Auburn and Blue

Reflections of Radiance

27
Mar

Ilze

be…..

12
Mar

I met a lady the other day.

In a tiny shop on a little island of Hong Kong.

She has no website. I could not even get her name…..language barriers.

But I got her name card….”.be”….and her number on the back. Just that.

No Twitter, Facebook or the whole shebang.

I loved her little shop. And the photos she takes.

So I bought some.

I want to go back. Because I want to “be” like her…. not her….but to just “be”…… “be me…”

Today I met a lady in a coffee shop. Very Old. Eccentric.

I had to look twice when I walked in – because you could not just pass her by looking only once….

Loved her enthusiasm..as she was wildly paging through a Vogue magazine and with grand gestures expressed her thoughts to the lady sitting next to her….

And once again I was reminded….to just BE…whoever you are…whereever you are….. just BE yourself.

Others will take notice…. or not….but as long as we can be…… we can be free….

 

Ilze

Moving Mountains on a Monday

18
Feb

I am certainly not the only one who always think that I will move mountains on a Monday.

Only to realize on Monday evenings that I have overloaded myself and ended up going nowhere ?!

Mondays are always like new beginnings…. the day I will start a diet, the day I will be super-productive after a lazy weekend, the day I will finally sort out the finances, pay bills, make right all the wrongs in the world.

Countless times it ended in Migraine Monday, Messy Monday, Mundane Monday, Manic Monday, Moaning-Mom-day, Miserable Monday…..but never Magic Monday ???

Oh Monday madness.  Is there a cure?

Maybe. I have a plan up my sleeve for next Monday. Watch this space.

How was your  Monday ? Got something done?

Or was yours more like mine?  Let’s give ourselves a break. Four more days to go to get something done.

Let’s have a cup of tea first, take a deep breath and try again tomorrow !

 

Ilze

A new sense…

17
Feb

I smell the incense in the room.

It fills the air slowly but definitively.

Untill it completely takes over the old smell that was here an hour before.

A new sense of being in this room alight.

Life over the last few years. Hurtful. Painful. Doubtful.

Hoping that in less than few years – a new sense will overtake.

Fill. Fulfill.

Untill all of the pain will just vanish as if it never existed.

And a new smell, new sense of life discovered, inhaled, experienced.

Ilze

Hot Pink Happiness

30
Jan

I am a little too young for hot flushes, but my hormones are certainly pumping HOT PINK  through my veins lately !!

On Sunday my daughter’s pink pants brightened up the beach during our Sunday Stroll.

….but coming home I realised that it was not just a one-time affair.

Me and HOT PINK have been having a little fling for a while now….and it always makes me HAPPY  in an instant !

Maybe it started with this tree I bought one Sunday  last year. Find it in this post. if you wanna refresh your memory.

Seeing it bloom outside my window,  certainly made me feel a vibe in my veins whenever I saw a pop of pink out on the streets ….and suddenly my shopping basket filled up with hot pink items over the past few months…one after the other like it was nobody’s business !

It started with my pop-phone…

 

and I kept adding to the collection…… my mobile phone sling bag, my runners, my t-shirt….

I often wear these when I walk my daughter to the bus stop – and since this is at an hour way before I am bright eyed and bushy tailed…..  where I have to rely on the attire to make me  look like I have fully woken up already.  I am sure it distracts others in the street from my pale face and droopy eyes that they otherwise would have noticed! (I am totally believing myself here !!).

The  same scheme made its’ way into my cupboard for the things I wear a little less casual….so, it’s just not a wake-me up color. It is still as reliable to work its’ magic in the evenings, as much as it does early mornings !

 

 

and my latest addition to the scarf collection in my cupboard – simply confirmed that I am seeing the world through – yes, not rosy glasses….but bright pink ones ! I

HELLO WORLD !!

 

These items did not only end up in my cupboard, but also on my coffee table in the form of this  fabulous photobook that I bought in November – “a kaleidoscopic collection of images that serves as a window onto the vibrant diversity of the South African street” – as the cover so accurately states. A book by Ed Suter about Mzansi style (Quivertree Publications).

 

If you want to know more about the book – it is explained in this Quote from the Book:

and although the pink caught my eye…. that is not all there is to this book, if it’s not YOUR colour right now !

