Lisa Barlow’s Blue Twist Cutout Confessional Sweater

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 3 Fashion

New confessional alert!   Based on the green screen of her house behind her, it appears as though we’ll be seeing Lisa Barlow debut a new confessional lewk on RHOSLC soon with this blue cutout sweater. And just like a good (Vida Tequila!) cocktail, it definitely has a very nice twist. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

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Photo: @LisaBarlow14

Originally posted at: Lisa Barlow’s Blue Twist Cutout Confessional Sweater

Some years ago, at the age of 61, I quit my job, rented out my flat and flew to Australia to research my family history.

It was not an easy business. In the days before Airbnb and other similar organisations made letting so much more flexible, agents insisted on a minimum of a year’s lease, with a six-month break clause, gas safety checks, inventories, fire-proofing and so on.

On my part, there was the cancelling of utilities, council tax, water and phone and broadband contracts. I had to inform – and pay – my insurance and mortgage companies. And, of course, there was the packing up and storing of all my personal stuff. (Fortunately, I have a loft.)

I Don’t Regard Myself as a Particularly Adventurous Person

I’m a cautious soul by nature, and I like a certain predictability in my life. However, throughout it all and whenever a hint of doubt crept in – particularly as to whether I would find tenants for my flat in the first place or whether I might end up homeless and penniless – I was spurred on by a quote I once came across from the writer Richard Price in The Paris Interviews:

‘Sometimes the fear of the unknown is not as great as the fear of things staying the way they are.’

It Had Been a Torrid Few Years

Three years earlier, I had separated from my husband of 28 years, not amicably. The kids had gone and there was the family house to be sold, which itself was a nightmare. Three sales fell through. In all it took 18 months to eventually sell the house and another six months for me to find, buy and move into my flat (I was a ‘first-time buyer’ in my 60s). And then what?

Once the dust had settled, and I had regained enough of my equilibrium to turn my attention to the future, it didn’t look that wonderful. I had a part-time job I no longer enjoyed. I was aware of the passing of the years and the dwindling opportunities available to someone of my age.

It Was Now or Never

My late mother was Australian, which makes me half-British, half-Australian. I had actually migrated to Australia in my 20s as part of the ‘Ten pound pom’ scheme, where the Australian government paid for people from overseas to come to live in their glorious country.

I was an actress then looking to further my career, which in itself was an odd thing to do. I spent three glorious years in the great south land before I returned to England, got married and had kids.

In all the time I spent in Australia in my youth I took no interest in my Australian ancestry, or how my maternal family came to be there in the first place. It was my aunt who first sparked my interest on one of my sporadic visits to Sydney in my later years.

She was the only one of three sisters who remained in Australia, and she spent her retirement years researching her family’s history there and in Britain, going back to the 16^th century and beyond.

Our original Australian ancestress, a widow in her 50s with five children, had migrated to what was then New South Wales in 1801. This was barely 13 years after the First Fleet, travelling from England with around 1,000 convicts, first set foot in the new colony and planted the Union Jack on its soil.

It was not a country people chose to go to voluntarily. It was effectively a penal colony, there was very little infrastructure, the climate was foreign, and extreme, and hostile to British crops. The original arrivals had almost starved to death. No wonder they considered it the worst country in the world. (This ended up as the title of my first book.)

What a story that was! You couldn’t make it up. I had to know more, not just about my own family but about this terrible continent they ended up in, and not least why they chose to go there in the first place.

So: Was It a Good Decision?

You bet it was. I eventually found tenants for my flat five days before leaving. I had funds.

I also discovered a new passion which would keep me absorbed for a decade to come, and more. I was no longer consumed with guilt for unilaterally ending my marriage. I felt 10 years younger. I was ready to spend my third trimester exploring new territory.

This was the first of many trips to and from Australia. Thanks to Airbnb and Wimdu, the European equivalent, letting my flat became a whole lot easier and no longer involved having to cancel household contracts.

This adventure into writing about the past has led to several more books, fiction and non-fiction, and a new and invigorating passion for delving into the history of my country and the people who lived in it.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you find your family history interesting? Enough to cross the globe to find out more? What fascinates you about the people who came before you? Would you say they have breathed passion into your own life after 60?

Leva Bonaparte’s Red Leather One Shoulder Dress on WWHL

Watch What Happens Live November 28, 2022 Fashion

Leather Leva! Leva Bonaparte was on Watch What Happens Live last night to promote her new Bravo show in this holiday party-perfect red leather dress. Which we’ve of course linked down below to provide y’all with some good ol’ Southern shopping hospitality. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Amanda Uprichard Dress in Red or Black

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Photo: @BravoWWHL

Originally posted at: Leva Bonaparte’s Red Leather One Shoulder Dress on WWHL

Actually, you were moving long before the day of your birth. Babies in utero kick, punch, get hiccups, suck their thumbs and move their heads. All these movements are vital to the development of bones and joints.

