Creating My Reality » Featured

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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That’s It! I’m Moving In With LeeAnn Yare

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:18:44 +0000

I mean, wouldn’t you? (Warning, photo overload)

We’re slowly working on our home and if you were to look into the future, our house would look pretty similar to this. In fact she’s got products I’ve got on my wishlist all through her home and we even have the same tiles in the bathroom. In the July 2011 edition of Your Home and Garden Magazine LeeAnn mentions that she just worked with what she had house-wise and made only cosmetic changes. This is exactly how we’re doing things too. It’s so much fun.

For us and our pretty close to zero budget it’s taking a while but creatively it’s a real challenge and I’m really thriving on it. Making use of objects I’d long forgotten about and mixing pieces of furniture from different rooms that hadn’t been put together before is giving me a natural high every time I work on a room. Which reminds me, Andrew and I have made a lot of progress on Miss V’s bedroom, I’ll have an update for you soon hopefully. I’m just waiting for a few more projects to come together first. Stay tuned!

If you’ve never worked on a home before, I have to say that working on a kids room is quite possibly the most fun project ever. With Vahnija’s room I’m really going for it, she’s a lot like me so I know I can really let loose. When I was working on it this past weekend I made joke that I was moving in and she could take my room. Letting loose creatively really makes me wish I could work on all three kids bedrooms at once; finish of The Boss’ humble retreat and give the big boys a room they’ll never want to leave. It makes me think I should be working harder to actually bring in some money to support my DIY habit *blush*.

I enjoy seeing LeeAnn’s bold, unapologetic use of colour and pattern all throughout her home, especially her kids rooms where she’s got all the colours of the rainbow working together (much like Miss V’s room!) and where she’s patched together old wallpaper samples to create a huge mood board on the walls of her home office. I can dig it.

Do you have a favourite room in your home? What makes it your favourite space?

P.S. Sorry about the terrible quality of the photos, I had to photograph them myself and there’s no sunshine to help get the lighting right today.

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I Don’t Do Minimal

Chavah Kinloch — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:13:47 +0000

Architectural Digest has taken it’s readers inside style mogul Iris Apfel’s Manhattan apartment. The article gives such a great insight into who she is and her career history you should pop over and read the article for yourself.

“..She had a talent for scavenging from junkyards and flea markets the kinds of furniture and fabrics that were hard to come by {in wartime}. The thrill of the hunt was contagious..”

That right there… any time I hear something like this about a person I get roped right in to their world. I tend to believe that if myself and that person were to ever meet, we’d be the best of friends forever.

“…It was her eye for unique furnishings and objects, as well as her facility with color and texture, that brought her instant success. “I don’t do run-of-the-mill stuff,” she says, “and I don’t do minimal.”…”

Got to love this woman. We have the same outlook on style but her budget’s just a tad bigger than mine.

I wish I could rummage through this apartment and treat it like a unique thrift store that was available only to me. I can see sculptures, shelves, a table, frames, books, bangles and cushions I’d walk out with.

By the way, how fabulous is that top photo of Iris? Personality plus!

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My Super, Fun, Amazing, Fantastical Birthday

Chavah Kinloch — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:19:23 +0000

It’s been a few days, I no longer know where to start. All I really want to say is that I had the most amazing birthday of my entire life and I’m so thankful to my friends and family for helping to make the day such a great experience!

We started the day off at our friends bridal fitting, she found her dress and looked amazing *tears*. It was a fun way to start off.

My friends had no idea what they were in for on the day, I just told them a few details about what they needed and the rest was a surprise. After the fitting we headed out to have brunch at the band rotunda at Queens Park. I only had a week to figure out what to do for a party and the entire week the one thing I was worried about was that it might be cold, nasty, stormy weather and my brunch would be ruined. Nothing else worried me about the day, I just didn’t want to sit in the cold lol. I must have checked the weather a thousand times in those last 3 days. As it turned out the day was perfect weather for a brunch out in the open and I’m so impressed with the setup my kids, hubby and a friends husband did!… They’re available for hire for your next event haha.

