End of the month musings.

It has been so long since I last posted!! I have sat down to write posts, and then either worked on some art instead or worked on a few of the writing projects that I have got going on instead. But here I am! I am actually sitting down to write to you all now.
It's the last day of July today, I cant believe how quickly the year is flying by already! It's absolutely crazy, not just because I have started getting Christmas presents organised for my friends and family.
The weather has definitely reminded me that it is still only mid year with this winter being especially harsh on everyone. Only 1 month to go, until hopefully it starts getting sunny (for more than 2 days at a time!), flowers start to grow again and I can start wearing dresses without worrying about if I need to wear stockings underneath or whether or not to bring a jacket.

During summer, I always say I cant wait for winter to return, but during winter, I cannot wait for sun and warmth. I have a slight Vitamin D deficiency and being inside all the time, where I cant get any sun on my skin or actually have some sense of feeling in my fingers and toes can drive me to the point of near insanity sometimes.
I find on the sunny days that we get occasionally, that my spirit improves, I have more energy and I am excited to try new things. I have gotten better over the years, but usually during winter, I just want to shut off from the world, lie in bed all day, and ask that no one disturb me, but alas, that can't happen in todays society. I am pretty lucky not to have a main job, where my winter sadness can overcome people around me, but it can still affect my family and, in particular, my boyfriend.
But we trundle through life, don't we? Our moods and our lives go by in seasons, just like the weather, and I am glad that this is only three months of sadness, just so when the happy times come, I can really appreciate them.

We just need to open our eyes to the happy moments and the generous moments that are coming to us and be willing to take the opportunities that are arising before us every time some one tells us no, or we get sick, or a car breaks down, or someone speaks unkind words towards you.
For example, one month ago, I had just $9.56 to my name. Then 2 weeks ago, myana and pop gave me (and my sisters each) $100. It came at absolutely perfect timing. Then, my boyfriend found out he had passed all of his final exams and that he had now graduated. I then got an award for my volunteer services in the community.
All this was after my car broke down twice and then needed replacing, stress from T's exams, 4 bouts of sickness between us, me getting angry customers on Etsy, me slowly running out of money, and problems with friends and family.

I closed my shop for a month, feeling completely overwhelmed by it all, and not coping with all the orders I was getting and not being able to complete the orders or they were being regarded as not satisfactory. (It's open now!)
And instead, I focused on painting a lot of canvases, and put all my spare energy and sadness into the artwork. I felt I could just shift the world away from the problems I was facing and for the few hours I painted, that was all that mattered.

I'm slowly (very slowly) working on talking about how I'm feeling and instead of hiding behind 'work to do' excuses, so I can feel better in the end.


Well, I hope my ramblings have let you into a little piece of me. I hope to post more regularly, especially post things of my projects I am currently working on, and an upgrade is certainly coming up in the plans!
Please let me know what you think, and remember I am active on all areas of social media, so feel free to talk to me! I love having conversations with you guys!

Love to all!

New books in the works!!

Have you ever read the beginning of a book and really wanted to know what happens next??
I did that today, except with the beginning of a book that I had started to write 2 years ago.

I was going through all of my old documents saved on my computer and came across these 3 stories.
I remember writing them, but I have no idea what was going through my head when I wrote them, and as I sat here reading them all, I realized that I really wanted to know what happens next! It was as if I was reading some one else's work!

I was excited to find them, and now I can work on them a little! My brother-in-law is a writer, and is currently editing his 4th book, has ideas for a 5th, and is constantly talking about it. I am loving hearing all the talk that goes into these books and works of art, that I am desperately wanting to create one myself!

I am pretty sure that my blog is going to change a little bit over the next year, and my content is going to change a decent amount, to change with how my own personal tastes change. I will keep in touch of how the progress is going, because I have a feeling that I am going to be quite obsessed with the thoughts of these books, as it grows over the next couple of months.
Anyway!
I am off to hopefully do another thousand words!
I should be doing one last post before Christmas with all of the Christmas decorations and what my studio looks like around this amazing time of year. :)

See you then!

