from somewhere in my imagination

The Month of Fabruary

I love clothes and fashion.  To be truthful I love them much more now than I did 10kg ago.  I also love that three days a week I get to get reasonably dressed up to go to work.  I love that I can finally walk in heels and am slowly adapting to wearing makeup most days.  I love that I actually feel comfortable wearing red lipstick.  Over the course of the past year I got amongst it with some of the Fox In Flats style dares.  I gave Darecember a shot but got in a muddle with work days and non work days and Christmas stuff.

Then Fabruary arrived and I popped all of the prompts into my diary, and Iam thrilled to say that I accomplished every single one.  Some with more vigour than others, depending on the day but I loved it.  I composed my look in my head for some days and definitely did a few things that pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I am thrilled to feel that there were some looks that I really pulled off that I was more than a bit nervous about giving a go.

The month of Fabruary

Sunglasses – A no brainer, I wore my aviators and kicked off the month with a complete look that really pushed me.  Jacket is a market find and skirt from Theory.

Glitter – I have a few glittery pieces but chose to pair some sequinned flats with Sass & Bide boyfriend jeans and my favourite Saba T.

Checks – After a 16km run and 1500m ocean swim I rugged up in my flannie.  I definitely got a few sideways looks at our local shopping centre when my kiddos were not exhibiting their best behaviour.  Who says people don’t judge a book by its cover?

Ponytail – A ponytail was pretty much impossible with my growing out hair and the fact my girls eat hairties and there were none to be found.  I compromised by slicking my hair back.  Skunkfunk Top with Country Road basic black pants.

Leather – A hot one in Adelaide and not one for my favourite leather jacket so I chose a French Connection white shirt that has a thin leather waist tie teamed with Witchery denim & hat.

Green – Green Lorna Jane shorts for morning training followed by Country Road pants for the afternoon.  I paired green with coral both morning and afternoon.

Statement Earrings – I had to enlist help from my sisters because I didn’t have any.  I enjoyed wearing them so much that I have lashed out on a few pairs since.

Noisy – The bright pink nails and reasonably loud Sass & Bide jacket were my nod to the noisy factor.  A work colleague told me I looked like I was straight out of a 70’s disco, you don’t get much louder than that.  Mission accomplished.

Killer Heels – My hottest killer heels are these A/X babies I couldn’t go past about 12 months ago.  They were perfect with my Sass & Bide dress for a night out in Brisbane.

Bright – I very nearly didn’t buy these Madewell shoes last year in NYC.  I am so glad I did because they have turned out to be my favourites this summer.

Belted – I knew that I’d be pulling this Roni NYC jacket out as soon as I saw the prompt.

Orange Lips – As much as I tried to find a bright orange lippy that worked on me it just doesn’t work no matter how much I love it.  I settled on a coral shade from MAC.

Flats – This was perhaps one of the toughest prompts for the month, because I am totally spoiled for choice in the flats department.  I ended up popping on pink studded flats to go with the pink and gold of my dress.

Quiff – This was a prompt that I was really looking forward to trying out.  I enjoyed it so much I’ve done it again since.  Ted Baker top and Country Road basic black pants

Furry – The furriest thing I could find in my wardrobe was a feathered headband so I mostly just focused on putting together a great look with the Coop dress and Country Road heels. 

Leggy – I spent all days with my legs out between my Lorna Jane running shorts, bikini down the beach and Diesel denim skirt in between the weather was perfect in Adelaide for having legs on display.

Laces – I usually live in thongs and barefeet on the weekend but lacing up in my Nike trainers was a good idea because my feet are sore from all the running.

Bun – Two little tiny buns at my neckline had to suffice.

Polka Dot – I was pleasantly surprised by the number of polka dot pieces I have in my wardrobe but yellow wins every time.  Perfect outfit for a school picnic.  Kookai top with skirt purchased in NYC.

