Day 21 (19/3/14)

Today Im grateful for having been born as a woman into a society where I have the freedom to choose how and where I want to spend my time, whom I want to fall in love with, be able to work to support myself, have the time and money to be able to be creative.
I have the freedom to be creative and explore this personal drive of mine, and that's such a gift.  Its nice to really see the luck in my situation and be sincerely grateful for it.
(and on a side note, I made the candle pictured above.   Isn't it cute!) 

Day 20 (18/3/14)

This image is part of a collaboration between myself and a number of designers with photographer Katelyn from Gypsy Moth Sol.  Today I want to share my gratitude for where my creativity has been taking me this year.  I feel like by naming 2014 my Year of Creativity back in January, I have opened myself up to so many amazing opportunities and the doors are just opening.  Im so grateful for all the awesome artists that I am getting to know through social media and other means.  Im so excited to collaborate further with other artists in the near future and see what awesome things can be done! 

Day 19 (17/3/14)

On my way home from work today I popped into my local IGA Supermarket and stumbled upon this glorious site! These beautiful herbal teas, Pukka teas, have made it all the way from my UK home town of Bristol England! I had to buy these ones, as I have such fond memories of sipping LOVE Pukka teas in Bristol with my beautiful friends and dreaming up plans and schemes.  I spent much of the evening surfing through my Bristol friends' photos on Facebook and catching up on their lives from a far.  Melbourne really feels like home, but Im so grateful for my UK home too! I love BRISTOL! 

Day 18 (16/3/14)

This.  This is the perfect start to a Sunday.  Im so grateful for this gentle soul snoozing next to me.  Im so grateful for the love and care and support that he gives me every moment.  We have so much fun together <3 He definitely adds a happy glow to my days! 

Day 17 (15/3/14)

Today Im grateful for getting up and going for a morning run in the park.  It was so beautiful and sunshiny, a few other runners, some cute little pups excitedly going for their morning walks.  Such a lovely start to a lovely day.  Today was the kind of Saturday that you wish for mid week....morning run, breaky out with my love, friends BBQ and playing Lawn Bowls and then an evening trying out a new jacket pattern that came together perfectly.  So much gratitude for today <3 

Day 16 (14/03/14)

Tonight Im grateful for the flood of creative energy that is washing through me.  I can see so many possibilities, so many things to create, and my mind is so preoccupied with ideas of setting up my own business that it is sometimes such a relief when I remember to just rest here- be in the here-and-now.  

Day 15 (13/03/14)

Im so grateful for today <3 Im grateful for getting some extra hours at my sewing job with Cheeky Britches and being paid to sew all morning.  Im grateful for spending my afternoon knitting away and watching Series 2 of Castle back to back for hours.  Im grateful for my beloved gent coming for an evening run with me around the park, laughing and joking together and him giving me tips on barefoot running.  Im grateful for having dinner together at Green's and there just happening to be a street party next to the cafe playing the most epic funk and soul as the sun went down.  Im grateful for our bike ride home in the dusk to our lovely house, tired and snoozy. 

Day 14 (12/03/14)

Today I am so unbelievably grateful for the luck of stumbling upon the Balanced View training a little over 3 years ago now.
Balanced View is a global community of people who are interested in learning the true nature of our minds, and being supported 100% all the way.
Before I met this training I had concluded whole heartedly that I couldn't trust the thoughts that were coming into my head.  I had personally experienced them to be untrue time and time and time again, and could clearly see that believing everything that popped into my head was making me insane, sad and not a very nice person to myself or others.  So I had concluded at 23 that my thoughts couldn't be trusted, but then what COULD I trust about myself...was I something other then just my thoughts...these funny random little things that pop into my head constantly and would not stop no matter how hard I tried to control them.
I had concluded that what I wanted was to be content in the here-and-now, I could see that constantly striving for something in the future was ludicrous, I'd tried that and every time that special circumstance arose it never completed me, made me happy forever after or gave me the key to what on earth life was about.
So I met the training in Goa, India, on a solo 3 mission to find myself after finding myself broke, without a job and dumped.  And boy and I glad that I did.
I've experienced first hand so many times the true nature of my own mind, have learnt that I don't need to try to control my incessant thoughts, try to change myself to be someone else.  And through the Mainstays (the support system which is at the core of Balanced View) I have been 100% supported 24/7 through some of the biggest life changes, most difficult and sad situations, and most joyous moments these last 3 years.
I'd recommend this training to anyone... it doesn't matter if you think you have the best life, it'll only get better, or the worst life, you'll find so much relief.
Endless and boundless gratitude for Candice O'Denver, the founder of Balanced View, my Amazing trainer Kat for always being available to support me in any way which is needed, and for all my dear friends in the BView community who normalise so so much for me.

