Gypsy

Good on you for putting yourself out there! It IS a hit and miss game, this online dating! I experienced all that you’re talking about when I went on RSVP.com years ago – I even gave up for a while and hid my profile for about 12 months until a friend talked me into going back on.

In the end, I was extremely honest in the very first line of my profile (which I’m told is the most that 80% of men will read!) and literally said – I have brains, boobs and a butt and if you can’t handle any one these things, please move on…

And now, I’m married to one of the men who emailed me because of that very line!

But everyone will have different experiences, I know… the thing is, not to let the perceived opinions of men you don’t know affect how you see yourself – you KNOW you are fun, smart and beautiful, and whether it’s through online dating or a chance meeting in a supermarket or whatever, I know you will find a man who sees that too xx 2 months ago

A friend of mine gave me this dress years ago and I’ve never worn it… until this weekend.

Desperate to find something new to wear in my wardrobe I rediscovered this and tried it on… I NEVER would have thought a wrap dress in a small print would suit my figure – but I think it does! I got compliments on it all day… so I’m taking that as ‘it looks fine!’

Jeff took this photo, and as he’s a bit taller than me, it’s a fab angle! I don’t actually look that thin really (or my head really that big!!!) but it IS quite a slimming dress and I love how it shows my curves… (never thought I’d ever say that!)

I’m also wearing a new necklace and earrings that I love! The big circle on the necklace is engraved with “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” – and I have decided to take that to heart and live by it! 7 months ago

Despite what I believed… we got a loan! We can afford a mortgage, but we didn’t have a 10% deposit… who knew we could still get a loan???

Anyhoo… it’s all happened so fast. First the loan approval, and then we realised we could afford to build and not just buy… and now, we have a block of land, house plans picked out and have paid a deposit on the building contract! EXCITED!

It will be a good 12 months before it’s finished, but I don’t care – I NEVER thought I would own a house let alone build one!

The style we chose has 3 bedrooms, an ensuite bathroom and a main bathroom, a large open plan kitchen, dining, lounge area which we love, walk in robe in our bedroom, built in robes in the spare rooms, a proper pantry cupboard, ducted reverse cycle air conditioning (important in Australia!) an automatic roller door on the carport (no more getting out in the rain or heat to struggle with the heavy roller door!) I LOVE it!

Stay tuned for updates!! :-) 7 months ago

was awesome! Everything went perfectly and it was a fun, relaxing event full of love and laughter. It was also almost 18 months ago, so probably time I took down this goal!!! 7 months ago

Can’t believe I have taken SOOOOO many months to do this

But it’s done… hurrah! I’m mortified and more than a little embarrassed to admit that I got rid of 7 (yes SEVEN) garbage bags full of out of date food! Disgraceful! I can’t believe we wasted so much food!

So now it’s gone, the cupboards have been cleared out and cleaned and now only contain food that we will use… and because we have more room, all the crap on the benches fit in the cupboards now, so the kitchen looks much cleaner and “quieter”.

I haven’t taken photos yet, and frankly, I probably wont (or it will take me forever to upload them!) but it’s done… IT’S DONE!! :-) 7 months ago

{{{M}}}

:-D xxx 8 months ago

Utterly necessary in a relationship! I sometimes think J and I are far too silly and childish… but then I get distracted by singing stupid songs, being tickled mercilessly or an oh-so-immature fart joke and I forget to worry about not being serious and adult-like!!

I am sorry to hear about you and HA (I figured something was happening even though I don’t come over to 43T much anymore) but I’m glad you’re doing okay and have found GG (Good Guy??!!) to reignite your sense of fun and play!

I really wish I was closer to you (like, in the same country!) so I could bring food over (to save your grocery bill) and sit by candle light (to save power!) and be silly together! (to save your sanity??)

{{{Abs}}} 8 months ago

You’re such a sweetheart! xx 12 months ago

{{{HippieChick}}}

My thoughts are with you… 12 months ago

(((Crunchy))) 13 months ago

I forgot how much I love cooking. Just simple, easy, necessary cooking. I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking about cooking dinner as a chore, but recently we’ve had a staffing change at work and one of our staff is in the office with us more as I’m teaching her how to do some of my job so I can take on some of the Director’s tasks.

