"Wow, I Looked Fantastic...."

Julianne Moore was featured in yesterday's London Sunday Times talking about movies, family, the ageing process & life....

She's an actor that I'm a big fan of & I think she is more beautiful than ever.
She always seems so at ease & appears to be a woman who has her priorities right & her life in order....

"....her final piece of advice for feeling comfortable in your skin, no matter what your age?

"Appreciate where you are. 

It was Nora Ephron who said that you'll hate yourself in a bikini now, but in 10 years you''ll look back and think, wow, I looked fantastic. 

When you're a kid, you're always wishing you were older, and when you're old, you're always wishing you were younger. 

The best thing is not to wish your life away at either end, because it's gone in a second.""

Isn't that so true?

I have a photo of me standing next to a swimming pool, I must be about 8 or 9 years old....
I'm suntanned, smiling & totally carefree....
I look like a string bean, all long limbs.

There's so much I love about that photo....
Out of all the photos of me when I was a child, this one stands out to me.
I can close my eyes & vremember
I look at the photo & think that just about everything in it is perfect....

no traces of teenage awkwardness, no gawkiness, no wanting to be different....
just a young girl who is looks completely happy.

I don't remember wishing I was prettier/cooler/taller/thinner when I was a teenager.

I was always a quiet & not very confident child....
I also had a mother who was extremely beautiful,
the kind of beauty that gives you a lifelong confidence & feeling of superiority.

It must be of some significance, and I say this without any feeling of self-pity whatsoever, that I don't ever remember her telling me that I was beautiful.
In fact she said just the opposite....

I'm not actually sure if she even realised that she was supposed to tell me that....
I think perhaps she was simply used to being the great beauty wherever she went, it was just the way it was.

Somehow though, I survived, it certainly wasn't the end of the world!!
My self-esteem somehow remained intact although it wasn't until my early 20s that I think my confidence truly arrived.

These days of course we all tell our children that they are the most beautiful creatures in the
Whole Wide World, I know that I do.

I could certainly be slimmer, my hair is still searching for its perfect style, my face is not line free, I don't like having my photograph taken & when I say my age out loud to myself or have to write it down, I wonder how that happened & where those years went....

but actually, I like me. I am comfortable with myself &
I am going to endeavour to remind myself of that more often.

  

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A New Blog Look & A Sponsor Offer

During the last week my blog has undergone a makeover....

a subtle one with just a few tweaks & changes.

Having seen Blog Milk templates on a couple of blogs that I read regularly, I contacted them about helping me out. 

They were brilliant & I could not be happier with their work, I would recommend them 100%.

You can purchase one of their templates and install it yourself or if you need assistance with that (like I did), they will install it for you.

I would recommend having the work done for you since sometimes it's hard to visualise the changes until you can see them actually on your own blog - and often there are additional features you might like to add. 

They worked on my new layout until they were certain I was 100% happy.

They were super-patient with me....their work was also done exceptionally quickly

I believe they are also very competitively priced.

See more of their work here ....

A creative agency is always one option if you are thinking big....
but I recommend looking at different blogs, seeing which ones appeal to your personal style & contacting the designer directly. 

For some time now I have carried advertising on my blog & over the last year or so my blog has evolved into a part-time job for me.

It enables me to balance working from home with full-time parenting.

It has given me some great opportunities & a chance to work with brands that I love & admire.

From this month I am creating some "sponsor" spaces on my blog.

I will work with only a select few at any one time....

with brands or people that I feel will be a great fit with my blog & my readers.

(The same criteria that I also apply to my advertisers too).

If you are interested in sponsoring my blog, please do get in touch.

I have a variety of opportunities available.

You may be a small business, an established brand or a blogger who would like to widen their audience.....I have experience in working with all three on my blog.

You can read more about me in the "About Me" at the top of my blog or feel free to drop me at email at sla212 at hotmail dot com.

My blog will always be my place where I write about all the things that are on my mind & in my heart. 

A place of inspiration (hopefully!) & positivity....

I will always be me, that won't ever change!!

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This Parenting Gig.....

It may be tempting fate to say it, but I often think that I've had a fairly straightforward ride as a parent. 

My daughter (my first-born) wasn't a great sleeper but apart from that I've had two very easy children who reached & passed each milestone just like that, they grew & moved on seamlessly.

They have no allergies, they are not fussy eaters & in almost 12 years, we've only visited the hospital once.

That's not to say that it's always felt easy....

even though my youngest is now 7, I still yearn for a really good night's sleep 

(I still sleep with one ear open, I wonder if all mothers do that....).

And, like many mothers I suspect, I always feel like I could do a better job of parenting.

I absolutely know that there is no such thing as the perfect parent & I am not in the business of comparing myself to friends or other mothers at school....
we all have our own journeys & stories.

I guess it's all about wanting to be the best at the job not just for your own children but also for yourself....as a mother you tend to have to pat yourself on the back, no one else really does it for you. We have to carry out self-assessments, there are no appraisals for us.