Day 13 (11/03/14)

Today was a busy, creative and productive day at work.  I made some beautiful garments, sewing along with my boss Giorgi and her beautiful little 4 month old baby Isla.  It was a day of blasting through garment production, so busy and so tiring but so so enjoyable.  Im so grateful for being offered this role working with Giorgi and Lucy, and being able to make money from my creative interests.  Its such a pleasure to work when what you are doing is what you love, it doesn't even seem to matter that you're exhausted and that you can't rethread the overlocker needle (for the billionth time!) because you're eyes won't see straight anymore.  Creative exhaustion =) 

Day 12 (10/03/14)

Today I am grateful for relaxing bank holiday Mondays, for spending the morning cycling around with my love, racing through city streets that feel like home and having a lovely breakfast together.  Im grateful for slobbing out in bed all day and watching 8 episodes of the series 'Castle' back to back whilst knitting this awesome jumper I've started as my Autumn knitting project.  Im grateful for being creative and how much pleasure I get from the simple looping of wool together to make a garment, the meditative way my mind can wander to other things while my hands keep moving those loops.  Today was a pleasure-ful day! <3 

Day 11 (9/03/2014)

Today I'm grateful for the amazing food I have in abundance around me.  Im grateful for the awesome Organic Vegetables that I have the honour of growing and harvesting and the opportunities for health that having this little back yard allows.  Im grateful for this amazing body of mine that houses me, protects me and is strong and able.  I am grateful for the realisations that arose today around respect for my body and treating my self with honour by fuelling myself with healthy food choices and drinking lots more water.  I can really see how far I have come in the last 26 years with my relationship to food, and its so beautiful to know that my hearts wish is to look after myself and be healthy.

Day 10 (8/03/14)

Today I'm grateful for this epicness that happened today, and the people who made today so much more manageable for me!  Im so grateful for my beautiful friend Tal who drove all the way from south side to come see me, buy one of my dresses, have a coffee with me and then head all the way back home again.  Tal, you made my day and you're amaze-balls!   Im also so grateful for the lady who I am a Nanny for, Nilmini, for coming to say hi, giving me a beautiful umbrella to borrow so I'd have some shade from the sweltering sun (NOTE TO SELF- BRING SHADE!) and bought 2 little dresses from me.  Im grateful to have been put next to a lovely stall holder called Sally (ahhhhh she's got my mum's name, love you mumsi!) who was so inspiring, makes awesome hats and lugs all of her gear from Northcote in a custom made Cargo Bike with an umbrella stand attached.  She's awesome and we spent the day talking up plans of how to sell our creations and the possibility of setting up a Cooperative Shop of some kind.  Ideas, Plans and Schemes.  

Day 9 (7/03/14)

Today I am grateful for my creative flow.  I am grateful for having the energy and drive to create beautiful clothes, and having the guts to put myself out there and let people see who I am, what I create and be proud of my craft.  So much of the time I play down my skills in my head, look only at the faults in my creations, but this week I chose to put myself out there and sell at the CERES Craft Market tomorrow (Saturday).  So tomorrow morning at 6 30am I will be walking the streets of Brunswick with this trusty stead pictured above, lugging my wares (minus car) to market to market.  A lot's coming up in me of social awkwardness at arriving with a shopping trolley...but its the only way I could come up with to make it happen so this is the solution! (the image below does come to mind).

So here's to creative flow and drive! 