“What does that have to do with cooking?” I hear you ask??? Well, M (the staff member now sharing office space with me) is completely obsessed with food! (In a good way!) Every day before we leave she turns to me, eyes sparkling, literally rubbing her hands together gleefully, and asks, “So, what are you having for dinner?” She talks about new recipes, food she’s found at the market, different meals she’s tried out at restaurants…she is just so passionate about it that she’s sweeping me up in her enthusiasm. Ironically, several months ago she had surgery to remove part of her stomach to assist her to lose weight – so she can only eat about a half of a cup full of anything at any one time… so she cooks all of this amazing food for her partner (who cant eat it all) and then she brings the leftovers to staff at work! She’s lost about 40kgs (around 85-90 pounds I think that is?) but she certainly hasn’t lost her passion for food!

Anyhow, I’ve been revamping my usual go-to dinners and it feels really great to once again look forward to cooking! Jeff and I went shopping Monday night and got enough food for the week (he’s a HUGELY fussy eater, and I’m not so keen I want to cook 2 separate meals… so it has to be “Jeff friendly” food!)

Tuesday night we had scotch fillet steak (which was on special… I believe that steak can be quite expensive in other countries, not so much here is Australia!) with a small amount of mashed potato and a delicious mix of red capsicum, yellow capsicum, red onion, green beans and grated carrot all cooked with a tiny bit of olive oil in a frying pan and some garlic seasoning and black pepper. We also had some peas and corn (the frozen kind – nothing too spesh!) That was a GOOD meal… yummy, fairly healthy (the steak was fairly lean… not completely, but damn it was tasty!) and really easy!

Tonight was less healthy but just as good! I cooked a lamb roast (a garlic and herb one that comes all prepared and ready to just pop into the oven – I’m a short cut cook!) and we had it with potato and more peas and corn. The potatoes were from the frozen department… they were like balls of mashed potato that had been crumbed or something and you cook them in the oven. I didn’t add any oil or anything, but I decided not to look at the nutrition panel on the box! I’m sure they weren’t very good for us – but Jeff wanted to try them and seeing as it was a holiday day and we both had a day off, I treated him! Haha! Back to “real” veggies tomorrow night!

So, nourishing my body with good food is another way I can nourish my soul! 13 months ago

I’ve been ducking in and out… haven’t been feeling moved to write much lately, but I think the tide is slowly turning!

SO excited to hear about your move!

AND...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!13 months ago

I always put WAY too much in and then it just never seems to be all light and fluffy. I mean, it comes out edible, but not how other people seem to be able to cook it! I’ve finally (after all these years) managed to get through my skull that 1 cup of uncooked rice will turn into 3 cups once it’s cooked!

A tip I learned from my mum (I think it was her!) for boiling eggs is that your egg should be room temperature before you put it in the boiling water. If you can’t do that – start with cold water and put the egg in straight away, letting it warm up with the water… then if you like soft boiled, wait til it comes to the boil and leave it in for 3 minutes. And like nicolasc wrote – once it’s cooked, cover with cold water right away to cool and stop it cooking more (otherwise your soft boiled egg will turn out hard boiled!) 13 months ago

in our “Kitchen Garden”! I admit, I had never heard about it until someone suggested it for us to grow.

Our garden is fabulous at work – we have transformed the entire front yard of our Children’s Centre into a beautiful, interactive, child friendly garden that supplies us with loads of produce that the cook uses in her yummy lunches!

We were told in the beginning that our soil had too much clay in it for anything much to grow… in which case, we have proven without a doubt that with enough love and attention – you can grow ANYTHING!!

In the last 3 years we’ve grown potatoes, watermelons, broccoli, carrots (including purple ones!) strawberries, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce, cucumbers, parsley, chives, rosemary, cauliflower, silverbeet, spinach, rainbow chard, and several other herbs and flowers (and probably more veg too, I can’t remember!) The children love it – and they eat all kinds of things that they never would at home because they’ve planted, tended and harvested it all themselves!

