This month has been a doozy so I’d thought I’d take a moment to breathe and reflect. This week’s guest on Very Excellent Habits is my beautiful former co-host Kelly. In this episode we chat about all the things – what we’re doing, how we’re going, what cool things we’ve discovered. It’s just a lovely catch up so I thought I’d do a Meet Me at Mike’s Taking Stock to go with it. You can grab the template for this post there. And you can scroll to the bottom to listen to this weeks episode.
Making – Granny-Go-Round jumpers. I just finished my third one that I’m sending off to a mate. I adore this pattern. I’ve been knitting the collar and cuffs for a little bit of extra polish. I have a knitting for crocheters course in Crochet Coach – all the skills you need to make this jumper you can learn here. Every time I’m in lockdown I go hard on the crochet projects. I’m punching them out ATM. There’s also a cardigan pattern I’m keen to try.
Getting – Excited to be vaccinated. I’m in the next age bracket it will be made available to. Can’t wait!
Cooking – Chicken noodle soup and chocolate chunk cookies for a mate. Curried sausages are becoming a Sunday night staple. We’ve also been having a quinoa porridge thing happening. So wintery. So delicious.
Sipping – Tea. I’m basically alcohol-free these days because my partner doesn’t drink and I don’t drink alone and we’re back in lockdown so that kind of cancels that out. We have a lot of tea. I did order some wine from A Glass Of and it’s such a great idea. They send you 5 little individual serves of yummy wine. Sometimes I just want a single glass of nice wine and I don’t want to open a whole bottle and single serves of wine you buy at the bottle-o are often a bit dank. I made a decision not too long ago to not work with any alcohol brands in a gifting/paid capacity anymore because it just didn’t mesh well with me (especially after recording this episode of Very Excellent Habits) but I’m happy to recommend products I purchase and like especially if they promote safe consumption of alcohol. I ended a gifting partnership with The Hidden Sea and it broke my heart because the brand is so amazing but I will continue to purchase their wine and give them shout outs because they’re ace. On a personal level, I just can’t consciously accept compensation from alcohol brands anymore.
Reading – My Fake Rake for my Bannerwoman Book Club (it was terrible I hated it), The Secret Life of Bees for my other book club (liked it!), Jasper Jones (LOVED it) and just started Girl, Woman, Other and I adore it so far. I have a local mate who is into the same kind of books I am and we have an unofficial book club just the two of us. We read often and fast and so it’s nice to have someone to pace match with and provide a vetted reading list.
Thinking – About this hilarious argument. Anish Kapoor bought the IP to the world’s blackest paint and refused to let other people use it. So this other guy invented a blacker paint that everyone except Anish Kapoor is allowed to buy. Outstanding. For the record, I’m on the other guy’s side. I think purchasing and buying IP for the sole purpose of being a selfish prick is gross.
Remembering – What life was like when we could just travel anywhere we wanted to. Sigh!
Looking – Out the window and seeing rosellas all huddled up together in our big oak tree in the rain. I know it’s silly but I always feel sorry for birds when it rains. I’d build them a little shelter if I thought they’d use it. Would they? I don’t know. I don’t want to fix a projected problem. Maybe they like the rain? Maybe this is something I don’t need to worry about?
Listening – To Amy Winehouse. I went to down a weird Kelly Osbourne rabbit hole last week (for the record, I adore her!) and I forgot she was friends with Amy Winehouse. Far out her music is exceptional. If it’s been a while, pop on Back to Black. So good. I often wonder what Amy Winehouse would look like now. Her style was so iconic – would she have stuck with it? Or evolved into something else? It’s been ten years since her untimely death and it’s so very sad.
Wishing – For our gyms to open again. They’ve been closed all lockdown and it’s been raining so it’s been extra difficult to keep our movement up. I’ve been going for rainy walks every day but I’m super keen to get back to my weights and my lovely trainer and the group I train with it. I miss it terribly. Update: It looks like gyms are open again! Hurray!
Enjoying – Weekends at home with our girl. We’ve been painting, doing yoga, going for rainy walks and koala spotting. We’ve attempted watching a few movies with varying levels of success. It’s frustrating and tiring not being able to go anywhere but in the moment, these long days with our kid are actually quite special.
Appreciating – Our wonderful little local childcare centre. They’ve been tireless over the last year and it’s been a really difficult time for them. We’re so lucky to have them.
Wanting – Our new couch to get here! I hate ordering a new couch and having to wait months for it to arrive. On an adult level, I understand that couches take time to construct but I WANT IT NOW! Our old couch is about ten years and old and literally threadbare.
Eating – The same shit I always eat. I’m having a real sardines moment though. We’re also very into leftovers ATM because it’s cold and salads for lunch kind of suck on cold days. You know what doesn’t suck on cold days? Sardines on toast! Eat more sardines. You won’t regret it.