But a fun book to add to your collection if you love STREET STYLE.

 

Is it possible that I am also picking up the magazines that have  hot pink winking at  me from the stalls…or even those free Shopping Guides with a hint of pink ?!

 

In the words of Freddy Sam, (quoted above in the picture earlier on) – I hope that this Colour today INSPIRED you , to inspire others to inspire change….even if just a change in your mood…. into a HAPPY ONE.

It just shouts out I AM HAPPY, I AM HOT and PINK is POWERFUL !!

Oops – it even showed up in my bedroom ….

YES – I am officially HOOKED.

And in a world of bright-red Hong Kong taxi’s, this bus was a bonus on my day out !

Let me know which colour is trending right now in your collection !

Have a Happy Week ! Hope it is as hot as mine…. HOT PINK…. share your colour…… wanna compete??

Ilze

Anchor your boat – thank you followers

26
Jan

I took this picture earlier this week on my morning walk and there is just something about it that I LOVE.

Maybe the peace and calm.

Maybe the colors of the boats.

Maybe the fact that it reminded me of this blog and its’ followers.

I can see from the Statitstics, which I hardly ever look at, that over 14 000 people visited it over the past few months….

altbough I don’t know exactly who they are.

Don’t you too wonder – who are the owners of these boats in the picture? Who are they…where did they come from? When will they return?

But important for now – they are all gathered here at the same spot. That is the part I love especially. It was a good, safe place to leave their boats.

And some of you,  anchored your boats here, on this blog – long enough to rest and read some posts.

It kind of makes me feel bad that there is sometimes so little going on on the blog, while there are a million things in my head to blog about and make you excited about visiting !

But despite that,  there are still new visitors daily  or  returning followers for whom it is a place to come hang out for a while every week.

On the blog’s facebook page, I do notice every new “boat” that arrive , every  new “like”…. except that in those cases I do get a quick glimpse of who the owners are via their profile photos … and it is sort of like seeing the boat owner before he leaves his  boat !

A big thank you to the latest followers – naming just the ten latest followers on Facebook  – Achala Abeysundera, Nadia Chougui, Doreen Baros, Anne Sutton Fisher, Jennifer Hamlin, Jane Gilheaney Barry, Scott Santee ( I guess that is Lisa 😉 ) , Nicolle Kaspar, Kahori Matsui Roskamp…. and the list goes on and the thank you extend to  all 120 people and 30 page- likes before them. Always exciting to see every new face that shows up and give me a stamp of approval by “liking” the page.

Just like the boats look sort of the same and totally different  – there is surely  a common interest amongst the followers, and yet everyone different in their own right.

This  place where you anchored  for a while to rest and read… this blog…. is my familiar water….

and I am SO HAPPY for every one that meets me here…

even if the boats are empty and I did not see all the owners before they anchored  – I know they have owners….I know you are out there…

One way I can get to know you a little, would  be to occassionally leave me a comment.

That way I can get some sense of who you are…. and what you think. Your opinions certainly matter to me.

But if you are just happy to anchor and stay here for a while – I am also perfectly happy about that.

For me – time to start diving under the surface and bring up the jewels I know are down there…so we can share them on shore !!

Ilze

Sleeping Beauty wakes up… and turned into LuLu

14
Jan

Was it JETLAG??

I don’t know….but I felt like Sleeping Beauty last week and ended up with an excessive amount of sleeping… you can’t even call it “napping” ?!

I comforted myself by the conviction that you should listen to your body and if it says SLEEP…. then don’t stress about it… SLEEP !!

No point staying up anyway if you are unproductive, feeling fuzzy and just WANT to sleep all the time anyway , is there??

But with 3 kids and a household to take care of, you can’t sleep forever….and so Sleeping Beauty had no choice but to wake up….because my Prince… the husband…is travelling again – and that meant the goodbye kiss this morning was also the “Better wake-up-Dear”-kiss!! You have work to do and you’re on your own here now !

And then I remembered this photo I took this holiday of our cousin’s dog, sweet little LULU… and I saw myself…… drowsy and lazy while blissfully unaware of what piled up on top of me while I was happily asleep. Sleeping Beauty suddenly turned into Lulu because I do actually have things to take care  of….can’t keep on ignoring that ….and just happily live ever after ! Oh, the joys (not) of Reality…..

