Sunday 31 May 2020

Thoughts of the week

1. My gym re-opens next Saturday and I couldn't be more excited.
I was so excited that I couldn't sleep Friday night because I kept on thinking about getting back to the gym.

2. I sound like a gym junkie. I really am not a gym junkie. But I do like going to the gym.

3. We're going to Perth this week. I'm so excited. It's been a long time since I went anywhere. 

4. Who's going to be watching Big Brother? I'm not. It hasn't even started and I'm over it. The constant advertising is annoying.

5. I can now officially say that we are no longer a FIFO family. This week Tiger told his boss that he won't be coming back. Yay! Seven years and one month of FIFO is over.


Friday 29 May 2020

FFS Friday - Fail

I've failed as a parent. 

Eljay needs seven fillings, one of them is a crown (is that the same as a filling? I have no idea.)

HTF did this happen? What did I do wrong? Clearly I've failed as a parent if I can't even look after my childs teeth.

He has a healthy diet, doesn't drink anything other than water, brushes his teeth twice a day and yet he's got tooth decay.

The dentist told me it's quite common here because there's no fluoride in the water. That didn't make me feel any better. 

The first dentist we saw when the kids were young told us they could brush their own teeth from when they were five.
The one we saw a few weeks ago said they could brush their own teeth when they're six.
The specialist dentist we saw last week told us that they can't brush their own teeth until they are ten or until they can tie a bow with their eyes closed. 
I'm not sure I can tie a bow with my eyes closed. (Update: I can tie a bow with my eyes closed).

So. Either way, I've failed as a parent. 
The specialist dentist told us that it's normal and there's nothing we've done wrong, but really, how can that be?
My poor little baby now has to go under anaesthetic to get his teeth fixed. FFS.

The only positive about this is that the boys are now super vigilant about brushing their teeth.

I've recently realised that not everyone lays in bed at night analysing their day, thinking of ways they could have improved and how they can be a better parent. I thought everyone did this, but apparently they don't.

Tiger has never even thought about the type of parent he wants to be and ways he can improve as a parent. WTF?

Considering how important it is, shouldn't we all be trying to do the best we can? 
Maybe I'm strange? Perhaps it's because I didn't have a great childhood so I don't know how to be a good parent. 
Maybe people who had great parents just copy the way their parents did things so they don't need to constantly analyse their parenting and identify ways to improve?

Or maybe I'm just weird.

Wednesday 27 May 2020

May update

Well what a month it's been. Another month of staying at home and not doing much at all.

Most things are still closed. Restaurants can have up to 20 people at one time, gyms are only open for group fitness. More stores are opening but a lot are still closed. 

We have had another quiet month. Being able to spend time with family has been nice, we've caught up with cousins, Dad, my bff and my Aunty and Uncle. I really enjoy the quality time.

Tiger and I have also decided where we want to go next. We've been tossing up between moving in to town and moving somewhere with more land. We've now decided we want to have space and trees around us so will move to a larger block sometime in the future. 

My ankle is getting there. I'm nearly done with physio and will see a chiro soon. The physio works on flexibility and strength, the chiro will work on functionality.

That's about all we've been up to.

Sunday 24 May 2020

Thoughts of the week

1. This week I've realised that not every parent lies in bed at night examining their day and making plans on how they can be a better parent next day.

2. We've found a tutor for Chai. It's expensive but we're really hoping it'll be worth it.

3. I contacted Lancome to ask if we'll be getting Juicy Tubes in Australia and they didn't know. Surely we will? It'd be so unfair if we didn't.

4. Winter has arrived with a vengance and I couldn't be happier about it.

5. After my rant a few weeks ago, Chai's attitude to learning has improved a lot. Thank goodness for that because I was done.


Friday 22 May 2020

FFS Friday - Shapes

All the commentary about Adele's weight loss really concern me. No-one knows why she lost weight, for all we know she could be seriously ill and people are saying she looks amazing.

I also don't like what it infers. Are they saying she wasn't beautiful before? She was. Beauty isn't a size thing, people of all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Our obsession with thinness is really worrying.

When my Crohn's was bad I lost so much weight that I was medically anorexic. I looked awful. I lost 13kg's in the space of a month, six of those kg's I lost in three days. It wasn't good.

