Weekly Wishes #12

I'm feeling flowery today as all of my plants are still ALIVE! So far I am succeeding in keeping my two orchids, three succulents, lucky bamboo and peace lily alive - I was sure I would have killed by them by now. One of my little succulents is now big enough that I'm thinking Peter and I may get away without a Christmas tree, we could just sling some little fairy lights on it and BOOM - Christmas sorted!

So it's Monday and that means that its Weekly Wishes time in which we all link up over at The Nectar Collective and share what our hopes and goals are for the coming week. Last week I had a little list:

• Send off everything required for my top secret project
• Write some postcards to three lovely ladies, Melyssa, Crystal and Erika, to express my gratitude to them
• Tick off everything on my freelance to do list
• Send off my giveaway goodies to the lovely Nicole 

How did I do? Well everything for the top secret project has been sent (more on that next month) and all of my giveaway prizes were posted too. As for the others, there was no way I was going to be able to tick everything off my freelance list, but I knew that. I put it there to get my ass moving!

For the postcards - sorry ladies they haven't been sent yet, but there's good reason. Instead of postcards I am making up some gratitude packs for you. I'll hopefully have them all put together at some point in the next fortnight so keep an eye out! 

This week is an exciting one. I only went and got myself a new shiny job! Yuppers I'm finally going back to a full time job but this time it's a design one and I'm so happy! My new title? Design Executive - how sweet is that?!

Although I can't wait to get started yesterday I had a bit of a freak out. How am I meant to keep the house tidy and still enjoy a full weekend?! How is that done? How do you cope? Then came the list making frenzy. Peter, being the ever supportive hero of my need to list and chart everything, has agreed to a daily routine that I have typed up, printed and now stuck on the fridge - we do a room a day leaving the weekend for nothing but relaxing/designing/gaming. Just ten minutes a day when we get in and that's it, easy enough? I hope so.

So this week's wishes are that I don't suck tomorrow on my first day, a new early morning routine kicks in and sticks quickly and that our house work chart goes well. I also plan to continue checking things off my freelance list so I can get more organised there and really start to get the freelance/work/free time balance sorted. That last one is going to be tough for the next few months, but as always, I'll keep on plugging through it and get it done.

Have you joined up with Melyssa's Weekly Wishes yet? Jump one over and share you goals with us all and get some love!

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Weekly Wishes #11

This is my first post in three weeks! What happened? A super blogging streak broken! - no apologies though as it's been one week of bloggy reflection and two weeks of solid work. Oh and this...

Week one was intentional. I needed a break as I felt like I was losing my way a bit, trying too hard for killer content and trying to emulate those more successful than my little space on the web and worrying about the numbers - self inflicted pressure, you know, the usual!

Week two was totally unintentional, design work took me on a trip to stress and disaster filled lows to overwhelming yet epicosity packed highs! Writing the to do list was the first thing to set off stress alarms, there was (and is) so much to do and I let it freak me out a bit. 

It's all good though, this is what I wanted - design filled days full of posters, logos and tattoos. And then there's my top secret project, that's been a learning curve and a half! Ups, downs, blood, sweat and tears. I'll share more of the project towards mid October when it's all done and dusted so keep an eye out for it. I'm enjoying feeling busy especially as it's all involving being creative even even if I did miss out on the bloggy goodness.

It's no mistake I'm making my triumphant return to the blogging world on a Monday as it's just in time for Melyssa's Weekly Wishes. I've been out of it for three weeks so it's time I got my wishing on! 

I'm keeping it pretty simple to ease myself back in with a quick to do list.

• Send off everything required for my top secret project
• Write some postcards to three lovely ladies, Melyssa, Crystal and Erika, to express my gratitude to them
• Tick off everything on my freelance to do list
• Send off my giveaway goodies to the lovely Nicole Nemeth (check out her awesome blog here)

Wish me luck fellow wishers and all the best for your week ahead! If you haven't joined the Weekly Wishes Link Up yet then check it out over at The Nectar Collective and share your wishes and goals with us!

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Weekly Wishes #10

Another Monday has arrived and it's time for another Weekly Wishes, but first a catch up from last week. 

