Drowning out the noise

This is where I go when the world is caving in around me.
When everything is too hard...too heavy...too much.
Here there is nothing. Just me, my breath and the water.
This is where I go to find calm.

Where do you go?

Sweet treats and chicken feet

This little fella is sitting on my sewing table at the moment, looking every bit the happy shiny friend his brother in the picture looks. My Zoku (which I yearned for months ago) was a belated birthday gift from the loveliest of them all - Wabi and Miss Vodka. They also presented me with this pair of Victoria Mason earings:

Are they not the cutest things ever! And that's not all - Little G (known by other names, but none quite so Gangsta) presented me with facewash from The Body Shop - the exact one I had planned on purchasing sometime this week! My gal pals are the best gifters ever!
I was presented with the wonders while Yum Cha-ing it up in Old Brisbane Town - I even tried chicken feet (delicious once you get past the foot-like appearance)! Then we wandered a while and chatted some. A lovely afternoon after what seemed for all of us to be a pretty miserable week.
Thank you as always ladies, I am a very lucky, very happy girl becuase of youse guys ;0)

Got spoons?

My friend Wabi is amazing. Not just kind of amazing, or a little bit amazing, but absoulutely and incredibly amazing. She has, among other things, Crohn's Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis - that TWO autoimmune diseases.
Havign watched her suffer for a while now, I thought I had at least some idea of how hard it must be for her. And I did, but so very, very little. I was doing some research tonight and came across The Spoon Theory. As I read the theory I thought of her, going through each day, living with such a small amount of spoons, and I cried for her.
Wabi, you are so strong and so brave. If only I could, I'd share my spoons with you in a second.

Giving up

Yesterday I did something rediculous, something I haven't done since I was about fifteen - I decided to give up something for Lent. I haven't participated in Lent since I was a teen, because every single time I ever tried giving something up I lasted about a week, usually less. Also because by fifteen I was pretty disillusioned by the whole concept of giving something up for something I wasn't sure I believed in...and then I just kinda forgot the whole Lent thing existed.
Not this year. This year I'm doing Lent. Or at lease attempting to. Why? Because, aside from the fact that it's one of the few Christian traditions I honestly am compelled to acknowledge, it's also an excellent way of breaking bad habits - of which I have many. And so, after very little consideration and thought, I decided last night to give up one physical and one non-physical item for Lent.
My physical item is chocolate. Chocolate is the perfect thing for a lot of people to give up for Lent, but espcially for me because my love for it is so extreme. Chocolate sustains me. In a way it has become like a religion to me - when I'm happy I rejoice with it, when I'm sad I turn to in for solace, when I'm unsure I use it as a measure of my uncertainty (one block - mildly confused, two blocks - disheartened and weary, three blocks - serious depression and anxiety). chocolate is too much a part of my life, and too often consumed without thinking and without enjoying - something food should never become.
My non-physical item is excuses. I make far too many excuses on a daily basis - to myself, my family and my friends. Mostly they are little excuses like "sorry I was late, there was traffic", or "I can have chocolate, I'm sad". But little things are the kind that niggle and twinge, and grow ever-slowly into bigger and bigger things. So even the ever-so-little excuse - "I don't feel like swimming today, I have a headache" - become big problems - "I haven't been swimming in two weeks AND I ate way too much chocolate - no wonder I'm packing it on!". And there's nothing stupider than feeling bad about something you could have prevented purely by being a little less willing to make poor excuses for your own laziness.
So that's me for Lent. Now I've just got to figure out how to stick to it. Day one almost over and I'm already having chocolate withdrawels, but so far no excuses that weren't completely valid. Yay me!
Oh, and because I missed FebFast, all dollars normally spent on chocolate will be donated to a worthy charity at the end of Lent - with my chocolate habit they are going to be thanking the Lord all the way to Christmas that I did Lent!

Brogue my heart

It's no secret that I have a small pretty big exceptionally large shoe addiction. I don't hide it - it's pretty much impossible to hide 80 pairs of shoes for very long - but I have tried in recent times to curb my addiction and concentrate on buying just the ones I really love. The problem with this is it means that when my favourite shoes start to fall apart it becomes a catastrophe on two levels. Firstly (and you have to understand I'm not crazy, just in love) a small part of my heart breaks, and I spend days/weeks/months promising myself they'll definitely go in the bin after one last wear - even though by this stage there's usually copious holes, great big scuffs, or they're tearing my feet apart because the lining is in numerous sharp, pointy pieces. Secondly, I then have the gigantic task of finding a new pair that could adequately measure up to the last ones.
And so it is with the the two pairs of brogues I bought at the start of last year. You see, not only do I have an unntaural love for the brogue, these brogues were not simply shoes - they kind of became a part of me. Wherever I went this past year on my feet would be gold or black brogue beauty. I've worn them to the point that the bottoms are thinner than the finest of cottons. They are no longer wearable by a sensible person. Key word - sensible.
Which is why I've spent the last month searching desperately for the perfect pair of brogue-replacement brogues. The black ones are kind of covered - my new work shoes are somewhat brogue-like. But they're also a shade on the boring side, unlike these pretties, which I think even Wabi could warm to:

Top Shop MIOLA Brogues found here

Yes?
To be honest, I've always wanted a pair like this:

Jeffrey Campbell Brogue-pump, courtesy of Vintage Mint

Perfect heel-height, and such a pretty colour-combination.
But then tonight I found these:



MIKA Ladies Brogues from Mr Shoes

 And I'm seriously thinking about them - even if the shipping costs more than the shoes - because the colour is just so damn wonderful!
Am I crazy, or does everyone has an obsession like my shoe-insanity?