Life, Stuff & FAQ

Thanks Alex, getting out in the fresh air is a big thing in my life…I love walking too.

There is no secret to doing it all I don’t think, at least no-one has told me!  The first thing is that I don’t do it all…there are soooo many things I just don’t have time for…..And I certainly don’t have a housekeeper…in fact I have never had any help since I had Honeymoon Baby…you know what, I just put my head down and got on with it, so I guess that’s my secret…

I have a few routines that keep it sane here…first of all I always have dinner ready or done in my mind…this is crucial to me…if that isn’t done I am one cranky mummy from hell and I have learnt the hard way…next I do everything the night before…so from about 5 til about 7 I am doing chores…in between runs to sport…whoever’s home has to help…in this time uniforms are ironed, laundry sorted, lunches packed etc…this is the time I do a general tidy up, hoover and get everything put back together ready for the next day…

and no I don’t publicly put up my stats etc…but it’s not hard to find out if you look on one of those web info companies

hmmm, if I am really really honest, in the early days of this blog I simply wasn’t interested in blogging about my kiddos…that’s the truth…I wanted to blog for me…and mostly that was about vintage furniture and painting things…and plus I am not a big fan of mummy blogs…I know everyone is not the same as me on this but for me parenting is not something I want to publish on the internet…

I know cute kids’ photos on blogs get readers and traffic and all that stuff, but it’s just not an avenue I have felt that I want to go down…if and when any of my kiddos have a burning desire to be blogged about I might consider it…if not they can wait until they are old enough to make the decision whether or not to share themselves with the world via technology…

on the sport thing….. of course I know that is a big achievement…. and I am more proud than anyone could ever imagine but  I prefer to  keep that very much to myself…….and yep we have a child competing at National level in sport..but just because they can seriously whip a few butts on the sporting field doesn’t mean I wanna blog about it :-)

Tricia says:

Sarah,
Would you also mind sharing where you have found your favorite loose and fitting shirts:)
THANKS! It makes sense to me!
~Meg

Hi Meg I got the shirts I think you are talking about in Paper Scissors and were super cheap…I bought them in grey, navy blue and marl stripe…they are so comfortable!  I buy them all over though and keep my eye open…it’s the fit I look for…not the label ;-)….saying that Country Road has some good designs…if you don’t mind paying obnoxious prices for a t-shirt made in the same factory as all the other stuff at the mall…

you mean the putty blog print one I believe….I got the tablecloth while I was on holiday in Noosa, unfortunately I do not know the name of the shop but I am trying to find out Meleia…

Giulia, a lot of things can be planted here in Sydney in Winter because of the climate…I just follow the back of the packets and the labels..there is a little map/chart that specifies whether or not things can be planted at specific times of the year in different parts of the country…and most things I pick up can be planted in Sydney in the Winter…

Hi Julie   The table is thrifted and so are the chairs…they are just a jumble of vintage ones that I have found and painted white.  The floor is painted with wood paint for floors yes…it has been various shades of grey…this one I think is the one where I took in a pebble from the beach and they matched it….the deck is quite a high traffic area for us…so this has been re-painted a few times now…

Heather, we have been together for about 18 years…phew!  Thanks, I know what you mean about the handmade perfect parenting blogs…I am glad you like it here…basically I just blog what I love…and it seems quite a few people like it too!

Kat, I do remember those days very very fondly…I know everyone tells you this, but cherish them….it won’t be long ’til they are hairy teenagers lol….I miss my cute little fair-haired toddlers…:-)

they are not!   I’d do it for free anyway lol!  …love this lucky land

(via email) Hi Sarah,

Just been reading the Saturday Club (on a Sunday!) and it got me thinking about exercise and body image in relation to your post.

You have mentioned briefly before about how you like to walk/jog and also about doing squats, so I was wondering what your exercise routine is please?

I have four little ones aged 9, 6, 4 and 2 and am still trying to shift the extra few kilo’s from #4 by doing aqua aerobics and Zumba, which is helping, but a slow process. (Could it be the baking and eating of said baking that I do for lunch boxes is not helping?!)

Anyway you look like you are in pretty good shape after three children, so I would love to know your routine for exercise and also are you strict diet wise? (ie what do you eat for snacks etc?)

My theory is that life is too short to not eat cake, but perhaps I need to look at my snacks.

Loved this week’s Sat Club as I think most of us as women need to do more of the self love thing and pass it onto our daughters.

Kat :)

I am answering this on here because I have had this question quite a few times!

Firstly I love to eat treats,while I am not huge on cake, I love other naughty things and because of my wine allergy I love a beer which is not good for the waistline!….hence I exercise, however the main reason I exercise is for my brain not my body…I find exercising clears my mind, helps me sleep and keeps me sane!

