Interior Design - Marble and Rose Gold

Hello sunshines,

I've been very much into the contemporary feel in interior design recently. I have completely fallen in love with the marble and rose gold theme, so I went decor shopping in my two week break that I had from school. Below are some of the items that I purchased.

I found so many lovely bits and pieces that I couldn't help but buy. It's the freshness and colour of the greens, the subtleness of the greys, the sharpness of the black, the hint of rose gold and the classic vibe of the marble that keeps it all so minimal and clean. It's also so nordic. The nordic black and whites really fall in well here along with the clean lines and edges that the decor pieces have. I love the look and I hope this inspires you in some way.

Take care,
Sara

Out in the Country

Hi all,

Today I went out on a family walk to the country with my husband and my dog Ollie. We went out to our favourite place in all of New Zealand, Whitford. We have been coming here since we got engaged. It is such a lovely open space to be in. I can only describe our two hour walk with only one word: revitalizing. You would think you would come back tired after all of that, but I could say the opposite. Here are some photos of our adventure. 

Enjoy,

Sara

Is it that hard to be nice to each other?

Hi all,

Sorry for the long absence. I've been enjoying a two week holiday as it was our school break in New Zealand. I felt I needed to recover, not from the work, but from the social politics at school. It get's quite tiring.

I am in a school that is very fast paced because it is regarded as a top school in New Zealand. This is wonderful career wise, but it has been straining emotion wise. Some people are just so competitive. Sometimes not even competitive but are just drunk on too much power.

I am quite young and new to the profession. You would think that other teachers would be ready to guide and teach you the ways of the profession, seeing that this is a requirement of the job on a daily basis. The irony of this being the exact opposite is so overwhelming. This of course doesn't apply to all persons, only a few and for some reason these few seem to rule your world.

As I continuously battle with my anxiety, these few do not know how to co-exist so that we can all work in an anxiety-free environment. I have theorised that these people treat others poorly because they themselves are treated poorly by other, and so I tried doing random acts of kindness to see if this shifts the scale from a negative environment to a more positive one. It worked - but not for long. After a few weeks it seemed to make things worse.

Say hi to my house leader, my negative, emotionally draining, demanding house leader. I genuinely do not know why but she is just in for the kill every single day. To her I am a wall that does not deserve to be greeted. You could also call me a peasant in her eyes. A worker of a lower grade. Rubbish. Why do I care you might say? I care because it hurts. It hurts to be treated like a nobody. It hurts to be yelled at because you are saying hi, it hurts when you are criticized as a teacher in front of other staff members. I am serious - I am not making this s*** up.

I am writing about this at 1 am because it hurts. I am a human being. I am a person with feelings. I am alone and I am most certainly sad. This has affected my performance, my love of the profession, and my devotion to my job as a staff member of a wider team. I don't want to work for her. I don't want to participate or even have lunch.

If you are a manager, a boss, a project manager, a principal, or any leader of some sort, I urge you to please stop and consider that the workers beneath you have emotions that puncture as would yours with constant negative feedback. We are not your punching bag. We are the foundation of your team. Look after us. A kind word goes such an incredibly long way. Be humble. Talk to us. Ask us about how our day is. We care that you care and it most certainly matters. We actually long to be as a team. If you want us to be nice to a customer, student or a client then lead us by example.

I am overwhelmed by emotion and on the verge of tears as I close this blog entry. I dream so much of a world where kind words slip more easily off the tongue than a look of spite. I am so disappointed in this world but I ever so much believe that there truly is a kinder world out there. It only starts with you.


Take care,
Sara

Is Being Emotional a Bad Thing?

Hi all,

So today I was watching a Netflix show called Orange is the New Black. It's one of my favourite shows at the moment. I genuinely enjoy the drama that is presented by the show.

I won't spoil what episode and who said what but in season three right now. One of the characters talks about how its a bad thing to be emotional because it gets you in trouble a lot of the time. For some reason that really struck me. I have always found dealing with my emotions a little bit difficult and recently I have finally understood why and that is because of my anxiety. But looking back I start to wonder if being emotional did make life a little more complicated, and to be honest I really think it did - still does.

When I was younger I would just question everything that would happen. I needed to understand why things were happening all the time. With friends I was always scared and worried that I would lose them or if anything would happen I would take it extremely personal. When I was a lot younger I was more external with my thoughts but as I got older I started to realize that, actually, I can't be as emotional as I am and externalize it. I needed to be more internal about things.