Finishing – Our Ethique Handwash. I WANTED to love this so much but it doesn’t work with our foam pump dispensers. We’ve been using watered-down Dr Bronner’s in foaming pumps for years and it was a perfect system and I had to ruin it. The Ethique concentrate is lovely but it gummed up our foam pump dispensers and now we have a very disappointing soap situation. I can’t wait to finish with it and go back to Bronners. Why am I always trying to fix things that aren’t broken? WHHHHHYYYYYY??????
Liking – Only being on social media on Wednesday. I ‘check’ Facebook on my desktop most mornings but the rest of time I’m social media free and it’s so ace, I can’t even tell you. Highly recommend. I’ve been a bit shit with it over lockdown but I reckon that’s acceptable. You need that little bit of connection and to see that other people are as outraged as you are over political incompetence.
Loving – This brand Osei-Duro. I don’t need anything clothing-wise ATM but I’ll definitely check them out for future clothing needs. They also have a rad barter system where you can email them and say you’ll swap them a haircut or some graphic design in exchange for their clothes. So cool.
Buying – These Dinosaur Designs earrings. I would never ordinarily just buy lux earrings like that but hear me out. So I’ve been chasing a childcare rebate that dates back to 2019. It’s taken like 70 plus hours to sort out, emails to the tip-off line, and phone calls to the ombudsman and some counselling from a lovely friend who works at Centrelink. It’s been an ongoing nightmare and the worst part is that it was a clerical error. It wasn’t even anything complicated or dodgy so why it took so long is baffling. I was halfway through a 2-hour phone call a year ago when I promised myself if I ever got this f*cking rebate, I could buy these earrings but I had to wait until the actual money hit my account. Well, it did last Monday and now these earrings are mine. In terms of labor, my hourly rate for my time on sorting this out was about $3.25 so I felt I deserved it. These earrings will serve as a daily reminder that persistence is key in pretty much everything.
Watching – Mare of Easttown. Brilliant. Dr Death. Loving it.
Hoping – I can get to our nearest ‘big’ town soon to get my eyebrows done get another round of laser hair removal. The lockdowns have made beauty treatments really difficult because they’re locked down for ages and then when they open you can’t get an appointment for months by which time they’re locked down again. I’m digging my Cara Delvigne brows but they could use a bit of a tidy-up. I mean look it’s a first world problem and I’m not seeing anyone anyway but I’m quite keen to get my smooth underarms back.
Wearing – My Everlane raincoat. Nearly every day I bloody love this thing.
Walking – I have a perfect 35-minute bushwalk literally on my doorstep and I do it every day rain hail or shine. Wearing the aforementioned Everlane raincoat on rainy days of course.
Following – Clementine Ford’s takedown of anti-vaxxers on her new Instagram account. I’m pro-vax (for the record) and encourage everyone to get vaccinated and I appreciate people like Clem who package reputable information about vaccines. Well done.
Noticing – My fingernails are really, really hard for the first time ever in my life. I’ve struggled with fingernail biting for my whole life (it’s gross I know) and I’ve suddenly stopped in the last few years because my nails are too hard to bite through. So weird. They got hard when I was pregnant with the kid and they just stayed hard. It’s bananas.
Saving – All my No Pong tins. I don’t know what for but they’re too cute to recycle.
Waiting – For my grocery delivery to arrive. It’s raining and our driveway is huge so I like to run out and grab the groceries to save the delivery person from having to make multiple trips. Update: my delivery person thanked me for wearing a mask and said not everyone does. Please, if you get a delivery to your house during lockdown wear a mask. It’s really important to protect essential workers right now. Far out.
Bookmarking – Ted Lasso. So many people have told me to watch it – including Kelly in this week’s episode – so it’s on the list.
Coveting – These shortalls from Everlane. It’s so cold where I live ATM I honestly can’t imagine that it’s ever warm around here but I could see these being a proper summer staple.
Feeling – Sad for my Victorian mates with June/July birthdays who had another birthday in lockdown. I don’t want to get into she said/he said/we’re sadder than you fight because lockdowns are tough for everyone and what is happening in Sydney is exhausting and awful. However, as a Victorian being in a lockdown that should have been preventable is really disappointing, especially considering how hard we worked last year.
Hearing – The kid talking at herself in the mirror. ‘Hi! Do you want to read books today???’ cracks me up.
So that’s what’s happening in our land ATM.
Here’s this week’s episode with the lovely Kelly. You can listen here or any podcast app.
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Last week’s episode comes with a Tidy House Checklist that will help you declutter in 15 days. You can get your hands on it by becoming Patreon here.
Have a very beautiful week!