My to do list has most things checked off, but as far as time management goes I still struggled and didn't get snooping in to the Pomodoro method all that much. So that will continue for this week. As for my fitness challenges, well I struggled with them too. For some reason last week was full of walls to bust down. I did change it up a bit though and didn't strictly stick to the Beginners Calendar. As my goal is more about my fitness level at the moment I stuck to cardio and all over body workouts rather than specific focused ones. I'm now beginning to see just how great Blogilates is as I can pick and choose what videos to include depending on my overall goal. Once this calendar is done, I'll be creating my own which is something I seem to be geeking out about right now!

This week I'm hoping to be a bit more active in the blogging world as I've felt it slip over the past two weeks. I'll be making a bigger effort to engage and comment on other blogs and start growing my blogging circle. So I'm on a mission of discovery to find new bloggy friends! I'll share some links next week of some of my new finds.

I also really want to smash my favourite Scottish words post for Jenny, we're doing a special guest post swap and I seriously can't wait to share it with you guys. I've been working on it today and have been reading a load of words that have just made me laugh so much, so I'm in a cracking mood today!!

What's your new favourite blog? I'd love to check some of them out if you point me in the right direction! If you haven't linked up with Weekly Wishes yet, then you should. We're growing in numbers by the week and it's fantastic! Check it out over at The Nectar Collective.

Until next week Weekly Wishers - Good luck with your goals!

Weekly Wishes #9

It's Monday again (so quick?) which means it's time to catch up on and make new Weekly Wishes.

Last week I wanted to check off everything on my to do list. How did I do? I did ok, I got most things checked off with a few still to do, but I'll add them on to this week's list. As for my Blogilates and Arm challenge I'm still doing pretty well. I've hit a wall a couple of times, but kept going and battled on. I'm not going to lie, I'm really proud of myself with this. I have never keep fitness promises going for longer than two or three days in a row, but right now I'm on day 9 of my Blogilates Beginners Calendar and day fifteen of my arm challenge!! DAY 15!!! I couldn't be doing it with all the support of the ladies at #bloggersgettingfit and of course Peter who has been amazingly supportive of me, cheering me on like a drill sergeant lol!

So this week's goals are fairly similar to last week - check off the to do list and to keep my fitness challenges going. The only thing is I need to manage my time in order to fit everything in. I have three design commissions to get started on as well as a Top Secret design project on the go. Then there are a few bloggy related things going on that I want to get up and running this month. It's all go here for me and I really need to focus in order to keep everything in check while at the same time trying not to juggle too many balls.

How do you lovely folks keep on top of your busy schedules? Any advice would be really appreciated! Although I feel like things are starting to pile up I also have a sneaky suspicion that things may finally be happening for the good in my design work, could it be true? I certainly hope so.

Have you joined in with Weekly Wishes at The Nectar Collective yet? Join us and share your goals and challenges with us and get some comment love!

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Weekly Wishes #8 + Giveaway

I'm feeling very calm and collected this morning hence my pretty pic above. We didn't even realise we'd captured a pretty large bird in this pic until we got home - nice one!!

It's Weekly Wishes time again and I'm really chuffed with myself that I managed to nail last week's wish. I did every day of my arm challenge and have even been relishing in the pain it's brought me - it means its working!

I've also started the Blogilates beginner's calendar, thanks mainly to the amazing support from Crystal and all the ladies tweeting #bloggersgettingfit (list compiled by the fabby-dabby Allie). Their support has been insane and I can't thank you all enough!

So to this week's wish. Yesterday I made a to do list for the week in order to keep me focused on what needs done. I have two commissions to work on, both spookily involving birds, so there will be a lot of bird research. I'm also going to keep up the arm challenge and Blogilates calendar and hopefully find time for a swim! I'm going crazy this week.

My other super cheese wish is to try and not miss Peter too much. He goes back to work tomorrow and after 11 awesome Pete filled days I don't know what I'll do with myself alone in the house. Is it time to get a dog yet?!

If you want to get things done this week then link up with us over at The Nectar Collective and join in the fun! - Also check out the insane giveaway below, there's loads of gift card goodness to win!

