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Friday, December 31, 2010

Letters from my Dad

I got this fabulous e-mail from my Dad for New Years.  He has obviously been doing a bit of thinking lately.

"A dog's New Year's Resolution: I will not chase that stick unless I actually see it leave his hand!" ~Unknown
This is the time of year when, traditionally, people look to making New Year resolutions. I don’t know about dogs though.
They seem to fall into two broad groups (the people and the resolutions).
Firstly are those whose last year was not so crash hot , again, so there are things that need attention for them to feel they are in some sort of control : it might be issues like weight, exercise, work, recreation, ... anything.
Their New year resolutions tend to be a rehash of the failed Old Year resolutions!
Mark Twain had it this way: New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
The other group tend to be a bit more realistic and use the seasonal downtime to do a warts-and-all review of goals achieved from the last year, a realistic assessment of what worked and why, and then build on the good bits for achievable and worthwhile reasons.
The main difference I think is that the first group aren’t really going anywhere so for them New Year resolutions is more about going through the motions than actually doing anything; the second group has an increasingly clear idea of what they want from living self directed lives and are prepared to do something to get it.
Personally I think it’s a bit of a waste of time waiting until around 31 December to think about what to do to get anything sorted.
I much prefer running a regular personal maintenance programme on a daily, or at most a quarterly, basis. Like gardening really, planting new stuff before the old plants have been harvested so the next crop is coming on to take their place.
This day, every day, is priceless and I like this Idea from a guy Hal Borland: Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instil in us
But for those into the New Year thing I would have one idea to offer: Since it takes about 6 weeks to create a new habit, if there is a real need (and will) to discard old ways for new, and there is a goal to achieve, then commit to 30 minutes at the start of each day doing what needs to happen – no matter what.
That’s the hard call – which is probably why New Year resolutions keep coming to haunt some people.
May you see joy in each day, the value of true friendship and the golden promise of the future.
Happy New Year

What were your New Year's resolutions?

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Stuff No One Told Me


If you need some help navigating life's mysterious tributaries, SNOTM is here to help ... 

Monday, December 27, 2010

Heroes

From harkavagrant.com

Monday, December 20, 2010

Context



Curate.us is my new favourite thing. It allows you to clip pages from the web and add them to your blog. It looks very cool AND it gives your posts context. Awesome!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Recycling



I love recycling and I really like these recycled glass goodies from Oenophilia.  I also really like these step-by-step instructions for how to do it yourself.  What better excuse to have a glass of wine (or two).

Monday, December 13, 2010

Happiness


I absolutely adore Valentina Ramos' fabulous artwork.  You can check out her blog and portfolio here for more beautiful examples of her work.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Serendipitous Discoveries

I love making accidental discoveries of awesome stuff.  And the Seredipity Factory is a great place to do just that.  Today I found this absolutely fabulous video:

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Stars

These I Steal for You
This reminds me of the poem "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W. B. Yeats ....

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Keeping it Together


I love Threadsy!  All my e-mail, Twitter & Facebook updates in the one place.  Not sure yet if that makes me more or less productive.  But I don't care, because its just so cool!!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A Nice Cuppa


I love this gorgeous tea pot from SERRV. SERRV is a non-profit organisation that works with farmers and artisans around the world to help improve their lives - which makes this tea pot even more fabulous!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Presents

Got all your Christmas pressies ready to go, but forgot to get any wrapping paper?

Never fear, the lovely folk at Tinch Design Studio have some very cool printable wrapping paper for you to download.


If red's not the colour you had in mind, or you need to keep the kids occupied for a while, you can even download a 'colour-in-yourself' version!  YAY.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Love Songs

Its violent, its nautical, its raucous, and its a beautiful love song.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Revolution

As it turns out
when most people tell you they want to change things

what they really mean to say
is they want to change 
the size and color
of the room 
in which things take place.
- Dallas Clayton "Revolution"

I have discovered Dallas Clayton's totally cool poetry, books, artwork ... I want to wallpaper my house with it.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Christmas Lists


This is my daughter's Christmas list. I think it is fabulous!!

What's on your list this year?

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Little Romance


by Rumi

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Being Happy

from Bint (via HOPErevo)

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Small Ways to Make a Big Difference



Small Ways to Make a Big Difference is a free e-book compiled by Raam Dev is full of really awesome 'small' things you can do to make the world a better place.

