Mosaic Madness

Well! I can't say that it's finished yet, but I actually got to bring home one of my projects today. It still  needs another layer of grout and then I'll coat it with a layer of clear resin.

Considering that it's our first attempt, both Creative Cath and I were pretty happy with our efforts.

We are both very critical of our own work because we can clearly see how differently we would do it if we had the chance for a do over.

On the day that Teach announced this project, she told us to bring plant pots in for our first mosaic project, and there were plenty of tiles available for us to break up and use, but "I" was the instigator with the table top and when CC saw mine, she returned home to get hers as well.

This was not even close to what Teach had in mind and all the tiles that we took to the class were of different thicknesses, which is not ideal for grouting.

It means that our table tops are very uneven, which is why I plan on putting the clear resin on top, to hopefully even out the surface, so that it can be useful as a table.

So we were our own worst enemy.

A few pics to show some of the process.

Smashed up some tiles with a rubber hammer. The action was quite therapeutic, but the noise was disturbing!

Used a special silicone to stick the tiles to the table top.

A bucket and cloth used to wipe the excess grout from the table top.

This is what I've brought home ...

So, now we are on a break for about seven weeks. I have a couple of mosaic-ing ideas in my head, however, I doubt that I will get to start them, because there is always something else, more important to do, before time can be spent on such frivolous matters.

I'll spend the first 2-3 weeks focussing on the website and after that, we'll see.

I know you're thinking "It's only three hours on a Saturday morning", but for me, because of the strange way that my brain is wired, it wipes out the entire day. I simply don't have the motivation to do anything else when I get home and usually spend the afternoon on the couch watching meaningless TV with Adoring Husband.

It means that for the duration of the break, I will have approximately 56 extra hours to play with .. and I should be able to accomplish a LOT in that time. "SHOULD" being the operative word.

It was a very pleasant morning at Art and we learnt a lot about each other. There were only two students, including myself, so there was a lot of personal information shared and we had some good laughs too.

Everybody has a story.

I think I'll head off for an early night now.

Nite all.

 

Desk of Strength

Earlier in the week, I booked Adoring Husband to assemble the new sit/stand desk that he picked up from IKEA for me, on his way from holidays last week.

While I was relaxing in bed this morning with my coffee, I heard the annoying sound of power tools, which sounded way too close for comfort. After about ten minutes, I realised what Adoring Husband was doing, and remembered that the annoying noise was for my benefit!

Soon enough, he appeared in the bedroom declaring that he had done as much as he could at this point and he was waiting for me to clear the area in my workspace so that he could continue.

Remember the photo that I posted on Wednesday?

This is the 'after' shot ...

I must admit that my legs got quite tired after about two hours of standing and bouncing on the rebounder while I worked, so I wound down the desk and sat on my exercise ball on the rebounder.

Even though I spent many hours at my desk today (not even stopping for lunch), as far as work goes, I was very unproductive.

Tomorrow is Art class - Woot! Woot!

Hopefully, the remainder of my weekend will be highly productive at my desk. I feel like I have just a few small gaps to fill with my technical education before I can surge forward and make headway with the website. Once I've filled in those gaps, I can get started on other important business opportunities.

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Muddy No More

What a grey, wet day.

I enjoyed my usual slow morning in bed reading and drinking coffee.

Before we drove to Scaryborough, we stopped to pick up our mail, which included the package I've been waiting for!! Woot! Woot!

We drove in the very strong wind along the highway to Maryborough, to meet with Best Cousin in the World, who was delivering my Lorraine Lea order, while I returned the recipe book that she loaned me a couple of weeks ago.

We met at 71 Wharf, which was once Muddy Waters Cafe. I was disappointed in the food. I had the only gluten free option that didn't include bread and was told that it was gluten free because it contained rice noodles. Honey Prawns and Calamari noodle salad. The calamari was very leathery, there were no noodles, the salad was limp and drowning in the honey dressing and there were only four small prawns (which were delicious).

The coffee was delicious and both Adoring Husband and Best Cousin in the World enjoyed their meals. BCITW had Moroccan Chicken Salad and AH had steak with chips and salad.

Anyway, I'm prepared to give them one more chance ... I always give cafes and restaurants a second chance.

It was nice to catch up with BCITW. We had some good belly laughs, as we do when we get together.

We left at 2pm and headed for Hervey Bay where it was raining very steadily and looked like it had been for quite some time.

