February Favorites

Hi everyone!

Are you all sitting cozy with your coffee / tea / hot chocolate or wine??? 

Good... 

I hope you enjoy my post today. 

It's just a little look into my February. Which was CRAAAAAAAZY by the way!

I hope you all had an excellent month too and look forward to hearing what exciting things happened to you throughout the month in the comments below! 

Favorite Purchases:

I found my bikini for Bali and Philippines!!!

I fell so in love with this little number I just couldn't resist the splurge... can't wait to pack it in my suitcase and head off for Southeast Asia!

Eeeeek!





I also FINALLY found my leather backpack that I've been hunting for... and got it at an absolute BARGAIN!!!
The money went towards a good cause too.
I found this little guy while stumbling around town in a pair of painful heels with no soles! I'd crept into this tiny store called Eye Love to give my feet a break when I spotted a leather backpack jammed into the corner window.

It was love at first sight.
And now it's going to be slung across my shoulders when I backpack through Southeast Asia in a few months time!

Favorite thing to do in my spare time:

The ocean is my safe haven. Every chance I get I am down on the shore, digging my bare feet into the sand and enjoying some down time. 

Favorite Photograph:

I took this one evening while the sun was setting over the rolling hills of the beautiful town I am lucky enough to call home.

Favorite Reads:

I started reading A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen. 

I never denied being a crazy cat lady..........

Book review on A Street Cat Named Bob HERE.



I've also been loving lazy Sunday's kicking back with a cup of tea and reading up about Indonesia... My flight's in 4 months time!!!!

Favorite Exercise:

I started Crossfit. 

That is what I look for before Crossfit....

And this is what I look like afterwards:

An absolute sweat monster!

Favorite Laugh:

For anyone who does Crossfit, I'm pretty sure this picture is self-explanatory.



Oh! I also had this pic posted onto my Facebook timeline from my best friend, Lucien... I think tea actually came out of my nose I laughed so hard:



(Every bit of that screams Jade!)

Favorite Decision:

Just over a month ago, I made the decision to stop drinking.

Not altogether... but I decided to cut back a lot. 

It had gotten to a stage where I would open a bottle of wine every single night and in the end I just got sick of it. 

It started making me miserable. 

It was effecting my mind and my body and so I took a stand. 

I replaced alcohol with Crossfit and stuck to teas, hot chocolate, WATER and Bloody Mary's without any vodka in during the evenings. 

I drank only a handful of times this month and all were for good reasons. 

The first glass of wine I had in February was on Wednesday the 4th to celebrate that I'd just booked my flights to the Philippines and Bali!

Another time I indulged in a glass of red (note how I don't say bottle?!) was on my granny's last night in South Africa before she headed back to Scotland.

I just want wine to be special. 

I don't want drinking to be a routine in my life - and I think I'm doing pretty great so far!

Favorite Surprise:

I had a really, really shitty day at the beginning of the month and to cheer me up, an old friend surprised me at work with a gorgeous photograph he'd taken that reminded him of me and he also stuck on a sneaky chocolate! 

Why did I have such a shitty day???? Because I got attacked by a wet wipe box and almost lost my finger! 

I kid you not. 

My finger got stuck inside that thing and two guys had to cut it off me with pocket knives!!!!!

You can't take me anywhere..........



Another cool surprise that happened to me in February was finding my mums old polaroid camera!
I haven't managed to get the film for it yet (it's going to be quite pricey!) but once I've got some spare cash lying around I can't wait to play with this guy!

Favorite Moment:

When I realized that even though there was no electricity, I could prevail. 

I had a fully charged laptop, an internet dongle to connect to blog world and a gas stove to boil some water in order to make some plunger coffee!

Success!

Favorite Times With Friends:



Cooking my best friend, Lucien, a big seafood dinner and having a cozy night in watching horror movies!

Favorite Feeling:




Being comfortable in my baggy pj's and sweat-pants, no makeup and reading glasses on while pottering around the house.
No need to impress anyone... just 'ou naturel' and chilling OUT....
Such a great feeling over the weekends rather than caking up in makeup and slipping into tight clothes and going out partying, spending all your money.