The Nectar Collective | Lost in Travels | Postcards from Rachel | Venus Trapped in Mars | Kayli Wanders

Treasure Tromp | 91 Dash | This Lovely Little Day | Daisy Bisley | The Wellness Doer

Creative Life Antics | Stamp in My Passport | Side Street Style | Growing Wild Ginger | Melanie Fontaine

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules

1. The winner will be contacted by email within seven days of the contest's end.

2. Winner must respond to that e-mail within 48 hours. If they don't respond, a new winner will be chosen.

3. This contest is open internationally!

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Weekly Wishes #7

Last weeks wish was to figure stuff out. Since last Monday I'm feeling way better, so I think it must have just been one of those days - good stuff!

I also got all my Comic Con and Nerd Machine panels watched which led to the best moment of geekery in our home since we moved in. If you're a fellow Batfan then watch this:

Big woots and air punches are still going on in my household over this, Peter and I have geeked out many times :)

I also loved all of the Nerd Machine's Conversations for a Cause this year, as I have done for the previous two years it's been running. Each year Nerd HQ raises ridiculous amounts of money for Operation Smile a charity that goes in to developing countries and helps children with cleft lips and cleft palates. It's an amazing charity so go check it out. This year my favourite conversation was with Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion, they both sat for an hour or so answering fans questions and auctioning off some random stuff they found at home in order to raise even more money - totally amazing. Have a watch and try not to fall in love with the whole thing.


So with the warm 'n' fuzzies in our bellies after watching that I'll move on to this Week's Wish. Last week Crystal over at The Happy Type posted about a fitness regime she had going. As with all fitness regime's I thought "I can do that", but then in walked the negativity, right in to my brain - how rude! "You can't because you never stick with any routine, blah blah blah". Then Melyssa over at The Nectar Collective posted about non comformity and how we should stop letting our past behaviour and experiences dictating what we do now. It was like both of these ladies were in my noggin telling me to get a grip and get it done!

Well I'm listening because this week/month I'm challenging myself to a 30 day arm challenge, why not start with the one thing that bothers me the most. Plus I'm going to try and get to the pool at least once a week during my challenge so I can at least try and get my stamina and strength back... wish me luck!

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Weekly Wishes #6

Well I failed miserably at last week's challenge. Well not miserably, I did get to the pool once and I put the lack of swimage down to being so busy, which is always a good excuse if it's designing I'm busy with! Got another design to do this week, but I'm determined to get the swimming in to my routine. Now for this week's wish, I did feel a bit anxious about hitting the publish button on this one, so stay with me.

So today I'm feeling like my positivity has taken a kick in the face. I don't whether I'm just tired from the travelling and wedding at the weekend or something else is the culprit of my negativity today. Let's hope it's tiredness as I really can't be bothered with the other thing. I don't know why I'm being so vague about it, sharing the story might be a bit therapeutic and possibly help others with a eureka moment.

Long story short I've been on the pill since I was 18. I had a brief stint off it where I can remember feeling happier and more positive, even with the stress of university, but never really put it down to the pill. Going back on it was a must so I did and over the past 6 and a bit years I felt a dip in my mood, some days a big dip. Three months ago I did some research in to depression and found a lot of articles by women who were saying that since coming off the pill they've been happier, more energetic and clear. One of things I kept saying to Peter was that my brain felt foggy sometimes and I would sit staring in to space thinking of nothing, like someone had hit the off button. We talked about it and I decided to do an experiment. I stopped taking my pill and low and behold my mood changed. My head felt clearer, I felt more energetic, I wasn't getting down about things or easily agitated and annoyed.

However, I knew that I had to do something for both our piece of mind so phase two of the experiment needed activation. I spoke to a really nice nurse who did something the nurse all those years ago never did - told me every single option I had and also told me I wasn't crazy. She made me feel so at ease about the whole thing and gave me another pill to try. I've never felt like I had the support of my GP or any other FP nurse and this woman put my faith back in the system a bit. 