Creating 2014 Goals

Hey guys! We are back in business! I have had a tough 3 months trying to get my business of it's feet and actually doing something for me, and I am so, so excited with its progress! We had our first market last Sunday and while it wasnt a massive success, it still helped us out considerably. My camera, while still not clean, is working again, so I am trying to take some more photos...I just need it clean now!

So seeing as the year is close to finishing and after christmas is usually a time that I dont want to be writing blog posts or doing anything except working off all the food I ate, I have decided to write my 2014 Business Goals now. I will review them in a couple of days to see how it is going, and if I need to add anything, but I am liking how they look.
I have written them in the back of my 2014 business diary, so I know where they are every time I need them.
I am expecting that 2014 will be mine (and Miss Owl B's) massive year, so I am preparing early!

Back to the goals.
I am a list girl. I love writing lists, I love reading lists, and I especially love checking things off lists!
because of my list obsession, I write lists with a lot of things on them so that I can check more off.
I have written all of my goals in short, easily attainable goals.
Now that doesnt work for everyone. I know someone who likes to have 1 or 2 giant goals and keeps aiming towards them.
If their goal was 'Quit my day job.' mine would be 'Earn $5000' 'Make double the sales in Etsy' 'Figure out a budget' etc. I make my goals much more specific.
Well, I finished them all off and they are written in the back of my diary, and all ready to be used!
I am going to start my personal goals for 2014 soon. I needed to be on holidays first :)

Well, I just thought I should tell you I am back :P I am working on the scripts for some new YouTube videos! Videos are something I want to start trying out in the new year, and work with a slightly different medium to what I am used to. All part of the creative 2014! I want 2014 to be as creative and 'me' as possible.

I have been reading over all my old stories and poems and am super keen to get back into writing again. I have so many book ideas that are just bursting at the seems, I just have to put the effort into writing them!

Well, I am going to head off and get some work done on Christmas presents! Oops! Damn working all the time!

Preparing For Rain

So, I took a month of blogging to really catch up with everything that I needed to get done and to really figure out what was important in my life right now, but I am back! 

I thought of so many blog posts that I was desperately ready to start typing and editing and posting, but that wasnt what the month was about, so I wrote the title down, and briefly what I wanted to mention and then let it go for a bit longer. 

I took 3 weeks off work recently, my boyfriend (Tom) and I went to Sydney, we had our joint 21st, I fell horribly sick in 2 ways (as my break from work was ending, unfortunately!), my best friend was in Adelaide for a total of 3 days before having to go back to Queensland, and I only got to see her very briefly, I got a load of sales on Etsy and Tom's parents have gone to Fiji for 2 weeks, so we are housesitting! It has been crazy, crazy times. I have so many photos I want to show you guys, as well as many I want to take, but my camera is actually slightly broken at the moment, so I am waiting for that to get fixed and then can get back into that. 

Now onto the main point of this post. Preparing For Rain. 

Has everyone heard the story about the 2 farmers who both desperately needed rain? Only one of the farmers went out and planted the crops and prepared the soil. Which one of the farmers trusted God to give him what he needed? 

I am not married. I do not have kids. I am currently getting ready for those things to happen, I know what I want my future to look like and I am getting that all organized now. I know a lot of the things I want are going to take several years, so perfect time to start! I would like to share a few of them now. 

One of the main ones that I want to do is have my future little children speak Spanish. I speak/write it intermediately and I read it very well. I learnt it from years 8-12 and I am currently taking night lessons in it as well. I am getting ready for something that I want to pass on to my children in 5 or so years, when I have kids. Spanish (and language in general) is something that I am hugely passionate about, so I am quite committed to learning all this. 

Another children one is that I would love to home school my children for primary school. But I know as soon as I say that I am going to home school them, that I will get some bad parenting looks or comments on the whole socialization debate. How am I currently preparing for this? Research, research, research! I am getting information that I might need in the future, as well as motive for wanting to teach my little ones the curriculum they need to thrive in this world. 

If you follow my Pinterest, you will see all of the wedding, baby, Spanish, marriage, future things that I have! I am on Pinterest a lot, which I definitely use as the dream board for which it was intended. 

I like to think that I am preparing my future for the life that I want to live. 

I hope you guys are all living how you want to be, or are starting to work out how you really do want to live.