From there we headed to Lazerland for a round of lazertag and glow in the dark mini golf. I was a bit weary of this activity but oh my freakin gosh, if I could have stayed there all day I would have and I’m not alone in that sentiment. A bunch of 20+ year old women wearing lasers and shooting machine guns…hell yeah. It was so much fun! By the end of it everyone had had such a good workout we joked about making it a weekly ritual. One of my friends secretly shouted us another round of lazertag too. Sneaky sneaky. I’m totally gonna brag now, both teams I was on won and I got the highest score twice. It would appear that you should not mess with me because I can take you out. Thanks Dad, Daniel, Andrew and target practice at school camp for setting me up to be the Queen of lazertag. I am eternally grateful lol.

On that note, I totally came last at mini golf , Kelly took that out!

We had plans for sushi for lunch but we got so carried away playing we ran out of time so we killed an hour shopping and the likes.

I’d booked us a private dance workout session at a local gym which was so good. Exercise and laughs to boot. We then headed back to my place for a homemade meal, a pinata, balloons galore, confetti, a photo booth and a whole lot of fun. We were starving by the time we got there. Things got so loud, as they do when you’re with your girls! We finished the night off by going out dancing. It was kind of hilarious because I felt so old but loved it anyway. It’d been 7 years since I’d gone out dancing. To my friends, thanks for encouraging me to celebrate, you’re all so great. 27 is perfect so far!

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DIY Lampshade for the Bedroom Makeover

Chavah Kinloch — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:35:59 +0000

So in 2008, yes 2008… I bought this:

I only know I bought it in 2008 because of this blog haha. I posted here the weekend I got it.

Anyway, Miss V’s room needs a new lighting fixture. All it has is a light bulb because the boys one day threw something in the air and managed to smash their bedroom light shade. Can you see me shaking my head? I am. I have a million stories like this lol.

What I want for her bedroom is this:

I saw one for $99 last year and knew I should have scooped it up. It’s pretty affordable anyway but right now my budget is close to non existent so for now I have to make it work with what I got. Challenge accepted.

The lampshade I bought in 2008, I originally intended to spray paint orange. Never quite got there though because I fell pregnant that month with Boston and the exhaustion from the pregnancy kicked my butt.

So here we are years later and a few months back I found this. Pretty sure it’s from one of my favourite blogs because I recognise the room it’s in. It just happens to be one of my favourite kids rooms ever. EVER. Eh-Verrr.

Don’t you love that huge bulb? I die. I’m going to find one. As for the lampshade I figured, I can do that! I had a lampshade just sitting there waiting and I knew I could find the fabric to cover it so off I went and pulled my gear out of the studio to get to work.

Big thanks to Karley Feaver who sent me some fabric last year. I finally got to use some of it! I’ve been wanting an excuse to use that fabric.

I rummaged through my fabrics and pulled out four samples. Here’s what I was inspired to do:

Steps one and two.

Steps three and four.

Hopefully I can get my hands on one of those large bulbs and I can get Miss V’s room looking half as good as the one above. I’m still considering maybe adding some flowers or beads to the shade. If I do I’ll update you.

Total cost = Free (maybe $1 for everything)

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Before and After Drawers

Chavah Kinloch — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:48:09 +0000

So who remembers this DIY project?

To refresh your memory you can see the progress work in these posts here and here. If you look closely in that last picture you can see that what I actually went with is completely different. I changed my mind when I was 2/3′s the way through. I’m really good at doing that.

I finished one set of these drawers sometime last year but was going to save the reveal until they were in their place in my daughters room. Seeing as I’m a hundred years away from getting her room up to scratch I figure I may as well just show the finished product now and then eventually… hopefully this lifetime, I can share a photo of them in a space that will do them justice. They’ve been getting a lot of use, a girl can never have enough storage. So without further ado, here’s what I ended up doing with them:

I love the blue! I totally need a team of people to make all my ideas happen faster because in my head the space they’re in rocks. In reality the space they’re in should be quarantined. Damn you fantasy vs reality.

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Happy 75th Birthday Tip Top

Chavah Kinloch — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:44:48 +0000

Thanks for the free jellytips!