We parked at Stocklands and spent about an hour inside buying lotto tickets (I must check to see if I'm 30 million dollars richer tonight), two tops and some groceries. It was still raining when we left and it rained the entire trip home. We stopped at Craignish to pick up our FROG box on the way.

There has been no rain since we arrived home.

Adoring Husband is off on SES duty tonight, so I've watched a wonderful movie called 'Lion' which I bought on DVD ages ago. It was still sealed in the plastic! Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman were both fabulous. I have a real soft spot for Dev Patel and he's one of those actors that draws me to a movie ... I would go see any movie that I knew he was in.

Now I'm watching GIRLBOSS until AH returns home.

Have a fabulous Friday!!

Nite all.

Good and Proper

It was raining this morning, so instead of riding to the Post Office, Adoring Husband was kind enough to drive me there.

I was a bit disappointed to discover that none of my orders arrived in the mail today. I was certain that the important one would be there. Maybe tomorrow.

After spending about 30 minutes doing some random housework, like removing the dry clothes from the line, decluttering the seat beside where I sit on the couch (I tend to accumulate a lot of paperwork, books, pens, jewellery and other crap), and making the marinade for our chicken wings for lunch, I made a beeline for my workspace.

Let me think what I achieved in my productive day.

I completed the first part of a mini 'Get Rich Lucky Bitch' course. Funnily enough, Part One was all about decluttering. Decluttering your house. Decluttering your relationships. Decluttering your health.

There is much to declutter!

I finished the Social Media course from the Academy, which I'd begun about six weeks ago, and then commenced the Product Marketing course, which is interesting and from which I have a LOT to learn!

I almost ordered some books from the recommended reading list. Some under the 'Business' heading, some under 'Marketing' and some under 'Business Biographies'. I decided that I already have about six books that I need to read before I consider purchasing any more!

I printed out the 'Magic Money Making Kit', which is basically a monthly checklist of tasks to do to run a successful online business. Both 'simple' and 'amazing' ideas that need to be done religiously to keep momentum and improve business.

I added more to my book ideas and now I need to create some sketches and artwork to use in the book. This has to be a priority now, while maintaining the website a bit more efficiently than I have been of late.

I decluttered my desk and sideboard. I removed my flaking office chair and replaced it with my exercise ball on top of my rebounder - much more fun to sit upon!

In the middle of all that, I cooked the chicken wings for lunch and then tonight, made some meat patties to cook for home made hamburgers. Lots of onion, zucchini, capsicum, tomato, kimchi and home made spicy tomato sauce.

So this is my desk 'before' and you have to wait until Friday to see the 'after' ...

We've got a trip to Scaryborough tomorrow to meet with Best Cousin in the World. She has some LorraineLea stuff for me to pick up and I have to return her recipe book.

So I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Awkwardly Easy

It's been an easy day.

I didn't want an easy day.

I wanted a full day jam-packed with an intense workload that, in the end, would be perfectly completed.

It all started very pleasantly with Lady Lynn and Maid Marian over coffee. We enjoyed a relaxing ninety minutes having a great catch up. It's been a long time since LL could manage a leisurely morning with us, so I think we made the most of it while we could.

I returned home to my workspace, but felt quite discombobulated at my desk.

So many things to do, but where to start?!

I kind of just clutched at straws. I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that, all the while thinking I should be doing something more important.

I watched a couple of webinars on creating passive income, business coaching, upgrading certain areas of your business, decluttering, manifesting - all the totally non-productive stuff that I didn't need to know about, on a day when I should have been super productive!!

By late in the afternoon, I decided that a 'to-do' list might be necessary, so that's what I did next.

Tomorrow should be more productive.

One very fun thing happened today! One of my jewellery orders was delivered!

Some new snap buttons and a few different bracelets/bangles (my apologies for the crappy phone photos) ...

A small selection of the new buttons ...

This was Adoring Husband's handiwork yesterday ...

It was a birthday gift from The Motivator (which was in April) that has finally found a home.

Adoring Husband, at my request, purchased this new skinny cupboard from IKEA on the way home from his trip away last week. It's to replace the ugly old brown one that has been in our bathroom for the last 9 years.

Next on the agenda will be my new desk that AH is booked to assemble on Friday. Watch this space for photos of that!! I'm excited!!

I guess I should get some sleep so that I CAN BE SUPER PRODUCTIVE tomorrow!!

Nite all.







 

Abundantly Clear

It's abundantly obvious that I have money blocks that I need to clear.