How are you preparing for rain?

I hope everyone is having an amazing day/night! 

I would say happy halloween, but I am not a huge fan of halloween! (Yay, cheap chocolate!) 

xxx

Hard to believe...

It is a bit of a crazy week this week! I worked double the hours I normally do, it was Fathers day, my dads birthday, my cousins birthday and my friends mom's birthday this week, it's my boyfriends birthday tomorrow and then election day on Saturday. Crrazy! 

I have been doing quite a few craft projects the last few days, so I am looking forward to posting those within a few weeks. I have 2 new shoes to upload onto Etsy and at least 4 more to paint! 

Tom and I are having a joint 21st party next month and I have got so many craft projects and decoration ideas that I really need to get started on! Bring it on! I love being busy, it makes life fun. :) 

With what has been happening recently, my blog has been the one suffering, but that is okay. Every now and then, it is important to look up from the computer screen and focus on what is going on around you. 

I just keep writing the word crazy and then deleting it, because when I think about what I have to do this month crazy is the only word that comes up! 

Well, I had best be off doing something else. 

Hope you all have a very lovely day/night!

Love to everyone! 

Fathers Day!

First of all, happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there!! and secondly, happy spring!
I have had a very busy couple of days. First I went volunteering on Friday morning, then had work, then slept, then had work again, then had my beautiful little cousins 18th birthday party (eep! 18 already!), and it was fathers day and we had joint 18th birthday/fathers day lunch, then fathers day dinner for the other side of the family. Craziness, but so much fun. I love how close my family is! Makes life more enjoyable when you can spend it with people you love :)

I wanted to post a quick post saying that the next week is going to be crazy, so probably wont get to post much, but I am working on it. I am also working on changing to my spring theme for my blog, and I am in the first draft. Not so keen on it, but I havent had much opportunity to fix it yet!!

But while the weather is so amazing, I am spending more time outdoors with my family (which means yay outing posts!) but means less time on here with you lovely people. :)
I have been getting quite a few shoe orders now, so thanks to all those lovely people! Getting busy on those very soon.

Alright, It has been a very tiring and social weekend, so I am ready for sleep! My eyes are closing just typing this. Goodnight, lovely people!

Money, Money, Money...more than just an ABBA song?

Hello, my chickens!
Today's musings is about money and everything associated with it.
Let's start off with saying I am bad at saving money. Phew! Glad to get that out there! Every time I see a CD I don't have, a new issue of a magazine, or new DVD's I go a little spending crazy and completely disregard my budget and my saving plans. (As you can see, entertainment is a huge part of my life :P)

But, something has changed this last week. Officeworks, my local stationary store, has brought our a new line of notebooks, and lucky me, one is a budget book!
Now, I have tried budgeting in the past, I have bought books, downloaded things off the internet, drawn tables myself. Nothing has worked so far! I am currently in the 5th day of this new budget book (I am doing the spending diary part of it at the moment) and it is working great!
I can see that in two days I spent over $100 in entertainment and I can see both what I need to cut back and what I can fix in terms of budgeting.
I am the type of girl that needs a page with columns and ideas, but not everyone is like that, so pretty much my advice to you is, do it that helps you the best. I wouldnt want to be stuck in something that I cant keep up with!
Onto the next part!

I am on the verge of opening my Etsy shop, I have a regular part time job and I baby sit one morning a week...Anyone have ideas on where I can earn a little bit of extra money? What have you started? Any financial planning blogs that you can add to my list? I will post a link with all of my favorite blog links in the next couple of days as well.

I am so excited to be getting all the stuff I have been working on out to you all!! I also think I have finally solved my major design problem, so getting on to that in the next few days! Yay!

I hope you all have an amazing day or night wherever you are!

Dance

Have you ever felt like putting music on and dancing like you just dont care? Well, I did that while getting ahead of my blog posts for the next few days, and put my headphones on and just crazy danced for a small amount of time and didnt care! Turns out my sister was waving at me and tried to get my attention the whole time, so she saw the whole thing! And for the first time ever, I dont think I care! :)
Anyway, I'm going back to One Direction and photo editing now. :)

Music makes everything better!

'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' - Margaret Mead