As I grew older the conflicts would happen but they would stay in my head and it would be so difficult sometimes to rationalize that things are not as they are and sometimes I was just took things to personally. For example the type of thoughts that would go through my head on a daily basis would be "am I an annoying person?", "why is this happening?", "do my friends like me?", "am I a good friend?", "what do I need to do more to just be more likable?", "was that aimed at me?", "how come I wasn't included?", or "why didn't she call me?". It would go on and on like that even though I had this conflict that would answer those questions rationally and try to suppress them.

Eghhhh what a battle.

It still goes on now however now I am much more secure with my friends and family. I have also learned to accept myself. Despite everything that I learned from when I was younger with my family and friends, I am now facing this conflict in my work place. There are so many times during the day that I feel so insecure, yet I know that I am a valuable member at work. I just find it so hard to believe in myself and that I really am an important role in the entire team at my work place. I am working on it though.

So to answer this question, yes, for me emotions have gotten the best of me sometimes however my emotions are what make me passionate about my job, emotions are what make me love and be thankful for where I am and emotions are what make me care about other people - especially my family and friends. Sometimes I get so overwhelmingly thankful and I am so glad I can find that gratitude in a mind that can be so doubtful and anxious sometimes.

Its that constant battle of stopping and saying to yourself:

    Not today, because today I am good enough :)

Take care,
Sara

Pistachio and Orange Blossom Biscotti

Hiya,

I have been really sick and bored at home while I have been off from work but yesterday I just got too bored so I got up and made some biscotti.

Recipe:

2 cups    Flour
1 pinch   Salt
2           Eggs
1 tsp       Baking powder
2 Tbsp   Orange blossom water
120g      Whole de-shelled pistachios
3/4 Cup  Sugar
1 Tbsp    Oil
Spray oil (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven on bake on 160 degrees celsius
2. Add the sugar and eggs in a medium sized bowl and whisk until light and frothy
3. In a small bowl mix the salt, flour and baking powder
4. While whisking the sugar and egg mix slowly add in the oil and orange blossom water
5. Continue adding the flour, but just before it becomes doughy, add in the pistachios and then keep adding the flour until the mixture has a doughy consistency - [add some extra flour if it doesn't form a doughy consistency]
6. Once the biscotti dough is ready, split the dough in half  
7. On a baking tray spray some oil and then take one half of the dough mixture and place it on the tray in the shape of a log (looking very similar to a small baguette)
8. Do the same thing to the other half of the dough on the same tray if there is space or on another baking tray
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes
10. Once ready take them out of the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes
11. Once cooled cut the log evenly across this should give you around 12 biscotti pieces per log
12. Place the biscotti slices back in the oven for an extra 10 minutes with the same temperature and bake.
13. Once done take them out of the oven and let them rest for another 15 minutes. This will make them nice and crispy. 

Enjoy,
Sara

Two Year Old Girl's Birthday Prep

Hi all,

It was my husband's niece's 2nd birthday on June 19th. Recently her mum and dad (my brother-in-law) had separated so there wasn't anyone really there to pay the girly attention to such events (except for my mother-in-law but she's just here on holiday at the moment). So I jumped at the idea and thought that this would be my gift to her. One I love organising events and two, great way for me to exercise my creative side.

I decided that I want a gold and pink theme for her. My budget was $100. Here is what I did:

• I made her happy birthday sign by hand by just getting some supplied from the $2 shop. 
• I got some fake flowers and a pink table cover, 
• I bought some pink foods (biscuits, lollies, made some fairy bread, made nutella prezels dipped in sprinkles, marshmallows),
• I presented the drinks in some gold rimmed glasses that my mother-in-law already had,
• I taped up some cute streamers at the doors,
• I bought some cute pink straw, 
• Made some pink lemonade (I bought the lemonade and just added one drop of pink food colouring - then I added a lemon slice to garnish),
• I also added some cute doilies to put the food and drinks on,
• Lastly, I made her some party favours - I got some cute little glass bottles and put some gold glitter in there, this was her party fairy dust. People seemed to really like it yet it was so easy.

Overall it ended up costing me $130 but thats because I also added in there a fairy costume. Have a look at the pictures below. I hope you all like them. This all took me one day to plan, buy, put it all together and have the birthday. The only thing that really took my time was making the bunting sign.

Hope that has given you inspiration,

Sara

A Nordic Touch

Hey all,

My mums house was very outdated in its decor so my mum asked me to help give it a new look. I thought a nordic touch would match her and her house well. Below are some photos of what we did.

Hope you like it,
Sara