I try to get out at least two mornings a week for a Power Walk/run…this means that I walk….fast…not stroll…and within that I break into a run every now and then…I am so not a runner though…but I do like to get out of breath…

after that I normally end up on a head overlooking the sea, on the rocks, or just on the sand on the beach and I do a series of stretches…I love my stretches…especially as I am getting older….I kinda developed my own routine after years in England at various gyms/health clubs…here I won’t even contemplate exercising indoors…not with this beautiful scenery at every turn and the climate…after the stretches I do squats…the ’350′ I talk about includes small movement squats…so technically I am not doing full on squats 350 times…I think I probably do about just under half of that as full on squats…saying that though at the moment I am not as fit as usual and at those times I probably only manage about 200 including the small movement ones….

I also do various leg exercises after that and ‘push-ups’ against a tree or post or something…

then I carry on with the walk or run….this would take about an hour and a half

in addition to those ‘proper’ sessions I incorporate walking in my day-to-day life a lot…I think that is what makes the difference to fitness and keeping weight off for me…we normally go out for ocean walks or bush walks at the weekend…mostly this is on Sunday arvo…we will go out for a couple of hours at least, sometimes we take a bbq/picnic too…but often I will put the dinner on before we go out so we come home to that….this is one of the best parts of my life…I love walking

and in the week if I am doing the soccer/band/swimming drop off I will always walk then too…not sit in the car or sit on the side…even if it just a stroll in the clothes I am wearing and not a full on walking/exercise session…I often use the parking further away trick too…to force me to walk more…

on diet…

well, I try to eat with health in mind and we never eat processed junk…the odd oven fries/freezer convenience stuff if I am rushing or lazy or both…I like to cook home meals from natural real ingredients…so our food isn’t full of hidden fat etc so I guess that keeps my diet fairly good…

I try to eat well at lunch…this is usually a salad like the one above…I like live shoots and natural cheeses, I love and eat a lot of cheese…especially goat’s cheese…I try to buy it handmade from local cheese-makers..this one is from a farm in the Hawkesbury foothills…buying it this way is not the cheapest way for sure…

I also make a lot of soup…the lefotvers for lunch…this is really quick and easy and gets some veggie intake in..I do this because basically otherwise I am lazy at lunchtime and if there is nothing easy to make  I go without or worse eat things I shouldn’t if they are in the house…

I also love eggs and so does little Mr BC…we eat lots and I virtually lived off of fried egg sandwiches when I was pregnant with number 3 and that habit never really went away…yeah yeah I know there’s a bit of fat in that…it hasn’t killed me…yet….

I get these from the farmer too…I have written on here how my dream would be to have a few chicken in the garden…Mr BC is not so keen…he reckons my dream of flitting about in the garden with a basket over my arm would be quickly quelled by the rats, snakes, foxes and ahem mess around…yeah…

and if I can’t manage that I buy free range at the least and if they are not too expensive organic…I couldn’t think of anything worse than eating an egg from a battery farm…I am no precious-organic-hippy-lentil-non-bleached-cotton-wearing-foodie…..goodness there is nothing worse than some vegetarian pontificating about their food…. and with 5 of us here, all with hearty appetites it is not always realistic for me to buy organic/direct  but I do take little, easy and basic steps to think about what is going into our bodies…I try to balance the bad things with the ever-so-good…like this…

I also love love love love love bread…especially French bread, and I don’t mean French bread from Coles ;-)…I mean French bread from France…I miss that about being able to pop over to France or going to the French Farmer’s Markets in Kent…where the little Frenchies popped over the Channel with their wares…

I have to say that on the beaches there are only a few places where the bread is awesome…

this sourdough is one of them

and I try to throw in home-grown salad with all our meals…in my opinion definitely about a million times better from you, tastes wonderful, costs virtually nothing and even better takes like minimum effort to throw a few seeds in the earth…the most easy to grow is rocket and spinach…even I can manage those!

and

I do love a drink and up until recently that would have been a nice glass of wine with my supper…until my wine allergy hit me slap bang thank you mam and nowadays even a sniffle can start a reaction…not pretty to be throwing up in the gutter on the side of the road with one’s offspring in the car, and one’s husband holding one’s hair back after a quarter of a glass of red wine..

so now I drink other bits and pieces…I adore Pimms, especially if it’s sunny, you already know I like Limoncello and can put away a few Mojitos or two….also dig me some Campari…on the rocks…yum and a lil’ G & T after the sun goes down is pretty nice…

but mostly like a proper Aussie I like a good cold beer...I love the Australian ones, nothing worse than a designer beer snob in my opinion…but I have to say, the Italians do it oh-so-very well and a Peroni slips down mighty nicely thank-you-very-much…

and really all of the above plus the exercise is because I like the naughty stuff too and I think all that balances it out…I love croissants, pain au chocolat – and I have found an Australian one I like, macarons – can’t say the same about those I am afraid and the list changes regularly and goes on …

Dianah says:

Diannah, no I don’t use a tripod ever.  But I do own one…I think it is an SLK…it is easy to put up and down etc…I bought it because every single thing I read on photography said I should have one…but I hate it…so stilted and tight…I prefer to have my camera slung around my neck and in my hand moving with me…I don’t think I will ever love the tripod…but I think I might get it out again soon and try it… the pictures of me etc are mostly taken with the camera propped on a chair or whatever is around at the right kinda height…

I somehow missed this post…so sweet Sarah. Im guessing you all are maybe around 40? I know there are always things/trials that go on behind closed doors. Things are not always rosey, and challenges to meet. Being married for 31 years and with my hubs for 4 years before that. I must say I think you have to kind of sit back and reinvent your marriage every few years. Take a good look at what you have and together make new goals and new interests. You my girl are surely Blessed. Good health (I hope),a beautiful family (even the teenagers)and the Lucky Land !