I struggled to put weight back on. When I returned to work three months after my diagnosis I'd managed to put 6kg's back on and was severely underweight. On my first day back at work I walked in the door and the first person I saw complimented me on how amazing I looked (I didn't, I looked like death warmed up). She then went on to say that she wished she could get Crohn's disease so she could lose weight too. FFS.
As if that wasn't bad enough she also told me that she'd had a friend who'd died because of their Crohn's. 
What a lovely way to be welcomed back to work. FFS.

How sad is society when we'd wish a serious illness upon ourselves so that we can lose weight?

I feel like the commentary about Adele's weight is really dangerous. Unless she comes out and says that she deliberately lost weight, we really shouldn't be commenting on it and we definitely shouldn't be saying that she looks better now.

I'll say it again. Beauty is not dependant on size. People of all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Weight loss does not make someone more attractive. 

Our obsession with weight and body shape is so unhealthy.

Wednesday 20 May 2020

Bobbi Brown Crushed Oil Infused Lip Tint

Remember years ago when oil was the enemy and everything oil free was great? Now it's the opposite and oil is everywhere. Personally I've always been a fan of using oils, they're great for sensitive and dry skins. Around twenty years ago I used a Jurlique oil as a face cleanser which the Jurlique staff thought was crazy. Clearly I was a genius and before my time, haha. Now everyone else has caught up and oil's in everything, even lip gloss!

I'm a huge fan of Bobbi Brown lip products, especially the Crushed range. Every Crushed lip product I own is perfection. Knowing that, I had high hopes for the new Crushed Oil Infused Lip Tints and I wasn't disappointed. It's the perfect balm/gloss blend and I'm in love. 


I received four of the fourteen shades available. The colours I have are: 
Freestyle - Warm coral.
New Romantic - A mlbb cool toned pink.
Rock and Red - Deep, cool toned blue red.
Free Spirit - Warm, beige pink.


These glosses have lots of good points and one bad point. I'll start with the good. 

They're just beautiful. They have the feel of a lip balm with a gorgeous sheer glossy finish. The darker shades are more opaque than the lighter shades. Personally I prefer the lighter shades, they give a gorgeous, natural glossy finish.

The colour is opaque enough to show up on my lips but not so much that I have to be careful with application. I can apply the lighter shades without having to look in the mirror.

New Romantic is my favourite out of the four shades I tried. It's the perfect every day cool toned pink. I often wear mine in place of lip balm. It's fragrance free and lasts around three hours before I need to reapply. When it wears off my lips feel soft and hydrated.

Now for the one thing I don't like. The darker shades are very opaque, which really doesn't work well with a lip gloss as  they require careful application and can slip around a bit, which means I end up with colour where I don't want it.


At $40 for 6ml Oil Infused Lip Tints are a great price. The doe foot sponge applicator is soft and long enough that it applies the perfect amount of colour with one swipe. 


Have you tried the new Oil Infused Lip Tints? What's your favourite shade?

Note: These products were provided to me for review.

Sunday 17 May 2020

Thoughts of the week

1. There's still no word on when Juicy Tubes will return to Australia, rest assured as soon as I find out I'll let you know.

2. Has anyone else noticed how ridiculously expensive beauty products are getting? How can brands justify charging $75 or more for a lipstick?

3. It's slow cooker weather again and I couldn't be happier. If you have any great slow cooker recipes send them my way.

4. Krumbled Foods Beauty Bites are available at Coles now! If you haven't tried them, they're so good!

5. Restrictions are starting to ease in Western Australia. I'm so excited about being able to go to the library again.


Friday 15 May 2020

FFS Friday - Nice

Hello beautiful people. How are you all? I hope you've had a good week.

I've been totally unmotivated this week. I haven't blogged, I haven't wanted to home school, I haven't wanted to anything. Other than home schooling I haven't done much at all. 
I figure when I feel like I cbf that's a good time to take a rest and do a whole lot of nothing. When you think about it, what most of us call a whole lot of nothing is probably still a lot. 

For example. I say I've done nothing this week. My "nothing" includes five loads of washing, four days of home schooling, loading and unloading the dishwasher at least once a day, food shopping, getting a massage, taking the boys out to buy winter shoes, going to the physio, daily ankle rehab, preparing about two million meals for the boys etc.

The constant pressure to achieve and be productive is exhausting, unrealistic and just not fun. I am trying my best to ease the pressure and not worry about being productive. Taking that pressure off is a form of self care. We all need rest and it's okay to be unproductive. 

