{nothing to fear}

just a world of colour and joy to be explored

big dreams to be dreamed

hope to be nourished

and all things to feel possible

for me and for you

happy weekend peeps

{one truly amazing day}

Last Saturday 16 brave souls put their trust in mine and Louise Gale's hands and joined us for Your Awesome Year.

We celebrated 2011 and bid it farewell

We spent time affirming ourselves

We played with magazines, and glue, textas and pens

We took time for ourselves and time to connect

We indulged

We let ourselves dream and let those dreams pour onto our vision boards

It was truly the most amazing day.

For me it was a moment of coming home.  To finding myself in a place that I'd been yearning for and yet denying for such a long time.  I have been involved in facilitating groups and leading others in their journey for as long as I can remember.  For some reason over the last few years I've really struggled to embrace that part of myself.  Saturday left me with absolutely no doubt that this is what I'm meant to be doing and what I love to do.  Combined with the work I'm doing in my Soul Business course it was life changing.

If you weren't able to join us this time don't worry, there'll be more where that came from, including a retreat that I'm dreaming of for next year!  {Eeek, can't believe I'm putting that out there already!}

*Thanks to Ms L for being our official photographer and for all your hard work.  I couldn't have done it, or anything that matters for that matter, without you.  Muah!

{wednesday already?}

So yesterday was Tuesday but I thought it was Monday.  I woke up today thinking it was Tuesday but around lunchtime I realised it was actually Wednesday.  And it's February no less.  Wow, is this year off to a flying start.  

The winner of the Lights Hunters giveaway is 74 Lime Lane.  Congrats Kellie.  I hope you enjoy it.  Huge thanks to Vivienne for the giveaway too.

Ok, back to the painting for me and the studio assistant.

*****

{stop the press}

There's so much news to share and I want to fill you in on everything that's been happening with me over the last few weeks.  BUT I've got the most sensational giveaway to share first.

You all know I'm a huge fan of Vivienne McMaster.  She's completely inspiring and I absolutely love her work.

Vivienne has generously offered up a giveaway for her upcoming Light Hunters e-course and I'm delighted to offer someone the chance to join one of her amazing courses.

About Light Hunters {from Vivienne's website}
The Light Hunting classes invite you to ignite your relationship with light. Photography is visual poetry based on the language of light. These courses invite you not only to seek out the light on the bright beautiful days but as well to seek it out in places where others may not notice it. At the core of these courses is the idea that there is always light and you are invited to look at the world around you in a different light.

Through visual inspiration and thoughtful posts, you are will find yourself falling in love with light and see an improvement in your photography!

Light Hunters, the original course, is a 30 day class. Each day you are invited to look at a new aspect of light as these daily posts arrive in your inbox!

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment.  But be quick.  I'll be drawing the winner on Wednesday.  Class starts this week. {make sure you include an email contact for this one}

*****

Here's a quick summary of other news:

• I have two new jobs starting this week.  Excellent part-time jobs that will energise and inspire me, pay the bills and leave plenty of room for my own creative work.
• Hello Soul Hello Business is continuing to blow me away and change everything about the way I see myself in business.
• Your Awesome Year was absolutely incredible.  It was amazing for the participants and for me it was like coming home after years of denying my true calling.
• I'm working on my own vision board for 2012.
• I've got my first solo gallery exhibition opening at Red Brick on Friday 17th Feb at 6pm and I'd love you to join me.
• Things feel like they are lining up for me at the moment in the most incredible way.
• 2012 is going to be an absolutely awesome year.

{late night sunday snippets}

{sunday snippets}: a collection of photos from your week.  No need for words.  Let the pictures tell your story.  Pop your link in below if you're joining in.

*****

And finally some giveaway winners.  Lotti, The Byron Life and tartankiwi you've each won yourselves a set of nanoblocks.  Email me with your address so I can post them off to you at some stage.

*****

I can't wait to share all about Your Awesome Year with you.  It was totally mind blowing for me.  I'll try and pull words and pictures together in the next few days. 

{living}

It's been a crazy busy week.  Lots of great stuff happening but absolutely no balance to it or me whatsoever.  It's part of a process that I'm working through at the moment.  Sorting out how all the parts of my new life are going to fit together.  I think it's just one of those things that's going to take time, lots of trial and error and probably a whole lot of practice.  I don't think there's one of those words in the photo above that doesn't apply to me at the moment.  

I've said it before, this living of dreams isn't for the faint hearted.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Anyway, just wanted to stop by and say Hi.

How are you peeps?

*****

I haven't forgotten the giveaway.  I'll try and draw winners on Sunday, which means you can still enter until then.

{sunday snippets, the self-portrait addition*}

{sunday snippets}: a collection of photos from your week.  No need for words.  Let the pictures tell your story.  Pop your link in below if you're joining in.

*****

*Vivienne McMaster has a new session of You Are Your Own Muse starting in February.  I've been having so much fun playing with self-portraiture ever since I took the course.  I've always loved taking self-portraits but Vivienne's class takes it to a whole new level.

*****

I'm leaving the giveaway open for a couple more days.  Feel free to pop over and enter.

