I should be fine by now but I'm not.
It's not only that I've had colleagues pick up my shifts at the Creperie (I've meant to blog about that) - (also I'm missing my tap class today which sucks) - but also that I should be packing up boxes for our move. Yeah, that's another news I have. After all the crazy with my mother we hit the accelerator on our search for a new apartment and found one quite promptly. We got the keys on December 1st and are currently in the process of moving small things from this flat, new furniture (hence the trip to IKEA). So far I haven't been able to pull my weight so it's all resting on Finn who is working shitloads at work already and now has to deal with everything to do with the flat as well. I hope I can go over there to at least get some things done tomorrow before my shift at the Creperie. On Wednesday we have friends coming from Salisbury so we have Thursday and Friday for more packing before the movers come on Saturday. So yeah...
I NEED TO GET BETTER! *sigh*
I'm trying not to fight it, to accept it, to believe that I'll be okay soon, but it just doesn't feel like it right now :(
So please, send me some healthy energy if you have some to spare. Thankyouverymuch.
Finn's employers invited their employees for a luxurious spa weekend as this year's christmas present - spouses welcome to my delight. We hastily asked Finn's mum to take in our bunnies and fortunately she had time so off we went. I was a bit nervous beforehand about meeting her bosses and coworkers, given all my social insecurities... but it all turned out really well. I was pretty much instantaneously relaxed when we arrived there and all the pampering we received helped further that even more. We were wined and dined on Friday evening, drinking, talking and laughing until late at night. We spent a lovely day swimming and at the spa on Saturday followed by another 4-course-dinner and wine. On Sunday morning I even went for a swim and a steam in the sauna before breakfast. Yes, I know, totally not me, but I woke up so refreshed at 8 a.m. I thought "What else should I do until breakfast?" (the wife was still sleepy ;)
Unfortunately we were so relaxed that we both fell ill. Finn before me and not as badly; it seems that weathering it while going to work was the right choice. I put myself to bed like a good girl and that's pretty much where I've been since. I thought I was going to be okay going to IKEA on Friday since there basically was no other possible day to do that on, and I probably would have if the weather hadn't been so crappy. We had to shovel our car out of the snow twice! almost didn't make it out of the parking spot... and on Saturday I went to work for three hours. So that set me back about half a week; since than I've been in bed again. I've boiled jujubes (chinese dates) and drank the liquid (the vilest thing I ever drank) which is supposed to help, I've drank tons of fresh orange-grapefruit juice, I've tried taking Aspirin C, Aspirin Complex, Neocitran, I've used Wick Vapo Rub and eaten a ridiculous amount of satsumas, I'm drinking litres of hot water with lemon juice, honey and ginger and eating broth.
I AM NOT GETTING BETTER.
not really. I should be fine by now but I'm not.
It's not only that I've had colleagues pick up my shifts at the Creperie (I've meant to blog about that) - (also I'm missing my tap class today which sucks) - but also that I should be packing up boxes for our move. Yeah, that's another news I have. After all the crazy with my mother we hit the accelerator on our search for a new apartment and found one quite promptly. We got the keys on December 1st and are currently in the process of moving small things from this flat, new furniture (hence the trip to IKEA). So far I haven't been able to pull my weight so it's all resting on Finn who is working shitloads at work already and now has to deal with everything to do with the flat as well. I hope I can go over there to at least get some things done tomorrow before my shift at the Creperie. On Wednesday we have friends coming from Salisbury so we have Thursday and Friday for more packing before the movers come on Saturday. So yeah...
I NEED TO GET BETTER! *sigh*
I'm trying not to fight it, to accept it, to believe that I'll be okay soon, but it just doesn't feel like it right now :(
So please, send me some healthy energy if you have some to spare. Thankyouverymuch.
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