Tumbleweeds

Things have been a bit quiet on the ol' blog this week - I do apologise! Just wanted to share a couple of iphone snaps from the past few weeks. Work has been very busy and I am so ready for this long weekend. I'm heading to Newcastle for the weekend to celebrate Easter but also my little sister's 21st birthday as well as my Mum's 50th birthday! I can't wait to see all my family and some friends, eat good food and relax. Hope you have a lovely weekend and Happy Easter!

1. Just finished reading Into the Wild. Loved the movie and have had the book for ages but didn't really get into it the first time I tried to read it. This time I was so absorbed by it and couldn't put it down!

2. I went to Brisbane on Monday night for a very quick work trip.

3. Chilli plants and flowers for sale near my office.

4. Grill'd date with Ben last night.

5. Snack night at home last Friday night.

6. Woohoo!!

Wardrobe Cull

Every time I decide to give my wardrobe a cull I am always amazed at the amount of clothes I manage to get rid of. I do this every few months and yet there's always things I decided to keep last time but I end up not wearing them at all in the time gone by. Out they go! I can be pretty ruthless when it comes to getting organised and cleaning and I think that's the attitude you have to have when getting rid of clothes. 

So I now have four bags to take to the charity bin and I'm left with a nice tidy wardrobe (aside from those hideous wire coat hangers - gotta keep building up the wooden collection). I can now say that I genuinely like all of the clothes in my wardrobe and they are items I wear regularly. No doubt there will be some items to chuck out next time I do this, but for now I am content.

Up the top I have my skirts, jeans and shorts. Turns out I don't actually own a pair of normal blue jeans! But hey, I've got horse-print and polka dot jeans, what more could a girl need? In the middle are tops and a few jumpers. There's also another shelf below that with pyjamas and below that are my undie drawers. I'm embarrassed to admit I finally threw out three pairs of holey undies which for some reason I had been holding onto for months! All my dresses and jackets plus some button up shirts are in the hanging space to the left of the shelves and also in another section to the right. Poor Ben gets one row of hanging space underneath mine haha.

I also had a crate of clothes under my bed which I finally sorted through. I had no idea what was even in there so clearly I didn't need it. Most is now going to those who need it more but I rediscovered a few items such as gym shorts and a nice stripey top which I will get some wear out of now that they're not gathering dust under the bed. 

My mission is to buy some nice new basics and underwear, which I think I will aim to do in America. I am also clinging onto a pair of holey, bleach stained tights that I refuse to part with until I find a better option. They are just so darn comfortable!

When was the last time you did a wardrobe cull?

Classic Celebrity Photos

 

1. Jodie Foster

2. Marlon Brando

3. The Beastie Boys and Billy Idol

4. Robert Downey Jnr (hubba hubba)

5. James Dean

6. Queen Elizabeth during WWII

7. President Obama and his grandfather

8. Picasso

9. Elijah Wood & Leonardo Dicaprio / Marilyn Munroe

10. Kate and Leo being directed by James Cameron on the set of Titanic

I stumbled upon this set of gorgeous and somewhat rare celebrity photos recently. I'm kind of fascinated by celebs. Not in the sense that I know heaps about them or read heaps of gossip magazines, it's more about the fact that they're regular people but the way we think about them is far from that. With the advent of social media it can start to feel like you almost know these people. We can follow them on Twitter or Instagram and see photos from their lives. Sure, their lives are a lot different to ours, but at the same time, these people have gotta do normal people things sometimes. For example, have you ever envisioned a famous person sitting on the toilet? Save the details of what they're doing there and allow yourself to laugh for a minute. It's even better if you picture someone really posh, like the Queen. Guys, the Queen's gotta do what the Queen's gotta do! Alright, I think I've shared too much of what goes on inside my brain. Have a lovely weekend. x

On Health and Fitness

I like to think I'm a pretty healthy person, but put a piece of cake in front of me and I will most definitely eat it. On the most part, I eat pretty healthy meals and I enjoy learning about how different foods fuel our bodies. As a vegetarian, I eat more fruits and vegetables than anything else and I try and eat foods that are unprocessed as much as I can. But I'm not afraid to tell you I ate a whole pizza last night and it was awesome.

I'm a hungry girl. I just really like food. Cooking it, eating it, reading about it and looking at pictures of it. I find it really hard to believe that some people just don't really care about food. But these people DO exist! The mind boggles.

This vintage poster lives on my fridge.

You might find it weird for me to say that I have no self-control, when I've managed to not eat meat for five years now. But if you asked me to not eat chocolate for five years I honestly don't think I could do it. I'm the type of person who doesn't buy 'bad' food for herself very often but if someone else buys it and offers me some, I can't say no. The other day at the supermarket, Ben spotted these new Freddo Frog chocolate biscuits. They were on special for $2 and he decided we should get some. As usual, I said no no no we can't get them. He got them anyway and of course I've been eating them. It happens every time.

There was a time in my life when I would go to the gym every day and run 6km on average. At the time, I think I enjoyed running but I don't remember that feeling. For the past fews years I have done very little high intensity exercise. I walk about 2.5km each day (to the train station and back) and every couple of days I do some crunches, hand weights or pilates moves at home. A few months ago I attempted to do the Couch to 5K running program but gave up a few weeks in. In my ideal world, I will wake up one day and just really like exercising again. Okay okay, I know that's not how it happens.

