Let's Have A Big Catch-up

Hi everyone! It’s Catherine…giving you a big wave from deep in the heart of lockdown in Sydney. We’ve got beautiful weather this weekend in our Aussie winter, and though so much is going on in the world — Afghanistan, Haiti, Covid — I’m going to do my best to spread some joy around if I can.

I feel like we all need a big catch up. Wish I could host a zoom party right now and ask you how you are. I’m sorry the world is in so much turmoil and I hope you’re doing okay. Me? I’m missing connection with all the people I love but we’re optimistic. We’ve sorted out every nook and cranny for space and flexibility in our home: the teen skateboards in the garage in between zoom school, my husband works in there or at the kitchen table, my uni son is talking Law and Business nonstop over zoom, and sometimes I think….this house has never been so well used. I can barely remember the days when I was here all week on my own! My last jab is Thursday, and I’m hoping it doesn’t make me feel sick like the first one. That’s us. How about you??

Deep breath.

Let’s talk about fun, frivolous stuff and take a little break.

Blue nail polish!

If you haven’t tried it yet and you feel kind of sad this weekend, please do. Just get some blue nail polish and see how it makes you feel. Blue is fun, and we all need a little more of that around here. My favourite is Essie Bikini So Teeny.

In Canada, my family is celebrating a wedding this weekend (wish I could be there!). My sis, Dar (the gardener from The 10 Minute Fix and also the mother of the groom) sent me a photo of her gorgeous blue nail polish, which really made me wish I had the chance to dance the night away with all my family in the prairies at a wedding. I love to dance, and when I was a little girl I made myself the promise that if ever there was dancing, I would be on the floor. It’s one value I’ve held close to my heart for the last fifty years. If there is music on, I will dance.

(Photo source unknown…)

Rest!

This week, I rested. I’m basically never sick, but this week I felt unwell so I actually spent some time in bed.

While resting, I listened to a really great podcast on comfort eating. (Hello, Covid Lockdown. Come in and let me just eat all my feelings…and while I’m at it, I’ll decide it’s a great time to start baking buttermilk biscuits…ha!) The host said something really interesting about how we often tell ourselves, “I just can’t seem to xxxxxx.” She suggested we flip that script to this.

I love this idea! Does it inspire you like it does me? I’ve spent today flipping my “I can’t xxxx” into “I wonder if I can just xxx”

• I wonder if I can just wipe out the microwave while my coffee is brewing?

• I wonder if I can just have a mandarin instead of chocolate?

• I wonder if I can put on a cozy knit dress and tights instead of trackies?

Pretty in pink.

Galahs always seem to walk down the street in my neighbourhood. Why do they walk? True blue Aussies, please tell me why. I’ve only lived here for 24 years…

Okay, friends: blue nail polish, flipping the script, strolling galahs…that’s all I have for you today.

Thank you for being here, and for taking a little glimpse into my world.

See you next Sunday, and sending love.

Catherine x

PS.

If you’re Aussie and lockdown is hard, we’ve tried this:

• setting up a puzzle on the living room coffee table (excellent conversation zone!)

• making homemade pizza every friday night

• regular coffee break walks around the backyard during the day (“Hey, let’s go walk around the pool…”)

• reminding ourselves that older generations lived through war and loss (giving up their sons and lovers and so much more)

• recognising that people in Haiti and Afghanistan are truly, truly suffering

• reaching out with group texts and buddy checks on friends

If you’re overseas, wishing you a fabulous last week of summer before the glory of autumn sets in!

A Simple Pick-Me-Up

Hi everyone! If you’re new this week, it’s Catherine writing to you (author of The 10 Minute Fix) with some weekend inspiration…

Yesterday, wow, I was tired. Tired. It was Saturday in Australia, we’re in what feels like Week Seven Thousand of lockdown, I’d been working frantically on a secret surprise—announced soon!—AND all the things needed doing. Laundry. Floors. The kitchen windows. Our bedroom.

