How incredible is this? Ben Folds was given a key and told to make a new song in 10 minutes. I love the humour in the approach as he sang, “These new spaces are all designed to be…flexible.” And as the song progresses in its growth all the musicians watching and just absorbing the idea. Isn’t this synchronicity?
I hope you are having a great day and find yourself creating something to enjoy today.
So what is a good meditator? The one who meditates.” – Allan Lokos
Just start! Even one minute of meditation is better than nothing. If even one minute seems like forever start slow, try counting to ten, next time to twenty, slowly increasing the time you spend in meditation. You are a good meditator the moment you start to meditate!
The Child and I are both really digging this song at the moment. I was even more into this song after seeing all these wonderful women featured in the video. I like the original (do you?) but THIS VERSION IS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD. Definitely on repeat.
I think it even makes a good accompaniment to some of my Pilates videos. (Do you?)
https://soundcloud.com/iamdudleyalexander/i-wanna-love-you-ft-kent-jones
Cue the Smudgy Mirror Series!
Wearing Mango Polka Dot Jumpsuit
My original title for this article was going to be, “How to Quickly Look Put Together, Even Expensive, but Without Feeling Really Awkward and Uncomfortable“.
Words of wisdom I told myself and my mother whilst shopping one day, “If you got a pair of pants in a print or colour in a particular fabric and there is a matching top GET IT.” Straight up this could sound like a recipe for basically buying ridiculous head to toe outfits that one will never wear because one looks like one is in one’s pyjamas but not the fabulous striking pyjama look a la Gucci or Pucci or Celine but more like I haven’t got my crap together today and just left my house in my pyjamas because I am telling myself they totally look like a throwback to when velour tracksuits were so IN. No, not what I mean. Also, someone please bring back velour tracksuits. Sometimes, you get a pair of pants and they are FABULOUS and you just cannot wait to wear them, until, oh no, the heck do I wear with them up top. Get the set. When you wear head to toe of one print, fabric, colour, it is nearly always flattering. But sometimes sets can end up looking bulky because there is just too much fabric or they break the body up. When you get a jumpsuit that is all one colour, fabric, print the eye travels easily down the line and you end up looking elongated and better yet, you look put together.
I haven’t always worn jumpsuits, they can look quite overally and also depending on how they’re made, SUCH A PAIN to go to the loo. And then I remember I found this really slinky jersey jumpsuit in a deep dark navy. Two years ago (?) I wore that to a friend’s wedding with a pale blush blazer, 5 months pregnant. Soooooo comfortable and I peed twice easily, nobody guessed I was pregnant, it was THAT FLATTERING. I think depending on how it is cut and put together, the fabric finds your natural waist and then falls gently over your curves, swishing over everything. Last month I was in Singapore and I saw a girl wearing a crisp white jumpsuit that had embroidery all over the torso, it looked AMAZING on her. So crisp, breezy and fresh! The legs were almost like culottes. After that is when I turned to my mum and said, “I think jumpsuits are the way to go.” Hours after that we came across this Mango jumpsuit and it was love at first sight.
I was in desperate need for some quality sleep when I took this photo (I’ll get it when the baby goes to college, I know, it’s fine, momlife blah blah, I get it!) and I hadn’t done my hair or makeup but I felt sooooooooo comfy and happy. If only cameras could capture FEELINGS. We were rushing out to dinner in 15 minutes and I knew exactly what I would wear. If I really wanted to I could slick on some red lipstick. But I was pretty much DONE. For less than $100 I’m really happy with my Mango jumpsuit. The buttons don’t button anything but the fabric has a beautiful crepe like texture that is super comfortable and has enough give to make it breastfeeding friendly. I’m having a really silly issue at the moment though because it is over in Sydney and I’m in Jakarta. I have lost count the number of times I’ve considered getting another one so I can wear it NOW. Hahaha ugh. Is that stupid? Yes, ok, I know.
I have a lot of love to give when it comes to finding an easy to wear outfit so I found a few more options to love but they had to meet my list of requirements.
These are my requirements:
Clockwise from top left:
By Free People in black or purple also comes in red
Some reviewers said that the strap came off really suddenly but the majority said nope nothing like that happened. I wonder if it might just be a matter of how you put it on?
This is EXPENSIVEEEEEE. Very Audrey Hepburn though! I think if you were doing a total overhaul of your closet and sticking to a very modest number of outfits only (for the rest of your life haha) then this is one to consider. If it’s good quality and you’ll wear it often for a long time, then I think it’s alright. (Do not quote me) A good quality bag, shoes, maybe a scarf and that’s it. Oh and the big black sunglasses, of course. Not convenient for breastfeeding but not everyone has that as a consideration! I’ve worn something similar recently but it was a two piece. I felt comfortable and elegant, really! I’m including this jumpsuit but we’ll probably just leave it as a look not buy for now.
