Hello!
I'm so glad to see you today, it's lovely that you stopped by!
I've been busy in my sketchbook this week, the ideas are starting to come back - and what a relief it is to feel the flow again! I must thank each of you who shared your own theories on how to restore a weary/missing mojo - I think I will be trying a few of those out myself next time I have a quiet spell.
So, this week I've been squeezing in a few drawings of seabirds, harbour window ledges, boats, pebbles and the like but I keep coming back to a garden with washing billowing about in a spring breeze. I wonder if you can make out the sketch above? I'm thinking of drifts of snowdrops, blossom laden trees - that kind of thing; an optimistic, bright little picture.
And I cannot wait to get this onto canvas...but here I discover another problem: Time.
Which is why I'm reading this book.
The author of this book is Tsh Oxenreider, and she is an ordinary Mum with an ordinary family yet she has a canny ability to make life in general much more simple so that there is more time to enjoy the fun stuff. Brilliant plan!
She also writes a great blog called Simple Mom which is worth a visit.
To say that my life and home are cluttered at the moment is an understatement.
So I have started to tackle almost four years worth of accumulated Stuff. I cleared out a few drawers and bagged up some old clothes for the charity shop - we also have lots of baby toys that we are putting on one side for a car boot sale in the Spring. I'm feeling much lighter, releasing old stuff is a Good Feeling!
I am also becoming more concious of how I choose to spend my time. I watch tv and surf the net, and then complain I haven't time to paint! What??! Yes, it would appear I haven't been making the best choices when I think about it. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those activities, it's just that both of them can swallow up lots of time without you even realising it.
But hey ho, I can make some changes, and a big one Im looking at right now is this:
I have to change my (somewhat expensive) habit of buying 3-4 glossy mags each month. I am planning on donating my current piles to the local doctors and dentists waiting rooms.
I save them because there is usually an article or picture in there that I want to keep...but as the months float by I forget all about the article, or even which magazine it's in and then I don't have the time to look for it and these small magazine mountains sprout up around my house.
So my solution is to stop buying so many, maybe just one now and again as a treat - and I promise to cut out the article I want to save when Ive read it, and stick it in my Inspiration Book for safe keeping.
And just before you start thinking, oh listen to Mrs Virtuous here with her tidy house and her nice diet plan...oh please - let me tell you that the other night I demolished half a packet of Oreo cookies topped with generous dollops of dulce de leche...that's right, and my lounge looks like a branch of Toys R Us has exploded all over it. That's how it goes, I'm only human after all and am fabulous at being messy and falling off the healthy eating wagon :D
But it's good to tidy up and climb back on right? :D
I hope you all have the brightest of weekends - will you share your decluttering secrets here? I'm on a roll at the mo and would love to hear your tips and suggestions please!
Sending love
'til next time...
Julia x
The author of this book is Tsh Oxenreider, and she is an ordinary Mum with an ordinary family yet she has a canny ability to make life in general much more simple so that there is more time to enjoy the fun stuff. Brilliant plan!
She also writes a great blog called Simple Mom which is worth a visit.
To say that my life and home are cluttered at the moment is an understatement.
So I have started to tackle almost four years worth of accumulated Stuff. I cleared out a few drawers and bagged up some old clothes for the charity shop - we also have lots of baby toys that we are putting on one side for a car boot sale in the Spring. I'm feeling much lighter, releasing old stuff is a Good Feeling!
I am also becoming more concious of how I choose to spend my time. I watch tv and surf the net, and then complain I haven't time to paint! What??! Yes, it would appear I haven't been making the best choices when I think about it. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those activities, it's just that both of them can swallow up lots of time without you even realising it.
But hey ho, I can make some changes, and a big one Im looking at right now is this:
I have to change my (somewhat expensive) habit of buying 3-4 glossy mags each month. I am planning on donating my current piles to the local doctors and dentists waiting rooms.
I save them because there is usually an article or picture in there that I want to keep...but as the months float by I forget all about the article, or even which magazine it's in and then I don't have the time to look for it and these small magazine mountains sprout up around my house.
So my solution is to stop buying so many, maybe just one now and again as a treat - and I promise to cut out the article I want to save when Ive read it, and stick it in my Inspiration Book for safe keeping.
And just before you start thinking, oh listen to Mrs Virtuous here with her tidy house and her nice diet plan...oh please - let me tell you that the other night I demolished half a packet of Oreo cookies topped with generous dollops of dulce de leche...that's right, and my lounge looks like a branch of Toys R Us has exploded all over it. That's how it goes, I'm only human after all and am fabulous at being messy and falling off the healthy eating wagon :D
But it's good to tidy up and climb back on right? :D
I hope you all have the brightest of weekends - will you share your decluttering secrets here? I'm on a roll at the mo and would love to hear your tips and suggestions please!
Sending love
'til next time...
Julia x