Anyhoo – I’m rambling! My point was… rainbow chard is cool!!

^{The photo was taken back in 2009 when it was still new and ‘young’! The children love the seating area in the middle there!}13 months ago

Wishing you an amazingly fabulous, magical birthday full of love, joy, energy and fun! :-)

I have tried to post a cool birthday cake picture… but for some reason I can’t! I will try again later!! xx Ooh! It worked!!13 months ago

So when are you moving? :-)

Sounds exciting! 13 months ago

but this is what I created while I was with the children at work (back in March on Harmony Day)

I really find this kind of art like meditation – so relaxing. I feel the same as when I write poetry when I do this.

Must do it more often! 13 months ago

Bit late, but yay us! On April 16th we celebrated our first wedding anniversary! That went QUICK!

We went away for the weekend to a gorgeous little B&B and relaxed, soaked in the spa, went out for lunch and made love all weekend – bliss!

April 14 marked 6 years together… that just doesn’t seem long enough. I can’t imagine my life without Jeff… seriously – I can only vaguely remember what it was like before he was around. I kinda feel like I’ve known him forever, yet at the same time our relationship is as fresh and fun as it was in that first year. Actually, it’s better than the first year!

I know how lucky I am. I am fully aware that many people don’t have the kind of relationship that I have with Jeff. Don’t get me wrong – to other people, it’s nothing special… but to me, it’s perfect! We laugh all the time, have fun, never argue (I’m serious – we discuss things, but it never gets all that heated – one of us can always see that it’s more important to the other and will compromise) and something small but oh-so important… I still get butterflies when I hear his car in the drive way. Six years after our first date, he still gives me butterflies. THAT, I have decided, is true love!

I just need to say, that lots of people over the years have commented that if couples don’t argue, their relationship isn’t “real” or passionate or they just don’t care. And for a long time that concerned me. But I’ve finally come to realise that every relationship is as different as the people IN it. Jeff and I are just not ‘drama’ people. I have many friends who LOVE drama in their lives – it makes them feel alive, special… I don’t know… valuable and justified? And I’m not saying that’s wrong. Whatever works for every individual. But for ME, I love my life to be uneventful and full of fun. And lucky for me, I’ve found someone who values the same things… and I think that’s really exciting! 13 months ago

I was talked in to buying this dress by my beautiful husband – please excuse the dodgy photo, bad angle, bad hair and what I believe is probably a fingerprint on the camera phone! Haha!

It was expensive… WAYYY more expensive than I would usually spend… but DAMN it makes me feel good! Even like this – just to try it on after a day out without all the hair and makeup and jewellery that usually helps me feel goddess-like! The colour is actually a bit deeper than what it looks in this pic, and the to material has a really luxurious weight to it that just feels so decadent and wonderful! I will wear a little cardi/ jacket to cover my dimply fat arms – but I think it will still look good! (Hope so anyway! Probably should have tried it on to see!)

Anyhoo – I ended up buying this and a black lacy tunic top (again at Jeff’s insistence – bless him!) from City Chic… which is usually not a shop I find clothes that I like and fit me.. so happy with that! 13 months ago

Very inspiring! 15 months ago

We used all sorts of stuff – charcoal, graphite, oil pastels, wax crayon, ink wash, a kind of paste (which I have completely forgotten the name of!) – which is the blue-green parts of the first two pics… it makes it a 3D textured area (I just used a blue pastel over the top when it dried and then charcoal over that)

It was really interesting – to start with we were given charcoal and then told to make as close to one hundred marks on our page in 2 minutes! Then we were asked to make angry lines, dancing lines, joyful lines etc… which was all a bit of a ‘warm up’. We went out onto the street and got texture rubbings on thin paper and baking paper with charcoal and graphite of stone walls, leaves, ornate door knobs – anything we liked the look of! It was a great introduction and was planned to make us all just let go of whatever pre-conception we had of what “Art” was meant to look like and just focus on patterns and lines and shading and things that pleased our eye!

Okay – gushing a bit now… clearly I enjoyed it and hope to do more!!! 15 months ago