Fetal breathing movements, which don’t actually move air in and out of the lungs, help the lungs grow and so the respiratory muscles develop a month or two before breathing air becomes a thing.

Your Whole Body Health Depends on Movement, Not Exercise

No matter how long you’ve been breathing air, movement has always been more important than exercise. Biomechanist Katy Bowman says you don’t need to exercise, you just need to move.

Here’s why:

Draw a circle and imagine it filled with all the ways your body moves every day – your heart beating, eyes blinking, breathing (more on this later). If you gave birth, you know how much your body can move!

Now think about your wake-up stretch, scrolling the New York Times app, bending and scooping pet food into the bowl, hurrying to the stove as the tea kettle whistles, stepping over the side of the tub into the shower, reaching around to scrub your back.

All things that you wouldn’t normally count if I asked whether you’ve moved today. Because we mostly disregard all movement that doesn’t fall into the “exercise” category when it comes to our daily needs and routines. 

But Exercise Is How We Get Healthy, Right?

Let’s draw another circle. Label it “exercise.” Fill it with health- and fitness-focused activities. Morning walk, push-ups, pull-ups, calf stretch, yoga, Kegels, kettlebell lifts, etc. All those things you do for 10 reps or 30 minutes three times per week. Exercises that usually require you to be someplace special, like a gym or studio or on Zoom. 

Now, take a look at what Katy Bowman says is the real relationship between movement and exercise. 

All Exercise Is Movement, But Not All Movement Is Exercise

Each and every day you’re naturally moving more than you’re exercising. Maybe you aim to spend an hour per day walking, weightlifting or doing yoga. That leaves 23 hours every day when you could be making all your movements matter.

Arranging your life and your home so that you move more to accomplish all the things that you want and need to do. That’s why the Nutritious Movement method is such a fresh and powerful idea. It’s always available, wherever you are, all day long.

Take five minutes to scroll her website and introduce yourself to Katy Bowman’s approach. Now’s the time to refresh old ideas about exercise and create new habits for moving better every day at every age.

Want to know more about the Nutritious Movement idea? Start with this delicious idea: “Movement, like food, is not optional; ailments you may be experiencing are simply (and complexly) symptoms of movement hunger in response to a movement diet that is dangerously low in terms of quantity and poor in terms of quality – meaning you aren’t getting the full spectrum of movement nutrition necessary for a baseline human function.”

Try Deep, Active Breathing

Humans breathe in and out about 20,000 times per day. Mostly without thinking about it, unless you are dealing with chronic respiratory health issues. Or when wildfire smoke fills the air, as it does each summer here in northern California. Or if the current catastrophes are weighing heavy on your heart, you may notice that sometimes you are barely breathing at all.

With a bit of mindfulness, in less than a minute, you can activate more of your lung power and build better breathing muscles. This is a movement that you learned a very long time ago (See Fetal Breathing Movements above).

Try this practice:

Start by standing. Place your hands around the sides of your lower ribcage. Inhale deeply enough to feel your ribcage expand into the resistance of your fingers and palms. As you exhale, let the hands rest (don’t press) on the ribs as they move inward. Try this for 10-12 breath cycles, breathing in and out through your nose.

Here’s a nerdy, nasal breathing science note: Breathing in and out through the nose brings added benefits of filtering and humidifying incoming air, as well as improving general circulation through the production of nitric oxide, which widens blood vessels.

Relieve stress as you breathe slowly and mindfully. Active Deep Breathing increases the strength of the muscles between the ribs, which actually help you take in more oxygen and expel more waste, increasing the effectiveness of a cough. The tug of those muscles on the ribs also increases bone mass over time. 

Breathing is a movement. Active Deep Breathing is an exercise (also a movement). And both are available to you all day long. Try it and let me know how it goes.

Now that you know more about the relationship between movement and exercise, what can you add to this list of movements for building everyday strength?

• Carry the groceries around the store as you shop.
• Walk home with the groceries.
• Resist offers to “have a seat.” Stand instead. Or sit on the floor.
• Take the stairs.
• Place cups, coffee and tea on a low shelf and start your morning with a squat.
• Store wine glasses on a high shelf to add reach to your refreshment.
• Take a break from scrolling and focus on something 20 feet away for five seconds.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What simple changes can you make in your kitchen to bring nutritious movement into food and drink preparation? Take a deep breath and consider how you will make a new move today!