Fragrance – Wednesday is a double training day with an outdoor session followed by gym session but most days I’ll be sporting that sweat fragrance at some point.  Keeping it real.

Red – I have a surprising lack of red in my work wardrobe so red flats it was to be.

Button Up – This was one of those looks I could see clearly in my head but knew I’d have to put my brave face on to do it.  Was pretty damn happy with how it turned out.  Cue shirt, Country Road Snakeskin print pants and those A/X killer heels.

Layers – Another hot day in Adelaide, the best I could manage was a light scarf and some super dangly earrings with my dress.  I took my denim jacket with me to Symphony under the Stars in the evening but didn’t even come close to putting it on.

Gloss – My favourite lip gloss is Chanel Insouciance paired with some glossy sequins on my Country Road tank

Kicks – I pulled on my Nike frees for my early morning run, these are seriously the most comfortable pair of kicks I have ever owned.

Vest & Retro – Tuesday is my day off. It was hot and I had a bit of a case of CBF so I held over my vest wearing until Wednesday when I teamed it with a white tank, charcoal All Saints jeans and my new yellow Florsheim loafers.  The whole look was a little bit 50’s rocker but the humidity meant that my hair wouldn’t play nice no matter what I did.

Pink – I had to pull out the needle and thread to stitch up a few wayward seams in this neon pink Country Road dress, perfect for both the theme and the weather.

What I learned during the month:

• Planning outfits and digging things out of my wardrobe that I might bypass otherwise is a whole lot of fun.
• I am starting to get more comfortable with having product in my hair.
• Wearing heels at least three times a week is actually good for keeping my running feet stretched.
• I am now comfortable putting on lipstick of a morning, the next challenge will be actually reapplying it ;)
• I love the little Instagram community that Andrea has created through these dares.  Such a seriously nice bunch of ladies!

We're in to the March style dares already.  Today I cuffed my jeans and zipped on a pair of killer heels just to do school pickup.  Just because I could.

Looking forward to the month ahead!

Tatum xx

The Bedhopper

Our smallest person has an aversion to falling asleep in her own bed.

Lilli's bed is her favourite place to snuggle up and go to sleep.  Sometimes she'll ditch Lil in favour of a cuddle with Charlotte.  Although she seems to go to sleep much faster in Charlotte's bed than Lil's.  She only creeps into Sebastian's bed so that they can continue with whatever they were doing before bedtime, so usually I find them reading more books.

It's actually pretty cute and I love that they like each other enough to want to cuddle up in bed together or have a 'sleepover' in someone else's room.  These are the kinds of memories of their childhoods I will treasure.  I've seen the four of them through enough ages and stages to have learned that things work best if we just go with the flow and work within guidelines rather than hard and fast rules.

Some things are just not worth a battle.

On nights when J has fallen asleep in someone else's bed we untangle her from them (she's a close sleeper) and pop her back in her own bed before we climb into bed ourselves.

We regularly find her in our bed by morning.  Did I mention she's a close sleeper?  She usually wakes me up when my head falls off the side of the bed because she's pushed me off my pillow.

We've never done the co-sleeping thing but we have never been opposed to the kids sleeping in our bed.  We upgraded from a double to a Queen after Sebastian was born and we were regularly waking up with both Lillian and Charlotte in the bed. 

Nights where the kids have fallen asleep beside us have been few and far between but I value my sleep too much to have a no kids allowed rule.  I rarely wake up if one crawls in and they usually only get taken back to bed if they are taking up too much room.

We wake up with one or more kids in the bed about 3 times a week, sometimes more in winter and less in summer.  I love that they like 'sleeping over' in one another's rooms.  It makes me happy to find one curled up with another.  It doesn't make me happy to wake up to Sebastian and Jasmine fighting in my bed over who woke up first.  Thank heavens they can turn on the TV themselves!

