{QE2's Space}

Ten Rules for Being Human

Love this.. read it here.It made me smile :)

Ten Rules for Being Human
by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

Pretty things to try and lift my mood...

 this decal from Leeloo.com.au is very cute... 

this makes me belly laugh... it's how I *TOTALLY* feel about diet Coke...

 

baaaaaaaa he comes in white and black too lol (and clear)

 

this would look cute on my lounge room wall... I'd need two though...

 

Paint Place have a heap of downloadable graphics that would look cool framed or put on canvases.

this fabric would look great as part of the quilt that I am going to make...

 

this probably wouldn't completely go with the quilt but i make have to tweak my colour choices so it does lol (I was going for muted aqua, green and pink with denim)

My bucket list

No I'm not dying... not any faster than anyone I know anyway! I have a lot of things that I'd like to do 'one day'. I figure that if I write them down I have a better chance of ticking them off.

1. Drink a latte and eat a chocolate crossiant in a cafe in Paris
2. Ride in a hot air balloon
3. Go camping at Kakadu National Park
4. See Uluru at sunset
5. Visit the Pyramids of Giza
6. Make a difference in at least one person's life
7. Go sky diving
8. Walk a few kms of the Great Wall of China
9. Go to Nepal
10. Sail around the Whitsundays
11. Go on a road trip that lasts more than 4 days
12. Go to the Lourve
13. Climb the Eifel Tower
14. Holiday at Orpheus Island
15. Learn to make pasta
16. Watch Bathurst live
17. Do a Thai cooking class
18. Have a vegie garden and have it produce vegies!
19. Learn to say 'cheers' in 10 languages
20. Learn to knit
21. See Stonehenge
22. Study and get a degree
23. See "Christ the Redeemer" in Brazil
24. Learn the piano again
25. Go to Latin dance classes
26. Visit Machu Picchu
27. Stay at Golden Door
28. Pick tulips in Amsterdam
29. Make a quilt for my bed
30. Visit every state/territory in Australia
31. Go to King Island and eat without thinking about the fat content of anything I put in my mouth
32. Make a garden sculpture out of machinery
33. Read The Chronicles of Narnia
34. Allow myself to make mistakes
35. Sleep in a castle
36. Learn to take a compliment
37. Win a game of tennis
38. Have a basic knowledge of world geography
39. Watch "The Wizard of Oz" again
40. Feed dolphins at Tangalooma
41. Watch turtles hatch
42. Create a sacred place in my home where I can go for quiet time
43. Go to the Melbourne Cup
44. Own a pair of red cowboy boots
45. Go to the Blue Mountains

Photo share

I've been really bad taking photos even though I did promise that I would take one a week lol hmmm I took 44 on Saturday so I guess I'm almost there! :D

Here are the faves...

What's news?

What's news with you? A few things have happened in my world lately... Firstly, I turned 40 last week. It feels a bit odd to not be in my 30's anymore. I got business cards at work which made me feel like I"m moving up in the corporate world. Another thing that has happened is I signed up for the 12 week Body Transformation challenge, Michelle Bridges (trainer from Biggest Loser) has written a full program, including diet, fitness and even a shopping list! I'm on day two and even though I'm sick with a bug that's going around the office, I have to say I feel so much better cutting all the crap and processed food out of my diet, and it will only get better!

Craftwise, my mum taught me to crochet a couple of weekends ago. Very exciting! I made myself a bracelet, I just need to sew some vintage buttons on it and it's done. I also signed up for Bootcamp on BB because I need motivation in the paper crafting sense but all I've managed to do so far is 6 cards for a swap. Hopefully I'll find some creative energy on the weekend to play with some of the things I picked up at the BB sale!

While I'm on the topic of BLUE BAZAAR, Lu is offering readers of my blog a 10% discount on your next order over $40.00.  To receive the discount include the following code in the comments field of your order: MARBLOGEM Note discounts do not apply to items already discounted, on sale or subscriptions.  The code is valid for this month until the 31^st March 2010.

 

Photo of the week - 1

Photo for the week... little decoration I made for my 'branch'.

