Musings and things ...

Well it's finally arrived, the weekend before my 40th birthday on Monday. So far I have had a fantastic few days in the lead up to my birthday ...

I've finished my ATCs for a swap through the Scrapbook Cupboard with the theme "Reflections". I really liked this theme and tied it in with one of my life-coaching lessons on "Projection", as this was one of the major lessons I learnt about myself when I was learning to be a life coach and through coaching others. I made this ATC by spreading texture paste over an ATC sized piece of cardboard, let it dry until I could touch the paste without it sticking to my finger and then pressed wet foam stamps into the paste. I pushed a small mirror into the centre of the card whilst the paste was still wet underneath, so it worked as an adhesive. I left all the cards to dry overnight and then coated them with 3 different coloured glimmer mists. The final stage was to add the words, which are "What you see in others is in you ... all the faces in the world are mirrors!".

This week brought some lovely new ATCs into my collection, one was a WTA ATC from Sue Young in Florida USA and the other from the very talented Sheree Rose ... both of which I adore.

WTA ATC by Sue Young


Hand painted aboriginal style ATC by Sheree Rose.

One of my ATCs has made it to the PaperArts Yahoo Group home page ... Grotesquerie Gargoyle ... and I'm stoked, as it was the first gothic-style ATC I'd ever made, so it's nice that others thought it was ok too.

I won $12 on lotto this week ... now to just focus all these good positive vibrations into a million dollar lotto win!!

And that's not all ... my beautiful husband Fearghal organised a massage for the two of us yesterday, and an hour facial together today and tonight we're off to Urbane Restaurant for dinner, a really swish restaurant in Brisbane ... all in all a pretty fantastic few days.

So I have decided that this year is going to be my best year yet. I am focussing on 4 primary rules this year and they are:

• Risk upsetting others to keep peace with myself.
• Make basic nourishment - sunlight, healthy food, daily movement and make soulful connections with others are a top priority.
• Stop pretending things are okay when they're not. When I don't feel right about something in my life, I'm going to trust myself and my feelings and face the truth ... then do something about it. This also means that I will honour the people in my life by being honest ... even though this one can be difficult.
• And my ultimate rule for this year is that if it feels good do it and if it doesn't don't ... therefore, I plan on doing more art and learning as much as I can about different styles and techniques so can improve my creations

Some of these rules are going to take work and discipline, but if I keep focussed on them I should learn some amazing things about myself and feel good in the end.

Next Friday I'm off to the Creative Soul Retreat in Melbourne and I can't wait ... it's come around so fast.

"A world of abundance surrounds you, if only you will step up and claim it. Make life happen through you rather than letting it happen to you. It will make all the difference in the world."
~Ralph Marston~