Creating My Reality » All

More On My Chalkboard Obsession

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:31:03 +0000

I’d been going on about a giant chalkboard calendar for my home for the better half of a year, so for Christmas my husband decided to make my wish come true and together we created this awesome purple masterpiece. It is so handy and each person that’s seen it has paid it compliment. I think the comments about how fantastic it looks from the random power metre reader lady were the best.

You can find a variety of chalkboard calendar options on Etsy.com. I didn’t have the patience to wait for shipping and I wanted something slightly bigger/different to fit the space I had, so I created mine by painting with coloured chalkboard paint which you can pick up from specialist paint & decorating stores. Definitely check out all the colour options they have out nowadays.

During

Finished

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Perseverance

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:29:54 +0000

This pretty much sums up my life right now.

Time and effort is all it will take. I WILL do it.

I wasn’t going to say anything on here but after thinking about it for a week I figure..why not just say it? Why is it so hard?This is why I have a blog after all. I’ve only told two people in real life, my husband and a friend the day it happened. Even saying it to my friend was hard.

I have officially lost 40kg’s (88lbs). In fact I’m closer to 41kgs lost than 40 now, so watch this space. The journey is far from over.

It’s hard to believe really. I’ve pretty much lost a Kourtney Kardashian or a Mila Kunis (apparently they weigh 43kg’s):

The thing is, even though to say it out loud sounds kind of impressive, in real life I’ve been struggling to see the difference. Like really struggling. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments I’ll walk past something and see my reflection and catch myself off guard and think “What in the hell? Is that me? Where’s the rest of me? What happened to the massive roll there that was there?” It’s just hard to get my brain caught up with reality. I’m my own biggest critic.

After talking with my husband about it last night he said something that made a lot of sense to me. I don’t care about the number because it’s not what motivates me. I’ve spent the last year working my butt off and not focusing on a relationship with my scales so I’ve learned to love other results instead. I need to physically see change happening and when I look front on, it’s hard for me to see that. From that conversation came these photos:

Please don’t judge me by my excess fat, loose skin and full belly. Despite all those things (which I’m working on) I’m proud because look closely…

Those shadowy dents you see there? That is muscle. It bulges and it’s solid. You can’t see it too well in the photos but through touch the most obvious muscle is my triceps. It feels like a thick line running through my arm when I run my hand over it. I have never had this before but I love it.

This photo below is my favourite photo to date of a woman with trapezius muscles. In fact I have this labelled in my folder as ‘Traps for days’. Jessica Biel in general has amazing definition.

I know, I know, I’m probably going to have a lot of people with words like butch, manly, too much, eww, gross etc but this is the direction I’m choosing to go and I’ve never felt more feminine.

These photos my husband took for me to look at make me a hundred times happier than any number the scale doesn’t say anymore. These photos show how much effort I put in on any given day to make a positive change in my life. Thank you Andrew for helping me wrap my head around how I want to measure my progress.

I’m building a good foundation and I’ve got some very clear set goals – and so far since making them, I have been kicking their butt. I’m on track!

I don’t know what my body will look like by the time I’m done, I have a vision that I hope to make a reality but I’ve never been the athletic type so this will be completely new to me. I don’t know what to expect. What I do know is that the end result will represent the hard work, dedication and perseverance I am putting in to achieve it. Stretch marks, saggy skin and all, I love and appreciate my body.

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Keeping it Fresh – Will Smith is My First Love

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:19:52 +0000

I cannot wait to get out of the house this evening to plug in my earphones and work it out. My gosh I need it today! It makes me feel like this:

Shout out to the tumblr who originally put all of these dance moves into one post. By far one of the best things on the internet.

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New Year New Look

Chavah Kinloch — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:29:00 +0000

I’ve been wanting a new look for this blog for a while now, so with my husband being on holiday we decided to tackle a redesign. It’s likely things could change again throughout the year as I work on my ‘to do’ list but for now this new look is giving me renewed enthusiasm to write for the year ahead! Take a look around, let me know if you come across anything that’s not working properly.

If anyone out there is interested in his services you can contact Andrew here.

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Nas’ Karate Grading

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:31:11 +0000

I live away from family, so as any good daughter/daughter-in-law would do, I’m making a post for the grandparents to see how Nas – my eldest son, went at his very first Karate grading.

He’s been so excited to take part in a grading to hopefully move up a belt. He’s been extra vigilant about mastering his Kata since he found out two weeks ago that this was coming up. The first words out of his mouth after school were “Grading tonight Mum!”.

He did so well, it was really fun to watch. It was great to see him walk away from the grading on such a high, he absolutely loves Karate! Since starting Karate he’s come out of his shell a lot more, he’s more confident and disciplined. Watching him grow like this is really heart warming. He’s always been a very shy and quiet child. Capable and athletic but far too shy to do much about it.

