Friday Favourites: October 27

My Agapanthus are flowering for me this year! I’m so excited

I keep persevering with writing these posts, but then something always happens and I never get the thing to go live. I’m determined to get this post up!

So this is a Friday favourites/life lately post seeing as how it’s been absolute ages since I posted anything. It’s amazing how busy we’ve been. I feel like I’m chasing my tail a bit. Both work and my personal life have been manic and whenever I get some down time I feel like doing absolutely nothing but binge watching tv. Did they sneak an extra few months into this year while we weren’t looking? 2017 has been long and exhausting. I’m ready for holidays now!

In other news, last weekend was my birthday. I turned 31 and despite a horrid week leading up to the event, I had a lovely birthday and it set me up to be in a pretty awesome mood all week. I’ve managed to be productive and that pleases me immensely.

We didn’t do anything spectacular for my birthday. We went out for a very nice lunch, A babysat for a bit so I could go grocery shopping alone (#momlife) and I managed to squeeze in a brunch and shopping date with my bestie. All of which makes for a very happy Kierryn.

This weekend we’re off to see A’s folks in the Lowveld. We haven’t been to visit since August, its long overdue.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Chat soon! Xx

My lovely new brushes

Product of the week: A bought me this lovely set of oval makeup brushes and I am in love! I really like this kind of makeup brush for foundation especially. It does an excellent job of buffing it in and making it look seamless and it does so in no time at all. These come from Dischem I believe.

Purchase of the week: I managed to get my hands a few bits from the Clarins summer 2017 collection and it is so lovely. Everything from the aesthetic tot he actually product makes me all heart eye emoji. I treat myself to this every year and it sees me through until the next one. I got the bronzer and the eyeshadow palette. If you’re going to spoil your self to one thing make it the bronzer. You can use this for your eyes to complete a look. Its buttery, pigmented and just gorgeous. I’ve been using it every day since I got it and the motif is still perfect!

This is the perfect casual summer dress!

Project of the week: I made myself Allie Olsen’s Highlands Wrap Dress in this beautiful viscose. The fit is absolutely spot on; the fabric is so light and airy. This is the perfect dress for summer. I got the Fabric from Chamdor in Northriding for R50 a metre and the pattern was part of the Spring/Summer 17 collection on Indiesew but you can buy it stand alone as well. It was challenging in some parts so I would say suitable for a confident beginner onwards.

Fiona’s Fabric Store in Fernadale. My new happy place

Random: I haven’t bought any clothing since I started taking my sewing seriously. It’s a pretty epic feeling. I won’t lie, I’ve spent a bit on fabric. But I love every piece I’ve made and the satisfaction I get out of wearing my own garments and having someone compliment them is immense!

The epic burgers we had for my birthday lunch

Best moment: I can’t really decide on one. I’ve had a pretty good week altogether and I’m really grateful for that.

Ending off the week with pink G&T. I got this bottle from my friend for my birthday. it’s a local brand made in Tzaneen and its delicious

Looking forward to: Sleeping in late on the weekend and having some quality family time.

Adventures in Adult Braces: October 2017

So I had my latest torture session with my orthodontist and I am once again left with tender teeth and a seriously bummed out spirit.

I just want this damn thing to be over and done with now. I’m so over it. I had a random thought while my teeth were being yanked on. I think I’m really stupid for paying someone to cause me physical pain every six to eight weeks. This though was followed closely by: “If I ever have to go through this again I am just going to have all my teeth pulled and fake ones put in.”

On the whole, the feedback was positive. The way my back teeth interlock is now perfect. This was the whole reason for getting such an intensive treatment in the first place. so that’s good. My Dr has even seen a difference in my gumline and I can see from my before photos that my face has changed ever so slightly.

The bone of contention is that my orthodontist thinks that the way my top overlap my bottom teeth is off and he is working on creating more separation there. I’m not sure how he expects to get this right as this is the way my teeth have always been for as long as I can remember.

According to the doctor, I am on track to have the braces removed early next year. Then he said sounding ever so pleased with himself ‘March/Aprilish’. Now that is not early next year. That is a third of the way through next year. There is a huge difference. Early in the year in January, maybe February. early March at a push. But April? April is the second quarter. It also marks being in braces for two years! I was told this was an 18-month treatment. I am very annoyed.

This whole process has been very much like renovating a house. The construction company gives you the quote and a time frame then spends the entire time you’re building pushing the finish date further and further back. All the while you cannot see what they have done to justify this because whenever you do a site inspection nothing looks to have changed.

This month I also got these lovely, comfortable (#sarcasm) wires wrapped all around my top teeth – every. single. tooth. Yay for me. I also got a larger gauge wire for the bottom teeth and have to wear elastics day and night again. So over it.

A small spark of good news is that at least the bloody things are paid for now and I get to go back in November for more torture.

Willow’s Two year swim lessons anniversary

Willow and I recenlty celebrated our two year anniversary of swimming lessons at Little Fishes swimming school in Bryanston.

Every week I am blown away by her progress. It has been so much fun to watch her grow and develop, get more and more comfortable in the water and have a ball while doing it.