Instead, I've been reading books and enjoying time at home with my cats and dogs.

Pure BLISS.



Oh yeah.... also treating myself to the occasional glass of wine in the evenings was lovely. I've certainly cut back A LOT... and I can feel the difference already.

Just loving life!


Favorite Spoils:




It was Valentines Day - and this year I decided to spoil myself a bit... OK, A LOT!!!

I bought myself a super cool Go Pro Hero 4 Silver which I haven't had the opportunity to use properly yet because I still need a few of the goodies like 'floaty backdoors' and stuff. I also still need to put a hole into my surfboard so that I can finally get some epic photos of me surfing (well, I like to think they're going to be epic anyway!).
But soon enough I'll put my Go Pro to use and share all the awesome images I capture with you!!!

I also bought myself a lovely book which I'm currently over half way through - I'll feature more of it in next months posts... but just know that it is AMAZING and if you haven't read Wild by Cheryl Strayed then you need to go and find yourself a copy immediately! Especially if you love the outdoors and have a case of Wanderlust!

To make the entire month PERFECT, I used some of the money I have been saving for YEARS now on plane tickets to Bali and Philippines!
It's 100-ish days until I pack up my suitcase, throw a leather backpack over my shoulders and catch a flight out of here!!!

Favorite Activity:





I attended an Angel Connection retreat out on a farm in Rheenendaal and it was nothing short of amazing.
Read more about it HERE.


Favorite Auntie Moment:

Seeing this little guy growing up!
He's getting so big and strong - my heart cannot contain the love!!

Favorite Goal:




I've been editing The Other Woman as much as I possibly can over the month of Feb but as you can see, it's been a pretty crazy month!!!

It is nearly finished though and I hope to have it all polished and ready to go by the end of March!

My goal was to have the book be ready and available by my birth month, May... but now I have a feeling it may just be ready before then!

I'm going to be pushing towards finding an agent now too... I have one in mind based in London who I've already been in contact with. It's all a bit daunting because you have to supply cover letters and a synopsis of your work which has never been one of my strong suits and the thing is that if the agent doesn't like your cover letter or the synopsis then they won't even take a peak at the actual manuscript!!
I think that is what makes me choke. Knowing it rests on those two things... gulp.
But I need to try - and I'm going to!

Wish me luck!


Favorite SURPRISE:









I've turned BACK into a blondie!!!!

And I am absolutely LOVING it!

Being blonde ALWAYS makes me feel happy and more confident. There's something about it that just makes me feel more feminine!




Since re-bleaching it, my hair has been more curly than EVER! Seriously, it's wild!!!
I've also just started to take some hair growth supplements after the devastating realization that I cannot afford extensions..... ever.
So hopefully it'll work and grow down to my ass like I want it to soon! This awkward length it's at now is a right pain....

Had to add the photo of me and my kitty-cat... although she is immensely pissed off with me because I caught her with two legs dangling out of her mouth that just happened to belong to a frog... of course I saved the poor thing... much to her disappointment.

Happy, happy days to being a blondie again!


Favorite Work Event:



We had our first exhibition opening of the year and it was a huge success!


Buuuuut.....



The next morning I was NOT excited to put makeup on and head to work again.
Seriously in need of a chilled day in front of the television!
But I kicked the days butt and got home that evening and continued to pack my life into boxes for the big move....

I never thought I'd feel so emotional about the move... But I do.
I had actual tears this morning although I fought them away as best I could.




Lao Tzu once said, 'New Beginnings Are Often Disguised As Painful Endings'.
And on that note:


Favorite Quote:

I loved this quote! 

Enough said.
(and because I've now just turned back into a blondie, the lemons now apply!)




So today is the last day of Feb and I'm about to finish up work and head off to my new house, which I haven't even seen yet!!! Eeeek...
After moving in some boxes and settling the cats and dogs in I'll be slicking back some oysters and welcoming in the new beginning.

I hope Feb's been good to you all.

See you in March ;)

No More Drinking

The world has shifted on its axis. Pigs have flown. 

Jade has stopped drinking. 

No, I'm not joking.

