Cresting The Hill

MY WINTER KNITTING PROJECT

Monday 31 July 2017

when the weather outside is frightful it's time to warm up with a little knitting

WINTER DOWN UNDER

While the rest of the world is basking in Summer, it's the middle of Winter down here in the Southern Hemisphere and apparently it was time to take on a new project. My friend Julie has been knitting throw rugs for her family for the last couple of years and finally convinced me to start one of my own. Now, for those who know me as the AntiCraft you will realize that this was no small undertaking on my part.

So, with that in mind I thought I'd do a quick update on what I've been filling my time with in between blogging, Facebooking, Pinteresting, working, and reading (it's nice to have a bit of variety)......

5 WAYS TO RE-FILL YOUR EMPTY NEST

Friday 28 July 2017

If you have an empty nest and you're wondering how to enjoy it then here's five great ways to begin to fill your nest again. #emptynest #midlife

WHEN YOUR NEST FEELS EMPTY

No matter how well we handle the departure of our adult "kids" from the family nest, there will always be times when we feel a bit lost. For some it happens immediately, for others it happens spasmodically, but it happens and we need to find ways to re-fill our nests and move on with our own lives. I've put together five suggestions that might help you fill up your life again.

MIDLIFE AND BEING A HEN

Wednesday 26 July 2017

Discovering I am a Happy Empty Nester (HEN) - well most of the time

HEN-DOM

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about being a HEN - an anacronym for Happy Empty Nester. I was patting myself nicely on the back and thinking how successful I was in the launching of my chicks and celebrating the joys of the empty nesting box.

AN UPDATE ON BEING 'ENOUGH'

Monday 24 July 2017

ENOUGH

Well, we're more than halfway through the year so I thought it might be timely to look back at my Word for 2017 - "Enough" that I wrote about at the beginning of January. Time has certainly flashed by and in the process I think my idea of "Enough" has changed slightly and now has a different emphasis.

5 TIPS FOR BECOMING MORE "REAL"

Friday 21 July 2017

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'RE BECOMING "REAL"?

Sometimes we lose track of who we are and start wondering where to go to get back on track. Today I've put together five starting points to re-discovering the path to being authentically real and authentically yourself. We all need to start somewhere after all the years of being in the background while we nurtured those around us. So here are my five tips to getting started:

DEFINING A "REAL WOMAN"

Wednesday 19 July 2017

How do we start living like 'real women'? It begins with defining the term

MEDIA'S DEFINITION OF "REAL WOMEN"

Social media bombards us with images of "real women" - from reality stars, to movie stars, to models, to politicians, to news anchors, and the list goes on and on. But is that really who a "real" woman is? Most of the time these women have been groomed to fit a reality that is not what I see as "real" or even desirable. Who wants to live on lettuce leaves until they die, or constantly be camera ready in case someone takes your photo?

MIDLIFE AND BEING A PERENNIAL

Monday 17 July 2017

The Perennials. We are ever-blooming, relevant people of all ages who live in the present time,

A NEW DEFINITION OF MIDLIFE

Recently I saw an article on Facebook (where else do you see articles these days?) that introduced me to a new descriptive term for Midlifers - apparently we can now refer to ourselves as "Perennials".

The term originated from a US internet entrepreneur Gina Pell, who defines the term in the following way:

5 HAPPY AND HEALTHY TIPS

Friday 14 July 2017

5 tips simple tips towards being happier and healthier

I am the last person in the world to tell people how to be fit and fabulous, but I can give you five tips that help me accept myself and the Midlife woman I have become. It's not about lying on the couch eating peeled grapes (though that does sound good), it's about finding simple things that work and feel right for you - not for the people around you, but for you personally. So, here's my five tips:

TAKING MY EXERCISING UP A NOTCH

Wednesday 12 July 2017

When you know in your heart (and your waistline) that you need to up your exercise

FITNESS QUEEN (OR NOT)

I'd love to tell you that the photo above is me at the gym. I'd love to tell you that I am the Queen of Midlife Fitness. I'd love to tell you that I can't wait to get out of bed every morning so that I can run 10km before I eat my raw muesli and drink my green smoothie. But if I told you any of those things I'd be lying through my teeth.

THE BEST DIET FOR MIDLIFE

Monday 10 July 2017

Forget what the experts say - this is my advice for the best Midlife diet

WHICH FAD DIET IS IT TODAY?

Have you noticed how much diet advice there is out there for women in Midlife? As we hit our 50's and menopause and a slowing metabolism settle in, the kilos creep on and we start reading all these articles everywhere on how to beat the midrift spread, or how to look like we're 30, or how to still look great in a bikini, or how to fight the muffin top etc.

5 BENEFITS OF LETTING GO

Friday 7 July 2017

Letting go can be scary - but here are 5 great benefits we gain

TIME TO OPEN UP THAT FIST

Often we hold on to things for much longer than is healthy for us. When we finally open our clenched fist and let go of the toxic person or situation in our life we find there are benefits we never expected. Letting go of trying to control everyone and everything frees us to appreciate what we have in our life in its own right without having conditions placed on our acceptance of it.

TURNING OFF THE NEED TO MICRO-MANAGE

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Learning that life doesn't need to be micro-managed can be so liberating

HEADACHES

When I was writing about my daith piercing on Monday, I got to thinking about why I had so many headaches in the first place. One of the biggest causes was stress, and my days were full of stress because I needed to micro-manage every detail of my life. This included what I was doing at any given time and also the people who were around me while I was busy doing it. It kicks in big time when I'm facing a new situation or something a bit scary - it seems to be my go-to method for dealing with new situations.

A DAITH PIERCING UPDATE

Monday 3 July 2017

my daith piercing update - 12 months post-piercing

12 MONTHS SINCE I DID THE DEED

It's a bit scary putting a close up of my ear and face on the screen - all those years of wear and tear are on display for all to see, but you can't show a picture of an ear piercing without having part of your face end up in the picture!

It's been just over 12 months since I took the plunge and had my daith pierced to see if it would help the chronic debilitating headaches I dealt with several times a week for most of my adult life. I wrote a post on it last year after a few months (HERE) to describe what it had been like and what my thoughts were on the process.