Today I feel the same as before, my brain is foggy and I'm totally void of any motivation. So, it's a bit deeper than usual, but my weekly wish is to figure it out. I know it may take longer than a week, but I need to keep an eye on this. It could very well be tiredness from my crazy dancing antics at the wedding, but I'm paranoid my moodiness will return. I know if it does it's a quick fix, just change again or take another road all together, but it's the people in the crossfire of my experiment, the ones I affect with my mood and annoyance, that I'm worried about.

Anyhoo, to lighten things up a bit I also have another weekly wish, to catch up on all the Comic Con and Nerd HQ panels I missed over the weekend, that should bring me plenty of laughs :D

Want to link up with your Weekly Wishes? Join in over at The Nectar Collective.

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Weekly Wishes #5

 

First off, look at the lovely countryside just 30 minutes from my doorstep.

Moving on. My weekly wish from last week was to flip my 30 Before 30 list on its head and do a 30ish things I've done before 30 list to celebrate all the awesome things (if I do say so myself) that I've done in my 28 years of planetary life. It's a great way to look back positively and to encourage yourself to do more cool things.

I'll post my list after this week's wish as it's a tad long. So this week's challenge is simple - to go for a swim at least three times this week. I love to swim, have done since I was tiny, it's relaxing and makes me feel awesome like a fish! We've moved round the corner from out local pool so it is pretty shocking that I haven't been yet, time to change that.

Anyhoo, here's the list. I recommend trying this for yourself, you'll be amazed what you've forgotten and then remember with an air punch!

30(ish) before 30

Meet the love of my life
Volunteer abroad
Visit Budapest
Go GoKarting and win a medal – bronze, but it totally counts
Swim in the ocean without being afraid
Make someone laugh when they are blue
Go to Italy
Go to Florida
Learn to sew
Become a dressmaker – 10 weeks after learning
Ride a horse
Get a first class degree – oh yeah, I could have BA Hons after my name, get me!
Look off the edge of Scotland - Just picture me, curly ginger locks blowing in the wind like Merida - Epic!
Go to a movie premier – Scottish Premiers count!
Start Blogging
Meet someone famous and get an autograph
Ride a rollercoaster – A lifelong fear conquered... well almost
Pet an elephant



Hold an owl – a terrifying one!
Go camping
Run a 10k
Pass my driving test
Drive a long journey – (3 weeks after passing)
Go to a festival
See Bon Jovi live – twice, YASS!
Sell a painting
Learn Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator – 100% self taught BOOM!
Teach a class – most terrifying thing EVER!
Get credited in something – I’m famous
Grow my hair long again – ugh finally
Read Lord of the Rings - Twice
Have my art tattooed on someone’s skin
Worked in a record store
See Lee Evans live
Meet true friends
Sell a dvd to Terrence Stamp – and kneel before Zod
Watch It’s a Wonderful Life in the cinema
Learn to make my Grandma’s veggie soup – Yummers!
See movie music played live by an orchestra
Take a jewellery making class
Be part of an awesome digital creative programme

Say please and thanks in 5 languages

Keep a plant alive – so far so good
Work in a TV production office
Travel the US without Parentals

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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!

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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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Weekly Wishes

 

Today I'm linking up with The Nectar Collective's Weekly Wishes series to where we share our goals, challenges and wishes for the week.

I'm on a mission to improve my writing skills and last week an opportunity raised its lovely little head that couldn't be allowed to get away. Movie review site Mike and Rusty's Reviews placed an ad on Gumtree asking for designers to help voluntarily with web graphics, this was a great opportunity in itself so I emailed asking for more info and if I could offer my help.

A fantastic reply from Mike arrived a couple of days later saying that they would love my help, but also included the question: "would you like to write for us too?"

My initial reaction was no as I have little experience writing for my own blog never mind a review website, then my gut and heart kicked in!

My on-going challenge this year is to write, write and write some more, gaining experience along the way. Here it was, in my inbox, the perfect opportunity to write for others. Could I really say no?

No! I'm throwing myself in at the deep end - time to swim.

This weeks challenge to myself is to get that first review written and get the ball rolling.
Wish me luck.

 

- See more at: http://thenectarcollective.com/#sthash.Pxme8hmQ.dpuf

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