I've finally had enough of getting home after work every night and heading straight for our old hardwood, bar and shoving a corkscrew into a bottle of wine. 

I am nearly 24 years old and for the past few years of my life, I have been drinking wine almost every night. In actual fact, I think in the last 1460 days (rough figure... don't judge me) I have probably abstained from drinking a mere 3 nights in total. 

I've been kidding myself and thinking that it's OK. I'm a writer, it's what I'm supposed to do. I mean, you watch movies or read books about the surly, introvert writers that hide out in their darkened, dusty dens and tap away at their typewriters while swigging straight from a bottle. Well, after living in that pathetic stereotype for the majority of my life now my poor liver must be shot!

I'm probably being dramatic.... I only have two-three glasses of wine a night, I don't go absolutely mad. I couldn't afford to even if I wanted to!!! 

But I'm just over it. I'm over it all.
I've had enough of it. I want to traipse home after a hard day at work and curl up onto my couch while the kettle boils away. I want to kick off my black sky-high Aldo heels and ease my aching toes with a nice foot rub while I read a good book and sip at some tea.
That is how I imagine life to be.... not getting wrecked every night.

I want wine to be a special treat. It should be, shouldn't it? 

On Friday night, the latest season of my favorite show is finally airing here in South Africa. 

Season 19 of The Bachelor. 

So you can just guess what I'll be doing at 8.30pm in 3 days time (but hey, who's counting?).

I just love it. I've been waiting for months to have it start again and so I have decided that Friday is the time where I will indulge in a nice bottle of red me thinks. 

(Plus I just absolute adore Chris Soules.... heart palpitations..... right now! He's quite literally earth-shattering....)

Wine, vodka and ciders are expensive and although on Monday I became debt free (barring the cash I owe my father....sorry dad!) I have decided to save up for a Go Pro Hero 4 Silver Camera. 

It's for my upcoming travels to Bali and Philippines (5 months away!!!) Tell me, HOW can you go to such an incredible spot filled with surf and sea-life and not have a Go Pro with you to record your adventures!?

I've already put down a deposit on it so it is all mine when I can finally scrape the next couple of thousand together and hand it over to the cashier who laughs every time she sees me. 

I want to get it sooner rather than later so that I can learn how the thing works before jetting off. I don't want to spend my month across the globe fiddling around with it and trying to figure it out. So that means I need to cut a few certain things from my life - like wasting money on a bottle of wine a night... or going to beach bars and generously ordering copious amounts of shooters for everybody in the place! Buying Pringles and expensive cheeses from the Deli. It all needs to stop. 

I'm already a bit of an extreme cheapskate as it is (because I try and save every ounce of my salary possible to afford travel!) but over the next few months until I can go over and indulge in Indonesia, it's going to get even worse I'm afraid!

Above and beyond that.. as previously mentioned at the start of this glorious new year, 2015 is my time to get fit and healthy. Booze doesn't exactly fit in with that new notion now does it??

Just yesterday, I attended my first ever Crossfit class.
They do this fitness test on you and out of roughly 10 people, I came second!! Basically you have to do a 400m run, 40 air squats, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups and 10 pull-ups and there's this big daunting clock up on the wall that times you.
My time was 7 minutes and 10 seconds.
The person who beat me was at 6 minutes and 45 seconds - everyone else was up to 9 minutes and more!! So I really surprised myself!
I'm not really a competitive person but it did feel good to not be last, you know?

After two days of no drinking (tonight will be my third) and an evening of absolute pure TORTURE in the gym, I am feeling absolutely fabulous... although my muscles are aching in places where I didn't even know I had muscles!!!!

Waking up without that alcohol-induced thump in the back of my skull is so wonderful.
I can also concentrate so much more in the evenings on reading a good book or editing mine without getting lazy about it or forgetful... and in general I just feel better about myself.

Tomorrow, I am driving back to the gym after work and doing another round of Crossfit! Apparantly it will be totally different to Tuesday's class.... so that's exciting! I mean, it might be too early to be saying this, but I actually loved Crossfit! I'd been so scared of it for the longest time, thinking that it was for the extremists when really... it was tons of fun!

2015 - this is my year!