Happy 101 Award

Alliecat from In A Beautiful Pea Green Boat has passed this award on to me for this blog and another award for my other blog. Thanks so much Alliecat for thinking of me.

Happy 101 requires me to write 10 things that make me happy, so here goes, in no particular order:

Spending time with my grand-daughters and my family

Snuggling with my hubby

Flowers especially Roses and Frangipanis - their sweet scent wafting in the breeze

My 'sisters' - you will need to read the links in my other blog to learn about my sisters

Spoiling myself at the beautician - facials, pedicures, manicures - love being pampered

Having straight hair (it is normally curly) after visiting my hairdresser - it is a whole new me

Driving my car - pure bliss

Reading a good book or two or three - often have more than 1 on the go at once

Blogging - including writing my own 2 and reading all the others I come across in cyberspace.



Now I will pass this award onto just a few blogs that make me happy and inspire me.

Melissa @ the things I'd tell you

Donna @ 5by40

Madmother @ meaninless meandering from a Madmother

Pink Patent Mary Janes

Loving Life - This Quote Is One To Live By

There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:

this is me damn it! I look the way I look, I think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I am a whole complex package. Take me .. or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone with make that decision.

When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities life presents you.

Copyright 2000 Stacey Charter (found on thinkexist.com)

And to that end a link to Vanessa Amorosi's great 'This I Who I Am' - enjoy

Sharing Some Sugar

There is a star out there in cyberspace and her name is Melissa, she is one gutsy lady, truly beautiful on the inside and out, she is a wonderful mother and wife and even though I have never met her face to face, she means a lot to me - I know weird huh?

Now Melissa suffers from bi-polar, she won't mind me saying that as she is quite open and honest on her blog, she also is diabetic and in 2010 she is taking back control of her life.

As part of her mission she has been blogging daily in January about the things she is grateful for. For the past few days Melissa has not blogged because she has been really sick and I miss her - so today just for you Melissa I am 'Sharing Some Sugar' 'cause we can all do with a little extra love - especially when we are sick. Hope you feel better soon my love.

So if you would like to Share Some Sugar with someone you think needs it - feel free to use the little blog image I made this morning.

Hugs from Perth xxx

Letting Light Into Your Day

There is a study that some people get winter 'blues' (or Seasonal Affective Disorder) from the lack of sunlight, grey skies, etc - particularly people who live in the northern hemisphere where they have long periods of night.

I wonder if even in more temperate climates, closer to the equator were sunshine is not a problem whether by living with your curtains/blinds closed all the time it can have the same effect.

The first thing I do when I wake up is open the blinds in all the rooms, open windows and doors, even if it is cold and raining (obviously not if the rain is coming in though). At work, it is the same - the blinds are always opened when I walk in every morning, in fact our whole end of the building has the same philosophy.

Surrounding ourselves with light seems to make sense if we want to feel happy. How do you let the light into your day?

Some New Year Inspiration

Two quotes I would like to share, hope you too find them inspirational.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Years Day

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential.

Ellen Goodman

Let us all overlook our flaws for none of us is perfect and embrace the potential for happiness we all have within. Here is our chance to write a whole new book, well at least a new chapter in our lives - I'm going to make this chapter of my life filled with love and laughter what will your chapter be filled with?

And So The Year Begins

Well Day 3 of 2010 - are they to be the teens or the tweens given that we traditionally say being a teenager begins at 13?

How has your year begun? Mine has started really well. We welcomed the New Year/Decade with 2 of our closest friends, got to bed about 2am which is way late for us, but had the most wonderful evening full of good food, good friends/new friends, and lots and lots of laughter especially at midnight when I was really tired and kissed my hubby on the check instead of on the mouth!!

Yesterday was my Mum's 78th birthday and I celebrated by going shopping for manchester/linen and got some beautiful new towels - 2 x turquoise bath sheets and 2 x sunshine yellow bath sheets with a bath mat, plus some new bed sheets - I don't like shopping but I love buying linen especially towels. We also got an awesome chocolate and raspberry mousse cake to take to Mum's in the afternoon - yummy - and obviously no calories. It was a great evening with my kids and grandkids coming along to celebrate with Mum.

This morning I woke up to a hot blue sky - so I can see it will be a day indoors for me to keep cool.

If the year has started this well it can only one hopes keep getting better. Hope your New Year is treating you the same.

Hugs from Perth xxx