Love Fridays, Swimming Pools and Movie Stars

Now that I have your attention!!!! No movie stars in sight but lots of reasons to Love Fridays.

Tonight I'll be escaping the Melbourne "heat wave" and visiting my friend and crafty partner-in-crime Curlypops, for swimming, dinner and market planning. Ms L is coming along for a swim too and I can't wait.

Before you think it can't get any better you should hear what we are doing tomorrow. During Blogtoberfest Curlypops won a day at Sewjourn for her and a friend and we're off there tomorrow. You can see why I'm feeling like a movie star now can't you? Living the life of luxury.

To top it all off I was given an award by the lovely Buttons By Lou Lou. As the names suggests, she makes buttons. They are absolutely gorgeous.

I was particularly stoked to receive this award as it describes in essence what blogging is about for me.

Proximidade is described as follows:'This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

So my list of 8 looks like this:
Taccolina
Hoppo Bumpo
Anastasia Drawing and Dreaming
The Byron Life
Life In The Dome
CrissyGirl
Badskirt
Handmaiden

Alright. I'm off for now. Don't forget I'm having a Happy New Year sale in the shop. The details are here.

If you Love Fridays please join the fun. Let me know if you're joining in. I'll add you to my side bar.

Something For Everyone

I've just done a major update of the shop. Go and check it out. You're sure to find something you like.

To celebrate the start of the year I'm offering a HAPPY NEW YEAR SPECIAL!!! All Thinker (small) and Dreamer (medium) Tinnies come with an extra fat quarter. All the Doer (large) Tinnies are at Dreamer prices. The sale is on until Feb 28 2009.

I've also created some LIMITED EDITION Minnie Tinnies. These are only while stocks last and are so cute. They are little tins filled with assorted goodies for small craft projects like pincushions or brooches. Lucky dips for grown up crafty girls.

This will most likely be the last shop update for a while. I'm going to be busy concentrating on getting ready for the market stall CurlyPops and I are doing in March. This will be my very first market stall and I'll be concentrating on the collage work that I love to do. I'm very excited and nervous at the same time. If you're in Melbourne on March 28th you'll have to come and visit us at the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House Community Market. I'll post all the details soon. Maybe some of you gorgeous ladies can organise a blog meet up and come and visit us all together.

For now though, get yourself over to the shop. If you see a Tinnie you like I suggest you grab it while it's there.

Love Fridays

With 4 days of weekend ahead of me I'm very much Loving the fact that it's Friday today. I have plans. I have desires. Here's the list of things I'd like to do with my weekend.

• Brunch and shopping with Taccolina. This one's a definite.
• Visit the penguins at the Aquarium before they head off. I'll be spending some time with my favourite inhabitants at the Aquarium too if I make it.
  

Leafy Sea Dragons

• Go and have a manicure and pedicure. I've got a voucher waiting to be used.
• Go clothes shopping. I usually love clothes shopping but the difficult relationship I'm having with my body at the moment makes it more of a chore. Desperate times however....
• Paint and collage. I hope I'll have some crafty pictures to show you soon.
  
• A meal at Movida.
• Finish the last of the clean out. There's only a little bit of sorting and storing left to do.
• FLOAT.
• Update the shop. I have lots of new tins to put in my Etsy shop. If you're been wanting to purchase a Tinnie make sure you check out the shop next week. You might find just what you're looking for.
  

I'm pretty sure there's more on the list than I have time for. Perhaps I should put them in a hat and draw them out randomly when I feel like doing something. I can be inclined to start weekends some times with too many desires and a sense of time running out before it even begins. It's something I really want to work on at the moment.

Check out my side bar to see who else Loves Fridays.

Floating

I've been thinking a lot, about lots of different things. No big surprise coming from me.

The emotional and mental process of moving from last year to this year is huge. Much more so than other years. There seems to be so much to look back at, mull over, process and sort. The fact that I am cleaning out my house is more fitting than you can possibly imagine. It's happening on every level of my being.

If I was to pick a single word to describe 2008 it would be "STRUGGLE". Everything about last year was a struggle. Work, health, career, relationships, exercise, food, family. You name it, I struggled with it. And I did it with every bit of me that I had to give. Sometimes I'm amazed that I'm still standing.

Over the last few days I've really been reflecting on this. An analogy of drowning comes to mind. Don't they say that when people are drowning it's often the fight to stay above water that completely exhausts them. It's an instinctual thing isn't it? Trying to take control of a situation, struggling to make things better, to survive. It becomes a core part of your being. If you stop struggling you think you'll go under.

On the other hand don't they say that if you actually let go and relax that you'll float? That the struggle will end and calmness will return? I don't know if it's true but it's something that I'm really pondering as I continue my clean out and open my heart to the new year. How to let go and let the universe carry me. How to let go and FLOAT.

Love Fridays - Did Someone Say Something About A List

Oh yes, that was me. Many times I've talked about making a list for Love Fridays. Pop over to my sidebar and you will see a list of players below the button. If you'd like to join Love Fridays read this post.

So am I Loving Friday this week? Well yes, as a matter of fact I am. I've having afternoon tea with my new blog friend Mellimoomoo here in Melbourne on Sunday and I can't wait. Megan is a woman after my own heart with a passion for collage and paper. Curlypops is coming along too.

I'm lunching with friends tomorrow and have a relaxing night at home tonight. What a great weekend.