Those of you who've been here for a while might remember that I went on strike last year. Well, I'm still on strike. My ankle injury helped because I couldn't do anything, so I've just decided to stick with doing nothing and it's working well for me. It's been great for Tiger having to do everything and realising how much work goes into maintaining a home.  I'm not sure Tiger would agree that my strike is working well, but he doesn't know about it and I plan to keep it that way, haha.

I'm being nice and helping out with a little bit of housework every now and again. I'll do the washing occasionally, I make dinner once every few weeks, little things like that. I'm so helpful.

Now that the majority of the housework is being done by Tiger it's given me the chance to start doing other little jobs. I cleaned and decluttered the mess on top of our drawers in our bedroom and I've started decluttering all the mess on the kitchen benches. 

For years now our house has been a real mess. With Tiger working away and not doing any housework when he was home I just couldn't keep up with things. Tiger and the boys leave mess all over the house. For a while there I was running myself ragged trying to keep everything tidy, then I grabbed a brain and stopped trying. Life got easier after that. 

I really hate mess and clutter, but I learned to deal with it. Slowly getting rid of the mess is very satisfying. I love seeing clean, uncluttered surfaces. It might take me months but I'll get there and our house will finally be uncluttered and tidy. What a wonderful day that will be. 

Have a beautiful weekend.

Sunday 10 May 2020

Thoughts of the week

1. Lancome have re-released Juicy Tubes! They aren't available here yet but I really hope we get them soon!

2. Who shopped the Sephora sale? We bought our super green powder and that's it.

3. As of Tuesday I'm allowed to walk, without my ankle brace for 30 minutes. From yesterday (Saturday) I'm allowed to ride my bike for an hour. So my new routine is to walk one day and ride the next. Finally! It's been seven months since my injury and I'm so glad to be finally starting to get a little bit of normality back.

4. Does anyone else feel sad when they finish a lip balm they love? Just me? Okay then.

5. Louella, the owner of one of my favourite brands Kiss Ready, has just launched a monthly self care box that sounds amazing. It's only $30 a month and will contain one or two Kiss Ready products, items from other small, hand crafted businesses and an invitation to a private community of people who wish to make self care a priority. 
Founding members get the box for $30 per month, the regular price will be $50. You can sign up here.

Friday 8 May 2020

FFS Friday - Beautiful

Hello and welcome to my weekly whinge session. 

You know what really annoys me? Advertising trying to make us feel like shit.

Yesterday I saw an advert. It was a gorgeous picture of a newborn baby, the baby's mother and grandmother. 
Guess what the ad was for? 
Skin firming! FFS.

Now I don't know who the ad was targeted at, whether it was at the Mum or Grandmother but either way, to all you people trying to make us feel bad about our bodies, fuck off. Just fuck right off. 

We all have the right to feel comfortable in our own skin. It's bloody difficult when we're constantly bombarded with photoshopped images of fake perfection.

I saw a really interesting comment on Instagram last week. Amy from You Beauty said that the reason she likes beauty and skin care is because when clothes don't fit it's your fault. It's not the clothes, it's something wrong with you, however with beauty, if you put on a red lipstick and it looks crap it's the lipsticks fault.

It's a sad state of affairs when we've been so conditioned to hate ourselves that we think it's our fault when clothing doesn't suit us. 

Chai is at the age (9) where he's becoming interested in his appearance. He's fussy with his clothes and hair. He looks at celebrities (mainly singers) and will want his hair like theirs. He's also made a few comments about his body. 

That really, really worries me. So you know what I did this week? I showed the boys before and after photos of celebrities who'd been photoshopped and explained to them that the images they see in magazines and on tv aren't real and that's not what the person actually looks like. 
(They thought it was hilarious when I showed them the Justin Bieber undies ad where they'd made his penis bigger.)

That then lead into a long discussion about how advertising is designed to make us feel bad about ourselves so that we spend money on products to make us feel better. 

Then we went onto a discussion we have regularly, that all people are different, everyone looks different, likes different things, we're all different shapes and sizes and we're all perfect just the way we are.


I dream of living in a world where there's no body shaming, where none of us feel inadequate and none of us dislike our bodies.


If no-one has told you lately, you are beautiful exactly the way you are. 

