FREE! 8 Week (Anything You Want To Do) Challenge Chart

So we are getting towards the end of the year and I've seen many people starting an 8 week challenge.

A quick calculation told me that if I wanna get the 8 weeks done before the kids are done with school for 2017, I better get my butt in gear.

I decided to focus on "mindful eating" and "get moving" for my 8 weeks.

Mindful eating to me means that nothing is off limits, but I have to be very sure I REALLY want it and what goes with it (like extra weight), before it goes into my mouth. I'm hoping this practice will prevent me from just stuffing my face without thinking about it, and hopefully prepare myself to not just grab more and more (and more) during the festive season.

The second part of get moving is to prepare me for my next challenge, which is to start running. I want to get a coach and get to 5kms without walking, and ultimately knock off 10kms. That's the plan, but I realised that I have to at the very least get up from my desk and walk before I can run... so hence this get moving challenge.

Back to the freebie.

I looked for a chart I could mark off completed days, and maybe write myself a short note as motivation or a reminder, but only found very "formal" looking ones with much too much effort expected from me (like daily calories or steps walked). I wanted simple and fun - so I made one.

Okay, so the drawing I did is not exactly simple looking, but the idea is straight forward.

At bare minimum just make a tick when you've met the your challenge for the day. If you don't make it - write - DO BETTER TOMORROW - and keep going. You can write the date of the start of each week on the line at the week number if you like.

If you want, you could write little motivations or reminders, or even colour in the chart. (I only started my challenge today and only finish the drawing like an hour ago, so the pics are literally just the corners of the chart with "fake ticks" and some colouring in to give you an idea...)

Like the name of the post said - this is an "Anything You Want" 8 Week Challenge Chart - so use it to your liking.

Some ideas:
No second helpings
Drink 8 glasses of water a day
Practice 30 minutes of piano/guitar/nose flute a day
Read a poem a day
Write a poem a day
Meditate
Walk
Eat 3 fruit
Do 30 minutes of excersise
No cookies
Walk the dog
Just take a moment to breathe...

Do something your mind or body needs, and get to the festive season as a little bit of a better version of yourself.

DOWNLOAD FREE CHART - A4 PDF

I would love to hear what you decide to do as your challenge - comment below (or on Facebook/Twitter if that's where you found it).

Love, art and happiness
Suki

Mmmm, Chilli hot chocolate...

If you are in or near Cape Town, you probably noticed the cold, cold weather today... and I'm fighting back with hot chocolate.

A couple of years ago I found a recipe for chilli hot chocolate, a perfect thing to beat the winter chill (pun, anyone?).

The thing is, this recipe (although absolutely delicious) involved chillies, cream, dark chocolate and one or two other things I cannot remember right now. It involved infusing, straining etc etc, and other than that I probably don't have cream in the house. This is just too much trouble; in all honesty, if I want a cup of cocoa I want it now, not four hours from now. (That includes going to the shop for the ingredients and getting distracted by shoes. Okay, 5 hours.)

So my husband came up with a rather eloquent solution: and it comes in the form of Lindt chocolate slabs. (I don't know about you, but I need no excuses to add a couple of those to the weekly shopping list.) So here we go (and imagine me drinking a cup while writing, coz I am...).

Lindt Chilli Hot Chocolate (as per Gavin)

 2 blocks of Lindt Chilli dark chocolate (from a 100g slab)
1 block Lindt 70% dark chocolate (from a 100g slab)
mug with milk
microwave
spoon

Break block of chocolate into smaller pieces and add to milk. Microwave for 1 minute, stir. Microwave another minute*, stir again. Drink and make mmmmmm sounds.

*1min, stir, 1min, stir, works for me, but this might be different for your microwave, so maybe try a bit shorter to start and watch carefully, you do not want the milk to boil, just get nice and hot. Taste with caution.

This combo gives me that hint of chilli that I like, but if you prefer more of a bite, go chilli chocolate all the way.

The cream infusing recipe I mentioned above is more rich and luxurious, but for a quick fix, this will be hard to beat.

Keep warm
Suki


PS If you do believe you have a better quick hot chocolate recipe, please let me know
xxxS

Add colour to your day

I've got a thing for butterflies... So after chatting to Talita, a Zentangle artist (more on her soon), I was inspired and decided to draw, well a butterfly.

So this is my zentangle-inspired-art (T calls it Zia, coz she's smart that way).

Download it, print it, colour it in, stick it on your wall, turn it into a card, make it yours.

And once you are done, pop me an email (suki@jaggeddaisy.co.za) with a photo of what you did - I wanna know!

Download now!

For personal use only.

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Cute camera brooch DIY

I found a DIY for this cute little camera brooch on photojojo.com

I'm not normally much of a brooch girl, but this one is of a camera and I can (in theory) make it myself, and, it's cute dammit!

There is a little problem though - I have only half an idea of what shrink plastic is, and no idea where to find it in Cape Town. (If you do - please pop me an email - suki@jaggeddaisy.co.za and tell me). 

You could probably turn it into something else - maybe pop in a hole to turn it into a necklace or keychain (add hole before baking) or put a magnet on the back and brighten up your fridge. 

Anyway - if you would like to make your own, check out the tutorial on photojojo...

Send me pics of what you made, or, even better, send me a brooch ;)

xxxSuki