Chicklit

After my vacation in September the motivation for the outfit challenge fizzled out rather tragically. No matter, I have something shiny and new to focus on and write about.

Since last Sunday, I own chickens! Ex-battery hens to be precise. They were facing slaughter at only 18 months of age as is normal with laying hens in factory/battery farms but an animal Rescue organisation stepped in and rescued and re-homed a whopping 7000 of them. So I now have 3 in my back garden.

Letting them out of the cat carrier and into the grass behind our house for their first steps into a more natural existence was a joy to behold. I (and my cat) could have watched them for hours, stepping and pecking.

Due to having spent their whole short lives so far in an A4 size cage with only sitting, eating, drinking, laying, pooping, and sleeping to make up their existence, anything else is utterly unfamiliar to them. That said, they did not show a fearful reaction to the cat except when she made a jump towards them. And I think their reaction scared her more than it did them.

Of course, with Winter Solstice/Yule less than a month away, the days are short. Dusk and darkness are also something the hens were yet unacquainted with but I must say they handled it well. They did need to be lifted into the hen house for the night and catching them is not easy as they are unused to human contract. It's the only time they have made noise that could be described as loud. At any other times they are either quiet or make cute, low clucking sounds.  Once you have a hold on them, they go quiet again, and it's not difficult to put them in the coop. Hopefully they will learn how to do this themselves eventually. Last night I only had to put two in, as one managed on her own.

They also required dusting with mite/lice spray and blue TMR hygiene spray to protect their bare skin from pecks and putting that on was definitely more than a two hand job. But hubby and I managed. And it is all worth it, because when I came home yesterday evening I found our first egg in the coop. I could not have been more proud and excited had I laid it myself.

The Outfit Challenge: Fangirl Chic

Despite staying at home with a headache today, Marijke and I went ahead with the outfit challenge, which today was Fangirl Chic as chosen by me. 

I already sent a quick pic of me in bed in my Game of Thrones House Stark t-shirt, Winter IS Coming after all. But I did get fully dressed later in the day, continuing along the same theme. 

It is a warm week here in Galway so an airy skirt was the perfect companion to my House Targaryen T-Shirt (detail shot below). I like that the colours are very autumnal, a perfect look for this time of year. 

No detail shot of hair and make-up this time as I went without war paint today. But as a bonus, here is a close-up of our new little kitten Merlin instead!

Thanks for reading!

The Gemstone Challenge

Yesterday, my challenge as set by Marijke was to by inspired by a (semi) precious stone. I love gemstones and do actually believe in the energies and qualities attributed to them.
Not that that made the challenge that much easier. I needed to really match the occasion of a day of basically just packing for my imminent house move, my clothes suitable to that and the stones I know.

I decided to go with Citrine. Pretty and yellow! A really sunny stone.

According to crystal-cure.com:

Citrine is a yellow-to-golden member of the quartz mineral group. A deep golden variety from Madiera Spain can resemble the costly imperial topaz gem stone, which is one reason that citrine is a popular birthstone alternative to those born in November.

Citrine has been called the "stone of the mind". Ancient cultures believed that placing a citrine on the forehead of an elder would increase his psychic power.

Citrine is known as the lucky "Merchants Stone". If you are in any type of sales, just put a citrine in the cash drawer and watch what happens. Also used by healers to:

• increase self esteem
• protect from the negative energy from someone else's abuse
• open the mind to new thoughts
• promote clarity of thought

Interesting stuff. I think so anyway. 

So now over to my outfit of the day.

Basically anything below the waist can be ignored as it's only jeans. And this picture makes my bum and thighs look huge.

And the usual closeup. I am wearing a light yellow shimmery eyeshadow and mascara. It's not really visible. Unfortunately I don't actually own any citrine jewellery so no cool accessories apart from my headscarf.

I really like this theme and I would have done more with it under different circumstances. Now I need to think about the theme for this week and then we will probably take a break as I am going to Barcelonaaaaa! (And South of France and Italy)

Unleashing my inner goddess

And it's not a Fifty Shades of Grey thing. I haven't even read those books.

Rather it is this week's outfit challenge, thought up by me for myself and Marijke.

In other words, choose a god or goddess and allow him or hew to inspire you.

Marijke chose Athena (visit her blog!) and I chose the Morrighan. She is from pre-christian Celtic mythology. Wikipedia states that "The Morrígan is a goddess of battle, strife, and sovereignty. She sometimes appears in the form of a crow, flying above the warriors.".

Sounds pretty badass, right?

So here's what I made of it (I cropped out my head as it just looked weird in the photo):
                                       
My black skirt from last Sunday is making a reappearance along with a black top in the gothic style that has a lot of pointy bits that could totally be feathers. You can't see it too well in the photo so click here to see it in green.

Make-up is a smoky eye with lots of black and purple and dark red nails. Lacy black scarf to keep my unruly hair in one place and to top it all off: my necklace with the silver raven skull pendant to get it that extra Morrighany edge.

I was a bit apprehensive wearing this into work as the water outfit with dark green eye make-up got a lot of attention but either this is more toned down somehow or I look to scary to invite comments. Either way, I had the guts to walk into work with it without toning it down. Yay me!

Thank you for reading!

Sunday Outfit Challenge: The Casual Romantic

Today started out fantastic weather-wise. I got up to pick blackberries and just get some general exercise and Vit-D. 

This little guy sang me a song this morning!

So onto my outfit. Marijke chose "The Casual Romantic". I definitely consider this a challenge as my dress sense is not overly girly. My main plan for the day was visiting a craft and vintage market in town with a friend so the outfit had to be suitable for that too. 

