Food... and Friends.

For the past 2 or so years we have participated in a food evening with another few friends around every 2 months. The premise is simple, each pair makes a course, in a pre-selected theme, we eat drink, and play some games.

We all noticed that we couldn't easily remember who made what and when, if it was successful, and would we make it again, so time to start documenting it.


October 2017

Theme: German Food

Entree: Mickey and Carl
Berlin Potato Soup
Sausage and bacon in a soup with potato, carrot, celery, leek, onion and parsley.
Was very tasty, I need to make this again!

Main: Rob and JP
Pork and Chicken Schnitzel with Sauerkraut, Kartoffesalat (potato salad), Gherkinsalat (pickled cucumber salad), and Spaetzle.
Sauerkraut is not normally my thing but it tasted good and the chicken schnitzel was amazing. Maybe I have found a new way to eat cucumber as the salad was good too when cucumber normally doesn't do it for me. Rob explained that when he had schnitzel in Germany they have a dollop of mustard and a dollop of wild berry jam with alternate bites. We tried his and it was surprisingly delicious!

Dessert: Laura and Joel
Buchteln: Nutella and Jam filled sweet rolls with vanilla sauce.
Fantastic end to the food run.

Played: 7 Wonders, Monopoly Deal, Nitty Gritty.

The next night is in December and will be Christmas themed. We are on main and I have no clue what to make! Time to do some research on international Christmas food traditions!

The aim is to actually remember to take photos next time too!

Lunchtime Ramblings

I wanted to be a child, up to my knees in the cold water,
dappled sun on my skin searching for the smoothest, prettiest rock.
A prize to hold onto, that would be forgotten once at home.

I wanted to skip from rock to rock,
each surface peeping above the chatter of the water,
sun drenched and warm to touch.

I wanted to lie in the most still, deep pool,
floating with the pull of the soft undercurrent, becoming one with the water,
a sprite or its goddess.

I wanted to explore the riverbank, looking
for fairies or nymphs always playfully out of sight.

I wanted to leave them offerings of sweet things to coax them from their hidey holes.

I wanted to laugh, throw my head back and be free in my joy.

I wanted.

Michaela Sheehan
January 2017



Note: I don't claim to be a writer. This was a lunchtime ramble in the sun, watching the river from a shady spot. I remembered how much I loved the magic of places like that as a child, and how much I still do.
I stopped.
My journal was at hand.
I wrote.

Michaela x

The spot that I sat and wrote at!

Starting Again?

What is it about the start of something new? A new year, a new journal or notebook, new sheets and bedding, a new bottle of shampoo or milk or foundation. It gets me every time! Is it the chance to start a fresh? To leave behind previous mistakes? To re write your character or in my case write again on a blog that I left for over a year. I like the start of a new year. I don't want to make resolutions or state big lofty things as I know that for me that is just setting myself up to fail. However, I do like to re focus and use this time to reflect and let myself know what I want.

2016. Wow. Such a mixed bag, as I am sure every year is but maybe I just felt it a bit more acutely this year. I left my job that I no longer loved and enrolled at University and completed my first year of my teaching degree. I worked hard and it paid off, in good grades and successful connections with many new people. I made some new friends and I truly can say that I feel that I am doing what I am meant to be doing, after 15 years of floundering in my career choices this one is feeling good.

My study buddy.

I have made new friends, I repeat that because I need to hear it myself.I have also walked away from some friends. I have had some of the most traumatic friendship losses this year and I have let them affect me far more than I ever thought I would. I let their words and ill wishes get me down. I cared that they were talking about me to people and that others (and myself) believed that their version of events and that their descriptions of my character to be the only truth.

Panic, anxiety and depression won over far more that I care to admit and the people closest to me were the ones who suffered. I stopped communicating for a while, with my husband (man he is a saint), my parents, my closest friends, all of whom are so ridiculously supportive and I need them to know that it was nothing they did it was just what I did to get through. It may not have been the best decision but I have to trust that it was the right one at the time. I tried to breathe through panic attack after panic attack, I cried, alone, in bed, on the couch, in my car. I also started to find a bit of strength and slowly I am coming around to the fact that I need to be so much kinder to myself and find a balance. I also need to talk. If I can't physically get the words out face to face (it's taking time for me to be able to speak about some things), then I can write on here or in some form of journal to at least clear my brain.

It wasn't all doom and gloom and I need to remember that. I performed in public three times!! I sang Skyfall at a fundraiser for the School of Music and it gave me the boost I needed to push a bit further and challenge myself to perform more. I love it, I love singing and I just need to push through the nerves and do it. I spent time with some amazing people, taught music to some very cool kids and saw Pentatonix in concert (a huge highlight). I spent time in the sun, cooked, played games, watched lots of theatre and turned 30! I turned 30. It's a number (a big one) and I had a fantastic party surrounded by so many of my amazing family and friends. I still pinch myself that so many wanted to come and celebrate with me and I had the best night.

Husband and Me at my 30th party.

