Pink Saturday #2

Pink Dragon Fruit..

Linking to ...Pink Saturday

These cold, dark days make me miss home so much and I often go back and look of photos of my last visit - 7 years ago - and I found this photo and thought its just perfect for my Pink Saturday post. Dragon fruit is actually a type of cactus know as the Pitaya cacti with the plant flowering only at night and wilting at dawn, its not often you get to see an open flower unless you went out at night. The large flowers rely on nocturnal creatures - bats and moths for fertilization by other pitaya plants, apparently the fruit is very high in fiber, I remember as a lil girl having my Grandmother feed me dragon fruit for tummy troubles!

Save it for the weekend please...!

(S)NO(W) MORE SNOW FOR NOW PLEASE....!

I am (not) shouting...the snow is pretty to look at, but if it does snow ...again, it will mean hours of re-scheduling appointments, NO...dont want to have to do it all again this week..!!
Dont get me wrong..I do ♥ snow, I even made this snow ♥ while warming up my truck this morning..

♥

I love this photo, there is just something about it that is beautiful, might even have it put on canvas for my wall!?

Water Wednesday #2

Linking to....Watery Wednesday

As child I used to happily sing...

"London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down.

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair lady"

 

whilst playing on the dusty plains of Southern Africa and never did I think one day I would be able to walk the length of the real London Bridge, with my 3 lovely girls. (Origionally built in 1176)

Not another diet advert...!

Uugh...! Its only 4 days into January and I so sick of all the diet adverts e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e, now dont get me wrong - I do want to shed a few pounds but c'mon now.
 I am not sure that I will slim down by drinking a special elixir in a can, buying specially food that is delivered to my door or swallowing special potions and pills, I want to and need to learn to shop for food in a more disciplined manner and be able to create a meal from that food, food that is healthy for me. I also want to be able to control portion sizes - this also includes me having to learn to eat just my portion and leave it at that instead of finishing off the kids left-overs!!
Talking about healthy eating, 18 months ago we rented a vegetable patch (also called an allotment) which I (we - the girls did their bit too..!) had to give up as I took on a full time job, I might just try and see if we can get another and start growing our own veg again- so that coupled with the shopping I intend to do at the farmers market would be great.
I will never forget though our first attempt at growing our own brussel sprout. The girls were horrified to find out that what they though were cabbages were actually brussel sprouts and this is the reaction to the finding...

Then this happened....literally overnight...

I was mad, the girls found it so so funny....didnt hear the end of it for months!! Oh well if we are able to rent another patch of land , we will definitely be growing some of these as they were a hit on our dining table...

Back to Reality...

So today was the last day of our festive holidays and it is back to work for me and to school for the girls now as normal, oh and I go back to class too in 2 days, that said, the morning chaos in our household commences tomorrow morning - not only that, but so does the early morning ice-scratching of the truck windscreen ....aaarrrrrggggg!!

The snow around us is beginning to slowly thaw...but it is still bitterly cold outside, I went out to see how my garden was doing and empty out pot plants collecting water from the thawing ice and snow and guess what I found...

...a single snow drop! I know that area has 100's of them, but she is just a single lady for now! I cannot wait for Spring...the girls did plant up some containers with some spring bulbs and I await my hyacinth which in actual fact have started to push out from under the soil and peek through the snow.

Well I guess I shall wind down now and make use of the calm before the storm...!!

Whats in for 2011...?

It is always interesting to look at the "Whats In" and "Whats Out" articles...not that I am a religious follower of trends, but this maybe a trend I will have to at least once try...

Read article here..

So Burgundy Lips are so 2011....I am not a big lipstick wearer, I tend to wear more tinted lip glosses...so the shopping begins now for a nice Burgundy Lipstick..!

Pink Saturday #1 and New Years Resolutions!

Linking up to ....Pink Saturday

Happy New Year..! Well last night I managed to keep 2 of my girls awake to see in the new year and today we have just spend a nice lazy day in our pj's kinda watching TV, talking and laying around dont nothing!! This year I dont really have a New Years Resolution this year but I do have a list of things I would like to try and do - all in different areas of my life, like work, school, my well-being , beauty, kids and things I would like to acquire. So-o Aaliayh and I (my 15 year old) have been working together on our Beauty Resolutions for 2011....and I vow to try and ....

• Wear Sunscreen...mmm okay, see now I was born on the African continent and lived under the blazing Southern African sun for 29 years and have never, ever used sunscreen, so I have no idea where, what or how, but I soon will!
• Update my skin care regime...to include taking care of my neck and not just my face, I kinda always tend to moisturise and exfoliate just my face, my neck is crying out for so TLC too!
• Be kind to my hair...I vow to use less direct heat on my hair and wear more protective styles alongside weekly hot oil treatments.
• Drink more water...plain good old water, not flavoured water, not vitamin water and not diet water either - just plain, pure water .
• Floss my teeth...a little more than I already do! I of all people should know this, a typically day at work for me involves giving oral hygiene instructions to patients so now howz about me practising what I preach!!
• Green my beauty products...where possible, kinda like using virgin coconut oil in my hair and as a body moisturiser, using sugar as a body exfoliate. Though I do already occasionally shop at The Body Shop and Lush I want to buy more products that support Fair Trade and Third World populations.
• Shop for fruit and vegetables at Farmers Markets...being the daughter of a farmer I love, love fresh fruit and vegetable and dont really care if my leeks have a lil sand in them when I buy them or the lettuce has a few brown spots - organic is what I am trying to say -more skin friendly food which contain alot of anti-oxidants which I am told are good for slowing down aging and repair damaged cells -  "organic" labeled stuff in the food stores is just too expensive, so Farmers Market here I come!
• Use Positive Talk and Mantras...trying to banish all negative talk and thoughts. Positive thoughts=healthy soul=healthy body=BEAUTY
• Loose some weight...my thinking is if I try and keep on track with my eating healthier and drinking more water I may loose some weight without much effort!!

So here to a wealth of health and beauty in 2011..!