A sleepy Miss J is sitting here next to me as I type, it's nearly 10pm.  She had a sleep at daycare today so she wont sleep now and will probably fall asleep at some inconvenient time tomorrow, but I'll roll with it.  Because chances are I'll wake up with these little arms wrapped around me and I'll look at her.  If she wakes up she'll put her hands on the sides of my face and say I love you mummy.  Or I'll have to wake her up and she'll squeal at me about not wanting to be awake yet.  Because that's how she rolls.

I'm ready for bed myself so I'm going to tuck her in between us because I suspect that is the only way she is going to close those big blue eyes anytime soon.

Do you let the kids crawl in with you or do you take them straight back to their own beds?  Or, are you like me and you don't even wake up when they climb over you?

Tatum xx

Breakfast Time

I am a breakfast person.  I can get up and go for a run or exercise without it but I definitely won't consider walking out the door without having eaten it, nor will I let the kids leave the house with no brekky in their bellies.  Sebastian actually likes to have at least two breakfasts before we leave, I think his record is five.

I don't muck around with breakfast either, wholegrains and dairy are the things that are going to fill those bellies the best too.  Here are a few things that are being served up to the table each morning at our house.

With the chilly winter mornings fruit toast is the kids bread of choice, even better if I've bought them some fruity sourdough.  We'll be heading to dough in the market for some today.

Be Natural breakfast cereals are new firm favourites of mine, Sebastian's and Jasmine's.  The boy likes the pink lady apple one best, the nutty one is my favourite.

Cinnamon and cranberry porridge from Goodies and Grains in the Central Market.  I don't know what it is about this porridge but it is amazing.  The girls in the store told me it has quite a cult following across Adelaide.  I love diving into the big tub of it every week for a big bagful to bring home.  I top my porridge with a little drizzle of golden syrup and a spoonful of the high protein cereal sprinkle that I also get from goodies and grains.

On the weekend I my fancy schmancy bacon and eggs is my absolute favourite.  It regularly shows up for brunch on a Saturday or Sunday after I've put in the hard yards in the gym or out running.

I down a smoothie at least three mornings a week, usually on my work mornings and often between exercise on the weekend.  I don't get time to sit and chew on week mornings.  Right now my smoothies are 1 cup low fat milk, 1/3 cup low fat natural yoghurt, 1/3 cup frozen blueberries, 1 Tbs unprocessed bran and a banana.  I often mix everything except the banana and bran in a container and pop it in the fridge the night before with Tbs chia seeds and it saves mucking around too much in the morning.  I double the recipe and share with my big girls often too.

This morning I tried something new and it was delicious.  If you have Jamie Oliver's Return of The Naked Chef then you have the recipe for Pukkolla.  I tried this when I first got the book many many years ago and it really wasn't my thing but prompted by discussion with Lauren last night I threw a batch together and I couldn't wait to get up and eat my breakfast this morning!  If you google pukkolla you'll find the recipe all over the place but here's how I my made mine:

Dry Ingredients

10 cups rolled oats

1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1 cup dates, chopped

1/2 cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup walnuts, chopped.

Mix all of that together in a gigantic bowl.  I dished it out into four x four cup portions and stashed them in the pantry in zip lock backs.

Tip 1 of the four cup portions into a bowl.  Grate 2 apples and mix through with 2 Tbs chia seeds (I also had 3 passionfruit starting to go dodgy in the fruit bowl so I added them too).  Just cover with milk (I used 3 cups), cover and pop into the fridge overnight.

To serve in the morning dish out about 2/3 cup into a bowl and top with 1/4 cup frozen berries.  I zapped it in the microwave for about 30 seconds because I didn't want it fridge cold.  Finish with a dollop of yoghurt and maybe a drizzle of honey.  I also added about a Tbs of my high protein cereal sprinkle.

After all these years of not eating it because I didn't like it I think it will become a new breakfast staple.  My tastes must be maturing as I'm getting older!

What's on your breakfast menu right now?  I'd love to hear your homemade brekky recipes!

Tatum xx