{five sleeps}

Five sleeps till Ms L and I head off on a cruise to the South Pacific. About four weeks ago we spontaneously booked it thanks to the prompting of this wonderful woman's partner.

Ms L and I haven't had a real holiday in years. You know, the hang out in bathers, read good books and drink cocktails kind.

We are so frickin' excited.

Lists are being made, bags are being readied for packing, sunscreen and various sundries purchased. And then there's the big decisions, like whether I really do need a lovely new handbag to take on my adventure.

Five sleeps peeps. Five sleeps.

{don't overthink it}

I'm determined to get back to my creative passions this year - writing and painting. I've really missed the regular practice these past couple of years.

There's a bunch of good reasons as to why I haven't done much of it but I also know that part of the absence has been due to not prioritising creative pursuits and not being disciplined about putting my energy into them. And then the less you do of creative things the less confident you feel about doing them, and suddenly you're in a downward spiral and it's really hard to get back to it. The excuses and self-doubt take over, the walls go up and before you know it you're not creating at all. It's not the first time I've been in the spiral but somehow this time I'm more aware that getting out is about discipline and determination, and giving myself a little bit of a push.

I'm trying not to overthink things too much. Trying not to wait for the perfect time, the perfect blog post, the inspiration to hit, the moon and starts to align in some particular way. Instead I'm just going to work on showing up, until it starts to come naturally again.

Have a nice weekend peeps. I plan to do some painting. What have you got on?

{gearing up, sort of}

Back to work this week. It feels like a bit of a slog at the moment. Partly because I'm only back for two weeks and then off on a lovely holiday, so it doesn't quite feel like the year has started.

I'm also waiting to hear on the outcome of a new position that I applied for late last year. It 's an exciting new opportunity, and very likely to be mine, but you know, all that dotting of i's and crossing of t's that has to happen before things are official.

So I'm kind of in an in-between place at the moment. Trying to gear up but also unable to until I know what my role will be exactly and until I'm really settled for the year.

How about you? Are you gearing up and going full steam ahead?