Everyone in class did all their Kata, the higher belts knew more of course and they had some really impressive moves. I hope Nas stays long enough to learn them. I’m sure he will. Throughout the evening they went through a lot of other exercises, went through one on one routines, some light sparring and then to finish they did this:

Push ups

Sit ups

Burpees

Star jumps

Lining up

All finished

Yeah.. I said to finish.

Well done to my boy for doing what he loves with absolutely no fear. Here’s a short video of some of his ‘sparring’. It’s really just play fighting at this age. After tonight, my daughter is asking to join too. They’ve also asked me if they’re old enough to do kickboxing. We’ll see how this story plays out…

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Half An Hour to DIY – Recovered Lampshade

Chavah Kinloch — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:55:40 +0000

Earlier today I posted this on my Facebook status:

The problem I have, is that with my youngest child now growing up and being more independent I sit around looking at things for my home and come up with random ways to change them. It’s probably a good thing we don’t have a tonne of excess money or otherwise my husband would come home and wonder if he was at the right place.

I have so many little projects I can do around my home. It doesn’t really need anything done (well a new kitchen, new carpet and converting the garage to a family room would be great) but in reality, it’s fine how it is. We purchased it because it covered our list of must haves – room to play basketball, fully fenced, two bathrooms, four bedrooms. We don’t have much ‘need’ for anything materialistic, I’m grateful for that but I personally have a need to create… All the time.

Originally today I really wanted to paint something. I have this huge blank canvas sitting there but I’ve dedicated that canvas to a project that will happen ‘eventually’ (read: it’s a really good idea I haven’t made the time to create yet) and so I don’t want to waste my $120 canvas on something that I may or may not like…even though I really wanted to. Sometimes I hate that I restrain myself to be sensible financially.

So anyway, from the painting idea I went outside to fiddle around with the log that’s been drying for months. When I realised I couldn’t be bothered working on that project either I decided to move onto the lamps in my living room that even though in the photo’s appear to be fine, are actually kind of grubby after being around my kids for years.

Juggling through my ever growing fabric collection I came across a certain fabric I received from fellow artist Karley Feaver and was absolutely delighted with the way the pattern looked on a lampshade so knew I was onto a winner.

With my trusty glue gun, scissors, fabric & old lamp I set to work and within half an hour (it may have even been 15 minutes) I modernised these out of date lampshades.

Easy peasy. If I had patience I would probably mod podge the fabric on & line the inside where the fabric overlaps with felt. Those would be my tips anyway for anyone wanting to have a go at recovering a lampshade but seeing as these are just for my home, I’m happy! The kids think it looks great too. I’ll finish the matching lampshade tonight.

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Oh Yah Know… Just Me and My New Belt

Chavah Kinloch — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:18:07 +0000

I got it today guys!! And I couldn’t be happier I think the last time I got given a certificate for anything I was in primary school. He called me up, gave me a proud smile and “Osu!” and said “It’s about time you got your belt.”. As much as I think my sensei is evil because he takes great pleasure in watching us go through pain, he’s really an awesome guy and knows how to make you feel good about yourself, so it kind of balances out.

Apparently I have great technique, which is good to know because I’d need to be pretty damn precise with my hits and kicks if I were to last in any sort of a fight coz I’m still so freakin unfit. I better pray I can get someone down on that mat quick fast lol. But hey, moral of the story is I did it!

If you read the last post, you’ll remember I mentioned that I had to go to the advanced class to get my grubby little hands on this bad boy. So to answer your question, yes I did go. How did it go? Well, I survived… and my lungs have only just stopped burning. I have no idea how I’m meant to mentally psych myself into attending 90 minutes of torture, I mean training sessions twice a week. I heard one of the girls from my beginners class saying that she thought she might die too, before class started, and I burst out with “Oh thank God, you too!” because I have to say, I thought that might just be a fat girl thing lol.

I’m at the dojo 3 other days a week taking my son to his karate training and I’m around the corner at the gym 6 days a week… well it’ll only be 4 now that kickboxing is taking over. If this weight doesn’t fall off as the next year goes by I have gone terribly wrong somewhere. Sensei told me and the other newbies to give it a year or two before classes didn’t feel like torture...and then he laughed at us. Cheers buddy. I about died right there on the spot. I honestly felt like crawling up in a ball and rocking back and forth. Give me strength!

