Asking yourself  “What is truly important to me?” and then listening for the answer, is the first step in creating a list of values. 

• Keeping my family safe and happy is vitally important to my wellbeing. If they are okay, happy, healthy, fed and watered, then I can relax. *
• Having food in my cupboards is also one of my safety nets. ***
• Managing my debt and being able to pay my bills is another one. **
• Kindness and Random Acts of… Giving, Paying It Forward…
• Smiling and laughing – as vital as drawing breath.

*** There was a time in our lives when Nick and I worked and lived abroad. If we didn’t have any work, we had no money to buy food – literally. It was as harsh as that. That was our reality and since then, having food in my cupboards, despite the fact that I am constantly watching my weight (or trying to look the other way!), is like my own personal safety net.

** To err is human… and yes, I have made mistakes. I used to be very bad at managing money. I had trouble remembering that credit is finite some years ago and I am still paying the price. Since then, we don’t have any plastic or credit cards at all. If we can’t afford it, we go without – simples.

* Okay these are general because people who know me well, know that I have a DH who’s a wheelchair user with degenerative osteo-arthritis and a teenager who has had issues with bullies, so health is up and down, shall we say?!

What natural strengths, skills, abilities and talents do I want to use this year to make my life sing? Bloody good question Sharon! I told you this would be tough to put into words.

Shared Wisdom

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates.  There is lots of movement but you never know if it’s going to be forwards, backwards or sideways.”  — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Use what talents you possess.  The woods would be very quiet if no birds sang there expect those that sang best. ” — Henry Van Dyke

“The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have not what you don’t have.” — Woody Allen

“If we aren’t willing to pay the price for our values, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.” — Barack Obama

I think Woody Allen says it very well, but not if you are ambitious…?

We found a car park (Bear Street) - £1.00 per hour, flat fee, no concessions for disabled drivers, etc. etc., so I put in £3.00 to be on the safe side and away we went to  find the Test Centre. A really kind lady noticed we were looking a bit lost and pointed us in the right direction, bless her!  So we found where we had to be and as we were still over half an hour early, went for a coffee to The Boston Tea Party cafe (Cattle Market Car Park). Good coffee, excellent hot chocolate according to Nick, pleasant staff, clean loos… We whiled away the waiting time and then made our way to the Test Centre.

The 2 Administrator chaps were getting on in years and it was all very formal at first. We exchanged a bit of banter, while they checked Nick in, giving me a plastic wallet for all his possessions… I’m not kidding – he even had to take off his watch; remove his tobacco and change from his pockets, turn off our mobile phones, give me his spare glasses… erm, we felt almost  ”criminal”!

Nick went to the booths to take the Test and I got out my pencils and pens and Diary to work on Sharon’s “Make room…” challenge. I know, right? I am uber-prepared, motivated, whatever… Anyway, I had my printout with me and I set about answering question 1.

What 50 things are cluttering up my home, my art space/supplies and my life?

Seriously? I found that by the time I had made it to number 10 on my list, I was beginning to repeat myself… I have serious cluttering issues. I remained, at the end of the list – only made it to 32 items – buoyed up by this quote, also furnished by Sharon:

“Affirm for yourself that you are a success. Affirm that you are successful in getting rid of your clutter. If you are having a hard time getting started, be grateful that you are such a successful clutterer. Who else could have amassed such a collection of stuff?” –Norman Vincent Peale

How cool is that? Come on! Who else could amass as much (repeated) clutter as me? I was just completing the next section, when himself appeared round the corner looking quite disgruntled and muttering about “car crashes” and the like. I handed over all his belongings and returned the plastic wallet, having hurriedly put away my art supplies, to discover that Nick had passed the Theory – much to his delight and surprise!  ;)

***To be continued…

Things will change, clutter will be banished and there will be plenty of room for the Magic to move in! I think the hardest part for me, as an artist who works with mixed media and altered art, will be

1. defining clutter, and

2. letting go without a ‘hissy fit’!

Read more on the subject of decluttering HERE.

I’m an artist, a carer and a mother, so my time isn’t really my own in any case. I come 3rd out of 3 in our house because – for now – that is my role… honestly! So, I deal with it and all my frustrations are poured into the passion that is my art. Simples!

This is going to be my new way to live for 2011 – thanks to Sharon. Check it out!

Tough – I don’t really want to offend anyone  by picking on one person/set of persons in particular so I think African Grey Parrots deserve to get more credit than they do. Look, statistically, Conure African Greys can live for 60-70 years. They can also develop a vocabulary of 300+ words/phrases…

Ours (I should say my DH’s really, ‘cos she doesn’t like me…), is only 6 years old and she has already surpassed that vocab. A lot of people say it can take a parrot up to 2 years to utter a single, intelligible word – not Gizmo! She sings, makes up her own phrases and is eerily accurate in her responses when asked a question, or even directly addressed. We had only had her about 3 months when she said, “Alright?” for the first time… She can sing one of the verses from ‘Oliver!’ – Food, glorious food… and she interacts with DD as they sing alternate lines. Encouraged  by this, I have tried to teach her “falalalala… lalalala” from the carol, “Deck the Halls”, and just as she’s getting it, we’re into New Year!

Personally, I believe that parrots copy the noises, tunes, etc. that appeal to them, not necessarily what we want them to learn. It’s a theory… My favourite thing about her is that she will sometimes even tell herself to shut up! One of these days I must get round to filming her when she’s off on a good rant so that you can see I am not making it up!! Till then, you’ll have to watch Youtube parrots…

It was pretty successful, although I did find it quite tiring… Hostess “me” has become my mother! Who’d have thought that would /could happen? I divulged secrets from my family Christmases past and enjoyed myself at the same time. i admit I was a bit worried that Luke would break my chair or my PC at one point (he has Asperger’s Syndrome) because he was jumping up and down whilst playing a game… But no, all is fine and he has a cool relationship now with my PC and headphones! I must have passed muster as I was allowed to hug him as he left to go home, which is something that has never happened before. We (or I), have made progress…

Our friends are moving into their own place on Friday (New Year’s Eve) and have virtually no furniture. Have recommended Freecycle – it has worked well for us in the past. In fact, just before Christmas, we acquired a decent coffee machine from someone in Bude who was “upgrading”! It works fine and we now are able to offer our coffee-drinking friends a decent cup of “Joe” when they visit… It’s the ‘little things’ for me, that make all the difference – attention to detail.
We had fun though, and are now more determined than ever to move next year! My best Christmas for a few years!

Oh, and the reason this post is so personal and blunt is that I signed up to “Oh Life!” this evening. They send me an email prompt at 8pm every day and I email a response, so I can write the journal (via email), which I might never write otherwise. Fascinating, no?  They keep it all safe and private and I can download the response and decide whether and what, to share… I think it’ll be such a brilliant snapshot of life in review – weekly. monthly and/or annually! It may even provide me with creative/journal prompts! Cool!

I used a blank (new) document in Photoshop – A4 size and placed 2 of my angel images on the right hand half of the space, above one another, making sure they were lined up and pressed ‘Print with Preview’. I checked the orientation was portrait, and checked the ‘scale to fit media’ box, pressed print, and voila!

Now I know what to do next year if I run out of time again! I am linking this up to Tip Me Tuesday…

Thanks Linda!!

I joined Knitty’s list a few years ago and have spent hours browsing free patterns for all skill levels, and now they have a really great blog, so I’m sharing that with you too! Amy has been operating Knitty for about 8 years and her enthusiasm has never waned – quite the opposite!

Click HERE to visit the blog – and join in the latest Giveaway…

Toasty cable-knit wristies!

They just went on sale in my Etsy shop, HERE!