2009 feels like it's off to a really good start. I'm feeling really good about the year and where I'm headed. It's a great feeling.

The mega house clean out is nearly finished too. I've got one last project to do and that's cleaning out my boxes of memorabilia. I'm looking forward to it.

I found this photo recently during the clean out. It's me at the Devil's Marbles in the Northern Territory on a work trip in 2004. Who know what other goodness I'll find. Plenty to make me smile, probably a few things to make me weep and a whole lot in between.

Fresh

How I love doing a big clean out. It always makes me feel so much lighter and fresher. We've been doing a major holiday clean out over the past few weeks, getting rid of all the unwanted and excess stuff in our lives. I always find clean outs to be quite emotionally cleansing and symbolic as well, and I was certainly ready for one at the end of last year. The studio was the last room on the list.

I started with this:

And now I have this:

Fresh and clean and organised. Ready for a year of creativity. I can't wait to spend time in there. I went to bed last night with a million ideas running through my head. Big dreams, the best kind.

Back To Loving Fridays

Sometime last weekend I thought to myself "you didn't post anything about Love Fridays this week". The joy of holidays is that every day feels like Friday. Don't you love that feeling? No plans, no commitments, only pleasurable obligations.

This week things are starting to fall back into normal routine. Back to work and back to Loving Fridays.

This weekend will be a goodie. I'm going to finish tidying up and rearranging my studio in preparation for lots of creating. I'm also hoping to have a trip to Borders for some inspiration and maybe just a wee bit of shopping. I might manage to slip a movie in there too if I'm really lucky.

The New Year is getting off to a good start. I can really feel a picture of what I want for my life this year starting to emerge. The last few days I have done some good soul searching and really thought about my goals. I'm narrowing my focus a little. You know, the less is more kind of approach. Interestingly as I have done this I feel like my life is showing signs of becoming a bit more open and fluid. I seem to be approaching things with a more flexible attitude (thanks Ms L for your perspective and words of wisdom). It's a different way of coming at things for me but one that probably fits more comfortably. I'll be interested to see how it pans out.

Now, back to Loving Fridays. Would you like to join me? I'd love it if you could. Post something on your blog on a Friday about why you Love Friday or what you are looking forward to on the weekend. You can get the button for your blog here. And I promise, I'll get that list of players organised this week.

I Heart Sophie Isobel Designs

Edward and Lilly put me on to her. It only took one visit to her blog to fall in love and before I knew it I was over at her shop. Then, in next to no time they were on my doorstep.


I'm ready to get out there in the world and tell everyone of my love. Thanks to Sophie Isobel Designs you can too. There's plenty of love to go around.

I'm also hearting the New Year and all the new ideas, inspiration and direction that are taking shape in my mind.

What are you hearting at the moment?

The Great Struggle

2 years today since me and these bad boys parted ways.

Some days now I forget what an accomplishment it is to stop smoking after 20 years. Occasionally I still want one. Some days I can't remember the exact date that I quit. I don't remember the smell, the control it had over me, the impact on my health or my wallet. Most days I can't remember the struggle which is probably why on odd days I think a cigarette would be just the thing. When I do take the time to stop and remember I recall the battle of a lifetime, and I feel very, very proud of this achievement. It's amazing what I can do when I put my heart and mind to things.

More Than A Few Words

I've been reading lots of my favourite blogs New Year posts. Reading about words for the year, themes, goal and resolutions. I've been wanting to post some thoughts of my own, put my own set of New Year plans out there into the universe but nothing has been coming. I've had a major case of writer's block. Finally today a picture started to form and my thoughts came together.

If I were to have a word for this year it would be ENJOY. I'd like to enjoy life more, enjoy taking risks, enjoy the good things that have been happening in my life, enjoy moving forwards with my dreams and goals, enjoy my relationships with people and enjoy each and every day for what it is. Those who know me would probably agree that I tend to be quite a serious person, perhaps even a little intense at times. It's how I am and I don't mind. However, I'd like to temper it a tad and I think a word like "ENJOY" is the perfect reminder.

If I were to dream big dreams this year I would:

• Earn enough money from my creative business to drop a day at work by the end of the year
• Lose enough weight to feel happy and healthy in my body again
• Have an established exercise routine that I adhere to consistently
• Have a winter holiday to somewhere in Northern Australia and celebrate next New Year in Thailand with friends

If I were to set some goals for 2009 they would look like this:

• Keep establishing and developing Tinniegirl
• Learn more about marketing a craft business
• Lose 20kg
• Exercise 4-5 times a week
• Eat healthy and nutritious food and enjoy treats in moderation
• Spend more time in my studio
• Make a patchwork quilt
• Read more
• Spend more time outdoors

If I were to ask the universe for some gifts it would be these:

• People who like and accept me just as I am, and a few who even love me for it. In 2008 2 people who I though were best friends taught me that sometimes people can't accept you faults and all, and departed my life when I most needed them. I've been lucky to fill the holes with some lovely and unexpected new friends. However, it was, and still is, extremely painful and it is taking me a long time to stop blaming myself for not being perfect. In 2009 I'd like to not have to learn hard lessons about friendship and to enjoy the company of true friends.
• A return to full health for Ms L. 2 years of sickness and exhaustion is enough. It has worn us both out and I wish for her to be well again and to have the chance to fully enjoy life again.

That said, I'm ready to start 2009. Words, dreams, goals and gifts. ENJOY!

A Few Words