You could probably spend a good deal of time writing down many stories from your childhood, youth and adult years where money was a problem.

Can you hear your parents or your partner or even you saying "No, we can't afford it." or "That's too expensive." or "We've got three bills to pay this month, so we need to be careful with our money." or "You've got enough pairs of shoes." or "We can't touch our savings." or "Don't be so extravagant!" or "Turn off the air conditioner or our power bill will be too high."

Do you remember scrounging around in the bottom of your bag to find enough money for that loaf of bread?

Do you worry about breaking that $50 note because it will disappear faster?

Do you wait until that beautiful dress is on sale, only to discover that your size has gone?

Do you have memories of your father getting into trouble for spending the last of the house money on a horse race or a bottle of beer?

Did your parents struggle to find the money for you to go on a school excursion?

Did you wish that you could afford to give your kids the $200 Nike shoes like all the other kids had, instead of the $20 daggy K-Mart runners?

Did you ever have to live in Government Housing because you couldn't afford anywhere else?

Did you ever have to choose between health insurance or house and contents insurance because you couldn't afford both? Or perhaps you couldn't afford any?

Did you ever have to go to the emergency ward at the hospital because you couldn't afford to go to the doctor's surgery?

On the opposite end of the spectrum ...

Did you ever have to miss out on something amazing, like a weekend away or a show because your friend couldn't afford it?

Have friends or acquaintances made the "Life is tough for SOME people." comment because you have regular holidays, or buy a lot of shoes, or wear expensive jewellery or eat at nice restaurants?

Do friends or family often ask to borrow money because they think that you are 'well off'?

Do you listen to people make judgements and derogatory comments about others who appear to be wealthier than the average person?

Honestly, there is so much negativity surrounding money, earning, saving, spending, budgeting etc.

One of my courses required me writing down every money memory that I could think of. I filled ten pages in an hour and every day, I think of more. Both positive and negative .. but mostly negative.

Those are the memories that need to be let go. Decluttering and cleansing the negative money memories and creating new positive beliefs and plans for future money experiences.

There are so many opportunities to create personal wealth and brilliant ideas just waiting for action, but money blocks prevent or limit forward movement.

On top of money blocks, are the self beliefs. Not smart enough. Not good enough. Not fast enough. Not pretty enough. Not skinny enough. Not qualified enough. Not competent enough. Not talented enough. Not strong enough. Not brave enough. Blah. Blah. Blah.

These imagined failings are mostly believed by older women, of themselves, because history has given us roles that were usually caring or supportive roles and we rarely cared for, or about ourselves. We Baby Boomers were always looking out for the men and children. Women held everything together or worked the menial jobs, while the men went out and paved the way for future generations of other men.

Well, guess what ...

The times have changed. With today's technology, opportunities are there for everyone to take hold and create an abundant future for themselves. I want to grab my opportunities and break down my self built barriers every time I hit them ... and I know there will be many along the way ... keeping the momentum will be my challenge.

I have a 'shit to do' journal. It will help keep me on my forward path.

One of the best things to help keep me energised on my forward journey, is a good night's sleep!

So ...

Nite all.    

G & F Sunday

What a perfectly divine Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) when I bought my arvo coffee, I bought two and put one in the fridge so that I could reheat it this morning (Sunday) and climb back into bed.

My morning lasted for it's entirety - it was noon when I decided to greet the day properly.

I completely took over the king-sized bed with my stable table, laptop, iPad, iPhone, journals, books, pens, paperwork, water bottle, glasses, TV remote, fan remote (I had to turn on the fan last night!) and of course, my coffee.

It was heavenly!

Considering it was after midday by the time I rose, I heated up some beef vindaloo curry for lunch, which was extra delicious after 24 hours in the fridge.

I had a quick visit from The Old Speckled Hen and Dirty Old Man when they delivered a birthday invitation to his 80th birthday in August.

After that, I sat down to Netflix and watched (for the third time), Series 3 of Grace and Frankie.

Adoring Husband arrived home from his weekend in Bundaberg just before 5pm, so we caught up with our news before watching some more G & F and eventually, I found my way to the kitchen where I prepared lamb rack with vegetables (beans, peas and broccoli) and fried potatoes. It was delicious and satisfying.

Tonight, I've watched Bridget Jones's Baby (also for the third time) and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

So, that was my perfect Sunday :)

I hope to spend the next couple of days at my workspace ... I have been very neglectful of my website for almost two weeks and I need to change that.

So ... time for bed.

Nite all.