Yep we are!  Thanks for the input, hmm I am wondering how I can re-invent lol!  I do feel very blessed and try to keep that in mind all the time…it’s the wonderful by-product of this blog and this land…looking for the good things…and making them priority..

Thanks for the compliment Alicia, yep I am a self-taught stylist and photographer and Ilove nothing better than moving things around, having a change about, decorating, dressing up tables and vignetting…I think of it as just doing something I enjoy, as I guess other people might think of their hobby of sewing or painting…

On IKEA yes I know there are a lot of bright out there things, but also there are a lot of basics and solids in there in terms of kitcheware, fabrics and home decoration if you can look past all the colours…I stear clear of most of the furniture though…I have been tempted in the past to be disappointed with its performance…

The floors we had sanded, filled and varnished in a high gloss – although I wanted them matt I thought that with the traffic in this place with 3 children gloss would soon matt down…it has, so I am pleased with the decision…if I could do it again I would possibly think about going for a darker stain but then again the colour they are now says Australian Cottage to me…

Ahhh the magically disappearing Beach Cottage shop!  I have emails all the time about this too, so here you go…the story of what happened..

I discovered with the shop that retail is not my first love…sure it was fun to pick out the things I love, style ‘em up and take photos of them and get the shop going…..but that is where the fun ended for me…

What I hadn’t realised was that my humble little shop, because of this blog, would sell out almost overnight…this put A LOT of work on me…the cottage and outside in the shed was stacked full of stock and I was madly packing and wrapping…I did so many runs to the post office with the back of my car rammed full of parcels, boxes and packets

…I did not enjoy this and nor did my family…trying to do this with all the other stuff at the time, particularly the sporting events..which were in FULL swing…made me re-evaluate exactly why I was doing this…sure I made a bundle of cash…but that ain’t everything to me…

So within a week or two I shut it down….with every intention of opening it up again once serious distribution channels were in place…meaning that I wasn’t doing the wrapping and sending basically – that the distribution/mailing would be done by someone else who was better equipped to do it well…

However the more I thought about it, the more I realised that actually buying stuff from wholesalers and retailing does not give me any kinda creative buzz whatsoever..I never set out here to enter the humdrum of retail…so what was the point??

…and I started to think that actually I would like to produce my own stuff if I was going to do it at all…and so that is in the pipeline, my own little Beach Cottage label :-)  …it may be a while and I may not ever get there, I already have a lot on my plate at this stage in life…but that’s the kinda tentative plan…

Now, it’s my turn!

Can I just say thank you so much for you guys on here…for the comments and the interaction, for the visits which continue to grow (!), for your sweetness and support….as this blog moves on and follows me in the different directions my life goes in (it’s not just about painting things white and doing makeovers anymore) I am pleased to see you still with me…

I dont’ know if you noticed but a while ago I made a decision about my blog…rather than to totally monetise it & try to beef up the traffic, stats, figures blah blah blah as I have seen a lot of other blogs do, I decided to step back and take it where I wanted it to go…to make it reflect the good things in my life that I wanted to be positive about and for it to document what interests me…that meant adding in recipes and my love of the outdoors and more of Australia…the things that I was doing in my life that make me happy and keep it all ticking along nicely….not just the cottage and vintage things and the white stuff…of course though I love all that at the same time!

I have to admit I was a bit concerned about going down this avenue with the blog but I felt that I had to stay true to me…because that was why I started it in the first place…for a little place in the internet for me…. and so I asked Mr BC what he thought…he said that I should go with my gut and just blog about my passions and what I enjoy, because, bottom line that’s what people enjoyed in the early days…and that’s why I loved doing it….

so at the time I also pulled the ads from my blog, deciding that I didn’t want that side of it at the moment and started to blog whatever I was doing and whatever took my fancy and I never looked at my stats…and with these changes I wondered if you guys would stick around …

and I am surprised and humbled that you did…that you are still interested, engaged, and want to follow me as I continue my journey with a new life on the other side of the world.

so thanks, lovelies, for that…I appreciate it…and even though now as my blog has grown I sometimes fail to get back to people and I miss answering questions, I don’t mean to…it’s just that I have to do the other life stuff first sometimes

Thank you and good night.