Details at the Ralph lauren party at Paris flagship store... from The Cherry Blossom Girl

 

http://www.thecherryblossomgirl.com/

Gratitute for Today ::

I'll keep these thoughts of gratitude close to my heart and say only that I'm grateful for you.  I love you Mum.

Sand between the toes...

I feel well fed, sunned and rested after spending the long weekend at Castlepoint.  We rented a cute little fisherman's cottage with a bright pink bathroom and just enough kitsch decor to make me feel right at home.

The only planning I did for the trip was around food and decided that the long weekend was the perfect time to try as many recipes as I could from the latest Cuisine magazine.  This is something I always hope to achieve but never do during a busy working week.  Gathering inspiration from a feature by Al Brown, Mexican was the theme with healthy lashings of spicy turtle beans, roasted capsicum salsa, lashings of avocado and cornbread made from scratch....  all just as delicious the next day for breakfast with the addition of some free-range bacon. 

Al Brown and his fishing tales provided further inspiration and we decided to try our hand at fishing during this trip.  Armed with surf-casters we approached 'the reef' with due caution, being careful  to find a spot that didn't intrude on the locals and gave Dean adquate space to hurl the line into the water without snagging a passer-by. 

Success was quick but small - Dean managed to hook a small fish of undetermined species on first cast.  I watched anxiously as he cradled the hooked fish in his hands and hurtled it back into the water.  (I'm pretty sure the fish was dead by the time it hit the water but I'm well impressed that Dean made the effort to set it free).

The rest of our time was spent strolling along the beach gathering sand in our toes and lazing in the glorious sun...  I'm now eagerly awaiting Summer...  I can't wait!

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralising" - Harriet Braiker

Go for it all.

Feeling the season change today....

"The healing process takes time. When we look at the cycles of nature, we see how winter follows the harvest. This is a time of processing, of setting down new roots, of integration. We unfold in the same way.

You’ll find times when you’re setting down roots followed by a lot of external change – where spring, summer, and fall take hold. At other times, your growth will feel stagnant, like nothing’s happening. Your growth may feel messy, a back and forth as you release old habits.

This is normal. We slow and even hurt our healing process when we expect healing to be instantaneous, when we think our insights should directly lead to new behaviors and habits. The reason its called practice is because that’s what we do. We practice, over and over and over. We practice to grow into new habits and practice to continue our new habits.

Give yourself permission to grow messily, to try and fail, and to be a beginner instead of expecting to get it right the first time. When we adopt new behaviors, we’re also changing our brains – and it takes time to create a new pathway. As they say in 12 step programs, "Progress, not perfection." Or to paraphrase Jack Dixon - focus on change, not results."

From the new workbook Growing Human(KIND)ness by Karly Randolph Pitman - www.firstourselves.com