A Positive Step Forward - Trying New Things

This weekend we took a trip to Cumbernauld's Outdoor Centre with Peter's sister and Brother in Law. We celebrated the boys' 30th back in April and they both received vouchers from a friend who thought they needed some axe throwing in their lives. An unusual gift I know, but they're usually the best kind.

So off we went not knowing what to expect, happy the sun was out and the feeling of a good day ahead of us. We were expecting a small axe, maybe like a tomahawk, but instead were greeted with a large, frightening double edged beast. They guys' eyes lit up at the chance to feel like Viking warriors, or in Peter's case, axe wielding Roman gladiator.






As Lucia and I watched on with a hint of jealously wanting to channel our inner Xena, Peter and Johnny were shown the axe lobbing ropes and started to take it more seriously. Peter was especially, frighteningly good at it and I say frightening due to his laid back approach - casually strolling to the line, throwing with ease and hitting the bullseye.

We all had a great morning, the guys feeling more manly and us girls proud although slightly worried our gardens would be turned in to practice ranges. It just goes to show how trying something new can set up a whole day of fun and positivity.

Our weekend and my 30 before 30 list have really brought this to the forefront this week. I've already done some pretty cool things in my life and it's important to keep that going. We should all strive to shake things up once in a while, try something new or even better, something that scares us.

One of the things I'm most proud of on my list was riding a rollercoaster, something I had been terrified of since before I can remember. A couple of summers ago we all went to Alton Towers and I made a deal with myself to go on Nemesis, one of those suspended ones that freaked me out the most.

We spent almost two hours in that queue for Nemesis. Two hours of my heart in my throat, hands sweating and shaking and the gut instinct to bolt! Eventually we got to the station, my gut is churning and I'm squeezing the life out of Peter's hand. I get in the car, feet not touching the ground. I'm about to get up and run away when BAM the restraint comes down and we're moving.

Now you'd think the clanking of the chain lifting the cars was the worst sound, but it wasn't. It was the silence and intake of breathe right before the freefall. It was like slow motion until gravity took hold and we were off.

The whole thing was a blur and over in two minutes, but something happened I never thought possible. The car stopped in the station and I yelled "AGAIN!" like a three year old. It's ridiculous, but it felt so liberating, I had conquered a fear.

I'm still no rollercoaster junkie and definitely prefer wooden dippers to crazy corkscrew things, but I did something new and scary that I'd do again in a heartbeat.

So get out there, try something new or conquer a fear, its one hell of a feeling! If you've conquered one already share in the comments and we'll all bask in your awesomeness!

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Weekly Wishes #4 & Giveaway

It's Monday again which is usually a day of woe as it's back to work day, but with the Weekly Wishes feature I think we're all feeling that little bit better about the Monday blues.

So my wishes for last week were to continue with my mindfulness and to list at least one positive thing that happened or I felt at the end of each day. How did I do? Pretty good. I continued a few days of mindfulness practice and I have my list of positive things:

Mon 1st: All the comments I got on my Weekly Wishes posts gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I also sorted the office out and tidied it up making it a more productive space.

Tues 2nd: Date night. El Pedro took me to see Man of Steel again, cue deafness thanks to Hans Zimmer and the visual assault on my eyeballs thanks to the 3D » awesome!

Wed 3rd: I watched The Muppets and cried - another warm fuzzy feeling of joy. Gotta love the Muppets.

Thu 4th: This article had me giddy with happiness inside. I'm a bit of a gamer, but I'm so sick of stereotyped highly sexualised women in games and this was a great step forward. *Air punch.

Fri 5th: Went for a walk and felt great - also got the pants scared off me by the freaky zombies in World War Z.

Sat 6th: Peter and I had a beasting lunch and have now declared Saturday a feast day. A day where we eat an epic lunch and enjoy each other's company for a full day - most days we're both working at different times.

Sun 7th: The sun was shining so we went for a walk, got ice cream and sat in the park. It got a little too hot at one point so I ran under a tree for 5 minutes to cool down while Pedro baked in the sun. Another day just hanging out together and talking nonsense. We also met a new friend while visiting the goats and ducks in the park.

This week's wish is pretty simple. I've been planning on writing a 30 before 30 post and was beginning to feel like I wasn't being ambitious enough and then too ambitious. And then I read Chimerikal's post about throwing away her bucket list and it got me thinking. If I was to share a bucket list, knowing my nature, I'd feel like a failure if I didn't start crossing things off. So I've decided to write a reverse 30ish before 30 list featuring all the things I've already achieved. I do have a list of stuff I'd love to do and will most likely keep it, but this is a way of looking back positively at the things I've done and can only help encourage me to accomplish more.

So that's my wish/task for the week - write all my accomplishments down and bask in my awesomeness.

 

Now moving on to something exciting... the first ever giveaway I've been involved in, Woots!

Whether or not you're a world traveler, seven of my friends and I have got you covered so that you can go on an adventure no matter where you are! Like seeing the world in new ways? Cool, you can get a free copy of the popular book, How to Be An Explorer by Keri Smith. Want to kick back at home and go on an adventure with a glass of wine? Sounds like you might like owning Into the Wild! Want more? Jeez you people are demanding. ;) Not to worry, we're also giving away a Moleskin Postal Notebook (you can mail it, as is, anywhere in the world! Talk about snail mail heaven), a Tibetan silver compass necklace, and a chevron luggage tag!