I'm not saying for one minute I haven't felt the day to day challenges of lack of sleep & the sheer exhaustion, the ringing ears brought on by a child who just will not stop talking & the sheer challenge of never having enough minutes in the day.

But on the other hand, I appreciate there are many who face greater battles & challenges than me.

Recently, however, I have felt things starting to change.
These last few months have been the most challenging of my parenting career!
So much is new, so much is different.   

My daughter began  secondary school at the age of 11 last September.
Almost all of her class moved up to the same school.

She loves the school, she appears to have settled very well.

I knew that just as she would be dealing with many changes, we too would be facing a steep learning curve as secondary school parents for the first time.

She now walks to school by herself, she has (many) friends who I have never met & instead of one teacher, she now has 12 or more teachers, it really is a whole new world.

Back in September, I tried to stop myself from asking 1,000,001 questions every time she arrived home.
I stepped back....a little.

Suddenly though I have felt almost overwhelmed by the responsibility of having an almost 12 year old young woman in my care. 

I feel as though everything I say to her must be words of wisdom, full of advice & meaning.
I want to give her more space & a little more independence....but still retain our closeness.

I don't know why I feel this exactly since this has always been my general approach....
maybe though it's because suddenly she seems much closer to the Big Wide World.

She now has a mobile phone, she listens to music she has bought herself, she no longer likes to eat things that last week were her-absolute-favourite-things-ever.

Her room is now strictly off limits to her brother....and, imagine this, she doesn't even want to play Monopoly with us ;)

She's making more of her own decisions. And she doesn't always agree with mine.

And....wait for it....when I commented on something she was wearing the other day, she responded  (albeit in the nicest possible way) with "this is how everyone wears it, this is style".
(said in the way that only an 11 year old girl can say it)

Seriously. I know ;)

Childhood passes so quickly and now I feel as though I am on a new roller-coaster ride....
The ride will stop & suddenly she will be 18 and off to University.

I think I still thought she'd be my "little girl" for a while longer.

Sometimes she appears to be almost 12 but going on 15.

She's also grown almost overnight & is now an inch taller than me.

She bright, she's happy, she's kind, she's made new friends really easily & she has a confidence that I never had at her age....it's all good as they say.

But sometimes as a parent, it's bitter-sweet....and that's definitely how I am feeling.

It's a strange time.
Parenting is always an adventure....not for the faint-hearted!!

You move from phase to phase when they are younger & almost don't realise it....
this has been our biggest change yet.
I should feel completely happy with how her start at the new school has gone, yet a part of me feels unsettled.
And a little bit sad too.
There are parts of her life now that I am not a part of at all. And that is an odd feeling.
Before I knew everyone in her life & now I don't.

When they grow up, I hope my children will travel the world, have wonderful adventures, live and maybe work abroad just like I've done....
on the other hand, I can't imagine not seeing them every day.
You want so much for them yet when those dreams are fulfilled, you cannot always predict how you will feel.

It's just different that's all. Good-different, not bad-different.
The rhythm has altered. 

The threads that bind us together....
sometimes they may loosen but the connection is always there.
Some days you just need to remind yourself of that.
   

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Hello 2013....

2013 is here, hoorah!

Without fail, I always feel excited all day long on January 1....

For some years now December 31 has found me literally longing for midnight to arrive & the new year to start.

Of course, I do know that you don't need a new page, a new term, for it to be a Monday or every single duck to be in a row to make a brand new start....

but there is something special about the new-ness of the first day of the year.

For me it's simply about two things....

hope & possibility

I am impossibly hopeful & relentlessly positive.

I accept the charge & fully admit that I just don't know how to be any other way.

My husband thinks of what will go wrong - 

I am convinced that nothing could ever ever possibly go wrong.

We meet somewhere in the middle, just as it should be.

We balance each other out. Mostly ;)

I've been writing my blog for well over three years now so each year I take a look back at what I hoped, wished, dreamt of & planned the previous January.

All my posts are packed full of hope & plans.

I think that as that as life progresses you begin to realise that it does not come with a set of boxes which you check as each year passes and then one day, you are done.

If anything - or at least if you are anything like me - each year you simply add more boxes to the checklist.

And isn't that the beauty of life....that you are never "done"?

There are always places to go, things to learn, things you can do better & so many things you want to do more of.

I think that the key is instead of being overwhelmed & overawed by it....

is to be excited & invigorated by it.

There is nothing as exciting as a new challenge or opportunity....

even if saying yes in itself is part of the challenge. 

Every January for the last few years, I've made a short list of things I'd like to do during the coming year....

not necessarily resolutions, maybe more list of things I need to do & that I'd like to do.

They invariably include those things that most people have on their lists....eat better, drink more water, go to the gym, do more of this & less of that etc.

This year I made a list of aspirations.

My wise & accomplished friend Kim chooses a word for the year ahead - an idea I really love.

I am deciding between three words :

FLOURISH

FOCUS

MOVE

I want all of these words to shape 2013 for me.