Oh and just for comparison because it’s been a while:

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Overcoming Fear

Chavah Kinloch — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:17:02 +0000

One of the greatest lessons I’m learning this year has to do with the issue of fear. I don’t recall myself being the overly fearful type, as a child I was quiet, some would say shy… for a little while anyway until I was comfortable; a trait that has followed me through to adulthood but I was never really afraid to do things that sounded fun. Heck, I was the first kid at camp to flip myself upside down, let go of the rope and go abseiling down the side of a wall. I’ve always really enjoyed doing things a little out of my comfort zone!

Skip forward to a year ago and one of the things I’d noticed about myself was that because I was still suffering repercussions from the injury I sustained during Boston’s birth, that for the better part of a year I’d been barely able to leave the house. I confessed to my husband that even the thought of going out to get the groceries was getting scary and that I didn’t like where that was leading me mentally. The first step for me was to focus on my 21 days…which I am SO glad I did because that one little decision to get through those 21 days changed my life entirely. As with anything though, the more you do something, the easier it gets and my beloved gym just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

What I haven’t told many people (a few here and there will have picked up on it) is that I signed up to do the beginners kickboxing course with Toa Fighting Systems. You have to do the course to be inducted into their advanced classes that run the rest of the time. Today, I passed grading! Which basically means I get a certificate to say I can do some moves, earn a red belt and become a member of Toa Fighting Systems and WAKO (NZ).

Now this probably means absolutely nothing to 99% of you out there reading this but this means so much to me. Kickboxing is something I’ve been fascinated with for as long as I can remember. It probably comes from my lifelong obsession with kung fu movies and martial arts. Also, while other kids were playing with their barbies and eating fairy bread, my grandfather was lecturing me on how to throw a punch which then led to buying a boxing bag for my brother and I to ‘play’ on which then led to bruised knuckles and popped blood vessels. So yes, learning how to fight properly has been something I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember.

The class was huge at the beginning of the course but today there was just those of us who had realised that showing up for these classes meant you were throwing out all excuses to give up and were prepared for the brutal – and I don’t mean brutal in the ‘oh this is hard’ sense, I mean it in the OH MY F**KING G*D WTF I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS/ARMS/SHOULDERS/LUNGS, AM I DYING?! – sense (my body is still shaking 4 hours later).

Taking this course, for me, meant freedom. Freedom from my self imposed ‘worthless me’ beliefs. Freedom from ‘what if’. Freedom from feeling trapped in my mind, in my body and in my home.

I did it.

I believed I could and I did.

I cried almost every week for three months – and you all know I’m not a crier.

But I did it.

I overcame my fear of not being good enough.

Now I have to attend next weeks advanced class to receive my belt… I see what he’s doing there. Nice way to push me to get over my new fear sensei.

Advanced class here I come.

Not bad for a girl who wasn’t even allowed to walk her kids to school a year ago because it was too much, huh?

And because every post needs a photo and I don’t have my hands on my first belt yet, here’s one I took from the Toa website. Blue trunks is my sensei. Osu!

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Now You Can Look

Chavah Kinloch — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:44:17 +0000

It’s another fun filled weekend here at the Kinloch residence – well, for kids at least. As one of the two adults that will be present while 7 kids take over till tomorrow, I’m not exactly the most excited person in the world but a parent’s got to do what a parent’s got to do.

We found ourselves hanging out in Miss V’s bedroom as we monitored ‘bedroom tidying’ in preparation for sleepovers and I realised that I’ve never actually given you an update on the space she’s got right now.

Her bedroom isn’t finished, art isn’t on the walls, curtains aren’t up, furnture is still missing but it’s still such a fun space to hang out in…hence why we all ended up in there hehe.

Take your first glimpse into what’s happened in the bedroom makeover so far.

So much colour and fun! Memories and activities everywhere. No wonder she’s started disappearing into her bedroom more often. P.S. I apologise for the quality of the photos, I was snapping away on my phone.

Check out the rest of Miss V’s bedroom makeover so far here:

DIY Lampshade Makeover

I Spy With My Little Eye

Metallic Table Makeover

In the Beginning

You can see my own bedroom one day makeover here:

Bedroom Organisation

Then you can check out Boston’s Bedroom Makeover Progress:

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My Best Friends Wedding

Chavah Kinloch — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:17:05 +0000

We all have those special people in our lives; who even though as time goes on and you go your separate ways, you always remember them as your close friend and will never forget the great moments they brought to your life. Well today’s post is about my childhood BFF. Her name is Anna and she recently got married. She shared the most amazing video of her wedding and I got a glimpse into her very special day. I asked her if it was ok to share the video and she said yes, so please get your tissues out and take a moment to watch the incredibly beautiful Anna, marry her best friend Vince. Congratulations to you both. Your smiles and the look in your eyes say everything. xxx

Click here to watch: Anna + Vince.

Full credit to Turei Cooze|IDoVideo on Vimeo.

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