Nearly 2 months

Well so much for regular blogging! No I did not get sucked into the Facebook vortex. Call me old (no I'm not revealing any more about that statement!) but I just don't see the point.

Anybody I want to keep in touch with I do via private forum, and I truly don't like the idea of my personal photos there for anybody to see....I am a little nervous about all these young people with their entire lives exposed there. Hmmm future implications?

Who can say just now.

So facebook was fun for a while.

Where have I been? I wish I could say working furiously creatively but the honest truth is working, not particularly creatively and with a dreadful draining cold.

NOT flu - just a miserable cold.

So I've been wallowing in self pitty - but with Christmas on the boil it is fun times ahead, nothing a creative spark needs more than some tinsel and trimmings huh!
Smile, laugh, enjoy, and live for now....

Facebook fun & wasted time!

Well I have taken the plunge and joined facebook! Not sure of the implications of this for me just yet, but so far I have wasted 30 minutes on a word game trying to beat my best score!

Is this the best use of my time? I'm not sure!

Is this a good place for me to find people I have lost touch with? Maybe, I've looked up a few people and worked out who they are and that I might know them....maybe next time I will get the courage to ask them to be my friend.

On a creative note, it is always good to take on new experiences and see what comes of them, so ultimately this has to be a good thing to do if all I ever get out of it is a new fun experience for a while...

Plus there are some great groups there that might be worth being part of! Stay tuned....

Look after your ideas

How do you look after your ideas?

Do you keep them in a special box? In a book to treasure?

Do you store them on scraps of whatever is handy to be surprised and delighted by them when you stumble upon them later?

Whatever your method, don't let them go!

Don't let them journey back to unconsciousness, hold on to them so you can enjoy them again later. Who knows there may just be a seed of a real treasure waiting to be cultivated...

Look after your ideas, they are a gift!

What is love, anyway?

The best relationship is the one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

I read this recently....and I love it! Think about it and it makes perfect sense.

Love you, dear reader....

What choice?

My my time does fly!

I have been thinking over recent weeks on the idea that we have choice. How we exercise that choice to move forward is entirely up to us.

There is a fantastic quote going around by somebody much more famous than me who says something along the lines that the worst decision you can make is nothing, the best is the right one.

What does that mean? Well doing something is better than doing nothing and that means making a choice....hurrah!

Here's to making the best possible choices.

Happy New Year!

Feeling overwhelmed, be the fish....

I bought some new fish the other day. I love watching them swim around I find it inspirational, however for some reason when we buy groups of fish, they gradually 'move on' to warmer waters and we end up with one or two lingerers that the rest of the family lose interest in and continually beg me to buy more, newer, brighter fish.

My response is always the same, it wouldn't be fair on 'Gobbo 8' and 'Harry 10' (yes, creative blog aside, my children seem attached to particular names for their fish....good thing really since it makes their fragile little lives more replaceable with Gobbo 9 and Harry 11!).

Anyway, my creative point is that sometimes staring into the watery surface at glistening fish scales, coloured rocks and uneaten goldfish flakes one finds the positivity of life (and the cycle of death).

Those little guys swimming around, and around, and around, is a bit like a positive pick-me-up. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed like you are swimming around and around and around, but take some time to reflect on the ripples of life and the coloured rocks below and let go (a 3 second memory helps!). You could even try breathing with an open mouthed guppy fish face if you wanted a laugh!

Watch, lose yourself for a few moments, come back refreshed and ready to collect your thoughts so you don't have to keep swimming around and around and around.

When you get overwhelmed - pause, change your thoughts, reassess your priorities and move forward again.

Celebrate your success

You know the funny thing, we set our goals (if we are the clever ones...we even write them down and focus on them!!!), but we never set our success measure.

It is vitally important to know where you're going - we've all read the analogy about getting in the car and driving on a whim and arriving anywhere, or getting in the car and looking on the road map to know exactly where we are going to make sure we get there the best way possible.

Well your arrival is your success - but in goal setting do we celebrate our success and our arrival at our goal appropriately? Do we take the time to set small and achievable goals and celebrate the achievements along the way? If you don't then you might just lose momentum for the next goal....

Keep your momentum by celebrating your success!! Hurrah....

Are you on the Energy Bus?

I have just finished reading Jon Gordon's book The Energy Bus, 10 rules to fuel your life, work and team with positive energy.

One of my most expensive habits is buying books and reading reading reading ~ it means that I am constantly infused with new ideas and thoughts to think.