I haven't read it all - but so far this idea, from Ali Dark, is my favourite:

Vote with your money
I want to introduce you to the wall. The wall holds up a raging dam of human potential. It's held together with money – the money the same people spend.  Change how you spend money and the wall collapses, and the world changes.  Drastically. Forever.
If you think that soda is bad for people (which it sure as hell is), never, ever, ever, buy soda. That's a vote in the ballot box. Same goes for meat, alcohol and other plagues on humanity.
Want more organic food? Bite the bullet and buy organic. That's a vote for the organic industry and more power to them.
Every dollar in your pocket is a vote. Don't forget it. Every single one is counted. It's a failsafe system. It's perfect democracy.
You can download the e-book from here.

Which of the tips do you feel most inspired by?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Rain

Photo by Cilin

I love it when it rains overnight after I have planted out new vegetable seeds!

Today my 3 yr old and I planted radishes, purple carrots, orange carrots, and a couple of varieties of beans. And now its raining. Fabulous!!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Being Awesome

Be AwesomeImage by eskimo_jo via Flickr

After spending a week languishing with the flu and feeling anything but awesome, this post over at Yes and Yes was a lovely boost!
It’s OK to be awesome.
In fact, it’s preferable. Highly-recommended. Perfect 10s across the board.

It’s OK to be the smartest, the cutest, the sassiest, the brassiest, the best-dressed, the most well-versed AND the most ambitious person in the room.
It’s OK to have dreams that make no sense to the casual observer — and to actualize them.
It’s OK to kick everything to the curb and start from scratch.
It’s OK to be a supernova.
There's more ... and its awesome.  Read it!
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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Productive Meetings

Best chocolate chip cookies I've made in decades.Image via Wikipedia

Nothing better than coming out of a meeting feeling that you've actually achieved something!

The best meetings are ones with an agreed purpose, a clear agenda, and that finish (on time) with a review of actions to be taken before the group meets again.

Good coffee and home made choc chip biscuits are just the icing on the cake!
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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fun

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pie

I feel particularly inspired by this post by Andrea at ABC Creativity.

do not compete for tiny little slivers of pie

it’s a stupid thing to do because really, we are tripping over pies.  there is pie everywhere.  plenty of pie for everyone.
you have creative genius within you.  genius.
you can be so creative about your career.  about money.  about creating every aspect of your life the way you want to create it.
looking at others as competition and comparing and being competitive takes energy away from your ability to create magic in your life.  it also makes you small.

Read the rest - its great I promise!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Fabulous Fonts

These beautiful, free fonts just make me want to write something fabulous ...







You can download them for your next project from kevinandamanda.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

A Beautiful Desktop


VladStudio is the project of Russian digital artist Vlad Gerasimov. The images are gorgeous and you can download them for free to turn your computer into a work of art!

There is even a fab widget that downloads a new wallpaper for you every so often so you need never get tired of staring at your computer screen.

And if you have a bit of downtime, you can waste time give your brain a workout putting together jigsaws of the beautiful artworks on the site!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Small is Beautiful

I love 'The Small is Beautiful Manifesto' from Magpie Girl

The Small Is Beautiful Manifesto

We believe stories are valuable, no matter how many people read them.
We believe following your passion is more important that watching your site
                    meter.
We believe in the handmade, the first try, the small start, and the good
                    effort.
We believe that small is beautiful.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Words Words Words


WORDLE lets you create beautiful word clouds from text that you provide. I used the english translation of Pablo Neruda's poem "Si tù me olvidas".  Aaaaaah, no one writes love poetry like Neruda!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Licorize


Because it is an awesome way to manage all you online research.

Its a to-do list manager, collaboration tool and social bookmarking ap all rolled into one fast, minimalistic package.

And it lets you do this ...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Books I Haven't Read Yet

Steacie Science and Engineering Library at Yor...Image via WikipediaThe writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encylopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others - a very small minority - who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order. So this tendency to offend Eco’s library sensibility by focusing on the known is a human bias that extends to our mental operations. People don’t walk around with anti-resumes telling you what they have not studied or experienced (it’s the job of their competitors to do that), but it would be nice if they did. Just as we need to stand library logic on its head, we will work on standing knowledge itself on its head. Note that the Black Swan comes from our misunderstanding of the likelihood of surprises, those unread books, because we take what we know a little too seriously.

Let us call this an antischolar - someone who focuses on the unread books, and makes an attempt not to treat his knowledge as a treasure, or even a possession, or even a self-esteem enhancement device - a skeptical empiricist.

From: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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