By Eileen Fisher, a little more casual
You could still find ways to dress it up for evenings. A blazer or a jacket and smarter shoes would do the trick.
By Free People, this comes in a few colours
I like this creamy sand colour best.
What do you think of jumpsuits? Do you dig them?
I’m having a lovely morning and thought I would share! Baby is napping and I discovered this loungey bossa nova jazz music channel on Youtube. It is so upbeat but also relaxing at the same time. It’s so good to have a soundtrack for going around home getting things done. I’ve made a batch of porridge for our lunch and a great big pot of barley water for us to sip on throughout the day. And the dishes are done, hurray. A small thing but I love it when the kitchen sink is empty and gleaming. I remember the last time I made a batch of barley water and felt this productive, only, I forgot to scoop out the pearl barley afterwards and they soaked up all the water so there was about 10 ml of water and I swear, a KILO of barley hahaha. I felt so sheepish after offering barley water to B so loudly. Well fool me once and all that. Today I am prepared and now I can kick back and enjoy my hour or so of jazz.
My great pleasure during naptime for The Child is to watch videos on Youtube, in addition to quickly taking a shower, a stretch and also squeezing in a nap. I just came across this in my recommended page and the house in this video looks so organic and earthy.
I love the idea of a place designed around movement to encourage being active.
One of my dream goals is to have a space dedicated to Yoga and Pilates and Ballet. As the video progresses this house looks more like a jungle gym, fun!
I think my space would be a little more sparse but you know, different people find different things comforting. Who knows though? Perhaps by the time I came around to creating my space it would be just rainbow coloured everything!
In the meantime I’m happy with my little nooks of space here in our apartment. We got a carpet for our bedroom which I feel helps to mark out a space and then out in our living room we got rid of the very bulky (and sharp cornered!) coffee table. It was incredible how open the place felt after that table left. We lay down mats and wriggle around there as well. Ideally we’d have a little more greenery but I am very happy with my flowers.
The main thing is that you feel at ease wherever you have your movement practice and that you move a little everyday. I’m off now to quickly shower and then do a little stretching AND a nap. Going for the trilogy!
Coming off the back of the first day of my birthday weekend, read about the super low key day here.
I was so excited for my first birthday as a mother last year.
This is my second year as a mummy and the excitement hasn’t worn off at all. The bit when B told me how old I was turning was less exciting.
I had a semi sleep in (7:45am!) we woke up because I set the alarm thinking I would teach only to find I had a cancellation. All the more time for some anti ageing skincare so I applied a face mask.
Face masks are not my best look but it amuses The Child and I feel like I’m doing something nice for myself. I always yell out whenever I’m walking around to let B know I’m coming because truly it is a bit rough on the morale when you walk into the kitchen and your spouse leaps into the air with a start at the sight of you. So I like to make sure no one is surprised by my entrance.
I did a little yoga with TC. B then said he should do some yoga sometime and I asked him why not now? So the three of us did a little yoga together. That may be my favourite thing ever when my loves yoga with me.
We headed off for a fancy pants brunch and I wore my fancy pants. I had to unpop the button of my fancy pants because of the brunch by the end, more like the button gave up. TC obligingly helped cover this by demanding to be carried.
This message on the cake though, so sweet. But I asked B to take the rest of it into the office to share around or else I was going to do the old “cake for breakfast? great idea!“, “hey, how about another two slices of cake after lunch as a snack” etc for the next week or two days because sometimes I do things like that.
Keep the flowers and pass around the cake. Took my own advice for once, ahem.
Blouse Equipment
Trousers Emporio Armani, sold out but these are cute. Or these or these for something plainer but still a pretty colour. I have no issues with clashing prints (clearly) so I might have also chosen something like this pair in a check print. Wait, hold the phone OMG THESE or HELLO! Could have used this pair with the elasticated waistband, amirite.
Sandals Topshop, gone by now, but how about these , these or these.
Bag Celine, it’s called the vertical cabas.
(these are my own opinions and it would be nice if I got paid or something for my support or mention but no, I do not)
Oooh, if you know what that purple pom pom flower is called let me know! It’s just this round globe of tiny flowers. So so cute. TC was fascinated by it and kept reaching out to try to give it a squish every now and then for the TWO WEEKS that thing stayed blooming.
And that was the rest of my birthday weekend! Next year I will be wearing the elasticated pants because I will be that much wiser.
In the spirit of keeping the smoothie bowls coming, I chopped up loads of bananas, mango, papaya and red dragonfruit (even though I prefer the white flesh ones, the red ones give you this amazing pink colour so eh fine! and it is important to eat the rainbow so…. make mine a pink orange and yellow rainbow). Everything is sitting in my freezer ready to go into the blender with water and any supplements I feel like adding for an extra zing in my step. The Child keeps diving into these bowls and making squishy motions. It gets so messy but it’s a delicious mess and afterwards we just head to the bathtub and hose ourselves off, lol.