This is one of the quickest, but most meaningful reads I have picked up recently and as always seems the case for me ~ timely. Do yourself a favor and beg your library to order one or buy one to have forever...the message is delivered in a way that is not trite or sappy and really resonated with me.

Best quote? "Do not focus on the future because the future brings only what the present gives it. Rather focus on the path. Keep your head up and your heart full of joy." We only have one life - live it joyfully! That's not to say that bad things don't and won't happen but it's the meaning you attach to them and the way you move forward from them that determines the path ahead.

So what will it be? Henry David Thoreau suggests that most men "lead lives of quiet desperation" ~ do you chose desperation or joy?

Feeling the urge....

I created this blog to inspire me to think about being creative more often, only problem is that I think creative thoughts at odd times, and when I sit down and decide to do the biz I find myself high and dry.....but as with all new things it is also a matter of forming the habit to blog daily.

For now I'm taking the pressure off and writing when I feel the urge, I may even tweet instead but I have to investigate that one!

But one habit that has been brewing in our house is for me to spend 5 minutes with the kids at the end of the day and get them to write 3 things they achieved that they were pleased or proud of over the course of the day, one thing they didn't handle so well and how they could have done it better, and 3 things they plan to achieve the next day.

It's had mixed reactions. Miss 9 3/4 loves it, Mr 12 1/2 is not so keen and was practically in tears the first night (yep it erupted into some kind of power struggle) but after 4 nights of it he knows the routine and that avoidance is not an option....he also seems to be enjoying it just a little.

I am hoping that my little social experiment will prove that reflecting on your achievements will set a nice precedent and that they can look back when they've had a not so good day and see that it's not always doom and gloom. So far so good......

What are yours??????

Consider me your fairy godmother.....make 3 secret wishes, write them down in your journal.....keep wishing and take steps towards creating them.

Oh yeah did I mention that bit? You gotta do the work towards your goals - but journaling them helps make them real. I promise it does!

Problems Problems Problems

Problems happen - there are always going to be challenges in your life. The key is to deal with the issue as best you can, but from a place of calm not stress.

Identify it, break it down and create strategies to solve it. Once the problem has been solved you might want to journal about it. Just a few line about what happened, how you dealt with it, how to stop it happening again if appropriate - and then.....LET IT GO!!!!

Holding on to negative thoughts and feelings benefits nobody - least of all yourself.

So have your problems - they are a sign of life - deal with them and journal it away.......ahhhhhh after the day I've had I know I will be writing a HUGE journal entry tonight......technology can be a joy and a curse all at the same time - but that's for another blog!

Clear out the clutter

One of the best things you can do (it's also good feng shui) is get rid of clutter.

I spent an evening going through a bunch of books and magazines I have been holding on to for years and have plenty to take to the charity shop for somebody else to enjoy.

But the biggest gains were in those books that I bought and placed into the bookshelf to read 'later', but somehow never got around to. Quite a few of them are more relevant to me now than they would have been when I bought them!

Ever heard that saying when the pupil is ready the teacher will come, rediscovering some old resources have really inspired me!

So do yourself a favor - spend a little bit of time tackling the clutter that accumulates in our lives - be it mental or physical and you may just find renewed vigor for something you thought you had lost, or find the spark of a new idea in something you forgot you had.

So today's task is to try and make time, even 30 minutes, to tackle some clutter and cleanse!

Just put one foot in front of the other

So it's actually day one, and it's lunchtime and I am thinking...I can't welch already can I?

So here I am searching for something vitally interesting to say. I seem to have lost the creative spark in recent busy years. I opened a shop a few years ago and one of the freedoms I loved the most was that I could illustrate these little newsletters and signs...I made no money, but loved the freedom to draw these kooky little images - after all I had a kids art shop so I really had to spend all day drawing and being creative didn't I? I might upload some from time to time.

So here is today's challenge. Think back over the past few years, what is something you really really used to enjoy but have not done for a long time? Can you think of just one thing?

Now go do it....go on....right now.....(OK maybe later after you have had your lunch.).

Start at the very beginning...

....a very good place to start!

Inspired by the lovely Julia Andrews (a la Sound of Music) I have decided to do just that.

Having procrastinated waaaay long enough I am jumping in to practice what I would like to preach.

You see, I firmly believe in the power of art, journaling and vision work to achieve your goals - but for the longest time have felt that unless I am doing this every day - LIKE - EVERY DAY - then how could I possibly be a good leader for the cause.

Then it struck me, a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious.....what were you thinking.....??) that if I blogged it I really would do it.....So here goes.

I hope to bring inspired thinking into my own life by brining it into yours.

Welcome to the making art rox blog....together!