Monday 4 May 2020

April Empties

It's empties time again. I'm quite pleased with my effort for April, I've got got a good selection of empties to show you. 

I'm determined to get through my ridiculous stash of sheet masks, so this month I've been making an effort to use one every second day. I'm slowly making a dent in the tub (yes, I have a tub full of sheet masks). Once the tub is emptied I'm putting it away and it will not be refilled. I'll then move onto finishing all the other face masks I've got. Eventually I'd like to have five or less, that seems like a reasonable number.

I'm also slowly working my way through my samples. I'd like to get to the point where I don't have a pile of them and I use them as I get them, rather than putting them away for when I travel. When I was single that method worked well as I travelled regularly, but now I don't go anywhere so that method no longer works. Plus, who knows how long it'll be until we're allowed to travel again.


Natio Rosewater Gentle Cream-Gel Face Cleanser
Who's had enough of seeing this in my empties? It's my holy grail cleanser, I've lost count of the number of tubes I've been through.I love the gorgeous scent and will always repurchase. 

Kiss Ready Baby Natural Relax Balm
I loved using this on the boys. I'd rub a little into their feet and on their chests every night before bed. It smells beautiful and helped them calm down at bed time. It'd make a beautiful body lotion, I'd use it! 

Andalou Renewal Cream
I haven't really formed an opinion on Renewal Cream. I've used a few tubes of it now and I'm not sure if my skin likes it or not. I suspect that I find it slightly irritating as my skin irritation went away when my tube ran out. It could have just been due to hayfever season though. 

The Physic Garden Sleep Balm
We've been all about sleep balms lately. Funny that. We've now run out of all our sleep balms and really miss them. This sleep balm has a great scent and was super soothing. I'll happily purchase it again.

It Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream
Here's another product that I'd happily repurchase if we had the spare funds. Whilst it doesn't perform miracles, Confidence in a Cream is a lovely hydrating moisturiser that my dry skin loved. 

Liloh Skincare Vitamin Smoothie Serum
Oh how I love this serum. I was sad to see the end of it. I'll definitely repurchase in the future (when we have an income again). It smells beautiful and made my skin feel very smooth and hydrated. 

Tatcha The Water Cream
Tatcha products are so beautiful, I'd love to try the whole range. The water cream is lovely but not rich enough for my dry skin. It would be ideal for someone with oily skin.

Sol de Janeiro Coco Cabana Cream
I'm not sure how I ended up with so many of these but I'm glad I did because it's love. The scent is heavenly, I'd use it for that reason alone. Coco Cabana is quickly absorbed and a pleasure to use. 

Lancome Gentle Softening Cleansing Fluid
Lancome make such beautiful products. When I was single and had more money I used their skin care exclusively, however now I mix it up. If you have the fund, this is a lovely cleansing milk. It's very gentle, doesn't irritate the eyes and removes all make-up. It's nearly as good as my all time favourite Natio cleanser. 

Kopari Charcoal Deodorant
Kopari deodorant is one of my all time favourites. This is the first time I've tried the charcoal version and it wasn't love. I found that it wasn't as effective as the regular one. In the future I'll stick to the regular coconut deodorant.

Natralus Ultra Hydration 
If you're after a super hydrating yet light moisturiser then check this out. I find it quite similar to Clinique's Moisture Surge. Even when my skin is reacting to everything I can still use Ultra Hydration. I don't find it hydrating enough to use on skin rashes, however it's a great face and body lotion.  


This photo makes me happy. I'm glad that I've got through so many masks. Most of them were okay but not amazing.

I'll definitely repurchase the Cremor Lab mask, it fit really well and made my skin glow. 
The Societe mask was a nightmare. It was so difficult to get out of the packet, I put holes through it before I'd even got it on my face. After five minutes trying to wrangle it onto my face I gave up and threw it in the bin. 

As for the rest, I won't repurchase. Sheet masks just aren't my thing.



Tarte Amazonian Clay foundation
After one use it's difficult to form an opinion on something, I think samples like these are only good for colour matching. I'd like to try a larger sample as this seemed nice on first impressions. 

Glow Recipe Banana Souffle Moisture Cream
If you want to slather your face with banana lollies this is the moisturiser for you. I have a full sized jar so can review it properly. It looks like custard, smells like bananas and feels very light. I can see this being my go to summer moisturiser. It's not hydrating enough for winter, however if you have oily skin it's worth a try. 