There were dust bunnies, actual dirt, piles of shoes everywhere…gahhhh!

I’m a tidy person, but I hate cleaning. You??

Some people love cleaning and I made myself a coffee and thought about why. Then I remembered the famous Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn. He wrote about washing dishes as meditation (prayer).

How often have you been sucked away into the future? For me, that’s pretty much every second of every day. Ouch!

I needed to “wash the dishes to wash the dishes” and notice what I have.

I started on my bedroom dresser. See it sparkling above?

• I dusted my wedding photo and let my heart swell. My handsome naval officer husband! The sunny autumn day. The mother of pearl flowers in my hair from my own mother’s wedding bouquet, saved from 1952. Being so young and so happy.

• I wiped off the “puppy” my then 7 year old son, EJ, sculpted in art class. He came home and gave it to me, wrapped in tissue, and said, “It’s pretty good, but I forgot that dogs have noses.”

• I sorted and cleaned my pretty earrings. How lucky am I have to have all these “jewels”? If I could tell 7 year old Catherine that one day she’d have trays of pretty earrings, the little-girl me would have been SO excited.

I cleaned with love.

It made all the difference.

This morning I woke up to sunlight through the timber blinds, clean sheets, a beautifully organised dresser, scrubbed floors, a pristine bathroom.

In cleaning up, I gave myself a gift. I don’t know about you, but I think I learned the secret of why some people enjoy cleaning. It feels so good to love what we have, to notice it, to “wash the dishes” with intention and care.

Just a little something to think about as you enjoy your beautiful weekend. Let’s be here today, and not get “sucked away into the future.”

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• Working on my fitness a little, and these are the best biker shorts on Amazon…you guys! I love these (so many colours), and I love this workout bra, too. I always size up a lot because I find they run small. So good for the price.

• Oh, lockdown! As our worlds get a little smaller—we’re down to a 5KM radius of travel now—I’m thinking about all of you here. I hope you’re still able to work. Our family is okay (we can work from home), but many aren’t and I hope you’re able to find the resources you need during these tough times.

• A photo from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday…I appreciated the beautiful photography and thought all the overseas readers might be interested in seeing it.

I Refuse To Be Sad During Sydney Lockdown

Hi from extended lockdown in Sydney, which has not been improved by the rainiest rainy weekend. This photo is from the freedom days (not this lockdown), when we could go try on cute jumpers and fake leather pants…

But I refuse to be sad.

I’m doing my best to make the most of lockdown and it looks like this:

• Losing badly at Scrabble while table dancing, listening to upbeat Simon and Garfunkel and Johnnie Cash, and doing the kitchen two-step with my son so he remembers how to dance if we ever get to attend a family wedding.

• Doing an easy puzzle of the world on the living room coffee table.

• Walking the puppy in between rain showers.

• Hauling in the veggies from Harris Farm. Have you ever seen a Broccoli Romanesco? Me either. Doesn’t it look like something you’d pick up on the beach, or find on a column in a cathedral? Nature made this. Amazing.

I’m also writing—stay tuned on that—and eating chocolate, drinking lots of coffee, and finding ways to keep our spirits up.

If you’re in the middle of summer and freedom, enjoy! If you’re weary, feeling small…sending you hugs from Sydney.

Love Catherine xx

PS.

• Upbeat Simon and Garfunkel…gee, but it’s great to be back home….

• Fun tip with tights…you know how they always work their way down, down, down and are so irritating? This winter I bought footless tights to wear with socks. Oh my word, so much better!! (See below). Nothing slips. Truly comfortable. I love these fleecy warm ones and these cooler ones, too.

• My favourite watch is here—I really love the rose gold + silver.

• My Melbourne friend, Emma Bowd, has a new picture book called Wonderful Shoes. So gorgeous for your mini people.

• Emma’s illustrator is the lovely Tania McCartney. Take a peek—such a gorgeous book!