I am asked quite a lot why we started swimming lessons so early. The first thing that comes to mind is that I didn’t want her to be scared of the water. Living in South Africa, we spend most of the year around the pool. Our summers are long and hot, our winters are short and a lot of our social activities take place outside and near water. I wanted to make sure she was comfortable in the water and knew what to do in the event that she should fall in.

But during our journey, I have seen so many other added benefits.

It’s very social. She has some special friends at swimming lessons that she has been swimming with pretty much since the beginning. It is also social for me. When she was very young it was a great reason to get out of the house, see some people and have some interaction with other moms.

It is incredibly strengthening. Willow’s core is incredibly strong. Swimming is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of hard work. She can climb in and out of the pool all by herself now and that takes a lot of strength for a toddler. I think it helped a lot with her crawling, walking and coordination as well.

It tires her out. Swimming is the only structured outing we have every week, but in the beginning, we would do two lessons of swimming a week and one session at Clamber club. These activities were great for letting Willow play and get her energy out. I have always found that she slept really well on these days. I just make sure I balance it out with lots of rest and free play so that she’s not overscheduled.

Willow’s swimming teacher is incredibly happy with her progress and there is talk of graduating her to the next class in the next few months. It won’t be until she’s ready, what I love about the Aquatots program is that each skill is built upon the foundations they have been instilling since the beginning and moves at the child’s pace.

She holds her breath beautifully and is self-propelling through the water. What is really cool is that she does so in a forward motion with her head down and her body in a straight line. According to her teacher, this is actually really hard to teach kids.

Willow can jump into the water, spin around, come up to the surface and grab onto the wall. It’s one of her favourite games.

She is also experimenting with floating which freaked me out a little bit (She holds her breath and floats face down in the water for a few seconds). She is basically swimming; she just doesn’t have the strength needed to get from one side of the pool to the next.

At the moment we’re working on coordinating her arm and leg movements and refining her propulsion. This has been a lot for her to learn. She’s got the kicking part down pat but struggles to kick and use her arms at the same time.

I’m really proud of her progress and I love that she enjoys it. She is always asking to go swimming and to see Teacher Monica. She also can’t wait to get into her swimming costume and climb into the water each lesson.

I would absolutely do this again with my next child. It’s a vital skill to have and I have seen how much Willow has benefitted from it.

 

Life lately: September 2017

Wow, long time, no blog. In all honesty, I have been writing quite a few blog posts, but I wasn’t sure if people really wanted to read about me wittering on about stuff, so they never really made it onto the blog.

We’ve had a mixed bag this month. Some of it was really good, some of it was a lot harder than I anticipated. But I suppose that’s life, isn’t it?

We’ve been blessed with some great weather. Johannesburg bypassed spring and jumped straight into summer. Willow and I have already been in the pool a couple of times, the garden looks fantastic and we’ve had some rain! It makes my heart really happy.

Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to lately.

Willow seems to be getting a handle on the whole potty training thing (I always knock wood when I say that. I’m not a superstitious person, but I really don’t want to jinx this.) It was both an easy experience and really, really hard. I can’t quite explain the dynamic. We have struggled a bit with number 2s in the toilet – this situation was the cause of the majority of our accidents. But in the past few days, she seems to have turned a corner. She’s made a number 2 in the toilet a few times now and I think she’s learning to anticipate it now. I was speaking with her teacher the other day who says she is one of the children in her class who has clicked with potty training the best and they have paired her up with other children who need to see what to do. That makes me really proud of her.

She’s also doing incredibly well at swimming. Her swimming teacher wants to graduate her out of the Aquatots programme into ‘big’ swimming lessons in the New Year. So we’ve been put in the advanced class. She gets so excited about going under the water and can propel herself really well. She’s learning to coordinate her kicking and paddling with her arms and she’s working on learning the basics of diving. It’s all very exciting to watch.

I’ve been really getting into my sewing and have made a few garments I am incredibly proud of. I’m working towards building a completely handmade wardrobe. It’s a lot of fun to sew and so satisfying to wear something I worked hard to make. A lot of my blog posts that never got published have been about sewing. I’m pretty sure it would bore people to death, but it makes me happy.

I have also been struggling with the strange dizziness again. It leaves me feeling really sick of out of sorts (definitely not pregnant!). I’ve been doing a lot reading up on the symptoms. I know you shouldn’t but when I have an episode I can’t go to the doctor and then to go afterward and say, well, yesterday I was dizzy but now I just feel hung over and tired makes me feel really stupid.

I think they’re vestibular migraines. I get a lot of migraine symptoms: blurred vision, trouble with speech, sensitivity to light and smells on top of the dizziness, trouble walking/standing and nausea (It feels like I’m on a ship in a hurricane, being tossed about.) I often have to lie down or lean on the walls. The only thing I don’t get is the pain. I get a really uncomfortable pressure in my forehead and stiffness in my neck and shoulders. Then for days afterward I feel like I’ve done a few rounds in the boxing ring. They seem to be triggered by changing hormones and stress. I’ll definitely go to the doctor if they get worse.

So there’ you have it. I’m pretty excited October is here. It’s my birthday month and my favourite month of the year!