I think I was pretty successful as per below. The top (which has embroidered flowers that are not very visible in this photo) is vintage and bought from Etsy and the headscarf comes from another vintage market in town. The skirt is GAP, bought from someone on E-Bay. Shoes are just plain old Tom's. 

Here is a closeup of hair and make-up. The hair is actually so easy to do (learned how on Pinterest) and looks really fancy and romantic. I did some nice purple shadow on my eyes and a pink lip and blush. Cute, right?

A lovely outfit for a lovely day. I helped a friend find stuff for a costume party and found Marijke a T-Shirt I really wanted so I am well pleased!

Our next weekday challenge will be completely different: we will unleash our inner assassin! SWYF powerrrr! ;-)

Thanks for reading!

The Outfit Challenge, Round 3.

Hello all!

Day 3 of the outfit challenge! The choice was up to yous truly again this time and I decided on finding inspiration in one of the 4 elements. My friend chose Earth and I chose Water!
So here's the outfit against the very sexy backdrop of the bathroom at work. The skirt is a dark blue linen one, calf length from Fat Face. I am wearing blue Tom's as well. The top is H&M and the scarf is of no particular brand, just a silk scarf from my growing collection. You can't really see it but the top and the scarf both have a very watery feel due to patterns and little light reflecting sequins on the fabric.

For make-up I chose a basic smokey eye in dark green with a lip gloss. Darker than I usually wear so it gave my colleagues a bit of a start.

I am enjoying the challenge. This was a fun outfit to wear and this challenge is a reason to experiment, with my clothes as well as my make-up. And it gives me a reason to blog! 

Thank you for reading!

Outfit Challenge, Round 2

Chirp, chirp! My friend at http://ethelandilearntosew.wordpress.com chose today's theme which was to be inspired by a bird. So today I picked my brain and my closet for options. I settled on a relatively simple outfit, suited for the easy going-ness of Sunday, inspired by...

The English Robin!

I don't have much in brown in my collection so I just replaced with black. Here I am (photoshopped the messy balcony background away :-P)! The hair is not looking the best as it was still wet from showering. I did take the opportunity to do my eye make-up to match the outfit. 

My turn to come up with round 3. Time for the thinking cap!

The Outfit Challenge, Day 1

So, as promised in my previous post. Here is the first result of the outfit challenge. I got to pick the first theme, which I decided was "subtle cosplay." I decided to cosplay Tara from Bufy the Vampire Slayer. Although it's more an outfit inspired by...than a cosplay. But that's okay. So in below photo, I am on the left and Amber Benson as Tara is on the right. Please excuse my terrible posture, it was early.

Make ALL the changes, do ALL the challenges!

Long post ahead!

A few weeks ago I finally accepted that I am not able to solve my problems on my own and saw a doctor about it.

If I was to label my problems, I guess mild depression or dysthymia would be appropriate. Basically, since about October 2012, I have been sinking. I started taking less joy in things, became less tolerant of people's mistakes and pushed them away and/or withdrew from social situations as a result, including terminating my Facebook page. I do not regret that last one as I continue to read more and more about how manipulative Facebook really is as a social media site but it has made me realise how reliant people have become on it. If you don't shove profile pictures and status updates down your 300+ friends' throats, you get forgotten about. And that is exactly how I feel a lot of the time. Forgotten, ignored, passed over. To avoid feeling like that, I withdraw, I alienate myself to give myself a sense of control. Reaching out to people to me reads as desperately begging for the attention of people who have no interest in me.  Fortunately for me, I do have support in the form of a husband and some REAL friends so I am not always the social pariah.

They say your outlook on life is a reflection on how you see yourself. I have never had particularly high self esteem. Insecurity creeps in at any given opportunity. This has also led to me not doing much as I never believe I will do it well enough. My tolerance for learning if very low as the low competency at the start of a learning process makes me very anxious. I am far from an optimist so I am inclined to think that if I show no talent at what I am learning, I will never improve.

So for a long time, my life consisted of working, watching TV and occasionally throwing in some things that might make it look like I have a life. Most of the time I enjoy those things, especially when they have a low level of responsibility, but it's not enough and my life feels stagnant. I feel stuck in my situations, which is another thing eating away at my motivation. Why make an effort to do things if I am stuck anyway, right?

But I want to change, I have always wanted to change. If I had spent half the time I spent making to do lists actually doing stuff on those lists, I would be so productive!

So, I went to the doctor. And now I am taking antidepressants, 20mg of Citalopram a day. I am in my third week of them and my mind is not exactly blown by the effects so far. But I have heard it needs time, so time is what I shall give it.

And admittedly, I have been doing a bit more. I have started several challenges with my friend (find her in all her fabulousness at http://ethelandilearntosew.wordpress.com/), adding that necessary accountability. And it's fun! My challenges for the moment:
- The water challenge, basically drink as much water (herbal tea counts) as possible. 3 litres a day is the aim.
- The 30 day yoga challenge. This can be found on YouTube. I am on day 3.
- The outfit challenge, friend and I set ourselves and each other outfit themes twice weekly and post the photos here.
- The blog challenge. A minimum of one blog post a month. Obviously the outfit challenge will cover this but I am hoping to add another post on top of them.
- The creative challenge. This we run via Pinterest. Make something, Pin it. Updates on Sundays.
- The frugal challenge. I need to save more money. This one has no real structure yet. Just spend less money overall. I have plenty of unnecessary expenses.
- Declutter challenges. Sell/give or throw away as much as possible. Especially when buying something new. Do not let stuff acummulate.

These things give my free time a bit of structure and make me feel productive. And some of them will obviously have beneficial effects on my health.

So there it is. I have been hoping to change for a long time now, but I might just be at the start of something.

If anyone has any questions (about citalopram, or anything), please feel free to ask!

Thanks for reading!