I'm lucky to have a pretty fast metabolism and a fairly thin frame. I wouldn't mind being a bit...firmer...in places but for the most part I'm happy with my body. I feel pretty healthy and I rarely get sick. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and I don't drink very much alcohol. There are so many different diets and lifestyles out there at the moment and I think everybody is just trying to figure it out.  I'm actually considering doing a juice cleanse soon just to clean things out a bit.

I believe the vegetarian diet is the right one for me, for both its health benefits and for moral reasons. But I don't think there's a right or wrong answer and I do really admire super fit and healthy people. I eat my greens and my grains, I get outdoors and move my body every day (at a pace that suits me) but I also treat myself and try not to feel guilty about it.

I'm not sure if there's a real point to this other than I think it's okay if you've had a really busy day at work and you get home and don't want anything more than to sit on the couch and watch My Kitchen Rules while eating an entire pizza. I mean, as long as you don't do that every day, right kids!?

Just a Minute in March

Reading...I just finished The Rosie Project and am actually not reading anything right now. I need a new book. Any suggestions?

Watching...The Walking Dead, New Girl and Girls are my weekly must-watch shows at the moment. I've also been watching bits and pieces of Smallville as Ben bought the box set.

Eating...We had a big Mexican feast for lunch on the weekend (above) but no surprises there as I've already confessed my undying love for Mexican multiple times. I was also taken out for Japanese in the city on Saturday and that was fantastic. Best Agadashi Tofu ever!

Listening to...I've been listening to a lot of Girl Talk on my way to work the past week. He definitely gets me in a good mood (as far as mornings go) and makes me feel like a gangster. Which I most definitely am not.

Loving...Little jars of fresh Baby's Breath on my kitchen ledge, cool Autumn mornings that turn into bright sunny days and late night fro-yo runs.

By the way, I'm selling some clothes on eBay at the moment in case you are interested!

Elkington Park

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working at a wedding with a friend of mine who is an event stylist. I'll be sharing more photos from that soon (once I sort through the hundreds of them) but for now I wanted to show you the park where the wedding ceremony was held. 

Elkington Park can be found in the suburb of Balmain in Sydney's inner-west. I've visited Balmain's main street (Darling Street) quite a bit but had never spent any time down by the water. It's almost a shame that I only discovered this park just as summer is coming to an end as I could have made good use of those swimming baths! Though yesterday was warm enough I unfortunately didn't have my swimmers with me. Dang.

As a 'country girl', it's so easy to only focus on the traffic, terrible rail system, weird smells and busy-ness of daily life in the city. Finding places like this is always a much-needed reminder of how beautiful this city is.

Feeling Fruity

Miss Shop blouse and Levi shorts

Happy Saturday! It's a beautiful day here in Sydney. I think summer is not quite ready to leave which is fine by me. Just snapped these photos while enjoying the sun on our balcony this morning. I'm off to a wedding soon but not as a guest. I'm helping my friend Linda by taking some photos of the dessert tables and other event styling she will be creating. More on that soon!

Odd-Shaped Pancakes

I ate some weird shaped pancakes last weekend. They were delicious! This was just one of the many ways Mum and Dad spoiled me while they were visiting recently. Not only did the house look cleaner when they left (despite me staying up late the night before they arrived dusting and mopping), I was treated to Mum's exceptional cooking including a full pancake breakfast on Sunday.

Now, I can't blame Mum for the shape of these pancakes. She did her best with what she had - my one and only rather large fry pan. After the ordeal Mum took it upon herself to buy me a perfect pancake-sized fry pan while she was here. Bless that lady :) I'll have to test it out soon!

Hope you all have a happy weekend. I've kicked mine off by watching multiple Aziz Ansari videos on YouTube. I liked to live life on the edge. Here's one that got me giggling. Enjoy. xo

Life of Late

Lately I have been...

1. Longing for some cooler weather so I can wear my new bargain jumper, as discussed here.

2. Reading and loving this book. Review coming soon!

3. Eating pancakes for breakfast. Two days in a row. Oops.

4. Wishing I didn't live so far from Mum and Dad. They stayed for five nights last week and it was so wonderful having them around.

5. Drinking lots of Sydney Breakfast.

6. Running about to meetings in the city and admiring the pretty leaves that will soon turn golden.

7. Counting down the days until I'll be back in this wonderful city.

And you? x

Recipe | Moroccan Lentil Burgers

I made these burgers for Mum, Dad and Ben the other night and they were excellent. I've been buying the Celebrate Health lentils for a while but hadn't made any of their recipes until now. I love these because they are already seasoned. They also have a Mediterranean flavour as well as other products such as Quinoa, recipe bases (sauces) and stock. You can buy them at Coles in the health food section. This recipe makes about 8 patties so there was enough for me to take a burger to work the next day (hence the last photo with strange background) - bonus!

Ingredients:

1 packet Celebrate Health Moroccan Lentils (or plain lentils cooked with moroccan seasoning)

1 sweet potato, peeled, cooked and mashed

2 spring onions, finely chopped (I used some red onion instead)

1 egg

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup bread crumbs (for crumbing)

Vegetable oil for frying

Hummus, salads and bread rolls - whatever takes your fancy. I also added sweet chilli sauce to my burger.

Directions:

Cook lentils as per packet directions and the sweet potato. Set both aside to cool. Mix the lentils, mashed sweet potato, onion, egg and 1/4 cup bread crumbs until well combined. Divide mixture into about 8 patties, roll and dust with the remaining bread crumbs until lightly coated. Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and fry patties until golden brown. Serve warm with salad, hummus and anything else you like on a bread roll.