Sooooo refreshing.
That’s what I told myself as I put away baskets and baskets of folded laundry that had been piled up on and around our sofa. There was so much of it that when I facetimed my mum, my brother caught a glimpse of it and said he wanted to cry.
I hear you brother. Everytime I looked at that ever growing pile I was overwhelmed with where to start.
Well now I was overwhelmed and constantly reminded of my brother.
So I pulled it together after teaching today’s yoga class and started putting away pile after pile. I winced a little at how things were not quite colour coordinated and exactly as I wanted but today, they just needed to be away.
Now we have the rest of our weekend to relax on our sofa!
What have you been putting off? Is there any way you can get it done quickly?
“What do you want for your birthday?” B has been asking me this off and on for the last two months. So sweet and I wish I had something great to say other than
“Tea and some sleep and someone to please wash my hair for me”
“And I just want to go to yoga”
I used to just order a whole bunch of Asos clothes as my birthday treat. The thought of getting more clothes right now starts off as sounding like a lovely idea but then I balk at the knowledge that I’ll have to put them away in the closet neatly which I still am working on decluttering. Every Christmas we head back to Australia for the holidays and I do a crazy bunch of shopping for things I just can’t get for a reasonable price here in Indonesia. When it comes time to fly I get crazy worried about the excess baggage. After months of trying to declutter my wardrobe this year I decided that is it with the clothes shopping. I’ll only buy one or two really wonderful quality items, sorry, PIECES. More expensive but they will last and not date. I look at photos captioned “wardrobe goals” and think argh, no thank you. I get wardrobe envy at the sight of near empty closets so you get the idea of the turnaround I have had.
Not when it comes to baby clothes though. I may be having less of a turnaround and more of a redirecting haha. B sometimes asks me if I want to donate any of The Child (TC)’s old clothes and I look at him like, “who even are you?” But I tell you, if I could get my hands on some baby Dior I would be tempted to go minimalist too. Oatmeal and spinach stains on Dior though, hmmm, never mind. Also TC goes through two to three outfits every day. Sometimes after dinner we need to do another clothes change because TC decided to just grab dinner by the fistful and most of dinner becomes some sort of accessory all down the front. I’m flattered that my cooking was so enjoyable but I also feel like I could raise a few pigs with the dinner scraps that I am shaking into a pail at the end of every evening.
Incredible how our priorities keep changing as we grow up. I’m still growing up so who knows. Although I have been considering getting a necklace with TC’s name on it. Or a Pilates reformer. Preferably both. So there you go. But in the last few months I have just been prioritising experiences over anything else. In Sydney I was very pedantic about taking TC to the playground and Taronga Zoo etc. I went to the shopping centre but most of my time was spent in the children’s play area. After lunch, of course, and after I had picked up a cup of teh tarik, of course.
If we haven’t spoken about teh tarik before, it means pulled tea. I spent a huge chunk of my childhood growing up in Singapore and we would go for breakfast at these lovely shophouses. You could get all sorts of food such as chicken rice, fishball noodles or you could get kaya toast or roti pratha with some curry sauce. The roti pratha is my dad’s favourite. Anywhere you can find food like that there is a drink stall and you can get pulled tea or a really dark earthy coffee. The tea or coffee is poured back and forth at a great height until it gets really frothy and smooth. The person is practically standing on a ladder doing the pouring. Just before I became pregnant I stopped drinking coffee and now it’s been so long that I love the idea of coffee but my tastebuds have changed. It’s easy to get teh tarik everywhere in Singapore, a little less so here in Indonesia but still possible. Especially if you are determined. I’m extremely determined, driven by mostly that feeling of “I just want SOMETHING for a treat“. Can you still call something you get pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day, a treat?
Whatever.
I love tea and coffee house culture. It’s such a lovely feeling. We woke up extra early this morning (more like TC woke up extra early and decided to haul me out of bed) so I ordered some teh tarik with some roti pratha from a kopitiam my friend took me to. Whilst I waited, my dad was messaging me about ingredients for Chinese porridge and how to make it. We both bought the same rice cooker so he has been messaging me about that quite a bit since I am the only one in the family who reads manuals. (edit: he found his manual so he is reading it as well. We are the only two who read manuals in our family.)
I’m pretty easy going in restaurants but that cup of milky tea was half empty when it came. Soooooo just as well that I ordered two. It was a lovely start to my birthday weekend.
Now I just want some yoga and to wash my greasy hair.
What would you like for your birthday?
Listening to this as I type.
Our Zenaissance 