2017. You're new. I feel refreshed, I am hopeful, I will breathe.
My friend Breigh (one of the new ones from 2016 who I am very grateful for) is a yoga teacher. I have avoided yoga for many years for lots of reasons and I will write a bit more about it another time. She turned me onto Yoga with Adriene and one week later I am still enjoying it and finding that taking the time for myself to do one of her videos is helping my head space. She runs a 31 days of yoga challenge that I am on board with so we will see how I go. Getting over the hangups and just doing it.
To help with the writing thing and also to keep myself more organised, I started using a Bullet Journal in December. It can be as simple or as creative as you want. This is great for me, I love lists, I love doodling and drawing, and I need to keep track of more. This allows that all in one notebook. It is satisfying and I love that if some layout or tracker doesn't work I just turn the page and start again.

I am feeling good. I have set up my little corner looking at the sea whilst I work or study or write and it helps me to remember to breathe and to be grateful for all that I am and all that I have.

My view now.

As I write now I am looking at the water and listening to music. Music has been very absent from my life of late. All I have listened to has been to teach a student or a cast, not for pleasure or the love of it. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is a good sign that there is sound and music around me, my mind has the space to enjoy it again.

It is a journey and among the good and the not so good, 2017 I am ready for you.

Michaela x

Rehearsing

Tonight is my first rehearsal as Musical Director for The Addams Family.

I spent a weekend in December in auditions and casting this, (it feels like ages ago) and now the day is here where I get to start teaching some music.

I am a little nervous (so many different reasons why) but more than that I am excited! The music is cool and a bit different, it is funny and a little rude but more than the content, I have a chance to prove myself and  hopefully it will be the start of many projects here at Nelson Musical Theatre.

Collecting vs Hoarding

I consider myself a collector. I own enough pairs of shoes that I could get through many months without wearing the same pair twice.

 Just a small part of my shoe collection

 I have countless make-up items of varying value many purchased just from a desire to own the packaging (I have an inner magpie that cant see anything shiny, metallic or glittery with out picking it up). I find bookshops very hard to walk past and books are the one thing that I love buying second hand, the older the better.

Confidence!

Most people would say I am pretty confident.

I pride myself on being able to hold a conversation with almost anyone and to be able to pop a smile on my dial, put my best foot forward and go into a social situation whether I know people or not.

 It's an act and I think, quite a good one.

To go somewhere new I try to do a dummy run with a friend or Carl (my Husband) just to ease myself in. Find out where to park, get my bearings and feel familiar with the place. If it is something as simple as a new hairdresser/restaurant/optometrist then I normally rope someone into coming with me, just for the first time.

Brushes....Oh so dirty!

This is one of my most hated tasks! But most Mondays (sometimes every second) I haul all my brushes out for the dreaded cleanse! There is only so much that the 'ol spot clean with Isopropyl can do and only so many face brushes that one girl can own to cycle through.

The situation on my make up station!

Teaching music and my plan...

So I work full time, 5 days a week in a job I enjoy and I like to think am pretty good at. I sell shoes and take care of the day to day running of a store. I enjoy the contact with people I LOVE the product I sell and fashion so it is a great mix of these things.

My biggest love in life however, is music. Playing, teaching, conducting, listening. I have played piano since age 7, sung since I could talk and played Clarinet since I was 10. I have been in bands, orchestras, choirs, barbershop quartets, choral groups and too many theatre productions to count. There is no better feeling than having your whole being moved and every emotion felt when listening to, or even better playing a piece of music. For me there is a massive sense of pride and achievement when I learn a piece and can perform it to have some of the emotion I feel when playing come through for others. I have been bought to tears by countless songs and pieces through many genres, I have been taken to the highest of highs, been given hope and joy and felt great despair all through a bunch of notes clustered in a particular way on a page.

Skinfood Mud Masque Review

I am a beauty junky. I love buying and trying new things all the time. I am not loyal to any particular skin care brand and over the years I have tried so many products, I just come up with my own routine for my skin depending on what it is doing at the time. I typically have combination skin (oily t-zone dry cheeks), am prone to hormonal breakouts, and enlarged pores. My tone and pigmentation is pretty ok I can do with a little evening out but overall I am pretty happy with my skin.

Picture for reference and also because I can't resist a selfie!

Imagine my suprise when all over the blogs and forums I follow from NZ there was this talk of a mud masque great for many skin types that was available at the supermarket. Not a cosmetics counter, not at Farmers but in my local Countdown Supermarket. Oh the joy! Another beauty product I can hide amongst the grocery bill and not get told off for buying! (the excitement is real). 

2015... The start of something good?

As a child some of my favourite books were in diary form. From Anne Frank to Go ask Alice, books written as a diary entry had my heart. Countless journals were bought and started but a lack of will power, follow through and just not a hell of a lot to say meant these ended pretty quickly. As an adult I have toyed with the idea of a blog for a long time and have gotten over the fact that I may be boring and not very interesting and have decided to write for me. I figure when I am old(er) I may want to look back and remember what I did in 2015, what I achieved and how I felt. And so starts my Diary...

2015 started with a bang in the company of good friends, food and wine looking out our spectacular view.