by Krista | Aug 3, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
I do so love the streets of London. It seems that no matter where I look, there is something to delight my heart and stir a sense of recognition, of names and places oft read about but never seen.
When I return to London (fingers crossed!!), I’m going to set aside one whole day just to peruse English bookshops like this beauty.
My friend Katy and I had such fun looking in windows and dreaming of long, lazy days with nothing to do but drink copious amounts of tea and read for hours on end.
After a whole morning of wandering, Katy and I were famished and popped into a tiny cafe for scrumptious salads and fabulous people-watching.
I loved seeing the various fashions (so different from the streets of Italy and Amsterdam), delighting in the eclectic mix of posh business wear bustling alongside punk street garb and traditional Indian saris.
After lunch we strolled through exquisitely beautiful Hyde Park.
I love this expansive stretch of lush green lawns, curving pathways, and wonderful old trees that dropped armfuls of leaves perfect for crunching through.
There’s something about London in Autumn that makes my heart flutter.
We emerged onto a busy street crowed with shiny London cabs that made me grin. It’s such a lovely thing to find your imaginings of a place come to life.
We joined sparse crowds ogling Buckingham Palace, watching the beaver-hatted guards march back and forth.
Soon it was time to step out of the cold and tuck into a real English tea.
Katy found the perfect spot and soon we were visiting happily as we sipped cups of strong and creamy Earl Grey tea and nibbled our way through hot-buttered scones slathered with jam.
Twas a dream come true for me.
Thoroughly warmed and satiated, we bundled up and headed to Piccadilly Circus to see what we could see.
Do you have a quintessential English experience that you’ve always dreamed of fulfilling?
by Krista | Jul 26, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
I feel very grateful today.
Someone close to me has found peace after years of anguish, and I’m so happy for him.
In just a few weeks I will be an auntie for the first time and I can’t wait.
And yesterday I met an amazing new friend, a lady whose past is so similar to mine we could hardly believe it.
There is inestimable comfort found in talking with someone who understands. It is such a gift to be validated, to hear someone say, “I know. It really happened. It’s going to be OK.”
And you believe them because they were there.
As a teenager I was in a religious cult for nine years. Years where I was brainwashed and abused physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. For years after I blocked out much of what happened. Couldn’t remember it for the life of me. I now know that’s a common occurrence among survivors of such things.
Over the past few years I was able to get counseling and therapy and began a painful and wonderful process of healing. Healing is the best thing, but it is also the scariest and hardest thing I’ve ever been part of.
Last year I started a new life in Australia, a life I love more than I can say. 🙂 I had no idea what a refuge it would be, how healing and nourishing it would be to live on our little goat farm, to have a man beside me who loves me unconditionally, and to have dear Aussie friends who hug me tight, laugh and say, “You have the craziest past we’ve ever heard of, but we sure love you.”
Healing has brought back memories of those years, of other traumatic events that my mind, in self-preservation, blocked out for a while. I don’t like those memories. I don’t like the nightmares that accompany them. I hate the physical pain that inevitably follows.
But it’s worth it. So worth it.
To get through a night without waking up screaming.
To get through the normal ups and downs of life without crumpling. (For too long, anyhow ;-))
To be able to love without fear.
These are the things that make this worthwhile.
But now and then you need a little boost. We all have such unique stories, individual pains and traumas, that sometimes we need a kindred spirit to come along and say: “I’ve been where you’ve been, I’ve seen what you’ve seen, I’ve hurt how you’re hurting, and you’re going to be OK.”
That’s what my new friend did for me yesterday. When I got home there was an email from her waiting for me. And it meant so much to me that I have to share it with you. Maybe you need to hear her words too:
“I’m so glad we got to meet today beautiful girl!
Never again will you be alone and isolated.
From now on you will always be heard, believed, understood, validated, cared for and free.
You are amazing, honest, courageous, intelligent, strong, wise, and beautiful!
You have so many gifts to offer the world through your experiences.
Catch up again soon x”
I hope her words sink deep into all our hearts and spur us on to deeper healing and greater loving as we fumble our way through this crazy, heart-rending, beautiful thing called Life.
Wishing you a beautiful weekend. XO
by Krista | Jul 19, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
It may have been pouring rain outside yesterday, but that didn’t stop volunteers from braving the weather to decorate trees all through Warwick, Queensland in time for the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival opening today. Jumper in the States may mean a shapeless dress, but over here the word refers to cozy sweaters.
My friend Ann and I pulled our own jumpers a bit tighter against the cold so we could check out some of the earliest completions like this gorgeous tree outside the library.