{baking treats of different kind}

Little nuggets of magic for Your Awesome Year

We have just a couple of spots left for Your Awesome Year and have decided to extend registration until 12pm Sunday {tomorrow}.  Just in case there's anyone out there who has been thinking about joining us but hasn't got to doing so yet.

All the workshop info is here and you can sign up here

Dreaming and planning for this workshop has been such an incredible experience.  It's been amazing to watch it come to life and to watch me come to life with it.  Combined with the Hello Soul Hello Business course that I'm one week into {it's totally life changing my friends} I feel like I am taking off at the moment.  And it feels fan-fucking-tastic.

For those of you coming along next Saturday you are in for one absolutely awesome day.

See you tomorrow for {sunday snippets} peeps!

{things i see}

an opportunity to live a full and amazing life 

to be everything I ever dreamed of being

to live with abundance

to be fulfilled, happy, true

*****

I'll draw winners for the giveaway on Sunday.   You can still enter here.

{sharpening pencils}

Image courtesy of my talented friend Darren Freak {yep, that's his real name!}

Just wanted to let you know that today is your last chance to register for Your Awesome Year.

When I first dreamed up this event I imagined a day of absolute indulgence.  A day of gorgeousness.  A day of great food and beautiful surroundings.  A day of visioning your most amazing year.  A day of connecting.  A day of being spoilt like you deserve to be. I've been working on it for months now and I've put so much of my heart and soul and creative energy into it.  I wanted it to be something extraordinay and that's exactly what it's going to be.

You can join us here

{lessons in letting go - part I}

It turned out that the wind didn't blow us far at all.

When push came to shove I had an incredible urge just to enjoy some downtime at home, and Ms L was fine to go with it.

I have such a hard time letting go of an idea once I've got it in my head.  Even something like a quick trip to the house of retro goodness.

But this time I just went with it.

{we're off, and a giveaway}

Ms L and I are off to the house of retro goodness for a week. A week of no plans.  A week of seeing where the wind blows us.  Sure, there's books to read and dreaming to be done, vision boards to be played with, thoughts of swimming and walking and maybe a glass of vino.  But we'll see where the breeze takes us.  My favourite kind of holiday.

I thought I'd leave you with a little giveaway, to tide you over till I get back.  If you recall back during Blogtoberfest, the good folk over at zip-zip gave me some very excellent USBs to giveaway just because I asked nicely.  Well, those guys happen to have some really groovy friends over at Blockshop and they've given me some fun giveaways too.

If you haven't come across Nanoblocks they're the coolest things ever.  Miniature blocks to build cute things with.  Go and check them out.

I have 3 sets to giveaway.  Leave a comment telling me your favourite kind of holiday and I'll draw winners when I get back.

Have a lovely week peeps.

**************************************************

Registration for Your Awesome Year closes on Thursday.  We've still got a couple of places left if you're interested.  All the details are here or you can register right here.

{sunday snippets}

{sunday snippets}: a collection of photos from your week.  No need for words.  Let the pictures tell your story.  Pop your link in below if you're joining in.

{the filmlife project bloggers challenge}

Image credit Alicann

''This is the sun
These are your lungs
This is the day you were born.''

                                                                            Always - Switchfoot

I mentioned yesterday that my friend Cam had something new for us to join in with. If you haven't been over and checked it out please do. It's something worth taking a minute for.  You might even save a life by increasing awareness about this important issue.

What’s your take on or experience with organ donation, and why did you choose to take part in the FilmLife Blogger Challenge?

Getting to know my friend CurlyPops has given me first hand insight into the importance of organ donation.  I've been signed up to be an organ donor for a long time but now that I have a good friend waiting for a transplant I get it on a whole different level.

If you were to donate your organs, which one would you love to donate, and why?(nb. this question is intentionally quirky so feel free to be creative and have some fun with it)

I've got ex-smoker's lungs, a crap bladder, a dodgy stomach and haven't exactly treated my body like a temple, but hey, you're welcome to whatever you need.  Except my eyes.  I decided when I first became an organ donor that I'd hang on to my eyes so I can find my way in the afterlife.

Who in your family would you need to talk to about organ donation, to be sure your loved ones knew your wishes? 

My peeps know my wishes {including the quirky thing about hanging on to my eyes} so I'm all set.

If you join in with the challenge make sure you sign up on Cam's blog so we can check out your response.  You can read more about The Filmlife Project here

{things i'm diggin}

Kicking starting my new year with the Soul Business Sessions co-hosted by Beth Nicholls and Kelly Rae Roberts.  For years I've struggled to create a business plan for myself using traditional notions of business and planning.  I'm so excited for what this course will hold for me and my fledgling enterprise.  It feels like the timing is perfect.

CurlyPops latest endeavour.  I'm going to post my answers to the questions tomorrow.  Please join in and help this important cause.

Andrea's trip to Mexico.  I can remember how long she's been talking about wanting to paint and I'm so excited that she's taking this bold step.

Hatching a stupendously cool new project with three awesome women.

Feeling strong and grounded and more certain as I make my way into this new year.

Putting my custom 'word of the year' paintings out there into the world.  I'm crazy proud of these babies.

Ok, I'm off to my favourite art shop to buy supplies.

Have a lovely weekend peeps!