Enter the giveaway below to get this uniquely adventurous prize pack. Woop woop! By the way, this giveaway is INTERNATIONAL so anyone can enter! Your prizes will be shipped to you from JAPAN! Wooooo! Now take a look at the awesome sponsors of The Nectar Collective who brought you this fabulous prize pack:

The Nectar Collective | Call Me Sassafras | Side Street Style | Found Love. Now What?

Lost in Travels | Daisy Bisley | Tossing the Script | 91 Dash

How to Be an Explorer of the World by Keri Smith | Tibetan Silver Compass Necklace |

Into the Wild DVD | Moleskin Postal Notebook | Chevron Luggage Tag

Remember, this giveaway is international so anyone is welcome!
Your prizes will be sent from Tokyo!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules

1. Winner WILL be verified. If one of your entries proves to be invalid, you will be disqualified.

2. Winner will be contacted through email by July 17th. You will then have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail with your address. If 48 hours has passed and you haven't responded, we will pick a new winner.

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Weekly Wishes #3

I'm loving this series of posts as it is really pushing me forward in my goal of being more positive. I'm going to try my best to keep this up for a full year and reflect back on how my outlook has changed on life, for what can only be the better.

The best thing about it is that even if you don't complete your goal, you have at least taken a positive step forward and tried it. Again, I haven't finished my review, but that's because I want to do the best job I can and its taking longer than I thought it would.

Last week's wishes were to complete the RC car shell that I designed for a friend » Check. It's all tidied up and ready for painting. And my second goal was to practice mindfulness for at least five minutes every day in order to boost my creative thinking.  I'll be honest and say I didn't do it every day, but for 3 days out of the week I sat for about ten minutes instead of five so it kind of balances itself out.

I didn't really use the time to focus on creativity either. On Tuesday morning I read this article on TinyBuddha.com and thought it was fantastic. I gave the tips on meditation a go and felt so chilled out afterwards. It's fairly addictive so I'll be keeping this practice up. To be honest it was good to be using the technique not to channel some creativity, but just to sit, relax and just feel completely still. I couldn't think of one particular place so I chose my favourite painting and tried to imagine what it would be like sitting in it. I know the painting by heart so it helped to focus on individual parts of it at a time. I definitely recommend giving the article a read and the tips a shot.

Moving on to this week's wishes.

I'm putting the meditation/mindfulness practice in again, but I'm not going to put a number on it. As long as I take the time to try it this week I'm happy. I'm also going to make a list this week with one positive thing from each day. There will hopefully be more than that, but I'm only going to list one so that by next week's wishes I have 7 positive things to share with you all.

What are your Weekly Wishes? Link up over at The Nectar Collective to share and don't forget to check out Melyssa and Chelsea's new project The Snail Mail Collective that I posted about here on Friday.

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Weekly Wishes #2

No, my weekly wish isn't to smooch the face of Batman, although if the Animator and I could recreate this as our wedding photo that would be all kinds of awesome! My weekly Wish last week was to write a review for the Batman comic series Hush. Well I failed. Not completely, I have started it and written my intro, but as for the complete review - nopers!

The problem is that I forgot how long the series is and Peter has the giant hardcover version which is soooo beautiful that it makes me paranoid to handle it. I've also been working a lot in the theatre and wasn't able to take it with me. Look at me making excuses! I will have it done by next week though, promise.


This week's wishes:

Obviously finish my review, but I'd also like to add this cool little addition to my repertoire of skills » RC car shell design. A while ago a friend of ours asked me to draw out some body work for an RC car he was going to paint for his Dad. I had never done anything like this before so was willing to give it a go. It was so much fun and I came up with a pretty bad ass tribal design for it if I do say so myself. I never saw the finished paint job as it was a gift, but I'm getting to relive the fun this week. Yesterday I was asked for a duplicate of the design so I'm drawing it all out again to get it finished for Saturday. Here's a peek. 

This time I'm going to ask for a couple of pics of the finished paint job. Our RC mad friend Iain has mad skills with an airbrush, turning out some incredible paint jobs on these cars so I'm really hoping to see this one all finished. We are also hoping *ahem* for an invite to an RC race to see these bad boys in action. 

My other non-design realted wish is to practice mindfulness for at least five minutes every day before I work on my review or the tattoo commission I'm working on at the moment to try and boost my creativity. Okay so that's almost non-design related.

This week's highlights :

In order to continue on the positive track that Melyssa over at Nectar Collective has started me on it would be a cool idea to share three of my highlights from the week. A way to keep the happy and positive things in mind when it comes to dealing with Monday morning. Here goes; 

1.  On Friday I had a race with a plane. I was driving alongside the airport when I saw a plane lining up for takeoff. I watched with the excitement of a five year old as it sped up, over took me and lifted those lucky folk off on their holidays. 

2.  An exciting project is in the works with my best bud Anna over at Am Bothan, hoping to get stuck in to that by the end of this week.

3.  I found two new shoots on my peace lily - this confirms I am not killing it! *celebratory air punch*

What are your Weekly Wishes and highlights? Join the link up over at The Nectar Collective.

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