I have a plan. I always have a plan. And a list. 

Maybe I'll stick with not one but three words....after all, we do make our own rules.

Leslie has been following my blog for a little while and this led, fairly recently, to us emailing each other a couple of times (I love it when that happens!) 

She wrote a fabulous & really inspiring piece here yesterday....

"in pursuit of a life that matters"....

I think she's an exceptional writer & I've read and re-read it several times.

Not only is it full of wisdom but it's full of thoughts that I am sure so many women can relate to.

  

   Last night we had dinner together as a family - just the four of us.

I had prepared small slips of paper for each of us & after dinner we wrote out 10 wishes for the year ahead....

we placed them in a sealed jar and plan to open them next New Year's Eve.

Thank you so much for following my blog thus far....

I wish you a wonderful 2013, may it bring you all that you wish for.

Simone XX

25% off everything in their presale until January 6.

Just enter "presale" at checkout.

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New York City Girl

Earlier today I was reading one of my favourite new blogs....

Natalie's Holbrook's "Nat The Fat Rat". 

Like many of the best blogs that I read, I can't remember how I found her....

She describes her blog thus....

"welcome! my name is natalie. happiness curator, lover of anne of green gables. i'm a hopeless optimist and prodigious over-exaggerator living in a tiny apartment in new york city with my husband brandon and my fat baby henry august (we call him huck). this blog is a love letter from my family to new york city, and where i capture all the lovely little things that make up a wonderful life. i watch a lot of meg ryan movies." 

Yes, Natalie is pretty much living my dream life ;)

Her blog is really fun & has a great vibe about it....she's a lovely writer & a pretty cool girl.

I love reading about NYC & her life there....

and baby Huck is just gorgeous.

Anyway....today her post is entitled "A Christmas on Fifth Avenue Progress Report" and within seconds, I was immediately transported to Manhattan.

I love New York. 

I'll always love it.

Even before I went there for the first time, I always knew I would love it.

When I first met my husband, we used to go to NYC every year, some years we even went twice....

we stayed with friends & we stayed in hotels, some days it felt as though we covered every inch of the city, we walked for hours.

the first time we were there, we stayed for two whole weeks....

which now in our life as parents seems like such an incredible luxury! 

which of course it was - 14 days of just doing what we wanted.  

I've talked about NYC many times on my blog before but reading Natalie's post immediately made me think of the city and what my absolute favourite memories & images of it are....

So in no particular order, here they are....

the Empire State Building - my all-time Manhattan favourite building.

i've been to the top of it lots of times & at different times of the day, it's always breathtaking.

cycling in Central Park....on Sunday the park is closed to traffic & we rented bikes,

we cycled around the whole park, quite a distance but so much fun.

autumn in New York....enough said.

blue skies, bright sunshine, crisp air = perfection.

it somehow feels different to autumn in any other city....special & romantic. 

my husband proposed to me by the lake in Central Park in front of the Dakota Building during our bike ride.

it was a total surprise.

it is unquestionably my best memory ever, the best moment of my life.

i literally felt my life change. 

i only have to think of it & my heart quickens & my eyes water!!

(i also made him ask me again the next day at the top of the Empire State Building, just like in all the best movies....he didn't mind!)  

Carnegie Deli on 7th Avenue

the biggest sandwiches, matzoh ball soup & the best cheesecake ever.

we went there just after we'd just got engaged, sharing our secret over cheesecake, just the two of us :)

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree....

possibly the most beautiful Christmas tree in the world....

one year we were there when the lights were switched on, it was magical.

Radio City Christmas Extravaganza

....this IS Christmas, it's a show that everyone should see once in their lives.

Pretzels & Bagels

....yes, we have them in London and no, they are not the same - or nearly as good!

Central Park Station....a really beautiful building.

We used to arrive into the station every day when we were staying with friends & it's always worth exploring instead of just rushing straight through it.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

....so much to see but one of my all-time favourites there are the Tiffany Windows, I'll never forget seeing them for the first time.

Zabars....

lots of great delis in NYC but Zabars on the Upper West Side is the best....

the best cinnamon rugelach & chocolate babka ever.

plus great kitchen supplies upstairs.

Millennium Eve, Dec 31 1999....
my husband & I were in Times Square as the new millennium began.
It was fabulous, freezing & unforgettable!

The very first time I went to NYC I was travelling alone....I spent the summer working at a children's Summer Camp in upstate New York & then I worked as an au pair in Westchester, about 30 minutes outside the city, for 5 months.

On my week-ends off, I used to head into the city & explore the city, go to Bloomingdales, buy lunch at Dean & Deluca, go the movies, go to Tiffany & Co, buy a pretzel, walk in Central Park.

It was one of the happiest times of my life.

It's been a few years since I was last there & of course now I have children.

I have a whole new list of places to visit in NYC....

I hope to visit next year with my family....

and one day I plan to visit again & spend a few months there renting an apartment, exploring, cooking, walking & writing.

One day....and in the meantime, I will just keep adding to my list :)

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