Day 8 (6/03/14)

Tonight Tom and I rode all the way down to Abbotsford Convent and had dinner at Lentil as Anything there.  Lentil as Anything is a not for profit, volunteer run restaurant that serves hundreds and hundreds of people every night purely on donation basis.  The food we had was so so amazing, and Im so grateful to the amazing volunteers that make this restaurant possible.  It was such a lovely atmosphere at the old Convent with people eating their dinners on the grass, buskers and dogs happily running around eating everyones scraps.  When we were waiting in line for dinner there were some amazing circus performers practicing close by...it was such a festive atmosphere.  Im so grateful to still be finding amazing places in my new home city.  I can tell Ill be spending lots more time at Abbotsford Convent!!  

Day 7 (5/03/14)

This time last year I started working with this little bean! I can't believe little Priya is now nearly 2 years old, she was a barely crawling little 7 month old squidge when I first took on the position of being her Nanny and now she is a walking (running!), almost talking little powerhouse of fun and frolics!
Today's gratitude is for having the honour to work with my little friend and get paid for it too.  Im so grateful for our little adventure to the park this morning, for having the insight to let Priya get soaking wet running through the sprinklers and not worrying that Id have to rush home and get a change of clothes.  It was the best thing in the world to see her surprise when the sprinkler soaked her through and her giddy excitement as she ran backwards and forwards through the water.
I feel like my time being lil' Priya's Nanny is drawing to a close but this little bean will always be in my heart.  Ive learnt so so much from her this last year!  Love you Priya-proo! 

Day 6 (4/03/14)

Today, I have so much gratitude for....TODAY!
Today I got to work and earn money making clothing for a company that has fantastic ethics, with 2 women that genuinely care about my wellbeing, how I'm doing, and are so available to support me in anyway they can.  I got to giggle along to Flight of the Concords whilst sewing away making awesome creations.
Today I came home tired, hot and weary to an amazing garden that my boyfriend has spent the morning weeding, cleaning up and beautifying.  The same boyfriend who also asked me if he could re-organise my sewing space for me.  Yep.  He rocks. Love you Tom!
Today I have so much gratitude for my body and the work it is putting into ridding me of this darn bug I've been fighting off all week....its seriously working hard and I so appreciate having an immune system that hardly ever succumbs to illness.
Endless gratitude for this hot and sticky Autumn Tuesday. 

Day 5 (3/03/14)

I just got back from the country and on the way headed over to our Organic veggie garden at Tom's grandparent's property a few suburbs away.  So much abundance! Its amazing how little effort it took to make these veggie's grow.  I harvested Cucumbers, more Zucchinis, Tomatoes, Silver-beet and some beautiful flowers for our kitchen table.  So excited to cook with all these tasties! 

Day 4 (2/03/14)

Gratitude for feeling poorly and being able to get well in this little spot right here, with the last few days of summer sunshine dappling through the leafy green. 

Day 3 (1/03/14)

Today was spent eating beautiful food, surrounded by interesting new and old friends, creating epic tunes together up at Tom's parents house.  Jim (Tom's brother) and Kim (Jim's rockstar girlfriend aka. The Impossible Girl) organised a gathering called 'The Last Days of Summer' and summoned all their interesting mates from Melbourne to come and be merry.  Much of the crew were musical and thus the majority of Saturday night was spent in costume with epic impromptu jamming sessions happening.  In this picture Tom and Kim are on the Marimba's that Tom's dad made and Jim's setting up the sound system.  Such a happy motley crew of pixies! 

Day 2 (28/02/14)

This lil' fella was making his way, inch by inch, across the rubbly road near Tom's parents house in the country this morning. We road tripped here last night for a lovely shindig, and joined in on a morning jaunt with 2 lovely new friends, sipping tea as we walked in the autumn sunshine and chatting about our various creative ideas and ventures. Then our paths crossed this little fellow, vividly green with amazing Aztec-esque orange and black patterns.  His path across the road was so slow and steady, undulating over and around rocks in his path, he made me wonder how wonderfully big the world must look from down there, how endless the road must seem and what drove him to start wandering on this path.  It's pretty amazing the awesome patterns and magic that nature creates huh! 

Day 1 (27/02/14)

This little piece of my love is just oh so soft and scrumptious.  Im so grateful to have this belly and this person in my life.  Today when I was walking home from work through the park near our house, I saw Tom outside juggling.  I gave him a cuddle then carried on back to our house to let him continue to have his juggling time then took out my hoop and we danced around together in the Autumn sunshine to some gorgeous gypsy tunes.