I spent the afternoon out with my kids. Andrew joined us for a few minutes too. We headed into town because yesterday, an invite went around pretty much everyone in NZ’s Facebook page telling them of the place in their town that would be giving away free ice blocks. A jellytip ice block is a kiwi classic, so the place was pretty busy with loyal customers but the crowds moved fast, it was great. They did make us all sing happy birthday though lol.

The cue went around down the street.

Moving through quickly.

Bosco getting his first taste of jellytip ice cream.

Andrew enjoying his.

Me enjoying it a little too much. Hooray for cheat days.

We headed out straight from school, hence the uniforms.

As we were eating the photographer from the Southland Times asked if she could use my kids for a photoshoot.

Where there are crowds, there’s a chance to make some change.

He posed for me but I forgot to take my memory card for my camera! My phone is a bit lagged and I missed the shot.

A street performer that does moves with flags and sticks. My boys liked him.

Even the Mayor of Invercargill came out. Thanks for just for me posing Tim!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the library. Fun times.

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Boston’s Room – A Photo Update

Chavah Kinloch — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:21:56 +0000

He’s in everyone! It’s not completely finished, I still have to accessorise and add a few extra things but for the most part, the hard work is over. I’m letting out a huge sigh of relief.

We spent just a few hours on Saturday finishing off the paint job and moving furniture in once it was dry. It didn’t take long at all and with grey overcast weather it was the perfect temperature to work on this room.

Boston is smitten with his new space. He runs around in it like a psycho, squealing with glee. In fact, the other children do the same thing. What’s even better is that we haven’t had any sleeping issues either, he’s adapted like a pro. I love my kids for always doing that!

Boston wanted to get involved. It’s as though he really understood that this was HIS room. He’d helped sand and put on plaster already (or so he thinks) and this weekend he thought he’d help paint and put the doorhandles back on.

I discovered that these new paint colours make an awesome backdrop for photographs (see above and below).

And now, without further ado, here are some photos to update you on this room. I’ve added the extra things to come, into the photos, to give you an idea of what will be coming into the space. We’re so close to finishing!

Also, I have come to a conclusion on fabric! Yes indeed, I have chosen something Now I just have to work out how much I need and how soon I can get it. Darn the start of the school year for taking all my money.

Because I’m such a great hostess here at Creating My Reality, I made sure to take some photos of fabrics that caught my eye while I was out hunting on the weekend. There were 2 major contenders but the one I’ve picked is actually one that has been on my mind for a few months. I spotted it in the store on a previous visit and have brought it up in multiple conversations. When we were back at the store on the weekend I had to have my husband dig through masses of fabric to find this specific roll again. He’s so good to me. Thank you honey.

All this time since I’d first spotted the fabric, I’d been trying to figure out if I could use it in this room or not. I was leaning towards not but after seeing all of the furniture in the room, I believe I can. There’s still plenty of visual space for me to clutter up with colours and patterns so I’m going for it. The whole concept behind this room was to create a space that entered into my mindspace; stylishly quirky, full of colour, love and art.

The fabric I’ve chosen is also a lot kinder on the wallet than it’s runner up. Strangely that didn’t come into the equation this time around but I’ll count it as a huge bonus.

Can you guess which one I’ve picked?

I do love all of these fabrics and hope to get my hands on each of them but the fabric I’ve chosen to use for the curtains is….

Fabirc #2. Obviously…because it’s yellow/black and white. *blush*

My runner up was the colourful polka dot fabric next to it; which costs about 4 x the price.

And that, my dear friends is where I’m up to. So far, so good! It’s all worth it.

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Some Secrets Are Meant To Be Shared

Chavah Kinloch — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 23:44:15 +0000

I’ve gathered some secrets from PostSecret to share with you today. They’re just a small selection of secrets that I can definitely understand. I don’t consider myself one that has any secrets to keep but maybe I do…

Please.

They’re slowly learning about this in my home.

I like it when you say stupid stuff. It makes me smile. Keep talking.

I’m used to it.

My daughter caught me naked dancing once and laughed. She ran off to tell her Dad so they could laugh together.