 

 

So here I am – back at the business of blogging…yes, I call it a business…. then I can explain the fact that I am not doing the other “work” that is somewhat overdue right now…and probably deserves priority over my blogging in order to lift this pile on top of me.

But opening up my blog this morning for the first time this year and noticing the drafts left in my folders, really convinced me to start this year by doing what I love, first… and the rest will follow !

Oh… I have a lot to say… but for today… all I want to say is HEY…. I’m back…. I woke up… I will soon catch up and this year we will take it a notch up….. untill we can give 2013 the thumbs up !!!

For now – may you all have a FANTASTIC 2013 ahead. I always heard that you can say HAPPY NEW YEAR untill January 12th….

Oh well – it is January 14th and I just made my own exception to that ….but the important thing is I wanted to not start this year without saying it and now I’ve said it – and you all deserved it, because who does not deserve to have the hope that the year ahead will be their best ever….. with lots of grace and good health ahead to make sure we all can just be the BEST ME we can BE !!! in the next 11.5 months !

I was not asleep all of the last 2 months since I last blogged….yes, I promise this condition was only the past week…..and maybe as a result of the past 2 months !

So, I will be back to tell you more about that and catch up on the lost time since my previous post !!

Take care till then,

Ilze

Thursday Thoughts: Packing

15
Nov

Today I send my son off to Thailand on a school trip. I, myself, go to South Africa.

He is to embark on an adventure with theatre and drama.

I am going to help finish off a project at our holiday home.

We have been  handed a lot of opportunities in life. We mostly try to grab them with both hands and make the best of it.

So far life has been good to us and we all have been blessed with rich experiences on this path of life.

It is however hard to separate a family to be off in different directions, once you look beyond the excitement.

We all look forward to what lies ahead, but mostly we look forward to be back together again to share with those who stayed behind, what we have learnt and how we have grown.

You always come back different after a trip. It is unavoidable to learn something about life and people while you encounter them on your journey – even just at the check-in desk at the airport. Be it hostile or friendly. It shapes us in who we are and how we believe the world around us is.

A lot is learnt from how and when we pack. The difference in mr O (my husband), myself and my son, in packing, is very indicative of our different styles, strengths and struggles. And it all shows…. the neatness of it all, the method, the procrastination in some, the last minute grabbing of things…..yes, it all reflects who we actually are on a daily basis. Very different indeed. It also reminds me how my young man is still a boy.

Today is a day of packing, preparing, leaving and lift-off.

For those staying behind, it is the start of counting-the-days till Mommy returns, making plans for big sister to sing little Sis to sleep at night in Mommy’s absence, thinking about how life is different without everybody here and thinking twice about whether big brother really is annoying when you suddenly feel his absence next to you at the dinner table.

We look forward to being together again.

Leaving is all about Coming Back.

 

Ilze

(Should be ) Organizing the house

6
Nov

Got this from my friend the other day….

 

Oh, so me…..

But now that Pinterest is down for maintenance today, it reminded me to get back to blogging!

Or should that be to ….cleaning and organizing my house…

Or cleaning and organizing my house so that I can blog about it??

Oh, whatever…. just don’t give up on me…. I’ll be back !

What have you been up to lately?!

 

Ilze

Blog 2013

29
Oct

I am hoping to unroll some changes to my blog in 2013.

I have started to pull out some things in my house to help me along and give me some direction.

I have some ideas, but still need lots of inspiration.

November is just not the best time of the year to make drastic changes.

This year has had about as much as it could handle on its’ to-do list, and “overwhelmed” has certainly been a word that slipped into my life dictionary where it never had a place before.

But…let’s be hopeful !

It does not mean that I am done posting for this year…..but I am hoping to give my blog a little blog-lift in the New Year.

In the meantime, I would love to hear from you – do you have anything you mind whispering in my ear…. what is it you would like to see more, what do you like, what would make this a place where you would want to come back and spend time on your rainy days?

Do let me know – I will take it all to heart.

I talk a lot. But I listen too!

Back soon…..

Ilze

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