We couldn’t get over the detail in this amazing display in the library parking lot. A whole table covered with knitted food like spaghetti and meatballs…
…and a knitted hamburger with French Fries next to a platter of knitted burritos. Someone was very creative. 🙂
Tucked up in the tree was this little knitted doll with a star-topped wand, and all sorts of other creatures like owls and bugs.
Even the Warwick Town Hall was decked out for the occasion with its stately pillars covered in a rainbow of patchwork squares and larger than life knitted flowers.
For the next two weeks thousands of people will descend on our little country town to attend jazz festivals, gourmet dinners, wine tastings and all sorts of events.
On Sunday afternoon a group of friends and I will attend the Like Chocolate for Women event. I’m so excited to see this interesting combination of soft jazz, delicious chocolate and inspirational speaking.
It’s put me in the mood for chocolate, of course. Something decadent like these oh so simple but delectable Dark Chocolate Cups that my friend Shirley and I made. Filled with coffee-flavored yogurt, fresh fruit and whipped cream, they are light but scrumptious.
What is your favorite chocolate dessert?
Dark Chocolate Strawberry Yogurt Cups
Ingredients:
4 dark chocolate cups
1 small container latte/coffee flavored yogurt
1 banana, sliced
1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 sprigs mint leaves
Directions:
- Divide yogurt evenly among four dark chocolate cups.
- Add bananas and strawberries.
- Whip cream until stiff, fold in powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Top dark chocolate cups with whipped cream.
- Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
by Krista | Jul 12, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
As I read this piece today I couldn’t help but smile, amazed for the umpteenth time how the truth I need to hear always comes when I need it most.
“It is going to be OK.
Take a deep breath and then another, and just know that everything is going to be just fine.
That big thing you are fearing is so much bigger in your imagination than it is in real life…and it is all going to work out. You know from experience that not everything is easy, or comes easy….but that you have always made it through everything that has come along. You will make it through this too.
Please don’t be afraid of change, dear friend, change has to happen for things to grow…for things to get better…..for things to become what they are meant to become. Change is good. Change is uncomfortable and scary and sometimes seems unnecessary….but change MUST happen for things to progress.
You have a choice in this moment and in the next….and the next and the next and the next. So, if it’s too hard to choose peace in this moment….know that you have the choice to choose it in the next. You get as many chances as you need to choose to feel peace……and, you can do this. You can feel peace even inside of uncertainty.
Just be still, and listen very closely.
It really is going to be ok….and there really is a plan.
You are very very loved.”
Brave Girls Club
It’s going to be OK. We are loved.
I’m so glad. 🙂
After a very wild and stormy week the sun and clouds put on a glorious spectacle of light and color this evening.
With such a sky to dazzle us, Luna (my dog) and I had to be outside. It may be the middle of winter in Australia, but this evening it was warm enough to go for a trek in a sundress and wellies. How amazing is that?!
We headed for the bush, down a rocky gully, through waist-high grasses and along a faint track made by tractor tires.
I love how the trees and bushes look like exquisitely detailed etchings against that fantastic sky.
Like this orchid that has taken up residence in the dead tree below.
And this lovely old tree standing stark and tall beside a hardy prickly pear.
The light was so glorious as the clouds ebbed and swelled in great masses of color and form that I kept having to stop and exclaim to Luna how wondrous it all was. Alas, since she can’t actually see over the grass, the view was utterly lost on her. Instead she ran pellmell through the underbrush startling cows and sniffing out kangaroos.
We both had a marvelous time.
As the sun slipped behind the clouds once more, Luna and I headed for home, stopping often along the fence line to look out over the fields and up into that breathtakingly beautiful sky.
It’s so good to be home, to be loved, to take heart once again that no matter how dark things get, there is always hope.
We’re going to be OK. 🙂
by Krista | Jul 5, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
I’ve been bustling non-stop for the last few days baking loaves of garlicky, Turkish flatbread, mountains of cookies, and a big bucket of chicken curry, all in preparation for three days of medieval camping with my dear friends this weekend.
We’re heading over to beautiful Bribie Island for the annual Abbey Medieval Festival and I am so excited.
Three whole days of camping in our oh-so-cozy Bedouin tent, making cheese and smoking homemade sausages over the campfire, and spending hours talking and laughing with old and new friends.
I can’t wait to taste steaming mugs of my friend Jack’s homemade chai tea cooked in a little cast iron pot – a recipe he’s been perfecting over the last few weeks. It will be so good on these frosty winter mornings before the sun warms us up.
And now I must check my to-do list one more time then head to bed where no doubt I shall sleep like a rock.
What are you looking forward to this weekend?
by Krista | Jun 28, 2012 | Fabulous Friday
Tree branches weighty with snow, sharp winter light glittering on ice, pure white drifts piled high.
I hope you love this little sunset trek through the wintery wonderland of Böblingen, Germany at Christmas.