Photo challenge

So I've been REALLY (read REALLY x 10) bad at getting my camera out the last couple of years. Each time I see the 365 challenges I feel guilty. I know I paid all this money for my camera and now I just don't use it. I've only used it a couple of times in the last year because my phone has a pretty good camera in it.

So... I've just decided that instead of singing up to a 365 group and failing I'm going to pledge to take at least one photo a week. 52 photos. Shouldn't be that hard right?

Who wants to join me?

Art Journal is finished yay!

It feels good to have completed it even if I did do all the pages for the year in a week LOL here are the rest of them, plus another one I did as well!

The prompt for May was Masking. I used a Tim Holtz mask, I did want to use this gorgeous feather one that I bought from BB  but I'll be stuffed if I know what I've done with it :(

 

 

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June's prompt was Texture and Music. This was a bit hard to photograph to get the words in because on certain angels you can't see them at all.

 

 

 

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Another hard one to photograph... October, the prompt was monograms. I'd done this one already on a canvas but I decided to do another version for my journal. I covered the pages in chipboard hearts and painted and crackle mediumed it. The words on the wings say "I'm done".

 

 

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I feel like I cheated a bit with this one... November, creating a mono background, and well that's all I did lol

 

 

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December's prompt is floral, to draw a flower. And I did :D

 

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I've decided I love Perfect Pearls but they don't photograph too well...  I think I might do a whole series like the little tree and frame them... I need something on the hallway's walls.

Today's Wants...

The Suzani range from Kas Australia... love that green, orange and pink cushion! I have one the same green tonings with orange made from one of my grandmother's 70's table cloths. Really ugly as a table cloth but fabulous as a cushion :)

 

This handbag.. comes in an amazing range of colours! I think the green wins though!

 

 

This shop, everything is so visually appealing to my senses :) These baskets are just beautiful. It's hard to imagine the work that went into them... they're all beads!

 

 

This shop too! This stool is so cute!! They have ones with buildings on them... shipping containers... really cool!

Of course if any of these things came into my house something would have to leave at the same time... I'm not ready to part with anything just yet :D

As the end of the year draws near...

I get reflective. I think about all the things I haven't done. Mind you that doesn't motivate me to do anything other than veg out on my holidays LOL I thought I'd like to make a list of all the things I have accomplished this year though, and my unused blog seemed to be the perfect place!

1. I learned to say thank you to compliments without making it a negative thing
2. I rearranged the house so that we use what little space we have more effectively
3. I stopped buying breakfast, lunch and coffee everyday
4. I am taking better care of myself spiritually, mentally and physically
5. I have a budget and financial plan for the next year (thank you Lu!!)
6. I made gnocchi from scratch
7. I managed to work full-time and be a single mum and not go mad
8. I had one accident (involving a data cable, phone, computer and my foot)
9. I had one hospital visit (see 8)
10. I learned to be gracious and accept the help from my colleagues and friends (see 8 and 9)
11. I de-cluttered my house and my mental baggage
12. I grew very fond of Comsopolitians
13. I saw my bestie twice :)

I want to start compiling a bucket list too, a lot of it will revolve around travel, which is where point 5 (above) comes in. Factored into my budget are two holidays per year. I'm kicking it off by taking Isaac to Sydney for his 10th birthday early April 2010. With the list of things that I think we should see the weekend will be stretched over three days I think! (I'll have to go back down by myself do to all the things that would be deemed boring by a 10yo boy though!)

Other than learning to cook gnocchi, I've been cooking more from recipes. My kitchen is so tiny, it doesn't lend its hand in opening the cupboard to see what pops out at me kind of cooking which I am used to. Of course most things I cook I do take creative shortcuts/diversions with them :) Like the date scones below that mysteriously turned into pizza scrolls!

I've been working on my Art Journal over the past few days, very determined to finish it before the end of the year! I followed the prompts at Blue Bazaar. I'm over half way done now which is good... the end is in sight!

 

 

I was planning to post a whole lot of eye candy I've been looking at on the net but I think I'll leave that for later. Thanks for visiting, I'm not going to neglect this little space anymore, so if you come back you will be rewarded with pretty pictures :D (or more lists who knows lol)