FRIDAY SKETCHERS AND REVERB 10 (DAYS 12 AND 13)

Dear Reader

Here's a card I made for this week's Friday Sketchers. I asked Maurice to try and take one against a plain background in daylight hours as I seem to leave the house in the dark and return to darkness. His answer to that was to blu-tack the card to the front room door. Maurice doesn't really do 'plain' so he couldn't resist photographing the card in a Christmas scene and I had to laugh when I saw this one with the bottom of a little Christmas tree, a Father Christmas jug and a snow globe. I think he did a great job though

The papers are Bo Bunny from Running with Scissors, the tree image is stamped with a Papermania stamp and mounted on a Nestie and embellished with 'Diamond' Stickles. The sentiment ticket is by Whimsy. It was stamped and then cut with the Whimsby ticket die and glittered. The icicle stamps were punched and embellished with some Papermania jewels. Ribbon came from Running with Scissors.

Reverb10. Day 12. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?

The short answer to this is ‘no’. Sadly my mind and my body exist very much as separate entities these days. It’s a protection thing. In my mind I’m still young, fit and agile and well able to do the ‘splits’, but my body tells me a different story and won’t oblige. Not that I’m desperately wanting to do the ‘splits’ you understand , although it would be a good party trick! I can remember the kind of cohesive YOU experience the author speaks of, when all senses are channelled into one perfect exhilarating moment. Someone tweeted on Twitter that nerves are the connection between mind and body and I can see the truth in that so perhaps it’s when the nerves are charged and adrenaline flows that we feel most ‘alive’ and mind and body is unified. I think back to the rollercoaster rides of my childhood, the nervous anticipation that grows on that oh! so slow journey to the top of the ride, before the first drop down ‘over the top’ when your stomach flips over. Then no time to think or adjust, just enjoy the overwhelming exhilaration of giving yourself up to the ride. Lovely. These days I just enjoy the rollercoaster of life.

December 13 – Action When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step? (Author: Scott Belsky)

Yes, good prompt. I see so many businesses that have amazing aspirational ideas but that fail because those ideas aren’t turned into realities. What goes wrong? What stops people? Mostly it’s just that the daily grind of life gets in the way and instead of being proactive we spend our lives being reactive. There’s only so much energy we have in the day and if that gets sucked up by the everyday, the mundane and life’s detritus then there’s nothing left for the ideas we want to make happen. So they sit on the backburner as time, the quiet enemy, ticks silently on. Having witnessed it you would think I’d be better than most at turning my own business ideas into reality. But sadly I’m not. I’m the world’s biggest procrastinator and I often think when I should be doing. But on the positive side 2010 did see me get my little sideline business off the ground. Took longer than I thought and has not taken the direction I anticipated, but hey ho we’re lurching on into 2011. So my next step? To try and focus on where I’m heading, keep getting the basic building planks into place (whatever we do in life we need solid foundations!), find some time, nay make some time, and take my aspirations a little further along the track to reality. But first I think I’ll make a cup of tea.