Goldfaden MD Dr's Scrub
I don't remember whether I liked this or not, which means that it wasn't amazing. For the price I expect it to be amazing. 

Goldfaden MD Vital Boost
If we were rich Vital Boost would be my moisturiser. It's lovely for dry skin, hydrating without being oily, my skin loved it. 

O and M Hydrate and Conquer Shampoo and Conditioner
O and M is another one of the products that I used when I was single and had spare funds. It's easily my favourite shampoo and conditioner. 

Sol de Janeiro Coco Cabana Cream
I've already talked about this one. 

Aesop Gentle Facial Cleansing Milk
Oh my goodness, how I loved this. It smells amazing. It was gentle, didn't irritate my eyes and smelled like heaven. 

Alpha-H Micro Cleanse Super Scrub 
Whilst I love the way powder scrubs make my skin feel, I can never get the water to powder ratio right. There has to be a solution but I'm yet to find it. When I figure it out I'll be set. I much prefer powder scrubs to grainy scrubs, they're gentler and yet more effective. 


These are all tosses. 

The Formula 10.0.6 Butter Up was a disappointment. I was hoping it'd be awesome but it's lumpy and very unpleasant to use.

The Lancome La Vie Est Belle perfume smells awful. 
Native deodorant has bicarb soda in it so irritated my pits.

Everything else was expired. It was all well loved and almost empty so I didn't mind tossing them. 

How did you do with your empties this month?Are you making an effort to finish anything?

Sunday 3 May 2020

Thoughts of the week

1. There's a new messenger for kids app that I've downloaded onto the boys computers. They love it! I have full control over who they have contact with and I can see everything they send and that's sent to them. It's been a brilliant way for them to keep in touch with friends and family and means they're not using my phone to video call people.

2. How great has it been seeing people again? I've mostly enjoyed staying at home but I have really, really missed being able to see people. Seeing my loved ones has been so good.

3.You know what I don't understand? Why magazines only show really expensive clothes. Surely they're out of most peoples price range, so why don't they show clothes that people can actually afford? Every time I see an outfit that I like in a magazine it's so expensive there's no way I could afford it.

4. Since Covid we've started checking in on an elderly friend every week. It's been quite lovely so I've decided that after this is over we'll continue to check in with her. I usually hesitate to visit people unannounced but she seems to enjoy it. It's on our way home from town so it's easy enough and well worth the effort. 

5. Today we went to buy a new knob for our oven. In Perth they're $16.50. We are two hours south of Perth. They wanted to charge us $25 and said that the difference was freight. FFS.
They get deliveries from Perth twice a day and I seriously doubt they'd be paying $8.50 postage per item. If the difference was a dollar or two I wouldn't mind, but $8.50 is ridiculous. Then businesses complain that we don't buy locally. How about you stop ripping us off, then we'll buy from you.

Friday 1 May 2020

FFS Friday - Alaska

Well. What a week it's been! I've struggled this week. There haven't been any specific issues, it's just been tough.

We're lucky that restrictions have been eased a little and we're now allowed to have gatherings of up to ten people. Our get togethers are usually less than that so it works well for us. We saw my bff on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, it was lovely. 

The weather is starting to cool down so we've had the fire going. I love winter. 

I'm still done with home schooling Chai. He makes it so awful, I just can't do it any more. Thursday I had a go at teaching him and was ready to cry after fifteen minutes.

Trying to deal with Centrelink is extremely frustrating. They've told us what our payments will be, however mine is $80 less than Tigers and I have no idea why. Perhaps it's the gender pay gap?
My online access doesn't work properly and I can't get through to them on the phone. I go through a long process, tell the computer that I need to talk to someone about my payment rate then it says "All our operators are busy, please call back later." 
So frustrating!!!!!


All in all, I have nothing to complain about. Minor, first world problems. We're safe, we have food and a house to live in so I really can't complain.


Does anyone else think that they'll be a hoarder after this is over? I think I'll make sure I always have plenty of rice, pasta, hand sanitiser, tissues, hand soap and toilet tissue. I've always just assumed that what I need will be readily available, it's quite scary realising that's not necessarily true.

What have you all been watching on Netflix? I just finished watching Win the Wilderness, it was really interesting. I want to move to Alaska now!