Kim Archer | Mindful Living

Happy Day Passes

Feel like a little drive in the country?

If you live nearby the lovely little town of Wingham (my birthplace), and you feel like getting crafty with us at the Scrapsidaisy Retro retreat, Leisa has announced we have FIVE PLACES left and you can just come on up as a day student and attend the class only.

I have some giveaways organised and a few other little surprises for class attendees so if you want some more info or to book one of those seats, visit Leisa and the lovely scrapsidaisy girls on their Facebook page.

 

Now you can just get on with it too..

Well, I have had several emails and comments about my little printed out mantra and so I decided to find the file to share with you all - if you want it - so you can print it out and display it near your desk or noticeboard etc as well:)

It's just a PDF I originally designed in Photoshop - so download, print out and stick it somewhere you can see it! Download the full sized file by clicking the link below or the picture above...

Download GetOnWithIt

get on with it

Stop thinking so much and just get on with it.

This has been my mantra the past week or so as I do have a tendancy when I am  busy, to procrastinate, get sidetracked, fluff around on facebook and generally find plenty of other things to do besides the task at hand..

It's something that Michelle Bridges would tell us during the 12WBT program I did last year and it REALLY helped me with the exercise part of the program. In fact it was like a little lightbulb moment for me with my walking of a morning. I would whinge and whine (to myself) about having to walk and Michelle's words of "stop thinking and just go into robot mode and get on with it.." would push me out the door each morning.

I was reminded of that little saying during a conversation with Janelle recently and so I made a little reminder poster for my noticeboard near my computer to keep me on task through the day.

And it's been working :-)

 

painting.

So how was your weekend?

Ours was good.

I dived back into the painting of the house. I'm determined to get all the bedrooms painted so we can get new carpets ordered! So I've been busy. I'm painting the whole house in Dulux Sandy Day with Dulux Natural White gloss trim. And we've chosen a charcoal coloured twist pile carpet.

My plan is to move Jamison into Brandt's old room (it's much bigger than the little room Jammo has at the back of the house) and to use the back room as a guest room.

I tackled Capri's room firstly though. And also painted one side of our very long hallway!

It was a disgrace. She's not the tidiest of girls and for someone who is so organised with her school work and assignments, she lives in the biggest amount of chaos you could imagine. She is just SO MESSY. I won't scare you all with a before shot. It's just too bad to share. Not that Capri even minds her room being so messy - as long as that path to her bed is there then she's right!

It took some time to clear away and sort out the mess. And then I started painting. She already has her aqua feature wall which we left as was but I painted the other walls and added the gloss trim.

I also transformed her table lamp and a noticeboard but they aren't quite finished yet. I'll share after photos once I have finished.

Capri's room is *not quite* done so there's furniture everywhere still but I am getting there.  And we need to give her shelves a good clean out too.

 

The walls are all done now but I need to add the final coat on the skirting boards. Ken installed the white venetian blinds we bought from Freedom Furniture for all the bedrooms and once I move all the furniture back I can tick this room off my painting list.

And I want to paint her bookcase, tallboy and desk in glossy white but that will have to wait for now.

Jammo moved himself into the big room late Sunday. I painted that room ages ago and the blinds were already installed so it was ready to go and we were waiting for Jamison to decide whether he wanted to move in or not..  He seems pretty chuffed with his new, bigger room now he's all moved in. And it means I can now tackle the last bedroom and it get it painted and the blinds installed..

And my goal of ordering the carpets is getting closer.

I must admit that I do start painting with great gusto and then half way through I remember that I hate painting. But I also hate things half done so I push on and then need a break before tackling the next room or section of the house.

I'll share some "after" photos when I have some!

just sharing

I stumbled across this quick and more importantly, EASY step by step tutorial for cute paper flowers on this blog.

Can't wait to make some. They're a bit too dimensional for my layouts BUT I love the idea of them for cards and gift packaging.

Visit Nicole and her lovely blog here for the how-to!

earth hour 2011

Lights out.

For an hour.

I do love candle light. And it was another chance to use my lovely Dusk candles.

Earth Hour 2011.

 

a new workshop is in the wind...

We're putting the finishing touches to that new paint-y, art-y, stitch-y online class I showed a sneak peek for a little while ago. I hope to have details up on the site over the weekend and registration opening very soon.

I do love creating a class and then watching what the Support Girls come up with. They look at the class and interpret the project in their own way and I always marvel at how different the samples all end up looking.

Here's a sneaky peek of one of the additional samples.

Can you guess which Support Girl designed this one?

candle

Last weekend a school friend of Brandt's died in a racing accident. It was sudden and horrific and so so sad. All of his mates were in shock. He was only twenty years old.

Also last weekend a lady I used to work with and who my mum later went on to work with for many, many years also died suddenly. Of a heart attack. It was instant, unexpected and also so sad.

Yesterday both of their funerals were held, ironically at the same place, several hours apart. Yesterday morning Mum emailed me through the funeral notice of both people and just reading the notices and seeing their loved ones left behind listed in the notice really struck a chord.

One so young who had had his whole life ahead of him and the other, newly retired from her work and excitedly planning a trip around Australia with her partner in June, also with her whole life ahead of her.

Both lives cut short.

Anyway, I didn't go to either funeral. Mum went to her work friend's funeral in the morning and Brandt went with all of their school friends to his mates funeral in the afternoon.

I lit a candle for each of them yesterday morning after feeling sad but also after receiving an email from Ken..it was one of those forwards..you know the type - live each day to the full, use the good cutlery instead of saving it for a rainy day etc etc..and there was a line in there, I have read it before, about using those pretty candles you collect instead of just letting them sit there gathering dust..

So I did.

And this time there were no mishaps ;) You can still see the melted mess from last time on the edge of my lantern! But I don't care. The candles looked and smelled beautiful all day!

a little bit more photoshopping

Still playing around with Actions and things..here's another photo..

Using CoffeeShop's Johnna's Tea Party with lots of tweaking plus colour boosting and corner rounding!

And this one..is my current favourite..

Using CoffeeShop again - this time I used Butterscotch Vintage and rounded corners PLUS Paint The Moon's Twinkle Eyes and Brighten Up and then I added a texture over the top using MCP Texture Applicator and Gypsy Chick Designs free textures.

from us

Someone will soon be receiving this parcel of goodness. It's our @Home "Secret Squirrel" parcel of lovliness and it's winging it's way to it's new home right now.  

We'll share what's inside soon once the parcel has reached it's destination :-)