Probably.

She was a beautiful kid.

Consider yourself lucky I don’t tell everyone what you’re really like.

I’ll miss you when you leave.

Minus the on TV part.

Not 33 but yes. I’d take them all with me though.

Getting there.

Music makes everything better.

It was easier that way.

Fair enough!

I’m only trying to follow the rules.

I used to do this as a kid. Then I had to kiss every toy before I fell asleep. I was scared my other soft toys would be jealous because I kissed my Santa Bear more than my other toys (he was my favourite). So then I’d have to get up and do the rounds again. Then without thinking I’d give him an extra kiss and I’d have to do it all again.. and again. My husband laughed at me when I confessed this but at least he thought it was cute, not just weird.

There was a time when I never wanted to have to grow old. Just reach a certain age and then be done with life. It was the romantic notion of a free spirited youth. Now, I can’t think of anything worse than not living my entire life with Andrew and generations of offspring.

Thank you.

I’ll follow your lead.

Then I better only create work I truly love.

The old man walking home alone, the young girl carrying her load of groceries across the busy road and the mother struggling at the supermarket too.

It’s not a crime.

That’s for you.

I really do. I’ve learned my lesson.

Exactly.

Me too. So I made this post.

Thank you PostSecret.

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Sharon Osbourne Speaks the Truth

Chavah Kinloch — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:26:19 +0000

Is anyone else here a huge fan of The Apprentice? I especially love Celebrity Apprentice because of the extremely diverse backgrounds and high profile personalities that take part. Each week when a new task is brought forward I sit there analysing who would be best for which role because of the the industry they’re in. See…I really am a reality TV junkie. Children are put to bed, computers are shut down and I turn the television up really loud so I don’t miss a word. I should probably be embarrassed but I’m not.

I actually found last night’s episode really inspiring and annoying at the same time. I hate the way Brett Michaels and Cindy Lauper are treated; although in saying that Cyndi has been a little crazy the past episodes but she is an artist after all. I have to cut her some slack. Sometimes the mind wanders and crazy can be the best way of staying sane!

Brett to me has been fine, until last nights episode in the beginning where it was obvious he felt the tension in his team and was trying to over compensate. Although, as usual, in the end he was the only one making any sense to me.

Both teams need to address the personality differences, build a bridge and get over it. Because you know… I’m such an expert on these things. It just really bugs me to see people getting disrespected because somebody thinks they’re better than someone else.

What really stood out to me last night though…once again as always, was Sharon Osbourne’s attitude. When the womens team Tenacity were discussing the overall concept of the task at hand, she was so on point!

We all have survival instinct.
Follow your gut.
When you’re in a competition…it’s going to get competitive!
Don’t disrespect others because you think they’ll make you look less than perfect.
We’re all as ambitious as each other so stop pretending you’re only in it to make friends.

There is nothing that bugs me more than someone who doesn’t just acknowledge what is right in front of their face. You know what I mean?

“I never said that!” Ummm yes you did… let me forward you the email.
“Such and such just ripped me off” Oh they’re going through a hard time right now, you should just let it go.

Maybe I’m just more intolerant than I realise but these type of things really bug me. I just want to shake people by the shoulders and tell them IT’S NOT OK! You’re meant to keep your word and by not doing so you can mess things up big time, it’s not ok! You don’t let people rip you off because if you thought they were trusting and they did this to you, imagine how many more people they’re going to do this to…it’s not ok!

Sometimes it’s best to acknowledge reality and accept that bad things might happen when you go down a particular path, so take the right precautions to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand or at least prepare yourself for the fact that trying times are ahead…which is what Sharon was trying to point out in last nights episode.

To see Sharon lay it all out there, in a way that only Sharon can; here’s a clip from the segment I’m talking about from last nights episode. For those who are a bit sensitive to language…you probably already hate this post because I’m praising Sharon hehe but if you choose to watch, just be forewarned that there is swearing involved – although it’s all bleeped out.

Skip the video to 2:45 and then again to 5:24 to see the drama.

CLICK HERE to get the video.

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